Artful Blooms Coaster

Recently we have tidied up our attic, because we want to redecorate it and use it as our craft room. We found a box with old cork coasters, that are great to reuse.

I applied Mod Podge over the coaster, so that the coaster would not soak up all the paint. When dried, I painted it with Snowflake Fresco Paint. To my big surprise, the paint started to crackle!

I used Lin Brown´s Eclectica stamps for this coaster. The leaves are coloured with Hyde Park, and the flower is coloured with Orchid and Egg Plant.

I used Hyde Park around the corners, and some Hey Pesto over the Artful Blooms stamp. Finally I applied a thick coat of Matte Medium.

Quick Happy Birthday Card

Hi again! A quick Happy Birthday card, today. Just like Joanne did on the Paperartsy blog, I started with a swipe of Zesty Zing. On top of that, I stamped the car from the Paperartsy HP1106 set. To finish the card, I added some glitter over the number.

Inspired by Alison Bomber

This week's guest designer on the Paperartsy blog is Alison Bomber. She started crafting only quite recently, but she has made some very nice creations.

I liked the weathered white crackle over a multi-coloured background, so I tried to recreate it. First, I made a background with Eggplant, Orchid and Baltic Blue. It looks really nice.

But when I crackled it with the Snowflake, actually nothing from the background was visible anymore... I sanded away some of the white to expose the background. No multi-colours, but still nice.

To finish the background, I applied London Night on the upper half of the card.

Next, I selected three stamps from the Ink and the Dog collection. The amazing birthday week at the Paperartsy blog inspired me to use those "old" stamps more often. I used Carte Postale from Words Plate 4, the doll from Dolls Plate 4, and the foot from Travel Plate 2.

I stamped the doll on white card and coloured her with South Pacific and Claret.

To give her something to stand on, I stenciled some pavement using the Luscious Leaves stencil from Dylusions with Grunge Paste mixed with a drop of Claret.

By selecting three stamps to work with, I create a kind of challenge for myself, mostly because the background must be made with other things or techniques. I had to do this in the 3UP challenge with the Lynne Perella stamps, and I really liked it!

3UP challenge

When Leandra from Paperartsy announced a new round of #PAtwits in July, I immediately replied that I wanted to play #3UP. A few days later, I received a big envelope with my 3UP package. It contained the following items:

• Lynn Perella stamp set LPC010
• 3 pieces of chipboard
• 3 pieces of Heavyweight smoothy card
• 3 blue buttons (Fabric Bobbles), 2 spools, a ribbon, a key
• a colour swatch
• a long letter with instructions

It also contained a card with all the Fresco Acrylics Paints colours. My colour swatch seems to consist of Vanilla, Pumpkin Soup and South Pacific. The last colour I have, but for the other two I had to find replacements from my own set of Fresco paints. I decided to use Nougat, and to mix Haystack and Butternut to match the Pumpkin Soup.

A real challenge ...

When I went on to read the long letter, panic hit me... The package contained a Lynn Perella stamp set. The letter said, we can use other Paperartsy stamps that belong to the same collection of stamps. This was probably meant to make it easier but not for me! I do not have any Lynn Perella stamps! Now there is a challenge!

I had no idea what to create with this package ... The only thing I could come up with was to create a triptych with the three pieces of chipboard. I wanted to use the complete stamp set. As I could not use other stamps, I had to find other ways to create the backgrounds.

And after a few days of thinking, and searching through our huge stash of crafting materials, some ideas were forming... I might be able to produce something that could be shown on the Paperartsy blog ...

The left panel

I coloured the left panel with the Haystack/Butternut mix, then applied Crackle Glaze using a palet knife. When dry I added a good layer of South Pacific. It crackled very good! I stamped the image on a piece of fabric with Versafine, and coloured it with watered-down paints. I then sewed it to another piece of fabric with some foam in between to create a cushion. To finish this panel, I cut the spools in half, and wound blue and orange yarn around the spools.

The center panel

For the center panel I used the largest image. First I coloured the Heavyweight smoothy card with Nougat where the face would be. I used the Haystack/Butternut mix where the gate would be. Then I stamped the image with Archival ink. When dry, I coloured the image with watered-down South Pacific. I coloured the chipboard with the Haystack/Butternut mix, and stamped the keys with Archival. The text is made by applying Snowflake through the Mini Art Is stencil (TCW261s). The crown is from Grungeboard and is coloured with Spanish Topaz Treasure Gold. The frame is made from metal sheet.

The right panel

I coloured the right panel with Nougat, and then stamped the image using Archival ink. I masked the image, and painted the background with South Pacific and Haystack/Butternut using baby wipes. I coloured the swirl using South Pacific and Sapphire Treasure Gold. To finish the panel, I added some embellishments from my own stash.

The complete picture

I attached the three panels with the ribbon to a bamboo rod to make a wall hanging. This is the final piece:

This was a fun challenge to do! At first, I did panic because of the stamps I received. After a few days of thinking, ideas were forming and I started to create the panels. At some point, the right panel was an absolute mess, so I decided to start over. This panel is now my favourite!

Leandra and Mark congratulations with your 10th anniversary! Keep up the good work!

Here is the link to the 3UP night in which this project appears: 3 UP Night Six: Lynne Perrella Collection.