3UP Challenge with Darcy stamps

When in March the next 3UP challenge was announced, I immediately sent an email to apply for the Eclectica {Darcy} stamps night. I was very surprised and pleased to be elected! So here is my project. The other projects can be found here.

I chose the EDY05 stamp sheet. I really like these stamps. They have so many details. All images in this project are from this stamp sheet. When I was colouring the images, every time another detail emerges that I had not yet seen.

For this project, I used a 8 by 8 inch canvas, that I painted with a mixture of Mushroom and Snowflake. Using Grunge Paste and the 'Mini Art Is' stencil (TCW261s), I stenciled some text onto the canvas. Next, I added more colours. I used Beach Hut, Lime Light, and Haystack with Chocolate Pudding to create a light brown colour. On the edges I used some darker colours, Hey Pesto and South Pacific. I painted some patches onto the canvas and then spread the colours out with a wet wipe. This creates a nice blended background.

I stamped the bird on a piece of smoothy card and coloured it with Derwent ColourSoft pencils. The frame is made from a piece of chipboard and is coloured with Brown Shed and French Roast.

The border is stamped in black and coloured with Hey Pesto, South Pacific, London Bus. The grass and the flowers are stamped with Pesto green and coloured with Hey Pesto, South Pacific, London Bus, and Zesty Zing.

Create Art Every Day

This card was inspired by the cards Ellen Vargo made on the Paperartsy blog. But it turned out to be completely different!

I made a background using Haystack, Limelight, Brown Shed, and Autumn Fire fresco paints. I used some Claret on the corners. Then I stamped the leaves from the ELB02 sheet in Haystack. With black and white pens I outlined the leaves which makes them really pop!

The face and hat are stamps from Lost Coast Designs. The sentiment is an encouragement to myself to get out the paints and stamps every day, also after a busy day at work, LOL.

Bicycle Cards

These four cards are inspired by the Abstract Cards made by Ellen Vargo, who is this week's Guest Designer on the Paperartsy blog.

I pretty much followed the same steps. I coloured a sheet of A4 paper with a brayer and several Fresco's. Yes, there is some pink in it, Orchid! The other colours are Haystack, Beach Hut, South Pacific and London Night. On top of this, I applied Pewter, a Fresco Finish Metallic acrylic paint. This is the first time I used Pewter, and I really like the metallic effect!

Then I cut the paper into 4 pieces, and continued with stamping and creating more layers. I started with the cogs from Clocks 5 in Haystack. I applied Grunge Paste through a Mini Harlequin stencil and coloured it with Treasure Gold. To finish the background I stamped the ruler from Clocks 5 and the numbers from HP1108.

I stamped the motorcycle (HPXT05) and bicycles (stamp company unknown) on a piece of white paper, cut it, inked the borders with Little Black Dress, and glued them on the cards.

One of the cards in detail.

Brayered Tag

Art washes away from the soul the dust of every day life. The quote on this tag is one of my favourites. I try to get out the inks and paints every evening, even if is it for just half an hour. It really gets me detached from my work.

The tag is inspired by the tag Ellen Vargo made on the Paperartsy blog. I used the same techniques to create my tag.

The background is made by brayering several layers of yellow, green and blue Fresco's. I used Haystack, Lime Light, Guacamole, Hey Pesto, Beach Hut, and Baltic Blue. I also added some red accents with London Bus.

The yellow dots are made with a stamp from HP1004. I used the Dylusions Luscious Leaves stencil with Grunge Paste and some Treasure Gold.

Art Journal Frontpage

This is the front page of the Art Calendar I want to make for 2014. It will be quite a challenge to create a page for each month and to write down something for almost every day. Not all days at work are very interesting...

The base is chipboard. I wanted a crackled base with a dark crackles. Black would become too dark, so I chose London Night. When the Crackle Glaze was completely dry, I painted Vintage Lace and Ice Blue, and watched the crackles appear. I love this process!

The feather is made using the technique described here. The same technique was used by Julie Ann Lee on the Paperartsy blog.

The hand is from Cherry Pie Art Stamps. I coloured the pen with Chocolate Pudding and the hand with Nougat Fresco Finish paints.

To create the paper with the script I used the Blended Batik technique as described in Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities book. First ink a piece of paper with a dark Distress Ink. Then stamp the script image with Distress Embossing Ink and apply clear embossing powder over it. Heat emboss the powder. Once dry and cooled, use a lighter Distress ink to ink over the paper and the script. Then comes the fun part. Place of piece of newspaper over the paper and iron over it on high heat. This will remelt the embossing powder and absorb it in the newspaper.

Peacock feathers and a puppet

This week I created two little projects that were inspired by the Clare Lloyd on the Paperartsy blog: a puppet made with Squiggly Ink stamps, and an altered canvas.

For this little puppet I used Squiggly Ink Tops and Tails plate 6 and the heart from Eclectica Darcy 02. I coloured her with Hey Pesto, Claret, London Bus, Beach Hut and Vintage Lace for her face.

The background of this card was coloured with London Night. Then I applied Grunge Paste through the Mini Peacock Feathers stencil and coloured it with Beach Hut. I did not want to cover the Grunge Paste completely with the paint, the original Grunge Paste colour lightens up the card. The swirl stamp is stamped with Archival Jet Black.

Textured Grunge Paste

Paperartsy's second Christmas Cracker video (here) shows more ways of using Grunge Paste. I tried the techniques on a chipboard coaster.

The picture of the steam locomotive is from Arty Collage Masculine Paper Art, a booklet with very masculine art images. I tinted the Grunge Paste with Nougat, Mushroom, and London Night. The Grunge Board numbers are coloured with Brown Shed.

This again was a fun technique to do!

Art Calendar 2014

A few days ago I went through some old Craft Stamper issues when I found an article about an Art Calendar by Kate Crane. Apart from a means to memorize all the important and not so important things, it also provides an album to group together all the little things I create. These cards, tags, etc. deserve a better place than lying somewhere on the desk.

So, I decided to start an Art Calendar for 2014. I had already made something that would now become the upper left corner of the january page.

The Sanded Foundations video, inspired me to get out the Grunge Paste, paints and stencils. In the large paper stash, I found a piece of paper with a crackled background. So easy, no need to do the crackling myself this time!

I applied the tinted Grunge Paste using the 'Mini Birds of a Feather' stencil. I used Guacamole, Toad Hall, and Chocolate Pudding for the branches and leaves. The birds are coloured with Baltic Blue. The cage is coloured with Brown Shed. All paints are Fresco Chalk Acrylics from Paperartsy.

Below is the first page for January.