I have many hearts.

The heart is a wonderful thing, it keeps us alive, it leads us rightly or wrongly, it hurts, it holds many open and locked compartments of wishes, hopes, regrets, loss, happiness, sadness and longing.

 

Now this 12x12" canvas started out as something very different, a very red grunge paste scratched canvas (check out my Instagram to see the stages). Quite a difference eh?  

There are many layers on this of PaperArtsy: Vintage Lace, Tikka, Blood Orange  and Sherbet.  Some book text very much hidden under all that paint, more scratches and water colour pencils to define and fill in the lines.

The hearts were cut from some A4 Kraft card I'd painted and stencilled earlier with Cheesecake, Blood Orange and Tango. I used an old credit card to scrape the the paints and then added some subtle stamping with a favourite Ellen Vargo dot background stamp.I added some stencilling in South Pacific and Red Bus and some doodling in black and white pens around the circles. 

Finally some random stamping of some mini PaperArtsy stamps in black Archival and then cut out using the large PaperArtsy die.   Each heart was edged in Black Soot Distress Ink and stuck on the canvas. I edged each heart with black watercolour pen to give depth and shadows. 

Now sometimes you want to explore an idea further and I was working on this there were many times when I felt I should have stopped adding layers.  For example I can't see the book text or the stencilled lettering in blood Orange with the Tikka highlights any more which looked really good.  Equally what would the same arrangement look like with a much darker background and lighter highlights?  

Umm, the delight of art mean you can try  those ideas and see, paint and paper and boundless ideas.

Hugs

Jo

xx

Sandcastles

Well Mojo and Inspiration have settled back in comfortably making a right mess on my desk and gently nudging me in the right direction.

I printed out a load of my photos last weekend, manipulated with filters and quite small.  I want to start making greetings card sized original sized art to either sell in that original state of photo's taken of the art and printed on cards.

Well, this didn't end up greeting card size, more 10x8" than 6x4", hey ho!

The canvas had Grunge Paste smeared over it, wetted in places to make it move, dried, scratched, dried and scratched to get the texture I wanted. Some of the lines of dots you can see were made with a dressmakers wheel. Quite like it, need to try it again in slightly wetter Grunge Paste.

Wanted to keep the background fairly neutral so washes of Chalk and Concrete. 

Glued and ripped some text paper an started adding some stamping (Ellen Vargo PaperArtsy) in Watering Can Archival and some stencilling in Sage and South Pacific.  Another wash of Concrete to soften and merge the stencilling.

I'm still loving scribbling in water colour pencils to add highlights and shade. Dampening the scribbles to spread the colour and soften it.  I used grey, turquoise brown and green over the text, at the edges of it and in the scratches. 

The photograph was stuck to some card to strengthen it, edges distressed and Vintage Photo Distress Ink added.  You can't really tell but it is a sandcastle, trust me it is, I found it on Southwold beach on my solo holiday at Easter just before the tide came in to wash it away.I dot mind that its hard to make out, its the colour and shape that appeals to me - abstract!

I stuck it slightly off centre so I could still see the text paper and then melted some beeswax pearls.  By accident (a happy one as it turned out) it seeped into the text paper to add further distress. Some more pencil lines to frame the picture and white, sage and grey oil pastel added to lift the photo from the background and tone down the very citrus green of the photo.

I have to say I had a lovely morning putting this together and its nice to be paint and paper creative again. 

Hugs
Jo
xx

Ellen Vargo New PaperArtsy stamps

Well hello everyone from a very sunny Isle of Man where we are watching the road racing and thanks to technology I can send this post stood in the middle of the street!

Boy oh boy, I was really pleased to be asked to try out the new Ellen Vargo stamps released this week. I decided I'd use a really neutral palette as I know how much Ellen loves her "brights" and I thought it would be a good contrast to showcase the versatility of these stamps.

 

Chocolate Line Flowers

I started out with the flowers. As soon as I saw the stamps (EV09) I knew they'd make the most gorgeous 3D flowers.  Starting with a sheet of green based Chatsworth paper I brayered Cheesecake and then Vanilla Fresco paint to create a background.  

I then stamped the petals (I put the six patterned petals on one block, it made it so much easier to stamp) in Tree Branch Archival ink all over the paper.  I cut these out and edged them in Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I gently rolled the petals to give them a curve, some down and some up!

On a spare piece of card I stamped the circles and cut those out.  Using a hot glue gun I stuck six petals per circle and then layered up four circles.  Whilst these set I covered some thick wire in ribbon securing each end with the hot glue gun.  At one end I created a flat spiral so that I could attach it to the underside of the flower.  In the centre of the flower I added a green felt ball.

Because the Chatsworth paper is such a heavy weight it curls really nicely and holds its shape, I was able to curl the petals again to get a really 3D shape t them.  I think they look like echinacea (cone flowers) flowers, so you might see some purple ones soon!

 

 Concertina Book

 

Next up I thought I'd use the small stamps (EV08) to create a mood board that I could use to make a concertina book.  Again using Chatsworth paper and Cheesecake and Vanilla Fresco paints I created a soft creamy background.  I then misted some snowflake and Metallic glaze with water in a spray bottle and sprayed this over the paper.  The mixture was quite thin and sat on the paper, so I lifted it up and let it drip vertically and horizontally.  It's quite subtle (you cant see it very well) but I think it looks like snail trails!

Using the small arch line stamp I stamped all over the card with Honeydew Fresco paint , again very subtle but its a another layer of texture.  Finally I stamped the rounded cross in Pebble Adirondack ink in places across the card and the small oblong in Oregano Adirondack ink. All very subtle and toned.

I cut the paper in half to create three oblongs 12x4" and folded each of these at the 4" mark to make three concertina's.  I glued these together to make one long strip and and glued the front and back pages together to make them a bit heavier. I used a couple of Lin Brown flower text stamps for the front and back covers.

Finally I added some of my black and white flower photos and black and white flower image transfers. The soft creamy, greeny paints and greyish stamping really act as a great background for the images.  

 

Copper Wall Tile

Finally I decided to make a stamped flower tile using Grunge Paste and the oval and circle stamps from the small stamp set (EV08).  

I painted a 6x6" chipboard square with a couple of layers Slate from JoFY's new limited edition paints.  A layer of crackle glaze on top of this and then   a mixture of Elephant and Snowflake fresco paint to get some subtle crackles.  

The remainder of the Elephant / Snowflake paint was mixed with Grunge Paste and spread over the centre of the tile.  Starting with the small circle I spritzed it with water and gentle stamped in the the Grunge paste.  Then using the oval I did the same thing to make the petals.  I left this to dry.

Once dry I lightly dry brushed Slate fresco paint over the petals followed by Spanish Topaz Treasure Gold to highlight the indentations of the stamping. I also went round the edge of the tile in Spanish Topaz to frame the tile.  I love how the Treasure Gold bleeds into some the cracks.

I've really enjoyed playing with Ellen's new stamps, the possibilities are endless for creating textured backgrounds.  If you get a chance do give them a go. You'll find the stamps in the PaperArtsy shop or at your favourite PaperArtsy retailer. And of course check out the PaperArtsy blog to see how Ellen used her stamps with some really bright colours!

Hugs

Jo

xx