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

Well, it's got a lot of texture

Ummmm, right I'm just putting this out there, its almost how I wanted it, but not quite.And I think I like it and then I think ummm, do I really?

What do I like?

• I love the main background.  Kraft card that has had paint (Caramel, Vanilla, Chalk), stamping (mini bricks and mini numbers), candle wax resit and crunched up to break the fibres to create the cracks, distressed edges for the rips  and then inked with Distress Ink.
• The brads in the corners
• The shading of it all with watercolour pencils (purple, brown and charcoal) to give depth
• The gold pitted and scrapped Treasure Gold covered Grunge Paste layer under the corrugated card layer
• The rusty wire, alcohol ink dyed eyelets and grungy alcohol stained staples.
• The burnt Lutrador
• The ripped, stamped and painted corrugated card.   

What don't I like?  

• Well the corrugated card top layer is too angular on the side of the small pieces.
• I wanted more of a gap between the eyelets with the rusty wire, but boy was it fiddly.
• I'm not sure about red / brown Lutrador focal point.
• And I don't know whether it works best portrait or landscape orientation. 

All great individual elements, but do they all work together? Is it too much?  Am I being over critical (do have a tendency to set high expectations)?

When I can decide which way it goes round I'll put it in a frame.  The one thing I do know is it needs a big frame with a lot of "white space" behind it so it looks as though its floating (like an island, to be honest I think the corrugated card element does look like an island!) and you are drawn to it because its the strongest visual and you aren't distracted by anything else. Framing, a border is so important.

Anyway enough pontificating. In the end its only card and I enjoyed creating.

Hugs
Jo
xx

 

Fragile Papers II or how not to deface a library book!

So I had some bits and bob left over from my first fragile papers so made a second page in my art journal!

I used the date label from the book, a scrap of the handmade coloured paper, a small tag stamped with my favourite Sara Naumann journaling stamps, little bit of scrunched up Crunchy wax paper and the copyright statement from the book.  

I thought this paparagraph was quite apt as it says what you can and can't do legally with a book. I think what I've done with it could be interpreted as against copyright if you look closely at the definition!

There are even a few more bits and bobs left so I might make an ATC with the little bits still left.  

Waste not want not!

Dont pulp it, paint it!

So I got back from hols and even though I took some crafting stuff with me, I was really itching to get back in my craft room (it's really the spare room, but it has a few status issues and likes to call itself "the studio") and "make something".

I have quite a few old books in my stash, one of the perks of working in a library, we occasionally withdraw stuff and my colleagues know to give me the nod if any hardbacks are going.  This one is a thin poetry book.

I took the paper book jacket off to  reveal the pale blue linen of the cover.

I started off with Honeydew all over, not solidly as I wanted to build up light layers of colour to give depth. Then mixed Toad Hall and Beach Hut and layered that on.

I used a candle to rub over the covers to act as a revisit and added another layer of the Toad Hall/ Beach Hut with a touch of Mermaid added to move it more to a blue green rather than green blue colour. I used the heat gun to dry this and melt the wax which I then rubbed off to reveal the lower layer. I also sanded it lightly as well in places.

Using the large numbers backgrounds stamp from PaperArtsy I stamped in Cobalt Archival and embossed in a Blueberry Wow embossing powder. I then added a layer of gold leaf in the middle of the book. YOu cant see a lot of it, but it just pops through here and there for another layer of texture.

I dry brushed Honeydew, Claret and French Roast around the edges as well to add to that grungy, shabby decayed look.

Over this I did add a stamped image of the winged lady from the PaperArtsy Letters L3 plate and then added a layer of Crackle Accent and left that to dry.

Umm, that didn't work to well as it completely covered the stamping, but gave some good raised crackle texture.  So I played around with this, sanding it, picking at it, spraying with inks, metallic glaze and finally French Roast Fresco and Treasure Gold. It looked OK but still needed something in the middle.

Hunted around in the stash and found some leather and felt. I sewed one layer of felt to the other, stuck the leather on top of this and painted a chipboard heart and added some Frantage embossing powder in wine (if you click on the photo you can enlarge it and see the detail)

The back was done in a similar way in terms of the paint layers and stamping, but nothing else added.

So what shall I do with it? Well I think it will eventually become an art journal, but what I'll do is keep it on the work desk and when I'm painting and I have excess paint I'll just paint a page, just like I've done here!

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