Wednesday 30 April 2014

PaperArtsy #3UP week!

Hi lovely visitors,

Over on the PaperArtsy Blog it's #3UP week, ie the last week of this semester when Leandra devises a challenge for blog, twitter and Facebook fans.  I was lucky enough to take part in the last one :-).  Each time Leandra mixes the format up a little and this time applicants were asked to choose which new release stamps/products they would like to work with if they were chosen (at random).  I emailed my application and had genuinely forgotten about it as I hadn't received any email notification but poor Leandra & crew had been mega busy getting ready for the new season of shows to kick off and instead of an email ......... the stamps I chose plopped through the letterbox, Yay!!!

Every night this week 3 different crafters are showcasing a particular designer from the PaperArtsy stable and tonight is the turn of Jo Firth Young's lovely stamps. The talent so far this week has been amazing and I am quite in awe and not a little daunted to be joining them briefly in the spotlight.

I love all of the PaperArtsy stamps even though I would find some difficult to work with from a style point of view but it was still a difficult choice.  In the end I chose Jo's fun stamps because they always make me smile and I asked for set JOFY22.  Here is a sneak peek of my project which I hope to goodness Jo and Leandra think does the stamps justice.  You can see the whole project over on the PA Blog together with two more mystery designers (I can't wait to see who they are) and if you want to see my 'in depth' ramblings of how I created it do come back tomorrow for the lowdown.


                                          

Blimey, as I type this I am so nervous after seeing the fabulous projects posted over the first three nights, gulp......but, by the time you read this mine will have gone live along with two other mystery crafters and it will be too late to worry, lol!  Hope you like it!

Hugs
Lesley  Xx


Saturday 26 April 2014

Beautiful Japanese Lady ... PaperArtsy Challenge with inspiration from Sam Butler....

Hi Everyone,

Well, it's taken my lovely PATwit buddy Sam to wake up my crafty brain cells after a couple of rather difficult weeks on the home front.......things are getting back to normal thank goodness and I gave myself today off for playtime.  I really wanted to make a tag following Sam's inspiration HERE and using a gorgeous PaperArtsy stamp from LPC021 which I've had for a while now and not had opportunity to use and this is the result.  (Apologies for the crooked photo)


I used a selection of blue Fresco Finish paints which I brayered onto my tag as in Sam's post then as I don't have any of the PaperArtsy abstract style stamps by Ellen Vargo I managed to find a large background stamp in my stash that I could use.  I stamped this with Cobalt Archival Ink and then added white Posca Pen highlights.





Now, I am a bit annoyed with myself because I forgot to take some pics of the next thing I did!  I didn't have any of the resist canvas that Sam used (mine all has designs that are far too big for the pediments) so I made my own.  I stuck a piece of sticky backed canvas to a piece of card and then stencilled Versamark Ink through a Prima chequerboard stencil before heat embossing with clear embossing powder.  I then carried on with Sam's method for colouring it using a Portfolio Pastel and was rather pleased with the finished effect except  it turned out pink when I wanted red........definitely not a pink lover, lol!




I used Pea Coat FF to colour the corrugated card, Cobalt Archival to stamp the main image and Black Archival for the little squares.  I used Intense pencils to add the bits of colouring and the little flicks from my paintbrush.  I raised the pediments and the little squares on 3D foam to give a bit more dimension.


I used Very Berry and London Bus mixed together to brayer onto the scrunched wax paper and then stamped the script with Black Archival.


I had to reduce the length of my main image as the whole stamp was too long in it's entirety and the longer strip of script was cut from the discarded piece.  I shall have to make something using this whole stamp very soon, she is soooooo beautiful!

My thanks to Sam for giving me a fab kickstart and hope you've enjoyed looking at the details of my tag.

See you again soon.  Till then ........

Hugs
Lesley  Xx