PaperArtsy Blog

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

2008-07-04T22:20:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone

We have had a great few weeks here. Last weekend I taugh a great group of textile artists some paper techniques, and the weekend before that i was up in Lancashire at Katy's Corner Stamp Camp - what a great time!

Now I can finally let you know about aweekend event called ARTSYCRAFTS that I am organising with Linda Brown from LB Crafts. Go here to see all the nitty gritty. You will find all the info you need to know, and a downloadable info & booking form.

Here are the basic details.

Event name: ArtsyCrafts
Dates: Sept 6 & 7
Location: DeVere Venue - Harben House, Newport Pagnell (5 mins from Jn14 of the M1), UK.
Classes: altered arts, technique loaded, 9 sessions in total!
Tutors: Linda Brown & Leandra Franich
Cost: 250.00 GBP

The classes are so fab, and the whole weekend is going to be thoroughly enjoyable. I hope some of you can make it! Go here to read all about it and download a booking form. Looking forward to seeing some of you there!

have a great weekend

Leandra

Tops and Tails

2008-06-15T19:37:00.003+01:00

We have had loads of fun selecting new stamps to release this month, and the result is "Tops and Tails".

These 6 plates are jam-packed with wonderful flowers, unique dragonfly (ladies?), as well as pretty summery treats.

When I first started stamping about 13 years ago, I used to collect dragonfly stamps. They are so versatile, and I really enjoyed making them to use as embellishments, so I am really excited about this particular release ..... I couldn't wait to tell you all - I haven't even made any samples yet!

New Trends for Summer
Have you noticed how these guys are having another comeback this summer? The World's largest trade show (CHA) where all the big craft companies of the world come together to launch new products was held in Anaheim, California earlier this year, and there were certainly a healthy smattering of winged things in many new releases. Silver embossed papers with glitter trails featured butterflies and dragonflies of all sorts of styles. They were very striking and beautiful. It seems that dragonflies and butterflies do the rounds about once every 5 years, but they never really go out of fashion, they are always popular.

Ideas for these stamps
You can colour these winged beauties, use them for backgrounds in a tone on tone style, but my favourite thing I used to do most often was to cut out and layer them up. I would stamp up a storm, then sit in front of the TV in the evenings trimming out all the dragonflies. The base would be plain-ish card (coloured or white), and then I would stamp the wings in vellum so you could almost see through, or acetate, or a different coloured cardstock. Armed with wire for antannae and sicky foam pads I would layer wings and antannae onto the base piece. I bought some cool pink, blue and green wire recently and I think those, with 2 small seeds beads for the 'blobs' will be a perfect touch to a simple card. Sometimes the wings would get a touch of holographic glitter glue. They seem to need that little bit of glitzy sparkle. These embellishments are perfect finishing touch on a wrapped gift, just pop one on the ribbon, and then one on the matching gift tag.

I think these doodle style images also look lovely stamped and embossed - not just for look, bit this can also serve a good purpose: if you emboss its easier to colour keeping within the lines, and when you use watercolour pencils, crayons or paints embossing helps your puddles stay within the designated area!

Winged summer creatures suit all kinds of cards for all kinds of people, young, old, male or female. If you'd like to add some of these to your collection, they are available to order online now.

Blog Special Offer
As a summer gift to you, all orders over 25.00GBP get free shipping - worldwide! You need to use this coupon code in the cart to qualify for the offer: T&TBLOG
NB.This offer is valid for 15 days from today, and expires on June 30th, 2008.

PS Don't forget to check out the new minis...they are gorgeous, I'll post later in the week with some examples!

Leandra

Through the arched window

2008-05-23T10:40:00.003+01:00

In this post I'd like to share with you one of the classes I have taught the last 2 weekends here in England and in the Netherlands. It's a mini book with niches and decorated pages, loaded with fun techniques with Distress Inks and Sprays. The actual book is 13 pages long, here is a sample of a few of those for you to enjoy.

This project is based on a submission we received from Linda Baldock , one of the very talented Aussies on our DT. She is an EP (Embossing Powder) nutter, and has inspired me to dig out mine and start playing with them some mroe - great for texture, or that hint of magpie glint that I always need to have somewhere on a project.

Linda has the ability to use EP and create texture so deep and structured that I am gobsmacked every time I sneak a look at her blog. She must use truckloads of the stuff...every week! But it's divine, and I'm sure in real life it must all look so much more amazing than the pics can show. You must check out her blog.

The 'arches' project, in this version, is in blues and browns, in general the blue pages have doorways with the door cut out, and the brown pages have doorways stamped (sometimes) but the rule of thumb was that brown pages were not cut out. The pages alternate blue, brown, and the substrates vary and repeat between card, calico, metal, transparency. The book grew to 12 pages for the full day class version.

The backgrounds are done with a variety of distress ink techniques combined with water, mica powders and re-inkers. I have used both plain ink sprayed with various depths of hue (reinker in a mini mister with water), and the same laced with perfect pearls. We also used glimmer mists, because there is tons of colour and mica powder options which my magpie- sparkly- girl side of me just can't refuse to use! More is more sometimes - right? Why use one sparkly spray when you could use 5! LOL We repeat stamped from Urban Snapshots the gorgeous doorways from Arched Apertures (USAA2, USAA3)

The left page is walnut ink spray background, over-stamped in Walnut stain. Decorated with a gessoed AB page stamped in Jet Black (Mini #35) . The lampost (USAA2) was stamped and embossed onto blue metal, then cut out, textured with metal tools from behind and glued down. The eyelet with the flowers holds the swing door with the bingo number on it (seen on the front cover picture above). The right hand page is calico sprayed with broken china, then the arch is stamped in Jet Black Archival ink. Secured the calico to card, and then the arch was trimmed out with a scalpel or scissors.

The arch was stamped in Broken China on the left. so how do you line up the arches on both side of the same piece of card? Answer: stamp through the hole.
TIP: We trimmed out the stamped arch on the calico side, then placed the stamp ink side up on the table. Using the calico doorway- hole as a guide lower the card down onto the stamp while looking through the hole to get perfect alignment.
Along the left page, the lace stamp from Ink/Dog: Buttons 2 was stamped on transparency film, then dried and painted with Gold Acrylic dabber from the reverse. Nice border, and an easy pattern to match.
The page on the right started with Claudine Hellmuth's Peeled paper technique. Apply gel medium to the card, press an AB page into the gel, burnish, then pull the paper away to leave some of the ink transferred, but also some softer edges of AB remain. Now gesso over the top, dry, and then spritz generously with vintage photo distress spray. Dry the puddle with a heat tool to get the stain effect. Nice.
The page turner is a tab made from Cream Ten Seconds Studio metal, embossed and sprayed with Patina glimmer mist. The glimmer mist will puddle in the recesses and dry permanently on this metal. A touch of Jet black archival ink highlights the pattern.

The brown left page is glimmer mist straight onto a semi-gessoed page. Glimmer mists puddle like flecks on gesso when dry whereas distress inks seem to leave larger stains. I like both! On the right we have the large frame (USAA3) stamped on transparency, and under that is aluminium embossed with the Ten Seconds diamond pattern and alcohol inked with Stream and Terracotta ink. I like the way it glints through the transparency - magpie style-y!

But it is nice how the tranparency looks good over the gesso/ glimmer background too.
I put black card behing the metal page to support it and sprayed with glimmer mists that had pale mica pigments in them to reflect back some light. The top-hatted dude is from Ink/Dog: MON2.
The Poet tags are stamped onto blue metal and I used eyelets on the tags. The frame to the right was inked with a few Distress Inks: Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo, Broken China and Faded Jeans. Then the niche cut out.
Through the niche you can see the embossed metal page which was painted with some new paints available from LB Crafts, the cool thing about these paints is they don't scratch off metal, you mix your own colour of pigment into the 'carrier/ base', and then you can also add in gel type substance to turn the paint pearlescent/ metallic, and they have cool waxes that you can rub over the top to catch highlights. Watch their website or call them for more information about this product.

I also created a paint from Vintage photo re-inker mixed into the base to apply to the metal ...you can see the sample her in the middle of the right page....hmmm muchos experimentation to be had with this product!

Wishing you a great weekend! We have the kids off school for the next week, so I am hoping for warmer weather so we can get the pool out and start praying for a great summer. Well it can't be worse than last year can it? I think Summer was on a Wednesday last year here in England!

Leandra

And the winner is.......winners are....

2008-05-22T09:35:00.005+01:00

After much deliberation, discussion, impartial judges' opinions...we have had to make some decisions. Yes it's been tough, but we kept coming back to the 'brief' which was using your stamps in an 'outside the box' kind of way.

So the winning entry is LyLy from France with her altered Wii remote (wiimote). She has collaged it with squiggly stamps and using bright colours, added a pink ribbon and button for the 'handle' and she assures us it still works perfectly well! Her partner would have killed her doing this out of the blue, but with the competition as an excuse she got away with it and now has plans for the rest of the wiimotes too!!!

As the items we received pics of were so wonderful we have decided to issue some 'highly commended' prizes to the following in the order of date the entry was received:

Liz Gale (England): stamped head - very unusual substrate to work on, and generated the most comments, both on and off the blog! I still can't believe she got away with using pink!

Helen Chilton (England): Stamped hall table - Stamped in staz-on, then sprayed with glimmer mists, and highlighted with coloured pencils/ white accents. All done in bright colours with Pierrot stamps, and the brick arch from Architecture. In the centre are 4 'coasters' of stampbord, stamped in the same manner and scratched back to reveal highlights. A stunning masterpiece, and I can't wait till she sends it to me......kidding....I guess we'll just have to make our own, but I am amazed at how the stamps fit perfectly...well done Helen.

Christal Gill (Texas, USA): frame which she painted silver, andPotting Shed. Chris made a stamped inside and out to look like a metal shed, Using the "bloom' set of stamps from the Cat's Meow Collection, she then created bunches of flowers, grass, pot plants, and decorated the whole 3-D item just perfectly. We love this potting shed and the little white picket fence finishes it off perfectly!

Michi Michaelson (California, USA): Birdhouse. The things you can do with a wooden box! Michi's entry was one of the last to come in, and I think she probably used the most stamps from Ink and the Dog collection possible on such a small little bird box. She also managed to hang some lovely shrink embellishments with beads charms and wire dangles. I'm sure the birds will love to peck at these sparkly 'toys'. On the box she use Kaleidacolour spectrum ink pad which gives fab bright colour and variation of colour to the piece. She spritzed the inked samp with denatured alcohol, then huffed and stamped onto glossy card. This helped the colours merge and blend, but she still seems to get great definition of image which impressed us! Those birds are going to fight over who gets to live in this house.

The Highly Commended players will be getting a goodie bag of bits from PaperArtsy coming your way real soon, and Lyly our winner - watch the post for your full set of minis worth nearly 200GBP ($US 400)!!!

Congratulations to all who participated. Thankyou for taking time to play with us, and share with everyone your creativity. The work you do is such an inspiration to us here at PaperArtsy and the many people who read our blog. We are excited that stampers, scrappers, newbies and experienced people all took the time to submit projects, and we hope more of you will be inspired to join in next time.

The most common comment was that this forced you to try something new, be it a canvas, card, or 3-D item - everyone stepped outside their comfort zone to try something different, and everyone seemed surprised at how much they enjoyed the process and the challenge. On personal note, this is how I have discovered my personal style, by trying something completely different, and stretching myself to learn new methods and styles. usually its a swap or challenge that has forced me to jump in the deep end. it can be scary at the start, but after a while you wish you'd taken that big step sooner and just got on with it! LOL.

We'll be announcing another mini competition very soon, so keep thinking outside the box!

Leandra

Last call for competition

2008-05-21T12:06:00.003+01:00

I was away in The Netherlands teaching at Art Journey on May 9/10, and then this weekend just gone I was at LB Crafts near Milton Keanes, England. What a wonderful time I had at both stores.

One of the classes was called 'Through the Arches' - a small book based on a submission from one of our down under Design Team members Linda Baldock. You can see what she did here . At LB Crafts we turned this into a full day class with lots of embellishments using Ten Seconds Studio metal, and decorating the pages.....it went from a little book , to a fat book! But oh what fun!

I have been trying to upload photos of this project for the last hour, but no luck. My connection must be dropping out, we are wireless and it happens occasionally.

While I was away these last 2 weekends, loads of people were talking to me about the "Big Fat PaperArtsy Competition". Everyone is very excited to see who the winner will be......and boy have we got the tough end of the job here..... choosing.....just one.....how can it be possible......???

Technically everyone has until midnight tonight to get their entries in, this is a last call reminder, and some more pics of all that is amazing to show you...will be coming later today as soon as I can sort out this connection issue.....

Good luck everyone, the winner will be announced tomorrow 22nd May!!

Leandra

Check this out!

2008-05-06T21:51:00.002+01:00

Wow, the big fat competition entries coming in are amaaaaazing!! We challenged you to 'think outside the box' and use your PaperArtsy stamps in the most unusual ways possible. Well you guys are awesome!

Here's just a small selection of what we have received in recent days.

Betsey made this beautiful box stamped, inked masked and embellished beautifully.

She writes: Just wanted to let you know that my recent order arrived a few days ago. I have been having so much fun using them. The stamps are really beautiful and have really helped to motivate me to get stamping again. I have been passionate about stamping for years, but at times, I find that the cares of everyday life take over, and I start to drift away. This past year, I took a new job, and have been extremely busy getting adjusted to it. In the process I have neglected my passion for stamping. This past weekend has inspired me again. I find myself lying in bed, thinking of a new project and doing all I can not to give in to the urge to get going on it!

Daisy tells us she has been working on new surfaces never tried before.

Well for me the most original things I've done with a PaperArtsy stamp are to alter a jigsaw piece and to make a triptych frame, which had 12 individual inchies on it.

I love your all stamps & certainly don't have enough of them.

Details on how each were made can be found on her blog.
Jigsaw http://distinctly-daisy.blogspot.com/2008/04/je-taime.html
Triptych http://distinctly-daisy.blogspot.com/2008/01/dream.html

Liz has a partner in crime here, and has certainly managed to think outside the box. We all had a great laugh and wondered if Clive had any idea about the colour Liz used!

She writes: The most unusual thing I have stamped on is - Clive's head. I'm sorry the photo is not too good, he wouldn't fit in the scanner. Nor would he let me heat emboss - spoil sport. Plant a hair and it will grow? We can but hope! VBG, Liz :)

Valerie has been practising some new techniques using her Stamps from the PaperArtsy French Collection. (Available exclusively in French stores via our distributorACICAM in France, go to their website to see their stockists)

Shrink, UTEE and distress inks all feature here

She writes: Here is from France my "little" realisations for the competition...Sorry, I'm new in scrap :) ! I used paper, Distress Inks, embossing powders, UTEE, shrinking paper, and of course Paper Artsy's stamps !

I like the new collection (Squiggly Ink) with the swirls and curls and the small houses (so cute!). I went to Paris last month at the SMAC, it was such an honor to see her doing mixed-media at ACICAM stand...Go on Leandra !

Cordially from France,
Valérie :)

Lastly Joy made these amazing little houses, I want to call them ice houses as
they remind me of Ice sculptures. She has used UTEE and you can go here to find out more http://alterme.typepad.com/. Aren't they adorable?

So how do you play along? We want you to send us your photos (jpegs to newsletters@paperartsy.co.uk) of the most original thing you've done with a PaperArtsy stamp, no holds barred. The comp is open to anyone worldwide and the prize is a full set of 42 PaperArtsy Minis. Value £197 GBP (approx $400 USD). We'll post a selection of the entries each week here on the blog for you to see and we'll announce the winner on May 21. So get on your bizarro thinking cap and show us what you can do.

Technique Loaded Tag Project

2008-04-29T21:23:00.003+01:00

Yesterday Sally Cendral (who keeps popping up unexpectedly at Stamp and trade shows in either France or England) sent me a series of photos she took while I was making a tag for her at Ally Pally recently.

As I have just mentioned the gold texture "happy accident" a couple of posts back, I thought it was timely to share with you a whole project using the idea, with a few other techniques thrown in too.

Step 1.
Apply ink with a Range mini brayer to a blank tag.

To get a soft effect like this, run the brayer over your craft sheet a few times first to soften and reduce the quantity of ink on the brayer, then lightly skip the brayer over the tag with hardly any pressure. You can pick up more ink from the craft sheet until you are happy with the effect on the tag. Try this technique with 2-3 colours

Step 2.
2/3 fill 2 mini misters with water. Add to one 4 drops of Peeled Paint, and to the other 4 drops of Broken China distress ink.

Spray the ink quite close to the tag and use loads to saturate the tag (more than this picture shows...this is only half sprayed!). For contrast, spray each colour in 2 or 3 different areas, then dry with a heat tool.
TIP: you can start with spraying ink straight onto a blank tag, but if you apply ink with a brayer or cut and dry foam BEFORE you spray you will get a much deeper and more interesting background colour.

Step 3.
Once dry, overstamp in the same colours. I used Squiggly Mini #8 in Broken China, and the tree branches (SISC5) in Peeled Paint. (I prefer to stamp blue over blue and green over green to add more depth to the background.)

In the Centre of the tag I have stamped the Heart from SIBM1.

Step 4.
Apply glossy accents to the centre of of the heart. Pour Gold embossing powder onto the wet glossy accents. Heat to melt the EP, and 'boil' the glossy accents until it all hardens (about 2-3 minutes) with awesome textural lumps and bumps.

Step 5.
Its also a good idea to heat the tag from the reverse side to help the glossy accents dry. You can control the texture by moving and holding the heat gun in different positions.

Step 6.
Apply Gold Acrylic Paint Dabber to textured grungeboard wings. I like to use my finger to rub the paint into the grunge, it makes the effect with metallic paints really shiny. Dry the paint.
TIP: Use sandpaper on painted grunge. You will create matte and shiny contrasts - the sandpaper roughens the raised poortions of the grunge.

Step 7.
Apply a contrasting Distress Ink (Aged Mahogany here) to the grunge with Cut 'n' Dry Foam. The ink will sink into the sanded areas where the sandpaper distressed the surface.

Step 8.
Wipe excess ink off the shiny Gold painted areas of the Grungeboard.

Step 9.
Make holes with a paper piercer through the grungeboard and the tag, and then sew the wings into place with soft wire.

This is much faster than using a needle and thread, and is a nice textural embellishment. Its also easy to add small beads as you go.

Step 10.
For final but striking effect, use the Ranger Inkssentials white pen to outline the details of the Squiggly Mini #8 swirl stamp.

Tip: Try adding German Scrap inked with Alcohol Inks (lettuce and stream would look great) at the bottom of the tag. SOme gold ribbon with prima flowers would look superb at the top too.

Baked Beans...

2008-04-23T12:59:00.006+01:00

OK here is an entry in the spirit of our competition. Original uses of PaperArtsy Stamps. We received these yesterday.They are decorated baked bean tins! Here's a quote from the artist...

"The strangest thing I have stamped on so far are ..... baked bean tins!

Please don't Beanalise me for my poor photography!!! Can I enter as many times as I like? If I can get OH while he is sleeping I could cover him in stamps like an all over body tattoo!"

Bring it on that's what we say. Let your imagination run wild!

Get your entries in you have until May 21st to have a chance to get your hands on a full set of PaperArtsy Minis

One of those cool happy accidents

2008-04-20T14:39:00.002+01:00

So how do you think I managed this rustic gold effect for the heart pictured here?

Last week I was playing about with the new Bricks and Mortar squigglies immediately after they came out of the vulcanising press. Nothing quite like hot new rubber....

First of all I lightly brayered shabby shutters all over a tag. I stamped the heart and then surrounded it with rows of lines (the stamp is from SILK1) .

So, crackle the heart...broken heart.....nope......glossy or matte accents....yep that'll do nicely, so I filled the heart with glossy accents.

Then i decided that was going to take too long to dry, so I thought, let's sprinkle the glossy acents with regular Gold Embossing Powder, then heat set until the glossy glue goes hard.

Got out the heat gun, and as you may well know, the EP melts, then as the glue under the EP heats up its starts to bubble and boil.....very cool I'm thinking.....and pretty soon I worked out that if you held the heat gun steady at different distances, you can actually maintain a 'bubble', or particular texture. So I did that until it stopped bubbling and went kind of hard. So now i have a very cool textured blob that i think is going to be a 'thing' I do for a while on lots of little projects!

Have a great week, hope you get time to sit down and play too! I am really looking forward to teaching in Folkestone, Kent at Scrapfriends on Wednesday, and then we are joining 2 of the kids on a school trip to the Natural History Museum in London on Friday.

BTW On Saturday 26th April, Emma from Imagine That PaperCrafts, Upminster Essex is having a Squiggly Ink Demo Day, so make sure if you are near her to pop in and have a looksie!

Have some fun
Leandra

How fab is this?

2008-04-19T13:32:00.002+01:00

Linda at LB Crafts sent me this today in the post as a thanks for demoing last weekend. Its so simple, and so effective, just typical of her classic style that always looks just right!. I *love* it! I think it might need a few more buddies to keep it company. What a cool idea for Christmas decorations!

She has stamped the most popular squiggly mini #8 in jet black archival ink (Ranger) onto a small acrylic tag.

Next the Teeny tiny house from Bricks and Mortar Plate 3 is stamped onto copper metal twice...becasue this is a see-through hanging decoration, she has got the same house on both sides!

She used her Ten Seconds Studio tools (available at LB Crafts) to make a simple strip, a bit of ball & cup, with a micro-wheel eaiter side. That is secured with glue, and an eyelet at the side allows for a simple bead dangle.

At the top she has used prima flowers (and brads) both sides, with copper wire and a rust fine ribbon hanger to finish.

Thanks Lin, what a great mail day for me!

Tomorrow I'm going to share a new technique (happy accident) from last week using 2 products you're bound to have in your stash.

Keep those stamp competiton entries coming in, we've had some wonderful projects come in this week, keep up the good work. Remember we are looking for weird and unusual ways to use PaperArtsy stamps, so think outside that box some more. We know you're all a little bit weird and wacky deep down! At least we hope you are. I keep telling my kids - why would you want to be normal??? LOL

Our Big Fat PaperArtsy Competition...

2008-04-16T19:30:00.004+01:00

Yep we are having a prize give away. We want you to send us your photos (jpegs to newsletters@paperartsy.co.uk) of the most original thing you've done with a PaperArtsy stamp, no holds barred. The comp is open to anyone worldwide and the prize is a full set of 42 PaperArtsy Minis. Value £197 GBP (approx $400 USD). We'll post a selection of the entries each week here on the blog for you to see and we'll announce the winner on May 21. So get on your bizarro thinking cap, get a caffeine buzz on and show us what you can do.

Speaking of coffee, to set the tone, and maybe get your brain moving, check this one. Greg Costello from The Workhouse Coffee Company in Reading sent me this photo. Apparently the staff at his gourmet coffee shop spend the quieter afternoon hours stamping coffee cups with PaperArtsy stamps ready for the next days business. The customers love it and we do too.

Right then, get going and show us your ideas.

Coming Soon....new 'house' Squigglies

2008-04-10T16:11:00.002+01:00

Even though we have been particularly busy, we have still managed to squeeze in some new stamps for April. The launch of these new babies is at Ally Pally this weekend, available from the LB Crafts stand. The theme is houses, and I love them so much already. So useful, so much fun, and great for a lot of diferent situations.

I adore the rulers, these make perfect borders. The houses all have frames, so you can put images behind if you cut out the frame, or you could draw in your own doors/ windows detail. I also thought I might stamp another image inside the frame. I also think I will love using them as secret doors - interactive stuff is awesome on cards.

I think some of these stamps will work great with scrapbook layouts, and the quotes are perfect for cards, so these are really versatile.

I can't wait to see what you do with them.

Available from April 14th 2008
www.paperartsy.co.uk

Home to stay at last!

2008-04-09T18:32:00.003+01:00

I've had a blast. Since the end of January I think I have been home for maybe 3 weekends!

End of January was CHA in Anaheim, California, USA. I got to go on my own this time which was really cool fun (of course I did miss Mark being with me) but I got to hang with the Artgirlz, and Jenny S from Paperworx, New Zealand, and all the other girlies I bumped into along the way, so it actually was mega chilled. We didn't exhibit this show for 2 main reasons: the US economy has made it hard for them to import while their exchange rate is lower than usual, and the UK trade show 'Stitches' was the following weekend, so there was no time to do both shows with only one day in between.

The big trend at CHA this year was clear stuff, as in acrylic books and stuff. Also felt was huge with all kinds of trims, borders, accents and even 12 x 12 stuff. Then there was the bling. Basically brads were like jewelry , so the bigger and blingier the better. Stamps as a category is still strong. Scrapbookers are getting into stamping big time now! Also lots of fabric trims, eg velvet - velvet brads, velvet ribbons etc. And the lush, bling, glam stuff was seen on papers with gold embossed layers or flourishes, sparkles, glitter, etc as part of the design. The other trends I noticed as far as design elements go were houses (shapes for chipboard, stamps, clear layers, on papers etc) and butterlies/ dragonflies are doing the rounds again.

The following weekend we were exhibiting at Stitches in the UK (Birmingham). I was expecting a quiet show, but we actually were so busy I didn't get to walk the show at all! Stitches is always fun, as Tim and Alain from Ranger are here, so we usually get to go out for a few meals with them while the show is on. It's taken a few years, but now Tim actually really likes Indian food!

2 weeks after stitches I was teaching for the weekend down at Portmouth at Jendenink. We made this charm bracelet. It's a fondue system with the melt pot. Make a paper bead, dip and voila! Sometimes we add gold leaf or perfect pearls to the bead to glam it up a bit. So cool, and a fun way to use the melt-pot for sure.

The weekend after Jendenink was SMAC. This is a trade show in France. We have a distributor in France called ACICAM, so 2 times a year we release new stamps for them. We translate existing PaperArtsy stamps into French which they sell to French shops. So at SMAC we released another 20 stamps, and we even did a French catalogue for them, as they now have about 60 designs (over 180 individual images and 25 minis).

SMAC was great as we stay at a hotel opposite the Louvre. Although the down side was the train took about 45 mins to get out to the show each day, but of course it is super cool to be in Paris too. Suze Weinburg and her husband were here this year, as well as the Ranger owners Alain and Justin, so we had some fun nights out with them all. Suze and I swapped some great melt-pot ideas, and she was blown away with the show, it is really the most beautifully presented show on the world calendar! Go here to see her photos of the show, and here for her newsletter that week. Mona from Creative Imaginations and I planned all our make and takes together, along with Tim's grungeboard, and Ranger products, so I really enjoyed all the cool stuff I got to demo with at the show.

The show trends are so different at SMAC to other shows. Felt was big at this show last year (and still popular this year) but the beads were truly incredible. The main thing I saw a lot of was interior decor items, and texture. People love to add that personal touch to their homes, and they use a lot of scrapping style stuff to do it in a very stylish and classy way. Also people in Europe are not scared of colour, so everything is bold and very beautiful. So inspirational.

So we got home from SMAC, and then 10 days later we were back for Version SCRAP. This is a scrapping show in Paris, with classes and workshops. Mona was still in France working for ACICAM in between the 2 shows, and so we co-ordinated for classes again.

I did this cute flower class (left) with some Creative Imaginations products. And a mini transparent book which was really popular too.

We also did loads of different make and takes on the booth which people could book in to do also. I caught up with Celine Navarro who I also briefly saw at CHA, so that was cool.

As it was school holidays Mark and the kids came over too, and the daughter of our distributor took them to Disney Paris for a day out on Friday. We kept it a secret, and they were so excited. Our kids are now 7,9,11,13 years, so they are a great age for theme parks!

We got back from this latest adventure yesterday. How to blast 3 months in one easy step! LOL

This weekend its Ally Pally, a Stamping and Scrapbooking show in London. I shall be there demoing for LB Crafts on their stand, so if anyone is nearby, come along. Its a great show!

"Home" theme Postcards

2008-01-22T20:10:00.001Z

Today Isa and I were emailing about ways to use Golden Glazes, and the inevitable happened and I ended up using them on some stuff.....as you do.

When I first started learning about Altered Books, there was a small series of book/ magazines published by Design Originals (actually it turned into a series) called AB101, 102, 103 and so on. The first 2 were pioneered by Beth Cote, and then they turned into a free for all with all kinds of contributors. She also did a DVD, and that's where I first saw the glazes being used.

Its very simple process: squeeze and spread. Glazes can be used over or under collage elements, and I have even used them to transfer ink-jet images into the 'paint'. On the left I used cut 'n' dry foam to apply the glaze (Yellow Ochre, Sea Foam Green) to watercolour paper. After each layer, dry well, and you can gradually build depth of colour along the way. Glazes blend really well, and they have a long 'open' time. [That means they take a while to dry]. These dry with a matte finish which is great because you can easily work on top of glaze to stamp, journal, collage etc as its not a plastic shiny finish.

Permanet dye inks work well over glazes for bold sharp images, but today I successfully used distress ink (antique linen, Frayed Burlap) up against a zig-zag mask at the top of this piece. I then over-stamped a flourish image (SM08) with distress. I did find the distress colour would get darker as I dried it with a heat gun.

To finish, I stamped an arch (Urban Snapshots - Arched Apertures 2) in Jet Black Archival ink on the toothy side of ink-jet transparency film..this is much easier than stamping onto slippery acetate. I then used Patina Green Glaze on the reverse shiny side of the acetate to create a little bit of contrast between the background. The doors are cut open and bent back, and a collage sheet image (tinted with distress inks) is placed behind for a focal point.

On the right the glaze background is much more Blue, however again I used Sea Foam Green, and Patina Green (which is more like a green/blue ...the BEST shade of the collection). This time 3 -4 layers gave a much stronger colour., But I did try to keep a couple of sections more green than others...it seems to appeal to the eye more.

You might recognise the swirly heart and numbers are grunge-board, the smaller of whcih was embossed in red, and held together with a brad. I then tried to imitate the font in the stamp (don't think I did too badly!) and the lines were stamped. The little house was stamped onto beige card, and masked and sponged with distress inks. The Stamp is from PaperArtsy Squiggly Ink Collection- Love & Kisses 1.

This glaze method is often how I start a canvas, because as the colours are soft, you gradually build. Starting with glazes isn't so scary as acrylics, and they are easy to move around, blend etc. You can also soften the harshness of acrylic with glazes, or create transcluscent, bespoke glazes to your own preference. And of course, they can be a way to seal your work.

A nice finishing touch to any type of mixed media project is to use a metallic or pearlescent glaze. These products can accent texture is a soft subtle way, and the pearlescent glaze mixed into any solid colour will add a really neat tint...particularly striking in darker paint shades.

Have you used glazes before? Let me know how you got on if you have time to drop a comment.

Squiggly Crazy

2008-01-21T12:12:00.001Z

Ok so we all went a bit squiggly dizzy this weekend.

The squiggly stamps are featured on blogs all over the place. Check out Jo and Isa from our DT who dropped everything to do some awesome squiggling action with ink and paper. I'm sure you will be inspired to try out their colour combos and ideas!

On the right is my notebook cover that I made which has got the most oohs and ahhs so I thought you should get to see it too!. This is made with 5x5" manilla tags and bound with the zutter (I love that machine!)

Stamps from Squiggly ink ; Love and Kisses 1, Swirls anc Curls 1, 3&4.

And here'e the back cover

The inks are distress (Spiced Marmalade, Aged Mahogany and Broken China, Shabby Shutters)
The stamps are Squiggly ink -Swirls and Curls 4, Squiggly Mini #8.

Send me pics of your squiggly adventures - watch out, its addictive! In a squiggly kind of way.

Leandra

It's a squiggly life

2008-01-20T10:21:00.000Z

This week i have pressed so much rubber! If you haven't heard already we just released a new collection called Squiggly Ink - it's a kind of swirly doodle style which is just SO useful! The new Squiggly Ink stamps look so much fun before you even start, and yesterday, after making them all week and itching to have a go, I finally got to sit down and play! YAY...

So many people are emailing with pics of what they have made too, i think these stamps really are causing a buzz, so I'm thrilled that people love this collection so much.

I always want to do soft and romantic style (maybe its a Valentines thing), but no matter what - it ends up full on colour, so this (left) is my closest to soft that i can do.

Most of these stamps are from Squiggly Ink- Love & Kisses 1, but the background stamp is SM08 (a mini). I love the striped blue background too - I just sponged (with Cut 'n' Dry foam) Broken China Distress Ink (Ranger) onto the edge of an ATC sized card, then stamped the 'stripe' in Walnut Stain Distress ink.

You can't really see it in the photo, but I cut the door out from the front of the house, set it back and raised the rest of the house to the front, so it looks like an arch. The key is plain Grungeboard from my buddie Tim Holtz. You can see various ideas on how to use this product on his blog. The 12 Christmas tags are loaded with great ideas for those of you new to ranger products. Is there anyone new to ranger's cool stuff???

So back to my artwork, they were all made with Distress inks, and this one is my favourite...I think the colours are fab! The feature stamp is Squiggly Ink - Love & Kisses 5 and the Hearts on the red layer are from Squiggly Ink - Swirls and Curls 4 . I used mini SM05 for the tiny hearts in the middle. The wings are swirly grungeboard, the crown is plain grungeboard.

On the left I used Linen, Tattered Rose which were boosted for depth with Worn Lipstick and Vintage Photo, The brackets are in Aged Mahogany. Then stamps, stamps stamp. Loads of images from loads of stamps. This was fun, and the key was to try and keep the pinks and browns in their own zones which softly blend into each other. The background stamps act as a 'bridge' between the zones.

And now for the quirky. I love this kind of stamping, and this is the kind of Valentines Kind I'm most likely to give! Very cheeky . The stamps are from Love and Kisses 6.

Wishing you all a great New Year.

Leandra

A very international girl....

2007-10-25T10:12:00.000+01:00

Even though I'm a British lass raised in New Zealand, and now living in England for the last 6 years, my summer seems to have been a blur of international travel and excitement, some business related, and some family time. It has been so much fun, and this has been the first opportunity to let you know about it!

We spent 3 wonderful weeks in July in the South of France on a family holiday. Well I did squeeze in some teaching at 2 stores (in Perigeaux and Bergerac) but for the most part we hung out by the pool at the very private and rural gite we rented. We also had a few magnificent days in Paris on the way back home. The hotel was literally opposite the Louvre. The children enjoyed the whole trip so much - as did we of course. It was our first family holiday in 3 years, and it felt like a real treat. To top it off the weather was perfect, hot but not too hot, so we came back with healthy tans to the dull, overcast, English summer-that-never-was.

Next up was Germany, and Stempel Mekka - a stamp specific show which I have wanted to go to for years. It was great and I demoed all show long for Scrappendoejezo, a store from Holland exhibiting at the show. I bumped into lots of English people, and met many German online friends also.

I arrived home to visitors from New Zealand staying with us while they did the London tourist trail for a few weeks. It was great - all the kids got on well, and Jenny and Pete got roped into the odd bit of rubber manufacturing as the need arose! They have a beautiful scrapping store in the South of New Zealand (Paper Worx), and the sample (right) was inspired by a project Jenny and her daughter Charlotte taught our girls. It's 2 'licence plate style' boards hanging together decorated with papers, bling and ribbon, with a Post-it note in the centre of the lower panel.

The sample shown is a more altered version of Jenny's idea using Ranger Paint Dabbers, distress inks, UTEE embossing powders, and some of the French stamps we make just for the French market which are distributed and available via ACICAM in France. I used corrugated card as a base to work on. I just love highlighting the rippled texture with paint.

The following week we went to France with our New Zealand friends and our kids for a week for more sightseeing, and Jenny and I taught at ACICAM for a day to some French retailers. It was a great day, and Jenny taught this wonderful Christmas Gift box (left). It's a really versatile project for many occasions, and the lid is made from a single piece of 12 x 12 card - all folded, not cutting or glue required! We released some new Xmas stamps this winter called Noel, and so this particular sample uses some of those. Can you see the small circles in red? That has been a really popular new mini this month. You can see the new Christmas minis (numbers 35-42) on our website here .

As well as other teaching gigs in the UK during September and early October, I also managed to get back over to the Netherlands 2 weeks ago to teach at Scrappendoejezo. Dennis and Dorenda have a gorgeous shop. They carry a huge range of papers and all our stamps, and they teach wonderful workshops in their superb new warehouse area. Many of the classes I taught used the ranger meltpot, and so most of the participants learned how to use either UTEE or beeswax. One of my favourite classes was making this charm bracelet (right). It's kind of like a fondue system! So if you're into dipping stuff into chocolate or cheese then I think you'll be able to do this too! I will be going up to Blackpool to Cucumber Cottage for the first weekend in November to teach at the Altered Perceptions weekend, and this is one of the four classes I shall be doing there too. And yes those are Artgirlz felt balls and flowers that i dunked into UTEE you can see on the bracelet.....its full of lots of quirky bits and bobs!

Blue and Orange

2007-06-01T18:50:00.000+01:00

Today I just had to make something using blue and orange. I guess its not a 'normal' combo, but it's so vibrant and I love it.

In February at SMAC (the Paris trade show) I met Mona from Creative Imaginations who was doing the most fabulous make n takes with their Bare Essentials line. At the end of the show she gave me a gorgeous goodie bag of bits and bobs, and a cropadile (to lighten her load home). So today I learned how to set eyelets with the cropadile into the tags. I guess that's kind of basic for those of you who know how to use these babies, but I must say, the tag thingy is really fat, and the eyelets (soft aluminium) seemed to set perfectly and evenly...a feat I have not achieved before with the other cazillion setters I own! So big thanks to Mona!

To make the tag I started with Ranger Acrylic dabbers (Sail Boat Blue/ Sunset Orange) and dabbed onto cut and dry foam, then smooched all over the tag back. This gave a scratchy covering. Over that I stamped a PaperArtsy Mini (MN#20) in Red Pepper/Sunshine Yellow, and stapled randomly blue and orange ribbons around the edge top make an arch. German Scrap (Fancy Border) got rubbed with Archival Black ink (Ranger) and glued over the staples. The image is Mini #10. I set blue star eyelets at the foot and gave her a party hat from a background I made with the blue and orange dabbers.

On the front window panel I inked up the mini #20 in blue/ orange and randomly stamped around the acetate frame. Then softly sponged blue and orange over the top. I set eyelets (metallic blue and orange) around the edge, attached book corners, and hand drew dashed lines to make the frame more 'finished'.

I just found out that Wednesday stamper is doing a ''door" challenge this week, I figured my Ribbon Arch could maybe fit that brief too. Blow me down, Belinda has got a gorgeous Blue and Orange (and pink) door! Go take a look the work there is so inspirational.

Leandra

Pink and Sparkly.....who me??

2007-05-21T23:13:00.000+01:00

Today was one of those days where I really know I should be doing a whole lot of mundane stuff, but I was itching to do something more exciting. I'm kind of on top of admin (and ironing BTW...woke at 5.20 this am!!...too weird that never happens), and so when i get to a point where I'm almost organised I feel like i deserve a reward.

Right on cue, in comes an email enquiring how I like to use the new PaperArtsy mini backgrounds. (only available to buy from shops we supply at this point. Katy's Corner has all of the newbies in stock, call her if they aren't online yet.)

Here's the result...more pinky sparkly than my usual, but this is exactly what minis are designed for..to make your own BG's to co-ordinate with whatever (papers) you wish them to. Small or large areas and everything in between.

Still lovin those Ranger acrylic dabbers, this time 'peri' and 'aqua' got to feature. Used frayed burlap distress ink and transferred the PaperArtsy Picture Pack image with glazing medium onto white card. The embellishment is using opals EP's with a (probably discontinued) hero stamp to make a faux wax seal kind of effect.

This week's Wednesday Stamper Challenge is Fleur de Lys, so i get to play with those cool gals too. Satisfying day, did something different to my usual and had a total blast. And i didn't have to pick up kids till 4.30pm. Ahh the artistic lifestyle....

TIP: the 'light' dabbers are thicker consistency than other colours, and take longer to prime. Unscrew the lid and drop a couple of teaspoons of water in. Shake and it will be more fluid, but the colour isnt compromised. Also a good trick when your paint is starting to run out.

New Stamps for May

2007-05-05T17:44:00.000+01:00

Hiya, we have a bunch of new stamps released this month. We are adding a new group of 4 plates to the Urban Snapshots range called Wrought Iron. Here they are...
We have also redesigned Urban Snapshots Stage Lights 2 ...We are also introducing a new range of stamps called PaperArtsy Minis. These are credit card size stamps on EZ Mount. They are ideal for kinds of altered art and craft applications especially ATCs, card making, inchies and more. The images are mainly taken from our Ink and the Dog collection. This you can see 15 designs and next month we will release another 17...

Here are a couple of examples...
Click here to go see the rest.

Get going and collect the set.

Earth To Orsun...

2007-04-02T10:06:00.000+01:00

Hi there. Well its been so busy here over the last couple of months that we're just beginning to get some normality back in our lives.

We've been at trade shows in the US, England and France generating more interest in PaperArtsy stuff. So this month we are releasing some more stamps from the Urban Snapshots range. These 4 are called Fancy Dress.

Here is another nice sample from Isabelle Norris using Plate Pierrot 3

More artwork

2007-01-17T10:05:00.000Z

I was just fossicking about in the file manager of my computer and found this. I like it! Nice colour combination. It is from Jackie Hunter and uses stamps from Words plate 4 and Vintage nudes plate 4.