2016 #8: White Space Hi everyone! Ellie Knol here, joining you this evening with a post about white space. White space can be dramatic; highlighting the focal point of your project!. I always try to add a lot of contrast, as that is what ART is about, isn’t it? Without contrast, there will be no expression in your project. What better way is there to add contrast than (a lot of) white space? I’ve made a box from cardboard (to fit the envelopes and cards), and used the same technique on the outside of it, as I’ve used on the six cards inside it. It will make for a nice and unique gift! I’ll show you the step-by step of the box, the decorating of it. Step One: Make a box for the cards with cardboard (3mm thick). Paint the bottom part of the box with a dark brown acrylic paint. Now for the lid of the box - crinkle up some blotting paper and cover the whole of it by glueing it to the surface with decoupage glue; this creates a beautiful texture. Leave to dry. Paint it with Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics (Snowflake). This gives a nice chalky surface to use as a base for the technique. Step Two: Tap a little bit of Nuance and Bistre powders onto an acrylic block (the one I used measures 6,5 x 5,5 centimeters). Mist it with water. Stamp with this onto the surface. Blot with a paper towel if there is too much color or water in certain areas. Leave to dry. This creates a base for the stamping and a die cut. PaperArtsy says: this effect would be wonderful done with our new Infusions, available from your favourite PaperArtsy retailer now. Step Three: Add some stamping with Ink & The Dog Mini Stamps (Mini 61 and Mini 29) with a permanent dark brown ink. ID Mini 61 ID Mini 29 These mini stamps are beautiful to use for backgrounds. Step Four: Spray the surface with a fixative. Add a diecut. Add a permanent dark brown ink to the edges with an ink pad. Paint the whole surface with a multi medium. As I said - I've made six cards with the same technique. I did not use blotting paper as the base though, just plain cardstock.I used two more minis on the cards Mini 28 and Mini 58. Mini 28 Mini 58 Here are the cards, made with the same technique. (Mini 61 and Mini 28) (Mini 61 and Mini 58) (Mini 61 and Mini 28) (Mini 61 and Mini 58) (Mini 61 and Mini 29) (Mini 61 and Mini 29) It's so easy to do! The most difficult with this technique is to keep the white space white! (grin) The sky is the limit here: you can choose different colors, stamp with a bigger acrylic block, maybe even a round one, or with a gelatin plate. You could choose to stamp with any other ink or paint; use a stamped image instead of a diecut. I've used two diecuts from Memory Box in this post. Give it a try! Hope you will enjoy this as inspiration to create your projects! Ellie Knol I am also on Pinterest, Flickr and Facebook See you! Welcome to the blog Ellie, your style here is just beautiful. Using an acrylic block to transfer the colour is a great idea and gives an element of control. Fabulous layering, so very effective, and a stunning gift to give. ~Darcy The PaperArtsy blog challenge is an opportunity for you to play along with the ideas our bloggers present. The current topic is #8: White Space. You can put your own twist on the ideas presented, share or try something totally new. As long as it fits the theme we would love to see what has inspired you! So please join in and link up your creativity HERE to your own blog post. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. This link will close 19:00 (London Time) May 1st 2016

This stamp is perfect for all your DIY projects. You can use it on cards, invitations, tags, wrapping paper, notebook and even on fabric!! Stamp is mounted on MDF. The stamps are handmade of high quality carving rubber. This rubber is suitable for any type of ink. Note: Stamp making is a manual process which can result in variations from stamp to stamp. Personally I see this as a part of beauty of handmade items and what makes each product unique :) Clean stamp size: Stamp : 12*7 cm Care: Clean the stamp gently with a lotion baby wipe and don’t leave it in the full sun. So you can enjoy the stamp for a long time! To learn more about my process in creating this item, please visit: instagram.com/kiamon design It : Disegni originali consigliere Timbro intagliato a mano per creare un motivo unico su qualsiasi superficie, perfetto per tessuto , quaderni, cartoline, biglietti di ringrazamento, buste, lettere e tutto il resto. Ottimo come regalo Misura: 12*7 cm

Servietten, Postkarten ... Mit diesen tollen Stempeln könnt ihr alles dekorieren!

Topic 11: Hidden Objects Hi everyone, Leandra here Well this is a bit of tricky topic isn't it! For a start, how can we show pictures of things that are 'hidden' ??? Well we do love a challenge, and I have plenty of images, and even though there is no video from me this week, I have sourced 2 other videos for you to watch to get your heads ticking...more of that in a bit For now, as you might be aware, we are currently up in the north of England at the Stamp magic show in Doncaster. No doubt by now we are hopefully packed up and driving home, but the upshot of our activity is that there is no one around to draw the challenge winner, so we will announce it here tomorrow. So very sorry for the anticlimax, but do check back this time tomorrow by which time Darcy will have updated this post to announce who has won! Darcy here... What a great topic to explore bottles was ...who knew so much could be done with bottles. I can see a lot less bottles going out in the recycling box now. From tiny accent bottles to large vases and garden lanterns, textured paper vases and some fantastic paint effects. Well done everyone! Sooooo, the winning name from Topic 10:Bottles..goes to...Georgina Ford from Kaardvark So....it's Leandra back with you tonight to explore Hidden Objects. First up this really caught my eye...technically its not hidden...but the words on the page infer that it is, and that's good enough for me..you can see more pictures here on the flickr feed In the same vein...is it hidden...isn't it?? I don't mind, but there are pockets involved, and transparent or not, they still fit the vibe! I love this idea, and really great if you have collected holiday mementos for example. Another one for the is-it-hidden-or-isn't-it category, I do love a bit of a glassine envelope! With the vintage theme, this piece it looks stunning! This is exactly what I had in mind fro this topic...stealth journalling..and I love how these sleeves are custom-made as are the tags inside! It's the brainchild of Michelle Ward, and if you go here to the post, it's part of her Crusade Series, you will found a downloadable printable, and more instructions on the rest of the project and process. I love Michelle's use of colour and composition, well worth a look! So this is another wrapped up item...in fact if you go to the post, you will see they have tied up all kinds of objects! I like that not only are the items hidden below...well almost! But if you go to the post, there are boxes etc tied up with no access allowed, and no sense of what is inside. So you can wrap in all kinds of ways! This next example is from Robin-Marie Smith, circa 2010! Again, it's a simple pocket with hidden contents, journalling style. There is a wealth of colour, texture on her blog, I adore her style, so cheerful and full of sunshine. Here's an actual book made from envelopes. I have heaps of these, they are quite dinky in size, and great if you want to keep special things or vintage items a bit more private. Here's the link to the post. And here is another idea, this is from a French blog, and there are several ideas using a correspondence theme for travel journalling/ scrapping. I love how she has used airmail envelopes to scrapbook onto, it looks so cool around the edges! Check out the post here from some more fabulous ideas! Here is another pocket style idea... ...with an instructional video ...And the cousin to pockets is of course flaps I found this one from a Faber Castell Blog Hop. It's mail art and boy that takes me back! We used to send mail art regularly way back when...like over a decade ago!! It's so much fun as the recipient gets very excited about how beautiful the outside looks, so they are itching to see what is inside! Perhaps you might like to send something to somebody this week, and decorate the envelope? Now this one is a bit different... Crafty Dogma on Flickr has created a collage, but the face is kind of hidden, or looks almost shrouded, Whatever it is, I really like the effect that the person is kind of hiding behind something...I think the use of white helps contribute to that impression. Here is another face, but it's a face behind a face which is very clever, inferring quite a bit about the ageing process. It's from a tumblr account. I think its wonderful imagery! ...this little guy is hidden, and in a bit of a pickle too by the look of it! This one is also interesting. Objects on fabric, with what looks like a soft layer of muslin glued/ stitched over the top and moulded carefully around the items to show their relief. In crafting terms, we tend to do this in a similar way with objects slathered in paint or gesso. Niches also work for this topic, especially if you put doors on them!! Like the Shadowbox below....see the door to the left? Itching to open that!! And lastly, here is a totally stunning book...well more like many books inside books! With a fabulous message about patience buried in the centre! Check out the video below. You must go to the site of the book artist Randi Parkhurst! You can and watch the video here or click play below to see how she has impeccably constructed these books. Patience from Glowing Heads on Vimeo. So you have 2 weeks to think about what you can hide and where! If you are still stuck, check out my pinterest board here for this Topic. I will be pinning loads more over the next 2 weeks, you can follow this and many other PA related boards here. You can also follow the PaperArtsy pinterest page here. Whatever you choose to do, we can't wait to see it! Don't forget the challenge is open for 2 weeks for you to join in! ~Leandra Topic 11:Hidden Objects. You are welcome to share your ideas and link up your creativity to this page. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Bottles link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, June 21st, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. 1. The challenge is a chance for you to show how you have been inspired by a particular technique of the fortnight. Your entry should contain: - a mention of which post inspired you and why, and - a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog. The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog. We love to see how you are inspired! 2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog, or we will be unable to find the post to leave you comments. 3. Spam links will be deleted. 4. We prefer your challenge post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then of course your post may link to both if you feel it is appropriate. 5. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! 6. You can enter as many times as you like in the fortnight. We don't want to restrict your creativity or participation! Link closes at 17:00 Sunday June 21st (London Time) 7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website, the credit includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50 8. Each Sunday fortnight the winner will be announced at 19:00, also, in the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy: email her [email protected] Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

For years, Kelly Wilkinson's name was familiar to listeners of KQED, the local NPR...

Meine bunte Welt

two 2001 Latvian stamps released to celebrate Christmas

Stephen Fowler is an artist and illustrator specialising in primitive DIY printmaking with both rubber stamp and roller printing technologies. His work is

2016 Topic 21: Typography,Fonts and Quotes Naboko Well hello everyone, Darcy here with a new topic, this time we are exploring Typography, Fonts and Quotes. This is a huge, gigantic topic as there is almost an unlimited supply of fonts, especially if you take into account your own handwriting. Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 20: Squares and Grids Challenge... What a great challenge, it really opened us up to seeing all the squares and grids that are around us. The pieces you submitted were wonderfully varied with lots of textures being added and a good mix of regular and abstract. Lovely to see our latest stamps from Elena making appearances too. The winner of Squares and Grids is: Sue from Sue the Iron Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] Written communication with letters and symbols began around 5000 years ago, this development enabled various cultures to record their own histories, laws, stories, experiments and advancements. Within around 500 years we were moving from tablets of clay to papyrus. Not only did this speed up the process it also meant that letters and symbols shifted from being very angular (carved) to a rounder style (brush and ink). Around this time the scribes also began to change from a top down system to a left to right system. The rise of the Roman empire enabled formal lettering styles to spread across Europe, and by 400 AD this was an everyday style used in transactions and bookkeeping. As more people used written correspondence the writing style became looser, letters began to flow together and we saw the beginnings of lowercase. Of course all regions and religions also had their own style of writing. The ones we are most familiar with are the Celtic styles that we see in Illuminated manuscripts. These began very formally over a 1 inch grid, over time this decreased to a 1/2 inch system, the letters became more and more rounded and spacing became more regular which improved readability. Benjamin Harff By the 1400's the movable type press was in use and we saw printed material being commonplace, over time, and with the introduction of copperplate engraving, the fonts used became more delicate with many flourishes being added. Interestingly the printed word encouraged a loop back to hand written documents. Handwriting masters began to appear, and their services were in high demand. Having elegant handwriting became a status symbol. Nowadays, handwriting in everyday use is no longer valued as much, now that we can have printed words at the touch of a few buttons. The love of typography and especially fonts has not diminished though, in fact it is increasing, especially when used in creative ways. Anahi Decanio When you choose a font or quote, there are a few things to consider. Firstly of course you may have favourite fonts, but then there are the considerations of size, spacing, style and general appearance. Just like you deliberate over colours and images your addition of text should be an integral part of your design, never an afterthought. Text can be supporting, enhancing or distracting, it can be in the background or a focal point. Making even small changes to which font or size that you use can hugely effect the overall appearance or impact of your project. Scrap Art Studio Of course you could work in a more intuitive way like Tracy Scott and just go for it. Fonts and quotes can be found everywhere, we are surrounded by them Inspiration is not lacking. Look to magazines or free leaflets for background material like this piece. Pixel Fantasy Never underestimate your own handwriting though, you can learn some amazing lettering techniques. Valerie Sjodin Here is a great video from Shayda Campbell to get you started, but do check out her channel as she has lots of lettering videos. Once you have practiced styles and placement you can add amazing text to all your work. Sam Cannon It is worth while searching for quotes that really speak to you, Pinterest is a great place to look as is The Quote Garden. Why not decorate a notebook and fill it with just your favourite quotes. Another source is your own bookcase. Quotes from children's books always make me smile, they tend to be full of innocence and nostalgia. As for ways to use all fonts and quotes available, how about this fabulous staircase. HouseofTurquoise This would be easy to replicate with Fresco paint and stencils. I really like the mix of upper and lower case plus numbers. Song lyrics are also a great source of wordery, this beautiful piece is made using Bob Marley lyrics.note how the different fonts and sizes are used to suggest shape and direction. Something else that is making this have such impact is that the piece is on a black background. Cris Wicks Here Jose Naranja makes notes in his journal while he reads a book, Anna Karenina. the end result is a mind map of sorts. At first glance it looks jumbled and chaotic, but look closer and each character is written beautifully, the colours, style, sizes are considered and make for a lovely journal page. Don't assume your use of words needs to be flat, why not think about how you can add texture and dimension. This stitched journal is just lovely, with it's mix of watercolour paint and thread. Danielle Sayer More stitching, this time machined words on a water soluble fabric. Maria Wigley This canvas makes great use of different fonts , sizes and placement to suggest the form of the petals. Another example showing how the font and size choice can enhance the design. Glen Wolk A great example here how the size of the text compliments the artwork, it does not overwhelm. The coloured letters add a childlike quality and the quote itself is completely in keeping with the sentiment of the image. Studio Duda Remember to mix up your fonts and sizes to add interest. Gina Take this next two weeks to show us your favourite quotes. Try out different fonts on your computer, search for free fonts, there are thousands available, see what you can find. Work on some hand lettering, how can you change it up? Whatever you do, have fun and share your projects with us as we love to see them. Don't forget to follow Darcy and Leandra's Pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! Darcy Topic 21: Typography, Fonts and Quotes PaperArtsy Blog Challenge We'd love you to share your ideas and link up your creative response to our current blog topic. Take a minute to read the challenge guidelines below. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Typography,Fonts and Quotes link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, 13th November, the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. 1. The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. Your entry should contain: - a mention of which post inspired you and why, and - a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog. The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, do your own thing - whatever grabs you! 2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog. 3. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. 4. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! 6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday 13th November (London Time) 7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. 8. Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. 9. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

I've designed and carved this stamp for you to custom your bullet journal or every paper/cardboard : cards, mails, photo albums, scrapbooking works... With a convenient inking pad, you can also print on fabrics : tea towels, clothes... Have fun, possibilities are endless! This design is inspired by Art Deco patterns. This stamp is also a beautiful looking item. I've made it with particular care. It's hand carved with special tools in rubber then mounted on wood (maritime pine from Landes, custom cut, sanded and varnished). It comes in a recycled kraft paper bag. ( OPTIONAL : in a little origami box I've made, decorated with your stamp) Your stamp have a slight ink stain because I've tried it to check it's ok. pattern size : 4 x4,7 cm Other stamps are available in my shop, have a look at the last pictures! Ink pad is not included. *** BE CAREFULL : NEVER RUB OR SCRUB those stamps! *** *** FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY, NO COMMERCIAL USE, THANK YOU***

It was another great year of daily carving and printing! Here are all the stamps I carved in December: Wow! The thing about #CarveDecember that shocks me every year is that it actually happens. I know that sounds silly, but December is a crazy month and I can never believe how totally productive I am during such a crazy month. It always sends me into the new year with great creative energy. Now that I've had a few weeks to process everything, here are a few thoughts about this year's #CarveDecember: I learned so much from the guest teachers during...

2016 Topic 9: Mono Printing Vickie Porter Hi everyone, Darcy here we are with the start of another topic, this time we are mono printing. This is the technical term for creating 'one off' prints, and there are many ways to do this. The name 'mono' means single, and in this case it means a single print can be made at a time. Each successive print needs more paint or ink applied to the block or plate, this changes each print ever so slightly, meaning no two are identical. With some techniques the changes are deliberate and more pronounced with the addition or removal of elements between prints. Prints can include paint, ink, collage,stencilling, mark making and additions such as leaves, string and other found objects. All these contribute to very unique prints. Once the plate is ready a layer of paper or fabric is added and pressure applied and the ink or paint is transferred. Altering the colour, type of paint and pressure will all achieve different results. This type of printing is spontaneous and unpredictable and although messy can be a lot of fun, with the variations being endless. Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 8: White Space Challenge... Well what a 'clean and minimal' couple of weeks we have had! Some really beautiful pieces that make the most of space with just pops of colour. Well done everyone that conquered the fear of 'white' and produced great compositions and balance. The winner of White Space is: Laury with this great bookmark from Laury55 Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] Joan Bess Ok let's get into this topic and see how many techniques we can find. As you might have guessed printing is not new, artists such as Rembrandt, Degas, Gauguin, Picasso and Matisse are but a few that used mono printing. They experimented with paint and ink, how each layer was applied, with swiping and moving the paint/ink around with brushes, sponges and sticks, just like we do today. They also added accents by hand after the print was made. One of the older techniques (and there are many) that you will have heard about and perhaps tried is Lino printing, where sheets of lino are gouged with metal blades to create a design. This is then inked with a brayer and the print is made. Layers can be achieved by then cutting more lino away, adding a different colour ink or paint and replacing the original print to be pulled again. Small pieces of lino and hand held blades are fairly cheap and easy to find in most art shops, they are an excellent way to get started with printing. Here is Picasso working on a lino cut from 1959 This is a gorgeous multi layer lino print from Angie Lewin She has a book of her prints, drawings and collage available. I can recommend it as a beautiful 'coffee table' book, full of stunning imagery though it does not contain any technique how to's. Another multi layered lino cut here, this time from Jill Kerr. Another older technique still used today is screenprinting, originally called silkscreen printing as silk was used before the invention of synthetic mesh. Evidence of this goes back to China in 960 AD and did not arrive in the West until the 18th century. A blocking template or stencil is used to cover the mesh in the chosen design. Then a blade or squeegee is used to pull paint or ink across the mesh. The medium seeps through the mesh onto the chosen substrate, with only the blanked out areas left clear. Andy Warhol made screen printing popular in the 1960's, here he is working on one of his iconic images. Many layers can be added,each a different colour, take a look at this screen print.. this has 21 colours. Louis Masai Next we have Collagraphy; this involves gluing items to a stable background such as strong card or wood. One dried, pigments can be applied with a brush or brayer and then a print can be taken. Collagraphs are often done with found objects such as leaves, string, bubble wrap, fibres, card shapes etc the resulting prints can be really interesting. This stunning hedgerow print by Lynn Bailey has 8 layers, each time items were added or removed to achieve this composition. and another one from Lynn Bailey. How gorgeous is this print, can you imagine it over book text? Here is a super simple one done just with paper clips. There is a great pdf HERE, showing the basics of how to make a collagraph plate. Now for probably the most strange form of printing, while I have known about this for several years I have never tried it and honestly I don't plan to. The technique is Gyotaku and is an ancient Japanese method of printing from fish! Yes you read that correctly, ink is applied to a real fish and then a print is taken. Just the thought of handling the fish is enough to put me off, but even I have to admit the printed results are stunning. If you fancy learning more then have a read of THIS page. Jean Kigel So, onto the forms of printing that most of us are familiar with.. and using plates that are more accessible. after all not everyone has a full fish just hanging around! The most popular way of printing at the moment is Gelli Printing. This is a flexible plate that looks like Gelatin but is made from mineral oil and a polymer material. Provided you care for your plate it will last a long time, can be used over and over and is easy to clean. All plus points. Lucy Brydon The Gelli plate is available in quite a few sizes now and recently mini plates in various shapes have been launched. If you have a plate and have not yet tried it then now is your chance. The best place to start is the Gelli Arts Website. There you will find lots of hints and tips and they also have a youtube channel that is packed with great videos. Gelli prints are useful as a base for so many pieces of art. On this one Dina Wakely has drawn a face over her print. Here you can see the round plates have been used onto fabric creating a fabulous piece that has been turned into a cushion. Joan Bess Lots of items can be used on the Gelli plate to create patterns and textures: stencils, found objects, catalyst wedge tools, brushes, foam shapes and stamps. Many can be homemade, just be careful to never use anything with a sharp edge that could damage your plate. Marie Allen made these great texture plates from thin foam, these would add brilliant patterning to a gelli printing session. Once your prints have been pulled and dried, what can you make? Well how about a papier mache bowl . Joan Bess Or create a bright and cheery card like this from Becky. Simple circles cut from Gelli prints turn into really eyecatching lollipop flowers. Great prints are all about the layers, working out from back to front in which order everything should go. Andy Skinner shows just how effective this can be, with a bit of careful planning. How about Circles on Stripes. Here Joan has cut prints into strips and then added more prints that have been cut into circles. So striking, it looks like a solar system! There are so many things that are crying out to be gelli printed, such as SHOES or how about a CASE. { I think i might love that case a lot} Once your basic print is ready you can add so many other personal touches, such as stamping, sketching, even embossing. These cards by Godelieve Tijskens have gold embossing added, it adds a further dimension and makes them very special. You could get all whimsical like Diane did with this cat, follow the link in her name to a complete tutorial. Such a fun piece, check out her steps. One of our favourite Gelli artists is the lovely Barbara Gray, her youtube channel is full of fabulous videos. It was hard to pick just one, but this one is so effective. A very simple technique, ideal if you are just getting started. I think you will agree there are some great pieces of art out there. But what if you don't have a Gelli plate? well fear not you can still make prints. If you fancy a bit of alchemy you can create your own Gelli plate, Pam Thorburn has a recipe HERE. For a cheap alternative try printing from a Plastic Bag, Alisa Burke shows you how HERE. you could also use a plastic stationery folder in the same way. Try asking in your local DIY shop, see if they will cut a couple of pieces of acrylic or perspex for you. You can do mono printing on one piece, but if you use both pieces together you can try Dendritic printing. The name dendritic means 'having a branch form like a tree' You may have seen me demo this technique at a show. You apply paint to one plate and then lay the 2nd plate on top, press a little and then pull apart. The result is amazing, lots of little fern like branches all over the paint. This creates fabulous prints. If you have 2 of the large PaperArtsy flexi blocks you can do this technique using those. Mike Finally I will leave you with one of my favourite videos of the past few years. Laura Kemshall has such a calm and lovely voice and she explains this fabric printing technique so well that you are bound to want to try it. So, are you all fired up and ready to get printing? I hope these examples have worked their magic on you. Whether you unpack your Gelli plate,( or indeed have a go at making your own) or if you print from a plastic bag, or if you are really brave and find a fish to print.. I hope you have a great fortnight. Don't forget to follow Darcy's and Leandra's pinterest board if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! Darcy Topic 9: Mono Printing PaperArtsy Blog Challenge We'd love you to share your ideas and link up your creative response to our current blog topic. Take a minute to read the challenge guidelines below. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Mono Printing link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, May 15th 2016, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. 1. The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. Your entry should contain: - a mention of which post inspired you and why, and - a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog. The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, do your own thing - whatever grabs you! 2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog. 3. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. 4. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! 6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday May 15th 2016 (London Time) 7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. 8. Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. 9. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

2016 Topic 11: Our House Karla G Hello everyone Darcy here with another topic, this time a subject close to the heart. Our House. We all love our own little 'Castles', it is the place we feel we can most show off our personalities and creative ideas. Sometimes ideas can get a bit expensive though to follow through on a large scale, so to fulfil that urge the next best thing is to create miniature houses, whether in journals, on cards or as 3d projects. There are so many examples of Arty Houses online, why are we drawn to them so much? I guess because they are often very simple shapes. Everyone can draw a square and a triangle, pop in some windows and it is instantly a house. it was when we were children and it still is now. Art houses are often brightly coloured, though they don't need to be, but the bright colours and primitive shapes seems to ignite our imagination and we can really go to town decorating. Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 10: Scribbles and Doodles Challenge... Well how doodle you do? what a fab topic that was. I bet you never knew you had so many doodles in you. The variety was great with both black/white doodles and coloured ones. There was loads of inspiration in your entries, definitely one of the most relaxed topics I think. The winner of Scribbles and Doodles is: Kezzy from Craftyjourney Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] So let's see just how many styles of Art houses we can find. .We have been copying familiar items in miniature form for thousands of years, so it follows that we would want to recreate our homes. We have been encouraging children to play with dolls houses for 400 years, and though these are no longer fashionable with children they are now hugely popular with adults. Susie Rogers and Kevin Mulvany are art historians and spent a year creating this stunning Parisian building. (It measure 5 1/2ft x 3ft, in case you fancied having a go) I always wanted a tree house as a child, it was not meant to be.. but we can all have houses in the garden. These sculptures by Rob Heard are amazing. For the smaller garden how about these painted stones. Jake Art Moving indoors, and home decor comes in all shapes and sizes. I love this clay house planter. For those of you still tinkering around with Powertex, this would be a cool thing to make. Here is another house/bottle mashup using Powertex. Kavanzo If teeny ,tiny modelling is your thing then how about these fairy houses. Made by Maive Ferrando, you can see a video tutorial HERE. Staying with the tiniest of projects this little house/village shaped book is adorable. Randy Keenan An excellent book full of techniques for creating house shaped pages (like those above) is 'In this House' by Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn. If you don't fancy decorating the actual pages, how about just the spines. Look at this awesome street of books. If you are feeling brave about cutting up the pages then you could create a house inside the book. Marivi Garrido Bianchini Or this haunted house sculpture by Malena Valcarcel If like me you love building things.. and eating crisps.. then this next one is just for you. Recycle Daw A lot of us are used to working on canvasses, whether boards or chunky box ones. Houses make a great focal image for a canvas, can you imagine one perhaps as a New Home gift. Here is a video from Nicoletta Zanella showing you how she puts together a mixed media canvas. Perhaps you prefer to work in a journal, here is a sweet house page from Kate Crane Kate also works in tiny matchboxes, these just make you go Aww! Sticking with matchboxes, why not add some legs, chicken legs of course. I love this Baba Yaga assemblage from Lora Mahaffey I can just imagine it waddling around. Cackleandhoot Of course your art house can be made from anything, literally anything at all. I am afraid there isn't a prize for the strangest mediums, but here are some more to inspire you. Old wood, paintbrushes and a ruler make a brilliant house shaped photo frame. We all have paintbrushes that we could use for this. KMichel And maybe this will have you raiding the china cabinet for teacups. Roxann Dyess If chicken legs don't do it for you, how about doll's arms? Suzanna Scott A really fun medium to use is Fabric. The possibilities are endless, From wall hangings to doorstops, bookmarks and cushions..felted, padded and stitched. KarnaKarna MonikaWintermantel Do you remember the domino craze? I am sure we all still have dominoes stashed away in drawers. Maybe it is time to get them out and make a bracelet like this one from Jekaterina Cuikova. One of my favourite items this time has to be this tiny house on a ring. I would wear this for sure. Elukka There are simply so many houses that I wanted to share with you, paintings and sculptures, jewellery and odd assemblages. Many were simple wooden shapes, painted with love. So I will finish with another video, this time from Cyndi Cesare, she shows how she decorates some wooden blocks. These little and some not so little art houses are a huge favourite of mine. I am hoping they fire up your imagination. Whether you opt for journalling, or wooden blocks, or fabric I hope you create the house of your dreams. In the past I have taken part in art house swaps, perhaps you and some friends could do something similar. Have fun! Don't forget to follow Darcy's and Leandra's pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! Darcy Topic 11: Our House PaperArtsy Blog Challenge We'd love you to share your ideas and link up your creative response to our current blog topic. Take a minute to read the challenge guidelines below. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Our House link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, June 12th winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. 1. The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. Your entry should contain: - a mention of which post inspired you and why, and - a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog. The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, do your own thing - whatever grabs you! 2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog. 3. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. 4. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! 6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday June 12th (London Time) 7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. 8. Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. 9. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

3 Thoughtful Journey Season Ideas. This months Global Stampin Video hop all about seasons through the year.

菱田 春草, Hishida Shunsō (1874 - 1911) The Black Cat, Japanese Postage Stamp, 1979.

Its a young Velvet Foot mushroom. 10.5 cm height All stamps are ‘made-to-order’ and will be carved after the time of purchase. Please note that there will be slight variations from the stamp pictured such is the nature of it being hand carved. My stamps are mostly unmounted - rubber is thick enough to comfortable using. Some of stamps have mounting option. I can make a wooden handle on request. The stamp may have some ink staining beacuse of test for quality. The rubber colour may vary depending on my current carving material and is 0.8mm thick. Item will be pack carefully in the bubble padded. Production time varies per item: 8-10 business days Estimated delivery days (via standard mail) : Usa, Canada, Australia - about 2-4 weeks Asia, Europe - 1-2 weeks rest of the world - 2-5 weeks Estimated delivery days are not guaranteed. WILD STAMPS ©2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

These all have a stamp of approval.

Peg Stamp Set

Back in December, I share the results of my first foray into stamp carving. I used Geninne Zlatkis's book Making an Impression: Designing and Creating Artful Stamps to instruct me on the basic technique and to provide my first few designs. Then I branched out to some designs from other books, as well as some freehand efforts. I've picked up my lino cutter and some Speedball Speedy Cut carving block several times over the past few months, and I want to take you through a little "Gallery Walk" of the carved stamps I've added to my collection. You can see the carved stamp at the top, and the rubber stamp impression using black Staz On ink on card stock on the bottom. I love the little cupcake. At first I was going to carve out all the marks on it, but then thought it looked like sprinkled frosting, so I kept them! And I saw the idea for the rain cloud with different facial expression online. I've only carved the happy face option, so far. The two letter stamps in the middle are perfect for mail art, of course! To create a hand stamp, I printed an image from the internet, reduced its size on my printer, and used the smaller size as my template. I think it looks like a hand waving "hello," so it's fun for mail art, too. I have really fallen in love with carving silhouettes. So far, I have used images that I have printed from the internet. Usually I shrink them to a more "rubber stamp-appropriate" size. I think they look so amazing! I used an actual tag (shown on the left) to create the tag stamp shown here. And here, I used actual objects--two tags and a mini-clipboard--to design these simple but useful stamps. I was super-excited to use an old-fashioned Dennison label (my favorite!) to create the stamp on the left. The red Staz On ink makes all the difference to the effect! And the "hello" stamp is my first word, and I was really pleased with how it came out. (Geninne's technique makes word stamps really easy to create--no need to write backwards on your rubber!) I wasn't so excited about how my handwritten name stamp came out, but it was a first try! I was kind of proud of the "houses on a hill" stamp, above, because I completely designed and drew the image myself--no relying on internet images! And it's kind of cute. The butterfly was made from an image off the internet. I was going to cut away the background so this was just a hand with a heart inside, but I kind of like how the background looks along with it. I can always carve it away later if I change my mind! I carved this stamp to look like the journaling lines that Traci Bunkers uses in her book, The Art Journal Workshop. I think these could use a little work, too, but they could work on a certain style page. I made these three little houses using the design I found on A Beautiful Mess. Then I created a little house with an interchangeable roof. I think it needs some work (I was just using up my scraps to create the roof options), but I love the idea! I think that about covers the stamps I've carved so far. You can see some postcards I created with my hand carved stamps in an earlier blog post. And you can check out my ever-growing bank of ideas for stamp carving designs on my Pinterest board. I have loaded up on Speedy Carve blocks, so there will be plenty more hand-carved stamps in my collection soon!

Explore Kemi & Niko's 1540 photos on Flickr!

I am just loving my Stamparatus! Every time I sit down to play with it I seem to find some new technique it's just perfect for. Cracks me up how happy inking and pressing that clear plate makes me. The only problem is, it's so easy it almost feels like cheating! I have some more tips for you from this week's endeavors in the stamp room. Enjoy! And don't miss the new blog category Stamparatus Tips and Tricks for previous posts with all sorts of little things that will make you feel like a pro when you use it. My...

I'm busy prepping for the classes I'm teaching at The Ink Pad in June. The Saturday class is called "Develop a Mark Making Vocabulary." As part of that class we are designing and creating our own set of foam stamps. Here's a quick video of me making the stamps and testing them out: And here are the stamps: I used each one to create an overall pattern and I love the way they turned out! In class we'll be focusing on the design process -- both creating "good design" as well as a cohesive collection of stamps that reflect your...

Paper Crafting and Card Making

Explore Le Petit Pig's 64 photos on Flickr!

ふわふわ堂の画像

Here are three styles of banners for you to use in your projects. - Size of stamps: Banner 1 3" wide x 1" tall (7.5cm x 2.5cm) Banner 2 2" wide x 0.75" tall (5.2cm x 1.5cm) Banner 3 1.75" wide x 0.75" tall (4.5cm x 1.5cm) - Please choose banner style at checkout - Care: For frequent use just wipe down with moist baby tissue. - Made to order. - It comes with a wood base Thanks for visiting! Cassandra