New Stamps and Stencils

hi everyone, long time no see. I have had such a busy year, university taking up much of my time. However over the summer I have been working on new stamps and stencils for you... I also bought a guitar... let's say the stamp designing is easier than learning the guitar so far!

I have added more quirky character to my little stamp family, I hope you will love them, they make me smile as I think about their personalities. 

I have trees,, snowflakes, holly and fairy lights aswell as a penguin called Gerald, a polar bear named Ferdi and Zelda the witch.... there is even a Mummy called Rudi. 

if you are in need of a Christmas pudding wearing a crown then come on over to the PaperArtsy blog and have a look at everything. 

Hope you like them, 

Darcy xxx

A birthday Card

I am terrible at making cards, really,really terrible.. not the actually making so much as the remembering to make and then remembering to send. It is a rare thing indeed to get a homemade card from me lol However, My brother is a huge Batman fan, so I just had to make a card for him.

I previous years I have done silhouettes of the batman character, but this time i wanted to try a different character and more of a realistic sketch. 

I started out with sketching the general shapes. 

and then blocked in the darkest areas..

Working on one area at a time...

I wasn't sure at all that I ha captured the features well, I wasn't well and was sketching this in bed. It looked more like Einstein than the Joker lol

I knew I wanted to work in graphite, but I also wanted a splash of colour. Using Crayola Slick Stix I added the bright red scar across the mouth. 

Here it is taken in better light, it is also laid on my ipad cover. I think it would look cool in a red frame. 

Darcy x

Hello from some new characters!

Hello everyone, gosh it has been so long since I have been in here. I feel that I need to dust off some cobwebs. I hope I am forgiven but life it just crazy busy, whoever said being a student is easy? The hours are long and the workload is heavy. I am happy to have finish for this year and i now just await my scores, then just 1 more year left to do. 

In between assignments and research I have been drawing away, creating more little characters for you. they have such fun personalities, I hope you will fall in love with them. 

if you pop on over to the PaperArtsy blog you will see a few samples that I have put together. There are 2 stamp plates and 2 stencils, and there area  gazillion words! 

Yes words! lots and lots for you to play with an create greetings, phrases, poems, stories, whatever you like. these characters feel like they have sprung up out of storybooks so I would love to read what fun stories you can create to go with them. 

First up we have Cedric an Lola, I just love how she scoots along with her tiny wings, and not forgetting Cat in his snazzy waistcoat. 

There are 2 small phrases in there amongst the single words, that you might fin useful to keep as phrases.. the 'for you' and 'just be' were designed to stay together, but they don't have to you can cut them up. there is an extra 'for' so you can leave the 'for you' together. 

Top tip. Before you cut all the words apart and make them fiddly to handle, stamp them lots of times as a block onto card, then you will have lots of words ready and can just snip them as you need them. 

(I also advise getting a small tin for the words stamps to keep them safe. Mine are in an old mints tin from M&S , all the words from both sets will fit into the tin)

There is also a little arrow frame for your words and a super bendy tree that you can position any which way that you want!

Next we have Chester and Poppie, ( I think they might have a crush on each other.. jus' sayin') Lots more words to play with and a huge mushroom tree. You can keep this as a tree or use it to make smaller mushrooms. 

One small sample to whet your appetite, now off you go to the PaperArtsy blog to see the full launch. 

Have fun with them, I really want to see what you make so tag me on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. The best place to show off your work would be in the brand new PaperArtsy facebook group, it is full of inspiration, so do check it out. 

PaperArtsy People Facebook Group

Bye for now, keep an eye on the PA blog as there are a lot of exciting new products coming!

Darcy xxx

New Stamps February 2018

A New Direction
{and a blog hop}

Woohoo! Today is an exciting day. Today is the day my newest stamps are launched by PaperArtsy. It has been a busy (totally crazy) couple of years for me as I work my way through my degree course. I was sad to not have the time for stamps last year and was determined to bring you something new this year. 

For one of my assignments last year I had to designs some illustrations for Grimm's fairytales. 

When Leandra saw these she thought that something similar would make great stamps, so this year I worked on some little characters, and here they are. 

EDY20 {Dottie and the Prof}

                                                        EDY21 {Joe and Lydia}

Keep an eye on your favourite PaperArtsy retailer for when these stamps arrive.

Here are a few samples to whet your appetite. 

Balloons. 
Here I created a drippy background before layering with a simple piece of smoothy card. then I stamped the little Prof from EDY20 before colouring with watercolour pencils. Finally I stole a couple of  balloons from Joe on EDY21, once they were coloured I added glossy accents to make them pop. 

Family Circle
A square card with blended stripes of just 2 colours, keeping the colours very similar gives a classy feel. I then drew a circle and cut that out, using it as a mask I was able to stamp the houses from Lydia's head. I admit to a couple of practice goes on just printer paper, but after that I was away and stamping around the circle. 

I finished by adding the welcome sentiment stamped onto acetate. Everything is attached on foam pads to add dimension. 

Joe and Lydia

A simple brayered background is the setting for Joe and Lydia. Do you see the little dangly hearts? they are from the side of the tree on EDY20. The flower centres are individual hearts from the border on EDY20, and it is all grounded by using my edge stencil PS031.

Welcome Home

A simple card now, ideal for a new home gift. the house from EDY21 is coloured with watercolour pencils and then the background is blended in afterwards using Fresco paints. I wanted to make the background  a little more interesting so I stamped some circles with a lid, but only very lightly, I didn't want them to be overpowering. 

Another card using the Prof, can you tell he is my favourite? I used the Snowflake resist method in the background and then just layered up the elements. Do you see those gifts? they are the windows of the house from EDY21. 

Now for a couple of stepped out projects, just to show you my working process. 

Loving the Moonlight

Step 1. A square of heavy smoothy with blended London Night and Moonlight, once the card is covered the colours were dry brushed to blend them. Next I used WOW embossing powder and the circle stamp from EDY21 and the hearts from EDY20, these were coloured with watercolour pencils. 

Step 2. I then added white circles using my stencil PS031, once dry I drew a scribbly outline around them in pen. 

Step 3. I drew around a roll of cellotape and cut this out, then painted it using Moonlight. the tree was stamped onto brayered card then the top section cut out. 

Step 4. I stamped the Prof onto smoothy card and coloured him using watercolour pencils, before cutting him out and mounting onto the centre circle. 

Step 5. Add the sentiment and some finishing touches with pens and glossy accents. 

Flower Spool

Step 1. I painted a wooden spool using Zucchini, I then stamped the 'welcome' sentiment onto a book page and glued that around the spool. 

Step 2. I added part of a wooden skewer, painted in the same colour. 

Step 3. I painted lots of bits of smoothy with my favourite bright colours and stamped out the flower from EDY20. 

Step 4. I arranged some of the flowers around the spool and others added to wire which was wrapped around the skewer. 

Step 5. Little Lydia was stamped and coloured with watercolour pencils, before being fussy cut. If you look carefully you can see I left a bit of card just at her feet, like a tab. This was bent to the back. 

Step 6. the tab was glued down to the flowers, and then small foam pads were attached to the back of Lydia which then cling to the stick to keep her upright. Final touches include white pen dots and self adhesive pearls in the flower centres. 

I hope you love them as much as I do, they really are fun little characters. 

Now for the blog hop!

My partners in crime have come up with great samples for you, they have had some serious fun with these stamps. 

First up is the fabulously talented Lauren Hatwell. Her ideas are  always ingenious, she can look at stamps and see them in a completely different way, I love that! She has made some samples that will make you squeal and want the stamps even more. go on over to her blog and see them HERE. 

Next up the bubbly Miriam Grazier, she was so excited to get her hands on the stamps, and couldn't wait to play. Miriam has a bit of a high powered job and she is always on the go, so in her downtime she loves to create. Go on over to Miriam's blog and see what she has created. HERE. 

Darcy x

Resin and UTEE

I am on the PaperArtsy blog tonight with a quick and easy project using both resin and UTEE. 

My resin was super cheap, from the £1 shop in fact. 

I am really pleased with how it turned out, do pop over and see how it came together. 

Darcy 

Pretty pink and orange bookmarks

Pop over to the PaperArtsy blog and find out how I made these ribbon bookmarks.. 

Zingy colours, flowers and books, what more could you want?

Darcy 

Winter Wishes to You All

Hi there and welcome to the PaperArtsy/StencilGirl Blog hop. It has been such fun working with all the designers from both companies to bring you this bit of festive fun. 

As you hop along with us don't forget to leave comments to be in with a chance of winning a fantastic prize. 

GIVEAWAY

One lucky winner will receive a $75 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products

AND a £50 Gift Certificate for PaperArtsy!!

Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment for your chance to win!

The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN!
(One comment per blog please.)

You have until Friday, December 30th at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.

Winner will be announced onStencilGirl's Facebook page and PaperArtsy's blog on Sunday, January 1.

So here is my project

I began by gathering my supplies, first I chose canvasses as my substrates. One large canvas board, a smaller canvas board, 2 tiny frame canvasses and 2 small tags. 

I also pulled out some Christmas stamps from my sets EDY04, EDY15 and EDY16.

and here are my selection of StencilGirl stencils. 

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S110 Tall Birds

L415 Mixed media mail

S286 Talaya Goddess

S190 Sphere small

I began by sponging and scraping PaperArtsy Fresco paints over my large canvas board. I used Midnight, Southern Skies, Purple Rain, Blueberry, Turquoise, Lilac and Hint of Mint. It seems a lot of colours but they all blend and coordinate beautifully and only a tiny amount of each is needed. 

I then used my snowflake stamps from EDY04 and Silver Stratosphere WOW powder to create twinkly embossing all around the edges. 

I placed the face stencil on the medium canvas board, making a few pencil marks I could then remove the stencil and block out the rough shape with Blush and Rose. Once these were dry I replaced the stencil and added shading with more Rose, a little Irish Cream and some Chocolate Pudding . 

Next I worked on the background, leaving a gap for the hair. I sponged on some Purple Rain and Mermaid. 

For the hair I again marked out in pencil where it needed to be, then I added Chocolate Pudding and Toffee. 

 Once these were dry I replaced the stencil and then added Caramel, Copper and Haystack.

I kept layering the hair through the stencil till I was happy, then finished it with a few lines with a black pen. Next I added the smallest of the tall birds, he is stencilled first in Chocolate Pudding, then Caramel. A little Chalk and black pen complete the brown areas. His little red chest is done with London Bus, Mahogany and Copper. 

Now for a little texture. I added white out areas on top of the girl and the bird using chalk. 

Then painted the main parts of the hats with London Bus and Copper, with a little Mahogany to shade. 

I added some Expandit, this is wonderful stuff. You dab it on, heat it up and it expands and fluffs up. It makes great texture. Once this had expanded I went over it with a little Chalk paint. 

To finish this layer I added more embossed snowflakes around the edges and also stamped my bows and baubles from EDY04, the bows are painted with London Bus and Copper. 

This is how this layer looks now. 

Next the mini canvasses, first painted with Purple Rain and Mermaid. Then stencilled with the spheres stencil and using Bora Bora mixed with Mermaid.  To keep consistency I also edged them with the same WOW embossing powder from earlier. 

Along the bottom edge of each I stamped my trees from EDY16, these were coloured with South Pacific, Caramel and Chalk. 

Now for final embellishments. I painted some smoothy card with Hey Pesto and stamped my holly leaves from EDY04, they were then embossed with WOW Evergreen. 

The 2 small tags were painted with Midnight, then Crackle Glaze and finally Chalk. over this I stencilled some words from mixed media mail using London Bus and Copper. The 'Santa' word is handwritten. 

Finally a piece of card painted with Hint of Mint and mounted onto black card was stamped with one of the phrases from EDY15

All that was left to do was glue it all together. I use Golden matte gel as it is very strong, especially for glueing canvasses together. 

Here are all the guest designers that are taking part, visit each one and leave a comment. 

Blog Hop Order:

Tonight visit these four blogs and leave a comment.

Dec. 21
Darcy Wilkinson
Kim Dellow
Mary C. Nasser
Gwen Lafleur

Tomorrow, visit these blogs and leave a comment, the links won't work until tomorrow at 7pm (London time)

Dec. 22
Jo Firth Young
Lauren Hatwell
Kristie Taylor
Tina Walker

Visit these four blogs on Friday. 

Dec. 23
Clare Lloyd
Lin Brown
Anna Friesen
Janet Joehlin

Finally visit these four blogs on Saturday. 

Dec. 24
Kay Carley
Emma Godfrey
Cindy Gilstrap
Karen Gaunt

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. 

Darcy x