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

Lots of Texture

Another sample from my Feb stamp release, love the texture on this one. I began with a 5x7 card and covered this with Grunge Paste thru a stencil. 

I then started to add paint in layers, first Tango, then Cherry Red then Baltic Blue. Next a layer of Snowflake, then Smurf. Once these were dry I rubbed back with a babywipe to reveal the layers of colour. 

The numbers were stencilled with Baltic Blue and then bumped with Snowflake. 

I painted card with Baltic Blue, then added Crackle Glaze and then Snowflake. I like to always rub back the crackling a little to distress it. 

Next I stamped the spikey flower from EDY18. I cut these out and mounted them onto stiff black card. 

Because the black card is stiff I was able to curl up the ends of the petals, adding great dimension. I also added orange buttons to the centres. 

To finish, the flowers were added to the card, some flat and some on foam pads to add extra height  and the text was stamped over Cherry Red. 

I just love the height achieved on these, I wish i had thought to add another layer of petals to make them more like water lillies... ah well, next time..

Check out your favourite PaperArtsy retailer to fnd these stamps on sale. 

Darcy x

Birthday Bag

I recently needed a birthday gift.  I love handmade bags, especially these totes that will fold up and tuck into a handbag, ready to whip out when needed. I hadn't painted one in a while, so thought it would be a nice gift to make. 

I started by making a calico bag, though you could buy one. 

I popped some cardboard inside the bag to protect the back, then I marked out a panel and painted it with White and fabric medium mixed. 

All paints are PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk. 

Next I added blocks of other colours, all mixed with fabric medium, I used old discontinued colours to try and use them up. Smoked Paprika, Sky, Spanich Mulberry, Jade and Prawn. 

I added a little Banana to brighten some areas, then used a brayer to add White. Over this I stamped the text from EDY17 using Plum Archival ink. I also added the hanging beads using Marlin. 

Then some stencilling of the circles from PS031 using Jade, plus another layer of White. 

I finger painted a little Sky, Smoked Paprika and Banana in places, then used sequin waste to add more stencilling using Spanish Mulberry. 

Then another layer of brayered White. 

All these layers are very thin, and allow you to build up depth and dimension without obliterating the colours beneath. 

I stamped the Cherry Blossom tree from EDY19 twice at each side, using a piece of paper as a mask to make sure the trees were in the right place. The tree stems weren't quite long enough, so I lengthened them just with a piece of plastic and Black paint. 

I added dots of Prawn to the trees, and then stamped the dotty circles from EDY17 using Cornflower Archival ink. 

Finally I added some lines of black paint and some circles of white with a lid. 

That was the background finished, so now to add the border to ground the panel. I used the torn paper edge stencil PS031 and Pea Coat paint, blending the paint inwards with a soft brush. 

To embellish the panel I painted some flowers and leaves onto cotton fabric.  The frilly flowers from EDY18 are in Bougainvillea, Lilac and Captain Peacock. The Poppy from EDY19  is in Smoked Paprika and Cherry Red. the three stems are done with a variety of greens on each one to add interest. 

I also painted more fabric with Sky and Pea Coat for the text from EDY17. 

All the bits were glued on, and then the text panel was stitched around. 

Here it is finished, I am very pleased with it and hope the birthday girl likes it too. 

Darcy x

Tilly Tomato Head

You may remember on launch night I challenged Lauren Hatwell to create a funny character using my stamps. I made one too, it was a lot of fun. Here is the tomato girl that I made. 

I started with a large tag and coloured it with black gesso. Then using my new stencil PS030 I used the random edge and a white posca pen to create this wonky chequerboard. 

I then used China Fresco to colour alternate areas. 

using red and black posca pens I added the border. 

Using my circle stencil PS031 I added circles of grunge paste to the blue squares. While the paste was still damp I scratched lines into each circle using a cocktail stick. Once dry I painted over the paste with more China and then added Treasure Gold. 

Now to create Tilly.. 

Her eyes are the centre of the Poppy from EDY19. 

Her mouth is half of a dotty circle from EDY17

Her hair is shaded lines from the centre of the frilly flower on EDY18

Once these were in place I drew around them to make the edges of the face and then painted her. 

Her body is the flower head from EDY17

The wings are half of the wings from EDY17

The skirt is the large frilly flower from EDY18

The button is a texture circle from EDY19

Her legs and shoes are the spikey grasses from EDY18

I just love how she turned out. I added text taken from 2 quotes, I felt she was a little wild lol

Why don't you grab some of your stamps and see what crazy character you can come up with. 

Darcy x