Paper Sun - Hels' Sunday Stamper Challenge

Hels' Challenge this week inspired me (last week's is on the shelf not looking happy at all...) - not only do I love Steve Winwood, the tutorial on Paper Blocking spoke to me, too.  I've not been great at keeping my offcuts, but I will now!!

So, Paper Sun - the Sun is the only bit that ISN'T paper, but this is what we have...

I started with one of the Stamps Away Medium tags, which are pretty solid, and don't seem to mind not being sealed before starting off.  I covered the tag with bits of paper cut from a few 6X6 sheets. 


When covered, I mixed Americana paints and brushed a wash over the lot.  With hindsight, the wash could have been a bit thinner, but hey-ho!  Then I sealed it, and created the shadows around the central blocks.  Hels suggests her magic pencil - couldn't find my pencil sharpener, so adapted, and used a black watercolour pencil, and I'm pleased with this, which means if I want to go away from black as a shadow, I can!  Whooppee!

Then I created a mask for the sun, and scraped a dollop of stencil paste into the hole, leaving it pretty textured.  When it got a bit of a skin, I dripped a little Dylusions on to the paste, to give it a sunshine colour. I also used my watercolour pencil to create a bit of a corona around the sun.  I have  afeeling that it will be a lot more transparent tomorrow, when it is fully dry.  But you can see that the blocking underneath is already visible.

Then Stamping!  All stamps on this are from Lavinia, which I have been ignoring recently, and I'm not sure why!  Believe was stamped on a piece of card and embossed with some glittery embossing powder, then the card ripped and edged with embossing ink, and the same powder added and heated.  I swooshed the card through some spritzed Distress ink, when it had cooled a little, and set it aside to dry.  Then it got set on foam pads to give some dimension, as well as taking it off the page.




The ribbons were coloured in the same way (with the addition of some Cosmic Shimmer mica spray - otherwise where would the bling be???!), and I used the same DI to edge around the tag, after I'd done all my stamping, just to give it some definition.

As a first attempt at paper blocking, I'm quite pleased.  I guess my learnings are (spot the tutor!!):

• don't cut the paper too regularly - my widths were all a bit samey
• think about the stamp and its placement - not easy to stamp if you have several layers (might be easier with a rockablock, maybe?)
• Use more varieties of paper
• Put the spatula in water, when you've finished (doh!!)

Materials

Substrate
Stamps Away - medium tag

Odds of paper
Lavinia stamps - there aren't any names on them, but: Unicorn, Allium, Foxglove, Vine, and Beleive

Inks and Paints
DecoArt Americana - Indian Turquoise, Light Buttermilk
Dylusions - Pure Sunshine
Archival Ink - Cobalt
Adirondack - Eggplant, Denim, Purple Twilight
Distress Ink - Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire

Bling and other stuff
Dreamweaver - Embossing paste Translucent
Glue n'Seal
Cosmic Shimmer - Vintage Mist Astral Mystery
Faber-Castell - colour grip watercolour pencils
Stampendous - Stamp-n-stuff embossing powder - Golden Ocean (blue powder with gold glitter, oooo lovely!)