The secret is out!!!

My guess is that many of you know that Jan/Feb is a really busy time in the craft industry as the two main trade shows are scheduled for these months. With that in mind it will not be a big surprise to know that PaperArtsy HQ has been buzzing over the last few weeks, working their little socks off to bring together all their new releases in time for the trade show this coming weekend.

So at last I can say phew, the secret is no more and I am delighted to finally be able to tell you about my new PaperArtsy products. Keeping secrets is really quite difficult but now that all has been revealed over on the PaperArtsy blog this evening, I can tell you all the nitty gritty without worrying that I am doing something that I shouldn't. WARNING!!! Long post, cuppa and biscuits may be required!!!

Oh my goodness, I have been fit to burst with excitement over my new stencils. I really do love a stencil and now that I have been able to put some of the designs I've longed for, in stencil form, I am one happy bunny. More about the stencils in a mo.

Not only do I have six new stencils but I have new paint colours too!!! Anyone who knows me well, will know that I just love Autumnal colours so when Leandra invited me to create four new colours, you can imagine my excitement. I spent two days mixing colours, trying to get them balanced so that they all work well together and it was important that they were very different from existing colours in the Fresco range. When you think about Autumnal colours, you usually imagine warm, rich and usually quite dark colours, well I was very aware that I couldn't put four dark colours together, I would need something with a bit of zing to make the palette of colours work....enter Chartreuse....I absolutely adore this colour. The box of four paints (Chartreuse, Tikka, Seaweed & Chutney) are a limited edition release, they won't be available for ever, so if you think you might like to add them to your stash, don't wait too long or you may well miss the boat!!                                                             

Next up....stamps. Now, two of these will not be a complete surprise as they were featured on the PaperArtsy blog a few weeks ago. I just love quotes and phrases and always pop one on my work. I just feel that you can never have too many of these in your stash.

The next three sets of stamps were designed by Mr PaperArtsy (he's one clever dude), they all work with my dies that were released last year. This first set all stamp on the die cut shapes and will leave a bit of a border.

On set ELB08, the images with the line around them, will also leave a border but the other images are larger than the die cuts so that the image will be stamped over the edges, giving complete coverage.

All the images on set ELB09 are the larger variety........lots of fun ahead, me thinks.

Here's an example of how they work.

Now back to the stencils......giddy with excitement is an understatement!!!!

First up, a few pics of some of the samples I've made, followed by a little bit of useful info regarding a couple of the stencils.

Now for the info regarding stencil PS003 & 004. Each of these stencils have images that are designed to layer up. Here's a little step by step to explain.

On a painted background, I used Chartreuse to stencil the solid flower from PS004.

Reposition the stencil over the image with the dotty border flower. I used Chutney for this.

I then repeated the same process with the flowers on stencil PS003 but this time I added a little bit of shading with a tiny amount of Chutney over the Tikka flower.

Now for the dots, I used Chutney again.

You can of course use the dots on their own to fill in the gaps.

I do hope that you haven't fallen asleep, sorry it was so long......I had a lot to say!!!!