The Magic of Lynne Perrella

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven! As you probably know, I am crazy about PaperArtsy stamps! Not long after I purchased my first 'Ink and the Dog' stamp, I discovered that PA also featured stamps by an artist from the US called Lynne Perrella. Looking at her stamps was to enter the world of my dreams. I just had to have these images to use in my work! When I received my first plate I was so excited! These images were incredibly and meticulously detailed and, with Versafine ink, they stamped out like a dream: crisp and clear every time. I was so excited when Leandra broke the news that Lynne had a new collection ready and they were GORGEOUS! She is right. These stamps are so imaginative, so detailed and so adaptable. I have used them for three quick and easy projects in this post, but I can already see the possibilities for using them with fabric, on altered items of all kinds and journaling! They will be available in your local craft shops from February 19th so please do check them out. Also if you go over to the PaperArtsy blog here you can find out more and see some other fabulous samples from PaperArtsy guest designers!

I loved this plate because it reminded me of a book I read back in the 1980s called 'The Madwoman in the Attic' all about women writers. My first project, a little birdhouse, portrays what writing meant for so many women; escape from their cages - on the wings of imagination! And once you've flown in your imagination that is just the beginning of the quest!

I took a little wooden birdhouse and painted it with Snowflake, as I wanted my colours to be really bright for this project. I also used a little Nougat Fresco and you might be able to see this peeping through in places.

I then sponged on coats of Mermaid Fresco with Inky Pool around the edge and stenciled with Inky Pool and a Prima stencil of flourishes to give a lacy, vintage look. I removed the string that came with the birdhouse because I decided it would be easier to paint this way and then I had the idea to change the fastening to a seam binding one in coordinating colours.

I wanted a really strong colour contrast, so I painted some Smoothy Heavy Card with blended Yellow Submarine, Tango and Autumn Fire Frescos, knocking back with some Nougat Fresco in the centre of my card. If you haven't used PaperArtsy Smoothy Card for stamping, I would strongly encourage you to give it a go. With Versafine ink it is the perfect surface for stamping, especially with stamps as detailed as Lynne Perrella ones. I cut out my lady using a PaperArtsy Eclectica die designed by Lin Brown and made a flower for the roof, using another PA die and this stamp

which is so adaptable that I used it on my other projects too and I see myself returning to it again and again. I also coloured and Treasure Golded a resin flower arrangement to add and used some of that big stamp on a punched out lace edging.

The little bird is a painted and stamped Prima wooden bird and the heart is Crackle glazed and edged with Gold UTEE and a few dabs of Hey Pesto translucent Fresco paint.
I used images from these plates on two other projects

I used clear UTEE to seal and coat my lady and I used the postage stamps with a masking technique and Wendy Vecchi Cornflower Blue Archival Ink to add to the background.

This very spirited looking lady found her way onto the centre of a tag. I used a Sara Nauman Eclectica word and cut out one of the pens stamped onto Smoothy, fussy-cut and embossed with gold and clear UTEE,

I was so inspired by Darcy demoing background techniques at Stevenage at the weekend, that I took a leaf out of her book and played with brayering, drawing around different sized lids with Portfolios, stenciling and stamping and then knocking back and sanding for my background both with this tag and the little hanging I did.

I also used the script from this plate - the images here are so wonderful I haven't touched the surface of what could be done with it yet! Can you tell I'm really very taken with Lynne Perrella's work?

Here is my hanging board, which I edged with some Grunge Paste accented with Treasure Gold - again a tip from Darcy! The clear 'wordy' nugget is an idea I love from Alison Bomber's 'Words and Pictures' blog.

I am sorry for so many pictures on this post but I just got completely carried away by these lovely new images!

Thank you so much for stopping by Magpieheaven today. I've had so much fun sharing these stamps with you. Have a great week and keep safe in the gales, storms, snow and floods or whatever extreme weather is hitting wherever you are! Love from the Magpie's Nest x.