Stamp Attic...

... is where there a couple of places left for my class on Sunday, please come along for some painty fun and create a canvas using JOFY stamps, GrungePaste and lots of other lovely 'stuff':

Contact the shop to reserve your place.
:o)

Its not all about daisies...

....  in our garden any more...yes the daisies are still there (but cut back by a bit of lawn mowing) but now they have been joined by other plants... the garden is a work in progress and no planting is long term because we are having work done on the house and the garden will get knocked about - Tubs are the answer! So we have tubs, square ones... and just in one corner of the garden (for now...):

Over the bank holiday we tidied everything up, cleared the beds, mowed the lawn etc etc etc, and this is how it looked when we'd done that:

and this is how it looks now - new plants in shrubs - just adding splashes of colour - we're keeping it simple...  hhhmm in the photo it looks very minimal but in real life it definitely has more impact! lol

 ...especially this plant - LOVE this! makes me laugh - its a little bit bit weird and wonderful:

... and you may have noticed this little fella in the tubs - this is Science Rat (thanks Hels for sharing where you bought yours - I told you I wasn't sure I'd resist..)... I call him Science Rat because of his goggles and because he's looking up inquisitively...

 ... and always looks like he's watching YOU!

hahaha but what he really needs to be doing is keeping an eye on my Gerberas in the trough behind him because if the slugs and snails eat them AGAIN this year there will be trouble!!

OK, thats enough about my garden... mainly because there's really not much else to tell - its very bare...lol  :o(

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

The Stamp Attic....

.... is where I'll be next weekend:

Saturday May 18th 2013 
 is card day, making cards with JOFY stamps, inks and paints........

Sunday May 19th 2013
create a 20cm canvas with JOFY stamps, Fresco Paints, Inks and Paper......

There are a few places left so if you'd like to come to and get inky, painty with me contact the shop to book your place.

I'm really looking forward to it & I'd love it if you could join me!

Stamp... Paint... Create...

... says the stamp I designed for this month's Craft Stamper... I'm thrilled to have designed a cover stamp and love how the little stamp turned out, I hope people enjoy using it.  June is a great issue of the magazine with a masculine theme - and we know how tricky 'man' projects can be!  Available in shops now....

:o)

Its Spring over on the Craft Barn Blog...

... and its where you'll find a project by me (and projects by Lin Brown too)....

Go here and The Craft Barn also has free shipping this weekend.

Enjoy

A Crafty Day at Colemans....

... is what I had on Saturday... Its called Colemans Warehouse but I'm not sure that does it justice! Soooo many great craft items under one roof ....

It was a really enjoyable day.... & a busy, creative day (judging by the amount of paint and ink that was on my hands!)  Thank you to all the lovely people who came and watched my demos - with JOFY Stamps- thanks for the lovely comments, & the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste (whats not to love about that product!) and the general 'oooh'ing and 'aaaaah'ing at the reliability of the Crackle Glaze!  it works I tell you... every time!

Speaking of Crackle Glaze & JOFY stamps:

The crackle on this wooden block (liked these blocks a lot) has been painted on in areas rather than all over to demonstrate that its possible to do that - you don't have to crackle an entire surface...
The flowers are painted with Fresco Finish, stamps are from JOFY12

This smaller wooden block is a perfect size to use with a Mini stamp - Mini10

Towards the end of  demo days I seem to create what I'm going to start calling 'scoop up' creations - items that I make from all the bits that are left on the desk:

Gotta love a tag!  especially a corrugated cardboard tag, with flowers and a button - the second button of the day!  I only used two buttons all day - very restrained for me! lol

Look at the size of my demo desk!!! I laughed when I saw it - now that's what I call a demo desk! lol - lots of space to spread out and get messy on.. ahem not messy - no, creative on...

Its lucky the desk was this big as I took lots of samples with me and I'm always happy to do that- items that have previously been posted here on the blog.  But, I hope that the people who watch demos, look at and photograph the samples understand that as a demonstrator I make and show samples not to have them copied but to provide inspiration that hopefully acts as a springboard for their imagination, so that they can go home and create their own projects.

* * * * *

I'll be returning to Colemans on the 30 August for the demo day, and on the following day (01 September)(duh, sorry to state the obvious! lol) I'll be running 2 card making classes - JOFY Florals in the morning and Christmas Cards, yes Christmas Cards(!) in the afternoon.


aaaanyhoo - back to the studio - things don't design themselves do they! ...

Enjoy your day

What is it about daisies???...

... I love daisies which is a good thing because at the moment they seem to be the only flowers in our garden (apart from 5 daffodils (now past their best) and 2 camellia bushes)...

Daisies are such happy little flowers - dainty determined little plants - pushing up through the paving slabs on the patio to create little forests of bright white flowers heads with lovely flashes of pink.

The sun is now out (here in the UK) hopefully it'll stick around for a while.. I sat out in the garden yesterday and today to have my lunch - its so lovely to be able to do that - when the sun is shining it feels as if anything is possible...

tick tock tick tock tick tock....

.... goes the clock in the box as the flowers bloom and grow...

I had such fun creating this piece - made from bits and pieces that were hanging around the studio - they've been 'up-cycled'.. like the box: its the lid of a small Tim Holtz Configurations box, painted in Nougat Fresco Finish (I love love love that colour), the back is covered in text scrapbook paper that I stamped seed heads onto but I forgot to photograph it before I assembled everything - doh! but you can see a little bit here:

I wanted the piece to have a sepia, almost monochrome look - so very limited colour..

I painted the flower heads (JOFY11) with Distress Ink to achieve a watercoloured effect (Walnut Stain)... stamping on the back layer of the box and then adding all the dimensional elements really helps to build up a sense of perspective and depth.
I love this clock die by Tim Holtz /Sizzix - I used to own an alarm clock like this very pretty but it is a hellish way to be woken up - seriously unpleasant - a little hammer on metals bells!! Not a soothing entrance to the day ahead...

This clock is much nicer! (its quiet for a start!).. I created it by cutting clocks from corrugated card (from cat food boxes that I've been saving - it has really fine corrugation) and one from plain card (for the front layer that would be painted). 

   

The flower heads I used are from JOFY12 - stamped on white and painted with Distress Ink (Walnut Stain), I also stamped onto a distressed scrapbook paper that I had, cut out the flower centres and heads and added them here and there... not really planned just what look good.
The piece has more of an Autumnal feel than any of the other projects I've made with the stamps and so I added a legend in top right hand corner (Mini15)(I find those little seasons words really useful).
Behind the clock I added a couple of die cut seed heads (quickutz) - die cut from kraft cardstock to keep with the natural sepia tones of the piece.

And I couldn't resist adding some wooden flowers... and some bling.. oooh not forgetting the bling on the clock face!

I stamped phrases from the JOFY stamp sets on to the sides of the box... and the mesh strip along each of the corners (just visible in the bottom left of this photo..)

I love this piece - it was fairly time consuming but not as much as you might think - the construction of the clock took the longest time, & there is minimal stamping...  I could happily make another one...

Must love'n'leave you - I'm off back into the studio to get ready for my visit to Colemans Warehouse on Saturday where I'll be demo'ing my stamps.  Looking forward to that - hope to see some of you there.

Mostly I am here....

.... but today I can be found over on the ever-so-inspirational PaperArtsy blog... head on over and take a look at the project I made.....

Samples... but not mine!...

... these are by the very talented Kay Carley.  These are the cards she made at a recent demo day at The Craft Barn:

Kay coloured the images using Copic Markers, and added sparkle by using 'flitter flakes'.. I really love the cards - using the Copics has made the images look so dainty!
I was really thrilled at what Kay had done - beautiful! She has more samples on her blog , go take a look.

Kay will be demo'ing with the stamps as the Craft Barn Extravaganza in June (01-02 June).. as will I, Leandra Franich, Lin Brown, & Helen Chilton.
Please come along - we'd all love to see you!