April Workshops... Part 2

On the 21-22 April 2018 I am venturing north to the beautiful location of Carnforth for my second visit to Rowan Tree Crafts. Last year I taught one workshop but this year I'm teaching 2 days of classes.  

On Saturday (April 21st) we'll be creating this lovely floral canvas using lots of new JOFY products..

... and don't worry if these colours aren't what you'd choose because there will be paints on site so you can choose your own palette to work with.

On Sunday (April 22nd) we'll be decorating a pair of box canvasses (with a difference ;o) ) in a colour scheme that just shouts spring and summer!  

Contact Rowan Tree Crafts on 07590605078 for more details and to book your place (or places!).. you can also find details on their website at www.rowantreecrafts.co.uk

This is going to be a lovely weekend and I hope you can join me.

April Workshops... Part 1

I have several inky painty workshops coming up in April all of which I'm really looking forward to!

First up is at Studio 36 (aka Birds in the Barn) on 14 April 2018.  Workshops for Birds in the Barn will now take place at Studio 36 in Braintree
(NB this is not a shop location).

In this workshop we'll be painting, stenciling and stamping 2 box canvases using all new JOFY products combined with paints, inks and die cuts.

This is a lovely bright summery project - a great tonic for the wet cold weather we're experiencing here in the UK at the moment - roll on spring & summer!

The cost of this class is £45.00 and includes lunch!  Call  01376 326358 to book a place.

Hope to see you there!

JoFY Bingo Wk.9

I'm beginning to think I've designed a lot of christmas stamps!  They seem to get picked every week/every other week!
This was a nice pairing of stamp sets and the minis went well too & I decided to create another journal spread...

I used the word 'sunshine' from JOFY41 as a prompt to create a garden scene with LittleMissSunshine - I always thinks she looks like she has her face to the sun.... and added a phrase from one of my favourite John Denver songs ('sunshine on my shoulders' look it up on iTunes - its lovely.... & everything seems better when John Denver is playing in the background!) 

The lovebirds (JM20) are sitting on the bubble wreath from JOFY20 which I've turned into a hanging ring/perch for them.

A bit of the shading on the flowers...

LittleMissSunshine...

This spread turned out a bit 'prettier' than I intended... but we are having a very cold spell here in the UK at the moment so it was nice to create something that was summery.

Thats it for this week... Thanks for popping by..

ALBOTAT: Doodle Flower....

I'd been wondering what the big blousy doodle flowers from on JOFY64 would look like if the two parts were combined to make an even BIGGER doodle flower...

Well, they'd look like this:

REALLY like how this looks!   Created with four of the 'half' flowers underneath one of the complete flowers, raised on 3d foam with the little background flower used on the centre....  the leaves are from JOFY61.

 Sometimes you just have to play BIG!!

JoFY Bingo Wk.8

Flowers and christmas! The bingo balls are spoiling me this week with these sets!

March is a busy month for me on the celebration front - lots of birthdays, anniversaries and not forgetting Mother's Day... so I made made some clean and simple cards for this week's project to hopefully get a head start on all those events (that also carry on into April and May too!)..

I made two 'clean and simple' cards using the parcel from JOFY47 - this is a christmas set but I intentionally didn't add anything christmassy on the parcel so that it could be used throughout the year.  I used the stamp with a really simple paper pieced technique which is shown in the photos below...

Stamp the parcel (JOFY47) onto two different types of paper...

Stamp and emboss flowers from JOFY32...

Cut out the two different sections, marry up and glue together.  I also use a coloured pencil to add shadow to the bow to create dimension.

Here's the finished card...

I made a second one using the hexagon background stamp and the 'don't peek' & tag from JOFY47...

I might not send these cards out - might keep them for inspiration- but they've definitely got me thinking...

If you'd like to join in with JoFY Bingo here are the details - I'm going to continue using 2 stamps sets each week but if you'd like to join in but only have one of the chosen sets then join in using that set! Please come and play!

The numbers are drawn on Monday, along with a project I've made using the corresponding stamp sets, then the plan is to:

• Use/combine 1 or 2 stamp sets (use only those stamp sets - not all the stamps in each set - that would be too much of an ask but as long as there are one or two stamps from each set then its OK!)
• 7 days to create 1 project, makers choice:  cards... atc... journal page... dimensional project... tag...
• Use any paints/media, colours, embellishments, stencils/masks
• Load up your project to Instagram any time during the week.  Please use Instagram links #jofybingo and @jofyjo in the text (not 'tagging' me please) so I can find it :o)

If you don't have an Instagram account you can add your make in the comments on the Facebook post linked to this blog post (facebook links:  https://www.facebook.com/JoFY.JoFirthYoung/ or https://www.facebook.com/jo.firthyoung )

I hope you can join in - I look forward to seeing what you create!

Workshop at That's Crafty...

A couple of places are still available on this workshop this coming Saturday (17 March 2018)... 

This is my first workshop of the year and I'm really looking forward to it - using LOTS of new products to create a very lovely floral board canvas... The colours shown are my choice but you can create the project in colours of your choosing.

Contact the shop to book a place - click on the photo above to go to the website.

JoFY Bingo Wk.7

Welcome to week 7 of JoFY Bingo! How's this for an eclectic selection of stamps to work with!

I chose to focus on the robots - I don't use them nearly as much as I should - they're great for male cards/projects - especially Skid (the tall robot with the wheel - he makes me smile!)

I created a page in my art journal (really enjoying working in this journal at the moment - its the small Dylusions one).

The grey centre panel is a clean up/ghost gel print and I surrounded it with a border of graph paper.  The page came together quite easily - stamped the robot words around all the edges to create a border, added stencilled hexagons and stamped nuts and bolts randomly around the page. 

I painted a panel of card in Fresco Paints (Slate, Chalk) and a metallic grey/blue paint.  I stamped onto the panel the star flourish from JOFY57 and cut out the stars ready to attach where needed.... you don't have to use an entire image - just use the bits you need.

I created the robots by stamping them onto the page and onto printed papers, and paper pieced them together. Skid's arms and legs are quite fiddly to cut out and so this gives a much nicer finished result.

I gave Skid some googly eyes - who doesn't love googly eyes!! lol

I'm calling the other two robots 'the brothers' as they look related - the same but different...

The little robot is unchanged but the tall one has been made of parts... a bit like Frankenstein's monster - but much less scary! lol
I created him by I masking off the legs and then stamped him slightly higher up the page.  I drew tall legs and gave him a foot and a wheel.  I stamped Skid's head and the small robots body onto the same patterned paper cut them out and added paper pieced them onto the page.  I wanted his head to look different to Skid's so I cut of the 'ears' (colander handles!) and gave him one BIG eye!  (no robots were harmed in the making of this page! lol)

These little robots make me smile - they look related to each other - or maybe they are the robot world's first boy band!?!  I'll let you decide!


That's Week 7 done and dusted...  I hope you can join in this week - I'd love to see what you do with the robots! (and the other stamps of course!)

So if you fancy joining in here's what you need to know:

The numbers are drawn on Monday, along with a project I've made using the corresponding stamp sets, then the plan is to:

• Use/combine 2 stamp sets (use only those stamp sets - not all the stamps in each set - that would be too much of an ask but as long as there are one or two stamps from each set then its OK!)
• 7 days to create 1 project, makers choice:  cards... atc... journal page... dimensional project... tag...
• Use any paints/media, colours, embellishments, stencils/masks
• Load up your project to Instagram any time during the week.  Please use Instagram links #jofybingo and @jofyjo in the text (not 'tagging' me please) so I can find it :o)

If you don't have an Instagram account you can add your make in the comments on the Facebook post linked to this blog post (facebook links:  https://www.facebook.com/JoFY.JoFirthYoung/ or https://www.facebook.com/jo.firthyoung )

I hope you can join in - I look forward to seeing what you create!

March Classes etc...

Oh my goodness!  March already!!

I have a page on this blog with all my workshop dates (button in the banner at top of screen) but I thought I'd bring March's dates to your attention in case you're in need of a day of inky painty fun as a remedy to all this grey, cold snowy weather we're having here in the UK

On 17th March 2018 I'll be at That's Crafty...

In this workshop we'll create an A4 canvas featuring lots of my new JOFY releases - stamps and stencils.. and we'll be using Infusions, paints and inks - I think this is one of my favourite projects so far.. you can follow the colours in the sample or choose your own.
I hope you can join me..  click on the photo to go to the That's Crafty website and book your place.


On 31 March 2018 I'll be at The Artistic Stamper for their Easter Extravaganza where I'll be running one of the make'n'takes - always fun days

Hop along and join us (hahaha did you notice what I did there... hop.. bunnies... easter?! no? oh, nevermind..) 



I look forward to seeing you!