#365Challenge.... February!!

Here are all the pages for February in one picture packed blog post - you might want to get a cuppa before you sit down... :o)

I'm simply going to show you the pages and give some background information/explanation on a few of them - when I think/hope it might be helpful to you in some way...

Here we go:

The pages in this book are 6x8inches, the book is an upcycled atlas I bought in a charity shop aaaaages ago (and according to the inscription on the front page is the property of the 'Geography department, South East Essex Sixth Form College'! lol)

 

Gelli printed page + stencilled flowers (PS055) + small flowers (JM49) in Snowflake Fresco Finish Paint.

This page was created from a piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper....
I really like the starburst effect but really couldn't use the cowboy illustration (!!) but I didn't want to waste the background, so I started thinking of ways to cover it up (still only using things from the stash)

I liked how the doily covered pretty much everything but the sparkly burst still shows from underneath which is what I wanted...

 Panel of paper added to cover the word 'cowboy' and another smaller one to stamp the date onto

 Then I realised that the whole page looked better rotated 180degrees - allowing for the binding holes and also for the other elements that I was planning on adding...

 The strips of music score running under and over the patterned strips help tie everything together (stops them 'floating'), the bird is die cut from a gelli print (there are lots of those in my workroom! lol) and the branch is a die cut (Tim Holtz/Sizzix). The phrase is from JOFY15.

and not a cowboy in sight! lol

 I've 'rediscovered' my spirograph! can you tell! (its cropping up on several pages this month)

This page was created by taking a clean-up gelli print, stencilling on top with  PS056 (using Snowflake Fresco Finish) and adding words from Emma Godfrey's EEG17 & 14

The question in the Flow calendar for the 22 February (yes, I'm still considering those questions when I make my pages) was 'Who knows you the best?'... well it has to Matt, my husband... but, he's not overly keen on having his photo taken so I disguised his face by writing over his photograph - I really like the way this looks and I think it works really well (& I think printing the page in black and white helped too)

lol, yep more spirograph! lol  I should clarify - this isn't the kit I had as a child. This is one I bought relatively recently (probably in The Works) - it came with an activity book - the book has long gone but I am making full use of the kit that was attached to the front!

Question for day 24 was 'does wisdom come with age?' hhhmm I hope so! but I also think that you should keep on learning, keep trying new things... learn something new every day - however big or small.

Phew... another month finished... 59 down, 306 to go.....

I'm still enjoying creating these pages - March's book is 5x7 inches in size and landscape!  oh yes.. another small challenge- most of my stamp designs are portrait ie tall rather than wide so working landscape might be a bit of a challenge but that is what this year long project is all about - goal setting and learning something along the way..,

Thanks for stopping by.

Jo

Facebook Live and Periscope!

I went on Facebook Live and Periscope on Saturday evening shortly before the release of the latest JOFY products and demo'd a couple of new products with quick projects - I thought I'd give you some details of what I created and answer some of the questions that popped up on Periscope... and show you the finished projects..

For both projects I kept to the same colour scheme which is shown below - lush colours!

I 'broadcasted/streamed' (?!) on Facebook first, where I created this white flower on a kraft background - the stamp is JOFY51 and stencil PS037.

I was asked in the comments on the PaperArtsy blog do I go over the stamped lines with a black pen.... the answer is yes, sometimes I do - if the print hasn't come out perfectly (much more to do with my inking of the stamp than the quality of the stamps - PaperArtsy stamps are some of the best around (if not the best around!)).  The pen I use is an Artline pigment ink pen.

I added detail to the flower panel by adding faux stitching around the edge, gems and Stickles on the flower centre and I stamped 'happiness' in the bottom left corner. 

 I mounted the panel onto a white cardblank and stamped 'blooms from within' inside.

On Periscope I worked with the stencil/mask combination PS057, creating a tag using the positive and negative elements on this stencil.  I added white and red doodling and mounted the tag onto a white card that has been stamped with on of my mini JOFY stamps - JM49 - this is a great little stamp to use with this stencil and with JOFY50.  I was asked what white pen would I recommend - my white pen of choice is a 0.7 white Posca Pen. (The green 'clouding' around the edge is Peeled Paint distress ink, and 'Happiness blooms from within' is stamped in Leaf Green Archival ink)

Thanks to everyone who tuned in... was a lot of fun to do these mini 'broadcasts'.

x

ALBOTAT: Life is good, Live it

.. is the mantra on this recent art journal spread

Starting on an existing spread of pale blue I clouded over it with a slightly darker blue before using: Stencils:  Stencil Girl's Marrakech stencil (L177), The Crafters Workshop Mini Circle Grid (TCw203S), Stamps:  JM54 (alphabet block), JM 49 (mini flowers), big flower, text and mini circle clusters are JOFY45.
The grey letters are foam, American Crafts - I really like the dimension of these letters but they made working in the rest of the journal a bit of a challenge! - The journal's pages aren't flat anymore!  But the letters are worth it!

Roll up... Roll up...

New JOFY stamps are coming to a store near you!!!

I've been soooo looking forward to sharing this stamp release with you... 2 new large plates and 8, yes 8!, minis (but no cats.. apologies to the lovely lady who always puts in a feline request... still no cats!) but there are 2 new little characters (squeal), a few backgrounds and of course there are flowers!

Over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight there's the release post which you can find HERE

Here are the new designs...

Those of you who follow me on Twitter & Instagram (or read this blog) may recognise the big flower on the plate above... it started out as a doodle in my holiday journal:

And look at all these (in my humble opinion) cute little minis...

Here are 2 quick pages from my mini journal using JM55 & JM56

In case you missed it here's a close up of Leandra's birthday card that she showed on Periscope featuring Dolly....

I hope you like them as much as I do.. I can't wait to see what you create.

x