Craft Stamper April issue....

... is where you can find some more information and inspiration for using JOFY stamps:

Its another lovely issue of the magazine so head on down to your newsagent and grab yourself a copy.

The Craft Barn on Sunday...

.... is where I spent a lovely day with a group of ladies creating cards using JOFY stamps, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints and Ranger Distress Inks - a recipe for a lovely, painty, inky, day.

Love it when a class table look like this - covered in all sorts of creative materials...

This is one of my sample cards:

 but I suggested that another flower stem be used as an alternative and here are the cards two of the ladies created (works in progress):

Love the blue ink colour - striking... the purple is a more gentle version...

This is one of my favourite cards of the day - the cropped from page and the overhanging flower, and the way the stamping continues inside the card...

I'll be at the Craft Barn on Saturday (2nd March) demonstrating my stamps as part of the March Inspiration day.

Hope to see some of you there!

black pen, white pen.....

.... sometimes it takes seeing someone else's project to remind you of what you have in the way of stash and equipment!
Linda Cain created a lovely tag over on the PaperArtsy blog (go here to see all the details) using my JOFY stamps, distress inks and hi-lighted everything with a white pen.  Light bulb moment!!! last year I spent ages searching for the 'perfect' white pen to buy... & when I had one used it a lot and then nothing for months! (there goes the way of lots of equipment and 'stuff')
Linda's tag inspired me to use the white pen again (when I eventually located it! shame on me...)

This panel is made from one of the chunky cardboard blocks (here in the PaperArtsy shop) - they are surprisingly sturdy and so ideal for stamping and painting.  I painted the surface with Fresco Finish paints - Mermaid, Guacamole & Nougat,  I used Peacoat around the edges and to stamp the flowers in the background.
Then I got busy with the white pen - I'm not letting that slip out of my sight again for a while!  Great of accenting.

I stamped the flowers (JOFY12, and JOFY10) in black and stamped the same images on to vintage text paper that had been given a wash of Snowflake & Nougat paint.  Cut them out and stuck them down.
I stamped the phrase onto a tag (oops, back on a tag roll again! and just when I thought I'd weaned myself off!)
I accented the middle of the flowers by adding a layer of scrapbook papers, and added some shading with Distress Markers.

Yesterday I blogged briefly about my ongoing (neverending) job to tidy my workroom - its still not tidy - because I keep finding things that would be great on a project and I find paints, pens, papers that inspire me to make something.... its so hard to keep on task! lol
New Plan:  I'm going to set a timer for 30 minutes and see how much I can tidy and put away in that time... a sort of beat the clock challenge!
If it goes well I'll post pics... if it doesn't you'll see nothing and we'll never talk about it again. OK, deal?!

I tried to tidy up my desk, I really did....

... but while doing so I found some left over bits and pieces that were crying out to be made into a project...

Loving this tag for several reasons:
1:  it has buttons
2:  it is made on a kraft corrugated substrate
3:  it has tags
4:  it's made with my stamps!

The big round flower at the top is layers of the flowers JOFY09 & JOFY10 (and left over from creating Gladys) secured together with a bit of 3d foam - always comes in handy doesn't it!
The tags were left over from creating the box canvas featured a few days ago.

but the tag isn't created entirely out of rubbish... lol  Sometimes its just nice to play with stamps to see what happens - the leaf with circular patterns on JOFY12... well that was crying out to become petals on a flower:

They make lovely flowers - liking those very much! ... .and those little circles - perfect for bling placement! lol

That's my quick project made.... I suppose I'd better get back to tidying the desk.......

Jo

Stitches 2013....

... I had a great day at Stitches on Monday .... even if it did mean getting up and being in the car at 7:00 am!!   eek (& big thanks to the Emmas for driving) - its been a while since I had to be up and ready at that time lol

The show was good - lots of reeeeaaallly nice bits and pieces - papers, dies (gorgeous Sizzix stand as usual!!) (why, why, why didn't I take any photos of that!!), stencils.....

One of my favourite stands is the Button Company!! oh be still my button loving heart! lol  this year I was shocked, surprised and pleased at the change in colours - yes they had their existing range of gorgeous softer toned elements:

 but they also had these:

wowzaa - how fabulously bright and loud are those colours! love them!

I  had fun at the show meeting lots of people, putting faces to people I normally talk to on the phone or via email... catching up with existing crafting friends... its tricky to walk the show:  walk two stands, meet someone you know,  walk another 2 or 3 stands, meet someone else you know! lol  It can take a loooong time to get anywhere!  but that is one of the fun aspects of Stitches.

But the most fun part for me was that it was the first Trade show where my products with PaperArtsy have been for sale - that was exciting and fun to watch people choosing what they were going to order (and reeaaally hard not to step in and 'help' them make their decision! lol)

Great to see all the PaperArtsy DT pieces in one place - really beautiful samples.

Apologies for the dodgy photos (I was using my phone, trying to take pictures quickly before somebody walked past and got in the way! lol)

This is probably my favourite photo from the Show (I didn't take many), I have no idea who these ladies are but they were engrossed in choosing my stamps and I couldn't resist taking their photo.  :o)  (and I liked the pattern on the cardigan of lady on right! lol)  So whoever you are, I hope you don't mind the photo - and thankyou for taking the time on the PaperArtsy stand to look at ALL the fabulous products that were on display.

The PaperArtsy stand looked great - lots of really inspiring samples of all the new ranges - (Lin Brown's were so detailed and layered, gorgeous - but we wouldn't expect anything else would we! lol ) - and NEW PAINT COLOURS!!!!... and dies!!!

Its all so exciting - there were be lots going on over on the PaperArtsy blog...

aaaanyhooo that's Stitches over for another year - its well worth the visit...

Don't forget - I have a class at The Craft Barn on Sunday if any of you are at a loose end and fancy a day of crafting JOFY stylee....

JOFY stamps at The Craft Barn

There are still a few places left on my JOFY card class at the Craft Barn this coming Sunday, 24th February.
If you fancy getting inky painty and having a play with my new stamps give the shop a call to book a place.
:o)

Crafts Beautiful March....

.... just a quick post to give you a heads up - if you'd like to see more samples using JOFY stamps I'm featured in the March issue of Crafts Beautiful as part of an article aimed at encouraging people to start stamping.  Its nice to be included in the article aimed at inspiring people.

(  photo bottom left hand side :o)  )

This is the first time I've been published in Crafts Beautiful so its quite exciting.... especially because its with my new stamps:

So there you go - some more JOFY inspiration for you...  available in all good shops now!

:o)

Craft Stamper - web extra..

.. in the March issue of Craft Stamper I had some dimensional cards featured:

.... and if you'd like to see another project - a little mini canvas - created on the same theme its available to view as a web extra on the Craft Stamper site - click the photo to see more.  The projects feature PaperArtsy stamps & Sizzix dies... I think these are among my all time favourite cards and projects.

Happy Valentines's Day!...

.... card made for Mr JoFY...

I love the contrast of the elements on this card - the grungy painty background against the solid black of the traditional (with a modern cut) silhouettes - softens the look but the pink/orange brightens up the kraft.  The 3 hearts are one of the word blocks from JOFY05.  And the Italian book text heart - that's cut from a page from a book I bought on our honeymoon... aaaaw bless  :o)  its all in the detail! lol

I 3d mounted the silhouettes to make them pop a little bit more.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

x

ps - 3rd post of the day! phew!

Flowers JOFY stylee...

... chunky little box canvases are fast becoming my favourite substrate - so chunky (2in deep) but small (4x4in square) .. even the 4x6in size is really nice.  I think I like them because if you stand them on a shelf they won't fall over and there's lots of surface to play on....

Here's what I made using some stamps from my new releases...

This box canvas is decorated from the 'leftovers' from creating flowers for Gladys the Garden Fairy... I created the flowers by stamping onto various papers using images from my new JOFY releases:

I arranged several flowers and leaves and glued them together.  Initially I planned to cover the top of the white box canvas with a panel of vintage book text and corrugated cardboard (gotta love corrugated card!):

... but I later abandoned that idea in favour of a distressed inked surface to the canvas - I felt that this better showed the flowers (some of which are made from the same book text that had been white-washed)

along each side of the canvas I stamped the mesh border image from JOFY10 in Olive Archival Ink, and distressed the edges in the same way and colours as the top:

 I used double sided tape to attach a panel of corrugated card, and wrapped Bakers Twine around the canvas several times:

I used Black Archival ink to stamps words chosen from JOFY11 to stamp onto small tags.. I further distressed the edges (using Distress Ink):

I arranged the 3 tags and 2 additional flower stems onto the canvas gluing them to the surface. The tags which lay ontop of the corrugated cardboard are attached with a glue gun so that the glue sinks down into the ridges - I find this to be the most effective way (that and Claudine Hellmuth Matte Medium - but the glue gun dries quicker!)(not that I'm impatient or anything lol)

I used Distress Markers to give the flowers shading and dimension, and to age them slightly - the pens are great because you can smudge the colour for further shading - especially on top of a surface painted with Fresco Finish.

This is the side view of the canvas showing the mesh panel image and the depth of the canvas:

So that's my mini stepped out project - I hope its inspired you to tackle a box canvas - they really are adorable little projects bases.

Take care

New JOFY stamps are in the house!!

...This is a looooong post so you might want to go and grab yourself a cuppa!

Are you sitting comfortably?... then I'll begin...

I first started thinking about this collection while I was on holiday.. I like to lay in the sun on holiday (hoping my freckles will join up and I’ll get a tan) but I get restless quite quickly (unlike DH who could lay there ALL day, turning a lovely shade of brown gggrrrr) and so I started sketching to pass the time.  The flowers started as one of those sketches:

This is plate JOFY09 that you have already seen and bought (thanks for that! I hope you're enjoying them!)

 ... and I designed 3 more A5 plates of floral designs that can mix and match together:

 JOFY10

These plates have flowers, leaves, backgrounds, borders and I really like the phrases that are on several plates...  I may have mentioned before on my blog/in tweets that I love a Doris Day film playing in the background while I work and the 'don't eat the daisies' phrase is a bit of a nod to that - so feel free to sing the song while you use that stamp! lol

JOFY11

JOFY12

There are also 8 minis:
I really like designing these text block - great for using as stand alone images for quick'n'easy cards or as tryptichs:

   

The 5 remaining minis are great for using complete as backgrounds or cutting up to use as motifs for layering with the images from the A5 plates.

  

  

I have been busy making samples for this PaperArtsy release and for the PA stand at this weekend's Stitches trade show in Birmingham:

I love a tag!!..... or two!

The other substrate I really like at the moment is the cardboard blocks that PaperArtsy sell here  Surprisingly sturdy to stamp onto to and smooth, lightweight so easy to hang, or attach to another substrate...

I also upcycled a 'something' that has been sat on a shelf for about 4 years (maybe! shocking)... its (yet) another item that I bought thinking 'I can do something with that!' (we all do that don't we?!).... and so four years later 'something' became... GLADYS!

She's called Gladys because, as the quote on her wings says, she the 'gladdest thing'... gladdest.... Gladys.. get it?! No? oh, ... just me then...  Gladys the Garden Fairy... and I promise this will be the last fairy I make... unless its a Critter type fairy where its a little bit 'wrong' (but in a nice way!)

 PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paints teamed with Distress Markers, Archival Ink and printed papers (and of course book pages!):

Several of the PaperArtsy Guest Designers have been busy creating too - here are some sneakpeeks of their very, very lovely pieces - follow the links to see the projects in full, and over on the PA blog Leandra has been busy too...

Darcy's pieces can be found here

... and Alison's pieces can be found here

... and finally Gillians pieces can be found here

Pop back later today when I'll have a little stepped out project to share with you using the little chunky box canvasses that are fast becoming my new favourite substrate!

Other samples using the stamps can be found in the March's Crafts Beautiful, and April's Craft Stamper...

Take care