What are you doing next weekend?....

.... just asking.. incase you are free and fancy a day or two of crafty/arty fun.. then you could maybe join me on...

... Saturday when I'll be at the Craft Barn (10:00-4:00) where I'll be demo'ing my new Christmas stamp designs with a focus on Christmas cards.. there will be other demonstrators too - go to the Craft Barn website to find out more details..

... or on Sunday when I'll be running a workshop at Crafting Time - creating a lovely box canvas with a summery beachy feel (I'm hanging on to Summer as long as I can! lol) - there are a couple of places left if you'd like to come along - contact the shop to book a place...

Hope to see you!

xx

A (di)stress free weekend...

I spent Saturday at Birds in the Barn running a Distress Workshop - effects and techniques you can create with the inks, (paints) and stains... we painted, bleached (love the effect of the bleach!), resisted and marbled - all very inky!!

.. and relaxing and everyone went home surprisingly clean! .. must have been something to do with the bleach and shaving foam! lol

Sunday was spent in the garden - tidying it up, digging it up, moving plants and furniture about.... gardening is a great form of exercise! I ache all over! lol  but it was worth it - the garden looks great (especially the patio where MrJoFY removed all the weeds from between the slabs! weeds had grown a lot because we sprayed the flower tubs on the patio with 'miracle grow' so of the course plants and weeds grew! lol as if weeds don't grow fast enough anyway! gggrrr)

... and sadly we had to cut down the five sunflowers I'd grown - was quite proud of these - probably slightly misplaced pride because even small children can grow sunflowers so for a 42yr old (that's me!) to grow them is not overly impressive! (and especially if you saw my f-i-l's sunflowers - size of dinner plates - amazing!)

But I grew them, kept them alive (sunflowers are quite high maintenance- need LOTS of water!) and so I'm happy:

xx

Weekend in Warwickshire....

... teaching workshops at Pink Tulip Creations ... such a fun weekend with lively groups of 16/17 inky painty peeps - they might not have been inky painty when they arrived, but they were by the time they left!

Learning about Fresco Finish paints, including the yummy new colours! and creating a canvas (full photo is here)...
It was a great weekend - the shop was full of lovely stock, nice airy classroom area... and lovely people - thank you Sheila and the team!  Look forward to seeing you all again in October!
Brace yourselves- I'm bringing Christmas!!!

On the way to dinner I saw some 'proper' gypsies camped at the side of the road - Romany Gypsies with round topped wood caravans - and countless ponies (all in v good condition) - that was a treat for me to see but apparently quite common in and around Warwickshire ... its times like that I realise what a townie I am!  Our 'gypsies/travellers' in Essex come with 4x4s and permanent caravans! Not quite the same thing!

I have also rethought my relationship with the satnav - we were getting on well... until on the way home it took me OVER the M40 (the motorway I arrived in Warks on) and across the country to the M1!! and its queues of traffic!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY! WHY WHY WHY!!  stupid machine! lol  but I was home in time for Downton Abbey so that's OK! lol  (so, Downton Abbey - anyone else spend most of the episode trying to remember what had happened to everyone at the end of the last series? lol no, just me and mrjofy then! lol)

This weekend... Next weekend...

This weekend I'll be having fun teaching a couple of workshops at Pink Tulip Creations while a lot of you (I imagine) will be having fun at AllyPally at the stamping and scrapbooking show...  Enjoy!

Next Saturday I'll be at Birds in the Barn running a workshop with Distress Inks..
So if you want to rediscover your Distress Inks, learn some new techniques and generally get inky then come and join me (aprons are recommended!) - contact the shop to book a place.

A to Z of Cardmaking.....

... is the course I'm teaching at Southend Adult Community College starting next monday... the course descriptor is:

"A for Aperture, B for Buttons, C for Cards, D for Die-Cutting... you get the idea.  This course will cover many techniques and ideas about card making, and if you're wondering: Z is for Zipper!"

(cards shown are for illustrative purposes only)

Its suitable for all abilities, though of course some experience in cardmaking is useful.... I think this is going to be a fun way of learning!

The course runs for 10 weeks on Monday evenings - 2 hours of dedicated learning and card making - sounds good to me!

I really like teaching at the College- its a great learning environment.. I hope you can join me.  Contact the College (click on the college name at the top of this blogpost) for more details or to book.

xx

A lovely inky painty time.....

.... pretty much sums up last weekend where I spent the weekend running 2 workshops...

I think I walked through the door twice before I noticed the writing on the door (after it had been pointed out to me)! lol   oops - sorry & thanks!

I completely forgot to take photos on Saturday's card making workshop! sorry everyone! here's a detail photo (mine) of one of the cards they made.. lovely cards were created in all sorts of colour options - love it when that happens!

In Sunday's workshop we decorated a triptych... and here are the inky painty participants with their lovely creations:... those smiles are ones you get from saying 'tinned peas and guacamole' instead of 'cheese' for a photo.. lol

The photo shows the inside of the triptych's - my sample had minimal decoration but time allowed for additional painting and decoration:

Helen painted her outside flowers in lovely green with orange 'berries':

 I love Elaine's doors with additional bud heads:

... and Judy painted the flowers inside in  lovely shades of blue and green and so used the same colour scheme outside.  Love it:

:
Everyone created very lovely projects!  Gold stars all round!
Thanks to everyone for coming - hope to see you at the 'Christmas' classes - 23/24 November - cards and a project.

xx

PS - on the way to The Stamp Attic I was driving on the M25 - the MAJOR London FOUR LANE, VERY BUSY motorway... when I watched the most muppetry piece of driving, only ever normally seen on the TV:  a 4x4  realised it had taken the wrong exit and so had REVERSED BACK DOWN THE SLIP ROAD, DRIVEN OVER THE GRASS AT THE END WHERE THE CHEVRONS RUN INTO GRASS & REJOINED the M25 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh. my. word!! what goes through peoples heads! lol where in the highway code does it says thats a good idea! numpty! lol

I've been getting all techie.....

... and created new things online:

**  a blog that's going to hold photos of my workshops - like a little gallery... its easy to get to:  d'ya see that button on the right of your screen.. the new one under the JOFY logo... no, not the smiley face of PAMM - the one that says 'WORKSHOP'... yep.. that one!
Click on that and its should take you there - not much on it at the moment but it will slowly fill up....

** and I've had a 'fan' page (not sure I like the name of these pages but that's what Facebook calls them, not me!) for a while and it would be lovely if you could go and 'like' that page.... it has the feed from the blog and I'll add new teaching dates to it when they are released... its better than a 'friend' request.. :o)
the address is   https://www.facebook.com/JoFY.JoFirthYoung

OK.. enough of the techie stuff I have creative die-cutting bits and pieces to do!

xx

It was all about love...

... and marriage in our house on Monday when MrJoFY and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.

The card was made, as requested by MrYoung, with one of my new stamps - one of the non-christmas christmas stamps.. mini22 the textblock heart... I love this little block of romantic words - great for wedding anniversaries, as I've used here, or for valentines day (come on you old romantics out there...) or just to tell someone you care... the choice is yours...

The card has hearts punched from card coloured with 'Barn Door' Distress Ink - 1 heart for each year we've been married (as I mentioned last year this is a good idea now but the longer we've been married the trickier its going to be to accommodate the hearts... smaller hearts/bigger card may be the answer...) .. .anyhoooo ...the background is blue check as MrJoFY does love blue check :o)

Love you Matt!

Next weekend...

... I'm looking forward to returning to The Stamp Attic, Wantage to teach a couple of workshops... Wendy has a lovely shop full of fantastic arty crafty stock...
There are still a couple of places on Sunday's project class - its a lovely wooden triptych decorated with flowers from my latest flower stamp plates - I'm hanging onto Summer as long as possible!

If you would like to join us for a day of inky, painty, distressed (the project, not you or I) fun then please contact the shop to book a place.

Look forward to seeing you!

This is a Christmas free blogpost....

... well almost.... its a 'round-up' post so there may be a slight/ brief mention...

Last weekend I demo'd and taught a class at Colemans Craft Warehouse in Northampton.. a shop packed full of all kinds of crafting loviness. On Saturday I demo'd using JOFY16 - the Beach Hut plate (or affectionately known as 'sheds...' lol)
I created a small wooden box frame (what's not to love about those!) - great opportunity to use the Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze! (again what's to love about that product).

 ...the starfish is a small die cut embellishment.... painted in Haystack Fresco Finish...

The Warehouse stock small wooden panels.. a really nice smooth surface to paint onto:

 The little row of beach huts is one of my favourite images on the plate - such dinky, detailed little images..

I have another sample from the day - a shabby chic canvas that I need to add some detail/embellishments to before I can show you - its more shabby chic than seaside nautical like the projects above... quite a lot of paper piecing involved.... I'll blog it and then send that and the panel above to Colemans to put on display with the stamps.

Sunday was a day of classes.. spring summer in the morning....

... and {brace yourselves} Christmas in the afternoon..

I'm sorry to use the C word but people are actually starting to make the Christmas cards already - don't moan at me - I'm just responding to the requests! :o)

Then there was a brief visit to hospital, resulting in several days of rest....

... and then yesterday I taught a class at The Artistic Stamper.  A lovely group of ladies came and stamped, painted and inked their way through the day to create these:

Love how they are all so different!..

... and today I am mainly resting, getting ready for the next week - Christmas doesn't make itself you know - ooop sorry - there's that word again! lol
Is now a bad time to tell you that I bought 3 decorations on Thursday... for purely crafting purposes!  lol

Enjoy!

Its beginning to look a lot more like Christmas....

... at PAHQ and my house!  PaperArtsy and I have just released new Christmas JOFY designs to get everybody in the festive spirit... hohoho

Its almost time to dust off the tinsel, start baking the mince pies, practice being nice (not naughty) and please, take a look at my latest release of festive loveliness...

In the 4 A5 plates and 8 minis there's something for everyone - stars, trees, bunting (we must have bunting- its the festive season! a rule in JoFYland), a tasty christmas pudding and a few signs to point Father Christmas in the right direction! lol
And who needs 3 wise monkeys when you can have 3 wise snowmen to steer you through the festive season..

  

8 mini designs.. some of which you could you use all year round:

  

May I be first to wish you 

a very merry christmas and happy and healthy 2014!

*ducks and runs for cover from the Bah Humbugs among you!*

Craft Stamper October...

... issue is out now - and I have a 3.2.1 article showing some things to do with one stamp - yep just 1 stamp! how often do we make projects with just.one.stamp...
I know I rarely do- the more stamps the merrier lol

Another great issue - so go take a look....

xx

Tick Tock...

... is the Canvas Workshop I'll be teaching at The Artistic Stamper on Saturday (7th Sept)..

There are still a couple of places left so if you fancy a day of inky, painty fun then come and join us - contact the shop to book a place.

xx

The Cat's Meow....

.... was the PaperArtsy stamp collection used by the 3upsters over on the blog yesterday..  and they (as usual!) created some great projects.  The stamp range is very different to the other ranges - it has a slightly retro/cartoony style.  I like the range - fun images.

Back in 2007 I upcycled a little book using the stamps - I blogged about it then but only the front cover (?!) so I thought I share the whole book with you now, prompted by yesterday's PA theme:

This cat image is great - I love it! and lets face it- what cat doesn't think it should wear a crown!

This was created in the days before Fresco Finish - I think I would've painted it with Ranger Dabbers - Wild Plum/Raspberry & Stream (who didn't love those colours!).

The book is an upcycled kiddies book - only about 6x6 or 8x8cm - great size (and I love a little book project) and the book was sturdy - I only took off the printed layer and painted directly on to the cardboard pages. Love it.

It shows photos of our first two cats Fredd and Phoebe- now sadly in the big cattery in the sky.  Lovely to have this little reminder of them...

The paw print image is so appropriate - cats love to sit on what you're reading or working on don't they! Several times I've had to catch a cat BEFORE they jump on the desk and land in paint or AFTER they've done it and trodden paw prints everywhere - gotta love 'em. :o)

Just thought I'd show you what I created with the Cat's Meow stamps. They are fun stamps - and there are some really nice alphabets on the plates - go take a look here on the PaperArtsy site

Have a good day!