Busy, busy, busy...

... fun, fun, fun! The next few weekends (well this whole month really) are full of creative workshops - here's where I'll be during the first 2 weekends in the month - by the way I don't normally blog several events at once but on this occasion/just this once - here we go - in calendar order:

5-6 July 2014
I'm pleased to visit Colemans Warehouse in Northampton.
Saturday is their monthly demonstration day & I'll be demo'ing the latest JOFY stamps, paints & stencils...

On Sunday I'm running 2 workshops - a card class in the morning and a project class in the afternoon.
There are a couple of places left - contact the shop to book your place.


11 July 2014
The Birds in the Barn SummerFest, held at The Marks Tey Hotel, near Colchester. This is a 4 day event (10-13 July) and I'm teaching a tick-tock of a project.. its an oversized pocket watch style clock decorated with all sorts of JOFY/PaperArtsy products.
I'm really looking forward to this event- its going to a lot of fun, creativity & inspiration - 6 great teachers running workshops over the 4 days.
Contact the shop to book a place, or for more information click here to go to the shop's blog.

13 July 2014
My latest workshop at The Craft Barn   a little 'house/shed' with a garden theme - containing the bits & pieces you'd need for a garden - but all in paper and miniature.  We'll use paints, stamps, diecuts and little miniature elements to create a decorative 'greenhouse'..
(adorable - even if I do say so myself! lol)

I'd love to show you how to create all these projects so please follow the links and contact the shops to book your place.

x

Its beginning to look a lot like Chriiiiisstmaaaas..

... hahaha only joking!
We haven't had summer yet here in the UK - well, there were those few days early in June but I'm very much hoping that wasn't our entire summer!

I'm only talking about christmas because I wanted to share a quick tutorial with you prompted by a few questions I've had about the 'swirly' christmas tree on JOFY20

The question being 'how do you achieve a patterned tree?'... such as the ones on the card below...

Its quite a quick and easy effect to achieve and here's how...

Stamp the christmas tree image onto a card blank.

On the back of my stamp I have marked, in biro pen, where the bottom of the tree is so that when I stamp the image onto patterned paper I can position it so only the tree is stamped out.

Saves on paper, and cutting out! (The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that the star has been cut away from the main stamp - using 2 cuts so that it could be easily repositioned back together.)

Stamp a tree onto patterned paper and a star onto book text (its much easier when the stamp is in two parts)

Cut out the tree - just the tree - not those tricky swirls... :o)

Cut out the star and a pot stamped onto kraft card

Stick them on the tree stamped on the card blank using a glue stick; match up the images' lines:

Added a touch of shading with a felt tip pen.. I also shaded a base line under the pot - I think this 'grounds' the image otherwise it looks to be 'floating'

Stamp a sentiment (also on JOFY20) and there you have it... a patterned tree!

This tree/card design is great for using up scraps of papers & great for fans of clean&simple card designs too.

I hope you've enjoyed this mini tutorial.... & can I be the first to wish you all a very merry christmas!

ho ho ho

xx

That was then... this is now.. part 2..

Back in April I showed you these panels:

... and blogged how I altered one of them with the use of my stamps:

... I've recently altered another one- prompted by a sketch/plan I made in my sketchbook earlier this year...

...and here's how I used simple painting, stamping and stenciling to make the changes.

Firstly I sealed the surface using Matte Medium because when I altered the last panel I found the sprayed colours ran and were absorbed into newly applied layers (annoying!)- Matte Medium is great for sealing a surface because its fast drying & matte so nice surface to work onto. When the newly sealed surface was dry I white washed it Snowflake Fresco Finish, wiping off where necessary and added further layers of Snowflake around the edges and to some of the overly-pink patches that I didn't like.

Next up was stenciling - using JOFY PS007. stenciled once in Snowflake: 

.. stencil was cleaned, flipped over and used on other side so the design faces other direction:

 ... added a bit of stencil pattern around the edges:

.. used a fineliner pen to accent the edges:

.. and around the stencil flower stems...

.. BUT, I decided I didn't like the pen detailing on the flower and so coloured over it with paint and a white gel pen, which made the stencil look heavy and a bit messy - this probably wouldn't have been so noticeable had it not been so close to the other flower stem... so.. hhhmmmm how to rescue it....  I decided to white wash over the panel except for the lower flower stem which created a new focal point:

... I created a couple of tags out of kraft card white washed to soften the dark kraft colour, (words are from JOFY11) the tags were tied onto the panel with fine string (a recent favourite product of mine):

Here's another look at the finished panel - really quick'n'easy and fun to alter:

I hope this inspires you to take an existing piece of work and give it a makeover... or to create something new... or just to have fun with paper and paint and stamps...

x

I've been growing things....

 over on the PA blog....

Click on the photo to see the entire project on the PaperArtsy blog...

x

Stenciling...

... sample board on its way to The Craft Barn to sit on the racks with the JOFY stencil, paints and stamps, but I thought I'd upload it on here too as a reference/helpsheet for the lovely people out there who've bought the stencil - and hopefully it will inspire you to have a play...

I've used the same colour on each flower combination so it is easy to see the different layers:

The flowers are laid out on the board as they are on the stencil.

Here are some more sample tags I made while at the Craft Barn a couple of weeks ago - these flowers have been detailed with doodling and stamping... (& I've just realised that some of those flowers 'need' a button or two....)

L to R:  

NB - the complete flower on each tag is the one stenciled first, masked off and additional flowers added.

All colours/paints are Fresco Finish.

Layers listed in order of working...

Left hand tag:

bottom flower (1st to be stenciled): chalk base with flower 4, Amethyst & Dolly Mix blend with flower 3, stamped detail (black ink) (JOFY24)

top flower (highest on tag): chalk base with flower 4, haystack & amethyst blend with flower 2, doodled lines.

Middle tag:
bottom flower: chalk base with flower 4, amethyst shading with flower 3, stamped detail (black ink) (JOFY24)
middle flower: dolly mix & amethyst mix with flower 2, stamped in chalk using EEV06, doodled in black ink.
top flower (highest): amethyst with flower 3, doodling in white gel pen and black pen

background: freehand doodling

Right hand tag:

bottom flower (1st to be stenciled): chalk base with flower 4, Dolly Mix blend with flower 1, stamped detail (black ink) (JOFY24), haystack centre

top flower (highest on tag): dusty teal with flower 2, mix of chalk & dusty teal with flower 1, doodling/detail with white gel pen & black pen

These are simple flowers, and hopefully it will help you to realise the possibilities of the stencil - & don't forget its not just for paper & card - its a lovely stencil for working on fabric too....

xx

Dahlia's...

 .... glorious luscious pompoms of colour!! I really enjoy having them in the garden and watching them bloom... I thought I'd share some floral inspiration/eye-candy with you- colour (hot pink & orange!!) and form...

love how the colour is different on the underside of the petals:

(hahaha do you like how my nail varnish unintentionally matches the flowers!)

and even when the flowers have turned and are dying off they are still striking and interesting:

 lovely crinkled petals drying out in the sun..

xx

This little lady....

... has been waiting patiently in my garden to have her photo taken.... 

..well in truth she's been sat on my studio desk while I decide whether or not to turn her into a bigger project - I've decided against taking it further and so here she is - in the garden of the www for a breath of fresh air.

She's a Prima Girl, on a Prima Tag - flowers are all JOFY images - the real flowers are a Clematis - I love the detail of the flowers on this variety...

She was posing on the gates that I bought last year - LOVE how big, distressed, rusty and OLD they are (approx 5feet in height). We've moved them from the back fence to a side fence so they get more sun:

The clematis is settling in nicely and growing around the gates' detail - makes me very happy - just what I wanted it to do:

(& look at that fantastic cracked paint!!!)

I'm quite new to this gardening malarky - and as well as a few fails there have been some successes, such as the digitalis that has basically sewn and grown itself - my kind of plant lol.... I like these a lot - so pretty - especially the inside of the flower

This morning the popped head burst - revealing this gorgeous flower:

all those 'frilly' pieces are so delicate they move move in the wind..

Love the aubergine markings on the underside of the poppy, solid on the inside.... but sadly it has started to fade already.. makes me a little sad...

and finally, in stark contrast to the delicate poppy, here is the most vicious plant in the garden - a white eurygnium - look but don't touch - they're really sharp!! lol

Mother Nature really is a clever chick isn't she!

We now have 2 more gates in the garden! (couldn't resist!) both with clematis growing up them - this one is called Ooh la la:

.. and this one is Josephine - can't wait for this one to flower - its going to have lovely flowers on it - similar to Ooh la la but with mini 'pompoms' in the centre...

I like gardening but not sure I'm patient enough- the plants are NOT growing fast enough - I'm so impatient to see the flowers and their colour!!... lol... but all the plants are quite new so hopefully next year the garden will be bursting with colour - slugs allowing!

xx

Lovely day...

... at The Craft Barn for the Extravaganza!

I demo'd: stenciled, stamped, painted, chatted/laughed while demo'ing - putting faces to names, meeting lovely new people - sharing/talking ideas & inspiration... lovely to see everyone.

I mainly demo'd my flower stencil - PS009, with stamps, paints and detail pens... showing how the four flowers can be layered up to create different combinations of flowers ... (I'll show examples of this later in the week...)

The panel below shows the flowers detailed with all kinds of doodling - once you start doodling its hard to stop! (put the pen down & move away from the page! lol)

The Craft Barn sells all the products I demo'd (obviously! lol) and so, as an add-on to the weekend, the links given in this particular blog post will direct you to the Craft Barn store.

In the shop they sell really useful/versatile/inexpensive kraft/natural covered notebooks in different sizes (HERE)- the covers are a lovely surface to paint onto - & I created my demo projects onto these (I think they'd make great little presents..)
Here is the A5 size book -

The cover is painted with Dusty Teal Fresco Finish, with circles stamped in Pearl Glaze (using EEV06 stamp set) - I like this glaze because it is subtle on the background - catching the light now and then without creating an overwhelming pattern.  The large flower is created with stencil PS009, small flowers are stamped in Chalk using images from stamp set JOFY23, and the letters are from JOFY21.

Here is the A6 version - similar design but with smaller dots in the background than the A5 notebook and less flowers...

I really like the contrast of the Pearl Glaze and the Chalk Matte paint.

I created a really quick sample when asked about a stencil - definitely less-is-more - and I really like it - a card that could be used for so many different occasions - love the colour and the simplicity of the design - stencil is PS007 painted with Dolly Mix and Amethyst, the stamped images are from stamp set JOFY24.

So that's what I did on Sunday - thanks again to all of you who came along - these are always great weekends with lots of different styles, products and ideas being demonstrated. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

I'll be back a The Craft Barn on the 29th June for a Die Cutting Masterclass workshop - hope to see some of you there....details can be found on my teaching page (press the button under the main title at the top of this page) or go direct to the Craft Barn page - here,


xx