Its beginning to look a lot like christmas......

... especially on 15 October when I'll be at That's Crafty in Romford running a very festive workshop...

In this workshop we'll create a lovely niche featuring this year's JOFY snowman.... using inks, stamps and paint.. and yes, there will be glitter/sparkliness!!

There are still a few places available - contact the shop to book a place...

ho ho ho!!

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!

ALBOTAT: A day with Seth Apter...

... a couple of weeks ago I went to a workshop with Seth Apter, organised by PaperArtsy.  Such a lot of fun, and learning...

I lost count of how many layers were used to create this. :o)  All done with Fresco Finish paints.

Detail of front cover... mono printing, stamping, painting, stenciling, doodling - you name it, we did it! lol

A great day.  If you get the chance to do a class with Seth - take it!  You won't be disappointed.

ALBOTAT: Birthday card & present....

... for Mr JoFY..

I'd been trying to find a big metal 'M' to go in Matt's 'man cave' for a while and found these cardboard marquee letters by Heidi Swapp...  Started off as white cardboard, I painted it in a mix of grey Fresco Finish paints (Concrete, Slate, Elephant (now discontinued, sadly) mixed with white) and finished with a top coat of Metallic Glaze.  The treadplate in the centre also started off as white cardboard which I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and painted in the same way.

It looks great with or without its lights on, and hubby loved it.

I couldn't resist painting 2 of the Tim Holtz crazy cats to resemble our two furry family members - the shapes and facial expressions were spot on!  Makes me smile.

Be still my Gelli® print loving heart....

Last Sunday I spent a 'Gelli® plate play day' with Emma, Emma, and Leandra (such a good day) and the following Monday I was still inspired so I thought I'd get creative... 

I decided I needed to work bigger than the previous day's experiments so I laid out my 12x14in Gelli® plate.... now we're talking!... so much lovely space to play with!

This was only going to be a quick printing session (unfortunately other things to do - don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of creative time!).. but it was a good session AND I remembered to take photos!!

Here we go:

Adding paint to the Gelli® plate - spacing them out, then spreading and blending across the area with a brayer.

I laid my chosen masks onto the wet plate: (LOVE these three 'deconstructed lilies' masks from Stencil Girl, available from That's Crafty)

This is the first print I pulled, I really like the different colours blended through, and how the masks lay over the edge of the plate/print:

Once the first print was pulled, I removed the masks which revealed paint underneath where they had been - so I pulled this print:

and this is the clean-up/ghost print:

I liked those prints so much - but you must know by now from reading this blog - I love a bit of vintage printed paper!... so laid the masks out again and printed some more:

I love how these turned out - can't bring myself to cut them up! Might need to frame them in someway!

I think these might be the first of many!

If you don't have a Gelli® plate yet go and get yourself one - they are such a good mixed media tool.  Seriously! You won't be disappointed.  

PaperArtsy will have Gelli® plates at the AllyPally show this weekend

I'll have some more samples over the next few days....

(Gelli® used with permission. Owned by Gelli Arts® LLC)

sad, neglected little blog of mine....

...I'm sorry little blog - I promise to do better! and do better for you lovely people who stop by this blog and see the same picture/blog post... apologies to you too....

so, to go some way to making amends, over the next few days (maybe a week depending on how many worthwhile snippets I find!) I'm going to share some of the Instagrams I've posted (and some I didn't, thinking they'd make it to the blog, but didn't...).. and other stuff that I hope you'll like....

These little bites of ALBOTAT (A Little Bit Of This And That!) are going to be in no particular order what so ever.....  (well, I'll put some thought into their order of appearance but not too much - lets just get them out there shall we - less overthinking! lol)

Lets start with this:

It was Mr JoFY and mine's wedding anniversary last week - 11 years - and each year he buys me a lovely bouquet of flowers which includes ornamental cabbages as they were in my wedding bouquet...

The cabbages are gorgeous - and not just the tops - look a the fabulous colour of the stems! (and no they don't smell, people ask that when you tell them you like cabbages as flowers)

.... and this morning I changed the water in the vase and threw the 'dead' leaves in the sink - look at the gorgeous colours!

How's that for a colour scheme!

Lush!

Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative!

Is what I do when art journaling ....

I thought I'd share with you some pages from my Dylusions journal - I am really enjoying working in this at the moment - its taken a while, I think thats because I had two spreads in it I REALLY DID NOT LIKE... and every time I opened the journal there they were right at the front... horrible (they were just. not. me) and so I didn't work in the book... then I thought enough is enough.
I took photos of both spreads (I wanted a reference of 'what not to do!') and glued the spreads shut... with matte medium - there's no getting those suckers open now!... and I am free to work in my journal without being taunted by the ugly spreads......
(and no I couldn't paint over them- I tried - but the dye from the 'bleeding art tissue' kept seeping through! persistent little product! lol)

accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative!

I'm using the Dylusion square journal and each page measures around 22.5x22.5cm so its a nice big space to work on.
I use the pages quite a lot when I'm gelli printing - to clean my brayer, to make ghost prints and clean up prints.... so here are few of those spreads:

This page was a clean up page, over printed with bubble wrap (love a bit of that!).  I added stenciling with Baltic Blue Fresco paint, and added gold emboss for a bit of contrast against the matte paint.

The page has very rough, distressed look... I like it that way - and its distressed in a different way to the spread below:

Gelli print patchwork created with ghost prints and clean up prints - I really like creating these (see HERE for a project I created using the patchwork to create a masterboard).... and you can't go wrong with a bubble wrap print!

This is 1/2 of a spread that I treated as 2 separate pages (reason for the outline), it was created by simply running the brayer over it to get rid of excess paint - easy and I'm sure we've all done that to use up extra paint - shame to waste it! I then, several weeks/months later, doodled on some flowers..

This spread was made during a Gelli plate demonstration at the PaperArtsy Seth Apter event a few weekends ago - a real lets try it all page - its just a jumble of techniques and its fun - I think it'll be the base for more added layers.

Detail of the spread - 2 types of bubble wrap (why use one when you can have two types!), stamping (additive and subtractive), and drawing a my fingernail....

and next, just in case you think all my spreads in this journal are blue... how this for a pop of colour:

Chartruesse and Neon Pink - do not adjust your sets! it really is quite bright!  Love it!  Its not finished - I feel a bit of black coming on! (unleashing my inner punk?!?)

I'll end this post with something a little calmer... my take on Bokeh style.. a spread I created while prepping for a class..

I painted the entire spread, then gave the right hand page a white wash before stamping one of my girls, while the left page was left without. Interesting to see the difference - also black outlines on left page and 'white fire' on right page... but they still work as a spread - the phrase suits the girly I think.


I hope you've enjoyed this look in side my journal - some of you saw me demo in it at the PA/Seth Apter event - now I've glued the nasty pages together I'm happy to take it out in public!

Thanks for stopping by.

x

Ho ho ho!

Its beginning to look a lot like christmaaaaaaas!!... and to get you in the mood I have new very festive JOFY stamp sets for you...

Over on the PaperArtsy blog there are projects using these new stamps... pop over to take a look.

Ooooh I love this cakestand loaded with baubles!.. and the parcel (which is going to be so useful all year round! ..more about that later in this post!)

I've wanted to design a snowflake background for a while so here it is... along with this year's snowman... he's complete (which hasn't always been the case!) but standing on his head! and why not?!


Here is the card I promised in my PaperArtsy blog post... its so easy to use the parcel/gift stamp all through the year - simply change the papers used in the paper-piecing and add a different sentiment to your tag!  The tag and sentiment I used on the card below is from the new mini JM51.

This card is quite clean and simple but you can fancy-it-up to your hearts desire!

Have fun - and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

:o)

Wanderlust 2017....

Wanderlust is whole year long journey - an online event offering you videos from 24 guest teachers and 2 resident teachers on weekly basis (each one is full length, high quality and downloadable), access to the Wanderlust Community with a supportive and friendly atmosphere, where all classes are gathered. You will also find there various activities that will stimulate your creativity and motivate you to simply enjoy the process of making art. Together with the class you will also get an exclusive whole year discount to leading art and craft retailers..

Wanderlust class is the perfect alternative to in-person classes!

Look at all these fabulous teachers revealed so far...

... Mary Wangerin, Wilna Furstenberg, Amanda Grace, Alena Hennessy., Guriana, Jessica Sporn, Mindy Lacefield, Dyan Reaveley, Kate Crane, Finnabair, Vicky Papaionnou, Rae Missigman, Sandra Evertson, Nicki Dennett....

and now me! (still pinching myself... but yes I am on the roll call for 2017!)

I'm so excited (still doing a little happy dance!), proud &amp thrilled to be included in the list of teachers for Wanderlust 2017, and I look forward to sharing my art with everyone!

Click on my graphic above to sign up for a year's worth of awesome inky painty inspirational classes.... its going to fabulous! so why wouldn't you! ... go on - sign up - you won't be disappointed!

Buy Wanderlust 2017 before 31st December 2016 and save 20%!

Early Bird Price - £79! (regular price £99)

Now it’s a great time to buy the class to take advantage of the current exchange rate!

I look forward to seeing you all there!

x