January Craft Stamper.....

... is out this week and is a fabulously festive issue!  So if you need an extra bit of inspiration for your christmas this is the magazine for you!

I'm feeling extra festive as I have an article in there too...

So if you want to feel a bit less 'bah humbug' and a bit more 'ho ho ho' then go grab yourself a copy - you really won't be disappointed!

Merry christmas!!

Christmas cards....

.... are on the {ever growing} christmas 'to-do' list... and I wanted to share with you a couple of cards I made using stamp set JOFY69 and the smaller of the two trees...  they're quite simple, a little bit 'less-is-more', bit of paper piecing and a sprinkle of glitter...

When I designed these trees this is how I planned to use them - layering up different patterned papers.  I picked out some papers from the 8x8in pads I have in my stash (Basic Grey... sigh.. I miss their papers). 

I chose three patterns that I thought worked nicely together and, using my stamping platform, stamped 3 trees and cut them out.

I cut the trees up ready to be layered - leaving a tier above or below the required tier so that there is something to attached it to (that's quite hard to explain lol) 

The trees below are created from the trees above... (I used a Tombow glue stick to attach them together as it gives a bit of wiggle time)

The trees looked a bit flat so I added depth by shading below the line of each tier to create shadow. (Tombow Brush Marker in pale grey) - simple but makes a big difference when you compare the above and below photos.  (I also added a white top tier to one of the trees, I thought it didn't have enough pattern changes).

I stamped the tree trunk several times onto brown printed paper and cut out leaving excess at the top (looks like a little mushroom!) so the trunk could be attached to the tree.

Here's the trunk from the front.

These trees are a bit time consuming but worth it! (in my humble opinion).

To make the cards I took a 10cm panel of kraft card and stamped JM07 down one edge (this snowflake stamps is a definite 'go-to' for me!), mounted it onto a 12.5cm card and 3d mounted the tree on top - overlapping the edge to tie the two panels together.

This card is the opposite colour combination to the card above - they're the same but different.  I like that.  I added a touch of glitter (Stickles) and gold paint (PaperArtsy White Fire Fresco) for a bit of sparkle.

I think this is a good card to make sitting down in front of the tv with a nice christmas film... a bit of stamping, bit of fussy (but not too fussy) cutting and some sticking!... and you can attack the stash in the process.!  ho ho ho!

Thanks for stopping by!

A touch of sparkle and shine....

... over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight...

click on the photo to visit the blog...

Stamping a round....

... over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight...

Go HERE to see how I created a ROUND design using a stamp platform...

Christmas Workshop No. 2 !!!

24 October 2018

Ooooh!  A little bit more Christmas creativity!

In this workshop we'll be working with Artist Trading Coins - a fab little size to create some festive art on - hang them on the tree, use as part of christmas wrapping... the choice is yours!
We'll be working on MDF coins which will take the weight of the embellishment and decorations that will be available for you to work with... and you can tailor them to your colour scheme.

The class will be held at the Leigh-on-Sea Community Centre, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex and run from 7.00-9.30pm.
The cost of the class is £25.00 and everything you need is included - substrates, embellishments, & materials.
To book a place, or ask any questions please contact me on jo@jofy.co.uk.

There will be glitter! Well it is christmas... and it wouldn't be christmas without a touch of glitter would it?!

Ho ho ho!!

Art Journaling.. No' 2...

... another journal spread with touches of neon paint (and why not!)... 

I wanted to create a spread using one of my new word stamps (JOFY68) and one of the reasons I chose these particular words is that they can be used at other times than christmas (except for 'christmas' obviously!)

This spread is a bit 'motivational' -  and I like how all the different fonts mix together..

Paint splatters, die cutting, flowers (JOFY62) and some Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers make for a nice less-is more-spread - well, I say less is more but the background is made up of layers of writing (painted over), stenciling, a splattering of stamping, painting around the edges and then the main images.... 

Thanks for stopping by...

Art Journaling....

... is a great way to 'play' in a constructive way... I use the Dylusions small journal a lot - I have a couple of the other Dylusion journals but the size of this one seems to suit me - in the same way as my thinking/planning journal (yes I have separate ones for that) is a 25x25cm spiral bound journal - I think the square shape fits my 'thinking' - not portrait or landscape... (and it obviously works for me  as I have a shelf holding 30 sketchbooks of that size - so it must a good fit! lol)

I think some of you must know what I mean - when you try a new journal, a different shape, or binding and it just doesn't feel 'right'... I once tried a rectangular journal where the binding was on the short edge.. shudder - that one just felt sooo wrong - I think I got about 5 pages in and gave up... it was stifling...

Aaaaanyhoo back to the small Dylusion journal - the thing I like about it is when its closed it is quite small (book pages are 5x8 inches) & rectangular but an open spread basically looks square - now you understand why I like it - its SQUARE!!!

#easilypleased

You might've started to wonder why I'm telling you all this... its just leading into showing you a spread from that journal...

look - no stamping!! none whatsoever.. not even a little bit in the background!

Its all sketches and doodles - and I think there's a little bit of stenciling under all the doodling and painting...  I worked on it (on and off) over the space of a week because each time I opened the journal and looked at the pages they seemed wrong... unfinished... unbalanced...

So I just kept working on it until it seemed 'done' - another set of doodles around the flowers... another flower.. just kept going.. and now its done.
I love the neon pink and 'Mermaid' blue colour scheme - and the black makes it pop!...

So, here's my 'advice' for the day - if I can call it that - try not to give up on a page: add something new, remove something - paint over something that bothers you and replace it something else...
If all else fails take a photo of the page (for reference - learn from what you did) and then glue the pages together! lol  I've done that several times because I don't want to keep seeing the spread when I look through the journal.

I'll post another page tomorrow.. with less waffle! lol

Thanks for stopping by

Christmas, and not so christmas, makes...

First up, a card using 'christmas' from JOFY68 and the stars from JOFY70...

  

Next is a gift bag stamped/decorated with the same stars.. and a tag using one of the circle/star/box motifs from JOFY65

A single one of these motifs can be used by masking off the the others (and the sentiment that runs above it)...

On that stamp set I designed word stamps that fit in the boxes but you don't have to use them - I left the box blank enabling me to personalise it with the recipients name...

Now something un-christmassy... the words can be assembled so they can be used for a birthday card...

I 3d mounted the stars, and added shading on the edges of the boxes to give the impression of 3d mounting... (Tombox pens were used for the colouring on this card)... great for mens cards ?!?

Thanks for stopping by

JoFY Bingo Wk.16

Welcome to JOFY Bingo Week16!  Halfway through the 32 weeks this little project is going to take!

These christmas stamps keep coming up in the draw don't they!  This week the numbers are 7 & 11- a nice mix to create cards with this...

I wanted to move away from the christmas theme and so created 3 birthday cards using - the first of which are created using the star on JOFY07 as the main motif...

I kept the design quite simple - stamping the stars on to a background created with Distress Oxide inks, cutting them out, embellishing them and adding them to card base decorated simply with the little background stamp also on JOFY07.  The word blocks are from JOFY11 - useful little motifs.

The third card I made uses one of my favourite techniques - paper piecing - and uses mostly the flower images from JOFY11 - but I couldn't resist adding bunting from JOFY07...

To create a colour palette for the whole card I used the same Distress Oxide Inks for the background and painting the flowers, and also the same pack of paper for the bunting and the flowers.

The hitch is that the bunting spells out 'noel' which isn't good for birthdays (unless the recipient is called Noel, but that's a long shot isn't it! lol) so it has to be masked off ...

I mask off parts of the design by stamping the image onto post-it-notes (across the sticky part), cutting out the required elements and adding them to the stamp...

This is how it looks when stamped with the elements masked off...

The masked off image was stamped several times onto patterned papers and then cut out ready to be added to the card design..

The bunting looked a bit plain so I added die cut hearts (cut from the leftovers from the star cards)..

Flowers were stamped in black ink onto the background and again onto patterned papers.  The images were cut out and matched up...

I drew and painted simple posts for the word blocks so they look like little signs...

Phew!... half way through the JoFY Bingo project!

Thanks for stopping by!