When real flowers aren't allowed....

... you have to find an alternative!

My dad is in hospital at the moment, and the hospital (like a lot of others) doesn't allow real flowers - which seems a shame because they really brighten up a room don't they?!  So, I made him a basket of flowers - JOFY flowers.. seemed appropriate.  So with a flat basket from Hobbycraft, papers from my stash, JOFY stamps and a (Stix2) hot glue gun I made him this:

Happy to say that my Dad loved it.  :o)

#365Challenge.... February!!

Here are all the pages for February in one picture packed blog post - you might want to get a cuppa before you sit down... :o)

I'm simply going to show you the pages and give some background information/explanation on a few of them - when I think/hope it might be helpful to you in some way...

Here we go:

The pages in this book are 6x8inches, the book is an upcycled atlas I bought in a charity shop aaaaages ago (and according to the inscription on the front page is the property of the 'Geography department, South East Essex Sixth Form College'! lol)

 

Gelli printed page + stencilled flowers (PS055) + small flowers (JM49) in Snowflake Fresco Finish Paint.

This page was created from a piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper....
I really like the starburst effect but really couldn't use the cowboy illustration (!!) but I didn't want to waste the background, so I started thinking of ways to cover it up (still only using things from the stash)

I liked how the doily covered pretty much everything but the sparkly burst still shows from underneath which is what I wanted...

 Panel of paper added to cover the word 'cowboy' and another smaller one to stamp the date onto

 Then I realised that the whole page looked better rotated 180degrees - allowing for the binding holes and also for the other elements that I was planning on adding...

 The strips of music score running under and over the patterned strips help tie everything together (stops them 'floating'), the bird is die cut from a gelli print (there are lots of those in my workroom! lol) and the branch is a die cut (Tim Holtz/Sizzix). The phrase is from JOFY15.

and not a cowboy in sight! lol

 I've 'rediscovered' my spirograph! can you tell! (its cropping up on several pages this month)

This page was created by taking a clean-up gelli print, stencilling on top with  PS056 (using Snowflake Fresco Finish) and adding words from Emma Godfrey's EEG17 & 14

The question in the Flow calendar for the 22 February (yes, I'm still considering those questions when I make my pages) was 'Who knows you the best?'... well it has to Matt, my husband... but, he's not overly keen on having his photo taken so I disguised his face by writing over his photograph - I really like the way this looks and I think it works really well (& I think printing the page in black and white helped too)

lol, yep more spirograph! lol  I should clarify - this isn't the kit I had as a child. This is one I bought relatively recently (probably in The Works) - it came with an activity book - the book has long gone but I am making full use of the kit that was attached to the front!

Question for day 24 was 'does wisdom come with age?' hhhmm I hope so! but I also think that you should keep on learning, keep trying new things... learn something new every day - however big or small.

Phew... another month finished... 59 down, 306 to go.....

I'm still enjoying creating these pages - March's book is 5x7 inches in size and landscape!  oh yes.. another small challenge- most of my stamp designs are portrait ie tall rather than wide so working landscape might be a bit of a challenge but that is what this year long project is all about - goal setting and learning something along the way..,

Thanks for stopping by.

Jo

Masterboards & Masks

Yesterday was my turn on the PaperArtsy blog - you can read the post HERE.  

Well, I finished painting the boards but I couldn't quite leave it there.....!

I mounted the black gesso'd panel onto heavyweight mixed media paperstock, stamped over the flower in black Archival and then embossed in Copper - but only the parts of the image on the black panel (otherwise the stamping would be lost).

I like this so much - with the added construction lines it reminds me of a vintage wallpaper design in the planning stages.

Thanks for popping by... 

Facebook Live and Periscope!

I went on Facebook Live and Periscope on Saturday evening shortly before the release of the latest JOFY products and demo'd a couple of new products with quick projects - I thought I'd give you some details of what I created and answer some of the questions that popped up on Periscope... and show you the finished projects..

For both projects I kept to the same colour scheme which is shown below - lush colours!

I 'broadcasted/streamed' (?!) on Facebook first, where I created this white flower on a kraft background - the stamp is JOFY51 and stencil PS037.

I was asked in the comments on the PaperArtsy blog do I go over the stamped lines with a black pen.... the answer is yes, sometimes I do - if the print hasn't come out perfectly (much more to do with my inking of the stamp than the quality of the stamps - PaperArtsy stamps are some of the best around (if not the best around!)).  The pen I use is an Artline pigment ink pen.

I added detail to the flower panel by adding faux stitching around the edge, gems and Stickles on the flower centre and I stamped 'happiness' in the bottom left corner. 

 I mounted the panel onto a white cardblank and stamped 'blooms from within' inside.

On Periscope I worked with the stencil/mask combination PS057, creating a tag using the positive and negative elements on this stencil.  I added white and red doodling and mounted the tag onto a white card that has been stamped with on of my mini JOFY stamps - JM49 - this is a great little stamp to use with this stencil and with JOFY50.  I was asked what white pen would I recommend - my white pen of choice is a 0.7 white Posca Pen. (The green 'clouding' around the edge is Peeled Paint distress ink, and 'Happiness blooms from within' is stamped in Leaf Green Archival ink)

Thanks to everyone who tuned in... was a lot of fun to do these mini 'broadcasts'.

x

Did someone mention a new JOFY release?!?!

..... and breeeeeaathe!... I don't have to keep it 'secret' anymore - I can talk about the new JOFY stamps, stencils and masks officially released today!  This release takes the JOFY range over the '50' mark - FIFTY TWO stamps sets!!! I can't quite believe that over the last 6 years I've designed that many - and thats not even counting the minis! phew!

I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to all you lovely peeps who have bought JOFY stamps and of course big thanks also go to the lovely uber talented team at PaperArtsy for making the stamps!...   thank you for spending your hard earned pennies on (and creating with) the JOFY range - those designs/ideas that come out of my head:

... that I draw onto paper
... that PaperArtsy turn into rubber

... that you print/stamp back onto paper .....................that's a lovely creative circle isn't it?!

This release has four new stamp sets and 4 new stencils/masks that Leandra will show you in this video..

Here are the four stamp sets:

 

Stamp and coordinating stencil

...and the other stencils...

PS057 (above) is a little different in that the flowers snip out and are masks (squeek) creating a stamp and stencil combination!!! (loving that just a little bit MUCH! lol)

Over on the PaperArtsy blog tonight there are lots of lovely samples using the new stamps, and here are a few more for you featuring the stencils...

These samples using the new stencil PS056 & 57 have all been made using the fabulous Fresco Finish paints and Archival black ink.

I also decorated this dinky little shadow box (6.5x4.5in)- it gives great dimension as there are 2 glass panels in the centre - lots of fun to work with.. I wanted to show you that the big image on JOFY51 can be used as a flower or as a sun..

To help with samples for this release I had two fantastic wingmen, big thanks go out to them both - Sarah Anderson - her blog is HERE - and Keren Baker - you can find her blog HERE - please go take a look at their blogs where you'll find more info on the projects they created.

Apart from here on my blog you can also find me on Twitter and Instagram @jofyjo and on Facebook www.facebook.com/JoFY.JoFirthYoung
I'm also thrilled to be a teacher on this year's Wanderlust - for details and sign up click on the Wanderlust graphic in the top right hand corner of the blog.

I hope you enjoy this new release & look forward to seeing what you create with them!

x