Things are changing over on the lilypad...

... because Banana Frog will be closing the doors to the lilypad at the end of January.
I have really enjoyed my 3 years on the Design Team - 3 years!! Time really does fly when you're having fun!
I'd like to thank Bev (Leader of the Lilypad!)(Top Froglette) for inviting me onto the DT, for being a great designer of stamps, and for generally being a bit of a superstar! lol
And thanks to all the Frog-Followers for stopping by the Banana Frog blog and looking at all the DT's projects, I hope you've been inspired to go and stamp on anything and everything :o)

I've been taking a look at the projects I've made over the last 3 years for Projects of the Days, Blog Hops and for Bev's tv appearances and I thought I'd show you some of my favourites.
 
One of my favourite stamps sets is 'Scribble Flowers' - *love* this set!

Looking back I've made lots of cards with the stamps sets, and also a couple of lengths of bunting - and I think that I've mentioned how much I like bunting - it makes me happy!

The bunting banner above was created for a Project of the Day, and the one below was made for Bev to take to a Create & Craft filming as a sample... so pretty it makes me smile and feel all christmassy! lol

Its really hard to choose favourite projects, or favourite stamps sets - I like each one for different reasons - here's 'Retro Space' (a really fun set) - I think this card is one of my most favourite that I've created - its soo retro! (and you can't tell from the photo but its dimensional. love!)

And last but not least - CUPCAKES!! These cards are too pretty by far - can't beat pink, sparkles and cupcakes.

I hope you've enjoyed my little look back at projects, if you hop on over to the Banana Frog site there are lots of bargains to be had... though things are going fast so I'd be quick if I were you!

Take care

Jo

Project of the Day :: Wrap it Up :: Banana Frog

Typepad is not in a happy mood and is not letting me load up my Banana Frog project of the day - so I'm blogging it here and linking across - so instead of the usual sneakpeek I show on here this month you get to see the whole thing! (I need to blog it somewhere and here's as good a place as any! lol)

My project of the day is made with three things in mind:
1) Attacking the stash
2) Recycling
3) Gift Wrapping - christmas is only 40 days away!!  :o)

Through the year I've bought several packs of Sizzix Embossing folders and they come in clear plastic pillow box - no printing or embossing on them - great for recycling! :o)

I got out a couple of my favourite Banana Frog sets - Backgrounds & Cake Greetings:

I cut deep strips of paper - about 9x30cm - and stamped along the length to create a decorative background.

Then I punched some decorative borders and attached them to the back of the above strips.
I stamped up a greeting strip and stuck that on top.

I'm still working my way through the pile of rosettes I made a while back so picked out ones that worked with the colourschemes and used them as a focal point for the wrap.

I stamped and punched motifs & attached them to the rosettes that I then attached to the wrap with glue dots.  I wrapped all of this around the plastic pillow boxes, added some bakers twine (love!) and stuffed with tissue paper.

I really enjoyed making these - reduce, reuse and recycle - and are such a cute way to wrap something.  All they need now is a gift inside.

For more details on Banana Frog products go here: http://www.bananafrog.co.uk/

Yellow!....

... as in:
1. BANANA Frog Project of the day.
2. a colour I don't 'like'
3. the colour of the page I made for LSNED - Day 15

All the stamps used on the above page are Banana Frog - from the 'circus stories' and 'all about... journaling' sets.  I'm telling you this because Typepad wouldn't let me upload ANYthing over on the BananaFrog blog where I would normally put Banana Frog projects and information. ggggrrrr.

Yellow
I'm not a big fan of yellow.... - I don't wear it, I don't decorate with it and on the whole I don't craft with it... but this week (and last week come to think of it)(lol) I was in a phenomenally bad mood - seriously bad mood but I still had to make a page for my LSNED scrapbook - making a bad mood page didn't seem like a very positive thing to do so I set out to create a page that was so ridiculously sunny, bright and perky that it would be the polar opposite of my mood.  This is how the yellow page came about... it may be the only yellow page in the whole album - we'll have to wait and see...
I like how it turned out - threw on some of my favourite things (Buttons! couldn't resist).. and the page has sort of worked in relation to my mood: the colour is so not me that it makes me smile.
Who knew. lol

Attacking the Stash!!...part 1

 ... its an ongoing task - to attack/use the stash I've accumulated (all part of 'reduce, reuse, recycle') - and over at Banana Frog today I've created some 'scrappy' cards

Thanks for stopping by

Good Luck!!

... is the theme of my Project of the Day over at Banana Frog.... Click HERE to go there.

Say it with Flowers....

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers.... seems to be the theme of my projects at the moment!  and over at Banana Frog my Project of the Day is no exception.. head on over HERE to see more..

Thanks for stopping by... or hopping by.. get it?..  frog .. hopping?!   oh nevermind...

Banana Frog day!!

Tags but of a different type - over on the Banana Frog blog ... aaaah so many tags so little time....

All dressed up for Banana Frog day!

For me this year is about trying to 'reduce, reuse & recycle', destashing (ok thats not going quite so well 'cos there are some reeeeaally nice (and frankly irresistable) paper & stamp collections coming out, but I'm doing my best!) and generally working with a less is more approach...
My project over on the Banana Frog blog this month is along those lines, and you can take a look HERE!

Scrap Cards...

I was trying to tidy my workroom the other day and I started with all the best intentions..... but I was constantly side-tracked by the bits and pieces I kept finding in the piles (which I swear arrive overnight and have nothing to do with me... at all).... I found a booklet of Making Memories notelet thingies and in another box I was clearing I found the matching flowers! Kerrching... so I made the above cards (stamps are Banana Frog, Basic Grey, Imagine That & I think the spots is Hero Arts..??)
Excuse the crease on the first card I didn't notice that until I photographed them - & thats because I didn't have my nice new glasses (reading glasses!!!  for goodness sake - I know they say it all goes wrong once you're 40 but seriously- its only been 3months!! gggrrrr)
(the glasses are nice tho- got sparklies on!... no not Dame Edna Everidge stylee.. but I thought if I had to wear them then I might as well have statement ones! rofl)
aaaanyhoo, the cards are the Kraft type from DoCrafts/Papermania - not as thick/heavyweight as I'd have liked - they've gone a bit bent - I'll put them under something heavy and flat which will hopefully sort that out - & I hope so 'cos I've got 100 of the devils! lol

Getting all 'loved' up over at Banana Frog

Its my Project of the Day over on the Banana Frog blog.. go take a look - I've got something ready for Valentines day...
Bev (Queen of the lilypad) has asked me to stay on as a Design Team member for another year - yay! (that was my big news) and I'm hopping with happiness to do so! (get it? ..HOPPING.. banana FROG.. oh never mind)
Go take a look.....

Banana Frog Day!!

...and a little bit of christmas over on the blog

(and yes this is my latest favourite punch... and i'm not afraid to use it... on anything and everything! lol)

Banana Frog Blog Hop

Yesterday I didn't think we'd see any snow down here in Essex - I was wrong! Yay!  ...Though the snow might get boring very quickly - I think OH is bored/fed up already after it took him 2 HOURS to get to work - it normally takes 30 minutes! ouch!
So I think this months blog hop is going to more of a blog sledge & ski trip - so wrap up warm and take a look around... just follow the links...

So here's my card featuring the lovely Rudolph from the 'Its christmas.. deer' set - love that stamps - I always think Rudolph looks like he's had one christmas sherry too many! lol  The background is stamped with 'Retro Snowflakes'

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop - and don't forget to leave comments along the way - there'll be prizes!!

Next stop Lori : http://lovescraplife.typepad.com/il_mio_weblog/ where she'll have something lovely to share with you..

Enjoy & keep warm!

HoHoHo - Banana Frog Day! (and WOYWW)

24 ATCs later.....

go HERE to take a look

PS: 38 days 'til Christmas.....

PPS
I almost forgot today was Wednesday (don't ask)!

Here's my desk - possibly an even less interesting picture than last week (ie very tidy, no half made items,no fiddly twiddly bits & pieces and shockingly no cups of coffee!!) - its my computer desk with this month's dt pieces for Banana Frog... multi-tasking! 
Sorry - craft desk pic's will return next week (or during the week - so please pop back!)

Christmas!!!!!!

...is only 100 days away!! How is that possible?!?

Aaaanyhoo no time for contemplations about the passing of time - its my day over at Banana Frog and as its only 100 days to the big C (not to be confused with my big 40 which is ever looming (36 days and not really counting lol)) I've created an ATC advent thingymajigy over on the blog - click on the pretty picture underneath to visit

If you squint and look carefully...

... you'd have seen my 'snow' bunting on Create & Craft TV yesterday - obviously Bev (Queen of the Lilypad over at Banana Frog) and her demonstrations on the Banana Frog show were the main attraction but my bunting was there in the background... shown here top right in this dodgy photograph taken of the tv screen (again)

Now that picture's not really doing my bunting any justice at all  ( :o)  ) so here are some much better shots....

What can I say - bunting makes me happy!  I think I'm going to have to make some more in this colour way to go across the fireplace at christmas because it matches last years decorations perfectly! (though not sure how M would feel about that - its 'quite' girlie! lol)

I'm quite impressed that it looks so christmassy considering that when I made it the temperature outside was in the high 80s!!

Tomorrow I'll have several heads on (Worzel Gummage stylee) - I'll be teaching with PaperArtsy products over at Imagine That (which I'm looking forward to) and its also my day over on the Banana Frog Blog....
Sheesh!  Its all in the planning!

Busy day here at JoFY.co.uk!!

OK, its a wednesday and so that means WOYWW, but also its the 30th of the month which means its..

Banana Frog Blog Hop

Welcome!.. if you've arrived here as part of June's Banana Frog Blog Hop (starts at 9.00am). This month's theme is  SUMMER which is appropriate as Summer has arrived in the past few days with a bit of a fizz, bang, sizzle and bringing some great temperatures (HOT HOT HOT!) but I for one would really like a bit of a breeze to go with them! lol

I created a card this month using the 'Hiya Chick' and 'Kawai Kokeshi' stamp sets (available here). A concertina card peeking through branches of trees to see birdhouses and buds on branches....

Its a concertina card made up of 3 panels, with apertures cut in the first 2 pages to reveal the layers behind. Here's a better shot to show detail:

Thanks for visiting as part of the blog hop - your next stop is Julie who can be found here.  Enjoy the rest of the blog hop!

Welcome! to those of you here for a snoop at my desk - here it is:

Quite tidy don't you think?  But don't go thinking I haven't been busy - I have but its 'secret' stuff!
Lets take a little clockwise tour around the 'tidyness' starting bottom centre... black 25x25cm sketchbook - all my ideas and drafts get put in here as a sort of thinking process; lovely background stamps by Imagine That (more from them later!); great numbers/dates stamps by Papermania - more about those tomorrow when I come clean about something; yummy inks that are being played with at the moment inside the sketchbook; my (I made this) very sophisticated pointy tool holder ie 3 bits of polystyrene stuck to a bit of greyboard - its very chic! lol every desk should have one!; and last but not least my Tim Holtz scissors and a bone folder - both essentials on my desk... I wouldn't normally draw attention to my scissors but I will today because I FOUND THE SCISSORS' CAP!!!!!!! this made me very happy because I lost the cap and the cap on TH scissors is v important because they're very sharp and when I'm working I keep them in my trouser pocket (at the back) and I really didn't want to stab myself in the butt with them or tear my trousers/jeans.. so thats why. HAPPY!

Thanks for visiting, now off you go to snoop round other peoples spaces (that's what i'm going to do! lol) or to find out more about WOYWW go here

BUT, before you all go - can I have your help please?  What is this plant?

UPDATE!! The plant is a shrub called Sambucus Black Lace - Thanks to Tracy for settling that - I'm going to get one or two of those for the garden - v pretty!  oh the power of the web - or the WOYWWers - who needs Google to answer questions!! lol  Thanks again!

(It was in the garden of a local dentist and I love it - its leaves look almost black and the flowers are various shades of dusty pink - really unusual... It stands about 3-4 feet high.. I asked my gardening guru aka my Mum! but she couldn't identify it and suggested I look in the gardening book under 'small shrubs' if thats any help for anyone to narrow it down - it looks kind of oriental don't you think?  So if anyone has any ideas what it might be please leave a comment - THANKS!)

Banana Frog day & WOYWW

The past week has been a lot of this'n'that and today was no exception...

* finishing my Project of the Day for Banana Frog which you can see here - the card on the left is a taster.

* jumping up and down for five minutes with excitement (mixed with slight terror) because I was accepted to have a stall at Village Green 2010

* Opening the post to find nice, v nice, things inside! (I love when its not bills! lol)

* another stint at the studio for Art Trail

* time spent in garden, part of which was trying to teach Bertie cat that chasing butterflies (while v entertaining) is NOT acceptable.

* weighing up what is more interesting/better use of time this evening: going to a private view or more getting-ready-to-move tasks... mmm thats a toughie.... Not!

*fighting with the PC and new printer .. why are these things never as simple as they seem - or should be! lol

*and finally photographing my desk to show to the WOYWWers out there.. I'm waving at you - yes YOU   :o)

So, its quite tidy today - please note the essential cup of coffee, my favourite ink pad - large archival and general..erm..stuff...  and check out that big piece of white - thats the worksurface!! tadaaa!!

.. and not a cat in sight!

busy - but in a good way...

Been flitting about doing a lot of this'n'that:

: at the studio hanging my small amount of exhibits as part of the Studio's Leigh Art Trail exhibits - Tricia, Tessa & Brons work looks FAB hanging in our oh-so-neat studio, sorry that should be Art Gallery (for 1 week of 52 thats what it is! lol for the other 51 weeks its a working studio - enter at your own risk!)

: at the College putting card making samples into the exhibition to advertise the course I teach starting in September.

: going to Imagine That for a chat with Emma.... watch this space..
: spending the day(s) at PaperArtsy HQ contemplating 1) Operation BSCO (big shed clear out)... its got to have a title 'cos its not a small job.. there is talk of a skip being needed! lol and 2) creating samples for an uncoming event... fun fun fun.. (roped in  DD Franich No3 as a guinea pig for timing purposes - she did a top job! and modelled too! Star)

: writing an article

: writing a course

: making samples with some lovely new Banana Frog stamps

: spending the day at The Craft Barn - their Extravaganza weekend - a great day indulging in watching demonstrations, chatting, and buying nice new stash - mostly paints, inks, a couple of dies and a pad of the lovely new Basic Grey Kraft collection.  I also had my practical head on and bought some blending foam (its like gold dust!), a sheet of foam for the bitch  lovely butterfly die to help it punch out successfully (?), MASSIVE book rings, and some lovely little foam 'brushes'.
: creating samples with PaperArtsy stamps - LOVELY new HotPicks - go check them out on the website

: just generally getting creative - love it!
: and now contemplating moving my craft workroom to a different room in the flat ... but having given it some thought I think that sounds far too much like hard work! lol

These are the Cosmic Shimmer Mists I bought - how lovely are they?!? and thats one of the stamps I bought - lovely for backgrounds....

Roll up, Roll up - Its Blog Hop Day!!!

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to us

Happy Birthday dear Banana Frog

Happy Birthday to youuuuu!

Mornin'
please excuse the quality of the singing - I'm a bit croaky this time in the morning.... croaky:..  frog ?! get it. ... oh nevermind, lets get on with the fun of the blog hop which this month has a BIRTHDAY theme.
So follow the links around and don't forget to leave comments wherever you go 'cos there are prizes/pressies to be received... each of the Froglets (thats us on the design team!) will each be giving  a prize to one frog fan (thats you!) who comments on our blogs... which is very nice don't you think!  lol
So don't forget to comment - you've got to be in it to win it as they say!  Also leave a comment on the Banana Frog blog as there's more prizes to win over there...

So here's what I made:
I was going to make cards but then I thought of something more practical - how about a book to hold all the dates of peoples birthdays so no-one gets forgotton? - because no-one likes to forget someones birthday do they?!  I've also included anniversaries in my little book - 'cos they're quite important too aren't they?! - all dates that should be remembered!

To decorate this book I've used the stamps sets Journaling, Super Dreamy, and Pharmacy - some of my all time favourite BF sets....  These are such great versatile stamp sets.

The book is fairly small - 10x20cm.  I used 3 colours to stamp on the white and Kraft cardstock pages - tumbled glass  & pumice stone distress inks and archival black - I like to keep the colour schemes simple and then embellish on top which I've done here with stickles, gems, and fabric embellishments - again some of my favourite elements.

I stamped circles to add the dates and names into, and when it was an anniversary I added a heart to identify it.  The little lined journaling squares are for notes and other dates. 

Right that's me done - I hope you enjoyed your visit, now 'hop' on over to see what Michelle's bringing to the Banana Frog birthday bash (I love a bit of aliteration!)... don't forget to comment!  You can find Michelle here!

WOYWW + a whole lot of other stuff....

its been a week since I last posted anything - that's neglectful of me isn't it!?  But its not as if I've been sat on my tush watching Jeremy Kyle and Loose Women - I've been busy behind the scenes....

This past weekend was spent helping out at the second Flights of Fancy ArtsyCrafts weekend - it was such a good weekend spent with 50+ painting, metalling, inking ladies creating some great projects... I went indoors at 7.00 friday night and didn't come back out into fresh air until 9.00 on sunday evening and i don't think I even noticed!  I was having too much fun (ahem.. working hard).  I love working at these events. There was lots (and lots) of paint, and just as much metal to be worked, sweets, prizes, lots and lots of die cutting and embossing - oh we worked those die cut machines- the Big Shots (mine is affectionately known as Bertha) and the Cuttlebugs... and Linda and I counted 50 kits out and back in, ....oh and I had a lift journey with a whole load of lively 70's-costume-clad party goers.. don't ask

Here are the uber talented Lin Brown and Leandra Franich:

How could you not be inspired when you look at these colours: 

Tables at work (or is it play?):

A couple of sneakypeeks of one of the projects:

And it was all going swimmingly until we got back to PaperArtsy HQ and I discovered I'd forgotten to pack my weekend bag in the car to come home! (in fairness there was a lot of stuff to pack in the cars, and I'd at least remembered to pack all my craft equipment (all the important stuff!)) Doh! How could I have forgotten the bag with my clothes etc in! When I hear of people doing the same thing I can never understand how they can forget something so fundamental!  Well quite easily apparently - I had to laugh really... 

I've since been reunited with said bag, thanks to Lin at LBCrafts (big thanks to her!) for organising TNT who brought it home on Tuesday:

I laughed a lot when I saw the size of the lorry it turned up in! The bag and contents are all safe and sound - even the banana and 4 apples that I had packed inside for snacks! roflol

Right, enough of this waffle - WOYWW:  here is my desk: ok, small confession - this is my desk on Tuesday but believe me it's not going to change much (at all) today! lol
I bought some new distress colours while I was at ArtsyCrafts, and so I'm in the process of making myself some colour charts inspired by the ones I made for the tables at AC(2nd photo).

I'm testing out the format in my sketchbook (I do that with most projects etc), and that cute little castle on the bottom left of the page is one of the new images by Banana Frog (called fairytale princess) .. and please note all that nice white space - thats the worktop! TaDaaaa!  yes we can actually see the worktop!

That's all folks - I'm determined to visit everyone this week.. so I'd better get to it! I have a feeling it could take a while! lol

Oh, one last thing - if you fancy coming to one of the ArtsyCrafts weekends (and why wouldn't you?!) details are on LBCrafts website and PaperArtsy's.

EDIT / ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS IN COMMENTS:
1: My overnight bag is actually not too big - shown here
2: The picture of cushions was a colour inspiration for the Banana Frog design team - you can see how they interpreted it here and here
3: The BigShot:  well, I'm a Cuttlebug fan really - I have been known to stroke my Bug while saying 'i love my cuttlebug'! lol Its a great little machine - portable, it suckers to the table so it doesn't wander off when you're turning the handle, and its very versatile...... BUT then I tried the BigShot!! its as good as the Bug but feels sturdier and smoother and because of the depth of the dies will go through a bigger variety of materials.. but the dies are expensive and gererally only come one to a die plate whereas the Cuttlebug dies often come in a pack that has a die and coordinating embossing folders.... no definitive answer I'm afraid - its all swings and roundabouts... it'll all come down to personal choice in the end..