JO FIRTH-YOUNG

7 March 2011

Beautifully Distressed & Bleached!!

oooh be still my paint lovin' heart!! or actually my Distress Stains lovin' heart!
I was lucky (and very grateful) to be given a set of Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Stains (thank you very much - you know who you are!!) but was still unsure how the stains would be better/ more versatile than distress ink in pads - O.M.G!!
They are sooooooooooo fab - seriously.. really versatile - colour goes on really generously (not too generously - nothing being wasted) and smoothly - I worked with them on tags (its how I 'test' out everything - 'put it on a tag' lol) and the ink looks sort of satin-like... love it!
I tried all the usual things - water splashing, salt etc .. and then I thought lets try bleach!!.. just household bleach.. nothing fancy... and look at the stunning effect the bleach has!! Because the Distress Inks/Stains are dyes the bleach takes out the lightest colour in the mix and then goes to white depending on how much bleach is applied to the stamp!!
(to stamp with bleach I fold up a piece of kitchen towel (into quarters and then again) so thats its quite thick and then pour bleach on - creating a sort of inkpad but with bleach in place of ink... then use exactly as you would normally when inking up a stamp)
How fab is that - I have to tell you that happy clapping ensued and I had to reign myself in not to try this on all 12 colours! lol (.. that may still happen! but other things had to be done so I'm saving it for another time...)
I really like how it removes colour rather than adding colour as we would normally do when stamping.
The Stain colours I used were Walnut Stain (such a good brown), Peeled Paint & Fired Brick.
I used a red rubber stamp (PaperArtsy Mini22) - its best to use red rubber when using bleach - & make sure you wash it off when you're finished. I don't know how bleach would affect clear stamps so I avoid using it on those (better safe than sorry!!)
NB: I still need to test out what happens when I stamp another colour over the top of the bleached image - I think if its a pigment ink the colour will be OK but possibly not dye... I'll let you know...

Monday Moggies...

can't resist posting these photos I took of our cats..
Bertie (the black one) wants to be friends with Lola (the tabby) but she's not overly keen & so spends a lot of time avoiding him... and so to see them like this together is lovely - and requires photographic evidence that they don't dislike each other all the time...

and what makes me really smile about this photo is that they're both squeezed onto the box...
but the box is on a chest.. where there's loads of room.. but oh no!.. got to sit on the little box..

Pop back later when there'll be an actual craft/stamping/creative post.. yep seriously - actual creative samples... not pictures of cats... actual painted samples... featuring distress stains, Fresco Finish paints & tags!! lol

Craft Stamper April Issue

I have an article in this month's issue - chipboard book using PaperArtsy stamps, Tim Holtz dies and my favourite colour scheme - Pink & Green. Here's a sneek peek but to see the whole thing you'll have to buy the magazine - and why would you not want to do that?! - its another great issue with lots of lovely projects and a cute cover stamp!!

Yes I was indeed at the computer at 06:20 in the morning!
Lots of stuff wizzing around in my head - so I thought I might as well get up.
I'm teaching at Imagine That today - distress/ butterfly themed cards using a new 'favourite' colour scheme of Dusty Concord & Peeled Paint (or shabby shutters if preferred) - purple & green - v calming......

Going back to bed now to catch those zzzz..zzz..zzzzzz ...zzzz..zzz..zzzzzz...

Stop the world......

.... I want to get off - well I don't want to actually get off I just want everything to slow down a teeny bit so I can get a grip and make a plan! lol

The last 8 days have been a bit fabulously surreal:
* Had a great few days at the ArtsyCrafts / Tim Holtz event - bloomin marvelous!! met the man himself and saw LOVELY peeps that I've met at previous events, and chatted with on Twitter (great to put faces to names) ... waving at all of you!!
* Started demo'ing at AC at 7:30am!! Loved it! Used PaperArtsy's new dies - v nice - more about those later..
* Went to the Ballet - Matthew Bourne's Cinderella - it was beautiful - & brilliant - like watching a black & white war movie.. fabulous
* I'm consumer testing this:

.. its a great machine (not very fast but maybe thats a health & safety thing) ... it definitely takes the effort out of die-cutting... now I've just got to play around with layering of shims etc so thin dies can be used through it (and thanks to David at Craft Obsessions for some pointers) (apparently they'll (sizzix) be bringing out an extra plate - if it isn't out already). (The Engineer in the house (ie M) gave it a good look and thought it had been well thought through, and then I moved it away from him before he could think about taking bits apart to see how it went together! lol)
* but what put the surreal label on this week was this:

both flats sold on the same day!!!!!!! We are really pleased but didn't expect the top flat (one we live in) to sell quite so fast! lol ... 8 days on the market!! wth! *insert slightly hysterical laughter here!* lol
I cannot get my head around the fact that soon I won't live here anymore - its been my home for nearly 16 years and so much has happened.. and.. and.. erm .. sniff... sniff.. someone pass me a tissue please! (I'll stop now or I'll start to sound like Gwyneth Paltrow accepting an Oscar! lol)

I've also decided that 28th February is an EXCELLENT day:
*my grandad's birthday (well actually he was born on a Leap day but 3 years out of 4 he celebrated on the 28th)
*date of my first date with M
*the day we sold the flats
!! 3 reasons to make this officially 'an excellent day' - I might start a campaign to make it a public holiday! lol

So thats it - my wierd & wonderful week - fingers crossed please everyone that everything goes smoothly with the sales!

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of arty things.....

Splash!

SPLASH!

That is the noise of me falling into the water of the lilypond as I sink in shock & shame: I missed the blog hop!! (why is February so short!!! The end of Feb rushes up doesn't it!)

So I'm really very sorry I don't have anything pretty, inspiring and Banana Froggy for you like the other members of the DT team - nothing interesting to see here I'm afraid :o( but if you hop on over to the talented Katy's blog you'll find a very lovely project.

Next month I will have dragged myself out of the pond & I'll be sat on a lilypad proudly waving a superduper project at you!!

Quite a lot going on...

...so apologies for being a slightly bad blogger - must do better!

Here's a list of random stuff:

Counting down - oh yes - to the ArtsyCrafts & Tim Holtz weekend!!! - 2 more days peeps - count them - 2 more days!! (and if you can't wait for your Tim Fix switch on QVC today and he'll be popping up and showing all manner of lovely things!)(but don't get them from QVC - they'll be in your sticky little mitts quicker when you buy at ArtsyCrafts & we've got all the good stuff - trust me - I've seen it!)

We've put our flat (the one we live in) on the market...very exciting (and slightly scary) - hit the market on Friday and had a viewer on Saturday! eeek. We are now living in a permanent state of tidyness - and thats hard for me! (I have to keep trying to remember where i've stashed things! lol)..
So just in case you're in the market for a 2 bed flat (ahem, apartment! lol ...its what the estate agents are calling flats these days!) here's a picture of our lounge:

lots of natural light floods through (oops this pic taken at night, use your imagination) the west facing 4m wide fully double glazed bay window.. please note the high ceiling of this Edwardian Terrace property.. blah blah blah
aw come on - don't laugh - I've got to take all opportunities to advertise it! lol its not going to sell itself is it! lol

I stopped at a zebra crossing earlier in the week and the elderly gentleman I stopped for raised his hat to me in thanks! Made my day - it was so 'old school' and gentlemanly! more men should do that. The two women who crossed after him didn't even acknowldge that the traffic had stopped for them to cross safely - though in their defense they were talking on their mobile phones and pushing buggies so..... lol

Started teaching a new course at the college - lovely group of students - real beginners which is great!

I've been fighting a cold that never seems to go away - the coughing was the worst bit! I'm over the worst of it but my poor nose! Thanks goodness for Kleenex Balm tissues! Sniff... cough... Hubby says its like living with Steptoe Snr! Charming!
I've been on two GNOs which were very different - on one I laughed so much I could quite easily have fallen off my chair but I held it together long enough to realise that one of the people sat opposite me was someone i went to college with and haven't seen for (ahem) 20 years.. very strange to be reminded of my 18 year old self - apparently she remembers that I had 'folders, dividers and nice pens'. !! Which just backed up T's theory that I'm v organised (?!)(or just a little bit ocd.. which isn't a bad thing is it?)

I think thats enough of my random waffling - things to do, people to see, flat to make 'viewer ready'

OMG - 2 DAYS TO ARTSYCRAFTS - BRING ON THE GOOD TIMES!!!!!

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!

A good read & excuse to get painty ......

... like I need an excuse to get painty! lol

I love it when a flat brown parcel arrives on the doorstep with the word 'amazon' on it!! Always exciting - aw come on - its nicer than a bill!! (anything is nicer than a bill! lol)
Yesterdays parcel contained this book - LOVE IT!! 'How to..' ideas on adding / drawing faces & other images onto mixed media backgrounds... .....lot of mixed media painty stuff too

I don't really 'draw' but this book made me feel that it wouldn't be too scary to have a go at drawing a face on a canvas or the like... .
Lots of nice samples too.... good for journaling techniques
Liked it a lot.... so if you don't hear from me for a few days/weeks its because I'm reading/working through the book! (& also 'cos I'll be up to my ears catching up on 'stuff' I couldn't do between Christmas and last week... )

The PaperArtsy play day that wasn't!

I tried/planned to spend a day over the weekend with PaperArtsy stamps but the plan was hijacked slightly by M, but in a good way - a hallway destash/clearout was in order to get ready to pull up carpets so that new carpets could be laid - and one job seemed to have a knock-on effect to another...
so here's one of the pieces I made - keeping them simple was the aim of the day! oh, and flat!

(These stamps are from the 'Nature' plates of Urban Snapshots)... Simple & Flat! (well, simple-ish - distress inks, acrylic paint, stamping, embossing, colouring...)

PS - carpet is in (and looks really nice.... ) ..now to get the Estate Agents in for a valuation - and then the 'for sale' sign goes up....

Things that make you go 'hhmmmm'

Another 'something' where I was just playing with 'stuff'.... acrylic paint resist, stamping & resist, cuttlebug embossing, die cuts, shimmer sprays, perfect pearls sprays - you name it I used it - layer on layer, on layer, on layer...
Sometimes you have to get inky, and random, and Embrace the Inks!

Twinkie goes to School!

I've been toying with the idea of Stampotique images for a while and bought Twinkie to get me started. I like their battered look and that they're just a little bit 'wrong' .. like they have attitude and shouldn't really be messed with.. but at the same time seem slightly vulnerable...
I might be overthinking this obviously..

So here's Twinkie, on a school themed tag...

the tag's actually purple & dark in reality (dusty concord) - I might be embracing my inner Goth!

Adapting a kit..

Sometimes I buy an on-sale items as a bit of a challenge... and a WeRMemoryKeepers card making kit from TKMaxx was such an item... it has 'everything' you need to create the cards, I thought it'd be a quick way to make a few cards - but I think these can end up looking a bit flat and a bit generic (duh! obviously! lol - like painting by numbers) and so I decided to challenge myself to add some bits a pieces of my own (& change the designs, lol)... make them a bit more 'me'...
In the end it wasn't such a quick way to make a few cards ... lol ... but I had fun! It was about working with what I had (attacking the stash)
(though sshhh... don't tell anyone... but I may have bought the co-ordinating plain card stock... but ssshhh... thats just between you and me OK?!)