JOFY 2014...stamps & stencils & paints... oh my!!

.... thank goodness!  I can now show you my latest JOFY designs for PaperArtsy... (can't tell you how hard its been not to show you teeny tiny little sneek peeks here and there!... I'm almost at bursting point!

... and its not just stamps this time - the range has been widened to include stencils and paint!! This is all so exciting for me - I loved designing the stencils & the very lovely (in my humble opinion lol) paint.
Big thanks to the lovely supportive & encouraging Mr & Mrs PaperArtsy who work so hard to bring all these designs to you.

I hope these new products inspire you to get creative!... :o)

STAMPS:
4 new A5 stamp plates... 8 new minis...

I designed an open alphabet so that can be used by scrapbookers, journalers, cardmakers and zentaglers - everyone hopefully!:

 JOFY21

 JOFY22

Lots of lovely new flowers that will co-ordinate with previous plates.. and a vase to put them in:

 JOFY23

JOFY24

JM33

 JM34

JM35

 JM36

JM37

JM38

 JM39

JM40

STENCILS:
4 flower designs - great for colour, texture paste etc etc etc..  good weight of acetate - lots of exciting possibilities..

 PS007

 PS008

 PS009

PS010

& PAINTS:
4 Limited Edition Opaque Fresco Finish paints...  oooh be still my paint loving heart!

All new JOFY stamps, stencils and paint will be available via your local stamp store in the coming weeks.  I hope you have fun with them.

If you came here directly, thank you, & I suggest you now head over to the PaperArtsy blog where DTGuestDesigners have created some gorgeous samples using the stamps stencils and paints...

Brand new stamps are exciting & I'd like to get you all inspired and creating - so leave a comment (before the 20th February) & two lucky peeps (picked at random) will win a set of new JOFY stamps.  
Good luck!  :o)

x

15 February 2014: PaperArtsy {Retailer Training Day} at Stitches...

.... is where myself & Lin Brown will be teaching workshop for retailers..  I'm really looking forward to these workshops - very much!!

Lots of information about new products and ideas - Leandra has written a great blog post to tell you all about it- so if you're a retailer click on the image below to go to the PaperArtsy site, & we all look forward to seeing you at the show..

What a colleague of mine would call sorting out the knickers and socks....

... by that he meant tidying up the computer files & information pathways on the computer... so that is what I'm doing today.

I'm receiving a steady stream of 'friend requests' on Facebook which is lovely and I'm pleased to get them from blog readers, users of my JoFY stamps & class attendees  :o)
but I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear/read my conversations with my friends about our nights out & and how, yes, we all loved our friend's new hair style!

So, can I please point you in the direction of this:

The JoFY facebook page :o) Click on the photo and it should take you to the page - taaadaaaa - where the focus is less waffle and more information.  I've had it for a few months so you'll be able to see what sort of updates are on there and my plan is that there will be more - I'll post information on this page about up coming classes, new design releases and general crafting info that you might find interesting.   It also has the feed from my blog.
Please 'like' & 'follow' the page and the new info should come direct to your timeline.

EDIT:  The blog page will continue to send a prompt onto Twitter. :o)

Also - if you are already a friend on Facebook (through crafting, not personal) can I ask you to please go and like the JoFY page and then 'unfriend' me/my personal account.
I'm asking this because I want to stay in contact with everyone about my crafting work but its tidier (those knickers and socks again) to do this on the Facebook page and not through my personal timeline - I hope you understand...

Look forward to seeing you all over on the JoFY Facebook page!

:o)

I'd like to introduce you to a new friend...

... in my first blog post for PaperArtsy over on the blog which I'm very excited about. .. please pop over and take a look  - not just at my project but at all the other great and inspiring projects that are on there.

This is the little friend in question - please pop over and say 'hello' - I think she's going to be a fun addition to the PaperArtsy family!

x

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, creative and fabulous 2014!!
(though I am still wondering where 2013 went - flew by didn't it! lol)

Sometimes its good... part 2

.... so remember the other week when I showed you my little sketchbook and it looked like this:

well I spilled paint on the cover by accident & so had to pretty it up- & now it looks like this (nothing that a touch of opaque Fresco Finish paint can't fix!):

I took the book on holiday with me - a nice portable size - I also took with me a 'travel kit of arty bits' - we went to Mexico for 2 weeks and I'm not good at laying in the sun (I don't go brown fast enough!)(and I get restless - unlike MrJoFY who happily lays in the sun ALL day!)- so I like to pack a 'things to do when the sun gets too hot!' emergency kit... (which probably helps to explain the weight of my suitcase lol)

Its not just the cover that has changed - the pages are looking different too.. as I started working in the book I realised that little flip up/flip out pages weren't the direction I was going in and so they were taken out and re-stuck in the back.. just in case I needed them (too interesting to throw away!)

(I like how these mini pages now flip up, down, sideways & over... interesting ... and great for 'hidden' journaling)

here's part of the 'entrance ticket' page:

On other pages I painted Snowflake Fresco Finish through stencils and then washed over them with Koh-i-noor watercolour (dye) paints and created a resist... then I doodled over the top - love how these turned out..

The page below was a little different - stenciled and painted over the top in 2 colours and then watersplashed the page - flowers on right are created by doodling over the white circles created by the water - trying to disguise or make use of them..

 This page was filled by one big word, and then later added borders - once you start doodling its hard to stop!

Page filled with circles an flowers - doodling circles is very relaxing...

painting, stenciling, bit more painting... bit more stenciling...

The sketchbook is now very inky/painty and is only just closing shut(with the help of a VERY big bulldog clip!) - and this is  how the page edges look - great colour combo...

So thats the quick tour through some of the pages of my mini sketchbook.. I'd really encourage you to try pages/books that are out of your comfort zone or not what you would normally reach for when creating - you might find something that you really like..

xx

CHRISTMAS!!!

...is finally here!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Eat(too much), drink(responsibly), & be  as  merry(as festively possible) & I hope the season is everything you wish & hope for.

 Merry christmas & best wishes for a fabulous 2014!

EDITED: Catch up post number 3.....

I don´t often repeat a workshop but I´m really glad I repeated this one.... a hanging star triptych... these were such fun classes to teach!

First at Its Crafting Time - here are the lovely ladies of the workshop - so nice to see all the different colour versions that were created:

and for my last workshop of the year I taught the class at The Artistic Stamper - again a fun class-

I love the red versions of this project- very festive and dramatic.. Jennie and Valerie (2nd from left back row) added black swirls to their triptychs another striking variation

.. and what do you think - have I found my perfect festive hat??:

ho ho ho!!

Sometimes its good...

... to climb out of your comfort zone and try something new.. something a bit different...

.. which is why I bought this little 15x15cm sketchbook:

This sketch book is almost half the size of my preferred choice- 25x25cm... but the biggest (and slightly intimidating) difference is that it is not spiral bound!  Lovely sewn signatures... it is clean, pristine and chunkier than I imagined it to be when I ordered it online... - about an inch thick...
I looked at it for about 2 weeks before I picked it up and said sternly to myself - 'its just a book... something to play in... man up and do something to it'

so I did....

firstly I cut these up - postcard size pages that have been on my desk waiting for 'the perfect project'... (putting them to good use and tidying my desk -bazinga!)

Little lift up pages/spaces for hidden journaling/notes etc.... I stuck them in with Washi Tape so that they could be moved if need be....

 

and then I started painting pages, just randomly painting them - not thinking too much - just putting colour onto the pages - blank enough so that I could work on top of it at a later date...

.. on this background I´ve used an idea that Junelle Jacobsen showed for creating a background - entrance tickets (though she left hers sticking up a little at the edges - I preferred mine fully stuck down.. smoother) - and I have whole roll of  engrance tickets that need using up so I covered the entire double spread with them... (i could´ve covered every page in this book and I would still have tickets left! lol)..
The letters are stamped with a set of letters that I keep in their box and just ink them up - I like the way they stamp up as a block (and the whole set was only £1!!)

.. and once I started altering and working in the book I couldn't stop.... and I'm still playing in it - I'll show you some more pages in a few days...

I'm so happy I moved away from my normal sketchbook size and into something new - I use this book in a completely different way - its almost like a journal... a play book - my 25x25cm sketchbook will always be my 'working' book...

and thats a good thing...

and now for something completely different...

... and nothing to do with christmas!!

My lovely hubby Matt bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my birthday in October - and I have only just had to throw them away - how fantastic is that - they lasted such a long time!
(the photo makes the flowers seem VERY lilac/purple lol - they weren't quite so vibrant in real life - quite vintage colours)

  

I loved them - & I especially like the ornamental cabbages - I had them in my wedding bouquet :o)

I had to throw them away but photographed them first - the cabbages were still lovely but for different reasons - look at the fabulous vein patterns.. & the stems!!!!! so so interesting.. and inspiring - love love love!

...and the petals/leaves that had fallen off were just as lovely - if not even lovelier - great colour combo!

and lets not forget the stems!!! like juicy bamboo - camera hasn't really picked up the colours - from pale lilac through to a gorgeous aubergine colours...

forget the roses and the fancy flowers - just bring me ornamental cabbages!

:o)

Catch up post 2

I spent a lovely weekend at The Stamp Attic in late November running a card workshop on the first day and on the second day we made this box frame...

it was a lovely weekend of christmas crafting, cracker pulling & general 'ho ho ho'ness.

Here´s the group embracing the festive theme of the class:

(& the lovely Wendy was fully embracing Christmas by wearing the stickers that came inside the crackers lol)(the crackers that had surprisingly funny jokes - ´how do monkeys make toast?... they put it under the gorilla´!... lol -  aaw come on - its a cracker joke - its supposed to make you groan! lol)

If you´d like to see another version on the box frame there is a photo in this blog post.

xx

cards, cards & more cards....

... not long to go now - I hope you're all on schedule with your christmas cards - just in case you're not here's a little bit of inspiration for you...

Cards created with stamps from JOFY 20, 8, 17, & 18.. Mini 7& 26 on white & Kraft card blanks.

The snowflakes were die cut using Spellbinder Snowflake Pendant 2013, and the paper is Blissful Blizzard from Fancy Pants.

Catch up post 1....

... i'm still a little bit obsessed with houses - in whatever form that takes...and christmas gives lots of opportunity for little houses .... (if you'd like to see the other houses click 'houses' on the labels list on the bottom left of the blog...

This house is one I altered for a class at Birds in the Barn a few weeks ago - a lot of fun - and quite a challenging shape..

Created with Fresco Finish paints & Crackle Glaze, JOFY stamps: mini27, 29 & JOFY20,18 & 19.  

The snowflakes around the edge are Sizzix/TimHoltz on the edge snowflakes die- now discontinued (which is a shame), the stand is created from a box of slices of wood by Artemio- they're surprisingly useful! great for stamping onto and for creating structures like this stand.

xx