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!

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!

#365Challenge.... January: Part 1

Since the start of the year I've been creating postcard size (6x4in) mixed media journaling cards. Each one is prompted by the questions asked each day on the Flow Magazine Calendar.

I really like the idea of this - answer a question a day, make a card in the process... how hard could it be?! Well it turns out sometimes the questions are quite tricky to answer and make you think.. and sometimes if the questions are too tricky I just make a pretty card instead! lol

Its my plan and I'll bend the rules if I want to!

My self imposed 'rules' are brief:

1. Answer the questions

2. Use only supplies I have in my possession... attacking the stash as ever!

3. Make a card each day

4. HAVE FUN!!

I post the cards on Instagram (you can follow me on Instagram @jofyjo ) but I plan to upload them on here in batches - probably in groups of 10-15... here's the first group  (if you have any questions about the supplies used (want to know what the question was for a particular day) you can check my Instagram feed or leave me a message in the comments.)

 

There are all sorts of 365 challenges going on via blogs, twitter and Instagram so why not find one that suits you and give it a go...

Thanks for stopping by

x

Where did the time go!

I am off schedule with my christmas posts (lots of things going on here)  - I meant to blog this before now - better late than never I suppose!

Designed for a class at Forget Me Not Kraft Kabin in Rochford, its a 20cm board canvas - a sampler/patchwork of lots of this years christmas stamps and my go to christmas mini JM07.

A fun project - these look great framed (Ikea frames are a perfect and inexpensive option) so can be brought out each year.

ho ho ho

Deck the Halls...

... with festive bunting!!

This project was created for a class at That's Crafty in Romford.

It's made from greyboard, painted, stenciled and stamped with touches of glitter and sparkle ...  all very festive.

Pennants were given a frosty look with snowflakes (JM07) stamped in Metallic Glaze - I like how the snowflakes are only visible when the pennant catches the light. (The spotty background was created with the That's Crafty 'Bubbles' stencil)

Twiggy took centre stage against a snowy stenciled background (That's Crafty 'Snowflakes'), The tags on either side of him and text along the top of the pennant are from Emma Godfey's EEG12.

Round tags were decorated with stars from JOFY39, all the tags were stamped and painted on both sides just in case they turned around when hung.

This bunting was a lot of fun to create.  I really like the pieces as a length of pennants but the designs and layouts could easily transfer to cards or a canvas (I have an example that to show you in the next day or so)- or they could be tied as individual pennants onto a christmas tree.

ho ho ho

x

Countdown to Christmas!...

Don't panic, I'm not going to tell you how many days it is until christmas day 2015, and start counting down (but just incase you're now wondering how many it is - its 331! lol)  I just want to share with you my final christmas project.... (I would've shown you earlier but 'secret' stuff took priority...)

I made a book of this year's christmas (or oops, last year! 2014) - a sort of mini journal.  Sometimes its hard to decide what is the 'perfect' format/size for books/journals/scrapbook so I left it to chance:  all the pages are made from the envelopes christmas cards arrived in through the post..

This was a fun way to create the book- and challenging and freeing - no worrying about 'what if its not the 'right' size'!...

My general self-imposed guidelines for the 'upcycling' of the envelopes were:

* cover the address with papers, photos, embellishments

* decorate the front, journal on the reverse

* use up stash! (a never ending goal and guideline!!)

* start and, more importantly, FINISH the book

The cover is created from corrugated cardboard (the spine) and 2 1960's book covers that I've been saving for a 'special' project... I used instructions that I saw on Julie Kirk's blog (go here to take a look).. a really useful way to bind a project because its so adaptable...
2014 is American Crafts stickers - nice white sparkly ones - very wintery and suitably festive, Noel is a die by Sizzix, and the tag you might recognise as the one I 'upcycled' from a Next jumper swing tag (here)

So here, in no particular order, are a few of the pages... (btw the 'leather' behind each page is to hide the other other pages behind the one featured)

Several of the cards use left-overs from festive projects and class kits - like on  this page: the snowflakes are a die (poppystamps) used in a class - such a pretty die it was a shame not to use it. The envelope was stamped by the sender - a lovely finishing touch when you're sending a card..

I am having a lot of fun with pocket scrapbooking cards at the moment (they feature quite heavily in this book).. on this page I repeatedly stamped 'eat, drink & be merry' onto a card and let it flow onto the page (ties the card and the background together) - the phrase is from JOFY02.  The tag is another upcycled product swing tag..

This is me in my natural state - angelic (ahem) - complete with halo! lol  teaching a festive workshop at The Artistic Stamper.
The UK stamps were nice this year so I kept them visible when possible when upcycling the pages.

This page uses a headline from a shopping event... I thought this was appropriate because we all spend quite a few hours (at least) shopping at christmas for the 'perfect' gift for our loved ones...

 ... which leads nicely onto this page - a quote from one of my favourite christmas films - 'The Grinch'... (stamp is by Kaiser Craft)

This page reminds me of the decorations in our hallway - sometimes a photo isn't necessary, a decorative element can be enough... this is quite a dimensional page but the loose construction of the book can cope with that..

..The tags I made for the christmas presents.. teamed with one of my favourite 'go-to' christmas stamps - JM07

 .. and here are the presents under the tree... this is such a fun page - little 'packing' notes & bobble/pom-pom fringing - whats not to love about bobble fringing!!!  It makes me smile.

and here is the tree (with another upcycled tag!)... decorating the tree this year was a very stress free task - its pre-lit! A revelation!... 3 pieces, 2 connections, plug it in... ta-daaaaaaa! ho ho ho!

My favourite ornaments.. I love the simplicity of the colour scheme, the classic design, and this year I displayed a few of them in a bowl surrounded by lights - so pretty... The dark grey wall behind them really sets them off...  I liked creating the page in the colours of the baubles - crisp white and deep baby blue....

Next year I display coloured baubles in the same way - I think it will be really effective..
The pages of the book are all quite clean and simple - and thats how I wanted it - this isn't a sketchbook christmas journal its more of a scrapbook christmas journal...  its quite thick - about 4cm but light, all the pages are different sizes and colours..

and what I like the most is that I FINISHED it!!

I'd really recommend using envelopes as the pages - its fun & creates an interesting, unpredictable book... leave the book pages to chance - you don't know what size they'll be until the post arrives.. :o)

ho ho ho