JoFY Bingo Wk.9

I'm beginning to think I've designed a lot of christmas stamps!  They seem to get picked every week/every other week!
This was a nice pairing of stamp sets and the minis went well too & I decided to create another journal spread...

I used the word 'sunshine' from JOFY41 as a prompt to create a garden scene with LittleMissSunshine - I always thinks she looks like she has her face to the sun.... and added a phrase from one of my favourite John Denver songs ('sunshine on my shoulders' look it up on iTunes - its lovely.... & everything seems better when John Denver is playing in the background!) 

The lovebirds (JM20) are sitting on the bubble wreath from JOFY20 which I've turned into a hanging ring/perch for them.

A bit of the shading on the flowers...

LittleMissSunshine...

This spread turned out a bit 'prettier' than I intended... but we are having a very cold spell here in the UK at the moment so it was nice to create something that was summery.

Thats it for this week... Thanks for popping by..

Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative!

Is what I do when art journaling ....

I thought I'd share with you some pages from my Dylusions journal - I am really enjoying working in this at the moment - its taken a while, I think thats because I had two spreads in it I REALLY DID NOT LIKE... and every time I opened the journal there they were right at the front... horrible (they were just. not. me) and so I didn't work in the book... then I thought enough is enough.
I took photos of both spreads (I wanted a reference of 'what not to do!') and glued the spreads shut... with matte medium - there's no getting those suckers open now!... and I am free to work in my journal without being taunted by the ugly spreads......
(and no I couldn't paint over them- I tried - but the dye from the 'bleeding art tissue' kept seeping through! persistent little product! lol)

accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative!

I'm using the Dylusion square journal and each page measures around 22.5x22.5cm so its a nice big space to work on.
I use the pages quite a lot when I'm gelli printing - to clean my brayer, to make ghost prints and clean up prints.... so here are few of those spreads:

This page was a clean up page, over printed with bubble wrap (love a bit of that!).  I added stenciling with Baltic Blue Fresco paint, and added gold emboss for a bit of contrast against the matte paint.

The page has very rough, distressed look... I like it that way - and its distressed in a different way to the spread below:

Gelli print patchwork created with ghost prints and clean up prints - I really like creating these (see HERE for a project I created using the patchwork to create a masterboard).... and you can't go wrong with a bubble wrap print!

This is 1/2 of a spread that I treated as 2 separate pages (reason for the outline), it was created by simply running the brayer over it to get rid of excess paint - easy and I'm sure we've all done that to use up extra paint - shame to waste it! I then, several weeks/months later, doodled on some flowers..

This spread was made during a Gelli plate demonstration at the PaperArtsy Seth Apter event a few weekends ago - a real lets try it all page - its just a jumble of techniques and its fun - I think it'll be the base for more added layers.

Detail of the spread - 2 types of bubble wrap (why use one when you can have two types!), stamping (additive and subtractive), and drawing a my fingernail....

and next, just in case you think all my spreads in this journal are blue... how this for a pop of colour:

Chartruesse and Neon Pink - do not adjust your sets! it really is quite bright!  Love it!  Its not finished - I feel a bit of black coming on! (unleashing my inner punk?!?)

I'll end this post with something a little calmer... my take on Bokeh style.. a spread I created while prepping for a class..

I painted the entire spread, then gave the right hand page a white wash before stamping one of my girls, while the left page was left without. Interesting to see the difference - also black outlines on left page and 'white fire' on right page... but they still work as a spread - the phrase suits the girly I think.


I hope you've enjoyed this look in side my journal - some of you saw me demo in it at the PA/Seth Apter event - now I've glued the nasty pages together I'm happy to take it out in public!

Thanks for stopping by.

x

Well its a New Year....

... so that means NEW STAMPS!!  For the next 7 days over on the PaperArtsy blog there will be new releases - how awesome is that!!.. so many fabulous new products it will make your head spin!... and I'm up first.


I'm really excited to share these stamps with you - its my most varied release to date and I think (I hope) there is something for everyone.

Visit the PaperArtsy Blog HERE where you can see lots of lovely samples made with my new stamps by my group of talented wingmen.

I designed 2 little ladies - the one on JOFY41 has her eyes closed and I imagine has her face to the sun, while her friend on JOFY42 in her boots looks ready for anything!
See that little happy little character on the JOFY42? that's a Critter. Some of you may recognise the name from a page on my blog - funny/cute little fabric creations I made that were 'not quite right' - well I'd wanted to create a stamp of one...  PaperArtsy have a Critter - you may have seen him on the PA stand at shows - he's called PAMM (PaperArtsyMiniMascot), recently I made him a girlfriend... and a stamp was a natural progression!
Now everyone can have a critter.

 

Its a jolly little critter.. I could resist replacing its button eyes with googly eyes:

Here is a great video that PaperArtsy made detailing all the stamps:

On the blog is a card featuring one of my robots - LOVE these little 'bots!! Details of how I created the card can be found there...

The large nuts on the card are die cuts.. but I don't have a die for nuts and so I improvised:

I die cut a hexagon out of silver card, then cut a smaller circle inside the hexagon - a nut!  Bazinga!

So, a new year and new stamps I was inspired to create a book. I've been thinking about positive phrases to focus my thinking, aims and approach to life (the universe and everything! lol).. so I put some of these phrases into this 'little book of Mantras' using Fresco Finish paints and a little (9x9cm) upcycled book that I rediscovered (unearthed) while clearing out my workroom (I had a serious  (ruthless - with myself and 'stuff') clearout - it felt soooo good!)
I wanted this to be a simple book.. playing with new stamps (JOFY41 &JOFY42), creating an inspirational set of pages - really a 'just for me' sort of project.
I'll leave you to 'play spot the new stamps' :o)

I bought several books in a charity shop..

Dinky little board books... removed the printed layer of each spread - peel them off (very theraputic! lol)... and paint!

I covered each spread in a different type of printeed book pages, and allowed them to dry.

Here are the covers.  I painted them in Teresa Green and Dusty Teal Fresco Finish paint.., a book page circle, strip of washi tape and the year die cut from kraft card... and a 'go to' stamp image.

The first spread features is my word for the year... 

... using letters that I found during the 'great clear up'!..

I'm always a little nervous about writing on pages - its the little voices in my head saying 'what if its not perfect'.. 'what if its not straight' ... then I have a stern word with myself (does it matter if its not perfect?!!), take a deep breath & draw lines in pencil, write the words in pencil and then write over them in pen... I made a feature of the lines to link the words across to the photo (taken from an old nature encyclopedia I bought in a charity shop).. stamped a loopy border a few times and 'shaded' using a charcoal pencil (gotta love those!)

I like this phrase.. when I'm having a testing day I often say this to myself.. Slate and Chalk created the background, prints of small bubble wrap and stamps of flowers.. words were stamped onto book text that had been painted with diluted Dusty Teal.

This alphabet, from JOFY21, is great to use - nice and blocky, easy to read - and more importantly - easy to cut out!

This phrase resonates with me too - for those days when MS Fatigue makes a visit... Created with washes of Dusty Teal and Slate and stamped images with book text.

So thats my little book - featuring several new stamps and favourite paint colours... I hope its inspired you to take a second look at board books, and to use my new stamps.. available now from your local PaperArtsy stockist.

Keep an eye on the PaperArtsy blog all this week where there will be more exciting things happening..