The Cat's Meow....

.... was the PaperArtsy stamp collection used by the 3upsters over on the blog yesterday..  and they (as usual!) created some great projects.  The stamp range is very different to the other ranges - it has a slightly retro/cartoony style.  I like the range - fun images.

Back in 2007 I upcycled a little book using the stamps - I blogged about it then but only the front cover (?!) so I thought I share the whole book with you now, prompted by yesterday's PA theme:

This cat image is great - I love it! and lets face it- what cat doesn't think it should wear a crown!

This was created in the days before Fresco Finish - I think I would've painted it with Ranger Dabbers - Wild Plum/Raspberry & Stream (who didn't love those colours!).

The book is an upcycled kiddies book - only about 6x6 or 8x8cm - great size (and I love a little book project) and the book was sturdy - I only took off the printed layer and painted directly on to the cardboard pages. Love it.

It shows photos of our first two cats Fredd and Phoebe- now sadly in the big cattery in the sky.  Lovely to have this little reminder of them...

The paw print image is so appropriate - cats love to sit on what you're reading or working on don't they! Several times I've had to catch a cat BEFORE they jump on the desk and land in paint or AFTER they've done it and trodden paw prints everywhere - gotta love 'em. :o)

Just thought I'd show you what I created with the Cat's Meow stamps. They are fun stamps - and there are some really nice alphabets on the plates - go take a look here on the PaperArtsy site

Have a good day!

The triptych that never was....

When you're demo'ing you chat to the lovely peeps sat in front of you, answer questions etc and the projects you create can change as you're demo'ing because it answers questions.....

* A customer asked about what Distress Inks she should buy first ("all of them!" is the obvious answer to that question!) but as she was new to Distress I suggested she buy the colours she likes - which were blues and purples - so I started working in those colours on a tag....
*  I'm demo'ing my mini stamps, so I stamped 3 of the text blocks...
*  somebody asked about painting with Distress .. so I painted the detail on the images using Distress Inks....
*  I carried on with my plan of a triptych tag & laid all three text blocks on the tag one by one - "I prefer the tag with just one text block on" said a customer because " you can see the lovely background" - lots of  nodding from the others.. OK, lol, just one it is then:

& this was great because it allowed me to use the stamped images in other ways...

*  one of the two text block images was used to create a card:....

.... and the other on a mat & layered tag (top middle image)

Demo'ing by comittee! lol

(nb working in blue (faded jeans) and purple (dusty concord) with accents of green (peeled paint)  - I don't often work with greens & purples and I forget what a lovely colour combination it can be...)

Another tag....

.... from the The Craft Barn demo day...

 This tag is fun.  When I drew the stamp designs I drew a path... but Mr PA thought it was a wall... and that to me was great - I love that someone saw a different application to that intended.  So on this tag I created a wall.  A traditional drystone wall, and from over the wall lovely flowers grow... through all seasons...

Just a quickie post today... hope you're having a lovely weekend..

This is that week that was.....

... mainly spent in a fog of poorliness! but that's all gone, and I don't think I suffered as much as others I've spoken to. I hope everyone else is on the mend too.  I've been back in the land of the living for a few days and am raring to go!  :o)

Last saturday (can't believe its been almost a week!) I was over at The Craft Barn demo-ing with my latest stamps.... several new-to-stamping people sat down and watched so I kept things quite clean and simple:

I think my favourite card is the one on the bottom right.. no.. stop.. its not fair to pick my favourite - there's aspects on each that I like!

I really like making flowers using the leaf stamps - makes a nice change from the round flowers (centre of flower above is cut from one of those)(mix'n'match)

Love the shading on these yellow/orange flowers... using Distress Markers (so easy to work with), the leaves are painted with Fresco Finish - LOVE that paint - can't wait to get my painty little hands on the latest colours - I've seen them.  They are gorgeous, must have, additions to the range.

On the more mixed media side here's a tag - I like this a lot - the red spotted ribbon on the top is, I think, one of my all time favourite ribbons!  On this tag is stenciling with Fresco Finish, background colouring with Distress Inks, stenciling with Distress Inks, stamping, decoupaging of papers.... quite a busy little tag!
I'd always wondered what the cute little wooden flowers would look like with my stamps - I think I like them.  The red scallop border along the bottom is a stamp from JOFY06.

I did rally long enough earlier in the week to book tickets to see Josh Groban in June - looking forward to that very much!  Here's a sample of the gorgeous velvet tones of the man himself:

{I'm going with the lovely Lin Brown, I think I remembered to tell (warn) her that I may cry, or sing, or both during the concert.... :o)  }

I also found my long lost pencil sharpener - its the little things that keep us happy isn't it! lol

I like this sharpener, it was a particularly good one and it comes in a little tin that collects the shavings!  Tidy!

Have a lovely weekend.

Jo

The Craft Barn on Sunday...

.... is where I spent a lovely day with a group of ladies creating cards using JOFY stamps, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints and Ranger Distress Inks - a recipe for a lovely, painty, inky, day.

Love it when a class table look like this - covered in all sorts of creative materials...

This is one of my sample cards:

 but I suggested that another flower stem be used as an alternative and here are the cards two of the ladies created (works in progress):

Love the blue ink colour - striking... the purple is a more gentle version...

This is one of my favourite cards of the day - the cropped from page and the overhanging flower, and the way the stamping continues inside the card...

I'll be at the Craft Barn on Saturday (2nd March) demonstrating my stamps as part of the March Inspiration day.

Hope to see some of you there!

Happy Valentines's Day!...

.... card made for Mr JoFY...

I love the contrast of the elements on this card - the grungy painty background against the solid black of the traditional (with a modern cut) silhouettes - softens the look but the pink/orange brightens up the kraft.  The 3 hearts are one of the word blocks from JOFY05.  And the Italian book text heart - that's cut from a page from a book I bought on our honeymoon... aaaaw bless  :o)  its all in the detail! lol

I 3d mounted the silhouettes to make them pop a little bit more.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

x

ps - 3rd post of the day! phew!

Flowers JOFY stylee...

... chunky little box canvases are fast becoming my favourite substrate - so chunky (2in deep) but small (4x4in square) .. even the 4x6in size is really nice.  I think I like them because if you stand them on a shelf they won't fall over and there's lots of surface to play on....

Here's what I made using some stamps from my new releases...

This box canvas is decorated from the 'leftovers' from creating flowers for Gladys the Garden Fairy... I created the flowers by stamping onto various papers using images from my new JOFY releases:

I arranged several flowers and leaves and glued them together.  Initially I planned to cover the top of the white box canvas with a panel of vintage book text and corrugated cardboard (gotta love corrugated card!):

... but I later abandoned that idea in favour of a distressed inked surface to the canvas - I felt that this better showed the flowers (some of which are made from the same book text that had been white-washed)

along each side of the canvas I stamped the mesh border image from JOFY10 in Olive Archival Ink, and distressed the edges in the same way and colours as the top:

 I used double sided tape to attach a panel of corrugated card, and wrapped Bakers Twine around the canvas several times:

I used Black Archival ink to stamps words chosen from JOFY11 to stamp onto small tags.. I further distressed the edges (using Distress Ink):

I arranged the 3 tags and 2 additional flower stems onto the canvas gluing them to the surface. The tags which lay ontop of the corrugated cardboard are attached with a glue gun so that the glue sinks down into the ridges - I find this to be the most effective way (that and Claudine Hellmuth Matte Medium - but the glue gun dries quicker!)(not that I'm impatient or anything lol)

I used Distress Markers to give the flowers shading and dimension, and to age them slightly - the pens are great because you can smudge the colour for further shading - especially on top of a surface painted with Fresco Finish.

This is the side view of the canvas showing the mesh panel image and the depth of the canvas:

So that's my mini stepped out project - I hope its inspired you to tackle a box canvas - they really are adorable little projects bases.

Take care

CRAFT STAMPER BLOG HOP

Hello if you're a regular visitor to my little corner of the WWW, or if you've stopped by as part of the Craft Stamper Blog Hop - however you landed up here you are very welcome! 

(If you didn't arrive here as part of the hop then it'd be worthwhile to pop over to the Craft Stamper Blog to join in, as there are lots of prizes to be won and inspiration to be seen!)

If you are new to my blog let me introduce myself - I'm Jo and I've been stamping for about 13 years, teaching crafts for about 9 and on the Craft Stamper Design Team for 3+ years (wow, time flies when you're having fun!)... I love what I do - if there is paint & ink under my fingernails at the end of the day then its been a day well spent.  I also have my own line of rubber stamps 'JOFY' with the brilliantly creative team over at PaperArtsy.

The Craft Stamper Team were asked to LOOK BACK at what had inspired us last year, what had been a favourite product, or favourite project...  Well that was an easy choice for me - last year I created a line of rubber stamps with PaperArtsy which I'm really proud of and this year there will be more designs added to the range - this time with a floral theme - starting with the set below.  Its very exciting.

When I created my stamps I wanted designs that were versatile - that could be used not just for the theme of plate they were on but in other themes too - so as a mini tutorial/inspiration I have taken a few of the stamps from my christmas plates and repurposed them.

--------------------------------------

I've said this many times - I love bunting!  So I have created a couple of pennants using motifs from christmas plates. The pennants are 15 x 21 cm in size and cut from white card.

I love the star on the above plate - the circles are great spaces for bling- gems, buttons, stickles - take your pick! lol

I coloured the pennant with distress ink, and stamped the small line image all over it using the same distress colour (peacock feather) and Champagne Encore Metallic (for a bit of shine).  I also water-distressed the surface.

I dragged the metallic ink around the edges too.  I dipped into my chipboard stash (one of my new years resolutions is to use up my stash of 'stuff') and pulled out letters which I then painted with the metallic ink.  I layered them up and stuck them on to the pennant.

I inked up a piece of white card with Champagne ink and stamped the star design onto it.  Mounted the star onto stripped corrugated card and stuck this on the pennant too:

This pennant was made entirely from christmas stamps but doesn't look christmassy at all - great for giving to someone when they've achieved something!.

Using the same set of plate I created a card with a very different theme to the pennant above:

I took the 'noel' banner & masked off the letters with masking tape which, when inked and stamped, gave a blank banner allowing space for any letters or designs/patterns.

I used PaperArtsy Ink & the Dog Words2 plate to spell out the word 'grow'.  I added some of my new flower designs to create a floral design.

One more pennant to show before you head off to finish the hop

This time I've used  plate05:

The long tiled image that runs across the bottom of the plate is great for creating a woven effect background (as does the block version). I used Walnut Stain distress ink to colour up the base of a pennant. Then used coffee Archival ink to stamp the image all over the pennant.

I used various distress ink to colour a selection of stamped flowers and leaves, arranged them with a couple die cut flourishes and adhered to the pennant. Embellished with a few buttons to finish.

Hopefully these little projects/samples might make you think about your 'christmas' stamps a little differently - just because they came in a christmas set doesn't mean they can only be used once a year!  :o)

--------------------------------------
SPOT PRIZE!!!

Well done for getting around the Blog Hop - I hope you've enjoyed it.  I have a spot prize for you - to be in with a chance of winning simply leave a comment on this blog post by midnight on Friday 8th February 2013. The winner will be drawn at random week commencing Mon 11th February. Gotta be in it to win it!!

My spot prize is a set of JOFY stamps worth £20.50 supplied by Paperartsy! Your next stop on the hop is the Craft Stamper Blog at craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk where you will complete the blog hop's circle!!

Hopefully you have been collecting letters along the hop - the letter to collect from me is: N

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed my post and blog - feel free to pop by anytime, you're always welcome!

Don't forget to pop over to Facebook as there is an event: http://www.facebook.com/events/384830431610801/

I hope to see you all again soon.

J

ACP Week 6, part 2: Ssshhh, don't show my Valentine...

This post was supposed to load up yesterday - last day of red & cream.. but hey ho - it didn't, so today's the day:

A card for my beloved (my 'good catch' - his words not mine, tho I obviously agree  lol) for Valentines day - but ssshhh lets keep it just between you and me that I've put a picture of his card on here before I give it to him (lol) but I think I'm safe to do so as he's really busy at work at the moment (too busy to be on the www looking at stuff...)(hopefully! lol)

I created a heart stencil using a nestabilities die and layered it up with some tiny sequin waste - or maybe its punchinella - not sure as it was given to me - I like it a lot though. 

I like creating my own stencils - cutting them from a drawing or using dies.

I hope you're all getting along ok in the snow - its certainly hanging around isn't it!

Take care

Its beginning to look a bit like Christmas!!

On the first Saturday of each month The Craft Barn has in-shop demonstrations and this month I was providing one of them... I had a lovely day, lots of lovely peeps came and watched the demos - bought the products I was demo'ing which was great - but in the afternoon it meant that it was as much an improvisation as a demonstration! lol
Here are some sneak peeks of my samples - a few of the originals will go to the shop...

Lots of techniques & products on these - Rosettes - created with Tim Holtz die (I think I've mentioned before how much I like these! lol); Distress Inks (antique linen, frayed burlap, weathered wood, black soot); dry embossing - with Sizzix folders - these give a really good deep impression; die cutting - Spellbinders - great flourishes (love); and wet embossing - covering the die cuts making them look like metal - this effect was achieved using Stampedous 'Fran-tage' embossing enamels in 'aged silver' and aged black (which is a really lovely colour.. we're talking reeeeeeally nice! (& so is the 'aged silver' judging by how fast it sold out!)

Thanks to everyone who watched the demos, I hope you were inspired.  Demo's wouldn't be the same without you!

xx