ALBOTAT: Birthday card & present....

... for Mr JoFY..

I'd been trying to find a big metal 'M' to go in Matt's 'man cave' for a while and found these cardboard marquee letters by Heidi Swapp...  Started off as white cardboard, I painted it in a mix of grey Fresco Finish paints (Concrete, Slate, Elephant (now discontinued, sadly) mixed with white) and finished with a top coat of Metallic Glaze.  The treadplate in the centre also started off as white cardboard which I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and painted in the same way.

It looks great with or without its lights on, and hubby loved it.

I couldn't resist painting 2 of the Tim Holtz crazy cats to resemble our two furry family members - the shapes and facial expressions were spot on!  Makes me smile.

I counted down to christmas.....

... and it was over in a flash! or thats how it seems - christmas always seems aaaaages away and then suddenly its tomorrow!.. if you know what I mean.. and now it was last week!

Here's a couple of christmas items that I created but couldn't include in the countdown as the items hadn't been sent / received...

Presents under the tree - I love wrapping presents - its a 'pink' job in our house (unlike outdoor lights which are definitely a 'blue' job!)

Wrappings were kept quite simple this year (seems I was a bit too zealous with the sellotape last year - too challenging for my young nephews! lol (probably not able to get in to the presents as fast as they'd like!))  Each present had a tag with the recipients initial made from chipboard and embossed with Frantage Embossing Enamel (Aged Silver), laid over the top of a band of JoFY JM07 snowflakes stamped in Snowflake Fresco Finish paint... and a bell - love these bells!!

I think this tag would be a great idea all year round - keep the large letter and just replace the snowflake with a band of patterned paper, or dry embossed pattern, or other stamped images..

* * * * *

Speaking of nephews I made them a card with a variation of my 'headless snowman' stamp (not as sinister as it sounds!)
I created a card with an acetate front panel and kraft back panel.  The kraft page was stamped with JOFY snowflakes (love that stamp!) and the 'Happy Christmas' sentiment from JOFY26 painted in Fresco Finish Snowflake paint.
The snowman was created using the Tim Holtz/ Sizzix 'Assembly Snowman' die... cute die but I thought I give it a twist and put his head on the floor.. like my stamp on my very first JOFY plate  - JOFY01

.. and while I was in the mood to assemble snowmen I made hubby a card using the same format - this time I created a Mr & Mrs snowman - and arranged them so they look as if they're coming together for a hug - or a dance - not so much slow-dancing as snow-dancing lol  get it snow.. snowmen.. oh nevermind!

On the die the snowman has one arm straight out and one bent in the middle - so I swapped them about so that Mr Snow has two straight arms & is holding his arms wide while Mrs Snow has 2 bent arms - her arms bent up to him (sort of side on instead of facing front)... cute, the sentiment is from JOFY28.  I also altered Mrs Snow's hat - cut it in half to make it look different.

ho ho ho ... too late for hohoho's now (or early for christmas 2015 - only 361 days to go until 25.12.2015! lol) ...

x x

Just playing...

... with a new die before I began working on a bigger project... I like to create something small before starting on something bigger - a sort of warm up exercise..

Its the matchbox die from Sizzix/Tim Holtz and its a dinky little thing! I decorated it using bits left over from recent projects - seemed a shame to throw them away.

The die is basically a matchbox, and I added a little pull tab to encourage people to open it (and open it the right way, so the content isn't 'upside down', using the Tiny Tags & Tabs die), cut from kraft card. The stamps are from JM12,  JOFY23 & 24..

Here's the inside (flower is painted in Lade Wanaka Fresco Finish - such a gorgeous blue!) stamps from JOFY22, 11 & JM12

... and the side - I do love a bit of scallop border...

Also on the desk is a pile of postcards I've made (again, just because..) and this one looked great with the box - LOVE the retro design on the papers (DoCrafts 'Happy Days' range from last year)
(text block stamp is JM40). The tab on side of the card is a great punch by Stampin Up that I 'rediscovered' while trying to find something else - don't you love it when that happens!

This was a simple project but a lot of fun to put together..

I've been meaning to blog about the new Tim Holtz/Tonic scissors... and I thought I do it now as when I looked at my desk while making this project both pairs of 'Tim' scissors were on the desk!
I bought mine from The Stamp Attic and am so pleased I did - I love my short scissors but the longer scissors are even more fantastic - you know when people say 'like cutting through hot butter' well they really do make cutting paper, card, fabric & cardboard just like that!  and you get that nice crunching noise too - like biting into an apple - very satisfying! lol

Also in the picture is the Tiny Attacher - small but fiesty little stapler! I used it to attach my little tab - a standard size staple would've been too bit but the Tiny Attacher staples were perfect size - and quite discreet.

I'd really like to make more of these boxes but unfortunately my BigShot may have sustained a fatal injury during a class on Sunday... its gone the craft hospital to see what can be done but I fear it may be headed to the great craft shed in the sky.... :o(  so no more die-cutting for a while - I didn't realise how much I used my BigShot until I didn't have it any more...

ah well.. onwards and upwards  :o)

x

Hello... *taps on screen*... helllooooo..

.. is anyone here??
I hope so!
Its been a while since I blogged - blame:
* our builders (electric on, electric off, electric on...),
* the freezing temperature of my workroom - again, blame the builders - they took out a window and the ceiling below the workroom which meant freezing wind - freezing I promise you! - came up through the exposed floorboards... I stood in my workroom wearing snowboots, a scarf and several sweaters!! oh because I forgot to mention that they took out the boiler too... no heating... bbbbrrrrrrr... but don't feel too sorry for me (please tell me you were starting to feel sorry for me...) the house is now nice and toasty, the windows have been replaced & this is all because we're having new kitchen fitted - so it was all in a good cause :o)...
The other reason for lack of blogging is that I haven't been arty/crafty recently because I can't be- I'm recovering from quite a big operation (though I have to say - keyhole surgery is amazing!!) - I'm under strict(ish) orders not to do too much... which is trickier than you'd think ;o/ even sitting at the computer can become uncomfortable...

So blog posts at the moment will be a few catch ups - general randomness - news of new classes etc etc etc.... lets start with a catch up:

March was a busy month - biggest event of the month was my Parents' Golden Wedding Anniversary & we had a bit of a 'do'..

Here's the card I made for them - using colours they had for their wedding .

 Love making these pop-up dimensional cards but don't like photographing them - sooooo tricky! lol

Die cutting, stamping & lovehearts... oh my!

xx

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

Its beginning to look a lot like....

HALLOWEEN!!

ha - you thought I was going to say Christmas didn't you! ....  I've had a day off from from christmas & embraced Halloween!..  I wanted to make something just for fun - a play day - and sometimes they are good days to have - however busy you may be - it clears the mind and something can always be learned from playing & experimenting...

There's been a halloween project idea buzzing around in my head for a while and it all came together this year - its not a big project... and after visiting a couple of places I got the inspiration I needed to put it in motion...

Inspiration 1:  While I was at Birds in the Barn the other weekend I was inspired by the papers Sue had used on her beautiful projects - the lovely Graphic45 Steampunk Spells papers...

I bought an 8x8in pack and brought it home... and looked at it... and looked at it some more - there's so much on the papers its hard to know which elements to use :o(  luckily there's 2 of each design in a pad.

Earlier in the year I used the outside of a configuration box to make this project:

which meant I had lots of little boxes from inside left over, empty, waiting to be made into something or thrown away (and believe me I was very close to throwing them away!)... I happened to visit France Papillon's blog (while following a link for something else) and she'd used the same left over boxes to create a little hinged box....(thats Inspiration 2)
This was perfect for what I had in mind - little boxes to fill with spooky stuff and using up the now-frankly-just-getting-in-the-way-&-cluttering-up-the-place boxes.  Bingo!
It looks like a mini trunk! (and we know how much I love a trunk... or two..)

I painted 2 boxes black, covered them with Graphic45 papers added a (surprising fragile) closure (I broke 2!!!)...
Here is the finished project - which surprisingly doesn't have any stamping on it! shock-horror!! none at all...

This is the front:

The hinge is a Tim Holtz pieces, the black elements are 'gold scrap' from my stash.. and the arms are from a skeleton I bought in Asda last year.. (Inspiration 3:  Asda - its a great place for Halloween bits and pieces...)

The back:

.. has one of my favourite images - the cat - taken from a French Art Nouveau poster (Chat Noir cabaret?).. and because we have a slinky black cat :o)

The sides:

This is what I like about the papers - lots of different size versions of the same images - perfect for my little box 'trunk'

Inside things aren't quite so pretty..... mmmwaaaahhahahaaa (thats my evil halloween laugh!)

In one section there is a cobweb covered scull, and in the other is a spell, a bottle of potion and a spider... I wanted the trunk to look as if it hadn't been opened for a long time so I added 'cobwebs'... The black 'ironwork' in the top right hand corner is more black goldscrap - so glad I remembered I had a bag of this is several colours - this is why I buy 'stuff' when I see it - you never know when you might need it!)...
(and the cobweb 'material' is THE most evil element on the whole project - it sticks to EVERYTHING but not always what its supposed to!... evil I tell you!  Use at your peril! lol)

So there you are... definitely NOT a christmas project!

Weekend in Warwickshire....

... teaching workshops at Pink Tulip Creations ... such a fun weekend with lively groups of 16/17 inky painty peeps - they might not have been inky painty when they arrived, but they were by the time they left!

Learning about Fresco Finish paints, including the yummy new colours! and creating a canvas (full photo is here)...
It was a great weekend - the shop was full of lovely stock, nice airy classroom area... and lovely people - thank you Sheila and the team!  Look forward to seeing you all again in October!
Brace yourselves- I'm bringing Christmas!!!

On the way to dinner I saw some 'proper' gypsies camped at the side of the road - Romany Gypsies with round topped wood caravans - and countless ponies (all in v good condition) - that was a treat for me to see but apparently quite common in and around Warwickshire ... its times like that I realise what a townie I am!  Our 'gypsies/travellers' in Essex come with 4x4s and permanent caravans! Not quite the same thing!

I have also rethought my relationship with the satnav - we were getting on well... until on the way home it took me OVER the M40 (the motorway I arrived in Warks on) and across the country to the M1!! and its queues of traffic!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY! WHY WHY WHY!!  stupid machine! lol  but I was home in time for Downton Abbey so that's OK! lol  (so, Downton Abbey - anyone else spend most of the episode trying to remember what had happened to everyone at the end of the last series? lol no, just me and mrjofy then! lol)

Tick Tock...

... is the Canvas Workshop I'll be teaching at The Artistic Stamper on Saturday (7th Sept)..

There are still a couple of places left so if you fancy a day of inky, painty fun then come and join us - contact the shop to book a place.

xx

tick tock tick tock tick tock....

.... goes the clock in the box as the flowers bloom and grow...

I had such fun creating this piece - made from bits and pieces that were hanging around the studio - they've been 'up-cycled'.. like the box: its the lid of a small Tim Holtz Configurations box, painted in Nougat Fresco Finish (I love love love that colour), the back is covered in text scrapbook paper that I stamped seed heads onto but I forgot to photograph it before I assembled everything - doh! but you can see a little bit here:

I wanted the piece to have a sepia, almost monochrome look - so very limited colour..

I painted the flower heads (JOFY11) with Distress Ink to achieve a watercoloured effect (Walnut Stain)... stamping on the back layer of the box and then adding all the dimensional elements really helps to build up a sense of perspective and depth.
I love this clock die by Tim Holtz /Sizzix - I used to own an alarm clock like this very pretty but it is a hellish way to be woken up - seriously unpleasant - a little hammer on metals bells!! Not a soothing entrance to the day ahead...

This clock is much nicer! (its quiet for a start!).. I created it by cutting clocks from corrugated card (from cat food boxes that I've been saving - it has really fine corrugation) and one from plain card (for the front layer that would be painted). 

   

The flower heads I used are from JOFY12 - stamped on white and painted with Distress Ink (Walnut Stain), I also stamped onto a distressed scrapbook paper that I had, cut out the flower centres and heads and added them here and there... not really planned just what look good.
The piece has more of an Autumnal feel than any of the other projects I've made with the stamps and so I added a legend in top right hand corner (Mini15)(I find those little seasons words really useful).
Behind the clock I added a couple of die cut seed heads (quickutz) - die cut from kraft cardstock to keep with the natural sepia tones of the piece.

And I couldn't resist adding some wooden flowers... and some bling.. oooh not forgetting the bling on the clock face!

I stamped phrases from the JOFY stamp sets on to the sides of the box... and the mesh strip along each of the corners (just visible in the bottom left of this photo..)

I love this piece - it was fairly time consuming but not as much as you might think - the construction of the clock took the longest time, & there is minimal stamping...  I could happily make another one...

Must love'n'leave you - I'm off back into the studio to get ready for my visit to Colemans Warehouse on Saturday where I'll be demo'ing my stamps.  Looking forward to that - hope to see some of you there.

Taking the time...

... to play helps to learn/discover new things- and any mistakes along the way help to learn even more (that's what I think anyway- and that you learn something new every day- whether its big or small)

This little panel is something I made from bits I found on the desk when I was clearing up (there is always something (or rather lots of things) left on the desk...

I've been trying to only use one stamp set each time I create a sample (these stamps are from JOFY11, and, oops, the words are from JOFY09) (it's a hard plan to stick to- I want to use all the stamps! lol)
I liked making little signs out of the phrase- another way to add the phrase to a piece.
The base is die cut from the mover&shaper cabinet die (again - I told you yesterday that I like it! lol)  painted with Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze, Paints, stenciling (Crafters Workshop), and JOFY stamps (well it'd be rude not to! lol)  The piece is quite small (I like to make dinky little things) the card is 10x7.5cm - the signs give it extra height.
BTW other projects using the stamps go take a look the PA blog - Leandra and the Guest Contributors have been creating some great projects... go here

I'm off to make demo samples ready for Sunday at The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show at AllyPally - I'll be on the PaperArtsy stand - hope to see you there...

Could it be any more shabby chic...

.... possibly not...  I'm talking about this tag that I made to get an idea out of my head before I started something with a deadline..don't get me wrong - I don't mind a bit shabby chic, not at all

Love this birdcage stencil and have wanted to use it with my stamps for ages - I wasn't going to use it like this but I was also impatient to use the new (rather fab) PaperArtsy Grunge paste:... oh and some treasure gold.....

... and look - I stamped in a colour other than black!  drum roll please!  I like the 'no black stamping' - its definitely softened the look of the piece...

OK, back to creating 'stuff'....

Oh, and by the way Mad Men is back on our screens (here in the UK) tomorrow!! Soooooo looking forward to it - can.not.wait!!

The Goldilocks approach to creating....

... Over the last few weeks I've been working on projects for upcoming classes ..... I sat back and looked at what I'd created I realised that some 'were too small' and others 'were too big' and some were 'just right'.... the Goldilocks effect....

I like this Sizzix/Tim Holtz 'Cabinet Card' die, and the matching 'movers/shapers' that goes with it.... its so versatile.
This time I used it to cut the main shape, and cut again with the mover&shaper die in place to create a frame.  I like to have some of the stamped images coming over the edges structure (gives it movement):

& then use the smaller piece that remains once the frame is cut to create a 'stand' on the reverse...

This was a bit of a light bulb moment for me - some of you might have been doing this for ages but as it was new to me I thought I'd share it just in case you haven't.  lol

The flowers are painted with Fresco Finish - loving the new 'Blood Orange' colour.. Juicy!!

(it was very tempting to stickle the top of those 'dandelion' heads.... I resisted, but I'm not sure for how long...)

OK, I'm off to create more class samples - I've created a blog page with my teaching demo'ing dates (button under the main banner) so if you fancy a day of inky, painty, stamping come and join me.... the more the merrier  :o)

Craft Stamper - web extra..

.. in the March issue of Craft Stamper I had some dimensional cards featured:

.... and if you'd like to see another project - a little mini canvas - created on the same theme its available to view as a web extra on the Craft Stamper site - click the photo to see more.  The projects feature PaperArtsy stamps & Sizzix dies... I think these are among my all time favourite cards and projects.

Let its snow, let it snow, let it snow...

... and it did! Essex, along with other parts of the UK, ground to a temporary halt last Wednesday with the first snow fall of the year...  It was pretty and quite brief- all back to normal by Thursday evening... but it prompted us to stock up on salt for the ground... and it was an opportunity for us to see what our neighbours are like when events like snow happen: people came out and cleared not only their own drives and pavements but those of our elderly neighbours... so nice to see that.

and talking of snow...

I've been making (among other things) little houses (& unusually for me- not birdhouses!) but they are little houses.. I've had the church-like house for 3-4 years, I bought them when I went to New York (actually I bought a few because they were in the sale bin! result!)  Cute to alter - I've given this one a winter feel...

with the church is an altered mini (& by that I mean tiny) birdhouse available from PaperArtsy- I used white puff paint as snow - how can you see that paint and not think of snow!

I gave the house a cotton reel stand (also available from PaperArtsy) and the star on the top is from JOFY mini02 - Love that star! lol

There will be more of these but just the two for now.. (other things to do: christmas cards to make/send, & the christmas tree won't decorate itself!)

Keep safe & warm

Deck the halls....

... with pennants and bunting... tra la la la laaaaaa la la la laaaaaaa

Usually when I'm  playing around with new products I create tags but at the moment I am creating pennants instead (as I've said before I love a bit of bunting!)...

The above pennant uses the border strip from plate05 with the words on same plate dotted about - love how this turned out - the border is really easy to repeat if you mark on the back the position of the end blocks.

The motifs stamped onto kraft card are from minis.

Speaking of minis: I used the candle on mini08 on this pennant and combined it with the border strip across the top edge:

The candle is coloured with Distress Markers- being from the same palette as Distress inks they tone in perfectly, I like them a lot...

The embellishment on the centre tag is one of the snowflakes created with the Tim Holtz Sizzix die, aged with distress inks.. they're fiddly but i love 'em!

I know I'm shouldn't choose but I think the star pennant is my favourite - stars from several plates: top banner is plate01, big stars plates07 & 08, the white star top centre is from the minis over stamped with snowflakes (also on background) plate01.

I had fun creating these and they work as inspiration for other projects...  These pennants are about 15cm long - don't you think little ones strung on a piece of ribbon around a christmas tree would look cute...

and talking of favourites - distress inks - Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough - my 'go to' colours this christmas - possibly using them a little too much! Jo, put the inks down, and move away from the worktable.. lol

...and just in case you were wondering - christmas is about 36 days away... just sayin'.....