Fanfare Noise!! {NEW Designer alert}

YES!! We've been hinting that something new was in the developmental phase for the last few months...and finally we can make the BIG announcement. (such a relief)

And so just WHAT and WHO is JOFY?

Jo Firth-Young of course! JOFY is the name of JO's NEW STAMP COLLECTION (collective squeal please)

I have loooooong known Jo..... even before PaperArtsy the stamp company was born. She used to come to the classes we taught (that was me, Bodgerbird aka Essex Lynne with crafty friends Anne and Debbie) monthly in Hutton, Brentwood and at that time she was doing her City/ Guilds training in textiles, mixed media, and all the other Paper-Craft stuff she enjoyed. Every month we were itching to see what Jo came up with in the Altered Book round robin. She quickly became a firm friend through these monthly get-togethers. And of course I think we learned from her as much as she from us!

These critters above are typical of Jo creating cool textile thingies - just cos she can! Our PaperArtsy Mascot is also one of Jo's critters - he's called PAMM (PaperArtsy mini mascot).

She has always had an amazing eye for colour, composition, and a clever way of interpreting and presenting her own Jo-style. She is full on into messy, altered art, yet she does it in a way that is crisp, clean tidy and not over-complicated. I adore what she creates. It is always stunning. Here is a typically Jo textile-stamped sample with a stamp from our Lynne Perrella collection.

Her Crafty CV is very full!

Some of you will already know her as the most highly craft-qualified of all of us who taught at ArtsyCrafts - yes Craft IS her day job! And she's certified...LOL And yes she even is a slight bit bonkers which is always a good quality in a crafter. We think she deffo lives in her own little Jo-land world, and if you've been in one of her classes you will know exactly what I mean....well let's give you a current example shall we...she has designed a headless snowman....who else would do that? .... of course he's very endearing, you just want to put that melty head back on his shoulders to cheer him up. LOL But of course this is the kind of thing that comes out of Jo's head and tickles her fancy. And we love her for it! And then she does something like this below.... just makes me laugh...

Jo teaches and demos regularly in and around the Essex area at Birds in the Barn near Colchester, Essex, The Craft Barn in Lingfield, Surrey, and Imagine That PaperCrafts in Upminster not far from PA HQ.

But it's likely that most of you will know her for her regular contributions to Craft Stamper magazine. She has been cover girl on more than one occassion! She creates a variety of projects with fabric, card, paper and, well pretty much anything. Here is a snippet of a fabric bag coloured with PaperArtsy Fresco Paints, and stamped with Claudine Hellmuth images.

So enough of Jo ...I guess you want to see what the stamps are like that she has designed for us!!

As 'tis the season (well nearly) and all that ... we asked her to do some Christmas themed bits and bobs, and I think you are going to love these very much indeedy!

First up the 8 minis. These are Credit card size, perfect for gift tags with the feature images, and the background designs will be useful in all kinds of ways, as you know; layers, texture, wrapping paper etc.

JM01

JM02

JM03

JM04

JM05

JM06

JM07

JM08

She also has created eight A5 sized plates. There are borders, phrases, central elements, dangly bits, pressies, a headless snowman.... LOL..... and of course, in her inimitable meticulous manner, Jo has tweaked, planned, tweaked some more, amended, changed, re-drawn, coloured...tweaked and so on for the best part of the last month to get all these images working perfectly together in oh so many ways. Just for you!

I know you will start to see examples emerge on  Jo's blog in the coming weeks.... she has great plans for her new babies, so keep an eye on her blog for more inspiration. 

Read to the bottom of this post for info about getting your hands on these new stamps ASAP!

JOFY01

JOFY02

JOFY03

JOFY04

JOFY05

JOFY06

JOFY07

JOFY08

So...what do you think? Do you likey? And how do you get them?

You could:

1. See Jo demo with them herself in person at The Craft Barn this coming weekend at their Mini Fest Free Demo Day, Saturday October 6th. 
2. Take a class with Jo at The Craft Barn in December using these JOFY stamps. Booking info here.
3. Come to the PaperArtsy stand at the Great Northern PaperCrafts Extravaganza at the Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate this coming weekend, October 6th and 7th.
4. Order online now, click on the links under each stamp. Or click here to see them all. Shipping estimated to start Tuesday 9th October, but could be sooner.
5. Ask your local Stamp store to stock these little beauties. They can contact us sales@paperartsy.co.uk to order them wholesale from us.

BLOG CANDY ALERT
To enter in the festive spirit of goodwill and to celebrate this wonderful launch, please leave a comment for Jo below. I can't tell you how hard she has worked on this release, so your feedback will be so much appreciated I am sure! On Tuesday 9th October THREE people's names will be randomly drawn. Each will receive an A5 plate and a mini of their choice from this new collection. 

Please make sure we can contact you! If you comment is anonymous, then it makes it hard for us to track you down. We will blog post again on Tues 9th with the winners names and some new art samples, so keep watching this blog in case you are one of the lucky stampers to get your hands on Jo's stuff first. 

Have a great week, as you know, we are busy getting ready for the Harrogate show, GNPE - a new show on our calendar this year. Do drop by the stand if you can, we'd love to meet up with you.

Take care

Leandra

Hidden {treasure} ohhhhhh

I know quite a number of you were wowed by the Treasure Gold excitement at Ally Pally this last weekend, my next shipment should arrive tomorrow by my calculations, so I figured now was a good time to show you more pictures and explain a bit about what it is, what it does, and ways to use it.

I also have a few less complicated samples from Ally Pally that I also want to explain, as there are certain question I get asked time and again, so a few tidbits of hopefully useful info might be contained in this rambling too.

Crackle Glaze. It's a doddle.

• First coat either dark or light, this is the colour that will show through the cracks. I have used Inky Pool. DRY IT
• Next scrape on with a spatula a THIN layer of crackle glaze. DRY IT. (Heat tool is faster)
• Lastly apply your contrasting coat of top coat, I used Nougat. As it dries it cracks, so work fast, and use just one stroke to apply. DRY.

PLEASE NOTE:

1. Apply the top coat thickly for big cracks, or thin for fine cracks. Try cut and dry foam, it gives a porcelain crackle effect because the paint is applied evenly and thin, a paint brush gives long linear cracks.
2. If you start sanding the edges before it is one dry, you will easily be able to sand away to the bottom layer for an even more distressed paint effect.
3. Apply brown distress ink on top also gives ore of a weathered effect, but also dry dabbing away excess distress with a baby wipe.
4. I have sealed the sample above with a 50/50 mix of metallic glaze with satin glaze. The metallic glaze has mica which gives a soft sparkle on light colours such as nougat. If you use it 100% direct from the bottle you get mega sparkle, so reduce the mica content by mixing with satin or gloss glaze. You can see the effect top left and bottom right of the sample above.

Puff Paint. It's a doddle.

• It comes in 2 colours, black or white. The white can be mixed with other colours of paint, and will still puff, even at 50/50 ratio. The black dries kind of grey, but shows off mica powders, embossing powders or treasure gold and liquid leaf beautifully. Both colours are kind of sticky to the touch once heated and puffed, so if you are using mica or embossing powders, they will grab instantly without the need for any adhesives.
• Apply with a spatula, brush or finger to the receiving surface (wood, card, tag etc). For a wood grain effect, scrape on quite thin. For veins (like in leaves) splat at it with a palette knife. For bubbles (or warts) leave a thicker layer of product. For stripes, use a rubber texture tool - we have a 3 sided one offering different groove widths.
• Heat with a heat tool, and the product will dry off, then start to puff. Once puffed it will look matte.
• Now you can paint, emboss, or rub on treasure gold to highlight the texture

White puff mixed with South Pacific paint, and dabbed onto Artemio branch

Treasure Gold. it's a doddle.

Left to right a few of the colours: Spanish Topaz, Indigo, Olive Bronze, Onyxite, Green Amber.

This product is a metallic wax used for furniture restoration, and closely resembles gold leafing effects. You can custom mix your colours by mixing different shades together or layering them. It will work on all kinds of surfaces (paper, card, glass, metal card, wood, plastic, acrylic paints), is permanent, dries instantly and looks glam!

Looks amazing on the crunchy waxed craft paper. Here is our Tall Heart die, embossed, then rubbed with Spanish Topaz.

And on this sample, the crunchy has been crumpled, then rubbed with copper treasure gold. As have the puff painted lumpy bits on the tag. The number 9 was painted black, then lightly brushed with copper. So easy, and so effective because the colours are awesome.

You can also put it onto painted crunchy. In this sample, the crunchy was die cut (Grungeflower 1), then embossed, sprayed with watered down Snowflake Paint, then rubbed with Onyxite and Spanish Topaz Treasure Gold. Also the plastic Artemio button has been brushed directly too, it sticks to the texture so easily, and doesn't rub off.

On this sample it is on the metal card petals, around the lumpy bits of the central brad and on the leaves.

On this one you can see the amber green is really picked up on the left hand side popping off the green tones in this painted background.

And down the right hand side of this tag you can clearly see the chocolate tones of Onyxite. It's on top of the green amber treasure gold.

And lastly, prepare for a shock. Not something you see very often from me....a purple sample.

The tag background was painted in a mix of pansy and beach hut, with eggplant and rose thrown in for good measure. Sky was sponged through a stencil. Black puff was applied to the Artemio wood frame, and then it was rubbed with Indigo Treasure gold, followed by a touch of Spanish Topaz.

W

You can see it better here, and the crochet flower was sprayed with mermaid watered down. Love the Indigo applied to a scallop flower die cut from metal card and embossed. I did sand the metal card before applying the Treasure Gold.

And here you can see I also added a touch of Treasure Gold to the lace trim too! And the word charm.

And how did I get the image onto the fabric? I used Satin Glaze to transfer it....and that I shall save for another post!!

Lastly a word about Liquid Leaf , as above: florentine, renaissance, copper, brass, white fire, pewter.

This is a very runny metallic paint, again used for furniture restoration. It can be used on all surfaces including, well everything. It dries fast, is permanent, and does not leave any brush strokes. The samples above are made from puff paint thru a stencil, then painted (one coat) with liquid leaf. It is truly amazing stuff, and I shall be demoing it at the upcoming shows in October. But you can already buy it now from the website, it is in the same category as Treasure Gold, so don't get the 2 muddled up.

Hope you find that info useful. And I'll be adding the rest of the colour pictures of the Treasure Gold colours to the site as soon as I get my paws on the new stuff when it arrives! (Tomorrow)

Take care

Leandra

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Ally Pally September 2012

Had a great day today at Ally Pally. Lin came along to demo too, and between the two of us we showed many people lots of ideas with paint, stamps, embellishments and all the new goodies we have on the stand.

Lin was the master of orange and claret, and showed many times how to make a deep orange with a mix of pumpkin soup and brown shed. Yes, those 2 colours! Who knew! Check out the results.

And this one, think its a French roast combo under the crackle. Look how great the treasure gold wax looks on the crunchy waxed craft paper.

And she made this gorgeous little green one, the background shows off the stencils perfectly. And a Lynne Perella image stamped onto fabric and coloured with watery fresco paints.

I was channelling Anna Dubrowska today. Lots of people asking about our class we went to in Cork a few weeks back, and so I made a few flower clusters on tags, and then added images, either stamped directly onto the tag, or onto fabric and added later. Anna tends to spray with dye sprays, but I had a blast using fresco paints watered down and sprayed over the flowers and other embellishments. It worked a dream due to the opaque nature of our paint. Highlights of treasure gold are so pretty.

I also showed ways of using puff paint. The white puff can be mixed into fresco paints up to 50/50 mix, applied as either a thin scraping, or you can add texture with a rubber texture tool, and then heat. It puffs easily, but of course it's coloured. There is also black puff which is great with treasure gold or embossing powders on top of the lumpy bits.

And here is a similar tag background, with decorations on the top. It still needs a few more bits and bobs.

Next up is one which was sprayed heavily with watery fresco paints, dried, stamped, and with the treasure gold on top. This was an epic demo! It was so much fun, and the pictures really don't do it justice at all.

This is one where I stamped directly onto the tag, I then sprayed colour around, and it softened the black square edges of the stamp. Love that. You can see the Spanish topaz treasure gold really popping in the foreground. Ad then copper treasure gold on the 'spinner' adds a nice touch too!

Last sample to show you is this lovely green one. The puff paint BG was painted, stencilled a little, and the topping was a Lynne Perrella image stamped directly onto. Manila tag in versafine ink, clear embossed, then painted with frescos. It's turned out really nice.

So, if you can make it to the big stamping and scrapbooking show at Alexandra Palace, do come along to the last day of the show tomorrow, and I can show you in person how to have a go at these techniques.

It would be great to see you. Otherwise, have a lovely Sunday whatever you are up to!

Leandra

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It's {Ally Pally} tomorrow

The pipe organ in the Great Hall

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow and Sunday its the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking show at Alexandra Palace, North London.

Due to a Health and Safety directive from the venue organisers (too many people in the hall) the show has been moved into the Great Hall, which backs onto the old hall. So the stands are much re spaced out, and a few of us are in different locations. I think there is a whole row missing, or been relocated. I didn't really look around properly yet, but overall, it's the same layout. Look up and you'll see the big pipe organ on the wall, our stand is in front of that, next to the big demonstration area organised by Express Services. So we are really easy to find.

We have got lots of new things in for this show for your enjoyment!

Treasure Gold is a permanent rub on gilding wax in stunning colours. Lin has been using it for a while, and of course it's fabulous .... so we have a gorgeous selection of colours available. I'm not sure how youart going to choose, I have narrowed it down to 4 must haves!

We also have lots of flower bellies- we have great ideas for these after going to the class in Cork recently! Sorry no piccie of those.

Artemio has brought out a cool new line of embellishments, and I just had to order the lot! I'm sure you'll be glad I did!! The price is really good on these, and you will have no difficulty incorporating them into your projects!

We get asked a lot about which paints work well together. So we have made up 12 sets of really good colour combinations, and selling them at a cheaper price than if you bought 4 paints individually. They each have a header card with those colours used to make backgrounds so when you look at the pack you get a good idea of how they look together.

Plus we have all the newest stamps: Halloween, Lynne Perrella, minis etc.

There are lots of new wood items to decorate, large and small. And of course the paper based items. Portfolio pastels are back in stock, there is so much stuff, you are going to be looking for ages to see it all. And Mark has some cute items in baskets at the till where you might snaffle an unexpected bargain!

If you've been following Lin on twitter (@yoursartfully) this week or seen her blog post, she also has made a bunch of gorgeous samples to show you.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

 

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