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