In Full Bloom {with JoFY Stamps by Designer Jo Firth Young}

Hi everyone, Jo here with another project using JOFY stamps.  This month I've been inspired by my garden to create a tree that will always be green and in bloom.

I started with this plain plywood tree (from artemio) (I've laid a ruler alongside to give you an idea of the scale of it.  The tree comes in 2 parts - the main tree and a small base that slots in so that it can stand independently.

I painted the trunk and branches of the tree with French Roast Fresco Finish paint - keeping the paint quite thin so the wood grain was still visible.

My plan was to cover the tree with leaves created from paper and JOFY stamps - so I gathered up papers in shades of green - PaperArtsy Chatsworth papers, a misc sheet of scrapbook paper and book text.

I tore up the book text,glued it to a sheet of card, and painted it with various shades of Fresco Finish green paints (above) to tone in with the other papers (below):

Next I gathered up some leaf stamps from various JOFY sets:JOFY24, JOFY15,

JoFY24

  JOFY12, JOFY22, and mini JM12

JoFY12

JoFY22

JoFY Mini12

Stamped them onto the gathered papers:

Stamping the images onto the different papers would give visual texture and interest. I cut them out ready to attach to the tree, when done I started laying them in place - trying to make sure no two patterns or designs were side by side.

I realised at this point the substrate's leaves would need to painted green too to hide/disguise any edges (I really liked how the tree looked here - the green (a mix of Tinned Peas and Hey Pesto) and brown,  such a great shape).

Here are the leaves laid in place ready to be attached - I took a photo and used it to refer to when gluing the leaves into the final positions.

I glued them down using Matte Medium painting the substrate's leaves rather than the paper leaf (I always try to add glue to the smaller item when attaching things together - avoids excess glue showing)... this glue allows time to make adjustments to position and placement.

In the photo above you will see flowers that I created using JM34: stamped onto pink scrapbook paper and colour 'puddles' of Amethyst JOFY Fresco Finish paint - I used the 2 smaller flowers for the tree... attaching to the tree in amongst the leaves.

JoFY Mini 34

I thought the tree should have a birdhouse (JOFY15) and of course a feathered inhabitant, so I used one of the lovebirds on JM20.  I glued these two images onto corrugated cardboard so they would be more dimensional on the tree.  The bird is painted with Elephant, South Pacific, Haystack and French Roast.  The birdhouse in Lake Wanaka, Little Black Dress and French Roast.

JoFY Mini 20

JoFY 15

This is a JOFY tree - it has flowers, booktext, a birdhouse and to finish my ticklist of favourite things I created small tags to hang on the tree - using the word blocks on JOFY11.  I stamped the words, cut around them to create simple tag, turned them over and stamped the same word on the other side (so that if the tag rotated words were on both sides), then threaded very fine string through the hole and tied them to the tree.

JoFY 11

Here is the tree again this time out in its natural environment...

.... and at this point I thought my tree was finished and so I put it on the shelf where I put all my newly finished pieces... and I looked at it...  and I kept thinking it was missing something.... I left it a day or two... and looked again ... and then.. lightbulb moment!!... it needs GRASS!

I retrieved a piece of the coloured text paper (you see - always pays to create more than you need 'just in case') and stamped a line of grass - using JOFY21

JOFY21

I added some detail to the leaves and ground with Hey Pesto paint.  I cut the panel in half, cut around the detail, checking the sizing against the tree trunk..

 ... and glued it in place at the bottom of the trunk, being careful not to block the slot where the second support fits, and making sure it is level..

ooh thats much better! Tree looks finished now, and grounded.  The line of grass makes such a difference.

Definitely finished now.

I hope you enjoy my project this month - I created my dimensional tree using a wood substrate but something similar could be created on a canvas (could use the tree/branch stamp on JOFY15).

See you next month.

Jo

A huge thanks to Jo from all at PaperArtsy HQ, wow what a fabulous tree. Another great project, full of whimsy but done in such an elegant way. These soft colours make it so dreamy. Jo you should be illustrating children's books. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE you will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday 22nd June 2014