2023 Topic 12: Designer Focus: JoFY {by Autumn Clark}

Hi everyone it's Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint here with you today.  I've been enjoying some creative time lately, focusing on creating cards and gifts. This designer focus on Jofy had me thinking about building a stash of handmade birthday gifts. So I decided to alter some small canvases with Jo's beautiful stamps.  I hope you'll enjoy this simple process and get inspired to create some gifts of your own.

I really enjoyed experimenting with a new background painting technique using PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics and mixing that with watercolor, a favorite of mine.  I hope it inspires you too!

What I loved most about these canvases is that they were as easy to make as a greeting card, but pack a bigger punch and can be displayed on a small easel throughout the year, long after one's birthday celebrations have ended.  

For this project, I didn't have much of a plan in mind, other than wanting to use some beautiful florals and ended up choosing my favorite  set, PaperArtsy stamp set 114 by Jo Firth Young (JOFY114).

I had picked up a small two pack of 5x7" canvases at our Dollar Tree store in the States, which ended up being cheaper than two sheets of 12x12" cardstock!  Score!  I was looking forward to mixing things up with these as substrates.

I scoured my collection and chose two stamp sets that would work together nicely from each designer.  First up was PaperArtsy stamp set 114 by Jo Firth Young (JOFY114).  I really enjoy coloring, but am lazy and cheat a bit - ha ha!  Here I've used cheap brush markers to add a variety of colors to the petals, then I simply used a water brush to blend the colors out.  It's easier than working in layers, but the result is beautifully variegated.  

Here are all of my happy little petals, colored and cut out nicely.  I wanted to create two different compositions with the flowers.

My second choice of stamps was PaperArtsy Eclectica stamp set 32 by Scrapcosy (ESC32).  I knew these darling bees would work beautifully with my blossoms.  I stamped two images and colored, then cut away the body of the second bee.  I curled the wings of the second images and used mounting tape to create 3D critters.

I just love how these bees turned out and the dimension they added to the canvases.  

 

I waited until I had colored my focal images before deciding upon paint colors.  I was really getting excited at this point and could see the project coming to life. I landed upon a beautiful combination of PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics to include Butternut, Peach Nectar, Peppermint and Sargasso.  

I started by painting blobs of Sargasso and Peppermint onto the canvases, as shown.  

Next, I added smaller amounts of Butternut and Peach Nectar.  Once my painted layers were dry, I stamped the honeycomb from ESC32 with embossing ink and embossed in white on the panels.  

I started this project back in October because I was going to be away for a month.  When I finally came home at the end of November and was ready to photograph my canvases, the watercolor had sun bleached from laying on my art table in the open sun.  The trees in my front that normally shade my window had lost their leaves and the sun had been beaming in.  You can see how the color is altered in the pic below verses the coloring sample above.  To fix my pieces, I simply added more watercolor.  I actually like the more faded flowers in the end, though I was initially distraught!  Though, I'm going to look deeper into the lightfastness of my inks going forward...  I wish I had photographed them then and could do a side by side comparison.  

I decided to add some encouraging words to my gift panels and picked a very favorite stamp set, PaperArtsy Ink & the Dog Words 2 stamp set (W2) to spell out my chosen text.  

I cut apart each word and dabbed a grey ink pad along the edges, then drew in some black outlines.  

 

 

I really like the pop of white against the colorful backgrounds.  

 

I think the canvases are quite cheery and the colors work together very well. I'm so happy I was able to salvage the faded flowers with a fresh coat of color!

I think I'll search for some simple white frames for the panels or perhaps add some wire and bead hangers for the next set.  I'm also thinking of creating some of these canvases with Jo's fabulously fun snowmen stamps and giving them as Christmas gifts this year.  The possibilities are endless!  I truly hope these projects have made you smile and encouraged you to get stamping.  

xx, Autumn

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