2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour with JOFY {by Jo Firth-Young}

  2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour

We do love a JOFY mini book, and even better when it's a pink-black-gold combo! Jo goes through her back catalogue to show just how perfectly all her stamps can work well together in the background and of course she also manages to find the perfect focal points to adorn each page beautifully.
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Jo Firth-Young (www.jofy.co.uk) here with you today, and I'm here to share with you a small concertina book I made using my 'favourite' colour - I say my 'favourite' colour but it really is so hard to pick just one colour isn't it?!!

I chose PINKS, - including HOT pink - the gorgeous Cerise. Hot pink seems slightly rebellious - it says 'look at me!'  It makes a statement doesn't it. I've teamed it with Sherbet, Gold and black to quieten it down a little... but not too much. lol

The mini book I created (final size 8x8cm) came together quite easily - I didn't start with any expectations of what it was going to be... but I took inspiration from an even smaller book I have on my desk (I do love tiny 'junk'/art journals!). 

It features lots of the small designs that are on my stamp plates and I've been wanting to make a slighter larger project using phrases. 

So I gathered up Smoothy card and paints and just started playing - I used lots of bits of 'this and that' - I had FUN making it, no pressure.  I used many of my favourite techniques - and all that HOT PINK colour!! 

The finished book just makes me smile- it has a really positive feel to it - I chose to feature lots of the little phrases & words that are dotted among my JOFY collection - I wanted to give them their '5 minutes of fame'. lol

I started by creating a master-board on a 13x6in panel of Heavy Smoothy. I painted it with diluted Sherbet Fresco Finish paint, used stencil PS250 to add small spots in Cerise and larger spots in Kitsch Flamingo Distress Oxide.  

Then, I added letters (JOFY101) in Gold Fresco Finish to break up the pink and add a touch of shine to contrast the matte pink paints. I intentionally left 'open' spaces.

Once all the painted layers had dried I added more details: I stamped blocks of small dots (EM57), and drew around the large dots with Stabilo All pencils in white and black diluting the lines with water.

I folded the panel into 4 x 3in strips, cutting off the remaining 1in strip.

 

I realised that 4 rectangle panels didn't give me enough space to work on - not enough pages, and I thought rectangles might be slightly restrictive so I cut the rectangles into 8 7x7cm squares - much more versatile and more pages! win win!

Now to decide what colour card to mount the squares onto for the concertina structure.  I often try out several backgrounds colours before making a decision - its definitely worth looking at different options - some might surprise you!  I tested white, black and my firm favourite: kraft. The different background colours definitely create a different look - the white is fresh, the black is very dramatic and the kraft gives a softer look. I decided on black for my book- a change from the white or kraft that I might normally reach for.

I measured and cut a strip of black card to mount the squares onto allowing for a border to frame each piece.

.... and when all the background details were finished I sewed each panel in place.

 

Here are pairs of page with the details of stamps used... details on the panels are die cuts, stamping, stenciling - created from pieces cut/created for this piece and from project 'left-overs' - repurposing bits and pieces. I really like adding all these little details to these small pages.

'Life is good.... ' is from JOFY46.  The numbers on the right hand page are from JOFY88 - this was a 'scrap' piece saved from a previous project (its always worth hanging on to interesting bits and pieces). These numbers were part of the planner sets I designed but it great to see them being used for something else.

The left hand page features bud stems from JOFY26 and 'Grow' from JOFY97 is part of a phrase but works just as well on its own.
I heat embossed most of the images stamped in black - the gloss of the embossing is a nice contrast to the matte Fresco paints.
The flower on the right hand page is JOFY61, and this page features one of the background stamps I added for more detail on some pages - the white embossing really makes it pop.

 

 

'Be a rebel' (great phrase) comes from JOFY50 - the ombre painted word uses Cerise and Sherbet. The flowers on the right hand page are from JOFY26 (shown above) - I stamped the flowers directly onto the background and added an additional one for added interest.

Here are the final two pages featuring JOFY72 (I like how the word 'you!' is accentuated by embossing it in gold), and JOFY102. 

Black and pink is such a great colour combination isn't it! and with those pops of gold and white!! Fabulous! 

I hope this encourages you, inspires you, to take another look through your stamps sets - look for the smaller stamps that are tucked in around the bigger images - bring them out, play with them and make them the feature of your pages - there are lots of little treasures in those sets - I'd love to see what you create!  

Take care

Jo

Website: www.jofy.co.uk

Pinterest: @jofyjo

Facebook: JoFY Jamboree! group

Twitter: @jofyjo

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Teaching dates - ONLINE workshops
28.08.21  Loobi Crafts, www.loobicrafts.co.uk ...Wonderfully Wintery

Every Friday until December:  Festive Friday, 18.00 (UK time), in my Jamboree group: Free demo/Card making class 

2020 Topic #18 Doodled Geometry with LPC (by Keren Baker)

 2020 Topic 18: Geometric  

Hi everyone, it's Keren with you today, and I'd like to share with you a project trying to add a little geometric style into a Lynne Perrella stamp or two. I chose Lynne's stamps as they are real favourites of mine but I  hadn't really planned how the topic would fit into the style of stamps. After a bit of brain fog, I decided to add an opaque layer that still showed the image, but allowed me to do a little doodling.

One of my favourite substrates (after acetate) is Duralar Matte film. I love the way you can add alcohol markers, pencils, gel pen and other markers onto it.

Initially I just stamped the main image from LPC030 onto some Heavyweight Smoothy.

I trimmed out a piece of Matte film and secured it over the stamped image. I had chosen this image because of the grid - making it look more geometric than some of the other images in her stamp collection. Whilst looking at it through the overlaid film, I thought that by using the dots on the grid I could create a series of geometric shapes (mostly triangular.) I used a fine marker by Copic that I knew would dry well on the film.

Using alcohol markers, I coloured the reverse of the film. You need to use darker colours for the colours to show, but I didn't want to use too dark a colour, as I wanted to be able to see glimpses of the beautiful image showing through. The triangular shapes seemed flat, so I added highlights with a white gel pen (that surprisingly dried perfectly) and some doodled dots. It still needed extra so I added some shadow using Prismacolors.

For this project I was trying to get over my aversion to purple! I don't think I'm quite there yet but the blues and aquas helped! It definitely needed a sentiment so I added in one from JOFY72.

To keep the film and cardstock together, I sewed 3 lines of stitching in blue, purple and white.

I coloured in small sections of the stamped image with Prismacolor pencils and added a few stamped circles from LPC024.

There were just some little details to add; using the stacked squares on the image and a little strip of the main image. A simple enough card that was very therapeutic to create.

Although this ended up as a card, I wish I'd been more ambitious in planning a more complex project. I'll have to find someone 'worthy' (haha!) to send this to. Maybe I'll cut the back off the card and create a journal cover with it instead.

I hope you get the chance to have a doodle or sketch today, it's a wonderful panacea for the stresses of the day and the climate we find ourselves in.

Keren x

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2020 #13 Planners & Gift Wrap with JOFY Stamps {by Autumn Clark}

2020 Topic 13: Lines

Whether you're a journaller or gift wrapper extraordinaire, Autumn has some modern and fresh ideas for you. Cleverly using JOFY stems as decorative lines, she's come up with some inspirational ideas using quotes and brush lettering.
~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint with you today, and I'd like to share with you a fun way to use your JOFY flower stamps to set up your August planner/bullet journal pages. 

I started out creating some DIY gift wrap for our Lines topic, but was sparked by the beautifully drawn lines in the stems of my flower stamps to go in another direction, and I had the most fun converting these stems into separators for my daily planner.  So today's post is a bit of a two in one.  Grab your cuppa and let's get on...

During quarantine I have been amusing myself by making my own gift wrap from copy paper.  Often I use my watercolor practice sheets, but I thought why not make some funky wrap to coordinate with the PaperArtsy JOFY Stamp Set (JOFY72).  My joy in this process is that 90% of my friends are stampers/artists and I hope they can re-purpose the gift wrap into a card or journal page.  So the gift keeps on giving plus there's no need to shop for wrapping!

I used my stamp platform to restamp the details in my flower after painting with PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics in Bubble Gum, Prawn, Tangerine Twist and Banana.  I used a Sharpie and a Posca pen for further details.

I painted the reverse of my flower before fussy cutting and raised it on the package with a foam dot.  Isn't it the cutest "bow"?  I simply used a Sharpie to draw the striped lines on my copy paper and added a few dots to coordinate better with the whimsical flower.  I recently saw a video on wrapping gifts with too little paper and the trick is to wrap diagonally rather than square.  It makes the paper stretch further, perfect for copy paper designs!  

After using the mushrooms in PaperArtsy JOFY Stamp Set (JOFY92) to make the little gift tag on my package, I saw just how beautiful the stems of were on their own and thought they would be perfect to set up my August bullet journal/planner pages.  I used a bit of washi tape to mask off the caps and stamped them directly into my book.

I looked at my collection of JOFY stamps and saw that there were beautiful lines in each set!  So I decided to make the entire month's planner pages in preparation to go back to work after quarantine.  I don't know about you, but every aspect of my life requires a little more concentration than before quarantine...  I hope using my planner will help me stay on task better.  Here I've used PaperArtsy JOFY Stamp Set (JOFY63).

One thing that I have found very relaxing and therapeutic during these stressful days has been to start daily practice to develop my brush lettering skills.  I grab my markers and notebook and doodle away while watching TV most evenings.  I picked up a new bullet journal for more "finished" pages.  These are my first attempts.  I'm very excited about the possibilities of combining stamps with letter art.

I find it such fun to think of new layouts and motivational quotes for each week's spread.  And coloring in my designs is super relaxing for me.

To finish, I created an August opening page by masking off the center of this beloved flower and doodling in a banner across.

I truly enjoyed just playing and know that you will enjoy seeing new lines and patterns from your PaperArtsy stamps too!  There are so many ways one can dissect a stamp and create multiple designs with it, regardless of its style.  

Here's to more productive, stress free days with endless inspiration and creativity!

Yours, Autumn Clark

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