A bit of {Stamp Magic} tomorrow

Tomorrow we are off to Doncaster. It's the Stamp Magic show at the Dome. The van is packed and we have more new stuff that has arrived in this week to PAHQ

First up we have every single colour of Liquid Leaf highly metallic paint and Treasure Gold highly metallic wax. So even more to choose from than we had at Ally Pally and Harrogate! And this picture still doesn't show them all!

The paint is great for changing the colour of paper flowers like these

Into this, or look at the die cut crunchy songbird that was embossed, then painted with brass liquid leaf. So easy and very effective.

We also have a whole lot of prima flowers on the racks this weekend. I can't pick my faves, so not sure how you will!

And check out these 7 gypsies knobs! Quite like the idea of putting them on the front of a wooden icon, but I can think of so many places these would look fabulous!

We picked up a couple of new elves this week! (Dad Roy, and his wife Sue) Took them a while to get the hang of bagging stamps the right way up in a bag (these elves are from down under though so that might explain it) they did quite like pricing up and hanging stock! But sadly they depart for France tomorrow, so we didn't get to keep them for very long!

What else is new this weekend? I am Very excited about a whole bunch on new resin and metal embellishments from Melissa France's and Prima. These are going to be awesome with the treasure gold on top! This is just a few of what we have on the stand tomorrow.

Amazing metal bellies.

And lots of amazing prima goodies like these bonkers embellishments!

So, a late blog post, but we do hope to see you there if you can make it at the dome to the stamp magic show!

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Coming to a town near you!

If you have been following us on the blog recently, you will have figured out that Autumn is Craft show season here in the UK, and of all the months in the year, October has the most events on offer for your enjoyment here in the UK. 

If you popped by our stand this is what your would have seen at Harrogate.

Heading to a show is a great chance to go and suss out some new ideas and to get ahead on your 'to-do' list before the silly season of chrimbo is well and truly upon us. You can see many retailers in the one place, we all usually have quite different products to sell, so there is always a big variety to see. Demonstrators are plentiful, and are happy to be quizzed on products, techniques and so you can see for yourself how to use new products.

We have noticed wood is very popular at the moment, which makes sense, particularly if you are handy with a paint brush and a bottle of Fresco Finish, or try some crackle for a great wintery effect. Wood can be painted, papered, stencilled, or why not rust it? We have been adding puff paint to it then embossing the bumps with gold EP, we have also been rubbing treasure gold directly onto the wood, or making it look like metal with Liquid Leaf. Plenty of gift ideas on our bookcase stacked with new stuff, or cool stocking-filler goodies.

So we've been everywhere man (you need to sing that bit)...Harrogate last weekend was a lovely town to visit, we ate well, slept well, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves meeting new exhibitors and customers alike.

The treasure gold and Liquid Leaf is flying off the stand at shows. Its a real 'Oooohhhhh' product. We have even more colours arrived in today, and you can order online now, so get it while we have it!

Jo Firth-Young's Christmas stamps are causing a real buzz. People can immediately see what they would do with them. I loved stamping the minis onto fabric JM02 left, JM01 right and painting soft touches of colour. Only takes a minute, so a really nice way to do loads of cards.

Here are a few samples of what she's has been doing with them:

A fabulous wreath using stars from JOFY08 She randomly painted Smoothy card with Fresco acrylic paints (beach hut and guacamole), then stamped the stars on the BG, and jazzed them up with buttons, bling and a bit of sparkle.

Here is JM02 (a mini) coloured with Distress Markers.

I love how Jo uses brown Kraft card so effectively. She stamped the bunting onto scrapbook paper, then cut out and laid over the JOFY07 image stamped in black directly onto the brown card.

 And more kraft-cards using other  minis, JM01, JM02, JM03 in a similar manner

The wreath stamp on JOFY04 is a stunner, and such a fun stamp to play about with. Glitter pens are deffo allowed on this little number! Or what about liquid leaf or treasure gold??

Here is the same stamp, but with stamped stars layered up from the wreath scraps of painted card!

And lastly, we love this big stamp from JOFY05 Jo designed it so that you can pick out words of your preference to highlight and make up your own greeting. How clever is she!Either mask off words, or bleach back with ...yes...bleach.

 So the show we are doing this weekend is the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show (East Midlands). It will be held at the Kettering Conference Centre. Kettering is not far from where the A14 joins the M1/ M6 motorways, so quite easy to find! The train station is not a long walk either, so what are you waiting for? Book your tickets online and come and see us.

New in this week, I have added even more colours of Liquid Leaf and Treasure Gold to the stash on the stand (drooling), and we have new papier mache items in, perfect for Christmas altering ideas. I also have some amazing canvases. They are ridiculously cheap £2-£6 and are the extra chunky ones, square or oblong and you will love them too I am sure! Plus we have texture paste and puff paint that I am very excited about using through stencils with Liquid Leaf on top....

And lastly, went to a pub for lunch with Mr PaperArtsy on Monday, and this was on the wall. LOL

We'll catch up with you next week, in the meantime, I have a load of rubber to get trimming...and orders to send out...

Take care

Leandra

Blog Candy {JOFY} competition results

Well, after much ado comprising discussion of random number selection processes.... Jo Firth-Young herself pushed the magic button to draw 3 names randomly from the hat to get our three winners from last week's launch of the JOFY collection of stamps....

First up

BondGirl said...
Well done Jo!!!

Will be popping by the paper artsy stand with baby bella to say hi!


 

....and indeed she did, but baby Bella slept all day at the Harrogate show....so no cuddles for me ;(

And next

Deborah said...

Jo, you had me at JMO1 :-)

And then it just got better and better. I love the colour reccomendations too - so refreshing!


 

And the lucky last winner is only my slightly bonkers stalker...she will be beside herself with excitement I am sure....



Siobhan Brignull said...

well done Jo on a superb take on xmas stamps, love the rows of hanging ornaments . . mwah


Each of you is invited to pick an A5 plate and a mini from the JoFY collection...please email me sales@paperartsy.co.uk with your preferences, and we shall get them out in the post.

For the rest of you who missed out on the lucky dip, you can always go and order your gorgeous JOFY christmas stamps here.



Just look at all the gorgeous samples Jo has dropped off at HQ. Lots of inspiration for you to get cracking on your cards and tags for Chrimbo!



We are packing up and ordering like crazy for the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking (Midlands) show that is on at the Kettering Convention Centre this weekend. THis show is organised by the same people who run the Ally Pally Stamping Shows.

We are hoping that JoFY herself will be able to put in a guest demo appearance on Sunday...so watch this space....or my twitter feed.....





Have a great week



Leandra

 

 

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International {card making} day

It is international card making day today. We are having a quickie competition. Today only.

1. Make a card.
2. Blog the card, and leave a link to your post on this blog post OR tweet me (@paperartsy) a picture
3. We will select a winner (randomly) and you will get 2 A5 stamp sets of your choice.

Good luck and enjoy your Saturday !!

 

And the winner is?..... ( after a particularly complicated system of listing twitter and blog entries, selecting numbers, random application of other random numbers......etc etc.....LOL. Ot really..... tadaaaaaa the name we drew from the hat (call me old fashioned) was

Liesbeth fedder, who said and did this...

How great is this ! Thanks Leandra !

This is my entry:

http://liesbethart.blogspot.nl/2012/10/international-card-making-day.html

Happy Card Making day to all ! Enjoy !

I don't know how she did it, but all kinds of Lynne Perrella stamps and lovely use of colour. Simple but oh so effective!

Liesbeth, please email me sales@paperartsy.co.uk with your choice of 2 A5 stamp sets and your address, and we shall pop them in the post to you! Congratulations!

A big thanks to everyone who entered. I have had a lovely evening mooching around your blogs, oohing and ahhhhing over all the wonderful cards you have made today! This was fun! Thanks for sharing all of you, you are all amazing!!

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Great Northern PaperCrafts Extravaganza {Harrogate}

Well, I can't even begin to tell you how crazy this past week ended up. Almost all deliveries arrived a day later than expected, so long story short, van for Harrogate not packed until the wee hours of build up day (Fri) So we had to drive through the night, through the worst rain ever with dodgy van windscreen wipers for the whole trip. Bit yuk.

Was so tired when we left the stand tonight I forgot to take any photos, but check out my twitter feed in the morning to see pics ( @paperartsy )

But, hey ho, just had the most amazing veal with mushroom sauce in my life ever at Gianni's /Brios in Harrogate, a fab Italian place. It was so tender was simply incredible, so hope that tops up the energy status for tomorrow, as its pretty low right now. Blurry eyes. Sorry if veal is not your thing, I know in UK it is one of those taboo meats, but I've not experienced that attitude in other countries, so I enjoy it without a negative historical viewpoint.

Anyways, we are so totally looking forward to the show tomorrow. I have not been oop north at this show for I don't know, maybe 6-7 years. We are right at the far end of the hall - furtherest end of hall from the loos - we back onto the cuppa tea and chat zone. And next to us is decopatch and the MDF man. Between us and them its substrate city!

What's new on the stand? Well for this show we have Liquid Leaf, the most metallic paint you will ever see!! Some nice new washi tapes, we have the most amazing chunky canvases, from £2-£4 pounds!!!! You must come and see those! Really cheap and really nice! They are all 4 cm deep. Wicked! New moleskine style journals at a great price too. Amazing chunky paint bracers for paint effect, mini spray bottles to spray your fresco paints .....stencils......

We have treasure gold, portfolios oil pastels, paint in bulk buy packs at a good price. Mark has bargain buckets of all kinds of constantly changing goodies at the till to feast on, and of course MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL THINGS NEW ....we are launching Jo Firth-Young's new Xmas stamp collection!!!!

So come down to our stand and say hi!! We are at the Harrogate event centre, Harrogate, Yorkshire.

It's going to be fab!

 

Leandra

 

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Photo Transfers with {Satin Glaze} - easy!

Image Transfer - SO. MUCH. FUN.

Image transfer art by Julie Harrington - onto old book paper

How many books have you read, how many methods have you tried, how much product have you used trying to get images to transfer onto other surfaces? Well you are not the only one, but this is the method I come back to time and time again. 

Image Transfer to altered background by Leandra Franich

I love it because it is:

• Fast
• Easy
• Reliable
• Versatile

I'm not sure why this is is not a more commonly used method to transfer images. I have loved teaching and demoing this technique for more than a decade, and have used a variety of mediums to do so. I used to use Fluid Matte Medium, but it is still thicker than it needs to be, so you often get scratchy results where the image does not transfer (see 'sweet' example above). It still looks nice and distressed, but if it is part of the face that ends up scratchy, then its not a great result. I don't really like an absent nose, mouth or eyes! Actually a bad eye isn't too bad, you can put a button on top of it! LOL

The thing I have realised over time is the thinner the 'glaze medium' the better the results.  And lucky for us, we recently also realised that our own Satin Glaze product produced the best results of all products I have ever used, and it's loads cheaper than some mediums out there!

For beginners to this technique, start with fabric. You have a long 'open' time, so you can wait for ages before lifting the transparency off. Once you get good at this move onto card, paper, metal card. I have even transferred onto microscope glass! I am sure anything is possible, but the hardest surface to transfer to is vintage old book paper, as it is so fragile. If you don't get the timing right, you actually stick the transparency to the paper, or part of the paper tears, so you have to be pretty quick.

Bear in mind that if you are transferring to a less absorbent surface, you will need less Satin Glaze than you might use on fabric, because the fabric really sucks the glaze into the weave.

So what do you need?

• fabric, fine weave cotton is best. I use curtain lining and bleached calico. You get great results on unbleached calico, but the cream colour of the fabric can suck the colour out of your image.
• An image printed onto transparency film through an INKJET printer. Inkjet printers are the type that spray the ink onto the paper, this technique will not work with toner printers - they pretty much roll the powder onto the paper and set it with heat.
• Satin Glaze from PaperArtsy
• a damp baby wipe

So check out the video, and then I'll run you through a bit of nitty gritty stuff that might be helpful.

 A note on Images

• Colour boost. Before I print my images, I boost the colour to maximum contrasts in photoshop and try to make them as zingy as possible. The brighter the better, you lose a lot of the colour when you transfer.
• Transparency film. Some brands have a rough side, this give a bit of 'tooth' for the inkjet ink to grab to when it goes through the printer, so make sure you put it into the feed tray the right way up. Often they have a strip of removable paper at one end so the printer can sense and grab the sheet more easily. You can't use any old acetate or clear film, you need to buy the stuff specifically made for an INKJET printer.
• Printer settings. Your printer might have a pre-set recommendation for Overhead transparency film. I override this setting, and i print on 'best' or the same setting you would use for high quality glossy photographic prints. The reason I do this is that the printer puts a LOT more ink onto the transparency film, which means more colour , more pop, and more ink to transfer onto your receiving surface.
• Being efficient. The film is expensive, so make sure you design a whole A4 sheet with a variety images, don't just print one image per clear sheet, you pay about £1 per sheet. I buy a box of 50 from Staples (their own brand), and it does work out cheaper than a box of 10-20, but shop around. Don't make your images too big. I have transferred a wedding photo onto an 8x8" canvas - but it is harder the larger the image to ensure the Glaze is equally damp all over the fabric.

Image transfer - the dried result from the Video demo

So here is the dried result direct from the video demo. If you look closely, the most brilliant thing is there is no trace of glue, often with mediums you will get a shiny plastic coating still visible.
And if you look really closely, you will actually be able to see the weave of the fabric, it looks like the image has actually sunk into the weave. I love that effect, and that is what Satin Glaze can do.

You can do the same thing with our gloss glaze too, and that will have a slightly glossy finish to it.

And if you wish to add more colour to the image, then yes - water down the fresco paints liberally and build colour. This is best done with our translucent paints, or mix satin glaze into opaque paints to increase their translucence.  

Hope you enjoy that tutorial. Let me know how you get on. Practise makes perfect!

Have a great week

Leandra

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