Just Hanging Around... By Hels

Gooodly Morning Snazzyfans and a very happy Monday to you all!  This month we DT have been happily playing with the brand new stamps from the pen of Jo Firth Young... check out the stamps HERE on the Snazzy website.  Also, please do scroll back to see all the delish pieces the rest of the DT have been making using these cute designs.  The stamps I chose to play with are JOFY13, JM20 and JM21

I made a 4 square hanging... I started out with a cat food box (AlfieCat is very accommodating when it comes to scoffing the contents!) and cut four 2 1/2" pieces of cardboard and then peeled back the top layer of the pieces, revealing some of the corrugations.  Next I used Cut & Dry foam to apply Nougat Fresco Finish Paint to get a nice even coverage on the cardboard.  I stamped the images using Jet Black Archival Ink onto tissue paper and then popped them onto the card squares, as shown, using Glue & Seal to adhere them.

I re-stamped the images onto cardstock, cut the main bits out and painted them in using Fresco Finish Paints... I used Claret for the Fuchsia's, London Bus for the Daisy, South Pacific and Smoked Paprika for the birdy and the greenery is all Hey Pesto.  The beauty of these paints in particular is that they are all translucent so perfect for painting over stamped images without obscuring the images themselves.  I added Little Black Dress around the edges of the squares and then smudged Treasure Gold to add some bling.  Finally, they were mounted onto black mountboard and I added the word using Alphaparts.

That's all for me for now... don't forget to CLICK HERE to see Gillian's first post of the month where there's a goody giveaway up for grabs!  Thanks for looking.... TTFN!

DT Project #2 showcasing JoFY stamps for PaperArtsy (by Lesley)

Hello again Snazzy's Visitors

I'm back with my second project for this month showcasing these lovely stamps from Jo Firth-Young of the PaperArtsy team of designers.  This time the stamp that I wanted to showcase from my DT kit is JM19 but I've added stamps from other JoFY sets to make up a little scene on an MDF plaque ..... love how you can mix and match all the JoFY stamps!

I will apologise in advance for the colour quality of the photos.  Even at 7.30 this morning the sun was so bright I just couldn't get any pics that didn't leech out the colours (especially as I had chosen to keep the shades subtle anyway) but I did eventually find a spot that didn't show any shadows, lol!

Firstly I gave the whole plaque a coat of Fresco Finish Nougat paint and once this was dry I stamped the little house (my showcase stamp) using Archival black ink and the tree trunk from the JoFY15 set using Sepia Archival.  I also stamped both these onto masking paper and cut them out.  Once the images were totally dry I covered with the masks and using a torn piece of paper, dusting brushes and Distress Inks I created the soft mounds/hills on the ground and the very pale blue sky.  This particular photo shows the truest colours I think.

I followed this with building up the foliage and blossom on the tree again with individual little stamps from JoFY15.  Next came the grasses.  For the zig-zaggy grass I used a Marvey marker on the small sections of the grassy bottom of the daisy stamp on JoFY13 before realising that on JoFY10 there is a stamp just like this all on its own, lol!  Never mind it shows you can utilize the big stamp for a teensy bit.  The squiggly taller grasses also come from JoFY10.

The phrase at the bottom is from the same set and stamped in Archival black in.  I then set about colouring the images using various Distress Inks throughout.  The last bit of stamping was to mask off the house again and I used a little fairy stamp from my stash to make her look as though she's peeking from behind the rooftop of her home.  Just to finish off the plaque I embossed the Grunge Board letter A in a folder and then inked it with Picked Raspberry DI before attaching with 3D foam.  

I used the letter A because my plan is to give this to my Granddaughter for her new bedroom and I haven't put any means of hanging on the back yet until I find out how she wants to display it.  I found making this fun little scene such a relaxing pleasure to create especially if you don't like getting messy with texture pastes and other such techniques.

There was another lovely mini stamp, JM21, in my kit this month which I haven't had time to use but I'm hoping to rectify that during the next week or so and will have to show it on my own blog. 

Don't forget if you want to be in the random prize draw you need to leave a comment HERE to be in with a chance of winning some of these fab stamps.

Minxy will be here next week and I know which stamps she's been pla.....er, working with, lol, so I can't wait to see what fun stuff she has to show us.

Till next time

DT Project #1 showcasing JoFY stamps for PaperArtsy (by Lesley)

Hello Everyone,

Wow, July already and half way through 2013.  Eek!  At my age that is seriously scary how fast the time is whizzing by but at least as I type this we finally have some SUMMER!!!!  

This month we lucky Snazzy's DTers have some fab summery stamps to play with from the new JoFY for PaperArtsy release.  I love these quirky fun stamps (HERE) and the main set I was sent to work with are JoFY13.  Lots of lovely daisies on this set and daisies always bring a smile to my face, even if they're in the middle of my lawn, lol!

I decided to decorate a treasure chest shaped wooden box (Snazzy's have a lovely selection of substrates).

I've mainly used Fresco Finish acrylic paints to colour the box because these are the type of which I have the most colours but Snazzy's carry a lovely range of acrylic paints too.  Firstly I removed the hinges and fastener and gave the outside of the box a coat of Claret. Once dry I gave it a liberal coat of Fresco Crackle Glaze and here's where I made my first mistake, lol!  I tried to do too much of the box at one go (too impatient!) and (second mistake) I put the glaze on too thick so the it ran down and congealed in thick lumps in many areas.  So much so that I had to peel it off and start again. ..... good lessons learned there.  After that I did one section at a time and let it dry which took me a couple of days to do all the top and all four sides of the bottom.  Because the top is curved I tried not to put too thick a layer on but it still ran to the edges a little bit.  Anyway, I then gave it a coat of Vintage Lace and got a gorgeous all over crackle effect ..... was worth all the faffing about, lol!

Next I started the stamping which was all done with black Archival ink and coloured with watered down Fresco Finish paint.  I've not tried colouring stamped images with acrylic paint before and need a lot more practice but for this particular project I didn't want a perfect paint job so it was ok. The 'don't eat the daisies' phrase and the quote on the top both come from JoFY12 set.

I stamped the dragonfly onto some card from my bit box that I'd made a lovely mica ink background on and again onto a piece of acetate I'd coloured with alcohol inks, cut them both out and layered them attaching just the bodies and the same when attaching to the box.

I had already given the inside a coat of Vintage Lace around the sides, then I cut two pieces of card to fit the bottom and the top, painted them with the same colour, and stamped and coloured as per the outside before gluing them in with Cosmic Shimmer glue.  Finally I reattached the hinges and fastener.

And there you have it!

Don't forget to leave a comment on Gillian's post HERE if you want to be in the random draw for some of these stamps.  I'll be back later in the week with another project but till then