Back from CHA all inspired!…………..Wow! Amazing experience………….

CHA is a trade show put on by the Craft & hobby assoc of USA, and this year it was held in Anaheim, California. Just across from Disneyland (love that place), in the huge Anaheim convention centre. It wasn’t just papercraft, but there was a lot of papercraft……a lot!

For me, it was 3 days of meeting some of my mentors (Ali Edwards, jenni Bowlin, Heidi Swapp and Tim Holtz), doing make’n'takes, meeting with the papercraft companies, seeing all the new product being released this year, meeting lots of other shop owners, learning and being inspired by the amazing talent out there in the papercraft industry!

Some of my favourite products from CHA, and we’ll be getting in-store:- Jenni Bowlin “magpie” range (lovely); G45 “Little Darling” collection (a beautiful vintage baby range); Maya Road (chipboard, flowers, canvas purses, stamps, trim); Pink Paislee “Spring Jubilee” (a gorgeous bright range of papers and embellishments); Tim Holtz/Ranger distress pens, distress emboss powder & stains (in-store now), new metals; Teresa Collins “Everyday Moments” – a beautiful range in navy, yellow and grey tones (in-store now); LYB “Paradise” – very cute papers & embellishments (in-store now); Anna Griffin (Haven & Palmer papers); Websters “Sunday Picnic” lovely range with kites and rainbows (in-store now); Prima – just fabulous; 7Gypsies a lovely heritage range called “Trousseau”…….

Unfortunately, there is so much new product coming out, and it is all beautiful, but I just don’t have a shop big enough to carry it all! But for you – our customers – how wonderful! You will have so much papercraft product to choose from….I can’t wait to see all the new creations.

Happy papercarfting!

Joy

I thought I’d talk about printed paper today……….where would the scrapbookers and card makers of the world be without printed paper? I for one would be lost – I cannot make a card or layout without some printed paper (I know you probably can just use cardstock….but I can’t…I have tried but…no…can’t do it!!).

I just love all the beautiful printed papers that are available, and at Joybells, although we have a lovely selection, it is just “a drop in the ocean” – paper ocean that is!

Double-sided papers are wonderful, especially for cards, as you know you can use both sides and they will be co-ordinated. Now I know some ladies just hate to use double-sided papers because they love the pattern on both sides, but you just have to “bit the bullet” or buy two sheets! I have to admit…I have been known to buy three sheets of beautiful paper – two to use and one to keep (just beacause)! And yes, just because I have my own shop, doesn’t mean I don’t still have some favourite papers stashed away in my craft room at home for …..well…just because!

Having said that, I really like to combine papers from different ranges to get a “collage” look. For example putting polka-dots together with a music/script sheet of paper. I also like to stamp on patterned papers (especially when making cards). And at Joybells we distress the edges of papers quite often in card making.

Paper comes in so many different styles, but my favourites are Vintage, polka dot, pretty pink, collage prints, heritage and Christmas. So when Cosmo Cricket and October afternoon combine vintage, polka-dots in pink, I am in my element. Or the gorgeous vintage, collage Christmas papers of Graphic 45 – just love them!

Many paper ranges now come with a die-cut or embossed sheet included in the range. Websters and Kaiser have lovely die-cuts. My Minds Eye and Making Memories have beautiful embossed papers with glitter as well.

The Kraft look is very popular at the moment – I really like it for masculine or heritage look layouts. Tim Holtz and MME both have great Kraft papers. The Tim Holtz kraft resist paper is fun to use.

Pink Paislee introduced their “Mistables” range, which has lovely thick papers embossed with resist – so when you sray your coloured mist onto it parts of the paper “resist” the colour Great fun to use.

My absolute favourite thing to do with paper, at the moment, is to cut out “collage” type papers and layer them onto a page or card. I just love that I can change the look of a printed piece of paper that way.

I’ll be away for two weeks, as I’m going to the USA for CHA. So no blog until I get back – hopefully full of inspiration!

Happy papercrafting,

Joy

Well it’s a new year, and I have found some new inspiration! Rebecca (daughter) has a new fondness for all things Tim Holtz and has been trying a lot of new techniques on cards and tags using Tims’ products – fun!

So-o-o…….I thought I’d make this blog about Tim Holtz/Rangers’ wonderful products.

TH Distress Ink has to be the best invention – it comes in so many beautiful colours, and is easy to use. I love Walnut Stain, Tattered Rose and the limited edition “winter” pack, but there are so many other lovely colours. I like to use them straight onto a stamp,and around the edges of my paper or embellishments. Rebecca has been using a mister (bottle) with water in it to spray her stamped image – gives a great watercolour effect (dry it with your heat gun afterward).

TH Kraft resist papers are fun to use too. You can use Glimmer Mist (or other sprays) or inks on them, and the resist areas become more pronounced – love that look. TH also has some great vintage/heritage style paper that work well with his embellishments such as buttons, metals, and trim.

Rebecca and I also love the TH Sizzix Alterations dies – my favourite is this the flower (4pce), I’ve used it on both Christmas and normal cards. The birdcage and bird die is great too. His embossing/dies and stamp/emboss are also fun to use. I like to sand back the embossed paper a little – I love the different textures.

Rebecca really likes to use the Ranger blending tool to apply ink onto her cards. It really gives a lovely soft look as she adds different colours to her work. I like that the foam pads are removable, washable and you can buy replacements.

TH has a huge range of stamps, including acrylics, wooden and rubber mounted. So many designs, but my favourites – the visual artistry collection (acrylics) and Rebecca loves “Papillon” (rubber mounted).

Tools are an important part of papercrafting and TH has some great ones, including the Die Pick, Design Ruler, and tissue Tape Dispenser. These are just some that I use alot, but there are many more.

Rebecca made me a beautiful keepsake for Christmas using the TH Configurations box – just love it. These lovely divided boxes come in three sizes at Joybells, and look great altered.

The next thing Rebecca and I are going to create with is TH “Kraft Glassine” paper! Should be fun.

Hope I have inspired you to have a go at using some of Tim Holtz’  great products. Remember have fun creating!

Joy

Bunting, banners, or flags…………whatever you call them – I just love them on a page or card.

This trend has been around for a while, and I for one, hope it stays. I just love the look of the miniture banners across one corner of a layout, below a photo matt, or on a card. So cute!

Many companies have banners in their ranges. I really like the doilie banner paper in October Afternoons’ “Farmhouse” range. They also have a “Flyers” pack in this range and in “Sidewalks” that is really lovely to use. One of my favourite looks is to finish off a banner with Divine Twine (very cute string). Don’t you love the page designed by Tenneal (using “Sidewalks” – the yellow page) – love the “Flyers” in both corners and how she tied the twine!

You can make your own banners using strips of patterned paper and cut one end with a “fish tail”. Another nice way is to use a scallop circle/oval punch and cut the circle/oval in half, then use these as your banner – cute!

There are even banner stamps (Jenni Bowlin and Kaisercraft). Just stamp them onto your patterned paper, cut out and use on your page/card.

Banners also come in chipboard (Jenni Bowlin and Maya Road), stickers (October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket, Teresa Collins, Kaisercraft and Simple Steps), and printed on many papers (October Afternoon, Pink Paislee, Websters).

Websters Pages “Western Romance” range has pretty clothes hanging on a line, which looks great cut-out as a banner!

Don’t forget you can 3D your banner for another nice affect.

Exciting news – Jenni Bowlin Studios has partnerd with Fiskars to make a very lovely banner punch! Joybells should have these in a few weeks!

Remember – have fun creating!

Happy papercrafting – Joy.

Happy new year everyone!

I have finally sorted my photos from Christmas, and have started putting them into my albums I made “last year”. I love this – it really is quite easy to make mini-albums without photos, so long as you have a theme in mind,and then put the photos in at a later date.

My “December Daily” album is a good example of this. We made these beautiful Teresa Collins albums in a class back in November, and left a matt on each page for a photos to be put in later on. You can see I still have some photos to add, but it is nearly finished. I also waited until I had the photos in place to add the journalling – in this case I decided to journal on the computer. A little hint…………if you have embellishments/accents you want to overlap the photo, just leave the cover on your tape on the part that is going to overlap your photo, it can be pulled off once the photo is in place!

I made this mini Baby album for a friend whos’ baby is due soon. I loved making this! Fun! 6×6 albums are quite quick and easy to make, so long as you decide on a theme and choose a co-ordinating range of papers before you start. In this case it was a no brainer – baby boy – Kaiser “Lullaby Collection” in blue. Then collect cardstock to match, and embellishments, so you Have all your supplies on hand as you create. Another hint………if you’re giving the album as a gift, it is a good idea to make the photo matts cardstock so there can be no doubt for the recipient as to where to put the photos. And some areas for journalling are nice too. I also feel that keeping the pages “simple” works best ( you can always go back later – after the photos are added – and attach more embellishments if you think the pages need them!).

I also made this Melissa Frances “Christmas Keepsake” album in December last year. Once I saw the photos of Seth (my Grandson) helping to decorate my trees, I knew I wanted to make this album for him. I didn’t ask my daughter to take specific photos, just lots of them! You can see I have cropped a lot of the photos to fit on the matts I already had in the album – don’t be afraid to do this. If you don’t have a lot of photos, use reprints. I’ll get some of the really great photos enlarged for my Christmas scrapbook pages. In this album I used 4×6 photos (and cropped them), but it can also be fun to use passport size photos.

I hope this inspires you to create a mini album for yourself or for a gift.

Rememeber…….. have FUN papercrafting!

Joy

15 more sleeps until Christmas! So am starting to put the finishing touches to my Christmas projects (all except my December daily album, as of course that doesn’t finish until the 31st Dec).

This year my Christmas projects included:-

1) making Christmas cards (that started in October) which I just love, it helps that we make so many in class at Joybells so I have a good stash by December 1st. I even love sitting down and deciding who gets which lovely card (you know……I send my Aunties something a bit traditional, and my friends shabby-chic or modern style cards).

2) making four 12 x 12 scrapbook albums for my nieces and nephew, which starts in January of each year. Once again, luckily I get some pages done as samples for scrapbook classes or I’d never get them finished. I am happy to say I only have a few pages to go in each album – so I will be finished by Christmas Eve – just in time to wrap them!! Each album contains special memories from 2011, and I know they all love their albums (and their parents thank me each Christmas as none of them are Scrapbookers). So I know all the work that goes into them is appreciated, and I do love doing them.

3) making Christmas projects for the shop, which starts in Oct/Nov as samples for classes or just to show how to use product in the shop. My “December Daily” album is the Teresa Collins “Countdown to Christmas” album we made in class in Nov, so that is a work in progress. The paper bag album was made in a class using G45 “Christmas Emporuim” papers and I think I will put my photos of this years Christmas decorations in it. I just completed the Christmas frame (below) using the Scrapware chipboard Christmas frame set – I am just waiting on some little photos of Seth (my Grandson) decorating my tree to complete this. Rebecca (my daughter) made the lovely Christmas keepsake box for me, which I have in the shop – to show how you might use the Tim Holtz Configurations boxes, and lots of little “nick nacks” that we have in our Christmas section at Joybells.

4) deciding on my theme for my Christmas table……….this year it is red and white, so I am having fun looking through my “stash” of decor at home to see what I have, and what I might need to purchase ( a lot of the shops have 30 – 40% off their Christmas decor at the moment).

5) one my favourite projects for Christmas 2011 has been fininding the “right” Nativity for Joybells. A few weeks ago I came across this beautiful Nativity, I just love it, and loved telling Seth the story of Christmas.

6) each year the best “project” of Christmas is putting up the tree, and this year was really special as Seth helped me decorate the tree – so much fun and lovely memories. I will have to journal his stories that he made up about each decoration – so cute!

So…….how are you going with your Christmas craft projects? I hope I have given you a little inspiration.

It seems amazing to say this, but, my next Blog will be in 2012!

So I wish you all a wonderful Christmas, full of love and happiness, and a great New year ( and don’t forget to take heaps of photos).

Happy papercrafting!

Joy xoxo

I had a friend ask me why I love paper so much…………….of course there are so many reasons but these are my top 10 reasons.

I love paper because:-

1) I can scrapbook with paper. Yes, I know a bit obvious,  but that is one of my favourite things to do and therefore my favourite thing to do with paper.

2) I can make cards with paper (my 2nd favourite thing to do).

3) Paper comes in so many colours, designs and types (too numerous to mention them all). So much choice and some type of paper for every project you can think of. From printed paper, embossed, glitter and just plain colours to die-cuts, vellum, and card.

4) I love that I can change the look of a sheet of paper by inking, stamping, embossing and cutting it! I think I’ve mentioned before that one of my favourite things to do with paper is “fussy cut” out pictures from a sheet of paper.

5) Paper can be used to do off-the-page projects too.

6) I love the feel and the smell of the papers in my shop (some more than others). Yes, I am admitting this (please don’t think I am stange).

7) I love just looking at racks of paper – all co-ordinating in either colour (like the cardstock racks in Joybells) or in ranges. The Christmas section in Joybells is just beautiful!

8) I love that a piece of paper can tell a story, like a piece of artwork ( sometimes a piece of paper is just so stunning in design I don’t want to put a photo on it, or even cut it, I just want to frame it as is!).

9) Paper is so versatile. It can be made into other objects, like flowers and Christmas decorations.

10) What is not to love…………………

Happy Papercrafting!

Until next time, Joy

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas……….” at Joybells – I just finished decorating the shop, and it is so pretty if I do say so myself!

It is only 40 days until Christmas – I’m not sure where this year went, but that’s another story. I love this time of the year. I know it can get frantic, but I just love the decorations, buying, making and wrapping presents, singing to the carols in the shops, get togethers ……..everything that comes with the season of giving!

One of the things I most like about Christmas is making beautiful cards and gifts. I enjoy making cards, but LOVE making christmas cards. The papers and embellishments in-store this year are just amazing. You can choose to make your cards in the traditional colours of red, green & gold like KaiserCraft “December 25th” or Making memories “Twinkle”. Or you could choose the pretty shabby-chic colours of soft pink, green and blue like KaiserCraft “Silly Season” or My Minds Eye “12 days of Christmas”. Teresa Collins has put a modern but smart twist on the festive season with “Christmas at Home” in black, green and red. Maybe you would like the fun Bo Bunny range of “Blitzen”, the vintage look of G45 “Christmas Emporium” or Jenni Bowlin, or the beautiful glitter range of MME “Lost & Found”. Websters “Botannical” Christmas is gorgeous, as is Primas “North Country”. Wow, so much to choose from, definitely something to suit everyones taste at Joybells.

I make most of my cards at the 4″ x 6″ size, just because it is easier to get envelopes to fit. But this year I have made quite a few 5″ x 5″, and some wonderful oversize cards (they’re for someone very special). Sometimes my cards are elaborate (with lots of embellishing), and sometimes fairly simple to let the paper shine!

So, I hope you have all found a little inspiration in my blog and start making some Christmas cards for your family and friends. They will really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Remember it is the season of “Giving”.

Happy Christmas papercrafters!

Joy

Card Making………………

I love making cards, you get great results quickly, you use up your “scraps” from Scrapbooking, and I love to give handmade cards to family and friends. I like that you can make a card as simple or as intricate as you like, and customize a card for the occasion or recipient.

Our card classes at Joybells are very popular, especially at the moment with Christmas only 8 weeks away! Some of my favourite Christmas cards at the moment are the pretty butterfly/wreath card:- made using a butterfly punch and MM “Twinkle” papers. I was inspired by a design in a card magazine by             . Another favourite are the set of cards made using the KaiserCraft “Silly Season” 6×6 paper pad – the colours are very shabby-chic (pink, silver, green) and the designs are fun. I love the Kaiser paper pads for cards, as they include die-cuts and speciality papers in them.

Embossing (heat) is a lovely technique to use on cards. I especially love white embossing of snowmen at Christmas, and gold/silver/black embossing is beautiful on any card. I prefer to use a Versamark pad or Martha Stewarts embossing pad. At Joybells we use Clearsnap embossing powder and Martha Stewart glitter embossing powder.

Stamping on cards is so much fun. There are so many stamps out there and we have a great range of both Acrylic and wooden block stamps, as well as some rubber cling stamps. I love to stamp a word or picture as an embellishment to a card, and I also enjoy stamping a picture and colouring it in using waterclour pencils.

My favourite thing to do with cards is “fussy cutting”! I think it stems back to my school days, but I find cutting-out very relaxing! I then love to 3D my cut-outs, add a few pearls, rhinestones or Kindy Glitz,some ribbon and there you have a masterpiece!

Some more techniques we use at Joybells on cards:- distressing, inking edges, punching shapes and edges, embossing using the Cuttlebug, pleating and scrunching.

My cards are usually 4″ x 6″ complete, as I it is the most economical use of cardstock which we use as a base. You can get 3 cards out of a 12″ x 12″ piece of cardstock by cutting the card at 8″ (you get a piece 4″ x 12″ – fold in half) and then turn the card and cut at 6″ ( two pieces at 6″ x 8″ – fold both in half). Lately I have been making some “oversize” cards at 5″ x 5″ or 6″ x 6″, and they look great. But remember postage is more expensive on these!

The possibilities with card making are endless, and you can make cards for any occasion. So create away. And remember, everyone loves to recieve a handmade card!

Happy papercrafting, Joy

Sorry that I haven’t wriiten a Blog in 2 weeks. I was away for a week then I was sick!! All better now and ready to Blog!!

Cardstock………a very inportant product in papercrafting. At Joybells, we use Bazill cardstock nearly every day. It is the base for our cards, and more often than not, a base for our scrapbook pages. We also use cardstock to matt our photos. There are so may colours in Bazill, we don’t have the room to stock them all but I think we have a fairly good range.

Bazill comes in many types and textures. At Joybells we have textured Bazill cardstock; Bling which has a lovely shiney top; Dotted which I love to use on my Christmas cards; Embossed which includes the 2 Scoops cardstock; and Wedding card.

We also stock some of the Jenni Bowlin embossed cardstock, and Doodlebug double-sided card.

Some of our techniques with cardstock:-

When matting a photo, we cut a piece of co-ordinating cardstock 1/4 inch wider (all round) than the photo. Sometimes we use a double matt, or a larger matt depending on the look we want for our page.

To get the best use out of a piece of 12″ cardstock for cards, we cut the card at 8″ ( so you get a strip 4″x 12″ – fold in half for one card base), then turn the larger piece of card and cut at 6″ (so you have two pieces 6″x8″ – fold in half). So out of one 12″ piece of card we get 3 card bases. If you want to make 5″x5″ cards you only get two card bases out of a 12″ piece.

Using the embossed JB or 2 Scoops cardstock – use a sanding tool to sand them back, and reveal the beautiful patterns embossed into the card. Sometimes the embossed card when sanded reveals a lighter colour underneath or even another colour! Love that look.

Remember – at Joybells, we don’t recommend using punches (especially edge punches) on cardstock, as it blunts the “teeth” on your punch & can sometimes break them! Just use paper.

So, no matter what patterned paper you might be using on your card or page, there is a co-ordinating or matching cardstock.

Ooh! I just love how the photos show up all those pretty colours in the cardstock.

Have fun papercrafting,

Joy