Brand New Stamps at PaperArtsy - with a whole new look!

Hello all!  I'm thrilled to be revealing my brand new stamp sets with PaperArtsy, as well as some Designer Tissue Paper of my very own.  It's so exciting!  The new stamps are heading in a new direction - they are Botanical Textures, with a sketchier style and a focus on texture, which work both for clean and simple style stamping and also in a more mixed media style.  

You can see the sets in full, and the tissue paper too, as well as lots of samples over at the PaperArtsy blog.  And of course you can also watch the Live Launch on catch up here.

I do hope you'll enjoy all the many possibilities with these new stamp designs, and that you'll have as much fun with them and the tissue paper as I've been having.  As always, do let me know if you are creating anything with my designs - I love seeing what people get up to with them.  Happy crafting, all!

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
Helen Keller

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust

Come and join me on camera...

I seem to be spending a lot of time in front of the camera at the moment.  This post is to let you know about three separate sessions where you can come and join me at the craft desk... and there's another (very exciting) one still to come on Tuesday 27th.  February really is going out with a bang  - the photographic sort... "flash, bang, wallop, what a picture!" - moving pictures, in my case!  (I'd completely forgotten there's a Shakespearean verse in Tommy Steele's ditty!)

First up, you can join me for some Friday Fun, which was originally live on the PaperArtsy People Facebook Group on (guess when!) Friday.  It was a really special Friday Fun - some sneak peek playtime with a product which is not even launched yet... but I couldn't wait to share some of the fun I've been having with it.  (You may think you recognise this blossom branch, but it's not what you think it is!)

Then there's the second episode of my new weekly YouTube series, A Few Minutes of Fun.  This will come out on Fridays or Saturdays, and this week it obviously had to be Saturday so as not to clash with the Friday Fun.  (It's not live, but there's only so many videos I can cope with publishing at one time!) And I think I might stick to Saturdays from now on in any case.  After last week's gypsophila gel printing, this time I'm having a few minutes of fun flipping stencils, using some Distress Spray Stains.  Nothing complicated, just genuinely a few minutes of fun...

And then there's the third episode of my monthly YouTube series, Sunday Swatching.  This time I'm sort of swatching, but mostly colour mixing in a small grid of three paints, and then having a little watercolour playtime with doodles and a sketch.  If you enjoy it, it would be lovely if you subscribed to the channel, and comments and likes all help me to build a following there.

So take your pick... or join me for all three.  You don't have to listen to me talk, of course - turn the volume down and put on some of your favourite music instead, and just enjoy the meditative processes of combining pigment, paper and water.

I hope you'll enjoy joining me at the craft desk for a bit of playtime.  Hopefully, you'll be inspired to go and play yourselves.  And watch out for Tuesday's big news... Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy crafting all!

For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.
Henri Cartier-Bresson

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.
Orson Welles

A Few Minutes of Fun

Hello all - hope you're all doing well.  I'm here with a quick heads-up to let you know there's a new series starting today on my YouTube channel called A Few Minutes of Fun.  Something to add to the monthly Sunday Swatching videos.  (Yes, my New Year's resolution to build the channel is still on course and we're nearly at the end of February!)

My aim for this series is to share a few minutes of art and crafting fun once a week, either on a Friday or a Saturday - usually somewhere between five and fifteen minutes, depending on what we're playing with.  Look at what I've been up to in the craft room today...

For this first episode, I've been playing with some Gypsophila stems on the gel plate, using some of my favourite colours of PaperArtsy Chalk Acrylic paint.  Why not start the weekend by joining me at the craft table for a little bit of printing inspiration?  It's great fun seeing these prints come to life.  

And while you're there, I hope you'll choose to subscribe to the channel.  Likes and comments also help me with the YouTube algorithm, so if you feel the urge...  But mostly, I just hope you enjoy the fun, and take away some inspiration.

Have a great weekend, all!

Do anything, but let it produce joy.
Walt Whitman

It is a happy talent to know how to play.
Ralph Waldo Emerson