Words and Pictures YouTube is one year old!

I can hardly believe it's been a whole year of regular episodes on my YouTube channel - what a lovely new adventure it's been!  I hopped on to say hello "in person"... the first time of having my face on camera on the channel (though those who've seen PaperArtsy lives will be familiar with me doing that!).

I'm particularly proud of the generous, positive atmosphere in the comments section on the channel -  especially when you consider some of the interactions which go on in social media comments sections! - so when some people suggested that I should set up a Buy Me A Coffee page to allow them to make contributions to the creative journey.

So that is what I have done, and the anniversary message also talks about why and what that page is for, so do take a look if you're interested.

There are several new episodes available since I last posted here - one of them in a very surprising colour palette!  Check out the colourful journal cover, using my PaperArtsy Printed Tissue.

There's a chance to dive into one of my tag crates in a bit more detail, so come and enjoy that inspiration too.

You might enjoy these Window Women... they inspired lots of different storytelling ideas, not only from me but also from lots of the audience in their comments below the video.

Or how about some little rusty Valentine's envelopes - made with altered teabag sachets - perfect for popping a little love note into, or even a chocolate.

I hope you're all surviving February... there's some exciting news coming your way next week to brighten these winter days.  Do watch this space, and happy crafting all!

The time for action is now.  It is never too late to do something.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Marthe Troly-Curtin

Happy New Year (belatedly!)

Hello all!  I thought I'd better hop over to wish you a happy New Year before January is over.  We're going to need all the happiness, creativity, light and beauty that we can get in 2025.  So here are some 2024 highlights to start that off... 

(First up - the top nine IG posts by numbers.)

Things are very busy behind the scenes. (When are they ever not, these days?)  I'm heading off to Frankfurt in early February, to make an appearance (or two) on the PaperArtsy stand at Creativeworld, the last of the large craft trade fairs, now that the US one is out of action.  

(Next up - my personal favourite top nine tag posts.)

And then in March, if you're in the Netherlands, you'll find me at the Art Specially fair in Nijkerk, demo-ing with some of my PaperArtsy stamps for De Hobby Studio - one of the Dutch PaperArtsy stockists. 

(And finally, my personal favourite top nine non-tag posts.)

And of course there are lots of exciting things bubbling in the pipeline at PaperArtsy that you'll need to keep an eye out for in the coming weeks...

For now, I'll just share a few links to recent YouTube episodes over at Words and Pictures (YT version!).  There's a new midweek series called Tag Time, as well as the usual Few Minutes of Fun to enjoy every Saturday.  Click the links below to join me at the craft table...

Long-time followers may notice there's a new colour creeping into focus!!

Tag Time - Birch Beauty

A Few Minutes of Fun with Tissue Paper Art Journal Covers

Tag Time - Rusty Mixed Media Tags with dried flowers

A Few Minutes of Fun with Mattints and Gel Prints and more

Tag Time - Grungy Rusty Cog Tag

A Few Minutes of Fun with Crackle Collage ATCs

Tag Time - Stamped Embossed Hedgerow Tags

And once I'm done bopping around Europe, there will be some news about more UK workshops coming in the spring too.

I hope you're all surviving the winter cold (or the winter heat if you are on the other side of the globe), and finding time to be creative.  Happy crafting, all!

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instil in us.
Hal Borland

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
Helen Keller

Getting in the festive mood...

Hello all... well, I did quite well there on posting for a few weeks, and then it all slipped out of focus again!  I'm just hopping on quickly to keep you posted about what's going on over on my YouTube channel - which is also called Words and Pictures, of course.

I always find it hard to get into the festive swing before December arrives - I prefer to keep Christmas confined to as close to the twelve days as possible.  (24th December - 6th January are when I feel properly Christmassy!)  But things are starting to look a little more festive as I try to get myself in the mood.  Tougher than usual this year, what with everything that's going on in the world.

But you can join me for some starry, snowy backgrounds with lots of stencil techniques here... A Few Minutes of Fun with Mixed Media Winter Backgrounds

Enjoy some watercolour stamping with Distress Inks and Tim Holtz stamps here...  A Few Minutes of Fun with Winter Greenery

And/or see a couple of those backgrounds take the next steps, with my PaperArtsy EAB29 Mistletoe Edition stamps and lots of Tim Holtz die-cuts here... A Few Minutes of Fun with Mixed Media Mistletoe Tags

There's a final (for now, at least) episode of Books Books Books, looking at a couple of festive book-based creations - a couple of altered covers and some art journalling here...  Festive Art Journalling and Altered Book Covers. (Over the next couple of Wednesdays, I'm planning to take a look back over past years of Christmas tags... it's a big crate!)

And if you're not ready to go full-on Christmas yet, how about a flip through - including readings of the poetry fragments - of the accordion album I created for my recent PaperArtsy stamp launch.  I promise this one will bring you a few moments of calm in the hubbub of the run-up to the festive season.  Here you go... Winter Sunrise Accordion Album

There's lots more to explore on the channel since I last updated you, so join me at the craft table for the perfect escape from all your festive to-do lists.  I hope you're all doing well, and good luck with the preparations!

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.
Paul Theroux

Christmas is not an external event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.
Freya Stark

Santa Claus has the right idea... visit people only once a year.
Victor Borge

Halloween Storytelling

Hello all, and happy Halloween!  I hope you've got a spooky night ahead on 31st October if that's your thing.  And if so, I just wanted to drop in to let you know that I've got a couple of helpings of Halloween Storytelling for you over on my YouTube channel, Words and Pictures.

The videos are flip throughs of a couple of Halloween journals I've made in previous years, each of which is packed with unnerving tales of the dark side of human nature.

Halloween Storytelling Part 1 - click here!

If creepy stories are one of your Halloween pleasures, then I invite you along for the fireside (or at least candlelit) storytelling.

Halloween Storytelling Part 2 - click here!

If you're of a nervous disposition, then maybe steer clear... you have been warned!!  (Or just come and watch with the sound turned down and enjoy all the Tim Holtz Idea-ology goodies layered up in the pages and pockets and tabs.)

I hope you'll all enjoy celebrating this All Hallow's Eve in whatever ways you choose.  And I'll be back soon with some more autumnal creativity and some more samples from my latest stamp launch too.  Happy Halloween, all!

October was always the least dependable of months … full of ghosts and shadows.

Joy Fielding

Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows' Eve.

Ray Bradbury

There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.

From Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Books, Books, Books

Hello all!  I'm just dropping in quickly to let you know about a new series called Books, Books, Books starting soon on my YouTube channel. 

Given I started out working in theatre, deeply embedded in the Words side of things, it shouldn't be a surprise that books, words and storytelling played a significant part in things when I turned to exploring Pictures and visual art.  The Books, Books, Books series on YouTube is going to celebrate that. 

There will be flip throughs and storytelling from art journals, handmade books and altered books made across all the years of my creative journey. 

The first full episode will be next Wednesday, but there's a short introduction over there now with a taste of what’s coming your way over on YouTube over the next weeks and months.  Take a look at the introduction to Books, Books, Books here... 

I know I haven't got around to filling you in on last month's Fodder School adventures yet - and boy, did I have a lovely time with the April project!  I'm looking forward to sharing it here... I just need to find time to write the blogpost!  Hope you're all doing well, and I'll be back soon with my Collage Quartet. 

Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.
Jeanette Winterson

A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Cicero

New YouTube videos at Words and Pictures

Hello all, I hope you're not enduring too many April showers this weekend... though if you are, that's the perfect weather to stay in and do some crafting!  There's some more inspiration available for that over on my YouTube channel, Words and Pictures, so I just thought I'd drop in to share the video links for the latest episodes of A Few Minutes of Fun.

In this episode, I'm playing with my newest PaperArtsy stamp sets on a gel plate, using some of my favourite Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic colours.

A Few Minutes of Fun using PaperArtsy stamps on a gel plate

And in this one, the Tim Holtz Perspective Moth Thinlits Die by Sizzix becomes a perfect mask to use with Distress Sprays... with Ink, Oxide and Mica sprays in action.

A Few Minutes of Fun with Distress Sprays and Moth Mask

I hope you'll have time to take a look, and that you'll be inspired to enjoy a few minutes of fun of your own.  Happy crafting all!

Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Between our birth and death we may touch understanding, 
As a moth brushes a window with its wing.
Christopher Fry

New YouTube Episodes at Words and Pictures

Hello all, I'm just popping in to let you know that there are new episodes of A Few Minutes of Fun to enjoy over on my YouTube channel, Words and Pictures.

Hop over to take a look, and if you enjoy what you find, do subscribe for more fun in the future!  Click the link below the picture to watch whichever one you fancy... 

A Few (More) Minutes of Fun - Collaging Tags

A Few Minutes of Fun - with PaperArtsy Printed Tissue and watercolours

A Few Minutes of Fun - with Distress Inks - Spritz and Flick

I hope you'll come and join me at the craft table for just a few minutes of fun (or a few MORE minutes of fun in the case of the extended collaged tags edition!), and happy crafting all!

Creativity is intelligence having fun.
Albert Einstein

If you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong.
Groucho Marx

Do anything, but let it produce joy.
Walt Whitman

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
Katharine Hepburn

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

Sunday Swatching

Just popping in very quickly to say that I'm starting to build more regular content on my YouTube channel, Words and Pictures.  The first step is a new series called Sunday Swatching, and the first episode went live yesterday evening.  Watch it here!

I'll be swatching various mediums in various ways, often watercolours but not always.  Sometimes they'll be new ones, sometimes old favourites in new combinations.  I'm aiming to post at least once a month... on a Sunday (who could have guessed?!).

In this week's Sunday Swatching, I'm playing with some brand new (to me) Art to Basic handmade watercolour paints.  You can explore all their beautiful colours here on their website.   I ordered six of these paints, and one came as a bonus... I wonder if you can guess which one was unexpected!  All will become clear in the video. 

I hope you'll pop over to take a look at the first episode, and consider subscribing to the channel. I won't always be talking - sometimes it will just be pigment, water and some musical accompaniment!  And in the New Year I'm planning other new series and one-off videos, so do come and join the new journey.

Also just a heads-up that if you're after some last-minute gift tag or giftwrap inspiration, I shared some tips and tricks with my new PaperArtsy Minis and the fabulous new Just Walnut Infusions in a special Festive Friday Fun edition on the PaperArtsy People FB Group.  

You can catch up with all the festive fun here and watch these grungy gift tags come to life on the craft mat.  You shouldn't have to be a member of the group, I think, in order to watch...

Thanks so much for stopping by today - I hope your preparations for the festive season are in good order.  I'm way, way behind... it's all this filming!!  Have a great week everybody.

Create your own visual style... Let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable to others. 
Orson Welles