January 2025 Arty Update

Happy New Year!

I hope you and your loved ones are enjoying a great start to 2025 and are keeping safe and well, finding time for the essentials of life (crafting, arting, stitching, colouring) while enjoying some sunny days!

Thank you so much for your patience while I lived a life of luxury with time off! I had a marvellous holiday and am refreshed and ready for whatever Tim, Dyan and Dina dream up for us :)

My was spent wisely - with family and friends, doing nothing on the ipad, stitched some cross stitch, made birthday and Christmas cards, joined a 52-week fulldeck challenge, created an art journal page, started a jigsaw puzzle, and generally relaxed and defrazzled my brain. I highly recommend it! lol :)

Above photos, from top left down in rows (sort of in order of the events) ... 
. 1, Christmas gift wrapping with the Salvos (wrapping a unicorn with one of the other wrappers, we managed to cover the whole gorgeous animal leaving only her tail showing! 
. 2, Christmas card making using Tim's Idea-Ology, stamps, gold embossing powder and the left overs of my December thank you cards. Feels good to have some handmade cards ready to go for later on :)
. 3, I had some time out of the craft room too :) lol See, it does happen now and then! lol :p A friend gave me this fabulous puzzle for Christmas, a Wasgij destiny design of a cafe/fast food diner. It is taking forever to finish but it is getting there. 
. 4 (top), I joined a Rolodex project belonging to Kristi @Soul_Positive (Instagram), decorating a little vintage card with heartfelt message to help encourage positivity and kindness throughout the world. Every little bit helps :) Mine says "'do not self sabotage, be kind to yourself, always", created using Tim's Exquisite stamp set and Distress pencils, spattered with Spritz shimmer in Antique Linen. Because Kristi is in the USA, I stamped the envelope with an old Stamp-it map of Australia. The birds and saying are stamps by Tim :)
. 5, My friend had a birthday so I've stamped and coloured in a beautiful card. I've resisted using Stickles this time as she's not a fan of glitter but I did smother it with the gorgeous shimmery Distress Spritz! Stamps by Tim and Sizzix Studio :)
. 6, I've joined a year long challenge hosted by Shana of @ShanoukiArt (Instagram) where we alter a playing card with mini collage, keeping one item the same throughout (mine's a key) and using one thing from each previous card. A prompt is posted weekly and so far it has been easy (red, orange, yellow). I wonder what we'll be doing after our rainbow of arty goodness? It's free to join and buckets of fun :)
. 7, I created a fun Summery scene my Dylusions 8x8 Ledger Journal using a host of Dyan's beautiful stamps, coloured in a gathering of gorgeous colours using pencils, inks, markers and adding a few stickers for thoughts. You'll soon see a blog post for this page, so you can see how it evolved.
--- Excitingly, Ranger shared my art journal page on Instagram too! They called my artwork "an explosion of whimsical creativity! It's a vibrant menagerie of quirky characters and elements and a true feast for the eyes!" So grateful I am :D
. 8, My Dylusions Ledger Journal covered in stamped images from Sizzix Studio's mixed media sets by Cat Kerr and Vic Hollins. I think they cover up my scribbles and smudges quite well :) The name at the top was made by my clever Dad using his scrollsaw, cut out of acrylic and glued onto my book using Tim's Distress Collage Medium (2 years ago and still holding strong).
. 9, This yellow artwork was made the other day inside the small Stamperia watercolour book often seen used online by Vicky P. I'll blog this one too this week, as it is so sunny and happy to look at :)
. 10, Back to the top far right you can see my work in progress, making a stack of samples to post with orders. I've cut up a few pages from my large Dyary (filled with printed mixed media paper) and stamped some Summery faves from Dyan's stamp sets "Bake it Yourself" and "Fancy a Cuppa" using Distress Archival Ink. The torn edges were made by cutting with the Tonic Studios Deckle Trimmer :)
. 11, I received the most gorgeous snail mail  from Mia Amphlett @kaleidoscopic_swirl (Instagram) and her dog Coco. There's a cool Aussie flag taken through a fun filter and a beautiful sunflower underneath the very awesome veggie critters! These are one of my favourites out of the hundreds of beautiful unique photos that Mia takes every day :) Check her out, she's so inspiring!
. 11b, the other side of this planner page is my week's excitement :)
. 12, a closeup of my icecream cones I made using the "Bake It Yourself" Dylusions Stamps and Distress Watercolour Pencils.

It's amazing how much one can accomplish when there is extra time in each day! May the rest of the year be as crafty, inspirational and joyful as Summer holidays :)

A hug is always the right size ... The photograph with Winnie the Pooh and his balloon featuring his philosophy is a part of a birthday card made in October using Echo Park stamps (sorry, not available, I just didn't want to cut up a book! lol) - made together with Tim Holtz stamps and stencils, all inked and coloured using Distress Inks, Oxides, Watercolour Pencils. See? Distress goes with Everything!

Tim Holtz ...

We kick of the new year with a recap of a few products Tim's dreamed up for us to use : Idea-Ology Salvaged Rabbits and Eggs, craft mats, a fab ruler, Recoil snips and scissors, Distress Embossing Glazes (which create a colourful translucent enamel-like finish), gorgeous new Spritz colours and Mica Stains (colourful bottles to shake up and watch shimmer, they're also great for creating shimmer splats on paper! lol), a handy storage tin, a wonderful selection of Idea-Ology, amazing stamps, stencils and Thinlits die cutting templates, plus we also have inStore, Distress range of mediums, inks and paints plus tags and paper in printed, kraft, mixed media and watercolour. 

Use all your favourites together to make more art. Immerse yourself into creative 'what ifs' while rummaging through Idea-Ology, stamping up a stack of journal or collage fodder, making a colourful mess with sprays and generally enjoy a wonderful crafty arty time! Art is good for us. It helps soothe, encourages positivity, defrazzles our minds and is lots of fun.

While waiting for your glue and paint to dry, why not have a wander through our huge selection of Tim Treasures? Window shopping can be great for dreaming up fresh ideas or discovering a new favourite!

- I like to start my wonder gazing at stamps -

By now you may have heard that Tim is retiring from designing new products - we have one more year of brand new Tim Treasures (because he designs one year in advance) however, after this year we (I) will have to learn to stand on our (my) own two feet ... this might work ok actually because the shop is quieter when Tim doesn't showcase new ideas which gives me more time in the studio to play. By play, I of course mean "work" at creating promotional material to share on Insta, FB and my own blog, the Art by Jenny Creative Space. I love making more art :)

I will continue to restock all of Tim's arty essentials as well as anything new that he and or his brands announce (Stampers Anonymous, Ranger, Sizzix, Tonic Studios, Advantus Corp) - sorry, we don't sell Tim's fabric. Hopefully by now you have found it at your favourite quilt shop or at Ranger, Stampers Anonymous or Simon Says Stamp.
... If you cannot find something, please ask! Sometimes if a product isn't showing online it might be still available. Sometimes a product is retired too - but ask anyway :) I love to help!

I have noticed that Vicky Papaioannou (who works with Stamperia) is using more and more of Ranger and Tim's Distress products in her Instagram posts and YouTubes which is awesome. She makes everything look fresh and inviting! speaking of Vicky, we now stock Stamperia and Vicky's watercolour books. They're a fantastic size for creating art daily!

- Click here to see all our latest arrives including Vicky's books -

Sizzix Studio - Mixed Media Kits ...

Sizzix have worked with two mixed media artists, Cat Kerr and Vic Hollins, to create 'Sizzix Studio', a versatile collection of stamp and stencil sets. There are 8 designs to choose from, each with a theme to inspire creativity. Sizzix also made a very handy tool, the Deep Hinge Adapter, to use with their Stamp and Stencil Tool (stamp platform, which we also have in stock). This enables the stamping platform to be easily used with our thick books, canvas and artboards without turning the platform inside out and upside down to do so. Brilliant idea, especially when stamping words and phrases :)

- look at the wonderful Sizzix Studio mixed media sets here -

    

Dina Wakley MEdia ...

Last year, Dina designed a beautiful stamp set named Fawns plus stunning printed Forest tissue paper with birds, foliage, trees, fungi, a bear, fox, deer, squirrels and more. Also new are square white mixed media tags in 3 sizes (perfect to use as tags, pages, pockets, samplers) and fresh colours of Glossys acrylic fluid paint (in dropper bottles), perfect for splatters, dripping, spraying, doodling, round stencils called 'Coasters' in versatile designs and printed transparencies with a fabulous variety of text based patterns.

... click here to visit the Dina Wakley MEdia arty shelf ...

Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions ...

Dyan's treasures are perfect for all kinds of crafty moments, to create art and make smiles! We have a huge selection of Dyan's stamp designs, new shapes of Dyamond Boards (thin chipboards that can be stamped, embossed, dry embossed, stained, altered however you wish) and the gorgeous dark Dylusions colours - the Just Indigo is stunning, Jungle Leaf is gorgeous (I would say that, I love green), Cranberry Juice is wonderfully warm, the two browns are like bronzes and the Rainy Day is grey like pewter.

- click here for the Dyan Reaveley Dylusions shelf -

Sing out if you need a hand or have questions :) Thanks again!

Have a wonderfully creative week!
:)
Jenny