Guest Blogger Joy Taylor!!!

Hello friends!!

I'm super excited today because we have a good friend of mine as a guest blogger- Joy Taylor! 

excited!!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist it when I did a google image search of "excited" and saw it was a crocodile!)

Joy will be with us every Wednesday throughout October, sharing her beautiful creations and if we're lucky, she might even let us in on some handy techniques and hints *wink*.

This is the lovely Joy

Now, if any of you frequent the Hero Arts group over on flickr, you'll know exactly who I'm talking about.  Joy is not only one of the nicest ladies around (and a fellow Australian :)), she makes EXQUISITE cards that are very simple but super elegant and eye-catching.  She's also a current Hero Arts Hostess! *impressed applause*

Given that a lot of you are beginner card-makers, we thought it would be great for you to see that with just a  little technique know-how and some simple steps, you too can make a glorious card. 

So now, it's over to Joy...

Hi everyone!

I live in a small town, in Southern New South Wales with my partner Darryl and our furbaby, Roly. I currently work part time, but like all us crafters would love to see my passion for the craft to turn into my daily job…oh to dream!

I have been crafting especially stamping on and off for about 16 years now and absolutely love it, although I love all crafts, stamping is my passion, I love to create and have fun with the craft, learning new techniques as I go along.

Just recently my partner allowed me to take ownership of one of the spare rooms that we have in our house and he has built all of my craft furniture custom made for my passion for crafting.  I love that I have everything at my finger tips and come and go as I please, it really is my little haven and I adore my space.

I currently design for a company in New York and just recently, have been asked if I would like to try out designing for Jay Gee’s Nook, and I have to say that I am thrilled and honoured to be asked, I am excited and looking forward venture ahead.

I have met the most amazing people through the love of this craft and ones like the lovely Linda who asked me to do a bit of Guest Blogging for this amazing company that supports Celiac and Behcet's Disease.  I have a family member who has Celiac Disease and felt I wanted to give back a little and well this is my way.

My hope is that I inspire you to create and have fun crafting as much as I do!

Here is my card;

Here's a step by step of what I did:

1. Cut white card stock to size.
2. Blend Black Soot Distress Ink over the entire front of the card.
3. Stamp the Hero Arts Canvas Stripe Background stamp using Memento Tuxedo Black ink over the top.
4. Using a Spellbinders, Label 8 die cut a second piece of cardstock and stamp the images (from the Hero Arts What’s Perking stamp set.)  
5. Colour them in with the Copics. 
6. Use Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks and blend over the top of the die cut to give a more aged look. 
7. Adhere the die cut to the front of the card, adding white string to the bottom to finish the card.

And here are the tools I used to create it;

Copic Marker X-Press Blending Card

Spellbinders Label 8 Die
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
       Ranger Distress Inks - Black Soot, Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy

Stamps- Hero Arts Canvas Stripe and Hero Arts What's Perking
Copics - B97,B95,B93 and YG25, YG23,YG21
Others:

Sanford Signio White Uni-ball Pen

Twine,

3L 3D Permanent Foam Squares

Ranger Inkssential Foam Blending Tool

--ooOOoo-- 

So how did you like Joy's card?! We'd love to hear comments, thoughts etc.  Joy will be back next Wednesday with another gorgeous creation!

Till next time lovelies, take care!!

Linda x