Creating with Joy

I love the combination of textures in this super simple autumn greeting card - the cut-out floral border with the embroidered letters and some sparkly bling. This kind of card is a great way to use your solid colors of cardstock. First I tinted my plain white Joy embroidered letters with a Copic marker. By […]

These little sheer organza drawstring pouches are perfect for tiny gifts, party and wedding favors, fragrant sachets or even as merchandise bags for selling handmade items at a boutique. You can pick them up in bulk online or in small packs at most craft stores - they come in many different sizes and colors. Personalize […]

Pin or frame a large piece of white felt to the wall in your kid's room and let them choo-choo-choose how to build a fun and colorful felt alphabet train to spell their name and lots of other words.  Felt lightly sticks to itself, even when hanging vertically on the wall, so you can easily […]

I recently took an online class with Seth Apter, a mixed media artist who specializes in creating unique painted surfaces by layering colors, stamps and stencils. I tried his techniques to make a peace flag on canvas - visit my blog to see how I put down each layer of paint. With Joy embroidered letters, I spelled […]

I love this giant wood clothespins for holding photos, but I realized they'd be perfect for holding mail, notes, coupons and other papers I need to keep track of. To keep my organizing tactics simple, I labeled them "now" and "later" by gluing on Joy embroidered letters. Pretty cute, too! Now I can keep all […]

This mini stencil art canvas serves as my daily reminder to get off the sofa and move! I started with a 6" square black canvas - it's already wrapped and stretched around a frame. I brushed a coat of sheer gold paint over the top, then tapped at the paint with the side of my […]

If you're making artist trading cards to swap with a group, try using the letter for each artist's first name for your theme. Start with white Joy embroidered letters and color them with markers to match a unique color palette for each artist in your ATC swap. Everyone feels a certain affinity for their own […]

Since I made this mini wine cork bulletin board, I must confess...I do enjoy drinking wine and I save all my wine corks. And yet another confession...in spite of so many handy apps and online calendars, I still use my refrigerator for filing and reminders. I needed to designate a small space on the side […]

Happy Valentine's Day! We love this yarn-wrapped frame with an open heart cut-out, designed by Beth Watson. The softness of the embroidered letters works nicely with the fuzzy pink variegated yarn - click here for the full tutorial on the Smoothfoam blog. Look for Joy letters in your favorite craft store!

Use Joy letters to create an adorable shabby chic signpost that tells everyone what you treasure the most. Click here for the full tutorial from Terry Ricioli on the Smoothfoam blog.

I like the idea of having art blocks displayed in my studio - not only as inspiration to keep making art, but also as a display of some of the various materials and techniques I enjoy working with - such as handmade papers, opaque white stamp ink, molding paste, and pastel pigment powders. After sanding […]

We hope your New Year is filled with sparkle and shine! Click here to learn how Julie McGuffee made this tinsel wreath.