Episode Transcript
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Jeff (00:08):
Welcome back to Art Supply
Insiders.
My name is Jeff Morrow andtoday we're talking with Justine
Hovee.
Did I say that right, Hovee?
Justine (00:17):
Yes, you did.
Jeff (00:18):
Wow, I always put your
name, so we're talking with
Justine Hovee, and Justine is aextremely popular YouTube artist
and her specialty is in cardmaking.
Did I introduce you properly?
Justine (00:37):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Card making is my art streamthat I work in and also make
courses, and I love to teachcard making.
That's more my thing, not justcard making, but teaching card
making.
Jeff (00:51):
Well, let's go back to the
beginning Now.
Are you professionally trainedartist, or have you so taught?
How long ago did you getstarted?
Give us a little bit of theearly days.
Justine (01:05):
Sure, well, if we go
back to the really early days of
Justine the student, I was thekid that got straight A's and
then but a C in art.
I just didn't understand thewhole concept of taking your
time and that there was a wholeconcept and method behind it all
(01:26):
.
I was pretty terrible at it,but I always felt like I had a
really good idea in my brain ofhow I wanted my art to be, and
then I couldn't do it becauseI'm not really a fine arts type
of person.
I'm not a technical artist, soI'm not professionally trained
in any way.
I'm a self-taught card maker andI remember I was about, I think
(01:50):
, 14 or 15 and I went to mycousin's house I'm half Italian,
so family's a big deal new babyof the family and she had a
scrapbook on her table and whatis this, explain what this is?
And I saw this paper and stampsand inks and all these cool
things and I could do thatbecause everything's kind of
(02:12):
half done for you and you justgot to learn how to put it
together.
And that's how I startedexpressing myself creatively in
paper crafting, starting withscrapbooking and then getting
onto card making.
Jeff (02:26):
So how many years have you
been doing all of this?
Justine (02:32):
Well, I started, as
just you know, making things for
myself at about 16, so, if I dothe math correctly, here 19
years and I've been on YouTubefor about 12 years, so I've been
and blogging long before that.
Jeff (02:50):
Long before that.
I got to imagine, though, thatthere came a time you were
making these cards and you justthought wait a minute, I should
go on YouTube.
What made you take that leapfrom what's you do in your
living room or dining room tobeing in front of?
Well, you have a little under100,000 subscribers, right?
Justine (03:14):
Yes, yes.
So I think it came out of alove for two things, so my love
of travel and my love ofteaching.
So I became a teacher and Imoved to Germany and I was bored
out of my mind because I knewnobody and I was kind of lonely
(03:36):
and I decided I just startedkind of burying myself in
YouTube videos and there wereonly maybe two or three people
that were making card makingvideos at the time and I thought
to myself I can do that and Ilearned so much, and so my love
of teaching and then my love oftraveling.
But then traveling turned intoa bit of a lonely journey for a
little while there.
(03:56):
And you know, the cool thingabout crafting is that you can
bring it because you have thisamazing online community that
you discover alongside with cardmaking and paper crafting and,
I'm sure, any art really streamthat you're in.
You know you get to bring yourfriends with you no matter where
you move to, so that's the nicething.
Jeff (04:16):
That's.
You're right.
And you know what?
My business partner, dave, andI have been in the art industry
for probably over 20 years andevery time we think we're out of
it, we just keep coming rightback because of people like you
and people that we see atconventions.
(04:38):
What a wonderful industry wehave right.
Justine (04:43):
It is.
It is amazing, yeah, absolutelythat we can come together over
a paper or a hobby or apaintbrush and just geek out and
you know, for our audience.
Jeff (04:53):
Our audience is half fine
art, half crafters, and my wife
is a card maker in transparency.
She watches you all the time.
So thank you so much forcosting me money.
So you know, it looks like it'shard to make all these great
(05:19):
looking cards that you guys do.
They look better than what yousee when you go to the drugstore
.
Is it as hard as it looks?
Justine (05:30):
I don't personally
think so, but I know everybody's
got their talents and everybodyhas their things that they find
difficult.
So the nice thing about cardmaking, like I said, is a lot of
the things are done for you, soyou can have a stamped image
and it's almost like for thefine art people the drawing is
done for you, you just got toknow what to do with it.
And so I think it's a lot moreabout coming up with an idea
(05:53):
versus executing it, becausethere are a lot of really
amazing tools that are out therein the art industry and in the
card making industry that allowyou to make beautiful things
without needing those fine artskills.
And yeah, so I personally don'tthink so, but some people you
know it's very interesting theywill tell me they have a really
(06:13):
hard time lining something upstraight.
That's their difficulty, youknow.
But then you can get yourselflike a little laser pointer and
you're good to go.
Or if you can't, you know, ifyou want to create a scene with
inks and a landscape orsomething like that and you
can't do it with just a brush,then you can grab yourself some
layering stencils and you knowyou can adjust.
(06:37):
So I always say it's ascomplicated as you want it to be
.
Jeff (06:41):
So you just said a laser.
What did you say?
It was a laser line pointer inconstruction.
Justine (06:49):
Aren't they like to
line up paintings?
Yeah, they're just like alittle thing you put on your
table.
Click the button, you've got astraight line and you can line
up your papers with it, if youreally have the difficulty of
doing that.
Jeff (07:00):
Yeah, absolutely brilliant
.
So before we get too far along,tell us you have a website.
We both know that you're onYouTube.
Tell us how they can see you inall of those different social
medias.
Justine (07:15):
Yeah, so you can find
me pretty much anywhere at
Justine Hovie H-O-V-E-Y V is inVictor, and Justine Hovie
classescom is where you'll findall my courses.
Justine Hovie on YouTube,justine Hovie Instagram so yeah,
that's where you'll find me,just under my name.
Jeff (07:33):
So it's
J-U-S-T-I-N-E-H-O-V-E-Y,
classescom, if you're going todo it on the web, and I kind of
asked you this question beforewe went live.
So about how many videos do youhave on YouTube?
Justine (07:56):
On YouTube itself.
I'm pretty sure I'm over 800now, and then I have more for my
members and on my class site,so I've probably created well
over a thousand videos at thispoint.
Jeff (08:08):
Oh my goodness.
So people of all card makingtypes, beginners, in the middle
of their card making journey,even if they're really
sophisticated, you've got aclass or you've got some tips to
be able to help them right.
Justine (08:29):
Yeah, so that's one of
the things that one of the most
difficult things I would sayabout being on YouTube is you
always got to find a way to setyourself apart from others,
right?
And one of my things is that Idon't like spending longer than
about 20 minutes on a card, somine are usually quick and easy
techniques.
And the other thing was I triedto really brainstorm what are
(08:51):
the issues that we face as cardmakers.
You know it sounds like themost first world problems ever.
We have problems.
We have them Like when you havetime to craft, for example, and
you sit down at your table andyou're ready to go and then you
have no ideas coming to yourhead.
And that's where I came up withthe technique resource binder,
for example.
(09:11):
It's a whole binder with little, almost like little baseball
cards with over.
I show you how to do over 175techniques that are available in
card making, and the cool thingis is, as you're watching the
video, you would only make thesebaseball cards that apply to
the supplies you own.
So you're creating your ownlittle custom binder, and so
(09:32):
when you sit down at your deskyou don't have an idea.
You can plop open your binderand go oh, that looks really
cool.
I'm going to try this out, I'mgoing to try out heat embossing,
I'm going to try out foiling,and I tried to brainstorm every
possible thing that you could dowith stamping, with die cutting
, with foiling and all thesedifferent areas that are in card
making, just to solve theproblem of what do you do when
(09:53):
you sit at your desk and youdon't have an idea.
Jeff (09:56):
So, literally, this
technique resource binder is a
ring binder that they purchase,obviously, and you send it to
them and it's tabbed and italready has stuff in it.
Is that what I'm trying topaint, a visual?
Justine (10:12):
here it's all digital,
so you actually create the
binder yourself.
Digital oh I see, Because Icould create the binder for you.
But the thing is is that I ownsupplies that you might not, and
so having something like thatpre-created for you doesn't
necessarily make sense.
But all the videos are up, allthe downloads are there, so you
(10:32):
just print out the littleinstruction cards you only use
the ones that apply to yourstash, stick them in your
baseball cards and you've gotyour own customized technique
resource binder for your craftroom.
Jeff (10:45):
Absolutely brilliant.
So clearly this is somethingthat people would need to
purchase, right?
Justine (10:53):
Yes, this is a paid
thing.
This one here was created out ofso much love.
Like I said, there's over 175techniques in this class, so
it's a huge course, and so itretails for $99, but I do have a
membership program, and thatwas the thing for me, too, is I
know what it's like to be acrafter on a budget and a
(11:15):
crafter on a small budget, andwhat was important for me is
community and learning, and sowhat I created was the Justina
Jovey VIP membership, and whatit is is.
It's a $9 a month subscriptionor $95 a year, and you can get
access to every single coursethat I've ever made on one
platform.
So, instead of spending $99 onit, if you're quick, you can get
(11:39):
that class done in a month andthen cancel.
If you want, you can be a partof it and stay with us for years
.
It's completely up to you, butI like to be able to offer all
of my customers and people whowatch an affordable option to
access all of the solutions forthe crappy problems that they
might have.
Jeff (11:56):
Well, to be honest with
you, that sounds like it's
underpriced for all of thethings that they're going to be
getting.
But let's say that somebody'slistening to me for the first
time, or to us for the firsttime, and they just want to.
They've seen you on YouTube.
They want to try it.
Do you have any free stuff onyour website that they could
(12:17):
just try stuff?
Justine (12:19):
Yeah, I do.
I have quite a few downloads onthe website that will help you
with your crafting.
So I mean, I have 800 tutorialson YouTube.
So I feel like that's my freestuff, right, so you could go
there and you could watch foryears, probably if you started
right at the beginning andworked your way up.
And then I have downloads thatwill help you, like my guide to
(12:40):
organization or my favorite inkblends and things like that that
you can download.
And, like I said, if you'rereally at that point still
wanting more, sign up for onemonth and then check out the
program, see if it's for you.
And, yeah, you can make thatdecision from there.
Jeff (12:58):
Excellent idea.
Justine (13:00):
It's cheaper than
McDonald's, yeah, yeah.
Jeff (13:04):
You're involved with a lot
of different events.
We were talking recently withsomebody that you've worked with
before, laurel Beard, who,incidentally, is one of the
funniest people I've ever met.
And you guys do what is itcalled Crafters Roulette?
(13:28):
Is that what you are a part ofthat?
Justine (13:31):
Yeah, we've been.
I don't know if you call itcontestants participants on
Crafters Roulette.
Jeff (13:36):
Yeah, participants, I
think.
Justine (13:37):
Very gun fun hosts
Crafters, Roulette, and we've
been on her show before.
We have hosted retreats in thepast Eat, Sleep, Crafty Retreat
which is a little different thana standard retreat that you'll
say put on by company orsomething like that.
So a lot of the times companiesput on retreats and then
there's usually a big price tagbecause you're getting a ton of
(14:00):
products and things like that.
So we decided to create onewhere it's a nice low price but
we, for example, just use what'sin our stash and we try to
create things that we knowpeople have in their stash and
then you can create alongside usfor an entire weekend.
And we host the Paper CraftersGet Organized Summit.
It's called and coming up inSeptember we are hosting the
(14:23):
Stress Free Card Making Summit.
So we got a lot of events goingon.
We love Laurel and I lovebringing the crafting community
together and into our craftingworld and getting to know the
people who actually watch ourvideos.
That's important to us andseeing putting names to faces
and just being really real aboutcrafting and talking about the
(14:44):
pros and the cons and what toolswe love and what tools we don't
love, and all of those things.
We have a lot of fun together.
She's the funny one, I'm morethe serious one.
But we work out well.
Jeff (14:56):
The two of you together.
My goodness, OK, I've got to gobackwards.
You called this Eat SleepCrafty Retreat.
What the heck Eat Sleep CraftyRetreat?
What does all that mean?
I don't understand.
I'm a guy.
Justine (15:14):
Yeah, there was, there
were it was kind of a phase, I
think, of t-shirts for a whilewhere it was like Eat Sleep
Craft, Eat Sleep Golf, likewhatever your age was.
Oh, I got it and that's kind ofhow we came up with the name of
the Eat Sleep Crafty Retreat.
We've hosted it three times inthe past and we're debating
about the future of it, but it'sessentially a weekend where
(15:36):
it's myself, laurel, and usuallytwo to three other crafters.
We've had Tiffany Solario,we've had Mary Polanco, we've
had several people in the cardmaking industry join us, and so
essentially we just send out asupply list of just some basic
things that we hope majority ofcrafters have in their house
already, and then we gettogether on the weekend, we make
cards together, we laugh, wehave a ball.
(15:58):
Then we get together afterwardsand just have a freestyle
crafting session and it's alldone on Zoom, yeah, and we
looked at doing one in person,but it was, yeah, it's just
again talking about theaffordability of things like
that.
Where do we host it?
People got to fly in, there'shotel costs, there's this,
there's that, and we thought youknow what, why not make it
(16:20):
online?
And then everybody can attend,no matter there?
Yeah, we don't have to worryabout accessibility, you don't
have to worry.
Everybody can work from thecomfort of their own home.
Jeff (16:29):
So if our audience wants
to find out about all of these
different events, do they go toyour website?
Is there a specific place toget the details?
Justine (16:41):
Yeah, that's a good
question.
So if you go toJustineHoveyclassescom, if you
download anything on my sitethat's a free download, then
you'll automatically be added tomy newsletter.
I do have a blog.
It's older, it'sJustineHoveycom.
I don't really use it anymore,but if you go to that website
(17:01):
there'll be a pop up if you wantto sign up for my newsletter.
So I always let everyone knowthrough my newsletter or on
social media what's going on.
Yeah, you stay well informed.
Jeff (17:12):
It sounds like now we were
watching.
My wife and I were watching acouple of your videos last night
and I saw that a number ofmonths ago I think it was a
number of months ago you broughtout your own product line.
I did yeah, it's about the.
Justine (17:29):
April, whether it was
it's June now.
Yeah, so I think it was.
Last fall I was approached byCrafts dash and they're a
company in the UK.
They're kind of like the scrapof dot com of the US or or or on
the time it's a stamp, whateverOne stop shop type of thing,
(17:50):
and they've been really startingto develop small lines with
different youtubers andinfluencers and things like that
May ask me if I was interestedand I was like, I know I don't
think so.
I'm not into product design.
Again, it's going back to thelike fears of fine art and
having to sketch and draw, and Ihad all these things in my head
(18:11):
.
I'm also going to the point ofyou know, okay, I feel like a
lot of the time ever it's allbeen made already.
You know, like, if I think ofstamps, I mean there's 800 draft
stamps and 900 elephants andGod knows what else.
So I was what am I going to addto this?
Right, I'm like absolutely not,but they made things really
(18:33):
easy for me.
So the cool thing is is Ipretty much just sit down with a
designer and I tell them myideas, what I seem to be missing
or if I am creating somethingthat I feel like it like I came
out with a sunflower stamp, forexample.
That's nothing new or original,but I came up with a way of
lining it up a little bit easier, how to make it look more
(18:54):
realistic with layers and thingslike that.
So yeah, that was my firstrelease.
It was a small one and thenthey should be rolling out every
other month or so.
Just a small Line, so that youknow again, it stays affordable,
it stays relevant.
I don't want to overwhelmanybody with crazy releases
every couple weeks.
And it was a.
(19:16):
It was a great launch and I'mlooking forward to putting out
more.
Jeff (19:20):
So they can go to your
website in and see these
products now and buy themthrough your website.
Is that the best way to do it?
Justine (19:29):
The best way to do it
is to go to craft stash.
So craft stash has a US and aninternational website.
So if you're in the US, thereis a US website where you can
shop in US dollars.
And so, yeah, just going tocraft stash and you can type in
my name and then, or there'salso, I think there's a button,
(19:50):
if I recall that it saysexclusive brands, and I'll be on
there as well and, yeah,there'll be more coming out.
Jeff (19:58):
How fun is that to have
your own line.
I mean, wow, that's cool andvery surreal.
Did you ever think that youwould be as popular as you are
now looking back on it?
Justine (20:16):
No, I mean I the word
popular freaks me out because
that was not the definition ofme in school.
I don't think I ever thought itwould get to this place.
My parents are just stunned.
First of all, that like 90,000people actually card make in the
world.
Just what is this?
(20:39):
What did you stumble into?
So, yeah, I don't think I everthought it would become this
popular, I would be doing thislong.
But you know what?
I fell in love with it and Ithink the thing for me is I love
learning new things and so forme, it's always been a good
balance of, okay, I'm learningcard making, I'm learning video
(21:00):
editing, learning photographyand learning social media
marketing, and so I have kind of.
You know I have differentfocuses throughout the year and
it bounces back and forth myattention span.
So I, yeah, I love every aspectof it and, except for answering
emails, yeah, so it's been alot of fun experimenting over
(21:21):
the years with courses, withclasses and events and what
works, what doesn't work andwhat do people want, and that
was a big part of my journeyover the last 12 years,
especially on YouTube, isfiguring out.
You know, I started my channeland then I started getting
picked up by design teams andstarted working for companies
and designing for companies andall of that.
(21:43):
And then I got lost abouthalfway through.
It became a race to get theproduct first, to push the
product, to figure out new andexciting ways that nobody's ever
thought of before, and theykind of got stuck in this
hamster wheel.
And then I realized that wait aminute, I am not making videos
For a company, I'm making avideo for the purse, for the
(22:03):
crafters watching me, and Icompletely did a whole big turn
and just decided to stop all ofthat.
And Even my own product line isa very, very small focus of
what I do.
I still like to use All sortsof products.
I love to mix and match.
I love to just show the averagecrafter because that's what I
(22:24):
am is an average crafter.
I had a graph.
Jeff (22:28):
You can literally Is do
card making on a budget right.
It doesn't really take a hugeinvestment because you can just
kind of take stuff that you havearound the house and Figure out
ways to make cards right.
Justine (22:44):
I have so many videos
where you literally need some
masking tape, an ink pad and astamp and you can make so many
different types of cards withjust those supplies.
And of course it can be themost affordable hobby and it
could both be the craziestexpensive hobby you've ever had.
I'm sure your wife could tellyou that, or you probably
(23:06):
already know.
Jeff (23:07):
I know Gosh between the
Gemini II and the Cricut machine
and all the stamps and all thedies and all the tools.
And, yeah, she listens to you,so she's subscribed and so
whenever a new video comes up, Iget to see you once or twice a
(23:31):
week.
You're very welcome in our homebecause you're very engaging.
But thanks to all of you, Iwill continue working for
another 20 years to support herhabit.
Justine (23:42):
I think we all will.
Jeff (23:46):
So what do you see for the
future for you?
How do you see yourselfevolving?
Do you see it keeping it simple?
What else do you want to do?
Justine (23:59):
I think I will always
have my VIP group is my pride
and joy.
I have so much fun creatingcourses and doing live classes
in there and creating YouTubevideos.
Well, hopefully always besomething I do.
It might not be something I doas often as I do now, but I
don't know.
I kind of have this like if Iwere to dream big, I'd have my
(24:19):
own organization line.
I think I would have like thelike a hoarders TV show on
Netflix for crafters, where I goand clean up people's craft
rooms.
That would be amazing.
Oh, that's great.
But the other thing I've toyedwith is because I live in Europe
now and traveling is definitelya big or an easy thing to do.
(24:42):
To get from place to place ismaybe taking people on the road
with me, crafting in differentcities and countries and
visiting different art storesand things like that and being
inspired by what you're seeingaround you and that kind of
stuff.
But yeah, you know you've gotto find the hours.
Jeff (25:03):
You know, almost you're
right, you have to find the
hours.
But I just was envisioning, youknow, card making techniques
from different parts of theworld and from different
countries and what's importantto them, and looking at other
people's styles and troubles andtribulations and that sounds
like a blast.
Justine (25:24):
Yeah, yeah, definitely
it's, it's, it's in the planning
.
Works right now.
Jeff (25:29):
Well, I actually hope you
do it, because that I think
you'd have a huge audience forthat.
And the other thing that I sawis you're a bit of an expert on
getting craft rooms organized.
Justine (25:44):
Yeah.
Yeah, that's kind of the funnything is, in my regular, my
regular life I'm not the mosttidy person, but my craft room
is, and I think, while my craftspace and I think it always had
to do with the fact that, beingin Europe, you have a little bit
more limited space than I didhave when I was living in North
America and generally have yourspace always in a public area,
(26:07):
whether it's a hallway or aliving room or, you know
wherever, a corner somewhere,and so you just kind of needed
to keep on top of it becausethere's other people living in
the house too.
And so, yeah, organizationskind of a passion of mine, and
trying to figure out why I'm amessy person has been a passion
of mine.
So I took a professionalorganizing course and, like I
(26:31):
said, laurel Beard and I hostthe paper craft is get organized
summit, and you know, justtrying to.
It has nothing to do with havinga picture, perfect, mark the
Stuart magazine ready craft room.
Not at all.
It's about having somethingthat works for you, which could
be very much a messy and tidyspace.
But the thing is, all of uscrafters have the same goal we
want to be able to be creative,and we want to be able to be
(26:53):
creative with the supplies weknow we have somewhere.
So the goal is, of course, tobe able to find what you're
looking for essentially in yourcraft room, so having some sort
of system set up that works foryou.
Jeff (27:06):
The last thing.
Gosh, we're almost out of timehere, but one thing that I saw
on your YouTube videos was youhave a very cool dog.
Justine (27:17):
Oh, Lone the.
Jeff (27:18):
Lancer, what's the dog's?
What kind of dog is that?
It looks like a big one.
Justine (27:25):
Yeah, so her name's
Lone.
Jeff (27:27):
She's a Lancer, I think
that's how you say it in English
A what A Lancer.
Justine (27:31):
Yeah, L-A-N-D-S-E-E-R.
They're part of the New Feefamily and so there she's a big
girl.
She's about 140 pounds andshe's a gentle giant and, yeah,
she's definitely a conversationpiece.
I mean, I'm from Thunder Bay,Ontario, northern Canada, and
(27:52):
you know everybody has a dog andeverybody's got a big dog Maybe
not so big, but everybody's gota big dog.
But here she is like acelebrity because nobody's ever
seen anything like it.
Jeff (28:04):
So who walks?
Who?
Do you walk, her or him, ordoes he or her walk you?
Justine (28:11):
It depends on her mood
really.
I mean, she's off the leashquite a bit, but yeah, I mean,
if she wants to, she can walk me.
Jeff (28:21):
Well, justine, the time
has gone by really fast.
For me it has.
Is there anything else that wemissed, that you'd like for us
to touch on, that you'd like theaudience to know?
Justine (28:35):
That's a good question?
I don't think so.
I mean, like I said, take alook at YouTube.
Like I said, everything thereis free.
There's 800 videos to watch.
You can watch me for years andthen, if you want more, come on
and see me in the VIP group.
We have a blast every monthtogether, meeting a few times
and crafting together and liveclasses and all that stuff and
(28:56):
get to know each other a littlebit better.
Jeff (28:58):
Well, I'm not a card maker
.
My audience knows that I'vedone some oil painting in the
past.
My wife is the card maker but Iwas absolutely enthralled by
your YouTube videos and you werejust so easy to watch and easy
to understand.
That's your particularbrilliance.
(29:23):
I think you could be sellingshoelaces and I think I'd
probably watch it.
Justine (29:29):
Well, thank you.
I'm a teacher by day, thefull-time teacher, and then I do
YouTube in the evening, so Ikind of incorporate both, so
yeah.
I'm the final teacher, thoughI'm not that boring teacher like
Bueller.
Jeff (29:43):
Bueller, I know Okay, so
again, your website is.
Justine (29:50):
Justine Hobeclassescom.
Jeff (29:53):
Justine, thank you.
This is really a breath offresh air and so much fun and as
you grow and as you become morepopular, we would love to say I
knew her when she was youngerand she probably doesn't
remember me, but I knew her when.
I hope you can come back andjoin us again sometime in the
(30:17):
future.
Justine (30:18):
Absolutely I'd love to.
Jeff (30:20):
Thank you so much.
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(30:42):
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