A pair of dancers!

Good morning 
I have been a really bad blogger and not done any blogging for ages...I did get a shock when I saw the last date I blogged! So this morning I thought I would share with you a couple of small canvasses that I did for the last Claritystamp show in September and remind you that Barbara is back on our TV screens today on Hochanda at 2 - 4pm and then again at 6-7pm.

I used two smaller canvasses to make the panels and added grunge paint through stencils then added colour to match the two backgrounds. The dancers were added by stamping onto tissue then using modge podge to stick it to the canvas and seal it!

Hope you have a good day...I am off to finish some projects off and watch Barbara on the telly at 2pm! 

Happy Crafting

A summer full of crafting!

Good Morning...its a nice bright morning here today so Colin has decided to cut the hedges at the front so it gives me time to have a coffee and come and chat to you!

It's hard to think that this time next week I will be back at work!! I could quite get used to being a lady of leisure! But then work pays the bills so its a necessary evil!

I have had a very good summer break all told and managed lots of crafting which has to be good. I certainly know that when I eventually do retire I will be able to fill my days and I certainly will not be bored! 

Yesterday I had a bit of a crochet day! I still haven't finished my blanket for the computer chair so I had a push on making more squares to do it....I have massively underestimated how many I would need first time round and the blanket is no where long enough. It is nearly wide enough but needs more length....oh and the arms need covering. It's looking nice though. I will show you when it is complete and on the chair.

During my crafty sessions I have managed to make my Christmas cards. I thought I had done them all but I still have one or two special ones to do but I can manage that in the next holiday! It gives me something to aim for.

Anyway enough of my prattling on.....here are the cards I made for the July Clarity Show ...as it happens the last one on Create and Craft. 

It was the launch of the new Clarity Christmas Stamps...they are so lovely!

I had a lot of fun making these and have used two of them again for some my own cards but I won't tell you which ones! Which would you choose?

Right I need to go and do a few odd jobs around the house! Have a good day whatever you decide to do!

Happy Crafting 

PS Don't forget that Barbara is back on telly this Thursday at 12 noon on the new channel for craft HOCHANDA

Have a look here http://www.craftbusiness.com/news/view/http-www.craftbusiness.com-news-view-launch-date-announced-for-hochanda-c

It's going to be great to see our Barb back!

3 Owls and a Hen

Good afternoon to you all. I now have two weeks left of my holiday. And I have done all my Christmas cards and one or two birthday cards ready for September ...getting ahead of the game as it were. I feel that come September I won't have a lot of time to do much crafting but hey....it pays the bills! I just have to hope that in the next two weeks I win the lottery!

I thought today I would share the final two cards I hadn't yet blogged from the June Clarity stamp show! 

FOr the first one I used the hen! She's a lovely big bird ( just like me....hahaha).

I stamped her in the middle of a piece of Gelli Card and then coloured her using promarkers. I masked her off and put the hexagonal stencil over her and just brushed lightly around the shape...I didn't even add any ink to my brush..just used what was already on the brown brush. I then stamped the nests along each edge turning th ecard as I went. I coloured these in and then matted and layered the card onto and 8 x 8 card.

The next card used the owls! 

I took a piece of dark brown card and stamped the owls in versamark then embossed them in some gold sparkly wow powder. I added versamark pen to the edges of the card and more embossing powder the matted and layer it onto a cream 8 x 8 card. I then added the sentiment stamped in brown archival then shadow stamped it in 2nd generation ink.

I think they look really cute all sitting there!

Right I best be off!

I have an appointment at the dentists and need to do a few things before I go there!

Have a good afternoon whatever you are doing!

 If you drop by for a nosey leave me a comment..I love seeing what you think!

Happy Crafting

Cock-a-Doodle-doo!

Good afternoon to all in blogland...have you missed me..probably not!

Since the last entry I have been ever so slightly busy with finishing work for the summer break then going to Crowborough for the Clarity Retreat! What a top event that is. If you ever get the chance to go then do it! Barbara is a fantastic teacher and Paul makes a great teaching assistant! Its also a great way to meet up with friends you only get to see on fb or once in a while!

So this afternoon I thought I would blog a card I made for the June show that I hadn't shown you yet...this cock is a very large stamp and I stamped and embossed him in some black sparkly embossing powder then coloured him in with promarkers. I then placed the inny of the stencil over him and using mountain rose and butterscotch adirondack inks brushed around him.

I matted onto black then an orange patterned paper I had in my stash then on to an 8 x 8 card blank. 

Hope you like it!

That's all for today!

Happy Crafting.

What a nosey pair!

Good Morning. 

It's a lot cooler today and I don't know if we had a storm in the night...I was out for the count all night. I think the fact that I had been at work all day, then worked hard for an hour at the gym then went out to a party where I did consume alcohol and was dancing, finally caught up with me and knocked me out! 

Today I am having a bit of a lazy day at home but I will be crafting in a bit with good reason which I can't go into here!

Tomorrow is of course the best Sunday of the month....Claritystamp show on Create and craft where Barbara will be showcasing the new Christmas stamps and Groovi plate items. You are in for a treat I am sure. 

So today I thought I would share with you a card I did for last months show using the shaped aperture stencils and the geese stamp. 

I started off attaching the stencil to a piece of watercolour card and then I created a scene inside the aperture using my watercolour paints. I wanted mountains and hills in the distance and then water. I added a bit of detail of reeds on the far bank. Once this was dry I used a fineliner pen to draw the shape through the aperture.

I drew the stones around the window and coloured them in with the paints

I added some stone bricks too to and the grass at the bottom for the geese to stand on. 

I stamped the pair of geese onto a scrap of watercolour card then painted them. 

I matted the background onto some black card then onto a card blank then added the geese using foam pads to make then stand out. I love how they look as if they are having a good old nosey through the window!

Have a fabulous weekend what ever you are doing.

Happy Crafting

A gaggle of Geese

Good evening to you all.

I've had a very busy but very productive day today and one of those things I had to do was pack up for posting tomorrow my samples for the next show...I can't believe how quick this year is flying by.

Mind you I can't believe that its now two years since I was asked by Barbara to be on her team. I am still as proud as punch to be a part of the Clarity team

This card is one I did for the last show and took a lot of masking and then colouring but I do think the result is worth all the effort. I used pebeo masking fluid for some of the masking...it was easier then cutting out masks form post it notes. I used the masks that came with the stamps first then the fluid for the rest!

I used brushes to do the rest of the background masking off the sky and using the clouds mask.I masked off the water then added some hills then the water then the ground the geese were on. I added the grassy reeds and on the far bank of the river I used a brown fine liner pen to add the grasses.

I stamped the geese flying and a bit of shadow round the feet. Then I removed all the masks off the geese and coloured them with Spectrum Noir pencils.

I matted it onto black then onto a white card blank.

The sentiment was added by me writing Have a Gaggle on Your Birthday onto a little banner I cut from an off cut of card and sticking it at the bottom of the card.

This was my favourite of my samples last month.

Please let me know what you think of it by leaving me a comment below.

Have a lovely evening

Happy Crafting

Rosie and the hens!

Good Evening!. I have a few minutes until Colin gets home so I thought I would take a bit of time out to update my blog and show you another of the Sample cards I made for the June Claritystamp show.

This one was to showcase the hen stamp and as it is a very large stamp I thought it would look great done in shrink plastic. So I stamped the hen and coloured it in three times then shrunk them down. They looked a perfect size to create a farmyard scene and I thought that Rosie would make the perfect farmers wife. 

I stamped her in place and masked her off.  I stamped the house and masked that off. I used the brushes rather than the brayer to Create the sky and hills.  Then using a variety of stamps I created a scene. 

 I added colour to the house using the SN pencils.I then  stamped Rosie onto two different backing papers that had small pretty designs to paper piece her dress. I matted and layered the card onto black then a white card blank.

I stuck the shrink plastic hens in place...and here it is!

Please leave me a comment letting me know what you think.

Have a lovely evening and weekend

Happy Crafting

Wise Old Owl!

Good Afternoon. Well all chores done and work too so I thought I would blog a card I did for the June Claritystamp Show using the owl.

I also thought that the branch stencil went well with this so using the gelli plate I made a print making sure I took off the paint so when it was dry I could stamp the owl in archival ink and colour him in with Spectrum Noir pencils.

I matted and layered it on to a piece of brown card then an 8 x 8 card blank.

I liked it then but it still looked a little plain and I thought it needed something more. 

So I got the Maple leaf stamp out and stamped it in Autumnal colours distress inks then cut them out. I arranged them around the owl then stuck them down. 

And here it is. Hope you like it!

Have a good Sunday evening

Happy Crafting

A bouquet? For me???

Good Morning. I thought that I would share another card I made for the last clarity Stamp show this morning! It's a bit better weather today ...but for how long? Those clouds up the road are very threatening!

Anyway this card used the Silk Ribbons Bouquet set, (which the lovely Julie Owens off the DT drew), the Wee wedding folk 5 set , and the Wedding Stationery Set. I also used some gold embossing powder and some flower soft to add dimension. 

I started off by stamping the bouquet diagonally across the card and embossing it in gold. I then stamped and embossed it again onto a scrap piece of theuva card but just the bow part. I stamped and embossed the three flower heads. I coloured in the main bouquet then coloured the bow and the flower heads. I then cut these out! The flowers were easy but the bow took a bit to do!

I gold embossed the sentiment and the dancing couple. I then brushed pale green round the outside of the card to just take the harshness of the white away. I matted and layered the card on to gold then green and then onto a card blank.

I then added some cosmic shimmer glue to the flowers I wanted blue and added the flower soft. I repeated with the pink and then added the flower heads and bow using 3D pads to finish it off.

And here it is!

I hope you like it. Please leave a comment to let me know what you thought.

Have a good day whatever you are doing.

Happy Crafting

All that glitters!

Good morning to you! I do think that these half term holidays go too quickly! I really could get used to being at home! Well a girl can dream! 

I still have the weekend to enjoy and with a mixed media workshop on Sunday enjoy it I will!

I wanted to share with you a card I did for the last Clarity stamp show and used the Shepherds Purse stamp set for. This time I used the Clarity black shiny card and decided to have a go at using gilding flakes. I do like gilding flakes...just don't breathe to hard or sneeze!!!

I used versamark to stamp with and added mica boss to create the sticky parts to stick the gilding flakes to. I did try and pick out the gilding flakes depending on which part of the flowers they were going on to. I also did the Save the Date sentiment from the wedding set. I swiped the edges of the card with glue and added gilding flakes around the edges to get a distressed look. Then I matted it onto black the grey the onto a black card blank. Then a good polish to make it all shiny and gilttery!

It is pouring down with rain here so I think I have to have a crafty play!

Enjoy your day!

Happy Crafting

Time to Breathe!

Good Morning to you! Yes it's half term and time for me to get my breath back and recharge those run down batteries. 

I am determined that I will spend my holiday doing things that I want to do and really chill out so that I can face the next half term full on and not run out of steam.

And what better way to start the holiday than a Maria Workshop and a whole day crafting with my friends...That was Saturday and we did some marvellous projects...it also kick-started my mojo back into action and just in time as the next lot of Clarity stamps have been sitting on my workspace, aka the dining table, for a few days. I had opened them and looked but then put them back in the envelope til this week!!

And that's what I spent some of Sunday and yesterday doing! It's just wonderful to think I could craft all week if I want to!

Colin and I did go out yesterday for a look round Newbank Garden Centre at Bury where we had our breakfast and a big cup of coffee. It was worth going for that!

Well enough of my waffle.

I want to share a card from the last Claritystamp show again done with the Shepherds Purse set. This one I used the one with the bigger flower. 

I stamped a whole sheet full of this stamp then brushed over the flowers with my pink ink brush...I didn't add any ink as I just wanted very pale pink. I then set about cutting all the flowers out... It did take a while but I think it was worth it. I wanted to create a blossom tree so I used the NDC stencil and masked off the bottom part so I just got the tree. I added hills and ground at the bottom. I then stuck the flowers on with cosmic shimmer glue. I stamped Anniversary above the tree and added the flowers to the corners. I then added the rafia ribbon. I sanded some cordinations card...brown with a pink core... and matted the card on it before mounting it onto an 8 x 8 card blank. 

Please let me know what you think of it.

Have a nice day what ever you are doing

Happy Crafting

A shepherd's purse!

Good afternoon to you!

I have been a bit manic again with work taking over my life but I thought I would steal 5 mins to share a card from May's Claritystamp show!

It seems an age since I was doing these samples but it is only 5 or 6 weeks! So much has gone on in that time that I shudder thinking about it! Roll on next week....I hope that I can slow down and take things a bit more calmly. I will have the next batch of samples to do then but at least I won't be having to rush around in the mornings getting ready for work!

The last show had some stunning stamp sets on it and I love the Shepherd's Purse stamps set. Amanda Branston off the design team drew the original ...she's so talented.... And I feel so proud to say she's a friend of mine! How lucky am I!

I made a few things with this set but the first one I did was this shaped card. I cut the shape for the topper first and then used brushos to do the background. Once this was dry I stamped the shepherds purse into place using two of the stamps and then the name of the wild flower...it's too pretty to be called a weed!

I added a bit of colour to the flowers and leaves with pencils and used a white pen to highlight the petals in the blue part. 

I matted the topper onto a piece of blue clarity paper then onto a shaped card blank.

Please let me know what you think of it!

Happy Crafting 

With love from

Hello flower

Good Evening

Here is a quick post to start to showcase the samples I did for last weekends Claritystamp show. The first one is the little canvas I did. It is using the flower stencil and I also used the line sentiments 'blessings' on it.

I started off by putting grunge paste through the stencil direct to the canvas and left it to dry. I then painted over the whole lot with a cream acrylic paint and left that to dry.

Using blues and pinks I then dry brushed colour avoiding the flowers and building up the darker colours around the edges. I tried to keep the brush stokes going the same way.

I then replaced the stencil over the flowers and using yellow and orange paints I sponged colour through the stencil to colour the flowers.

I stamped blessings onto a piece of tissue and used mod podge to stick it to the canvas and then added hearts cut from book pages. I added charcoal to the edges of these to make them stand out more. The butterfly was painted with acrylic paint then stuck on using hot glue.

Hope you like it.

Happy Crafting

Tree house and others

Good Morning to you all on this very wet bank holiday weekend Sunday morning!

Colin is off to a Bonsai Car boot sale this morning and guess what....I am not going with him....it'll be miserable! 

Plus Barbara is on the telly in a bit and I can't miss that. She has some stunning new stamps to show you all.

I have been a bit of a bad blogger really and I haven't blogged for ages but that is not through choice really ...I have just not had time...Work really has got in the way this last month one way or another.

So this morning I am just going to put all of last months samples on in one go...there were only 4 anyway!

This first one involved lots of masking and I had got one of the masks from clarity but I needed more so in the end I used the pebeo masking fluid....I need another pot....its brilliant stuff! The colouring on the tree houses was done with promarkers.

The next one I stamped the tree house and masked it off and added the moon mask then did the background using shaving foam and distress ink

The tree house was coloured using the spectrum noir pencils and the fairies and vine stamped in brown archival ink.

The next one was done using shaving foam through the stencil

Colin said it looked like Jupiter! I used the new letters to make the sentiment.

The last one was a tag I did and decided I wanted to try the bokeh technique.

The tree house was stamped and masked off and the background was distress inks and white brilliance done through the outy of the moon mask. The ribbon I coloured mopping up some distress inks. I coloured the tree house with the spectrum aqaus.

Anyway that's it!

Hope you have a good day

Happy Crafting and don't forget to tune in to Barbara on Create and craft at 9am today!

Egg hunt

Good Morning to you all.

Today is all about getting hair cut and doing some planning and hopefully a bit of crafting but tomorrow will be even better...train journey to NEC with Brenda! YAY! I haven't been on a train since I was about 16 and I have never been to the NEC so it's a real adventure for me tomorrow! So excited!

So today I want to share one of my favourites from the samples I made for the last Claritystamp Show on March 1st.

I used the eggs from the Chicks and Eggs set and the flowers from the Bird row set. I also used the journalling set, leaf set 1 and the leafy swirl stamp.

I started off stamping the eggs in the centre of a piece of theuva card and masked them off. I added leaves around them and masked these off too. I stamped the leafy swirl to give my arrangement shape then created the background using distress inks. I did this in the same way as I did The Nature card I had done for the Blog challenge a while back. There is a tutorial on the background here. 

Once I had done this I added some green splats using distress stains and then removed the masks. I coloured the leaves using the solid leaf shape and green distress ink and the eggs using promarkers.

I put this to one side and then on another piece of theuva card I stamped out loads of the flowers and used the solid shape to colour them in pink, purple and yellow Then I clear embossed these and cut them out. 

I arranged them around the eggs and stuck them down with cosmic shimmer glue. I matted onto cream then brown then onto a mottled card blank. 

And here is the finished card 

Hope you have a good weekend and if you are going to the NEC tomorrow I hope you'll say hello if you see me!

Happy Crafting

Gentian

Good Morning.

Its a bit frosty here today and looking at the sky it may be a grey day or it could turn out not bad! But no matter as I am at work in a bit so won't see much of the day!

I want to share a little card with you that I made for the last claritystamp show. If you haven't got this stamp and you are going to the NEC this week I would STRONGLY advise you to get it! It's a gorgeous image and so easy to make a quick card from

I stamped the image onto watercolour card for this one using archival ink then I used watercolour paints to add colour. 

Once dry I matted and layered it onto a card blank and that was it! 

You could have used any medium to colour this but remember to change your ink pad according to which  you decide to use.

Here is the finished card. 

Have a good day whatever you are doing

Happy Crafting xx

Birdies by the water

Good morning. I thought I would blog you the birdies card I did for the last Claritystamp Show on Sunday 1st March.

I used the gelli plate for this one to do the reflection of the birds and to do the background.

I marked the long middle line on the back of my card as a guide and then stamped in versafine the birds onto the gelli plate. I then pulled the print.

I stamped the birds directly above the image then masked both of them off.

I inked the gelli plate up with green and blue adirondack ink and on one half of the gelli plate I dabbed it with crinkled paper to hopefully get a watery effect. I then pulled a print and my line marker had worked well!

I removed the masks and coloured the birds using the spectrum noir pencils making sure that the birds in the reflection were paler than the ones above. I also added a bit of green shading around the birds legs and some in the reflection.

 I trimmed the card slightly so it just fitted the birds in length. I stamped the word in place then mounted it onto  black card then a card blank. 

Here it is!

Have a good day whatever you are doing.

Happy Crafting

Making a Rainbow!

Good evening to you all

After a very stressful day and a weekend I want to forget about I thought I would spend a bit of time indulging myself and writing my blog! And what better thing to do but blog about the Fairy book I made for the last Claritystamp show on Sunday 1st March.

I love this set of stamps and as soon as I saw them I knew they would be perfect for making a Child's story book. I got this idea from a project that I do with my year 9 classes where they have to look at children's books and then write a short story of their own and turn it into a book. I suggest to the class that they think of something that they want to teach the children through a story so that's where I started. 

There are two sets of the Wee Fairies: Set 3 and Set 4

I counted the fairies to see how many there were and then thought I could use them to teach children about the colours of the Rainbow. I can recall being taught the way remember the colours is by the saying phrase Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain but I wanted something more Child friendly. So I started to think of a story. I wrote this is rhyming couplets as this is often how children's books are written.

Here is the Story

Rose the Fairy loved everything Red,

Ola wanted Orange, even her bed!

Yasmin needed bright Yellow to be seen,

But Gordon wanted it all to be Green.

Bobby made the whole world turn blue,

It had to be Indigo for Iris through and through.

And not forgetting Vivian, last but not least,

She needed Violet ...Oh what a feast!

They all loved their colours but wanted to show,

That when they all get together, We see a beautiful Rainbow.

I then thought about how I was going to create a book.

I while ago I bought a miniature board book which had 4 pages held together with rings. Perfect! I painted the art boards with gesso to seal them and cut pieces of theuva card to fit the pages. I would stamp and colour these then stick onto the board pages when finished.

I created the front cover first and drew the rainbow and coloured it with promarkers. I added the title which I had made on the PC and a bit of sparkle using the stars and embossing powder

The next page I planned to get two colours on so drew a feint line diagonally. One side red and the other orange. I masked off each half and made a little scene in each using the fairies and the other stamps. I drew some bits that I didn't have stamps for like the bed. I printed out the words and stuck these on. Once completed I added sparkle then stuck it to the board book being careful it was the right way round.  I then found buttons the same colour as each page to add interest and a bit of embellishment.

I then went to do the 2nd page, this time yellow and green.

This is how they look together.

The next page was blue and Indigo

with Violet being on its own. I used the toadstool stamp to make the scene and fill the full page. I think this is my favourite page of all of them.

Here they are together

I then had to create the final part when they all come together and make the Rainbow. I put the two pieces of card together on my work space and used distress stains to make the splats. Word of advice...move things well away when you do this!

I then stamped all the fairies in black archival ink to make the double page.

The back of the book I drew the rainbow again and used the final fairy that had not appeared in the story. And I added my personalised bespoke stamp I use on the back of all my samples.

The whole thing was put together and that was my Fairy Book complete! I was a lot of work but I really enjoyed doing it.

I hope you enjoyed finding out about this project. It would be lovely to hear what you think of it!

Happy Crafting