A moment of Clarity Christmas Ships

Well as you now know I am on the Clarity DT and last weekend I had sent my first cards into Barbara as part of that DT...it still feels like a dream!

Anyway the sets sold out really quickly ...hardly surprising as the are all fabulous stamps...and a bit different for Christmas than the usual!

I had one card shown and this is it

Strangely this had been the first card I made and boy did it give me problems.
I had recieved my stamps and was all excited getting my first parcel to play with! I took the blue off immediately and stamped the stamps out to see what they looked like. I always do this as it often gives me inspiration for what to do with the stamp.

I had an idea that the music could in some way be the wave that was carrying the ships along!!

I won't tell you how many pieces of clarity card actually went in the bin. And how many times I nearly threw my brayer in there too! However it was not plain sailing!...sorry! It was almost as though I had never stamped and or used a brayer before in my life!!! 

Anyway after a few miserable attemps I walked away and had a cuppa then reurned to try again.

I tried at first to use the resist technique for the music stamp but the image was not sharp enough in the sea!!! So I started again and this time brayered the sea then stamped and heat embossed the music in white opaque embossing powder! Eventually I got something that I was happy with and then made the card from that!. Thank goodness for the letterbox kit!

I then was moving on to my next sketch idea and cutting some card to make that topper when the next idea came to me. It uses the I saw Three ships kit but also the holly sprigs from the Deck the Halls kit.

Quite a simple one this one and not using a brayer!

 

I hope you enjoyed reading about my first DT cards. Please let me know what you think.

 

More will follow

 

Enjoy your day

 

Happy Crafting

 

Jane xx

 

 

 

Clarity Weekend

Well what an exciting weekend! Its time for the Clarity Weekend again....But this one is a little bit more special than usual.
Barbara Gray has asked me to be a part of her design team and of course I said yes !!!
I feel so honoured and priviledged to be a part of such a fabulous Team working with such great products.

I was really touched by what Barbara said about me on the classroom show. I had to pinch myself to check I wasn't dreaming it....even though I have known for a little while it still feels like a dream!

Anyway I am so so proud to be able to say that I am now a member of the Clarity Stamp DT!

Here are the homework cards I sent in to her...I had done these before she asked me!

 

 

Any way I'm off...

 

Happy Crafting

 

Jane xx

Oh I do like to be beside the Seaside!

Happy New Month and Happy New Challenge to all of those fans of Clarity Stamps!

I can't believe we are in July already and over half the way through the year! It is really quite scary how fast this year is going.

It did seem a bit strange doing this card when outside it was cold and wet but hopefully the weather will take some inspiration from this months fabulous projects that can be seen over at the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog

So on to this months Challenge....Oh I do Like to be beside the seaside! (anything holiday related!) Nice as it reminds me that I start my summer hols this month!!!

Anyway here is my card I made for the Challenge.

To make the topper I used a piece of the clarity card...you know....the shiny one.
I started off by stamping the boat and masking the hull off. I then decided where the lighthouse was going, stamped and masked that too! I then masked off the bottom of the card and made some clouds in the sky using stonewashed blue adirondack ink and an ink duster. I could have sworn I had bought a clouds mask for doing this but can I find it.....

I then masked off the sky so I could do the sea.
For this I used a brayer which I looaded up with denim ink, scrumpled a piece of copy paper up and rolled my brayer over it so that I picked up the texture then rolled it over the card one way then  back then left it at that! If you do it more you lose the texture which makes it look like water.
I masked off the sea again and then using a piece of torn copy paper I made some land by sponging ink under the lighthouse. I used the denim ink and lots of it so it was dark. I then removed the masks and did something similar in the bottom left hand corner. 

I then removed the masks from the boat and the lighthouse so that I could colour these with promarkers.

I also used a white micron pen to create the splashes up the boat and at the base of the land by the lighthouse, and to make white bits on the water to look like the white tops of waves. I mounted this topper onto a piece of sand coloured card









I then stamped the shell cluster and the seagull onto a piece of theuva card and coloured it with promarkers before cutting it out.



For my base card I used a piece of pearlescent card which I stamped the single shell randomly over. I added the topper then added the shell cluster and seagull over the right hand corner. And that was it!

I hope you enjoyed looking at my project. Pop over to the Clarity Stamp Challenge blog to see all the other fabulous projects! Then have a go yourself....after all you may get lucky and win and the prize is £50 of vouchers to spend at clarity....well worth trying for!  You can also see the winner and top 5 from last month too!

Happy Crafting

Jane xx

For that Special Day!

Hello and this is just a quickie to say hi and to let you all know in blogland that I am still alive and kicking!!!

Anyway this is a wedding card I was asked to make for someone and I love the create a scene stamps that were designed ages ago by Sheena Douglass. They are just perfect for a wedding card but also for Christenings and even bereavement cards!

Anyway I made an 8 x 8 card and as it had the flowers and bow on it I also made a box for it. I think it is always nice to make a box for that special card!

So here is the card

 

And here is the box.














Hope you are all having a good Sunday.
Happy Crafting

Jane xx

Happy Retirement Colin

Well today June 2nd is the official retirement day for my lovely hubby Colin. He decided to accept the offer of early retirement after working for Manchester City Council for 39 years...that sounds like forever but he has been with them since he left school!

His last day on Friday was obviously an emotional one for him I think he coped pretty well with it although I don't think its fully hit him yet that that's it as far as full time work is concerned. He may or may not look for a little part time job just to give him some spends now he is to be a kept man! lol.

So on Friday he wanted to say thanks and good bye to all his colleagues by taking in a few treats. I made him some chocolate fairy cakes which I think went down pretty well.

 

He also took a few sausage rolls and cheese straws plus a few more nibbles for them.

 

When he arrived home he had a lovely pressie off them all and a card plus a few more cards and pressies from individuals. I know he was touched by their generosity.

 

I couldn't let the day go unnoticed and I did make him a card myself for him. I used some of the Create a scene stamps from Creative expressions when Sheena Douglass designed for them. I hadn't used them in ages and had forgotten how lovely they are to use and build up scenes. I used the seaside set for this card. I stamped onto the reverse of centura pearl card and then water coloured the picture I created. I think it worked out quite well. I know Colin liked it.

 

 

Then last night we went out to celebrate at Red Hot World Buffet in Manchester. I still feel full!!!
It was a lovely relaxed evening but we were both glad to get home and get our PJ's and comfy trousers on.



Cheers to you all!
Happy Crafting

Jane xx

Pinch Punch and all that!

I can't believe we are here again with another challenge for you all!
Well done to our latest winner. Enjoy the vouchers...I know wjhat I would do with them...I have a list as long as both my arms of must haves but they are all now on my wish list!
Anyway I have just had a week off and I am feeling rather relaxed and content and ready for the the next 7 weeks of work! It doesnt sound so bad said in chunks! However my wonderful OH is finishing work today and retiring ( early)... so jealous! I will be going to work and leaving him being a house husband and I know he will be so good at it...he does most of the house stuff anyway.

Hasn't it been cold....it is a bit brighter today as I am writing this and it promises to be a better weekend. It will be a good weekend anyway with Barbara Gray on the telly with the Classroom show on Saturday abd the nornmal clarity shows on Sunday. I do love them as it lets us all see the fab cards the design team and Barbara have created. And the classroom we get to see all the homework that has found its way to Barbara.

On to the challenge for June. Summer is the time when many people get married so we have the theme Mr and Mrs. To enter you must create a project that uses clarity stamps only and any other materials around the theme of weddings and anniversary. I think the DT enjoyed this one and the cards are all amazing. Pop over to the Clarity Stamp blog for a nosey at their wonderful designs and for more details of the challenge and how to enter.

I decided to go with anniversary and used the 2 sizes of the lily of the valley -large and small.
Here is the card I made

 

I started off by stamping and embossing the images onto Theuva card with silver embossing powder. I then used pale green promarker to colour the leaves and edge the card. I then matted each topper on to silver mirri card.

I then needed a sentiment so I used the one I had got with the New Design Club but is available to buy from clarity. Its called Love you. I stamped and embossed this in silver and edged the card in the same way as the toppers and matted it on to silver card.

Once I had got all my toppers I cut some ferns and flourishes out of silver and pale green card and made a bow from my ribbon. I also coloured the ends of the hat pins using the same promarker as I had coloured the leaves.

 

I also cut a piece of white card 2cms smaller than my 8 x 8 card and edged that with the green promarker. I attached a piece of ribbon onto this smaller card then attached that to the base card. I then arranged the toppers going for an angle with the lily of the valley toppers then I put the ferns, flourishes, bow and pins to finish the card off.



I hope you like the card and that it helps to inspire you to enter the challenge. 
I also want to enter this into the Crafting for all seasons Wedding/ Anniversary Challenge.
I welcome any comments you would like to leave me. Happy Crafting
Love
Jane xx

Colourful flowers

Well I can't believe how fast time is going and here I am doing a card for the next Indigo Blu Challenge! This time its all about Flowers. So I had to use the Bloomin' Great set of stamps.

I coloured a piece of card with Pan Pastels and then stamped the 3 flowers in the set over it and cut them out. I cut out a circle of card and stamped one of the sentiments on it.

I cut a square of card and covered it with a mask by Splodge Away and brushed pan pastels over it to create a gentle background as the flowers were so bright. I attached this to an 8 x 8 card and then arranged the flowers and sentiment using foam pads.

I stamped some leaves from the set on to some green stiff paper and cut them out and slotted them in amongst the flowers.

I dotted some dew drops around the leaves. And here is the finished card. I do hope you like it.

Thanks for looking and please leave me a comment if you can!

Happy Crafting.

Jane xx