Happy Saturday

Well what a lovely morning it is! But clouds are beginning to appear and I'm sure this sunshine won't last. However I have nothing much planned for today or tomorrow apart from some secret stuff.
You will of course see that eventually!
In the meantime I want to share with you a card I made for the last Clarity show! I used the word chains, the blue tit and the journalling set to do this one.

I started off creating the tag. I inked it first in brushed corduroy and espresso and spritzed it to create the background. Once dry I stamped the word CREATE in the corner and surrounded it with the faux stitching stamp. I stamped the bird in the top corner but off the page to make it look like it was flying in and I used the sprig stamp to make it look like the bird was carrying it.
I then used the other stamps and randomly filled the space.
I darkened the edges of the tag and that was that part done.

The background was created by randomly stamping the script stamp and then I used the dragonfly from the good luck set ...oh and I added the ladybird from that set to the tag! I then used the word ART, brushed around the edges with ink and my background was done.
I mounted the background onto a brown card blank. I added a ribbon to my tag and then mounted this onto the background and the card was complete. 

Please leave me a comment if you have popped by today.

Happy Crafting

A Family Home

Well hello! 

After a busy weekend with some of it spent over at the GNPE in Harrogate I thought I would share another of the samples I made for the last Clarity Show. 

For this one I made a small canvas using some of the techniques I had learned ages ago at a workshop with Hels Sheridan but using clarity stamps.

I found two or three backing papers I could use to make the background and set to cutting it up then gluing it on to the canvas until I had filled the entire area. I then brushed over the surface with a matt acrylic varnish with a touch of cream acrylic paint mixed in to make a more even coloured background and to take any brightness off the paper. I then used the journaling stamps to randomly stamp. I also used the miniatures from the home set. 

I cut two small pieces of white card and inked in in Brushed corduroy Distress ink and stamped the words  home and family. I then covered the card with 3 layers of versamark and UTEE and then stamped the words into it to give a 3D effect on the words.

I stuck these on to the canvas and stamped the word And to make the phrase Home and Family. 

Here it is finished

I do like to hear from you so if you drop by please leave me a comment

Happy Crafting 

Good Luck

Well I thought I had better start to put on my cards from the last Clarity Show.  So on this 13th Day of March, which happens to be Barbara Gray's birthday, lets get going with them. Oh and Happy Birthday Barb! xx

The first one I will share with you is this one using the 'good luck' set. I decided to use the stencils and the four leaf clover. 

I started off brushing with meadow through the stencil onto a piece of theuva card. I then outlined the letters in a green fine liner. 

Using the same ink I stamped the 4 leaf clover down the sides and once on the part on the OO of good where the letters merged.

I brushed the outside of the card with meadow .....oh I do like those Clarity brushes...I need more!

I matted ad layered it onto gold then green card before mounting it onto a blank 8 x 8 card. I finished it off with some black gems at the top and bottom of the card!

Here it is

I hope you have enjoyed reading this 

Please leave a comment if you can

Happy Crafting

Flower Power

Well good morning...sorry I am a bit late posting this but it's been a bit of a hectic and stressful week for me.
Thankfully I had had last week off and had done all my samples for the show tomorrow and for the challenge blog! I think if I said OFSTED then you will understand!

Anyway on to the new Challenge...

Last month I think you really enjoyed the challenge as there were so many entries and all really lovely which makes it hard to choose the top five but when they are announced well done to those people. And well done to the winner ....enjoy spending your prize.

This month as Spring is just about on us then the subject is a great one. FLOWER POWER. It reminds me of a fancy dress competition I did when I was younger and me and my 3 friends went as the Flower Power Girls...all in vivid colours mainly purples and greens so I used that memory to make my card.

Here it is.

 I used the flower framer kit and the insects from the flower border classroom set.

I started off by cutting a piece of clarity card into a square and then stamping the word flower into the centre using currant Adirondack ink. I blotted it well!!!

I then covered it up with a post it note and using the pansy stamp form the flowers I just filled the card completely with flowers. Again I used the currant Adirondack ink. I blotted that and then left it to dry.

I then cut myself a mask for the O and then removed the post it note and filled the O with flowers. I stamped the dragonflies but I did them ink blot plot and then the ladybird...well I think I had to!

Then it came to colouring the flowers. I made sure I had a piece of paper to cover my work and rest my hand on as I coloured every pansy with 2 purple and an orange promarker. I also added colour to the ladybird but went for a pink not a red!
I used a brown fine liner to edge round the space where the word was then matted and layered on to a piece of dark brown card then purple before I put it on an 8 x 8 card blank.

Hope you take some time to visit the rest of the DT cards on the blog...there are some stunners this month!

If you visit here please leave a comment.

I'm off out today to help Amy move house...oh my baby is all grown up! 
Have a great weekend and don't forget Barbara is on the telly tomorrow with some really fabulous stamps.

Happy Crafting

Petals Galore!

Here are two more of last months samples for the Clarity Show
One of the sets were the fabulous filigraphy petals. They go so well with the tree stencil but I used them without that!

Here is the first one.

It was using just one of the petal shapes which I stamped to make a flower shape in mica boss and then covered it in gilding flakes.

I then stamped the petals again but this time I cut them out and gave them a bit of shape using the bone folder. I mounted the base flower onto the topper piece of card and then added the petals. I left it to dry.

I then made the card and on the base I stamped the same petal randomly in brown ink on the brown card. I stamped a final petal and cut it out to make the stopper.

I added the flower topper to the card and added the dew drops and added the stopper once I had the topper in the right place. 

The next card used a different petal and this time I wanted a black and white look.

I stamped the petals on to black card using a white ink pad in the shape you can see then cut it out as one piece.
I then cut a piece of white card and stamped a sprig at the top I placed the petals on so I could position the sentiment. 
I then matted and layered it onto a DL card and then stuck the petals into place.

I finished the card off using some tiny black gems in two corners!

Well I am off to watch a bit of TV before retiring to bed. I have work tomorrow after a week off!!

Hope you can leave me a comment if you visit here.



Have a great week

Love and hugs

The Big Top

Well its a very wet and wild Saturday and I have been out with Amy shopping for her new flat! Thankfully it was dryish getting the car packed up with all their new goodies. She is so excited about her new place and her and Matthew are enjoying every moment together getting things for when they move in! It brought a tear to my eye to see them together discussing which pillows to get and whether to get this spice rack or that one!!! And purple is definitely their theme!

Travelling about today I did notice that there is a circus big top set up in Stockport and that reminded me that I needed to share another of the cards I made for the clarity shows last weekend using the circus stamp set.

Here it is.

I started off by cutting a piece of theuva card into a sqaure. I marked the centre with a pencil so I could rub it out later.
I then stamped the Big Top in place and created a mask for it. I then placed the sunburst stencil over the top and brushed the three colours into the stencil with the smallest of the brushes. I also did a topper for the words and brushed that with the colours through the stencil so it matched.
I removed the Big Top mask and coloured the entrance in black.
I stamped the word circus over the top and acrobats in the opposite corners.
I used a corner punch to give me rounded corners and then mounted this on to red card. I found a piece of backing paper that had similar colours on it to what I had used and put this on my 8 x 8 card blank then mounted my topper on it. I finished the corners with card candy and mounted the words in some 3D pads. And that was it!

Hope you are having a nice weekend and are safe, warm and dry.

Happy Crafting

xxx

The Circus is in Town



 Roll Up Roll Up! Come and visit the circus ...it's the greatest Show on Earth

Oh no that was the Clarity show last week! Wasn't it a great show...Barbara was certainly on top form with her demos. I found myself glued to the screen on all of them and held my breath on one...I'll let you guess which it was!

Anyway I thought I would start to share my samples with you from the show. and start with the circus set.

I do like this set and I just know it will be great for men and children as well as female friends so a really useful set!

Here is one of the cards I made with it.

 

I wanted to make a card that would allow a little surprise to reflect what you get when you go to the Circus. So I started off by making the central flap. Having played about with the stamps I discovered that the circus word would make a nice circular border that the clowns face fitted into. I added the little red dot in between each word just to separate them out. I brushed ink around the edge to finish that part off.

The next stage was to make the main topper. I wanted to be able to see the tall ring master with the flap down as well as up so I cut the card long enough to do that and stamped the ringmaster in place twice. I put feint pencil lines to show where my flap would be covering and then stamped the underneath part.
Here it is.

I then coloured in the images with promarkers before I attached the flap and then mounted it onto black card then onto a red card blank.

Well thats all from me for today. I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Happy Crafting


xxxx