Grassy Hearts!

Good Morning all and I thought I would sit quietly this morning and update my blog with one of the cards I made for the Clarity Stamp show on Sunday.

One of the the sets came with this lovely little grasses with Hearts on. 

I had been playing with my new toy...my inkadinkado cog and wheel that my lovely friend Brenda had given to me and it struck me that I could use the Heart Grass stamp and that to make a pretty small card. 

Here's how I did it!

I cut a piece of theuva card to a square and placed the wheel so it was centred on it. I positioned the stamp where I wanted it to be on the paddle and inked it in green and red versafine ink. I stamped it first generation then moved it on and did second generation all.

Once I had got a completed ring of grasses I removed the wheel and took the stamp off the paddle returning it to a handle. I then stamped it in each corner of the card

Using the Clarity brushes I brushed green ink around the edge of the card and then matted and layered it onto red then green pearlescent card

Then I attached it to a 6 x 6 card blank. I found a little wooden heart which I coloured red and then heat embossed with 2 layers of UTEE. I attached this to the centre of the card!

Here's the finished card

Hope you enjoyed today's Blog post. Please let me know what you think!

Happy Crafting

Hello Blossom

Well with the start of the Easter break I decided to do my hair as I have two weeks to get it back to acceptable for school! I used a deep pink but as I didn't bleach my hair first this is the colour it went. 
I do like it! Colin says it looks like Sharon Osbourne's hair colour so that will do for me!!

Anyway with tomorrow being the next Clarity show with Barbara Gray on Create and craft at 9 am to 11 am I thought I best put the last one of my samples from last months show on my blog.

I used the blossom stamps for this one and the word Always from the word chains.

I stamped the blossom stamps onto a piece of water colour card stock in brown archival then spritzed the whole piece with water. I then created a sky and coloured the branches, blossoms and leaves with water colour paints

I let it dry and then stamped the word in place.
I matted and layered it onto brown then pink card before attaching to the front of a card blank.

I am looking forward to watching the new stamps being used tomorrow...they are really lovely!!!

Happy Crafting

Home

Well I am home after a really busy and stressful day! So what better way to chill out and write a blog post showing you my 'home' card from the last clarity show.

I wanted to do a monochrome card but then I had the idea to highlight the O by making a coloured scene inside it using the re-mountable set that was with the Home stamp.

Here is the card

I started off by stamping the Home in Archival Black ink. I also stamped it onto a piece of A4 paper and onto a sticky note to make an inny and outy mask.
I put the mask in place so that the O was open and stamped the scene inside it in black adirondack ink. I drew the pathway from the house door to the gate. I coloured the house with promarkers and then used inks to do the path sky and grasses. I then swapped the masks to cover this scene up. I used the fineliner pen to extend the pathway into the picture.I used a make up sponge to add grey to the pathway. I added a moon mask then used the brushes and makeup sponges to do the sky. All this was done using the black ink pad so that it was all shades of grey.I used torn paper to add mountains and hills and shade to the foreground and added trees using the miniature stamps. I also used the shrubs to do the grasses. I then added the cats and dog to the picture before mounting onto black then grey card then onto a card blank. 

Hope you enjoyed reading today's post. Leave me a comment please.

Happy Crafting

Monochrome

Good Afternoon! Well I can't believe it's 1st April already! The year is just flying by!
And as ever with the new month comes a new Clarity Challenge. Last month we had loads of fabulous entries and it is getting harder and harder to pick out the best! I could have had a top 20! But well done to the winner and to the top 5 when they are announced.

This month you have to decide on a colour you would like to use and only use that! or tones of it! Along with any Clarity stamps of course. 
I decided to use the Adirondack eggplant ink pad along with the bunnies set of stamps to create a card. So here it is!
I have been given an inkadinkado circle and cog and I thought I would have a play with that too for this card. 
I started off on a piece of A4 paper to see how it worked out.
I then got a piece of  A4 theuva card and marked the centre for the cog to go. 
I stamped in first generation ink on every other notch then with second generation ink on the notches I had missed out. So my circle was complete.

I then stamped the bunnies in place and covered them with a mask so I could create the background. I added a moon mask above the bunnies heads. Using a makeup sponge and torn paper I added some ink so that the bunnies looked like they were in a field with hills behind. I was careful not to go into the grassy circle! I then trimmed the card to a square so that the circle was in the centre. I removed the masks of the moon and bunnies and brushed over the scene with one of the clarity brushes just to take the white off the bunnies and the moon. I tried to avoid their tails!
I stamped the grasses into each corner and brushed ink over the corners to add an air brushed effect to the edges of the card. I then matted and layered it on to dark purple card then a paler purple before mounting it onto an 8 x 8 card blank.

Hope you like my card but you must also take a look at the rest of the design teams projects. They have excelled themselves again! If you click on the link to the Challenge blog then onto their card it should take you to their blogs so you can see what a talented bunch they are.

Then its your turn...and don't forget there is a prize of £50 to be had to spend with Claritystamps.

Happy Crafting

Garden Birds (or in other words Big tits and Little Tits)

Good evening to you all! I thought I better get a wriggle on and show you another couple of my cards from last months shows. 
The Garden birds caused a bit of a stir and a bit of hilarity among the design team and also the regular readers of Barbara's blog. We were all waiting for giggles on the show regarding the Blue tit set but Barbara was professional as always and didn't once use the tit word in the whole show.

Anyway here are the two cards I made using this set of stamps. 

This one was done on parchment. The Bird was stamped in blue ink then embossed in clear powder. 

It was then coloured from the back to add shading and dimension. 

The feeder was stamped in black on the back and then dry embossed with a fine ball tool onto a mouse mat. 

The branch is actually half of the split tree. 

I then put the parchment onto a piece of double sided adhesive sheet and attached it to a piece of grey card stock. Then it was matted onto a piece of blue then 
attached to a card blank.

The next card was made using a Gelli print I had kept from a Gelli plate session and I had used the doves stencil to to it. I trimmed the edges as I didn't want the white edges on...It wasn't even which was probably why I didn't use it originally. I used the blossom and the small birds to create a little scene and added clouds very gently behind them.

I coloured this with promarkers and edged the central square with a brown fine liner pen.
I matted and layered this onto brown then blue card then onto an 8 x 8 card blank.
I do like these stamps and am so glad they have been so popular! 

Hope you have a good evening! Leave me a message if you can.

Happy Crafting

Just another Sunday Morning!

Good Morning to you! And to all that have headed off to the NEC I hope you have a great day! I am looking forward to another road trip with Brenda and Jo next Saturday to Port Sunlight for the Happy Stampers show...Its always a good one!

I thought I would share two of the cards I made for the last Clarity show today using the freesia stamp and the Mother verse

I stamped the freesia onto a piece of Theuva card and coloured it with promarkers. I then rounded the corners to make it look like a topper and edged the card with yellow ink using the clarity brushes. I stamped the verse onto an off cut of the theuva card and rounded the corners and inked that to match.I found some lovely spring colours backing paper...I don't often use backing paper these days. I also found a piece of ribbon that matched the green on the leaves and arranged all the elements onto a 6 x 6 card blank. I added brads at each corner to finish it off.

The next card I wanted to look very different so out came the watercolour card and I stamped and embossed the freesia stamp in clear detail powder. I then used my cosmic shimmer paints and plenty of water to create a background for the freesia.
I matted this on a piece of pearlescent card then onto a pearlescent green card blank which had been cut to suit the topper.

Hope you enjoyed looking at them today.
Please leave me a comment to let me know you dropped by.

Happy Crafting 

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