A proper gem....or not!!

Hi all. Thanks for dropping by. I wish you could. I think that's the biggest thing I am missing with this stay at home malarkey...actually seeing people face to face. But As long as we do as we are told we will come through this and be able to venture out in good time. So for now make the most of being at home.....read a book, or write one! Be creative-draw, paint  doodle, make things. Whatever you do enjoy the moment and allow yourself to focus on the task in hand and not on what is going on out there. It will ease your anxiety and help you cope better. 
I am loving the doodle sessions that Barbara Gray is doing on the Claritystamp Facebook page. I even found a little journal in my crafty stash that I am doing the doodles in. It will be good to look back on and say this is what I did.
Anyway enough waffle for now. 
I posted a card showing faux Gems on Facebook the other day and a few people have asked me what I used and could I blog it. So here it is.

Ingredients

Diagonal Bold grid A5 square GRO-GG-40201-12

A4sq Framework Squares GRO-PA-40721-15

A4sq Framework Circles GRO-PA-40722-15

A5 nested Rectangles GRO-PA-40524-04

Celtic Numbers GRO-WO-41241-XX

Celtic Corners GRO-PA-40872-03

Pink parchment

1.Using the square framework plate emboss the three squares then use the circles to add the frames and gem circles inside the squares. Emboss the smaller numbers and the sentiment in the centre one.

2 Use the rectangle plate to create the outer border. Use designs off the Celtic plate to fill this border in randomly.

3. Colour the gems in the top and bottom circles.

4. Emboss the grid pattern then turn over and perforate in the grid design. Perforate around the outer border.

5. Cut around the outer edge and within the grid design.

6. Mount onto pink paper attaching with mini brads. Add to a card blank.

7. Add the white highlights to the gems using a white pen and add the flowers to the centre.

Please leave me a comment below to let me know what you think...or just to say hello.

Stay safe and happy crafting xxx

A much needed mindful day!

Good afternoon all. I hope you are all OK and coping with this lockdown as well as possible. I know it is hard to do sometimes but if we are to get through this we must stay at home and not venture out where at all possible. I think it would be much easier to do for everyone if there was something visible that we could actually see like the sky turning purple and big black spots floating about! But this virus is not something we can see so thats what makes it so hard to avoid! So stay at home and keep cleaning and washing and we will beat it eventually.

Did you manage to catch Barbara doing her first ever FB live on the Claritystamp page? For some time now Barbara has talked about the need for mindfulness and I think it is important for us all to do some of this and todays doodling session is a perfect thing for all of us to do even if you're not a crafter. Pick up a pen and a piece of paper and have a go. I have found a little book that I am going to use. The ones I did along with Barbara have been transferred into my book now.

One thing that is very mindful is doing Groovi and parchment craft. This is something I did ages ago but I never blogged it. Please forgive me for dipping into past projects... I just had to do other things today rather than concentrate on doing a new step by step project.
Anyway here is the project. I have also given the ingredients and a brief description of how it was done below.

Ingredients.

Z floral letter GRO-FL-40269-01

Nested Heart plate GRO-PA-40094-03

Netting Pattern plate GRO-PA-40040-03

Perga Colours

Pale green parchment

Brighton Rock paper

Kraft card blank

1. Working on pale green parchment emboss the Z. Emboss the heart frame around the letter. Emboss the netting pattern.
2. Emboss white work on the design as shown.
3. Using perga colours add colour on the reverse to the flowers, letter and frame.  
4. Perforate around the heart with a 2 needle bold tool and cut away waste.
5. Attach to a piece of designer paper with brads. Mat and layer onto cream then green card stock then Mount on a 7x7 Kraft card blank.

I hope you like it.
Please let me know what you think in the comments below

Happy crafting

GCASAH....Can you work that out?

Good Afternoon all
Well it's been ages since I blogged but life was just so busy and my blog just had to wait. But now I have a little more time on my hands so I thought I would start it up again! I don't think I will be blogging every day but we will see what happens.
Have you worked out the title yet?
Get Crafting And Stay At Home. Good advice I think if we are to beat this virus and save lives. That's what its all about. So I thought I would share with you a project and do a step by step of how it is made.

So here's the Project

It is done with the City of London stencil by Claritystamp and was on Hochanda TV on March 11th with Maria. I did a sample similar to this but on black card stock instead of the Kraft card.

Any way here is how I did it.

Get the stencil, Kraft card, a sponge and white gesso.

Cut the piece of Kraft card to 7"x7" and attach the stencil to it with low tack tape and sponge the gesso through the stencil.

Check you have enough gesso and add more if needed. 

Leave to dry.

Once completely dry use blendable pencils (I used my cheap ones) and dorso oil on a blending nib to add colour to the white gesso areas. Don't do it all.

Trim the edges of the Kraft card then mat onto dark brown card then onto a Kraft card blank. Add a sentiment sticker.

Here is the black card version ....slightly different colours in the sky.

I hope you like the project. If you have a go plese let me see your work but all I ask is that you give me some credit for the inspiration.

Please let me know here what you think.

Stay safe and craft away.

Lots of Love xxx 

J is for......

Hello bloggers....I know I haven't seen you all for a good long while but I have been pretty busy with lots of stuff so unfortunately I just haven't even given my blog a thought! But as I have been asked to explain how I made a sample for the recent Claritystamp Birthday weekend I thought I would do it on here.
Did any of you see all the shows on Hochanda? They are really good weren't they! And covered all the bases! Brilliant.

Anyway this is one of the samples I made for the shows.

I made this using the J from the alphabet set and the Jayne Nesterenko frame. I also used one of the butterflies from the Jayne Nesterenko sets.
I also used the artistry inks to colour it.

1. Stamp the frame into the middle of a piece of 7x7 stencil card using black archival ink.
2. Stamp the J in the centre of the aperture and stamp it again on a spare piece of stencil card along with the butterfly.
3. Now use low tack tape to mask off the areas of the frame you want the flowers in and use the J stamp to fill these areas. Do one at a time until all 4 sides are stamped. Give this a quick blast with the heat tool to dry the ink.
4. Mask off the outside edge of the frame and then brush yellow ink over the stamped flowers and in the aperture around the J leaving the centre white.
Remove the masking tape.
5. Use the artistry inks to colour the flowers on the spare J and also on the butterfly. Leave to dry.
6. Use a fine paintbrush and artistry ink to add colour to the flower border, frame and to the main image.
7. Trim back the card so there is an even white border around the frame. 
8. Mat this on a piece of green card then onto a 6x6 card blank. 
9. Fussy cut out the spare flowers and decoupage onto the J and fussy cut out the butterfly and stick on to one corner of the card.

I hope you can follow these instructions.
Remember that if you change the colours of ink you use it will look very different. And you could use any of the letters like this.


Have a great day 
Happy Crafting 

Pink Painted Butterflies

Good morning all and I hope you are having a good Good Friday! It is actually nice to have some lovely weather on a bank holiday too I cant quite remember when that happened!

Whatever you do and however you choose to spend the day, enjoy it and kick back a little if you can!.

I have a few jobs I need to do but then I can get on with some crafting and who knows I may sit outside for a while...wasps and bugs allowing. That's the downside of being extremely allergic to things....I need to cover up which seems to defeat the object of sitting out! But it's nice to see sunshine.

I was looking through my projects and I found this one I had made in March in preparation for the live shows from the NEC and thought it looks perfect for a day like today. As usual the ingredients and instructions are below.

Ingredients.

Oval  Picot Die and matching plate

Rectangle  Picot Die and matching plate

Linda's Butterfly Plate. GRO-AN-40817-03

Wing Tool

Drop tool

Perga Liners

Fine Paintbrush

Indian summer  designer card

Pastel brads

1. Working on plain parchment, cut an oval using the 5th die and the rectangle using the 4th die.

2. on the rectangle emboss the double lines. IN each corner use the drop tool to make the little flowers . Emboss white work in them. Put to one side.
3. On the oval emboss the 5th and 6th double lines.  Semi perforate around the insides of each double circle using the wing tool and emboss the lines around the perforations.
4. Emboss the flower and butterflies in the inner oval avoiding the perforations. Add colour to the flowers on the reverse then paint the butterflies on the front using Pergaliners. Re-perforate using the wing tool.
5. Cut the designer card with the 2nd picot die. Layer up the two pieces of parchment and attach to the card with brads.

6. Mount on a card blank.

Have a great day everyone

Happy Crafting

Happiness is....

Hello to you all. I have been a little busy this last week so haven't really had much time to blog ...sorry! However I have a few minutes now so thought I would share something with you. 

I am off out later to meet up with a few friends in Hobbycraft in Stockport. We take stuff to do but probably chat more than craft...Hahaha! But it give us a chance to share ideas and look at things each other has done.

Anyway here it the project I want to share with you today. 

Ingredients.

Nested Square plate GRO-PA-40037-03

Happiness is a butterfly GRO-WO-40523-04

Butterfly Plate  GRO-AN-40943-01

Large Dragonfly plate GRO-PA-40899-01

Basic Piercing Grid diagonal GRO-GG-40383-14

Rainbow River  Designer Paper

Perga Glitter

Sticky ink

Mapping pen

1. Working on plain parchment emboss the 5th square. Emboss the poem and the butterflies in the square. Emboss the butterflies on each corner of the frame. Add the centre one on each line then add the ones in between to make the frame.

2. Emboss the dots in the butterflies with the poem and on the alternate ones in the frame.
3. Perforate around the frame and in the butterflies using the bold 2 needle tool. Cut away waste leaving the outside edge until last.
4. Attach to a piece of designer  paper with brads and mount on a 7x7 card blank. Add dots of perga glue under the cut out butterfly centres.

5. Add sticky ink with a mapping pen to the butterflies with dots in and add perga glitter.

Hope you have a great day whatever you are doing

Happy Crafting

 

Phoenix rising!

Hello and welcome all to today's blog!

It is all getting exciting now on the wedding front and I know over the next few weeks I am going to be mighty busy! But that's good as it keeps me out of mischief! I hope I still have time to do the occasional blog for you all! 

I was looking through things I haven't blogged yet and things I had! I noticed that I had blogged the Groovi version of the Phoenix but not the Stamp version so that is what I have for you today.

Ingredients.

Phoenix  Stamp

NDC 42 fireworks stencil

versamark pad

Clear detail embossing powder

Adirondack inks Black dark blue and indigo

Artistry ink Golden turmeric and blaze

Theuva Card

Brayer 

1. Working on Theuva  card cut to 14cm x 20cm, stamp the phoenix stamp with archival ink. and mask off. This is only for the positioning.

2. Attach the stencil and add yellow and red ink. Wipe the stencil clean then reattach.

3. Sponge versamark through the stencil . Remove the stencil and the mask and emboss the fireworks with detail clear powder. Repeat this process to make the embossing smoother.

4. Use the brayer to make a night sky. Use a mix of indigo , blue and black ink to do this.

5. Add hills at the bottom of the card using torn paper and the ink on the blending mat with the brayer. Wipe the ink off the embossed areas.

6. Mat onto black card then mount on a card blank.

7. On smooth decoupage card stamp the phoenix 5 times and colour with promarkers. Cut out and layer up over the stamped image using 3D foam pads.

For those of you who find the brayer scary you could do the sky with brushes but it would take longer to build up the depth of colour! 

I hope you have a good day whatever you are doing! Happy Crafting.