Welcome to your new home

Welcome to May crafters and with it being the first of the month we are launching a new challenge over on the Clarity Challenge Blog and the theme for May is "It's All In The Words".

We normally concentrate on the images on our artwork, but this time we're challenging you to put your sentiments, verses and words into the spotlight.  Have you checked out the NEW word chains? They're great on your artwork and with clever masking you can use individual letters to create other words as some of the design team have done.

My card was designed for my daughter as she has just moved into her first home, you may remember seeing this on the last Clarity show at the beginning of April.

I've used a combination of the letter box set, the word chain and the one of the framers and put a picture of her new house in the centre.

We'd love to see your projects and you could win yourself a £50 Clarity vouchers if you are randomly picked as the winner or alternatively you could be in our top 5 and get yourself in the spotlight and let us join you in your crafting journey.  What have you got to lose?

Materials:
Stamp - letterbox set
Stamp - home framer
Stamp - word chain 3
Stamp - home set
Stamp - tree silhouette
Stamp - journalling set
Stencil - brick wall (7"x7")
Adirondack ink - lettuce & stonewashed
Distress ink - mowed lawn
Archival ink - black
Versamark
Mask - landscape set
Stencil brushes
Gilding flakes - variegated copper


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If you are interested in attending monthly workshops in the Peterborough or Nottingham areas please have a look at my "workshop" page for more details and I'd love to meet you and have you join in with the Clarity fun.

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Flower Power

Welcome to March crafters...

It may have been two weeks since my last post, but I've been busy behind the scenes - honest!

Last Saturday (22nd February) my ladies (and no gent this time) got together for our monthly Clarity Stampers East Midlands workshop in Peterborough.  We had loads of crafty fun as well as cakes and chatter.

I've also been finalising my new workshop in Nottingham.  All of ths details can be found on my workshop page.  Exciting times...

If you're interested in either of these workshops please contact me @ claritystampersEM@hotmail.co.uk for more details.

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We're starting the month off with a new challenge over at the Clarity stamp challenge blog and the theme for this month is FLOWER POWER.  Quite an apt one this time as we have Mothers Day on the 30th March and flowers are so versatile we can use them for almost any occasion.

My inspirational card for this month is a twist on one of the classroom cards that Barbara did with Leonie.  Remember happy Davy?  I've just turned mine into an easel card and added the lettering to the ledge at the bottom which the easel leans against.  You can adapt the wording in many ways depending on the occasion.

Materials

Stamp - long grass

Stamp - long grass flower heads

Stamp - letter box set

Mask - letter box

Adirondack ink - stream

Stencil brush

When working with inks you may find that your hands get covered and you seem to have more ink on your hands than you do on your artwork.  A good way of removing it is to use Imperial Leather soap, it doesn't remove it all but is better than anything else I've ever tried.  

Barbara herself uses Imperial Leather so if it's good enough for Barbara it's good enough for me!

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

The Greatest Show on Earth

Welcome to Sunday crafters, I hope you all enjoyed Valentines Day and were thoroughly spoilt by your loved ones.  Mark bought me a bottle of perfume and some chocolates, but due to working this weekend we will be going out for a meal at a later date.

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If you cast your mind back to the beginning of the month you will remember that Barbara featured this gorgeous new stamp set in her Clarity show on Create and Craft.

(click on the picture above to take you to the Clarity website)

I had great fun playing with it and immediately thought that an advertising poster would be a good idea. Out came my copy paper, as I always sketch away on copy paper first, and after several different options my artwork transformed.

Materials:

Stamp - circus set

Stamp - letter box set

Stamp - number set

Adirondack ink - cranberry & sunshine yellow

Promarker - sunflower

Distress marker - fired brick

Stencil brushes

Die - labels 18

As most of you already know Clarity stamps are really versatile.  For my circus poster I've used the roof of the big top to make the edging, but you can use a lot of your other stamps in many different ways. Have a look at your collections and see how many other ways you can use them.  You'll be surprised what else you can make.  That's the beauty of Clarity stamps.

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Love and Romance

Welcome to February, the month of romance.  Will your Valentine be bringing you chocolates and flowers this February 14th?  Or will your day be celebrated in a different way this year?  Mine, who knows...

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In my January workshop, my ladies and gent were working with the gelli plate and of course the love and romance theme, so I thought I would use one of the projects as my inspirational card for the new challenge over at the Clarity Challenge blog. 

Materials

Stamp - love silhouettes

Stencil - hearts and leaves (7"x7")

Mask - moon mask

Brayer

Gelli plate (6"x6")

Adirondack ink - red pepper, stonewashed, denim

Archival ink - black

Acrylic paint - crimson

Gelli art card 

If you've not used the gelli plate before, don't be scared to get it out of the packaging and have a play. What have you got to lose?  Some pieces of copy paper and some ink.  You may surprise yourself with the results once you start playing.  Don't try to run before you can walk though, just stick to one stencil and perfect the art before introducing more stencils.



xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Would you care to dance?

My day started today, much the same as every other day.  I got up, went to work, (oops correction I did get showered and dressed in between as well), made myself a cup of tea and sat down to read Barbara's daily blog.  I love how she shows us step by step how her artwork is produced, don't you?

To my surprise there was my artwork, so I thought when I got in from work tonight I'd better create a blog showing you it and telling you how I created it.

I loved how Barbara referred to it in her comments as it looked like Laurel was throttling Douglas when in actual fact she is dancing with him.  Well that was my intention when I created the card anyway!

Materials used:

Stamp - Laurel

Stamp - Douglas

Stamp - Laurel hedge

Stamp - shard

Adirondack ink - latte

Archival ink - coffee

Promarkers

Krylon gold leaf pen

Nestability - scalloped oval

Instructions

1. Mask off the sections at the top and bottom of your card blank with low tack masking tape.
2. Stamp the Laurel hedge, tessellating across the panel with coffee archival ink.
3. Taking a make-up sponge drag the latte adirondack ink in around the edges of the masking tape, starting lightly and increasing the depth of colour.
4. Colour in the leaves with a green promarker and remove the masking tape.
5. Stamp the shard across the centre of your card blank using the coffee archival ink and colour in with promarkers.
6. Stamp Laurel onto a separate piece of card using coffee archival ink.
7. Create a mask by stamping Laurel onto the sticky end of a post it note and place over her.
8. Stamp Douglas onto the card so that Laurel is draping her arms around him.
9. Remove the mask and colour in both characters.
10. Place the nestie over the top and die cut making sure that you avoid any limbs that are outside of the shape.  They won't be able to dance without a foot...

To cut a shape outside of a nestie, place the die onto the card and make a pencil line where the object will fall outside of the shape.  Remove the die and hand cut around the shape by hand extending it just slightly either side.  Place the die back in place but ensure that the piece that you have cut by hand is over the top of the nestie (to avoid being cut off) and then die cut as normal.

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Sweet Cherry Blossom

It's the weekend, so that means it's craft time!!

It's a busy time of the month in my craft room as I prepare for my next workshop and begin my samples for the next Clarity shows, but it's also an exciting time as I get to play with new products too.

If you would like more details about my workshops, please visit my workshop page at the top of this blog for more details.

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Today I'm going to show you the card I made for the Clarity New Design Club (issue 82) and give you the step by step (unfortunately without pictures) of how it's made for those of you that are not in the club.

However if you'd like to join the club, it's just had a facelift and is looking fantastic with it's glossy step by step tutorials by Barbara herself.  If you would like to learn more about the benefits please visit the Clarity website.

Here's the stamp that came out with issue 82:

And here's the card that I created as inspiration:

Materials used:

Theuva card

Stamp - NDC cherries

Stamp - NDC thank you

Adirondack ink - lettuce & black

Promarkers

Flexmarkers

Post it notes

Instructions:

1. For this one we're using Theuva card as we're going to be doing some Promarker work, Promarkers also mean Adirondack ink so that your line art doesn't bleed.
2. You need masks for this project too, so grab your post its and stamp the image at the sticky end and cut it out four times.  You will also meed a mask of the largest flower for the centre.
3. Ink up the largest flower only with Black Adirondack, making sure you remove the ink from the rest of the stamp with a wet wipe or kitchen roll, and place this in the centre of your card. Cover with a mask.
4. In up the whole stamp, and using the mask as your centre point, slightly overlap the stem of the branch onto it.  If you think of the image as a clock face the image will be at five to the hour.
5. Repeat as above this time stamping at 25 past the hour, ten past the hour and lastly at twenty to the hour.
6. For the next layer we need to mask what we've already stamped.
7. Ink up your stamp and blot onto a piece of copy paper.  Stamp your image between two of the images already on your artwork.  This is using the second generation of ink and will appear as though it is further away.
8. Repeat for the other three branches.  Remove all masks.
9. Colour the cherry blossom using flexmarkers (Pale Blossom, Tea Rose & Sorbet) using the lightest colour all over and graduating the darker colours towards the centre.  Remember to use a light touch and don't "flood" (use too much ink) your work.
10. Colour the leaves using a combination of Promarkers and Flexmarkers (Bright Green & Chartreuse) shading as above.
11. Colour the stems with Promarkers (Caramel).
12. Ink up the brayer with Lettuce Adirondack and roll onto the Splodgemat to even out the ink on the roller.  Cover all four corners and the edges graduating colour towards the centre of the work.
13. To add depth to the colour add Black Adirondack ink to your Splodgemat and repeat the step above.
14. Mould the "Thank You" sentiment to reflect the shape of your artwork and, using the Black Adirondack, stamp in the bottom right hand corner.
15. Mount onto red card.

I hope you have fun trying this card or just reading about it.  Why not leave me a comment and a link to your blog so that I can have a look at your artwork.  You give me so much inspiration browsing around your blogs.  I LOVE CRAFTING!!!

See you next time xx