Masculine

WOW this year is flying, I can't believe it's June already!!

May was a memorable month with our Clarity design team holiday in France.  Great friendships were formed and crafting techniques learnt.

The gites were absolutely stunning and reaped in history, we even had our own ghosts.

Here are my two room mates and car buddies, Kelly Ketteringham and Amanda Branston.

And here is the fabulous room we stayed in.
The mess was all Kellys!!!!

We didn't all share one bed though and I got the one in the corner.
I even got the proper hotel service courtesy of Mel and Jayne
whilst they were having a tour.

What do you think to the swan they left me?

We visited some lovely towns and an artisan village where we
watched them going back to basics.
Dave loved it, but then I think we all did too!

We drank plenty of wine

and even managed to stay on the correct side of the road, well at

least some of us did!!!!!

Now we're back to the UK and reminiscing about our week away....

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The first of a new month always means one thing, it's challenge time over at the Clarity Challenge Blog. Why not pop over there and check out the design teams artwork?  

Male cards are the one thing I think we all dread aren't they?  So hopefully we've made your job a bit easier and the men in your lives will receive gorgeous pieces of artwork from you.

Are you feeling lucky?  Well that £50 Clarity gift voucher could be yours if you win.  Here's my artwork:

Materials used:

Large fobwatch

Small fobwatch

Letter box kit

The background was created using shaving foam and Dylusions inks, but you can use re-inkers and many other products to add your colour.  Have you tried this technique before?  It's great fun!!  There are plenty of videos on YouTube.

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

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