Rise and Shine

We're on a roll now, I'm in practice for the new year...

If you haven't read my previous blog posts, my new years resolution is to blog more.  I've got so much artwork in the archives that I'd love to share it with you and hopefully give you some inspiration for your projects.

I had great fun with this next project and it was definitely a case of needing to wash my hands afterwards, although even the Imperial Leather didn't move all of the ink!

The new cottage scene stencil is A4 in size and comes in two parts so that you can use either the 'inner' or 'outer' part.  You can see some more examples using this stencil in this post on the Clarity blog.  You don't have to use the whole of the stencil, you can use a small section of it to create your scene which makes it versatile indeed.

Materials used:

Stencil - cottage scene

Stencil - sunshine (7"x7")

Stamp - weather vane set

Stamp - lupin (new design club stamp)

Adirondack ink - lemonade, sunshine yellow,

caramel, lettuce & stonewashed

As always, hope you enjoy my inspiration.




xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Chrysanthemum

Welcome to Sunday crafters!

I hope you're all safe after the horrendous weather this week in the UK.  Watching the news reports it must be horrendous for some people facing Christmas with the aftermath of a flooded home, it doesn't even bear thinking about does it?  My heart goes out to them.

On a lighter note I've got a card for you today that was shown on C&C to promote one of the new stamp and stencil sets from Clarity.  I chose to try the technique that Barbara herself discovered, which has brought a new use for a stencil.  If you want a step-by-step on how this technique is done please pop over to Barbara's blog.

Materials used:

Stencil - chrysanthemum (7"x7")

Angelina film and fibre

Archival ink - black

Stamp - small chrysanthemum

Coloured with promarkers

Stamp - letterbox sentiments

The trick with using fibres is to ensure that you have a really hot iron, a travel iron is perfect.  Another tip is to remember to cover the film and fibres with a sheet of wax or greaseproof paper so that the iron doesn't stick to them as it's a fairly lengthy job trying to get it off the iron.  I know because I've done it!!!

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Oriental Scene

Welcome to December, where did the year go eh?

I think I already have my new years resolution which is to blog more frequently. Now this may involve learning how to do it in my sleep but I will find a way to show you more of my Clarity artwork as there is so much in the archive not yet shown.  So watch this space....

As you all know by now the first of the month is when we launch a new challenge over at the Clarity challenge blog and the theme for December is "SCENE BUILDING".

Here's my inspiration for the challenge:

Materials used:

Stamp - cherry blossom branch

Stamp - Asia set

Stamp - pagoda

Stamp - tree (from winter wonderland set)

Coloured with promarkers

Distress ink - bundled sage

Adirondack ink - stonewashed & sunshine yellow

Liquid pearls - lemon yellow

A top tip for those of you out there that have just gone "I can't do that".  Take a piece of copy paper, look at your Clarity stamps, stencils and masks and start playing.  Here are a few points that may help you:

• for sky either use the cloud mask or make your own out of a piece of copy paper
• for hills either use the landscape mask or tear a piece of copy paper
• bushes, grass, fence posts etc can all be made out of a tree stamp (very versatile)
• if you only want to use part of a stamp use clever masking

I hope these few tips help you and I look forward to seeing your artwork in the challenge this month.

xx Happy crafting and glittery seasonal hugs xx

Filigraphy Framer

Welcome to Sunday crafters and I'm having a really lazy one today as I'm still in my onesie!

I thought I'd better blog another one of my projects from the last Clarity show before the next Clarity weekend is upon us.  The design team have already got their goodie packs to create artwork to inspire you so don't forget to tune in on Saturday 30th November for In The Classroom show and Sunday 1st December for the Stamping with Clarity shows.

Here's my artwork:

Materials used:

Stamp - filigraphy framer

Stamp - filigraphy shapes

Coloured with promarkers

The shapes all fit into the centre of the framer so you can choose which one you use and as you can see the framer fits nicely around itself creating an eye catching and interesting picture to colour.

Thanks for popping by today and hope you liked my project.  See you next time!

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

What can you see in the stencil?

Good morning crafters and welcome to a new day.  Will it be a crafty one for you?

My card today was created using the lone tree stencil from lesson 22 which we saw in this weekends "In the Classroom" show.

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

I wanted to try something different with the stencil and found that if you turned it on it's side that there were two yacht sails and the water.  It did take a bit of masking to get the different colours on the sails and also to get the hull and mast of the yacht in the correct place, but thanks to the wonder of post it notes it didn't hold me back!

Materials used:

Stencil - lone tree (7"x7")

Adirondack inks - red pepper, sunshine yellow,

sunset orange, pool, citrus & stonewashed

Stamp - birds in flight

Glamour dust - crystal

I hope you have fun playing with your stencil, I wonder how many other things can be seen and created using it?  Please post your pictures on the Clarity fan page as we'd love to see them!

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Christmas Bauble

It's all go for me this weekend, starting with the new Clarity Stamp challenge today, then we have Barbara Gray "In the Classroom" tomorrow and again with the Clarity shows on Sunday.  Whilst all of this is going on I will be with my bezzie Hazel at a workshop in Coventry all weekend with the lovely Clare Charvill making something wonderful with Graphic 45 papers and products.

Who said craft was meant to be a hobby, it's more like a full time job these days!!!

Back to the challenge and I think this one is going to be a popular one with you all.  Remember only Clarity stamps and products can be used though.

I decided to create a Christmas bauble, but the other design teams members have loads more inspiration on the challenge blog.

Materials used:

Nestability - scalloped square

Stamps - Twas the night

Coloured with promarkers

Gilding flakes - pirate treasure

Distress ink - antique linen

Stamp - scroll from birdcage set

Krylon gold leaf pen

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've enjoyed my project for today.

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Harlequin

Another day, another dollar and the week starts all over again.

Did you survive the terrible wind last night and this morning? Nooooo not the after effects of the curry, the wind outside!!!!! We managed to avoid the gale force winds here in Peterborough although we did have torrential rain and a few areas that were flooded on the roads into work this morning.  I dread to think how much damage has been caused in other areas, hope you're all safe wherever you are!

On a brighter note, here's something to cheer you up.  It's another of my cards from the Clarity weekendathon.  The diamond within the new Clarity shapes gave me the idea of a harlequin so I set to with a piece of scrap paper to create my design.  This is how all of my designs start out so that I can perfect the design before putting it onto card.  Well that's the idea anyway!

Materials used:

Background

Dylusion ink - fresh lime, white linen,

lemon zest & after midnight

Adirondack ink - denim

Stamp - shape set

Masks

Stamp - Mask (NDC)

Fantasy film & fibre

Iron

Cocktail stick

Krylon gold pen

Thanks for popping by to view my artwork, there's plenty more to come!

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Dream...

Welcome to the weekend!

I don't know about you but I have all good intentions of blogging more frequently and then it just doesn't happen.  Mind you looking at Barbara Gray's new blog - One Day At A Time - it makes me think where does she find the time with such a busy schedule.  Maybe that should give me inspiration, let's see...

The card I have for you today is another one from the mammoth Clarity weekendathon showcasing several Clarity stamps.

Materials used:

Background

Black Clarity coated card

Sentiment - may all your dreams come true

Versamark

Perfect pearls

Bakers twine

Centre Piece

Nestability - labels 18

Stamp - butterfly

Adriondack ink - stonewashed

Distress ink - spun sugar

Splodge mat

Pearls

Stamp - letter box set

Glossy accents

Liquid pearls - silver pearls

Glamour dust - crystal

Thanks for stopping by to view my project and hope to see you again soon.

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Swirls and curls

WOW that week went quickly didn't it?  I blinked and Monday merged into Friday, how does that happen?
At least it means that it's craft time again - yeah!

After the busy Clarity shows last weekend I'd like to show you another of my cards.  Now I wasn't sure about this one and nearly threw it away but I'm so pleased I didn't.  This was using the curly strip stencil which has both an "inner" and an "outer" part to it.  Here's the picture which shows it much better:

Materials used:

Stencil - curly strip

Adirondack inks - sunshine yellow & citrus

Black micron pen

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Clarity Clock

Welcome to the weekend and this one is rather special as it's a Clarity weekend.  Barbara Gray is on our screens for an extended weekend full of fun and craft for the launch of her new DVD as well as her normal shows.  So come on join in the fun and grab some inspiration from the rest of the design team!

Artful Crafting DVD
(click on the link above to take you to the Clarity website)

This is one of my cards that was shown during the show yesterday using the:

Numbers & Symbols Kit

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

Here's the project I made using this kit:

Materials:

Stamp - numbers & symbols

Stencil - curly swirl

Die - weathered clock

Embossing folder - pocket watches

Nestability - large deckled rectangle

Sentiment - yesterday

Distress ink - antique linen & vintage photo

Card candi - regal gold

Krylon gold leaf pen

Glossy accents

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Winter Wonderland

As the nights are closing in and getting darker, we start to think about switching the central heating on (if it's not on already) and this gives us a reminder that winter is around the corner.  But there's no need to start looking for your top coats, scarf and gloves yet as I'm just talking about this months Clarity Stamp challenge where the theme for October is:

Winter

(using Clarity stamps only)

We'd love you to join in with our challenge where the winner is chosen at random and receives a £50 voucher to spend on Clarity goodies.  So come on over and join in the fun!

Here's my inspiration for the challenge:

I don't normally explain how my cards are made, but several of the DT have already asked about the panel on the left so I thought I would let you all know how it was done.

I took a piece of black card and covered it with versamark then randomly applied perfect pearls before adding UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel), then heated.  I repeated another 2 layers of the versamark and UTEE and then in the final layer I stamped the snowflake whilst it was still hot and applied perfect pearls to complete.

The squares on the right were produced using versamark and perfect pearls misting around the edges with distress ink.

Materials:

Stamps - winter wonderland set

Perfect pearls:

Perfect pearl

Perfect copper

Forever green

Forever blue

Versamark

Distress ink - antique linen

Twine

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Netball anyone?

Thank crunchie it's Friday and what a week I've had!!!!  But now it's craft time so I can chillax and lose myself in inks, papers and everything crafty.  Yeah!

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We've got a new challenge starting today over at Fussy and Fancy where the new theme is SPORT, hosted by Celine.

My card was made as a commission for a friend at work whose sister is a netball coach and player, and yes you saw the age correctly, she was celebrating her 60th birthday.  Way to go!

We'd love to see you playing along with this challenge showing us every sport from aerobics to zumba and if you'd like some inspiration, our design team have come up with some great inspiration for you.

Remember to limber up first before you exercise, we don't want to be responsible for any pulled muscles or torn ligaments!

Materials used:

Stamp - number kit

Stamp - letter box kit

Sentiment - Jane's script

Adirondack ink - lettuce

Distress ink - dried marigold and shabby shutters

Dylusion ink - squeezed orange, lemon zest,

pure sunshine and fresh lime

Card candi - regal gold

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Inky Chicks - faux stitching
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Creative Inspiration - favourite colour combo
Sarah Hurley - autumn glow

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Vintage Paris Collage

So as the children head off back to school your minds can now turn back to crafting and what better way to ease you back into it than a new challenge!

This month's theme over at the Clarity Stamp challenge is:

VINTAGE

For this one we've decided to go back in time and we'd like you to produce your artwork in a vintage style.  We can see you all scratching your heads wondering what on earth you can do, but once you look through the Clarity Stamps you will see that there are a lot that lend themselves to this challenge.

Here's my take on the theme and all of the lovely design team have had some fab ideas too which you can check out on the challenge blog for inspiration.

Materials:

Stamp - Paris collage

Stamp - large Paradise stampstamp

Stamp - small fobwatch

Distress ink - old paper & vintage photo

Glossy accents

Ribbon

Bakers twine

Hat pin

Card candi

Clock charm

Eyelets from my stash

Gold Krylon pen

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Crafting Musketeers - vintage - ends 29th September
Simply Create Too - vintage
It's all About the Vintage - metal decoration



xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Blue Wedding

It's Friday again, which means it's craft day, although mine will be cut short today as I will be travelling to stay at my friends house this afternoon so that we can get an early start for the Great British Craft Festival at Stoneleigh tomorrow.

Is there anyone else going tomorrow?  If you are and you see me walking around, please stop me and say hello.  It's always nice to meet new crafty friends.

I've got a list as long as my arm of things to get, but also hoping to try and get into one of the make and takes with Hels Sheridan.  Wish me luck!!

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We've got a new challenge starting today over at the Fussy and Fancy challenge, where the new theme is BINGO BOARD and hosted by yours truly.

My card was made as a commission for a friend recently who was attending a wedding with this colour scheme.  Isn't it a great colour?

We'd love to see you playing along with this challenge and the design team have got some amazing inspiration for you too.  Don't forget your bingo dabber and you may get the winning line!

Materials used:

Oddments of card from my stash

Embossing folder - D'vine Swirl

Die - Heart Swirl Branch

Nestability - Lacey Circles

Sentiment - For You

Ribbon, pearls and gems from my stash

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenge:

Papertake Weekly - anything goes

Creative Inspirations - something old (almost everything used)/new (flowers)

Crafty Ribbons - anything goes

Delightful Challenges - make it pop

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Bunnies in the frame

I've been a really bad blogger this month haven't I?  It's been a month since my last post - oops!!!!

There's lots going on in my world at the moment, hence not many posts. I know excuses, excuses but I've got a rather large wedding stationery order that I'm in the middle of pulling together and I'm also going to be starting my own workshops too so busy planing for them.  How exciting is that?

If you'd like more information about my workshops please pop over to my "workshop" page to find out more.

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This year is flying past isn't it?  I can't believe it's the first of August already!  That means it's time to launch a new challenge over at the Clarity Stamp Challenge.  The theme for this month is:

Animals

With the school holidays in full swing you may be thinking about taking the children on a trip to the zoo, a day out at the beach with the dog or a visit to a butterfly farm.

For this challenge we'd love to see your projects reflecting all of the beautiful Clarity animals.  We're also including birds and insects in this challenge so that you have plenty of scope to choose from.

So grab the dog's lead, the horse's harness or the butterfly net and join in the challenge.  You could be the winner of the £50 Clarity voucher.  Sound tempting?

Here's my card for inspiration, but the design team have plenty more inspiration over on the challenge blog if you fancy a look.

Materials used:

Stamp - remountable bunnies and grass set

coloured with promarkers

Stamp - small tree

Stamp - small birds in flight

Adirondack ink - stonewashed and lettuce

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen - boys will be boys
Creative Inspirations - anything goes

A Little Bit Crafty - summer fun
Creatalicious - pets
As You Like It - fancy fold
Southern Girls - animal antics

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Shell Frame

Like a true Brit, I'm going to talk weather as it has been great this weekend hasn't it and believe me I have the face to prove it!!!  Rudolph has nothing on me!!!

Mark and I went to Silverstone on Saturday for the qualifying rounds of the Grand Prix.  The sun was out but it was a little bit windy as well which was not a good mixture when you don't have any sun tan lotion on, is it?  Spent a great day there, watched some fab driving, quality time with friends and a chance to beat the traffic on the motorbike too.

Yesterday was spent busy finishing my Clarity samples for the shows next weekend on Create and Craft so make sure you're free or you've set it to record.

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As you all know by now on the first of the month the Clarity Stamp challenge launches it's new challenge and this one ties in very nicely with the great weather we've had.  The theme for July's challenge is:

Oh I Do Like to Be Beside The Seaside

So grab your "kiss me quick" hats, slap on some sun tan lotion and come and join in the challenge.  You could be the winner of the £50 Clarity voucher.  Sound tempting?

Here's my card for inspiration, but the design team have loads more inspiration over on the challenge blog if you fancy a look.

Materials used:

Stamp - single shell

Stamp - shell cluster

Stamp kit - making a point

Coloured with promarkers and flexmarkers

Adirondack inks - stonewashed, cloudy blue

sunshine yellow and sunset orange
Grande nestabilities - creative book pages

Stamp - birds in flight

Stamp - small tree

Stamp - coast

Sentiment - walk along the sea

Versamark

Black detailed embossing powder

I'd like to enter my frame into the following challenges:

Inky Chicks - anything goes
Passion for Promarkers - name that song (oh I do like to be beside the seaside)
Creative Inspirations - anything goes
A Little Bit Crafty - die'ing for it
Creatalicious - all about summer
Crafty Cardmakers - holiday



xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Happy Fathers Day

I know I'm a bit late posting this but to be perfectly honest I totally forgot to photograph my cards to my Dad and Father-in-law and have had to go back to them and ask if I can take a picture.  What a scatter brain eh?

This card was started last year when I attended a workshop hosted by the lovely Maria Simms using Clarity stamps.  I thought it was about time I finished it and what better event than Fathers Day!

This card was for my Father-in-law and he loved it although he doesn't like to celebrate Fathers day we still like to give him a card, after all without his help Mark (my other half) wouldn't be here would he!

Materials used:

Stamp - large fobwatch

Stamp - small fobwatch

Adirondack ink - lettuce

Glossy accents

Stamp - letter box kit

Splodge mask - steam clock

Card Candi - Saville Row

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen - Fathers day - DAILY TALENT SPOT

Crafting For All Seasons - masculine

Pollycraft - anything goes

Sisterhood of Crafters - masculine

Cards For Men - boys will be boys

Creative Creations - masculine

Lexi's Creations - fathers day

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Button Up

It's Friday again so that means I can indulge myself in a bit of crafting as it's my day off, yeah!  What do I do first?  Do I have a play with my Gelli plate or dig out some of those (dare I say it) uninked stamps? Or do I carry on categorising my stamps?  I've bought loads of Really Useful Boxes and they're already half full.  It'd be great to be able to see exactly what I've got and maybe find new homes for those stamps that are no longer used and feel a bit unloved!

It's also challenge day over at Fussy and Fancy where the theme of our new challenge is "BUTTON UP".  I've had this cupcake material laying about for ages and this challenge lent itself to a huge button being placed on top of the cupcake just like a huge cherry.  I think it works quite well!!!!

We'd love to see you playing along with this challenge and the design team have got some great inspiration for you too. Don't forget - button up!!!

Material used:

Papers - First Edition: Spring Feast

Papers - First Edition: Dreamcatcher

Distress ink - shabby shutters

Punch - Martha Stewart: Double Loops

Buttons, lace & card from my stash

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

A Little Bit Crafty - something sweet
In The Pink - flowers
Papercraft Star - photo inspiration
Bearly Mine - anything goes

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Anniversary Rose

Here we are at the beginning of another month and I'm all refreshed after my holiday in Cyprus.  It was great to recharge the batteries and enjoy loads of sunshine and spend some quality time with Mark as well.  Fingers crossed that the good weather continues so that we can tidy up the garden as it'd got a bit out of shape whilst we've been away.

Whilst out there yesterday we had a couple of visitors, the robin was so tame that you had to be careful when moving about so that you didn't stand on it.  The sparrows were tweeting away at us too because they couldn't get to the bird food.

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Anyway back to business and as it's the first of the month we've got another new challenge starting today over at the Clarity Stamp Challenge.  Come and join in with us and you could be in with a chance of winning a £50 Clarity voucher just for playing along and doing what you enjoy!  You know you want to don't you?

What better inspiration could you get than to sit and watch Barbara Gray on the TV today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday).  So tune into Create and Craft on Sky channel 671 between 11.00 and 13.00 today, then 09.00 and 11.00 tomorrow and again between 14.00 and 15.00 for tips, techniques and loads of samples from the design team.

The new challenge, which will run throughout June, is "MR & MRS".  As it's wedding season we've dedicated this challenge to all of those happy couples who will be tying the knot.  We've also expanded it to include wedding anniversaries too so that, even if you're not attending a wedding this year, you can treat your other half to a special card or maybe even your son/son-in-law or daughter/daughter-in-law.

Here's the card that I've made for the challenge which also fitted with a commission that I received from a work colleague for her parents 40th wedding anniversary, but if you want inspiration overload pop over to the challenge blog and see what the talented design team have created too.

a close up of the rose with glossy accents added

to look like dew drops on the petals

Materials used:

Stamp - large rose

coloured with promarkers

accented with glossy accents

Sentiment - rose verse

Stamp - large leafy swirl

Versamark

Perfect pearls - perfect pearl

Stamp - letter box kit

Stamp - number set

Distress ink - worn lipstick

Adirondack - red pepper

Card candi - Saville Row

Pearls

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Whimsy Stamps - anything goes

Creative Inspirations - anything goes

Card Makin Mamas - rubber stamps

Crafts 4 Eternity - 3 x same letter (red, rose romance)

Crafting By Designs - anything goes

Crafting For All Seasons - wedding/anniversary

Creative Moments - lots of layers

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx

Elizabeth Bennet

Thank crunchie it's Friday and even better than that I'm off on my hollibobs too, yeah!!!!  Watch out Cyprus here we come.  I've just got to finish the packing then it's fun in the sun for the next 10 days.  We can't wait...

Before I go though it's challenge time over at Fussy and Fancy and the theme for this fortnights challenge is "PEARLS AND LACE".  I knew straight away which image I was going to use for this challenge and exactly who was going to receive it too.  It's my Mums birthday just after we get back from Cyprus so this will be just perfect for her and I've been wanting to play with this little beauty every since I bought her at the NEC in March.

Hope you like my inspiration and if you'd like to play along with this challenge there's more inspiration from the talented design team on the blog too.  I look forward to seeing your projects.

Materials used:

Stamp - Elizabeth Bennet

Stamp - birdcage

Border stamp - unknown (sorry)

Water coloured with distress inks:

dried marigold, milled lavender,

bundled sage, squeezed lemonade,

tattered rose & shaded lilac

Promarker - bluebell

Lace from my stash

Pearls

Flowers

Die - flourish leaf strip

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

IndigoBlu - flowers
Papertake Weekly - the sound of music (Pride & Prejudice)

Whimsy Inspires - anything goes
Creatilicious - for the girls
Crafty Ribbons - no designer paper
Milk Coffee Challenge - shabby chic/vintage
Paper Shelter - anything goes

xx Happy crafting and glittery hugs xx