Barbara's Claritystamp show - 6th December 2015

Hello there.  I hope you enjoyed Barbara's show on Sunday.  As promised, I'll explain each of my cards in a bit more detail.

Hope you like the vibrant colours of this one created with distress inks (squeezed lemonade, picked raspberry and mermaid lagoon).  I stamped the 'Thank you' first and masked off the centre.  Colours brushed and blended randomly over the background, then spritzed with water.  Then I used the same colours to stamp the butterfly randomly over the background too, for an additional layer of interest.  Many thanks to Pauline Butcher for sharing this technique with me.

I did some background stamping in gold acrylic on this one first as a resist.  The card was then coloured with distress sprays in mermaid lagoon and twisted citron.  Thank you and wee grasses stamped in versamark and gold embossed.  I cut out the aperture and created my central image on a separate piece of card.

A mixture of Paperartsy Fresco finish paints and Paynes Grey Golden Open acrylic were used to create a simple gelli print.  The wee fairies and elves were stamped onto shrink plastic and a tiny touch of glitter added to their wings once shrunk down.   

This background was created with distress inks (blueprint sketch, wilted violet and picked raspberry), and stencil brushes.  Really easy to do, but you need to build up the colour slowly:  plenty of time and patience are needed.  Don't be tempted to try and add too much colour too quickly or you won't get that velvety soft colour blend.  I brushed a little black around the edges too, for added drama.  I went through the stencil with black archival for a drop shadow, before using the copper embossing paste.

A custom inkpad made with distress reinkers (mermaid lagoon and twisted citron) and used for simple pattern building.  When is a tree not a tree?  When its a snowflake of course!

This was made from a gelli print clean up sheet of copy paper mod podged onto a little canvas board.  The stamping was done in black archival and spectrum noir pencils used to highlight and define the scene.  This wasn't what I originally intended, but I love it just the same.

Well I hope that these samples will inspire you to create some art of your own and maybe try something new that you haven't done before.  I'm off to continue with all my Christmas preparations.  I hope you're more organised than me;  I still have an awful lot to do!  Till next time.  Xxx

Its nearly Christmas...

Hello again.  Oh my goodness, not only is it the first of the month again, but its 1st December too.  So its time for a new Claritystamp challenge;  and now we've shown you ours;  its time for you to show us your Christmas cards!  Where has this year gone?  As you know, November was a very busy month for me, so I had left making this card to the very last minute and needed to do something quick.  I reused a colour scheme I've used for one of my TV samples, so keep a look out for it during Barbara's shows on Hochanda next Sunday 6th December. 

 

 

For this card, I used some music paper as a base to tie in with the theme of the carol singers.  First, I masked off the moon, then brushed with Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry distress inks.  It takes quite a while to build up this intensity of colour, so be patient.

 

Remove the moon mask, and brush through a little Fossilised Amber distress ink, concentrating the shading on one side to create an illusion of dimension. 

Stamp the carol singers into position across the base with Black archival.  Use water to lift off some of the colour from the lanterns, then add glow with a yellow spectrum noir pencil.  

Finally, stamp the stars with a Gold metallic encore pad. 

Gilding wax and glitter round the edges to finish.

I hope you like it.  I love how you can glimpse the music through the artwork.  It just lifts what is in reality a very simple card out of the ordinary, I think.  Looking forward to seeing all your ideas and inspiration.  Till next time.  Xxx