I do love a bit of fussy cutting...

Hello there!  Really sorry not to have had chance to catch up sooner, but its been a very busy couple of weeks for me at work.  And its the start of August already, and time for a new theme over

on the Claritystamp challenge blog.  This month we're showcasing a technique which you'll be able to do with either stamps or groovi:  fussy cutting.  

So here goes with my project;  inspired in part by last month's NDC stencil projects. I loved this stencil as soon as I saw it.  I started off by stamping the owls into place using black archival and covering with a mask.

I used the gelli plate with chalk Freso Finish acrylic to pull a print of the trees.  This dries almost immediately, so then I spritzed the paper, replaced the stencil and sprinkled on some Colour Bursts.  I used orange, with a tiny bit of yellow and hot pink.  You have to be a bit careful not to add too much water or the colour will spread too much under the edges of the stencil.

I kept the mask in place over the owls and used gold acrylic to pull another gelli print of the trees.  The mega mount is invaluable for perfect positioning every time when you are layering prints like this.  The gold just adds a very subtle shimmer to the trees.

I still felt that the trees needed more definition, so I set to work with my spectrum noir pencils, mainly in shades of grey.  I did this over a few days, just a bit at a time to make sure I didn't overcook it.

Plenty of shading round the owls brings them to the foreground and gives a real 3d effect.  It adds drama too, I think.

I made some background pieces by smearing distress inks in similar colours onto a blending mat and spritzing with water, before picking up with a sheet of paper.  Personally, I like to layer and dry each colour separately, rather than blending them together on the mat, as I find they're less likely to go muddy.

I then used these pieces to stamp out some oak leaves, then cut them out and started to experiment with where to place them.

I also coloured in the owls with spectrum noir pencils in shades of orange and hot pink.  For me the touch of pink intensifies the warmth and vibrancy of the orange. 

At this point I also decided to add in little snippets of orange and hot pink tulle along with the leaves.  They were all stuck into place using Prima 3d gloss gel.

You can see some details below, and then the finished piece which I mounted in a wooden frame.

I made this for my dear friend Maria Simms' birthday.  I won't see her until the 6th, so I really hope she'll like it.  She's been warned not to peek if she wants it to be a surprise!

I hope you like it too, and that I have given you some inspiration for your own project.  What will you do?  I can't wait to see...  Don't forget you could win a £50 voucher to spend on Clarity goodies.  But you have to be in it to win it, so go on give it a go.  Till next time.  Xxx 

A fairytale day out

Hello there.  Well the best laid plans, good intentions and all that...  so much for blogging!  Its the 1st July already and so its time for a new theme over on the Claritystamp challenge blog.  Why don't you pop on over and look at all the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the design team?  This month's theme is "a day out:"  so where are you going to go to?  The seaside?  The countryside?  The city?  Its up to you!

I decided to take a fairytale trip to the land of far, far away.

I used a little Creative Expressions mdf shrine as the basis of my project.  I started by painting the back panel with white gesso.

I stamped the castle from the Happily Ever After set onto copy paper so I could decide on its position.  Then I put a moon mask into place.

I put the treeline mask into place, to provide a forest background for the castle.

Then I started to brush distress inks into place for the sky:  picked raspberry and wilted violet used here.

More distress ink added;  blueprint sketch this time.

Then I covered up the sky with the other half of the treeline mask. 

I sponged in the trees with green distress ink.  I put the moon mask outie into place and added a little mustard seed distress ink.

I then used the treeline stamp to add in some more trees, this time in green archival.

Then I stamped the castle into place with black archival.

I then stamped the castle again in black archival onto some stencil card and added some subtle colour with spectrum noir pencils.  I added a delicate shimmer by applying a thin coat of DecoArt Interference Magenta which gives a pearlised effect.

This was cut out and mod podged into place.

The rest of the mdf was coated in black gesso.  I set to work now on creating a colourful, floral background for the front of the piece.

I started by spritzing mustard seed, picked raspberry and mermaid lagoon distress inks and schmoosing them around onto stencil card.  I find I get better results by working with each colour separately and drying the card in between;  the colours seem to stay truer, with less risk of muddying into one another.

Then I stamped the flower bouquet randomly in the same colours.  For this sort of thing, I often work freestyle with the stamp in my hand for a less perfect result.

This piece was then cut to cover the front of the shrine.  I drew round one of the tree framer stencils and cut it out.  As the card was textured, I added a little bit of interest with a tiny touch of gilding wax.

You can see here that I had stamped Alice onto a piece of stencil card, coloured her in and cut her out.  Then I started to lay out possible compositions until I found one I was happy with.

I used some Sweet Lilac flowers, coloured to match my project with diluted distress inks and glued them into place.

You can also see how I gathered some organza ribbon to make a grassy bank for Alice to sit on and added a little fairy toadstool.

I made tiny bunting using the letterbox shapes on shrink plastic and a couple of teeny weeny fairies (also shrink plastic) to hold it in place. 

Let's take a closer look and check out some of the details.

 

An Angelina fibre butterfly was the final finishing touch.

And here's the final finished piece...

I hope you like it.  I am so looking forward to seeing where you each of you will be taking us for a day out. 

Don't forget, the winner of the £50 Clarity voucher is chosen completely at random, so why don't you give it a go and join in.

I'm looking forward to a wonderful crafty weekend;  a Clarity workshop with Maria Simms at Shrewsbury on Saturday and Barbara on the telly on Sunday.  You're going to love the new stamps and stencils.  So this time I promise I will back soon.  I have one of my samples from the show in particular that I want to share with you.  Till next time.  Xxx  

As long as its Clarity...absolutely anything goes

Hello there!  Sorry I'm late with this months Claritystamp challenge project, but its been a hectic few days, and I only just got my project ready in time before I left for a wonderful crafty weekend away.  To those of you who visited yesterday, I hope that for once you don't mind too much.

 

This month we've given you free rein to use any or all of your Clarity stash;  what will you choose?

 

Running short of time, and needing to focus the mind, I rifled through my scrap box and found this copy paper mop up sheet which I decided to use as the starting point for my design.

 

 

I loved the circular movement, and decided on this sentiment stamped in black archival to emphasise this.

 

 

 I masked off the skyline and added in the grass with this lovely stencil.  I used twisted citron distress ink, and added a little extra definition with peacock feathers distress ink.

 

 

Now mask the grass, ready to stamp the tulips into place.

 

 

I stamped 3 tulips into place with garden patina archival.

 

 

Remove the masking tape.

 

 

Time now to mod podge this onto a small canvas board and add some texture by dragging grunge paste through the stencil in the top left and bottom right corner.

 

 

Add some colour to the grunge paste dots with twisted citron, peacock feathers and barn door distress inks, then colour in the tulips with spectrum noir pencils. 

 

 

 I glazed the tulips using a versamark pen and clear detail embossing powder to bring them out.

 

Add a little touch of glitter to the dots.

 

And that's it done.  Not sure yet if I will mount it on another canvas board or in a box frame.  I really love this one;  I hope you do too.  Its fantastic what you can do with scraps.

 

 

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this months challenge, so get creative for a chance to win a £50 Clarity voucher.  Now wouldn't that be nice...  And remember, the winner is chosen at random, so it doesn't matter if you are a beginner or more experienced;  everyone has the same chance to win.  So go on give it a go. 

 

Hopefully, I'll be back soon.  I have my samples from yesterdays shows on Hochanda to share with you.  Till next time.  Xxx

A Magnetic Farmyard

Hello again.  As I've had so many lovely comments about this project, I thought I'd share this one first.

 

When I saw the wee farmyard and animal stamps, one of my first thoughts was to make a DIY farmyard scene.  I was inspired partly by childhood memories of fuzzy felt, and the sticker books my grandchildren love.  As I love making projects that are more than just a card;  I thought this was something a bit different to do, and ideal for a little gift.  An added bonus was that it kept the scene building required to a minimum, as its not something I'm very good at.

 

Just by chance, I found the little tin in my local discount shop:  full of fancy little post-it notes and just 50p:  what a bargain!!!

 

Before I started anything, I did a little test with the magnetic sheets to make sure they would exert their pull through the Clarity stencil card and adhesive sheets I used;  and also to make sure that I was sticking the magnetic sheet on the right side so it would attract, rather than repel.  Always best to make sure... 

 

Now for the fun bit... 

 

I started by making the background scenes, and cut two pieces of card to fit my tin, each 15cm x 10cm.   

 

For scene 1, I used the ploughed field stencil.  Having cut a paper mask to cover the trees, I brushed in some yellow distress ink (scattered straw, I think), concentrating where the sunlight would catch the top of the hills.

 

 

Then I brushed in green (crushed olive?) from the bottom of each hill, sweeping upwards.  Using a make-up sponge, I also swept in a bit of blue (faded jeans), to add even more depth and shadow.

 

 

Then I removed the stencil and covered the fields with a paper mask.  Having put a moon mask in place, I brushed the sky into place with stonewashed adirondack.  I added a tree and a hedge with fern green archival;  I used the edge of the tree stamp to do this.

 

I stamped the picket fence with black archival into place along the bottom, leaving space for the gate;  then coloured it in with spectrum noir pencils.

 

Old paper distress ink was blended around the edge for a soft vintage look.

 

 

Now for the second scene.  Two simple hills created with by tearing paper along the edge of my Clarity blending mat and green ink (crushed olive distress or maybe lettuce adirondack;  I can't remember which).  Then I covered the hills and put the sunburst stencil in place and brushed through wild honey distress ink, concentrating the colour in the centre.  I did brush on a little stonewashed Adirondack for the sky, but I avoided brushing over the sun as I was worried about turning it green.  I added a little extra blue between the rays with a spectrum noir pencil.

 

Old paper distress ink around the edge as before.

 

 

This was where I really got engrossed and forgot to take photos, so we'll talk through making the little magnets while seeing them in use in some different scenes.  Please bear with me;  its really easy...

  

The shed is stamped with black archival and coloured with spectrum noir pencils.  For each of the silhouette stamps, I blended a couple of colours of archival inks.  I find I get a much better impression with archival inks rather than dye based inks, but its all down to personal preference and the inks you have.  If you are using coloured archival inks, be aware that these will strip the blue indexing off your Clarity stamps and affect the colour of your stamped image, so you need to take it off first with a baby wipe, nail polish remover or alcohol blending solution. 

Rather than a single solid colour, I was aiming for a blended effect.  The technique's the same for the trees and all the animals;  ink up the stamp in the lightest colour, then gently kiss part of the stamp onto the corner of the darker inkpad to blend the colours.  The cockerel and hens were done in orange blossom and sepia archival.

 

 

The barn was stamped in black archival and coloured with spectrum noir pencils.  The trees were done using fern green and potting soil archival;  the cows with tree branch and potting soil archival.

 

 

The sheep are easy peasy;  simply stamped in black archival.  The windmill, gate and tractor were also stamped in black archival, then coloured with spectrum noir pencils.  The horse was done in watering can and black;  the pigs in tea rose and cactus flower;  the ducks in saffron and orange blossom;  all archival inks. 

 

I cut everything out roughly first, then stuck the pieces onto the magnetic sheet and cut each one out leaving a small white border.  This wasn't hard to do, but did take quite a bit of time.

And there it is.  I'm on the lookout now for more tins, as I think I'll be making more of these for my grandchildren...

I've been blown away with all the positive feedback on this project;  you've all made me very happy, thank you.  In return, I hope you feel just a little bit inspired.  I'll be back again soon with another of my projects from last weekend's Clarity shows on Hochanda.  Till next time.  Xxx