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  

Ssssssssh.... don't tell my mum!

Hello again.  Well this year is really flying by;  I can't believe its 1st March already.  You know what that means:  its time for a new theme over at the Claritystamp challenge blog.  This month, its all about the girls.

 

I decided to use the card I've made for my mum for Mother's Day;  its only a few days away, so I don't think she'll see this before then.  So if you are reading this mum, stop now! 

 

I stamped the hen into place using black archival, and once dry, covered it with a mask. 

 

 

Then I put the daffodil frame stencil in place as shown.

 

 

I cut out a copy mask to cover the outer part of the frame to make sure I didn't get any ink in these sections at this stage.

 

I then blended in picked raspberry distress ink at the bottom of the oval,  mermaid lagoon at the top, and mustard seed in the middle using the Clarity stencil brushes.  Then I sprinkled on a little water and blotted with kitchen roll to lift the ink.

 

 

Next, I covered up the central oval with the innie part of the stencil and covered the join with masking tape.

 

 

I brushed and blended the same colours through the flowers and the frame, I made the colour a bit more intense here.  Then I added my sentiment using black archival and the wordpress kit. 

 

 

I stamped this little chick onto shrink plastic with black archival and coloured with distress markers.  It never ceases to amaze me how much the image shrinks without losing any detail.

 

 

You can see here that I've used spectrum noir pencils in the same colours for the hen,   I've also started to add some shading to the border with grey pencils.

 

 

I trimmed the artwork back and edged it with a ruler and a black sharpie pen. 

 

All that was left to do now was to decide on the position of the little chicks...

 

 

or...

 

 

or???

 

 

I finally decided on this. 

 

 

I hope you like my fun and funky Mothers Day card.  I'm pretty sure it will make my mum smile. 

 

Now its over to you...  I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll make.  Don't forget, the winner is chosen at random, so it doesn't matter if you're a beginner or a seasoned stamper;  everyone's in with an equal chance to win that £50 Clarity voucher.  So go on, give it a go.  Till next time.  Xxx