Butterflies

Hello there!  I thought I'd pop in with a quick blog of my butterfly card from 20th November's Best of Clarity shows on Hochanda. 

First, I blended distress paints on an A5 piece of stencil card.  I think the colours I used were:  candied apple, carved pumpkin, fossilised amber, lucky clover, mermaid lagoon and wilted violet.  The good thing about using paint is that you get full coverage and vibrant colour really quickly and easily.

It took several trial runs on copy paper to work out the positioning of the butterflies before stamping them onto stencil card.

I then cut round the wings with  a really sharp craft knife so that they could be folded up.

All that I needed to do then was to stick this in place on top of the coloured background.

Trim back and edge with a black sharpie pen before mounting onto a card blank. 

Its a clean and simple design, but its very effective I think.  I hope you like it too. 

I can't believe that Barbara Gray is back on the TV on Sunday.  My samples for that show are all boxed up ready for posting tomorrow and I'll be back on Thursday with my Claritystamp Challenge card for December!  Going to be a busy few days!!!  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  

Beyond words...

Hello there and a very warm welcome to the new follower who's joined us:  its good to have you with us, and I hope you will continue to find some inspiration.  I'm back with another couple of my samples from last weekend's Claritystamp One Day Special shows on Hochanda.  No wonder the new word chain alphabet stamps sold out so quickly:  I just love them!

 

As you can see from my play sheets below;  I wanted to experiment using the letters as shapes and patterns in their own right, rather than just to spell out words (although they're great for this too). 

These are just a few ideas I tried out...

 

 

If I'd had a bit more time, the "L" border below was next on my list to use for a sample.  It reminds me a bit of a Grecian key border. 

 

 

For this first sample, I used Mod Podge to collage old vintage book pages onto some card.

 

 

Then I started stamping my rainbow zig zags using the capital V and distress paints.  Can you spot the mistake?  I decided to just keep going and worry about how to cover it up later:  a word chain sentiment should do it.

 

 

You can see below that I went through the colours of the rainbow.  Only now did I decide that the green I'd used:  twisted citron, didn't make enough impact. 

 

 

Luckily paint is a bit more forgiving than ink, and I was able to overstamp in lucky clover.

 

 

Some chipped sapphire distress ink brushed and blended lightly over the joins and around the edges.  Gilding wax and glamour dust glitter to finish the edge, and a word simply stamped in black archival on a scrap of stencil card and edged with a black sharpie pen.

 

 

The ingredients for the second card are:  the heart stencil, hugs and kisses word chain, and of course the fab word chain alphabet, black archival, black soot and barn door distress inks.

 

I cut a 7" x 7" piece of stencil card card into 4 pieces, each 3.5" square and used the upper case X and O on one square, the lower case x and o on another.  Hugs and kisses on the 2 remaining squares.  The squares were then trimmed back to 3" square.  I masked off a single heart on the heart stencil, and brushed through with barn door distress ink.  On the other 2 squares, I brushed around and in from the edge, leaving the centre white.

 

I went very, VERY gently around the edge of each square with a blending tool and black soot distress ink.  Your Clarity blending mat will help the ink go on nice and smoothly too.  Simply matted onto a piece of black card with a hand made heart embellishment in the centre:  just a little heart shaped piece of card coloured with barn door distress ink to match and triple embossed with detail clear embossing powder.

 

I hope you like these latest makes and feel inspired to try out some patterns of your own.  Its amazing what you can do with just a set of alphabet stamps.

Thanks for stopping by...  I'll be back soon with another of my samples from the show.  Till next time.  Xxx 

Extreme masking!!!

Hello there!  The start of another month (and, yes, its April already), means its time for a new theme over on the Claritystamp challenge blog.  Click here to pop over and see some wonderful projects to inspire you from the rest of my talented teamies.  This month, we're doing something a bit different, and asking you to showcase your grasp of a fundamental stamping technique:  masking.  So please make sure your project involves masking, to avoid being disqualified and missing out on the chance to win a £50 Clarity voucher.

 

So let's get started.  There's lots of masking in this one.

 

I've planned to make a gatefold card using the NDC acorn stamp.  Cut a piece of 7" x 7" stencil card to make 2 pieces, each 3.5" x 7".  Then I started by stamping the first part of my sentiment into place with black archival using the woodpress set.  This was then masked off  (good news;  the masks are included with this set). 

 

 

 Then I stamped the acorn into place using potting soil archival.

 

 

When you remove the masks, you can clearly see how the acorns are sitting behind the letter boxes.

 

 

Repeat the same steps for the other side of the gatefold:  boxes and letters first, and cover with masks.

 

 

 On this side, I stamped the oak tree from and an old classroom set:  trees and their mantles.

 

 

Remove the masks again. 

 

 

I completed my sentiment on the main piece (7" x 7" stencil card) and masked  off again.

 

 

Before starting on this panel, I had to stamp the acorn on to a couple of post its and cut out the masks.  This was a bit fiddly because the stamp is quite intricate, but it'll be worth it.  So, working from the centre outwards, start stamping the acorn sprig, covering up and moving the masks as necessaryas you go along. 

 

Just keep going... 

 

At this stage, I added a frame with low tack tape, and yes...  still kept going!

 

 

Once the masking tape is removed, you can see how I let some acorns and leaves overlap into the frame.

 

 

Its time now to add some colour.  I decided to go with three of last year's new distress colours:  twisted citron, carved pumpkin and wilted violet. 

 

I inked up and stamped the mantle with twisted citron.  Then I scribbled onto the stamp with carved pumpkin and wilted violet distress markers and lightly spritzed with water.  This gives a fab variegated effect without going muddy.

 

 

That's it for the stamping now. 

 

I just need my spectrum noir pencils, choosing colours to match the inkpads I've chosen.

 

 

Having coloured in the acorn sprig on the front panel, I coloured in the background on this main piece.  This really makes the acorn sprigs pop. 

 

 

And here's the finished card.  I hope you like it. 

 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing loads of fabulous entries again this month, even if it does make it very difficult to pick a top 5. 

 

And don't forget to tune into Barbara Gray on Hochanda on Sunday and Monday.  She has some absolutely fabulous stamps to show you.  You are going to love 'em!  Till next time.  Xxx