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  

Oh dear, I'm a very bad blogger!!!

Hello there everyone!  Its been a long time I know.  There's been a lot going on, and November has passed in a bit of a blur!  Wonderful news first:  our beautiful new grand daughter Rosie Grace was born on Saturday 14th.  On the flip side, we also marked a year on Friday 20th since we lost Dad:  so many memories...  Its been a mad, crazy, busy couple of weeks at work too;  managing a project to completion on a very tight deadline:  quite stressful, I have to say.  And its nearly Christmas:  have I made all my cards yet?  No!  have I finished all the little gifts I want to make yet?  No!  have I finished my Christmas shopping yet?  No!  So what's on my wish list for Santa?  A few more hours in the day please!

So I thought I'd go through my samples in a bit more detail for those of you who're interested.  

Log cabin, star and sprucescape

1.  I'm not very good at scene building, so I kept it very simple and added a little hide and seek trick with the log cabin.  The tag is just attached with a brad;  easy to do, but positioning is everything.

 

2.  Thanks to Maria Simms for the inspiration for this one.  I used Peach Bellini adirondack and Hickory Smoke distress ink.  My original plan was to cut it into 3 panels and mount as a triptych, but I was short of time and worried about spoiling it.  Just a touch of glitter added to the trees. 

 

Elephant and trellis stencils

1.  Bright and vibrant;  Fossilised Amber, Picked Raspberry and Mermaid Lagoon (or maybe Peacock Feathers), brushed and blended through the stencil.  Black embossing paste and black satin glitter for the elephant.

 

2.  Loads of prep work for this one.  I wanted to use the clever corners for a faux zentangle effect, so first I had to cut out masks.  Then I just stamped through all the different sections with the corners with Black archival and outlined with a black micron pen.  Exactly the same for the baby elephant, but on shrink plastic.  Carefully cut 2 slits and hooked baby's tail around mummy's.  Flitterglu sponged through the trellis stencil and gilding flakes applied.

Colour bursts and stag stencil

1.  This was my absolute favourite.  It doesn't normally bother me, but I could quite happily have kept this one!  Still its nice to hear so many lovely comments about it;  hopefully its inspired you to create some art of your own.  This was a wonderfully happy accident;  a mop up sheet of colour bursts mod podged onto a canvas board, then grunge paste pulled through the stencil.  Some Frantage embossing powder added for texture, then spectrum noir pencils and charcoal to add shading once dry.

2.  This last card also uses colour bursts.  This time I pulled translucent embossing paste through the stencil and added little puffs of colour bursts while the stencil was still in place and the embossing paste was still wet.  I just brushed Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio distress inks through the trellis stencil to finish. 

Well that's it for now.  I'm already working on samples for Barbara's show on 6th December.  Hope you'll be able to join us then for some fab new stamps and stencils.  Till next time.  Xxx