little flower

Good morning! 

Yesterday I read a blog by the lovely Maria Simms and she said her resolution for this year was just to try and revive her blog, which in turn got me to thinking that I have neglected my blog too last year so in the spirit I think I might try to do the same.  Now as I already posted this month's claritystamp challenge yesterday I am already on a roll!

Many of you may know or not as the case may be, I am a member of the UK Stampers network . It's a great club with lots of different lists you can join, I am on the atc list, the tag list and the inchie list so I do send and receive lots of happy post. Follow the link to check it out...its mega expensive its a whole £2.50 for a years membership. 

Anyhoo this is an atc I have made.  Love this club as its a great way of using up random bits of stuff.

This was part of some brusho cut off, I used a crafters companion die for the flower, more brusho scraps, and a clarity stamp flower along with a tiny flower.no idea where from and the word is from the million thank you from Clarity 

It's Friday so I should probably do some shopping, time to get life back on an even keel after all the festivities although for some of you there are still three days before the return to work.  Have a great weekend xx

Things with Wings

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Have you had a good Christmas - did you get lots of lovely stuff?  Are you hungover this morning?

We had a very quiet Christmas this year but it was lovely just the same my eldest,her hubby and the bump came in the morning but they were having Christmas lunch with his family this year.  My youngest in Gibraltar sadly still hasn't had her pressie, neither has her partner Neil and his birthday was on boxing day so everything went together - so thanks Royal Mail - I posted the parcel 5th December so I was in plenty of time.

Anyway its all happening here isn't it? Sad to lose most of my teamies at one fell swoop but with all that is going on at Clarity towers they are somewhat busy.  It has been great working with them but I won't be saying bye bye as some of them I do see quite regularly, others just now and again but thanks to fb we will all still be chatting on a more or less daily basis! and so its time to say hello to my new teamies - and haven't they done some fantastic stuff?  I feel sure that they will keep me on my toes!

We had lots of lovely entries again last month its always a very difficult job to pick my top five and then Sally Anne has the unenviable job of counting up all our fave fives and calculating the winners - good job the voucher winner is picked my machine!!!!  At this point I would also like to give her a massive THANK YOU for all that she does behind the scenes on the Claritystamp challenge blog she does an excellent job as chief Admin and guru especially when we all get stuck with the technicalities!

So this month's them is things with wings - Oh what to use? Birds? Butterfiles? Aeroplane - no not got a Claritystamp of one of the those - so in the end I decided to go with Dragonfles .  

I used my gelli plate to create the background - there isn't really a pattern in it just lots of grungy colours -- red, gold and blue   I left the circle in the middle to so that I could create a landscape - I did this with a moon mask, torn paper and my ink brushes with inks.  I stamped the funky flowers and large and small dragonflies in archival ink then used speccy pencils to colour them in but the flowers didn't really stand out so I stamped them again on some smooth heavyweight paper, coloured them in again, cut them out and stuck them over the top.

In real life there is some shading as the bulbous flowers are lighter in the middle and shading at the top and bottom but the picture doesn't really show that off.  The dragonflies are shaded too and that doesn't show - I need some lessons in taking pics I think - but then again my house is so dark - well that's my excuse 

Well that's it I have waffled on enough for today so please visit my teamies blogs and leave them an uplifting comment especially the new ladies who are all very nervous and many of whom have been past winners or have made the top five previously so see where your entry may take you?

I hope you like this piece and I have inspired you to have a go at this month's challenge- why don't you make it one of your NY resolutions to give the challenge a go each month - we have some great themes on the agenda.

play time

Good Afternoon  I am just sat sitting as I have been doing some bits and bobs of admin on the old lap top so whilst I was here I thought I would just blog this card I made.

It all started with Barbara's blog and her canvas - you can view it here.  Needless to say mine is pale in comparison but I thought I would give it a go anyway.  I practised on a bit of card stock to get the idea first.

Barbara used some Golden open acrylics - I haven't any of those but I have a few from Deco art so I used those instead.  Also don't have any canvas boards so I improvised and used Acrylic textured paper 30 gsm if you look really close you can see the canvass type texture.

Firstly I dragged in the paints (gold, red and blue) from the sides

Here's how it turned out

 I added the stencil (dirty from my practising) at a jaunty angle making sure that the exposed bits of my artwork were covered with bits of low tack tape

Added the grunge paste and left to dry.  Whilst it was drying I started two more (pics further down this blog post)

Love how the canvas pattern can still be seen 

whilst the paste was drying I also cleaned the stencil then replaced on my work and added more of the same colours through to colour the grunge paste.  I did the leaves in gold first then added blue from the bottom side to add some shade and also blue and gold make a greeny colour!  I did the flower head in gold, then added the red followed by a bit of blue at the bottom again for shade.

Out with the new word chains - oh yes indeedy I got them  and job done

I was quite chuffed with my little self

Here are two more done in the same way.  Methinks I might need some more of the pen acrylics - I likey lots.

Anyway that's it I think I will turn off the lappy and go and make a brew - happy crafting xx

Trees

Trees

Good Morning and welcome to December - it's nearly here - are you ready? Me ? no I haven't started the Christmas shopping but I am feeling smug in that I have made and written all my cards (over 70) some of the local ones have already been posted in our local scouts posts (they raise money for their funds every year by running a local postal service ---its only 25p per card so thats much cheaper but the last posting date is 5th December to give them time to sort it all out and deliver it.)  The sad thing is I wrote them all and sealed the envelopes then remembered I hadn't taken a piccy of any - how stupid is that.  I have the cards for my girls and their partners that are not sealed so at least I can take a pic of those and I suppose I had better make a card for Grumpy - though why I don't know as he doesn't like Christmas!

Anyhoo enough waffle from me.  We had some lovely entries for travel last month, the most popular stamps seemed to be the boy and birds, balloons and of course last month's ndc stamp the car with the tree in the back.  I wonder who will win and get and early Christmas pressie to spend at Clarity?

The final challenge for this year is Trees so here is my inspirational piece - well I hope its inspirational.

I started with some brusho's I used sandstone and rose red and on a piece of card and sprayed liberally with water.  I laid a piece of acrylic paint card on top with a linen finish and then lifted it off this is a cool way of doing it as you get two pieces so you can save one for matting and layering if you need it.

If you look at the picture below you can see how it just picks up the linen in places - its a really cool finish that I learnt from Pauline Wheeler

I used the remountable butterflies clear stamp set  for this card and I used versamark and black embossing powder so that the image would really pop.I added the top of the tree along the bottom together with some other tree stamps to create a "forest" I stamped the butterflies randomly in the "sky"

On the the other piece of plain card I stamped the some more butterifles and embossed in the same way then I cat them out

 This way I was able to stick them onto my previously stamped images and give them some depth

So there you have it  and here it is .  I hope it inspires you to have a go at this month's challenge 

surprise surprise!

Hello Hello Hello,  

Ecky thump its been yonks since I manage to blog that wasn't for the Claritystamp Challenge but just for me!

Its been a busy old year one way and another but there is light at the end of the tunnel!  I think I have nearly finished my numerous Christmas cards  just need to finish a few off and do some inserts.

So before I do that I finished this at the weekend and I thought I would share it with you.

I had been having a session with me brusho's - I have got some of the wax but don't really know what I am doing with it as this is the only session I did with it, anyway I got Jo's bubble stencil and I put some brusho crystal through the holes.  sprayed with water and dried.  I then put the stencil back on and sponges some of the wax through it .  I then added some black brusho around the edges , sprayed with water and left to dry overnight.

The next day I rinsed it under the tap and was left with what just screamed sky at me.

I left it on my table for a few days and just kept looking at it,  I decided to add some trees, still not quite right - the moon needed something so out came the heron.  I then decided to add some more trees but more in the foreground but as I had already done the ones in first generation ink I decided to use black embossing powder to make them stand out.  I matted it onto some black card but it needed a lift so using the same colours of brusho's, I did another piece to mat and layer onto 

I quite like it but would be very interested to see what you think or am I just going mad?

Travel

OMG I cannot believe we have got to the beginning of November and  I haven't even started making my Christmas cards yet.(starting to panic now)  These months are just flying by.

So what have I been up to since my last blog - oh I must get better at blogging, the trouble is a lot of stuff I do I cannot share and then I am in an atc, gift tag and inches club and I could share these but I always forget to take piccies lol - anyway back to what I have been up to ?  October has just gone in a whirlwind it started with a trip to Gibraltar to visit my youngest which sadly meant missing Port Sunny show anyway grumpy decided that we should go away (he cannot fly so no Gib for him) for my birthday so I arrived back on Monday and set off for a week in Wales on the Friday, in between I had orders to make and workshops to plan.  we booked Friday to Friday which meant I could then go to the Clarity Northwest class in Preston the day after we arrived back and then the following day - it just had to be done - jumped in the car along with my Sister in Law and off we went to Doncaster Dome to the craft show there.  We had a lovely time and of course Sam and Jo were both there as were their brand new stencils - both of them had grins like Cheshire cats, needless to say I got them both then I had workshop on the Wednesday at Craftrange followed by a demo day on Thursday  this last week over in Fleetwood for the Crafty Company.

Enough waffle I am really here to talk about my piece for the November challenge over on the Claritystamp challenge blog.

We had some more fabulous entries again last month so wonder what on earth people will think of for the theme of TRAVEL

I also bought these three little ships at Doncaster so felt I just had to use the bubble stencil and the ships.  I used the gelli plate with ink with a ghost from one print overlaid with a print from another I used a bit of copy paper to make the horizon and a bit of ink, and used the word chains to make the word - so useful those word chains just a case of masking and inking .

Seasons- the falling leaves of Autumn

Morning All

It's the first of October and so I have only 2 more sleeps before I go to visit my daughter in Gibraltar, I am going with my other daughter so it will be lovely for us all to be together, Grumpy isn't coming (he's not allowed to fly so we will be having a week in Welsh Wales when I come back)

We had some super entries again last month and some stunning cards with clever ideas so well  done to everyone who took part,  it is always hard to pick my favourites 

So the theme for October is Seasons and here is my inspirational piece - I actually remembered to take some pictures as I was doing it - so that makes a change!

 

I had the idea for this card when I was at the Inkymitts hub at the end of July.  

I was originally thinking for the last challenge of Nature and I saw some stamps on the wall so as I had my stencils with me I borrowed the stamps and this is what I came up with.  At the time I quite liked it but when I got home I realised that the over-stamping wasn't really up to scratch as I had missed bits.  I tested in the corner one with some pencils on the top but I wasn't happy with that so I it to one side.

 

However on the up side I had taken delivery of some Brusho crystals a few days before and I had this background in my stash from my first days play and I did think it would make a cool background for the leaves.

  

I messed about a bit with the leaves set, I tried various inkpads and coloured over with my speccy pencils but it wasn't quite right.  I put it all to one side for another day and decided to get out the gelli and try the brusho's on it .  using autumnal colours and spraying water and sliding about on some of them I had these three prints in front of me.

 

Now in their own right they don't amount to very much and were a bit messy - but then sometimes messy is good.

 Then I had a brainwave I started stamping with archival ink on top. - result lovely leaves so I stamped out loads in various parts of the prints and cut them out.

 

I shaded the back with brown and a stencil brush so that I could wrinkle them up and bit and not show white.

 

Can you see how they are all coloured differently like they would be in real life - I was soo chuffed.

So there you have it falling leaves of Autum - eeee this has been a long post for me - I hope you are still with me ! It has been my friend Cindie Cooper's birthday so she got this card.

Looking forward to seeing the entries for this month - bet we get some cracking Christmas ones!