Baubles

A bit of a different take on things but still a tag for the sentiment.

I decided to use that woodware background stamp again but this time in blue.. the last card gave me the idea.  so I did the blue on white then I embossed white on blue.  mmmm needs something on top....oh yes I know I got some stamps on a magazine that fit the heirloom dies from Spellbinder so I embossed white on white (doesn't show in the pic - rubbish photographer) then I cut them out and "hung" them from the top of the blue layer with silver cord.  the white sentiment will cover up most of the writing on the tag but at least it will match the rest of the card as it didn't look right just in blue.

more monochrome

Another card -----another house 

This Claritystamp doesn't have a frame around so using the same trick as yesterday's card I just drew a square using the stamped sky as a size. More little hillocks an dear and then I used the snowflake stamp from the same set as the dear to fill in the white.   Oh and there is glitter again 

A winter's view

Another in my series 

The house is a Clarity stamp but has an edge all the way round so I masked off the bottom so there was no line this allowed me to extend the view.  I continued the lines around the sides down and across to form a square.  I added some "hillocks" with black ink and a couple of the Claritystamp dea.

The background has been made with a Woodware background stamp.

Let it snow

So I am busy making Christmas cards ready for the up coming fairs I will be attending.  So far I have done mostly packs of cards to sell together but now I must move on and make some proper cards.  I came up with this idea of leaving a matt in place and I have lots of pre printed sentiments that I can add on the stall - I put a label on top of the cello bag over the tag that says to pick a sentiment for example Merry Christmas Mum & Dad.  so if some of my up and coming cards look a bit odd that's why.

So a simple card just stamped in archival blue using Claritystamps a bit of shading and though you can't see it some glitter but I did have to colour Mr. Robin - he couldn't be blue could he?

18th birthday - daughter

Here is the other half of yesterday's commissioned card order

I used pearlised card for this one .  I used my computer to generate the writing and changed the colour to "silver" its not silver really but as near as you can get a print to be!.  the number stamps are embossed with some sparkly embossing powder.

The flowers are a from two Chloe stamps (large and smaller) which I embossed with the same powder then cut out and layered up then finished off with some very blingy middles from creative expresssions.  The leaves are a pink frog die as are the butterfiles.  I covered the butterflies in versamark and embossed those two.  I ran another piece of pearl card through an a4 embossing folder  and made a box .

18th Birthday

Morning all - thought I would just take a couple of minutes to blog this card.  I was struggling to come up with an idea for an 18th birthday card for a girl and in the end - thanks to a couple of suggestions from fb friends this is what I came up with . - me and masking ---again.

I decided to use the Claritystamp balloon to frame my letters so I had to stamp each one, then emboss and then mask before I could go onto the next one and the balloon as a ribbon attached - you can see some of it in parts  so the masking became very important - lol.  I then coloured them in with probmarkers before adding the numbers and letters - Clarity again .  I stamped the champagne glasses - Inkwell stamps - and the word celebrated together with the twiddles and stars - no idea whose stamps - had them ages.

I then laid the trellis mask from Clarity over the top (after masking off the balloons - again and the wine glasses) and used victorian velvet distress ink to add a background.

I added glossy accents to the bubbles and the balloons and left to dry..............and then...............Oh no....................I dropped a box right on top of the glossy accents balloons ...............the air wasn't blue ...honest.

So I picked myself, dusted my self off and started all over again !

more g45

Sunday today and I will probs be taking Grumpy out for a run in the car somewhere so I thought I would just show you the second card that I made at the craft club on Thrusday.

Here is another of Kim Bacon's fancy fold cards using up some more of the G45 papers the stamps are all from Clarity

Nothing much more to say on this one - think I said it all yesterday ... Have a great day folks

G45 and fancy folds

So today is the day I pack up my little truck, collect my mate and set off for a lovely play day over at Locstock Hall near Preston for a Clarity Northwest workshop with the lovely Maria Simms.  I love these days we have such fun and crafty friends arrive from all over it is just brill and we make some fabby projects - cos our Maria is well clever. So I shall leave you with today's offering from me.



The other day I saw a great card on facebook  but I was on my phone and then the next day on my lappy I couldn't find it grrr anyway my friend Moira found it an tagged me.  so I got to go the blog and check it out.  so this card and the next are inspired by Kim Bacon  and here is her blog After that I was watching a recording of Sheena Douglass on the telly and it popped up amongst the samples.

So here is my version :-

Now I had a little play with some scrap card and decided that I didn't like how Kim's had no"back" behind the pop out bit so I decided to add a bit, then when it was folded up ..it was an odd size for an envelope so my versions ends up as a 15cm x 15 cm version.

I made this one at the craft club on Thursday afternoon - can you see I am also using up some more of the G45 pad?.  I didn't quite know what to stick on the front but then my mate Liz says what about this ere bird stamp I just got it I think it would look OK?
How right she was ( so while I was there I stamped and embossed a few more for future use lol).

I have left a spare space on the end panel for folks to write a message in .  I am  quite chuffed how this came out - whaddya think?

12 days of Christmas G45

 So when I was at Port Sunny I just had to get a graphic 45 pad for Christmas - I love their papers and you can just sit and stroke them for ages.....before putting them away again.

I am actually a bit useless at making cards with paper and I got an 8 x 8 size pad cos I knew it was for cards and not scrap booking.  but look you just don't want to cut into them and if you did where would you chop it down??

So I have made 7 cards from the front of some of the sheets and I have a cunning plan for the backsides lol.  So whilst these are not very exciting cards to me maybe somebody will like them on my stall. I have a fair at the beginning of November

one direction

Just been uploading some pics to put on here and found this - it was a quick order for a neighbour 

So I thought I would share an extra blog post 

I used my Serif programme and some images from the internet .

Simples and quick - but the twelve year old it was intended for loved it 

Ruby Wedding

This is a commission for a friend for her husband.

Terry really likes watches and she didn't want a "mushy" card so this is what I cam up with the little hearts are mdf and I got them from a cog or two ages ago when I went to a steam punk market.  I picked up the charms somewhere or other - they were in my stash.  The fob-watches are Clarity and the writing is done on the computer.

Christmas again

I could use a rhyme here about a chap that works with dead pheasants and his daughter -but I wont lol x

My new tree stencil came out again for this one and then I stamped the original stamp on top.

I started by stamping the pheasant and masking him off then I inked through the stencil with a brush.  I used black archival for the treescape stamp and then coloured in my pheasant.  Bit hard to see but I also used a glue pen and added some glitter to the trees

Jigsaw homework 2

This is the second of my Clarity jigsaw homework samples - this was a right pain to do I did LOADS before I got the jigsaw stamped to my satisfaction - its quite a big stamp and these are always harder to stamp to get the middle to print then a few times I masked off the line while I inked it then can you believe I actually tried to stamp it without moving the mask - oh well I got there eventually.  I just did a simple little scene and used glossy accents for the water under the bridge x

Jigsaw homework

Morning all thought I would get around to blogging some of the cards I have made over the last few days - so I will schedule a few to come up

If you are a Clarity fan hasn't that been a truly great weekend with three days of Clarity shows on the telly and some of the samples that the DT had done were great and what about young Massimo's jigsaw homework and he is only 5 amazing. If you didn't watch or you are not a fan sorry for rabbing on lol.


So here is one of the cards  I sent in to C & C as homework from the last class with Barbara  It uses the treescape stencil - a purchase from Harrogate, the maple leaf set and the spare piece from the jigsaw set.  Lots of masking going on .

five gold rings

Good Morning All - today I am off to the Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza in Harrogate - up way to early though so just thought I would post this card before I go to pick up my crafty friends ready for the road trip - YAY.

Not one of my better pics - seems to be a bit pale at the bottom but hey ho David Bailey I am not lol 

I originally did this for a blog but then changed my mind so it has gone in my Christmas stash ready.  

12 days of Christmas ? what to do - here is the result lol I took the Noel Framer and embossed in gold to the left of the card I then repeated on 4 pieces of card and cut out the "rings" I brayered some sky and then made little scenes in each of the O's using the miniature Christmas kit, the little log cabin . 

Hope you like it

All the stamps are Clarity 

Snowmen

the last two for now but these will not be the last of that I am sure lol

I think I have had these two snowmen stamps since the first Christmas that I started making cards I think they were made by Habico.  just simply stamped in black archival and coloured with pencils .  I wanted just a touch of colour and I had stamped with archival then I thought oh now I can't use promarkers now but I think the pencils have given a lovely soft touch 

on a roll now

Two more Christmas cards :-

This first card is made with the small winterland stamp from Clarity a small sprig of Holly again from Clarity , a small tag from Clarity and I have no idea where the little Merry Christmas stamp came from but it was in my stash lol Its done in black and white then I added a bit of glitter

A navy blue card simply stamped with a Clarity sentiment stamp and the stars were free I think with an issue of Craft stamper last year . Matted and layered on some silver mirri card .

Christmas is coming!

Finally made a start on some Christmas cards 

These were inspired by Linda Walmsley I saw some of her cards in the Simply cards and papercraft magazine I didn't have the same IndigoBlu stamps that she used so I improvised lol.  the flourish is part of the Christmas tree and the dear was a new design stamp from Clarity last year.

Winter - Happy New Year

I cannot believe it October already where has this year gone.

I spent Saturday at the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunny and the lovely Maria Simms was demoing on the Claritystamp stand - sadly Barbara was down in Exeter, but both of them will be on duty on Saturday at the Harrogate show - yay another day out and then the next weekend will be Barbara weekend on the telly .

It's the first of the month and so time to showcase my dt sample from the Claritystamp challenge blog. where it has been all change.  Due to other commitments it is with deep sadness that Hellen, Karen and Rae have said goodbye to us and I wish them all well for the future.  On the upside we have three lovely new ladies Jo Rice, Sam Crowe and Amand Branston - so welcome ladies great to have you on board and looking forward to seeing your future masterpieces.

Last months entries were as usual outstanding  and it was very difficult to chose just my fave five . ..we all pick our own personal favourites and the lovely Sally Anne Haynes works out the five most popular from all the dt faves.  These then become the top five over on the challenge blog.  The winner is of course picked randomly so that it is fair to all entries.  Have you entered any challenges - you should there is an amazing £50 voucher up for grabs - so go on give it a go!

The theme this month is Winter and I am sorry that this picture is not very good but I struggled with the reflection bouncing back off the card.

What should I do for a winter card?  I wasn't feeling particularly Christmassy  when I did the card and so I didn't fancy doing a snowy scene.  Then I hit on the idea of the fireworks that go off in London at New Year - and New Year is in Winter innit so off I went.

I started with a gelli print and I used black, silver and white pearly paint and the sunburst stamp which always reminds me of fireworks.  I used the black Clarity card for the main picture and the sentiments.

I took the London Skyline mask and dragged versamark down from the top - I didn't drag it all the way to the bottom as I wanted to leave that dark. I then used white perfect pearls I stamped the Clarity characters in versamark again to form a crowd watching the fireworks and again used the perfect pearls white.

I left it all to dry for yonks before I then covered them up with the other half of the mask so that I could stamp the sky.  I also used the Aliums as well as the sun burst stamp and the lines over tower bridge were made by using just the stem.

I hope you like it and it inspires you to take part in the challenge.