Good Morning well it's cold but at least it's drythe sun is struggling to break through the clouds and we may have a sunny if cold day for all those who have been flooded I hope this give's you a chance to start cleaning....BIG HUG'S.

I have blogged two cards today the top card is a lovely House Mouse stamp made into a Birthday card....Do like these little mice as a good friend of mine would say they are such fun ....


The second card is back to CLARITYSTAMPS again the club members will know the pear stamp was Sept issue I think....well I had played with it and liked the stamp but didn't know what I wanted to do with it.....in town the other day I saw some pine wreath's and thought I wonder if you (ME) could do that with the pear stamp I had the Partridge from last year :)
2 hours later at home I started by playing with the partridge it was obvious he was going to have to be stamped first then I need a circle tins were no good they were just that little bit to small then I found a wide mug .....fitted perfectly all the way round the partridge and left room to put the pears round. So circle lightly drawn.  Stamp partridge in the centre. I then made four masks one for the bird and three of the pear stamp. Starting at the top cover with mask do not stamp first! this will be your last stamping place .....It will tuck in any odds and ends. Next cover Partridge, your first pear stamp should start at two o clock as you look at your circle with the bulk of the pear branch top being stamped onto the mask, cover this and do the next segment again making sure the branch is stamped on the mask...continue till you have compleated the circle and arrive back at the top. Remove the mask at the top and place in last pear stamp it should fit in neatly now if you look closely at my card and the pear stamp you will notice the pears have a brown bit on the bottom.....When you stamp you are taking the last outer pear bottom and placing it on the drawn circle that is how to keep the wreath round...cut out and colour I used neemah card cause I still have loads but any card recomended for promarkers will do ....Oh and adirondack Pitch Black to stamp out the images a mixture of greens for the wreath .....I used Lime zest ....Apple cider....pear green and for the partridge Pastle Blue, Denim Blue Oatmeal and Burnt Orange.  I sent a veriation of this in to Barbara Gray for home work and used the 1st from her numbers set...... as in the 1st day of Christmas.....hope you like it. xx

Hi Everyone I had a Great time at the NEC but more of that later.....Before I went I was asked by the lovely Lindsay Elise Jolly to join her design team the task this month was to either use handmade paper. Which I will use but not often and I really don't like it...it's me I can never get it to do what I want it to do ... or to use a canvas bag....well I thought the bag seemed fun I love altered art projects and I had never tried canvas before, well only to sew on and I'm not much good at sewing either. So good as her word the bag was in the post. Now what to do with it .......well the month is November and there are poppies everywhere so that's where the inspiration comes from but the stamp I had was to small for what I wanted to do even using the two Clarity stamps joined together at the bottom wasn't big enough to catch the eye. Then I thought of the BRITISH LEGION  as I bought my own poppy and this verse by LAURENCE BINYON from his war poem FALLEN which is said at the Festival Of Remembrance so onto what you will need and how I did it.

One Burlap Bag
3 long strips of masking tape each piece needs to be a little longer (About an inch either side) of the width of the bag.
One see through ruler
Archival Black Inkpad
Pro-markers in poppy and moss green make sure you have the fine nibs on both
One Large piece of card to fit inside bag you will need this to be nearly the same size  as the inside of the bag because this is what we are going to stamp on. Oh and please make sure there is no overlapping bits of card as this will affect the outcome when you stamp.
One large stamp-mat.

The stamps are all from clarity you will need Pop2-H Pop3-F and REMBOX which are the codes of the stamps I used. a selection of clarity mounts large medium and small.

Take the bag and put card inside it this does two things first when you stamp the ink will not go through to the other side but will be held by the card and second makes the bag stiff enough to stamp onto without creases.
Peel off strip one of the masking tape it may help if you number these in pencil so this will be strip 1 and if you look on the photo you can see the TOP seam this is our guiding point lay the first strip of masking tape across from side to side just under this seam allowing the tape to stick onto the stamp mat....now if you can get this tape lined up onto a line on the stamp mat that would be good it make things easier to judge....add the second piece of tape Strip 2 right underneath the first but although you want it straight you don't have to stick the edges down on this one....take the third piece of tape Strip 3 and stick down firmly directly under the second piece. So now all three strips of tape should be straight one under the other...
With me so far?
Next take OFF the second piece of tape (strip 2) where the gap is .....this is where you are going to stamp your first line of whatever verse or sentiment you want to put.....Now before you start to put your words together stick that second bit of tape(Number  2 )under the third Number 3) so now when you look down you should have the bag still being held by the first strip of tape then a straight gap where you letters are going to go then two more piece's of tape underneath that.

The words; You could mount all your letters onto different stamps and try stamping them individually....I tried that on paper it looked a mess had I tried the letters first and not taken the trouble to do the masking I would have walked away but I had started and wasn't going to let this beat me!
 so this is how I did it.
You need the stamping mat and the see through ruler. Put the ruler on the mat, and the bag to the side but in easy reach. take you letters and place them FACE DOWN on the clear ruler at regular intervals some letters you will need to play with and move till you think they are right as regards the spacing bare in mind I am stamping groups of letters that form part of words so for the word remember I had to split it down inot REM
  EMB   ER  this can be frustrating as we all know at critical moments the phone goes kids start arguing there will always be something just as you are about to do this however PERSEVERE it's well worth it take your mount and hover over the letters because they are face down you will be able to read them also because they are face down when you press the handle down on top of them you will be able to lift them up ink and blot on a bit of copy paper to make sure you are happy with the letters then ink again and stamp onto bag. Complete this till the end of your first line then... Lift the middle  piece of tape which should be tape Number 3 and place under tape Number 2 you are now going to stamp your second line. The masking tape keeps your lines straight. and you just keep lifting each piece of tape and butting underneath the other one when that line has finished....the poppy stamps I Inked and coloured in with pro-markers and Lastly I ironed the bag ink with a hot dry iron to seal the ink.
I will say be careful colouring in the ink bleeds so I used the fine nibs on both pen's.  The stalks I just ran a quick green line where needed and the flowers were dotted and left the ink just spreads so dotting and walking away then coming back to it in a moment or two worked for me ... in between shouting at dogs kids and telephone calls asking if I had been miss sold PPI! Well I hope these are clear if not PM Me and I will go and take a few Photos but that will be in the morning it's 2.14 and I'm tired so goodnight xxx