Clarity South West.

Hello Everyone....Wow my poor Blog won't know whats happening I don't post for ages then we have half a dozen in a week! Let me tell you about my new adventure...
   Clarity South West has been an idea born ...as I find all best ideas are.  At the ungodly hour of 3 am one morning, While listening to Taxi door's being slammed, and the late night chorus of revelers calling goodnight to each other.
   This was a Friday night... well Saturday morning and Barbara Gray was due on TV in a few hours time, I pad downstairs open the back door to let the dogs out who are now convinced it's time to get up. I'm wide awake so the kettle goes on and one by one the dogs come back in... Sitting drinking tea and flicking through a magazine, I began thinking wouldn't it be great if we had a craft club of some kind, something, anything. alas all signs of crafting life stops at Bristol there is very little in the south west at all. This idea bugged me for ages then I heard of a Clarity Workshop starting up in the Norfolk area.  This idea played in my mind off and on for a few weeks. I eventually Contacted Barbara Gray and then then met with Barbara briefly at the NEC. In November. Clarity South West was born. For those who maybe interested. My group is based in Plymouth. We meet once a month and are purely a Clarity stamping group Our next meeting will be On Thursday 14th March at Plymouth City Bus Social Club from 10 am till 2pm....we are a friendly bunch so do come along and join the fun hope to see you there

Stamping on glass

This has been an idea of mine for ages. And I happened upon it quiet by accident. I knew I wanted to stamp onto glass ....For the Clarity Design Team Challenge I was going to try and stamp tumblers but try as I might I couldn't get it to work the stamp or the tumbler or my hand didn't seem to have the coordination needed to make that particular idea viable.  So back to the drawing board I had bought these Tim Holtz Lenses for the NEC maybe three years ago, and I found them out intending to play with inks and see what happened.  As I was musing on what to do I had a "I wonder what if moment" and decided to try and stamp on one...well I stamped the birdcage first, from the Clarity Birdcage set but in Versamark then clear embossing powder and liked the effect then inked up one of the birds in Stonewashed Blue turned the glass over and stamped the bird on the underneath of the glass.  The effect was amazing but....when I tried to photograph it it didn't show up. So using a black archival ink I once again inked the birdcage and stamped it out I expected it to dry quickly but as it was glass it didn't so once again I heat embossed it and was delighted with the result I inked up the bird  using Cranberry Adirondack, again onto the back of the glass and heat embossed it too....the cling film technique was used on some Clarity coated card. I masked off two lines in the middle and used cloudy blue and a pink RANGER distress inkpad to create the marbled effect.The white strips I had blanked off where now begging to have something put there the swirls were just the thing as you can guess I embossed those to but in gold this time making sure the Versamark stayed within the strip buy using copy paper I applied the same technique to the small swirls on the two lenses but I stuck then to the counter by using some double sided tape to hold them in place while stamping-embossing  the glass is stuck onto the clarity card with silicone glue. Hope you like it.

Mother's Day Card

Using Archival ink I stamped onto Acetate once then turned the Acetate over and stamped the mirror image onto the other side using Barbara Grays large Lilly Of The Valley stamp. put to one side and left to dry. while this was drying I took a piece of Theuva card! and stamped lots of random smaller Lillie's onto that in Versamark and then did the same with a sheet of trimmed copy paper but stamping two of the large Lillie's in the center of the insert. I then tool a Lettuce Adirondack ink pad and brayered both the cardstock and the paper insert. The Acetate now being dry I colour with  a Pear green Promarker for the stems and leaves...and white pen for the little flowers ....again put aside and leave to dry....finally when this is done turn over the acetate so the ink from the colouring is underneath and stamp on your sentiment. Attach with four brads to each of the four corners and ribbon to if desired. stick to card and slot insert in there you have it. xxx Happy Mothers day!

Found a few old Photo's

I found a few Photos of a Balloon flight that I took it was bought for me by my Husband for my 40th birthday ....quiet a few years ago now in the middle picture is a young little Rory in a green T shirt looking at the Balloon being inflated that same boy has his 18th Birthday in 12 days time....scary!
So I just wanted to document these and again posted them to show how you could use Stamping and Scrapbooking together....you are only limited by your own imagination. x

Barbara was playing with the Rose stamp on the TV in February having just bought the London and Sky Mask I wanted to see what I could do with them. And this was what I came up with....I did hope the rose may have been small enough to go into the O but it looked odd however I turned  it it did'nt seem to work so as the London Skyline and clouds were already in place  I stuck the rose high .....the thing to take away from this is yes it's a nice card. BUT it would have been better had the Skyline been higher so the rose could have been popped in the righthand corner at the bottom....Next time I have a go at this one that's what I will do.

Dog

Hi and a very happy Thursday to you. I can't believe we are into March already...the weeks are simply flying past. I was chatting on Facebook to a lovely Lady called SAM CROWE if you don't already know her Sam is on the DT team for SplodgeAway her blog is SAMSHOMECOOKEDCARDS go and take a look her blog is fab AND she does quiet a few tutorials on You tube....Well anyway I digress Sam and I were chatting and the subject came up about art book's. A little book of doodles or ideas so I decided to throw caution to the wind and buy one this is my first page!....I saw a patchwork dog on Pinterest a few weeks ago and if you scroll down to the bottom of this blog page you will (I hope) see the pic there this is my take on it not drawn to scale or anything and using very different colour's but I think I may have caught something of the essence of the dog crossed with what I think one of my dog's Jilla looks like. I hope to share a few more doodles and ideas as the months go on hope you  like it.

Just a few very quick cards using the cling film technique. This is when you take a strip of cling film and smear two colours on the cling film.  Here I used Butterscotch and Lettuce in the red card it was Lettuce and Cranberry Adirondack Ink.  First mask off you Clarity coated card keeping the bits that you want to remain white covered with copy paper...Next making sure the strip of cling film is the same size as the card or a little longer...pick two contrasting colours and smear the lightest one towards you first. then the darker one along the side of the first NOT OVER THE TOP other wise you will end up with a muddy mess.  But if you put the colours side by side. then fold the cling film in half then let the two colours mix when you open the cling film. (This is easier said then done!)  Place gently over the exposed card and press gently letting the two colours mix on the cardstock. Remove cling film and you will have a lovely marbled effect. Leave to dry for a few minuets and just stamp over the top I have heat embossed on two of these and just Pitch black Adirondack on the third hope you like them.

Clarity Challenge 1

  Good morning everyone. This is my first make for the Clarity Challenge Blog. Those who are Facebook friends will know how much I enjoy Clarity Stamps and altered art. Combine the two and you can make some stunning things for the home making them into your own individual works of art.
   This was a plain rather beaten frame. I picked it up in a junk shop for 50p...but it had a few scratches on the wood and had seen better days. That said it was perfect for what I wanted a frame with a wide fairly flat surface. After taking it home and giving it a clean with a well known bleach type cleaning product (The One that has Bang in the name!)I was ready to go....I stamped the frame with the two poppy stamps and added the two mice from the harvest farm set using Adirondack espresso. Then coloured the images in with promakers. Moss green for the stalks and leaves and Poppy for the poppies if you look closely you will see two little mice sitting in the poppies...made a poppy picture, using the cloud mask the wheelbarrow from the garden set the birdies were from the JOY and birdhouse set two hot air balloons and a tree I think it maybe the larch but I have had this one a while so can't recall exactly. I hope you like it and next time you pass a junk shop pop in!