Swirl Homework

These were just a couple of very quick cards made for Barbara Grays homework  using the leafy swirls.
The first made with Gold flakes on back card I used glue to ink the stamps  you can buy a pad that holds the glue, Fat foam I think its called. and you use this by adding the glue to it and spreading it even over the pad then using the now sticky pad as you would an inkpad once "INKED" with the glue place stamp onto where you want the Image to go on your piece of card.  Do be very careful to make sure you clean the  All glue off your stamp or you will wreck it, and that's the last thing you need after investing so much money in your stamps I use warm water soap and a old toothbrush that gets into all the nooks and cranny's and if you have any glue left still on the stamp take some NAIL VARNISH REMOVER and with a baby-wipe wipe any remaining residue from the glue away.you can feel when it's clean. the glue is safe to leave for a few mins while you go and do this ....come back to the card and leave the now clean stamp to dry. Next hold the card over the box of gilding flakes and scatter them over the top of the glued image. have a baby-wipe and a paper towel to hand. Once the card is covered in the flakes wipe any excess glue off fingers! and dry with a paper towel then with the sponge ( I use a dry Green Backed Sponge Scourer ) Gently wipe in a circular motion over the flakes making sure all the  glue is covered  and also keeping your card over the box of gilding flake's the excess bits will fall back into the box for you to use next time.

SPLAT was fun and easy....MANY MANY THANKS to the Wonderful the one and only Eileen Goodwin.for sharing the technique with me.
You will need a selection of Distress stains by ranger ...All you need to do is turn the bottle upside down and give it a good whack as you hit the card ....you will get a splat I just picked a few colours I thought would match and randomly whacked them.....then stamped over the top with clear versamrk and heat embossed in gold the backing paper was made on the gelli plate in similar colour's using the Clarity Trellis stencil  Matt and layered it.... Job done.

These are just two of the cards I made this month though the top one didn't make it to the homework pile for Barbara, the Bottom one did I have used the Leafy Swirl in the  background clear embossed onto antique gold card with a pretty strip of gold ribbon.  Then gold heat embossed the Angel into the middle of thevua card and stamped the sheep and shepherds underneath.......A bit of scenery and that was it. Lovely quick card I do like it when a plan comes together

Bernie plays nice!

I had a little play the other day started on the Gelli plate then saw this stencil which screamed not Gelli but ink's at me. This is Claritystamps Leafy Swirl Stencil by the way.
Having Squeezed Lemonade and Tumbled Glass Ranger distress inks I thought I would give the stencil a bit of a work out. I taped the stencil with low tack masking tape to white cardstock and then swirled Squeezed Lemonade onto an ink duster and gently went in a circular motion to add the ink.  Then added a little Tumbled Glass just to the corners and a little running across the edges now lift the stencil off.
Using the large Leafy Swirl stamp I inked in Archival Black and stamped it twice, then the butterfly which I coloured in water colour pencil's lastly  stamped the verse.  I still thought it needed something so Inking the small Leafy swirl in versamark I placed it in the bottom corner and heat embossed with gold cosmic shimmer embossing powder and added a strip of lime ribbon finally matting it on black card ....I hope you like this I really enjoyed watching it come together as when I first started I had no idea where it was going to go.....

Summertime with Claritystamps and Sweet lilac flowers

The first thing I look for when making a card is the colour.  I had some lovely lemon and lilac paper flowers from Sweet lilac and matching brads so putting them to one side I went to look for a stamp to bring out the colours I wanted to use I had a play with both Topaz and Madeline both Claritystamps and favourite stamps of mine,  then I happened upon Beatrice.....Perfect the way she holds her wrap on her hand as she leans across to open the gate into a secret garden.  I cut the oval with Spellbinders  and used second generation Espresso Adirondack to stamp out the image, coloured her in in lemon and lilac added the brads to the flowers and glued them to the outer of the frame.  I found a strip of lilac ribbon matted and layered cream and lilac card and added the final three flowers to the ribbon. Stamped a simple Thank you (Clarity again!)
And there we have it job done xxxx Hope you enjoy looking.
Sweet lilac have a blog challenge...come and Join the theme is Summertime you could win a prize
www.sweetlilacflowers@yahoo.co.uk.

This was a technique I had been itching to try but never quiet had the courage to do ....why I don't know because it was soooo easy. The stamps are from Claritystamps, The Birdhouse Set. the first thing I did was stamp and clear emboss the cat. then Stamping the rest of the images in white with a white pigment inkpad.
Now to colour them.....My water colours pencils have gone AWOL so asking Rory if I could borrow his pencils I started to add colour over the white. Lovely to do and very relaxing I hope you like the end result I will be doing this again. Lovely easy make.
 xxx Have a wonderful day crafty hug's B xxx

Homework for Clarity. The Bird House.

I loved making this ...the birdhouse and images stamped on one side of acetate and the inks gently dropped on the other side. Then two brads one either side to attach the acetate to a piece of white card then the whole thing matted onto black very simple easy and quick to do.
Hope you like it.

These were a few of the Christmas samples I made for Clarity South west workshop we had a productive, if rather odd day with peeps coming and going and two no shows, but a big welcome to Sara Hart who was able to come along and I think enjoyed our workshop.  Hope to see you again soon. Andy wish you better sorry to hear you have hurt yourself. xx And Sylvia I hope you had a fab holiday. xx See you all soon. xx

I had my New Clarity Christmas Stamps Arrive last week and couldn't wait to play, Just a bit of Simple embossing and some "colouring in as My DH Call's it! Hope you like these. xxx

The theme this month is Animals.  So thanks to my Good Friend x and Clarity Buddy Karen Clare aka The Clock Lady (If you don't know Karen do go and have a look at her clocks they are inspirational). I Bought the beach hut's from Karen. now what to do with them.....All I have done is painted them with Dulux matchpots Blue Reflection and Brilliant White. waited for the paint to dry then with a clarity cloud mak and an ink duster added some blue stonwashed to make the clouds and the sky. stamped the images over the top With Adirondacks and coloured then in with pro markers .....I also coloured in the doors with Promakers they look distressed and I liked that so left it and the only red I could find in a matchpot was to dark..... once the images were coloured in and dry I put the whole thing together and added a few shells and flowers from sweet lilac I wanted a roses around the door look as I had the shells the flowers help to balance it out.....all it needs is a small deckhair and an ice cream! For me!!!!

I should mention that this is also the piece I have made for the Digi Magazine Crafty People Monthly xxx Hope you like it xx