IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED............



Good Morning and what a lovely day it is today here in Plymouth......I do hope you like the image above after many failed and aborted attempt's I think I've finally "Got It" Brayering that is. The stamps used are all from Clarity stamps the inks were Adirondacks from Ranger;

Ingredients;
Pitch black
Cloudy Blue
Lettuce
Stonewashed
Expresso
Speedball Brayer
Copy paper.
Clarity cardstock it's like very good quality photo paper and has a lovely sheen.
The king fisher set from Clarity Stamps
Cheap memo pads and a pair of scissors.
Small round coin or punch.
Low tack tape

For the Kingfisher;
Sky blue
Bright Orange
Cool Grey

Bright Green for the leaves

What to do;
Take four strips of low tack masking tape and place around the end or the card to make a frame. you are going to be stamping on the inside of this tape.
Stamp kingfisher onto memo pad making sure that part of the bird has been stamped on the sticky part of the pad cut out......do the same with the coin or small round punch again making sure there is sticky on the back.

Next take a piece of clarity card stock and ink the kingfisher in Pitch black, Now this is important because of the type of card it is when you ink it you need to stamp it on some copy paper first so you have the second generation of ink to actually stamp onto the card .....if you don't and you go directly to the card with the ink fresh it will not dry and you will end up with a mess believe me I have tried........So with the kingfisher stamped and ready to go put the mask you have made over the top and then decide where you want the sun to go  and place the round mask on top now you ready to brayer.
 Take the brayer and ink up Cloudy blue for the sky rip a piece of copy paper and place on the bottom half of were you think the ground or hills should go and stick with low tack tape on the side to keep it in place being careful not to stick to the inside of the picture. With the ground /hills part covered SAVE the other piece of paper you will see why in a minute. 
Take the brayer and run the ink off on a piece of copy paper, and on the side of the brayer do one of Barbara Grey's famous wheelies. Now spin the brayer over the paper ...you can find lots of tutorials that Barbara Grey has done and if like me you need a visual lesson then please do take a look she is a fab teacher. Next do the grass or hills  now .....you need to have saved that other piece of copy paper the bit you ripped because now you need to cover the sky, the piece you have ripped will cover that perfectly.
 Clean the brayer and dry it and ink with Lettuce repeat the process again not forgetting to roll off the first generation of ink first on another piece of copy paper, this time covering both the sky and where you want the water to go.
 The hills in place you now should have a piece at the bottom where the water is going to be....leaving the sky covered you also now need to cover the grass or hills.......you should have the paper for this if not don't panic as the waterway is straight any piece of copy paper will do as long as it cover's the grass or hills you have done. now this bit is fun....Screw up into a tight ball a clean piece of copy paper...the tighter and more wrinkled the better and smooth out. clean the brayer and dry again and ink up with stone washed you want the whole brayer covered and then run it over a the wrinkled paper when you lift the brayer off you will see the wrinkles transferred onto the brayer......this is going to be our water. Spin the brayer over the card where you want the water to be and now set aside to dry.......
I left mine over night as I do a lot of my crafting late in the evening....but that's just me. I then took the branch inked it with the Expresso inkpad and stamped it off once on a piece of copy paper then planted it on the now dry card And repeated that but put the branch over the top the bird so it looked as though he was sitting in the tree. I had leaves that I think may have came with this set and popped them on the branches also. Then inked bull-rushes and repeated the process and put them in the corner.  then coloured in Kingfisher and branch with leaves in colours stated above. I cheated and paid the price I tried to use walnut promarker on the branch thinking it would match the expresso inkpad ...be warned it doesn't the next time I will take a little ink from the inpad and a brush and colour it in that way ....the promaker bled out of my frame so I have had to crop it which is why there is no white rim ......however all that aside I am pleased with this one. I love the stamp and it is a firm favourite.
I hope you like the end result.

Madeline stamp for a friend

Just a card for a dear friend of mine......the stamp is Clarity Art stamp Madeline cut out with my scalloped circle spellbinder dies In two sizes the larger one to matt and layer. And coloured in with Promarkers.  Thank  you to Maria Simms for the idea. xx the ribbons were some I have in the colours that I had coloured  her hair.....and the edge was my old faithful Martha Stewart punch.

Oriental Card for Crafty Bloggers challenge;

To Make the card Red Bazzil card
Gold Mirri card
A4 red card taken from stash.
Peony Card from a pack that I think was called Oriental Blossoms.
The coin was one from a shop that has since closed that was based at the Plymouth Barbican.
Red ribbon.
Versamark inkpad.
Red Tinsel embossing powder.
Red and Black Flexi marker.
Ivory Pro-marker
Oriental lady stamp ....this was a set off of QVC many years ago.
 And the Character stamp in the corner was one I found in my basket that I did'nt know I had.......I don't even know if I have stamped it the right way up!

This seems more difficult than it actually is the trick will be for me to explain it, so you my wonderful peeps can understand it. OK! take the Lady stamp and ink her up to her neck in Versamark leaving her head and face blank once this has been done take the red flexi marker and dab onto her lips she now has bright red lipstick! then take the Black flexi marker and colour her hair and eyes make sure the rest of the "bits" that are round her hair are coloured in too. Now stamp (THIS IS WHEN I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER) and lift you should now have an image of her face with the dress being in Versamark. Now add the Red Tinsel Embossing powder, and heat gently the sparkle is unbelievable.  Add red ribbon if desired and  trim if needed and set aside. Taking a red A4 card I scored on 8inches so the 8 inch square is the back square part of the card.I folded along that line then trimmed just a smidge as the end on one side was a bit battered! I then cut the back piece slightly smaller and added the character and embossed in Red Tinsel in the right bottom corner. Glued the back smaller card onto the main red body so as to leave an edge of red card showing. and then  did the same to the front adding the coin and ribbon.
I then simply matted and layered my lady coloured her face in ivory and her neck though her neck looks pink in the photo I have no idea why unless its the reflection off the red tinsel?
Well that's all for today TTFN. xx

Morning all Just a few lines today to say thank you to Maria Simms for Picking me as the winner of her blog candy ...as yet have no idea what it is but I'm sure I will love it! So once again thank you very much.

My hero Rory...........xxxxx

Inspiration and Disaster......... :(

Hiya Peep's.

Sitting on the bus the other day on the way home from town I was really quiet appalled by The lack of consideration given to out elderly population.  I dont know about you but I was brought up with I like to think a modicum of good manners.
      There were a group of I can only describe as low life's..... of I don't know maybe six or seven mostly lads. but two girl's were sat with them age's ranging between 14-18. The language was blue  and Rory my youngest he is sixteen but has learning disabilities was about to chime in and tell them all to be quiet.  I could see he was becoming agitated when at the next stop the bus pulled in, and let on a lady called Pauline.....well we know Pauline as she lives not far from us. So telling Rory to offer his seat I motioned for her to come and sit next to us which she started to do.  As she walked towards us One of the lads stuck out his foot to trip her up as the bus was about to move she went flying but for Rory who was standing close by she could have hurt herself really badly but he broke her fall she grabbed onto him and all was well . The youth's thought it was hilarious while Rory and I made sure Pauline was al-right the rest of the bus including the Bus driver ignored the incident ........Not Rory who went over and  told them off the way only Rory can I should mention to those of you who may not know this Rory has little or no speech and for the most part use's sign language. This was like waving a red flag to a bull as now the Group had someone to really take the Mickey out of.  Still the  rest of the bus did or said nothing. Things were starting to get out of hand and Rory with all the stubbornness of an terrier was refusing to let things be the teasing towards him had escalated  with the whole group signing that he was crazy. and doing their own version of signing with various fingers.......excusing myself from Pauline who was still a bit shaken. I walked over to were the Youth of today sat and addressed them all collectively
What If this was your Brother......or sister someone was taking the mick out of . Or your Mother someone had tried to trip. What if your Mother had fallen and had to be hospitalised because Someone like you thought it was a good game........and laughed as she fell. The two Girls did have the grace to look shame faced the lads I'm afraid thought it was a riot and carried on the teasing. But by this time Rory had gone back to sit with Pauline. We continued on our journey with the odd evil look being given from both sides. Pauline Rory and I got of the bus and quiet a few people muttered to us well done as we were leaving. My question is why oh why didn't they help us while we were on ther?. Are we so afraid to help each other now that we turn the other way........I for one hope not and will continue to support those who I think are vulnerable.......As we got of the Bus Pauline who had by now regained her composure was telling me that she had been to have her hair cut. Remarking how nice it looked and how on trend the different colour dyes are for hair nowdays. I should also mention that she is one of the Blue rinse brigade.....so with Shades of blue in mind I would like to dedicate this card to Pauline.........And the disaster was that the bus incident I hear you ask well no it wasn't while making the card I have somehow broken the top of the cuttlebug wre the roller goes straight down the middle I dont know how or why I have used it loads of time and never ever had a problem but today when the die was over halfway through I heard the most  dreadful crack and the cuttlebug seized up would move forward nor backwards then I noticed the crack Have phoned Ideal world and they are going to send a carrier to pick it up Monday but cant give a time......Praying for a replacement I use the cuttlebug a lot so will be lost with out it...........Boo Hoo!  Anyway enough waffle, hope you like the card. As its Shades of blue I thought I would enter it in this weeks MONOCHROME CHALLENGE on the Crafty Bloggers Network.
Ingredient's for the card are;
One piece of A4 Blue card cut 10x6 inches.
One blue patterned piece of paper from stash cut slightly smaller than A 4 and put aside to trim later.
Madeline Stamp from Barbara Grey's Clarity stamps.
One white piece of card to stamp onto.
Momento grey ink.
Some prima flowers in blue.and white.
As many Blue pro makers as I could find!!!
Glossy accent's to finish.
Two of the largest spell binder scallop circle die's

I folded the Blue A4 card in half and trimmed the blue card till it looked square (ish I tend to work by eye and not bother measuring)  but for the purpose of the challenge when I measured the now Square (ish) card it was 6 inch square......I then cut the white card with a spellbinder die on the now broken cuttlebug. Using the scallop die that was the second largest ...saving the largest one to cut the piece of the blue card that I was going to use for matting the finished topper. Stamping the image on the white scallop circle I put that to one side to dry. Then set about trimming the Piece of co-ordinating paper that would cover the inner and outer part of the card. Bear in mind the paper is from a scrapbook stack I have had for a few years so it's a 12x12 square I cut it in half and put one half back in the box of bits to be used another day. Went back to the now 6X6 card  then turned it on it's side and cut in half again I now had two bits both 6x6. Taking one of the piece's ......Which is now a square I trimmed of two side's just a smidge just so as it would fit in the card and leave an outline then took the second bit and did the same.  With the same bit turn it on itself so as to make a diamond and cut across the diagonal  line  you should now have two triangles. Fold the Front of the Blue card in half along the diagonal to make a triangle, and glue the two triangles to the front of the card making sure you leave the crease showing so the card can open and close. Now the colouring ........What the heck just go for it Maria Simms has done one similar with this stamp, and  as well as Pauline's hair-do that gave me the idea.   Maria's card is more soft and  Dreamy with Pinks and soft hued Aquas and Mustards go take a look on Barbara Grey's page on Facebook mine is more on trend I think with all the different colour's of red and purple pink and indeed blue colours that are out there at the moment I did use a skin colour on her face for which I hope I will be forgiven I couldn't leave her White she looked like a ghost! I did try her with a very light blue face thinking I could do a moonlight scene but that didn't work either she looked like an alien!  Added some glossy accents to her eye lips and the flower for effect and then just stuck her on the card with some Primas. the word stamp was one I picked up from  a bundle that he local shop was selling in a bag cheap. Many thanks to Pauline for her company Maria for her model and you guy's for taking the time to read the drivel! hope you like it

Well Christmas is over Kids are back at Scool Hubby back at work and the craft cave has been cleaned......Horrray I hear you cry now Bern how about some crafting. Well I go downstairs today intending to do just that now as you know from My previous Blog entries I went to the N.E,C in Nov and had a whale of a time looking at this and that.......I mainly bought from to people there Barbara Grey at Clarity Stamps and Nikky Hall from Polka Doodles. Well  having woken up this morning to a lovely day and with not too much on the cards other than  load of washing I decide to craft. Walk downstairs into scrap cave and think Hmmmmmmmm! Polka Doodles let me see So I search for the stamps that I know I have bought and used since coming home from the N.E.C.......I have searched all day for these stamps and they are nowhere to be found ........to say I am majorly cheesed off is an understatement.