The Lone Ranger

Good morning to you all, I hope everyone is happy and well!  How is summer going for you?  There was thunder, lightening and hail here in Norfolk yesterday!  Good day for making cards...

This is a very simple card I made for my Dad for Father's Day.  I always like to keep cards for men really simple, most of the men I know don't seem to appreciate 'stuff' on cards.  I was running out of ideas for cards for the men in the family, I have done cars and golf and football and trains and gardening, but I suddenly remembered that I had got these stamps and Dad likes his westerns..job done!

This is really easy to do.
I used the Forest Ridge and Lone Ranger stamps from Clarity
On a piece of linen effect card, I stamped the forest ridge twice in black archival ink, leaving a bit of a gap between the images.
Tear a bit of paper to make a mask for the path
Mask off the area above and below the image and sponge in the sky with Stormy Sky distress ink and the ground with Old Paper distress ink.
Remove the masks and stamp in the Lone Ranger
Using a black fine line pen, draw a straight line along the top and bottom of the strip
Stamp your greeting
Mat onto a very thin layer of black and stick to the base card
How easy is that!!
Hope you like it!
Thank for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful day x

Dandelion Fairy

Hello everyone in Blogland, I hope you are all okay!  I did some gardening at the weekend, I can't believe the growth!!  It is like everything has been holding back and now it is warm it's growing like mad to make up!

So, continuing on the garden theme, I thought I would share a card I made a while ago with the stunning Dandelion Fairy, the Dandelion Leaf and the Dandelion Verse.  This card wasn't made for the TV, just for me to sell, but I thought I would share it as the set was on TV recently

I don't know how well this shows up, but everything on this cards was stamped with the wonderful FlitterGlu and covered with Gilding Flakes.  The words on the verse are tiny, but you can still see all the detail - amazing stuff!
I also added some of the FlitterGlu and flakes around the edges of the card before matting and layering onto gold card.
Hope you like it and thanks for visiting!
Janet xx

Underwater scene - my first DT card!

I have been a part of the Clarity Design Team for a year now.  Barbara asked me last year at Cowden.  I can't believe it has been that long! 

 

This set of stamps was the very first set I got to work with.  I was sooo excited to get them, but it was only a couple of days before the show on the TV, so I stayed up til the small hours and made three cards ready to send them 'next day delivery' to make sure they arrived on time.

I tuned in on the Sunday very excited and hopeful that my cards would be shown - and they weren't!!  I was gutted!!  I know that many cards don't get shown and I am more used to it now, but I wish the producers there knew how much we put into the cards we make.  This is my favourite of the cards I made for that show and it is on the Clarity website and on the display boards at shows, so I feel okay about it now!

 

The bit at the bottom of the main image is done using Fran-tage embossing powders and glitters.

 

Wishing you all a lovely day

Janet x

 

 

Breakfast?

Morning all!  I hope you have been enjoying the lovely sunshine!  We have to make the most of it while it's here don't we?
This is a lovely set of stamps for the next classroom with Barbara, you can never have enough grasses and silhouette stamps in my opinion.  I particularly like the animals in this set (especially the squirrel).
The main image is simply stamped out and the colour sponged in.
The backing paper is done by using the leafy branch from the set, stamping it in different colours.
I'm off to do some gardening!  I hope you are planning a lovely day.
Janet xx

Wrought Iron

Hello again everyone, hope you are all enjoying the lovely sunshine, sadly, I had to return to work today after a wonderful couple of weeks off.  They seem to cope without me! 
This is another of the cards for the shows at the weekend, this time using the Wrought Iron kit and Rosie from the Clarity characters.

I decided to go pastel and feminine with this one!  I only used two inkpads, latte and raspberry Adirondacks.  One of my favourite things to do is to create a frame around a scene. 
I do the frame first
Tear a square mask and put into place, then stamp around it all with the small tree from the kit.  I went round in latte and raspberry
remove the mask, then cover the frame.
I inked Rosie, my favourite of the clarity characters, with latte, then inked the larger tree in raspberry and 'kiss stamped' (stamped the tree onto the Rosie stamp) so when you stamp Rosie, there is a pattern on her dress.
Put a moon mask in place
Sponge some raspberry ink round the moon, then remove the mask
Stamp the rest of the images in latte.
Create a bit of shadow under the images, by sponging some more ink in place
Sponge more raspberry in the sky
Colour in the images with latte and raspberry as appropriate
Remove the mask around the frame and use a brown fine line pen to Squiggle round the inside of the frame
ink around the edge with latte
Mount on to brown then pink card

Add flower
Hope you like it!
Janet x

All that Jazz!

Back in Norfolk now, the sun is blazing!  I had a lovely time in Switzerland with my sister and her family, despite living in a cloud!  Norfolk seems very flat by comparison.

This is another card using the 'All that Jazz' set from Clarity. This time I used the Jazz Man stamp  This is also another one which sounds really easy, but it took me lots of goes and quite a lot of swearing to get this just right!

I stamped the first image, masked him, stamped the second image, masked him, then stamped the third image - sounds easy, what could possibly go wrong??  How long have you got??
Not necessarily in the order in which they happened:
I got the positioning wrong (several times, in different ways!)
The mask got so wet with ink that the arm of the man which was supposed to be behind started to show through the man in front, so it looked like he had got a hand through his chest!
I smudged one of the images
I got ink marks on the card
but eventually I got there!  and I am really pleased with the result.  I stamped the words in place using the letterbox set (didn't even think about trying to line them up, so went for  jaunty positioning)
I inked round the edges in old paper distress ink, archival sepia and black
I ran a brown fine line pen round the edge, using a ruler
matted on to card and the music score paper from Clarity (I inked round the edge of this too!)
Ta Dah!  If at first you don't succeed....just remember it is only a bit of card, chuck it out and have another go, and another go, and another go.....!
Hope you like it after all that
Happy Crafting
Janet xx

Dance like no-one is watching

Hello from Switzerland, I have been sitting in a cloud up in the Alps, but I am due to come home tomorrow, so obviously the weather is due to improve. I haven't seen the Clarity shows yet, but thought I would share one of the samples with you...

I was delighted to get this stamp!  I love it, don't know why, but it just speaks to me.  It is part of the 'All that Jazz' set from Clarity.  This is the Jazz Montage stamp

This card is basically very simple. but takes some care to get a good result.
The main image is stamped with versa mark ink on to the shiny black Clarity card and dusted with a mixture of Perfect Pearls - Easy huh?
Well, the issue with this is that there is a lot of detail in this stamp and to keep that, you have to blot on to copy paper before you stamp on the black card, but you have to blot the right amount otherwise you don't get enough ink!  You also have to dust the card with talc first, so the powders don't stick where you don't want them.  It took me a couple of goes to get the colours the way I liked them.
The side panel is made by inking a spare piece of the black card with versa mark and dusting with the same colours of perfect pearls, then die cutting three diamonds
The music across the background is a die cut
Hope you like it
Janet x