Cool an' Green an' Shady (with thanks to John Denver)

Morning all!


So this is my 100th post!
I thought I would share a card made using one of my very favourite Clarity stamps - The Daydreamer - I just love this image, if you look at it, there is a person lying under the tree, surrounded by grass and birds - what a wonderful place to be!
Someone just commented on this card on facebook and I suddenly thought it looked cool and green and shady, which just happens to be one of my favourite John Denver songs - I just had to put the two together for my 100th post.
We made this card at the Easton workshop a few weeks ago, I will blog the others in due course...

I used two stencils for this one, the brick wall and the arch aperture.  I did the scene first, then masked it and did the brick wall afterwards.  The two work so well together, don't they?
I just used The Daydreamer and a one of my many grasses stamps.

Wishing you a cool and green and shady spot when you need one - I'm off to play the song now....
Janet xx

May the road rise to meet you....

Morning Bloggers!  Happy Sunday to you,

I have got the day to myself today, so I shall  be locked away making cards - I have got loads to do, so I will have to employ my quick and effective techniques!

This card is made from the Blustery Day kit shown on C&C.  I love all these stamps - you can never have enough grasses stamps, and what a lovely verse and a fab picture of the little girl.

I stamped the girl first, then used torn paper masking to extend the hills outside the frame
I sponged the sky
Stamped the verse
Stamped the grasses ( do this after the verse, so you can position the grasses nicely)
Coloured in the picture
Inked round the edges
Matted on to base card


Hope you all have a wonderful day,
Thank you for visiting
Janet xxx

On yer Bike!

Hello Bloggers!
Thank you for all the comments about the last card, I do enjoy reading them!
I had a trip to the Dentist today - just a check up and luckily no further treatment needed - phew!!  It is always a relief!
Simon and I have decided to have a go at cutting sugar out of our diet, so anything with added sugar is off the menu.  It means a lot of looking at labels when buying stuff - do you realise have many products have sugar added?  Quite interesting though, how brands differ!
Today's card is another of my DT samples, this one using the brick wall stencil, which makes a brilliant background and the rather nice bicycle set.

I brushed various shades of brown ink through the stencil on to some white card.
Stamped the bike, words and grasses in place
Added a bit of green at the bottom and did a bit of shading under the grasses and the bike
Stamped the flowers on a separate piece of card, coloured in and cut out and positioned on the basket
Tore down the sides of the card and mounted onto brown, then onto Kraft card and tore round that
Add it to the base card...
There you have it.

Hope you like it and thank you for visiting
Janet xx

Thank You x

Happy Saturday folks!

I hope you are all enjoying the long weekend - I know some of you will have had to work - I spent many, many years working in a place which provided a 24/7 service including all bank holidays and I frequently had to work Christmas, Easter etc - so I know what it's like!

I would like to say Hello and Welcome to some new followers - I hope you can make sense of my ramblings and gain some sort of inspiration from my cards.

My card today is another of the DT samples.  I have used the grass/branch stamp that went with the boy and birds set and more of the words from the fab word chains.

The background is simply created by squishing distress inks on a glass mat (a tile would do too),
spritzing lightly with water and pressing a piece of white card into the wet ink.
Pick it up and see what you've got - you can give it another dunk if you haven't got enough colour.
I always do a piece bigger than I need, so I can choose the bit I want.
Once dry, cut to size then stamp the image and words with black archival
I always ink round the edges of the card too - probably with black soot distress ink.
Mat onto black and add a few gems
For the base card, I used the same stamp and just stamped around the edge of the card in black.

Quick and easy, but rather nice - I like to think!
Thanks very much for stopping by, have a great weekend.
Janet xxx

Love is in the Air!

Happy Thursday all!
Yay! a long weekend off!  I do enjoy my time away from work!   I am not one of those people who says 'I don't know what to do with myself at home'  I love it!

Today's card is another of the DT cards I did for the last TV show.  I love this little girl, how lovely would it be just to float away - who knows where you would end up - a desert island with a certain Mr J Depp?  Wouldn't that be nice.........

Any way, back to earth!

I embossed the little girl using versamark and white embossing powder - talc the card well first to stop any speckly bits.
Mat and layer on white, then pink card.
The background is done using a heart stencil that we got in the New Designs Club from Clarity, I just inked with pink and a bit of green.

The word Faith is from one of the fab new Word Chains - a definite must have!  I matted that using the same card as before
Stick it all together

I hope you al have a lovely weekend and don't over-do the chocolate!!

Imagine....

Happy Saturday everyone!

I know some of you will be at Ally Pally this weekend - I hope you have a great time - it is always inspiring to go and see other people's work.  It was at a craft show at the NEC that I first saw Barbara Gray doing her thing with torn bits of paper and a brayer - I was amazed at the wonderful effects she could create.  I am still amazed by her work, she is a constant source of inspiration for me.  I hope those of you going to AP manage to watch her in action.

My card today is another of my samples for the TV last weekend.  I have used the new word chains, the 'boy and birds' and the branch that went with it in the set.
I decided to have a bit of a change and work on a buff coloured card, rather than white or cream

I squished a few colours of distress ink on to a glass mat, (a blending mat would work too!) and spritzed them lightly with water, then used this as a palette to ink up the word stamps and stamp them on the card.
You get a mixture of colours and a slightly blurry effect.
Tear the sides then ink the edges
I stamped the boy with the fab new colours of archival ink I think this is cornflower and added the branch at the top and bottom.
Tear the sides and ink the edges.
Repeat for the word.
I mounted this all onto a white base card, but it looked too stark, so I stamped round the edges with the branch and shaded with old paper distress ink to soften it a bit.

I hope you like it.  As always, thanks very much for your visit - don't forget to comment, I enjoy reading them!
Have a great weekend
Janet xx

Tangled Lanterns

Good morning folks!

It is a beautiful day here in rural Norfolk, and being a Thursday, it is my day off work, so I am at home to enjoy it. - Yay!!

I might get out and do a bit of gardening (long overdue!!)
Today's card is done with one of the lovely new floral stencils from Clarity, this one is Chinese Lanterns

I attached the stencil to a piece of card.
I squished some colours of distress inks on a glass mat, then lightly spritzed them with water.
I used a damp, natural sponge to pick up the ink and apply it to through the stencil
I did the same (without the stencil) round the edge of my base card too
Remove the stencil and wait for it to dry, then using a black fine line pen, I just squiggled over everything!
I made it darker at the bottom of each lantern to add a bit of shade
Cut to size , mat on to black then add to the base card.

I hope you like it!

Enjoy your day and thanks very much for stopping by
Janet xxx

Diva Red Workshop

Morning all!

I am off to Great Blakenham soon for the Claritystampers East workshop, but I thought I would show you what we did yesterday at the workshop that Moira and I do.  The first three cards are mine and the fourth is my version of Moira's card.  I can't put a picture of the other project by Moira as it is a box and I scan things rather than take pictures.  Hopefully Moira will post pics...

The background on these two is created by dropping alcohol ink on to the shiny Clarity card, then blasting with compressed air!  It got the ladies a bit worried at first, but it is great fun and some wonderful works of art were created!

I sponged disress inks through the lovely poppy seed head stencil to get this effect..

Moira's card - the background was done by spritzing distress inks on a glass mat, then picking the colour up on the card.  It was a bit of a messy technique day!!