Out of Africa...

Morning all,

This is a slightly different post today, I am not going to blog one of my cards, but I am going to showcase the art of a young Kenyan student who befriended me on fb.  His name is Robin Samwel Kagunyi, he is a 27 year old student who sells his cards to help raise money to pay for his education.

He sent me some of his cards, so I can sell them in the UK, but they are on quite thin card, so I have remounted them
The painting is Robin's work

This is how Robin sent them ...

...and this is one after I'd changed it - it is a bit less than  6'' x 6'' white hammered card.  I also added a black mat under the picture
Have I improved it or taken away the simple charm?


Please let me know
Have a lovely day
Janet xx

Nuthatch

Happy Saturday Folks!


It's a bit drizzly here this morning - great weather for making cards - which is just as well because I have lots to do!!  The new stamps from Clarity have arrived - you are in for a treat next weekend!!

This is another of my cards from the last set, a lovely Nuthatch stamp - I have only ever seen one nuthatch in my life, so I had to Google them to find out what colours they were - I had a rough idea, but wanted to get the detail right.

I am no expert on 'colouring in' but I keep practising!

The Nuthatch stamp is part of a remountable set which includes the Moorhens from my last post
Remountable Moorhens and Nuthatches Clear Stamp Set

I used part of the Lone Tree Stencil to make him a tree to sit on (funny, this time lots of the DT used the same stencil with this stamp!)

I stamped the Nuthatch in place and used promarkers to colour him.

The word is done using one of the fab new Wheelie stencils, you just turn the dial to find the letter you want and ink through - genius idea!
Wheelie International Alphabet Set

There you have it!
Hope you enjoy the weekend - I am doing the Claritystampers East workshop in Bawburgh on Sunday - looking forward to it!
Thanks for visiting
Janet xx

Back home!

Happy Friday Folks,

So here I am back home after a brilliant week en Francais with the fabulous group of people that is the Clarity DT, Dave, Mel (the stamp designer) Ann and Jayne from Clarity were there too, so 19 of us altogether.  It was the most gorgeous setting - totally idyllic!
We had such a long drive (8 hours from Calais!) to get there, but as soon as we got out of the cars, we were just enchanted and all thoughts of the long journey were forgotten.  Sorry, I don't do photos, but I will see if I can pinch a few from others for future posts.

Part of what made the setting so lovely, was a small lake in the grounds and I enjoyed several early morning cups of tea on my own in a chair overlooking the lake, just watching the bird life coming and going.  Appropriately enough, there was a family of Moorhens, so what better card to share with you than this one from the last TV show...

I used the Bullrushes Stencil and the moorhens set of stamps

These stencils are amongst my new favourites!  It is so easy to create a lovely scene using them.
I stamped the moorhens at the front of the scene first and masked them, then put the stencil in place.
I then applied ink using the stencil brushes to create the background.
I masked one of the smaller moorhens so his legs were hidden and he looks like he is swimming in the lake.
I stamped a few reeds on the waterline.
Once the scene was finished, I removed the stencil and masks from the moorhens, then coloured with promarkers.

Hope you like it!

I would like to end this by saying a humongous THANK YOU to Barbara and Dave for such a lovely break, it is so generous of them and Barbara even did lots of the cooking too.  What an amazing lady!
Thanks for popping in and hope to see you again soon
Janet xx

En Vacances!

Good morning ,

Just in case you hadn't seen all the excitement on fb, it is this week that Barbara and Dave are taking the Design Team to France, it is sooo exciting, we have all been making arrangements, packing craft stuff (We have enough with us to open a mega-store!!) remembering passports etc,

This will be my last blog until we get back.
This card started out as a quick and easy one, because I didn't have much time to get samples done this month, but I got carried away with the doodling and it took me ages!  Simple, but time-consuming - I am pleased with the result though!

I masked off the bottom of the card, then sponged through the 'tangle' stencil with several colours of ink.
Using a fine black pen, I traced round the whole thing.  I removed the stencil and my original intention was to leave it at that, but I decided to see what it would look like with a bit of doodling....
I matted it on to black and added the 'happy birthday' line stamp - I love these line words!

Hope you like it!
I am off to pack now,  look out France, the Clarity DT is on its way!!
Take care,
Janet xx -

Across the water.....

Happy weekend bloggers!

So I am getting very excited now, Barbara is taking the Clarity DT away to France for a week - how cool is that!  I can tell you, we are soooooo looking forward to it.  It is getting so close now...

This is the last of my samples for last month, just in time for the next lot!  Don't forget, Barbara is on TV on Sunday  - a great new range of stencils and stamps.

Appropriately enough as we are sailing to France, this card has a watery feel to it!

These Dophin and Splashes stamps are great - I can see lots of potential for the splashes..

The background here is done with alcohol inks, randomly sponged on to clarity card, I added the splashes in black archival, then stamped the dolphins on separate card, cut out, glittered and layered on top.

I had some bits left over from trimming the card, so I used them as embellishments.
I chose the word 'Joy' from the word chains, just because dolphins always look so joyful as they are leaping out of the sea.
Do they have dolphins in the English Channel??  I will be keeping an eye out...

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend
Janet xx

I've gone for GOLD!!

Hello bloggers,

There is some new and exciting news from the Clarity camp today!  Barbara has launched a new club - it is the New Designs Stencil Club - same sort of thing as the New Designs Stamp Club, but with stencils.  If you are already a member of the NDC, you get a discount on the Stencil club, you get to be a Clarity Gold member and you get free P&P on all orders over £10.00.  What's not to like!!

Check here for details

Have I joined?? need you ask!

I thought I would share a stencil card to celebrate!

The Roseart stamp is one of my favourite images, so I was delighted to see it as a stencil too.
I used the lovely Trellis stencil first, and added some green and pink distress ink, then I used Grunge Paste through the Roseart stencil, on top of the Trellis image - using grunge paste is a bit like plastering!
Leave the paste to dry, then put the stencil back in place and brush colour on the image
Cut to size, ink round the edges and mat onto red card
Add the word and there you have it!