The Shaving Foam Ones

Good evening all!

The two cards I did for the Claritystampers East workshop with shaving foam seem popular, so I thought I would blog them separately.

I used the Filigraphy flower stencil from Clarity for this but it would work with many different stencils.

So... add some shaving foam to a plasic container (the lid of an A5 storage box is ideal).  Cheap and cheerful foam is fine!

Gently smooth the surface a bit, then drop some ink on the foam, we used the distress re-inkers, but following the class one of the ladies has tried alcohol inks and they work too!!  Use three or four colours and leave some foam showing, don't completely cover it!
Use something to swirl the colours together (like marbling)
When you have swirled the colours to your liking, place a piece of card on the inky foam and push it down - don't squelch it right to the bottom of the foam, but make sure it all touches the foam.
Lift out then place on a flat surface and scrape all the foam off and see what you have got!! You may like it, you may not but have another go, it is good fun!
You can re-use the foam many times and add more ink if you like, but not too much or it starts to go 'muddy'.

This part of the technique, I first tried many, many years ago, but while we were in France, some of the Design Team were experimenting and tried it out through a stencil...

Place the stencil on some card, add some inky foam over the top then scrape it off.
Lift the stencil, then you have the stencil shape covered with foam, so you have a choice
1. Scrape the foam off and you may get a bit of ink smudging over the card (which is what I did!)
2. Heat the foam to disperse it and you get a much cleaner image

Once you have some images you are happy with, I outlined all round the stencil to highlight the image.  I like to put the stencil back and run a pen round the inside, but you can do it free hand if you prefer!

Hope you have a go with this, it is the sort of thing you should do and make lots in a batch, rather than as a one off.
Have fun... x

Claritystampers June weekends

Good morning bloggers!

I hope you all had a great weekend.  I did the Claritystampers workshops : Bawburgh last Sunday and Great Blakenham yesterday.  It all got a bit messy this time. but we did some nice cards too!

 The first two are the same card in different colours, we used distress re-inkers sponged through the abstract squares stencil to create the background.
Then sponge through the flower stencil to give the position on the card (only the stem is going to show in the end)
All the leaves and petals are stamped out on a separate bit of card using a custom made ink pad and the filigraphy foliage set of stamps.

The inkpad is made by adding re-inkers to a piece of cut and dry felt - lovely technique to create multi-colours
Add a touch of glitter to the petals, then cut out and mount on the background

















The next two were done from the same two inkpads, just stamping a couple of the petals on some linen card, cutting it into three and mounting up with a flower and greeting.

We needed an easy one after the stresses of the first one and working out which petals went where and which way round!
A bit too much figuring stuff out for a Sunday morning!!

The third card is done with shaving foam - I will blog that separately...

Thanks to all the ladies who come to my workshops, you are all wonderful xx

Thanks for visiting
Janet xx

Horse's Head and Memories of France

Good morning all!

Happy Thursday!!  My day off work - yay!  It looks as if it is going to be a beautiful day - hot and sunny, so what will I be doing?.....making Christmas cards!  It always seems very strange to be making Christmas cards during the summer, but samples have to be made for the TV and it is all going to be Christmas this time folks!  Lovely stamps and stencils coming up.....!

In the meantime, here is a sample from the last show, using a lovely horse's head stamp designed by Mel Turner.  It was one of the nicest things I did while we were in France - spend time with Mel and watch her use her fab cartography pen.  She is a lovely, lovely lady.  She showed us this design while we were there and it will always remind me of sitting outside round a little table in the most beautiful surroundings just chatting and enjoying the sunshine.

The stamps I used for this are the Wooden Horse Head and one of the petals from the Filigraphy Foliage set.  I think the inkpad is Adirondack Currant.

I stamped the horse first, then coloured with promarkers, using lighter and darker versions of the same sort of colours - I left some of her (she looks like a female to me!) nose and mane white.
I also outlined under the mane and all round the edge of the image, to make it stand out.
I used the white perfect pearl mixed with water to go over the whole thing to give it a bit of a sheen.

I lightly sponged some ink for the background and added a few stamped images of the leaf, then mat onto matching cardstock.
I also used the same stamp, stamped a bit more strongly, on the base card.
I hope you like it - don't forget to leave a comment - they make me smile!

Hope you all have a wonderful day
Janet xxx

Cards or football??

Hello everyone,

I had a wonderful day yesterday at the Clarity open day - it was great to see everyone.  There were some brilliant demos going on and a very happy crowd of enthusiastic Claritystampers watching.  Lots of lovely goodies to buy and a tasty lunch.  Thanks to everyone for making it a brilliant event.

Today's cards are from the workshop at Easton on Thursday where those who attended had made the tough decision to come and make cards, rather than watch the football (actually, it wasn't that tough a decision for everyone!!)

This card is very easy....just use distress inks to add colour to some card, Stamp a line of trees, the bird and word, add a bit of shadow under the trees and throw some water over it and blot!

Using the fabulous countryside stencil, make a scene in the aperture, stamp the filigraphy balloons in place, then stamp the large balloon on a separate piece of card, colour with promarkers, cut out then use an embossing tool to give it some shape and overlay onto the image

Use the wonderful abstract squares stencil (one of my new favourites!!) to create a soft background, stamp the woodland animals and trees in place and add some shading.



Thanks to all the ladies who came along, we had a great time

Janet xx

Acrylic flower

Good morning folks,

Happy Thursday to you!  I hope you are having a good day.  I have a hectic few days coming up!  I am off work for a while but I have a workshop today, a trip to Crowborough for the Clarity open day on Friday and another workshop on Sunday - I've taken Monday off to recover!

Today's card is made using the new filigraphy flower stencil from Clarity and the filigraphy foliage stamp set.  These two work together and if you stamp the stamps into the equivalent space on the stencil, you get a fabulous filigraphy effect.

For this card, I used the stamp in the background.  I added open acrylic paint to my gelli plate, then stamped into it with the foliage stamps to lift the paint - I pulled the print

I placed the flower stencil over the top and sponged more paint through

I added ribbon and a couple of buttons before mounting it up

Thanks for stopping by

Janet xxx

Pan Pastel backgrounds

Hello Bloggers,

Today's cards are both made with a pan pastel background  I love using these, as they blend beautifully and you can get some lovely colour combinations.

The first card is the one I did for the TV show using the lovely Morning Has Broken set and the Flyaway Tree Branch 

I used linen card for this (which always gives a slightly strange effect when I scan it, but looks really nice in real life!!)

Blend a variety of colours over the card, I used green for the ground, blue in the sky and pink, purple and yellow along the middle.

I put them on in rough 'splodges' then blended them all together

Once I was happy with that, I stamped the branch with versa mark and very gently went over that with a darker green - this sticks to the ink and makes the branch show up very nicely.

All the work with the pan pastels is now complete, so I fixed it.  I have got a proper pastel fixative, but I am told hairspray works too.

Once that has dried, the rest is stamped with black archival ink

The second card is done in the same way. just using different stamps.

This time I did pan pastel grasses, but also did some stamped grasses over the top too

Hope you like them

Thanks very much for visiting

Janet xx

Apologies to Mondrian

Evening all,

I hope you are having a great day!

This card is one of my samples for the TV last time.  No stamps on this one - just one of the Abstact squares stencils from Clarity.

As soon as I saw this stencil, I wanted to colour block it!  I had a quick look on the web to get some ideas and came across the work of Piet Mondrian - so it is with apologies to him, that I present this card!

It is very easy, but attention to detail is key

I traced round the stencil to get the black lines round the edge of each square - I started by using my normal fineliner pen - too thin, the line didn't show well

Then I used a promarker - too thick , lots of 'blobs' in the corners

Finally, I tried a sharpie pen - just right!!

I was quite careful picking the colours I used too and tried several different shades of each before I made the final decision (I used promarkers for this)

Then it is just a case of careful colouring - I did several layers in all the squares to get a deep, block colour with no streaks or pale bits.  I was also very careful to keep in the box so there are no little bits outside the lines.

I was very tempted to add a word or message, but Simon said 'no!' and just this once, I did as he suggested!!

Hope you like it

Thanks very much for stopping by

Diva Red workshop - Saturday

Good morning folks,

Happy Sunday!  I hope it is as lovely a morning where you are, as it is here.  The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the cats are all sunbathing...(although i suspect they have an eye on the birds singing...!)

Yesterday was our regular Diva Red workshop, the first Saturday of the month - we thought back yesterday to when we started and that was very scary as it is nearly nine years!

These are the cards we did - the first two are mine and the third is Moira's.  There is another one from Moira, but I can't scan it - it is one of those cards best photographed and I don't have the technology for that!

I will do a separate post on this card.  I used grunge paste through the beautiful Roseart stencil on top of an inked trellis background

I've just realised that I have already blogged this card!  See 'Going for Gold' for details

The background here is created by blending pan pastels - I did a similar card as a Design Team sample and will blog that in due course with more detail

This card is Moira's design and I am sure she will blog about it soon.  The ribbon border is made using the wavy edge of the Clarity blending mat - clever idea!!
Link to Moira's blog













Thank you for visiting!
Have a most wonderful day
Janet xx

Horse and Plough

Good morning Bloggers,

So far, it is a lovely morning here in rural Norfolk - although rain is predicted later....
This is the first of my sample cards for this month.  I love heavy horses, I think they are magnificent- we have several places around here where we can see them in action.  My favourite is the Suffolk Punch - they are not the tallest, but they may be the widest!  They are always a beautiful Chesnut colour (spelt without the 't').  When I saw this stamp, I thought I would have a go at turning them into Suffolk Punches - I don't think they are too bad - especially if you squint a bit!!

The  'God speed the Plough' stamp set was shown with a lovely ploughed field stencil, which would have worked well with it - but I wanted to try it with the fab woodland stencil (which is one of my favourites!)

I also used a darker card to work on, rather than white, just for a change.  I created the fields using the good old torn paper mask trick and Espresso ink
Denim for the sky, with a bit of Espresso round the edges
Stamp with archival ink (I can't remember if I used black or a dark brown)
Colour with watercolour paint
Tear round the edge of the card and ink with Espresso - mount on to brown card
I like to add a squiggly line or two round the edge
Stamp the verse with brown, then tear and ink that and add to the card
Hope you like it
Thanks very much for visiting, hope to see you again soon!