Happy Summer Sunday

Good afternoon all!

It is another lovely sunny Sunday afternoon here in the depths of wildest Norfolk (not that Norfolk gets all that  wild!!), I have been catching up with the housework this morning and have got lots of samples to make for the Clarity show next weekend this afternoon.  Lots of lovely new stamps and stencils to look forward to!!
This is a quick blog of one of my samples from the last show....

I used one of the new Christmas Bauble stamps - Doves of Peace and the Olive Branch wreath stencil
I decided not to use the stencil as a wreath, so I inked through it in a more random fashion to create the background. It doesn't show well here, but I used two colours of green.
The doves are stamped with versamark and embossed with gold powder, then cut out, mounted on to gold card and then gold mirri (both die cut!)  I added some glitter to their wings
I embossed the 'Blessings'  from Word Chain 4 and matted up with the same combination of card

Hope you like it
Have a wonderful day and thank you for visiting
Janet xx

Home again!

Good morning all,
Well, it's nice to be home again after a few days away at the Clarity Retreat in Crowborough.  I have been going to these workshops (previously in Cowden) for many, many years and have got to know lots of the regulars and it is great to see them again.  I usually stay with a friend who lives in Kent at the end of each day, I would take all my wonderful creations back and show her what we'd made...well, she retired last year, so this time I asked her if she would like to come with me and she said 'yes', so off we went....

The new venue at Crowborough is lovely, nice and light and airy and with lovely views, Jayne was there in the kitchen as ever, beavering away producing endless cups of tea and coffee and fabulous lunches, Paul Church was running around making sure we all had everything we needed, Dave was being Dave and keeping it real and of course Barbara was there providing tuition, energy and laughter.

We had four lovely projects each day, but I won't show you yet, I don't want to spoil it for those yet to go, so here is one of the Sample Christmas cards I did for the last TV show to keep you going...

This card is made with the deer and fawn round stamp, the holly wreath stencil and wording from the international set.
I wanted to use the stencil in a slightly different way, so rather than use it as a wreath, I just brushed through it in a random way, to make the strip - careful not to overlap the images - I added a touch of glitter to the holly berries.
The round stamp is just stamped and coloured in with pencils and some glitter added to the bits behind the deer's antlers.
 I stamped the smaller fawn in the front on a separate piece of card, coloured and cut out and decoupaged over the main image.
A bit of inking round all the edges, then matting and layering and add the words.

Hope you like it and thanks very much for looking
Have a great weekend
Janet xx

Easton Crafters -July

Good morning all!,

Happy Friday again!  On the third Thursday of the month, I have been asked to run a class for the lovely ladies at a local craft group.  They are great fun and provide delicious cake!!

Some of the ladies who attend are not really card-makers, so I keep it reasonably simple, (but effective, hopefully!)  These are the cards from yesterday - all using trees and birds and all just stamped, with a bit of masking.  It always amazes me how different things look, just done in a different colour, or with a slightly different layout

All the tree, bird and word stamps, stencil brushes and moon masks are available from Claritystamp Ltd - but you probably knew that!
Thanks for looking - hope you have a brilliant day
Janet xxx

Fifth day of Clarity Christmas

Happy Friday all!

It is a happy Friday for me!  I had to go to work yesterday (which should have been my day off) so I have Friday off instead yay!!  Also, it is the fifth and final day of the Five Days of Clarity Christmas.

I thought I would finish with an older card, but Frosty is one of my favourite Clarity stamps and making frames round a scene is one of my favourite things to do, so it is worth an outing!

I start by making the frame
Mask off a square in the centre of a piece of card and stamp the two sizes of snowflake stamp all over - I used black and blue ink (sorry, can't remember which colour!)
remove the mask and use post-its to cover up the frame and leave you the centre square exposed to create the scene.
Stamp 'Frosty' first and mask him off, then stamp a row of trees behind him - I used a torn piece of copy paper to give me the line - again I used the same colours, black and blue
I used promarkers to colour in his hat and scarf
Add a bit of shading
Ink round the edge of the card
Add a couple of black squiggly lines round the frame
Add the Season's Greetings and mount up
(I used deckle-edged scissors to cut round the greeting and I like to line up both layers of card - is that a bit OCD???)
The tree and snowflake miniatures both come from the Christmas miniatures set and the Season's Greetings  is also available as a mini.

I do hope you've enjoyed this little piece of Christmas in July (I have to say that the weather here is more appropriate for Christmas than summer!)

Have a fun day
Janet xx

4th Day of Clarity Christmas!

Good morning all!

Bright (ish!) and early today - I am off to work soon, but thought I would post this quickly before I go.

Today is day 4 of the Clarity Christmas card week, so I thought I would combine a blog post with my fb post.  This is my card for today, It is another of the samples for TV last Saturday - using one of the fab new Clarity Christmas Rounds sets a lovely combination of stamp and stencil...

I used the Fairy Lights Wreath stencil and rather than ink through it, I drew all round it with a black fineline pen.  I removed the stencil and coloured in with red promarker, then added crystal lacquer, sprinkled a bit of fine glitter over and left to dry overnight (it doesn't take that long, but I find it is the best way for me to not keep poking it to see if it's dry yet!!)
The next day, I just added the Christmas stocking stamp in the centre and coloured in with promarkers and added some glitter to the stocking tops and candle flames.
et voila!
One more day of Christmas to go - then back to normal (which in my case is making more Christmas cards!!)

Thanks for visiting, don't forget to comment, I always enjoy reading them.  Have a great day,
 Janet xxx

Happy Christmas everybody!

Hello there!

I know it is only July and you haven't been on your summer holiday yet, so why am I talking about Christmas already?  Well, in the card-making world you have to start early if you are going to make enough cards to send to all your fiends and family.  There was a lady at the workshop on Saturday who set herself the target of one card a month - only to realise that meant she would only have 12 Christmas cards to send!!
The stamp sets we got from Barbara were all Christmas this time (and I think the next lot will be too!!), so I set about making Christmas cards on a swelteringly hot day in June!
Then Sam Crowe set us a challenge to put one Christmas card a day for 5 days on our timeline on facebook, so I decided to stop being a bah-humbug! for a while and join in!

This is the card I chose for day 3 and it is also one of the most popular of the samples from the TV

The Holly Wreath is made by pushing Grunge Paste through a lovely new stencil, then once dry, colouring with distress inks.  The words are simply stamped, but I used my own inkpad, created by dropping distress re-inkers on a piece of cut and dry felt.
As usual, pretty much everything I've used is available from Clarity
I have to admit to being quite pleased with this one, although I did cringe when they showed it really close up on the TV - it shows up all the mistakes!!!  (I'm not telling you what they are though!!!)

Thanks very much for dropping by
Janet xx

Diva Red workshop on Saturday

Hello bloggers!

Last Saturday was the Diva Red workshop, which is the one I run with Moira on the first Saturday of the month.  We had a good crowd this time and I think a good time was had by all...even if there were some very inky fingers by the end!!

The first two here are the cards I did....

This one is done by using distress re-inkers on shaving foam to create the background, we did several bits of card (some more than others!!).  Enough to cut a strip and another piece to die cut butterflies
My butterflies were quite similar to my background so I edged them with some ink to make them sand out, and added some gems.

I then dropped the card back in the shaving foam (NOT intentional!!) and ended up with more splodges than I really wanted!!! (the ones across the top of the card)
                                                                                                                                                             

My second card is a repeat of the one I did at Easton, using the abstract squares stencil and woodland animals stamp set from Claritystamp

 This one is my version of Moira's card - it is simply stamped with veramark then covered with different colour embossing powders - so easy to do but very effective.

 

The final two are done with tear-drop shaped cards simply covered in lovely papers from Moira's stash of stuff.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit, thanks for stopping by and come back soon -it will be the Christmas cards from the Clarity show at the weekend!
Janet xx