The Oak Stag

Hello folks

..So Christmas is already behind us - a new year to look forward to.  Will you make any new year resolutions?   We are without water at the moment, there is a water main burst in the area and it is going to take a day or two to fix.  There is a water bowser set up at the village hall and we can buy bottled water, so we can manage for a while.  It has made me realise however just how much we rely on just being able to turn a tap and there is water there.  What an amazing luxury that we take completely for granted!!  My new year resolution is to support Water Aid to help provide fresh, clean water for more people in the world - I am far more likely to do that than lose weight or get fit!

My card today is from the last Clarity TV show, I thought I had better get these posted as the next show is very soon!



I am always pleased to get deer stamps to work with, I think they are wonderful creatures.
This lovely stag comes in a kit with the oak circle, two separate leaves and an acorn.
I stamped the deer first then masked him and stamped the oak leaf circle over the top.
I then placed a square mask over the top and stamped the single leaves and the acorn round the edge.  I used green and brown ink for this.
Then I got out the Spectrum Noir pencils and did lots of colouring.
As a final touch, I used a brown fine line pen to draw round the square, then mounted on to brown card.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and wish you a peaceful and successful 2015
Janet xx

Merry Chirstmas!

Merry Christmas one and all,
I hope you are all having a happy day

A little Christmas ATC 
Janet xx

Happy Christmas Eve Eve x

Good evening all,

How is it all going?  I have sent my cards, bought all the pressies and thrown a bit of tinsel around the house so it looks vaguely Christmassy... I have received some very lovely hand made cards this year, I always enjoy it when I get a handmade one rather than a bought one, I suppose it is because we know how much care and work has gone into them, don't we?

This card is one I made a few years ago, but it is very special because I entered it in the monthly Clarity challenge (before I was in the DT) before it was a blog and it won that month.  I was so thrilled!!

It is all about stamping and colouring, I just masked a couple of strips to do the background

I decided to phase the colouring and did one side red and the other side green and overlapped a bit in the middle. There is a bit of glitter in there too.

I can't remember what the colouring on the bark of the tree is.  there is an outline tree and a silhouette tree, so maybe I inked up the silhouette and  kiss stamped it before adding it to the outline tree and then coloured over the top.

There are lots of little holly stamps from Clarity that could be used for the background stamping.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your Christmas prep is going well!
Janet xx

Doodly Owls

Good morning everyone,

Is is really the last weekend before Christmas?  Still, I am getting sorted out!  The Christmas cards have all been sent and the pressies have been bought (but not wrapped yet!) so that's not bad for me!

I had a bit of an extra expense, Meggie, my tortoiseshell cat had to have a couple of teeth extracted yesterday - poor thing looked really miserable, she must have been in a lot of pain - toothache is the worst, isn't it? so off to the vet and a £200 bill.  Just what you need the week before Christmas eh!  Still, she is much happier this morning, so it is worth every penny!

Toady's card is one from the last TV show that got the most comments on fb.  It is my zendoodled owls

I started by stamping the owls in brown archival ink, then I put the flare stencil over the top and drew round it using a fine brown pen.
I removed the stencil and set about filling in all the shapes with doodles.  I think this is a bit of a 'Marmite' technique - I love it, but know people who hate doing it.
Once all the lines were in place, I added some shading with various brown coloured pencils.
I also coloured the owls - I added a few dots on their feathers and a bit of shading.
Trim to size and mount on dark brown card.
Hope you like it!  I am off to attempt to give the cat her antibiotics - wish me luck!!!
Janet xxx

A Million Thank Yous

Good morning!

Happy Sunday to you!  It is cold, bright and crisp here today - I much prefer that to the warmer, dreary days though, a bit of sunlight makes all the difference to my mood.

Toady, I am blogging thr first of my DT cards from last weekend's Clarity show.  It features the brilliant 'A Million Thank Yous' set.  This comes with the lovely large Thank You and a whole lot of reasons to thank someone - very clever idea and a really useful set of stamps.

I started by stamping the Thank You with versamark and embossing with a sparkly embossing powder
I coloured it in with two colours of Spectrum Noir pencils
This is the fun bit - I then splattered ink over the rest of the card, using colours which matched the colouring in
Cut to size and ink round the edges, then a bit of matting and layering - I used a border punch to get the pretty edge
To finish it, I stamped and embossed the 'for your help' , matted on the same cardstock .
Hope you like it
Thank you for stopping by
Janet xxx

Christmas cards with a Kenyan twist

Hello everyone,

How are the Christmas preparations going??  Me?  I have just started making my own Christmas cards!  I decided that I was going to ask my Kenyan fb friend, Robin to paint me some Christmas scenes that I could use and he sent me some lovely pictures.
I have just spent some time making them into cards, so if you are on my Christmas card list, you may well be getting one sent to you!
Robin is a young Kenyan man who sells his art to raise money for his education.  I think they are beautiful.

Thanks for looking
Janet xxx

Last Claritystampers East of the Year

Hello everyone and welcome,

These are the cards we made at the last Claritystampers East workshop for this year - I always think people have enough to do in December, what with all that Christmas preparation - it is slowly dawning on me that I have got a fair old bit to do!!  I did the cards in different colours, just because sometimes they can look very different, depending on the colours used

The first card is made with the shoe stamp and stencil from the new Clarity Style set, Stamp the words in place first then place the stencil on the card and brush some ink through, I added a bit of shading by going over some areas again with a sponge. When I was happy with the colour, I drew round the edge with a fine pen.
Cover this shoe with the cut out shoe that comes in the stencil kit, it will act as a mask, then move the stencil over a bit and add the second shoe ( a bit lighter than the first!)

To get the splatters, just add some of the ink to your craft mat, spritz with water, pick some ink up on a paint brush and splatter away until you get the desired amount of splotches.
Add a few gems and mat and layer on matching card.  I intend to add a greeting in the top right corner, when I know what I want to say!

We actually did the first bit of this card first, drag some grunge paste through the dress stencil and leave to dry. (Do the other cards whilst waiting!)
When the paste is dry, place the other bit of the stencil over it, to mask it while you do the background, cover with the umbrella stencil and add your colours - this one is quite light, the other one is quite dark!












Swap the stencil over to expose the paste dress, then add the colour to the dress
Stamp the words in place and I drew round the outline of the dress with a fine pen.
I also squiggled a line round the edge of the card

Clarity do a plethora of tree stamps and I love them all!  I think they are one of my favourite things to work with.  The new designs with the butterflies and the birds are wonderful images and it is great to have a stamp and stencil.

For these cards, we used white acrylic paint to sponge through the stencil.

Once dry, brush/sponge with ink

the smaller image is the stamp.
Add some ground for the trees to stand on.














The extra butterflies are made just by stamping the image on a spare piece of card, embossing with crystal embossing powder and cutting out.  I cut off the antennae, then stamp the image on the card and add the cut out over the top.

Hope you like them, sorry it's such a long post!

 Janet xxx