Cardinal

Hello everyone,

I'm a bit late blogging today - time just whizzes on by doesn't it.  This is my last sample from the last U.S Clarity show, using the Finches set which comes with the two sizes of finch and the lovely leafy sprig.

I started by making a mask for the centre of my card, then stamped the spring all round the edgeI added some shading with a stencil brush, then removed the mask and stamped and coloured the Cardinal with coloured pencils. I squiggled a couple of lines round the frame and added some gems

I stamped and coloured the smaller bird on a separate piece of card and added it in the corner.

I am looking forward to the next Clarity show on Sunday- more lovely stamps and stencils to tempt you... I will be at the Claritystampers East workshop, so will watch when I get home

Take care and stay warm
Janet xx

Vase of flowers

Good morning folks,
Thank you for joining me on this cold but bright morning.  I hope you have a lovely weekend planned.  It is the first Claritystampers East of the year on Sunday (and another one next Sunday!) I am looking forward to seeing everyone again for some crafty fun and chat.

The cards today are all done the same way but with different stamps and colours



For the first one, I used the stamp ans stencil set shown on the USA TV show.  there are two stamps here, and I used both.  The background is done with the solid stamp, inked with distress ink, spritzed and stamped in several colours
For the main image, I used the lineart stamp and stamped it on a spare piece of card, coloured in with pencils and cut out.  I brushed and sponged ink through the vase stencil, then added some leaves that are in the swirl on the stencil too.
I added the cut out bunch of flowers over the top and added a few gems







For this card I used much the same idea except for the background I used several inkpads on the stamp for the background and painted the stamp with distress markers for the main image.
I also splattered some ink over the card too (I rather enjoy splattering!!)
The stamp for this one is Flower stem a rather lovely image which was a new designs stamp  The vase is from the same stencil

The stamp for the third card is Briar Rose, another fab image

Hope you like them, have a fab weekend, whatever you are doing
Janet xxx

Thank you

Good morning everyone,
I hope you are all well, I am improving after my incident on Thursday and am feeling almost back to normal, although this pesky cough is still hanging around.  (Has anyone actually recovered from it yet???)
We had our first flurry of snow  yesterday, but it didn't last long.  It is still quite chilly though.
Today, I am sharing a card that uses two really useful sets of stamps: A Million Thank Yous and the Wee Folk the image I've used here is from set 1, but you really need set 2 too!. I  have also used the grasses that were with the Floral Figures set

I started with linen card stock and used Pan Pastels to colour the background , sprayed with fixative and leave to dry.
I stamped and embossed the Thank You, the couple and the For being you
Then I coloured in the Thank You with the fine end of my Distress markers
I used a ruler and fine black pen to draw a border round the edge, then masked the edge and stamped the grasses in place and coloured them in with distress markers too.

Thank you for all your kind comments, I do enjoy reading them! Also thank you for the well wishes, I am feeling much better now
Enjoy your Sunday!
Janet xxx

In the Swing.....

Hello folks,

I normally try and blog on a Thursday as it is my day off work, but things took a bit of a strange turn... I have had the sore throat/cough bug that has been doing the rounds for a while now and am slowly recovering from that, but yesterday morning I woke up feeling very strange indeed and - long story short - I ended up passed out on the bathroom floor and spent the rest of the day sleeping, resting and generally feeling horrible.
Not sure quite what happened (no. It wasn't anything to do with drinking too much the night before...!!) but I am feeling better today and have had more sleep and rest, so I thought I would show you a card I made for the TV last time


I used to love swings when I was a little girl (and when I was an adult too..!)  It was always my favourite thing to do in the park, I find it very relaxing.  In fact, I might have to try and track one down.
Any way, this card is done with the girl on the swing stencil and the blooming corner stamp set (I especially love the little creatures in this set)
I started by attaching the stencil to my card, the adding colour with a stencil brush.  I only attached the stencil to the top of the card, so I could lift it away and stamp the flowers at the bottom in place, then I put the stencil back and drew round it - avoiding the flowers.
I coloured the flowers, then stamped a few extra on a spare piece of card and cut them out to add to the scene.
I also added a couple of the crane flies and a caterpillar
Have a great weekend
Janet xx.

Napa Valley

Good morning all,

How are you?  I thought I was getting over this cough, but it has just started to get worse again.  I normally wear contact lenses and had to stop wearing them for a while as my eye got a bit infected.  Last weekend, I thought my eye was clear, so I tried the lenses out - didn't go well - a bit of a horrible mess, and now my other eye is all red and infected!  No more lenses for a while!!

Anyway, back to stamping!  Did you manage to watch both of the Clarity shows from the USA?  They are still available to watch on the American Create and Craft website.


This is another of my samples from those shows, using the Napa Valley stamp and stencil, I really like these smaller size stencils

I stamped the image in brown archival then spent a fair while colouring it in.  I masked some areas while I coloured the larger areas like the sky, but some of the gaps are quite small ~(trees and grasses) so I used pencils for them.
Once that was all done, I put the stencil in place and covered the image with the inner part of the stencil so just the frame was showing, then used lots of brown ink and a sponge to colour the frame.
I brushed a bit of ink off the frame to add some shade round the circle. I removed all the masks and stencils then added some shade round the edges.
To finish, I squished some ink on a mat, then spritzed with water, picked the ink up on a brush and 'splattered' it on the card (I covered the main image when I did this) Great fun!
Hope you like it
Janet xxx

The Lone Cypress

Happy Sunday to you,

Did you watch Barbara yesterday?  Fab show!  I always enjoy watching her demos and also seeing the cards from the Design Team - it always amazes me how many different ideas people have for using the same stamp/stencil.
I often have to have a bit of a play with a stamp before I get an idea of what I want to do with it, but as soon as I saw the Lone Cypress, I knew exactly how I wanted it to look (and, for once, the card actually turned out how I imagined!!!)

The stamp comes with a wonderful stencil too.
I stamped and embossed the image, then placed the stencil over it and drew round it with a black fine tip pen.
I masked off different areas of the image as I brushed ink over the area.  I kept to grey and orange
I added a setting sun and stamped the flock of birds
As a very simple finishing touch to the edge of the card, I just drew a line all round with the same black pen.
I am very pleased with how this turned out!...and Dean liked it too - what more could I ask!
Have a great day
Janet xxx

Floral bunny

Good Morning!

So today is very exciting for those of us involved with Claritystamp - Barbara is over in the USA and will be on the TV in USA launching Clarity over there.  The show will be on UK too at 3.00pm
There is a whole lot of new stamps and stencils, so don't miss it!  They are already on the UK create and craft website, along with some of the sample cards.  If you stop by again tomorrow, I will blog the first of my US samples, but for today, this is one from the last UK show


I love this set, very versatile and pretty, there is a cat and a rabbit made out of flowers, along with a border and a circle of flowers.  It is called The Floral Figures set
I decided to make the border into a frame, so stamped four times, then ran some masking tape round the edge to leave the centre exposed while I stamped the rabbit and a touch of the border in the corner.  I also added a bit of background and ground for him to sit on.
I removed all the masking tape, and spent quite a while colouring in all the tiny flowers and leaves using the fine end of my distress marker pens. I only used two colours for the flowers, yellow and orange and green for the leaves.
To finish, I ran round the edge of the frame with a black fine line pen and added some black gems,
then mat and layer.
Hope you like it - I have to admit, I am rather pleased with it!
Have a great day and don't forget to tune in at 3.00pm!
Janet xx

Love and Harmony!

Good morning folks!

Thank you for stopping by and welcome to new followers.  I hope you enjoy reading my blog, my posting is a bit sporadic, but hopefully you'll get used to that!

Today's card is the first from last weekend's TV show, featuring the couple from the 'Wee Folk' collection two lovely sets of little people, I can see me getting a lot of use from them.

When I saw the couple, I knew they had to be in a heart aperture, so I set about finding one the right size!
I found one in the heart rose stencil so I positioned the heart I wanted on the card and masked of all round it, then added my red ink with a stencil brush,leaving a lighter area through the centre.
I stamped the couple in black archival, then gave them a bit of something to stand on and run round the edge of the heart with a fine black pen.
Remove the stencil.
I wanted a spray of little hearts to run diagonally, so I dug out my plier punches (remember them?) as I knew I'd got a heart one.  I punched a tiny heart aperture and inked through it several times, then added some heart gems too.


To finish off I stamped the word 'Harmony' from one of the new word chains and added a gem in the 'O'
Hope you like it!  As always. all stamps and stencils are from Claritystamp
Enjoy your day
Janet xxx

Happy New Year 2015!

How did you celebrate the New Year?  I still have a cough and cold and wasn't feeling very well, so I pretended I was in Eastern Europe (which is 2 hours ahead of the UK) and raised a glass at 22.00, then went to bed!  Still, at least I haven't got a hangover!!
Who knows what 2015 will bring - you can never tell can you?  Let's just hope it a mostly good.

I have blogged two cards today - these are my last 2 samples from the last Clarity show.  I thought I had better get them done before the next show is on!  There are some lovely new stamps coming up, so make sure you are watching on Sunday!!
Oh!  And there is a whole lot of wonderful new Clarity stamps and stencils coming up on Create and Craft USA on Monday too.

For my first card I used a watercolour background, made by squishing ink on to a glass mat, then spritzing with water and picking up the ink on the card.  Once dry do all the stamping, then colour in.
I also added a bit of 'ground' for the fox cubs to sit on

I used a new technique to me for this one - I brayered lots of green ink onto some watercolour card, then spritzed the leaf stencil with water and placed it on top of the coloured card and pressed down well.  When you lift the stencil, you get the pattern of the stencil 'bleached out' of the card.
I dried the stencil, then put it back and added a few more bits of colour on the leaves (I could probably have done this first, thinking about it!)
The centrepiece is stamped and embossed, then I have stamped the squirrel separately, coloured and cut him out.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and peaceful 2015
Janet xx