Best Wishes x

Good Morning to you,

Have you got good things planned this weekend?  Me- a nice quiet one at home catching up with stuff and relaxing a bit.
I thought I'd better do my blog before I relaxed too much!

This is my last sample from a month ago.  I used the ribbon writing Best Wishes sentiment set There are others in the range, I think they are brilliant - I love the style of the main image, but also all the sentiments, if you get them all, you can write just about anything for special occasions.

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I used a couple of color burst/brusho backgrounds I had in my stash.  I like to do a darker and a lighter version of the same colours -one for the background and one to stamp on.  Just add more water for the lighter version.
I stamped some of the little words in two colours of ink all over the darker piece for the background.
I stamped the Best Wishes on the paler piece, the coloured it in and glittered over the top - very pretty effect!
I stamped the 'on your special day' words on another bit of the paler card, then cut out each word by hand.
I inked round all my edges (it's the law!), squiggled a black line round the edge of the main image, then matted and layered on matching card stock.
Hope you have a fab weekend, whatever you are doing....
Janet xxx

Santa and Stars

Hello folks,
Thank you for visiting today - I hope you have had a good day!
Have you been watching the Groovi shows with Barbara?  I have just got my storage bundle - wonderful quality.  I am going to sort all my plates out this evening......

Today's cards are not my latest samples, I am still catching up from last time!  I have used the fab Santa and Star Corner set for these

The first card involves using a mask for Santa, which comes with the set.
I stamped Santa in place, then masked him.
Tear some copy paper and cover the bottom edge of the card, then I brushed a light colouring of ink all over and used a sponge to darken the colour at the bottom.
Stamp the stars and holly branches in place (all in the set), then remove the mask and colour in.  I used glitter pens on the stars and leaves, and pencils for the rest.




The second card is done with Fresco finish chalk acrylics, I brayered the colours lightly round the card,  then stamped the stars with the paint and added some gold paint dots round the edge.  The centre strip is done the same way, but I added some snowflake paint over the background to lighten it a bit for stamping on.
I used black archival to do all the stamping, then distress markers to colour in.

Hope you like them!

Take care,
Janet x

Snowflakes!

Good morning and I hope you all have a great weekend.

Simon and I had a tough day yesterday, it was the funeral of his great friend and fishing buddy of many, many years.  Simon said a few words at the service and spoke beautifully of the times they had spent together.  It was a very sad occasion, but as is often the way, it was also lovely to catch up with people you haven't seen for years.  It was a 4 hour drive for us to get there (and another 4 hours back!) so we had plenty of time for reminiscing.

Anyway, back to normality - It is Clarity Sunday on Hochanda this weekend, Barbara has two shows 14:00-16:00 and 18:00-19:00 make sure you tune in!
I still haven't got round to posting all of last month's samples, so I am doing two today, both using the lovely set of snowflake stamps

 For the first one, I also used the fab set of words:
Best Wishes sentiments I love these ribbon style words - so versatile!
I did the background first, by brushing chalk acrylics on some card - once it was dry, I did the stamping with blue ink, and crystal embossing powder, then 'coloured in' with a white pen.  I also added some dots of white too.
The little At and Christmas are stamped and embossed on separate card and added over the top.
It does actually look quite sparkly, but doesn't show so much in the picture.





For the second card, I stamped and embossed the snowflakes with white powder, then added Color busts over the top ~(not too much!!!) and spritzed.  The embossing resists the colour, especially if you give it a wipe once it is dry.  I just added the words and some gems

Thanks very much for dropping in
Janet xxx

Three ladies dancing

Good evening,

I hope you are having a good weekend.  I have finally got a weekend at home, after a few busy weeks.

The weather hasn't been up to much, so I am making cards for the next Clarity TV show on Hochanda on Sunday 25th October, there are some good things coming up so don't forget to tune in!

These cards are samples from the last show

:

 The first card is stamped and coloured with pencils, then I drew an edge round with a black pen and coloured that in too.
The background is spritzed ink picked up on card, then some more ink splattered over it.   

The main image on the second card is stamped and coloured with pencils.  The background is done by dragging distress inks though the stencil, I add dots of paint in the centres.

For number three, I made the background by painting fresco finish chalk acrylics onto some card, then stamped the image in archival ink and coloured with distress markers.

I dotted more paint round the edge and printed the words out, cut them out and added them on top.

Stamps used

Beauty and Charm Ballerinas

Elegance and Grace Ballerinas

Stencils:

Basic background A5

Thanks very much for dropping by, take care, Janet xxx

Claritystampers East

Hello again,

Thank you for dropping in.  I am finally blogging cards again and thought I would start with the ones we did over the last two weekends, today at Bawburgh and last Sunday at Great Blakenham.

We used the Spruce Tree stencil and the Santa and Star corners set of stamps

The first card was made using the Spruce Tree stencil, sponging distress ink through, then stamping the outline star group all over the image and using part of the larger corner stamp round the edges, then add a black outline with a fineliner pen.
 Stamp the solid star cluster on the background and the corner round the edges, then colour in the leaves

We used the same stencil again for the second card - a nice messy one!  Splodge some distress ink on to the inner part of the stencil, spritz with water then place some watercolour paper over it to pick up the image (make sure you move it to a clean background first!)  Splatter a bit of ink around, then leave to dry.  In the meantime, make a background piece of card by splodging ink on a mat, spritzing, then picking the ink up on the card and leave that to dry too.
After you've had your coffee and cake (thank you Veronica!) place the outer part of the stencil over the image and stamp some stars on the tree.
Then it is just a case of matting and layering.
There were some very lovely versions of this made by the ladies - a bit of glitter on the tree looks lovely

The last card was stamping and colouring really.  We masked the Santa before doing the background and added some shade around him by dragging some ink off the mask with a make up sponge.







Thank you to both groups of ladies, I always enjoy spending my weekend with you!
Janet xxx

Back in blogland

Good morning ,

Sorry I haven't blogged for a long while, it has been a busy time.

We had a weekend away in Dorset to attend the wedding of Simon's stepson.  It was a lovely time, meeting with old friends and family and the weather was fab, which was just as well as they chose a beautiful old castle as the venue for the wedding (it had no roof!).

The next weekend, my sister and I took my parents to Leicester to see the Richard 111 exhibition as a treat for my Mum's 80th birthday later in the year.  We stayed in a lovely hotel and Mum met with some friends as well.

The next weekend was the Diva Red workshop with Moira on Saturday and the Claritystampers East workshop in Great Blakenham on Sunday, I will blog the cards from Claritystampers after this weekend's Claritystampers Bawburgh workshop.

We have also had a devastating event: Simon's best friend and fishing buddy of over 20 years was taken ill on Monday while they were fishing together - they were on a boat in a lake and his friend toppled out of the boat, unconscious and in spite of all the correct safety equipment and quick response of people near by, he sadly lost his life.  He was a lovely man, who enjoyed being outdoors in nature and we (especially Simon) will miss him immensely.

So it has been a bit of a roller coaster, especially for Simon, but I thought I would try and get back on track with my blogging.  I am sorry if I haven't been commenting as much as usual, but I will get back into it  again soon.

I will put cards on a separate post, it doesn't seem quite right to put them on here.

Take care
Janet xx