Happy New Year!!

Hello folks and Happy New Year to you all!

I hope 2016 is a good one for you.
I am staying with my sister at over the new year holiday and we have just cracked open the Bailey's! Let's hope we can stay awake long enough to see in 2016!
I am showing a couple of cards I made for the last show Barbara did on Hochanda (don't forget the next one is on Sunday and also there is a one day special starting at 8.00pm and for several hours on Monday - my recorder is all set up!)
For these cards, I used the lovely ThankYou framer set and added a couple of trees from the Wee Trees set  You can never have too many tree stamps in my opinion!

For the first card, I did a watercolour background with oranges and pinks, then splattered a bit of pink over it and let it dry.
Once dry, I used a green ink pad to do most of the stamping - the swirls round the edge and the butterflies in the background.
Then added the ThankYou framer and the butterfly inside the O in a dark green archival ink
I glittered that one butterfly.

For my second one, I stamped the Thank you framer in place first, then masked round the O and did my little scene inside in colour, then continued the line of trees outside the O in black and added a couple of the delightful little birds.

Thank you all very much for visiting my little blog and I hope we will meet up again in 2016.
I'm off for another glass of Bailey's (just a small one!) so I'll leave you and wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Have fun!
Janet xxx

Merry Christmas one and all!

Just popped in to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, I hope you have a happy day and spare a thought for those who are working and for those who are not so happy for whatever reason.


I am spending the day with my family, and am looking forward to it, so will leave you with a seasonal card which I made a while ago.

Thank you all for visiting my little blog this year
Janet xxx

Celebrate!

Good morning everyone,

I am in the lucky position of being off work until after Christmas now, I took an extra day off to get some samples done for the TV show Barbara is doing in the new year.  I know there are many people who have to work over Christmas - I was one of them!  Many a year, I had to work Christmas day or night and/or Boxing day or night.  My thoughts are with you if you are working Christmas this year x

Today's card is one I did for Paul's show last time. I used:
one of the background stencils from the Pattern Stencil set,
the square aperture from the Framer Stencil set,
the swallows from the wonderful Journaling set 
'Celebrate' from  Word Chain 3 set 

I started with the square aperture - I attached it to my card, then slid the pattern stencil under it and added shades of green distress ink with a sponge; darkest at the bottom, getting lighter to the top.
I stamped the swallows with black archival.
The stamped the word on a separate piece of card.
I drew straight lines round the edge of the pattern with a ruler and coloured in with a fine black pen.
Mat everything on black card, then on to the white base card
Nice and simple!
Hope you have a lovely day!
Janet xx

Birds on a wire!

Good evening,


How is it going with the Christmas Prep?  I'm getting there, although I don't actually have too much to do as we are going out for Christmas day.


Today's card is one I did for Paul's show using one of my all time favourite Clarity sets - The Journaling set and the Bird and Flower Rows set

I started with an A4 piece of card and added colour using Fresco finish chalk acrylics.  I picked up the colour with a baby wipe and swished it round the card until it blended.
I cut off a strip at this point (this is the piece behind the birds)
I added a light colour over the remaining piece and waited for it all to dry
Once dry, I did the stamping, I used lots of the background stamps from the journaling set and used the chalk acrylics, I also stamped the flowers from the birds and flower rows set.
On the darker strip I first cut off, I stamped and embossed the birds, and also stamped and embossed them on a spare piece of my background piece, then cut out all the birds and added them over the top of the image stamped on the strip.  Back everything with black card.
I'm off to watch the Strictly final...
Take care
Janet xx

Time to 'fess up

Hello folks,
Thanks for popping by.  I really enjoyed watching Paul's shows on Hochanda, he has such an air of calm about him doesn't he?  and he does brilliant demos!

Today's card is from his show and it seems to be the most popular of my samples, but I have a little confession......
We didn't get much time to make the samples for this show and I hadn't got quite as many done as I would have liked,  I had started one with the lovely stencils, but it hadn't worked out and I had to abandon it and go to bed on Monday night, knowing I had to post the samples the next day because it was my last chance to get to the post office in time.
I woke up early the next morning (a work day!) with an idea of how to salvage what I'd started, so I had a bit of a mad rush getting this card done as well as scan it, pack it for posting and get to work (I was a bit late!)

....so on the Monday evening, I'd decided I wanted to use three of the stencils and do a sort of triptych with three long strips, using one row of each of the different stencils.  I used shades of blue for one, green and orange for the other two, but it didn't look right.  I did really like the way the blue one looked though, but it was getting very late, so I had to go to bed.
The next morning, I had the idea for using just the blue strip, tracing round it with a fine black pen and doodling patterns through each piece.  I was very short of time, so decided to do each bit of the pattern the same (I think I would have done more variety if I'd had longer), Normally, I take a long time over doing this, but this was speed-doodling!
I quickly mounted it onto blue card (luckily there was a piece of the right colour to hand, then I was just going to put it on plain card, but the script stamp from the journalling set was right under my nose, so I grabbed a blue ink pad and used that in the background, more blue car, then onto the white base...PHEW!!

Now, I wouldn't recommend this type of pressure for making cards, it is supposed to be a fun and relaxing thing to do, after all, but I have been in this position a few times and somehow, it always seems to work out really well - maybe not having time to think too much is a good thing!  I have also had another idea for a zentangle on this stencil, but that will have to wait until I have more time--watch this space!
Take care
Janet xxx

The Elephant in the Room

Hello Bloggers,

I hope the weather is nicer where you are, it is very dismal here, but I am not in danger of being flooded which makes me luckier than many in the North of England.

Today's card is one of the samples I made for Paul Church's last show - I thought I'd better get it blogged before his next show (Sunday 13th)

It features an elephant stencil and a trellis stencil which were in a set together on the TV

I attached the elephant stencil to a pice of card, drew all round it then removed the stencil and set about adding my pattern with a fine black pen.  I used a zentangle called Diva Dance for most of it.

Once finished, I put the trellis stencil over the top and brushed ink round the edges.

If you follow me on facebook, you will probably know I have a bit of a thing about the way elephants are 'trained' (tortured is the truth!!) to perform for the entertainment of humans - I am not going to go on about it here, just to say that if you or anyone you know is going to Asia and are considering any form of tourist attraction that features elephants, please do your research first. There are some wonderful places which put the welfare of the elephant first and there are some hideous places where they are thought of pretty much like a machine with no thought for their welfare at all - choose wisely!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend
Thanks for popping in
Janet xxx

Wee Trees and Grasses

Good afternoon,

I have to say, this is not my most favourite time of year, I really don't like it being dark and dismal. Cold bright days I can cope with but not dreary overcast ones.  Still, it will soon be the longest night, then the days will start getting longer again, which always cheers me up!

I have two cards to blog today, both using the wonderful new wee trees and grasses stamp sets - you can never have too many tree and grasses stamps in my opinion!

I decided to do a pink and grey colour scheme for this one, so I masked off a strip across the card, then stamped a selection of the trees in various pinks and greys to make the background.
I reversed the masking and brushed a little pink ink across, then stamped the trees in a dark grey.
Remove the mask, ink round the edges, ten mat onto dark grey and white card.












The next one is pretty much the same as the card in my previous post.  I actually did this one first, and liked the design - so I repeated it for a workshop.
The background is done by squishing ink on a glass mat, spritzing, then picking up the colour onto card.  I always try and get a darker and lighter version with the same inks, so I can stamp on one and use the other for a background.
I cut a one inch srtip of the lighter card and stamped one of the grasses across it in a pale colour, then cut a wider strip and inked the black across the bottom, then cut it into squares and stamped the birds and grasses inplace.  Ink round with black, mat onto black and stick together.
Don't forget that the very lovely Paul Church is on Hochanda on Sunday 13th with three Clarity shows and some lovely stamps and srencils.
Take care and thanks very much for dropping in
Janet xxx

Diva Red Saturday

Good morning! 


Another weekend closer to Christmas and I've still got lots to do....but not today!  I have samples to make for next Sunday's shows with Paul Church, they're going to be good, so remember to tune in.
Don't forget Barbara is on TV today too Hochanda at 14:00-6:00, Clarity with Barbara is back on the first Sunday of the month.


Yesterday was the last of the Diva Red workshops this year - this is a small and very friendly group of ladies, we get together on the first Saturday of the month for lots of craftiness.  Moira and I have been doing this for many years and some of the ladies have been coming along ever since we started, so it's more like a group of friends meeting for a chat, as well as making some cards.


These are my two projects...

 

This is actually the card we did in the afternoon, The background is made by squishing some inks onto a glass mat, then spritzing with water and picking up the colour with the card.  I did two pieces of card, so one is darker and one is lighter.  On the darker piece (which will be the backing piece) is stamped some snowflakes with distress ink while the background was still wet, so they go all nice and smudgy.  When all the card is dry, I cut the three squares and did the little scenes and also cut a background 1 inch strip to go behind them.  Ink all the edges , mat onto black card and there you have it!

For the other card, we decorated an A4 piece of card which can then be cut up to make several cards.  Everything was done with Fresco finish Chalk Acrylic paints....

Start by brayering a pale colour over the whole sheet, then add different colours with a baby wipe or damp kitchen roll  (it looked a right mess at this point and the ladies weren't at all convinced!!)

Once that is dry, add a pale translucent colour over the whole sheet to mute everything down, then stamp the snowflake and bauble images on in paint.  Let them dry, then add the words across the whole lot in 'snowflake'

Let it all dry, then cut up to use on your cards.

I used one square and die cut a poinsettia  - leaving enough to make at least two more cards.

A bit messy, but great fun to do!

Stamps used all from Claritystamp Ltd..

Away in a Manger

Wee Folk 7

Snowflake

Different snowflake

The bauble is an old stamp and I'm not sure if it is still available (sorry!)

Thanks very much for visiting - I'm off to make samples, hope you enjoy your day.

Janet xxx