Last Christmas card

Good Morning!
I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas day, we had a nice relaxed one with my parents coming over for their dinner.
The card for today is the last Christmas card of the year, again using the Jayne Nestorenko winter scene.  This one has a darling little snowman in.

I stamped onto watercolour cardstock, then used Brushos to do the sky and simply watercoloured the rest.
I live in Norfolk and many houses here and in Suffolk are pink, so I always like to do 'cottages in the country' pink.

Thanks for dropping in, I wish everyone a Happy Christmas.
Janet xx

Season's Greetings!

Hello folks,

I am lucky enough to be off work now until after Christmas, so I am catching up with some housework and decorating for Christmas.  I am so glad it is the longest day today, it seems to have been dark all day, I am always pleased to see it getting lighter again!

Today's card is another one I did using Jaynes' Christmas scenes.  I love this winter hedgerow.

I did the background first and added the colour using my petite gel press circle.
I added two colours to the plate then gently touched over it with scrunched tissue then pressed on to the card, I kept repeating this, overlapping the circles, until I was happy with what I'd got.
I stamped everything in place, then took a bit of the colour out of the trees and shrubs by adding water and blotting.
When it was all dry, I used a white gel pen tp add all the white bits, I also darkened the hedge a bit to put it behind the trees.  I matted it on matching card and it was done!  I don't think I added any glitter, but that would obviously work well with this.
Stamps used:
Season's Greetings
Santa and Sleigh
Jayne Nestorenko's Winter Scene - Children

I hope your Christmas prep is going well!!
Janet xx

A little picture

Good morning,

Did you have a good weekend?  I am slowly getting in to Christmas mode - cards written and sent. pressies wrapped  - just got to put all my craft stuff away (Just??) and get a bit of tinsel out,...

Another card today using the Jayne Nestorenko designs.  It was so lovely to hear Jayne's voice on the TV  show when the range was introduced, I did a workshop with her many years ago when she came to Norwich.  I think we did fantasy film and fibres, she was such a lovely lady and very talented.  I am sad to hear she is so ill, but it looks like she is remaining positive and still enjoying a bit of crafting

I used watercolour card for this and started by stamping the frame in place with archival ink
I masked the edges then stamped the scene in place.
Then I used my Artistry Inks to watercolour everything.
Finally, I stamped the little birds on the frame,
then mounted in on black and then blue card.
Stamps used:
Jayne Nestorenko's Winter Scene - Cat
Jayne's Frame

Thank you for visiting,
Janet xx

Kenyan style Christmas cards

Hello folks,
So today I thought I would share cards that I have made up, but the artwork isn't mine.  It started a while ago when I got a friend request from a man in Kenya.  Normally I would just delete a request from a man I don't know, but for some reason, I decided to accept this one - I thought it would be fun to get news from another part of the world.
It turns out that he also made cards and sold them to help pay for his education, so I asked to see pictures, they were fantastic pieces of art.  I said If he sent me some, I would buy them from him and sell locally or use myself, so that is what we do, Robin sends me his little works of art and Imake them into cards (It was better that way for postage costs)

These are some of his Christmas designs...

Fabulous, aren't they?  My favourites are the orange/red and yellow backgrounds.  I think the colours and pigments could only come from Africa- so vibrant!  I love them, hope you do too. 

 Have a lovely day!

Janet xx

Golden Turmeric

Good afternoon all,

I thought I would post one of the cards from the last TV show today.  This one features the a tree and some birds from the Jayne Nestorenko sets which Barbara had on - it also features one of my new favourite ink colours - Golden Turmeric from the set of Artistry Inks.  I am not normally a 'yellow person' but this is such a wonderful rich yellow/gold.

 I added lots of colour to a piece of stencil card using a blending tool, starting at the top with Golden Turmeric and working down through oranges and reds to the bottom.
I splattered with water and blotted with copy paper.
Leave to dry and use archival ink to stamp the main tree, then use a copy paper mask to stamp the rest.  I did use water to lift some of the colour from the trees, so they stand out a bit.
Add the word and birds et viola!  Add a bit of black round the edges and you're done.

Hope you have a great weekend!
Janet xx

Claritystampers East and Diva Red

Good evening!

I hope you are keeping well.. I have a cold!  All stuffed up and coughing!  Fortunately, I don't feel too bad, so still keeping on with the Christmas prep - still got my cards to write and some pressies to buy - but I am getting there!

It was a busy couple of weekends Claritystampers East at Great Blakenham and Bawburgh and Diva Red with Moira.  These are the cards from those workshops..

I really like this image by Jayne Nestorenko, the Holly and the Ivy.  This card is stamped with water based ink and water coloured, apart from the greeting, which is stamped in archival.

This is such a quick card!  Use a brayer to load some paint onto the square gel press petite plate, sponge a bit off with some tissue, place the stencil on the card and press the painty plate over the top.
I used the line writing sets to add the words as a frame, then I tore the card and inked the edges.

A leafy version...

...and a wordless version.

Have you got the petitesgel plates yet??  You definitely need them, they are great fun to use.

Maybe put them on your Christmas wishlist?

Thanks very much for visiting
Janet xx

Fuchsias

Hello folks,

Thank you for visiting today.  Firstly, let me say thank you for all the comments about Misty, I know many of you have lost pets of your own and it know how tough it is.

Back to cards now though.... I made this card as a sample for Paul's shows on TV last weekend. Featuring the wonderful floral stamp sets by Jayne Nestorenko, this one is the Fuchsia set
 (this link is to the new website, the stamp is on the Gray Friday deal until midnight 27/11/16)

I started by stamping the image in archival ink onto watercolour cardstock.
Mix up some brusho (or other ink crystals) with some water
Wet the card around the image with a wet brush, then add some of the ink onto the card, you can add paint and dab it off again with paper towel until you like what you have.
While the paper is still wet, sprinkle a small amount of the crystals around and spritz, again, you can move the ink aroud with a brush and blot until you like the result.  I then sprinkled a tiny amount of the crystals and left them to spread on the wet card.
When everything was dry, I used Artisrty Inks to colour the image and added some sparkle to the flowers.
Cut the card to size and stamp the word 'Fuchsias' on to an offcut then mat it all on complimentary card.

Hope you all have a lovely day!
Janet x

Little Misty Blue

Hello everyone,
A bit of a sad post today..
Yesterday evening Misty, one of the cats, started to cry in pain and lost the use of her back legs, which were ice cold.  I called the vet and she was pretty sure it was a blood clot, she explained over the phone that there was little chance of a happy resolution, so we made the decision to euthanase.
I know many of you have four-legged family members and you know how that feels, it was a shock that it all happened so quickly!  Misty came and had her tea when I got home from work and less than an hour later, she was forever sleeping!
This is what Misty looked like when we first got her, 12 and a half years ago, she was only 4 weeks old and had only just started to lap.  She had been found at a day or two old, next to her dead mother.  She was looked after by a lady Simon knew, while she needed to be intensively cared for and then came to us.  She was a scruffy little bundle!

She was the prettiest of colours, a sort of grey, peach and cream mixture.  We had two 6 month old cats at the time and once they got used to the idea she was around, Megs took Misty under her wing and became her 'Auntie'.  Misty followed her everywhere and they remained friends, in fact only the previous evening, they were snuggled up together on my lap.
Misty was a funny little thing, she used to come running in, all proud of herself because she had 'caught' one of the neighbour's Fuchsia flowers!  She disappeared one day and turned up in one of the neighbour's bedroom windows - they had been packing the car to go out for the day and had the house door open and Misty had sneaked in!  Luckily, they had left the window slightly open and we managed to get her to jump on the porch roof, where Simon could reach her.

We will lay her to rest under her favourite shrub in the front garden later this morning, Good bye Misty Blue, we will miss your quirky little ways RIP.

Poinsettia Frame

Good Morning everyone,

I hope you had a lovely weekend.  Did you manage to watch the lovely Paul on the TV?  The stamp sets by Jayne Nestorenko are lovely aren't they?  Especially good if you like colouring.  This is a card I made last time the stamps were on, but they were on yesterday's show too, so ~I thought I would blog about it.  The other florals will come later....

Really, this is a simple card. pretty much stamping and colouring, I used waxy pencils for this.
I did mask the poinsettia and the edge of the frame and stamp the word 'Poinsettia' in the background.
I like Paul's idea of cutting out the frame and mounting up the layers, I will try that another time, it looked good!
Thank you for visiting,
Hope you enjoy your day!
Janet xx

Poinsettia

Hello again,

I'm back with another blog - don't get used to it though!  I am a bit inconsistent with my blog posting!
Monday is my new day off work, so I am having a nice, relaxed day today, just me, the cats and Jules Holland and his band.  I have done my housework for the day and am catching up on card samples, but I have to keep stopping to do a bit of rock n' roll dancing.  Just as well no-one is watching!!

This card was shown on the last TV show Barbara did on Hochanda.  I am enjoying using the Jayne Nestorenko floral designs, they are so nice to colour in.
This card did not end up at all like I intended...but I am quite pleased with the result anyway.
I had wanted to do something with brushos but it didn't work out, so I found an old background I had done previously and stamped the Poinsettia (I may have embossed, I can't remember now!) then coloured in by using the Artistry Inks with a damp paintbrush, they work really well like that.
I used reds and oranges, but it looked a bit flat, so I added a touch of Golden Turmeric (my new favourite colour!!) which lifted and brightened it all.
I used the Pine branch round the edge in black, but it looked a bit dark, so I added other bits in lighter colours to soften it a bit.
I hope you are getting on with your Christmas cards, my lovely friend in Kenya has sent me 100 of his little paintings, so I am gong to spend an evening getting them all mounted up.  I will show them on here when I've got some done, they are fab little pictures!
Thanks for stopping by,
have a good day!
Janet xx

Tropical

Hello everyone,
Thanks very much for stopping by.  I hope you are having a good weekend.  I am showing a page from the Clarity colouring book today.  I did do this a while ago, but have just realised that I haven't blogged it yet.
It is coloured with waxy pencils.  I am not the best colourer-inner, but I am having great fun wiht this book, you can do each page bit by bit, you don't have to sit and do it all in one go.  I think it is good to take your time and get a result you can be pleased with.
The picture has come out a bit faded, but it was actually quite bright for me!
A few things I have learnt: Nothing in nature is a solid colour, so I always use several colours and blend.
Add shade!!  I don't think I am brave enough with this yet, but I am getting there!
Add highlights, I am also not very brave with this either.
Keep practising!  Practice makes perfect, as they say....
Enjoy it!  You are supposed to be relaxing, remember!
Janet xx

.

A little bit serious

Hello all,
I hope you are enjoying the weekend.  It is a bit of a rare one for me - no workshops and not too much prep to do!
I am going to share a card, but first I just want to mention the plight of a Dr I worked with.  His name is Dino and he has a young nephew in Myanmar who has developed leukaemia and is seriously ill.  His only hope is to have a bone marrow transplant and this will cost £200,000 which the family can't afford.  There is a fundraising page here, if you feel you could help, that would be wonderful.  The sad irony is that Dino is a haematology Dr and has helped many patients in the UK through similar sorts of treatment.
I work for the NHS and am one of the first to moan on about its many failings, but this has made me realise how lucky we are in the UK to have the NHS; worrying about being able to afford treatment rarely happens here and if Dino's little nephew was in the UK, he would get this treatment free of charge!
I can't promise to not moan in the future, but I will also remember to appreciate what we have!

So onto my card, this one is one I did for the last TV show, using the Holly and Ivy set again..

I often do a central image with a frame by masking, but for this one, it is a separate piece of card.
I used watercolour card and stamped the image, then coloured in by painting with artistry inks, these work really well for paining, just squish a bit of ink on a mat and pick up with your brush.
Once I had done the painting, I stamped the words, then it all looked a bit bare, so I got out my speckling brush covered up the image and went to town!!  There are speckles of all colours

I mounted this piece onto a dark green background.
For the background piece, I stamped the ivy all round the edge of the card, then painted them too.

Thank you for visiting, and please spare a thought for Dino's little nephew, if you can.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend
Janet xxx

Holly, Ivy and Brusho

Good evening,

This card is one I made for the TV show on Hochanda last weekend.  I started by stamping the holly and ivy image onto some watercolour card.  I used a brush to add water to the left side of the image, then added some diluted brusho as a paint.  I used two colours.  then I did the same on the right of the image, but used a paler colour.  I then masked the image and added powder brusho over the top and spritzed it.  You get a bit more control doing it this way.  You can always use a brush to blend in any bits you think are too dark.

I let it dry, then added the holly and ivy words in versa fine ink, before removing the mask.
Once I'd removed the mask, I used artistry inks to paint in the image.
I obviously had to use my fab new speckling brush to add some speckles, then added a bit of shadow round the image with pencils.

I had great fun doing this one!

Thanks for visiting!
Janet xx

Christmas cards at Claritystampers East

Good evening!
Thank you for dropping in to visit.  I have had a busy couple of weekends with workshops.  I did the Claritystampers East workshop at Bawburgh last weekend (our 4th anniversary) and Great Blakenham yesterday (our 3rd anniversary).
these are the cards we made

Nice easy card, the 'brick wall' is done by squishing brown ink on a Gel press petite circle through the mini brick stencil.
The Christmas stocking is stamped on the card, as well as the candy canes.  The candy canes are coloured in.
The stocking is then stamped on Christmas paper and cut out and stuck over the top of the image on the card.  The Teddy and gingerbread man are stamped on Kraft card and cut out.
The card is mounted on more Christmas paper.

For the second card, we made the background by squishing inks on a square petite plate through the circle stencil and also using the print left on the plate to print the opposite image.
The stocking is stamped onto a separate piece of card, with the stitching stamped over the top and cut out.

In the afternoon, we got Groovi and used the new Poinsettia plate and frame  designed by the lovely Jayne Nestorenko.
The Poinsettia is lightly embossed, then coloured from the back with pencils.
I added some dots round the frame too.
It is attached with brads.


Thank you to all the ladies who continue to support the workshops, long may they continue!
Janet xx

A little gelli

Good evening,

I'm back from the Claritystampers East workshop, which was at Bawburgh today.  We had a lovely time again and some fab cards were produced, but I will wait and show you after the Great Blakenham workshop next Sunday

We did use the gel press petite plates today, so I though I would show you a project from the last set of sample I made.  This was the first time I'd seen the petie gel press plates and they are such fun to use!  I think they are easier to start with than the larger plates.

This is quite a large size, a bit longer than  A4.  I used mixed media cardstock.  I added a light coating of colour to the card before I started, then I loaded the square plate with an orange and a red chalk acrylic paint(sorry, can't remember the exact colours!).  I brayered the paint on, put the leaf stencil on the card and squished the plate over the stencil.  Repeat for each leaf.

Once everything was dry, I used a grey pencil to add some shadow under the leaves and went round the edge of each square with a gold leaf pen.

I enjoyed doing this one!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you have a lovely weekend, The family is out celebrating my parents' 60th wedding anniversary tomorrow!  60 years!!  Quite a feat in this day and age!

Janet xx

Links to items used:
Gel press petite plates
Mega mount 4x4
Fossil leaves petite stencil set

Fourth Anniversary

Hello all,

Today is the fourth anniversary of the Claritystampers East workshops!  It was four years ago to the day that I did my first one in Bawburgh.  I can remember being quite nervous on the day, I didn't know most of the people who were comingand hadn't taught that many people before.  Of course there was no need to worry, everyone was very lovely and we had a great time.

Some ladies on the day were just coming as a one off, but some are still coming and have become friends.  There is much more to card-making than just making cards isn't there?
Sadly, I can't find a picture of the cards we did so today's card is one I did for the last Clarity show on TV.

 I used the new Christmas Bauble set for this one.
I like doing little scenes inside small apertures, and this little bauble is perfect for just that!
I did the frame first, tape a square mask to the centre of the card and stamp the snowflakes round in various colours.
Remove the mask and stamp the bauble in place, then do the little scene and colour in the robin.
The 'Season's Greetings' is stamped on a separate piece of card.
To finish off, I add a fine line round the inside edge of the frame with a black pen and inked round the outside edge.
Finally, I added some white 'snow' inside the bauble and some speckles outside it.

Hope you have a lovely day!
Janet xx

Inky and Painty

Good evening everyone,

I have had a lovely relaxing long weekend - Simon has been away and now that I have Mondays off, I had three days at home to myself.  I cleaned the house on Saturday morning, then got out all my craft stuff (...well not ALL of it, obviously!!) and set about making some cards , none of which I can show you yet!  Sorry!

These two are samples I did a while ago for the Sam's Shapes TV show.  These are fun sets to use.

 For the first one, I brayered acrylic paint onto some mixed media card, then used the paint to 'ink' the diamond stamp and made a pattern down one side, I really like the incomplete image, so I didn't coat the stamp too perfectly!
I did the same sort of thing with the outline oval in a different colour.
Let it all dry, then stamp the images into place with archival ink.
I coloured the Merry Christmas with gold pen

For the second card, I used inks rather than paints, but I can't remember how I coloured the hexagons now.  I guess I inked the solid shape then used the outline over the top, I have obviously cut out a mask to ink the stars through a stencil, then inked through the same stencil for the rest of the background and stamped the outline hexagon round the edge.  Looks like a bit of splattering too!

Back to work and reality tomorrow!

Hope you have a great week.
Thank you for visiting,

 Janet xx

Stamps and stencils used:
Sam's Shapes set 1
Sam's shapes Set 2
Merry Christmas sentiments
Wee folk set 7

Stars from the Festive Stencil set

Peace on Sunday

Good morning!

As many of you will know, I work 4 days a week and normally have Thursdays as my day off.  That has now changed and I am having Mondays off instead.  So no more 'Monday morning' feeling for me!  (Not util Tuesday..!)

Today's card is a very simple and quick Christmas card, it could easily be done as a batch..

I used blue chase, a fab colour from the new Artistry Ink range.
I loaded up a new petite Gel press plate (the circle) with the ink, added a little moon, then pressed onto the card to give me a blue circle with a moon.
I used a little torn paper mash and stamped the small tree in place and added a little shading, then stamp the large tree and the words.
Really easy!
Can you spot the results of my new favourite toy??  Yes, there are some speckles!!  Created by my new speckling brush - every card should have speckles!!
Links to items used:
Pine Tree Silhouette
Gel Press Petites set 1
Word Chain 13

Thanks very much for dropping in, I hope you have a great day!  I am off to visit my sister now, much nicer than going to work!!

Janet xxx

Weekend Clarity

Hello,

I'm back in Blogland after a little break.  Last weekend was a Clarity weekend - I did the Claritystampers East workshops in Bawburgh on Saturday and Great Blakenham on Sunday.  It is always good to meet up with everyone again.  We made our first Christmas cards of the year...

In the morning, we made a background, using a brayer to add ink to mixed media cardstock, then dipping one of Sam's shapes (the circle outline) in water and stamping and blotting to lift some colour out.
Cut to size, then add the lovely Merry Christmas ribbon stamp in black archival, stamp the little elf, then add the outline rectangle (or any other shape you fancy!) randomly round the card, making sure to give your elf something to stand on.
Add some coloured ink to a craft mat and pick the colour up with the solid rectangle and stamp into the outline shapes, use different colours in each shape.
Stamp the words into the shapes and I added trees to the upright ones.

Colour the Merry Christmas with a black pen and a gold glitter pen.

The second card is really simple!  Just stamp and emboss three triangle outlines and cut out.  Stamp some stars on the triangles.  For the pot, I used the hexagon shape, stamped and embossed, then cut in half.
Assemble all the shapes on some Kraft card, to make a Christmas tree,
Mat onto some coloured card, the stamp  the Greetings stamp from the Christmas wordchain and add a gem on the top of the tree.
The stem was just a strip of card, with a black line added down the sides.

Our third card is done by inking through the Spruce stencil, then stamping the scene.  Add the Merry Christmas, then go round the edge of the tree with a fine black pen, add a bit of shadow under the tree with a coloured pencil and I did a bit of splattering.
Decorate the tree with glitter and gems

Stamps used:
Sam's Shapes set 1 and set 2
Wee Folk Christmas set 7 and set 8
Merry Christmas sentiment set
Christmas Word Chain 14

Spruce stencil

Thanks for dropping in,
Janet xx

A Shapely 'Tree'.

Hello there,

Sorry it has been a while since I've last blogged - I'm under a bit of pressure all round at the moment - lots of things to do and not really enough time to get it all done!

Today's card is made with Sam's Shapes.  I am so excited for Sam that she has her own set of stamps, she is such a lovely lady,  I just used the square, both the inny and the outy.
I inked the solid square with green and stamped, starting from the bottom,
then masked and stamped the others in place, alternating between straight and angled..
I used the line stamp to edge them in black (still remembering to mask!)
I drew round the outlines and added the pattern with a fine black pen
I used a pen and ruler to add the trunk
Stamp the words in place.
Add a few gems.
A bit quirky- but I rather like it!

Hope you have a fab weekend!
Janet xx

August workshops

Hello folks,

Are you having a good bank holiday weekend?  It's always good to get an extra long weekend isn't it?

On Saturday, it was the Claritystampers workshop in Bawburgh and last Sunday at Great Blakenham, so today's cards are the ones we did there.  
I always let people choose their own colours when I do workshops, and I am constantly amazed at the beautiful colour combinations people use.  I learn so much!  I also enjoy how everyone can be given the same raw ingredients and yet the finished results can be so different!  One of these days, I will get it together to remember to take some photos.  (Ladies if you are reading this - remind me!!)

We did all the cards with one stamp set The Bird and Flower Row and one stencil The F[oral Stripe



For the first card, I used a technique I learnt at the Clarity Retreats recently, Tape the stencil to the card, the sponge white acrylic paint through - two light coats is better than one heavy one, so you don't squish under the stencil.  Remove the stencil and allow to dry, then add lots of lovely bright coloured inks.  The paint will resist the ink, and you can wipe over the paint to get it a bit whiter.
I used my new Artistry inks for this - they are rather fabulous!!  As  a couple of finishing touches, I drew a black line round the edge of the stencilled area (makes a huge difference to the finished look!!) and also highlighted the flowers with a pencil and paper stump.
On a separate piece of card, stamp the birds, and sponge the same colours over them too, then cut out and add to the stripey background.

For the second card, we did a Brusho/Burst background in blues, and lifted a bit of the colour to make a sky, allow to dry, then brush with talc and stamp and emboss the birds, then paint them with diluted Burst/Brusho.  I used some grey under the line to make a branch

For the third card, the main strip is done by stamping the flowers in different colours, brushing the same colour over that area of the card, then lift the colour from the flower with water and blotting with kitchen roll, then adding lots of dots.  (I don't think this shows very well here!)
The background pieces are just stamped and brushed with inks.

I'm off the get Christmassy - samples to make for the Clarity TV show at the weekend!  I know folks moan it is too early, but there really aren't that many card-making days til Christmas!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your BH weekend,  thank you for visiting.

Janet xx

The Parrot Sketch

Good morning all,

Thanks for popping by..  I've had a busy weekend; on Saturday I went to a leaving do for a guy I started working with 35 years ago, he was 18 and I was 23.  Much has changed at work in that time and it is a very different job now to then.  I looked around and realised that I am the oldest one there now - definitely time to start thinking about retirement....!
Sunday was the Claritystampers  workshop at Great Blakenham, I do enjoy meeting all the lovely ladies who come along to those, it is good to catch up with news, have a laugh and as always, be amazed at the beautiful work everyone produces.  I will show the cards next time as I am going to do them again on Saturday at Bawburgh - looking forward to that.
Today's card is not a card, it's a bookmark - one of the colouring projects I did for the last TV show.
I chose to do the parrot and being of a certain age, the word 'parrot' always conjures up a certain man complaining about his recent purchase in a dingy pet shop.....  I chose to colour my parrot blue!!


 
Side 1
I wanted nice bright colours for this, so used my Inktense watercolour pencils, which gave a good result.  I did all the pencil work first, then added water.  On the first side, I also splattered a bit of ink too. 
















Side 2

The bookmarks are double-sided and come with a wallet.  I added an eyelet at the top and pushed some fibres through.

If you enjoy colouring, these are a must have! 

Janet xx

Soar like an eagle

Good morning!

It has been a while since my last blog - time goes by so quickly these days. 
I have been watching the Olympic games, I always enjoy watching them.  Hasn't the cycling been awesome!  and the stunning Valegro, the beautiful horse.  Amazing what funding can do, giving the athletes the opportunity to train full time.  Team GB going from strength to strength.  I have to confess that the event I am most looking forward to though, is Usain Bolt in the 200m final - he is such a fantastic athlete!  I hope he retires at the top.

So, back to cards.... we didn't have any stamps this month, we had the lovely new colouring book along with the postcards and bookmarks.  The card this is printed on is amazing quality, so you can watercolour or use alcohol pens.  I am not the best colourer-inner in the world, but I do enjoy sitting and getting lost in colouring, hours can go by without you noticing!



This is one of the postcards from set 2  I used charcoal pencils in greys and browns to colour this.  I also used a paper stump to blend the colours.  I mounted it up as a card, then added the words, which I printed out and cut out.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time, chilling and colouring!
Thanks very much for visiting
Janet x

Workshop cards

Hello folks,

Thank you for dropping by.  I have had a wonderful few days away last week.  I go and stay with my friend in Kent and we go to the Clarity Retreat, which is great fun.  This year we chose a really good time to go because 4 of the parching design team were there and they were good enough to give us all some expert tips.  Mel was there too, the lovely lady who does lots of the line art for the Clarity stamps, she gave us a little talk about her work which was interesting.
Thanks to Barbara and Paul for the lovely projects and tuition, Lisa for the endless coffee and sandwiches and Dave for being Dave.  I won't show you the projects yet as there are still more workshops to come and I don't want to spoil the surprise....just to say you will enjoy it.
These cards are from the Claritystampers East workshop at Bawburgh and repeated at the Diva Red workshop yesterday - we had a good time with gilding flakes and bleeding art tissue...
The stamps used were from the Entwined Hummingbirds set.

 We started with the background - lay pieces of bleeding art tissue on one side of the card and spritz generously with water and allow the colour to bleed out of the tissue onto the card, you can move the tissue around a bit and lay it on to a second piece of card if there is enough ink left (there usually is!!)
Allow to dry, then add blend some distesss ink through a background stencil on the other side of the card.  Stamp the image with black ink, then add a few little bits of interest by dragging a piece of card (or any other straight line) through the ink pad and pressing on the card to give you lines, use various sizes of lid to give you circles - it's fun!!!  Use the bottom part of the image to stamp around the card as a frame.  The butterfly is done on parchment using Jayne's butterflies Groovi plate

The second card is basic stamping and inking but we've cut out the circles behind the hummingbirds , added double-sided adhesive from the back nd added gilding flakes.

Thanks very much for stopping by, I hope you are enjoying the TV shows with the new colouring book and postcards, they really are amazing quality and great fun to colour in!!

See you again soon
Janet xxx
 

More from Africa...

Good afternoon from a very warm Norfolk, it has been so very hot here today, I have a south-facing garden and my patio was actually too hot for me to stand on without my feet hurting.  I also have a conservatory on the south side - why is this relevant??... because that is where I make my cards!  I had a few projects planned, but I would have melted.  It has cooled down a bit now, so I am going to do a bit of evening crafting, Clarity have a wonderful new product coming out in August.......
This card is another from the African themed show last time, this time including the rather nice savannah stencil.  I am sure you can figure most of it out!  Just inking through the stencil, then stamping over the top.  The lovely Masai Warrior's outfit is a done by stamping on a piece of patterned paper, cutting out, then sticking over the top of a stamped image

Enjoy your evening!

Janet xx

 

Patterns of Africa

Hello folks,
Thank you for visiting today.  I don't want to spoil things, but I think it might actually be a nice day here - I can see the sun!  So I am off to get some gardening done - there has been so much growth!
Anyway, just time to get a blog done before I start...

This is one of the cards I did for the Clarity show on TV last time, using the Wee Africa set 1 and Wee Africa set 2 stamps

I wanted to try and do something typically African, so I had a look on Google and found all sorts of traditional patterns, and doing lines of patterns seemed quite popular, so I thought I'd give it a go......

I chose Kraft card and started by stamping the elephants, then drew a line across the top and bottom - I used a ruler and lined it up to make sure it was straight, then it was a case of using a black and white pen to build up rows of patterns.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, very relaxing and good fun deciding which pattern to do next.

I noticed that all the patterns I'd seen on the web were obviously hand drawn and were by no means perfect, so I embraced that concept and didn't worry too much that all the shapes weren't the same!  I recommend that attitude!!

Enjoy your day!
Janet xxx

The African Adventure Begins....

Hello Folks,

Tonight, I am starting to show you the cards I made for the fantastic African sets of stamps and stencils which were on the last Clarity shows on Hochanda.  I was delighted to get these and enjoyed working with them.  Some of you may know that I have a fb friend in Kenya, who sends me little hand painted pictures which I make into cards, so I had a good lot of inspiration for these stamps.

I thought of the idea for stamping through a map of Africa almost straight away, so I printed a map onto copy paper and cut it out, leaving an African shaped aperture.
I inked through it with red, orange and yellow distress inks, with some black towards the bottom. I placed the giraffe skin stencil over and added a very light brushing of black ink.
I stamped the Mums and Babies animals with black archival, then drew round the edge of the map with a fine pen.
Now, if I'm honest, I was going to leave it there, it looked good - BUT! I had smudged some ink outside of the map, the ink had gone through the copy paper!
so I decided that I wasn't going to do it all again (it had already gone wrong once before and this was my second go!) and I had to find a way to cover it.  Bring on the Giraffe stencil!  I covered the map with the inny bit I'd cut out and lightly sponged orange and black ink through the stencil, covered my smudge splendidly!  The Masai warrior and his lady, just fitted perfectly in the gap.
Finally, I added a double line round the edge of the stencil and coloured in the gaps.

I have to show you some of my Kenyan friend's cards... these are little hand=painted pictures and I love them..

and this was the one that gave me the idea for the map...

Wonderful, aren't they?

Thank you Robin

The stamps/stencils used for my card:

Safari animals

African set

Savannah stencils-Giraffe spots

Thanks for visiting, hope you had a great weekend!

Janet xx