Our House

Hello again!


I hope you are having a great weekend.  I am busy making samples for Barbara's show next weekend and preparing for workshops too, so I haven't got those cards to show you yet.  I will say that the new stamps coming up are going to become favourites - so make sure you tune in!!


Also, have you joined the new Groovi club?  I have (I am now a diamond!) those little Groovi plates look so cute, I can't wait to get the first instalment. and get going with the projects.

This card is the last of the samples I made for the last TV show.  I used the Town Super Stencil and the Wee Houses and Wee Shops stamp sets.
This is a huge stencil, so I decided on the part I wanted to use and masked round the edges and also attached it to my card.
I used distress inks in browns and greys to brush and sponge through the stencil.
I stamped the shops and houses onto a separate piece of card, inked round the edge and matted up on brown card, then attached that to the background.


Thank you for stopping by
Janet xx

Disappearing followers...

Hello bloggers,


Apparently you now need to have a Google account to join with Friends Connect to follow a blog and anyone who doesn't is being removed.  Along with many bloggers, I have noticed followers disappearing, so if you can still read this, please know that it is beyond my control and I am not blocking anyone!  I assume you can still follow by email.


Today's card is a bit different!  It was inspired by a card I was sent, which I liked...

I used the rather lovely new stencil Wild Grasses 1
I attached it to some stencil card, then drew round the flower head with a fine pink pen and the leaves with a fine green pen.
I sponged some pink ink through the flowers and some green through the leaves.
I removed the stencil, then added some pattern to the leaves and flowers with the green/pink pen.
In the background, I drew lots and lots of tiny circles, then coloured in round them, I think I may have used a promarker, but can't actually remember now!  I left the edges a bit ragged and coloured in round the outside with a pink promarker.
Thanks very much for dropping in
Janet xx

Forever Friendship

Hello Bloggers,

Did you catch Paul's shows yesterday?  Such a wealth of knowledge and inspiration and a clever demonstrator.  I am in awe of the samples made by the Groovi team - I really must get into that, I have all the gear....!

Back to stamps and stencils for now though.  This card got shown yesterday, so I thought I would blog about it.

I used the stencil Seed Heads and  'Forever' and 'Friendship' from Word Chain 8
I started by attaching the stencil to the stencil card, then squished a few colours of distress ink on a glass mat and added a little spritz of water, then just sponged various colours of diluted distress ink through.  I used a natural sponge with an open texture, which gives quite a splodgy appearance.  I pressed quite hard to get into all the nooks and crannies..
Once dry, I cut out a piece I liked that fitted my card, then added extra ink round the edges and matted onto green card and tore down one side.
I added the same inks to a smaller piece of card to stamp the words on, then matted them separately.  Nice and easy!
Thanks very much for popping in, hope you enjoy the rest of your evening
Janet xx

A look back....

Hello Bloggers,
I hope you are having a good weekend.  Mine is going well so far - a lovely bright, sunny morning and lunch out with my fellow quiz team members, followed by coffee at Moira's.  She has just acquired a new coffee machine - the one George Clooney recommends, so we were hopeful he might turn up to help us christen it, but sadly not...
Don't forget to tune in to Hochanda on Sunday for Paul's shows at 10.00, 14.00 and 17.00.
With that in mind, I decided to post a card from his last show.  It is a card a did a while ago, using one of my all time favourite Clarity sets... The Journaling Set

I started by doing the background with lots of distress inks, blending plenty of colour on the card, then splattering with water and blotting.
Once dry, I simply stamped lots of the images from the set in black archival, second generation for some and first generation for others.
I also added a couple of words from the word chains
Cut the image into three, then mount each piece on black and add to the base card.
That's pretty much it, thank you for dropping in.  I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend
Janet xxx

In the Clouds

Hello Bloggers
and welcome to new visitors who have popped in from Barbara's blog, I hope you enjoy my blog and get some inspiration, I have been a Clarity fan for many years and continue to be excited and inspired by Barbara and the team and I am looking forward to see what is planned for 2016.

My card today features the Bird Row stamp and the wonderful cloud mask.
I started by doing the sky.  If the mask is new, it is worth dusting the card lightly with talc to stop it tearing the card.
I started at the top and lightly brushed cloudy sky distress ink, then move the mask down and brush more ink and repeat until you get to the end.  I also added a touch of pink.
I had a bit of a rummage through my pre-prepared backgrounds and found one I'd done with chalk acrylic paints which matched nicely.  I stamped the birds on the cloudy sky, then again on the painted card.
I added a fine line under the branch and did a little zentangle pattern, then added the cut out birds over the top.  I inked round the edges of the card and added a fine black line all round, then on another piece of the same painted background. 
Thanks for visiting, hope to see you again soon,
Take care,
Janet xxx

No place like Home

Good evening,


I hope you are all managing to keep warm  during this chilly spell.  I don't like the cold, I am much more of a spring and summer person.


Today's card is another one I made as a sample for the TV.  This is done with a stencil- but what a stencil!- it is very big!, but if you are making a card, then you don't have to use it all, just pick the bit you want.

For this card, I traced round the stencil with a fine pen then coloured it all in using Inktense pencils. These are watercolour pencils, which are nice bright colours. I like to use more than one colour in each area, then add the water with a brush.  I finished off by stamping the word 'Home' from the word chains.  The links to the Clarity products used are below..
Word Chain 2
Town and Texture Super stencil


Thanks very much for dropping in - got to my brain in gear, I'm off to the pub quiz!
Janet xx

King of the Castle

Hello from a very chilly Norfolk,


It has started snowing here now, not my favourite thing when you have to go out in the morning and defrost the car! 

Today's card is a nice warm one -

It is nice and easy.

I started by blending lots of Distress inks onto a card with a blending tool, putting plenty of ink on the page, then I lightly spritzed with water and blotted with a sheet of copy paper.

Once dry I added the top part of the Castle mask over the top part of the card (detack a bit first to stop it sticking)  then add lots of black ink to create the silhouette.  I stamped my favourite of the wee fairies in place with archival ink.  I painted his wings with water and blotted to remove some of the colour, then added some glitter.

I inked round the edges, and as a final touch, I did a little doodle pattern with a fine black pen.

Clarity products used:

Wee folk 4 Elves

Castle Mask

Hope you all stay warm and dry,

Janet xx

Bits and Pieces

Good evening

Thank you for dropping by.  Like just about everyone else, I was very sad to heat of the death of David Bowie - I wasn't a huge fan, but he was so much a part of the music of my youth and I admired his originality and inventiveness.  RIP David

Today's card is one I did yesterday at our Sundae Club, we are a group of ladies who have been meeting one Sunday a month for many years, it is very relaxing to just sit and make a couple of cards whilst chatting, drinking coffee (oh and maybe trying a piece of Veronica's legendary cake!)

So you know all those lovely papers you have lying around that you never use?  I have a huge pad of beautiful papers, which I've had for years and the papers are getting very dog-eared, well, this card is a way of using some of them!
Cut 2cm strips of different patterned paper (I used three for this one) and arrange them in a pattern on a piece of white (or any other colour you fancy!) base card
The important thing is to leave an even gap between all the strips.

Once you have covered the card, you can either trim round the edges or stick any overlapping bits of paper on the back.  I matted it onto pink card, then stamped and matted the lovely Claritystamp greeting.  There you have it - a simple card which could be adapted in so many ways - everyone used a different combination of colours and they all looked great, you could use it as a backing for all sorts of things, maybe stamping some flowers on one of the papers and cutting them out to add as decoration, or using more masculine colours for a man's card.
Of course, if you are into quilting/patchwork, you could adapt your quilting patterns and use paper instead of fabric and add some stitching......
Have fun!
Janet xxx

The House on the Hill

Good evening,


A bit of a late one today.
This card is one of those that I actually had an image of in my mind before I started - a very rare event for me, usually I have a rough idea and it just kind of takes shape as I go.
As soon as I got the Wee Houses, I wanted to do a hill and a house with the wording under it.

I started by tearing a hill with copy paper, then masking off the bottom half of the card. I stamped the house in place, then stamped on a post-it and cut myself a mask which I put over the stamped image.
I used the cloud mask to do the sky, the trick with this is the way you position the mask and not to use too much ink.  I start at the top and work my way down, dragging ink off the mask with a sponge, then moving the mask and adding more ink.
Once I was happy with the sky, I stamped the trees from the Wee Trees set along the hill.
I removed the mask from the bottom of the card and covered up the top half, then added green ink at the bottom with a stencil brush.
Then came the fun part, I used a black fine pen and drew in the lines for my hills and wrote my words. (I did practise this first!)  I added some bushery with the side of one of the tree stamps and used the Wee Foliage at the front.
Finally ink round the edges and mount up.
Products used:
Wee Houses
Wee Trees
Wee Foliage
Cloud Mask


Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
Janet xx

Raindrops keep falling...

Good afternoon all,


I hope you enjoyed the festive season - it's all soon over though and back to normal.  I also hope you all managed to remain safe and dry through all this rain!  I has been a dark and dismal day here with just a little break in the afternoon when it stopped raining and there was a rather lovely sunset, then back to wind and rain!
So with that in mind, here is an appropriate card which I did as a sample for the last Clarity shows on Hochanda using the huge texture stencil to create the background and the little boy from the Wee Folk set

I started by using blue and brown distress inks to colour the background - I did a bigger piece than this and chopped it back later.  When I was happy with the colour, I put the stencil over the top and added darker blue, then had a peak and decided it needed me to outline with a fine brown pen
I removed some of the colour toward the 'top' of each droplet by brushing with water, then dabbing with paper towel and added a white highlight with a gel pen towards the 'bottom' of each one.
I also added extra colour under the bottom line of the stencil too.
It was just a case of cutting to size, adding the little boy and the 'Happy' word in brown archival (and inking round the edge, of course!)


Links to the stamps and stencils:
Town and Texture Super Stencil
Wee Folk Set 2
Word Chain 2

Thank you for visiting,
Take care
Janet xxx