Groovi Man

Hello folks,

I hope you've had a good bank holiday weekend - always nice to get an extra day off work!
On Sunday, I was at the Claritystampers East workshop, we had a lovely day and as always, there were some fab cards produced.  I have a new phone which I can take photos with, so soon I will be taking photos of the workshops...watch this space!
This was the Groovi card we did...

 Start by adding the greeting, then find a square (or any other shape you fancy) which fits round it, then create more areas around it and fill in with patterns which you can colour, emboss, prick and cut as you like!
I kept it masculine, but some of the ladies did much brighter and more feminine versions.
I am still getting to grips with all the cutting, but I did do round the edge of the square - still need more practice with that!
Thanks very much for visiting!
Janet xx

A peaceful scene!

Good evening all!
I hope you've all had a lovely weekend.  This is my second weekend in a row when I haven't had a workshop - almost unheard of these days!!  I took advantage and managed to get the front garden, which had got very overgrown, into respectable shape - just got to keep on top of it now!  I'm feeling quite chilled, so I have got a peaceful card to match my mood!

This one is made with some vintage Clarity stamps - the Willow Lady stamp set.  There was a time, when I first met Claritystamps that the 'Willow Lady' was Barbara's 'go to' stamp and she featured on many cards, so I have a very soft spot for her.  Having said that, I didn't actually use her for this card!  I did use one of my favourite grasses stamp though! (Also from the set)

I started by placing the aperture stencil on my card, putting a moon mask in place, then brushing pink and grey inks through. I went round the frame with a fine black pen before removing the mask.
All the stamping was done in grey (watering can - possibly?) archival ink.
I went round the outside of the frame with a grey coloured pencil and blended it with a paper stump to soften the edges, then matted and layered on grey and pink card.  I also added a touch of glitter to the hanging vines and grasses.
Thanks very much for stopping by,
Janet xx

A little more alcohol...

Good afternoon!
It is an absolutely lovely day here, warm and sunny - not the rain that was predicted (although that may still happen later)
Today's card is one from the last Clarity show on Hochanda, and it is another one done with alcohol inks.  I have to confess that this one did not go as planned and a bit of rethinking was necessary!

The plan was to have a large piece in the middle and for the pieces either side to gradually get smaller and slightly darker in colour - sadly I messed up the stamping on one of the pieces, so a new layout was born!

Basically, I used a piece of the Clarity Chromo card and added blues and green and a touch of gold alcohol inks, wait for the ink to dry, then stamp and emboss, cut all the bits out and arrange on the base card.  It looks like I added some ink to the base card too - it was probably a bit too white!  add some gems to finish.

The stamps I used are all from the Hummingbird Set, which is a lovely set of stamps.
have a wonderful day,
Janet xx

A little alcohol?

Hello folks,
Thanks for dropping in on this lovely day, we are planning some gardening today, so I can't be too long...
This card is one I did for The Diva Red workshop with Moira last weekend.

The patterned card is done with alcohol inks on the Clarity Chromo card, this is ultra glossy card and works well with alcohol inks.
I like to do one colour at a time and add plenty of blending solution, then add the next colour.
I also coloured a small piece of acetate.
The butterfly is stamped with black archival on the opposite side to the inks, then cut out.
The patterned card is just cut a curvy shape along the bottom edge and stuck on the base card.
The good thing about Clarity stamps is that you can bend them a bit on the mounts to fit the line of the card.
Add a few gems and you're done!
Stamps used: Butterfly, Line sentiments and Chromo card

Have a fab weekend and I hope you can make the most of the sunshine!
Janet xx

Ironing - not shirts though!!

Hello folks,
Thanks for visiting.  Wasn't it a fantastic weekend?  We had beautiful, sunny weather in Norfolk, so what was I doing?  Well, I arrived at the Diva Red workshop I run with my friend, Moira to find she had got an ironing board set up - a bit worrying!  Perhaps she had brought some shirts for us to iron between projects?
Fortunately not!  It was all part of the lovely card she had planned......

It started with a pack of serviettes...
The idea is that you adhere the serviette to a paper backing by using cling film.  Firstly separate the layers of the serviette, so you only have one layer then on the ironing board starting at the bottom, add a sheet of foil (to reflect the heat), then the paper, the cling film and the serviette topped with a sheet of baking parchment to protect the iron.  Then just iron with a very hot iron until the cling film melts and sticks the serviette to the paper.  You can then use it as a backing paper, a lovely way to use some of those pretty patterned serviettes.
I chose a beautiful blue and cream flowery one, cut it at an angle, stuck it to my card and cut round it.  I also used a spare strip across the bottom.  To embellish, I added some blue alcohol inks to a piece of acetate, stamped the Clarity Butterfly on the other side and cut out.
Someone did suggest it would be a nice way to keep a serviette from a special occasion - good idea!
If you do decide to have a go at this, make sure you leave things to cool a bit before picking them up and make sure you protect your iron with the parchment, you really don't want melted cling film on it!!  There are some clips on you tube which show it being done.
All the best,
Janet xx

It's a cat's life

Good evening,

Today I am starting to blog the samples I did for the last TV show on Hochanda.  It was lovely to use some of the 'old stamps' again.  This cat is a particular favourite of mine, I like the expression on his face.
He comes in a set of stamps including a large and small fern and a right and left paw print, which I've used on the card

I did the background by dividing the card into 9 squares, masking each square in turn and stamping into each square.  I decided to keep the colours very simple, just sticking to black and green.  I used archival inks and used first and second generation stamping for the small leaves.
For the main image, I stamped the cat and added a shadow all round him with a grey pencil, with a bit of green mixed in.  I drew a black line all round the edge of the card and coloured in with a green pencil, then mounted on black card and added some gems.
This is the link to the stamp set: Entwined cat set
Hope you have a lovely weekend,
Janet xx

A bit of bleaching

Good evening!  It has been a busy bank holiday for me.  I packed my bag and set off for Leyland near Preston (266 miles away from me) on Friday morning to go to a weekend workshop with Susan Moran and Maria Simms.  It was heck of a journey and the M6 on a Friday before a bank holiday is not the best place to be!!, but I got there just in time for the evening meal.  The traumas of the journey were soon forgotten as I had a delicious meal and sat chatting with some lovely crafty ladies.  It was a brilliant weekend with lovely projects, good food and fine company.

Then today, it was out for a family meal to celebrate the 21st birthday of my niece.  Another lovely meal (the diet starts tomorrow!!) and more good company. 

Tomorrow it's back to reality and work......
The two cards today are both done on kraft card using bleach, so I thought I  would show them together.  I did them for Paul's recent show

Paul chose this card to demo on the TV and he pretty much nailed the first part - I masked off a square in the centre of the card, then ran masking tape round the edge to leave a border and stamped one of the petals round the frame and brushed some ink through.  Paul even used the same inkpad - Archival Plum!
I removed the masks then put the stencil in place and brushed a light colouring of ink through, just to act as a guide to stamp all the petals in place.  This is where we differed, Paul used a white pen to add highlights.  I used bleach!  Yes, good old fashioned bleach.  I used a fine paint brush and just dipped the end in some bleach and painter the bits I  wanted to lighten.  It can be a bit hit and miss as not all card bleaches and even if it does, it doesn't all bleach the same, but it is always fun to see the results and I have to say, I was very pleased with the way this card reacted...

so much so that I did the balloon in the same way, but I stamped and embossed this one before bleaching.
I used black ink with the cloud mask to do the sky and a lot of black ink to colour the monument valley stencil.
I added a bit of gold frontage embossing powder and heated from underneath, so it doesn't blow around all over the place!
I also added a few gold sequins.

I hope you've had a lovely weekend too
Janet xxx