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

More Blossom

Hello again!,

Thanks for visiting!  This is another card we did at Claritystampers East, using the fab Blossom Branch set.

Starting with watercolour card, ink up with plenty of brown distress inks - use different colours and leave a slightly lighter space towards the centre of the card.
We then did the 4 Ss - Spritz, Splatter, Stencil and Stamp! to do the background....

Spritz with water and blot with copy paper
Squish some ink on a mat, add some water, then pick up on a brush and splatter over the card.
Stencil some dots in the background, using a light brown colour and the Dotty Wave stencil
Stamp the smaller branches in a pale colour, just to add to the background.

Once the background is done, stamp the branches in place with a dark brown ink and colour in with distress markers.

I always ink round the edges, usually with black - it's the law!!  Stamp the greeting in place, then mat onto Kraft card.  I am wondering about adding a touch of glitter to the blossom - what do you think??

Stamps and stencil used:
Blossom Branch set
Line sentiments set 1
Dotty Wave stencil

Janet xx

Blossom and Butterflies

Hello everyone,

I'm back in the swing of it again, so more frequent blogging is on the cards...

These cards are done the same way, just with different colours.  I did them for the Claritystampers East workshop in Bawburgh last Sunday and Great Blakenham yesterday.  I always enjoy meeting up with the ladies again.  This time it got a bit messy....

 What we used:
Blossom Branch Set
Butterfly Tree Set
Line Sentiments set 1

We started with the background: put on gloves!! Choose four or five chalk acrylic paints and pick up one colour at a time on your fingers, then dab onto the card (I used mixed media cardstock), keep going until the colour goes matt, rather than shiny, then add another colour and keep repeating until you like what you've got.  Remember this is a background, so if it all gets a bit dark, then add a lighter colour!  While you are doing this, also add some paint to a piece of acetate.
Allow to dry, then cut into the appropriate size rectangles.  Stamp the branches with archival ink.
You can colour with distress markers to define the images. Mat onto black card.
On the opposite side to the one you've painted, stamp the butterflies onto the acetate and leave to dry (this may take a while!)  then cut out and apply to the card.

The second card is done the same way, but I've used a white pen to colour the blossom,

It was Maria Simms who introduced me to finger paining at a workshop I attended.  It is great fun!!

Thanks for popping in,
See you soon, Janet xx