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