A crafty week

Good evening everyone,
Thank you for popping in.  It has been a lovely week off work for me, sorry to say I will have to go back to work tomorrow.  I could certainly get used to time off with all this sunshine! 
I had a fab time in Kent with my friend and at the Crowborough retreat with Barbara, Dave, Paul and the Clarity Crew.  It is always lovely to craft along with like minded people and have a laugh and a catch up with old friends.  Oh... we made some lovely cards too!  Everyone works so hard to make it good for us, so a huge 'Thank You' to everyone. I will post my projects, but they still need finishing off, so watch this space...
When I got home, we had a family day on Saturday as some relatives were visiting from Canada, then on Sunday it was a Claritystampers East workshop in Great Blakenham.  These are the projects from the class...all done using the Poppies set of stamps

 For this card, start by masking off a strip at the bottom of the card and blend ink over, add the brick wall stencil and blend more ink through.
Stamp the grass in place and colour in.
Splatter a little ink and add some gems, then stamp the greeting and attach to the card.  Mat on matching card.

 For the second card, add some ink to a rectangle stamp mount, spritz with water and press on to the card, repeat if necessary and add some ink round the edge of the mount to give a bit of a frame, using the same inks, stamp a second generation leaf around the background then allow to dry.
Stamp the main images in black archival.
Tear round the inky area, leaving a bit of a white edge.
Decide where the topper is going to sit on the base card, then stamp the leaf in black, just in one corner.  Attach the topper and add a few gems to balance the design.

The last card is done with just one inkpad.
Place a square post-it in the centre of a square piece of card, Blend a little ink from the post-it out, then stamp the leaves around the frame.
Remove the post-it then stamp the poppy and the word in place.
Add a little of the ink to a mat and pick up the colour with a water brush and use to colour in the images.

All nice and simple cards this time!

Hope to see you again soon,
Stay cool!
Janet xxx

Off to Crowborough...!

Good morning all!

I am packed and ready for my trip to Kent and the Clarity Retreat in Crowborough.  I stay with a friend of mine and we catch up with all the news from the last year then we go to the Retreat and enjoy crafting with Barbara and Paul and meeting lots of crafty friends, then we have another day together and I come home.  I have left instructions for feeding and watering the plants, birds and hedgehogs, so all should be well.  This year, I have seen as many as five hedgehogs in the garden at the same time, so they are doing well here, even if they are in trouble generally.

My cards today are there ones I did with Tina Cox's lovely flowers and Dragonflies set of stamps, this comes as a big A4 set of individual parts so you can make up your own flowers...

 For the first one, I blended inks to make a rainbow background, then stamped the line writing greetings in place and built up the design from there.
It doesn't show on the picture, but I have outlined all the flowers with a gold glitter pen.
I added some gems to finish

 For the second card, I stamped and cut out the flower heads and dies cut some rings.  One of my favourite parts of this set is the lines with the squiggles across, I can see me using them on all sorts of things!
I used them here in the background and also as a corner emellishment

For the final card, I stamped on a watercolour background and coloured in the flowers.
I used the squiggly lines to add a frame and a base for the flower to ground it.

Thanks very much for visiting, see you after the retreat!
Janet xxx

A Little Birdie Says 'Hi'

Good day to everyone,
It is lovely here, hot and sunny, just my sort of weather!  I know some people prefer it cooler, but I love the sun!  I have a sore back, sunburnt shoulders and hands covered in mud - but I also have a patio with lots of pretty flowers in pots and a cleaned out wormery, so I am happy!

I should be making cards really, but I normally work in the conservatory, which is south-facing , so that would definitely be too hot, also all my ink pads would just dry out immediately!  I am planning the cards from the comfort of my chair in the sun, then I will make them this evening, once it has cooled down.  I just hope it all goes according to plan.... (when did that EVER happen??)
Today's card is one using the really cute little bird from Tina Cox's Doodle Flowers set

For the main image, I just stamped all the pieces in place with archival ink and coloured using the fab new Pergamano blending pen and tips, I picked up the ink with the tip straight from the inkpad.  There are some tiny bits to colour and the tips made it easy!  I cut it to size and mounted on to green card.
For the background, I just stamped the different leaves around the edge of the card, blended some ink round, then coloured in the leaves in the same way I did the bird.

Right, I am off to admire my new pots, get my legs brown (while protecting my shoulders!) and have a long, cool drink while planning my next cards.  Love it!
Thanks very much for visiting
Janet xxx