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Morning bloggers!

Thursday is my favourite day of the week - it is my day off work!  So , today is a card-making day.  I have DT cards, prep for workshops and a 60th birthday card to make!!  Will it all get done?  Almost certainly not, but I have the weekend too!

This is another of the cards I made for the last TV show.  I really enjoyed using the ducks and saplings.  I saw a picture on the wall when I was waiting to go in to a meeting and it inspired me for this scene.

 

I used the remountable duck silhouette set along with the lovely large sapling stamp.  (There is also a small sapling available)

 

I do love the duck silhouettes, but I immediately thought of Hilda Ogden's wall in Corrie when I saw them!  I wasn't alone - Jane Telford made a wonderful 'Hilda' card (although she used the line art stamps on shrink plastic.)

 

Hope you all have a fab day and thank you for stopping by

Janet xx

A glittery scene

Hello everyone

Hope you are all okay!  This is a bit of a departure for me - lots of glitter!  I normally only use a minimal amount of glitter (or none at all!)

This is the lovely treescape stencil from Clarity.

I have to say that this isn't  the best picture in the world, so apologies for that!

I taped the stencil to some Kraft card and used a gold embossing paste on the top (sky) part of the stencil and silver embossing paste on the ground part.
Spread the paste evenly over the stencil, then remove the stencil carefully.
Sprinkle with glitter before it dries.  I used shades of blue for the sky and greens and browns for the ground.  Leave to dry, trim then mat and layer!

Thank you for visiting
Janet xxx

More trees! (and shoulder blades...)

Hello bloggers!

Greetings from a rather damp Norfolk!  Isn't it amazing how quickly we can go from lovely, hot, sunny days to damp, cold and dull days?

Anyway, can't do any gardening, so may as well make cards!  (every cloud...)
I went for another appointment at my osteopath's on Thursday and this time asked him to sort my neck out as it had been a bit stiff.  I also explained about my strange shoulder.  I was born with one shoulder blade in a strange position, this hasn't really caused me too much trouble, but I don't have a full range of movement in that arm.  He asked me if I wanted him to 'have a go at sorting it out'.  I said 'Yes!'
He did a deep tissue massage, which was very painful, but the results were amazing, he lowered the shoulder (it had been too high!) by 30%!!  I can now look over my right shoulder without turning my whole body and the whole area just feels so much more comfortable - I hadn't realised how much discomfort it was causing me (because I had never known any different!) until it stopped.  Isn't that just amazing!??  I had never had any treatment because I never realised there was anything that could be done.

I am going back again in a month to see if he can improve it further!

So back to cards.... this is another of the sample cards I did for Barbara for the last TV show.  Again, I have used the next 'In the Classroom' set.  This time I used the naked tree and the mantle over the top.

I used the grassy border to make a frame, then stamped the scene inside.
For the trees, I stamped the branches first in Espresso, then added the green over the top.  You have to do a bit of experimenting with the right amount of ink for this, otherwise the branches can look too prominent!

Hope you like it!  I'm off to look over my shoulder ...because I can!!

Take care, Janet xx

Monochrome Winter Tree

Hello Bloggers,

As it's turned a bit chilly, I thought it would be okay to post my 'Winter' card.  I did this using just one tree from the next 'In the Classroom ' set from Clarity - I used the 'naked' tree.  This set comes with four 'naked' trees and mantles which you can add over the top.  This is such a good idea, because you can so easily do the bark and branches a different colour from the leaves.

I have hundreds of tree stamps but I always love getting more! 

I masked off the central panel and stamped the tree randomly down the sides.
Then I masked off the edges and stamped the scene in the centre panel.  The strip of grass along the bottom of the tree is part of the set too.
The bird is one of the crows that came with the lovely Scarecrow set a while ago.

A bit of matting and layering and a few gems and you have your card!

Hope you like it and thanks very much for visiting xxx

Duck and Drake

Hello everyone,

Remember me??  Sorry it has been so long since I blogged!  No excuses really.

My back is much better now, but still sore, so I am going back to the osteopath next week. 
Did you catch the Clarity shows at the weekend?  My favourite bit is always looking through the homework cards that everyone sends in - some brilliant cards there!!

This is my first card from the weekend, using the treescape stencil and the new duck and drake stamp sets.

I used Centura Pearl card for this.  I embossed the card with the stencil by running it through the Grand Calibur.

Place the stencil on the other side of the card and using a stencil brush, colour with blue and green inks.
Stamp the ducks on another piece of the same card, cut out and stick over the top.
Stamp the message on another piece of card.
Mat and layer, there you have it!!

Hope you like it!
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon
Janet xxx

Last one for Germany

Hello everyone,
Hope you are all doing okay!
I have had some lovely stamps and new stencils to work on for the Clarity shows next weekend - you definitely need to tune in to Create and Craft, there are some wonderful new stamps, and as for the new classroom set...!

Anyway - enough teasing!  This is the last of the cards I did for Germany.  It confused Barbara, because she couldn't figure out what it said, so let me explain.... It is two names. Sabine and Jurgen, sort of intertwined - well, that was the plan!

This is a fairly simple one to do, just lots of masking involved!  I did the letterboxes fist, then added the letters and coloured in.
Mask the words and stamp the lovely foxgloves, so they will appear in the background when you remove the mask.

Everything coloured in with Promarkers.
Thanks for calling!
Janet xx

Winter Wonderland

Hello everyone and welcome to my new followers, thank you for joining me!
Today's card is another of the German samples, this time using the very lovely Winter Wonderland kit, which was first shown as an 'in the Classroom' kit. For the German show, some of the lovely Clarity stencils were also available.  I got the fab snowflakes, which are part of the Clarity Christmas stencil set.

I masked the strip area, then using a stencil brush, I stippled various colour inks over the stencil. there is a little snowflake stamp as part of the kit, and I stamped that in amongst the stencilled design.  I did the top and bottom of the strip separately.
Remove the mask from the centre strip, but run a strip of masking tape along the edges of the stencilled area.
Stamp the scene and add a bit of shadow under the deer.

Remove the masking tape and squiggle a line along the top and bottom edges.  I added a few gems in the centres of the snowflakes as a finishing touch.
Hope you like it and thank you for visiting xx

Christmas in Germany

Hello Everyone,

I got loads of page views for my last post, so welcome along if you are a new visitor!
This card is another of the samples for German TV, using the letter box set and a remountable set of Christmas stamps. This is one of my favourite miniatures sets, I love the spruce tree and the little snowman.  It is amazing how such little stamps can make such a large scene.

I stamped the boxes for the letters first, then stamped in the letters - being very careful to get them right, as I don't really speak much German.  I then masked the whole word
(which means Christmas)
I stamped the snowflake above the word and the tree underneath.
I shaded lightly along the top and bottom of the letters in black and shaded round the whole picture in blue.
Stamp Father Christmas and his sleigh in place and add the greeting which is part of another German greeting set (Best wishes for).
I added some glitter on the trees and along the top of the letters.
Hope you like it,
Thanks for visiting xxx

Claritystampers East on Saturday

Saturday, it was another Claritystampers East workshop. There were lots of people this time, so I was kept on my toes, I can tell you!  It is a lovely group of ladies who come along to make cards, eat cake and have fun!  Did I mention cake?  We have the lovely Veronica (check out her blog) to thank for the cake this time as sadly Moira wasn't feeling too good and decided not to join us (although apparently she is going to cause twice as much trouble at the next one, to make up!!)

Here are the cards we made

 

 

The first two, using the lovely Clarity Birdhouse and remountable garden set and the Leafy Swirl stencil.

 

 

The second two using the Holly Tree and Holly Sprigs stamps

Thanks for visiting
Janet xx

Black and White (and Robin-coloured) Christmas

Morning everyone,

I am feeling particularly relieved this morning, my Clarity samples for the HSE24 show are in the post - with GERMAN messages on.  I did post some last week, but got my wires completely crossed and put English words on by mistake!  This is one of those cards.
There will be more samples from the German show after it has aired, next week.

Some of  my favourite stamps are the little trees, I love creating hillsides with them.  This is done with just one little tree from the Christmas remountable set, stamped along a torn paper mask onto the Clarity card.  I decided to keep this black and white, but I couldn't leave the Robin, he looked very sad without his red breast, so he got coloured in with promarkers.
I added a touch or two of glitter and stamped the message and the star
Voila!
Thanks for stopping by  xx

Deck the Halls....

Hi there bloggers! 

How have you all been?  For the first time in ages, I am actually getting a bit of a tan!  I have managed to get some time in the sun in the garden - lovely.
T.his is the last of my DT cards for this month - new stamps for next month have arrived, so I'm making a start on those now.  It is always exciting to get that package through the door to see what's coming up.

I really like the new Musical Score stamps, they make a nice change for Christmas cards.  I also love the holly sprig stamps, you get two stamps on one mount, but can remove them to use one at a time.  these stamps are so useful to make backgrounds or frames.  I decided to keep it fairly simple for this one.
I stamped and embossed the Carol with gold details powder, then stamped and embossed the holly sprigs with green powder.  I inked round the edges in green, added a bit of red glitter to the berries and dot and dashed a line round the edge.
The background is a paper from my stash which I sprayed with gold mist.

Take care and hope you come back soon xx

Back to Christmas!

Evening All! 
Sorry about this, but it is back to Christmas cards again!  I must admit, I wouldn't normally start my cards quite so early, but these were the stamps I got to work with for the Clarity DT.  Don't get me wrong, I love the stamps, just a bit early for Christmas for me!
This was my favourite of the cards I did - very simple design, this time a vertical strip with the ships, and a lovely idea to make the carol music scores.  If you like the music scores, keep an eye out, I think there are more on the way....

The ships are from the repositional ship set, you get three stamps on one mount and you can reposition them as you want.
I masked off the card to leave the strip exposed, then brayered with shades of blue - going from bottom to top and getting lighter as I worked my way up the column.
I then stamped the ships in place, using darker ink at the bottom and slightly lighter shades as they got smaller.
I created a bit of shadow under each ship using one of the texture stamps from the 'making a point' set from lesson 15
Remove the mask and add the I saw three ships music score
For the finishing touch, I used a fine line pen to highlight the edges of the strip.
Thanks for stopping by
Janet xx

Birthday wishes

Hello all, how is your Friday going?  Mine is good, now that I am home from work!  (Actually, it wasn't that bad at work, but I can't get out in the sun!)
I have had some complaints about the amount of Christmas cards I've been blogging, so this is a birthday card I made for my brother....

 

~The background is some lovely paper I found in my crafty stash, Douglas is stamped and embossed then coloured with promarkers.  The words are from the clarity Happy words set.  They are stamped and embossed too.

 

Thanks for visiting, hope you come back soon xxx

Holly tree

I'm blogging this on Sunday, it is 17:02 and Murray has three championship points!!! He has just lost them, but hopefully by the end of this post, he will have won!
So what am I posting? A Christmas card!!  Doesn't quite seem right, but we have to get going if we're going to get them done by Christmas!!

Murray has another championship point.......which he's won!!!!  How brilliant is that!!!
Very well deserved and hard earned Andy!

So back to Christmas....
The  holly tree is stamped twice and embossed with a coppery embossing powder and coloured in with promarkers.  I cut the top part of the tree and layered it over the base image.  The berries are glittered.
The music score is also stamped and embossed with the same powder, then I've stamped the holly sprigs in various shades of green and coloured the berries red
Squiggle some lines round the edge and embellish with gems.
Thank you for visiting, enjoy the rest of your day
Janet xx

A Pear Tree and a Partridge!

I know, I know, it should be a Partridge in a Pear Tree, but I don't have the small Partridge stamp and this one was too big to be in the tree, I thought.

As soon as I saw the Pear Tree stamp, I thought cream and gold.



The main image is stamped and embossed with gold detail powder, then coloured with promarkers and glittered very slightly by using the gold stardust pen from Sakura

I also added a gold embossed border and squiggled a line around the edge of the image.
For the background, I stamped the pear tree in gold brilliance, which has a lovely sheen to it.

The Partridge is stamped and coloured with promarkers, then cut out and mounted on the card.

Hope you like it xx

In the Garden

Hello fellow bloggers,
At last!  We have some hot and sunny days, let's hope it lasts for a while.  Time to get out in the garden, so I thought this card was very appropriate.

I really like the 'strip' idea in cards (you may have noticed!!) and I thought this garden set would go well with this style of card.  This is a really lovely stamp set from Clarity, one of the lesson sets.  It is the Birdhouse and picket fence set

This is a really easy card to do, I stamped the bird feeder in place first, then masked off the top and bottom of the card to create the strip.
Stamp all the images in place, then sponge blue for the sky and green for the grass.
I also masked off small areas and just stamped the very top of the hollyhocks stamp to give a bit of random flowery stuff in the background.

Remove the masks and draw along the edges with a fine line pen.
Stamp the birds and squirrel in place.
Hope you like it and thanks very much for visiting
Enjoy the lovely weather!
Janet xx

Diva Red workshop

Hello, I haven't blogged for a while, but I have been making cards, just not got round to blogging!  I will be blogging them soon, so 'watch this space'!

This card is the one I did for the Diva Red workshop last Thursday, very similar to one I've done before

The background is done by stamping the image lots of times with a multi colour inkpad, then spritzing with water, so the images all merge.  Use watercolour paper for this.

The lovely foxglove images are from Claritystamp

The Lone Ranger

Good morning to you all, I hope everyone is happy and well!  How is summer going for you?  There was thunder, lightening and hail here in Norfolk yesterday!  Good day for making cards...

This is a very simple card I made for my Dad for Father's Day.  I always like to keep cards for men really simple, most of the men I know don't seem to appreciate 'stuff' on cards.  I was running out of ideas for cards for the men in the family, I have done cars and golf and football and trains and gardening, but I suddenly remembered that I had got these stamps and Dad likes his westerns..job done!

This is really easy to do.
I used the Forest Ridge and Lone Ranger stamps from Clarity
On a piece of linen effect card, I stamped the forest ridge twice in black archival ink, leaving a bit of a gap between the images.
Tear a bit of paper to make a mask for the path
Mask off the area above and below the image and sponge in the sky with Stormy Sky distress ink and the ground with Old Paper distress ink.
Remove the masks and stamp in the Lone Ranger
Using a black fine line pen, draw a straight line along the top and bottom of the strip
Stamp your greeting
Mat onto a very thin layer of black and stick to the base card
How easy is that!!
Hope you like it!
Thank for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful day x

Dandelion Fairy

Hello everyone in Blogland, I hope you are all okay!  I did some gardening at the weekend, I can't believe the growth!!  It is like everything has been holding back and now it is warm it's growing like mad to make up!

So, continuing on the garden theme, I thought I would share a card I made a while ago with the stunning Dandelion Fairy, the Dandelion Leaf and the Dandelion Verse.  This card wasn't made for the TV, just for me to sell, but I thought I would share it as the set was on TV recently

I don't know how well this shows up, but everything on this cards was stamped with the wonderful FlitterGlu and covered with Gilding Flakes.  The words on the verse are tiny, but you can still see all the detail - amazing stuff!
I also added some of the FlitterGlu and flakes around the edges of the card before matting and layering onto gold card.
Hope you like it and thanks for visiting!
Janet xx

Underwater scene - my first DT card!

I have been a part of the Clarity Design Team for a year now.  Barbara asked me last year at Cowden.  I can't believe it has been that long! 

 

This set of stamps was the very first set I got to work with.  I was sooo excited to get them, but it was only a couple of days before the show on the TV, so I stayed up til the small hours and made three cards ready to send them 'next day delivery' to make sure they arrived on time.

I tuned in on the Sunday very excited and hopeful that my cards would be shown - and they weren't!!  I was gutted!!  I know that many cards don't get shown and I am more used to it now, but I wish the producers there knew how much we put into the cards we make.  This is my favourite of the cards I made for that show and it is on the Clarity website and on the display boards at shows, so I feel okay about it now!

 

The bit at the bottom of the main image is done using Fran-tage embossing powders and glitters.

 

Wishing you all a lovely day

Janet x