Stencil and Tissue

Hello again folks,
I am on a bit of a roll!  It probably won't last, so don't get too used to it!
I have been using bleeding art tissue a fair bit recently and love the effects it gives.  I was at a bit of a loss as to how to use this stencil and suddenly came up with the idea of trying the tissue with it.  I attached the stencil to my card, placed pieces of tissue over it and spritzed, pressed the tissue down a bit then left it to soak in.
I was really pleased with the result!  Some of the more detailed areas had missed, so I pressed a bit harder and added some of the painty bits witch had gathered on the actual stencil.
Once it was dry, I did some stamping through the stencil, then remove the stencil and drew round the edges with a fine black pen,
I did a bit of splattering and added the words

Stencil 75 by Fiona Paltridge and stamps 160 & 165 by Tracy Evans

My partner, Simon said he thought the stencil was based on Abs, something to do with the hair!  ONe of the presenters on the TV said the same thing.

Thank you for visiting, hope you have a great day

Janet xxx

A Special Card

Good evening all,

The card I am showing today is a very special one - it is not for a special occasion, or a special person, it is not overly spectacular, but it is very special to me because it is the first card I have made in a VERY long time just because I fancied making a card.
These days everything I make is either for a Design Team or a workshop and that can be hard because you HAVE to come up with something whether you feel like it or not.  Most of the time I love doing that but sometimes I run out of ideas or inspiration or energy and would rather not have to make something.  I am sure anyone who is on a DT or runs workshops will understand what I mean.
The recent change for me has inspired and energised me and this card was the result.  As I say it is clean and simple, but it didn't HAVE to be made, I wanted to make it, just because I could!
It features one stamp and one stencil from AALL and Create.

Stamp set 143 by Tracy Evans and stencil 68 by Autour de Mwa

This is really easy to do, I masked off the card just leaving a strip exposed.
I placed the stencil Ice Cracks over the gap then drew all round it with a fine black pen
Remove the stencil and masking and colour in with promarkers
Stamp the butterfly from the A$ stamp Time Flies on white card and cut it out - I didn't add anything to it
Cut out the words Time Flies from the same stamp and attach both to the card.

Thank you for visiting, I am off to do workshop cards now - which I am enjoying!

Happy Crafting
Janet xxx

Back in Blogland - with news of a change

Hello Bloggers,

I'm back!  After a bit of a break from blogging, I have decided to get back into it and start showing off my cards again!  There has been a bit of a change recently and I am now on the Hochanda Design Team for AALL and Create.  This is a relatively new stamp and stencil company which I first saw on TV about 18 months ago.  I was blown away by the originality of the designs.  I went to a few workshops run by Autour de Mwa, who is totally lovely and very talented.  He has a superb team of designers from all over the world who design the stamps and stencils.  I was absolutely thrilled to bits when he asked me to join his new Design Team last week.
I received a humongous pile of the new collection stamps and stencils and had the most wonderful time making cards for the TV show which was on Tuesday.

Here are some of my earlier cards.....

stamps 29 by Bipasha and 46 by Tracy Evans

Stamps sets 80and 81 By Olga Heldwein, 10 by Autour de Mwa and 15 by Tracy Evans

Stamps 44 by Tracy Evans and stencil 37 by Olga Heldwein

Stamps 69 and 78 by Louise Nelson

 All stamps and stencils are available from AALL and Create 

Thanks very much for visiting and I won't leave it so long before I blog again

Janet xxxx

Treescape Seasons

Good morning! 
I hope you are having a lovely weekend.  It was the Claritystampers East workshop at Bawburgh yesterday, 6 years since the very first one and a couple of weeks ago, it was the 5th birthday of the Great Blakenham group.  My next blog post will be dedicated to the Claritystampers groups, I will do a little trip back over the years....

For today, I will show you the cards I made for the Treescape stamps and stencils which were on TV last week.  They sold out really quickly, not surprising, they are lovely.


 All the cards are made the same way, I just used different colours for the different seasons.  use the oval picot dies to cut three ovals: the smallest and largest cut from a piece of the same designer card and the middle one cut from white card.
Take the smallest oval and brush lightly with a little talc, stamp the Treescape with versamark ink and heat emboss with white embossing powder.
Adhere the ovals together to make a topper
On a 5x7 card attach the stencil and brush matching colour Distress Oxide inks through
Remove the stencil and stamp the appropriate word for the season and a little bird.
Attach the topper to the card.
Very easy!

Thanks very much for visiting, I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Janet xx

Cheery Santa

Good morning everyone,
It is a blustery old morning here, but a good drying day, as they say.  My washing is hanging out and I am keeping an eye on it in case it blows away.  I have some samples to make today, but I have time to show you what we did at the Claritystampers East workshop at Bawburgh on Saturday.  We also did these at the workshop in Great Blakenham a few weeks ago.

We made a start on Christmas cards, I know it seems early to some people, but if you are going to send handmade cards, you have to get going!
The first card caused a bit of huffing and puffing, but everyone loved the finished result, so hopefully it was worth the effort!

 This is all die cut.  Start by cutting the image out of black card, attach to a base circle, then die cut all the pieces out of different colour card and fill in the gaps.  It is a bit fiddly, but I loved doing it.
Cut a gold circle frame and embed the black circle into it.
For the background, just use versamark to stamp the words  across the card.






For the second card, die cut a green ring, then attach to the base card, after stamping the Christmas words in green ink
On separate card, stamp colour and cut out the Holly and Ivy spray and some extra leaves and berries, then assemble round the circle, add a touch of glitter to the berries.












The third card was back to die cutting.
Die cut the doves and attach to a die cut circle base, then very lightly brush brown ink over the image.
Add more colour to the raised parts by using gilding wax.
The strip down the side of the card is a piece of hessian with a piece of ribbon over the top.
I added a touch of brown to the background card, so it toned in with the main image.
Add some gems for the eyes and also dot a few around on the card.
Stamp the greeting on separate card, cut out and attach.

This is a different version using the deer die.

It was lovely to see the results all the ladies produced and as always, lovely to chat and have a laugh along the way!

Thanks very much for visiting, hope to see you again soon

Janet xx

Town Houses

Hello Bloggers,
Today I am sharing a couple of cards I made with the new Town House stamp and stencil.  The stamp set comes as a three way overlay, so you get the same image in three different forms, an outline and outline filler and an inside filler.  This allows you to easily colour different parts of the image.
Personally, I find it quite hard to overlay the images perfectly, but I think that is down to my eyes!  I am slowly improving with practice and a few tips one of which is that you have to be quite close to the image when you hover over it with the stamp.

 For this card, I attached the stencil to a piece of stencil card, then brushed blue ink towards the top and brown ink towards the bottom of the stencil
On a separate piece of card, I stamped the outline in brown archival, the inked up the top of the inlay stamp with the same blue ink, and wiped away any bits I didn't want, then stamped over the image to give a blue sky.
I added brown ink over the buildings and wiped away any ink from the sky, then stamped that in place.
I decided against adding the filler of the outline so it remains white, the same as the stencil.
I tore round the stamped and stencilled images then mounted both on matching card.

For the second card, I kept it very simple, I used the Stone Wall stencil and brushed black soot ink through the whole stencil.  I added a few black splatters.
On separate card, I stamped the outline in black and coloured in with black and grey pencils.

Stamps used:Three Way Townhouse
Stencils used: Town stencil
                        Stone Wall Stencil

Thanks very much for visiting
Janet xx

Last of the Beer Mats

Good morning!
It was the Diva Red workshop on Saturday and we made a start with Christmas cards - I know this is a bit early for some of you, but we have to start now to get them all made in time to send out!
I was given some beer mats a while ago by one of my crafty friends, a pub local to her was closing and had lots of unused beer mats left.  I have to confess they sat in my stash for quite a while until I got some Bigz dies, then I remembered them.  They are brilliant for die cutting!  They are not too heavy, but they provide a lovely surface to work with.
I had used most of them in previous projects, but still  had enough left for this project.  Sadly, I have used them all now, but I intend to find some more!

 Cut two stars from your beer mat, brush white Gesso over and allow to dry.  Scrape some texture paste through the Spots and Stars petite stencil and allow to dry
Brush some blue Distress Oxide ink over the whole star, then wipe some off again to reveal the stars from the texture paste.
Add some glitter glue if you fancy.
Decide where you are going to position the stars, then stamp a couple of dangles from Linda's Birthday Dangles set
Along the side, I added a piece of Washi tape, a strip of paper and a peel off border (remember them?)
Stick the stars in place and add the greeting from the Christmas Greetings set Which I stamped and cut out from a spare piece of card.

For the second card, we made a nice background by brushing watercolour paint in blocks on some mixed media card.  Allow to dry then stick a post-it note in the centre and stamp snowflakes round the edge to make a frame.  Outline with a fine black pen
On a separate piece of card stamp the bauble and the robin in place and colour (I used watercolour paints)
Stamp a couple of snowflakes and cut out the bauble.
I didn't cut out the top loop, I stamped the on the card and stuck the cut out bauble over the top.
Add some white dots and a fine line to hang the bauble from.
The stamps for this card are all from the Christmas Bauble set

Thanks very much for visiting, I hope you enjoy your day! Janet xx