Gilded Hummingbirds Card

I can't believe we're nearly in June and I'm sat here in a thick fleece thinking about turning the heating back on.....again. It's so different to the lovely weather we had for the Bank Holiday weekend. Talking of June, if you haven't entered this month's challenge on the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog you have until 8pm on Friday 31st May to have a go. It's well worth it as there's a £50 Claritystamp voucher for the winner, who is chosen at random. On Saturday there will be a new challenge and I will be sharing  the card I've made for that with you. Barbara Gray will be on Create and Craft so it should be a good weekend and if the weather is like this staying in crafting might be a good idea.

Meanwhile, this is another of my samples for the German shows.

It uses Barbara's technique of stamping onto a sheet of double sided adhesive and adhering gilding flakes and mica powders to it. I used gilding flakes for the background and birds, and Perfect Pearls for the moons. It's cut out with a Spellbinders Nestabilities die - Labels Eight. That is matted onto black card cut with Decorative Labels Eight.

The Leafy Columns are stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with black detail powder.

The card is made out of Centura Pearl card which gives it a lovely shimmer.

Stamps Used

Large Hummingbirds

Leafy Column

Lynne

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Hot Air Balloon Card

I hope you're all enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend. We've had lovely weather here and have been making the most of it by doing lots of outside jobs, followed by BBQs and wine in the evening. Bliss.

This card is one of my Claritystamp samples for HSE24. It may look familiar as it's very similar to the card I made for the CO's 40th Birthday.

This time I used the new Clarity Mountain and Hills Mask to create the mountains in the background.

Another change I made this time was to stamp the balloons onto Hunkydory card, rather than colouring them in myself with ProMarkers. It has a lovely sheen to it which I thought worked well for the balloons. I used several co-ordinating sheets so the balloons weren't all the same design.

The post on the CO's card is here and I explain there how I shaped the balloons. This adds a bit of interest to the card and I think it makes them look more realistic.

The sentiment this time says "Best Wishes" in German.

Stamps Used

Large Hot Air Balloon

Medium Hot Air Balloon

Small Hot Air Balloon

Spruce Tree

Sentiment from the German Celebration Set

Plus

Mountains and Hills Mask

Herzliche Glückwünsche,

Lynne

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Bee Mine Card

This is the last of my samples from this month's Clarity shows.

I stamped and coloured the foxgloves the same way as I did for my Foxgloves Card but this time I added some bees.

I thought it would look cute having one going into a flower. I stamped the headless bee on the card and then stamped and cut out his body. I cut a slit in the flower and inserted the body into it.

I added a matching green mat and made it into a card but it was still lacking something. Then I had the "Bee Mine" idea. It added a bit of interest and finished it off nicely.

Stamps Used

Remountable Foxgloves Set

Letter Box set

Bee from Remountable Bug Set

Only one more week to go before Barbara is back on TV for another Clarity weekend. My samples for that are coming along well but until then I have some of the ones I made for the last German shows on HSE24 to share with you.  

Lynne
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Flamingo Reflection Card

I think this was my favourite of my samples from this month's TV shows (it changes between this and my other flamingo card).

I like the colours and I was really pleased at how the reflection turned out.

Like my Flamingo Anniversary Card, I used my Splodge Away mat to do the reflection. This time I wanted it to be paler than the main image, so I used black Adirondack ink on the Splodge mat for the reflection and then stamped the flamingo as I normally would.

I masked the flamingo then created the rest of the scene. I used an Ink Duster to do the water, trying to get a few lines in it to look like ripples. I made this heavier where her legs go into the water.

I coloured the flamingo in with ProMarkers and the reflection with pencils. The grass is done with Adirondack Lettuce and Meadow.

I found some brads and Bazzill Bling card in my stash that were a great match for the flamingo. I think they finish the card off nicely.

I'd like to enter it into the Dream Valley Challenge 57 - Animals.

Stamps Used

Bent Flamingo

Flamingo Grass

Lynne

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Foxgloves Card

I had a lovely afternoon making a card for next month's shows yesterday. Very unusually for me I made the whole card, including designing it, in one go! 

Lots of my FB friends are on their way to Cowden today for two days of Clarity workshops with Barbara Gray. They all sound so excited and I so wish I was going. They've said they'll take lots of photos so I'll at least be able to see what they've been up to. I'm off to York with a friend for some retail therapy. We always have such a giggle so I'm sure she'll cheer me up. When I get home I have another card to make that I planned yesterday, so that's something to look forward to as well.

This is the first of my cards using the new Clarity stamps.

I inked the flowers up in Lilac Posies Memento ink and the leaves in Cottage Ivy Memento. I chose matching ProMarkers to colour them in with - Rose Pink, Pink Mittens and Forest Green.

Then out came my trusty cloud template and Ink Duster to create the sky.

The butterfly was made with Angelina Film and Fibres.

I cut the mat (bought from the Silhouette Store) on my Silhouette Cameo. I chose it as I thought the holes in it complemented the shape of the flowers. 

A pearl in each corner adds a finishing touch.

Stamps Used

Remountable Foxgloves Set

With Love from the Remountable Happy Words Set

Butterfly from the Remountable Best of the Classroom Set

Lynne

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Woodland Foxes Card

I created a little woodland scene for this card which involved quite a bit of masking! 

I started off by stamping out the design on copy paper. When I do this I don't bother with masks as I just want to work out where things are going to go. Then when I come to stamp it out for real I know exactly where to position the stamps. It makes things a lot easier, especially on designs like this where I had to stamp the front fox and the sitting fox before the tree stump.

After I'd done the stamping, the masks come in handy again to cover the work up whilst doing the brayering. They're now stored with all of my others for the next time I use those stamps.

The colouring is done with ProMarkers and the greenery is done with Adirondack Lettuce and Meadow and Versafine Olympia Green.

I used the bark side of Spellbinders M-Bossibilities Bricks and Bark folder to create textured panels for the background as I thought they worked well with the tree stumps. I found some card to match the foxes but it still needed something else. After rooting through my stash I found some eyelets that matched perfectly. These came with my Crop-A-Dile and I have a load of them left  - I bet I'm not the only one!

Stamps Used

Standing Fox

Sitting Fox

Tree Stump

Grasses 1

Mini Grasses from Remountable Garden Set

Lynne

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Rainy Day Gelli Print Card

The theme on the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog this month is "It's All In The Sentiment" and that couldn't be more true than on this card.

Whilst it's not the main focal point, it's what makes the card for me.

The background is another Gelli print. I wanted to use the umbrella stamp so I thought a rainy background would be ideal. The clouds and raindrops are from the Silhouette Store and I cut the template out of vellum on my Cameo.

I did the blue textured layer first, then added the clouds and raindrops in white.

The characters and verse are stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with black detail powder.

Stamps Used

Remountable Clarity Characters

Together Verse

Lynne

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My First Christmas Card Of 2013!

I couldn't believe it was April and I was making a Christmas card but there was a "Christmas" in the Happy Words set and I just couldn't resist using it.

I thought the Fox might be nice on a Christmas card so I coupled it with the Winterland stamp to make a really simple snowy scene. A bit of colouring with some ProMarkers, some inking to make the snow and a touch of glitter and it was done.

As it is such a simple scene I thought it could take a patterned background, so out came my Gelli plate. I cut a snowflake mask out of vellum using my Silhouette Cameo and chose a couple of shades of brown to match the fox.

I finished it off by heat embossing Happy Christmas in detail black down the bottom (it shows up better in real life than it does n the photo).

Stamps Used

Large Winterland

Standing Fox

Remountable Happy Words Set

Lynne

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In The Classroom With Barbara Gray - Lesson 16

I really enjoyed this lesson but my stamping didn't all go smoothly! I was ready to bin it and start again at one stage but I stuck with it and really liked the end result. I've not been able to share it before now as it was for a friend's birthday and I wanted to wait until after she'd seen it.

It was all going quite nicely until I managed to get black ink from the side of my hand on the bottom right corner.  Luckily some extra grasses were able to cover that up.

I was also too heavy handed with the Butterscotch ink doing the sky and my picture was looking like a Norwich City scarf, so I added some Adirondack Mountain Rose to calm it down a bit. After that it changed from something that I nearly binned to something I was really pleased with. It just shows how a couple of simple additions can really transform something.

My friend lives on a dairy farm so I thought that a couple of cows would be a fun finishing touch.

Stamps Used

Lesson 16 - Windmill Set

Small Birds In Flight

Cows from the Remountable Farm Set

Lynne

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Woodland Gelli Print Card

This card was Hubby's, and Mum and Dad's favourite sample of mine for this month. It uses the stamps for Lesson 17 of In The Classroom With Barbara Gray on Create and Craft TV which is on the 1st June.

It's another one of my cards made using the Gelli plate. This time I did two layers - one of green and one of red along with various items to create the texture - a swirly mask by Splodge Away, bubble wrap, a letter stencil, and sequin waste.  I tore a piece of copy paper into the shape I wanted and then placed it in the middle of the painted up Gelli plate. As I wanted a nice clean area in the middle to stamp on I let it in place when I made the print.

Once I had the Gelli print I set about doing the stamping in the middle. I love Puck's funky stripy tights! He also has pretty sparkly wings done with a clear Sakura Stardust pen.

The brown background is done with Distress Ink. The hares are stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with black fine detail powder.

Stamps Used

Miniature Puck

Toadstool Set - Lesson 17

Lynne

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Happy New Year Gelli Print Card

This was the first of the Gelli print cards that I made for this month's samples. I saw the Happy New Year stamp and the silhouette characters and thought they could be having a New Year's Eve party.

The Gelli print was a really simple one. I brayered orange, red, and yellow acrylic paint onto the mat and then stamped the Allium stamp into it to make a pattern. I cut a small rectangle of card and pressed it onto the Gelli plate to remove some of the paint before taking the main print. This leaves a more subtle print behind in the centre, which I've edged with a black pen and stamped the characters in with Archival black ink.

I also used Archival black to stamp the greeting and some more Alliums. They make fab fireworks and the characters seem to be having a great time - I think Douglas had better watch out as Laurel looks like she's about to give him a New Year's kiss!

I added some Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges and a thin black mat to finish it off.

Stamps Used

Alium 3

Remountable Clarity Characters

Remountable Happy Words Set

Lynne

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Flamingo Anniversary Card

It was a busy weekend for Barbara Gray on Create and Craft with lots of kits selling out. I'm not surprised though as I really loved all of this month's stamps.

Reading the feedback I've had, my two flamingo cards seem to be the favourites of my samples. I must admit they were mine too; I was really pleased with how they turned out. So I thought I'd start with one of those.

I've seen cards where two flamingos make a heart before and was pleased to see that the Clarity one works for this technique. It was perfect as I also had a Happy Anniversary stamp to use.

As Barbara demonstrated on TV, I used my Splodge mat to create the bird on the right. I used Adirondack black ink and stamped directly onto the Splodge mat so that I could then transfer the image to my sheet of Theuva card. I then stamped the bird on the left next to it using the second generation of ink. I've added this close-up photo as I was really impressed at how similar the stamped images are in colour using this technique.

I coloured them in with ProMarkers and cut the oval out with a Grand Scalloped Oval Spellbinders Nestabilitie before adding some Antique Linen Distress Ink. I used my Silhouette Cameo to make the thin black mat for it and the border that the ribbon is threaded through. The pink heart paper is from the Smitten Range by K & Co.

Stamps Used

Tall Flamingo

Remountable Happy Words Set

Lynne

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May's Clarity Samples

I absolutely love this month's stamps and it was a real pleasure to play with them.

These are my cards. As you can see, prints from the Gelli plate made an appearance in several of them. It is such a fun thing to experiment with and I feel that each time I use it I am learning something new. Hopefully my technique is improving too!

As always, I will be blogging each card individually throughout the month and explaining how I've made it.

A couple of cards from previous shows were shown again today too.

This one uses the stamps from Lesson 15. If you missed my post on that it can be found here.

My Delft Tile style card was also shown again and the old post on that can be found here.

I hope you'll come back to see in more details what I've been up to.

Happy stamping,

Lynne

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Blooming Corner Birthday Card - Mum - Revisited

Just a quick one from me today as I wanted to share this update on a previous post. This time last month I blogged a card made with the Blooming Corner stamps made into the word MUM. Since then I've been bought the smaller ones that come in the Best of the Classroom set and I thought you might like to see the size comparison.

As you can see there is quite a difference.

I really like the larger version but the smaller one is probably more practical for making word cards with.

Just incase you missed the original post, this is the card I made with the larger Blooming Corner stamps. The post on that can be found here.

Stamps Used

Blooming Corner Kit

Best of The Classroom Set

Not long now before I can share my cards from this weekend. I'm looking forward to watching the shows and stamping along with Barbara tomorrow. I wonder what we will be doing? 

Lynne

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It's All In The Sentiment - Mother's Day Cards

It's time for another challenge over at the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog. This month's theme is "It's all in the Sentiment".

I have two cards to show you which I made for Mother's Day this year.

This first one I made for my Mum. The heart and the embellishments were from a K & Co. Smitten kit. I bought it years ago but as it was a Valentine photo card kit I never used it. I couldn't really see Hubby appreciating it! Anyway, this year I realised it would make a fab Mother's Day card so I set about transforming it. 

Instead of a photo I used the "To the World" Clarity stamp. As the challenge says, "It's all in the sentiment" and that one was perfect.

I changed the Valentine's Day embellishment to Happy Mother's Day which I had printed out on my computer.

I had some 12x12 papers in the same Smitten design so I used them to make a similar card for my Mother-in-law.

The sentiment is stamped onto one of the Spellbinders Floral Ovals Nestabilities. Then I've used various other dies to decorate the card. I had a bit of a problem with the edging as I just couldn't get it to cut through the patterned paper and the card I'd stuck it to. Luckily I had some old Fiskars punches in a similar sized heart and circle, so I finished it off with those.

Stamp Used

To The World 

Dies Used

Spellbinders Floral Ovals

Spellbinders Classic Petal Edgeabilities

Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities Labels 11

Flower - Tim Holtz Tattered Florals

Scroll - Tim Holtz Elegant Flourishes

Embossing Folder

Cuttlebug Wicker Weave

Clarity have so many lovely sentiment stamps, sometimes they are all you need to make a beautiful, heartfelt card. It's all in the sentiment after all.

Congratulations to the winner and Top 5 of the "In the Garden" challenge. I really enjoyed looking at all of the entries and I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge. Good luck!

Lynne
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