In The Classroom With Barbara Gray - Lesson 17

I absolutely love the card that Barbara made for Lesson 17 and had to have a go at making it.

I got a bit carried away though and added a bit more foliage than Barbara did.

I liked Barbara's tip about cutting a slit in the post-it to make the circle larger and lessen the chance of getting a white halo around the moon. I adapted that idea and cut myself a slightly larger aperture in a sheet of Doeflex using my Cameo.

I made my large moon mask using a Spellbinder die which measures 60mm in diameter, so I cut a 61mm aperture in the Doeflex. I think I could have maybe made it a little larger but it worked really well. You can see exactly where to position it and the ink blends in well from the Doeflex, plus the remaining part of the Doeflex sheet covers up you work which is great for an accident prone crafter like me!

I also added these little fairies as I thought they would look cute hovering in front of the moon. A bit of fairy dust (glitter) adds the finishing touch.

Stamps Used

Lesson 17 Set - Toadstool and Hares

Large Fern

Mini Fairies

I can't believe we're nearly at the end of another month. Gelli Day went well yesterday and I have now finished my samples for this month. I just have to photograph them now. That's always a fun job!

Don't forget, there's still time (unitl 8pm on Sunday 30th June) to enter this month's Clarity Stamp Challenge if you haven't already.  I'll be back on Monday with my next project for it.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Lynne

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Gelli Print Alliums Card

I've been playing with my Gelli plate again, it's such fun. I love it for framing a stamped image.

I built the print up layer by layer, using different colours and masks. I wanted the frame to be quite dark so I kept going until I got the effect I wanted. I then added some black Distress Ink around the edge and a fine black wiggly line around the inside.

The Alliums are stamped in black Archival and the quote and bird are heat embossed in gold. There is some gold paint used in the print so I thought that would bring it all together.

That's it really.  Simples!

I'm off out shopping with a friend today but tomorrow is going to be Gelli Day. I would like to make 3 more samples using it, so I'm going to try and get creative (messy!) and see what happens. Experimenting is what it's all about after all.

Stamps Used

Allium 1

Allium 2

Be The Change

Lynne

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Laurel Does Glastonbury ATC

I love thinking of fun things that Laurel could be doing with her outstretched arms.

The ATC theme was "Festival" and I was racking my brains trying to think of what I could do when I suddenly thought Glastonbury - Laurel dancing - tent! It made me smile and I thought it would be fun.

I started off by printing out a clip-art tent  and stamping Laurel in Archival black. The rest of the scene evolved from there. There are actually clouds in the sky but they don't show up in the photo.

Once I'd created the scene I added alcohol inks to a laminating pouch so that they would form a funky frame around it. The whole thing is then run through the laminator and sealed together.

As I said before, it made me smile, although I probably should have put Laurel in wellies, in the mud, with a rainy sky for an authentic Glastonbury look!

Well, I'd best get in my craft room as I have a busy day ahead. I have to make a birthday card that needs to be in the post today, I'm working on July's Clarity samples and I still have my Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog project to finish. On top of that, the grass needs cutting as the recycling bin gets emptied tomorrow !!!!

Stamps Used

Laurel from the Remountable Clarity Characters Set

Music from the Joy Frame Set

Lynne

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Angelina Film and Fibres Balloon Card

I always enjoy working with these stamps. They are so versatile.

I've got a few Hot Air Balloon cards on here but this is the first one with Angelina Fibres and Film. It's a card I made for the German TV shows.

I think the balloons look so pretty. You can use you iron or a ball tool to get some dimension into them so they look quite realistic too.

I only have one colour of the film (Gold Pearl) so I just use different colour fibres inside it to change the colour. These are what I used.

My favourite stamp, Meadow Dance, makes an appearance too. It's the first time I've used it with the balloons but I think they go well together.

The hills are made using the Clarity Mountains and Hills mask.

Stamps Used

Large Hot Air Balloon

Medium Hot Air Balloon

Small Hot Air Balloon

Meadow Dance

Mask Used

Mountains and Hills

Lynne

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Dreams of a Kitten Birthday Card

I realised a couple of days ago that it's now just over year since Barbara asked me to be part of the Claritystamp Design Team. I was so shocked and not sure if I could do it but I knew I would be an idiot if I didn't at least give it a try. I'm so glad that I did as I've really enjoyed this past year.  So, thank you for asking me Barbara. Thanks to you too for reading my blog and the support you've given me. It means a lot.

This is a birthday card that I made for a friend. It combines ideas from the two DT cards that I made with these stamps.

I was really pleased with how the background turned out and can see it being a really useful technique (in other words I'm sure it will be popping up on more of my cards!). I did actually try a version using the words "Happy Father's Day" on my Dad's Father's Day card (the one with the boat) but it looked too busy. I think it works better with a simple scene. 

It's done using the grid card technique. Each box is masked off with tape and the edges are inked. I used an Ink Duster and a sponge to build up the colour. It's the colour I usually use for my skies - Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. The rest of the stamping is done with Black Archival.

Stamps Used

Lesson 18 Set - The Birdhouse and the Picket Fence

The Dreams of a Kitten

Lynne

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All That Jazz

This is the last of my cards from June's Clarity shows on Create and Craft TV. On the 1st July I will be sharing my new project for the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog (there's still plenty of time to join in with this month's "Mr & Mrs" challenge if you haven't already), then on the 6th & 7th Barbara will be back on TV again. Until then I have some other cards to share that I've made recently. There aren't any Christmas cards yet though, Ideal World/ Create and Craft may be starting their Christmas shows tonight but I'm not that organised. Although I dare say it won't be long before a DT parcel with some Christmas Clarity stamps in it arrives...............

Anyway, back to June. Like my other card made with these stamps - Jazz Man in the Spotlight, I've used the Jazz Montage stamp to create the background. This time I've stamped it onto sheet music though. I like the way you can see the notes through the bits that aren't stamped. 

The card then evolved from that. I needed something to do with the Jazz Man and had the piano idea. This is a Loni Stevens design from the Silhouette Store. I cut it on my Cameo out of Clarity card so that it has a nice glossy finish. The top layer is mounted onto foam pads to give it some dimension. The Jazz Man didn't really stand out enough against the black background so that gave me the idea to use a spotlight again. This time I cut it out of vellum.

The card was still looking a bit bare so I added three red stars with "All That Jazz" printed onto them.

As usual, I got a couple of comments from Hubby and Dad that the Jazz Man was dancing on the piano strings but they got my standard reply - "It's art, he can do what he wants to!".

Stamps Used

Jazz Man

Jazz Montage

Lynne

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Happy Father's Day

My Dad is one of my regular blog readers, so "Happy Father's Day" Dad.  xxx

This is the card I made for him.

I was really pleased with the scene I made following April's In the Classroom with Barbara Gray and I thought it would be perfect for my Dad's card.

Turning the topper into a completed card took longer than it did to create it though! I tried out so many backgrounds and colours before I settled on some green card that matches the boat.

The Father's Day stamp is from Lili of the Valley. I bought 3 sets of these at the GNPE, Harrogate as they go so well with the Clarity XL Postage Stamp.

Which I used for my Father-in-law's card.

He likes horses, so I made a little western scene in the stamp and heat embossed the Queen's head in gold. The background is embossed with my Spellbinders Grand Dainty Dots folder.

I hope they both like their cards.

If Hubby is reading this in Cyprus, Maya says "Woofy woof woof" (apparently that's Happy Father's Day in dog) too.

She's looking forward to normal sofa service resuming soon.

Stamps Used

Lesson 15 - Making a Point Set

XL Postage Stamp

Remountable Postage Set

Forest Ridge

Lone Ranger

Lynne

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Dreams of a Kitten

After making my I Can see You! card where the stamping was all done in black, I wanted to do a colourful version with the same set of stamps.

This is what I came up with.  

I inked up the hollyhocks stamp with Versafine Imperial Purple on the top and Olympia Green on the bottom, then built up the scene around them. 

I found some lovely mauve card that went really well with the hollyhocks and embossed it with my Spellbinders Butterfly Garden Grand Impressibilities. The Crop-A-Dile eyelets that I recently rediscovered make another appearance, this time in purple.

The card was still lacking something so I added the word "Dream" at the bottom. This reminded me of the "Dreams of a Kitten" verse. I couldn't fit it on the front.....

.....so I used it on the insert. I don't usually put anything inside my Clarity samples as the insides don't get seen but I couldn't resist doing it on this one. You're seeing it now after all.

These stamps will be used in Lesson 18 of In the Classroom with Barbara Gray. It will be on Create and Craft TV at 11am on the 6th July. I look forward to seeing what Barbara creates with them.

Stamps Used

Lesson 18 - Birdhouse and Picket Fence Set

The Dreams of a Kitten

Dream from Lesson 10 - The Birdcage Set

Lynne

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Jazz Man In the Spotlight

It's not something I know a lot about but I do like a bit of jazz. We were lucky enough to live in Brecon for a couple of years and they have a fab jazz festival there every year.  It was great fun.

About 3 years ago the New Design Club stamp (No. 44) was a ballerina and one of the projects that Barbara did for it was a brayered spotlight. I've been wanting to have a go at it since I got it, but as I've not had anyone to send a ballerina card to I never got around to it. As soon as I saw the Jazz Man I knew that he would be perfect for it and couldn't wait to have a go. 

When Barbara did hers she used a Big and Juicy ink pad in Mountain Meadow. I thought I'd have a go at doing it in black. It took quite a bit of brayering to build up the colour but I was really pleased with how it turned out. It only took one go too!

I used one of my Spellbinders Petite Ovals dies to cut out a mask for the white part of the spotlight and built up the black and grey around it using Adirondack Pitch Black on Claritycard. My Splodge Mat is a great help for things like this.

The sentiment is stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with silver detail powder.

Once I'd finished that I made a matching background by covering a sheet of Clarity paper with the Jazz Montage stamp.

Stamps Used

Jazz Man

Jazz Montage

May All Your Dreams Come True

Lynne

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Lily's Boudoir

I had a fab day at Doncaster yesterday. I don't get to meet up with fellow crafters very often so it was lovely to be able to do that. I also had a fab time watching Barbara demonstrating the Gelli plate. I picked up a lot of tips and bought several of the gorgeous new stencils. I then spent yesterday afternoon practising what I'd learnt.  It didn't get an "It's not one of your better efforts" from Mum and Dad so I think I must be improving!

Anyway, back to my June samples. In the past when I've made cards like this I've used patterned papers but this time I thought I'd make my own Clarity wallpaper. I used the Camelia stamp, Adirondack ink in Mountain Rose and I ink, blot, blot, plotted it. This required a lot of concentration, not one of my specialities!  I ink, blot **** the first time so I had to start again. It's a good job that no one could see me sat in my craft room saying to myself "Ink, blot, blot, plot" over and over again!

The carpet was done using the same ink applied with an Ink Duster.

The wrought iron furniture is stamped in Versamark, then heat embossed with gold fine detail powder.

The Clarity Characters are stamped in black Archival.

I found some lovely Bazzill card in my stash that matched really well and finished the card off with some matting and layering. It is embossed with the Spellbinders Garden Lattice M-Bossibilities folder as I thought this went well with the wrought iron.

I think Lily's boudoir looks a lot prettier than the magnolia woodchip in mine!

Stamps Used

Camelia

Remountable Wrought Iron Dolls House Set

Remountable Clarity Characters

Lynne

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I Can See You!

This was the first card I made with the stamps for Lesson 18.

There's not really much to explain about this card. It's very simple but it was one of my favourites from this month. 

The stamping is all done with black Archival Ink, then I added a bright yellow sun and a blue sky with fluffy clouds. The rest of the card evolved from that. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I'm off to Doncaster tomorrow for the Stamp Magic Show at The Dome. It will be great to see Barbara and the rest of the Clarity team. I'm sure some Clarity goodies will fall into my basket and I'm also looking forward to meeting up with a couple of my online friends. It should be a good day.

Stamps Used

Lesson 18 - The Birdhouse and Picket Fence Set

Lynne

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A Walk In The Countryside Card

I like making cards like this...

....where the scene tells a story.

Lily is having a fun time flying her kite and Laurel is out for a lovely country walk with her dog. This led me to a dilemma - I thought that Laurel was perfect to use with the dog as with her outstretched arms she looks like she's calling her. The problem with this is that the dog stamp is facing the wrong way. I first thought of colouring the dog chocolate and renaming Laurel, Lynne. I would be standing there frantically trying to get Maya's attention and she would be running off thinking "I've not quite finished yet, there's something interesting over here.  I'll be back in a minute". In the end I decided to use my Splodge mat and reverse the dog. As it was paler than the rest of the images I then went around the outline of it with a fine black pen. Problem solved.

I always email photos of my cards to Mum and Dad when I've made them. I call them my Design Team as they often have ideas for me and give me lots of feedback. Their verdict on this one was "It's not one of your better efforts". When it was on TV Barbara and Dean were talking and the camera was focussed on it for quite a while. This made me laugh as I knew Mum and Dad would be watching!

Stamps Used

Remountable Wrought Iron Dolls House Set

Remountable Clarity Characters Set

Small Birds In Flight

Grasses 5

Lynne

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Beaded Felt Toadstools Card

Thank you so much for the kind comments on here and FB about my samples from the weekend. They are really appreciated.

People often ask me where I get my ideas from; this one came from an ATC theme - Texture. I'd been racking my brains for ages trying to think of something arty to do for it, (in desperation I even had the idea of brayering a picture on Clarity card and saying my texture was "Smooth").............

.......... when I realised that the little dots on the toadstools would be perfect for beading. I've watched (and bought) shopping telly craft for many years and I used to love the Bucilla felt kits that were on QVC.

Luckily I still had lots of left over bits and very soon I'd made this cute little ATC. As I liked it so much I thought I'd make a card version as one of my Clarity samples.

It's quite simple to do. I stamped the toadstools twice on white (cream for the ATC) felt and once on red with Stazon. Like decoupage, I sewed a second layer of the largest toadstool on top of the medium one as it is in the front. The pearl seed beads were sewn onto the red before I cut it out, as I thought it would be less fiddly. Once I done that I sewed it all together.

After a long discussion on FB about the merits of various glues, I stuck the completed toadstools onto the card with UHU. It did the job brilliantly.

The dies used on the card are from Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight.

Stamps Used

Lesson 17 - Toadstool and Hares Kit

Autumn Verse from Remountable Maple Leaves Set

Grass from Remountable Garden Set

Lynne

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June's Clarity Samples

Yet another fab weekend of Claritystamp shows on Create and Craft TV. I always get so inspired when I watch Barbara and see the samples from the rest of the Design Team.

These are mine. As usual I will be blogging each one individually over the coming days.  I had such fun making them and even picked up a needle and thread for the toadstool one!

I'm not surprised that the next lesson stamps have been a big hit.  I particularly enjoyed creating with those. I've since made a birthday card with them that I will also be blogging soon.

My civil partnership card (from my previous blog post) that I made for the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog made an appearance too.

Which bit was your favourite? I really enjoyed the demos with the Gelli plate. The new stencils look fab and are on my shopping list for the Doncaster Dome show next weekend. Before then I need to get my Father's Day cards made. Busy, busy, busy!

Happy stamping,

Lynne

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Civil Partnership Card

It's the first of the month, so that means the start of a new challenge on the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog.  The theme for June is "Mr & Mrs" which can include weddings and anniversaries.

I've gone for "Mr & Mr" and made a civil partnership card.

I wanted to it to be masculine, so I've chosen a black and white colour scheme and kept the design really simple with minimal embellishments. The white card is all Centura Pearl Snow White. It has a lovely sheen to it that doesn't really show up in my photo. I think it works especially well with embossing folders. The one I've used here is a Spellbinders Grand M-Bossibilities - Garden Lattice.

Mr & Mr is cut out on my Silhouette Cameo from "Cha Cha swirl" letters by Samantha Walker. These were purchased from the Silhouette Store.

"On Your Special Day" is heat embossed in black onto card cut with a Spellbinders Floral Ovals die. A thin black mat was cut with my Cameo and it was stuck on with Pinflair glue gel to raise it from the surface.

Douglas was stamped twice to make the grooms. They are coloured in with ProMarkers and stuck on with foam pads.

I'd originally ordered some wide black ribbon for this card but when I was putting Hubby's washing away I spotted his bow ties! Unfortunately he wasn't quite as excited by my crafty idea as I was, so I had to buy one. You can get them really cheaply though, this one was £3.20 from Amazon but I also got one for £1.59 on eBay and that included P&P! When you think about how much some embellishments can be I didn't think that was too bad. The band is stuck on with Red Liner Tape and I added some Pinflair to secure the bow as it is quite weighty.

Well that's my take on the theme, I look forward to seeing what everybody else comes up with. Don't forget there's a £50 Claritystamp voucher for the winner (chosen at random).

Stamps Used

Douglas

On Your Special Day

Lynne

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