Little Pieces of French Art

Morning everyone. Have you got anything nice planned for this weekend? I'm spending it in my craft room, so hopefully my Claritystamp samples will be ready to post on Monday. I'm having such fun making them. Create and Craft's Christmas shows have really helped me get in the mood.

As I've shared all of this month's cards, I thought I'd blog the little pieces of art that we all made in France for those who couldn't be there.

They're done on the small pieces of card from the Claritystamp card pack for the 6x6 Gelli Plate, so they're 3½" x 4½".

I've already blogged one (the Jazz Man) and that can be found here. That post also mentions that technique that I used on the second piece I'm blogging today.

This first one was a great excuse to try out Barbara's Spectrum Noir colouring pencils. Colouring isn't one of my strong points, so I'm always keen to try things that might help me get a better result. I have to say I was impressed with them, they're so much easier to blend than the pencils I have at the moment. I just need to practise now.

As I mentioned above, this second one uses the same technique with the Gelli plate and water as the Jazz Man. I really enjoyed Jo's Gelli lesson and this gave me another chance to use the technique.

This is where it all happened - Mandy took this photo of us all hard at work around the huge dining table. I think I was actually making the Lovebird piece as I have pencils in my hands (I'm on the right at the top, next to Jo and Janet). Such fun times and the little pieces of art bring back happy memories. I hope the recipients enjoyed them too.

I'll blog the other two pieces next week. I'll also be back on Tuesday with a new project for the Claritystamp Challenge Blog. If you've not yet entered, you have until 8pm on the 30th June to do so. There's a £50 Claritystamp voucher for the winner (it's chosen at random), so it's well worth having a go.

Lynne
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Wooden Horse

This is the last of my samples from this month's Claritystamp show. It's also my favourite.

It's one of those that I call a labour of love as there was quite a bit of masking.

I taped the stencil in place and then masked off each square with Post-its so that I didn't contaminate the adjoining ones. I then used make-up sponges and Distress Inks to colour in the squares.

When all of the squares were coloured I removed the stencil and again masked off each individual square.............

 ...............so that I could stamp the wooden Horse through to create the pattern. I prefer to do it this way, rather than through the stencils (which are thicker), as it's easier to get the pattern right up to the edge.

This was taking forever but luckily I soon came up with a quicker way. 

I made apertures for each colour on a sheet of copy paper (I drew around the shapes with a pencil and cut them out with a craft knife). It made the job a lot easier. 

Eventually I ended up with this. As I don't have a very steady hand I put the stencil back in place to draw in the black outlines.

I did quite like it as it was but I thought it was better with the horse as it shows where the pattern comes from.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Wooden Horse

Abstract Squares

Remountable Line Sentiments Set 2

Back to making next month's cards. 

Lynne

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Happy Christmas

What an odd title to be writing in June but somehow it seems appropriate this weekend. Have you been watching the Christmas shows on Create & Craft? I have. Father Christmas has definitely been the highlight for me, he's so funny. I hope I'm on his "Nice List".

Yesterday I took Maya out for her morning walk wearing shorts (the sun is actually shining), then I came back in, put the Christmas shows on in my craft room and made a Christmas card for next month's Claritystamp show. Today will be spent in the same way - my shorts are already on. Actually, I think I'll take Maya out now and finish writing this when I get back........

What a lovely walk. The sun is shining but there's a lovely cool breeze which was very welcome as the last quarter is all uphill. It couldn't be more different to the wintry scene on this card.

It uses just two inks - Cobalt Archival and Broken China Distress.

I used the Abstract Squares and Snowflakes with a Clarity stencil brush and Broken China ink to create the background, then just filled in the empty squares with Christmas stamps. The only other thing I did to those was remove some of the ink on the snowman's body with a wet paintbrush and kitchen roll.

Then I just stamped the snowflake border with first and second generation ink (blotting it on copy paper before stamping) of the same two colours.

A thin navy mat finishes it off.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Abstract Squares 2

Christmas Stencil Set

Happy Christmas from Remountable Line Sentiments Set 2

The Christmas miniatures are from the following sets

Remountable Christmas Decorations

Remountable Christmas

Remountable Winter Wonderland

Ho, ho, ho, up to my craft room I go!

Lynne

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Filigraphy Flower

It's a lovely day here today. I've just been out in my garden admiring it. Mum and Dad have been up to stay for a week and helped me tidy up my garden. It's never looked so good! Now I just have to keep it that way. Unfortunately the only sort of green fingers I have is when I've been messing about with ink! I will do my best though.

This card is one that sort of evolved along the way.

I started off by inking through the Filigraphy Flower stencil with a Clarity stencil brush and a make-up sponge. The colours I used are Dusty Concord, Picked Raspberry and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks.

I then stamped the Filigraphy Foliage stamps on top with the appropriate colour. As there isn't one for the stem I went around the edge with the thin end of my Mowed Lawn Distress Marker.

My original idea was to leave the background white but I thought it needed something else......  

......So I masked off the flower with Post-its to work on the background.

I used the A5 Stripes and the large Dotty Wave stencils with Dusty Concord ink for this.

I forgot to take a photo when I was doing it but I found that if you put a heavy book on the Stripes stencil when you're using it it stops the stripes moving.

A couple of the Remountable Line Sentiments and some green........

......and mauve gems finish it off.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Filigraphy Foliage Stamp Set

Filigraphy Flower Stencil

Remountable Line Sentiments Set 2

A5 Stripes Stencil

Dotty Wave Stencil

Lynne

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Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Dad.

His card is environmentally friendly as it's been recycled.

Do you remember this sneak peek I did on Facebook for May's Claritystamp show?

Well, this was the card that it was from.

I'm never that happy with the photos I take of my cards, so that month I thought I'd try scanning them as well. The results weren't good so I decided to stick to photographing them and thought nothing more of it............................until I went to use my scanner again and found this card had been left inside. Oops!!!!!!!

The Clarity show it was meant for had been and gone by then so I had two choices - keep it for a couple of years until my Dad is 70 or adapt it. I chose the latter. My Dad loves birdwatching so it's the perfect card for him.

I stamped the Moorhen into place, missing out the bottom of the stamp so that it looks like it's in the water, and masked it off.

I added another mask to give me the curve of the lake and brushed and sponged in the water.

I did the same for the rest of the scene.

Then swapped to the centre part of the stencil to work on the bullrushes. My 2lb weight from my kitchen scales doesn't get used a lot in the kitchen but in comes in handy for all sorts of things in my craft room!

I used pencils to colour in the birds and add the blades of grass. After a few finishing touches I was left with a card that I was really pleased with. I was so annoyed that it got left behind but I think it was meant to be.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Moorhens and Nuthatches Set

Set of 3 Repositionable Tree Stamps

Remountable Line Sentiments Set 1

Wheelie International Numbers Stencil

Today from Small Yesterday Stamp

Dad written with International Wheelie Alphabet Stencil

Lynne

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Wooden Horse

Well I didn't win the Euromillions jackpot but I did have another small win - £6.20 this time. I won't be able to buy my country cottage but I did buy some more tickets for tonight's draw. It's up to £109 million now!

For this card I started off with the background. I wanted a wooden theme to go with the Wooden Horse stamp. I chose 4 co-ordinating shades of brown card, stuck them together and embossed them with my Spellbinders Bricks and Bark embossing folder. I then chose three ProMarkers to match and coloured the horse in ( I didn't have one to match the darkest card).

I joined two of the line sentiments together to create the greeting.

A button brad and some baker's twine finish it off.

Stamps Used

Wooden Horse Head

Remountable Line Sentiments Set 2

Lynne

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Seasonal Cottages

I do love this new cottage stamp from Clarity. It's the sort of house I'd like to own. The only way that's likely to happen though is if I win the £95 million on the Euromillions tonight and I think we all know how likely that is! Still, I did win £8.80 on the last draw - I could buy the Small Cottage & Hedge stamps with that and still have some left over.

For these cards I used the Large Cottage and Hedge stamps. 

I thought it would be fun to do the same scene in two different seasons. A beautiful wintery scene for a Christmas card and a bright summer scene for a congratulations card (I was thinking it could be for a new house but it would be equally suitable for a lottery win!).

I chose the Remountable Winter Trees stamps for this project as you can use them with or without their mantles. Perfect for creating different seasons.

For the winter/Christmas version I kept the trees bare and created a snowy look with lots of glitter. For once I managed to resist the temptation to add snowmen and Father Christmas in his sleigh - I wanted to keep it quite simple and pretty much the same as the summer one.

For the summer one I added a bright yellow sun and vibrant green grass. I added the mantles to the trees in the same vibrant green. It's actually looking quite like that here in North Yorkshire today.  Beautiful!

Stamps Used

Large Cottage and Hedge

Remountable Winter Trees

Small Birds In Flight

Lynne

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Ploughing The Fields

It's another wet day here. I totally confused Maya this morning by taking her out really early. It was lovely then but the forecast was right and it's been raining pretty much since we got back. I've had a totally lazy day watching the rest of Season 2 of OITNB on Netflix (I may have had a pretty lazy day yesterday too. Oops!). Netflix is a bit like a box of chocolates - I'l just watch one more.................... before you know it the whole series has gone. I won't spoil it, in case you haven't watched it, but the ending was fab!!!!!

In my previous post I shared a card I'd made using the Ploughed Field stencil as grass.

Today I thought I'd share the card I made where I used it as it was intended - as ploughed fields for the Remountable Plough Set. Together they create a beautiful bygone scene.

I stamped the horses first then masked them off so that I could create the scene around them.

I attached the stencil with a hinge made of masking tape.

The fields were created with three shades of brown Distress Ink, a Clarity stencil brush and a sponge. I masked off each section of the fields so that I could work on them separately.

The sponge helped me get some texture to the soil.

On the previous card I stamped the verse on the base card and then cut it out after. With this card, I cut a separate piece of card, stamped the verse on it and stuck it in position with Removable Herma tape.  I then created the clouds, removed it, added a brown mat and stuck it back on again.

When I'd finished the scene I coloured the horses and farmer in with watercolour pencils.

That's it, I guess I'd better go and do some of the things I should have been doing the last couple of days. Bad Netflix!

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Plough Set

Ploughed Field

Small Birds In Flight

Lynne

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Morning Has Broken

Morning, this is the first of my samples from this month's Claritystamp show on Create and Craft. I thought this one might cheer me up as the sky couldn't look more different here today. Maya and I got soaked on our walk this morning. It was drizzling when we set off but we hadn't got far before it was chucking it down. Still it's nice to come back to a warm house, dry clothes and a cup of coffee and Maya really enjoys being towelled dry.

The song is the main part of the card so I wanted to keep the background quite simple. I thought that the new Ploughed Field stencil would be perfect for this. I just coloured the fields to look like grass rather than soil. 

The picture was done on one piece of Theuva card. When it was complete I cut the verse out, mounted it onto some black card, then stuck it back into place with Pinflair glue gel to give it some height.

Mats to match the sun and sky finish it off.

Stamps and Stencils Used

A5 Ploughed Field

Remountable Morning Has Broken Set

Branch

Small Birds In Flight

Lynne

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Masculine

It's time for a new challenge on the Claritystamp Challenge Blog. Congratulations to the winner and Top 5 of last month"s "It's All In The Words" challenge. I do love the beautiful verse stamps that Clarity do and that challenge was the perfect way to use them. It was also lovely to see the new Word Chain words used and people creating their own with the Letterbox set and the new Wheelie stencils.

This is my card for this month's "Masculine " challenge. Appropriately for this month, it's a Father's Day card. It was conceived on our DT trip to France. Jo Rice very kindly gave me, Janet, Linda and Sylvia a lesson with inks on the Gelli plate. It was such a fun evening and we all bounced ideas off each other. Special thanks to them all.

The background was the fun part. We brayered Adirondack ink (in this case Denim) onto the Gelli plate and then messed about with water. 

This was the first one that we tried in France. I used a spray for it and applied way too much water. We could see that the idea had potential though and played some more. 

These two were my favourites. They were created by dipping my fingers into water and flicking them at the inked-up Gelli Plate. The one on the left is the first print, which I think looks like rain, and the one on the right is the second print, which I think looks like snow. Two for the price of one!

You may have seen on Barbara's blog that we all made little pieces of art for the DT members who couldn't go (and another for a giveaway)........

....well this is one of the ones that I made and what inspired today's card. I don't know who received it but I hope they like it. 

To make it I stamped the Jazz Man onto the card first and then masked him off before I took the Gelli print so that his white bits would remain white.

The Jazz Man actually has a cane in in his hand but I realised that the brolly from the Clarity Characters set fits him pretty well.

I just masked off the bits that I didn't want before I inked up the stamp. Volia! Jazz Man with Brolly.

I thought a larger version would make a lovely Father's Day card for my father-in-law so I made today's card when I got back to the UK. I wrote "Happy Father's Day" and "Singing in the rain" around the frame and there's Glossy Accents on the glass part of the lamps. 

I hope my FIL will like it. I certainly had fun making it. 

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to seeing you all get "Masculine".

Stamps Used

Jazz Man

Umbrella from the Remountable Clarity Characters Set

Large Lamp Post

Splash from Remountable Dolphin Set

Magical from Word Chain 7

Lynne

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