Adjust The Sails Card

Hi there. I thought I'd better get my last card from November's show blogged before we hit December. I hardly dare mention that word - I haven't made a single Christmas card yet! I know what I want to do and I bought some fab new stamps in the recent Claritystamp sale but I need to find the time to make them (I have samples to make at the moment so they are taking up my time).

The first part I made on this card was the Grunge Paste Rope Knot frame. I used navy card to make it stand out and sponged it with a sea sponge, to give it some texture (like rope), while it was still wet. When it was dry I added a bit of Distress Ink on the edges.

I cut around the knot so that I could stick the scene in behind it. That is mainly coloured with Spectrum Noir pencils but I did use ProMarkers on the boat to make it stand out more. The same red pen is used to colour white card for the mats.

I stamped the compass in second generation ink behind the verse to add some interest. The "rope" is piping cord. I added some Distress Ink to that and the rest of the card to tone down the white to match the Grunge Paste.

It seems appropriate to be blogging this today as Hubby's just got back from two weeks of teaching diving in Cyprus. I wonder if there is anything interesting beneath that boat? Is he sailing over sunken treasure?

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'll be back on Monday with my project for the next Claritystamp Challenge. Don't forget that you still have until 8pm tomorrow (30th November) to enter if you haven't done so yet. There's a £50 Claritystamp voucher for the winner (chosen at random) so it's well worth having a go.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Compass

Adjust The Sails set

Rope Knot

Lynne

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Joyful Butterflies

Morning all.  It's still so grey and miserable here but at least I've got a nice colourful card.........

...........to brighten up things up.

I used a selection of teardrop Memento ink pads to create it. Being small they make it easy to mix the colours on the stamp. I used two similar shades on each butterfly (one along the centre and another on the edge of the wings).........

........... and quite a few on the tree.

It was looking REALLY bright when I finished (it's actually on bright white card) so I toned it down with some brown Distress Ink - I think I'm in an autumnal mood with my colours at the moment.

Stamps Used

Remountable Butterflies Set

Joy from Word Chain 6

Lynne

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Embossed Butterfly Tree

Hi, I thought I'd write a quick post while I'm drinking my post Maya walking cup of coffee. She is so funny - where I live is surrounded by farmland and the roads we walk along are really muddy at moment.  When we get back we are both covered in it. Now if I took her upstairs and gave her a nice warm shower she would kick off big time but she is more than happy to stand in the garden and let me rinse her off with the hose. It must be freezing!

Anyway, I'm feeling a lot more positive today as yesterday's sample making went much better than the previous day's. I shall be back up there when I've finished this and I'm really looking forward to it.

This card is a really simple one but I was so pleased with how it turned out. Working out where to position everything is what took the time - I wanted the copper butterflies to be on the black tree and across the sun.

Once I had that worked out it was just a case of creating the scene. The black tree is stamped in Archival ink and the copper tree is stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with Detail Copper powder by Stampendous.

I always think that a sentiment can make a card and "Autumn, the year's last' loveliest smile" seemed perfect...................then I had a major panic! Do you get butterflies in autumn? Luckily for me a quick Google search confirmed that they are still about in the UK in October. Phew! Panic over - I hadn't just ruined all that work after all!

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Butterflies Set

Butterfly Tree Stencil

Autumn Smile stamp from the Maple Leaf Set

Lynne

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Armoire Card

Yay, it's nearly the weekend! I hope you've got something nice planned. I'll be spending mine in my craft room making next month's samples as Hubby is in Cyprus having fun working very hard.

For today's card I made an armoire with my Silhouette Cameo (it's a Lori Whitlock design bought from the Silhouette Store)...................

.............to display my Claritystamp dress.

I sized the armoire to fit the dress then added some pattern with Samantha Walker papers (also bought in the Cameo store). They were used to fill in the armoire pieces, then I used the print and cut feature. 

I also printed out a sheet of one of the papers and used it for the dress. The stamping is done with Coffee Archival and the pieces are edged with Walnut Distress Ink.

I had such fun making this one. I hope you like it. I just wish I could make myself a full-sized version!

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Clarity Style

A5 Clarity Style Stencil

Bar from Remountable Best of the Classroom Set

I must remember the "Giving up is not my style" part of the quote if tomorrow's samples go as well as today's...............

Lynne

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Grunge Paste Brollies

I thought I may as well continue with the brolly theme and blog this card.

It uses a product I bought years ago but have hardly used - Twinkling H2Os. I thought they might give a nice finish to the brollies though, so out they came.

I spread Grunge Paste through the stencil and when it was dry painted it with the H2Os.

The stamping is done with black Archival ink and three brads finish it off.

That was short and sweet - I should be able to catch up on another episode of Scandal before dinner. Love it!

See you later.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Winds of Change Set

Umbrellas

Lynne

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The Winds of Change

Morning all. I thought I'd continue with the umbrella theme and blog this card today.

It was designed in a rather different manner - I had the idea of the umbrella border and designed the rest of the card to fit that.

I worked out that 4 umbrellas gave me a nice size gap to fit a scene inside. Each umbrella is 4cm long, so I drew a 16cm square on the card in pencil and marked it every 4cm. Then I just stamped an umbrella in each section, trying to get them as close to the line as I could, until I'd completed the frame.

The clouds were created with Stormy Sky (that seemed appropriate!), Weathered Wood and Pumice Stone Distress Inks. I used Lettuce, Meadow and Pesto Adirondack inks for the grass. It's finished off by stippling with a shaving brush to give it some texture.

Once I'd got that far I couldn't decide how to finish it off. I really wanted to use the verse but I wasn't sure how or where and I didn't want to mess up a piece I was really pleased with.

To help me decide I stamped it in Stazon ink onto a piece of the cellophane packaging that the Clarity stencils come in. I could them move it around and see what I thought.

I quite liked it at the top (it's nice and balanced) but I also liked the stormy sky and didn't really want to cover the clouds up. I eventually decided that I preferred it at the bottom but I wanted it to be less obtrusive...........

.............so I stamped it in green. Much more subtle. What do you think? I hope I made the right choice.

Stamps Used

Remountable Winds of Change Set

Small umbrella from Remountable Clarity Characters Set

Lynne

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Sending You Sunshine

Hi there, I hope you're having a good weekend. I come with apologies and thanks - I've not been online much recently and after going on FB to catch up I come on here to find out that it's been 10 days since I last posted, so sorry about that.

I also spotted that my Crafty Little Blog has just passed 100,000 page views, so thank you for that. It's nice to know that I'm not talking to myself.

Thanks also for the interest on my Pinterest. After my marathon pinning sessions I now have all of the cards from my blog on there. So glad I won't have to do that again!

I've picked this card to come back with as the weather is so grey and miserable that I thought we could all do with some sunshine.

Last month when Mum and Dad were staying Mum and I watched this......

.....YouTube Tuesday video of Barbara Gray's and were inspired to have a go. I chose to use the Double Bubble stencil and we ended up with a fab print. I didn't know what to do with it though..........until the Umbrella Girls stencil arrived. I thought they would be fun together and a bit different, although I did feel bit naughty sending a sample to Barbara that used her own idea! lol

The original print was done with the 7 x 7 inch stencil but I wanted to use it for the background too, so I got out my 9 x 11 inch version and did another larger print with that.

I used the same colours as Barbara did - Mustard Seed, Broken China and Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. The stencilling of the Umbrella Girl is done with black Stazon ink on a sponge and the stamping is done with black Archival.

The small umbrellas are from the Remountable Clarity Characters set. They go so well with this month's umbrella stamps and stencils.

"Sending You Sunshine" finishes it off.

The next day - Oops, I've just noticed that the video doesn't seem to be there when I look at this post on my iPad (there's just a gap) but it is on my iMac (which I wrote it on). I must have done something wrong. Anyway if you can just see a space click on it and it should take to to the video. I hope!

Stamps and Stencils Used

Umbrella Girls

Double Bubble 7 x 7 inch

Double Bubble 9 x 11 inch

Remountable Clarity Characters

Sending You Sunshine

Lynne

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Haunted Castle Card

Hi all. Are any of you on Pinterest? I joined ages ago but haven't really done a lot with it. It was mentioned to me again recently and I thought I'd put my cards on it. I've done different boards for UK samples, Germany, the Challenge Blog etc. Yesterday I uploaded everything on my blog from 2012 and 2013, so apologies if anyone's feed has been taken over by me. I'm going to do 2014 later today (so apologies in advance) but after that I will just pin each time I blog. If anyone has any good boards for me to follow, or any tips, please let me know. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually!

I thought I'd better start with this card, before we get too far away from Halloween! I do love making Halloween cards and Create and Craft's Monster Deals weekend gave me the perfect excuse (even though the show was on the 2nd Nov!).

It was hard trying to get a decent photograph of it, that shows off the shimmer, as it is on Centura Pearl card. I love the effect the card gives though.

I stamped the castle in black Archival ink, coloured it in with Spectrum Noir pencils, then masked it and a moon off ready to create the background. I used Eggplant, Butterscotch, Mountain Rose and Black Adirondack ink on a Claritystamp stencil brush for this. I just kept going until I was happy with the colour (it does take a while on the pearl card).

When I was happy with that, the trees, owl and horse were stamped in black Archival.

The carriage was stamped in black Archival then heat embossed with clear powder.

Stamps Used

Diamond Carriage Kit

Happily Ever After Set

Trees from Remountable Winter Wonderland Set

Branch

Owl from Remountable Woodland Animals Set

Lynne

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November's Claritystamp Samples

Hi all. It was another fab show from Barbara today - I particularly loved her Diamond Carriage demo. I've always loved that set and it goes so well with the castle. The card I made with it was my favourite this month.

I have put these on FB but I thought I'd still do this post as it shows you what will be coming up on my blog this month.

As always there are some fab new stamps and stencils and I look forward to sharing my ideas for them.

Lynne

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Here Comes Santa Claus

Hi all. It's time for another challenge on the Claritystamp Challenge Blog.  You might not instantly guess it from my project but the theme is "Travel'.

I didn't have a clue what I was going to do for this challenge until I was at the MDF Man's stall at the GNPE Harrogate. I saw this tree and thought it would look fab with a Christmas scene on it. I pictured this and then thought "No one travels further than Father Christmas on Christmas Eve!"

Mum and I had a lot of fun decorating it. Thanks for your help Mum. x

I thought it would be easier to do the scene on card, rather than straight onto the tree, so I drew around it and cut a piece out.

I started off by stamping Frosty, as he is at the front, I then masked him off and stamped the Quirky Cottages at a quirky angle on a quirky hill. These were then masked off so I could stamp the trees.

A mask creates the moon and I brayered in the sky with Denim and Pitch Black Adirondack ink. Traveling Father Christmas is stamped in Jet Black Archival ink.

Unfortunately I hadn't checked out how it went together and eventually spotted that my tree came down too low for the bucket. Luckily Dad came to my rescue and sawed the top off. Thanks Dad. x

I sprinkled on some Frantage embossing powder for the snow and heated it to set it. Some Stickles was added on the snowy ground to give it some sparkle. The cottages and Frosty were coloured with Spectrum Noir pencils.

I assembled the tree and painted it with grey acrylic paint.

Some silver gilding flakes and a bit of inking around the edges adds the finishing touch. I used red liner tape on the bucket and a piece of doubled sided adhesive sheet for the star.

I hope you like it. I couldn't bear to put it away so it's currently sat in my craft room - I think it's a bit early to bring it downstairs! It is still autumn after all.

Talking of autumn, it was great to see all the beautiful seasonal cards for last month's challenge. All of the seasons were covered and there were some four seasons ones, which I always love. Congratulations to the winner and Top 5. It is always so hard to choose!

I wonder what you will all come up with this month? I look forward to seeing. The rest of the DT had some fab ideas.

Stamps Used

Small Quirky Cottage

Small Frosty

Pine Tree Silhouettes

Repositionable Trees

Happy Christmas

Santa from Remountable Christmas Set

Lynne

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