Daffodil Frame Card

As soon as I saw the Daffodils stamp I knew it would look fab in colour. However I didn't have any pens to colour it with and I didn't fancy trying to do it with an ink pad. This gave me an excuse to buy a couple of Distress Markers (I'd been wanting to try them for ages) - Mowed Lawn and Mustard Seed.

I was surprised at how long you have to work with the ink, I didn't have to rush at all. I just huffed on the stamp, after I'd coloured it, to re-moisten the ink and got a great result every time. I think they make a really pretty frame for the Small Swing stamp .

That was stamped in black Archival and finished off with some clouds and a bright yellow sun (created with Mustard Seed Distress Ink). I also went around the edge of the daffodil frame with that to add some more sunshine.

Now I just need a few more markers, or I will be doing a lot of yellow and green cards!

Stamps Used

Small Swing

Daffodils

Lynne

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Autumn Leaf Scene Card

This is the topper that I mentioned in my last post. As I said then, I didn't like it with the leaf background that I'd made for it.............

.......so I made it into a much simpler card..........

........and the focus is now on the leaf and the image inside it.

To make it I placed the outer (square) part of the Leaf 1 stencil on my card and used it as an aperture to create the scene in. Once I'd done that, I drew around it with a brown Zig Millenium pen to make it stand out a bit more. The leaves on the tree are just dots of ProMarker in different autumnal colours.

Simple but hopefully effective.

Stamps Used

Tree from Remountable Best of the Classroom Set

Verse from Remountable Maple Leaves Set

Stencil Used

Leaf 1 Double Mini Stencil

Lynne

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Shades of Autumn Card

I always think of autumn when I see leaf stamps and I wanted to capture the fabulous autumnal colours in this card.

It's certainly starting to feel like it's here now. Brrrrrr!

I actually made the background for another topper but when I'd finished it I didn't like them together. Plus there was so much work in making it that I wanted it to be the focal point.

I stamped the solid leaves all over in various autumnal colours (for this part I didn't worry if the stamps overlapped). Then I went over them all with the outline stamp. I stamped the darkest leaves first and then masked them off to stamp the ones that would appear underneath them. I used second generation ink for that.

I then brushed Old Paper Distress Ink all over to take away the whiteness.

I made a simple little scene on a Spellbinders Floral Oval to complement the background. The mat for it is cut on my Cameo.

A tag, cut in half (Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2), some bakers twine, and a verse finish it off.

Stamps Used

Repositionable Leaf Set 1

Lesson 2 Set - Split Tree

What Is This Life

Lynne

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Plant a Garden, Water Your Soul

I had a love/hate relationship with this card when I was making it. At once stage it nearly went in the bin........

...........but in the end I was really pleased with it.

I started off by making the purple Gelli print frame. The central panel was masked off when I did this to leave a nice white area to stamp on.

I stamped the floral image first and then placed the square Leaf 2 stencil over it. I drew around the leaf outline to create the edge of the flower/leaf and inked the edge in Dusty Concord Distress Ink. I used the same stencil to draw in the two leaves. I wanted the stalk to be a bit longer so I drew that by hand.

I coloured the image with ProMarkers.

I liked the floral image and the Gelli print frame but it was looking a bit plain. I decided to add some Mowed Lawn Distress Ink around the flower to add a bit more interest. It looked awful!!!!!!! I was so annoyed with myself that I'd messed it up after all that work and nearly threw it in the bin.

Instead I left it on display and tried to think of how I could rescue it. 

I noticed the circles in the Gelli frame where I'd used the Dotty Wave stencil over the Ocean Swirl one and thought I could add some more of those.  I put the stencil over the image and lightly brushed some more Mowed Lawn ink through. I also added some to the circles in the Gelli print which had white centres.

I think it totally transformed it and I went from hating it to loving it again. Phew!

Stamps Used

Repositionable Leaf Set 2

Plant a Garden from the Repositionable Garden Set

Stencils Used

Leaf 2 Stencil

Dotty Wave

Ocean Swirl

Lynne

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Beautiful Cymru

I'm so pleased that my Welsh samples got such a good reception at the weekend. Wales holds a lot of fond memories for me and I really enjoyed making them.

About 15 years ago we had a two year posting in Brecon. It was there that we got our first dog, a yellow labrador, and Hubby bought me my first pair of walking boots and dragged me out into the Beacons.

It was those memories that inspired this card.

This photo of mine is the background to the card. It's of the Upper Neuadd Reservoir looking over to Pen y Fan (the mountain on the right). It was one of our favourite places to walk from.

I started off by stamping all of the images onto the squares that I'd cut out with a Nestabilities die and giving them a thin black mat with my Perfect Layers ruler. I arranged them around the word Cymru (Wales) and this established how large I needed to print my photo. Cymru is stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with black detail powder so that it stands out well.

Finding the right photo was probably the longest part of making this. I wanted something that shows off the beauty of the area, that wasn't too busy and with most of the interest in the centre. In the end I found this one. It's not one of my better photos of it but it was perfect for this project.

Then it was just a case of assembling it. I used Pinflair glue gel to stick the squares on with as I wanted it to have a bit of dimension. It also gave them some manoeuvrability so that I could get them all nicely lined up.

Stamps Used

Cymru Framer

Remountable Welsh Set

Rugby Player from Remountable Sports Set

Rugby posts drawn by hand.

Whilst I was looking through my photos I also found these that I thought I'd share with you.

Happy Times

At the summit of Pen y Fan

This is me the first time I reached the top of Pen y Fan. I wasn't really in to walking back then and I was so chuffed with myself that I'd got there. It was a bit of a miracle really as Hubby's a foot taller than me and forgets that I'm not one of his soldiers. Breaks and walking slowly are not an option!

Lynne

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September's Clarity Samples

Two blog posts in one day! I hope you're not getting bored of me but there's a lot going on today.

It was another fab weekend of shows from Barbara. Lots of fab demos and inspiration. So many gorgeous cards from the DT too - I loved Jane Telford's homage to Hilda Ogden's flying ducks!

These are my samples (click on the photo to enlarge it).

As always, I will be blogging them all individually throughout the month but this shows you what's to come. I do love Wales and I had such a lot of fun with those stamps. The trees and leaves are fab too. I'm sure the next lesson set is going to be another big hit.

Following on from my craft room post, did you watch Through the Keyhole last night? It was so funny. I won't be letting him anywhere near my tidy craft room that's for sure!

Happy crafting,

Lynne
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Vintage Farm Scene Card

It's the first of the month and that means another challenge on the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog.  The theme this time is "Vintage".......

.....and this is my card - a vintage farm scene.

I've mentioned before that the same card done in a different colour can totally change the look of it and is great for when you're lacking ideas. This was one of those occasions.

I was looking through photos of my old card designs for inspiration, when I came across this card that I made in July last year. There's no modern machinery in it and I thought if it was done in sepia it might make a nice vintage card. So that's what I did.

I tweaked the design slightly but although they're essentially the same card, I think they look quite different. 

Today's card is stamped on kraft card. It has quite a rough surface and my ProMarkers and ink didn't blend very well on it but I think it adds to the rustic/vintage feel.

I also tried to incorporate a lot of texture. The scarecrow's coat is a printable burlap (hessian) paper (bought from the Silhouette Store) that I printed out onto textured card. I used some Distress Ink to distress it (how appropriate!). 

The edges of the card were distressed by very carefully running a pair of decoupage snips along them. I knew I would find a use for them one day!

The embellishments were a free gift with an old Mollie Blooms magazine. That's also where I got the idea for the bow from. I thought it was perfect for this card.

I hope you like my card. There's lots of fab projects from the rest of the DT and I look forward to seeing this month's entries. Don't forget that there's a £50 Claritystamp voucher for the winner.

Congratulations to this month's winner and Top 5. As always the entries were stunning. There's so much inspiration there.

Before I go, as my card features poppies I thought I'd also share this photo that I took a couple of days ago when I was out walking Maya.

It's a white poppy and I'd never seen one before. If I'd seen it before I made my card I would have left one of them white. 

Stamps Used

Tall Wild Poppies

Wild Poppies

Field Mouse 2

Large Scarecrow

Crow Perched

Crow In Flight

Old Mill

What Is This Life

Lynne

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