Spring Birds Card

Hi everyone. Today's card is my last sample from this month's Claritystamp show on Create and Craft TV.

It's nice and bright and cheerful, just like a Spring day.

I began by stamping the birds and sentiment in place. I then covered them up with a thick piece of plastic and sponged Grunge Past through the stencil to create the brick wall below. The plastic keeps the work above clean and gives me something to spread the paste from.

When the wall was dry I cut a circular moon mask with one of my Spellbinders dies and placed it inside the text.

I then put the outside part of the Post-it back around it and removed the middle..............

...........so that I could work on the sun, knowing that the mask was central to the text.

I then swapped the masks back over and added one to the birds so that I could work on the sky.

Once that was done I masked off the top section and brushed several shades of Distress Ink onto the Grunge Paste wall and sanded it a bit.

To finish it off I cut out some flowers, coloured them in with Spectrum Noir pencils and stuck them on with Pinflair glue gel. The birds are coloured in the same way.

Stamps and Stencil Used

Stencil used for the brick wall

Remountable Bird Row

I'll be back on Sunday with one of my Mother's Day cards. It's the first of a few personal cards that I have to share with you.

I'm off to choose what to cook for dinner now - I went to the GNPE in Harrogate earlier. I bought a few crafty goodies but I got rather carried away at the big Sainsbury's afterwards. It's not normally a shop I use so there were lots of new yummy looking things to try and quite a few of them went in my trolley! I think there must be something wrong with me, enjoying a trip to a supermarket more than a trip to a craft show. lol  I do like my food though!

Lynne

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Frohe Ostern/Happy Easter Card

Hi everyone. Today's card is a bit of a globetrotter. It started off as a sample for German TV, hence "Frohe Ostern", but then it gained an English sentiment (Happy Easter) and appeared on Create and Craft.

I do love these bunnies. They always make such cute cards.

I began with a piece of 7" x 7" card, as that's the size of the stencil, but I knew I was going to cut it down to 6" x 6" when I finished so I marked a line in pencil ½" in so I knew where to stamp the bunny. After I'd stamped her I masked her off and stamped the grass.

I then popped the stencil in place and stamped the other two bunnies.

The end of the A4 Clarity Blending Mat comes in handy for tearing the hills..................

...................that I brushed and sponged in for the bunnies to sit on.

I kept the masks in place and added the sky and some more grass.

The bunnies are coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils.

Some mats and the sentiment (in German or English) finish it off.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Bunnies Set

Small Birds In Flight

Lynne

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Fairies and Elves Card

Morning everyone. Did you have a good weekend?  My weekend's crafting went well, if a little slowly. I got my mum's Mother's Day card done on Saturday (I can't wait to share it!) and my friend Connie's leaving card made yesterday. Today I'm going to make my mother-in-law's.

This card is the second one I made with the Fairies and Elves Wee Folk stamps. This time I used it with the Japanese Reeds stencil.

The background was created using the shaving foam technique. I filled a tray up with shaving foam then spritzed on Tattered Angels' Glimmer Mists (Lavender Fields and Sapphire) and swirled it around before taking the print. The Glimmer Mists have mica in them so they give a slight shimmer to the background - I wanted the sky to look magical.

I wanted to keep the moon white so I cut a mask the same size as the stencil's moon and used that instead. I put that in place before I took the print.

I then used the Reeds stencil and inked through Black Soot Distress Ink..............

..................before going over it with Diamond Sparkle Medium. This is a clear sparkly gel so it gives the black underneath a lovely sparkly finish.

The Fairies and Elves are stamped in Jet Black Archival and it's finished off with some holographic glitter on the stars and some clear Sakura Stardust pen on their wings (just in case it wasn't sparkly enough!).

I do like the background but I can't help thinking that my magical sky looks more like a magical sea. I do hope my fairies can swim!

Stamps and Stencil Used

Japanese Reeds

Wee Folk 3 Fairies

Wee Folk 4 Elves

Remountable Line Sentiments 1

Lynne

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Magical Fairies Card

Hi there. Have you got anything nice planned for this weekend? I'm spending mine in my craft room. I've been having a bit of a change around in there so I'm going to finish that, then I have my Mother's Day cards and a leaving card to make. Once I have those done I will start on my German Clarity samples.

The new Fairies and Elves stamps are a great addition to the Wee Folk collection.

You can create such magical scenes with them.

I thought that the Winter Tree stencil would make a lovely background for them.

I positioned it on the card, then added a base layer of Citrus Adirondack ink with a Clarity stencil brush. I then added a moon mask and used Denim, Eggplant, Slate and Wild Plum to complete it.

The flowers are stamped in first and second generation Eggplant ink and the black is Archival ink. The wings and dots on the toadstool have been coloured in with a clear Sakura Stardust pen to give a bit of shimmer. The outside is done with a brush and the Dotty Wave stencil.

To finish it off I added lots of silver holographic glitter. I don't think you can have a fairy card without it!

Stamps and Stencils Used

Winter Tree

Dotty Wave
Wee Folk 3 Fairies
Wee Folk 4 Elves
Word Chain 7

I'd better crack on, lots to do! I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Lynne
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Floral Mother's Day Card

Hi everyone. I hope you've had a good day. I've been in my craft room, listening to my new radio and making a 21st birthday card for my niece.

Thankfully it went more smoothly than this card did - it nearly caused me to quit crafting! I thought that the two new floral stamps would make a lovely trifold Mother's Day card but I just couldn't get it to look right. I wasted so much card, trying green mats, blue mats, embossed card, plain card etc. before I finally settled on this design.

The base card is Snow White Gold Centura Pearl. The stamping is done with Versamark and heat embossed with gold detail powder. The flowers are coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils.

The plastic mesh is one of those things that's been lurking in the bottom of my embellishment box for years but it was the perfect colour for this project - I knew it would come in useful one day!

The card was embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.

I added some Card Candi to the floral panels and a decorative strip cut with a Spellbinders Persian Accents die to the end panel.

When folded up it looks like this. Quite a simple card yet I dread to think how long I spent on it!!!!!!

I'm going to make my own Mother's Day cards at the weekend - let's hope they don't give me as much trouble!

Stamps Used

Gentian and Columbine 

Mother Verse

Berry Trailer

Lynne

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Spring Tulips Card and Some Ikea Storage Ideas

Hi everyone. Thank you for all the birthday wishes on FB yesterday. Hubby took the day off work and I had a great day. One of the things we did was go to Ikea, hence the storage ideas. More about that later though.

I'll start with one of my cards from Sunday's Claritystamp show.

I planned my design around the largest of the Grand Big Scalloped Circles dies by Spellbinders, as the single tulip fitted nicely in each scallop. I stamped it all out in Jet Black Archival then coloured it in with my Spectrum Noir pencils.

They are great stamps for colouring in, something I'm starting to enjoy a bit more since I got my Spectrum Noir pencils.

To finish it off I added some faux stitching around the edge with a black pen.

Stamps Used

Remountable Spring Day Set

My Mum also loves card making..............

................. and this is the beautiful birthday card that she made me. Thanks Mum. x

I was also spoiled with pressies. One I wanted to show you is this gorgeous Rob Ryan radio.

I love his papercuts and it's perfect for a crafter's desk. Thanks Hubby. x

I also love my Expedit units from Ikea and I'm always looking for great storage products that work well with them.

This time I got these Pluggis magazine files. They are £7 for two and two sets fit in each Expedit (or the new Kallax) cube.

When you buy them one is packed inside the other so they are slightly different sizes - one is 7.5cm wide and the other is 8.5cm. The smaller one will fit alongside the A4 RUBs (Really Useful Boxes) and the larger one will fit next to regular A4 storage boxes.

I have paper and card in these ones so I have turned them the other way around to protect it from the sun.

The other thing I bought was due to an idea I found on Pinterest.

It's the Variera plastic bag holder. It's £1.50 and is perfect for storing wrapping paper in.

That turned into quite a long post. It's a good job I started with a simple card!!!! See you again soon for the next one.

Lynne
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March's Claritystamp Samples

Hi everyone. Did you see you Barbara on telly earlier? It's a great way to spend a Sunday morning and I always come away with lots of ideas.

These are the ideas I had for today's show. There's a definite feel of spring about them. Hopefully it will be here soon.

The new fairies and bird stamps are such fun to use and it's always great to see the bunnies again (they are one of my favourite sets). I also enjoyed using the floral stamps and one of Barbara's demos has given me an idea for one of my Mother's Day cards. I might even make it later.

As always I will be blogging them all individually throughout the month.

I'm off to give Maya a cuddle now. She's got a bit of a poorly tummy and is feeling rather sorry for herself.

Happy crafting,

Lynne
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