Halloween Tag Book

It's a good excuse for me to post a cute photo of Maya looking scary in her witches hat.  I am sure there are plenty of spells she would have liked to cast on me for making her wear it!

No Mayas were harmed in the taking of this photo.  She did however enjoy the vast quantity of tripe stick bribes it took to get it.  If you look really closely you can see the dribble on the hat where she'd been running around the garden with it in her mouth!!!!!!!!

I guess I'd better get back to craft.

I usually take part in a Halloween card swap, but I didn't really have the time this year, so I thought I'd share my favourite Halloween make from two years ago.

It's a folded book bound together with my Cinch.  The papers are by K & Co. This included a sheet full of words which were perfect for the bottom of the tags. The stamped images are mainly digi stamps that were a brilliant free gift from Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine. They had some similar ones this year in issue 102.  The Claritystamps' Moon Shadow also appears.  The haunted house behind the witch is by Chocolate Baroque.

I probably got a bit carried away with the photos but I had such fun making it I wanted to capture it all.

                 

It was all wrapped up in a matching box.

Happy Halloween,

Lynne & Maya
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Clarity Meadow Dance Poppy Card

This is the last of my cards from October's Claritystamp shows on Create and Craft.  It's also my favourite.

It combines two of my favourite Clarity stamps - Meadow Dance and the Poppies.

I started off by cutting an oval on my Cameo.  Then I stamped the poppies into place to create the foreground.  I masked off a couple of the poppies next to the girl with a ball, so that the Meadow Dance stamp would appear behind them.  It looked a bit odd though as the stamp ended suddenly.  I thought it would be a nightmare to mask them all off, so I finished the image off with a black pen.  I just varied the height of my colouring so that it looked like the stamp continued right across.

I really like the contrast of bright red poppies and mat with the bright yellow of the sun and the black silhouette stamp.  They're so appropriate for this time of year too.

Now I'm looking forward to November's shows that are on Create and Craft TV next weekend.  I've just about finished my cards and today's task is to photograph them all.  That's always a bit of a challenge!

I still have the cards that I made for the German shows to share too, so they will be appearing soon.

Lynne
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Gatefold Clarity Meadow Dance Card

I really liked the gatefold card I did with these stamps for the the German shows, so I thought I do a similar one for the UK.

This time I made it bigger.  

Instead of putting the sun (Spellbinders Persian Accents die) on the front, like I did last time, I put it inside and cut the card so it could still be seen when it was closed.   I cut the card on my Cameo by scanning in a cut out image of the die and creating an offset around it.  I then cut it in half and welded one to each side.

It doesn't really show on the photo but there is some green grass mixed in with the black at the front.  I did this to make it tie in with the green trees in the background but looking at it now I think it might have been better if I'd done all of the stamping in black.

What do you think?

Lynne

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Gilded Maple Leaves Card

Here's the other card I made with the beautiful Maple Leaf stamps by Clarity.

Unlike the other one, which went really smoothly, this one gave me a lot of trouble!  I had a vision of a country scene with gilded leaves falling across it, but I just couldn't get it to work.

For the first couple of attempts I tried a cottage scene with green grass and a blue sky.  It looked pretty but when I applied the gilding flaked leaves it was far too busy.

In the end I decided to go really simple with both the scene and colour.  I think this worked a lot better.

The silhouette stamps are stamped with Coffee Archival ink. The scene is done with Espresso Adirondack ink.  I just added a tiny bit of Mountain Rose to the sky.

To apply the gilding flakes I used the fabulous Flitter Glu by IndigoBlu.  You just use it like you would an ink pad and then you put the flakes on the sticky stamped image.  When you've buffed of the excess you're left with beautiful gilded leaves.

Lynne
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Clarity Maple Leaf Stamps

In case there wasn't enough glitter in the last post, I thought I'd share this card today.

This is probably one of the quickest cards I've made but I was so pleased with the finished result.  

I thought the sparkly finish looked really pretty on TV.

I started off with plain Theuva card from Clarity.  I added a light base coat of Adirondack Butterscotch with a brayer and a Splodge Away mat.  Then I randomly stamped the leaves using various autumnal shades of Adirondacks. The edge was inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Once it was dry I patted a Versamark ink pad all over it and then covered it in Stardust embossing powder by Stampendous.  I heated it carefully from underneath so I didn't blow any of the powder off.

I'm going to have a go at a Christmas version when I get the time.  I think it would look really pretty done with a snowflake in various shades of blue, maybe with some lilac and silver.  In fact if it works I think that will be one of my Christmas card designs this year.  If I ever get them started!!!!!!

Lynne
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'Twas the Night Before Christmas Clarity Stamps - Rooftop

Here it is, the last one of my 'Twas the Night Before Christmas cards, Rooftop.  I decided to extend the stamp so that it looked like the roof continued off the Nestabilities.

A simple stepper card was perfect for this idea.  These are easily made on a Hougie board.  

I created a snowy woodland scene for the background.  I stamped the trees, then brayered the sky in Denim Adirondack.  The sky was spritzed with water to give a snowy effect, before I added the snowflakes.  They are also by Clarity. The snowflakes and the snowy parts are stamped in Versmark, then heat embossed with White Twinkle Wow! powder.  The moon is coloured in with a Versamark pen, then heat embossed with Stardust powder by Stampendous.  They look quite similar in the photo but in real life you can see the difference.

Both me and my craft room were a right glittery mess by the time I'd finished!

Lynne
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'Twas the Night Before Christmas Clarity Stamps - Rooftop

Well we're getting near to the end of my 'Twas the Night cards. This one is the ninth in a series of ten stamps by Barbara Gray. Hopefully Barbara will get drawing and we'll get some more next year.

As Santa is coming down the chimney I thought it might be fun to be peeping in the window at him.  It also gave me an excuse to buy the new Spellbinders Bricks and Bark M-Bossibilities folder that I'd been lusting after!  

I stamped the mice before I embossed the card, so that I got a nice, crisp image. Then I inked it with some Walnut Distress Ink to enhance the brick effect.

The window was cut on my Cameo.  As it's a simple shape I was able to draw it myself.  A scalloped strip made the pelmet and I cut the curtains freehand. There is a sheet of acetate in the window so that it looks like it's glazed.

The fluff on Santa's boots is Flowersoft. 

It's a good job the cat is better behaved than Maya. She would be jumping all over him if he came down our chimney!

Lynne

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'Twas the Night Before Christmas Clarity Stamps - Santa's Sleigh

This card may look very simple but it gave me a lot of trouble!  It's very rare that I will complete a card in one go.  I tend to do a bit, then leave it overnight until I've made up my mind that it's how I want it. This one evolved over about a week!  I knew what I wanted to do but I just couldn't get it to look right.

The original version was red and green as I thought they're nice Christmassy colours.  That was far too busy though so I got out all my blue Distress Ink pads.  I used a sheet of A4 Clarity paper and brushed the various blues on with an ink duster.  I then sprayed some cling film with water and scrunched it on to the paper leaving it there to dry.  This blends the ink together and leaves a lovely effect.  I finished it off by stamping some Clarity snowflakes in Weathered Wood.

To get all of the 'Twas the Night stamps on I had to go large!  The card is 9"x 9".

The panel with the sleigh on is on foam pads to make it stand out and the sleigh itself is decoupaged.

It took a while but I got there in the end.

Lynne
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Clarity Calendar

After watching Barbara's shows today I'm feeling all inspired. I've already had my stamps out and started a card using the Number kit from next month. I can picture what I want to do but I'm not yet sure how to make it into a card, so I thought it would be a good time for a break and a spot of blogging.

This calendar was another of my ideas for the letter stamps.

I used the coated Clarity card as I thought it would make it look like a glossy printed calendar. The grid was made on the computer and printed it out.  I finished it off with the stamped letters. Then came the fun bit, the brayering! Thanks to the Splodge Away mat I am getting more confident at this. It really does make it easier.

The split tree is from the Lesson 3 kit and the horse is from the Remountable Farm set.

Lynne
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In the Classroom with Barbara Gray - Lesson 12

What a fab lesson today on Create and Craft.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and crafted along with Barbara.  The letter kit is so useful.  I'm not surprised that Barbara said it was the best selling lesson kit so far.  I've already shared the first card I made with it, my PanPastel anniversary card, but I also made 3 more things.  I guess that shows how much I like them!

My first idea was a postcard of Eilean Donan castle.  I stamped the castle and bridge reflection onto Clarity double sided adhesive sheets, then turned it over to do the main image.  This is an easy way of getting a reflection!  The colour was then added with Perfect Pearls powder.  I think it looks really misty.

I was quite happy with it but I thought it might look better in colour.  So I tried again.

This one gave me a lot of grief!  I just couldn't get the reflection right.  In the end I tried using the Splodge Mat to stamp onto and then placing the card onto the ink. This was much easier and I finally ended up with some stamping I was happy with.  Unfortunately there was a blob above the H of HERE.  I couldn't face doing it again so I tried to think how I could cover it up......

Nessie!  Perfect...........well almost!

I know that Nessie doesn't really live there, so I added a P.S. to the back of the card that I had already decorated using the Clarity postcard stamps.  It made me laugh anyway!  :-)

Lynne

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Stitch-A-Photo

Sorry that I haven't posted for a while but I've had a poorly iMac.  Thankfully it's home now and hubby has put my photos back on so I have something to post.

I have been very busy making samples for the next Clarity shows that are on Create and Craft this weekend and will be posting them from tomorrow.  I just hope that the photos I took of them are OK as I was only able to view them on my camera before I handed them over to Barbara.

For now I thought I'd share something different.  I do love all sorts of crafts and cross stitch is one of them.

This is a Stitch-A-Photo by DMC of my first Labrador, B'Elanna when she was a puppy.  It really was a labour of love and took many years to complete.  Quite a few of them were spent at the back of a cupboard as the background was a nightmare to do.  Even though she was sat on a plain carpet there were so many different shades in the pattern.  I'm glad I persevered though as the end result was well worth it.  It's even more precious now that she is no longer with us.

This photo was taken over 7 years ago.   It shows the finished result with the original photo, along with the subject herself.

I hope you all enjoy the Clarity shows this weekend.  I'm looking forward to seeing what Barbara has in store for us.  I hope you'll come back to see what I've made.

Lynne

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