Spellbinders Bauble Card

Now I could say that I'm sharing this card to encourage you all to start early for Christmas 2013, but I'd be lying! It was one I made for the German shows and didn't get it blogged before Christmas.

I hope you all had a good Christmas. It was a strange one here, hubby and I are still suffering with our colds but somehow Mum and Dad, who were here for a week, managed to avoid catching it. We probably weren't the best company but it was nice to be together. Mum and I spent Boxing Day and the 27th working on the samples for January's shows and I've been finishing them off today. They are a bit of a family affair as I even had hubby doing some drawing on one card for me today. Apparently that's the best bit! :-)

This is an 8x8 card made with a Spellbinders Grand M-Bossibilities folder and Heirloom Ornament (2011) die. The stamps are by Clarity

I stamped the star in purple first, then went over it with Versamark and Stardust embossing powder to make it sparkle.

I had originally intended for the bauble to hang loose in the frame I cut on my Cameo, but as it was for a sample I was worried about it falling off. In the photo it looks like the bauble has a purple mat around it but it is in fact acetate. It's like the filling in a sandwich, holding it all together.

I put a sheet of purple card on the back so that it shows through the acetate from the front. 

Lynne

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Spellbinders Winter Wonders M-Bossibilities Cards

Well it's getting near to the big day and I think everyone will soon have had enough of Christmas cards, but there are a few I'd like to share. I thought I'd group these cards together as they all use the same Spellbinders M-Bossibilities folder - Winter Wonders. 

This was the first card I made with it.  It was for one of the German shows.  I inked the raised parts then covered them in Versamark and Stampendous Stardust embossing powder.  The star is heat embossed in gold.

This was one using the Clarity Winter Wonderland stamps from Lesson 14.  This time I used Kaleidoscope embossing powder. It's not photographed very well, but in the flesh it looks sparkly, although very different to the Stardust.

This one uses a couple of really cute penguin stamps by Hobby Art. I love penguins and just couldn't resist them.

I had lots of Christmas card ideas when I was making my samples these past few months. Unfortunately I ran out of time so I ended I making a batch of these and some quicker cards from a kit (bad Lynne!). I will try and be more organised next year, although I suspect I probably won't.

Christmas is not off to a great start in my house, both Hubby and I have stinking colds.  I'd much rather be curled up in bed with a mug of mulled wine (for medicinal purposes of course) than Christmas shopping.  I am sure it will all get done though - if not I hear chocolate makes a great Christmas dinner!

Lynne
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La Dame & Paris Skyline Cards

Things are so hectic at the moment that I don't seem to have time to do anything, so I thought I'd blog these last two cards together. It may be a few days before I can blog again and I still have some Christmas cards that I want to share before the big day.

This first one was done on coated Clarity card with Wild Plum and Eggplant Adirondack ink pads.  I started off by stamping the flower and a crackle stamp in Versamark around the edges before I added the colour with my brayer. I spritzed it with water and scrunched on some cling film for the base layer. Then it was just a case of masking areas off and stamping and brayering away. The new Skyline masks are great to use and a lot easier than cutting them yourself.

I tried to do something different with my second card. It's stamped on Theuva card and coloured in with ProMarkers. I cut the aperture on my Cameo and the La Dame stamp is matted behind on 3D foam pads to give it some dimension, almost like you're looking through an archway.

I stamped the roses around the arch in green, so that the leaves would be that colour. Although the flowers are both coloured in the same pink they look very different to the one in the main image that was stamped in black.  Very strange.

It's funny, when I saw them in the flesh I preferred the purple one, but looking at the photos I think the white one looks nicer. Which is your favourite?

Hopefully I'll be back in a few days to share the last of my Christmas cards from this year. I hope your preparations are all going well

Lynne
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Musical Note Card

I'm having one of those mornings where nothing is going right, so I thought I'd take a break and do a spot of blogging.  Hopefully that will be more successful.

I'm working on the Clarity samples for January and I've just tried to stamp a scene out four times. Each time something has gone wrong and it's ended up in the bin. I think sometimes you just need to put everything away and start again tomorrow.

This is another of my cards from this month's show. I chose the colour scheme very carefully - I went into my ProMarker box and found my brightest, most shocking, pink - Magenta.  It's quite a dramatic colour!

The stamping is all done with Black Archival ink which I left to dry overnight before colouring in with my Magenta pen. I also used this to colour some white card for the matting and some seam binding to give me a lovely matching ribbon. I already had some pink gems that were a similar colour, otherwise they would have had the ProMarker touch too.

Lynne
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Wallflower Bookmark Card

This card was a combination of two ideas; the three flower heads suggested a bookmark and the floral corner a pocket.  Join them together and you have a card with a pocket for a bookmark!  I was so pleased with the finished result.

I started off on copy paper to work out the size and positions but the finished card was stamped on some beautiful double sided K & Co paper.

I think you can probably see how I did it but just in case you can't here's my prototype. This is the pink side of the paper...........

and this is the cream side. I adjusted the size of the bottom section to fit once I'd chosen my ribbon and the Dream stamp. 

Once I'd done all of the stamping and colouring I stuck it together to make the pocket. I was then able to add the ribbon before I stuck it to the base card. This also hid the ends of the ribbon.

The bookmark was cut on my Cameo but you could easily do one by hand.  I went through a tassel phase a few years ago so I dug one of them out to finish it off.

Lynne

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Wallflower Tiles Card

For this card I used the new Clarity Wallflower stamps and Barbara's tile technique from Lesson 7.

I stamped the images with black Adirondack ink and coloured them in with ProMarkers. Then I covered the square with Versamark ink and heat embossed them with Ranger UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel). I did this three times in order to give it a smooth, glossy tile-like finish.

When I did it the first time I used dark colours like Barbara. However for this card I decided to go pale. This was looking good until I embossed them and strange marks appeared on the front. When I finished I realised what the problem was - I'd got embossing powder on the back which had also melted and gone through to the front. It was most noticeable on the single flower head images as they're a lot plainer than the others, so I had to do all of these again. I was careful to wipe off the powder from the back this time. If I was to do it again though I would use dark colours or thicker card.

My Perfect Layers ruler made doing the black mat around the tiles easy; I do love the 1/16th" one.

Lynne
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Balloons Thank You Card

It made me laugh when I saw this one on TV. Two other Design Team members, Emma and Kelly, had done pretty much the same card!

I stamped my balloons in Memento ink then coloured them in with a matching ProMarker. I repeated this for each ballon and stamped the letters of "Thank You" on them. I then cut them out so I could decoupage them. Before I stuck them on I used a large ball tool, like I did on my Hot Air Balloon card, to give them some shape. A large blob of Pinflair glue gel was then used to attach them. This will also help them keep their shape.

It was looking a bit boring at this point so I decided to add some clouds and treetops. 

Thank you for reading.

Lynne

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Oriental Scene Card

I haven't made an oriental card for ages, so I was quite excited when this lovely new Oriental set arrived from Clarity. Dad used to keep koi carp so they were great to make for him, but since he stopped I've done different things for his cards.

I had a quick Google to get an idea of what the scene should look like. Mum and Dad had the water idea and the scene slowly evolved.

The temple seems to be pretty symmetrical so it makes the refection really simple. I started off by stamping the water lily in the bottom corner and masking it off. Then I stamped the refection of the temple in second generation black Adirondack. I stamped the main image above using black Archival as this gives a much blacker image. 

I don't know if you recognise it but the tree is actually from the Daydreamer stamp. I thought it was the most oriental looking of my Clarity trees. Once I had worked out where they needed to go I stamped them onto my Splodgemat and then pressed the card down onto the image to transfer the ink. This gave me the reflection, which I matched with the trees above.

I did the water with my Ink Dusters, trying to get a few lines to give the effect of ripples on the water. I sponged the tops of the mountains and brayered the bottom. I also brayered the sky.

I know you're not supposed to be able to use ProMarkers with Archival ink but I did and it seemed to work fine. I did leave the image to dry overnight before I coloured it though. I wanted the reflection to have a bit of colour too so I got out my coloured pencils for that. 

I finished it off with a nice oriental looking frame bought from the Silhouette Store and cut on my Cameo. I did try a few embellishments on the frame but decided I liked it how it was. Since then Mum has sent me a little box of oriental coin embellishments so I'm sure they'll appear on future cards.

Lynne
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December's Stamping with Clarity Shows

It seemed to work well last month so I thought I'd do the group shot again. Then I can blog the individual cards throughout the month.

There were some fantastic cards from the rest of the Design Team and as always I've got lots of new ideas.

Here are mine. I hope you like them. Luckily the Oriental scene is first in the photo so that will be the first one to be blogged. It was one of my favourites (the other being my bookmark card) but it wasn't shown on TV. I could see it sat there waiting to be picked up but it never happened. Poor card! :-)

Sorry that the photo isn't great but it was a really dark day when I took it. My lesson samples aren't on there as they'd already been sent to Clarity. The snow globe was blogged yesterday.

Now the shows have finished I'd better get back to my Christmas cards. Lots of penguins to colour and cut out!

Lynne
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It's December!

It's the first of December today.  Barbara Gray has been on TV with a fab Classroom show and I've started to put up my Christmas decorations (although I still haven't finished my cards).

I bought this snow globe in Hobbycraft. It was £1.99 and meant to hold a photo. I thought it was perfect for the Lesson 14 Winter Wonderland stamps. Hubby (who thinks our house looks like Santa's grotto at Christmas) thought it was a bit tacky but I thought it was great fun. I bought several of them so I might just put a photo of myself in one and give it to him at Christmas!!!!

My advent Calendar is always one of the first decorations to go up. It's a Bucilla felt kit. I've also made three stockings, a wall hanging, and half of a tree skirt. They are so cute and people always comment about them when they come to the house.

Better go and put the lights on the new tree as it's looking a bit naked. Tomorrow it's up into the loft for hubby to get the rest of the decorations down. Operation Santa's Grotto has begun!

Lynne

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Decopatch

I enjoy doing lots of crafty things and I thought I'd share something different today. Decopatch is something I've recently discovered. It's a great way to jazz up old things. This is what I've done so far.

This dog is the first thing I made.  It was a little kit that I bought it at the Summer Crafting show in Doncaster. They only had a blue one left but the lady on the stall (www.thedecopatchplace.co.uk) kindly made me up a pink one.  I added the eyes and nose with some Cosmic Shimmer pearl glue and I think she looks really cute.  She doesn't have a name yet so any suggestions would be welcome.

This box sits on my craft desk. It was an old MDF box that my dad had made. I think it looks a lot prettier now. The paper was chosen to match the owl on the bin that's also on my desk. I added the scissors as it was looking a bit plain. They are cut in vinyl on my Cameo from a design from the Silhouette Store.

In case you're wondering, the lighter is for sealing the ends of ribbon - a trick I've recently learnt.

These are a couple of Christmas decorations that I bought in Hobbycraft. You can't see it in the photo but I used the sparkly Decopatch varnish on those. It's subtle but really pretty.  Like the box, the words on the bottom one were cut in vinyl on my Cameo from a design I purchased from the Silhouette Store.

Only one more day until the last In the Classroom with Barbara Gray show of the year.  I look forward to seeing what everyone else has made and I'll be back tomorrow to share one of mine.

Lynne
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Colour Log Cabin in the Woods Card

As I mentioned in the post about my Sepia Log cabin card I'd first made a colour version of it. I didn't use it for the UK samples though as I thought it was too similar to the other card I'd done with those stamps.

I didn't want to waste it so I made it into a card for my German samples. The new Lesson 14 Winter Wonderland kit had arrived by then so I was able to add the deer to the foreground.

I've used Metallic Gold Sparkle Wow! powder for the star and Glamour Dust on the roof and trees for a bit of Christmas sparkle.

The embossing is done with a Cuttlebug folder.

I also wanted to show that I have tidied up, after my messy craft room photos on my last post. I've been very busy this morning and my it's now nice and tidy again.  Just how I like it................unfortunately I really must make my own Christmas cards now so I don't think it will stay like this for long!!!!!!

Lynne
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Berry Corner Easter Card

I thought I'd share something a bit different today, an Easter card I made for the recent German shows (there was a set of mix and match greetings stamps). Done on Centura Pearl card with gold embossing and a beautiful red bow this could have been a really classy, elegant card................

but I decided to go BRIGHT. 

I cut the egg on my Cameo (from a Jennifer Wambach design from the Silhouette Store) and started to decorate it with the Clarity Berry Corner stamp. I have the set of Memento Dew Drop ink pads so I had a good selection of colours to play with.  It was all going well until I picked up the wrong green three stamps from the end on the first attempt.  I may have said a few very bad words at this point!

I then decided I wasn't happy with the design so I started again on a slightly different version.

This happened a couple of times before I was happy with it. As you can see I wasted quite a bit of card on this "simple" project. I was convinced it was a good idea though, so I persevered and eventually ended up with something I was pleased with.

I stamped the greeting inside but it looked a bit too plain, even for me.  I went rummaging through my ribbon box and found a small piece of bright green ribbon.  It was just what it needed to finish it off.

I just have finishing touches and photographs to take today, then next weekend's UK samples will be ready to post tomorrow. I went into my craft room this morning, it looks like a disaster area! I thought you might like to see what sort of mess a "Lynne at Work" makes.  It's only fair as I have photos of my pristine room at the top of the page.  :-)

The dining table is also covered in ProMarkers where I've brought bits downstairs to work on. I think I'm going to be very busy cleaning and tidying on Wednesday!!!! Will post again when I've tidied up, just to show I'm not a total slob. Although it will soon be back in this state when the next box of stamps arrive. Keeping my craft room nice a tidy is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge! :-)

Lynne

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Clarity Ballerina Card

I really like the card I did in this style with the Meadow Dance stamps, so I thought I'd have another go with the Clarity Ballerina. It's a bit of an unusual choice but I was pleased with how it turned out.

I think that with cards like this getting a nice shape of hill is the key. I'm not that great at tearing them though.  For this card I used a new trick.  I worked out where I wanted the hill to go to fit in with the moon and the ballerina and drew the shape on a piece of copy paper. I was then able to follow this guide with the ruler when I did the tearing. I found it a lot easier to get a good shape than tearing it 'freehand'.

The brayering and sponging was all done with various shades of Adirondack ink. All of the stamps in the main image are Clarity, apart from the Vine and Stars which are by Lavinia. The Birthday Wishes stamp is from Chocolate Baroque.

It's all finished off with some holographic glitter.

Lynne

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Golden Winterland Card

Here is the last of my cards from the November shows on Create and Craft. For this one I revisited a design that I won the Clarity Club Challenge with back in September 2011.

The original was done in black and silver. I'd wanted to make the snowflakes on that one sparkly but the sparkly embossing powder I had back then wasn't very good and made them look like a blobby mess. So in the end I just used my Detail Silver powder. It wasn't quite the effect I wanted but at least the snowflakes were crisp.

Since then I've bought some Metallic Gold Sparkle Wow! powder. It holds the detail of the stamp so much better so I can now have sparkly snowflakes!

The Winterland scene was stamped in black Archival and I coloured the windows in to give them a warm glow.

The snowflake detail at the bottom is done with a Martha Stewart punch.

Here's the original one. Which do you prefer? I think the gold one is my favourite.

Oh well, I must get back to work on next month's cards.  I've only made two so far, so I have lots to do. The next German ones are done though and Barbara will be on HSE24 Extra with those on Sunday.

Lynne

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Clarity Hummingbird Card

I certainly coloured in a lot of hummingbirds before I got one I was happy with. They are such beautiful, iridescent birds and I wanted to try and achieve that look on mine. I stamped a load out and got out all of my sparkly things.  I tried Perfect Pearls, mica powders, Sakura Stardust pens, then coloured pencils and ProMarkers, but I wasn't happy with any of them

In the end Hubby came to the rescue. He said "Why don't you use that sparkly stuff you used on the Autumn Leaves card?". I wasn't convinced as I didn't want to end up with "Disco Hummingbird" but I gave it a go to keep him happy.  In the end I had to admit it was by far the best, so that was the technique I used. Thanks Hubby. I coloured the bird with Promarkers first, then I went over it with a Versamark pen before covering it in Stampendous Stardust embossing powder and heating it.  Voilà!  One iridescent hummingbird!

I wanted to make the flower that he was going into stand out, so I stamped it several times and decoupaged it to give it a 3D look.

It was all finished of with a pretty lace frame cut on my Cameo.

Lynne
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Baby's 1st Christmas Bauble

This was another of my ideas for the number stamps from Lesson 13. It also uses the letters from the previous lesson.

The bauble was cut on my Cameo from Centura Pearl Card. I inked it with Dusty Concord Distress Ink on my Splodgemat.  The bauble top was cut in gold Mirri card (that hasn't photographed very well).

The baby in the crib is part of one of the 'Twas the Night stamps. I first saw this done by another member of the Design Team, Janet Pring (thanks Janet). It's great to be able to get more use out of a Christmas stamp. It's stamped on a Nestabilities and mounted onto foam pads to give it a more 3D effect.

The reverse is done the same so it doesn't matter if it turns around.

Lynne
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Clarity Deerscape Card

I always have a favourite and this is November's.

It's my version of a card that Barbara Gray taught at her workshop at the Harrogate show. Fortunately it ended up a lot better than the one I did at the show!

Dad bought Mum and I tickets and although we had a brilliant time, my artwork was a complete disaster. If it could go wrong it did and I was so embarrassed!!!! So when I got these stamps to make samples with I wanted to show that I could do it.

To make it different to Barbara's version I added the reflection and put the words in the moon.

The invention of the Splodgemat has made reflections much easier to do. All you have to do is stamp onto the mat and then you can lay the paper onto that image to reverse it. It's then easy to line up the clear Clarity stamp to complete the reflected image. In this instance I used the brayer though, as I preferred the results I was getting with it.  I have the wider 6" one, as well as the regular size, so I was able to fit the whole image on it.

I think it's always worth having a play when you do things like this. I tried first and second generation ink for the Deerscape and the same with the brayer and Splodgemat for the reflection. You can then decide which you like best for that particular project.

To do the water I got out my Ink Dusters and tried to get lines when I was dragging the ink across. I think this gives a nice watery effect.

The inks I used are Adirondack Eggplant and Espresso.  You brayer the hills in Eggplant, then go over them very lightly with Espresso at the end. The creates an almost misty effect. You want hardly any ink on your brayer for this. As Barbara says, "You can always add more ink but you can't take it away". Someone should have said that to me at Harrogate!  :-)

Lynne
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Sepia Log Cabin in the Woods Card

The first version of this picture was done in colour but I thought it looked too similar to the other Log Cabin card I'd made. Mum had the idea of doing it in sepia.

I used the coated Clarity card and it's all done with an Espresso Adirondack dye ink pad.

Like the previous card, I started off with the cabin and then stamped everything else. The sky was brayered using my Splodge mat and then spritzed with water and blotted to give a snowy effect.

I used the coated Clarity paper to make the background. I originally bought it as a cheaper option to practise my brayering on, but it's also fab for using for backgrounds.  I randomly applied the Espresso ink to it with an Ink Duster and brayer before I spritzed it with water and applied scrunched up cling film.  Once it had dried I stamped the snowflake from the Lesson 14 set all over.

If you looked closely at the group shot I previously posted, you may have noticed that the topper was on wonky.  The foam pads stuck so quickly to the coated card and I couldn't move it. I was frightened to pull it off incase I ripped the card and ruined all that work. Luckily Dad came to the rescue with a clever idea (apparently he's used to fixing Mum's mistakes!).  I went into the kitchen and sharpened a long knife. I protected the sides with some copier paper (so that I didn't scratch the coated card) and then just cut through all of the foam pads. Simples! I was then able to stick it back on straight with some Pinflair. I should have just used that in the first place!!!!!!

I've since tweaked the colour version and made that into a card too. I will post that on here too.

Peace on Earth is stamped onto a Spellbinders Ribbon Banner die cut and it's all finished off with some Glamour Dust for a bit of sparkle.

Lynne
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Log Cabin in the Woods Card

I have used the Clarity Sprucescape stamp so much and I was very pleased to see the little Log Cabin joining the collection. They work so well together.

I started off by stamping the Log Cabin and built the scene around it. I'd love to be sat next to a roaring log fire in that cabin. It looks so peaceful.

The sky was brayered in blue using my Splodgemat, then I added a couple of other colours to give it a grey snowy look (I really should write down exactly what I use but I keep forgetting).

The snow was done with an Ink Duster and copier paper. I like the subtle effect that they give.

It was looking a bit bare so I added the deer from the Deerscape stamp and some Glamour Dust to finish it off.

It's matted on some Coredinations card that has been embossed with the Bricks and Bark M-Bossibilities folder and then sanded.

Lynne
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Poppies Card for Remembrance Day

It's Remembrance Day today, a time of year when I feel so thankful for what I have. Hubby and I are off to a Remembrance Day service and I wanted to share this card with you. I just love the sentiment and I thought it was perfect for this card and today.

Stamps by Clarity.  Poppies cut on my Cameo.  Leaves are from a spellbinders set.  Corner die is a Sizzlet.  Embossed background is done with a Grand M-Bossibilities, Garden Lattice.

Lynne
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A Card for a Dear Friend

For this card I've used the Clarity Meadow Dance stamp and the new Deerscape. They fit together perfectly to make one long image. Now, I have to say that fullscreen on my 27" iMac this card looks a right mess but in real life the marks of embossing powder are not quite so noticeable.

I very rarely use black embossing powder, as even with a dusting of anti-static powder and carefully brushing away stray bits, there are always some little specks that remain elusive. They are especially hard to spot on the Centura Pearl card. However for this card I decided it was the only way to get the effect I wanted. The stamp is so stunning on its own that I wanted it to really stand out. For this reason I also kept the background very simple.

I brayered the background first using Adirondack ink pads and my Splodge mat. Once I had done that I used a sponge to add a bit more definition to the top of the hills.  Then I stamped and embossed the main image.

I did try it with black ink and clear powder first as if you do end up with any stray bits of powder, being clear, you can't see them. However on the Centura Pearl card that I was using it looked really grey. It was hard to get a decent photo of this but I think you can see the difference. It is even more noticeable in real life.

The border is the edge of a Spellbinders Persian Accents die.

Lynne
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Two Little Ducks Bingo Card

Here's one of my cards using the number stamps from Lesson 13 of In the Classroom with Barbara Gray.  I'm not quite sure where the idea came from but this is what I came up with.  :-)

It's a good job that Mum and Dad were here when I was planning it. Being a crafter, rather than a bingo player, I was thinking of the bingo cards that you get as embellishments. As with a lot of craft things they are American. I didn't realise that British ones are different. 

After a quick Google  I found out what they should look like and set about drawing the grid on my computer. I sized it to fit the number stamps and luckily it was just the right size to fit on an A5 card.

Nigel made me smile when he was showing it on TV.  He came over all nostalgic as apparently he used to be a presenter on a bingo channel.  I bet he was a laugh on that!

Lynne

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Monochrome Clarity Winterland Card

Decisions, decisions!  Which card should I blog first?  In the end I thought I'd just do them in the order they appear in the group shot.  Simples!

I got the idea for this one from the shape of the Winterland stamp and I sized the card to fit it. The stamp is just over 10.5cm wide but I rounded each panel down to 10.5cm, so that it was easy to score on my Hougie Board. Once I'd done that I cut the slope so that it would finish just above the Nestabilities shape at the bottom. Then it was just a case of adding some details.  

The sheep are from the Remountable Farm set and the geese are from the Remountable Village set.  

I created the snowdrifts with a Post-it note cut to shape and an Ink Duster. I decoupaged a couple of the sheep to give the card a bit more dimension, then finished it all off with some sparkly Glamour dust.

On the show there was a gorgeous card shown by Annie Mehew. She had done a beautiful winter scene with the same Winterland stamp and the little labrador that I have on my Handmade by Lynne Hammond stamp (it is available as a separate stamp in the Remountable Home set). Anyway, I wish I'd thought of doing it. It looked so cute! I think it will be making an appearance on some of my Christmas cards. Thanks for the idea Annie.

Lynne
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