Embossed Snowflake Christmas Card

I am writing this surrounded by mess. Yesterday I decided to clear out the cupboard under the stairs. Today I have to put what I'm keeping back in - it's amazing how much junk can fit in such a small space. I hope your weekend is slightly more exciting!

As I've said before, I hadn't really used stencils much before Clarity started making them, so this is another experimental card.

I used the Snowflake stencil and clear embossing powder to create the background. To do this I inked up the stencil with Versamark, ran it through my Grand Calibur to transfer the ink and heat embossed them.

When I had covered the background with embossed snowflakes I spritzed it with Glimmer Mists to create a lovely shimmery background. I also did this for the sentiment which is cut with a Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight die. Some Dusty Concord Distress Ink adds some shade around the edges.

A lovely big bow, made with Silky Crush ribbon, finishes it off.

Stamps Used

German Celebration Set / Deutsch Feier Satz

Stencil Used

Christmas Stencil Set

Suppose I'd better get all of this stuff put away now.

Lynne

x

Holly Corner Christmas Card

Just taking a break after a busy morning in my craft room.

This is another of my German samples using the Christmas corner stamps. This time it's the Holly one.

The stamping is done with Olympia Green Versafine ink and the berries are coloured in with a red Sakura Glaze pen.

The holly embellishment is cut on my Cameo but it could easily be done by hand. The berries for that are white Card Candi coloured with a red ProMarker.

The thin black mats are cut with my Perfect Layers ruler and the red scalloped card is cut with a Spellbinders die.

That was short and to the point!

Stamps Used

Holly Corner

German Celebration Set / Deutsch Feier Satz

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Lynne

x

Claritystamp Letter Box and Numbers Sets - Storage Idea

I was really pleased with this storage idea, so I thought I'd share it.

It's a Peel-off sticker storage box and was only £2.29 from Hobbycraft.

Previously my sets were stored with my other unmounted Clarity stamps, on A4 laminated sheets in a RUB. This works well for the other stamps but I was always worried about losing one of the small letters. I know Barbara very kindly says that if you send an SAE to Clarity she will replace any lost letters but you can guarantee that you won't notice a missing one until you need to use it!

I cut two pieces of thin card to 9.5 x 22.5cm (I allowed a bit of room at the end so that they can easily be taken out of the box) and stamped all of the stamps on them (I know I've stamped an x upside down but I wasn't going to start again!).

Then I laminated them and trimmed them down leaving a .5cm border of laminate.

Like with my large boxes, I cut a piece of baking parchment to put in between each layer so that the stamps don't stick to the laminate above.

When using them you can have one layer in the base and one in the lid. If any do fall off they won't go anywhere. Plus, as I've stamped out the letters it will be easy to see if any are missing before I put them away. Hopefully even I won't be able to lose one!!!

Lynne

x

Snowflake Christmas Card

After the upside down card in my last post, I thought I'd share this one which also had a "Stupid Lynne" moment.

This one nearly stopped it being made altogether! More about that later though.

The main image was from a session of me playing around with a stencil and inks to see what effects I could create. I made my favourite into this card.

I used the Snowflake Cluster stencil, blue ink and an Ink Duster to create the background. Then I stamped over it with vertical rows of the Snowflake Corner. A Kaleidacolor ink pad in Blue Breeze gives it the different shades of blue.

When I've done a pattern like that I hate to cover it up, so I just added a German Christmas sentiment to it and a thin black mat.

The side panels are a Spellbinders tag cut in half ( Fancy Tags 2) and the background is embossed with a Spellbinders Grand M-Bossibilities folder (Garden Lattice).

Before I go, I have to share the "fun" I had with this card.

I'd just made another card using the Snowflake stencil and wanted to start this one. One problem - the stencil was nowhere to be found. I'd only just been using it and my craft room had been tidied the day before so I couldn't understand what I could possibly have done with it.

To cut a long story short, I spent well over an hour searching for it before I spotted it.

Can you see it?

It was totally camouflaged on some old lace curtains, that were on my Pilates Performer, in the middle of my craft room. Why did I put it there? It's a miracle that I ever found it!!!!!!!!!!!

Stamps Used

Snowflake Corner

German Celebration Set / Deutsch Feier Satz

Stencil Used

Christmas Set

Lynne

x

German Log Cabin Christmas Card

Here's one of my samples for the Claritystamp shows on the German channel HSE24.

Making it nearly had me in tears!

I thought it would be nice to do a little snowy woodland scene in the middle of a Treescape Gelli print. I masked off the central panel, so that I would have a clear area to stamp in, and took a print using the large Treescape stencil. You never know how Gelli prints are going to turn out but I was really pleased with this one; it was nice and crisp and the areas around the stencil were clear. Great for adding colour to. I placed the stencil back in place and used Weathered Wood Distress Ink to do this.

The next step was to stamp the scene in the aperture that I'd created. I didn't want to get ink on the Gelli print so I carefully masked it off before I began. 

I thought it was all going well until I got to the stage where I removed the masks..........

.............I'd only done the stamping upside down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Cue very bad words and nearly tears!

After a vent and some encouraging words on FB I decided the only thing to do was to make another stamped panel and stick it on top. I liked the Gelli print too much to completely start again.

It's not a "clever" one layered card any more but I rather like the co-ordinating green mat that I put it on. I also changed the colour of the cabin to better match the Gelli print.

I finished it off with Merry Christmas in German. This was stamped with the Letter Box set - I used green ink for the boxes and navy for the text.

It may have given me a lot of grief but it all turned out for the best. I think I prefer the second version.

Stamps Used

Log Cabin

Sprucescape

German Letter Box Set

Stencil Used

Treescape

Lynne

x

Welsh Birthday Card

This is the last of my samples from September's shows.

It's also my favourite!

When we lived in Brecon I don't really remember hearing a lot of Welsh being spoken but we were on holiday in North Wales last year and it was lovely to hear it. I thought it would be really nice to incorporate it into one of my Welsh cards. The Letter Box kit is great for this - you can write whatever you want.  For my fellow non-Welsh speakers Penblwydd Hapus means Happy Birthday and is pronounced PEN-BLUE-ITH HAP-IS. I did lots of Googling so that should be correct! 

The base is Theuva card. I started off by masking the central panel so that I could work on the frame. I stamped out the text and then triple embossed the tiles so that I could brayer over them. Doing it three times makes sure that the embossing is really smooth. The first layer I did using Versamark on the solid tile in the kit but I used a Versamark pen for the other two.

I then brayered over with Distress Ink and stamped the various Welsh images.

For the central panel I stamped Welsh Castle in the Six Cities of Wales frame and coloured it in with ProMarkers.

The outline of Wales was purchased from the Silhouette Store and cut on my Cameo. I coloured it in like the Welsh flag and added some more of the Welsh stamps.

Stamps Used

Six Cities of Wales

Welsh Castle

Welsh Flag

Remountable Welsh Set

Letter Box Set

Lynne

x

Welsh Daffodils Card

This is such a simple card but I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Cymru is stamped in black Archival but as I wanted to colour the daffs with ProMarkers I stamped them in black Adirondack. I drew a wiggly line between them to give the effect of grass.

A thin green mat, cut with my Perfect Layers ruler, and some yellow eyelets finish it off.

Stamps Used

Cymru Framer

Daffodils from the Remountable Welsh Set

As that was such a short post I thought I'd share some photos of Maya. The daffodils have reminded me of the day we first brought her home, back in March 2009. 

The first thing we did was go out in the garden and the daffs were out in bloom.

When we did this with our previous lab she stayed close by us...........

............Maya had no such worries and was soon off exploring on her own. I guess that was the first sign that things were going to be a whole lot different with Maya. Bless her!

Before I go - Always be really careful with dogs and daffodils; the bulbs are poisonous to them if they eat them and it can be fatal. 

Lynne & Maya

x 

Four Seasons Tree

As soon as I saw the fab new 'Trees and Their Mantles' stamps for Lesson 21 I knew they would be perfect for a four seasons card. I've done a few variations on this in the past and I always enjoy making them.

As the name says, it shows the same tree in four different seasons.

I started off by drawing pencil lines to quarter the card. This helped me get the stamps accurately lined up in a square.

Then I drew a square in the centre of each stamp and masked each section off with Post-its as I worked on it.

For spring I inked the mantle up in Victorian Velvet Distress ink for the blossom and added a few dots of Mowed Lawn Distress Marker for the leaves. The daffodils were stamped with Mowed Lawn and Mustard Seed Distress Markers.

The grass is Lettuce Adirondack.

For summer I used vibrant greens and a lovely warm sun.  

For a change I stamped the labrador in black. I think it could be Maya's online friend Jasper looking for her.

For autumn I could have stamped the full Mantle in autumnal colours but instead I stamped part of it on the floor, for the fallen leaves, and added a couple of dots of ProMarker for the ones still on the tree.

For winter the tree is now bare and has been joined by Frosty looking very snuggly in his hat and scarf.

When I finished all of the stamping I edged the whole thing with a Pastel Blue ProMarker.

If you want to see what Barbara Gray does with them, Lesson 21 will be on Create and Craft TV at 11am on Saturday 12th October.

Stamps Used

Lesson 21 - Trees and Their Mantles

XL Postage Stamp 

Remountable Seasons

Labrador from Remountable Home Set

Small Frosty

Daffodils

Lynne

x

Autumn Leaves Gelli Print Card

I didn't know that Father Christmas read my blog, but after my last post I had a phone call asking me if I'd like some Distress Markers for Christmas. Apparently he was a bit busy so his got some of his little helpers, who sounded remarkably like Mum and Dad, to do it for him. Wasn't that nice?

I enjoyed using kraft card again when I made this month's card for the Clarity Stamp Challenge blog and thought it would also be great for this one.

I started off by creating the Gelli print. I used the 7x7 mask on my 8x10 Gelli plate so that I got the print of the stencil border too (I rather like this effect). I masked off the sky area so that I only got the Dotty Wave print on the land.

I placed the stencil back on top of the print and added colour (Adirondack ink) to the sky and land with a sponge and Ink Duster.

I created a few more Gelli prints in red, orange and yellow with the Dotty Wave stencil for the leaves and cut them out. I then had great fun screwing them all up and sticking them on with Pinflair glue gel.

The edges have been distressed by carefully running my decoupage snips along them. I finished them off with some Distress Ink.

Stamps Used

Repositionable Leaf Set 2

Autumn verse from the Remountable Maple Leaf Set

Stencils Used

Treescape

Dotty Wave

Lynne

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

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

x

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
x

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

x