Horse Birthday Card

Good morning everyone. I can't believe it's nearly March already. It's doesn't seem long since I was trying to get my Christmas cards made!

Anyway, most of my family's birthdays are in this part of the year and today I'm going to share the card I made for my sister-in-law.

She lives on the Norfolk coast and loves her horses so I had to buy this stamp to make her card.

I started off by doing the sea. As I wanted it to come in at an angle I used a brush rather than my brayer, building up the colour until I was happy with it. Then did the same in the bottom corner for the sand. I kept the sky light to separate it from the sea.

The stamping is done in Archival Ink; Coffee for the plants and Jet Black for the horse.

The land is created by sponging through a torn paper mask, a trick I saw Deby from Inkylicious do at one of the Harrogate shows.

To finish it off I added a reflection of the land with Spectrum Noir pencils and Distress Ink around the edge.

The stamps I used are all available at Claritystamp.

I hope you all have a good weekend. Don't forget that Barbara is on Create and Craft TV this Sunday (1st March) at 9am. I'll be back then to share my samples from the show.

Lynne

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Valentine's Day Card

Hi everyone. My DT samples are now on their way to Clarity so I thought I'd write a quick post before tidying up my craft room. I don't know quite how I manage to make such a mess but I do!

Today's card is actually Hubby's Valentine card. I had intended blogging it on the day but couldn't due to my broken router.

Does it look familiar to you? It's another version of this card that I made for one of January's Claritystamp samples. It was one of those cards that I was reluctant to part with, so I thought this was the prefect opportunity to make one I could keep. In the original version I used the stamp that reminds me of me and Maya. In this version I like to think of it as me and Hubby with Maya standing patiently by (in my dreams!). Actually I'm dreaming about the first part too as Hubby is about a foot taller than I am! You get the idea though.

I started off by cutting out a square with a 3" x 3" Spellbinders die. I masked the edges off with sticky notes (so that I would be left with a white edge around it), stamped the trees in green Archival ink and added a sticky note mask for the path.

I then masked off the horizon so that I could add the grass. I used Adirondack ink on a shaving brush to get a sort of stippled effect.

Next I swapped the masks over to add the path.

Now we need some Wee Folk.

To get Maya (the dog) on her own I masked off the lady with masking tape before inking it. Just remember to remove the tape before you stamp or you will be saying very bad words!

I then added the flowers which were coloured in using Distress Markers and some shading with Spectrum Noir pencils.

Stamps Used

Wee Folk 1

Flowers from Remountable Floral Figures

Repositionable Trees

Oh well, I can't put it off any longer. I'd better go and tidy up.........

Lynne

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Gift Wrapping

Good morning. I hope you're having a nice weekend. I'm hoping that today will be better than yesterday - It was one of those days when nothing went right. I spent most of it on one card and I'm still not happy with it. Hopefully today will be more productive.

For today's post I have something different to share with you..................

...............my birthday present. Well the gift wrapping anyway.

Many years ago I used to work in a rather nice china and glass shop. One of the fun parts of the job was gift wrapping items bought as presents. I got quite into it and always used to make an effort with my own gifts but over time I've slipped out of the habit. Anyway, I was watching Create and Craft recently and saw the Jane Means show. It really got  me inspired. Her parcels looked fab and I had to buy her book "Giftwrapped".

Like most crafters I have loads of stuff I no longer use and this is a great way to use them up. One of these is 12" x 12" paper. I also love the look of brown paper parcels and thought the two would look great together. Brown paper is cheap, suitable for everyone and you can embellish it with some lovely patterned paper.

The first thing I did was wrap the box in brown paper using red liner tape to adhere it (that was another occasion where my crafty stash came in handy).  I left the edge unstuck so that I could slot the patterned paper band into it later.

Then came the fun part! Decorating it!

I chose some beautiful K & Co paper from my neglected stash of 12" x 12" to add some pattern and decorated it with punched brown paper and a large bow cut on my Cameo.

The 3D Layered Package Bow is a Jamie Cripps design and was bought from the Silhouette Store and cut on my Cameo. I cut it out of the patterned paper and the brown paper then stuck them together. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the brown paper cut on the Cameo - I did wonder if it would just rip.

I then inked the edges, curled them with a bone folder..........

............. and stuck them together with hot glue.

The brown paper part of the strip was created with a Martha Stewart punch (another item I don't seem to use anymore). This was a bit of a nightmare and I won't be doing it again! The punch didn't like the brown paper and didn't cut that brilliantly. I got there in the end though. I inked the edge of it to make it stand out against the layer below.

The tag was from a Stix2 adhesive bundle and had also been in my craft room for a while. I stamped "Happy" onto the patterned paper and cut it out. "Birthday" went straight onto it (I had to get some Clarity stamps in somewhere). They're both stamped with Archival Ink.

Finally I poked the strip into the end and stuck it all down.

I spent a silly amount of time doing it, for something that will end up in the bin, but I did enjoy it and I did use some things that were going to waste.

Stamps Used

Remountable Letterbox Sentiments

Word Chain 3

We didn't have our pancakes in the week so I'm off to the kitchen now to make some for breakfast. Lemon curd is my favourite filling. What's yours? Ooh, I'm hungry. hopefully they will set me up for a successful and productive day. I'll just forget about yesterday!

Lynne

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Congratulations Card

Hello everyone. Today I'm blogging my last card from February's Claritystamp show on Create and Craft TV and when I've finished this I will be cracking on with next month's.

I started off with a piece of white card.............

............and created the background with the help of my Gelli plate.

I squidged the Antique Linen Distress Ink onto the Gelli plate and spread it out using a brayer. I then used Barbara Gray's technique of scrunching up a ball of copy paper to create a pattern in the ink before taking the print.

I marked the half way point along each edge, so that I could see where the stencil needed to go, and applied Walnut Stain and Frayed Burlap Distress Ink with a blending tool.

After repeating that in each corner I ended up with this.

I stamped the heart and congratulations in Versamark Ink and heat embossed it in detail gold powder.

I also gave it a gold edge. To do this I positioned about a cm of the card over the edge of my desk then wiped the Versamark pad along it at about a 45° angle. I then applied the detail gold powder and heat embossed it.

I went over some areas a couple of times to build up the colour.

I masked off the heart and sponged on some more Distress Ink to make it stand out more. Luckily I'd kept the mask I'd made the last time I used this stamp so that saved me one job!

To finish it off I made another print for the base card and added a few birds.

That was a long one! I'm glad I remembered to take the photos though as it makes it so much easier to explain...............well I hope it does!

I can't wait for my next post - I'm going to share my birthday present. It's something a bit different but I hope you'll like it. It certainly inspired my friend Connie as she bought lots of bits on our last coffee, cake and shopping morning to have a go herself.

Stamps Used

Remountable Garden Heart

Word Chain 11

Remountable Birdhouse Set

Floral Heart Stencil

Lynne

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Beautiful Parakeets

Hi everyone. I've just emailed Barbara my piece for Jane's Inspiration Day and next month's Claritystamp samples are coming along nicely, so I thought I'd take a quick break and do a bit of blogging. It's so nice to have everything working again!

For today's card I did two of the parakeet panels in monochrome and one in vibrant colour.

Quite often when I have colouring to do I'll take everything down to the dining room as I can spread it out all over the table. This is a photo I took of the making of this card - I think I need a bigger table!

I stamped three panels then coloured two of them in shades of grey (not 50!) I used ProMarkers as a base layer then added some shading with Spectrum Noir pencils.

I then masked all of the birds off so that I could add the clouds.

I repeated the same procedure for the middle panel, but this time using bold colours for contrast.

To finish it off I cut each panel out, matted and layered them and added the word "Beauty" to the coloured panel. The surround for this was cut with a Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two die.

Who's a pretty boy then?!

Stamps Used

Remountable Parakeets

Word Chain 12

Lynne

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Look! Balloon!

Hi everyone. Sorry that it's been so long since my last post but my router died last Monday. I've been patiently waiting for a new one to arrive only to find out yesterday that it hadn't actually been sent! Hopefully it will now be here tomorrow but until then I've found a temporary solution to get me back online.

Today's card is a scene featuring the fab Wee Folk stamps. The dad looks like he is pointing something out to the child and I thought a hot air balloon would work well.

The stamping is done in black Archival ink and the colouring is done with Spectrum Noir pencils.

Stamps Used

Remountable Tree Rows

Wee Folk 1

Word Chain 9

Hopefully I'll soon be back online properly and able to write a longer post. I have so much to catch up on!

Lynne

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All That Jazz!

Hi everyone. It's a frosty morning here today and my bonkers Hubby left before 7am to spend the day diving in Lancashire. Just the thought of it makes me shiver! I'm being much more sensible and spending it in my craft room. I've done his Valentine's Day card so I have two more special projects to work on today - my Dad's birthday card and doing some more of my canvas for Jane's Inspiration Day. If you don't know about Jane you can read all about it here on Barbara Gray's blog. Her Inspiration Day is such a lovely idea.

Here's the card that I made with the new Remountable Music stamps. I think I'd better start off by saying that I know nothing about music so apologies if I've done anything dumb with them. They are fun to use though.

I used Jo's Bubbles stencil too. I love doing scenes and things in apertures so this is right up my street. It's such a lovely design and so versatile.

I started off with a piece of 7" x 7" card and taped it to the stencil. I stamped the saxophone in the large bubble and masked it off.

I then used a selection of inks (Iced Spruce, Evergreen Bough, Peacock Feathers and Weathered Wood Distress. Eggplant Adirondack) on an ink blending tool to colour it.

I stamped the notes in Weathered Wood through some of the apertures.

The rest of the stamping is done in Jet Black Archival. "All That Jazz" is stamped by masking off individual letters from the Word Chain sets. The final "Z" and the "!" are from the Letterbox set.

To finish it off I trimmed 1/2" from each side to take it down to 6" x 6" and gave it a thin black mat with a Perfect Layers ruler.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Music Set

Remountable Clarity Characters

Word Chains and Letterbox Set

Jo's Bubbles

I hope you have a good day. I'm off to my craft room now.

Lynne

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Rainbow Trees

Evening everyone. The gift wrapping I mentioned in my last post went well and has been photographed ready to blog. It's a good job I did it so early as I spent way too much time doing it and at least I now have almost a month to admire it before all my had work goes in the bin.

Today's card is a bright and cheerful one.

I do love this style of card, where you just have a strip with the design on it and some words down the bottom. These new Tree Row stamps are perfect for it.

I thought a rainbow design would be a bit different so I set about working out the colours. Initially I intended working my way around the colour wheel (red, red/orange, orange, orange/yellow, yellow etc.) and doing 12 trees but in the end I decided not to chop the end two off and added a paler red to the left and a paler purple to the right.

They were coloured in first with ProMarkers, then I added some Spectrum Noir pencil on top.

These are the ProMarker colours I used.

That was good timing - The Jump is about to start. I'm really enjoying this series. I wonder who will go tonight? Rather them than me in those bobsleighs!

Stamps Used

Remountable Tree Rows

Word Chain 12

Lynne

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Maya!

Hi there. I had lots planned for today but I got a little bit distracted by a new book - Giftwrapped by Jane Means. It's full of beautiful pictures and great ideas and I couldn't wait to have a go. Luckily it's my birthday next month............... and I knew my present was in the spare room.............so it's now in the process of being wrapped! I know Hubby won't mind (it will save him doing it) and I didn't peep! I've been punching, cutting things on my Cameo, inking and gluing. I'm now waiting for the glue to dry so I thought I'd do some blogging. If it looks good when I've finished it I'll take some photos and blog it when I've done this month's cards. I always love finding more ways to use my crafty stash and tools.

As I was talking about Maya in my last post I thought this card would be a good one to start with.

It's just a bit of fun but that's what I love about card making. You can do exactly what you want and really personalise them. I can just picture Hubby standing there yelling at her to come back and her being much more interested in something she's just found.

As always with my scenes I planned it out first on copy paper. I drew in the hills with the end of my A4 Clarity Blending Mat (such a useful piece of kit).

I stamped the dog, man and trees into place first, then masked off the dog and started to add colour. This was done with a brush and make-up sponges. I used the edge of the blending mat to tear the hill mask out of some copy paper then sponged in colour to define them.

I used the other part of the torn paper to mask off the hills so that I could stamp the bushes. I didn't worry about masking them off as they were going to be green anyway.

The colouring was all done with Spectrum Noir pencils. If you saw Maya in the last post you'll know that she's the colour of really rich dark chocolate. Unfortunately she ended up looking more like milk chocolate here as I just couldn't get her dark enough. All chocolate is good though!

To finish it off I added her name by using appropriate letters from the Word Chain stamps. It would have been good in the speech bubble from the Elegant Ladies set but as the trees were one of the stamps it was showcasing I didn't want to cover them up.

Well, I'd better go and do some of these jobs I had planned for today before Hubby gets home. Luckily it's meatballs and pasta for dinner so that won't take long to cook.

Stamps Used

Remountable In The Country Set

Wee Folk 1

Remountable Trees

Small Birds In Flight

See you soon,

Lynne
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February's Claritystamp Samples and Maya's 6th Birthday

What an exciting day today! Not only have we had the usual Sunday morning show but we've got an extra one at 5pm too..............and it's Maya's 6th birthday!

These are the cards that I made for this morning's show.

It was great to use the Wee Folk again and they go so well with the new tree stamps from the In The Country set. I had a bit of fun with that -  I envisioned Hubby standing there yelling at Maya to come back but she's found something much more interesting. Just like the video of Fenton the dog that Martyn mentioned (have a look on YouTube if you haven't seen it).

The Parakeets are really versatile. There's a lot of open space to play with so you can really do your own thing with them.

The Music set is a great one for those awkward men (love them really but making cards for them is never easy).

The Garden Heart set is so beautiful and I really enjoyed using it again.

As always I will be blogging them all individually throughout the month. I also have a couple of birthday cards to make and of course it's Valentine's Day so hopefully I will have them to share too.

Don't forget the 5pm show - I've set my Sky+ reminder. I don't know what cards will be shown but the samples I made with the World Premier stamps were all blogged in January.

Before I go I couldn't resist adding some puppy cuteness.

This is Maya at 7 days old when we first met her. She wasn't much bigger than Hubby's hand!

This is the birthday girl today, posing with a card that my Mum made her (yep, she's as bonkers as I am!). Thanks Mum. x

Lynne and Maya
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