Mother's Day Card

Hi everyone. I hope you're having a good week; I had a lovely day on Tuesday shopping for my new sewing machine. I found out that fellow DT member Kirsty Goodwill has also recently got into sewing, so we met up in John Lewis' sewing department and went for a lovely catch-up after. I'm so excited to get going but I must finish my Clarity samples first.

Today's post is on my mother-in-law's Mother's Day card.

I thought I'd have a change and use some of my neglected non-Clarity stamps. The main image is an old Easter stamp by Graphics (now Chocolate Baroque). There's no eggs or bunnies on it though and I thought the beautiful spring flowers would make a lovely Mother's Day card.

I stamped it in Black Archival and coloured it in with my Spectrum Noir pencils.

The background is created with some old foam backed stamps that I got from QVC (again many years ago) and Butterscotch Adirondack Ink. I also brushed this around the edges with a Clarity stencil brush.

"Happy Mother's Day" is a Clarity stamp (I had to get one in somewhere!).

Some faux stitching and a bow finish it off...................

.....................I might have a go at some proper stitching on a card now I have my new toy. I could never get the tension right on my old one.

Must get on. Lots to do!

Lynne
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Harlequin Poppy PanPastel Card

I'm just off to the Post Office to post my Clarity samples for next weekend's shows. I can't wait to share what I've made and see what everyone else has done with the fab new stamps.

Don't forget that you have until 8pm on the 30th April to enter the "In The Garden" challenge over on the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog. The winner, chosen by random, gets a £50 Claritystamp voucher so it's well worth a go.

This is a card I made for a friend's birthday. The main poppy/harlequin stamp is from the Butterfly Poppy Collage stamp sheet by Chocolate Baroque. I've had it for years but I think it's the first time that I've used that particular stamp.

I used a selection of red, yellow, and orange PanPastels to colour the background then I stamped some text and the harlequin part of the stamp in Watermark Resist ink by Ranger. I dusted that with orange and red PanPastels to reveal the image.  The rest of the stamping is done with black Archival.

For last month's Clarity Stamp Challenge Hellen made a beautiful card where she used PanPastels for the background and then erased the colour from the stamped image so that she could colour it in with ProMarkers. I bought one of the Jakar battery erasers from Amazon and had a go at that on the poppies. It's really easy to do and I was able to get a nice green colour to the poppies without having to worry about masking them.

Clarity Stamps Used 

What is This Life Verse

Diamond Strip

Chocolate Baroque Stamps Used

Poppy from the Butterfly Collage Sheet - A4

Text from the Paisley Elephant Sheet - A4

Each Day is a Gift from Birthday Words Sheet - A5

Lynne

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Blooming Corner Birthday Card - Mum

I can't believe it but this is my 100th post. I've not really done any writing since I left school but I must admit I'm really enjoying being a blogger.

I'd like to start by congratulating Dawn Lawson, the winner of the first Clarity Stamp Challenge. I hope you enjoy spending your £50 prize. The entries were all so good and was a really hard task choosing our Top 5. In the end we picked Julie Owens, Linda Barton, Chris Hearn, Lin Henson, and Sally Newick. Congratulations ladies, your cards are all stunners.

The Blooming Corner set from Lesson 6 last year was one of my favourites. I loved how Barbara taught us to colour the flowers in and make the skep. I sent my skep card to my Mum for her birthday so I wanted to think of something different to send in to Create and Craft for my homework. I ended up writing my name, LYNNE. The cards can be seen at the bottom of this post or you can read my original post about them here.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, as soon as I'd done LYNNE I realised that it would have been so much nicer to write MUM.

Well, I finally got around to making it for my Mother-in-Law's birthday and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

MUM is stamped in second generation Adirondack Espresso ink and it is coloured in with my ProMarkers.

Stamps Used

Lesson 6 - Blooming Corner Set

Happy Birthday and the sentiment at the bottom are by Chocolate Baroque.

There's only 3 more days until term starts again with Lesson 15 on at 11am on Saturday 6th April. I don't know about you, but I'm getting excited!

Lynne
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May All Your Dreams Come True Card

It's nearly the end of the month, if you haven't had a go yet you have until midnight on the 31st March to enter the first challenge of the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog. It's well worth it as there's a £50 Claritystamp gift voucher for the winner!

This was a birthday card for a friend. It's my version of a tag by Lynne Gilbert in the first Creative Expressions Project Book.

The base colour is Pickled Raspberry and Salty Ocean Distress Ink. I added that with Cut-N-Dry foam and then spritzed it lightly with water. I used the same ink pads and some black Archival to do the stamping.

The background stamps are a mixture of Clarity, Kanban, and IndigoBlu. Once I'd finished it I spritzed it with some gold Pefect Pearls mixed with some water. That doesn't really show up in the photo but it gave it a lovely shimmer.

The butterflies and sentiment are by Chocolate Baroque. They were stamped onto cream textured card. I used Pinflair glue gel to attach the butterflies so that they have some dimension.

It's a bit different to what I normally do but I was in the mood for a play and I really enjoyed creating it.

Lynne
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My First PanPastel Card

Well I held out for a long time but I finally gave in and bought some PanPastels. I've seen so many gorgeous things created with them by my crafty friends that I had to have a go.

I followed a tutorial by the super talented Eileen Godwin.  Although it looks like a simple technique, it's a bit tricky to get the blending right.  I wasn't totally happy with my first attempt and it eventually ended up in the bin.  This is version 2.

I've a long way to go to get to Eileen's standard but I love the vibrant colours I ended up with.  I used the same colours as Eileen, Permanent Red, Phthalo Blue, and Diarylide Yellow.  By blending them together you also get lovely shades of orange, green, and purple.

I've finished it off with two sizes of Swirl stamps from Clarity and a greeting from Chocolate Baroque.  It's very different to the cards I normally make but I really like the simplicity of it.  I think you will be seeing more of these from me.