Thanks SOW much!

Hello. I have a very important task to do today - Find my narrowest Perfect Layers ruler. I use it on nearly every card I make and feel lost without it. I cleared out my craft room yesterday, as I need to use it as a bedroom this weekend, and when I went to use it on a card last night I couldn't find it anywhere! First thing is to check the bag of rubbish I put in the wheelie bin, then I can at least relax, knowing that it is still in the house................somewhere.

For my second poppy card I thought I'd make a little cornfield scene.

I made my own masks to create the fields. I stamped out the poppies, put some scrap paper on top and then held it up to the window so that I could draw a line where I wanted them to go.

I copied this a couple of times with my printer/scanner and then cut out each section as I worked on it.

To finish it off I added a tiny border with my much loved (and missed) Perfect Layers Ruler.

Stamps Used

Poppies Set

Thanks SOW much! from the Garden Set

Look! Floor! With my Pilates Performer folded up (and in my bedroom) and the gateleg table folded up there's so much room to walk around. It's a shame it can't stay like this.

Must go. Lots to do before my visitors arrive and I need to find that pesky ruler. I hope you have a lovely weekend and that we get to see some of that yellow thing in the sky.

Lynne

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Teacher's Thank You Card

What a lovely day it is - I've just walked Maya wearing my shorts for the first time this year.

This seems like an appropriate card to blog today as Hubby's been away on a course for a couple of weeks and he has his final exam today. I don't suppose his instructors will get any thank you cards but they are a lovely idea and so appropriate at this time of year.

I began by stamping the single owl in place, then masked it off with one of the handy Clarity masks, before stamping the others and the blackboard.

As the group of owls are sat on a branch, I masked that off before inking the stamp.

I continued the line below their feet across the page to create the hill.

Then it was just a case of adding the colour with a brush and make-up sponge. The owls are coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils.

The blackboard is coloured in with a black Spectrum Noir pencil. The words are stamped in Versamark ink and then heat embossed with white powder.

To finish it off I gave the teacher a gold monocle that I filled in with Glossy Accents.

I'd better go and tidy up now. Hubby will be home later and I have sewing pattern pieces all over our bedroom floor. I think I need a bigger craft room..........or maybe a separate sewing room!

Stamps Used

Remountable Wise Owls Set

Blank Easel

Thank You - Woodpress Letters Set

Million Thank Yous Set

Birdhouse Set

Lynne

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Thank You Card

Well, it's all over for another year. Did you have nice Christmas? We had a lovely meal yesterday and this morning we ventured out to a local deer park. It was really busy but it was nice to get some fresh air and some much needed exercise. Tonight I'm looking forward to left overs (my favourite bit) and Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death on TV.

Anyway, back to this month's Claritystamp samples.

With all the gift giving yesterday a thank you card seemed an appropriate one to blog today. It uses a technique I've been wanting to try for ages - making your own custom ink pad with Cut-n-Dry foam. If you don't know how to do this Barbara Gray has a fab YouTube video on it here.

This is the ink pad I made using Worn Lipstick, Shabby Shutters and Milled Lavender Distress Ink. I used the circle from the Framer Shapes stencil set with the Milled Lavender ink pad to create the sharding on the central circle and the Spectrum Noir pencil to colour in the Thank You stamp.

Some glitter in the centre of the flowers finish it off.

I hope you enjoy the rest of Boxing Day.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Framer Shapes

Million Thank Yous Set

Flower Stem

Lynne

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You're a Star Card

Hi everyone. I hope you've had a better week than I have - my cold turned into the cold from hell. On Tuesday I couldn't even keep water down and ended up passing out. Still, I'm starting to feel human again now so I thought I'd better get back online and catch up with a few things.

I've chosen this card to blog today as it's a nice simple one to explain and simple is good at the moment!

For the sparkly stars I used the Stars Wreath stencil with some Sweet Dimensions paste that I had added glitter to (I wrote about that in this post here). Since then I've bought myself a metal spreader, that I also wrote about in that post, and it makes spreading the paste so much easier. I actually got one by Dreamweaver as I saw it for sale at a craft show I was at. It's 7" long so it covers the whole width of the stencil in one go.

Once I'd done that I did the stamping in Jet Black Archival ink and coloured in "Thank you" with a black Sakura Stardust pen. It adds a lovely shimmer to it.

There isn't a "You're" in the Word Chain stamps so I made that up from some others.

A black mat, some faux stitching and some ribbon finish it off.

I guess I'd better go and catch up on FB now. I haven't been on there all week either and have loads of notifications to catch up on. I hope you have a good weekend.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Stars Wreath

Million Thank Yous Set

Star from Word Chain 10

Lynne

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Thank You Card

This is a very simple card but I was really pleased with how it turned out.  It's one of the samples I made for the Clarity shows on German TV (HSE 24).

The base card is a Jennifer Wambach design bought from the Silhouette Store and cut on my Cameo.  I sized it so that the Allium heads fit the top panels.

Then I stamped two more inside and added a red bow so that it could be seen through the hole when the card is folded up. I think it brings it all together.

Stamps Used

Allium 1

Allium 2

Dankeschön

Lynne

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XL Postage Stamp Cards

I do love the Clarity Postage Stamp stamps, so I was excited to see a new one in the collection. Being an XL version there's lots of room to play with.

I decided to do a simple one layer card and used a mask to create the white border of the stamp.

This could be done by hand with a pair of scissors and a craft knife, but it's a fiddly job so I used my trusty Cameo. I scanned an image of the stamp into the Design Studio and was then able to create my own mask.

With that in place I was able to create my scene using my brayer and Ink Dusters. 

This set has the postmark and Queen's head to go with it. I embossed Her Majesty's head with gold embossing powder to give it an authentic look (the embossing shows up better in the first photo).

Not long after I'd made this card I had a birthday card to make, so I decided to do a birthday version. I think the first card looks more washed out in the photo than it did in real life, but I do prefer the second version.  

I went more vibrant with the colours and I think it looks better, especially in the photo.  

I used my Cameo's Design Studio to create a birthday version of the postmark and set it to print, rather than cut. I was then able to build the scene around it. Hopefully Clarity will bring out some more postmarks themselves, a Christmas and a Birthday one would be fab.

I noticed the other day that when the cards are put on the Clarity website they list the stamps that are used to make them. I thought it might be useful to add the link to that page here. That way if you want details of any of the stamps you will know where to find them.

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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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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