Scarecrow and Poppies

This card uses some of my favourite Clarity stamps, the Scarecrow, Poppies, and What Is This Life.  I think What Is This Life is probably my most used Clarity verse stamp.  It just seems perfect for so many cards.

I also used my new Splodge Away Mat.  I'm so impressed with it.  I brayered the grass using a Lettuce Adirondack ink pad.  As you can see it went on really smoothly, with no lines!

The sky and sun were done with Distress ink pads.  I used Tumbled Glass with an ink duster for the sky and Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed on a sponge for the sun.  That is also how I did my new blog header.  More on that at a later date, as it's actually a sneak peak at a sample I've done for HSE 24.

The poppies were coloured in with ProMarkers.  I must say colouring is growing on me and I rather enjoyed that part.

The scarecrow's jacket started off as a piece of patterned paper that looked like hessian.  I added some colour with ProMarkers and then added some Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I thought he'd probably look a bit distressed after standing out in a field all day.

Angelina Fibres and Film

I do like using Angelina Fibres and Film.  It's an easy technique that gives a really beautiful result. 

Barbara Gray used them with the Butterfly and Pretty Petals set from Lesson 9.  This is my version of the card she made.  

I originally intended the card to be green, so I put green fibres inside the Pearl Gold film.  I tried various shades of green Adirondack ink pads but I just didn't like the result.  In the end I used my favourite, Eggplant, and it looked much better.

I finished it off with a bow stamp by Lili of the Valley.

Lesson 6

I have been enjoying the In the Classroom with Barbara Gray shows on Create and Craft TV.  Lesson 6 was one of my favourites.  The floral stamps are gorgeous and I love the skep demo that Barbara did.

I cheated a bit with my skep and cut the template out on my Cameo.  I bought the shape from the Silhouette store.  I brayered and sponged through the aperture to create the hive.  I'm not great at colouring, so I particularly enjoyed Barbara's tips for that.  I followed what Barbara did and was really pleased with the finished result.  I then made it into a card for my Mum who was very pleased with it.

After I'd made Mum's card I was struggling with ideas for another design to send in for my homework.  I was messing about with the stamps and decided to try and stamp my name with them.  It started off as a bit of fun but I thought it was a bit different and decided to use it.  After I'd done it, I thought I should have stamped the word MUM.  It would have been easy to do and would make a gorgeous Mother's Day card.  I couldn't face doing it again though, so Lynne it was.  When it was shown on TV Barbara joked "This one was made by Frank".  

German Clarity Allium Samples

Well I guess it's all feeling a bit more real now.  My first Clarity samples were on the German shopping channel, HSE 24, this morning.

I enjoyed watching Barbara do her thing in German and managed to understand the odd word of what she was saying.  My German is really limited to shopping and reading a menu - despite living there for nearly 6 years!

I'm not sure if it really shows in the photo, but this one was embossed in gold onto Centura Pearl card.  It's a lovely card to use embossing powder on.  It's the first time I've done the text in a circle like that but I really like the effect.  The good thing about Clarity stamps is that you can bend them to the shape you want.

The second one is a bit brighter!  I embossed some card using the Butterfly Garden Impressabilities by Spellbinders, then added colour with Distress Inks.

So, European debut over, only the UK left to go and that's the scary one...

A Few Of My Favourite Clarity Cards

I don't have any new cards that I can post at the moment, so I thought that I'd start with a few of my recent favourites.

This one was made for the Clarity Club Challenge back in September, 2011.  I was so excited when I found out that I'd won.  The challenge was  a square black, white and silver card using a Christmas Claritystamp.

This one was made as a thank you to Barbara Gray.  The longest part of making this was the planning.  Lots of sheets of copier paper went into the bin!

This was a Father's Day card for my Dad this year.  I had the idea of recreating the main scene on the Clarity Easel stamp.  Getting the proportions right was a nightmare.  Again, lots of copier paper in the bin.

This was my homework for the Horse and Carriage Lesson on Create and Craft TV.  It was on the Jubilee weekend so I couldn't resist going all patriotic.  I was really pleased with how it turned out.