Seasonal Cottages

I do love this new cottage stamp from Clarity. It's the sort of house I'd like to own. The only way that's likely to happen though is if I win the £95 million on the Euromillions tonight and I think we all know how likely that is! Still, I did win £8.80 on the last draw - I could buy the Small Cottage & Hedge stamps with that and still have some left over.

For these cards I used the Large Cottage and Hedge stamps. 

I thought it would be fun to do the same scene in two different seasons. A beautiful wintery scene for a Christmas card and a bright summer scene for a congratulations card (I was thinking it could be for a new house but it would be equally suitable for a lottery win!).

I chose the Remountable Winter Trees stamps for this project as you can use them with or without their mantles. Perfect for creating different seasons.

For the winter/Christmas version I kept the trees bare and created a snowy look with lots of glitter. For once I managed to resist the temptation to add snowmen and Father Christmas in his sleigh - I wanted to keep it quite simple and pretty much the same as the summer one.

For the summer one I added a bright yellow sun and vibrant green grass. I added the mantles to the trees in the same vibrant green. It's actually looking quite like that here in North Yorkshire today.  Beautiful!

Stamps Used

Large Cottage and Hedge

Remountable Winter Trees

Small Birds In Flight

Lynne

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Ploughing The Fields

It's another wet day here. I totally confused Maya this morning by taking her out really early. It was lovely then but the forecast was right and it's been raining pretty much since we got back. I've had a totally lazy day watching the rest of Season 2 of OITNB on Netflix (I may have had a pretty lazy day yesterday too. Oops!). Netflix is a bit like a box of chocolates - I'l just watch one more.................... before you know it the whole series has gone. I won't spoil it, in case you haven't watched it, but the ending was fab!!!!!

In my previous post I shared a card I'd made using the Ploughed Field stencil as grass.

Today I thought I'd share the card I made where I used it as it was intended - as ploughed fields for the Remountable Plough Set. Together they create a beautiful bygone scene.

I stamped the horses first then masked them off so that I could create the scene around them.

I attached the stencil with a hinge made of masking tape.

The fields were created with three shades of brown Distress Ink, a Clarity stencil brush and a sponge. I masked off each section of the fields so that I could work on them separately.

The sponge helped me get some texture to the soil.

On the previous card I stamped the verse on the base card and then cut it out after. With this card, I cut a separate piece of card, stamped the verse on it and stuck it in position with Removable Herma tape.  I then created the clouds, removed it, added a brown mat and stuck it back on again.

When I'd finished the scene I coloured the horses and farmer in with watercolour pencils.

That's it, I guess I'd better go and do some of the things I should have been doing the last couple of days. Bad Netflix!

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Plough Set

Ploughed Field

Small Birds In Flight

Lynne

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Morning Has Broken

Morning, this is the first of my samples from this month's Claritystamp show on Create and Craft. I thought this one might cheer me up as the sky couldn't look more different here today. Maya and I got soaked on our walk this morning. It was drizzling when we set off but we hadn't got far before it was chucking it down. Still it's nice to come back to a warm house, dry clothes and a cup of coffee and Maya really enjoys being towelled dry.

The song is the main part of the card so I wanted to keep the background quite simple. I thought that the new Ploughed Field stencil would be perfect for this. I just coloured the fields to look like grass rather than soil. 

The picture was done on one piece of Theuva card. When it was complete I cut the verse out, mounted it onto some black card, then stuck it back into place with Pinflair glue gel to give it some height.

Mats to match the sun and sky finish it off.

Stamps and Stencils Used

A5 Ploughed Field

Remountable Morning Has Broken Set

Branch

Small Birds In Flight

Lynne

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Masculine

It's time for a new challenge on the Claritystamp Challenge Blog. Congratulations to the winner and Top 5 of last month"s "It's All In The Words" challenge. I do love the beautiful verse stamps that Clarity do and that challenge was the perfect way to use them. It was also lovely to see the new Word Chain words used and people creating their own with the Letterbox set and the new Wheelie stencils.

This is my card for this month's "Masculine " challenge. Appropriately for this month, it's a Father's Day card. It was conceived on our DT trip to France. Jo Rice very kindly gave me, Janet, Linda and Sylvia a lesson with inks on the Gelli plate. It was such a fun evening and we all bounced ideas off each other. Special thanks to them all.

The background was the fun part. We brayered Adirondack ink (in this case Denim) onto the Gelli plate and then messed about with water. 

This was the first one that we tried in France. I used a spray for it and applied way too much water. We could see that the idea had potential though and played some more. 

These two were my favourites. They were created by dipping my fingers into water and flicking them at the inked-up Gelli Plate. The one on the left is the first print, which I think looks like rain, and the one on the right is the second print, which I think looks like snow. Two for the price of one!

You may have seen on Barbara's blog that we all made little pieces of art for the DT members who couldn't go (and another for a giveaway)........

....well this is one of the ones that I made and what inspired today's card. I don't know who received it but I hope they like it. 

To make it I stamped the Jazz Man onto the card first and then masked him off before I took the Gelli print so that his white bits would remain white.

The Jazz Man actually has a cane in in his hand but I realised that the brolly from the Clarity Characters set fits him pretty well.

I just masked off the bits that I didn't want before I inked up the stamp. Volia! Jazz Man with Brolly.

I thought a larger version would make a lovely Father's Day card for my father-in-law so I made today's card when I got back to the UK. I wrote "Happy Father's Day" and "Singing in the rain" around the frame and there's Glossy Accents on the glass part of the lamps. 

I hope my FIL will like it. I certainly had fun making it. 

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to seeing you all get "Masculine".

Stamps Used

Jazz Man

Umbrella from the Remountable Clarity Characters Set

Large Lamp Post

Splash from Remountable Dolphin Set

Magical from Word Chain 7

Lynne

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Pride

It's nearly the weekend, so that means that Barbara Gray will soon be on our TVs with another great Claritystamp show (Sunday 1st June, 9-11am). Until then, here's another of my cards from this month's show.

I always love the silhouette animals that Barbara does and the Woodland Animals set is no exception. They are so cute and although I only used the deer and owl on my TV samples I can see the rest popping up a lot in my scenes in the future.

The Woodland stencil is the perfect accompaniment to these stamps.  You just place it on the card and create the scene through it. I used Distress and Adirondack inks for this, then did the black stamping in Archival. The new Wheelie alphabet stencils are perfect for creating whatever text you'd like, in this case it was "Happy Father's Day".

The word "Pride" finishes it off perfectly.

That was a short one! I'd better get writing my next post for the Claritystamp Challenge Blog now - I don't think that one will be as short. Don't forget, you have until 8pm on the 31st May to enter this month's "It's All About The Words" challenge. It's well worth having a go as there's a £50 Claritystamp voucher for the winner.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Wheelie International Alphabet

Woodland

Remountable Woodland Animals

Trees

Pride from Word Chain 6

Lynne

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Lapwings

My samples for this weekend's TV show went in the post this morning and I've also made my next project for the Claritystamp Challenge Blog so I can now tidy up my craft room and get all of those other jobs done that get neglected when I have cards to make. Then I can look forward to watching Barbara at the weekend.

My research on lapwings told me that they are found on farmland and in Winter they flock on ploughed fields.

That gave me the idea of using the Old Mill stamp, with its ploughed fields, as the background. It fits quite well into the Cottage stencil, although I did have to extend some of the fields with a black Micron pen.

The black outside was done in the same way as my Halloween card with black Archival ink.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Cottage

Old Mill

Lapwing

Remountable Line Sentiments

Lynne

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Nuthatches

Well it's a typical British Bank Holiday weekend - grey and wet. At least it's given me the chance to do some crafting though and my Clarity samples should be ready to post on Tuesday.

I thought I'd blog my Nuthatch card today as I was speaking to my Dad yesterday and he said he'd just photographed one. I got him to email me them so I'll put a couple at the end of this post.

Like so many of the DT, I thought that the Lone Tree stencil made the perfect setting for the Nuthatches. Unlike when I first used it, I now have some Grunge Paste and I thought it would give the trees great texture. That gave me a bit of a dilemma - how to stamp the birds on the trees whilst not getting ink from the background on the trees.

First I had to make the trees though. I did them on a separate piece of card to make things easier. I applied the GP fairly thickly and dragged the knife up and down quite a few times to give them lots of texture. When they were dry I cut them out and inked them up with a brush and several shades of brown Distress Ink. As a finishing tough I added a few areas of green to look like lichen.

Then came the fun bit.

I stuck the trees on with Repositionable Herma and then stamped the birds into place. That enabled me to position them properly and get their feet on the trees.

I then removed the trees and masked off the birds so that I was able to work on the background (a typical Clarity scene with trees and hills) without worrying about getting stray ink on the trees.

I made a Post-it mask to add colour to the birds with a make-up sponge. As the background was quite busy I made them quite vibrant so that they stood out. To emphasise them even more I added a mat in the same colour.

That's my vibrant take on a nuthatch...............

now here's a couple of Dad's photos of the real thing. Such a beautiful bird.

Thanks Dad. x

Stamps and Stencils Used

Lone Tree

Remountable Moorhens and Nuthatches

Forest Ridge

Cow from Remountable Farm Set

Lynne

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