Live From The USA

I've just finished watching Barbara Gray broadcasting live from the USA, wasn't it exciting? I'm sure that Barbara will be as big a hit over there as she is here.

Here's my usual quick look at the samples I made for the show. As always I will be blogging them all individually throughout this month.

There's a great mixture of stamps and stencils. The ladies in particular were great fun to play with - there's so much you can do with them. I look forward to sharing my ideas with you.

Happy crafting,

Lynne
x

Floral Figures

Morning everyone. There's only one more day to wait until Barbara Gray's first live Claritystamp show in the USA. Luckily it's also being shown on Create and Craft TV in the UK (3pm UK time) so those of us here will be able to watch too. Exciting!

I do love the Floral Figures set; it's such a clever idea to make the images out of flowers.

After planning the placement of the images on scrap paper, I stamped them onto card using Jet Black Archival ink. I also stamped the cat and rabbit on to a Post-it and cut around them to create a mask. I didn't realise that one of the Clarity Moons Masks fits the circular stamp until Barbara mentioned it on TV, so I cut my own out of vellum on my Cameo. I used the outside part to ink in the sun with Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, then replaced it with the circular part to mask that as well.

I was then able to ink in the wall using the Stone Wall stencil and several brown shades of Distress Ink. I also brushed in the clouds before removing the masks. It looked a bit bare when I did that so I stamped some more flowers as if they were behind the wall.

Distress Markers are perfect for colouring in the flowers as they have a lovely fine tip. I used Mustard Seed for the sun, Iced Spruce for the cat and rabbit and various colours for the flowers. To finish off the animals I added some grey to their outlines with Spectrum Noir pencils.

The black lacy mats are cut with a Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight die.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Stone Wall

Remountable Floral Figures

Magical from Word Chain 7

Birds from Remountable Birdhouse Set

Lynne

x

Good Luck Card

Hi everyone. It's nice to sit down for a bit after a hectic start to the week. Hubby went back to work on Monday after 3 weeks leave, then when he finished for the day we jumped in the car to go down to Norfolk for his Aunt's funeral. Such a sad occasion but her family did her proud.

We got home last night and it was lovely to get Maya back from kennels this morning. We've just got in from a nice walk so I'm sat here in front of my computer with my customary cup of coffee.

I thought I'd start with this card, as it's a nice simple one.

When I first saw the man with outstretched arms in the Wee Folk set I wondered if would be able to hold up the boxes from the Letterbox set. I was really pleased to find out that he can. This means that you can get him to announce whatever you want. I chose "Good Luck".

I planned it all out on scrap paper first, so that I could work out the positioning and what size card I needed to use, then stamped the men and boxes out in Jet Black Archival ink.

I coloured the boxes in with a green ProMarker before adding the letters (again in black Archival).

To finish if off I added some shading under the men, some mats (white card was coloured with the same ProMarker to get the green one) and a couple of images from the Remountable Lucky Set.

Stamps Used

Remountable Lucky Set

Wee Folk 1

Letterbox Set

Lynne

x

January's Claritystamp Samples

What an enjoyable show today and aren't the new stamps fab? I'm not surprised they sold out so quickly. I particularly love the Wee Folk, they are perfect for adding interest to a scene or even as the main image..............

..........as I did with the woman walking her dog. You can imagine how excited I was to get that one! I just wish I looked as glamorous as her when I walk Maya.

I haven't shared a Hubby quote for a while but I had to write this one down. I was showing him the four cards above and one sort of abstract one that I wasn't sure about. He didn't need to say anything, as I could tell be the look on his face, but he came out with this gem "Those are the sort of thing you're good at where as that, on the other hand, looks a bit kindergarten". I do love people who tell it like it is! lol

I love the demos Barbara did with the canvas. I've been wanting to have a go at one since France but I still haven't taken the plunge. I am thinking I might have a go at recreating the dog card on the 4 x 4 inch canvas for my craft room though.............

There were also some older cards shown that I have already blogged so I thought I'd put them on here too. If you click on the titles it will take you to the posts on them.

Meadow Dance Stampstamps Card

Lynne

The next two weren't shown But I thought I'd add them anyway. The first one is a better idea I had after I'd made the Lynne card.

Mum

Finally, I couldn't show my Blooming Corner cards without the wedding one. It always makes people laugh, I can't imagine why!

Wedding Card

That set is so versatile and still one of my faves.

I'll be back soon with the individual posts on today's cards. Happy stamping!

Lynne

x

Owls

Evening all. I thought I'd sit and write this whilst dinner is cooking. We're having lasagne tonight, one of my faves. Are you having anything nice?

Today's card uses pretty similar colours to the last card I blogged but they look very different on kraft card to they did on white.

I started off by inking though the stencil using green and orange shades of Distress Ink. Then I flicked on some water and dried it off with a paper towel to add a bit of interest.

It still looked a bit boring so I decided to cut it into sections (after this photo was taken I also trimmed the border off the central square). I inked the edges and added a thin dark brown mat around the outside sections using a Perfect Layers ruler.

I then stamped the owl image in brown Archival ink and took away some colour on their faces with a wet paint brush and paper towel.

I stuck them all down leaving an even gap in-between and added a final mat and layer to finish it off.

Well, I think it's nearly time to put the garlic bread in. I'll see you all again tomorrow with my samples from this month's show; there's one stamp that Maya and I are particularly fond of.  

Stamps and Stencils Used

Owls

Word Chain 12

Flare Frame

Lynne

x

Thank You

Hi everyone. I hadn't intended writing another post until tomorrow but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that took the time to reply yesterday. I wasn't expecting such a response and I'm touched. I guess I will keep on blogging...........

I'll be back tomorrow with my final card from last month's show. Then I'll start all over again with this month's. Don't forget that Barbara is on Create and Craft TV (UK) this Sunday (4th Jan) at 9am with some fab new stamps. Then there's an extra treat with the createandcraft.com (USA) shows starting on Monday. Exciting times for Clarity.

Thanks again,

Lynne
x

Happy New Year and a Question

Happy New Year! Did you have a good night last night? Our BBQ was chilly but lots of fun. It seems odd not to be starting the month with a project for the Claritystamp Challenge Blog but the Clarity DT members have stood down and there is a new team there now.  I'd like to wish them all the best and hope they enjoy it as much as I did. Their first projects are fab and so inspirational. I think 2015 is going to be a great year for Clarity.

Before I get on to today's card I have a question for my regular readers. The New Year has got me thinking about what I want to do in 2015 and I'm wondering whether to continue blogging or not. I'm not a prolific crafter, all I really make are my Clarity samples and a few personal cards. For this reason I spread them out through the month but I do wonder if that's what people want. Would you prefer if I just put the photos on Facebook and Pinterest on the day of the TV show? Or do you like to read a blog post on how they were made? Or have you got a better idea? I know a lot of people read and don't comment but I'd really appreciate some feedback on this, please.

Since I got my Spectrum Noir pencils my poor ProMarkers have been rather neglected but for this card I got them out again. They do give a lovely effect and I have since got back into using them, sometimes on their own and sometimes with the pencils.

The outside frame is created with the solid Oak Leaf stamp and various Adirondack ink pads, including Spice Big and Juicy (another blast from the past). I then found matching ProMarker colours to colour in the circular oak frame.

The deer was coloured in with ProMarkers and Spectrum Noir pencils.

To finish it off I added some acorns to each corner. The central one is cut out, shaped with a ball tool and suck on with Pinflair gel to give it some dimension.

Stamps and Stencils Used

Remountable Oak and Deer set

You Made My day from Million Thank Yous set

Lynne

x