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I hope you enjoy reading my posts, and please leave me a comment. I always enjoy reading them, and will try to visit you in return.

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You are welcome to copy any of my designs, as long as you do not take credit for them yourself. I am very happy for you to sell them. If I have used anyone else's design, I always try to give credit where it is due. If I have missed anything, please let me know and I will put things right.


This is intended to be mainly about my crafting stories, as a personal record of what I do. However, I interpret crafting quite widely, not just paper crafting but other things too. I have a butterfly mind and like to change from one thing to another depending on what I feel like on a given day - knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, cards, baking and several others, including my favourite right now, parchment, both traditional skills and Groovi, very relaxing and calming to do.

I have decided to put some structure into my blog so that each day will have something of a theme.
Monday- for Mindfulness; Tuesday - Tidy Up Day; Wednesday - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday; Thursday - Technique and Tips; Friday - Finish Off Day; Saturday - Start Something New; Sunday - Anything Goes
These themes are not hard and fast and will be changed if I feel the need.

Saturday 16 March 2013

Clarity Challenge No 1 - March

March 1st was "D" day for Clarity Stamps fans, being the launch of the Clarity Challenge Blog.  The very first challenge is "Anything Goes", which left it completely open to choose theme, style or what we wanted to make.  The only stipulation is to use Clarity stamps, which still gives us a pretty wide choice.

I could not decide what to choose, but this card made itself.  It was intended to be a scene for another challenge, but just would not go in that direction, so I just let it go where it wanted.  The stamps are all Clarity.  The only extras are a few pencil lines to extend the ground slopes and a few animals in the distance.  I also drew in a smaller cabin with a man coming out with his dog, up in the top right, among the trees.

Stamps used:- Large sprucescape, small spruce, wooden cabin, and the two riders
Other things used:- Watercolour card, Derwent Watercolour Pencils, Derwent Graphics Pencils, Twinkling H2O (To highlight the sun's rays, but it does not show up on the photos), PDA Pearlescent Card for mounting.

I also put in the pond close to the cabin, just using the watercolours.  It was intended to be a stream coming down the hills, but just looked wrong so I settled for the pond.  I also wanted to put in some more animals closer in but my drawing is not good enough yet - something else to aim at for the future.  

I love using the watercolour pencils and they are my media of choice at the moment.  They give you the chance to get good delicate shading and are more forgiving than Promarkers for landscapes.  On this occasion, I used them dry, except for the water in the pond.   when I do use water, any watercolour purist would have a fit to see that I use a waterbrush, the sort with the barrel full of water.  It is much safer in the caravan when you have two hurricane dogs, who launch themselves at the window if they see a bird or another dog.  I got used to using it there and tend to stick to it at home.  Used gently, you can get quite delicate lines.

Now I am off to post this to the Clarity Blog and then to have a look at what everyone else has done.  I avoided doing that earlier as I wanted to go my own way without taking anything from anyone else..  Can't wait to see now.

To all those lovely people out there in Blogland, thank you so much for all your good wishes while I had that fluey thing, and I hope that anyone else who has it soon feels much better.

5 comments:

Linda Simpson said...

What a beautiful scene, love the gorgeous colours.

Hugs
Linda xxxx

Di said...

Wow Maggie, this is a gorgeous scene! Am just watching a Barbara Gray DVD in segements, trying to pick up how to do these fabulous scenes. Am with you on the water brush - and I don't have dogs to blame :)

Hugs, Di xx

Bernie Simmons said...

Thank you for entering THE CLARITY BLOG CHALLENGE. X Good Luck X

Jane said...

A lovely scene and great use of the stamps to create it!
Thankyou for taking th etime time to enter our Clarity Challenge. I hope we will see more of your work soon! xx

Naomi said...

Maggie C, the 1st person to comment of the 1st ever Clarity Blog Challenge, so glad you entered. I look forward to seeing you other creations. Best of luck.