WOYWW 269

I cannot believe it is Wednesday again.  What a frantic couple of weeks I am having!  I am still not sure what day of the week it is, never mind what I am supposed to be doing at any given time.

As you may have gathered by last week's very belated post,  The two day Clarity Retreat was a roaring success, and we are all looking forward now to next year's event.  All those who had been in previous years agreed that it was the best ever.  As it was my first experience of the two day event, I had nothing to compare it with, but I loved every second.

I still cannot show you any of the projects we did, as there are still a couple of sessions to go next week, and we do not want to spoil it for those still to come.  What I can show you is a card I did yesterday in 55 minutes from start to finish, using this month's Clarity New Design Club stamp and stencil.

The stencil was two Ginkgo leaves, and the stamp was the little spray of Lady's Smock (Cardamine pratensis (cuckoo flower or lady's smock), is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia.).  It is a pretty little wildflower that I always cherish in my garden.  It is delicate and understated.

I also used a technique I had already seen from Maria Simms and we actually did for the first time at the Retreat - that of making your own multi-coloured ink pad, using various shades of Distress inks.  If you keep your home made pads in a ziplock bag, then they are good to use for quite a while and will save no end of time if you want to do multiple stamps as I did on this card.

Each of the Ginkgo leaves was stencil brushed individually, starting with pale yellow and then shading down with two different greens.  I used the final green to brush around the corners and edges and then very lightly over the whole thing to create a misty effect.  For 55 minutes effort, I was quite pleased with this one.

As I am having more work done this week (the final run of raised beds and a path relaid (not to mention getting some repairs done to the neighbour's fence to keep my dogs from escaping) I am working downstairs on the computer desk - I am being very careful, Doug, not to get ink in dangerous places.  I am also taking the opportunity to mount up all the projects still outstanding from the workshops with Maria Simms and Sally-Ann Hanes.

I was going to make it very short and sweet, as Julia prefers, but once again, my fingers and brain did not quite compute that idea.  Anyway, it is time I sent you on your merry way with coffee cup in hand to visit WOYWW Central and meet all the other lovely people who meet up there each Wednesday.  I hope to meet up with you again as we wander round all the desks on show.  Have a great week.