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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.

Sunday 21 December 2014

Clarity trees - the last of the Christmas cards.


The idea for this card started off with a very different card in a class down at the local craft shop, Pink Tulip Creations at Studley.  That design did not use Clarity stamps etc, but it did give me the incentive to go off and play once I got home.

I took myself off back to Pink Tulip to their Open Crafting session where you take your own projects and play with them while having a lovely chat with like-minded crafters.

Going out in a rush, I forgot to check my ink pads and all I had was Stonewashed and Red Pepper, not an obvious mix when I wanted a soft pink.  Not willing to waste time doing nothing or go home to find what I wanted, I  loaded a brush with Red Pepper and then got rid of most of it onto copy paper, leaving just a hint on the stencil brush.

The main design is on Gelli card, (what did we do before Gelli card)  and uses two Clarity stencils - the  circle aperture and the woodland trees (Cannot remember what it is called properly), and one of the moon masks.  Oh yes, and, of course, the fabulous Clarity stencil brushes.

Having hinged everything together with lo-tack tape,  I masked off the ground area with copy paper, and started with the Stonewashed, then added a hint of Red Pepper over the top .  If that got a bit hot for my taste, I just brushed a little more Stonewashed over it to tone things down again.  I used a make up sponge to apply the Stonewashed to the ground area, then brushed in a hint of Red Pepper to tone in with the sky.

Once I was happy with that, I lifted the moon masks and brushed over the area with Stonewashed to leave the trees showing white across the moon.  I removed the tree stencil and used a make up sponge to give a little bit of shape to the moon, before brushing Stonewashed very lightly over the whole of the area within the aperture.

To finish off, I stamped the Happy Christmas across the top and edged it with the fat end of a blue promarker.  Oh yes and there is a fair bit of Glamour Dust to highlight the branches of the trees, although it dies not really show up.
  I also have to acknowledge inspiration from Mandy Branston, who joined me in playing with the idea one evening. I had fun with it and I hope she did too.  I am entering this card into the Claritystamp Challenge for this months which is on the subject of trees.  You cannot have too many trees and there are so many ways to use them all.

PS.  If you are kind enough to want to leave me a message, please do not be put off if there is a box popping up with the Word Verification.  I believe that if you just ignore it and press Publish, it goes through anyway.

13 comments:

Di said...

Wow Maggie, this is really lovely - a perfect Christmas card!

Hugs

Di xx

Unknown said...

Fabulous card Maggie. Love the colours. Xxx

Mrs A. said...

your background worked beautifully with the limited supply of ink pads you had to hand. You have created a lovely woodland scene. hugs Mrs A.

Lisapmac said...

Love this Margaret, good luck in the challenge xx

Emma Burns said...

Love what you have done. Liking the colour shading. Hugs xxxxx

Emma Burns said...

Love what you have done. Liking the colour shading. Hugs xxxxx

Linda Page said...

Lovely card Margaret I thought I had left a comment last night but it mustve disappeared into the ether lol. To say you didn't have the right colours you have done a grand job I love the shading. Good luck and thanks for entering the Claritystamp challenge x

Naomi said...

Beautiful that combination of colours works beautifully. Thanks for entering the Challenge, best of luck.

Unknown said...

That's great as always love Joy xx

Jane said...

This looks great Maggie! Love the colours! X

Unknown said...

Lovely Christmas card and beautifully coloured.

Good luck in the Challenge!

PS Happy New Year too!

Emma Burns said...

CONGRATULATIONS ON MAKING THE TOP 5 at Claritystamp Challenge Blog. Very well done Margaret. I loved this piece and am so glad you were picked. Lets see what you come up with for this month...looking forward to it. xxxxx

Anonymous said...

I was over the moon to get one of these cards & can confirm it is stunning in real life. Am going to "un-Christmas" it & crop it down & frame it so I will have a MaggieC original. Xxx