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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 31 January 2016

Clarity Stamp challenges for January - "Say it with flowers" and Barbara's Calendar Challenge - "A New Day is Dawning"


The main Clarity Challenge for January is "Say it with Flowers".  This is a design I have played with before but it is always such a fresh design with loads of white space.  For those who want to know, it is a one layer card.  

The first thing is to lay two pieces of masking tape across the card, and make sure you can keep the top and bottom completely protected from any ink.  Then ink up your chosen design and stamp it randomly between the two pieces of tape.  

Remove the tape and use a thin black pen to draw lines to enclose your design, either with a ruler or freehand, whichever is easier for you.  Then colour in the flowers with coloured pencils.

The sentiment is overstamped, first in black and then slightly offset in colour to give a shadow.

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The second challenge is one from Barbara herself, to recreate this month's picture from her calendar.  January's design is a reflection technique, using the Gelli Plate to stamp the reflection itself.  Rather than go into how to achieve it, I would rather refer you to Barbara's own instructions on the calendar, or her YouTube videos.

I was short of one stamp, as you might see, the birds in flight, so I drew those in with a dark pencil crayon.  When I trimmed the large piece down I turned the offcut into a potential tag, drawing the birds in again.  After brushing brown and grey ink around the edges to make a vignette, I liked the effect of mounting it direct on the base card, rather than hunting for another piece of card to fit. 

 
I do not like throwing card away so this seemed a good use of this small piece.


14 comments:

Helen said...

love them Maggie!

crafty said...

I like this style of card love the flower stamp you used good luck in the clarity challenge xx

Unknown said...

Love the card Maggie, it's such a clean design and I will be using this myself! I haven't had a go at the shadow technique but will do as soon as I can sort out all my stuff in this untidy room of mine. I was quite pleased to just manage to enter the Say it With Flowers challenge though. Thanks for blogging. Jackie x x

Jomada-Dawn said...

Lovely "say it with flowers" entry - this is a very stylish design and one that I'll have to try a little more. Thanks for the tip about overstamping the greeting - looks very good.

Your calendar entry looks good too.

Good luck in both challenges.

carols handmade cards said...

Both of your cards are lovely I like the floral one. Good luck in both of the challenges. Xxx

Unknown said...

Love that birthday card Maggie. Such fabulous colours. Great take on the calendar challenge too. Love the tag. Xx

crafty said...

Good reflection nicely coloured good luck in the clarity calender challenge xx

shazsilverwolf said...

Lovely Marg. I do so like the first technique- I have some Christmas cards on the go doing a similar thing, and getting a tag from leftovers is always a bonus. Speak Soon, Lots of Love, Shaz xxx

Lynne Bishop said...

Both of your cards are wonderful Maggie. I love the floral one, so clean and fresh. Your calendar challenge is brilliant, your idea of creating the tag is very clever. Well done and Good Luck in both challenges. xx

Linda Page said...

Great entries for both challenges Maggie. Good luck and thanks for entering xx

Amanda Openshaw said...

Great cards Maggie. I love the masking technique too on the first card and use it a lot myself. The panel makes the card look really elegant I think. Good luck in both challenges.
Hugs
Amanda xx

Shelagh Metselaar said...

The white space so cleverly gives emphasis to the stamped flowers. Best wishes in this month's challenge. ;~}

Emma Burns said...

Love em both Margaret. Excellent work from you once again. Best of luck to you. Xx

Naomi said...

Maggie you have been busy, lovely panel card. Your calender challenge is super and love the tag too.