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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.

Monday 7 March 2016

My Clarity Groovi pictures

A little while ago, Barbara Gray challenged those of us who already had the Groovi Starter kit to create cards that could be shown on Hochanda whenever she was using the kit.  For those who are now totally confused, Hochanda is a fairly new crafting shopping channel where you can watch loads of demonstrations from experienced and talented crafters.  The Groovi system from Clarity is a way for anyone to dip their toe into the beautiful art of parchment work

Like many others, I sent off a few cards for use on the programmes.  I was very happy when three of mine were shown on what turned out to be a really incredible weekend of sellouts.  This was the first one and is actually my favourite.  Reflections on parchment do take a little thought to get it all the right way round so I was pleased when I decided I had it right.


My second one was just a use of the landscape plate which comes as part of the Groovi Starter Kit, including the word boxes and the letters on the main Plate Mate.


My third one for now is a much smaller piece (a 6x6 card) and again uses only whatever comes with the Starter Kit.  The little house is just drawn using one of the straight lines on the landscape plate.  It was originally intended to just have a path to the edge of the lake, but I was not concentrating properly and went too far with one of the lines.  There was a fair bit of muttering went on there as it was the last bit of outlining I needed to do.  I left it for a while and then realised that I could use the same straight line and create a small jetty out into the lake.


All three of these pieces of parchment were mounted onto mirri card of different colours to reflect the colours back and intensify them.  The second and third one were also mounted using a corner punch.  You can, very rarely, use any form of glue on the back of parchment as it shows through, so brads or corner punches are a good alternative.  The first one, the reflections, was simply folded round the mirri card and glued at the back.

After doing the embossing on the back of each one, I added colour using soft waxy pencils, which are perfect.  My favourites are Caran D'Dache, but Fabel Castell are also excellent.  If you want a more modest priced set, Derwent also do a very good range and can be bought singly if you wish.

Hope you like these, and if you fancy having a go at this ancient craft, just have a go with the Clarity Groovi system, which cuts out the slow and laborious job of tracing the line art at the start.

5 comments:

JackieCou said...

Hi Margaret, these are lovely designs, it's surprising what we all did with just the start up kit isn't it? I'm still a bit nervous about my blog but someone asked to see a pic so I've taken the plunge and replied with the link!

I think the designs look good on mirri card too.I only sent the one off as I wasn't very confident. I have recently done a birthday card for John's cousin with the Groovi system and Mum's card for Mother's Day. Two in one week is a bit of a hit for me!

I like to see your coloured designs with your pens so hope there will be more! xx

Pen Sunshinepen said...

Evening

Wow what a fantastic time these last 24 hurt have been for Clarity. I just love your 3 cards. Thanks for the help about mounting.

Crafty hugs Pen x

Di said...

Well done Maggie! So lovely to see a lady (who certainly doesn't trumpet her work asking for accolades) doing so well! Am still toe-dipping with my Groovi stuff here - will get there in the end am sure :) Thanks for the inspiration and more confirmation that our Barb got it right!

Hugs

Di xx

Shaz in Oz.CalligraphyCards said...

Thanks so much for sharing your inspiration Maggie, I love the groovi images, great work on being showcased too, it really boosts you doesn't it??
Totally agree re Caran D'Ache, but must confess I also like my Prismacolors too, my sister wanted to upgrade ethers, so I inherited for a Birthday pressie her older very large set, think it's 144. Funny thing is sometimes you still want another colour. I often mix my media so that doesn't matter so much. My Caran D'Ache is an 80 set and can also be sued as water colours. Started like you with Derwents though, and have large set of them still, they are harder pencil though. Haven't tried the Faber Castell.

Hope you're well dear friend, nice to see you pop up in my sidebar
Shaz in oz.x

{Calligraphy Cards - Shaz in Oz}

Dora said...

stunning!! Great made.