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.

Pixie's Snippets Challenge 13

I have been late for everything this week, but I was determined to make it into the playground in time.  I cannot miss my go on the swings.  I will be out there to play when I have handed in my homework to Miss Pixie. 

Number one is a leftover from a sheet of Debbi Moore ladies.  The main card was sent out months ago and the oddments have been in my box since then.  I just added a bit of my lovely Martha Stewart glitter to her dress and jewels to give it a lift.  Sadly, as usual, you cannot see the glitter, but it is there.

Number two is one of a batch of toppers I printed out and took on holiday last year to colour in.  It is printed on Clarity shiny silk card, and then coloured with my very limited Promarkers.  Sometimes, when you have a small range of colours, you have to get even more creative with the way you shade.  I think I could make a better job of this one if I did it again now, but I am not going to waste this topper.  Once it was coloured and dry, I polished it with a piece of kitchen roll, then added Krylon gold leaf round the edge.  I mounted it on a piece of lilac coloured textured paper and then onto white pearlescent card.

I used the same textured paper to mat this topper.  The sparkly bits were from a kit which I bought several years ago, with lovely flowery cards, and these sparkly peeloffs and glittery borders, and metallic flowers.  all of the items were pretty in their own way, but no way did they go together, so they got put into a box to be thought about.  I had a small set of pearlescent offcuts from PDA Card, and I used some of these to mount up these peeloffs.  This one looks better in real life than it does in this picture.  The scanner seems to have changed all the colours slightly and reduced the impact of the peeloffs.


These next two are from the same set, but backed onto dark blue card (should have been black, but I only have one sheet left).  The base cards are rejects from Kanban, being badly folded so they all need some trimming to tidy them up, but they are lovely colours, and pearlescent too.

The last one is a combination of papers and techniques.  It is a floral corner stamp from Clarity, my favourite company.  Again, I printed it out, but on ordinary smooth card this time.  I think I used Promarkers again for colouring in, but I did it so long ago that I cannot remember for certain.  I did it while we were away in the caravan, so it could also have been water colour pencils or even paints.  I found it floating around today, but could not find a stamp to put into the centre, so I decided to use one of the left over tags from a card I showed you a couple of weeks ago.  Hope you like it.

Right, I am off now to finish potting up the second batch of strawberry plants and the garlic cloves in the greenhouse.  Then I will join you all in the playground.  We could play "What's the time, Mr Wolf?"  Anyone want to join me?  (Don't forget Rudolph Day tomorrow, 25th March.)

Latest cards - aging photos etc.

 This first card is from one of my own photos.  It is Archway House in Sherwood Forest, and it was a full colour photo.  I changed it to sepia (well, the program calls the colour tan - sepia was too bright), using Roxio Photosuite.  I printed it on to watercolour card, and then aged it further with Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Old Paper.  Apart from rubbing round the edges with the cut and dry foam, I also put a random light coating over most of the picture to make sure it did not look too new.  The coppery card it is mounted on is from the PDA Majestic and Stardream range - beautiful quality card and a joy to work with.

This second card was treated in the same way, and I think the steam engine fits this technique perfectly.  In this case, the topper is mounted on dark brown pearlescent card from PDA, and then onto a dark olive green card from the same range, which has a slight hint of gold in it too.

Both these cards were for birthday cards for friends, the second of which is a real steam enthusiast, so his picture is of a Great Western engine on the famous Lickey Incline, near to where we live.

I do like using my own photos where possible and altering them to create something different.  In fact, I am off now to have a real play, both with photos and with some brayering practice.  Have a lovely day, all of you.

I love learning new things

Thanks to Robyn Cockburn for her original design for this card.  I hope it lives up to her standards, but I did enjoy working it out.  This is for the Ruby Wedding of friends, so I added the 40 and the name tag, working in My Craft Studio with the new text feature, pricking them out using a grid to keep things straight, and then cutting them out by hand.  The flower in the middle  was coloured on the right side with Derwent water colour crayons and blended.  Then I followed a tip by Wendy Walters to burnish it with a large ball tool, and attached it using invisible thread - I do hate that stuff, the way it tangles.  The card is from the PDA Majestic and Stardream range.  This is the most advanced effort I have made with parchment, and although it takes so long, I felt a real sense of achievement in completing it.  I must say, though, I would not do parchment work cards for anyone I thought would not appreciate the time and effort that goes into it.

As as result of this, I now have a "little list" of new tools I really NEED.  They will have to go on my Christmas list for a couple of years, I think.

Celestial Cards

gold leaf, acetate

This is my first attempt at using gold leaf.  I have had it for some time, but kept putting off trying because it is so delicate.  The one real essential is talcum powder to keep your fingers from sticking to the delicate gold leaf.  This particular card used the heat treated gold leaf, which gives the dramatic flaring of colour.  The images on this card came from MCS Celestial Horizons CD, and were first flipped to print them on acetate.  Then the background and the topper were cut out and sprayed with adhesive (Crafters Companion Stick and Stay) before applying the gold leaf.  Both were mounted on holographic mirri card, and mounted on Majestic card from PDA Cards.  The Leo banner across the bottom was first printed on white card, then flipped to reverse it and printed again on acetate.  I ran the acetate through the Xyron and matched it up carefully with the card version, which makes the words really pop out.  You could add tiny gems to pick out the stars in the constellation, but I felt that the gold leaf was enough to add drama.  It is quite a simple card to make, but does rely on good straight cutting and careful matching up of words and edges.

June 12th 2010 - Use your brain power and time to save money

This card is an example of achieving an effective card without spending a fortune in money, just time and thought. This is one of Joanna Sheen's images, really clear and sharp. I saw it demonstrated on TV, printing on to expensive gold paper, and thought it was so good that I wondered if I could do something on the same lines. In my cupboard, I had some plain gold printable paper, so I tried printing on that on best quality print, with quite good results. Then I sprayed it with 3 separate layers of Spray and Shine, which really made the tiger pop out brilliantly. The Happy Birthday sentiment on the front was printed on vellum on text print, and instantly embossed with gold. That way you can choose exactly what you say and the design of the font etc to personalise the card completely. Both the image and the sentiment are mounted on gold mirri card, and then onto the base card from the Stardream and Majestic range from PDA Cards.

Today's Tip: At some time, you will almost certainly start on a project which goes wrong. don't bin it or destroy it yet. Put it to one side for a while, then have another look. If you still cannot see a way to recover, keep putting it away and going back to it. It is very rare that a project is totally unrecoverable, and inspiration will hit at some stage and give you something to be proud of.

Use your own photos

This card was very simple once I got a decent photo, which was just being in the right place at the right time. The bumble bee was so co-operative. The photo was matted and layered onto silver mirri card and then onto a backing paper. The backing paper was created from the original photo, by selecting a small area, and blurring it in my graphics program. The base card (Stardream and Majestic range from PDA Cards) was creased and folded to form the main card. The base was covered with the backing paper, the image mounted. The sentiment is matted and layered in the same way as the main image, with the text coloured to match the purple of the crocuses. It is fixed with silicone glue, with a thin layer at the front and built up at the back to create an angle.