WOYWW 176 - Not a lot to show

If you have arrived at this post by wandering round the internet and are wondering why on earth I should be showing you an almost empty desk, it is due to a lovely lady by the name of Julia who started it all.   WOYWW stands for What's on My Workdesk Wednesday, and is regularly visited by around 200 each week, so there are plenty of desks to drool over, gasp at in horror and generally mooch around.   There is not a lot to be shown this week on my desk, partly because I have just finished one project and about to start another.  Another reason is that a lot of the things I have on the go are destined for publication in future weeks, either as a new member of the DT for Craft A Scene, some things for other challenges, or for friends later in the month.

I can show you this one card which I did for a Clarity Stamps Club challenge for August.    As far as I can remember, the brief was to use a carol, a star and gold and black.The carol was printed in reverse on acetate (if you don't print in reverse, it will backwards on the finished  image), then I sprayed the back with adhesive before applying gilding flakes.  Once it was burnished, I mounted it on gold mirri card, the on to black Clarity card.  

The star was a Clarity stamp, which I printed twice on to the reverse of the gold mirri card,  I cut one out, following the lines exactly, while the second was cut oversize, so that I could decoupage them ti give a bit of dimension.    The three wise men were also from Clarity, but were stamped using second generation ink to avoid slipping on the pearlescent card, then I brayered over them to attempt a look of desert sand.  I followed the theme onto the insert, continuing the carol, star and wise men.  Again I used the brayer around the edges. 

If you have seen enough here, do go over to Julia to  some of the other desks on show this week.  Please leave us comments, we love to read them, and we will come over and visit you in return.  See you soon.

Delayed anniversary card

As some of you may already know, Shaz Silverwolf is our daughter's mother-in-law.  She and her husband went off to Paris last week for their anniversary celebration.  I am not jealous  ... not one bit ....just rather a lot!  I spent so much time there when I was a lot younger, and have lots of good memories and so many photos.  The thought of Paris brings back smells - fresh bread,among many -and memories of friends I have not seen since I left school.  I won't tell you how long ago that was.

Anyway, back to the card.  I had already almost finished a card for Shaz and Doug before I heard where they were going.  Then I knew I had to change tack, and went hunting through all my old slides to find what I thought would go together.  Most of them date back to a trip one Easter.  A group of us from our school had joined a much larger party of people from schools all over the Midlands to the Lycee Lakanal just outside Paris.  We had lessons in the morning and then were supposed to go on organised trips in the afternoons.  We must have been most annoying to the organisers as my friends and I used to "get lost" somewhere in the Metro and go off and do our own thing.  We always turned up at the right time back at the Lycee in time for the evening meal, so in the end, they gave up trying to hang on to us.

Obviously, one of our visits was to the Tour Eiffel.  This photo is not doctored.  The light was so incredible and dramatic.  Needless to say, we had a tremendous thunder storm just after it was taken, by which time we were in the lift going to the top of the tower.  In those days, you could go higher than you are allowed now so the view was phenomenal.  

This second picture was taken looking towards the Place de la Concorde, and is showing signs of age, turning slightly mauve-ish., but I quite like the effect.  

These are the two photos I chose to work with, mounting them digitally across each other, then mounting the whole thing onto black card, and filling the rest of the border in with black Promarker and ruler.  The  background paper was created using the Splodge mat.  I used three toning colours, to reflect the colours of the photos, and blended then as I wanted on the mat, then used the brayer to transfer the colour in three blended stripes to a sheet of Clarity coated paper.  I cut a length of cling film, misted it with water and scrunched it down on the top of the coated paper, and scrunched it a bit more, left it to dry, and then buffed it up with kitchen roll.  

Once the background was dry, I moved the topper round on top to decide where it looked best, cut the paper to fit an A4 piece of white pearlescent card and glued it down with Crafters Companion Stick and Stay.  I added the topper with Pinflair glue to allow just that little extra bit of maneuverability.  To finish off, I coloured a peel-off sentiment with the Dufex pens, and added two little groups of gem hearts.  

I would suggest that you might like to slip over to Shaz's to see some of her photos and hear what she has been up to on their trip and on her return via Dover.

Craft A Scene - Majestic Mountains 1

Hi folks, this is my first post as a newbie member of  the Craft A Scene  DT, and the brief was to create a project with the theme of Majestic Mountains.  This is my first offering, and sent my brain into overload, trying to decide how best to achieve my ideas.

Recipe:-

Supersmooth white card

Stampscape mountain stamp

Clarity stamps - castle, moonshadow,and small fir tree

Hobby Art stamp - bird

Adirondacks - Pitch Black, Slate, Cloudy Blue, Juniper

Big and Juicy - Sunset

Speedball brayer

Splodge Mat

Make up sponges

Derwent watercolour pencils

The first problem was to find the right mountain image.  I wanted a whole range of mountains, so I did quite a lot of masking and then stamping over the masks with the Stampscape stamp to achieve multiple peaks.   I create the masks by stamping several times on to the sticky edge of a Post-It-Note, then cutting out as many as comfortable with the scissors - after all, cutting out is the pain so it makes sense to cut as many as possible in one go.  (Cut them so that they are fractionally smaller than the original image, which helps to avoid a white halo around your stamped image later in the process)  

As with all stamping, I stamped the front image first, then masked that off and stamped again in a different position.  I repeated that process until I had the mix I liked.  I used Adirondack Pitch Black for all the stamping, and for the mountains, which I wanted to be slightly faded  into the background, I stamped first on scrap paper before doing the final image.  I had also cut out a copy of the mountains on a piece of copy paper, and used that as a mask while I brayered the sky.  At this point, I dug out my trusty Hobby Art stamp of the bird of prey, and put that in just above the mountains, making sure it was a good dark image - first generation ink - as it needed to look as though it was in the foreground.

The sky was the point at which my wonderful new Splodgeaway Mat came into its own with a vengeance.  I masked the mountains, the bird and the sun, and started with Cloudy Blue on the brayer.  I kept going back to the mat to reload the brayer until I had the level of colour I needed.  Then I added a little purplish colour from the Big and Juicy in pad in the corners. 

The castle stamp is from the Clarity Stamp range, which as quality photo polymer stamps, makes it possible to place them exactly in the right place.   I was going to place it on the edge of a lake, but I did not like the lake when I had done it, so I just chopped that bit off.  Then it was back to Clarity again for the small fir tree, which I used to try to blend the mountains and the lowland together without too much of a hard edge.  I used the tree with mostly second and third generation ink so tha I got some sort of idea of perspective, pushing some right back into the background.  I also masked the base of the tree with a piece of copy paper so that I finished with trees of differing sizes.

To ground the trees and the castle, I used  Adirondack Juniper on a make up sponge just to dab colour very lightly.  Yellow on a make up sponge was also dabbed lightly for the sun.  The shadow round the moon was another Clarity stamp, a very useful one.

Once all the inks were thoroughly dry, I used a green Derwent watercolour pencil, just as a dry pencil, to add a little colour to mountain meadows.  The only other addition I made was a bit of glitter, with a Quickie glue pen, allowed to dry and then sprinkled with Martha Stewart fine glitter, just to highlight areas of the mountains and the castle.  As usual, the glitter does not show up on the photo, but it is there, honestly.

To finish the card, I trimmed the topper carefully, watching to see whether I was happy with each cut, and mounted it onto black card with a very thin border, then onto an A4 piece of white pearlescent card.  I was not sure if I need to do more, but when my husband said he really liked it, I decided it was time to leave well alone.

I had a quick look at the card from another of the DT, Sally , who, quite independently, has used the same buzzard image from Hobby Art.  Great minds think alike, but still produce very different results.  Nice one, Sally.

I hope you like it as much as my husband did.  I am looking forward to showing you more of my projects during my time on the DT.  Come and join us over at Craft A Scene and see what you can do.  Can't wait to see your pieces of work.  We have a different theme each month, so come on and have a go.

PS My  husband read this post and pointed out that there is a language problem between the UK/Europe and our friends in North America concerning the name "buzzard".  If you want to read the info for yourself, just go to the Britannica version.  The buzzard Sally and I have used in our cards is the Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) and is not found in North America.  OK, that is the end of the lesson for today.

.

WOYWW - 175

Still reasonably tidy for the second week in a row.  I have been very strict with myself and tidied up after every session or when each piece of work is finished.  I am sorry that there is not a lot I can show you this week on my desk.  That is because I am working on my contribution to the Craft A Scene Design Team for this month, and they must remain hidden until they go up on the website later this month.  I was very proud to be accepted onto the DT and I just hope that my offerings will be good enough to give others ideas on what they can do with what they have.

My desk is set ready to get busy tomorrow, hopefully, on my second project, so the brayer is out and the Splodge mat.  The papers are a mixture of masks and photos that I am turning into line art to use as digi stamps.  They are my own photos so there is no problem with copyright as that all belongs to me anyway.

This week has been a time for losing things and finding them.  There was something I had lost last week, but I cannot remember what that was.  Anyway, I found it.  Then I moved my Melt Dust and the papers to go with them from the sensibly labelled drawer to what I foolishly thought was a better place.  You've guessed it - I lost them all.  Then I needed my posh tracing paper to do the line art from the photos.  Could I find it - nah!  However, hunting for that, I found the Melt Dust stuff and more I had forgotten all about.  I also found my A4 plastic sleeves, and my cello bags.

Then I needed to move my shrink plastic, and there was the tracing paper.  Result!  The only problem now is has anyone seen my mini labels, the ones I picked up and moved yesterday?

Do share tales of what you have lost and found recently.  Those of us who get together with Julia at What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday would love to hear your stories.  See you over there.  Do join us.

Hobby Art - Brilliant company!

I know I have already shown you these cards, but I do have a valid reason for showing them again.  The stamps are from a British company called Hobby Art, who produce a lot of scene sets of stamps.  They are small stamps and excellent for mixing with other stamps to create pictures.  So far, I only have two of their sets, the Countryside set and the Tuscany set, but I really like them.

Consider my horror yesterday when I went to the box to dig them out and found that they had almost "melted".  I was desperate to use the bird from the Countryside set, and did just manage to keep it in one piece long enough to get an adequate image from it, before it fell into several pieces.  Looking at the others in the two sets, they were all falling to pieces.

I immediately contacted Hobby Art and explained what I had found.  I had a very swift reply from them, in which they said they were replacing both sets straight away.  There had been a problem in the manufacture some time ago, which had only just started to show up, so they could not contact me.

We often moan and complain about poor service, and poor quality, so I think it is very important to shout about really good service and quality when we come across it.  I was very impressed with the friendly and helpful manner from Hobby Art, and I will definitely buy from them again, and would recommend them to all of you.  Thank you, Jenny, for your help.

Lesson time!

This is the table ready for action, with all the stamps I thought we would need laid out, all ready mounted (I do listen to Barbara Gray), ink pad in place, copy paper for practice and design, and baby wipe box for immediate stamp cleaning.  Organised or what.  Out of sight to my right is the big grey box with everything else needed for later stages.

Still fairly tidy, having got to the next stage.  We have worked through the copy paper bit - I would have liked to do more of that really, but I wanted to make sure my friend had a finished card to take home with her.  In this shot, she has transferred her design to the Clarity silk card, made sure it was dry, and is now colouring in with Promarkers.  She does not possess as much stuff as I do, so I very deliberately limited the equipment to the bare minimum.  For example, I only gave her 6 Promarkers and four ink pads, including the black for stamping (see the list below for our list of things).  The mauvy stuff is my new low tack tape (I had run out of tape), which is holding the Clarity card onto the backing of copy paper, and also giving a sharp clean border.

This is the final result.  We brayered the sky with Adirondack Cloudy Blue and just a touch of a more purply hue from a Big and Juicy - her first attempt at that technique, which went remarkably well, partly thanks to the Splodge mat (I love that thing).  Because she does not possess a brayer or a Splodge mat, the ground and the hills were done in a very low tech way, with a torn piece of paper and a make up sponge using Adirondack Juniper.  The hops would have benefited from a little more time spent getting a bit more depth and shape, but we needed more time and different lessons for that.  The background was created using the cling film technique on Clarity silk paper, and the Cloudy Blue and Juniper so that everything matched.

For a first go at most of the techniques, I think she did remarkably well, and should be very proud of her achievement.  It did help that my black ink pad is starting to run out so the stamps did not slip too much on the shiny surface, but she did well with the tree shadows too, using second and even third generation ink to get the faded look.

This last photo proves that it does not take too long to completely lose a large green cutting mat.  I suspect it will take me most of the morning, at the very least, to sort everything back into the right place and then I can finish my card (on the table).  Then I must find that melt dust, and all the other things people have asked me to look for, like tweezers and washi tape (What is that - must look that up).

I think I was reasonably well organised for this first attempt at teaching these techniques (probably more organised than I was when I was teaching full time), and I was very pleased with the results my friend got.  We had a three hour session, with a drink break, and managed to create a completed card (apart from gluing the topper into place which she will do at home).  Well done, girl!

What we used:-

copy paper

Clarity silk card

Clarity silk paper

Clarity Oast House Kit with trees from the Waymarker set, and birds from the Harbour Kit

Adirondack - Pitch Black, Cloudy Blue, Juniper, Stonewashed

Big and Juicy - Soothing Sunset

Promarkers - Satin, Sandstone, Blush, Soft Green, Pastel Yellow, Lime Zest, with Slate to do the edges

Speedball brayer

Splodge mat (12x12)

Mist spray

Make up sponges

Kitchen roll

Cling film

Post it notes for making masks

Crafters Companion Stick and Stay

Pinflair Glue Gel

My Beautiful Tree

This tree is the one I can see from where I sit in my craft room.  It is a liquidamber and is a very good guide to the seasons.  Normally, it is all brilliant red by now and starting to drop its leaves.  in fact, the last couple of years, it has turned completely by the end of August.  This year, however, it has only just started to go reddish, so autumn is at least one month later than last year.  I will take other photos as things change and post the best.  How is your Autumn going, or Spring if you are down under.

WOYWW - 174

I cannot remember when I last saw the whole of my cutting mat, but it is a long time.  Not only that but I have actually put away most of the stuff that usually lives there, in fairly sensible places, although I have now lost one complete batch of melt dust. and the papers that go with it.  I do have faith that it will turn up.  Anyway, this clear state of affairs did not last very long, as I now have all the things I need to teach a friend on Thursday.

I now have a large tray in situ, containing all the things I need (I hope), but she is coming to me son it will not take too long to find anything I have forgotten - as long as I do not need the melt dust.  These photos were taken about 17 minutes after midnight so I think they count as Wednesday.  We shall be working with the Clarity Oast House kit, and trying different methods of colouring and creating the background.  If you look, you can see my crib sheet that I have worked with today to give us a start.  I was not too sure about the correct colour of hops so I downloaded a picture  and printed it for our use. 

You might also pick out the ink pads ready and the Splodge mat for use with the brayer.  I also dug out just 6 Promarkers.  I want to keep the palette simple and very limited.  We shall also have a go with a make up brush, and sponges to get the background right.  I hope it all works out and my friend has fun, which is what it should be all about. 

I am off to bed now, but I hope to meet you all at Julia's Place for a coffee and a nice piece of cake maybe a bit later, and a wander round to see what you are all doing this week.  See you soon.  xx

Splodge mat again - I love it

I am having a great time at the moment, playing with the brayer and my new Splodge mat.  The mat is so good at saving inks and allowing the brayer to produce much better blending.  I spoke in my last post about leaving the ink on the mat overnight and being able to use it again in the morning.  This is exactly what I did on this card, and the inks were perfectly useable, just as if they had come straight from the ink pad.

Recipe:-

Clarity silk card

Clarity silk paper

Adirondack ink pads - Juniper, Cloudy Blue, Stonewashed, and Pitch Black

Big and Juicy - one with a good sun yellow in it.

Clarity stamps - Small Village Set, tree from Cottage Set

Digi "stamp" of church

 Limited palette of Promarkers

Kitchen roll

cling film

Speedball brayer

moon mask punched from a post it note

I needed a stamp of a church and was quite shocked to find I had not got one anywhere, so I managed to borrow the large church stamp made by Clarity (I have now ordered my own).  I stamped it onto good white card, scanned it into the computer, and reduced the size digitally to get one that would go with the mini village set.  I had to work out exactly where I wanted it on the card before printing it onto the Clarity silk card, and leaving it overnight to dry thoroughly.  Then I just needed to place all the other images where they looked good (I did try it all on copy paper first).

I loaded the brayer with Cloudy Blue and with the moon mask in place, put the sky in.  Then I darkened it slightly by changing to Stonewashed and repeating it.  The hills and mounds were done using a randomly torn piece of paper, and a make up sponge to apply the Juniper, trying to ground the church, the trees and cottages as I went.   I removed the mask and added a little yellow to the sun with a sponge.

Once the ink was totally dry, I added a little colour with Promarkers, keeping to a very limited palette of colours.  The edge was done with a ruler, upside down, and a Slate Promarker.

The backing paper was created with the brayer, Juniper and Stonewashed.  I added two stripes, overlapping and random to a piece of Clarity silk paper.  Then all I needed was to get a large piece of cling film, spraying it with a mister and scrunching it down (wet side down) on to the inked paper, scrunching it round a little to blend the stripes.  Then it went on another surface to dry naturally (That surface was another pile of things to sort out - not the clear tidy cupboard it should have been).  After that, both the topper and the backing paper had a good polish up with a piece of dry kitchen roll to bring up the shine, before mounting it all on a plain white card.

Like most of my cards I can see loads of ways to improve this card, but it is all part of a leaving curve, and good fun.  Hope you like it, and if you want to see the expert at these techniques, just watch Barbara Gray - she is a legend.

Splodge mat, brayer and Clarity

 This is my second post of the day.  If you want to see what is on my desk today, just scroll down to my WOYWW post below.

After watching Barbara Gray using and demonstrating the Splodge mat, I decided it was a no brainer - I needed it to save me money.  It might seem strange to spend money to save money but I reckon this bit of kit will do just that.  I know you can run the excess ink off the brayer onto copy paper and even use that as backgrounds for future projects, but it does not work if you need to blend two colours together to get the shade you need.  The Splodge mat does work for that.  

This card was done following Barbara's classroom teaching, with three stripes of different colour.  I didn't have the pinky colour I needed, but I was able to blend two colours from a Big and Juicy without damaging the ink pad.  The other big advantage showed itself when I was interrupted and had to leave the project overnight.  I did not have time to clean the mat, which worked out really well.  When I came back to it the next day, I tried the ink left on the mat and it was still useable and I did two more toppers and an insert, without going back to the mat.

The stamps are Clarity - the Birdcage set, which are very adaptable.  I thought very hard before buying yet another set of stamps, but these are really worth the outlay with so many elements to play with.  I stamped with Adirondack black onto Clarity silk card, and coloured with Promarkers.  I used the slate Promarker to draw the dark edge around the topper, with the ruler upside down so that the chisel end of the marker could slide tightly underneath and stay straight.  Once it was dry, I polished the whole thing with a piece of kitchen paper to bring up the shine.

The background of the card was achieved with the same three colours in random stripes on Clarity paper.  Then I sprayed a piece of clingfilm, and scrunching it down onto the top of the brayering and moving it around a little, before leaving it to dry naturally.  I did two backgrounds this way and I really love the "watermark" effect it produced..

I had three different toppers and two backgrounds to choose from.  In the end, I chose my third favourite topper and married it up with the background I had not really liked to begin with.  The background was used as a wrap on a piece of Centura Pearl (glued with Crafters Companion Stick and Stay), with the topper glued in the same way.

The insert used similar techniques, and the same set of stamps.  The supersmooth white paper was lightly brayered with the ink left on the Splodge mat, and the wording was computer generated - my writing is dreadful.

Just a little warning if you treat yourself to a Splodge mat - clean it with water only.  NEVER use baby wipes.

WOYWW 173

I have been a very bad blogger in recent months.  I have very good resolutions to do it each week, but they fail, mainly due to life.  I need extra days in the week to keep up.  Anyway, this is my workdesk this morning.  I actually tidied up after my last piece of work was finished - shock, horror, that is unusual, but I assure you I am feeling quite well (apart from severe stiffness following yesterday's visit to the chiropractor). 

I said I tidied up but I did leave a couple of things out as they will be needed in today's project.  After hearing so much about the Splodge Away mat and watching Barbara Gray using it, I fell and got my own.  I love it!  (Julia, I hope you do not think this is advertising - I certainly do not profit from this apart from saving my ink and my copy paper.)  I loaded ink from the brayer onto the mat, and did the background for the card, which was great.  Then I was disturbed so left the whole lot just sitting there overnight.  When I went back the next day, I thought I would just try to see if the ink still on the mat was useable - it was!  I did another card topper and two inserts with what was left - a real saving on ink and effort.  It also meant I did not have to try to recreate the colour I had mixed first.

By the way, that is not chocolate ice cream on my desk, just the container I saved and now use for the bits and pieces I keep losing on my desk, such as the glue runner, pencil, craft blade, my most used punches.  You know the sort of things I mean, the general dross most of us have hanging around.  Just noticed that my blade is not in it, so failure once more.

I am hoping to keep my desk fairly clear for at least a couple of weeks as a friend is coming round for a lesson or two on stamping techniques, and we need the maximum room in which to work.  Can I keep it up?  Time and future photos will tell.

I hope this post is going to work as it is the first time I have used the new "improved" blogger layout, which I don't like very much.  Anyway, I am off now to see what everyone else is doing this week at Julia's place (by the way, I have added Julia's blog to the list of best crafting blogs on the latest voting thingies).  Are you going to come along with me to see everyone else?  You can bring your mug of coffee or whatever else you choose.

Clarity Challenge for July

This is the first of the Clarity Challenges I have taken part in, being a very new member of the Clarity club.  The brief was to use the Stampstamps, birds and some shrink plastic.

This pushed me to actually buy the Stampstamps, which I had been looking at for some time.  The picture were all bird pictures I had on the computer anyway,  I just measured them carefully so that they would fit inside the stamps when they arrived, and laid them on top of each other, using My Craft Studio to do the computer manipulation.  Then it was a case of positioning the stamps over the top of the pictures with the aid of masks to get the right overlay.   It did take six attempts to get it about right.   The Queen's head was taken from a real stamp and enhanced a little to make it more gold (to fit in with the gold medals achieved at the Olympics)

I used plain but smooth white card, then I brayered with Adirondacks to create the shadowing and shading around the edges.  I still need a lot more practice to get that right in the future.  Still, that is loads more time to play - goodie, goodie, lots more fun.

This was my very first attempt at shrink plastic and I was very wary of the technique and decided to follow Barbara Gray's advice and do it in the oven.  I used the Kingfisher stamp kit - the branch, the leafy twig and the bird itself.  I stamped the image with Stazon and left it to dry.  Then I coloured it with Derwent watercolours and Derwent Metallic watercolours.  The cutting out was a little challenging but worthwhile taking the time.  I put the resulting bits into a foil takeaway tray, quite a deep one, lined with baking parchment and then put it into my top oven (not the fan oven) for about 30 seconds until it had done its shrinking work.

After I had mounted the central topper on the square card, I used Pinflair Gel to attach the kingfisher and the branch at the top.  It may not be perfect, but I was quite pleased with this first attempt, and I hope it does justice to Barbara Gray and her wonderful stamps.

WOYWW - 168

Oh dear, it is worse than ever.  Never mind the push back or anywhere else.  The mountains are about to fall.  Added to that is the fact I have now lost so many stamps amongst the detritus, so a good sort out and put away is called for.

This is the tidiest bit - it gets worse.  Apart from the panic to get this month's cards done, I suddenly realised we are about to go on holiday and I have a mountain of  cards to do for early September, a load of sewing to shorten trousers for Geoff (denim jeans), baking to take away ..... and I WANT TO PLAY with my stamps.  That is one reason you can see my total stock of Adirondacks on show with a couple of Big and Juicys thrown in, post it notes with stamping masks cut out and a lot more.

Just turn to the left a little and it gets worse.  I won't bore you with a list of what you can find there, and just let you browse for yourself.  Just be careful - it might all fall down.  I will just point out the camera battery in the foreground.  You might know that as soon as I get my camera out to take a picture, the battery died.

In case you are wondering why I am showing you the shameful mess in which I was working (playing) yesterday, just take some time to pop over to Julia's place  where you will find loads of other desks to browse through each Wednesday.  I have been missing in action for a couple of months, due to lack of time.  I felt it was unfair to accept lovely comments from others when I could not find the time to return the visits.  Hopefully, things have calmed down a little and I will certainly do my best to get round as many desks as possible this week.

Pretty Petals - Homework Part 2

These cards were done in a similar way to the previous post, using the Clarity Pretty Petals Kit.  Instead of using an ink pad to colour in the petal shapes, I did them with several layers of Sakura pens to give them more of a shimmer.  I thought it suited the butterflies to be glittery too, and I enjoyed getting the glitter pens out again after forgetting them for so long.  

The sentiment is another Clarity stamp.  I found several of them that I really liked in the half price sale, and this is one of them.

 This last card is actually an easel card.  Like all the others, it was done on ordinary white card, but with this last one, I gave it a good dose of Crafters companion Spray and Shine after I had finished.  I did brayer the corners lightly to give it a halo effect before spraying.  Then I mounted it on black card and then onto the gold coloured card to match the flower. 

I was quite chuffed to see all my Homework cards shown on this month's Classroom show and to hear Barbara's comments about them.  It did give me quite a lift, so thank you, Barbara.

Pretty Petal Kit - Homework

I actually managed to get some homework cards done for the Clarity Stamps Pretty Petals Kit.  When I first saw this set, I knew it had lots of possibilities, so I finally bought the bullet and ordered it.  When it arrived, I was a little snowed under and did not have the time to play that I would have wished for.  For those of you who have not seen this set, it consists of 7 petal shapes, two of which are outlines, and a large butterfly (suitable for using with fusible film and fibre). 

This first card was done with one of the Big and Juicy ink pads.  The petals were just stamped as the border on the left, using the dotted border and the solid filler.  When they were dry, I brushed them over with Irridescent medium.  The humming bird is another Clarity stamp I found in a shop ages ago, and it just seemed to fit this project, although it took two days to find it.  Needless to say, it was exactly where it should have been, six inches from my hand.  Once it was dry, I used the Promarker thin black to outline it.

The second card also used the Pretty Petals, and was stamped with another Big and Juicy.  I used the solid outliner and infilled with the solid filler petal for the leaves.  I used the thin Promaker to draw in the stem and the leaf veins.  The flower itself needed some masking with post it notes to fit the petals together.  The sepals (the outside green bits - I had to look up the right name) were filled in with the dotty petal shape,  I actually used a purple Sakura pen over the top of the purple ink on the petals.

I will show the others I did later this week - when I can find what I have done with the photos.

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I love this stamp

This card is really a change ton the one I posted earlier, but I needed to add a bit more to it for our grandson.  All but one of these stamps are from the Clarity range.  The odd one out is the Happy Birthday and it shows.  The stamp nearly tore in two when I tried to remove it from the acetate. 

I found the spaniel in the 1/2 price sale at Clarity and knew I had a good use for it.  Again I used the Vintage Photo Distress ink pad, and coloured it in with a water brush.  The ball was sponged through a punched circle with a make-up sponge.  I used a larger sun/moon when I was brayering the background.  The tree was one of the split trees, and I used one of the leaf sets to decorate it (not to mention to cover up a couple of ink marks which appeared because I failed to take enough care with dirty fingers).  I did try to create a cloudy effect but that did not work, probably because it was just ordinary card rather than Clarity card.  The birds were from the Harbour kit, and stamped with second generation ink, as was the tree and twigs.

I might be in trouble for this card as our grandson desperately wants a dog, which is not a real possibility.  He will have to make do with coming to ours and walking one of our dogs. 

Quality counts!

I decided it was time to get back to the blog again, just as our internet access vanished,  Virgin had just told us that our speed was being updated to double speed, then ..... nothing.  Still, it is working again for the moment. 

Unfortunately, I could not upload my entry for Less is More as the cut off time had been and gone.  It was supposed to be a flat card with Fur or Feathers. 

The card will not be wasted as I know exactly who to send it to.  The spaniel was from the Clarity Stamp sale, and, as we have two working cocker spaniels, I had to have it.  I already had the tree which is another from Clarity.  I stamped the dog with Vintage Photo Distress ink, and used a water brush to shade it in.   Then I masked it off, and stamped the tree into the background.  The ball was done using a hole punched into.a small scrap of paper, a make up sponge and the Vintage Photo again.  That makes it easy to shade the ball to give it shape. 

The sentiment is just right for the look you get from a spaniel, but the quality of that stamp leaves a lot to be desired.  It was from a set of free see-through stamps I acquired, and partially tore through as I removed it from the backing.  I have been used to the sturdy firm quality of Clarity Stamps and treated in the same way, with dire results.  It was also much harder to get a satisfactory image when stamping with it.  Clarity may not be the cheapest, but they are definitely the best I have used.    Quality counts!

Quality is what I was thinking about when I dug out my elderly sewing machine out to do a bit of mending (it was bought new by my father for Mum (with all the attachments, and I persuaded her that she needed a new one when I got married - the new one was never as good or reliable).  It is a vintage Singer, made in 1949 in Kilbowie, Clydebank, weighs a ton, and just works.  It is electric with a knee lever to operate it.  All we have ever done to it is a bit of light cleaning and a little lubrication - oh and Geoff made up a new power cord when the original perished. 

However, today things went a little awry when the drive belt started throwing bits of green rubber at me, and the speed dropped drastically.  A new belt is required - horror.  Not bad, though, when you consider the original has lasted from 1949 till today.  and Singer still make belts for this machine.  As I said, quality counts.  When new, it cost the huge sum of £17-7s-6d, when an average month's wages would have been around £40.  (There is one on Ebay at the moment for £85) .  Hopefully, the new belt will arrive in a couple of days and I can get going again with this family heirloom.  (I bet the new belt does not last as long)

Although I have not blogged for ages, I have dipped in and out of many  blogs to see what you are all doing - some lovely work out there on show.

I am also entering this card into Pixie's Snippets this week - after all, the card was free old stock, and the one stamp was free with a magazine ages ago.  So, Di, please will you let me into the playground next week.  (I have missed this week).   I miss having my go on the swings.

Blooming corners again

I really love this Blooming Corner kit from Clarity, and keep finding new uses for it.  I needed a wedding card to send to America, so it had to be thin, but still be stylish.  I found the photo on the groom's Facebook site and used Roxio Photosuite to cut the circle out and fade the edges.  After printing it on to Clarity card, I stamped the images around it.  Promarkers, several layers of them to get the density of colour, gave me the shades I wanted.  Once it was cut to size, I brayered the edge in yellow to shade it in.

Matting and layering was done using purple sparkly card and pearlescent white.  I chose not to put a sentiment on the front so that it could be framed afterwards if desired.  All the writing goes on the insert, together with a border of stamped flowers and a brayered edge.

I hope this card does justice to Barbara Gray's stamps.

You may have noticed that I have not been blogging much lately.  I still love you all, but I feel it is unfair for you to take the time to leave me lovely comments when I have not even managed to answer some of yours from two or three weeks ago.  Once I have dealt with my backlog of cards, potting up plants, planting out and generally dealing with life, not to mention rotten and unreliable internet access I will be back.  I have still been looking at some of your lovely work and desks.  Having just looked at my filthy, glittery, mica covered keyboard, I see another urgent job to do.  See you all soon.

WOYWW - 156 Back from holiday

Thank you to those who emailed me to see if I was well, because I had been missing in action for a couple of weeks.  Your thoughts are so welcome and appreciated.  I am absolutely fine.  My reasons for being missing were holiday, a week in Norfolk.  Whoever decided we should travel on a Friday wanted shooting - I am sure it was not me.  The traffic was dreadful, especially around Norwich, with so many changes of lane and islands to negotiate, especially with a caravan on the back.  Our longest delay, though, was for the apparently notorious Elveden crossroads and traffic lights - we queued for over half an hour before we even got to them. 

We arrived on site around 3.30pm in brilliant sunshine, to be met with a very welcome cup of tea from the site wardens, before being shown to our pitch, just next to the dog walk - ideal for first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  We just had time to set up and put the awning up before the rain set in.  For the next three days, we did not turn the heating off in the caravan, and if you poked your nose out of the car at the sea, you risked having it blown off.

Then on Tuesday, we woke to brilliant, wall to wall sunshine and heat, and spent the rest of the week dodging from shade to shade to avoid sunstroke.  We had a great trip on the Broads from Wroxham, round a couple of the closer Broads, and the dogs were totally exhausted by having to be good and quiet and still for so long, tucked under the table between us.

Wednesday was harder, a walk round the grounds of Sheringham Park.  It would have been fine if we had not taken the signposted"short cut" back to the car park - BIG mistake, hard walking and in full sun (the moral was don't take short cuts - they take longer with much harder walking, and mobility scooters don't work on them).  On the positive side, the azaleas were glorious and beautifully perfumed, well worth seeing .

Our last day was spent on the Bure Valley Narrow Gauge Railway.  Again, very tired dogs, having to be so good for so long, again tucked under our feet in the shade.

My only crafting for the week was crocheting Jozarty's shawl/scarf, and I now need to find a charity shop with necklaces to take apart for the beads I need for the finishing touches.  Since getting home, I have spent a fortune online.  I needed some batteries for the smoke alarms and a few other bits of equipment, a Tilley Hat to protect me from the sun (have you noticed the change in weather already) and a batch of Aran wool to knit a sweater for my husband, the same as the one he used to have - that will keep me going for a while.

Sorry if this has been a little longer than ideal, Julia, but I have missed two weeks, so I hope you can forgive me.  Our internet connection while we were away was dreadfully slow and unreliable, so I soon gave that one up.  I hope you will find lots more desks to wander round if you just call in at Julia's Place.  If you are kind enough to visit me and leave a comment, I will do my best to get back to you asap.

Mica powders and Clarity adhesive sheets - messy fun!

This card is as a result of watching Barbara Gray on Sunday, and was great fun to do.  It uses Clarity Adhesive sheets, and the Clarity Lovescape set of stamps, and a mixture of mica powders.

I am not going to presume to tell you how to do this technique, I am not good enough.  What I will say though is that it is great fun to do, and I am still very inky and everything in sight is covered with shimmery mica.  The design is mounted onto Clarity white silk card, and then covered with Clarity film to protect the micas.

The base card is pale blue pearlescent, a ready folded card from stock, which I thought set off the mica colours best.  The sentiment is again, my one and only Happy Birthday stamp, used with a blue Adirondack (my brain has gone as I cannot remember which one).

I am now in the middle of trying to find a good way of backing it onto black card, but I need to go back to the drawing board for that one.  if I get it right, I will show you later.

Less is More - Yellow

This card is for this week's challenge for Less is More, which is to use the colour yellow.

I have to give credit for the sun idea to Emma Williams, who is one of Barbara Gray's talented team of designers.  I saw it done on one of her Create and Craft samples, and stored the thought away for future use.  It is just a case of dividing up a semicircle into segments and sponging different shades into each one.  I used one of the Big and Juicy ink pads, the Soothing Sunset one, and sponged direct on to the plain white card.

The glorious unicorn is from the Dufex range, and is one of a set of decoupage.  I just used the second layer as I wanted it to stay simple.  Sadly, a plain photo does not really do the unicorn justice as it catches the light beautifully.  I am very fussy about unicorns and they have to be good models of a horse before adding the horn.  This one is not too bad from that point of view. 

The sentiment is my one and only "Happy Birthday" stamp, and that again was stamped using the Soothing Sunset, covering two separate sections of colour to shade it slightly.

WOYWW - 153

My desk is a little tidier this week, mainly due to the fact that I wanted to play with mica powders today, and I did not want them mixed with everything else in sight.  You may wonder why I am showing you my desk and all that is on it.  After all, you may be new to the world of craft blogging, everyone is new at some time, and if you are, then you are very welcome.  Wednesdays are the days when our Lady Julia hosts us all at her place - Stamping Ground.  She very kindly allows us to join together and have the chance to get more inspiration from the work of others, and share our ideas and encouragement.  Some desks will terrify you and some will astound you, but you are welcome to all.  We just ask that you are patient with us and leave us a comment if you like what you see or have ideas to add.

I do have a couple of piles of projects off to the side, but not as much as usual.  Another reason for my tidy up was to find my Clarity Stamps Lovescape kit.  I knew I had it but it had got split up and distributed around my room.  You can see some of my mica powders and the brushes to applying them at the back on the right.  The little orange thing is my Fiskars finger scalpel, which is so easy to control as it becomes an extension of your finger.  My Ottlite is on show too, but as I took the photos on Tuesday afternoon, I did not need my light.  I could make do with that lovely yellow orb in the sky - I seem to remember it is called a sun, and it helps to make us warm too.  There is a small Really Useful Box at the back full of Promarker pen tops - I have changed all mine to the fine nibs, which I can remove if I really need to.  The yellow rubbish is the trimmings from the Clarity Adhesive sheets, which I used to make the two little pictures on top of the stack of white copy paper.

This is the first time I have tried this technique and it shows - I need a lot more practice to get the results I want.  I need to watch Barbara Gray a lot more to see where I am going wrong.  I think I need to take more time to mix my colours better before I start  - I never was the most patient person.  Slowly, slowly, catchee monkee, as the saying goes.  I am certainly not doing it justice at the moment.

I am off to bed now, so I shall be scheduling this post and link in properly when I get up.  I struggled to get round to all my visitors last week, and was horrendously late with some visits, for which I apologise.  I will try hard to do better this week, but please forgive me if I do not get there.    Thank you to all those who took the trouble to pop in during the week.  I really do appreciate all of you and especially what you have taken the trouble to write in your comments.

Pixie's Snippets Challenge 18

I actually managed two offerings for Di's Snippets Challenge this week, mainly by hunting through bits and pieces I had been playing with.

This first one uses another stamp from Barbara Gray's Clarity range.  I did the topper ages ago and it has just been sitting around in one of my many heaps of things to do.  It nearly had a complete disaster today, when I suddenly realised I had stuck it on the card upside down, but, fortunately, the silicone glue was very forgiving and allowed me to just lift it off and replace the right way up.  It was stamped onto Clarity paper, with Adirondack Slate, and then I think it was brayered with Big and Juicy Mountain Meadow. It was a while ago, and I did not write it down, so I am just guessing.  I think it is a lovely stamp, well two stamps anyway, and very adaptable.  I mounted the topper onto Clarity black card to try to keep the oriental feel.

This second offering was another play around with various stamps, and a bit of digital tweaking as well.  The trees were stamped, and then scanned, so that I could place them as I wished, changing the sizes to fit the perspective.  The church and the horse and carriage are Clarity stamps, while the fence is just put in with a thin black pen.  I used Adirondack Cloudy Blue and Slate for the sky, and just the Slate for the foreground.   It had been intended for the Craft a Scene Silhouette Challenge, but it did not go quite as I had intended.

Having now got into the playground in time for registration, I am now off to have a go on the swings, before heading out the the greenhouse to pot up some new plants, and hoping they do not die of frostbite this week.  Watch out, folks, for the icy slide over in the corner of the playground, and don't fall in the mud.  see you all soon.  xx Maggie

PS I hope you are feeling much better this week, Di, and ready to enjoy life again.  Take care of yourself.

Craft a Scene - Silhouette

I am quite cross with myself over this challenge.  When I first saw the brief, I thought "Great, I have loads of ideas for that one".  Sadly, those ideas never saw the light of day, as I got bogged down with other things, cards that were needed urgently, gardening, family ....  You know what it is like.  So here I am right at the last minute, throwing something together.

It is  a serious mix of stamps and styles.  The background is a Stampscape Stamp, which I received this morning from Nancy, as part of my prize for the Moonlight challenge - thank you, Nancy.  As you can see, I did not waste any time using this one.  It was not quite long enough, I did not measure my card first, so I managed to tack on another bit at the end.  The horse and carriage is from Barbara Gray's Clarity range.  Both images are stamped with Adirondack Pitch Black.  The sky is brayered with Adirondack Cloudy Blue, then over-brayered with Adirondack Slate.  The foreground is just the Slate.  The topper is then mounted onto silver mirri paper, and then onto Clarity Black card.

Next month, I am hoping that I might get at least one card done in good time, rather than a rush at the end.  Mind you, my school work was always done in a rush at the end, so nothing changes, does it?

WOYWW - 152

I was missing in action last week, mainly because I knew I would not have time to visit many people and I thought it was unfair for you to visit me, when I could not return the favour.  However, the mad panic to get cads done for this month is over and I am now working to do June and July.  So I am back, although a bit late, and here is my desk, well part of it anyway.  I am in the middle of putting inserts in cards that were already made, so that I do not have to panic when we come back off holiday.

You can see three that are now done, and with their envelopes, and to the left, a pile waiting for their inserts.  The little orange handled thing is my favourite Fiskars finger blade, which I find so much easier to use than my normal straight blades.  to the right of that are my sprung Fiskars scissors, and next to them the puffer brush for cleaning off photographic slides before scanning them.  As you can also see, my little Scottie is proudly displaying my beautiful WOYWW badge this week - it matches his coat perfectly.

I hope you have all survived the dreadful winds and rain, and no-one is suffering from floods.  We woke up on Sunday morning to find we had lost one of the trees on the island in front of our house.  We think it was a Mountain Ash, which are notoriously touchy at the best of time.  What amazed us was the almost total lack of root system on it, so it would always have been vulnerable to damage.  Fortunately it fell in a way that saved those near from damage, not like another tree not far away which fell across a main road, crashing into several new cars on the Volvo forecourt.  That tree had a preservation order on it and was huge.  At least, no-one was hurt.

I am looking forward to visiting as many as possible of you this week, but it may take a while so please be patient.  In the meantime, I hope you will find time to visit many more of the WOYWWers, hosted by the indefatigable Julia at Stamping Ground.  See you soon.