Clarity Stamps and Stencils

 I recently took advantage of a 50% sale at Clarity Stamps and got myself a set of stamps and stencils I admired when I last looked. I've used one of the sets to make a card for a friend.

I stamped the central image and the separate butterfly in Versafine Clair (grey rather than black) and coloured using coloured pencils. The outer area uses Distress Ink in Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet. I added some glitter pen over the two butterflies, and picked out the green stems in fine liner or glitter pen. The flowers were made from die cuts.

Cards

 I've made a few cards this week, all for reasons you'd prefer not to have for making cards.

First, a card I made for a friend who's due to go into hospital for surgery:

I used a Sizzix die set for the owl, and an Elizabeth Craft set for the oval. The papers are from a magazine. I cut an aperture out of the paper-covered front of the card and placed the mounted owl into the space.

And the inside of the card. Paper is the reverse of the piece I used on the front of the card. Excuse my fingers in the top photo. I couldn't get it to lie flat enough!

And then, a couple of sympathy cards.

In both cards, the focal image is from Lavinia and the sentiment is Woodware. I've also used a couple of Aall and Create stencils, and in the top card, also a Woodware background text stamp. I masked the sentiment panel with removeable tape before adding Distress Ink. The top image was stamped in Versamark and embossed with clear powder. The lower card has the image stamped in Versafine Clair, as were the sentiments in both cards.

International Art and Soul Challenge 144

 This challenge was set by my team mate Chriss, and she would like to see projects in orange and black. 

My first thought on seeing that colour combination is that I don't like orange, and then a moment later, that I do like peach, coral, and all sorts of oranges that are not the shade I immediately think of as 'orange'. Funny how my brain works!

So, armed with a couple of Lavinia stamps, a couple of Lavinia stencils, an Inkylicious mask, a rubber stamp of unknown origin, some Distress Ink, a black fineliner and a little paint pen, I came up with this.

It's a simple card, and I had to force myself to leave it overnight to stop me adding more decoration. I did, in fact, add a few small stamped images (the rings) the next day, but stopped there. The Lavinia stencils are fairly obvious, I think, but the Inkylicious mask is one of their sun/moon circles, and I used it in pale areas to give some overlapping discs shapes, the most obvious of which is towards the bottom left corner. I just wanted to tone down some fairly white areas with ink that was already on my brush. I used mainly Spiced Marmalade, but added a little Crackling campfire on the background.

The Lilium flowers (the group and one of the individual stamps) were stamped in Versafine Clair ink, and the outlines of the flowers accentuated with a paint pen. I then used Distress Ink in Crackling Campfire as a watercolour for the rest of the flowers.

A very fine black mat, and that's it. I haven't added a sentiment, might might well do that when I know where the card is going.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 134

 It's my turn to choose the challenge theme for this fortnight, and I've gone for one of my favourites, and I hope it'll be something you find fairly easy too. I want you to Say it with Flowers!

I first started following Susan Tierney-Cockburn when I got her book showing how to make realistic flowers from punched shapes. I've still got a box of punches, many of which were bought specifically for that purpose. Snowflakes make pretty good calixes! But dies are much easier, and I've been collecting her dies since her first collection  with Sizzix. I haven't bought too many of her more recent collections largely because there have been a lot of repeats, but the one flower I've been waiting for is the freesia. Not only do I love the perfume from those, but it was my mum's favourite flower. So, when I spotted freesia among the latest Spellbinders collection, I had to get it.

The frame is 12in square, and due to a miscalculation, I've had to leave the glass out as the flowers are a bit too three-dimensional! But the result is intended to be a placeholder until I can finish a piece of blackwork to go with one I've already completed. Anyway...

The background was made using Distress Oxide, and I blended, stencilled and used a rubber texture spatula to create the various effects. The flowers are ll freesia, and I've added some more of Susan's foliage to the arrangement. I used green card for the foliage, but the freesia (and their own leaves) used white card that I'd coloured with Promarkers, and added further detail with Pan Pastels. I love how freesia can have different colours, so that's what I went for here.

I'm looking forward to seeing your flowers, whether they're stamped, drawn, die cut, clay, wire, or however else you want to make some flowers.

International Art and Soul Challenge 112

 The challenge for this fortnight has been set by my team mate Christine, and she's asked for projects which are red, white, and blue.

My card was almost a week in the making. I tried a few things, discarded some, kept others. I didn't have any specific ideas beyond using the stamps and the colours.

I started with the image piece. I used a gell press to apply Distress Ink to some card, then did a second layer with the same colour, this time applying a stencil first. The effect is subtle, but it did give some teture. Then I stamped the Lavinia images, and the sentiment which came from a Creative Expressions set. I added some further texture with a text stamp, and added some detail to the flower with a Posca pen in red. I trimmed the result, rounded the corners and matted it on red card and then stopped to think again.

I had intended to make a six by six card, but that was too small, so I switched to 7 by 7. The background started similarly with a gel imprint with the same Distress Ink. Although it's not obvious, I added some red using Versfine Clair ink and a lacy floral stencil. I then used the same text stamp to the background, and edged the piece with Distress ink. I tried several things for the side panel, but finally settled on some red and blue card with some floral lace. And that's it. I hope you can join us this time,

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 264

The theme for this fortinght is Shabby Chic.

Now, I've never really got the hang of exactly what is and isn't shabby chic. So, I've got a couple of different projects to share in the hope that one of them fits!

I'm scheduling this post in June, and at this time, the hospital where I normally volunteer (but currently can't visit because of public transport restrictions) asked for donations of face masks for volunteers and visitors. I've made quite a few for my own family, and to make it more interesting, started stamping and shading plain cloth before hand-stitching the result. This is what I started with:

And these are photos of the finished result:

The instructions I used to make the masks is here. I'm not in any way a sewing expert and I don't own a sewing machine so the masks have all been hand-stitched. The edge pieces are the same cloth as the main part - I just didn't stamp or shade it at all.

The stamps are from a range of suppliers including Inkylicious, Craft Stamper magazine, Crafter's Companion and the inks are either Versacraft or Versafine Clair. The former is intended for stamping on cloth. The latter isn't, but in my not-very-scientific tests, when I heat set the images with an iron, they seemed to last as well as the Versacraft in a single wash. Beyond that, time will tell!


The second project is a card.

I recently saw a faux bleaching technique demonstrated on Create and Craft and liked the effect so much I had to have a go. I created the background by blending four shades of Distress Oxide ink on glossy card. I placed a Crafter's Companion stencil over that and sprayed with water. When it was dry, I replaced the stencil, slightly offset from where it had originally been, and dabbed black ink. Finally, I added some butterflies from a different stencil - this one from Imagination Crafts. I matted the result on black and then pastel green (not obvious in the photo against the white card) and that's it!
I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 83

Our challenge for this fortnight is one I'm sure you'll want to enter. Any project, and colours. It just hast to contain flowers and butterflies.

I made something for my sister when she was feeling down.

I made the frame using an Elizabeth Craft die, embossed the card with an Embossalicious folder and added detail with some gilding wax then finished with some Modge Podge. The backgroudn was created with a couple of stencils, Versamark ink, Perfect Pearl powder and some embossing gloop I've had for many years. The fowers were made using a variety of dies, including ones from the Sizzix Susan's Garden range, Memory Box, Joanna Sheen and shaded with Pan Pastel, and the butterfly used some Spellbinders dies.

I hope you can join us.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 235

The theme of the challenge for this fortnight is Masculine. And like many cardmakers, this is a theme I always find difficult.

I started with some basic copy paper, a gelli plate, stencils and some acrylic paint. I added some further detail using silver gilding wax and another stencil.

The sentiment is stamped (but I don't have a record of the manufacturer. I think it might be Personal Expressions, but I'm really not sure. I do know it''s a stamp set I bought a number of years ago and it includes many different sentiments. The die is from Sizzix.

The result is a card for my husband. He likes green, and doesn't like things which are heavily embellished, so I hope this will appeal.

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 233

Our challenge for this fortnight is 3 - 2 - 1! You need to use elements in those quantities, but what those elements are is up to you! To help those visiting your blog, it'd would be great if you could specify somewhere what your 3 - 2 - 1 are.

In this case, my three is flowers, my two is papers and my one is the sentiment.

The main background paper (and the flowers) use paper decorated using acrylic paint, stencils and a gelli plate. The gingham paper has been in my stash I'm not completely sure where it came from, but I suspect it was from Payper Box. (I used to see them at Olympia at a craft show, but that was many years ago. They might have visited Ally Pally but again, not recently.)

To cut the flowers, I used Crafter's Companion dies, and I finished them with some liquid pearl.

the sentiment is computer- generated. I cut and matted it using dies from Spellbinders.

International Art and Soul Challenge 55

The challenge for this fortnight is Clean and Simple with Blue. Of course, clean and simple is relative. I'm in awe off people who can make really simple cards which just ooze elegance. I really struggle with white space, and my simplest designs just look amateurish to me. So, I compromised.

My original plan was just what you see above, but the white background was supposed to be plain white. I laid it all out and wasn't at all happy.

This morning, the postman delivered a parcel from Crafter's companion that I wasn't expecting for a couple of weeks. (I find it often takes a couple of weeks for them to dispatch, although that might be because I often order during sales!) Anyway, I ordered some A4 stencils to go with the larger gelli-plate I got for Christmas as well as some new colours of gilding wax. I used the handwriting stencil (back to front, as it happens) with some Weathered Wood Distress Ink on the right hand side, and then the fern and crackle stencil. I continued with Distress Ink around the fern itself, then added some beautiful Diamond Imagination Crafts gilding wax. Then, I added a little distress ink around the die cut image (stamp is from Studio Light)  and I was much happier.

I do hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 222

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers this fortnight is Lots of Layers! So, nothing CAS, we want to see lots of layers - the more the better!

I decided to have a play at using stencils to make backgrounds, and this is what I came up with.

For the main background, I started with a piece of Mixed Media card, and added some background colour using a mixture of watercolour markers and distress ink mixed with water. Then, I used stencils from Crafter's Companion and more distress ink. I finally added some stamped images to the result - but they really only added a little texture.

For the other backgrounds, I repeated a lot of what I'd done previously, although in one case, I didn't stencil anything, and in the other, I used stencils from Crafter's Companion and John Next Door.

For the focal image, I used dies from Susan's Garden Notes, and card shaded with distress inks to match the backgrounds. I finished the card with some matting and some sticky gems.

And that's it! I do hope you can join us this time.