Happy Mother's Day.

Hello, and Happy Mothering Sunday to all you Mums out there. I hope you are having a lovely Day.

Mine started at 7am when Adam left for America with work, I know it is only for a week but I will miss him...it is such a good job we remembered to change all the clocks....did you?

I am aware that it can be a day tinged with sadness for those Mums who are no longer with us...so I think a big group hug is in order....................

There, that is better.

This is the card that I made for my Mum, a special card for a special lady...

I used Clarity stamps and added colour with Wink of Stella pens...

This is Karl's Mums card and yes, I know many of you will recognise my favourite Clarity Stencil.

This sentiment from Clarity is just perfect.

The inside of the card is so important too.

I am just going to take Mikey to work, oh it will be a busy day at Gusto Restaurant for him. He is much better today and Thank you to everyone for the good wishes, they really do mean so much...

Enjoy your Sunday, oh nearly forgot ....A big Thank you to everyone who came to say Hello yesterday at Port Sunny, I had a brilliant day, and it was made even better by seeing so many friends and the warmth of the Clarity family...

Hugs....Jo. X

 

Stencilicious...

Good evening all, well this week has been a tough week in the Rice household. It was Mikeys 23rd Birthday, as he doesn't cope with excitement very well and has spent 3 days in bed unwell....(due to many fits).

So we all rally round as a family and today he is much better, thank goodness and finally eating something.

I have been trying to catch up with jobs on my craft list...first of all I had to get some Clarity Samples made for next Sundays shows on C & C ...then, it was time to use some of the new A5 Stencils.....oh they are fabulous ....here is one of my makes...

This is the petal stencil with the large Garden Bird....and yes, I did resist calling it a large tit....

Here is a closer look.

I used the stencil brushes to do the blending....as you know I love these brushes,

They work well with all the stencils...

Here's another one...

Thank you for calling in today, if you have time please leave me a comment....I'm off now to phone my Mum and have a catch up....

Another busy weekend ahead, it's the Happy Stampers show at Port Sunlight...one of my favourites.....the building and surroundings are so beautiful...so I will bid you all goodnight....and see you soon.

Have a good weekend,

Hugs Jo. X

 

Memories.

Good evening and hope you are all well. Firstly I must say a big 'Hello' to our 3 new followers....Thank you so much for joining our happy little band, do come in and make yourselves at home...

Today it is a quick post from me, I had a busy weekend with workshops on Saturday at C.J. CardCrafts in Edgeley (I always enjoy the lovely crafters here and Glynis makes me feel so welcome..) then on Sunday Karl and I took Tess for a walk in Dunham Massey....some 3 hours later we needed that cup of tea.....and Tess snored all afternoon...

Here is a scrapbook page that I made for the last Clarity tv show.

I used the new Clarity Journaling set of stamps and the words are from the word chains....

The Journalling set is just brilliant for backgrounds and over stamping on patterned paper...

The photos are of Tess as a puppy....(some 5 years ago) our boys (a couple of years ago...oh, they are now 25 and 23) and a family photo at one of those fancy dress family parties....(and no....don't look at it to closely....thanks...)

I have another busy week ahead with magazine work to do and samples for the next Clarity show.....you will love the new stamps and stencils...I would love to tell you what they are.....but alas .....no can do....

Also need to get my thinking cap on ready for Clarity Cumbria on the 5th April....so looking forward to it...only a couple of spaces left too.....yah....

Enjoy your week all.....thanks for popping in...

Take care and call back soon,

Much love and hugs.

Jo. xxxx

 

Stencils.......and more stencils.....

Hi, here we are Friday evening....how has your week been?

I had a lovely day yesterday at the NEC catching up with so many friends, and ofcourse I spent time with my lovely Clarity family...if you're going make sure you take advantage of the great show offer on the Gilding Flakes....

Also the stencils.....yah, oh I do love the stencils and this one is my new favourite.....although a couple of my friends ...Maggie, Thetesa and Yvonne think I may have used it upside down....it is called Chinese Lantern....

What do you think?

Tomorrow is workshops at C.J CardCrafts in Edgeley and yes, we are crafting with stencils...

The Poppy stencil and...

Oh look my favourite stencil, And ...

And...

We will also be using my favourite Clarity stencil brushes too.....

I'm off now to relax with Karl and Tess.....Mikey is in work (he is second from the left)

And Adam is in Amsterdam for a few days.....

So time to relax and may be a cheeky little glass of wine, enjoy your evening.....and have a good weekend.....

Call back soon,

Love and Hugs....Jo. X

 

Workshop Day

Good evening all, I do hope you have had a good day....well, I have.....it was workshop day in Hazel Grove and as usual we crafted, drank coffee, ate chocolate biscuits and talked.....(some of us talked more than others!!! Sorry!!!)

Today, we used the Remountable set of Fuchsia stamps from Claritystamp....and oh how beautiful are they...

Our first card was made using Distress inks and watercolour pencils...

Also that wonderful Crackle stamp....and yes, I know I have been using it a lot recently.....

 

The topper just hooked under the bud and has a magnet on the back.....

 

 

Here is mine on the side of my microwave....a gift and a card....the sentiment is from Clarity too.

Our second card was made using watercolour card, VersaFine ink and AquaMarkers.

 

I do like to see how stamps look so different depending on how you use them....here is a closer look...

 

 

Some Bakers Twine, another Clarity sentiment and job done...

I'm off now as it is time for a sit down and feet up, I'm off to the NEC tomorrow to meet up with more crafty friends...Yvonne, Theresa, Jane and Maggie to name a few....

I shall be having a good old check up on what's new, what I need ....plus seeing some friends who I don't get to see enough...and off course I will be lurking around the Clarity Stand.....(well, it would be rude not too)

Enjoy your evening and pop back soon....

Hugs from me....x

 

 

A Moment of Clarity.

Good evening all and a special 'Hello' to Debbie our new follower.....it was so good to see you on Sunday at Harrogate. Oh, what a brilliant day I had. It was so good to see so many friends, fellow Clarity D.T. Members and crafters from our workshops in Hazel Grove and St. Helens.

Now in a recent post, I said I would give away one of the new Clarity Stencils....A Moment of Clarity,

Drum roll please...

And the winner is.....Emma Burns.....so Emma please 'pm' me your address and your post will be on its way to you....

I do hope you like it....well did you see Barbara called me her Stencil Queen on her blog today...? whoo....I was so chuffed...yah.

Which reminds me on Sunday there was a card challenge....and Barbara won.....here she is with her prize ....a brilliant clock from none other that the MDF Man....and yes, I did buy a bag of goodies from him....

I'm off now as I am still getting things together for workshops tomorrow....

Enjoy your evening.....

Jo. X

All about Spring.

Morning all and happy Saturday....

Today, I'm off to Crafts 4 U 2 do in St.Helens...where we are having a workshop day using Claritystamps and Angelina Fibres....it's all the ironing I intend to do today...

It just so happens that it is also the day of a new Challenge over at the Sweet Lilac Challenge Blog...

Today the theme is.....All about Spring.....and haven't we had some lovely spring weather recently? 

Here is my D.T. Piece...do hope you like it...

I started with a piece of A5 Theuva card from Clarity and one of the new A5 stencils ...the wonderful owl....

I taped the stencil at the top and began sponging some Adirondack ink through the stencil. I used Butterscotch, Latte and Expresso..

When I had finished, I removed the stencil and brushed Stonewashed ink around the edge with a Clarity Stencil brush....now anyone who knows me will know just how much I love these brushes..

Some matting and layering onto brown card....

I then used a larger piece of white card and edged this with Butterscotch Adirondack ink once again with my fabby stencil brush.

Then over stamped using the crackle stamp and second generation of Latte adirondack ink.

I stamped the sentiment onto a separate piece of card, added some colour and some matting and layering.

Next, I arranged my embellishments including these wonderful Sweet Lilac flowers and Leaves...

When I was happy, I started to glue them into place...

Then I added the sentiment,

And my work was finished ...oh I do love these flowers....don't you??

How do you fancy winning a hamper of them? All you have to do is enter the blog challenge ...and the winner is chosen at random....so everyone has a chance,,,,

Go and visit the site here.... http://sweetlilacflowers.blogspot.co.uk/

And if you get Papercraft Essentials there is a brochure inside with a special offer on the back....yah...

I'd better get on....tomorrow I'm off to the show at Harrogate and meeting up with fellow Clarity D.T. Friends... I may just make a few purchases too....

See you all soon, enjoy your weekend.....

Jo. X 

The Lucky Set.

Good evening all, how's your week going? Well I had a lovely set of new Clarity products arrive yesterday, but won't have time to start playing until next week....oh, itchy hands....

So I thought I had better share some of my last months samples....

Tonight,  I thought we would look at the Lucky Set of Stamps and Stencils...and this is the card that I made...I do hope that you like it...

I started off with the Good Luck Stencil and used my wonderful Stencil brush and Lettuce Adirondack ink..

Next I put the Line Stencil on top and this time used Meadow Adirondack ink and a sponge..

This is what I had created...

I stamped the four leaf clover and used clear embossing powder, then cut it out leaving a small white border..

Some matting and layering,

The background was created with all the stamps and some random stamping....and a variety of shades of green ink pads...

Some positioning, some ribbon and job done....

Green is not a colour that I use very much, but I do like the way that this looked so I may just use it a bit more...

So I wish you all lots of luck....

In fact, if you leave me a comment I will pick a random person to win one of the new A Moment Of Clarity Stencils....

So go on .....you know you want one...

Hugs...Jo. X 

Show Time...

Good evening friends and fellow crafters, how are you this Tuesday evening. 

I've been spending the day with Karl, oh I did miss him last week, but I did have a really great time too. 

I was so nervous about demonstrating on the Claritystamp stand at the SECC

But everyone was so lovely and kind.

I traveled by train and arrived at lunchtime on Wednesday and was greeted  by the wonderful Heather who gave me a big hug and made me feel right at home.

Along with Dave and Len we then spent the afternoon getting the stand together.

And how wonderful it looked when we had finished....

Lots of amazing new Stencils,

New Blending mats, 

And New Folders....(and yes, I did NEED one of the folders!!!) 

We stayed in a nearby hotel and Heather is a brilliant room buddie.....we got on like a house on fire....

For the next four days we worked on the stand, Boss Man Dave at the helm, Heather in charge of products and I sat and played...oh sorry demonstrated...

These are a couple of samples that I made...

Here is one of the new Stencil folders,

When Sunday evening arrived and the doors closed we then began with the help of Len to take everything down, put it away and load it all onto the van....

Ready for the next show which is at Harrogate next weekend...

When I got home I was greeted with Tess jumping with excitement .....oh she had missed me...and hasn't left my side since.....

Thanks for sharing my travels, as always it is a pleasure to have you join me...

Hugs....Jo. X