A Walk in the Garden.

Good morning all, and here we are , Friday morning....yah ....we made it....

Yesterday I had the most wonderful day at the Paper Warehouse in Kendal, we had a full day of Clarity play.....making two cards, a jigsaw and a piece of bag art...

It was a jam packed workshop but we did stop for a lovely lunch, thanks Janet...

If you get chance due visit the shop it is really well stocked and has a huge range of crafting accessories...and off course lots of card and paper..

I always come away with a boot full of purchases.....

Today it is a new challenge over at the Fussy and Fancy Blog...

Our new theme is

A Walk in the Garden

And here is my DT piece

We have the lovely and talented Diane as our host ,

Plus the winner will receive a

Noor Designs Gift Vouvher

I do hope you will pop over to the log and check out the wonderful inspiration from my lovely fussy and fancy friends...

http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.co.uk

 

My design started with a piece of stencil card and the Clarity leaf wreath stencil

I had an idea about colour blending in my head...you all know how I love to blend colours...

So , I started with Mustard Seed and blended a section...again ....I had a rough idea of how large an area I needed for each colour

Next came Spiced Marmalade....( remember ladies to blend the section where the two colours meet )

Then on to Abandoned Coral , and Candid Apple

Then bringing up the rear Ground Espresso and Fossilised Amber to bring it all together and fill in the gap...

See where I was heading , a full circle of colours that blend...

I was so happy with the way this turned out , it was just as I imagined it....now that doesn't happen often...

I must warn you , I do love this and I think I will be using it again and again...

Using the same Distress ink colours , I stamped some Clarity butterflies,

And a perfect Clarity sentiment

Some matting and layering

Some card assembly

Then it was the finishing touches of the butterflies and some paper flowers from Sweet Lilac .

I do love these colour tones....

Hope you like them too...

I must dash as I have a long list of jobs to get through today....I say jobs,,,.some of them involve,,,colouring.....mmmmm I wonder what they can be for?????

Have a wonderful day...and a wonderful weekend...

I actually have tomorrow off work...it is our Wedding Anniversary ...

Karl and me will have been married for 28 years....

And I love him more now than ever , he really is my best friend, companion, lover and number one....

Those of you that have met him at workshops will understand why I feel like this...

As I hate having my photo taken , this is the only one I could find of us both....it was earlier this year at my nieces wedding....

Take care all,

Much love and hugs...

Jo. xxxx

 

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Me again..

Good evening and thanks for popping in, yes, it is me again..

two days running,,

my goodness....

I have just got home after a wonderful day in Hazel Grove, thank you ladies for your company,..

I decided against a photograph for my frame,,,but thanks for your ideas..

I made a piece of art work instead.

I used clarity stamps from the poppy and meadow grass sets...

And added some colour using Distress ink and Distress markers.

Julie made us another yummy gluten free cake,,,look how the room emptied...

We all agree that Julie makes the best Victoria sponge cake ever....Thanks lovely lady..

These are today's results..

All brilliant

Every single one,,,

I am so proud of you all

And I am so lucky to have you as friends ,

Before I go , I just wanted to share another special photo with you...

At Clarity we pride ourselves on including crafters of all abilities and ages....

Here is Briony she is an avid crafter and makes beautiful cards...

She loves her bookmark that I made and sent her...

Thanks for the photo Briony...enjoy your holiday...

Right, I had better go , time for some food and then I need to sort out my craft bags ready for tomorrow's Clarity workshop at the Paper Warehouse in Kendal...

Oh ladies...you are going to love what we have planned for you...

Take care all,

Much love

as always...

Jo. xxx

 

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All it needs is a photo...

Good evening all and thanks for popping in...

I have a few minutes spare...now that doesn't happen very often so I thought we could have a cup of tea and a catch up.

I have just finished getting everything sorted out for tomorrow's workshop in Hazel Grove...we are having a day class ....mixed media...

A real fun day of crafting , lots of coffee and chat and oh yes there will be cake,,,

We are going to be playing with gesso and Inka gold...

And decorating a photo frame....all this one needs is a photo....

But as I really hate having my photo taken...it certainly won't be one with me in it...

Do pop back tomorrow to see how the class has gone,,,

As you know I do enjoy mixed media and after we decorated the book box in a recent Clarity Cumbria workshop the project has been really well recieved...

So much so...that I have been invited to repeat it at CJ CardCrafts in Stockport on Tuesday 16th August ( only a couple of spaces left...0161-477-7027)

And at The Craft Range , Burnley on Tuesday 27th September ( 01282 833091)

I am really looking forward to more messy play...

And more cake......

Take care all and have a lovely evening

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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Another fab day with friends,

Good afternoon all and welcome to Sunday's blog.

How has your weekend been ? Good I hope....today is my day off so I have walked the dogs , done some gardening, caught up with the ironing pile and now I am sitting in the garden with a cup of tea and catching up with you lovely people...

Yesterday it was workshops at my local craft shop...CJ CardCrafts in Edgeley, Stockport. Chrshire.

Glynis is a lovely host and looks after all our needs,...craft wise and others....

We started with our morning class and it was another trip to Africa...oh I do love these stamps....

Can you tell?

This time we used them with PanPastels...

Look at the great background that you can make...we also did some paper piecing...

Both the background and the lions were coloured with PanPastels...

 

After lunch it was time to relax and have a Groovi time...

I do love to use glitter on my parchment

And to mix and match plates that I use...

And when I got home Karl had a present for me....

A case for my light panel...

Thanks darling, it is just perfect...., I love it....

Well the sun has gone and the sky has turned very dark...so I am heading inside as I am sure it is going to rain...

I wish you all a great week ahead...

I have another busy one with lots of samples to make, another magazine article to complete, and two day workshops one in Hazel Grove and one in Kendal.

So looking forward to catching up with lots of crafty friends and lots of cake...

Take care all

Love and hugs.

Jo. xxxx

 

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Happy Giraffes

Good evening all, and thanks for popping in..I have been going go write this post for three days now but something has always got in the way...

I do hope that your week is going well and that you are managing to enjoy some of this lovely weather.

On Monday I was a very lucky lady and had lunch with a special friend who I haven't seen for ages, yes we speak nearly everyday but a real face to face catch up and hug was so much better...

Then on Tuesday Julie and me when to visit the CraftRange , we had a really good shop, a great chat with Debs and Janet and the icing on the cake was a coffee and catch up with our Linda...

Plus getting sorted for upcoming classes, this Saturday it is inky and Groovi classes at CJ's in Edgeley..

Anyway back to this pending blog post...

I have been asked about one of the backgrounds from our cards last Saturday...

So here we go...

I started with a piece of stencil card and added some distress inks, just roughly blended I used Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Brushed Corduroy ....then I found that Fosilized Amber over the top really brought the colours together.

Next to give that animal sort of texture I randomly stamped the crackle stamp...

On with the stencil, and then some water spritzing

When the stencil is removed you can see the ghosting starting to appear..

After a few minutes this is what I had...

I added some more distress ink around the edge to frame the background.

Then using a couple of stamps from the Wee Foliage set , I bagan stamping...

Now that the scene was set , I just needed a centre piece

Yes the giraffes...I stamped then in Potting Soil , Archival ink and then added some colour with Distress inks and water,,,

Then added some foliage to the top left hand corner to compliment that on the background.

I do love these new stamps...

Just fabulous

It is amazing what you can make from a piece of white card...

Just one of the many reasons that I love crafting...

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post , and I definitely can't decorate my Mums plaster now as she had it removed yesterday...she now has a very trendy black boot....

Oh maybe I could decorate that....lol...

Better get on, I need to go and get the washing in, so good to be able to get it all dry in the fresh air..

Have a lovely evening...

Much love

Jo. xxx

 

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