Inky play in Cumbria...

Good afternoon lovely friends and followers.

Today I am going to share with you the projects that we made yesterday in Cumbria at our Clarity workshop.

I do love going up to catch up with crafters, meet new ones and see my sister...

We had our youngest member yesterday and Tasha was an absolute star...and her work was amazing too...I do love it when young people get involved , it warms my heart....oh and her Mum makes gorgeous Banana cake...

The class stamp was the Gerbera .....this was our 'warm up' project....

We then went onto the Distress re-inkers....now this technique has been brought to our attention by the lovely and very talented Maria Simms....who has kindly shared it with Barbara and the DT....so that we can then share it with you....

Thanks Maria.....I love it...and sorry if your ears were burning yesterday....but credit where credit is due.....x

After making our custom made ink pads we made this...

And then after lunch we made this one.....

Such summery colours....you can't beat a bit of Spiced Marmalade ...can you....????

Now our last project is inspired by the wonderful work of another lovely and talented lady Eileen Godwin....and is quite out of my comfort zone.....but that is good....

I must admit I really enjoyed playing and creating this type of work ..and the ladies made fabulous works of art too....

Here they are...

I do love bring part of the Clarity Design Team, where we all share and inspire each other.....and I love to learn and develop new techniques...that I can then pass on to other crafters.....just one big happy craft family.....do let me know what you think....

Right off to walk Tedd between the showers.

Enjoy your Sunday evening...and fingers crossed for a good week ahead...

Much love and hugs,

Jo. xxx

 

German Christmas

Good afternoon all, I am writing this whilst at Craft Club at Maria's craft hub...I have finished my projects so I though I would say hello to you all.

Yesterday, I managed to watch Barbara with her two shows on German tv.......

They were really great shows with brilliant demos and the odd word that I could understand.....Shrink Plastic for instance...

Here is one of the cards that was featured on the show...

Some repeat stamping with first and second generation using the holly and ivy Clarity stamps....

Here is a closer look.

Some matting and layering and some liquid Pearl dots and the card design was complete...

Barbara is having a ChristmasBonanza on tv tomorrow with five shows spread across the day on Create and Craft....I do hope you will be able to join her.....I know I will....

Right time to say bye for today...

Hugs...Jo. X

 

 

Sweet Lilac Flowers.

Good morning all, and welcome to Sunday....the one day of the week that Karl and I get to spend together...so I will keep this short...

Today I am sharing another MDF make with you....this is a very special heart as it is my farewell piece for the Sweet Lilac Design Team....you see when I was asked to join it was for a fixed term only. That has now come to the end so there will be a whole new Design Team announced in the next few days...

I have loved my time with Karen, Theresa and Linda....and I will continue to support them and their blogs...

I started with a heart from the MDF Man, and paper from The House of Zandra....

Next came the lovely flowers and look at these new colours that are in stock...

A clarity butterfly, stamped three times and cut out...ready to decoupage.

Even one of those gorgeous little glass bottles, some dew drops and Glossy Accents..

Have you noticed the leaves? Sweet Lilac sell those too....In fact they have a full selection of different leaves...

I am really pleased to say that Sue and Chris have asked me to continue working with them as an Ambassador ....( well how could I resist.....)

To see the gorgeous flowers, leaves and lace visit here....

http://www.sweetlilac.co.uk

Have a good day and I do hope the weather is not as bad as predicted...stay safe everyone .....

Love and hugs from me.....x

 

Shaving foam again...

Good evening .....oh what a beautiful day it has been. Seems hard to believe that we are in for such bad weather tomorrow...today I have been in Edgeley, Stickport at C.J. CardCrafts where we have had two workshops using the shaving foam technique....As most of you are probably aware this is an old technique but myself , Barbara and a couple of the Clarity Team have reinvented it and put our own twist on it....( brings back memories of France....Maria....what a fab time...)

Today we started by making backgrounds this was made be Sue....how cool is this?

It dries almost immediately , so with some Archival ink and Clarity stamps....this is what we made...

Oh and those yummy Spectrum Noir pencils...

Then I introduced the Clarity stencils....

Here are some of the crafters works of art...

And

It was a great day and Thanks for the chocolates John....they went down a treat...

Off now to sit in the garden with Karl, Tess and a cup of tea.

Enjoy your evening....and most of all enjoy life.....

Hugs,

Jo. X

 

Cow Parsley...

Good evening all, how has your day been? Mine has been lovely....I do love workshop day in Hazel Grove...you see I have been teaching some of these ladies for many years now....they are such special friends and we have been through so much together.

Today we used PanPastels, I do love these and the effects that you can get...our stamp of the day was the Cow Parsley stamp from Clarity....

This was our first project...

Simple but elegant , and all the ladies made great cards....

We had extra chocolates today......thanks Adam.....

This was our second project...

Using linen card, it does give a brilliant textured look...

Some Stickles added extras sparkle...

Eileen was too ill to come today....we did miss you Eileen....and we kept your chair warm....

Oh and we ate your chocolate..!!!!!!.....hope you soon feel better......

Karl has just made me a coffee so I am off to sit with him and Tess and chill.....oh did you see the events at Manchester airport yesterday? I was sat quietly colouring in ( samples for Barbara ) when the noise of the jets made me jump so much...Tess and me ran outside and this is what we saw.....

Honestly the noise was so loud...I was then transfixed to Sky news for the next hour....

Those poor passengers......and all that disruption...

Catch you soon....love and hugs from me....

Jo. X

 

 

Summer Fun.

Good evening lovely followers, I do hope that you have had a good weekend....mine has been a very quiet one. Spent mainly looking after Tess, she was very sleepy on Friday after her operation but is much better now....she is not happy with not being able to go on walks until next weekend, you see she has two long walks every day....so she is not happy with me ....at all....but the good news is that the tumour was just fatty tissue and nothing sinister....so we are so grateful for that...

Did you see Barbara on C&C this morning with the most fantastic new stamps and stencils? ....I do love to watch her demos and see what all the other DT have come up with.....

Well tonight I am going to show you a card that I am entering into the PanPastel Challenge......

Check it out here.....http://panpasteluk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/challenge-19-summer-fun.html

It uses one of the new stamps from today's show...Funky Flowers....

Now I made this last week, you see I was prepping for the Hazel Grove workshops this Wednesday....we are making two projects using PanPastels...and I just got carried away and started playing......I do love using the PanPasels and the way that they blend and cover the card so quickly....they really are so forgiving...

I started by masking off an area of card, and punched a circle for the sun....

Next came the sky and the blue PanPastels...

The clouds were created by using a rubber...you see the pastel rubs out....

Some torn paper, green tones of Pastel and the land was made...

This is what I had when I removed the masking tape...

 

So next I added a border with a black fine liner pen, and stamped the images....

Then added some colour with Spectrum Noir pencils....,some black card and some glossy accents....

And there you have it my PanPastel ....Summer Fun....I do hope that you like it....and it is my way of sending some sunshine to you all....

Fingers crossed for a good week ahead for all....

Love and hugs.

Jo. X

 

 

Feminine.

Good morning all, hope this week has been a good one and that you are ready for the weekend....

Can you believe that it is the first of August....oh my ...where is the time going?

I have been up early as Tess had to be at the vets for 8am.....hopefully they will do her operation today and the results will be back next week....she was not happy when she didn't have supper last night and then breakfast this morning.....you know how Labradors love to eat!!!!

Today is the start of a new Challenge on the Clarity Challenge blog....and the new theme is.......

....Feminine...

Thank you to everyone who entered last month ...the standard of work is so high....it was so hard to choose a top five. Congratulations to the winner....remember you could win a £50 voucher for Claritystamps.

This is what I came up with.....I do hope that you like it....

 

Here is a closer look....

I do love this stamp....Petite Musique.....

I began by stamping her in black VersaFine ink.

Then I used her Clarity mask.....such a great idea....they save on all that cutting out...

Next, one of my favourite stencils....Petals.....I do love to combine stamps and stencils....

 

Next I used ink....and yes...we have my favourite three colours....

Sail Boat Blue....

Then Butterscotch...

I do love how the colours blend so well..

Then Raspberry...

Oh look what you get...

Next I used a sponge to tidy up the stencil and sharpen the outlines...

And this is what I had so far..,an Arty border was added next....

Then some colour with the Spectrum Noir Pencils...

Plus highlights with a white gel pen and shade with a charcoal pencil.

Some matting and layering. ....

And all that was left was to add her name...."Faith"

I do love the way that this is totally flat but it has the impression of being dimensional...

How cool is that.......

I am really looking forward to seeing all your entries this month.....so go on.....have a go and join in....

http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk

A quick reminder too that the next Clarity Cumbria is on Saturday 16th August....if you fancy joining in...just drop me an email.....jrcrafts28@gmail.com