Butterfly Tag

Morning all......oh and Happy Friday....yes, nearly the weekend.....

What have you got planned? I'm off to St Helens to see Chris and all the lovely ladies at Crafts4U2do....where we are having a day workshop using PanPastels (yes the new metallic ones.....so yummy) and Clarity Stamps...oh and there will be some Sweet Lilac flowers making an appearance too....

Before I pack my bags I have a tag to share with you....

I made it using one of the Clarity stencils.....Sqiggles and my Dylusions sprays...Dirty Martini and Calypso Teal. I also sprayed some spare card so that I could stamp the butterfly and make the flower...

The Clarity butterfly was stamped in black VersaFine ink and then cut out.

The flower is one of those quick and easy roll flowers. The leaves were made using some UTEE from my melt pot which I left to dry and then used a punch.

Oh, I really am enjoying my melt pot....I even made some jewellery this week....photos to follow...

A sentiment from Clarity, some bakers twine and some glue dots...and tag made....

I have to say I did let out a little squeal when I saw it on a display board on the Clarity Stand at the NEC.....I still have to pinch myself at being on the Design Team...

And pinch myself I do......

Enough from me.....off to the dentist....I had a mishap in the night.....Don't ask!!!!

Have a good weekend.....and see you soon....Jo. X 

The Weather Vane Set

Good evening all and how is your week going? I believe it's going to get colder....oh no....I do hate to be cold....but I suppose we've done well with the weather so far.....

Now I suddenly realise today that I had a few cards from the last Clarity shows to share with you...

So today,  it will be this one using the Weather Vane set....one of my favourite makes from the shows....and I think it went down well with the presenters too (mind you next time...I will make the turning mechanism larger!!!! It is always good to learn...) 

I started with the idea, but then it did take a while to work out measurements and placements...

I used a piece of Theuva card 13cm x 13cm and make the roof tops with the Clarity mask and Eggplant Adirondack ink.

The weather vane was stamped in black Archival ink so I got a nice dark solid image.

Using a sun post it, a cloud mask and a sponge, I created the sky..Cloudy blue Adirondack ink for the sky and Distress inks, Mustard seed and Spiced Marmalade for the sun.

I carefully cut a square where the top of the weather vane was.....and then stamped the sentiment and swallows.

I cut a circle in Theuva card and pin pointed the centre .....by lining both pieces of card and keeping the centres together with the circle underneath  I could work out where to stamp the remaining tops to the weather vane....(these were on the circle of card at apx 45 degrees to each other) 

I then carefully drew in pencil where the sun would be with each image....separated the two pieces of card and sponged the sky and sun on each new image...

I then cut a small semicircle out of the right hand side of the square topper...this was to give space for the turning mechanism...(as I mentioned in hind sight this would have been better ...a little larger) 

I used a black brad to join the two pieces together and then 2 layers of foam pads to attach the topper to a black piece of card...

Checking that the circle had room to turn.

I added some finishing touches and some highlights with a white gel pen.

This is such a versatile set of stamps and would be so good for male cards...especially the fish and the ship....

Thanks for looking in today....and as always I love to read your comments...oh, and so does my Mum....

I will try and get round your blogs too and leave some love.....oh and don't forget about Barbara's blog...it is such a good read....and yes, she posts every day....not like the rest of us....good job I don't try and keep up!!!!!!! 

http://barbaragrayblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Crafty hugs,

Jo. X 

Gesso...

Hi everyone....just a quick post from me today....whilst the Sunday dinner is cooking...

Have you got your copy of creative Cardmaking yet? It came out on Friday..

Well, I've been playing with Gesso and this is one of the featured cards...

I used one of my favourite stamps from Clarity and some white gesso....

The metal embellishment was treated with gesso too.

You will have to read the magazine for more details.....and how to achieve this look.

Right off to dish up....

Another crafty week ahead here....new stamps have arrived from Clarity...oh wait till you see them.....I do so love my job....

Crafty hugs...

Jo.  X 

Christmas Season

That is the title of the new challenge over at the Sweet Lilac Challenge Blog,

....so what do you think? ....do you fancy winning a hamper of gorgeous flowers? 

All you have to do is make a project using any material and technique, but you must include some flowers from Sweet Lilac paper flowers. 

Here is what I came up with...hope you like it...

I started by drawing a circle in pencil to give me an idea of where to stamp the holly sprigs to form the wreath...I then stamped the Clarity carollers in Versafine ink, Vintage Sepia.

The wreath was formed by repeatedly stamping the holly sprigs in Lettuce and Pesto Adirondack ink using first and second generation stamping. 

I coloured the berries in with a red ProMarker.

The music stamp is from Claritystamps and was stamped, then cut out, shaped and stuck into position. 

I made an arrangement of the beautiful poinsettia flowers and glued this in position with glueGel.

Some ribbon, matting and layering, the ' heart monitor' line and the card was nearly finished....

The last touch was to place some Stickles onto my craft mat....and then with my finger I dabbed it all over the wrath. ...it gives a lovely effect....why not try it....

You can find the challenge blog HERE ..also the inspiration from the other D.T. members.

That is all from me today....enjoy the rest of you Saturday ...

Crafty hugs....Jo. X 

Alcohol inks and Clarity Stamps....

Hi all and a warm welcome to our new follower...I hope you enjoy being here...I will warn you though, it may be mad at times...

Well, yesterday was our workshop day in Hazel Grove and we had a lesson in how to use Alcohol inks....

If you haven't used them they are great and work on none porous surfaces...so that's things such as metal, glass, Miri -card and acetate....

You can paint with them, stamp with them and make really cool backgrounds...

We started off by just dropping some colour onto the Clarity coated card.....and then with some blending solution and a piece of felt on a blending tool we created a background....the one thing to watch with this technique is to stop....and not over do the blending....keep some white space...

It's one of the things that I have learnt.....it is important to keep some white space...

One of the properties of Alcohol inks is that they dry really quickly....so we were able to stamp directly on top of the ink using black Archival ink and one of the tree stamps..

Some black card, matting and layering, a sentiment and the first card was done....

As usual we did have a laugh....especially when one of the ladies (I won't mention her name) said that her friends card was "going down hill" we all knew what she meant!!!!! 

For our second project we made a card using Acetate...now, I'm always a bit weary when stamping on acetate .....so I don't.....I work around it....

So we started by putting some alcohol ink onto our felt and adding a few drops of blending solution....we then dabbed the colour onto the acetate......

In order to create a sun we added a drop of blending solution directly onto the acetate and watched it spread out...(only a small drop) 

We put this to one side and stamped our design onto a piece of white card...we used Plumb Archival ink.....

The best bit was watching everyone working out where the sentiment needed to go...

Then we put the acetate over the card and attached it with brads.

Some matting and layering and job done...

What was really great was seeing all the ladies so pleased with their work and yes, they all produced pieces of art work.....

If you have alcohol inks in your stash and haven't used them, I do urge you to have a play....

Well that is all from me for today ...just going to add some finishing touches to some cards for future magazines....(they need to be in by tomorrow!!!) 

Bye for now....Jo. X 

Toadstool Tuesday...

Evening all, how's your day been? I've been getting ready for our craft workshops tomorrow...I really look forward to seeing all my lovely friends and one of them has a special Birthday.....woohoo!

Well tonight, I'm sharing my take on the theme "splatter techniques" 

This is my entry into the Challenge blog over at Craft Stamper...

You can check it out HERE

As you know I come up with many of my ideas at 3am....I don't know why...but there we have it...

I knew that I wanted to use my favourite toadstool stamp from Clarity and I was going to use a wax crayon resist technique....this was to be a homage to the workshop I recently attended run by the very talented and lovely Eileen Godwin...

It all started well and I stamped the image in black Versafine ink on the reverse of Centura Pearl....next apply the wax crayon...that's where it went wrong...the little pixies had been up to mischief in the night and hidden my crayon....(you know what it is like.....craft stash that disappears !!!) so I just carried on and put my thinking cap on......

I used my VersaMark pen and added highlight....then Clear embossing powder and used my heat gun.

Next I applied the distress inks in block colour...Mowed Lawn....Fired Brick and Spiced Marmalade....splattered a little water and then dabbed with kitchen roll...

Next I blended some Brushed Corduroy around the edges to frame the work.

I took my Distress stain...again Brushed Corduroy and put some onto my mat...I also put some white Acrylic paint onto my mat....I picked some up with a paint brush and in turn splattered a little on the card....I wanted quite a subtle effect....(small dots....like me...lol..) 

Then I stamped some Clarity words, cut them, added some black pen...I did the 'heart monitor line edge' ...I also added a similar line to the surround of the design.

Some Bakers twine, a metal embellishment, some matting and layering and job done...

One finishing trick is just to buff over the resist with a piece of tissue...it really does bring it up nice and white...

So this is my take on Splatter....what do you think? And I would love to see yours....

That's it from me for tonight...off to walk Tess....

Crafty hugs...Jo. X 

NEC

Hello all and Happy Monday, although I'm a little tired today....and no wonder after the fabulous time I had at the NEC......which I have decided stands for.....Necessary Education for Crafters.....

I have many stories to tell from Toilet stories....(Sam), tickets traumas (me) and nearly being evicted from the station (Clare), but I'm saving them all for my book.....lol....

Here are some photos....this is one of a few of us at the Clarity Stamp stand ....day 1....

Some of us were lucky enough to go to a great workshop with my lovely friend Clare Charville ....here we are....

At our Clarity meal we all got a little silly with our napkin holders....

And yes, it did look like an advert for SpeckSavers....

Now, those of you who watch the classroom shows will recognise the name Massimo ...he's 5 years old and is one of Theresa Pace's sons.....and oh, he is a wiz with the Gelli Plate....here he is meeting Barbara....we all had a little tear in our eyes...it really was a special moment...

It was great to catch up with so many people and to meet new crafters....especially those who I met for the first time....

We all had a blast .....but back to housework....walking Tess and getting ready for the workshops on Wednesday....

Thanks for looking in today and here's a little bit of craftiness to leave you with......

Gelli plate and Clarity stamps....

Take care and see you soon....Jo. xxx