Picture Time

Hi Folks! Perfect weather for crafting here in Scotland....yes its raining and that wasn't a hard guess.
Its going to be a busy few weeks for me so please forgive if I forget to post my blogs, I will try to remember.  I have 3 Birthday cards to do, 5 more pictures, samples to make for a company for their Christmas card selection ( could be an order in excess of 200 in it for me ) and a 70th birthday cake to decorate and two competitions to enter.

The first competition is of course for my favourite -  clarity stamp challenge which you can enter via the link:  http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk

This months entry is all about Animals and I have decided to enter the picture that I have just finished and framed.  It features my two cats Billy and Blue doing what they love best...hassling the birds.  We have a tree right by our little pond and on a daily basis you can find one or both of the cats hiding amongst the plants and there is a couple of blackbirds that come and sit in the tree chirping away at the cats.  Thank god that my cats are not quick enough to get them but they do try!

As per the rules I have used ONLY Clarity Stamps, which I will list at the end of this blog.

I used Clarity Paper (170GSM double sided coated A4).  I cut it down to fit in the frame and then attached it to A4 copy paper (with LOW TACK Masking Tape) giving it a .5cm border.

 
I decided on Teal Zeal Memento Ink to represent my black cat Blue (so named for his blue eyes) and I chose Whispers Starry Starry Night to represent our ginger and fawn striped (with leopard spots) cat Billy (so named after a comic character...which those of a certain age will remember...Billy Bunter...and you will also know the reason why!) 

I stamped up Blue first on to my Clarity paper, then I stamped on to a bit A4 copy paper 3 times.  1 - mask for Blue, 2 - Stencil for Billy, 3 - mask for Billy.  So obviously I cut around for two masks and then cut out the cat shape to make the stencil. I then stencilled Billy using the reverse image of the stamp to put him in to the left of the picture.  Next I stamped the Hollyhocks and grasses  around the cats making sure to mask up the cats for the planting going on behind them.

Trellis Wedding Card

Hi Folks!  Its been a little while since my last blog...been ill, been busy, been to a wedding, needed to recover....and forgot to post blog...silly me!  So at the beginning of the month I received my new Clarity Stamp Stencils and Masks...really pleased with them especially as I had a wedding card to make and wasn't quite sure where I was going to go with it. 

I was informed by the bride's mother that the colour would be white and (Cadbury's) purple so I had that in hand and as soon as I saw my new stencils I knew what I wanted to do.
The Trellis Stencil measures  9 x 11 inches and was a great size for what I had come up with.

I placed the stencil over some copy paper and drew around the pattern in black pen.  This I then placed underneath 4 sheets of white vellum which I had cut to just over 4 x 8 inches and using my two needle tool I pierced around the lines.

I trimmed the vellum to 4 x 8 inches and using my parchment scissors I cut out around the shapes to make parchment trellis to add to my card.  I had decided to make a gatefold card and I used A3 White card to make an 8 x 8 inch (when folded).  I cut out two panels of super smooth white card (4 x 8 inches again) and using a purple ink pad (hobbycraft) and my favourite stamps (Clarity Stamp), I created a landscape that spread over the panels with a white border all round which I then attached a vellum trellis using foam tape.