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.
I made a mask for the white picket fence using the fence stamp from the bird table set - I stamped this on to post-it notes, cut some of them in to smaller sections, re-joined them so that the pattern was a bit different. I put this in place, stamped through the fence mask with some grasses and the small Birch Leaves on the right of the picture. Then with a makeup sponge I put in some shading using Pale Blue ink and Teal ink from Papermania along the Fence to give it definition. I then put in some shading along the top of the picture using Summer Sky ink from Memento.
I removed the fence mask and continued to stamp the rest of the picture using Stream Adirondack Ink for all the plants and Foliage. I used a torn piece of paper, makeup sponge and Stream Adirondack again for all the other shading in the picture. I stamped the Birds last and let it all dry.
When I went back to it I decided that Blue and the Birds weren't dark enough and I broke my own rule and went over them again using my Teal Zeal Memento marker pen.
Before removing the Low Tack masking tape from around the edge I put another frame around this one leaving a small gap and went around this with the marker pen then I removed all the tape. (the reason for this was to give a border to lift the picture out from the white edges - I discovered that if you use this type of coated paper or cardstock the ink bleeds out but not onto your picture - when I try to do a straight line free hand now I shake and if I want a squiggly line I seem to draw it straight so this is my compromise and I like it!)
My last job before framing was to take some tissue paper and polish up the picture...this gives it a wonderful finish...it looks like a proper print now!
Hugs to all and good luck to you all in whatever competitions you may enter xx
Stamps used:
Bird Table set - Cat, 2 Standing Birds, Foliage Branch, Hollyhocks, Fence.
Grasses 1, Grasses 3, Grasses 6
Split Tree Set - Small Beech Leaves.
You can Follow the links to get to the Clarity Stamp pages for each of these stamps...I can highly recommend them!
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