Sunday 27 September 2015

Hi Folks!  Well did you manage to catch our Barbara on HOCHANDA television channel today? Stamps, Stencils and Groovi Plates!  What shows!  It is always a pleasure watching Barbara and I just love seeing what the Design Team come up with.  Such Fabulous Designs!  Fabulous Demos! What a Team!!  It was really great to get to see Barbara in teaching mode.

I  am off on Holiday in a couple of days so I thought I would show you all some of my samples that were shown on HOCHANDA today.

So first up is the Santa and Stars Groovi Plate 

For this card I 'grooved' out the Santa and Stars first.
I coloured Santa with Spectrum Noir Pencils, also a little bit of white work.  Using the Square Nested Plate I made a Frame for the artwork.  I used a Glitter Gold Gelly Roll Pen to colour the frame.  I pierced and cut out some of the bigger stars while leaving the smaller stars pierced with a grid pattern.  I decided to highlight the larger stars by painting Gold Acrylic Paint onto the red backing card. I used the Scalloped edge from the Border Plate to make the photo corners. A little bit of white work with some piercing and cutting then placing my backing card behind and just letting the corners slide through to the front.  Double sided tape was placed behind the Gold Border which was backed onto white card.  Trimmed with a gold rope design peel-off then backed onto white satin card.
Next!


I coloured A5 Parchment with Cranberry Adirondack Ink. Using 4 Groovi Plates - Classic Shape, Nested Deckle, Nested Square and Meadow grasses I embossed onto the back of the parchment.  I stamped the Verse onto copy paper then traced it onto the Parchment with white lead. I then embossed from the back. I split the verse in two so I could emboss a butterfly onto the parchment. I added some white shading to the grasses.  I used an Adirondack Pen - Cranberry to add more colour to the deckled border.  I used a fine grid to pierce the outer area between the Deckle and the Classic shape.  I pierced and cut around the edge with parchment scissors.  Once mounted onto backing card I made a butterfly to place on top.  I like the effect of the grid piercing around the edges as it makes the design curl out slightly.

A change of colour!
Now this card was very straightforward. One piece of A5 Parchment. I used 3 sizes of the Nested Deckle Edge Squares.  I then added the Stitch Line from the Border Plate. Then came the Happy Birthday (from the Happy Words Set of stamps) - Stamp onto copy paper, trace with white lead, embossed and coloured on the back. Finally adding the center part of the Circle Sprig Plate making sure I didn't go into the sentiment with my embossing tool.  I used Distress Markers to colour in the "Layers" I then pierced and snipped around the outer edge before mounting onto backing card with double sided tape.

So how many Groovi Plates did I use on this next card?
1. Stocking and Lights Plate, 2. Nested Squares Plate, 3. Netting Plate, 4. Deer Plate, 5. Santa and Stars Plate, 6. Deckled Nested Plate and finally 7. Snowflake Plate.
It sounds a lot but it was ever so quick to do.  The colouring took longer!  A mix of Spec Noir Pencils and Distress Markers for the back and for the Border I used a Sakura Pen - wink of stellar Glitter Gold and also a gelly roll pen.  The backing layers are White Satin Card, Pale Green Satin Card, Fine Gold Mesh and Green Satin Card with the Parchment on top!

And Finally!

One sheet of A5 Parchment and the Nested Deckle Edged Square Plates to create the layers first.  I then added the central design using the Bauble and Branch Border Plate and the Deer Bauble Plate.  I coloured the branch  and 2nd "layer" with Distress Marker - Forest Moss. The 3rd "layer" with Glitter Gold Gelly Roll Pen. The 4th "layer" is actually a dark green card from my stash.  I used Spectrum Noir Pencils for the rest of the colouring.  Piercing with a fine grid.
I decided to cut around the outer edge of the design with my parchment scissors just as you would with an ordinary pair - no snipping!
Double sided tape hidden behind the Gold edge and finished off with a trim of iridescent peel-off

Well that's all for now folks.  My next post will be for the Claritystamp Challenge Blog which goes live on the 1st of every month.  I did have a few more cards to show but I think I will wait to share them till I get back from Barcelona!

Thank you for popping in to see my designs, very much appreciated.

Happy Crafting!

Hugs 
Emma x

p.s.  Would like to give a big thank you to Barbara Gray from Claritystamp for giving me the chance to play  work with these lovely Parchment Embossing Plates.  

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Hi Folks!  Well you know what day it is!  That's right...1st of the Month and that means the new Challenge is up and running at http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

The challenge for this month is
Shaped Cards

My Design Team offering is:
A Star Card

I used the Claritystamp, Merry Christmas on Parchment and added the design from the lovely Christmas Tree Groovi Plate Designed by Sylvia Marshall.  (such a talented lady)
I have backed my parchment onto Blue Vellum  which was then attached to a Card Blank.  I cut out the star leaving a join at the top. 
(otherwise it wouldn't stand now would it!!)
As I was experimenting with different shapes I began with my Parchment design and cut the Card Blank to fit...it is better if you CUT your Card Blank to the shape you want first and then have your Design fit the card...I was going for an 8 x 8 inch card but in the end I had to make a slightly larger card for the star to fit.  The other bit of advice I will give you is to use a strong card as the join at the top is not very wide....the stronger the card the better the join.
Ready for a few pictures?

I stamped the Merry Christmas onto Copy Paper.  I drew a 5 pointed star onto a square of Parchment using a white leaded propelling pencil, placed the Merry Christmas underneath the Parchment and Traced the design.
A quick smooch with a Tumble Dryer Sheet.  Then I used a Firm Foam Mat and began embossing the Line Art on the back of the Parchment.
The next step was to place the lovely Christmas Tree Groovi Plate into the Groovi Plate Mate, taped a Point of the Star over the Tree Design and embossed as near to the Words as I could get...I worked from the Top of the Tree down before turning the parchment around to the next point of the Star and repeating.  Once Embossed I used an eraser to get rid of the original tracing on the front of the Parchment.
I used two shades of Blue Spectrum Noir Pencils to Colour on the Back of the Parchment and Blended them with a Blending Solution.
I Pierced the design working on the Front of the Parchment
It was after this that I decided to do a bit of shading with my Large Embossing Tool as I thought the design would look better.  I then snipped some of the curved shapes out using my Parchment Scissors.
I pierced around the outside of the design with my Two Needle Tool and once again snipped the excess Parchment away using Parchment Scissors.
I Drew another 5 pointed star on Vellum, cut this out with a Craft Knife, then using small bits of Strong Double Sided Tape I attached the Parchment to the Vellum.
I then attached the Vellum to the Card Blank with Strong Double Sided Tape
Here is another picture of the finished card with slightly different lighting.  (It was a really sunny day and everything seemed to give off a reflection)

Well I hope you like this Star Card, I was very pleased with it (but I think it has more to do with the lovely design of the Christmas Tree Groovi Plate)

I hope that you will take part in this months Claritystamp Challenge and I look forward to seeing your entries using Clarity Stencils, Stamps maybe even the new Groovi Plates

£50 Gift Voucher for the Winner
(picked by Random.org)
Top 5 Picks
(chosen by Design Team)

Happy Crafting

Hugs 
Emma xx