Thank you to all who read my Blog and leave a comment. I really do appreciate every one of them and do my utmost to reply as soon as possible.
Crafty hugs to all!


Saturday 31 October 2015

Parchments Cards for HOCHANDA TV with Claritystamp

Hi Folks!  Well it has been all go since I last wrote.  I had a lovely trip to Catterick to see some lovely friends at the Claritystamp Open Day.  I had a marvellous time and everybody was so welcoming.  Then came the holiday trip to Barcelona.....lots of walking in the sunshine.  Then a mad rush to finish cards for the Claritystamp Groovi Plate shows on HOCHANDA TV.  I did take my Parchment with me on holiday but didn't have much joy in finding time to play with it...also my tumble dryer sheet dried out on me (and I had it in a self seal bag!)  On returning home I managed to hurt my shoulder.  It was very painful to move but happy to report that it is nearly back to normal...but no more heavy lifting for me!!
So today I am posting some of my cards and I will post some more in a couple of days.  If anyone has any questions or want to know more details please feel free to leave a comment.   Hope to hear from you.

 Sorry about the picture for the poppy and wreath....I couldn't get my hand to stay steady at this stage

This card is has a drop shadow effect and the center shape is pierced.

I hope you managed to catch our Barbara Gray with the Groovi Parchment Plates and Storage Special...that was a bit of a marathon for Barbara.  As usual the Groovi Design Team made samples for the shows but not all of them were shown (which is a pity as I know that the rest of the gang did some pretty amazing work)  Hopefully you will get the chance to view them on Facebook or on their personal blogs.


Happy Crafting
Hugs
Emma x

Thursday 1 October 2015

Door Plaque

Hi Folks!  As usual on the first of the month, my post is a design piece for the next Claritystamp Challenge which starts today.  This time around it is:
CHALLENGE 32
STENCILS
For this challenge I have made a door plaque.  Just a little something I made for my daughter that I thought I would share.  I have in fact used 4 Claritystamp Stencils for this piece.

I cut an A4 piece of Gray Board in half LENGTHWISE to make the Door Plaque. I Painted it Black all over with Acrylic Paint and left it to completely dry before adding my first stencil.
I taped a part of the Wood Grain Stencil to the board and applied a layer of Grunge Paste
Once that was dry I added the Brick Wall Stencil to the other end of the board and added a layer of Grunge Paste.  I left this to completely dry.
Remember when using Grunge Paste you should have a container of warm soapy water handy for cleaning your stencils and scraper tool
I then added more Grunge Paste through the Dotty Weave Stencil.  This time applying it to the open area between the last two stencils and then I added some to the opposing corners just to add a bit more texture to the piece.
(don't you think that the Wood Grain looks like hair and an eye)
I roughly worked out where I wanted the Letters for the Name to go
I had to individually mask up around each letter, apply Grunch Paste, clean stencil, let paste dry before adding the next letter of the ABC Stencil.
This is the result before getting all messy with Acrylic Paint and Gilding Wax
Now I got so caught up in getting this finished as a surprise for my daughter Carrie that I didn't take any pictures of the next stages
I wasn't at home in my craft room....I was in her Art Studio....It is not as tidy as my craft room....so as soon as I found what I was looking for Paint wise I just got stuck in!!!
.....but I can tell you what I did....

Paint the whole thing with Black Acrylic and leave to dry (you can hurry this up with a heat gun)
Paint the whole thing again with Bronze Acrylic, leave for a couple of minutes
then using scrunched up copy paper, lay this over the Plaque and rub all over
Some but not all of the Bronze will come off
Paint the whole thing again with Gold Acrylic, leave for a couple of minutes and repeat the process with the scrunched copy paper.
At this stage you can leave it at this or you can go on adding layers of colour...you might want to add more Black or even a Bit of Red, just make sure you have extra copy paper scrunched up and ready to go.
The final stage will be to add some gilding wax.  I used an old rag to apply Gold, Bronze and Red Wax to the background and I used Gold Wax to add to the Letters to highlight them.  I used the same rag to give it all a good buff up.
I applied Double Sided Sticky Sheet to the back of the Plaque and fixed it to the Front Door.
Now my daughter lives in what we call a 'stair' (tenement building) so her door is inside and protected from Rain.  So if you fancy having a go at this but the door it is intended for is open to the elements then I suggest you give it all (front, back and edges) a coat of clear varnish for protection.
A little look from the other angle
Well I hope you like my little piece.  My daughter was very surprised and happy with it and I am happy to say that she hasn't removed it (yet) lol

So now lets see what you lovely people come up with for your entries to the Challenge.....
I bet you knock our socks off!!

You can enter the challenge by post, email or from your blog.  Details and Rules are to be found at:

http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Challenge 32

And Remember
£50 gift voucher to the winner

Hope to hear from you and I wish you all the best.

Happy Crafting

Hugs
Emma x