August Claritystamp Challenge

Hi there Folks!  Hope you are all well especially with all the sadness in the world just now.

Another month gone and another challenge from Claritystamp Ltd.

This month the theme is:

FUSSY CUTTING!!!

I am so looking forward to seeing all your wonderful entries and just to give you a bit of inspiration, here is my Design Team Sample.....hope you like it xx

Groovi Plates used for first stage

I began with colouring a piece of A5 white Parchment using the Dorso technique.

I applied the Dorso Crayon to the parchment and then applied a touch of Dorso Oil to a piece of Kitchen Roll. Then I applied this to the parchment in a circular motion, blending the colour until even.  The picture on the left is my first application.  The picture on the right is my second.

I then attached the parchment to my Groovi Plate Mate using the Baby Inset Adapter Plate and the Baby Nested Square Plate. I embossed the Outer Square.

I removed the Baby Inset and replaced it with the larger Groovi Nested Square and embossed the 9th Square, counting from the middle.  This gave me a neat frame with slightly smaller border.

I then re-inserted the Baby Inset Adapter, this time I used the Baby 'New Arrival' Plate and added the sentiment to the top and bottom of the square leaving room for my embellishment which you can see comes from the same plate. (more on that later)

For the next stage I worked on the new Groovi Border Plate Mate

Using the Lacy Corner Border (sadly it is omitted from the picture....ooops!) and the Lacy Border Plate, taking elements from these Border plates I built up my design, making sure that the design was even all around the outside and inside of the frame.

Then it was time for a bit of white work, tumble dryer sheet, embossing tools.  Nice gentle strokes to gently stretch the parchment and to build up the white work evenly.  Go around all the areas to be embossed once, before going around again...giving your work a chance to rest.

  

Note: always use the size of embossing tool that fits into the area to be embossed......no use using a 6mm ball tool if the area only takes a 1.5mm tool! 

This is where I got carried away with the design and went straight to the piercing and Cutting.... without taking photos.....

I attached the white parchment to the Groovi Plate Mate, this time with the Straight Piercing Grid

Using the 1 needle and 2 needle tools I pierced the area between the Frame and Border design.....
forgetting that I wanted to colour the Frame......You can see from the finished pic that I rectified this later......not to be advised once pierced unless you have a steady hand as you do not want the colour to go into the holes or onto your picot edges!!

I used a 2 needle fine Pergamano tool to pierce around the lacy framework and then cut a picot edge using Pergamano Parchment Scissors.......yes it did take a little while.....I was more worried about the edges catching on my clothes......don't wear wool garments when cutting.....or make sure your sleeves are rolled up good and proper......saves the air from going blue.....yes I did have to walk from my craft room to my husband and ask him to very carefully detach me from my work.....and yes after over ten years of parching, I Should Know Better!!

So composure regained, I very carefully shaded in the border using a Blue Faber Castel Pencil, applied a tiny bit of Dorso oil to a very slim paper stump and blended.....very happy that the colour didn't get onto the back of the pierced holes!

Next step cutting and mounting the two pieces together.

I applied Red Double Sided Tape to the back of the Blue Parchment and also the Front.  I attached it to my backing paper.  I then removed the cover of the tape on the front and carefully attached the Lacy White Parchment.....best to match up the corners first.  I then used my Perfect Layers Ruler to cut the backing paper. This was then attached to a White Card with Red Tape again.  I applied some Silver Iridescent Peel-offs around the edge of the blue backing paper and  mitred the corners for a better finish!

  

Now about that Rattle!

You can see that is taken from the Baby Plate along with the Bow.

What you didn't know was that.....it actually rattles!!

I embossed the Rattle twice onto the spare bits blue parchment, embossed on the back to give it shape and to do a bit of white work....I was very gentle with the shaping as I didn't want to loose all the colour.

I cut the Rattles out with my parchment scissors, piercing and cutting the inside of the handle and around the bow.  I used Perga Glue to attach the handles and halfway up the circle (to the blue band) together.  I then added some Micro Beads (those beads that are used for nail art are very cheap and are the perfect size for something this small).  I then finished glueing the rattles together.  It didn't take too long to dry. Next I used Perga Glue to attach the Bow and then attached the rattle to the center of the card using a clear double sided pad.

Hey just a thought.....I will be giving the baby his first Rattle lol!

Now to be honest with you all, this card is not finished yet.....why?

I have added a Satin Insert to the card, just ready to be written on, and now I am awaiting the birth of the baby (not long now) so that I can add his name and the date and time to the tags and add it to the card!

My First Grandchild!

(Tags Border Plate and Scrap Parchment, Scrap backing paper.  I will emboss lettering from the new Universal Framer before piercing all around and giving them a picot edge)

So there will be a bit more fussy cutting from me to come, just as well that I love it!

So now it is up to you to get your thinking caps on and to help you, why not pop on over to the Claritystamp Challenge Blog and have a look at what the other Design Team Members have on show.

If you click on their names you will be taken to their blogs to see how they have made their designs.

Wishing you all good luck in the challenge, the Winner will receive a £50.00 Claritystamp Voucher

You got to be in it to win it!

Looking forward to seeing all your lovely art work

For more information and to see the rules of the challenge click on the link below

RULES

All Groovi Items can be seen by clicking on the Orange Banner at the top right of this page where you will see all the Groovi on offer to date.

Happy Crafting

Hugs

Emma x

Claritystamp Challenge 39

Hi Folks! Ready for another challenge from Claritystamp?  

Yes it's the 1st May and the new theme is ANYTHING GOES

(as long as it's Clarity)

This Design is made up of three stages to get the finished piece.

The first stage was made using the Groovi Parchment Starter Kit and Square Nested Plate to make my rectangular Frame. Once I had made the frame I then added the butterflies.  Now the larger butterflies are my design but I took the shape for the smaller ones from a combination of the Butterfly Groovi Plate and Clarity Butterfly Stamp.  I used the No.1 ball tool very lightly to emboss from the plates to give me a very fine line and as I added the whitework to them I adjusted them slightly. ( I stamped various butterflies onto copy paper and picked out the bits I wanted to use by tracing over the designs with my scriber VERY gently. I then added white dots around all the butterflies using one of the first Border plates using the 'in-line' technique.

I added the background using the Sprig Groovi Plate....this is one of my favourite plates, I use it quite a lot....did you know that the design tessellates? A Fabulous Groovi Plate.  I used a combination of Promarkers and Polychromos Pencils for colouring.  

I pierced on the line around the butterflies using a two needle tool. I also played around with the grids to pierce a few designs on a couple of butterflies.  the piercing on the largest is done freehand.  You can see from the picture how I have used the Grid Plate to add the dots to the butterfly and then colouring in from the back. 

I pierced around the Frame and cut away the excess parchment to give a picot edge.  I then cut around all the butterfly wings so that they can be raised.

Stage two shows how I made a hinge with tape onto another piece of parchment so I could match the Frame size and get the Sprig Design in the exact same position for the backing piece as it is on the Front piece.  I coloured the frame with  Promarkers.  I love the way I can get seamless shading with promarkers, especially on larger areas.  No lines or blotches and they work great in combination with Blendable pencils.

Third stage was to cut a piece of Grey board to mount the design onto.  I used a mount board cutter for this (thank you again Carrie for my Present.....see, I do use it!)  I applied Mod Podge to the Grey Board and then covered the front with 12 x 12 Burgundy card.  I trimmed the corners, folded the excess over the back and once again applied Mod Podge to keep the card in place.  I then cut another Piece of Burgundy card to fit the back which again was coated in Mod Podge.
Despite how tidy and prepared I was, I managed to get a sticky bit of Mod Podge on the front so this meant that I would have to disguise it.  Solution...give the whole thing a further coat of Mod Podge.  It gives a great sheen to the piece...it was looking a bit flat before.

Once it was all dry I attached the framed sprig piece to the centre using Large Double Sided Red Tape.

Now to attach the Front piece of the design I simply used my Pergamano Glue behind the bodies of all the butterflies and using a cocktail stick I applied glue to the inner part of the frame, laid the top piece directly over the piece already mounted.  I then laid several layers of copy paper over the top and used my hand to apply pressure.   I left it for an hour (I know Perga Glue dries quick but I wasn't tempting fate) before going back to then begin lifting the wings up.

See how the sprig design matches
and the reason for the dots around the butterflies......
I made a card similar to this years ago and the cut edge wasn't very neat (not the picot)
so this time I decided to add the dots knowing they would give a better finish to the edges.

So this is my design sample for the challenge, I do hope you like it..
I also hope that you will enter the Challenge
First Prize is a £50 gift voucher for Claritystamp Ltd
(not to be sneezed at!!)
The winner is chosen at random
The top 5 favourites are chosen by the Design Team.

So go on, give it a go.  It's a great chance to showcase your work!!
You never know where it will lead!!!

To see all the Design Team Samples click on the following link....I am sure you will be delighted.
http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

And remember there is also the fabulous Calendar Challenge from Barbara Gray too.

Happy Crafting
And Good luck

Emma xx

All about the Girls!!!

Hi Folks!!  I am Back!!  Not quite a hundred percent but very happy to be back crafting!
Today is the start of the month of March and that means the start of the new challenge at Claritystamp which is:

ALL ABOUT THE GIRLS!

My Design Sample for this month is a Parchment Piece using the lovely Groovi Plates.  You can use ANY Claritystamp product to take part in the challenge.

Instead of a card I decided to make a piece to put up on the wall of my craft room.  Before I give you the details on what was used, I have to apologise for the not so great photos....still got a bit of the shakes with my right arm!  Click on the photos to see them enlarged.

I have for the moment mounted the A4 Parchment onto White card.  I have yet to choose a frame to put it in as I have a few to choose from.

I began by making a frame on the parchment using the Nested Square Groovi Plate and the Double Straight Line on the Border Plate.  Then using Torn Copy Paper, Stencil Brushes and Memento Inks I blended them together to create the hilly background on the BACK of the parchment. I used Summer Sky Memento Ink funnily enough...for the sky!

Next step after this was to smooch my parchment again with a tumble dryer sheet and add the corner embellishment of my design using the Art Deco Border.  These were coloured using ProMarkers

I then added my four ladies and then a couple of Trees. I did a bit of White Work before colouring on the back with ProMarkers.  You cannot see it very well but I uses a Blush ProMarker for all the flesh

After adding the ladies and Trees I then added some foliage, stamping Wee Flowers with Memento Olive Green Ink.  You have to either blot this ink or leave it to dry for a bit if stamping on parchment.

I used ProMarkers- Forest Moss and Moss on the tree canopy, blending them together to get the shade I wanted and I used ProMarker- Holly for the leaves....I used a piece of Kitchen Roll for blotting the leaves as I didn't want them to be too dark.

I then used an AquaMarker- Lamp Black between the double white line border of the piece before mounting it onto white card.  to mount I have used slivers of invisible tape at each corner and along the middle of the edges.  I also added tiny spots of Perga Glue to the corners......be careful not to use too much (I use an OLD stylus) especially if working with non permanent inks as this will make the ink bleed.  I once added extra glue to a piece that I had worked on for ages, I was very proud of it....that is until I added the glue....I had forgotten that I had used a water soluble ink to create a background on the mounting card...result was the ink bled and the piece looked like I had spilled water on it!  Ruining the piece completely!  Not a happy bunny!!! 

So there you have it, A very simple pastel piece of Parchment Work using the Groovi Plates (Winner of Best New Product 2016).  I hope you like it and that it will encourage you to take part in this months challenge. To join in with a chance of winning a £50 Claritystamp Ltd Gift Voucher, simply follow the RULES, make your entry, photograph it (detail of what you have used and how you made it would be lovely too), then EMAIL or BLOG it using the Froggy link on the challenge blog. 

Rules:    http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-rules.html

Email:   Claritystampchallenge@hotmail.com    

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

A full list of all the Groovi Products can be found at: http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Groovi

A full list of all the Clarity stamps  can be found at:  http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Clear-Stamps

a full list of all the Clarity Stencils can be found at:  http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Stencils

So here's wishing you the best of luck and I look forward to seeing all your wonderful creations.

Happy Crafting!

Hugs

Emma x

P.S.   Remember there is a second challenge now!  Barbara Gray invites you to take part in her MONTHLY CALENDAR challenge.  For each month you follow Barbara's Step by Step instructions to create the beautiful design on the calendar.  Barbara Gray will choose the Winner herself and give a £50 gift voucher for the winning entry.  

The email address to enter is the same as the challenge above, and the Calendar Challenge No 3 can be found at the above Blog address or you can link to the challenge blog through Barbara's Blog too.

http://barbaragrayblog.blogspot.co.uk/.  Best of luck to all who enter. x

Groovi Samples Quiz

Hi Folks!  Well what do you know, I have some blog posts that I never got around to posting.  Silly me!  I came on here to do a tutorial of a parchment box that was shown on Wednesday this week on Hochanda tv.com.  It was for the Groovi Show with Maria Simms.  But then I noticed that I had a few draft posts! As I will not be doing any crafting today I thought I had better get around to getting that sorted out first!

Now I had a little quiz going with a lovely friend on FB as to what plates were used to make a particular sample.  So I thought that I would continue it here.  (sorry Lisa P....you have to choose a different card lol) If anyone can list the plates used to make a particular card (just pick one), then leave the list in the comment box below,  I will pick a winner at random and the prize will be a copy of the particular card that they chose to comment on.   I shall announce the winner on the 20th January and make arrangements to post out the prize.  I will then do another Groovi Quiz for the next set of samples.

First up are my design Samples for  the Barbara Gray show, which was aired on the 3rd January 2016
(I do have older shows to post on...ooops!)

If you click on any of the pictures they will enlarge for you to get a better look.

.

 I hope you like my samples and that you join in with my little quiz.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Until then

Happy Crafting!

Hugs

Emma xx

HOCHANDA with Barbara Gray

Hi Folks!  Well another lovely Sunday.  Who did I spend this morning with...the lovely Barbara Gray on the New Craft Channel HOCHANDA.  It was a Groovi Morning!! 

Brilliant to see Barbara in teaching mode.  

It was fantastic to see all the lovely Design Samples from the other Ladies from Claritystamp...most of whom are very new to this Groovi Parching or Parching in general. look what they produced all with the help of the Groovi Plates

(and of course their wonderful inbuilt talent)

I thought that I would share the pictures of my Groovi Design Team Samples that were shown on the New Television Craft Channel  

HOCHANDA

Home Of Crafts, Hobbies, AND Art

I hope you like them

Layered Dove with Circle Sprig

coloured with Spectrum Noir Pencils and ProMarker

Circle Sprig, Nested Circles, Parchment and Paper Die Cut Butterflies

Coloured with ProMarkers

Dove, Peace, Nested Square, Dot Border Plate, Die Cut Sprig

coloured with Spectrum Noir Pencils

Dove, Circle Sprig, Ribbon Border, White Parchment

which I coloured Green before embossing and Sakura Wink of Stella Gold Gel Pen

Paired Doves, Lines and Dots Border Plate, White Parchment

which I shaded Black

Nested Circles, Dove, Lace Border, Parchment Poinsettia, Die cut Large Circle

Large Dove, Nested Squares, Nested Deckle Square, Olive Branch Circle

Medium Dove, Nested Squares, Nested Deckle Square, Olive Branch Circle

Small Dove,Nested Squares, Nested Deckle Square, Stitched Border Plate

Here are the last three together.  They are ONE piece of parchment with the nested Squares etc to give it a layered look and then finished off with Blue Satin Paper and then Silver Satin Paper.  The colouring between the Square and the Deckle is with an Indigo Blue ProMarker

As usual if anyone wants anymore details then just give me a comment and I will get back to you.

Hugs and have a great day.

Happy Crafting

Emma xx

P.S.  All the Groovi Plates used to make these cards can be found at

www.claritystamp.co.uk

and the New Craft Channel can be found at

HOCHANDA can be found on SKY 663, FREVIEW 39, FREESAT 822

or visit their website

www.hochanda.com

Parchment Gift Boxes...sizing

Hiya Folks!  Just a little update to my Blog Post of the 4th  August regarding the Gift Box I designed using the Claritystamp Groovi Plates. ( click on the link below to see full instructions)

http://emmburns.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/its-all-in-groovi.html

I was asked the question : can they be made bigger....and the answer is yes!

I had to check my design out first...just to be sure....didn't think there would be a problem...there was however one drawback!   The parchment I had in my stash!!  I wanted to make the biggest box I could but the largest Parchment I had was 12 x 12 cm. From this I made a 10cm Square Pyramid Box.

If you are reading this post then you will want to know my formula!

(You will still have to read the original post on how to make the boxes)

I used the Nested Square Groovi Plate to measure out my box base.  My first box had a 7 x 7cm base which resulted in using a sheet of 21 x 21 cm parchment and from that I have worked out that the size of Parchment needed is 3 times the length of one side of the Base Square. Use the Nested Square Groovi Plate for PERFECT Squares.  (The squares go up in 1cm increments...handy or what!!)

Size of Parchment Required

A4

5cm Square Base = 15 x 15cm     6cm Square Base = 18 x 18cm      7cm Square Base = 21 x 21cm                                                

12 x 12

8cm Square Base = 24 x 24cm     9cm Square Base = 27 x 27cm      10cm Square Base = 30 x 30 cm

A3

11cm Square Base = 33 x 33cm    12cm Square Base = 36 x 36 cm    13cm Square Base = 39 x 39cm

Mark for Triangle Insert

('Dot' on instructions)

This mark should be placed at (1 cm) less than the length of one side of Square Base

for example

5cm Square Base = Dot marked at (4cm) out from edge of embossed square

8cm Square Base = Dot marked at (7cm) out from edge of embossed square

11cm Square Base = Dot marked at (10cm) out from edge of embossed square 

I would also like to point out that in the Larger Pyramid Box I decided to use the Outer Edge of the Nested Ovals Groovi Plate to get my curve...just to see if it would work as well as the Nested Circles.

As you can see...it did!!

I hope these measurements are helpful to any who are going to make the boxes.

If you do, please let me know as I would love to see your versions. 

If you do not have a blog of your own then I would be happy to share it for you.

You can email me at

emmburns58@gmail.com

Happy Crafting 

Hugs 

Emma x