Aged Mahogany Birthday Card

Hi Folks!  Well I shall end this week with a post of the Birthday Card that I made for my husband's 50th. He loved the picture that I made for him by the way (http://emmburns.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/hi-folks-another-little-post-from-me.html  - posted 29th April)  I made his card to match the picture.

I started with a square of Clarity Coated Card (cut down from the A5).  I masked off the edges with low tack tape and using Ranger Distress Ink - Aged Mahogany I stamped my tree in place.  The tree is actually three stamps, two Split Trees - a left and a right. Also a single stem of Birch Leaves (it comes in two sizes, I used the small one here).  I then stamped the floral border along the bottom of the card.  This stamp comes from the new Gardening Set.

I did quite a bit of secondary stamping with this card, it helps to give the final image more depth.

I then took some roughly torn copy paper and shaded in the background with the same ink and my trusty Brayer (BOB). I added the Floral Branch and the Birds from theBirdhouse and Garden Set along with the two stamps from the Happy Words Set.

I then removed the low tack tape, gave the card a polish (it comes up with a lovely sheen and makes it look as though it has been professionally printed.

I took a piece of scrap card and using my ink pad directly to it, I coloured around the edges.  I then attached my polished card to it using double sided tape and then trimmed it using my brilliant Perfect Layers Ruler. You can get them from http://www.joannasheen.com/  This I then attached to a Brilliant White 8 x 8 inch card and the result is :

Unfortunately my photography is crap and doesn't show up how white the card is or how I have deliberately not shaded in any sky.  I felt that using such a dark colour on the card needed some balance with the white. 

I hope you like it as much as I do.  I would love to hear your comments, I read and appreciate every one of them and I do try my best to respond as soon as possible.

Happy Crafting

Hugs 

Emma xx

I am entering this in the following challenge:

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.ca/  Birthday.

Clarity Clockwork Stencil Card

Hi Folks!  Ok so I have been a bit slow in getting back to blogging but hopefully I can make up for it this week by posting about 3 cards I made on Monday.  I should have been ready to go with them but well...the SUN came out and that meant going for a walk or two in my new surroundings.  As usual I went with my son and we had a lovely time.  My legs are certainly feeling it as there were quite a few hills (well they felt like that to me) to get up and down.  We only did about 7 miles but since it was my first walk of the year I think my son took it easy on me.  It was so peaceful and the sky so blue and since we were right in the middle of the countryside we got sunshine from all around.  We also got a few 'midgie' bites on the way home, but that's to be expected up here in Scotland!

So get on with the first card I hear you say!

So I was at the craft show in Glasgow SECC last Thursday. Met the lovely JO RICE who was standing in for Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps.  Had a good day and came away with lots of goodies, mostly from (funnily enough) Clarity Stamp...no surprises there!  One of my recent purchases was the new Clockwork Stencil. Great size  7 x 7 inches and its 350 microns and can take going through an embossing machine too.
I decided to just go with plain old ink.

I started with an 8 x 8 Cream Satin Card. I had decided to do this card all on one layer so I placed my stencil over the card and taking a make-up sponge and Coffee Archival Ink I went around the outside edge of the card.  The Stencil as you can see is curved around the corners which gives it it's own border.

I taped a fancy spellbinders tag to the back of the stencil at an angle, then took masking tape and taped down the edges of the stencil to stop it moving around.  I used one of my new Clarity Stencil Brushes ( that I got at the show - can really highly recommend these brushes, just brilliant) to give a bit of light shading over the stencil.  I then simply shaded around with the Coffee Archival and make-up sponge to make it a bit darker here and there.

When shading with a make-up sponge it is always best to blot some of the ink off onto scrap paper but for some of the areas I just dabbed down with the sponge fully loaded to give more of a distressed feel.  I removed the stencil, removed the tag from the back of it.  I stamped the Happy Birthday which is actually two stamps from the Clarity Stamp Happy Word Set.  I then replaced the tag over the top of the words and mixing the Coffee Archival with a bit of Black Archival I dragged my make-up sponge down and to the right to give a bit of a shadow.

I then took a Pro Marker - cool grey 1 around the tag to give it a it more definition.  All that was left to do was put an insert into the card then put that in an envelope and on to the next card.

I forgot to say that I put 'It's Birthday Time Again' on the insert.

So I hope you like this stencil, I can highly recommend it!

Happy Crafting and will be back soon with the next card.

Hugs 

Emma