Elegant Ladies with a bit of Grunge!!

Hi Folks!  Hope you are well!  I am finally getting round to blogging a birthday card that I made back in March. I have been busy with other projects and I forgotten to finish writing this one up...sorry! (I have a few more like that too...note to self - get busy!)

So starting with a Blank Piece of Gelli Card I created this little scene using Grunge Paste, Clarity Stamp Elegant Ladies Stencil (set of 3) a selection of Distress Re-Inkers and some ink pads along with a Brayer.

Tape Low tack Masking tape around blank card to create a white border.  Stamp Easel into place using Archival Ink. Stamp again onto Post-it note for mask, cut out and place over stamped image.

Place a piece of torn copy paper over the top half of the card and use a Brayer along with Adirondack ink Pads to add colouring of choice to the bottom.  Take copy paper, place it over the 'floor' moving it up slightly to get a blank band.  Ink up Brayer and add Denim to the top right corner - coming down and to the left. Ink up Brayer again, this time came in at the diagonally opposite corner - coming up and to the right.  This way you can achieve the look of light filtering through a window.

Remove the Mask from the Easel as the next step is creating the image on the Easel.  Make your own Ink Pad by stamping onto Cut and Dry Foam with Black Archival ink.  Then colouring with drops of Distress Re-Inkers.  The ink will bleed and you can achieve a lovely blended effect.

Let the inks soak in a bit and then stamp a little scene onto the easel.
Use a piece of torn copy paper, makeup sponge and Adirondack inks to create a mini set of hills in the background.
Take a note of which inks and stamps used on a piece of card and put these all together with the stamps in an airtight plastic bag for future use.
You can add in a Dado Rail if you wish at this stage on the upper part of the card.  You can do this by colouring in a band or add a coloured Peel-off.
The next step is to add the ladies with the Grunge paste



Tape Stencil securely into place and add Grunge Paste. Let this dry for about 10 minutes and then go into the Grunge Paste with a fine ball tool to mark of details - hair, clothes and to cut away the grunge paste at the knee.

Once dry add the other lady...I wanted them to be standing closer or I could have grunged them at the same time.
You can colour the Grunge Paste using a variety of mediums from Ink, Acrylic Paint and Pencils.  For these though I used my ProMarker Pens. Add extra shading by taking a Light Gray Pen or Pencil around one side and underside of all images.  You can also at this stage add highlights by scraping away the edge of the Grunge Paste if you wish.

Shading has also been added roughly under the ladies feet with Cool Gray 1 ProMarker.
Remove the Masking Tape from around the edge of the card.  Use a permanent FineLiner to draw a rough edge around image.  I draw around one way and then come back around the other way. Using either ProMarkers with a Fine Nib or Spectrum Noir Pencils colour in the spaces between the lines.
Matt and Layer onto a complimentary background and then mount onto a Card Blank.
Add a string of Flat Backed Pearls around the edge to finish.  I used double threaded dressmaking pearls.  You can attach them using a glue or strong double sided tape.

Apart from the Card Blank, background layer and Pearls all items were sourced from Claritystamp  http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/

Large Easel Stamp, a post-it note mask. Archival Ink - Coffee

Homemade Ink Pad with Distress Re-Inkers - Forest Moss, Dried Marigold, Ripe Persimmon, Crushed Olive and Squeezed Lemonade along with Tree, Mantle and Floral Verge stamps.

Makeup Sponge, Brayer. Adirondack Ink Pads - Denim and Lettuce.

Scrap paper for hills. Scrap paper for Skirting Board and Dado Rail.

Thank  you for popping in and having a peek.  Any questions please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Happy Crafting

Emma xx

More Fairies!!!

Hi Folks!  Hope you are all well out there.  I have two more Fairy cards to show and they will be my last for the year.
So lets get right down to it!  Here are the two cards.  I have mixed things up a bit with using stamps from my stash.  I have used a Papermania Fairy along with a Rubber mounted Christmas Cheer Stamp and the little Robin is from Clarity Stamp for the first card and I used two freebies from a craft mag along with a lovely Frame stamp from Clarity Stamp for the second card.

I stamped the Red Fairy and Heat embossed using Fine Detail Gold Powder onto Theuva Card, then stamped her onto a Post-it Note to make a mask which I covered her with. I placed my own Circle Stencil onto the Card and Stamped the Bauble Garland (which has the words too) in Adirondack Meadow.  I coloured the baubles with a Red Poppy ProMarker and a Gold Gel Pen.

I used a Clarity Stencil Brush and the Meadow ink to dust around the circle and then removed the Stencil.

I began to colour the red fairy using Red Poppy, Blush, Caramel, Fern Green ProMarkers and a little bit of Gold Gel Pen.  Once I was happy with her shading I stamped the Robin into place and coloured him in too with the ProMarkers.

I ran my Gold Gel Pen around the circle (very slowly and carefully...didn't need it to go wrong at this stage).  I then layered and matted the card using double sided tape, Perfect Layers Ruler, Craft Knife.
(I coloured the red backing paper with the Poppy ProMarker.)

For the Gold Fairy I stamped and heat set with detail Gold embossing Powder.  (don't forget to use talcum powder to reduce static) and then I stamped the lovely Frame with the Detail Gold too.

I made a mask for my fairy, put a post-it along one edge of the frame and then stamped in the Christmas tree.  I used a make-up sponge to put in a little bit of shading within the tree and I highlighted bits of it with my gold Gel Pen.

I used Promarkers -Lemon, Blush, Cardinal Red and Marsh Green along with my Gold Gel Pen and a White Pilot pen (for the dots on the Parcel)

I used Cardinal Red, Marsh Green again with my Gold Gel Pen to colour in the Frame.  I put in a bit of shading for the background and gave a bit of a shadow using a Cool Grey 1 Promarker. I then layered the image onto Green Dotty paper from my stash and mounted this onto a Blank Card.  I decided to finish it off by adding a little bit more sparkle by using clear gold edged Peel Offs.

So that's it for the Fairies, fun to do but now I have to get on with making my own Christmas Cards...way behind but will post some soon.   (have one to post in the morning)

Take care all

Big Hugs

Emma x

Make a Wish

Hi Folks!  I have a lovely little card for you today...it took me a while (well all day yesterday as my ultra fine nibs on my ProMarkers wouldn't work...they all seemed to have dried up)

So for this 8 x 8 card I was asked to use an image of a Fairy, I chose one from the Papermania Enchanted range. I knew that she was going to sit nicely into the Clarity Stamp Naked Tree Stencil.
I stamped her using Archival - Potting Soil. I made a mask for her using a Post-it note. which I then put in place.

I attached my Stencil onto Theuva Card.  As usual my copy paper torn for hills I laid this over the stencil and using Clarity Stencil Brushes I blended in  Memento - Summer Sky and Distress Ink - Stormy Sky.  I then took a make-up sponge and brought in the ink laying on the stencil to make it darker at the edges.  I then proceed to colour in the background in my usual manner with the copy paper this time using just the make-up sponges.  I started with Distress Ink - Shabby Shutters, then Bundled Sage then I lightly added some Adirondack - Meadow.  I then removed the stencil.

I took a Promarker - Caramel (trying to use my ultra fine nib) to draw along the edges of the white tree and then coloured it in.  I then took one of the remountable leaves, Bundled Sage and Adirondack Meadow and added them to the tree.  

I must point out at this stage that I had made a paper mask of the stencil so that I could protect the outer area (keeping the leaves only in the circle.)

I removed the mask from the Fairy and set about her with my ProMarkers (Nibs still not working but I tried to use them as best I could...angry now and hands shaking).  Inks used  Plum, Moss Green, Blush and Putty.   So I spent the next hour going through all my nibs seeing which worked and which did not...not happy as selling point that they won't dry out, such a shame as they are really really great for detail work.

So back to the card...I put in some foliage using some of the remountable leaves and some shading. Moss Green ProMarker around the circle.  A little bit of shading under the Fairy's foot. I also put some foliage around the outer white circle allowing the foliage this time to creep into the main image

I added Make A Wish in Adirondack Wild Plum 

I took Adirondack Meadow around the edge of my card once I had trimmed it.  I layered this onto another piece of white card and then a lovely green dotty paper.  All perfectly spaced due to the Perfect Layers rulers and attached to an 8 x 8 card.  

Finished card

I am quite happy with the result, I hope you like it too.  I really wanted to show this one off to show that you don't have to just use stencil paste and that you can change the stencil by simply  stamping some leaves.


Hugs to all.

Emma xx

Quick Fix for Decoupage

Hi Folks!  Most of you will have done all your Christmas shopping and finished of all your Christmas cards and I bet you are feeling quite happy about that.  Well I have to say that I am rather jealous of you all.  As I have been suffering from the flue over the past few weeks I am still playing catch-up with all of my Christmas chores ( not nice making cards when you can't stop coughing and sneezing) and to top that off I am having to move house.  ( I have until the end of January to find a new home as the current home has been sold).

So as it stands I have still to make about 35 cards and shop for presents for about ten more people and get everything delivered before Christmas...glad I don't have to worry about Christmas dinner as my husband takes care of that, I haven't cooked a Christmas dinner in 29 years!

Well the panic is starting to settle in and there is no sign of Santa's Little Helpers so I will just have to get my head down.  Try for no distractions...turning phone off and not answering door... as for the presents, that will have to be a last minute dash which I hate to do but I have no choice.  I did go for a little walk with my son to clear my head, but I was so tired that I fell asleep at 4.30 today and didn't wake up until after 9pm.

I did get to feed the Wild Boars and the Goat today so it wasn't a complete failure.

 I have been crafting (playing) but not really getting anywhere.  Being ill has affected my mojo.  I did come up with a clever little fix for a decoupage card that I am making and I thought that after I had done with my rant I would post about it.  So here goes......

One of the problems about cutting out is that some of the finer bits don't come out as you would like. For instance -the tassel / fringe at the end of a scarf. My solution to this problem is to cut the offending article off completely then take some WHITE cotton thread and wrap it around a pencil a few times (for a thicker look use embroidery thread).

Take a Pro-Marker of the colour that matches your design and colour the thread and leave to dry for a few minutes.


Roll the thread off the pencil and cut at one end (as the thread will be in a loop).  Now all you have to do is to turn your piece over and stick down the thread to the back with some craft glue ( tape doesn't really work as you have to make sure that all the thread is going to stay in place).  Leave to dry and you are left with a soft fringe / tassel

So now that that is done I can get on with making the card up...just got a background to finish for this one and also to finish layering up the little guy then mount him on a card and do an insert and make an envelope and get him handed out...only 34 more after that!

Can you guess what my new year resolution is going to be?

Yup, make at least 5 Christmas cards a month, every month.  Or maybe I should just go for one design and copy that for everyone.....nah couldn't do that, I would rather give up!

Hugs to all xx