Clarity Stamp Challenge # 5

The challenge for July is 'Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside'. 

 

My entry is dedicated to all of you crafters who like me won't get away for a holiday this year.  I have to admit that the best time for me on holiday apart from taking a lot of photos, eating lots of food that I don't usually eat and of course the Vino! is the Sunsets. I make sure wherever I am on holiday be it in this country or abroad that I take a photo of a sunset every night.  I have seen some amazing sunsets in my time and they are just so relaxing.  So this is for YOU for when you do get one.

 

I used the Clarity Stamps opposite for the

main image combining the colours from the Big and Juicy Soothing Sunset ink pad with the Plum Archival ink pad.

 

On this occasion I started on the sunset background.  I tore a piece of copy paper lengthwise, using a ruler so that it would be rough but not hilly and placed this over my white card.  With the yellows in the large ink pad, brayer and splodge mat, I went over the area on the horizon a few times. 

 

I placed a large circle for the sun roughly in the middle of the card then I continued with the darker colours in the ink pad working down from the top to the horizon.  I then removed the sun mask and  using an ink duster and a mixture of blended Archival Plum and the yellow from the large ink pad I placed a few strokes across the sun to give it a bit more atmosphere.

I then covered up the sky and worked on the sea with my brayer and the Plum Archival ink.  Next I stamped the birdcages then the palm leaves.

Using my bigshot and spellbinder label dies I cut out two labels and gave them a two-tone look to go with the sunset.  I stamped the Happy Holidays  from Clarity Stamp Happy word set onto the labels.  I then cut two small pieces of burgundy satin ribbon through opposite holes in the labels before attaching to the card.

I made a backing paper using the same colours as before but this time over stamping with the small ocean swirl stamp

Silly me forgot to take a photo of this before I put it all together with double sided tape.

 

 

More Embellishments in Metal





These are just a selection of Metal (Foil) Embellishments that I will be using on my Christmas cards this year.

 

The leaves are great for adding behind any kind of flower and the thicker the foil the better they will stand up to shaping and of course postage.

 

I have a good collection of them now in metal and also in various colours of vellum (to make them look even more delicate.)  So glad I have a supply of little bags to keep them all organised.

This Fairy has very delicate wings and the Die comes with another piece so that you can cut out just the shape of the main wing and attach it to the back.  This of course can be anything from card to vellum, plain or patterned.

 

 

 

 

These are just two of the scrolls that I will be using also.  I have them in metal, card, acetate and this year I am going to try to shrink some of them (the one in black is shrink plastic)  I think I may have to do this one in the oven....will let you know how it turns out.

Finished Landscape



 Hi Folks!  So here is the latest landscape in inks from me.  This one is on Canvas and it is all done with stamping.  More specifically Clarity Stamps. 

Handmade By Emma Burns

I have only used two inks and my ink duster to achieve the shading that I wanted along with the help of copy paper to make hills.  I also used my splodge mat to blend the black archival and the blue distress ink to give a more distressed feel to the sky.
I am pleased with the effect on the canvas paper as from a distance it looks like snowfall especially on the larger trees to the front. 
The canvas measures 35 x 20 cm



Busy Busy, Craft! Craft! Craft!

Hello folks, Once again it has been a bit quiet from me on the blog front...I have been checking in on you all and you seem to be very busy too but still have time (or remember to post).  There is so much to do it seems.  What with people going to crafty get-togethers (not jealous you lot with Clarity Stamp I'm not), lots of Christmas cards already done and you have all sorts of projects on the go and me what have I been doing.....................

I started on my Christmas Card Orders and then got side-tracked by an order for Stencils, then it was Key Rings and then I finished a piece of artwork and was asked to do another then I remembered that I had promised myself that I would get my competition card for Clarity Stamp in early and I have a Birthday Card to do for this week.  So before I get any further I'd better post some photos to make this blog a bit more interesting................

Lets start with Snowflakes.  These are all cut out from Parchment and I will use them to add to my Christmas cards.  I have used them before and are very quick to do...I've got about 50 done now, I can sit comfortably in my chair with my feet up doing the piercing and the cutting. I usually layer them on little squares and put them on DL cards...usually with a metallic charm. As for the Christmas tree, that was done using an embossing board and then piercing all around and then cutting out with parchment scissors.  It looks even more delicate when all the pale parchment is gone but you have to lose the dots.  The blue snowflake is from a stamp that I have and I just stamped it in black on a bit copy paper, taped my Parchment to it, then traced over it with my ball tool, pierced the inside and the outside edges and cut out with parchment scissors.

I have also in the past made myself some stamps to be used at Christmas, I am so glad they worked out as they were a bit fiddly to do but worth is as I can now have a die cut and a stamped image on the same card if I want.

I have also been cutting out metal embellishments for various card projects but I will post photos of them in the next blog.  If anyone out there is interested in how the stamps were made (if they don't already know) give me a shout and I will get a post done for them.  Happy crafting Everyone!

Congratulations

Congratulations to the winner of the Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog (MR & MRS )
Card No. 15 by Elaine Shelley. 

The Top 5 Favourites which were chosen by the Clarity  Stamp Design Team were as follows:  No. 13 Dawn Lawson, No. 26 Julie Dunn, No 44 Doreen Sympson, No. 50 Carol Hansen and No. 52 Maggie Johnson.

Well done to you ladies, look forward to reading about you all over the coming month.

If anyone reading this blog would like to enter the competition, the details and rules can be found following this link http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Happy crafting everyone

Clarity Stamp Challenge 4

Hi folks, cutting it fine for the entry to the Clarity Stamp Challenge blog (May - Mr & Mrs).  I thought that I had already posted it but oops! I hadn't.  I have been busy doing some furniture renovation and have got a bit carried away with it, I have one piece left to do but I thought I had better get this blog finished first. 

So the challenge this month is for Weddings and Anniversaries.  I have made an Anniversary card to give to my husband later in the year (this is the earliest I have made one for him, I am usually finishing it off the night before).

The picture that I have taken of the card shows it much lighter than it actually is and it does not show up the shimmer from the ink, so apologies.

I decided on the Love Birds stamp (no. 80) that I got from Clarity Stamp New Design Club this month (we in the club get a free stamp each month before it goes on sale on Clarity Stamp site) along with the Love You  (no.60) NDC69-F  as my focal point. 

I used the Foliage Branch from the English Garden (Lesson 18 bought from create and craft tv) for the background and Happy Anniversary from the Happy Words Set (REMHAP). 

I used ONE ink pad for the whole design, Archival Brilliance - Twilight.  This is a tri-colour ink pad.  the colours are pale blue, lilac and Pale Pink. 



Playing around

Hello folks!  I have a few days in between card making and getting on with some artwork that I have to do, so I decided to have a little tidy up in the craft room and in the process found my Perspex Riser...I keep losing it as it is see-through.  So I decided to do something about that.
I used Black Adirondack ink pad (it looks blue on the acrylic) along with my Clarity Stamp Large Landscape.  I placed the Riser on its side over the edge of my table and put a sheet of copy paper between the table and riser to help me see where I was stamping.  I stamped the same image on both sides only as I need to keep the top clear.

I then took my Small Birch Leaf down both edges of one side of the Riser and the Small Cherry Blossom (both the Birch and cherry Blossom are from the Split Tree Set are from Clarity Stamp) down the other edges on the other side. I then glued a Dragonfly to the outside of one side (and when I get my Clarity butterfly I will do the same to the other side).

The Dragonfly from Clarity Stamp was made by stamping on to shrink plastic and leaving to dry before cutting out as close to the line art then using my heat gun to shrink it.

So now hopefully I wont loose it amongst my craft stash!

Get well #2 Decoupage

Hello again. After finishing the last Get Well card I was asked if I could do something similar for a young lady who had suddenly been taken ill so I changed colours added another stamp and made a Decoupage Teddy and bouquet. 

I Stamped out the Teddy 4 times, once onto Theuva Card and the rest onto Super Smooth Decoupage paper using Hobbycraft Ink Pad - Metallic Lavender.   I covered the Teddy stamp with my mask (glad I kept it) stamped up the other images in the same sequence as I did for the last get well card.  I then covered the fence with its mask and stamped up the Hollyhock stamp from Clarity Stamp lesson 18 set.

On the main image I coloured in the small flowers in the bouquet with uni-ball Pen - Sparkling Violet.  The main flowers I used a Promarker - Lilac.

Get Well Card #1

Hello Folks.  Hope you have all had a good crafting week.  I know I have.  My five minutes of fame went live today on Clarity Stamp Challenge Blog.  So thank you to the team at Clarity Stamp Blog for choosing my entry to be in the top 5 favourite for "its all in the sentiment" Challenge. 

So on with today's card...

I made this card using a combination of Clarity Stamps, Car Boot and ebay purchase.  (details at end of Blog).
My colours were achieved by using Memento Teal Zeal Ink Pad, Memento Teal Zeal Dual Marker, Brayer, Splodge Mat and Makeup Sponge.

I Started by making Masks for the Teddy, Moon and Fence. I then stamped the Teddy on to Theuva Card and covered with mask. Next I stamped the Fence in place - slightly higher than Teddy's feet, I then stamped the Fern in place in front of the fence.

I stamped the Foliage Branch around the top part of the card and then the Flying Birds.  I then put the Moon Mask and Fence Mask in Place

Crafty Lesson

Hello Folks,  Been a While.  I have been enjoying the sunshine for a week, no crafting at all.  (The sun doesn't shine as much as it should here in Scotland and after all the rain we had been having I took advantage of the break).  So now that the rain is back I can get on with making cards.

To kick start me off again I received a text message request from a 10 year old girl wanting to make a card for her teacher and she preferred to use my craft stash rather than her mother's.  Not complaining as I love to show off all my lovely stamps etc.  In the end it ended up becoming a two hour crafting lesson and we both had fun!  I am in no way a teacher but I have given a few lesson in drawing and painting very early on in my life and more recently along with a friend have been giving a few lessons in card making to our local Girl Guides which I enjoyed immensely.  So with the permission of her mother I would like to share a few pics of Lauren and her craft lesson.  

 

I let Lauren choose her stamps first then she chose the ink colours that she wanted to use.  She also chose to use embossing powder (she does like the heatgun). So I had her cut a sheet of A4 white thin card in half (she knew that if one went wrong she had the other half to play with).  I had her de-tacking stencil tape, putting it around the edge of her card to make a frame. She mounted the stamps that she wanted to use onto two different types of acrylic blocks and after I showed her how to use them and with a little guidance from me about her composition off she went.  I did a quick swish with my anti-static bag on her card and she stamped her message then the Rod, then sprinkled the pale pink meltdust.  With my heat mat underneath the card off went the heat gun.  She used a die to cut out a frame to cover the message and a previously cut circle for the moon.  It was all go from there, inking and stamping and cleaning. (lauren and her mum washed all the stamps that were used including the brayer and my splodge mat....brill!....I didn't even make the cuppas...her mum did that...they even put all the stamps back on my acetate sheets in the correct sets too!!! Just Loved That)  We covered stamping, heat embossing, masking, shading with sponges, brayering and of course looking after your stamps.

This is little old crafty me showing her how to hold the brayer and I think you can tell she enjoyed using it and the effect that you can get with it.  (check out the two pairs of spectacles...never go anywhere without them and one pair is good for keeping the hair out of my eyes)

Here is Lauren with her finished card.  She was a very good pupil and listened to everything I told her and she should be very proud of herself and I hope her teacher loved the card (how could she not after all the care that Lauren put into it). 
Lauren is very arty and is always drawing and has a little craft stash of her own and for being such a good pupil I gave her a little angel stamp to add to it.

This is the finished card  

Lauren chose mainly Clarity Stamp stamps and she used Pearlescent Crimson Archival and Pink Sherbet Adirondack inks and pale pink Meltdust