HLS Stencil June

And now it's time for the fourth Happy Little Stampers challenge for June - Stencils. As I'm sure you will have realised by now this is my last DT card for the challenge. It is as ever Anything Goes.

 

I used a Clarity stencil which is definitely one of my many NBUS items. I sponged over it with Distress Inks. I added two bees from a freebie set of stamps. 

The sentiment is stamped on a strip of inked card that was trimmed off the stencilled piece. Lots of inspiration on the challenge blog so do head over there and have a look.

Rudolph Day August 2016

I promised to show you how I had used the rejected bits from my LIM card here when Rudolph Day came around. So here it is.

I punched out the individual letters using a postage stamp punch which was just the right size, then mounted them on some gold mirri card. I embossed the card base with the SU Softly Falling embossing folder.

Less is More entry Two!

The link up at Less Is More  wouldn't let me link two entries from one post!

So my second card was supposed to be really simple and easy! Not so. After numerous stamping attempts I eventually got one I was satisfied with. The stamp set is from Clarity and embossed with WOW sparkly gold embossing powder.

 Now that I've got the stamps aligned on the Misti I intend to make a few more in different colours. I've also upcycled some of the failures, but you'll have to wait till Rudolph Day to see that one.
 

Clarity Stamp Challenge and Cas Mix Up

This month Clarity Stamp Challenge is asking for masking to be used. I decided to use the stencil that was the latest from the NDC, together with some stamps from previous months. there was lots of maskinf to make the hills and river and to have the girl sitting at the front. Originally I doodled round the circle but deidn't like it ao had to cut it off!

The "Dream" sentiment is heat embossed in white.

I'm also entering this into the CAS Mix up challenge who want stamping, stencilling and one other technique. Mine is the embossing and diecutting.
 

Less is More Green and Gold and NBUS

Less is More has a colour theme this week of green and gold. My first thoughts were Christmas and set to making a card, but by the time I'd finished realised it wasn't very LIM. So it was put to one side and I started again. This time I did away with the Christmas theme and instead used a very new stamp, it had only arrived in the post an hour previously! This has to be some sort of record for me as new stuff tends to get looked at for a long time before I actually use it! This time I kept it very simple.

The image was stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder then coloured in with Spectrum Noir pencils. I added a little bit of grey shading to the candle to give it a rounded look. The mat was cut with a L'il Inkers die. The stamp is the latest Clarity Stamps club stamp.  After stamping and colouring it I decided it would work well as a sympathy card and these days I seem to need them more often. As well as Less is More I am also entering this into Darnell's 5th NBUS Challenge

and this time she has some fabulous sponsors.

Less is More - One Layer Week

Just popping in very quickly with a card for Less is More. Its one layer week with a theme of "Animals". I decided to go very simple and definitely not cutesy!

The Chimp stamp is from Clarity and was a NDC stamp which had never been inked before. I clear embossed it and IRL its lovely and glossy. I tried embossing a rectangle around the stamp with a Spellbinders die but it looked awful and was almost cut through so I doodled a frame instead. The sentiment is from an old Creative Expressions set and I had to doodle underneath it as well, as I had caught the edge of the stamp with ink, and I wasn't going to do it a third time!
 

Claritystamp Challenge - Anything but a card!

I've never entered the Claritystamp challenge before but decided to have a go this month. Some time ago I had bought a pack of 6 small canvas boards for a different project, which so far hasn't been started! So thought I would have a go at producing a canvas for this challenge especially as I had just received my parcel containg some Clarity stencils and stamps. My first attempt was a disaster and went in the bin. My verse didn't stamp well so tried stamping on tissue and sticking it to the canvas with clear matte gesso, but the edges showed up too much and the gesso removed some of the inked background. My second attempt was much more successful!

I used distress inks for the background, mustard seed, worn lipstick, tumbled glass, denim, peeled paint and bundled sage. The bunnies were stamped in Archival Watering Can, coloured with SU smoky slate marker and thetails with a white gel pen. The verse and blackbird were stamped in Archival Black. The grasses were done with texture paste through the stencil then coloured with distress markers.
I am also going to enter this in Happy Little Stampers challenge which is sponging.
 

The Male Room - Christmas

It's time for a new challenge at The Male Room. I know these are only every two weeks but they do seem to come round fast! This time the challenge is Christmas but must have a masculine feel to it.

I have use a couple of Clarity stamps that I bought last year and never got round to using. I heat embossed them with gold them  coloured them in with Blendabilities. Some Cherry Cobbler glitter glue for the berries added a bit of sparkle. Don't forget to check out the rest of the DTs work.

Make My Monday - Black and White With a Hint of Red.

The challenge at Make My Monday this week is to use Black and White with a hint of red.

 

 I knew I had this piece of black and white paper left over from a kit I had a couple of years ago so used that as my starting point. The stamp is a NBUS one from Clarity Stamps. Although it doesn't show up in the photo his little blanket and the trim on his hat are flocked with a hint of glitter as well. Think it might have a touch too much red on it though, but it didn't look right without the mats.

So here's another one I made 

The cat dies are from All Occasions. The words were done on the Silhouette then coloured in. As the red and the black for the little cats were snippets I can head over to the Playground to see what's going on over there!

My 1st Art Journal Page

After commenting on Sarn's lovely page here she sent me an email which shamed  encouraged me
to make a start!

 

 Creating it was not without some hiccups! After creating a background I got some stamps out and inked them up with black archival, the pad slipped out of my hand and stupidly I tried to catch it and ended up with a perfect ink pad mark on my top (which was pale blue) - fortunately a very old one which has now been relegated to the  "decorating clothes" cupboard. So the background now had badly stamped images so went back to the gesso and paints. This time more succesful but would have been better if I'd had a bit more patience and let it dry properly, before stamping. Then I got the gilding flakes out. I really want to do a canvas similar to this so it was a way of seeing whether the end result was vaguely like I envisaged.  I'd forgotten how messy gilding flakes and flitterglu were! But they did look like i'd imagined so a good result. But as I craft upstairs the nearest supply of water for the fliterglu'd stamps etc is the bathroom - so then that had to be cleaned as well!

Anyway Sarn - the book is no longer pristine - and despite the hiccups along the way I enjoyed playing! Stamps used are Clarity, Stampin' Up! and Kanban. The background, acrylic paint, distress stains and Cosmic Shimmer sprays.

Tidy Craft Room

Well I finished the craft room eventually last week. It seems a shame to make it untidy again!

But I did do some quick stamping to make these. As I'd bought some smaller items for my grandsons, thinking I would have to post them I put them in carrier bags to keep them tidy.  As it happens I haven't posted them as they are coming down on Wednesday for a couple of days.

 

 I used a retired SU set of stamps called Everybunny - actually I think its the only Easter stamps I have, and just stamped all the images fairly randomly then coloured them in with SU marker pens. The letters are Clarity stamps Letterbox kit. They were so easy to use I wish I'd bought them sooner! 

Anyway it's a good job I didn't make the craft room too untidy again as on Wednesday it will have an airbed in for my son to sleep on! Usually it would be me as they have my bed but my daughter - in- law is working all week and can't get the time off - so it's a boys only trip!

Less is More - 130 Pinterest Inspiration

Less is More this week has a Pinterest Isnpiration challenge and here it is. Beautiful shoes but no way could I wear them!!

 

I don't have any shoe stamps so decided to use the tall heels and black and white as my inspiration, and this is what I came up with.

I paper-pieced the dress and hat with some black stripey paper and added a narrow black edge to the stamped panel. This is the second attempt. The first one didn't have the Eiffel Tower in the background but I decided to add it after I had put it all together. bad mistake ! As the panel is raised it didn't stamp properly so I had to start all over again! I added a little scribble of grey promarker to "ground" the lady as it looked as if she was floating in mid air, now she looks as though she's standing in a puddle - lol!! The stamps are from Clarity stamps. The stripey paper and black card are from my scraps box so I'm going to head over to Pixie's Playground with it as well.

Lovebirds.

I always admire people who make "arty" cards with inks, masks etc and generally get messy. When I try it usually ends up just being a mess!  When I received the Clarity monthly stamp one of the samples Barbara Gray had done involved a pretty pink background done with the Gelli plate.  Now I haven't got one and don't intend buying one as it's not really "my thing". However I bravely set to work with some Glimmer Mists and Cosmic Shimmer sprays, distress inks and a mask to make a background

 

 I sort of hoped that the trellis work might give the impression of an aviary/cage!  Anyway I was reasonably pleased with it so stamped the gorgeous lovebirds with Archival and coloured them with Promarkers. The sentiment is from an old Elusive Images set. What do you think?

And this week the "I Love Promarkers challenge" is "Anything Goes" so think I'll pop over there with it.

I would also like to give a warm welcome to Mary Mac who has recently become a follower.

Easter Hanger

This originally started life going to be a card but got changed along the way! I'd played with the eggs stamp and had made a perfect circle with it on a piece of scrap paper but typically when I did it on card had just aligned one up wrongly so the last one wouldn't fit, so a lucky horseshoe instead! I embossed in gold then coloured with promarkers.

 

The chicken was an afterthought but think maybe he should have been left off!  All the stamps are from Clarity

Gilding Flakes

I've been having a play with FlitterGlu and gilding flakes. Not a very good card as the stamping is a bit wonky!! But love the effect! Only trouble is I got in an awful mess - worse than glitter!! I think I need to find a bigger box for the flakes! I'll certainly be using it to make some cards but will make sure the stamping is OK. The stamps I used here are from Clarity Stamps. Really pretty.

Less is More Challenge

Well this week's challenge is "Pick a Square". After much thought I came up with this.

I'm still not that happy with it - it seems a bit naked to me! I used Clarity Stamps Wired Heart and stamped it in red then clear embossed it. Mounted it onto red mirri board and eventually decided on the lower left hand corner but I think it might have looked better in the cemtre! Still it will come in handy next Valentine's day LOL- would just have to add a sentiment!

Two ladies!

Here are two cards made in last few days. The first is using Card Creations Plus Art Deco Cd and the second I made to try out the Martha Stewart punches I succumbed to from QVC's last TSV. The stamps are from Clarity stamps and embossed with clear embossing powder.