Clarity Stamp Challenge 4: Mr and Mrs

The card I'm entering into the Clarity Stamp Challenge I made for some friends who celebrated their 6th Wedding Anniversary a few days ago.  I felt quite privileged to conducted their wedding ceremony, as the bride wore mauve and had mauve flowers I try to stick to this colour for their wedding anniversary cards.

I used the Clarity cornflower and 'Loved you yesterday ...' sentiment stamps.  I stamped the flower and sentiment using dusty concord distress ink and used the same ink to add a shadow around both.  Then I coloured the flower using promarkers,  inked around the edges, add two flower embellishments and a little glitter on the flower to finish the card.

Cards for young men - London Skyline, London stamps plus Wrought Iron Corner

My teenage grandson came to stay over the weekend and while I was showing him my blog he asked why his birthday card wasn't there.  Oooops!
He loves going to London with his Grandad so I chose to make his card using the Clarity Stamp London Skyline Mask and some of the London Stamps.

For the front cover I used different shades of blue distressed inks with the London Skyline mask and then embossed with clear embossing powder to give a tile effect.

For the inside I used the London Bridge Clarity Stamp and then fitted the mask onto each side.  The stamp is a bit bigger than the bridge on the mask so it involved a bit of manoeuvring.  I used distress inks to create a circle around London Bridge so that it looked a bit as though you are looking at it through a telescope and was quite pleased with the effect.

 There was quite a bit of white space at the top so I used the postage stamp stamps and added these to the top to show other aspects of London.

Finally I matted and layered both onto blue and then red card. 

I cut two border strips and wrapped them in some red, white and blue string that I'd bought in Switzerland earlier in the year (my husband thought I was barmy at the time!).  Then I stamped, coloured and embossed two London buses to add as final embellishments before fixing to the white blank.

My nephew, now at university, has also had a birthday this year.  Like me he likes mathematics and patterns.  I'd never used my corner stamps so I searched the Clarity website for inspiration and found a card using the Wrought Iron Corner by Elaine Millner.  I took this as my inspiration and created my own, nearly identical card.  Thank you for the inspiration Elaine.

Its all in the sentiment - Clarity Stamp Challenge 3

Here is the card I made for the 3rd Clarity Stamp Challenge.  I was delighted to be chosen to be in the top five and this has spurred me on to start my own blog.

I used the landscape stamp with the  boating and lovers minis, swallows, perspective trees, grasses 1, tall reeds, and the sentiment "Loved you yesterday".  The inks are pitch black adirondack with mustard seed and squeezed lemonade distress inks.

I decided to highlight the sentiment by placing it in the middle panel in the centre of the sun.  To make the bottom and top borders I stamped each word  separately.  It was a bit time consuming but i was very pleased with the effect.

Anything Goes and In the Garden - Clarity Challenges 1 and 2

I entered this card for the first ever Clarity Challenge 'Anything Goes'


it was a very simple card using the poppy stamp and gilding flakes on a textured background.  This was the very first time I had entered a challenge and was really pleased with the comments people made.

So for the second challenge, 'In the Garden' I was brave enough to enter another card.

I used the birdcage stamp from the New Designs Clarity Club, and decoupaged it onto a tag I had made then stamped around  it with the cherry blossom stamp and then used the music and birds from the Joy Frame Kit to the tag and the edge of the backing paper which came free with a crafting magazine.  I distressed the edges of the tag and the backing paper with squeezed lemonade and tumbled glass distress inks.

Inspiration from Clarity Stampers East

I've gained lots of inspiration from Janet Pring at Clarity Stampers East - thanks for running these classes Janet.
Here are some of the cards I've made at the classes or after being inspired.

Sketchy lady

I love the sketchy lady from Clarity Stamps and was very pleased with the effects of embossing and blending on this card.

Grandaughters

I made these cards for my two granddaughters who were both 16 in the same year.

Here are some of my early attempts at making cards

This is one of the first cards I made after joining the Clarity Design Club.  Before discovering Clarity Stamps I had purchased all my toppers and matted and layered everything together.