Geese: Clarity Challenge 10

Hello, I hope you had a lovely Christmas Holiday.  We've been very busy seeing family and are now enjoying a welcome rest.  I did wonder if I would find to design, make and blog this card before the deadline for the December Clarity Stamp Challenge - but I managed somehow!

I have had the geese stamp for some time and not used it, so when I was sorting through my Clarity stamps for inspiration I realised that I could make a scene using the geese as the focal point.

First I  stamped the geese in archival black and embossed them with clear embossing powder.  Then I added a mask for the sun and a sticky note to mask the ground before using the Clarity clouds mask to add the clouds.  I used a combination of weathered wood and pumice stone Distress Inks and Adirondack Stonewashed for the sky.  I replaced the sun mask with it's outside and used squeezed lemonade and mustard seed Distress Inks plus Adirondack butterscotch for the sun.
The next stage was to use various Clarity Grass stamps for the vegetation and a tree stamp on it's side for the grass in the middle.  For the trees I used the branches from the Clarity split tree stamps. I used weathered wood Distress Ink to add the path and some shadow underneath the geese.  Finally I used Clarity birds in the sky.
Then I matted onto black then yellow card before stamping the background.  I drew around the outside of the topper with a pencil and marked the horizon.  Then I used the same split tree and grasses stamps around the edge being careful to preserve the horizon.
Then a final matting onto black and yellow card before sticking to a black card blank.

I'm quite pleased with the overall effect although I wonder if I should have used a lighter colour for the background as the picture makes the bottom of the card look a bit dark.  Looking at it again I realise that I should have put some clouds over the sun too.  I'll have to work out how to do that. 

Please do let me know what you think - and anyone have a tip for a yellow sun with clouds over the top?

I'm entering this card for the December Clarity Stamp Challenge: Scene Building

Thank you cherries

It's a little while since I blogged so I haven't had the chance to say how pleased I was to be chosen in the top 5 in the Clarity Challenge 9: Christmas.  Thank you to everyone who wrote such lovely comments - and the the team who chose it to be in the top 5!  I've now given the card to my Mum as her Christmas card and she is delighted with it.

My friend Carol sent me a very beautiful cross-stitch for my 60th birthday.  It is a real work of art and is displayed with pride.  She doesn't live close by so I wanted to send her a special thank you card.  I used the cherries stamp and thank you stamp both of which came as part of my 'New Designs Clarity Club' membership.  I used Clarity coated cardstock for the white panel and buffed it to make it shine/  The cherries and flowers are coloured with Promarkers and I used distress ink around the edge before matting and layering onto red cardstock.  It looked lovely in real life and she sent me a special email to thank me.  I hope you like it to and I would be really pleased if you left a comment or tip for improvement as both are really encouraging.