18th Birthday - Clarity Challenge 18: Feminine

Well, it's good to be back in blogland.  A wonderful holiday club for 55 children and another bout of labyrinthitus have kept me from finding time and energy to blog my cards.  Fortunately I have had time to make some cards - very relaxing amidst the busyness and lethargy.  I made this card for my beautiful granddaughter who celebrated her 18th birthday earlier this month.

I used the Clarity Madeleine Stencil and Centura Pearl cardstock. A selection of orange and brown toned promarkers for the hair and then pink and green for the flower and ribbon.  I used a black micron pen to write 'Naomi 18' on the ribbon and a selection of skintone promarkers for the face.  I matted onto coordinating green, then white card before mounting onto the beautiful red card I used for the main part of the card.
The left hand panel is half size and folds over so that you can just see her face and the flower.  The balloon stamp is from Clarity and the 18 is from the Clarity letterbox kit.

The front of the card is an embossed panel (seen on the right here) and for the back of the card I used the Clarity Madeleine stamp and the Clarity letterbox kit.  The stamp was coloured using Spectrum Noir pencils to give the same effect as the embossed panel which is the main part of the card.

I hope you like it. Naomi was delighted as I managed to get the tone of her hair just right and the face shape is very similar too.  I'd love you to leave a comment.

I'm entering this card for the 18th Clarity Stamp Challenge which is 'Feminine'.

Twenty First Birthday Card - Clarity Stamp Challenge 15: It's all about the words

It's hard to believe that my nephew will be 21 in a few days time.  The card I've chosen to make for him uses the Clarity Clockwork stencil.  For the central panel I taped the stencil to some beige Centura Pearl card and used a sponge to ink through the stencil with stonewashed and denim Adirondak inks.  I made the clock part darker than the cogs for emphasis.  The side panels are made in a similar way but I kept moving the stencil so that I got a more random effect.  

The randomness of the side panels contrast with the more ordered effect of the central panel and this fitted the Clarity Harmony Sentiment 'Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi'.  I used a Spellbinders die to set off the sentiment and inked the edges with Cloudy Blue Adirondak.  The sentiment and 3 panels are all matted onto the dark blue card that comes with the Clarity stencils.  The shininess of the card goes well with the Centura Pearl card.  The three panels are then matted onto gold mirri card.

I wanted some texture on the front of the card so used a tri-boss embossing folder which I felt complimented the Clarity Clockwork stencil and inked it with the same inks as before.  The key is a balsa wood die cut which I embossed with gold powder.

I am entering this card for the Clarity Stamp Challenge 15: It's all about the words.

Clarity Stamp Challenge 13: Flower Power

I'd like to enter this card for Clarity Stamp Challenge 13 Flower Power.  I made the card for my niece who was 18 this month, hence the key in the top left hand corner.

I started with the Chrysanthemum stencil, inking it with Versamark and then running it through my cutting and embossing machine to transfer the ink to card.  Then I applied Perfect Pearls in 3 different colours.  I used the Clarity large and small Chrysanthemum stamps, Versamark ink and Perfect Pearls again to create the separate flowers.

My original idea was to create a large square card but I couldn't seem to make it fit together to look right so I changed my mind and chose to make the triple easel card instead.  The full chrysanthemum from the stencil looked too large for the card so I made it smaller by cutting off some of the top petals.  Then I mattered and layered onto two different colours of card-stock which matched the Perfect Pearls.

The sentiment, 'May all your dreams come true', in the middle is from Clarity, .  I stamped this in a Distress Ink which matched one of the Perfect Pearls colours and shaded around the edges with the same colour.  Unfortunately the top picture makes it look as though it doesn't match, this one looks better and shows how the card stands up.

I used the Clarity key stamp on the base of the card and to finally I added a wooden key, coloured with Perfect Pearls so that it matched.

The whole card ended up being quite large and had to be sent parcel post!  I hope she found room to stand it somewhere.

Children playing

I've been waiting to post this card for quite a while  but didn't want my granddaughter to see it before her birthday.  She was 10 yesterday - so here we are.

I took my inspiration from a card blogged in November 2012 by the very talented Lynne Hammond .  All Lynne's cards are lovely so please do take a look at her blog.
I particularly loved the colours and style of this card so decided to try something similar.   I decided to show 3 different scenes: playing with lots of friends, with one friend and then relaxing at the end of the day.

The stamps are all from Clarity Stamps and are some of my favourites.  For the first octagon I used the meadow dance stamp but wanted to take out the little animals as I wanted to show lots of children dancing together.  This involved some masking but proved to be quite straightforward.  I also had to add a tree to this octagon as the meadow dance stamp doesn't include one.  The other octagons were quite easy as the stamps came complete with trees although I did have to add a little vegetation at the sides of each picture so that it matched the first one by going all the way across.  I used Distress Inks:  dusty concord, for the ground and milled lavender, shaded lilac and tumbled glass for the background hills and sky

I used the MT grasses stamp across the bottom of the easel card and at the bottom of the main pictures.  Then I added some white and glitter highlights and some freehand birds in the sky.  The greeting is stamped using the Clarity Stamp letter box kit

Hannah really likes the card, I hope you do too.

Clarity Stamp Challenge 11: New Beginnings

Hello everyone.  Here is my entry for Clarity Stamp Challenge 11: New Beginnings.  When I read about the new challenge I realised that I wanted to show that new beginnings always begin with us, the way we think and behave make such a difference to ourselves, those we meet and the world we live in.  Gandhi's phrase 'Be the change you want to see in the world' came to mind so I chose to use this as the centrepiece of stamp along with the Clarity sunshine stencil.

I masked off the bottom part of the card, taped the stencil in place and used Adirondack Butterscotch ink for the sun.  Then I masked the top part of the card and used Adirondack Meadow for the grass.  Following this I carefully stamped the phrase in place so that the long part was just above the horizon and 'Gandhi' in the bottom part of the sun.

I wanted the centre to be bright and the edges darker to show that who we are can make a difference.  Using my brayer I added black ink to the corners and ends of the card.

After this I used the Clarity split tree kit to stamp the trees on either side of the sun.  Nearest the sun the trees are in blossom, then in leaf, then naked to show that our positive actions can change the world we live in.

Finally a little torn paper and stencil brush to add the shadows of the trees.

This is the first time I've tried a piece of artwork that tries to express a meaning.  I hope you like it and thanks for looking at my blog, please do leave a comment as I love to receive your feedback and advice.

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.