Anything Goes - Corset Montage

Hello Again

Well July and August are really busy months for me, so apologies for the lack of blogging! Sadly the project I've been working on for my sister's 50th birthday isn't finished yet to enter into this month's Clarity Challenge, but maybe it will fit the brief for one of the months to come. Luckily for me, it isn't Jackie's birthday until the end of August, so I have some more time to get it done and for it to be dry enough to be packed into my suitcase!!!

As a result, here's a little card I did which is part of my "using stuff up" theme for 2015. We all have hundreds of little scraps of coloured and patterned papers left over from previous projects, that we just can't bear to part with, don't we? At least I hope everyone else has them too, and it isn't just peculiar to me!

Years ago I attended a workshop where I learnt about paper piecing, and truly it's not something I've done that often, but it's a great way of using up those little bits of lovely paper, so I've been doing it a lot in my projects this year, and the boxes and files of papers and scraps are gradually reducing.

Here I've used some of the very first Clarity stamps that I ever bought, the lady's corset and corset montage stamp, together with the Feminine script stamp, and some die cut flowers, punched leaves and a few gems for a bit of bling. It's lovely to get out your old stamps and enjoy them all over again, isn't it?

I really like the effect of the scripts stamped onto a patterned background, but as the patterns on the papers are quite busy, I stuck with three main colours in my palette, bright pink, green and white, with stamping done in black archival ink.

I used the same polka dot paper to stamp the corset, for the largest matting layer, and for one layer of the die cut flowers. The corset was then cut out, and stuck onto the corset montage as a contrast layer. The corset montage was matted onto plain sage green card, and offcuts were used to punch out the leaves. A plain pink scrap of paper was also used to die cut the second layer of flowers.

In retrospect, I wish I'd had enough plain pink paper to do another matt around the spotty paper, but hey ho - I was using up leftovers, and there wasn't enough to do that ... maybe next time!

Thanks for visiting, and any comments you have would be really welcome.  Susan x

Boys, Boys, Boys

I find it so easy to make cards for ladies and girls, but the boys in our lives can be more of a challenge. Maybe that's because, as a female, I know what I would like to receive so I have a bit of a head start!

I've really loved all the new silhouette stamps that Clarity Stamp have been producing recently, and they combine so well with lots of different bespoke backgrounds, so I had a little play around with a few different stamp sets, Jo's Bubbles stencil, and the letterbox kit to create a card for my great-nephew's upcoming 3rd birthday.

To create the background I used a range of blue distress and adirondack ink pads, and brushed through the stencil using those wonderful Clarity stencil brushes to create a soft airbrushed effect. Then I stamped Rocco's name using black archival ink and the letterbox kit, and added some blue colour to the boxes using second generation distress ink.

I added the Boy with the Birds stamp, and two of the characters from the Wee Folk 2 set to create some movement in the card, and extended the rope swing using a black pen to match the black archival ink used for the stamping. Finally I added Rocco's age in one of the bubbles, and added the little black bird on top of the number as an extra feature as I felt it provided a better balance and stayed with the bird theme.

Hope Rocco likes his card as I really enjoyed creating it. Thanks for taking the time to look and if you'd like to leave a comment I'd be thrilled to read them, Susan x

My scrappy cushion

Hello there. Well it's June, but still chilly and windy and intermittently rainy up here in the Highlands, so no lovely warm evening walks for me today!!! Instead I thought I'd share a little project I did recently as part of my New Year's resolution for 2015 - Using Stuff Up.

My great niece will be 6 this year, and for her 1st or 2nd birthday I made her a lovely chevron crochet jacket, but there were lots of leftover bits of yarn. You will all understand, I'm a crafter, so I couldn't throw them away, so they were packed into boxes and put into storage for a while, then they moved with us 3 years ago from London to Inverness!!!

Then they sat in a cupboard for a year, then moved to a drawer in the chest in the hallway...then I saw a fabulous stripy crochet cushion cover design, and their time had come....

So now they grace the chair cushion in my hallway - OK, so the colours don't go so well with the floor tiles, but that's not really the point is it? I really love the effect of the random stripes, and so next time I have lots of scrap bits of yarn leftover from a project I know what I'll be doing with them - hopefully the scraps will be pale blue and terracotta and cream!

Thanks for stopping by, and let me know what you think of the scrappy cushion, Susan x

Time to try my Brusho Paints!

The Clarity Challenge theme for May 2015 is clocks, and I was struggling a bit to come up with any ideas really this month. In the end, I went with the KISS rule - Keep It Simple, Stupid!

I've been quite inspired by the fabulous backgrounds that I've seen people create using watercolour paper and Brushos, so I thought I'd just have a go, and maybe try the letterpress technique using one of my Clarity Stencils.

What do you think?

I pierced a hole in the top of the Brusho pots, and used it like a pepper pot as I'd read this was the best way to control the amount you dispense. I did 3 or 4 shakes of Emerald Green, and a couple of shakes of purple, then spritzed with water a few times and left it to airdry.

Then I inked up the Clarity clockwork stencil with Black Archival ink, and wiped away the edges to give a rough circle outline. I letterpressed this through an embossing machine onto the watercolour paper, so the final result actually has quite a textured embossed image.Finally I wrote some "timely" phrases around the edge of the circle, trimmed down the watercolour paper, and matted onto some emerald and black card to finish it off.

I thought about adding some flowers and leaves for embellishment, but in the end decided against that - remember the KISS rule - hoping that less is more.... Susan x

A wee monster tale...

Todays blog post is my entry for the Clarity Challenge 26, which was to design a project using only Clarity Stamps and the Wee Folk.

I had lots of ideas going around my head, but as I live in the Highlands just down the road from Loch Ness, I decided to use the father and child stamp, with the Nessie Stamp and some Scotch Pines to create the wee monster tale. My friend Nigel told me that his young foster son still sort of believes in the myth of Nessie, so this card is for William who is coming to visit us for Hogmanay from Australia with his dad and grandma!

The background to the card was created using the gelli plate, with a mixture of Distress and Adirondak inks in blues and purples, dabbing off some of the ink with crumpled paper to create some clouds. Then I used a circular aperture to create the focal scene, making hills with torn paper and additional sponged ink, with a little shading using Spectrum Noir pencils. I added a very faint castle stamp on the edge of the Loch, and stamped the Scotch pines using first, second and third generation inks to take the scene outside of the circular aperture. Finally I stamped in Nessie and the Father and child to complete the scene.

I added some detail with a black micron pen to define the circular shape and the hills, and to tie in with the black ink of the wee folk stamp, and then added a sentiment using some torn paper with inked edges, adding a few second generation nessies to the word monster.

I was really pleased with the final result, and hope that William will like his card too!