Today's rain is tomorrow's whisky

Hello folks

Today's card was meant to bring a bit of brightness and cheer to a cold and rainy October day, but actually we've had lovely, warm and sunny weather for most of October which has really made up for the terrible summer this year!

This month's Claritystamp Challenge was to create a project using Clarity Stencils only. I just love the silhouette stamps and stencils that are part of the Clarity range, so I've used one of them on this card, in conjunction with three other stencils and a small printed phrase to set the scene.

Stencils used: Bunting Tree Stencil (to create the raindrops), Umbrella's Stencil (for the background), Umbrella Girls Stencil for the child silhouette and Jo's Bubbles Stencil for the Bokeh effect.

I started by sponging different coloured Adirondak and Distress Inks through the umbrella stencil, then using black archival ink, I sponged through the umbrella girls stencil and the leafy part of the bunting tree stencil to create some raindrops. Finally I used a white ink pad through the Jo's bubbles stencil to create a bokeh effect, and added some clusters of small white dots using a white correction pen to add interest. The sentiment is a traditional Scottish saying, which I printed onto white paper, and tore the edges rougly and inked lightly to finish the project.

Hopefully my fingers will be un-inked by the time I go on holiday - note to self - next time wear gloves!!!

Thanks for visiting and I appreciate any comments that you would like to leave, Susan x

Crochet project - a simple tea cosy

Hi there

I thought I'd share this little tea cosy with you, as I was so pleased with how it turned out.

I found a free pattern for the stag's head on Pinterest, and thought it would be a really cute silhouette for a tea cosy. I had to modify the original pattern a bit to get the right size, then I made a double crochet close granny square in the contrast colour which was about an inch smaller than the tea pot I wanted to use the cover with, then I added a treble crochet border around the granny square so that I could thread through a tie, and crocheted together the edges, leaving holes at each edge for the teapot spout and handle.

I added about 3 rows of treble crochet v stitching to make a fancy top, made a cord from the two colours of yarn, with tassles at the end, then finally stitched on the little deer head as an embellishment. Very simple, but easy to do, and quite inexpensive as it used less than one ball of each yarn.

 Might try a few more with different colours - there's some Christmas presents sorted, and it's not even the end of September yet!!! Thanks for visiting, Susan x

Shaped Card - Clarity Challenge 31 (September 2015)

I've not had much time to do any crafting this month, as we're still busy, busy, busy in the guest house! However, I've been having a little play with some of my stamps using just one or two colours, and have really liked the results, so this circular card was inspired by my play.

I wanted to create a modern twist on an anniversary card for a young couple, so stuck with red and white as the main colours, with a black mat to create some contrast. As I didn't have any large circular dies, I used a plate as a template for the card shape, a bowl for the black mat, and a saucer for the smaller white card circle, which I then chopped into 3 sections to help disguise any wobbly cutting out with my scissors!

In the top right section I started by brushing some Adirondack Red Pepper ink through a piece of sequin waste using Clarity brushes to give a subtle starry background. Then I stamped the Clarity Live, Laugh, Love stamp in the same ink, and quickly embossed it using Clear Detail Embossing powder and set it using a heat gun. In the bottom right section I stamped the Clarity Wire Heart using the same inkpad, and then overstamped with the young couple from the Wee Folk set, and again quickly embossed the images using Clear Detail Embossing powder. Then I created a faux red mat for that section using a Ruby Promarker.

In the larger section I randomly stamped the Clarity Small Daisy stamp in the Red Pepper ink, then using a daisy embossing folder, I added a bit of texture by running it through my Cuttlebug machine. Then I mounted all 3 pieces onto the black mat, and mounted that onto the round card.

Throwing caution to the wind, and abandoning my usual "less is more" approach completely, I die cut some leaves and seed heads from red and white card, and stuck them to the centre part of the card. Then I added a small bow of white tulle, a double bow of red twine, and a small red flower gem just to cover the knot.

It was fun to do, and a bit of a change from my normal style - love entering these challenges as they really make you step out of your comfort zone and try something a bit different! Thanks for visiting my blog, and I'd love to read any comments you might have, Susan x

The big 50!

So, in a few days time my little sister celebrates her 50th Birthday, and I'd like to share the project I made for her, and it's matching card.

I've never really done anything 3-d in my crafting before and have never attempted anything that might even vaguely be classed as a mixed media project, so to say I was winging it wouldn't be too far from the mark. Here is the big 50 - what do you think? Hope she'll like it, and it might even make up part of the table decorations!

I started with a big cardboard 5 and 0 from Tesco's childrens crafting section (they had a BOGOF offer, which was lucky for me!), then painted them all over with two or three coats of gesso and stuck them together. I really need to be better at remembering all the details and having my camera to hand when I'm doing a project, but what can I say - I'm just not that organised!

I then used the Clarity Stamp Birdhouse set to stamp the fence, birdhouse, flowers, birds and animals onto white tissue paper, using black archival ink. When everything was dry, I then added a little texture to parts of the project using grungepaste through a honeycomb stencil. Then I had to wait for that to dry too....

About a week later, I started to adhere the stamped tissue paper to the white background, using Indigo Blue's Slap it On adhesive, making sure that the stamped designs went over the edges, and matched front and back for continuity.

Once that was all dry, I covered the images again with another coat of Slap it On to protect the stamping and to prevent the tissue from lifting at the edges. Then I waited again....I added Stickles glitter glue to the fence posts, to the flowers on the trailing boughs and the hollyhocks, and waited again for that to dry. Then I added a bit of distress ink to the honeycomb grungepaste areas, and a bit of dimensional paint to the hollyhocks, and then glued a few sequin flowers to the front for a bit more bling. Finally I used a little creamy lace and sewed some lace flowers as I felt there were a couple of bare areas that needed something extra.





I made a matching card using the same stamp kit, a black and old paper ink pad, and added my sister's name and age, just in case the Big 50 wasn't enough of a reminder!

I really enjoyed making this, even though I had sticky and inky fingers for the best part of a month, and I'd definitely do another mixed media project in the future - might even crack open those lovely pristine Clarity Canvasses that I've had up on the shelf for almost 6 months!!!

I'm entering this project into the Clarity Challenge for August, which is a Bingo Challenge - I've used the diagonal line Flowers, Stamp and Glitter, and also the middle horizontal line, Stencil, Stamp and GrungePaste - not quite a Full House, but definitely more than my usual less is more approach.

I love to read everyone's comments, so please let me know what you think - apologies if it takes some time to get back to you, but I've got a party to go to down in London!! Happy Birthday Jackie XXX

Susan

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