The ones that made it....

Good afternoon, peeps! Are you all sitting comfortably.....? Well, I'll tell you a story about some little cards that got a TV debut yesterday and some that didn't.... of course I'm no different from the rest of the Clarity Stamp Design Team. If you were watching Barbara Gray's show on Create and Craft TV yesterday, you will have seen some amazing cards from my teamies but I just thought that today I would show you the cards of mine that got an airing. This was the first one that Dean (the presenter) picked up. The background is a great technique that I've used before with mica sprays but not with just dye inks. I wanted a delicate, misty effect for the background that would tie in with the little verse. This is produced by using a brayer to apply first one colour- my choice was Adirondack Terra Cotta, then another - Adirondack espresso for me, on to the Clarity Card, which is a coated semi-glossy cardstock. After the second colour application, you mist evenly with water all over the surface then layer cling film on top, pulling this into creases all over the surface and leave it to dry. When it's dry, peel off the cling film and you get this misty effect - I love it and you're bound to see it again on my cards. The rest of the card is just straight forward stamping of the images in the Espresso ink. The ribbon and dragonfly charm are from my stash. This was my offering for the Scotland stamp collection. I just used the reflection technique to create the reflected images in the water - all done with the brayer, then added the Nestie shape and the white heather from Wild Orchid Crafts - lucky it was in my stash already (sorry about the pun!). This was my take on the Morning Glory corner. I used the stamp to create a pattern that looks like one frame behind the other and then stamped the verse in the centre. I coloured the flowers and leaves with Copics and then mounted it on the Go Kreate frilly die cut shape. My final offering is this cottage scene. It takes a fair while to do this kind of picture building but it's worth it, I think. The main part of the colouring is done with the brayer and the rest by applying inks with a make-up sponge or using them as a water colour paint(on the cottage). Making the sky is interesting - you pull a cotton wool ball into a cloud shape and press it down, using the heel of your hand, on to a Versamark pad. Next you press the now oily cotton wool onto the card, again using the heel of your hand. Let the Versamark ink dry for a while then brayer across the sky area with Adirondack Cloudy Blue ink. This hardly shows up but it's still an essential part of the process. Next, brayer again with Adirondack Stonewashed ink and lastly, when this is dry, polish the sky with a piece of clean kitchen paper and watch the clouds really pop out. Barbara has demonstrated this technique on an earlier show, which, of course, is where I learned it!
Well, I said I was going to tell you a story....if you were sitting comfortably, you've probably got a numb bum by now!! Thanks for staying with me and I'll show you some more cards that you haven't seen soon.
Hugs