A little more Clarity

Good morning, peeps!

Well are you surprised to see a post from me when it isn't Friday? I just thought I'd break a habit and post on a Thursday instead! I actually spend a good deal of my time crafting but a fair proportion of what I'm making can't be shown here on my blog until it's been shown (or not!) on the monthly Clarity Stamps TV show on Create and Craft. Then, very often when the show is over, I forget to post pictures here. So this post is a little catch up.



This card was the largest card I've ever made since it's A4 but I wanted to get all the Calligraphy Christmas Tree sizes on to one card and also include the Holly and Ivy Swirls since they embody the words of the carol.



Another Christmassy one - I hope you can pick up the sparkle in this picture. I wanted to really convey the feeling of snow falling in moonlight but the only problem is that sparkly embossing powder can be the very devil to work with because, if you're not careful, you end up with the sparkle everywhere and you can't see te images properly! (You're probably thinking 'Yes, I've been there!!') There was plenty of dabbing with the anti-static bag before the embossing happened, I can assure you! Anyhoo, I think it worked and hopefully the images embodied the words of the verse.



This is one that I really enjoyed making because it gave me the chance to watercolour something that I love but hardly ever do these days. I wanted to create the misty impression of the background in the original Alphonse Mucha painting as well as setting off the image to it's best advantage and watercolour was the most effective medium to allow this effect. Then I mounted it to look like a painting hangingon a wall. I can't remember what the DP is but I think it's Anna Griffin.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little meander back through a few of my past creations and thanks for staying with me through all the waffle and the piccies. I'll be back again tomorrow (well it's Friday isn't it?!!) with another Polka Doodle Challenge so see you there hopefully!

Hugs

Polka Doodles Challenge 32 - Good Luck

Well, hello again!

I almost can't believe I'm making my second post in one day - it's certainly something I've never done before but I feel really pleased with myself for doing it! This is also a special card because it's my first sample as part of Team Doodle and I'm one lucky lady to have the opportunity to use all the wonderful products from Polka Doodles and there are so many of them that it was hard to know where to start!

This week, we're challenged to produce a Good Luck card and, since I love the Neighbours stampies so much, I decided to make mine a Good Luck in your New Home card, since the designs are perfect for that and here it is:



I really love the creative possibilities with these stamps since you could go on making cards with them for such a long time and never create the same scene twice! In fact it's quite hard to stop adding detail and ending up with the biggest card in the world!!

The paper and greeting are also from a Polka Doodles CD and I used 'Sundae of Seasons'. Crafting with CDs is totally new to me and it was quite a revelation to find that I could choose a sentiment outline and type whatever words I chose over it! Yay! what possibilities - I need never worry about having the right stamp again! Those of you who have been using CDs for a long time are probably wondering what planet I'm from but I openly admit that I have a lot to learn in this area.

I don't really have a recipe to leave you with for this card since I've already told you most of what I used. The colours are mostly the same as on the previous post (am I in a rut here?) and the flowers are from WOC, as usual. The leaves are from a Magnolia Doo Hickey die.

Anyhoo, who are you going to wish 'Good luck' to and enter your card into our challenge? You could win a wonderful prize from the lovely and generous Nikky as well as a blinkie for your blog.

After creating two posts in one day, I think I'd better go and lie down in a darkened room but whatever you're doing today, enjoy yourselves to the full and have a great weekend. I've still got some cleaning up to do from the kitchen re-fit so I think I'll just have to make myself a badge from one of these CDs that says 'I'd rather be crafting' and get on with it.

I wonder what I'll make next???

Hugs

My fave embellies!

Good morning, peeps!

Well, it's Friday aagain and time for another Fussy and Fancy Challenge, which is to use a lot (meaning 3 or more) of your favourite embellies. Well I don't think there'll be any prizes for guessing that mine are flowers and this card is something of a flower fest, as you can see!



I think it's not just the flowers, although I do love them for themselves, but it's the process of putting the arrangement together and seeing how they absolutely transform a card whether there are lots or just a few.

Having said that, pearls are another fave of mine so they're on here as a sort of supporting act!

The image I've used here is from Lili of the Valley and it's called 'Summer Days' (the sentiment is from them too). It was my out and out favourite from the June release of their new designs and this is thefirst time it's seen ink. I've stamped it with Memento London Fog ink, which I've long preferred because it gives the impression of a pencil drawn image but the card is sitting on my desk beside me to next to another card that I'll be posting shortly which has the images stamped in black and I think I'm starting to prefer the greater definition that the black outline gives. Looks like there's a change coming in my cards, peeps!

Do come and join us over at Fussy and Fancy Challenge this time, there are two prizes from our wonderful sponsors Digis with Attitude and Inspired Stamps so get out your fave embellies and see what you can create!

I used so many pens to colour this image that I didn't keep a note of them all but I'll put what I can remember below:

Recipe:

DPs: Prima 'Sweet Fairy'
Pearls: The Hobby House
Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Leaves: Woodware punch
Sky: Tumbled Glass DI
Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E21, R11, R20
Hair: E50, E51, E53, E55 (blonde) E21, E23, E25, E27 (brown)
Pinks: R81, R83, R85
Purples: V12, V15
Greens: YG01, YG03, YG17, YG25, YG95, G20
Blues: Promarker Cool Aqua

Well, that's all for this post, peeps - can you believe that I have another one to make today so is this a record or what?!!

See you later!

Hugs

They used to be a secret!

Good afternoon, peeps!

Well it seems strange doing a post to my blog when it's not Friday! LOL

I thought I'd show you some of the cards I made for the Stamping with Clarity TV show last Sunday since I don't seem to have shown you many of my efforts with Clarity Stamps for a while.

Firstly, here's the one that Nigel May said was his favourite:



If you're reading this, Nigel, I'm very flattered that it was your favourite Treescape card!

I think that this one was my favourite this month:



but it didn't make an appearance on the show.

One more for today:



This was probably my second favourite - just a soft and gentle Christmas card.

See you again soon, peeps - be good and stay safe!

Hugs

An announcement!

Good afternoon, peeps!

This is just a very brief post to let you all know that I'm really excited to announce that I've been invited to join the Polka Doodles DT! As you can imagine, I said 'No!' (yeah right!!) :-).

I really love the wonderful designs that Nikki comes up with and I shall have so much fun colouring them! Hopefully I shall have something to show you from the Polka Doodles range in the not too distant future!

Thanks for reading my exciting announement today!

Hugs

Monochrome Christmas

Good morning, peeps!

Well it's Friday again and as much as I'm trying to get out of this habit, a week seems to pass by before I manage another posting - scary really, especially when this post is another Christmas card!

Anyhoo, here is my card for the Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge this week, which is 'Christmas in July', a great opportunity for you to make a start on your Christmas cards and enter our challenge! Here's my sample card:



I'm in a bit of a black and white phase at the moment and rather enjoying it and I think it's quite striking for a Christmas theme, as here. All the stamps used in this card are from Clarity Stamps and the design is just stamped on to white card with Adirondack Pitch Black ink. I sponged the sky over a Post-it Note mask to create the moon and Embossed the 'Peace on Earth' words with gold detail embossing powder. The black layer that's behing the gold mat is cut from a Go Kreate die.

Well, things are going to be a bit chaotic here at Whitehouse Towers this week because the kitchen is being partially refitted and you can imagine how much I'm looking forward to that process!! However, I'm really looking forward to the finished result and all the improved facilites it's going to provide.

Do join in with our challenge this time- there are some great prizes on offer from Bugaboo Stamps and Inspired Stamps our joint, generous sponsors.

Thank you for visiting today and I'll see you again soon I hope whenever I surface from the kitchen!

Hugs

A prototype

Good afternoon, peeps!

Well it's Friday again and blogging seems to be developing into a Friday habit recently. I do try to blog more frequently but I often don't have anything new I can show to you because the Clarity work is secret until after it's aired on Create and Craft TV.

Anyhoo, who'd like a tasty cupcake to have with their cup of tea? Me please, me please!! The good thing about this one is that it's totally calorie free - the only snag is that it probably doesn't taste too good the main ingredients being polystyrene, ribbon, cardboard and glue! I hope it looks better than it would taste!



You've probably seen a few of these around Blogland and I've been wanting to make one for some time. They're designed to hold one of those gift cards that looks like a plastic credit card so you lift up the chocolate flake and there it is, attached by means of a paper clip that's glued into the folds of the cardboard chocolate flake. I bought some instructions at the last show at Harrogate and they were from The Hobby House. There's also a video on You Tube here, which is very good.



As my heading says, this is my prototype and I'm certainly glad I had a trial run because I leaned a lot from it and the next one will definitely be better and it will also have a box to live in. I think that will make it a much nicer or perhaps a more complete gift.

Well my cup of tea is now finished - without a tasty, sugar topped cupcake (makes sad face!) but I guess it's better for my figure.

Enjoy your weekend be it with or without cupcakes!

Hugs