We Go Together

Hi Friends and Crafters, Just read the blog title and started singing the song, I am sure you know the one I mean. Thank you for stopping by, it's great to have some company. Today I am going to share a card made with the Little Bird stencils that were launched at the weekend on Hochanda. I do hope you got to see the shows, if you missed them or want to watch them again, you can see them on rewind via the Hochanda website.

You will Need:

Clarity Little Bird Stencil

'We Go Together' Clarity Stamp

Daler & Rowney System 3 Black

Daler & Rowney System 3 Titanium White

Ultra Marine

Masking Tape

Egg Box

Gelli Plate

White or Cream Pearlescent card

Black Card

White Card

Brayer

Collall Tacky Glue

Step 1: Using, the Brayer and Gelli plate, use the System 3 and the Ultra Marine to create a background piece. The Egg box, gives some lovely extra texture to this and looks a little flowery which goes really well with this stencil.Using the pearl card adds a lovely shimmer. Leave to dry thoroughly.

Step 2: Mask off the part of the stencil you don't want.

Step 3: Ink up the reverse of the stencil with Versafine Black Ink and run through your machine. You might need to repeat this step to build up the ink. Trim to size and mount on to black card.

Step 4: Stamp your sentiment onto your white layer and add your topper.

Step 5: Layer a piece of black card onto your base card. Then to finish add your finished topper.

Here is the finished card:

Thank you for joining me today, I don hope you have enjoyed the tutorial along with the finished card. Another thing, here is a 30% off voucher to use on your first order (anything) from Hochanda, use code FEY5JBP7.

I hope you will join me again very soon to see what I have to share with you next. For now take care and Happy Crafting.xxx

December Clarity Calendar

Morning, Just a quick post this morning. I decided to enter the Clarity Calendar Challenge this month so I am sharing my entry today. I have to say it has definitely been the hardest crafting I have ever tried. I find it near impossible to replicate someone else's work anyway but even harder when it's Barbara Gray, especially when the project is going to be judged as well.

I have had this stamp set for a while now, I have always loved it, the Santa is so different from any other I have seen, I just love the style.

Well I shall say goodbye for now. I am really going to try to get another post in before Christmas, but if I dont or you miss it. I hope you all have a marvellous Christmas. Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

So Excited I had to Share the News..

Morning, I am so excited that I made the top 5 in the Clarity Challenge for May. I am sharing the post of the card I entered for this, with the step by Step. Sorry to those of you that have seen it, but I am over the moon and wanted to share it. Tomorrow a brand new card I have made with Leonie Pujol's Stamp Collection.

A little bit of a mix up for you today, I have to say I am really proud of this one. It's a mix of Parchment using the Groovi System, but also adding stamps and even an inked background using stencils and masks.

I do love the Clarity House Martin stamp and just had to include it in my design. By Lifting the parchment from the background with the addition of a couple of folds I was able to allow the birds to hover over the mountain scene I created.

I started by placing the parchment over the stencil I was using to allow me to position the birds. I stamped these with Stazon white ink.

Next I took the Poppies Groovi plate, to add some foliage at the bottom. Then using the Sprig Groovi plate, I created my parchment background. Finally I embossed around the stencil and the birds.

Taking my two pin piercing tool, I pierced all around the stencil.

Then cut out the waste with my pergamano snips and set this aside to rest.

The background (stamped part) had to be on white paper, but I wanted the parchment part of my design to be against black. To do this I carefully lined up my parchment to the base card so I could position my mask/stencil. I stuck it down using Crafters Companion Stick n Spray (repositionable adhesive). I then coloured the remainder of the card with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I removed the mask and cleaned of the residue from my card with a paper stump. Then using Black Archival, I stamped the corn using another Clarity stamp and added a round moon shaped mask. I used Pebeo Drawing Gum to mask off the corn so I could colour it later. I then placed the stencil over my design.

I masked for the mountains and using Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone Distress Ink, blended the colours from dark to light. Where the moonlight was hitting them, I added very little colour. I then offset the masks and added some Black Soot, then blended out with Hickory Smoke. I created the sky using Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire, finally blending through some of the Black Soot. I then removed the mask and drawing gum.

As it's midnight, I coloured the corn a warm light brown alcohol marker rather than yellow. The birds on the parchment were coloured using a selection of Red, Orange and Yellow Polychromos. Finishing off with a green alcohol marker for the leaves.

I left a 1 cm border around my design, this was scored at the edge of my design and again at 1/2 cm. The final flap was used to secure to the back of my background base and gave me the required distance between the two.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. I have been really touched by all of your lovely comments. I love to read them and love hearing your thoughts. I hope you will visit again very soon. Take care xx