Clarity at 25, A celebration Begins!!

Morning Friends and Crafters. The celebrations for Clarity and Barbara Gray, kick off today at 10 am today on Hochanda with another show at 2 pm. We're also going to be treated to a 2 hour special tomorrow (Sun 2nd Sept) at 2 pm and a wonderful One Day Special launching at 6 pm & 8 pm, running through Monday at 9 am, 1 pm with the final call at 5 pm. You really wont want to miss a thing. I had the great honour of a special post on the Hochanda Blog, going live at 10 am today (please watch the show first). It's a special tutorial and sneek peak of something new coming tomorrow. This sample is somewhat different to what you might expect, for now I am sharing a few other Clarity Makes.

This is a mix of Stamping, Inking and Groovi, I always like to mix things up, I am sure you know that by now.

A card for a Special Friend using Jayne's beautiful Agapanthus Groovi plate from Jayne's Floral and Frame Collection.

Here's a Fathers day card made with a mixture of plates from the Celtic Groovi collection. A really wonderful collection of goodies.

Lastly 'The Journey Begins' a mixture of A6 'Classic Vehicles' and 'Air Collection' from The Mens Groovi Collection.

Let the Celebrations Begin. Thank you ever so much for joining me on this very special weekend, I hope you have liked the projects I have shared with you today. I am sure you are all going to love what Barbara and the team have to share with you on Hochanda over the next few days. I hope you will take a look at the Hochanda Blog today to see what I am sharing over there. For now Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Parchment Rose

Morning today I am sharing a Parchment card that I made using a stencil from Be Creative. I thought I would use it differently and that it would make a nice statement piece. I have mixed the Groovi with it so it's sort of a mix between Traditional Parchment and Groovi

You will need:

Be Creative Rose Bloom Stencil

Clarity Lightwave

Groovi Sprig A5 Square Plate

Groovi Banner (Your Choice, Depending on the size of your Sentiment)

Pergamano Embossing Mat

Embossing tools

Black Green & Red Polychromos or Pergacolours

Corner Punch

Black Card

Step 1: Transfer your design to the parchment, I used my light wave, but you could place it all on dark/black card and trace it that way. Lightly emboss your line work with a small ball tool

Step 2:Add your Banner and Sentiment. Then add the sprig background.

Step 3: Add your white work, do this gradually and leave it to rest in between layers. Do the same for the banner and add more dimension with black to make it ore 3D.

Step 4: Colour your rose design and leaves. Mount your piece onto black card, using a corner punch to hold the parchment in place. Finally to finish your card, mount it onto a Centura Pearl card Base.

Thank you ever so much for joining me today, I do hope you have enjoyed the tutorial and finished card I have shared. Please join me again for some more Inspiration. For now take care and Happy crafting.xxx

Parchment Wishes

Here is my tutorial for one of the cards I made for the launch of the Die'Sire Easel Card Dies on Hochanda earlier this week. I've tried to show different ways of using and decorating the beautiful card bases. The parchment design for the topper looks right at home in this piece. I have used the Sprig Background Groovi Plate here along with the A4 Alphabet plate to add the sentiment. 

For this card you will need:

Groovi Sprig Background A5 Square Plate

Groovi A4 Alphabet Frame Plate

Die'Sire Create a Card 'Floral Easel'

Basic Circle Dies

Heavyweight Acetate

Parchment

Centura Pearl white 'Hint of Silver'

Green Alcohol Marker

Step 1: Cut 2 of the smaller outer edge panels with the decorative panels. Cut a piece of parchment using the same die but without the insert. Cut you base easel with heavyweight acetate, if you have protective sheets remove them as they do affect the cut. Top Tip: to avoid marks on your acetate, place a piece of copier paper on your base plate.

Step 2: Using scissors cut across the inside of the design from the edge of the decorative edge (See Photo)

Step 3: Cut away the remainder of the card using a basic circle die of the correct size, feed the die under the decorative edge and position to continue the frame, secure with low take tape. (See Photo)

Step 4: Using 3D glue gel secure your parchment to the back of your topper.

Step 5: Using both frame dies, create a thin frame for the front and the back of the topper. This will be  decorative at the front and cover your adhesives at the back.Secure to the topper using 3D glue gel and then to the card base. Cut the largest edge die in Centura Pearl and secure to the underside of the base, this will cover all adhesive and give a professional result.

Step 6: To finish the card, adhere the bottom decorative section to your base and create a stopper with small paper roses to compliment the look.

I do appologise for the problems on Facebook over the last week and I hope you haven't missed too many of the posts I have added. I have heard from a few of you that you haven't received the notifications, I hope that this will improve.

Thank you for visiting, I would really love to have your comments or feedback, I love to read them and then know that I am not alone. I hope you managed to see my post on the Hochanda Blog and added a comment, I am doing a draw on Sunday and I will send the finished card to that person. I have added a link to the blog on the side panel at the top of the page. For now Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Parchment Lilies

Morning, Hopefully you got to see the shows on Hochanda, where Michelle from MJM Design Studios launched her wonderful artwork on a triple set of CD Roms. The Lilies and Light CD collection has been produced by Crafters Companion and is packed to the rafters with goodies to use. When I saw this particular design, I knew it would lend itself perfectly to parchment.

To start with I traced the design onto parchment using my pen and white ink. If you want to print on to your parchment rather than trace, you can change the outline colour to grey and fade the outline image down to approximately 30%. Obviously a printer will not print the white for you. Personally I prefer to trace with white, directly from the image.

Next using my Groovi plate from Clarity I traced the frame part of the design. I also traced one of the sentiments from the disk using gold ink.

I started adding the white work embossing from the back of the parchment in stages building it up over time.

I then used polychromo pencils to colour, again from the reverse.

To finish I added my piece onto black matt card, then layered it onto a card base made from Centura Pearl 'Hint of Silver'

Thank you for visiting today, I hope you like this project and the step by step I have shared.  Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you have about this or any other piece.

I hope to see you again very soon, There's more to come. Take care and Happy Crafting.xx

Oriental Wishes

Today I'd like to share a parchment card I made for my Sisters Birthday. I decided to create my design using the Groovi System from Clarity. A couple of the plates were launched when Hochanda visited Alexandra Palace.

To create this design I used four of the Groovi plates Ornate Boxes, Trellis, Geisha and the Waterhouse plates. I started by working out where the Geisha needed to be, I completed her to the waist and added the parasol. Then I added the grasses below before adding the remainder of her dress.

Then I added the waterhouse as the focal point and the grasses on the right side. I then added the inner part of my frame using the larges box from the ornate boxes plate. This then allowed me to add the branches,blossoms, leaves and grasses within this frame. I added the same box to create the outer frame, I simply moved it along and matched up to enlarge it. Then taking the trellis plate I filled the space in between.

Before adding the colour, I decided where I wanted to add my whitework, I added all of this before adding any colour. On the trellis, I used black where the lines went underneath each other to give it more of a 3D look. I added all of the colour on the reverse of the parchment apart from the roof struts as I wanted these to be a lot blacker, so coloured at the front.

Thank you ever so much for visiting my blog again today. I hope you are all still enjoying the things I am sharing. Thank you also for your comments, I really do value these and love to read them. xxx

Midnight Birdsong

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

I am adding this into May's Clarity Blog Challenge 39, which is anything goes. 

I am also adding this project into the Country View Crafts Monthly Challenge for May as the brief is: Use a Stencil.