"Wonderful Family Forever" - Thank you

We had a brilliant time over Christmas with my partner Peter's sister Jan, her hubby Phil and their daughter Ellie (affectionately known to us as Els :-))......So for them, a little thank you card for their hospitality, great fun & laughter - which is what I believe Christmas-time and family get-togethers are all about!


I'm a bit better prepared this time to blog and have taken a few more photos along the way, although normally I must say I wing-it as I go along when I'm card making, deciding what to add at each stage as I progress with my artwork, so I'm trying to be a bit more organized for you :-)

So for this card I used

The sentiments from the Clarity Word Chains & the Foxes fitted perfectly as we are thanking the Townsend family Jan, Phil & Els (three foxy people).
I used the inks as shown & the 7x7 base Gelli card was made a while ago by spritzing the leftover inks on the Clarity blending mat, laying the bubble stencil on it, then pressing the stencil onto the Gelli card.
Stamp the words and foxes in place using the Black Archival ink, re-stamp over the words slightly off-setting with the Salty Ocean for the shadow effect

When you've stamped the main piece, start to build the scene by tearing a piece of paper and use the blending tool with Mowed Lawn Distress ink to make the landscape. 
Once done, cover up each level of the hills and stamp in the trees, ink-blot-plot some to give the effect of them being in the distance.  Stamp the first generation ink trees at the lower levels so they are in the front.  Ground the foxes too by covering them and using the blending tool to sit them on the grass. Place a moon mask and sweep across the sky with a Clarity stencil brush using the Peacock & Salty Ocean Distress inks.
Use the foliage stamp from the Clarity Remountable Foxes Clear Stamp Set & the Leaf stamp from the Remountable Hares Stamp Set to add some greenery - use the Archival Olive Green & Adirondack Juniper, ink-blot-plot some, and use first generation ink for others in the foreground.

Now colour in the Foxes using Spectrum Noir Colouring Pencils (Hurry - still on special offer from Clarity Stamps - set of 5 for the price of 4), I used the Nature Set for my project.  I also used the green shades lightly over the trees & grass area, as some parts were a little too white.

Add some white highlights to the foxes faces and tail-tips.  Underline them, and the words, with a  Grey Shade 4 Promarker.  Draw double wiggly lines with a Black Micron Pen quite close together around edge of the top half of your artwork and colour in with contrasting shades.  Either side of the black lines, follow round closely with a silver pen.  To finish off, mount your work on an 8x8 card and stamp the Clarity Remountable Million Thank Yous Clear Stamp inside and use the same set of pencils to colour in.  You're all done, so...........

Have a great day everyone xxx

Clarity Challenge 23 - "Things with Wings"

This is all very new and exciting and I'm so chuffed to now be part of the Clarity Challenge Design Team. 




For Challenge 23 "Things with Wings", Pegasus immediately sprung to mind!





I looked through my vast array of  Clarity stamps and stencils and knew that the following would make the perfect mythical creature




Wooden Horse clear stamp
Large Blue Tit clear stamp (just one wing)
"Magical" from Word Chain set 7 clear stamps
The Clockwork stencil


Clarity stencil brushes, blending tool & make-up sponge
Black Micron pen
Silver pen
White pen
Few small silver stars
Ribbon & embellishment


I love blues & purples, so to get the effect, I used Eggplant & Raspberry Adirondacks & Salty Ocean Distress Inks through the stencil, and a selection of blue & purple Spectrum Noir pencils to colour Pegasus.  Then I used Weathered Wood Distress Ink & Grey (Shade 4) Promarker for the shadowing.


So for the design, mask off the edges of a 7x7 gelli plate piece of card the width of the tape so that the line will be equal all round, then stamp the wooden horse in Black Archival Ink in the centre & mask him off, then ink up one wing of the large Blue Tit and stamp into position.  Mask this off too so that the whole stamped image is covered.


Attach the stencil with masking tape and start to brush the Salty Ocean ink around & around the edge of the stencil with the Clarity stencil brush, gradually bringing in the colour to the centre.  Darken around the edges using the blending tool with Eggplant, then brush over the Raspberry to give a purple effect around the cogs. 


Once done, remove the stencil and lightly use a make-up sponge around Pegasus to give a bit of depth before un-masking him.  Now go ahead and make him pretty with the Spectrum Noir pencils  (I love my new pencils which were part of my Christmas prezzies this year and can highly recommend them - on special offer at the moment from Clarity!)  Clad his hooves with the silver pen and outline around his upper lines with the white pen, then under him with the grey Promarker.  Remove the masking tape from around the edges of the card and draw free-hand around each side of the clockwork square with the Micron pen.  Stamp "Magical" in Black Archival ink, then re-ink the stamp again with the Salty Ocean and stamp over the top, slightly off-setting it to create an echo of colour - underline the lower part of the letters with the grey Promarker for shadow.


 Use the blending tool loaded with a small amount of Eggplant around the 7x7 card edges.


Attach the ribbon, embellishment and jazz it up with a few twinkling stars and attach to a blank greeting card - you're all done!


Thank you for joining me on my first blog and I look forward to sharing more ideas with you over the coming months.


Happy crafting everyone! xxx