Crafty Mrs P: February 2016

Well here we are again for the second posting for this month's "Love" Challenge.....

I hope you like it....

Take the following ingredients:

Clarity Vine Heart Stencil

Copy paper

3 pieces of Clarity 7x7 Stencil card

Cosmic Shimmer Vintage Ink Spray - Evergreen

Perfect Pearls Mists - Interference Red

Lay the stencil onto the copy paper and spritz the two inks onto it - this mix of colours gives a lovely verdigris-effect

Spritz the inked stencil lightly with water then carefully pick it up (try to avoid touching the ink) & turn the stencil over onto a piece of the Stencil card

Next work on outlining and shadowing the heart & vines with a Micron pen and a grey Promarker

Take another piece of stencil card and make the background by spritzing the same green & red onto one piece

I sprayed a little too much ink onto the card, so I laid another piece on top and transferred the excess ink to the second piece - it's always nice to have a choice!

I decided to cut around the heart leaving about 1/4 inch border of white, as I wanted more of the background to show. The nature coloured Spectrum Noir pencils enhanced the already pretty colours on the heart perfectly.

Once the background card is dry, dust it with talc and using "Love" from the Wordchain set 6, stamp randomly with the Versamark ink and white emboss.

Using a ruler and a contrasting coloured Promarker, edge the stencil card and then draw a thin black line with the Micron pen.

Mount the background card onto an 8x8 blank greeting card, then mount the cut-out heart piece at an angle using double-sided tape.....That's it - finito!!

Here's a few photos to try and show how 3-D it looks - I like this effect.

You've still got time to enter the February Challenge you know - the winner is randomly selected, so everyone's in with a chance of winning the top prize of a £50 Clarity voucher....

You've got to be in it to win it!

Good luck and see you again soon xxx

http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Stencils/18620-/Vine-Heart-Stencil-7-x-7-Inch-from-NDSC8

http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Mounts-and-Card/17043-/Stencil-Card---7-x-7-Inch-x-50-UK-amp-EU-only

http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Accessories/Pens-and-Pencils/4006-/Pigma-Micron-01-Black-Fine-Point-Pen

http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Information/Search/15436-/Word-Chain-6---Unmounted-Clear-Stamp-Set

http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Ink-Pads/Versamagic-Ink-Pads/7448-/Versamark-Inkpad

http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Accessories/Embossing-Powders/4054-/Embossing-Powder-Detail-White

Hi there - February's Clarity Challenge is upon us already! The "Love" theme should be a great one to air all things love-related from Clarity - there's certainly lots to choose from!

So down to business.....a romantic one for all you lovers (& crafters) out there!

My ingredients are:
Best Ever Craft Mat (Mine is on order as we speak - looked fab on Paul's HOCHANDA show)
Blank 8x8 base greeting card
Clarity Stencil Card x 2 (& any small scrap card for mopping up stray-spray)
Water Spritzer Bottle & low tack masking tape
New Design Club - 7x7 Heart Stencil
New Design Club - Elephant Heart
"Celebrate" from Word Chain 3
Wee Folk 6 Wedding - The wee entwined hearts
Cosmic Shimmer Ink Spray Mist "Clover"
Perfect Pearls Mists "Perfect Copper"
Spectrum Noir "Essentials" colouring pencils
Black Archival Ink & Tim Holtz "Victorian Velvet" & "Mowed Lawn" Distress Inks
Medium Charcoal Pencil
Black Micron Pen, Pink & Grey Promarker, Bronze Uni-Ball Pen
Blending Tool
(See links below to the Clarity website to help you find products available direct from Claritystamp)

I've been trying to use some of my "older" Clarity products rather than using the "on-trend" ones, so I chose a pretty NDC Heart Stencil and attached it with low tack masking tape to spritz my chosen pink & copper colours through it.

I hate wasting ink - when I removed the stencil, there was quite a lot of ink on it, so I lightly spritz it with water and placed it ink-side-down onto a second piece of stencil card - when removed, this gives you the negative image.

There was quite a bit of stray ink on the craft mat too, so rather than just wipe it up, I dabbed a piece of scrap card onto it.

There you go, a nice background card for a future project - "Waste-not, want-not" as the saying goes! Next, stamp the NDC Elephant Heart using Black Archival into one of the stencilled hearts....that's the glory of "all-things-Clarity", they're so inter-changeable!

Colour in the headdresses of the elephants with Spectrum Noir pencils and using the copper pen, fill in-between the lines of both elephants, and add a few dots around the headdresses.

Add a charcoal shadow under them by lightly drawing a thin line with the charcoal pencil and blend downwards with your finger - Darken as necessary.

Stamp "Celebrate" in Victorian Velvet ink and outline with the Micron pen. Then also stamp a few Wee Hearts in pink. Draw round the stencil heart twice and fill in using a chequered effect with the black pen and add some colour to the leaves using a green colouring pencil.

To finish off, I drew random sketchy lines around the square outline with the black pen, then did the same with the pink Promarker. Underline the lower part of the large & small hearts and the word with the grey Promarker for shadow. Using a ruler and the pink Promarker edge the stencil card with a thin line, then add some twine and a bow to the stencil card.

Using the blending tool, take your base card and lightly add some Meadow Grass green ink around the edge. Mount the finished artwork on the base card & that's it completed.

So this is my first February inspiration for you. I hope you have some fab ideas for this month's Challenge, but if you're struggling a little, check out the rest of the Design Team samples. You can click on the link in the Clarity Challenge Blog to see how to create all the other samples. For next time I will re-set the links to my Team mates on here again, as they all seem to have disappeared!

The Team will be adding some mid-month examples too, so feel free to re-visit us any time.

Look forward to seeing all your entries. Although it makes our task more challenging to choose the Top 5 when there are loads of entries, it's wonderful to see all your artwork. Let's see if you can beat last month's bumper amount of entries....Spread the Clarity Challenge word!

Happy Valentine's Day for the 14th - Have a fun time with your loved ones.

Thanks for visiting me today, and I hope to see you back again soon xxx

Crafty Mrs P

Sunday, 14 February 2016

Love themed Clarity Challenge

Monday, 1 February 2016

February Clarity Challenge No. 36 - "Love"