Crafty Mrs P: February Clarity Challenge No. 36

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

19 comments:

Jo Rice1 February 2016 at 08:41
Morning Carole, and welcome to February....your design is fabulous and so you...I love to look at all the designs and try and guess who has made each one,,,I got this one straight away...just perfect .great tutorial too....hugs...xxx
carols handmade cards1 February 2016 at 09:07
I do love all your art work this is a fabulous design. Xx
crafty1 February 2016 at 10:07
Love everything about your card the colours just so nice xx
Naomi1 February 2016 at 10:13
Super project Carole, and a wonderful step by step.
Emma Burns1 February 2016 at 11:51
What a fabulous card and a fabulous blog post too Carole. Very informative. Hugs xx
Amanda Openshaw1 February 2016 at 14:44
Love this Carole, it really does look very romantic. Great blog too. Hope you have a lovely day.
Hugs
Amanda xx
Lynne Bishop1 February 2016 at 14:55
Wonderful Carole. Thanks for the great step by step and all the links. Take care if you getting this storm we are having. xx
Shelagh Metselaar1 February 2016 at 16:36
A fun and funky card, Carole and something just that little bit different. ;~}
Linda Page1 February 2016 at 17:01
Great card and yes it's nice to revisit older things Clarity and even mix them with the new stuff - that what I like about it.

I love the funky style you have achieved here x
Mrs P1 February 2016 at 19:33
Thank you Ladies - your lovely comments are much appreciated.
Have a lovely evening all xxx
Lesley2 February 2016 at 20:49
Great card Carole, and useful tips about making the most of our inks. Love the chequered border around the elephants it really makes them stand out x
Lesley2 February 2016 at 20:49
Great card Carole, and useful tips about making the most of our inks. Love the chequered border around the elephants it really makes them stand out x
Angela2 February 2016 at 21:49
A fun and colourful card Carole. A lovely composition of stencil and stamps. Thanks for sharing the different techniques you've used, and for reminding us not to waste anything. x
Barbara Gray - Stamping with Clarity3 February 2016 at 06:00
Super artwork! Love the elephants! X
Unknown5 February 2016 at 06:00
Lovely card Carole with a great combination of stamps and stencils. Thanks for the insight into how you achieve those fab backgrounds. Xxx
Unknown6 February 2016 at 14:57
Love this card Carole, the step by step was really helpful too. Love those elephants!
Mrs P19 February 2016 at 20:32
Thank you all Ladies - have a wonderful, (hopefully crafty), weekend xxx
Jan 20 February 2016 at 19:04
Love how you used the elephant heart . Inspiration for me . Thanks
Mrs P22 February 2016 at 13:22
Thank you for visiting Janice - lovely to see that you've entered this month's competition :-) x

Crafty Mrs P

Monday, 1 February 2016

February Clarity Challenge No. 36 - "Love"

19 comments: