Clean and Simple

Hi,

For today's post I would like to share a clean & simple card; this is a little different to my usual style but was fun to do and will suit a variety of occasions.  The finished card has some pretty pastel tones of creamy yellow and pink, with plenty of the open, clean space typical of CAS cards:

Technique:

For the card base I used a white 7 x 5 inch, 300gsm, card and masked off a 2 inch stripe with paper and removable tape.

Using a brush I inked up the 2 inch stripe with Distress Ink (Wild Honey), then covered the area with the "Chinese Lanterns" stencil by Claritystamp.  The lantern design was inked onto the yellow stripe using Memento Ink (Rhubarb Stalk) with a small amount of teal blue ink (Memento: Teal Zeal) added to darken the base and stalks of each lantern.

The "Chinese Lanterns" design is my favourite go-to stencil at the moment,  I just love the stripy pattern on the lanterns and it looks great whether using its full 6 x 6 design or just a small section.

The "hello" stamp is from a L'Aquarelle Design set by Ultimate Crafts, I stamped this on a piece of white card approximately 3 x 1.5 inch and heat embossed with Wow super fine embossing powder (Metallic Platinum).  I added a pierced border around the sentiment and the Wild Honey inkpad was run along the edges to link into the background colour of the main stripe.

Finally the sentiment was placed on the finished card with 3D foam tape to lift it slightly above the patterned stripe.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my post, and many thanks for stopping by.

Carolyn x

This card is being entered in the following challenges:

Less Is More: Stripe Challenge

Cards In Envy: Pretty-Pastels-Card-Challenge

Clarity Herons

Hi,

For today's post I'd like to share a gelli print which incorporated last month's design club stamp from Claritystamp:

Technique:

The background for this project was a 6x6 inch gelli print using a combination of three Memento Inks (Rhubarb Stalk, Cantaloupe & Northern Pine) - the inks were daubed onto the gelli plate in three stripes and spread out with a Speedball brayer to give a graduated mix of the colours.  Before pulling the print on my art journal page I added a Claritystamp moon mask in the upper half of the page.

The lower heron was stamped directly onto the printed background using Memento Tuxedo Black, I then reapplied the black ink to the stamp and gently stamped the image onto the surface of the gelli plate:

By using the gelli plate to print a second image onto my journal page the image is reversed making the pair of herons face towards each other!

To add the colour to the herons I chose two gelli prints from my crafty stash (both prints had been made using Pebeo Studio Acrylics) and stamped and fussy-cut the head and bodies of the two birds.

Although I had initially stamped with black ink the line-art on the herons was paler than I really wanted so I used a black micron pen to darken the lines and make the herons really stand out.

To finish the artwork a waterbrush was pulled gently through the ink in the sky area to resemble clouds drifting across the moon and a black pencil was used to draw in a distant horizon and add shadows.

I will be entering this artwork in Moving Along With The Times - Birds and feathers challenge, the first time I have tried one of the MAWTT challenges.

Hope you've enjoyed reading my post, thanks for stopping by,

Carolyn x

Make Art Not War

Hi & thanks for popping in,

Today's project has been done in response to Wednesday's blog by Barbara Gray.  Barbara suggested we all make a piece of artwork which says "Make Art Not War" ... well here is my contribution:

Technique:

First I wrote out the word ART on of a piece of A4 paper and carefully cut around the letters to give me two masks - the first mask being the three letters and the second mask being the outer section.

Starting with the decoration of the letters, I glued the outer mask onto a piece of white 300gsm card with repositionable glue (and whatever you do, don't use permanent glue by mistake.  Yes I'll admit it ... been there, done that, learnt from my earlier mistake!).

With my background area now protected, I placed a Claritystamp Chinese Lanterns 7x7 inch stencil on top of my mask and inked up a 6x6 inch gelli plate with two colours (Teal Zeal Memento Ink and Wild Honey Distress Ink).  Using the gelli plate I smooshed the inks through the stencil to fill in the letters with an imprint of the lantern design:

For the next step I removed the outer mask and temporarily attached the three cut-out letters to mask off the word allowing me to work on the background.  At this stage I also attached one of the Claritystamp sun/moon masks.  

I created a sky behind the ART letters by brushing two colours of Memento Ink (Teal Zeal and Paris Dusk) across the top half of the card.  When happy with the colour of the sky I removed the sun mask and used a light dusting of Distress Wild Honey to take away the whiteness of the sun.  A waterbrush dragged lightly across the sun and sky gives the idea of a few whispy clouds.  The grass was created in a similar style by brushing Memento Cottage Ivy across the lower half of the card - torn paper was used to give the hill outlines. 

The figures are from Claritystamp Wee Folk Set 1, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and the boxed words were created using Claritystamp Woodpress Letters stamped in Memento Northern Pine.

To anchor the letters and people onto the grass I used a make-up sponge to apply a small amount of the Cottage Ivy ink.  For the finishing touches a black Micron pen was used to outline the word ART and draw a couple of flocks of birds in the sky.

I hope you like my finished project and it inspires you to create your own piece of artwork.

Happy crafting,

Carolyn x

Spring Birthday Card

Hi,

Today I'd like to share a simple spring-themed card which I've just completed in readiness for my niece's coming birthday:

The central topper was created on a 4-inch square of coated Clarity card which I brushed over with 3 colours of ink (Wild Honey Distress Ink, Teal Zeal Memento Ink & Rhubarb Stalk Memento Ink) to make a background.  To add interest to the background a postcard stamp was stamped randomly around the square using Wild Honey Distress Ink.

The flower stamp was heated embossed with Creative Expressions Detail Silver Shine embossing powder and coloured using a selection of Spectrum Noir alcohol markers - I'm not great with alcohol markers but was really happy with the way this image turned out.  To help the flower stand out more I've used a white Posca pen to pick out the tips of the stamens.

Both the postcard and flower stamps came free with a recent craft magazine, they are from L'Aquarell Design by Ultimate Craft which is a range I've never used before but I must say the images stamp beautifully.

A yellow gelli print from my stash was used as a mount behind the Clarity card, and the completed topper was mounted onto a white 8-inch square base card with 3D foam tape.

To finish the card I added two sentiments, both stamped in Gray Flannel Memento Ink: "Its Your Birthday" by Apple Blossom Designs and Let's Celebrate" from the L'Aquarell Design set. Hopefully my niece will like her card and also her hand-crafted present.

Thanks for stopping by,

Carolyn x


I'll be entering this card in the following challenges:

That's Crafty Challenge - Foliage and Flowers
Uniko Studio Challenge - Spring with Optional Twist Easter

The Man in the Moon

Sometimes the packaging can be as pretty as the gift, and today I'd like to share my tag and pendant project:

Tag: I cut the tag shape from coated Clarity card and brushed on a selection of Memento inks (Teal Zeal, Rhubarb Stalk, Cottage Ivy, Northern Pine and Sweet Plum) to make an early morning landscape scene.  To frame the foreground, flowers and leaves from the Card-io Majestix Secret Garden set were stamped (again using Memento inks) with a drop of Ranger Crystal Stickles in the centre of each flower to make them sparkle - though sadly that sparkle doesn't show up well in the photographs!

Pendant: the pendant was made using a copper moon shape enamelled with Efco low temperature enamelling powders (Black with a sprinkling of Mallow).  Embedding a gem in the enamelling powders before heating added an extra bit of bling, and gave the man in the moon his eye.  The moon was mounted on a sterling silver chain using a pendant bail.

For the finishing touches I added a piece of ribbon to the top of the tag and cut slots to hold the necklace chain.  Attaching a tiny envelope to the back of the tag hides the end of the chain and helps to hold the necklace in place.

This project is being entered in ThatsCrafty - Bling It Up Challenge

Thanks for stopping by,
Carolyn x

Welcome to my Blog & Favourite Artwork

So I've finally created my very first blog.  To be honest, I'm a complete newbie at this blogging lark, well at least from the writing side!  Over the past couple of years I've read some fantastic craft blogs written by other people and wondered, could I join the ranks in bloggerland? how hard can it be? ... well, dear reader, we are about to find out!

For my very first blog I'd like to share my favourite card, which I made last year and entered (by email, not being brave enough to try blogging back then!) in one of Claritystamp's monthly challenges:

Using coated Clarity card I brushed on a mixture of Tsukineko Memento inks (Paris Dusk,
Cantaloupe, Teal Zeal, Rhubard Stalk and Gray Flannel) to make a seascape.  Before brushing on the inks I added a sun mask cut from a post-it to form the setting sun and torn paper was used to form the cliffs.  A waterbrush dragged (carefully) through the ink added sunlit clouds to the sky and also formed the shadows defining the cliffs.

The scene was triple mounted on black, white and pale blue card and finished with Claritystamp's Kissing Couple stamp (inked in StazOn Jet Black), and a sentiment stamped using Claritystamp's Woodpress Letters (inked in Memento Tuxedo Black).

Thanks for stopping by.
Carolyn x