Wee houses meet parchment

I was inspired to have a go at some stamping and parchment after Paul's demo on HOCHANDA on Sunday, and Barbara's blog at the beginning of the week. 

I love the wee house and shops so thought I would have another go at a reflection on parchment while I was at it. 

I m working on the White work and getting the houses straight!!

Here it is

Groovi trials

HI have been able to spend some time getting to grips with the groovi system this week.  I love it... So here in order of trials are my three attempts.  I must say the photos do hide a multitude of errors but 

I m learning in the process.

Number 1

No 2 

No 3

This one inspired by Emma Burns very similar one just uploaded to her blog.

I also had a go at doing a reflection with the wee houses see below:-

Hope you like them.....

 

Calendar challenge; January 2016

Here is my January offering from the Clarity calendar challenge.  I have changed it slightly by not adding the tree mantles as I wanted to create a bright, frosty winter scene.  I had to improvise a bit with the birds as I don t have that stamp.

I hope I have risen to the challenge! New Years resolution no 1 completed and only 11 to go. 

Hope there will be lots of us 'having a go'

Hope you like it X 

Calendar challenge update!

I wanted to add some subtle glitter to this card o it had that cold frost morning feel to it.  I ordered an amazing glue applicator which has a very fine metal applicator ideal for tiny amounts of glue.....well it arrived today ( was not expecting it for another couple of weeks) so have now added the glitter ( quite subtle)! It's a great little gadget ( photo at the end).

Glue applicator

Great, very precise application possible.......love it x 

Clarity challenge January 2106

January 4 th 2016

Happy new year!

My New Years resolution in January 2015 was to enter the Clarity challenge every month! I made it in January and then dismally failed thereafter.

Work, life and a redesign of the garden intervened and so I have renewed the resolution this year and plan to enter both challenges through 2016 including the calendar challenge. We ll see how I get on.........

Here is my entry for the 'say it with flowers' challenge for January.

I have made two cards but think this will be my entry, I have posted the other one underneath.I wanted to have a go at layering using clarity stencils and a variety of acrylic paints and distress inks/ markers. I also wanted to use the clear, gloss textile paste to see what happened!

I used various stencils (see if you can spot them all)! 

I love the fact that the acrylic paint acts as a resist to the distress inks. 

Dotty wave; lantern pods; brick wall; ocean swirl; ABC stencil; clock stencil; 

The dotty wave; brick wall and ABC stencil and lantern pods were done with acrylic paint first.

Distress inks; mustard seed; wild honey; pickled raspberry; dusty concord; peacock feathers and chipped sapphire round the edges. 

I used transparent gloss texture paste to add the dotty wave over the top, I used the Chinese lanterns in the first one I made but it was a bit over powering and also the texture paste was too thick.

I love the effect and all the layers give it a nice 'grungy' look.

The flower stamp is Gentian and columbine which I stamped onto 7 x 7 stencil card and masked while I did the background.

I like the texture paste effect which adds texture but doesn't detract from the detail.

Second card

Hope you like it. 

Clarity challenge January 2015

January 11 th.

To fulfil my New Years resolution to enter the clarity challenge each month Here is my first card. I wanted to try some folded cards and so I ve been experimenting and really like the size of this card which is smaller than my recent cards which seem to have got larger and larger!

I was given these very pretty papers for Christmas and wanted to use them too. The background of the bird is done on the gelli plate.

 

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New Years resolutions!

January 8 th

Christmas always creates a natural break in proceedings. I had almost two weeks off work but no time for crafting. However we had a wonderful family time which is as important!

I have a New Years resolution to enter the clarity challenge every month. I also want to have a go at some smaller folded cards. My recent cards seem to have been getting bigger and bigger. I ve been experimenting.

 

I found some pretty backing papers and have then incorporated clarity stamps into the design.

And then

Subtle differences!

I want to creat my own back ground papers as well so watch this space x

 

 

 

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There are fairies at the bottom of my garden.

December 1 st

Here is a card requested by a friend for her Mum's 60 th birthday. She wanted something ethereal with fairies, I ve had some Lavinia stamps for a while, and this was the perfect time to try them out. I love the little bridge and the dancing fairies. Matched with clarity stamps and after several attempts to get the scene to work and the light I was really pleased with the eventual result.

It involved quite a bit of masking off. I did'nt want the 60 or the word celebrate to fight with the picture so they have been left subtle. The holographic embossing powder worked so well on dark blue card.

Hope you like it!

And close up.

 

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