Friday, 30 November 2018
Thursday, 29 November 2018
Christmas Card Toppers: Mounting Makes a Difference
The decision how to mount up a topper can make a big difference to the look of the finished card. From the size and layout of the card itself, to the colour used to mat and layer. Here I have taken three toppers of the same size (3" x 5.5") and mounted them on three different sized cards (6" x 6", A6 and DL). Each one works, but the effect is completely different each time.
Wednesday, 28 November 2018
WOYWW 495: Secret Squirrel
My desk is a little short on detail this week. Between working on samples for Lou Withers' Royal Talens shows that I needed to get ready to give her tomorrow, and making a start on my first Clarity samples which need to be posted in plenty of time for January, there is not much I can show you. I am also trying to keep up with a project a day (except Wednesdays) to share on my blog.
My desk shows the start of a sample using the Ecoline pens to create a mop up background. It is one of my favourite techniques, so I never throw my inky paper towels away. You'll have to wait until the 9th or 10th December to see the finished piece on my blog as that is when Lou has her One Day Special shows on Hochanda.
I actually have something to show on the other side of the desk. Eva made it over for a crafty day's play last Thursday so I took a photo while I had the chance. We are going up to the JJAMMMA (Junk Journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art) monthly meet up in Stockport tomorrow. I am looking forward to it as we haven't both managed to go together for ages. She was very productive and finished lots of Christmas card toppers.
For more crafty fun and desks from around the world, please visit The Stamping Ground, where Julia keeps us all in line and lists all the links!
My desk shows the start of a sample using the Ecoline pens to create a mop up background. It is one of my favourite techniques, so I never throw my inky paper towels away. You'll have to wait until the 9th or 10th December to see the finished piece on my blog as that is when Lou has her One Day Special shows on Hochanda.
I actually have something to show on the other side of the desk. Eva made it over for a crafty day's play last Thursday so I took a photo while I had the chance. We are going up to the JJAMMMA (Junk Journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art) monthly meet up in Stockport tomorrow. I am looking forward to it as we haven't both managed to go together for ages. She was very productive and finished lots of Christmas card toppers.
For more crafty fun and desks from around the world, please visit The Stamping Ground, where Julia keeps us all in line and lists all the links!
Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Christmas Scene through a Window
I created a double layered tag using one of the Fresh Cut Window Aperture dies from Claritystamp. I had previously used the Dove Window to create a Panorama Card (see HERE), but this time worked with the Candle Window.
Monday, 26 November 2018
Sunday, 25 November 2018
Pointillism Art Journal Page: Stag
It seems a while since I joined in with Nina Ribena's Art Journal Prompts and More. I haven't yet completed the last page for the October prompts and this is the first page that I have created with the November prompts: Art Movements. Week 1 was Pointillism and I enjoyed using my masks in a different way to help me create this page.
Saturday, 24 November 2018
Friday, 23 November 2018
Thursday, 22 November 2018
Wednesday, 21 November 2018
WOYWW 494: Getting Excited
I am starting to get excited for Christmas. My son and his girlfriend will be returning from Romania for nearly three weeks and I am looking forward to seeing them. I shall also be creating my first secret Clarity DT samples shortly (I can say no more).
My desk shows a Christmas card topper that I am working on (I will share the finished piece tomorrow). I love creating mini scenes using the various Clarity wee stamps and teeny weenie stamps and decided to give the finished scene an embossing paste outline using the laurel wreath stencil.
I have finally caught up with all the marking from my meeting last Wednesday afternoon. I will get plenty done during the two hours that I have this afternoon in school. No other side of the desk this week. Eva has been really busy with work and courses and we haven't had a chance for a crafty get together for a couple of weeks. I'm hoping she can manage a session tomorrow. To visit more desks and find out more about What's On Your Workdesk, Wednesday? please pop over to our host Julia at the Stamping Ground. I'll be over to visit after work tonight.
My desk shows a Christmas card topper that I am working on (I will share the finished piece tomorrow). I love creating mini scenes using the various Clarity wee stamps and teeny weenie stamps and decided to give the finished scene an embossing paste outline using the laurel wreath stencil.
I have finally caught up with all the marking from my meeting last Wednesday afternoon. I will get plenty done during the two hours that I have this afternoon in school. No other side of the desk this week. Eva has been really busy with work and courses and we haven't had a chance for a crafty get together for a couple of weeks. I'm hoping she can manage a session tomorrow. To visit more desks and find out more about What's On Your Workdesk, Wednesday? please pop over to our host Julia at the Stamping Ground. I'll be over to visit after work tonight.
Tuesday, 20 November 2018
Early for Valentine's Day
I worked on a #8 manilla tag for the November challenge over on Tag It Tuesday. Four prompts are given each month and at least two have to be used. This month the prompts were: 1 Paste through a stencil; 2 Paint with your fingers; 3 Write random words; 4 Numbers. As you will see, I used three of the prompts.
Monday, 19 November 2018
Using Part of a Stencil on a Small Project
The prompt for the November mini mission over on Mission Inspiration is 'Trust'. As usual I worked on a tag for my tag journal and made use of the paper towel mop up sheet from my previous project (see HERE).
Sunday, 18 November 2018
House Warming Card
We have been invited to a belated house warming party this afternoon. As they actually moved in a year ago, but have recently finished their extension, I have chosen to make it a Happy Home card rather than a New Home one. I love the 3 way overlay stamps from Claritystamp and as I have the stencil in the same design as the Town House set, I decided to use the two together. Having seen Barbara Gray using Distress Oxides on these stamps to build up colour, I decided to try out the technique. I also ended up with an additional topper and background from cleaning off my stamps and stencil, so had a choice to make about which combination to use.
Saturday, 17 November 2018
A Cornucopia of Christmas Card Toppers
I recently spent a day making Christmas Card toppers at a workshop with Maria Moorhouse from Claritystamp. She had many of her own ideas and designs to choose from, some of which I copied, but the ones I am sharing here are all my own ideas using Claritystamp stencils and stamps. We used the large sheets of Claritystamp stencil card (8.5" x 11") and I made 4 toppers from each sheet. The square toppers measure 5.5" x 5.5" and the smaller offcuts 5.5" x 3". These will all be matted up and added to suitably sized card blanks eventually.
Friday, 16 November 2018
Traditional Christmas Card Scene with a Twist
I decided to relax by colouring in a lovely traditional Christmas image: Jayne's Carol Singers from Claritystamp. Rather than stamping and colouring the image in a more traditional way, I decided to give it more of a water coloured look. I then created a background to turn the topper into a Christmas card.
Thursday, 15 November 2018
The Perfect Background From a Piece of Paper Towel!
The theme for the November tag swap on Junk Journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art (JJAMMMA) is animals. I already had one tag made which was suitable for the theme (see HERE), but made the second one especially for the occasion and recipient. I hope she likes them.
Wednesday, 14 November 2018
WOYWW 493: All Over the Place
A quick post today as I have had a bit of a bug which knocked me for six on Monday. I am feeling better now, although I have a rather irritating cough which tends to get worse when I talk. Luckily I only have to teach three lessons today before going to a meeting, so will manage somehow. My desk is rather staged, as I can't show what I was working on yesterday. It was a tag for a swap and I can't share it, or the other one which I sent, as they won't have arrived yet. If you'd like to pop back tomorrow though, I will be sharing them then.
Instead I'll share some of the Christmas card toppers that I made at the Workshop with Maria Moorhouse on Sunday. I'm only sharing the ones which I came up with myself, not any that were Maria's designs, although I did copy a few of them. I made four more which were direct copies of Maria's samples and I've already made a second one my Three Ships topper (see HERE). I just need to mat them and attach them to suitably sized cards and I will have doubled my Christmas output so far this year lol.
Nothing to show on the other side of the desk today, as Eva was on a course in Birmingham yesterday. However there are plenty more desks to see over on The Stamping Ground, where we all link up our blogs every Wednesday, thanks to our hostess Julia.
Instead I'll share some of the Christmas card toppers that I made at the Workshop with Maria Moorhouse on Sunday. I'm only sharing the ones which I came up with myself, not any that were Maria's designs, although I did copy a few of them. I made four more which were direct copies of Maria's samples and I've already made a second one my Three Ships topper (see HERE). I just need to mat them and attach them to suitably sized cards and I will have doubled my Christmas output so far this year lol.
Nothing to show on the other side of the desk today, as Eva was on a course in Birmingham yesterday. However there are plenty more desks to see over on The Stamping Ground, where we all link up our blogs every Wednesday, thanks to our hostess Julia.
Tuesday, 13 November 2018
Christmas Card: I Saw Three Ships
I was lucky enough to attend a workshop at the weekend with Maria Moorhouse from Claritystamp. We were making Christmas card toppers and she had over 20 ideas which she shared. I decided to go off piste and came up with one of my own, using some of Maria's ideas as a starting point. I liked this finished topper so much that I made a second one so that I could share a step by step with pictures.
Monday, 12 November 2018
Sunday, 11 November 2018
Saturday, 10 November 2018
Mini Scenes on the Theme of 'F'
The prompt for the latest ATC swap over on JJAMMMA (Junk Journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art) is F. I decided to go with F is for fence and foliage, F is for family and F is for football fan. I hope my partner likes them. As always, I only used Claritystamp stamps for the project.
Friday, 9 November 2018
Thursday, 8 November 2018
Wednesday, 7 November 2018
WOYWW 492: Wow, What a Week
Well the last week has certainly been a spectacular one. My news this week is definitely happier than last week's. First of all I checked my email on Wednesday to find out that I had won the place on the Book of Days course next year that Marit Barentsen aka Marit's Paper World is guest tutoring with. Thank you so much again Marit! On Thursday I popped up to Stockport for the monthly get together and gave Lou my spare ticket for the NEC. We managed to persuade Jane to come with us so Friday was our road trip to the craft show at the NEC (more details HERE). It was a great day out, but the best bit as some of you have already seen on FB, was being asked to join the Clarity DT for stamps and stencils. I had great difficulty keeping the news secret, but it's out in the open now and my first samples will be for the January 2019 shows, as there is a little paper work to fill in first and I also need to get up to speed with the DT Handbook.
And so to the reason you are visiting, my desk and its contents, ready to join in with WOYWW. Please pop over to The Stamping Ground if you'd like to see more desks or link up your own. Julia will make you very welcome. My photo today shows the ingredients for my eldest son's birthday card for tomorrow. I was just getting everything together ready to get started. Eva is not due until tomorrow, so my second photo is the stash that I got from the NEC and from Clarity's TV shows, the stamps which arrived on Thursday and the dies which were waiting for me when I got back on Friday.
I treated myself to the last set of Oxides and from the Clarity stand at the NEC some of the mini word chains and next year's calendar. It will be bread and water for a while, but I've had lots of fun with my new stash since, so I can't complain. Happy, happy WOYWW everyone.
And so to the reason you are visiting, my desk and its contents, ready to join in with WOYWW. Please pop over to The Stamping Ground if you'd like to see more desks or link up your own. Julia will make you very welcome. My photo today shows the ingredients for my eldest son's birthday card for tomorrow. I was just getting everything together ready to get started. Eva is not due until tomorrow, so my second photo is the stash that I got from the NEC and from Clarity's TV shows, the stamps which arrived on Thursday and the dies which were waiting for me when I got back on Friday.
I treated myself to the last set of Oxides and from the Clarity stand at the NEC some of the mini word chains and next year's calendar. It will be bread and water for a while, but I've had lots of fun with my new stash since, so I can't complain. Happy, happy WOYWW everyone.
Tuesday, 6 November 2018
Monday, 5 November 2018
A Tag with A Three Way Meaning
Having tried out one of my new Autumn 3 way overlay tile sets from Claritystamp on my project from yesterday (see HERE), I decided to use a different set for today's project. This time I worked on a tag, rather than a card. I feel that the tag has three meanings / uses. It can be used as a gift tag for a thank you present all year round, but it could refer to Thanksgiving or Remembrance Day at this time of year.
Sunday, 4 November 2018
Chinese Lanterns or Pumpkins?
Ever since Lou Withers used this stencil from Claritystamp in her last shows on Hochanda and said that she could see pumpkins rather than the actual Chinese Lantern design, I have been seeing them too. I decided to use the stencil in 'pumpkin' mode together with one of the new Skeleton Leaf 3 way overlay stamps from Claritystamp to create an Autumn card. As Thanksgiving isn't too far away, I feel it would be suitable for this celebration too, perhaps using a different sentiment stamp.
Saturday, 3 November 2018
A Day of Clarity at the NEC
Friday, 2 November 2018
Thursday, 1 November 2018
Inktober2018: The Second Half
This is my first year joining in with #Inktober and I have been following the official #Inktober2018 prompts as it is my first time. I have already shared my first set of responses (see HERE) and today I am bringing my drawings for days 17 to 31 together.
The first time that I have ever drawn a hand, so day 17 stretched me.
The first time that I have ever drawn a hand, so day 17 stretched me.
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