Friday, 31 January 2025

February Calendar Page

 It's time to share my February Calendar page before the start of the new month.  I decided to work on stencil card this month before adding the page to the calendar as I was stamping rather than using stencils this month.

Thursday, 30 January 2025

Wednesday, 29 January 2025

WOYWW 817/37: Time Flies

Welcome to the weekly sharing of desks which is WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday), the brainchild of Julia, who was kindly entrusted it to me to continue after 15 years of togetherness.  Please feel free to link up your desk and visit others' - we are a friendly bunch. 

I was unpacking a delivery of card blanks and envelopes.  Craft Stash had a half price sale on so I stocked up on 8x8, 7x7, 6x6 and 5x7.  Don't think I will need any more for quite some time.


 Some of you were asking about the stamp pens, so I thought I would show you a close up.  They come in 4 shapes  - oval, square, circle and rectangle and are 2cm or 2.5cm x 1.5cm.  I have used them nearly every time I have crafted since I bought mine.  Glad I got the second set before the price goes up at the end of this week.






My #dailyart2025 pages are still in full swing, but I can't believe that February will be on us before we meet up again.  I have a meeting to go to this afternoon, so will catch up with you all tomorrow morning if I don't get to visit today.  Stay safe and Happy WOYWW everyone.

Tuesday, 28 January 2025

Monday, 27 January 2025

Thank You Jane!

I loved Jane Telford’s project using the January 2025 Clarity New Design Club stencil so decided to have a go myself using a different choice of colours and a different finishing technique.

Sunday, 26 January 2025

Sending Bear Hugs

 I love the first stamp offering of 2025 from the Clarity New Design Club.  Suitable for Get Well cards or romantic cards.  Here I went with polar bears and used a piece of Antarctica Designer petite card as a background.

Saturday, 25 January 2025

Crescent Moon and KISS Stamps: Ideas and Inspiration

 I thought I would share some of the projects using the Crescent Moon Wreath stamps and Tina's Doodle stamps from Clarity Crafts on my blog today.  As always, the links to the original projects are below each photo.

Embossed in white on kraft card (see HERE).

Friday, 24 January 2025

Mini Makes: ATCs Ideas and Inspiration Part 3

 This is the third instalment of my ideas and inspiration making ATCs using stamps from Clarity Crafts.  As always links to the original projects are below each photo.

I don't always swap my ATCoins - here I used five on a journal page (see HERE).

Thursday, 23 January 2025

Mid Month Mini Make - Touch of Purple

 The mid month challenge over on Clarity Mini Makes & ATCs is to make something small using a favourite Clarity stamp and a touch of purple and an uplifting sentiment.  I went with a tag, although I struggled to pick a favourite stamp.  In the end I went with the Build a Wreath stamps and picked an older verse to go with them.

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

WOYWW 816/36: Playing With Stamp Pens

Welcome to the weekly sharing of desks which is WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday), the brainchild of Julia, who was kindly entrusted it to me to continue after 15 years of togetherness.  Please feel free to link up your desk and visit others' - we are a friendly bunch.  

My desk shows my box of stamp pens which sits right next to me at all times now.  I bought a second set of 12 after trying out the first, and am not really sure how I managed before they were released for alphabet and small stamps.  They have been used constantly with my Build a Wreath stamps since they arrived.


They are great because I can mount up multiple stamps for a project so as not to have to keep switching mounts.

My Christening dress which was made from Mum's wedding dress and used by all three of the boys for their Baptisms too.




The #dailart2025 pages are still going strong.  I used my Neocolour II crayons on a couple but keep going back to the Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils.

Next Wednesday marks the half way point of the school year.  It seems to be going by really quickly.  I will be at a meeting in the afternoon and hope the return journey is a bit quicker than the one before Christmas.

I am really looking forward to the crop and I know many of you are as well.  Stay safe and Happy WOYWW.

Tuesday, 21 January 2025

Purple Unused Stash ATC and Card

 I haven't joined in with the Clarity ATC swap for a while, but decided to jump back in with the start of 2025.  It is the year of colour over on the Clarity website, so this month's prompts were purple and never previously used stash.  I used a stamp set that was newly delivered and a couple of New Design Club stamps that I have never used before.

Monday, 20 January 2025

Bright Birds On A Wire

 When I first joined the Clarity New Design stencil club I didn't always use every stencil before the next one arrived.  I am working my way through my never before used stencils as I have time and adapted Barbara Gray's project which came with #28 to create a card rather than using canvas boards.

Sunday, 19 January 2025

One Layer Summer Thank You Card

Having been lucky enough to play with the Spring and Autumn Build a Wreath stamp sets from Clarity Crafts before they were released, I couldn't resist purchasing the remaining two collections and a set of stamp pens.  Here is the second project I created using the Summer set.

Saturday, 18 January 2025

Mini Winter Robin

 I decided to create my first Christmas card of 2025 using the Winter Build a Wreath stamp set from Clarity Crafts.  As postage is getting more and more expensive, I went with a mini make.

Friday, 17 January 2025

#dailyart2025: New Year, New Challenge

 For this year's daily art I have decided to practise using watercolours in the Clarity Petite watercolour journals.  I spend no more than 20 minutes putting together each piece and have been using a variety of watercolour media.  I am following the prompts on the 365 days of drawing prompts and other art FB group.  Here are my pages for the first half of January.

Royal Talens Van Gogh watercolours.

Thursday, 16 January 2025

Mini Makes: ATCs Ideas and Inspiration Part 2

 I am back with part two of my round up of previous ATC projects.  Here are another selection using stamps, stencils and masks from Clarity Crafts.  As usual links to the step by steps are below the photos.

I love looking for suitable images to fit the theme (see HERE).

Wednesday, 15 January 2025

WOYWW 815/35: Crop Announcement

Welcome to the weekly sharing of desks which is WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday), the brainchild of Julia, who was kindly entrusted it to me to continue after 15 years of togetherness.  Please feel free to link up your desk and visit others' - we are a friendly bunch. 

My desk shows the latest Clarity New Design Club stamps and stencils which arrived on Monday. I needed to put them away until I have time to play - but I have secret stuff to work on first. I stocked up on storage in the last sale as I like the folders for the booklets and stencils.






My #dailyart2025 pages are getting quicker to complete - it takes more time to think up a response to the prompt sometimes lol.

The date for the crop is now firm - 10th May 2025 10am-4pm.  A few of you expressed concerns about travelling on a Bank Holiday weekend so I played it safe.  I will be able to let you know the cost once I know numbers, but I only allowed a half hour either side of the start and finish time this time so it is £20 less than last year.  I will be providing hot drinks and biscuits but any cake will be gratefully received by all no doubt.  Like last year, packed lunches will be the order of the day (there is a good sandwich shop and convenience store across the road from the hall) and we have the café area available to us again as well as the main hall.  The location is the same as last year Penkhull Village Hall, Trent Valley Road, Stoke on Trent ST4 5JB.  There is parking behind the hall and it is not too far a taxi ride from the train station.

Hope I will be able to see lots of you there - it will be the 16th anniversary of WOYWW the following Wednesday so ATC swaps can take place there for all those attending.

Stay safe and Happy WOYWW.

Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Sunday, 12 January 2025

Mini Makes: ATCs - Ideas and Inspiration Part 1

 I was always a tag maker rather than creating ATCs, however, I joined in with a few swaps and thought I'd share my progress over the years.  Links to step by steps below each photo.



My first ever set (see HERE).

Saturday, 11 January 2025

It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn

 I love the lino 2-way stamps designed by Barbara Gray.  I used one of the Bijou sets to make this card, ensuring the colours matched the sentiment.

Thursday, 9 January 2025

Seize the Day!!!

 I thought this tag would fit the bill for the latest prompt over on Tag Tuesday - New Beginnings.  Carpe Diem (Seize the day) seems a fitting aim for 2025.

I started by covering a #8 manilla tag with a piece of copy paper that I had used to clean my brayer off when creating a gelli print using Golden Hi Flow acrylic paints (see HERE).  The paper was sealed with matte gel medium, dried thoroughly and trimmed.
I stamped the Carpe Diem sentiment directly onto the tag using Majestic Blue Versafine ink and heat embossed in detail clear embossing powder.  I then used a blue Sakura PN micron pen to colour in the lettering.
I also stamped and heat embossed - this time in Onyx Black Versafine - one of the large stamps from the Hats 2 set by Clarity Crafts onto a separate piece of card.  This was coloured using my Kuretake Clean Colour pens, fussy cut and added to the tag.
To finish, I blended the Van Gogh Phthalo Blue Oil Pastel (Royal Talens) along the edges.  I will have to seal the tag otherwise the oil pastel will eventually rub off.