Innocence in Watercolour

I enjoyed playing with the new Innocence stamps designed by Dee Fitzsimmons for Claritystamp.  This is the first character to get matching texture stamps for backgrounds.  They can be seen today at 9am and 1pm on Hochanda.  Here is my first sample.

Happy Birthday Mum

As I had used the Clarity floral alphabet to decorate my Mum's birthday gift, I decided to make a card to match.

Winter Scene Stepper Card

These new Jayne Nestorenko stamps from Claritystamp lend themselves to creating dimensional cards.

WOYWW 547: It Never Rains...

I'll be brief this week as I am still catching up with school work and sample making having been ill again at the end of last week (hence a lack of visiting).  I'd no sooner got over the flu symptoms than I was hit with a stomach bug, luckily of the 24 hour variety.  All samples are now posted and I have almost caught up with all my marking so time to join in with WOYWW and link up with Julia at The Stamping Ground to share my desk.  Great to see that Shaz is making such good progress and is out of hospital.

I was so busy making a new baby card for a colleague, that I totally forgot to take any photos of my desk until I was almost finished.  The new Dad is a Villa fan so the colour scheme was easy.

Eva actually made it over to play after an absence of a few weeks.  I thought I'd take a photo of her, as well as what she was working on, just to prove that she is still here!

She was stamping over previously created backgrounds using shaving foam, inks and stencils.  As you can see, she was far more prolific than I was in the time it took me to make one card.

This week I will be round to visit (honest), although it will be tomorrow morning as I am at work today.

Repeat Background for a Character using a Single Stamp

This card was a last minute addition to my samples for the Dee's New Friends stamps.  It turned out to be my favourite.  It shows that the large A4 stamp set can still be used to create an A5 card and I love how the background turned out using only one stamp.

Moonlight Scene with Dee's Friends Peace/Serenity

I really enjoyed building up this scene using one of the new Dee's Friends A5 stamp sets and the birch tree stencil from Clarity.

Canvas Board with Stamping and Heat Embossing (Dee's New Friends Honour)

I decided to see how white heat embossing would work on a canvas board.  I was very pleased with the final piece.

Merry Christmas Card: Holly and Ivy

The first Christmas card of the year not made as a sample or at a workshop.  I had a play with some stamps from Clarity that I bought in the recent Christmas sale.

Adding Stamping to a Candle using the Ornate Filigree Swirl Stamps

Maria Moorhouse can be seen at 9am, 1pm and 5pm today  on Hochanda with these ornate swirl stamps from Claritystamp.  The designs are also available as Groovi plates fro parchment work.  For my first project, I decided to decorate a candle.

A Clean and Simple Good Luck Card

I like the additional small stamps and sentiments which come with the Circus stamp sets (designed by Leonie Pujol for Claritystamp). They work really well for a clean and simple card.

Birthday Card: Stamping, Tessellating and Masking to Create a Wall

This is a second example using two of the Garden Flower Stamp sets from Barbara Gray and Claritystamp.  You can still see the shows on catch up from yesterday afternoon (Hochanda 2-4pm).

WOYWW 508: Busy, Busy, Busy

What a difference a week makes.  This time last week we were in Bucharest visiting the Old Town, where I came across a whole street filled with art shops, this week I am back at work!

I admit that my desk is totally staged.  I was very good and actually only ventured into one shop as my husband was with me.  I spent the equivalent of a whole pound on these paper napkins that could be bought individually.  I also picked up a play in Romanian for 40p which can be used for journal backgrounds.  The cover is good too and I may well alter it sometime in the future.  The reason my desk is staged is that I have been very busy making samples for two upcoming Clarity shows on HOCHANDA since we returned home.  Leonie's are on Friday and Barbara's are on Sunday afternoon.  Obviously I can't share what I have been making, but I did use my watercolour pencils for a couple of the samples.

The old town of Bucharest is full of restaurants and cafes as well as art shops, a fabric shop which I would have loved to explore, boutiques and the book shop which I shared last week.

I may set aside more money for crafty purchases next time we visit as the Talens and Pebeo paints and inks were rather good value.
There is no picture of the other side of my desk as Eva hasn't made it over for crafting this week.  Next week we will make up for it for certain.  We have a full day workshop with Maria Moorhouse on Saturday for a start.
Please visit Julia over at the Stamping Ground to find out more about what WOYWW is about and to see more interesting desks than mine at the moment. 

Using Random Sentences on a Tag as Inspiration

It was about time that I worked on a tag in 2019, so I had a look at the January challenge over on Tag It Tuesday.  There are always four prompts and at least two have to be used on the tag. This month the four prompts are 1: Scribble with coloured pencils; 2: Splatter ink or paint; 3: Use a random sentence and 4: Red.   For once, as you can see, I actually used all four.

Monochrome Doodles Christmas Card

For my latest Christmas card, I decided to go in an entirely different direction.  Instead of using brightly coloured inks,  I kept the colour palette monochrome: black, white and pale grey.  I also enjoyed some relaxing doodling.

A Quick But Classy Birthday Card

I needed a birthday card in a hurry but didn't want it to look as if it had been made in a rush.  By combining one stencil and one stamp set from Claritystamp,  I produced a card quickly,  but feel it still looks special.

Small Cards with a Big Impact

Small cards can be useful for sending through the post and needn't lack impact just because of their size.  I recently bought a pack of 3" x 3" cards and envelopes and decided to play around with working in a smaller format.

Art Journal Page: Layering Stencils

The September prompt over on Nina Ribena's Art Journal Prompts and More is Art Journal Frenzy.  Week 2 was 'Anything Goes' so I decided to play with inks and layers.  I was originally going to use the owl trio from the Wise Owls set by Claritystamp on the page, but having found the perfect verse about an owl in my stash, I decided the individual fellow was more appropriate. 

Creating Depth through Different Generations of Stamping: A Birthday Card

The idea for the layout and techniques used on this card are from Maria Moorhouse.  I attended her latest workshop last weekend and one of the cards we made used this technique, but in different colours and using different stamps for the background.  Thanks Maria, here's my version.

Colouring Stamped Images

I don't think that I've ever enjoyed colouring in stamped images more than the two here.  There is a third image in the set which I haven't worked on yet but I am looking forward to doing so.  These are two of the stamps designed by Helen Hopkins 'aitch' for IndigoBlu: Guardian Angel and Luna & Owl.  I am entering them into the Stamping Sensations September challenge based on the letter B.  This is a stamping challenge so on the basis of Blonde with Bird and Blue angel with woodland Beasts, I am entering both images.

Water Colour in the style of Clarice Cliff

The Explore Your Creativity Challenge #8 on Junk Journal Junkies and Mindful Art was to use water colour pens and/or pencils in the style of Clarice Cliff.  The predominant colour was to be yellow.  As I live in the Potteries, I could not resist this challenge.  I decided to base my piece on her crocus design even though they were in shades of orange, purple and blue in the original pottery version.  I turned my piece into a journal page.