Fun with Fairies, Gelli and Lavinia

Morning all,

Hope you had a good weekend.

Well yesterday at our jubilant Jubilee Hall we had a super day.

We revisited my first workshop from two years ago where we a great time using the Gelli plate, a Tando Cuckoo clock kit and Lavinia stamps.

Here's my samples and the fantastic results from the lovely ladies who attended the class in Oct '13.

Having seen these our groups ladies decided they wanted to play too.

So putting a different spin on things this time we revisited some of the techniques and used them to decorate Tando Faery Door kits.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day, thank you for the wonderful feedback.

We had mum's and daughters (of all ages!) crafting together and some of our usual group were joined by another two brand new crafter's.

Oh my! They took one look at the project sample and thought they couldn't reproduce anything to resemble it.

I just love seeing their faces when things come together.

We did laugh so much through the day and I think yet again the cake my daughter made was a big hit!

When I demo the techniques I just know who's going to be thinking "Oh my word, I can't do that!"

We have such a giggle at these challenges.

Apart from crafting we chatted about out Christmas Crafting Extravaganza on the 6th Dec and our plans for 2016.

So many ideas and enthusiasm for the crafting times ahead.

I'm always left extremely proud by everyone's achievements, honestly, and yesterday was no exception.

This for me is what it's all about, a super day with so many lovely friends having a great fun time
crafting and when they produce results like this I'm left on cloud 9!

Feeling deliriously happy and contented, thank you all so much.
Hope your Monday is good and I'll be back soon.
Warm thanks for following and reading my blog.
Much love and crafty hugs xKx

Crazy Bird meets Gelli Plate and Crealies...

Afternoon everyone,
Nearly the weekend!
Hope your Friday is going well...
It turned out lovely in Kent today.
In between getting the washing done and a few chores I had a play with me Gelli Plate!
I wanted a card for FIL for Sunday and this is the result.
I'll be doing lots more with the Gelli Plate, I had such good fun making this.

Have a lovely evening,
Back soon xKx

In The Bleak Midwinter

I've neglected my blogging so apologies for that, I just don't know where the time goes!
It's nearly Clarity weekend again and I still need to blog my last two cards from this month and the mid month samples I made for Maria, so I better get a wiggle on!
These last two cards were super quick and easy and I chose to use some previously made Gelli backgrounds which I thought worked quite well.
Both were stamped in Cobalt Blue Archival with a bit of ribbon and a few gems added.
With the square card I gold embossed the Carol Music at the top of the aperture section and then blended the snowy hills and sky with a pale moon.
I then stamped all the main trees into position and added the two faded trees in the background.
I particularly like the way the Gelli background colours worked with these stamps and the Cobalt Blue.

I'll be back soon with the mid-month collection!...xx

A Clarity weekend lies ahead...

I thought I'd share this with you just ahead of the Classroom show with Barbara tomorrow.
I've used the birdhouse and picket fence kit layered onto a gellied MDF base.
The idea was adapted from techniques we used at Cowden in May, using the combination of Willow and Stonewashed Adirondack inkpads blended through stencils/masks.
I adore this colour combo, it's so subtle.
The items for the lesson tomorrow look fab so I hope you can join in and get messy!...xKx

The Hares and The Toadstool, Lesson 17 Kit

I think I went a bit Gelli mad with my samples!
I loved playing and creating backgrounds and then matching the stamps to use with them.
Hopefully if you haven't got yourself a Gelli plate yet you will soon be inspired to do so and become as addicted as the rest of the Clarity enthusiasts are.
I particularly like this set of stamps too...xKx

The Foxes are out and about...

Tonight I thought I'd share this card with the Foxes and Tree Stump, I love the Tree Stump, it has so many possibilities.
I had been playing with the Gelli plate and thought this background would add an eerie twist to these stamps.
I knew I wanted to have the Fox on the Tree Stump and thought the positioning of the other Fox would give the illusion of it walking through the shape and was pleased with how this worked.
The Foxes and Tree Stump were stamped and masked and then I added the background scene.
I have one more sample from May to share and some that were one for the Germany shows before I move on to the June designs.
Thanks for reading...xKx

Friends

Good Morning,
Apologies for my absence in blog land recently, it's been so hectic!
I've neglected to finish blogging my Clarity samples from the beginning of May so thats my mission for the next couple of days just before the June samples are due!
So what's been happening...
I've been playing with the new MDF clocks and making new clocks, which were taken with me to a wonderful craft retreat at Cowden with Barbara Gray, Clarity Stamps and the most special group of friends and crafting buddies you could wish to meet.
So I was busy preparing my clocks for the occasion as the ladies all seem to love them and I like to share how they've "grown" and developed.
We had the best time, full on crafting sessions with Barbara and Paul Church, supported by the
wonderful Dave, Barbara's other half, Jane who works tirelessly ensuring we have delicious lunches and the rest of the supporting Clarity Team, "Huge Thanks again" to everyone involved.
Then when the crafting day is done we eat more, drink and socialise until the wee small hours!
All in all superb fun, lasting memories and great crafting techniques that continue to inspire.
Ok, so then after Cowden it was head down preparing my samples for June TV this weekend and sorting things for my lovely daughters birthday today.
I thought it would be apt then to share "Friends" Lily, Rosie and Annabel for this post from the samples I made for May, using a background created with the Gelli plate.
Thanks so much for reading, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on in the next few days, so I'll be back soon....xKx

Foxgloves on Gelli Plate background

A bit of a late posting from me but I thought I'd make a start on sharing my samples from the Clarity TV shows at the weekend.
I used a Gelli Plate background that I'd already created while experimenting for my other sample cards.
So the background was already done!
To this I stamped in versamark the foxgloves and embossed with white embossing powder.
I then blended distress inks, picked raspberry and a little seedless preserves, over the embossing and some of the background.
A lace and ribbon bow, hat pins and ribbon trim finished the design before matting and layering on to card that I coloured the edges of in the same two colour ways.
It was a good way of including the shocking pink ribbon I have had in my stash for ages, bought cheaply and never thought I'd use!
Thanks so much for popping by and I'll bid you goodnight now for tonight xK

Meeting Annabel, Lily & Rosie

So to the last of my makes from the Clarity TV shows.
I had "such fun" with these girlies and their corresponding patterns.
They took me back to my youth when I use to love nothing more than having a try at fashion art design and I would sit for hours drawing and colouring fashions scenes and images.
So I decided I just had to recreate something along those lines and it took me right back and once again I became completely absorbed in what I was doing!
I think it's also where I found my love of working in miniature.
I kept to just the stamped images and used Momento London Fog ink pad and thought about a bit of a retro style incorporating the names, adding my chosen elements, embellishments and for a bit of fun the chicks!
The colours were chosen to reflect each girls image and "personality" and in keeping with my childhood love I decided to some colour elements with pencils and add the pencil writing.
I used the Letterbox Kit interchanged with the ovals from the Numeral Set for the girls names.
The "fabric" swatches, cotton fabric swatch and paper elements were made having fun with the Gelli Plate, just practising and trying out different techniques.
I made a cover page for each of the designs and used a book ring to join them adding the threads and fibres in complementary colours.
I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoyed creating them!
They're my take on the current trend of "Art Journaling" I'm calling them my "Fashion Art Journals"  xKx

Clarity Blog Challenge is now live!

Woohoo the anticipation and wait is finally over and the Blog has now been launched.
I am so thrilled to be a part of this new challenge along with other lovely talented ladies.
We are all hoping you'll join in the fun over there with us.
claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk
The theme for this first challenge is "Anything Goes" and it will run until the end of the month with the lucky winner receiving a £50 Clarity gift voucher!
Inspiration for me for this theme came from the latest Clarity Design Club stamp, which was a Celtic square, and my Gelli Plate.
I thought I'd do a card suited to a male theme and chose a Greek mosaic style adding the urns.
The monthly Clarity Design Club newsletter comes with a new design stamp each month.
This was my first efforts using the Gelli Plate and I started off by mixing and brayering acrylic paints onto the plate and then using the stamp to make an impression onto the painted surface.
I did this several times varying the paint colour and once dry I chose the best results and cut the mosaic squares into sections to assemble onto my design.
I mounted the cut out painted paper images onto card to strengthen them.
The centre images were layered up to form the design.
Before gluing into place I took the Crackle stamp and used this over my background to which I'd already blended ink from the Old Paper distress ink pad to give a distressed look.
I then stamped the crackle in a darker colour over the background ink.
The urns were created from the Versatile Vase which I embossed with gold embossing powder.
The centre floral motive is part of the remaining tiles cut, decoupaged and layered with foam pads.
It's going to be a busy weekend with the new Clarity Stamp arrivals on C&C on Sunday and I need to blog all my DT makes to share.
I was very inspired by this months stamps and made a total of 9 samples for the TV shows this month.
Thanks so much for looking at my blog and I hope you feel inspired by the Clarity Designs
Lots more blog postings to follow.....xKx

Time to play with the Gelli Plate...

"Under the sea"
I've already had a little play with my latest craft room edition but the first results are under wraps until 1st March when all will be revealed in my Challenge sample make for the Clarity Design Blog!
I had to practise a bit to get the hang of it and get to grips with what I was trying to achieve.
Really anything goes with this technique but you can be more specific if you think about a design and do a bit of forward planning.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist so this type of "freedom" is a challenge for me!
Anyhow this is an idea I created using the plate, I wanted to achieve an under the sea background.
I used a mix of paints I had to hand, some acrylics and some tester pots of emulsion, which is water based so a good alternative to acrylic.
Because I wanted a particular effect I applied the paint colours in an order, the green and rusty orange at the base then the darker blue working up to the lighter blue colour.
I was careful to blend the lighter colour first with my brayer, working down to the darker shades.
The smaller type bubble wrap gave the illusion of water bubbles and helped blend the colours together a bit more.
A non pointed plastic tool was used to create the coral at the bottom of the seabed.
Using a Rainbow ink pad I then stamped the Clarity Fish, also the ovals from the Numeral Set and the lower case letters from the Letter Set for "under the sea".
Glossy accents glaze over the letter bubbles and a few bubbles around the fish.
I'm looking forward to having much more fun with the Gelli Plate!...xKx