Tuesday 25 March 2014

Workshop in Easton

Morning all,

Today's is a very quick post, just to show you the cards we did at a workshop in Easton.  I have been invited to demo there once a month.  What a lovely bunch of ladies - and top quality cake too!!






The background on the first card is done by splodging various distress ink s on a glass mat, then spritzing with water and picking the colour up on white card - wait for it to dry, then stamp over the top

The second card is a repeat of the one that has been on here before
The third one is made using the script stamp on some white card, then inking, scrunching and tearing to distress it.  The Butterflies are made from Angelina film and fibres.

Hope you like them - the ladies at the workshop all did a good job and produced some lovely works of art!
Take care, Janet x

Sunday 23 March 2014

More with the Journaling set

Happy Sunday folks!

I am off to do a Claritystampers East workshop today - I always look forward to meeting everyone and seeing what fab cards everyone makes.

In the meantime, this is another of my samples cards from the last TV show - I used the Journaling set again - just in case you hadn't noticed - this is one of my all time fave sets ever from Clarity!  There is more to come from this set....


I did the background by blending lots of different colours of Distress ink s on a piece of card,
I sprayed some water in my hand a chucked it over the inked card, left it for a few seconds, then blotted.
Once dry, I stamped randomly with black archival using stamps from the Journaling set and the lovely word chains
Blot some images befroe you stamp them to give them a more faded look
Cut into three, mat on to black and stick on a base card.
I really enjoy these sorts of cards, there isn't too much that can go wrong - it doesn't matter if things aren't straight or if the image isn't quite perfect, they always turn out looking good!
I hope you like it.

I am off to the workshop now - I wonder if we will be using the Journaling set........look out for future posts to find out!
thanks very much for stopping by, enjoy your Sunday
Janet xx

Sunday 16 March 2014

Journalling Collage - with alcohol!!

Good Morning Bloggers!

What a beautiful day!  Seems like ages since there was all that dismal rain doesn't it?  I always think it is amazing how much better everything is with some sunshine.
Today's card is bright!  I don't often do bright, but that doesn't mean I don't like it!
The fab journalling set (you will be fed up of hearing about it - I have done lots of cards...!) and the word chains were the stamps used for this one all stamped with archival ink on an alcohol ink background


I dropped the alcohol inks straight on to the coated Clarity card and blew through a straw to get it to spread round - it didn't give quite the result I was after, so I blended a bit more ink on using a felt pad and added some blending solution too.
Once the ink is dry, stamp your collage
Mat on to black card - how simple is that!!

Enjoy the sunshine!
Janet x

Thursday 13 March 2014

Wishing you luck

Happy Thursday folks!

As you are probably aware, Thursday is my favourite day of the week - it is my day off work!!  Yay!!  Some years ago, I worked shifts, which included a spell of nights followed by a few days off, now I am more 9-5 and I really miss having those days in the week off
The plan for today is to finalise the cards for my next round of workshops - I am ahead of the game this month, not like me at all!
Not that I am one to tease, but I got a big envelope full of lovely stamps for the next Clarity shows - you are in for a treat!!  I will start with those at the weekend.

Meanwhile, here is one of the cards for the last shows - using the Good Luck stencil and a couple of elements from the Lucky Set.  I think the chimney sweep is great!  It reminds me of Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins!

I started by attaching the new A5 size Good Luck stencil to my card, the inked through with Cranberry, i also added Slate towards the bottom of the words. (I masked off each word as I did the other one, so as not to ink the wrong bit!)
I stamped the fab script stamp from the journalling kit while the stencil was still in place.
Remove the stencil and stamp the sweep and the cat in place.

Now, that all sounds very easy, but you do have to be careful when using this stencil because the bits in the centre of the letters tend to move, so you need to hold them in place or you will end up with a smudged image. (how do I know....?)

I used the script stamp again round the edge of the base card, then stuck it all together

I was pleased with the result.

I hope you like it too.  as always, thank you for visiting and Good Luck!!
Janet xx

Monday 10 March 2014

'Garden Birds'...oh all right then,'Blue Tits!'

Good afternoon bloggers,

This is an extra day off for me as I am not feeling too good.  I have a sore throat and a stuffed up nose and didn't get much sleep, so stayed off work...a bit of a chance to do something gentle, like catching up with blogging!
So, did you see the TV show with the Blue Tit stamps?  We were expecting all sorts of innuendos and many you tube moments, but it all went relatively sedately, I thought.  Calling them'garden birds', rather than'blue tits' probably avoided a major meltdown!

This is my card using those stamps along with the lovely Blossom Branches


This card was one of those I did a bit of practising before I started on nice card.
I used the square aperture stencil and shaded the aperture blue, leaving the bottom left corner very lightly coloured, I added touches of pink to the sky (which doesn't sow much in this picture)
I stamped the blossom branch next, making sure to leave enough room for the small blue tit to sit on top (This was one of the important lessons I learnt during my practice!)
I stamped the small blue tit in place
Now for the large blue tit.
Once they were all stamped, I coloured in with promarkers.  I wasn't 100% sure of the markings for blue tits, so I looked on Google images - (that was fun!!) Actually I did mostly get images of the birds, with one or two exceptions!

Anyway, once that was all done I decided to stamp one of the smaller branches all round the edges - I didn't mask off the bird, I was just careful with my positioning.  Colour all that in too, then mat and layer.
Hope you like it!
Thanks for taking the time to visit.
Janet xxx



Sunday 9 March 2014

Clarity workshop-a-thon

Hello all,


Happy Sunday!  Mine started very early as I woke up with a very sore throat and a thick head (no, not caused by too much alcohol!!).  I was due to go to a Sundae club to make some cards with a group of ladies who have been meeting up once a month for many, many years, but I don't think I will be going now, so I thought I would show you the cards we did at the Claritystampers East workshops - Great Blakenham was last weekend and Bawburgh the week before....

 Here we used the Filigraphy hot air balloons in a brayered sky bove the forest pine treeline mask                                    
 We gold embossed the beautiful Garden Heart stamp on black card and coloured in the flowers and leaves with mica paints

This time we used black ink and clear embossing powder and coloured the background of the image with promarkers - looks very different from the first one doesn't it?














I hope you like them, we certainly had a good time at the workshop!!  
Thanks for stopping by, 
Janet xx


Saturday 8 March 2014

Vintage blossom

Morning all!

Yay!  It's the weekend! I hope you have something lovely planned....a bit of time in the garden maybe?

Today's card is made with the lovely cherry blossom set that Barbara showed on the TV last weekend - isn't it a beautiful set of stamps!

So you know how usually it takes me ages to make a card, because they are often very simple designs which have to be perfect, so I chuck loads in the bin before I get it right?  Well, this card was the exact opposite!  It was the Thursday morning before the show on Sunday, so I had to get the cards posted that day and I really hadn't made as many as I would have liked, so I decided to make a couple of quick cards!
I did the first one with the blue tits and blossom, but that took longer than I really wanted, because of all the colouring, so I was getting in a bit of a panic about the second card....

This was the one I came up with

It is all done on cream card with distress inkpads.
I blended some brown ink down one side, then added a bit of blue at the top of the other side and a bit of green at the bottom and a bit of pink across the centre.

I stamped the lovely script stamp along the side I shaded brown -ink, blot, plot to get a more faded effect

I stamped the blossoms in place with a dark brown, then colour in using the same inks as I'd coloured the card with

Stamp a couple of corners in place
Shade round the edges with brown
Add a tiny bit of  clear wink of stella to the blossom
Mount onto kraft card and tear the edges
Stick it all to the base card
et Voila!  one of my favourite cards and really quick to do!


Hope you like it too!  Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Janet xx

Thursday 6 March 2014

Deerscape



Good morning all,

It is a lovely day here in Norfolk.  I always like Thursdays because it is my day off work!!  Yaay! Time to catch up with some blogging.  I will be planning future workshops too - cup of coffee or two in the sun, with a bit of paper and a pen to jot down all my ideas - well that is the plan anyway.

This card is another of the German samples, I love silhouette stamps and the deerscape and tree set is a definite favourite of mine.

I used the square stencil so that I had a nice square shape in which to make my scene.  The little bits of shrubbery are done by using the side of the tree stamp, the rest, I am sure you can figure out!

I hope you are enjoying some lovely sunshine too

Thank you for taking the time to visit
Janet xxx

Saturday 1 March 2014

German Garden

Hello everyone,


Sorry I haven't blogged much recently, I will get back into it now, honest!

This is one of the samples I did for a show Barbara did for HSE24 in Germany on Friday.  A very successful show, I believe.  Lots of lovely stamp sets to choose from...  for this card I used the garden set and the letterbox set and the lovely arch stencil



Hope you like it 
Janet xxx