Clarity Stamps Challenge - Anything goes

Hi my blogging friends, this is my inspiration for this months challenge.

I found this one extremely difficult, as I just couldn't decide on what to do.  I have put up a couple of rejections on Facebook before I finally decide on this on.  Although this wasn't as straight forward as it could have been.

I started off with a brusho background, and then my favourite stencil, which I pulled some grunge past through.

I start off embossing it with gold embossing powder, but I didn't like it too much, so I then used red, and finally settled on white.

I wanted the background to be Kraft cart edged in black so I used my sharpie pen as an edge. 

I then went round with a white pen for definition.

I sponged through some orange in to the flowers to give definition.  I also used some black spray ink to add some interest too.

Hope you like it.

Please leave some love if you do..

Hugs

Amanda xx

Claritystamp Challenge - Boys, boys, boys

Hi all, and welcome to my little blog.

This is the card that I ended up with for this challenge, although it wasn't the one I intended on, yet again!  The original will be blogged at a later date Lol!

This one however started off with the landscape mask of the rooftops, and a white inkpad sponged over it.  I wanted the houses in the foreground to stand out quite a bit so I used clear embossing powder over the top, which gave a really nice effect.

Next I kept moving the mask further up the card and sponging through with the white again, but only lightly now.  I then used the outer of the moon mask and went through with the white.

I wasn't sure what to do next, but I had recently bought some gilding flakes, so decided to give them a go with the male fairies/elves.  So I stamped them with the glue and gave them a gilding!
Quite impressed!  I was then on a roll and decided to do some more, so I used the star stamp round the edge and gilded those too.

The artwork was then mounted onto a white card base and black lines drawn around to add definition.

I was quite pleased in the end.

I hope you can join in with this months Clarity Challenge.

Clarity Challenge - Clocks

Hi my little blog friends, welcome to this months Clarity Challenge Blog.

Once again, a project that started life as something completely different. I started off painting a piece of heavyweight card with some turquoise paint, then I used some Fresco Finish Crackle which Clarity now stock.  Once dried I brayered some nougat fresco paint, and waited for the crackle.

Its the first time I've used this crackle, and it's perfect.  It works like a treat, very impressed.

I used some small flower stamps from the elegant lady accessory set, to stamp over with and then cut out a large circle.  I then used some grunge paste through the round number stencil, painted it when dry and then rubbed some of the amazing pebeo gilding wax over it.  At this point I got stuck and wasn't sure where to go.  I spent ages looking through my stamps until I saw the butterflies, and that was it.

After three hours of stamping, embossing and cutting out I had a lovely pile of butterflies to use.

I did some matting and layering, some more stamping (most of which actually got covered up), and we were done.  

I think as Barbara says, we should slow down and enjoy the times that make us happy.  If crafting and pottering makes you happy, don't feel guilty about it, do more of it.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, I really appreciate it.

Happy Crafting!

Clarity Challenge - Wee Folk

Hi my little blog friends, this is my Artwork using the little fairy folk;

 

I started off with some grungepaste through the stencil.

 

 

 

 

I then masked off the bottom half and put the stencil back on before stamping the funky house.

 

 

I then covered the house with a mask and using the fresco finish paints with a blending tool I painted the hills and the sky with various colours.

 

 

I then stamped the fairies in black, but I didn't put the stencil back on and ended up with black in the trees, which I didn't want.  I also put the stencil back over the top and did about three layers of clear embossing over the grunge paste to make it really glossy.  I wasn't sure how to sort out the black in the trees, so made a bold move and coloured all the trees with a black sharpie pen.  This took ages!

 

 

I then added a few highlights with a white pen and there you go!

 

Not quite as planned, but nothing I ever do is..

 

 

The only thing I am ever sure of is that there will be lots of mess to clear up when I am finished.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my little blog, I really appreciate it. xx

 

Poppies and Daisies

Hi my little blog friends, this is a 12" x 12" canvas that I was commissioned to make.  I was asked to do something with poppies and daisies, as she has two dogs with those names.  It has taken me over a month, as I had no idea where to start, then half way through I was told that the daisies looked like fried eggs! So I had to start again with them.  Then just when I thought I had nearly finished it I ruined it my trying to put black embossing powder on one thing and it stuck to parts of wet paint!  Anyway it's finished now, I hope she likes it when it arrives.

Thanks for reading my little blog. Xx

Clarity Stamp Challenge - Anything but a card...

Hi all and welcome to my little blog. I'm afraid there aren't many photo's as I got a bit engrossed and didn't take any!
I started off with four cup coasters that I had bought cheap as the box was damaged, I sanded the printed side slightly to make painting easier.  First I painted them all in fluorescent pink, then in buff and then in a lovely turquoise colour.  Each time I only roughly painted so that you could see a bit of the colour underneath.  I used a brayer which helped to make it a bit patchy, which is what I wanted.

Once I was happy with the base I used versamark ink to stamp the various Clarity word stamps into a corner of each of the coasters.  I then used the butterfly tree set, which also has these lovely large butterflies with it.  I just used the butterfly part of the stamp in the confers then the larger ones.  I used an opaque white and pale blue speckled embossing powder and heat embossed it.  I love this look.  Once it had cooled down I used some Pebeo gilding wax round the edges and tiny bits over the middle too.  Once it was buffed up it looked lovely.

I have three friends who I love very much and I decided that these words would mean something special to each of them, so I wrote a personal message on the back of all of them and put a magnet on the back too.  The next time we met I handed them out so that we all have one of the set, and know that we are always there for each other.  Luckily they all liked them. Whew!

Hope you do too.

Thanks for reading my little blog, and hope you can join in with the Clarity Challenge this month.  It's great fun to try something different. 

Hugs,

Amanda xx

Clarity Stamp Challenge - Floral

Now this project was a real labour of love.  It started off because I had some black acrylic paint on my palette that I didn't want to waste so I used it up on a blank canvas.

I used one of the clarity stencils to paint through, then sprayed various ink sprays through the stencil too.  I have no idea where this is going! Lol! 

I used some orange ink sprays too, the ones with mica in them and tipped the canvas so that it dripped, which gave me the idea to do it from the other side too with watered down snowflake paint.  This is when I showed on Facebook for where to go next?  Everyone said it looked like underwater but I was very limited in the stamps I have, so I improvised and used the thistle leaf for seaweed and the poppy stencil for underwater flowers.  I mixed pollyfiller with gesso and used this through the stencil to create the flowers, and then put the stencil back in place and used the 'wink of Stella' pens to colour the flowers.

The leaf stamp was stamped and embossed with lustre embossing powder

then cut out and mod podged onto the canvas.

I also added some bubbles with white and clear dimensional glaze.

Then to finish it of I added the 'Magical' word from the word chain stamps.  

There we have the finished canvas which took about a week or so, as usual the photo doesn't show the sparkle in the mica sprays, they look quite pretty in real life.

Hope you like it and that it gives you some inspiration for entering the Claritystamp Challenge.  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.