Merry Christmas

Hi, I have had such a busy month that my Clarity Challenge Card is only just finished.

It is a "Clean and Simple" challenge this month,

I used a circular stencil and one of my favourite Clarity Stamps, Forest Ridge for the trees. Added a moon mask and using Clarity Stencil brushes and Adirondack inks coloured the sky. Over stamped with Father Christmas and his reindeers. Added some pencil shading around the stencil apeture and finally stamped Merry Christmas.



Thank you for visiting

Kathy xx

Clarity Stamp Challenge - Stencils

Hi, today I have my card for the Clarity Stamps Challenge, this month using Stencils.

I thought that I would use my neglected Gelli plate for this. I started out by adding some distress inks in shades of brown to my Gelli plate and taking a print. My idea was to give some colour to the Clarity Stamp trellis stencil. I then added some Paperartsy paints in lines to the Gelli plate, Greens in the foreground, taupe  and blues. Then added the trellis stencil and took my print, I loved the dark and moody look to my card. I took several more prints with the paint that was left on the Gelli plate so I have plenty of backgrounds ready in my stash. I had planned to add flowers to my trellis using various stencils, I started with the Poppies Stencil in the foreground and I pulled some grunge paste through it. I loved the effect of the poppies on their own, to create more of a picture, with the Gelli paint background suggesting green fields, distant hills and blue sky, that I decided less is more and didn't add the extra flowers to my trellis. I coloured the poppies with Spectrum noir pencils and added some banks of red poppies into the background too.

The poppies are so relevant at the moment with Remembrance Day approaching, I chose to add the "Remember" from the Word Chains and to finish my card I mounted it on a white background. This brings to mind the amazing display of poppies at the Tower of London last year, sadly I didn't manage to visit.

As my card has the beautiful poppies created with grunge paste I am also entering it into the Country View Crafts blog Challenge - Add some Texture.

Thank you for visiting and reading about my design

Kathy xx

Clarity Stamp Challenge - Shaped Cards

Hi today I have my shaped card for the Clarity Stamp September Blog Challenge

My design is a parchment using Groovi designs for Christmas. Love the Jolly Santa and the Christmas Dove of Peace. Some colouring with Spectrum Noir pencils. I added decorative edgings, Snowflakes and holly, and using the Christmas Tree added the background to the dove and wording Peace, Ho Ho Ho for the Jolly Santa and Season's Greetings with the snowflakes. I backed my parchment with a piece of card coloured with Fresco paints and finally a piece of kraft card.

This has been the hardest project to photograph, it is difficult to get the parchment work detail to show clearly in my photo.

Here are some more pictures, this one taken outside shows the complete card with the three panels.

I think that enlarging the pictures may help to see the details clearer.

Thank you for visiting and reading about my design.

Kathy xx

Orange Pigment Powder

Hi, today my card is for the PaperArtsy blog challenge - Pigment Powders

I have some color burst pigment powders, and they have remained unused as I was not sure how to get started with them. PaperArtsy blog challenge has been such a revelation, with some super ideas to try. I had a go at the sprinkle the powder on the paper and spritz your stamp technique, just not happy with how it turned out, I need to select the stamp more carefully I think.

The technique that I used for my card was blogged by Catherine Johnson, stamp with black and add clear embossing then wet the area where you want to add pigment powder, I used a JOFY stamp and orange powder. Then I puffed some powder onto my card and spritzed with water for the splattered background effect. I added a Happy Birthday stamp and a background painted with PaperArtsy paints, Brown shed, Autumn Fire and Pumpkin Soup. I love how this has turned out and will be trying this technique again.

Thank you for visiting and reading about my design

Kathy xx

Up, Up and Away with a twist

Hi, today I have my entry for the Stamps and Stencils blog challenge,

Up, Up and Away with a twist, using Autumn colours.

So it was out with my PaperArtsy paints. I am usually a blue and green colour choice, so this was a distinct change for me. There is Pumpkin Soup, Butternut, Autumn Fire, Smoked Paprika and Haystack in the background. I stencilled over that with numbers using the bumping technique with Brown shed and Vanilla. TH Wildflower stencil is in the background using Ground Espresso DI. TH Harlequin stencil on two of the corners, a PaperArtsy HP script stamp using Vanilla paint over the background. I stamped the sentiment using Ground Espresso DI as I love the colour, but I think that it would have been a better choice to have used an Archival ink, just didn't have the colour I wanted. Still, I outlined it with white pen to help lift it more clearly from my colourful background. I added a seperate piece of card using foam pads to raise it up for dimension. It is coloured with Distress inks and stamped with the script stamp. The lovely bird stamp from PaperArtsy Hot Picks, more wildflowers stencil and finished with the postcard top from the new Christmas set by Sara Naumann.

Thank you for visiting and reading about my design, thank you for taking the time to comment, I love to read them.

I have also found that my design will suit the Country View Crafts blog challenge, Numbers.
So I have entered my design there too. As well as the lovely large stencilled numbers using a Tim Holtz Stencil, there are some smaller numbers stamped on the background in Distress Inks which have not shown up very well in my photograph.

Kathy xx

Clarity Stamp Challenge - Bingo

Hi, today sees my design for the Clarity Stamp Challenge
This month it is a bingo theme, choose any three in a row.
I have chosen to use, the middle line, Grunge Paste, Stencils and Stamps, my favourite combo.

My background is made using PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paints brayered on, a mix of blue oyster, mermaid, south pacific and moonlight and lilac all layered up. First I used the clarity alphabet stencil and blue oyster paint, then added the grunge paste through the Clarity Stencil, Seed Heads. I left that to dry and then added the Gerbera stamp to the right hand side. I used grunge paste through the trellis stencil again on the right hand side, and continued this towards the left side using snowflake paint. I edged my design with London Night paint, a lovely violet grey, now discontinued. Over the trellis stencil I added some Dotty Wave dots in lilac. I added some colour to the grunge paste with paints and Spectrum Noir pencils. Then stamped the Wee Folk Fairy sitting on a seed head looking at the stars. I used "Imagine" from the word chains to finish my design.

Thank you for visiting and reading about my design

Kathy xx

Clouded Yellow Butterfly

Hi, today is my design for the Stamps and Stencils blog challenge - Time Flies -

My design is using PaperArtsy paints for the background brayered on randomly, then I used a Clarity Stamps Alphabet Stencil with blue oyster paint, various PaperArtsy stamps using distress inks and snowflake paint. The main focus of my background is a Clarity Stamp Stencil of clock parts stenciled using Cinnamon paint. I added my sentiment ... every minute is a possibility ...  for the hungry caterpiller heading towards the flowers, stamped on card and cut out. The card was coloured using distress ink sprays. With the completion of the life cycle a beautiful butterfly. Coloured in shades of yellow and brown to remind me of the Clouded Yellow butterfly that I was lucky enough to see on monday, 17th August.


I am going to enter this design into the PaperArtsy Blog Challenge - Circles- too where I was inspired by the design from Gabrielle journalling circles.


Thank you for visiting and reading about my design,

I was so lucky to have my design chosen in the Top 3 of the Stamps and Stencils blog challenge and to have been randomly chosen on the PaperArtsy blog challenge. Thrilled. 

Kathy xx