So much for good intentions! Ah well I'm here now, but I'm on my tablet so no card pics I'm afraid. I have been very busy, firstly with Clarity Samples for this weekends shows on Hocanda, then another job for Barbara, and now samples and prep for my demonstration this Saturday.  This is the first demo I've done since last October and I'm quite looking forward to it. I do like going to Emerald Crafts at Lyndhurst. It's a fabby shop and stuffed full of crafting goodies. If you have some spare time and you live near enough please do come and say hi.

I was going to add a few pics but I don't know how to get the pictures loaded onto here. It's not giving me any options to actually find them. Any help much appreciated.

Bed time now so I'm off.
Take care all, xxx

Cor Blimey what happened to the last few days? Oh well I'm here now and what a gorgeous day we've had again. I even got a little bit of gardening done. Its not often I really feel up to doing it although I do really love gardening, even if I can only do it in small bite sized snapets. I should really have been doing some work for Barbara but unfortunately nothing arrived in the post so it will be all hands to the pumps when it does arrive.

I have a few more cards for you, the first one I had totally forgotten about.  It is a couple of years old now so I think I can be forgiven.

 Claritystamp xmas stamps and stencils. White embossing powder on velum and it could be white pen to colour the holly and ivy but the layer behind I did some gentle white work after running the mask and vellum through the Grand Calibur.

 Claritystamp Wee stamps and the new Alphabet.  I love these cute rabbits. When I do a painting project I will often slap any unused paint onto a piece of card or tag rather than waste it.  This was such a piece from my bits box.

 Polkadoodles Lavender Tea Stamp Soup for this one and good old watercolour paints with a few bits from the accompanying CD.  You can't really see it from the photo but all the flowers and leaves are decoupaged.

Arhh, Bertie Pug. This stamp is from a dog set from Oysterstamps that Ive had for years. You can't get them now but its such a handy set for dog lovers. I coloured him in with pencils.

Take care everyone, I'm off to bed now. Dee xxx

 

What a beautiful day it is today. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing about and I've got washing on the line.  That last bit is a sure fire way of making the weather change, but I had to take the chance.  Washing smells so much nicer for being out in the fresh air, and its less creased.  Not that I iron either way, such a waste of time when it goes straight back in the wash after a day or so.  In fact the only time I do pick up an iron is when I need it for a crafty technique, it's definitely a handy tool then.

I have a few offerings for you again today, both old and new.

 A nice bright and cheerful one to start with seeing as its such a lovely day. I used mowed lawn, spiced marmalade, squeezed lemonade and picked raspberries distress inkpads and blending tools to colour the background piece. I dripped some water over and blotted with kitchen roll to take the colour out a bit.  The flower and dragonfly is stamped with Archival ink and Polkadoodles Lemonade Fizz Stamp Soup stamp set which I coloured with pencils to match the background.

 I made this card for an Emerald Crafts demonstration for Creative Expressions. Just Right stamps and dies, Spellbinders embossing folder (I think)! and a floral and dotty mask. 

I have to tell you I love this bricks and mortar shop. It is stacked full of crafty goodies, and if you like die cutting it has a really comprehensive range to choose from. I spend a fortune every time I go there. Sush, don't tell Colin!

 Claritystamp wordchain and funky leaves stamps with black sparkle embossing powder on an alcohol ink marbled background using the shaving foam technique. All the products can be bought form Clarity apart from the shaving foam lol.

A Claritystamp stencil and stamped card. I used both the internal and external parts of the stencil brushing ink through and around with Clarity blending brushes. Then I stamped the animals and lineart sentiment with black Archival ink.

I hope you like today's offerings, my tummy is rumbling so I'm off to forage in the kitchen for some lunch. Take care, Dee xxx

Hello there. Sorry for the delay but I've had a little blip, but that's life is it not?

Anyway here are a few more samples for you.

 Claritystamp wee stamps and the new alphabet set.  The background was done on the Gelly Plate with green and blue inks and torn paper.

 A sample from the newest Groovi plate release. Coloured with pencils.

 A Polkadoodles sample from Lemonade Fizz CD and Stamp combo. The umbrella is a template on the CD. Flower and leaves were coloured in with Copic markers.

Catch you all again soon, Dee xxx

A few more samples again today. I would have done this at lunch time, but I fell asleep and then that was the afternoon gone, in a flash of forgotten dreams and adventures.

 Claritystamp Moorhen stamps. I stamped and die cut wood effect papers for this and coloured in the birds with pens. The die is a Spellbinder die

 Claritystamp Groovi card.  These blue Tits are rather cute don't you think? I made up the scene with elements from all the Blue Tit baby plates.  The frame is made with a netting plate that I've embossed twice which makes smaller squares/diamonds.  I used pencils to colour the piece.

A Polkadoodles Stamp Soup canvas. A couple of  elements off the CD and stamped onto rainbow parchment which I added a touch of whitework to. 

So there you are a few more of my makes. Take care everyone and I'll see you soon.

Now don't faint everyone, I've made it back. I'll be needing to mop my brow at this rate! I hope you all had a good weekend.

Here's another few makes for you. A mixture of new and old and all very different.

 Polkadoodles Stamp Soup Lemonade Fizz.

I started by stamping the elements with black ink. Then I used black cerne relief on the parts I wanted to keep.  I then used gold cerne relief to make sections on the background.  Once it was dry I painted with Pebeo Fantasy paints.  The background paper is a Gelly plate piece.

 

Claritystamp Groovi Magpies. I love magpies, they can be so funny to watch.  I have one of a pair that's quite bold and he'll sit on the fence or  and chat to me, with me chatting back of course.

Claritystamp Nuthatch stamps.  You'll have to forgive me but I cant remember if I stamped with plain black ink or if I used embossing powder. The birds were coloured with Copic markers. The Dies are by Sue Wilson.

Claritystamp stencil and line art sentiment stamp. A nice simple design for this one. I used coloured Grunge paste through the stencil on black card.  To colour the grunge paste I just added a little red acrylic paint and mixed well.  I used white embossing powder with the stamp.  Then added a few details with a white pen. 

I'm off to bed now so I'll say goodnight.  Scheduled posts are a wonderful addition, but I suppose I should also say, good morning and good afternoon and let you choose which one is appropriate.

Hip Hip....... Ive made it to another post, that's a 50% improvement on last time lol.

 Clarity stamps, stencils and blending brushes with die based inks. Sue Wilson dies. 

To make this one I placed the house stencil down first and brushed blue and yellow ink through the design. 

I removed the stencil then placed the inner stencil in place and lightly brushed black ink around it. 

Removed that stencil then placed the inner stencil from the countryside landscape in place and brushed more black ink round it. 

Lastly I stamped the animals in place.

 I used the ever popular Clarity Groovi system for this one. Such a clever system and so easy. It's opened up parchment craft to so many people who previously didn't think they could do it, didn't have time or had no interest because it always seemed old fashioned and not for them. Clarity have made the designs modern and funky and so interchangeable. And its speeded up tracing your design no end.  There's a growing number of children grooving away now too, it cant be a bad thing can it? I have discovered that Kuretake Zig Brushable pens work pretty well on the parchment. Alcohol pens tend to go streaky, and water-based pens take ages to dry so you smudge them if your not really careful, but the brushables are permanent and fast drying even though they are water-based ink. A great discovery for me and that's what I used on this sample because I wanted strong colours to show through the parchment. It works well I think.

This was a card I made with Polkadoodles stamp soup sets. Its a bit of a mixture of Lavender Tea and Lemonade Fizz. If you haven't seen these yet and you are a stamper its well worth checking them out. its all elements, such as leaves and petals etc and you make up your own designs as you like.  I stamped these with versamark ink and clear embossing ink onto black card.  Then I used Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints over the top.  I love this technique, you can get such fantastic and bold results. The background mounted layer is a Cosmic Shimmer spritzer on white card. 

That's it for this post, thank you for popping by xxx