A bit of canvassing!!

Hi all

Well today has been very productive partly thanks to the awful weather!

Because it was raining I decided to tidy my Craft Room - and, I can actually see my desk!!  Whippeeee.

Mind you I am not sure how long that will last! Lol. 

Okay so those of you who follow me regularly will know that I love Clarity Stamps.  In fact, so much so I went off to East Sussex last week to one of their two day retreats.

What a fabulous two days I had too.  My friend Alison and I went down on the Tuesday, did the craft retreat Wed/Thurs and drove back on the Friday.  It was brilliant.

So, part of the retreat focused on canvas work and I so enjoyed that.

In fact, I enjoyed it so much I came home and decided that my next project would be a canvas.

So, here it is.

Now I have used the latest Stencil from the New Design Stencil Club and also the new Stamp from the New Design Stamp Club - usually they get added to my stash and don't get used for ages, but as soon as I saw them I knew they would be used PDQ!!

So firstly, I added Buff Titanium Acrylic paint to my canvas and then let that dry overnight.

The following night, I did a bit of brayer walking - something I would not have tried before the retreat!  I used PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics and also some Cosmic Shimmer Chalk Acrylics and just kept adding until I was happy with the background.

Then I fixed the stencil hinge like to my canvas and dragged some Grunge Paste through it and then left it to dry overnight.

Once that was dry I put the stencil back and used my Distress Inks to sponge some colour onto the raised stencil.  Then I stamped the sentiment into the middle of the canvas.

Added some liquid pearls to the four corners and then mounted it onto another canvas board and voila!

I am really pleased with how this turned out I think I might just have to do another one.

So I am going to enter this into the Clarity Challenge which is a bingo challenge and I have used the middle line, Stamp, Stencil and Grunge paste.

Other challenges:

Crafting with an attitude - Anything Goes

Try it on Tuesday - Use stencils

Not just cards - Anything Goes

The Cheerful Stamp Pad - Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes

Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes

The Four Seasons

Hi all

Just a quick post before I go off to my Clarity Retreat tomorrow.

I am sooo excited I can't tell you.

After a fabulous day at Maria's Clarity Workshop in Shrewsbury on Saturday I am heading off down to Kent tomorrow to spend two days in the company of Barbara Gray.  #excited or what!!!

So I thought I would just show you my latest four cards.

Alyce Keegan at Kit and Clowder holds a colouring challenge each month on her the Kit and Clowder Facebook page here.

This month we have to colour a Ching-Chou Kuik image called "Love in Spring" - but - and here is the catch - we had to do it in the colours of our favourite season.

Well, I just couldn't choose so I did one for each season.

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Who would have thought that one image could look so different depending on what colours were used.

I am going to enter the Autumn one into the DT call at Ching-Chou Kuik's blog and then keep my fingers and toes crossed.

A 2nd chance?

Hi all

Just popping in to add this creation to my chances of becoming one of the awesome team members at Ching-Chou Kuik.

This is a card I made a while back and although it is not a CCK image it is one of my most favourite makes.  

The image is an Aurora Wings image called

Icy Snow Queen

This took me hours of colouring and putting together.

Trouble is now I have put it together I don't want to get rid of it! Lol

Maybe I will put it onto a canvas background and keep it in my craft room - who knows.

So there you go, my second entry for the CCK DT call. (Fingers crossed)

Flowers flowers everywhere!!

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it is 21 June since I last posted here!

The reason for the lack of postings is due to me feeling a bit low lately.

Don't ask me why because I just don't know.

Sometimes you know how it is, you could cry if someone looks at you in the wrong way?

Well that's me at the minute.  Strange really because I can't think of a reason.

Anyhoo - because of that I have been letting things get on top of me a wee bit and as a result I have decided to step down from all but one of my DT positions.

With Totally Tilda and Friends closing I thought I could cope with the others all being monthly but what with one thing and another it was not to be.  My crafting time was becoming unenjoyable and something had to give.

So to those DT's I have stepped down from, thank you for your understanding and for the opportunity to be a part of your team.

So, the one team I have kept on with is Through the Purple Haze.

A fabulous bunch of ladies who have given me some incredible words of wisdom and support so to you all - a heartfelt thank you.

So enough of this gabbing let's get on with the show shall we?

The new challenge over at Through the Purple Haze this time is:

FLOWERS!

They can be added to the card, on the image or the backing paper. So long as we can see lots of flowers somewhere it will count.

So our fabulous sponsor this time is:

Sweet Pea Stamps

So the image I chose to work with is called:

Unicorn Dreams by Karen Middleton

and here is what I did with it:

The image was printed out on to my card and then left to dry overnight.

Then I brushed Spectrum Noir Aquatints across it.

Now it did move the ink a little in the middle of the image but I don't think it detracts from the end results. What do you think?

Next step was to lift the colour out of the image with water which took a bit of time as I had to let it dry afterwards.

Then I coloured the image with my Spectrum Noir pencils and did the leaves and the little flowers with my Promarkers with the extra fine nib on. I used my glue pen and added glamour dust to the Unicorn's horn, not sure if you can see it though?

Then I added two little punched butterflies after coating them with Glamour dust.

I also added my flowers and a gorgeous pin which I have had for a while.

Lastly I added a Clarity Stamp word from one of the fabulous Word Chains.  These word chains have so many connotations it is simply amazing.

The backing paper is a Magnolia paper I have had for a while.  I think it came from the Prince and Princesses collection but I can't be sure. (It's an age thing! Lol)

So there you have it - my inspiration for the flowers challenge.

I do hope you will get time to join in with us, we do love to see all your gorgeous creations.

Challenges:

Gem of a challenge - Animals or birds

Scrappers Delights - Anything Goes

Brown Sugar Challenge - Animals

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards - A flower in your image (lots of small ones)

Crafts for Eternity Recipe challenge - Recipe Anything goes

Crafting with Friends - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything goes