Clarity Challenge 35 'Say It With Flowers' Mid-Month Reminder

Clarity Challenge 35

'Say It With Flowers' Mid-Month Reminder

'Flower Boa'

Hi there and thanks for looking in. 

A mid-month offering for the January Clarity Challenge from Shelagh-land and something which will probably end up as birthday cards as I have a number to do and time is rapidly disappearing. (May even need to use the tags for this purpose, too!!! 

I hope it encourages you to dust off your stamps, stencils or Groovi plates or a combination of any of these and join in. It's free, it's fun and with a £50 Clarity voucher up for grabs - awarded to a randomly chosen submission - it is a Win, Win situation for one lucky entrant. You can enter through your blog or by sending a photo by email to claritystampchallenge@hotmail.com and have until 8pm on 31st January. Just remember to check the rules of entry on the Clarity Challenge blog.
Good luck!

Materials:-

• Card :- White, Black, Pearlescent, Gold Mirri
• Stamps:- Feather Boa - large; Birds & Flower Rows set, Fairy Silhouette
• Inkpads:- Versamark, Black Archival, Versafine Jet Black
• Embossing Powder:- Gold Detail, Clear Detail 
• Oval die from stash
• Ribbon from stash
• Pens:- Black Alcohol Marker, Gold Sakura

Instructions:-

Using white card, die-cut and emboss a number of ovals as this will save time. 

Card

Oval Topper

1. Stamp 'Feather Boa' centrally onto the oval using black Archival. 
2. Faintly colour the ladies face with pencils.
3. On a scrap of white card using Versamark, stamp the lady's head again and heat emboss using gold embossing powder. Over-stamp the hat using swirly edges of the 'Fairy Silhouette' and black archival then heat emboss once clear embossing powder has been applied. Cut out the hat and glue onto main image.
4. Using Versamark and gold embossing powder, stamp a number of medium and small outline flowers from the Bird and Flower Rows set, colour using a black alcohol pen and cut out. Attach over boa to create a flower scarf. 
5. For the hat bow, I cut a into a medium flower then attached it to the side.

Background

1. Cut a rectangle of black card. (At this point and as a guide, I drew around the inside perimeter of the oval die with a gold pencil.)
2. Starting at one corner I drew repeated Zentangle-type shell shapes using the gold pencil, then lightly drew over these with the gold Sakura pen until reaching the mid-point of both adjoining sides. Repeat until the background is filled in. 
3. Mount onto black, then gold Mirri then black. 
4. Adhere to a card blank.

Bag and Tags

Gold on White

1. Repeat as for topper, only exchange the black Archival for Versamark.
2. Punch a hole near the top edge and thread through matching ribbon.

Black on White

1. As above but use black Archival and clear embossing powder.
2. As in (2) above 

To complete, I made and decorated a box each for the card and tags then decorated a plain white gift bag.

Thank you again and best wishes.

Shelagh ;~}

Groovi Birthday Card

Groovi Birthday Card

Mum's 89th birthday card which fits in with this month's Clarity Challenge.

Hi again,

I'd like to share with you the card I made last week for my mum. I was itching to use the 'Bell' plate but decided to use it as the skirt of an evening frock and chose the turquoise blue as Mum had a satin number in this sumptuous colour when I was little.

I won't bore you with the instructions but will record below the plates I used.

  

Groovi Plate Mate

Groovi Plates:-

• Bells, Frilly Circles, Nested Circles, Nested Squares, Nested Deckle Squares

Groovi Borders:-

• Annabel, Art Nouveau (Daisies)

I coloured the parchment with Polychromos (fab pencils) and the rest was my attempt at white work. 

It did take a bit of time but then, my mum is worth it; it wasn't a labour but it was done with love!

Thanks again for looking in - hope to see you again soon. 

Oh and remember the Clarity Challenge - Say It With Flowers.

Shelagh ;~}

Clarity Challenge January 2015

Say It with Flowers

La Dame au Quatre Saisons

                                Happy New Year to one and all!!!
Well here we are, January 1st 2016 and a full twelve months since being invited onto the Clarity Challenge team. The run up to my Challenge debut was fraught with issues through setting up my blog, I scarcely wish to remember it, particularly Hogmanay as the blog was still not active.(Turned out the computer didn't like the programme and once switching to another - programme that is - all was fine.) To come up with ideas hasn't always been easy, particularly when I found myself far from home with a small selection of Clarity products I'd taken with me in my suitcase; when the deadline was drawing near and with still no absolute idea in mind, a calm and measured approach was called for, 'Don't Panic' had the galvanising effect! . . . . And several ideas were conceived this way!
Suffice to say, thank you for visiting my blog and with all that's new on offer from Clarity - not least the Diamond Club, KEEP WATCHING!
However, I cannot finish my preamble without mentioning these devastating floods and adverse weather that has been hitting us up and down the country. Experiencing a little bathroom flood a couple of months ago and only having to dispose of soggy carpets and underlay, I would not know where to start the clean-up of all the sludge and mucky water. Suffice to say, I do hope the powers that be in the whole of Britain take a proper look at all the flood defences up and down the country and DO SOMETHING PRONTO!

                                   La Dame au Quatre Saisons 

This month's offering did not turn out as I had planned as the original idea was a Victorian screen card! 

(Close-ups' to follow)

Materials:-

·         Cardstock:- Clarity Theuva and Stencil Card, black card from stash, scrap paper

·         Stamp:- Clarity Unmounted La Dame au Camellias

·         Stencil:- Clarity ‘Flowers’ 7x7 inch

·         Inkpads:- Ranger - Archival in Jet Black, Distress Inks in Fossilised Amber, Twisted Citron, Wilted Violet, Abandoned Carol, Carved Pumpkin, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch

·         Spectrum Noir Pencils

·         Clarity Double-sided Sticky sheets

·         Fine Glitter eg Glamour Dust

·         Cropodile, eyelets, jump rings

(Plaques are equal in size, honestly!!! - just poor photography.)

Instructions:-

1.       Portion off selected part of the ‘Flowers’ stencil with masking tape. Cut four pieces of Stencil card to 3.5 x 6 inches (approx. 9 x 15 cm) and attach one piece behind the chosen portion. For ‘Spring’ sweep over a mixture of Fossilised Amber and Twisted Citron using a make-up sponge or a Clarity stencil brush. Remove the stencilled card, set aside and leaving the masking tape in place, gently clean the stencil with a baby wipe.

2.       Repeat this three more times with Abandoned Coral and Wilted Violet for ‘Summer;’ Carved Pumpkin and Abandoned Coral for ‘Autumn’ and Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch for ‘Winter.’

3.       Trim down a sheet of double-sided sticky (reserve the remainder as it comes into use soon,) remove one side of backing and place over the stencilled image.

4.       Remove second backing sheet and pour fine glitter over. Work this well into the sticky surface with finger tips and tip remainder back into pot.

5.       Trim to suit and mat onto black card. (Clarity Black Coated card is ideal but mine is lost in amongst the Christmas clutter!)

6.       Using Jet Black Archival, stamp La Dame au Camellias four times onto ‘Theuva’ card. Colour each using Spectrum Noir Pencils to complement the four backgrounds.

Flowers:- 

Using a Clarity stencil brush on good quality paper, stencil one flower from each ink combination . . .  

. . . . as in (2.)

Cut each flower out as shown below. 

Tear each flower in a spiral from outer edge to inner (as in 1st flower, Spring, yellow below,) then fold each part of the spiral in half long-ways over a needle tool as in second flower (Summer - pink).

Roll around the needle to create a flower (Autumn-orange.)

Place a blob of glue at the base of the spiral and press down to create a finished bloom.

Add flowers to corresponding images.

Trim and mount onto the sparkly background using the off-cuts from (3.)

8.       Line up each rectangle and using the Cropodile, punch a hole in each corner.

9.       Again using the Cropodile, add eyelets to each corner.

10.   Join each rectangle using three jump rings at each corner and add a chain to top and bottom to complete. (Chains were Charity shop jewelry finds.)

Et voila - La Dame au Quatre Saisons!

Hopefully the explanation has been of use and even more so - encouraged you to enter this month's Clarity Challenge, it's fun and it's free and even better there is an opportunity for you to win a Clarity voucher simply by posting your project or if you don't have a blog, by sending it to Sazzle who will post it for you - details are as follows:-claritystampchallenge@hotmail.com

The Clarity website can be found at www.claritystamp.co.uk and Clarity also has a Facebook page - https//:www.facebook.com/claritystamp.co.uk

Meantime - KEEP CALM AND KEEP CRAFTING  XX  ;~}