Clarity Challenge 27 Clocks

Clarity Challenge April 2015 - Clocks

Rock Around the Clock

Hi from Shelagh-land again. Cannot believe it's time for the next Clarity challenge.Where have the first four months of this year gone? I do recall someone saying time passes so much more quickly when we are 'older' but I'm not THAT old YET! Pondered long and hard over this challenge, tried a few different things but kept coming back to the clock. In the end, the idea would not disappear and  I doggedly persevered. This was yet another departure for me as I was using Fresco Finish (now available from Clarity) and Spectrum Aqua pens. The clock was a reduced item I spotted and purchased from a local supermarket as I thought it had potential.
Many apologies for the lack of step-by-step photos this time but I had revised my write-up and added more when the server refused to play and I lost the lot. So, I'm afraid it's chalk and talk this month!

Materials:-

·         Wooden Heart Clock:- purchased from a supermarket for a couple of pounds

·         Gesso:- Pebeo White

·         Fresco Finish Acrylics:- Sherbet Opaque, Claret Translucent, Honey Dew, Crackle Glaze

·         Clarity Stencils:- Elegant Ladies

·         Grunge Paste

·         Clarity Stamps:-Remountable Music Clear Stamp Set, Remountable Birdsong Set

·         Ink Pads:- Ranger -Archival Black, Distress Inks – Old Paper, Black Soot

·         Spectrum Aqua Pens

·         2B pencil, eraser, paper stump

·          Black, white card (Clarity)

·         Cut’n’Dry sponge

Instructions:-

1.       Firstly I removed the ribbon from which the clock is suspended (I'm not a fan of ribbon on household items.) then taped over the hands with masking tape.

2.       White gesso was applied to front, back and sides mainly to cover the painted message on the front of the clock (for the life of me I cannot recall what it said, obviously meaningful!) – and also to cover the unreal colour of the wood as it was a grey/green/ yellow shade.

3.       This was where I made a bit of a mistake.  I painted the base of the clock in Sherbet; dried it; added Crackle Glaze then sponged on areas of Claret.  When it was dry, it was too sugary-pink. Back to the drawing board – or alchemy corner of the kitchen as Mike my husband calls it.

4.       I drew around the clock onto some canvas paper to create what I call mock-ups. I painted one of these with Sherbet and Crackle Glaze, allowed this to dry then sponged on Honey Dew. This created a much more eye-friendly cooler tone; I repeated this on the clock-face and the desired cracks reappeared. Phew!

5.       Old Paper and Black Soot Distress inks were gently blended onto the clock face and some areas removed using  baby wipes.

6.        I decided where I wished the right-hand figure to be placed, taped on the stencil and smoothed Grunge Paste through this. The clean, dry stencil was flipped over and placed at the other side of the clock and Grunge Paste dragged through again.

7.       Once the figures were dry, I sanded them gently before adding colour. Spectrum Aqua colours were scribbled onto a palette - Peach for skin, Yellow for hair, Slate for shirt and Scarlet for trousers and picked up using a fine, wet paintbrush, intensifying the colours in areas of shade. (I tried using the pens 'neat' on a 'mock up'  but could not achieve the intensity of colour to create shade, hence resorted to diluted colours. NOT the pens fault, I hasten to add, but mine.) 

8.       Three records were die-cut from black Clarity card and added to top, middle and foot of clock. The records at 6 and 12 o’clock were stuck to the clock by using a sheet of Clarity double sided sticky film. The middle record was slit from centre to outside, Glossy Accents applied to flip side and smoothed down around the hands.

9.       With black Archival, I stamped the musical staves from the Musical Birdsong to waft out from each record, two Treble Clefs, a number of notes and the single note repeatedly around the edge – all from the Remountable Music set.

10.   Armed with a 2B pencil and an eraser, I gently shaded around the figures, notes and records. (It took me two evenings to create the depth of shadow I wanted.)
12. The clock hands were coloured using a dark red alcohol marker.

11.   In my craft stash, I found tiny red seed and larger black glass beads. With a length of fine silver wire, I created a hanger for the clock, threaded it through the hole at either side, through the first black bead on either side, tied it off and clock complete!

Et maintenant, we have ‘Rock Around the Clock!’ 

Thank you for looking in and remember to have a go at the new Clarity Challenge, number 27. Each month I look forward to viewing the marvellous creative masterpieces you produce and I'm always quite blown away by the amount of talent you all display.
Bye for now,
Shelagh.

Clarity Challenge 26 April 2015

Wee Folk

Hello from Shelagh-land! Cannot believe it's April already, daylight longer and warmer weather should be showing its face soon to match all the beautiful blooms in the garden, not to mention all the little nesting birds. I was lucky enough to see my elusive wren this afternoon - I've been spending too much time upstairs in my craft room and the change in the great outdoors has eluded me. 

This month's challenge is the lovely little 'Wee Folk' stamps. I tried a number of things including canvasses and different scenes before settling on my finished project. It seems to help me to use a quote or similar to send me on my creative way. Please enjoy my step-by-step which I've have photographed using Spun Sugar and Stormy Sky and not Squeezed Lemonade, Stormy Sky, Salty Ocean, Cracked Pistachio and Shabby Shutters as in the completed example.

Materials:-

·         Cardstock:- Clarity Gelli Plate 7x7, black, silver mirri, Clarity Gelli Plate 8.5x11, Turquoise mirri

·         Stamps:- Clarity – Wee Folk Sets 3,4; Diamond Carriage; NDC Bubbles; Remountable Artist Clear Stamp

·         Stencils:- Clarity – Umbrellas

·         Inkpads:- Ranger Distress Squeezed Lemonade, Stormy Sky, Cracked Pistachio, Salty Ocean, Shabby Shutters; Archival Black; Versafine Onyx Black

·         Embossing Powder:- WOW Clear Hologram Sparkle

·         Micron Pen

·         Acetate

Instructions:-

·         Tape the Umbrellas stencil to a piece of 7x7 Gelli Plate card. Brush (Clarity Brushes) or blend       (Ranger mini blenders) selected Distress Ink from bottom right hand corner across to top left,         continue until desired intensity of colour is achieved.

·         Place moon mask to suit. Gradually introduce second Distress Ink and work from below centre diagonal, sweeping colour upwards. Remove stencil and continue brushing Spun Sugar until complete 7x7card is gently coloured.

·         Apply masking tape around all four sides to continue with the border created by the stencil.

·         Sweep a good covering of baby powder over entire card.

·         Ink up the elf stamp with Archival ink and stamp image in the lower middle of stenciled card; ink again and stamp towards bottom right of stenciled card. On a post-it note stamp elf image and cut out two masks.

·         Mask elf; ink carriage with Onyx Black and stamp to left of elf. Heat emboss using clear hologram sparkle. Stamp carriage onto a post-it and cut out; place over carriage image and with black Archival, stamp fairy through window. (Ensure the foot of carriage is masked with another post-it – the fairy has long legs!!!)

 

·    Stamp the fairy (same one as in the carriage) opposite with black Archival, masking off from just below her lower hand, to leave her torso.

·         Cover the larger ginkgo leaf with masking tape, then place the NDC Ginkgo stencil over the fairy torso to form a skirt. Tape down then apply chosen Distress inks to suit. Remove stencil. 

Outline the ‘skirt folds’ with a Micron pen. Blend in some more colour to achieve desired results.

·         Remove moon mask and right side masking tape. Stamp left-facing fairy at the top right corner.     Replace moon mask then stamp stars to form a pathway to the carriage.

·         Stamp (Black Archival) toadstool from the fairy set at the bottom left-hand corner; stamp again on a post-it and cut out two masks. Mask toadstool and stamp image again, slightly off-page (masking tape is still in place so it’s ok to do this); mask this image and stamp again. Remove masks.

·         Stamp seated fairy on one of the toadstool caps.

·         Create sentiment on computer and print. Place Umbrellas stencil over and ink as before. Using side and edge from the Artist’s Set, create a scroll. Trim and adhere to top left.

·         Apply Quickie glue pen to elves and fairies wings. Repeat on stars and diamond on carriage.

·         Scribble a border around card and mount onto black then silver mirri.

·         Cut white card to 21x21cm. Using Cracked Pistachio, stamp the top scroll from the carriage around the edge. (Stamp each corner, then middle which leaves enough room for another image in-between.) Trim a sliver from each edge and mount onto 21x21cm turquoise mirri.

·         Mount card onto this.

NB (I added a trimmed sheet of acetate as an overlay to create an illusion of depth.)

Et Voila – Cinderella shall go to the ball!

Stamps, white card, stencils and ink pads can all be purchased from Clarity Stamps. The turquoise and silver mirri along with black card and acetate all came from my stash.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. I would love to see where your 'Elves and Fairies' crafting takes you, so please think about entering your project into this month's Clarity challenge.

Hope to see you returning soon.

For now, cheerio!

Shelagh.

Memory Book

Memory Book 

Hi, Shelagh here again. 

The memory book is a variation of my exhibit for the Clarity Challenge Design Team for March, I thought I'd try the New Design Club 'Tree of Life' as it reminds me of a banyan tree - still on the tropical theme. (The filigree leaves are parts of deconstructed earrings - I'm always on the lookout for such items when supermarkets have price reductions.)

Materials:-

• Canvas x 2
• Black Gesso
• Kraft cards DL, Gold Mirri Card, white card, Clarity black coated card
• Stencil - Clarity Tree of Life (New Design Club 3)
• Grunge Paste
• Stamps - Clarity Palm Leaf, Letterbox 
• Inkpads - Versamark - Dazzle, Versafine Onyx Black; Ranger Distress Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean
• Gold detail embossing powder
• Micron pen
• Mod Podge

Instructions:-

Canvas (Covers)

1. Paint the canvas on both sides with black gesso. 
2. Mask off the root portion of the stencil to only reveal the tree. Tape stencil over dry canvas and apply grunge paste.
3. Once dry, paint with more black gesso. When dry, apply gold gilding wax. (I added some silver gilding (a misnomer!!) wax to tone down the gold. (You can see from my photo there is some grunge residue near the foot of the canvas; I was going to sand it away but decided to leave it to add some interest.)
   
4. Front and back of canvas were painted with Mod Podge.

Pages:-

1. The pages were made by cutting down Papermania DL Kraft cards, punching tabs from scraps, adding black panels to front and back and mirri board panels to inside pages.
2. Clarity NDC palm leaf was stamped over white card to fill panel using Dazzle then heat embossed with gold detail powder. A mix of Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean were blended over each panel then edged with a black alcohol marker and mounted onto gold mirri. (I made two extra panels which were then cut down and edged with black as before to provide the mounts for the front page labels.)
3. Pockets were made from scrap Kraft card and outlined with faux stitching using a micron pen.

     

     

     

  

   

   

I made a variety of pockets and a number appropriate labels, the latter using the Clarity Letterbox. 

I can't believe how little time this took to assemble compared to my first book, perhaps because I knew the path to follow!

Thank you for dropping in and hope to see you visiting my blog again.

Any queries and I'd be delighted to help.

Bye for now,

Shelagh  ;~}

Anything But A Card

Shelagh Metselaar

Clarity Stamps Challenge 25 – Anything But a Card

A Passage Through India

Hi, Shelagh here.

My project for this month’s Clarity Challenge ‘Anything But a Card’ was only ever going one way although I have an alternative should time run out - but thankfully not! My friend from Brunei days - we first met over 35 years ago – has a birthday pending and is spending it visiting India. My idea - a Memory Book in which she can scrapbook her journey. The project has taken a few weeks to put together and as ever, my planning followed the old teaching path starting with:- a) what ? b) where ? c) how?

I selected a canvas - I wanted to trial some new techniques (for me) – and the rest took trial, error and plenty of mistakes and patience. (I'm sorry I don't have step-by-step this month but there is a photo for each 'chapter.')
(The tags and butterflies are purely to add interest and to hide the rings.)

Materials:-

·         Clarity Stamps:- Palm Leaf, Remountable Parakeets, Letterbox, Hot Air Balloon – medium and small; caravan, bird, small palm tree from Summer Shades Set, Speech Bubbles, Remountable Cheese Plant, Wild Flower Corner, Toucans, NDC Pocket, Ornate Church

·         Clarity Stencils:- Seed Heads

·         Cardstock:- Clarity- Theuva, Black Coated; Kraft card-card blanks

·         Canvas x 2

·         Pebeo:- Black Gesso, Gilding Wax - gold

·         Inkpads:-Distress Inks – variety; Versamark, Versafine Black Onyx

·         Embossing Powder – Gold Detail, Clear Detail

·         Grunge Paste

·         Mod Podge

I went ahead happily stamping, masking, blending until all areas chosen were covered. I used Kraft cards cut down to size for the pages and scrap pieces to create the tabs. The panels were stamped on Theuva card and mounted on Clarity Black Coated card. Pockets, frames, books were made as retainers for travel memorabilia.

Notes & Quotes 1

Stamps - Parakeets, Speech Bubbles from Remountable Elegant Ladies, Letterbox

Inkpads - Spiced Marmalade, Picked Raspberries, Seedless Preserves, Squeezed Lemonade

Notes & Quotes 2

Stamps - Palm Leaf

Inkpads - Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean

Notes & Quotes 2

This is a little notebook to record memorable conversations and quotes from the trip.

I cut some printable vellum, rounded the corners and made a note book with a pocket inside each of the back covers. The pages were stitched together, something I learnt to do at a SCEA summer school in Germany over 30 years ago and a technique I have had little opportunity to use since.

Notes & Quotes 3

Travel 1

Stamps - Small and Medium Hot Air Balloons, Remountable Christmas Banners (one of the blank ones)

Inkpads - Weathered Wood, Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn

Travel 2

These pockets are for ticket stubs and travel bits and pieces.

Accommodation 1

Stamps - Caravan from Summer Shades Set

Inkpads - Iced Spruce, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Squeezed Lemonade

Accommodation 2

These corners are doubled up to contain accommodation memorabilia.

Stamps - Wild Flower Corner

Inkpads - Picked Berries, Spiced Marmalade, Mowed Lawn, 

Distress Markers

Flora & Fauna 1

Stamps - Toucan, Cheese Plant

Inkpads - Weathered Wood, Mowed Lawn

Spectrum Noir Pens

Flora & Fauna 2

These little frames are for photographs.

Sights & Sounds 1

Stamps - Ornate Church, Small Palm Tree from Summer Shades

Inkpads - Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn,Pine Needles, Weathered Wood

As I don't have the Taj Mahal stamp and  wished to create a type of high edifice, I masked off part of the Ornate Church to create the towers.

                                                                  Sights & Sounds 2

These little pockets have extra room for USB sticks etc.

Stamps - NDC Pocket, Palm Tree as before, bird from Summer Shades

Inkpads - Spiced Marmalade

Front and back boards:-

Each canvas ‘Grunge Pasted’ over the ‘seed-head’ stencil. Once dry, black gesso was applied over all; and once this was dry, applied to the other side. Gilding wax was applied over the grunged area of each canvas, particularly around the edges. A Cropodile Big Bite was used to punch holes for the ring connectors.
                                                                      Outside Covers

Stencil, Grunge Paste, Black Gesso, Gilding Wax, Mod Podge

Inside Covers

Stencil, Black Gesso, Gilding Wax, Mod Podge

The seed-head stencil was then placed over this flat side of the canvas - front and back, then gold gilding wax sparingly applied. 

Finally, back and front of each canvas was painted with Mod Podge to offer some  resilience to wear and tear.

A few tags were cut, stamped, coloured and attached to the rings, along with butterflies from the Butterfly Tree set.

Et voila! Here we have one Indian Holiday Memory Book.

The Box

I had attempted to make a box using Kraft card but the A4 was too small to accommodate the book. Since I save all my gift boxes, I went on a search looking for one from a particular perfume brand which I thought would fit the bill; however instead I found a perfect match which had contained culinary spicy sauces.

Sorry - I omitted to photograph the before, but here we have the box top coated with black gesso, masked off equally on all four sides before being stencilled through with grunge paste.

The box was masked off then stenciled and grunge paste applied to four sides, painted with black gesso then gilding wax rubbed over the top. The base was painted with black gesso; when dry the stencil was placed over, first having masked off a border using very low tack masking tape then gilding wax applied through the stencil as before.

The final touch was to black gesso over the entire interior, gilding wax over the stencil (as before and above) on the inner lid, then Mod Podge applied to all areas inside and out.

This completes my memory book and matching box.

Thank you for visiting and I hope this gives you ideas to make your own Memory Book.

Cheers,

Shelagh  ;~}

Spring Greens

 Spring Greens

Hi, Shelagh here. Last month I was lucky enough to win the IndigoBlu challenge and following this, I was invited to create a project for this month's challenge entitled 'Spring Greens,' so here we have it. I must admit I did find it a challenge and took some time to work out the direction I was to follow as I felt few of my IndigoBlu stamps fitted in with subject. 

Many thanks for visiting my blog and if you should have any queries, please ask and I will attempt to help.

Materials:-

·         Canvas

·         IndigoBlu Stamps:- Nature 1, Stylised Flowers

·         Inkpads:- Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark; Distress Inks – Pine Needles, Black Soot

·         Embossing Powder:- Wow Twinkling Green and Twinkling White; Clear Detail

·         Spectrum Noir Aquatints – Greens (from all sets)

·         Acetate:- Heatable

·         Pebeo:- Mixtion Relief Outliner, Mirror Gilding Sheets Green and Silver

·         Sakura:- White Pen

This project was quick to realise, once thoughts and materials were gathered (omitting drying time.)

Extras:-

·         Deep photo frame

·         Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Pale Green

·         Mod Podge Sparkle

Instructions:-

1.       I painted the canvas with water then dropped on the greens in areas allowing the variety of shades to fuse and keeping the blue-greens towards the top.

2.       Once dry, I stamped the ‘Stylised Flowers’ four times (‘off the page’) using Versamark Black and embossed with clear detail embossing powder. The butterfly was stamped three times using Versamark and heat-embossed using ‘Twinkling Green.’ The clouds were stamped twice, again with Versamark then heat-embossed using ‘Twinkling White.’

3.       At this point I blended Ranger Distress ‘Pine Needles’ and ‘Black Soot’ around the edges.

4.       The flower stems were out-lined on one side with a white pen; the seed-heads were outlined with the Mixtion and once dry but still tacky, silver leaf was applied. The same was applied to the centre of stems but once dry, green leaf was applied. P

NB The silver leaf looks white on the photo – oh! the joys of photography!

5.       I stamped the butterfly three times onto heat-proof acetate, embossed with the green powder as before and cut the images out.  I folded the wings back and attached them over the image on canvas with Cosmic Shimmer glue.

Extras:-

To finish the project, I painted the frame with pale green ‘Fantasy Prisme,’ the second coat stippling the paint to create the illusion of texture. Once dry, I applied Mod Podge ‘Sparkle’ to add more interest.  I removed the two peripheral acetate butterflies, placed the canvas inside the frame then glued butterflies over their stamped images but on the frame.

I hope you find the above useful and feel encouraged to ‘have a go.’

Thank you,

Shelagh.