Happy Anniversary

Hello! As I mentioned yesterday, I made two cards for the Clarity Stamp Challenge but had a problem finishing one of them. In a moment of clarity I thought of turning the small 5 inch square card into an easel card! I just couldn't see it at the time - but I guess we all have moments like that.

I stamped the Clarity Calla Lilly onto Clarity Theuva card in Versamark and then used Stampin' Up! embossing powder in silver and heat embossed the image.

The card was then die cut using one of the dies from Spellbinders Decorative Labels One and layered onto Stampin' Up! bashful blue card, which had been die cut the smallest die from Spellbinders Grand Decorative Labels One. The whole was then adhered to the bottom half of a white card I had in my stash. The sentiment from Clarity's Remountable Happy Words was stamped using Distress Ink Black Soot onto Theuva card. The corners were rounded and layered onto bashful blue card which also had the corners rounded.

The sentiment was then adhered to the inside of the card at an angle, using foam tape to give height and to hold the easel part of the card.

As I mentioned yesterday, I haven't decided which of the two anniversary cards I will send to my parents for their 56th Wedding Anniversary.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela

Ingredients

Stamps: Clarity Calla Lilly, Remountable Happy Words
Ink: Versamark, Distress Ink Black Soot
Card: Clarity Theuva card, Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue
Other: Stampin' Up! Silver Embossing Powder, Spellbinders Decorative Labels One, Grand Decorative Labels One, We R Memory Keepers Cropadile Corner Chomper, foam tape

Clarity Challenge 4 - Mr & Mrs

Hello everyone, I was very pleased to be chosen as one of the top 5 in last month's Clarity Stamp challenge with this card. This month's Clarity Stamp challenge is Mr & Mrs, and includes weddings and anniversaries. I've stayed with a straight forward layout again this month, mainly due to time!

 

As it's my parents' 56th wedding anniversary later in July, I thought I'd make a card for them. I'll be honest, this wasn't the original idea I had, that card I'll post tomorrow. I made a smaller card, and the sentiment didn't fit it properly, so I started again. I then had a moment of 'clarity' and came up with a way of finishing the original card!!!! Anyway back to this card.

I love the Calla Lily stamp and so I stamped it using Stampin' Up! basic grey ink onto Clarity Theuva card which was then die cut using Spellbinders' Labels Twenty-Eight dies. I painted the Calla Lily with a selection of micra paints to give the flower dimension.



I've tried to capture the shimmer from the paints. The right hand bloom is the right colour, the others have come out much darker, thought I think you can get an idea of the finished image. I inked the edges of the Theuva card with Stampin' Up! So Saffron ink and then layered the image onto Stampin' Up! Old Olive card die cut in the next size up in the Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Eight die set

The whole was then layered onto a card base I already had, using foam tape to give the card dimension. The sentiment was then stamped in Stampin' Up! Basic Grey ink and Stampin' Up! pearl basic jewels were added to the top and bottom of the green layer.

Mum and Dad look at my blog so this is a bit of a give away as to what their anniversary card will look like this year. Of course I could decide to send the other one I made just to keep them on their toes!!

Thanks for stopping by and good luck if you have entered the Clarity Stamp Challenge.

Angela

Ingredients

Stamps: Clarity Calla Lilly, Remountable Happy Words set
Ink: Stampin' Up! Basic Grey, So Saffron
Card: Clarity Theuva card, Stampin' Up! Old Olive
Other: Perfect Pearls Micra powders, Stampin' Up! Pearl Basic Jewels, Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Eight, foam tape

By the Seashore Layered Card

Those who know me well know how much I love to be by the coast. Just being by the sea for a few hours seems to restore me both physically and mentally. I have a number of cards planned to reflect the sea or coast line which I will post once completed. Today's card uses elements from By the Seashore from Stampin' Up!

To make the card you need three layers of white card and three layers of coloured card, including the card base. The coloured card measurements are A5 (card base), 12.3 x 8 cm and 9.8 x 5.5 cm. The white card measurements are 14.3 x 10 cm, 11.8 x 7.5 cm, 9.3 x 5 cm. Layer up the white card and hold in place with glue dots or small strips of repositionable tape (be careful not to stick the layers together permanently).

I've used the starfish and sand dollar from the set and stamped them randomly onto the Stampin' Up! whisper white card in Stampin' Up! pool party and indigo island. The images won't stamp perfectly, because of the layers, but any unstamped areas of the image should be covered by the coloured layers.

When you have completed the stamping layer the white card onto the coloured card (in this instance I've used Stampin' Up! island indigo card).

Here is a close up of how the layers fit together. I have added a sentiment from Stampin' Up! Itty Bitty Banners, and then die cut using Stampin' Up! Itty Bitty framelits. This was added to the top layer with foam pads. Before adhering the smallest white layer to the smallest indigo island layer I wrapped some Stampin' Up! poole party bakers twine around it.

I added an insert on which I also stamped a starfish in pool party to pull the card and insert together.

On my latest trip to Florida, to see my sister Gillian, we collected a few Sand Dollars from the beach. These had been washed up by Topical Storm Andrea. I love these creatures, which are flat sea urchins and the legend that goes with them is just as beautiful. You can read a version of the poem here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Angela

Ingredients

Stamps: Stampin' Up! By the Seashore, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Stampin' Up! Pool Party, Island Indigo
Card: Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Island Indigo
Other: Stampin' Up! Itty Bitty framelits, Pool Party Bakers Twine, foam pads from stash

Humming Bird Birthday

Hello! As you may know from an earlier post of mine, I find making cards for my male colleagues challenging at times. Today's card was made for one of my mature friends and I thought I'd bring him some colour in the form of a Humming Bird:



I've used the Clarity XL Postage stamp and mask again for this card. I first stamped the postage stamp using Stazon black ink onto Clarity Theuva card. Using the outer part of the XL postage stamp mask to protect the outer edge of the card I stamped the Clarity large trumpet flower and the Clarity large humming bird also in Stazon black. I coloured the flowers and birds using a selection of Stampin' Up! water based markers.



Hopefully you can see that the flowers have a slight shimmer to them. This was achieved by painting over the flowers  and the bird with Twinkling H2Os, which is why I used Stazon ink, Adirondack ink would have smudged with the paint. The card's corners were rounded and layered onto Stampin' Up! Primrose Petals card, which also had the corners rounded. This was then layered onto white card from my stash. The sentiment from Clarity was stamped using Stamping' Up! Primrose Petal ink.

I also stamped the card insert with the Clarity large trumpet flower:

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela

Ingredients

Stamps: Clarity XL Postage Stamp, Humming Bird, Large Trumpet Flower
Ink: Black Stazon, Stampin' Up! Primrose Petals
Card: Clarity Theuva card, Stampin' Up! Primrose Petal, white card from stash,  paper for insert
Other: Clarity XL Postage Stamp mask, We R Memory Keepers Crop-a-dile Corner Chomper, Twinkling H20s, Stampin' Up! water-based markers



In the Garden

Today's card is one I made for my brother-in-law, Brad. He has recently gotten the bug to grow his own vegetables, and so far he and my sister have been very successful at it. They have faced their challenges, growing vegetables is not the easiest thing to do in Florida when your soil is mainly sand, as it is in their case. So the vegetables are in boxes with their own watering system. I thought he would enjoy receiving a card depicting a garden and so I sent him this:

 



As you can see I've put flowers in the garden as opposed to vegetables! I stamped the Clarity XL postage stamp in Adirondack black onto Clarity Theuva card and then protected the area around the stamp with the outer part of the Clarity XL postage stamp mask. I started the picture by covering up the upper part of the postage stamp and brayering the grass in Adirondack Lettuce. I then used the Clarity cloud mask to do the sky in Adirondack Stonewashed. The flowers, wheelbarrow and fork are from the Clarity remountable garden set.

Once the interior part of the garden was complete I used the inner part of the XL postage stamp mask to protect the image and then restamped the wheelbarrow and fork, lining up with the original image so only those parts outside of the postage stamp frame were stamped. I then used a selection of Promarkers to colour the images. I also used the chisel end of a Promarker to colour the edge around the white card, giving it a layered look. The darker areas of the lawn were done using a make-up sponge.

The verse is also from Clarity - The Kiss of the Sun and was stamped in Adirondack black onto Theuva card and then die cut using the Labels Collection framelits from Stampin' Up! I coloured the edge of the die cut with the same colour Promarker I used around the edge of the main image. The leaves are in Lucky Limeade card from Stampin' Up! and were die cut using the Little Leaves sizzlit from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela

Ingredients

Stamps: Clarity XL Postage Stamp, remountable Garden Set, Kiss in the Garden
Ink: Adirondack Black, Stonewashed, Lettuce
Card: Clarity Theuva Card, Stampin' Up! Lucky Limeade
Other: Clarity XL Postage mask, Cloud mask, Promarkers, Stampin' Up! Labels Collection framelits, Little Leaves sizzlits

A Foxglove Thank You

I've been making a few thank you cards recently, using a variety of designs. The first one is based on an idea from the 2 day Clarity Stamps retreat at Cowden in May. The very talented Paul Church led the group on this and from the title you can guess it involves foxgloves. This card was for my sister who now lives in Florida. She loves cottage garden flowers and has a particular soft spot for foxgloves so I knew this would be perfect for her:

These gorgeous flowers are the Clarity remountable Foxglove set. They are large stamps, and indeed the best way to stamp the largest flower is to use a ruler. You may have seen Barbara demonstrating this on TV. The flowers were stamped, onto Clarity theuva card in Adirondack Black and coloured using a selection of Promarkers.

I then highlighted the flowers with Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!, but Glossy Accents from Ranger would work just as well. On the retreat we used a Versamark pen and clear embossing powder to give a similar result. Here is a close up of the effect:

You can see how the light is reflecting off of the flowers. The background was created using the cloud mask from Clarity and Adirondack stonewashed ink. The sentiment is also from Clarity:

The area for the sentiment was masked with a post-it note to keep it protected when inking in the clouds, which can be seen a little better in this picture. The outline was then made free-hand with a black micro pen.

I then layered the picture onto wisteria wonder card from Stampin' Up! which picks up the colours of the flowers.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela

Ingredients:

Stamps: Clarity remountable Foxgloves, Thank you
Ink: Adirondack Black and Stonewashed
Card: Clarity Theuva card, Stampin' Up! Wisteria Wonder
Other: Promarkers, Clarity Cloud mask, Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects, micro pen, post-it note

Baby Blue Waterfall

Don't you just love making baby cards? I find making a card to welcome a new life so special. Today's card was made for a friend of mine who had a baby boy about four months ago now. He didn't take as long to appear as including this card on my blog has! I'm sure his mum is very grateful for that.

I wanted to make a different type of baby card, well different for me anyhow, and decided on a waterfall layout.

All the blue card is Stampin' Up! marina mist, and the white card is Stampin' Up! whisper white. The background has been die cut using a Spellbinders die, and before removing the card I inked the edges in marina mist. The images on the waterfall are from the Bundle of Love set from Stampin' Up! and have been stamped using marina mist. The brads are also from Stampin' Up!, as is the marina mist ribbon, which has been stapled to the 'pull' area of the waterfall.

Here are the other three images I've used:

The tag part has also been stamped with one of the images in marina mist:

This stamp set also has a lovely sentiment which I stamped on the inside of the card again in marina mist:

The card insert is made using 120gsm white paper from Staples.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angela

Ingredients

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Bundle of Love
Ink: Stampin' Up! Marina Mist
Card: Stampin' Up! Marina Mist, Whisper White
Other: Spellbinders die, Stampin' Up! brads (retired), Marina Mist ribbon