"On trend" Birthdays with Creative Expressions and Clarity

Good morning all! 

Here we are...........Friday!!!! Yipee!!!

Thought I'd have a break from Christmas today and instead showcase a few Birthday cards using some of the current trends......

First up is the fashion for all things Ombre ...

Ombre means shade/shadow in French and in crafting we use it to show a colour variation from light to dark and it is achieved with 2 or 3 similar colours and lots of smooth blending.

Next up is Splatter....

This card inspiration and technique were taken from Ali Johnson's article in this month's Craft Stamper - I thought it would be a great technique for those pesky men's cards......

Finally it's the still ever so popular CAS trend focusing on bright contrasting colours for a special occasion....

Thank you for stopping by :-)

Have a wonderful Friday.......off now for cuppa o'clock I think

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Christmas is coming.....

Hi there folks - Happy Hump Day!!

Hope you are all well?

Sorry for the extended absence, had a few things on this last week. Now they are out of the way It's time to dust off the tinsel and role out the baubles for the festivities. I love this time of year - Only wish we had the big snow like Canada!

Over the next few days/weeks I will be sharing lots of short posts for christmas ideas for cards, gifts and decorations. I hope you find some fextive inspiration!! :-)

So here it goes.....

I thought I'd start with my fave colours and my own personal trend for CAS

Christmas this year

This uses die cutting waste as a centre piece and a background made from Tim Holtz stamps 

This one uses a panel that was a reject from the Winter Wonderland Printer tray from a few weeks ago.....Nothing ever needs to go to waste!!

Hope there's some inspiration there - thanks for stopping by :-)

Crafty Cheers for now

Love 

Rae

xxx

Clarity Sportsmen.....

Morning Peeps :-)

Back with a quick share today- A masculine themed birthday card....

I know a lot of people struggle with male cards, including me. I have learned to keep them simple to ease the worry and this sporting set of stamps from Clarity are perfect. 

I blended the 3 primary colours to create the plasma background which I then divided into the 9 squares before embossing with the sportsmen and part of the blocks of fun NDC stamp, before mounting on the black and white for contrast

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy the rest of the weekend :-)

Crafty cheers for now

Love 

Rae 

xxx

Clarity Challenge ....... Animals

Good Morning all!

Thank you for all your lovely entries in last months To be beside the seaside Challenge!!

What a tremendously high standard again!!

Congratulations not only to our winner but to all of you for such superb projects

This month it is all about Animals......

I was asked to do this as a commission for someone who is a Gillie up in the highlands and thought this fitted the bill perfectly. I love doing landscapes and scene building.

I used the Forest Ridge; Lge Pheasant; tree trunk; Grasses 1; grasses 2; Spaniel and Letterbox kit on this Project 

The whole scene was created using Adirondack Meadow and Distress ink Gathered Twigs and Weathered wood. The dogs were merely stamped in 1st and 2nd generation ink to achieve the colour variation in the Spaniels. The Pheasant was coloured by using Distress markers in Faded Jeans and aged Mahogany.

There are a tonne of fantastic ideas by the Design Team over on the Clarity Challenge Blog here. 

So please take a look and Happy crafting!!

Good Luck to you all this month

Crafty Cheers for now!!

Love 

Rae

xxx

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.....

 Good morning Everyone!! Yes I am still here!!

I promise I will be making up for last week's absence as there are now 4 planned Blogages over the next few days - you will be sick of me lol :-)

Well it's the 1st of the month again so that means it is time for another fab challenge from the Clarity Challenge Blog ! (here) 

Its summertime ( ish!!) so where better to be than the Seaside ! (well tbh I could be by the sea summer, winter, spring, fall, rain, snow or shine!! )

This is my take.....

I love postcards as memories of holidays and I have them stored and scrapped all around the house. I send them to myself as well as friends and this was behind my thinking for this piece. This started of as an unloved wooden heart board which I re vamped with lots of acrylic paint

I then set about making a collection of postcards using lots and lots of clarity beach stamps ( all available here ) They included the postcard kit, Scrabble letter kit, Shell corner, Nautilus Shell, Single shell, deckchair, beach hut, Shell cluster, Seagull, Lighthouse and the cliffs.

I wanted a modern fresh look rather than the traditional for the postcards so focused on only 3 colours, brown, pink and turquoise. All the images were coloured using Copic Markers. I added interest with different layers and textures on each postcard. The lighthouse is covered with Tim holtz Frosted Film - doesn't show up brilliantly sorry! 

To keep interest I used lots of different shapes for the cards, ATC's. journalling and then customised shapes like the bucket and the diamond

This sentiment I found many moons ago, somewhere and it sums up my love affair with the sea.....just need someone to make it into a stamp........Anyone any ideas???? ;-)

I infilled the spaces with real shells - NOT my precious collection from around the globe!! - but some I picked up from a floristry stockist. Its a great way to add embellies at a reasonable cost.

So Summertime IS here and it is SO nice to be beside the Seaside.....Lets see what you can conjour up!!

Congratulations on all your fabulous entries from last months Mr & Mrs challenge and Good Luck again this month!!!

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae 

xxx

Atc's.....

Good morning all. Happy Thursday.

Things are rather busy here at the moment with quite a bit of DT work and commissions on the go. None of which I can showcase at this time - hence the gaps in posting oops!!

So this morning I decided to drop by with a few ATC's - lovely iddy biddy pieces of artylushesness! 

I love creating these and I belong to several swap groups. Its lovely to receive them each month and see what everyone comes up with based around a single theme.

Earlier this year Clarity launched an ATC club and these are the samples I produced for that.....

Winter.....of course! 

 ......and Romance

Colours of the Garden.... 












....then Springtime in Paris.....mais oui...

...finally Monochrome.

Atc's are a great way to play with new techniques and products and they can take you to whole new dimensions working so confined.

Right I am away to take a friend n his girlfriend on his Birthday trip around the Theatre of dreams!!

Have yourselves a lovely weekend if I don't get chance to pop back before then

Crafty cheers for now :-)

Love

Rae 

XXX

Blue Blue day and frame by frame........

Blue blue day,

Oh frame by frame

Drawing stories on the walls

 Sinking seconds away..........

Morning everyone!! Today I have mostly been inspired by the glorious weather we are having.....Firstly with Art Journey's fabulous stamps, pan pastels, acrylics and alcohol inks.....

.....and then my new "favourite" Clarity stamps the Lesson 18 kit!! I actually made a notelet set of these.....in 5 different monochrome colour's blue,red,green,purple and orange. There was nearly a major minor mishap when the shaving foam was picked up instead of the hairspray to fix the pastels on this one!!! Off to specsavers lol!!!

Have a great weekend in this wonderful sunshine!!! I am off to collect a few rays......

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Splodge on the telly again.....

Well good morning everyone!!

Firstly apologies for the lack of posts recently. Most of you will know I was in hospital this week and my work has been focused on today's shows so was all under wraps!! 

As you have just seen we had some great goodies to work with I just ran out of time!!!

Its Create and Craft's 10th birthday so first up Happy Birthday......

....then I played with distress inks and Heartfelt Creations stamps

 ....Then it was time to get the medium out with Chloe's wedding stamps...

 ...then back to distress inks and gilding wax ....I promise !! this pic doesn't do that bit justice....

 ....Then some SUPERB new stamps from Art Journey (click for link) for this one....

  .....inspiration from a great film with Designs by Ryn water droplets (more awesome new raindrops designs available here)

....and then to finish up i used the new Clarity Lesson Kit... combined with the garden mask












Yet again the whole DT has done a fantastic job, I am sure you will agree and we hope you all enjoyed today's show !!

I am off to play with the masks I didn't get round to using for today's shows. Have a happy Friday and a great weekend!!

Crafty cheers for now

Love and hugs

Rae 

xxx

All things bright and beautiful....

Well Happy Good Friday afternoon everyone!!

 

Unbelievable after the last week of weather but I am actually sat out in my garden writing today's Blog !! I am lucky as it is a pretty sheltered suntrap here and doesn't need much to feel almost Mediterranean - ha ha!

 

So this week I have mostly been playing with houses....

 

 

 

 

This first card comes from THE fabulouso Art Houses stamp set by Sam Poole. I am totally diddly gaga about these stamps (means I likes!!!! lol).

These little Flowers are all created from the doorway of one of the stamps....

....and the bright and breezy background has been created using Acrylic paints and Splodgeaway's Pebbly mask.

Today's second offering is from the clarity stable.....

 

 

This uses the new classroom trees (with a twist!) along with Quirky cottages 1 and 2 and the Gate. The bright colours are achieved with a mix of H2O watercolours, Inktense bars and Copic markers.

 

 The fence panels are hand drawn to finish the landscape.

 

I was aiming for a Clarice Cliff style but its been suggested I may of gone more " Hockney" - I'll take either!! Rofl

Well that's all for today, I hope you have lots of relaxation planned for the long Easter weekend, have a fab time whatever you are doing.

Crafty cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx


Ps look who gate crashed the photo sesh.....

 

FELIXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!! :-)

 

 

Getting ready for Easter.....

Well here we are folks - except I shouldn't be!!! Not that I dont love y'all

 

I should be off to while the whole weekend away crafting in the beautiful Peak District but illness has conspired to keep me at home - still hoping I may get there for a day over the weekend but that is going to be down to mother Nature n she is threatening chaos the next 48 hrs!!

 

 

The start of spring (ha ha stop laughing now!) means Easter is right around the corner.

Our chapel along with many others practices Dressing the Cross and everyone is also given an A4 sheet marked with a cross to decorate individually.

I have entered this in the Papermill Easter challenge here

 

 

This is my offering for this year - all Clarity and my fave ribbon technique. I am going to try and do a tutorial on that in the next few weeks.

 

 

These bunnies are adoreable and versatile, they also look great on baby cards.

Well the snow is falling heavily here now - Felix is mostly sulking in the doorway and I am off to make a peppermint tea.

 

 

I hope you like  this. Stay safe this weekend folks wrap up warm and I hope you dont need to venture out too far

 

See you all soon

 

Crafty cheers for now

 

love

 

Rae

 

xxx

 

Birthday Bonanza.......

Happy Wednesday Peeps, Its the halfway hump in the week.

Not my fave day I have to say its neither here nor there dont you think??

 

Anyhow, last night I finally got to have a lovely catch up with one of my best friends for her birthday from last week. My what a busy Birthday week it was for me 3 of my v closest friends and Barbara Gray all on the SAME day, 2 family birthdays, 1 belated birthday and a whole barrage of 18th birthday invites had to be done !!

 

 

Barbara's card..

 

 

For a plane fanatic friend....

 

 

For my cousin.....this clarity stamp is awesome for the Black Magic technique....

 

 

......and this one is was for one of my bessie's - I said I had a thing for circular cards last post didn't I lol....

 

Right I best be away to top up the ready made card box and pack for a lovely crafty retreat this weekend with lovely friends. R n R is def needed......

 

Enjoy the rest of your week

 

Crafty cheers for now

 

Rae

 

xxx

 

 

 

Sunday Splodge...

Good grief where has Spring gone??? Back to Baltic land here......brrrrrrr

 

Hope you have all enjoyed today's Tool Shed on Create and Craft??. Great show as always!! Here are a couple of my samples with all the lovely new goodies.

 

A simple washi tape background topped with the great jigsaw pieces 

This time its spritzing with dylusions and then topped with a tissue stamp of Indigo Blu's new Elizabeth Bennet painted with acrylic and Dylusions

 

Elizabeth's back this time just her face inside a Mineez frame with the fan tail being used to create an embossed dimension on the black background

 

I love clean and simple as much as getting messy and the elegant masks lend themselves to it

 

Another quick and simple mini card ( 4 x 4 in ) with a Mineez and Clarity Dolphin

Then to finish I have gone back to the funky and used several masks and the butterflys

I hope you enjoyed todays show!! I am off for lunch with Mum now enjoy whatever you have planned and I hope to see you back here soon

 

Crafty cheers for now

Love 

Rae

 xx

 



Its finally here...Clarity Challenge time...Anything goes !!!!

 

Well diddly doodly happily dancily - ITS TIME!!!!

 

The Clarity challenge blog launch is finally

here!!!!

Click on the link above and go take a look at the totally fantabulous offerings from the Design Team. We have all been beavering away to come up with a whole range of projects to hopefully inspire you - this months theme is Anything goes. Thats just it - anything at all whatever takes your fancy as long as its Clarity. (check out the full RULES here)

This is my offering the Poppy Heart Box....

 

I utilised the Tall wild poppies and the Wild poppies bottom stamps and a tissue stamping technique to decorate the sides of the box which I had painted out with a combination of cream/pink/brown acrylic paint.

 

The top of the box was direct stamped and coloured using copic markers before all being fixed and sealed with Glue 'n' Seal

 

Embellishments were kept simple - just a little lace some pale pink dew drops and some shell at the base.

 

The metal work was tinted gold with gilding wax - and that was that - a pretty delicate box for all your trinkets, nick nacks and secret sweetheart notes !!! (Ok ok ok who am I kidding - def not in this house - rofl !!!)

 

I hope you like my offering - myself and the rest of the Design Team canny wait to see your awesome projects - SO no dillydallying let your mojo run amok !!  The weekends here, grab a brew, ENJOY and get happy crafty!!!

 

I am off now to get my prep finished for tomorrow's demo day at Crab Apple Crafts. If you are in the Frodsham area why not pop along and say Howdy - lots of lurvely crafty things going on!!

 

Crafty cheers for now

 

Lots of Love

Rae

 

xxx