#44

Circles and Squares

Hi There Everyone!

Its been a while since I blogged and entered a challenge - one thing or another life has its knack of getting in the way - like my Mum turning 80, work being never ending and oops here we are mid October already!

This months title pulled me in - Circles And Squares - took me back to the 70's and 80's..... Spirograph and colouring books that were geometric patterns.

So out came the groovi folder and off I went with the nested Circles and Squares;

Next I started pricking some pf the arcs using my diagonal pricking grid;

Then I started on my colouring and white work;

And finally the piquet edging before mounting on to a complimentary colour using tiny brads.

Hope you like it!

Crafty Hugs and Winks

Kim xx

Fussy Cutting - Clarity August Challenge

Well it's been a while since I blogged but this months challenge tempted me to get creative and find some time to make a card and blog it, so here goes!

My first step was to blend four distress inks together that spoke Autumn to me.... I just love the colours of Autumn and every day for the last couple of weeks as I drive to work I see the early signs of Autumn beginning.

Once I had blended the inks I lightly spritzed and then blotted with some kitchen roll and then let it thoroughly dry.  Once dry I then stamped in Sepia Archival as many leaf stamps as I could along with the Autumn sentiment.

Then came the fussy cutting with scissors and craft knife

Flipped each leaf over and blended some of the vintage photo ink to take away the white edges 

And lastly started to shape the leaves with a ball tool, keeping some flat and then gradually getting deeper.

Lastly I arranged them all on black card ( as I felt this really made the colours pop) to resemble a pile of fallen leaves and then placed the sentiment to the side.

Hope you like it! 

Clarity Calendar Challenge 4

BIRDS IN A ROW

Well hello everyone - 10th April already! - where is this year 'flying' off too LOL - seriously though - April already - Christmas only seems a couple of weeks ago.....

Well today it took me two attempts before I settled on this one - not having a canvas with some colour on already proved a challenge and then trying to match colours when I didn't have them - so this is take two which I am really happy with - so I hope you like it too!!

Much Love

Kim xx

Calendar Challenge 3

So here is my entry for this months Calendar Challenge... On the face of it you think oh that's going to be hard... But follow the step by step and you're well on your way!

Hope you like it and I love this sentiment.

Much love Kimmy

All About The Girls

Hi there everyone,

Another month and another challenge.... this month is All about the girls - well I am not a girly girl, never have been - much to my Mums despair!! I love looking at girly things - admire much of it, but am not one for bright and flouncy things - so when I thought about what I would make I steered away from anything really girly as its just not me!

Like most people I surf the net for inspiration and discovering new techniques .... well new to me.

Recently when sharing a crafty session with friends I was introduced to the wonderful world of masterboards and have since spent many hours watching YouTube clips to get the ideas and the process - so I decided this was my starting point.

I took a plain piece of card and a small perspex block which I wrapped some thick twine around, took  a Meadow Adirondack ink pad and started stamping an alternate criss cross design across the card base - it was subtle - but I liked it.

Next I brayered in a mix of Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade Distress ink pads to build up the colour, then - using the small leafy swirl stamp - I stamped second generation Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I then took the large and small Gerbera Stamp - and using Black Onyx Versafine - stamped part of the card.

I then stamped my sentiment - January NDC 2016 - Life is Just Not Long Enough - so very true for us crafters!!!

I then used my distress ink marker pens to colour in the flowers and highlighted them with a wink of stella pen - just to add a bit of glimmer (sadly the photo does not really show this).

I then chomped my corners and mounted this on to black card and decided to go for a Kraft Card Base - but it looked in need of something - after much back and forth with various embellishments I settle on some burlap.

Hope you like it!

Much Love

Kimmy xx

Clarity Calendar Challenge 2

Hello everyone

Have had a lovely day off work today spent with some great friends. 

We all had a go at the Calendar Challenge for this month and this is my attempt!

Am really pleased with the outcome as I love this stamp - hope you all like it!

Love - Clarity February Challenge

Well Hello there on this rather chilly Valentines Day!

I have been playing around with my clarity stamps, pencils, acrylic paints, glossy accents some ribbon and a few heart shaped buttons!

The first thing I did was drawn a heart lightly in pencil on to a piece of card - then I created a post-it note mask for the posy stamp - from the bike and posy set  - next - using archival black ink - I started to stamp around my pencil line carefully masking one set before stamping the next until I had created a heart shaped wreath of flowers.

Next - using the wordpress letter set  I stamped out Happy Valentines Day. I coloured in the flowers with my colouring pencils and then carefully cut the shape out and mounted it on to some coloured card stock.

Next I dry rolled acrylic paint on to some white card stock - I used avocado and pink - using a red small brayer - the red roller gives a different effect than the softball brayer - you lightly walk the paint over the card. I then stamped the dragonfly stamp from the Lucky set (lucky in love) - and then brayered over the top with the metallic glaze from the paper artsy chalk paints set.

Matting and layering came next - on to black card with the corner chomped with a heart shaped top - some lemon ribbon tied with a bow, the heart is mounted on foam pads and finally some heart shaped buttons!

Hope you like it!

Kimmy xx

Clarity Challenge

Clarity Calendar Challenge

Hi everyone

Today on Barbara Grays blog she has set the task of people challenging themselves... You know, that reach for the stars approach!
So today I have made a start by firstly add two blog links to my page and - all things being equal - added a link to the new monthly challenge at the top of this blog!

You know that saying... You learn something every day... Well today I have just by being challenged !

So the next step is to actual submit a piece of work on that link above !  .... See you all on the other side - are you up for a challenge too?

In the mean time a little bit of Clarity Stamp meets Groovi.

I watched Maria in Crowborough last summer where she demoed stamps and groovi together. First stamp your chosen image in archival, heat tool to dry the image, flip over and groovi to your hearts content and colour in your stamp - on this one I used pro markers- mounted on card with the punched corners.

Much love
Kim