All at Sea, or Captain Flint

This was made for a family member who used to be a keen sailor, but it also reminds me of a childhood spent reading Swallows and Amazons, and the Amazons Uncle "Captain Flint"

The rope wreath was lightly embossed into the card and then gently coloured with brushes over the replaced stencil. The main image is coloured with pencils.

Shopping our Stash 236: Inspired by a Book

SuperChuffed to have made the top 3






Simon Says Wednesday: Anything Goes
Stamplorations - CAS January
Stamplorations - Theme (Sketch and/or CAS - I've just gone CAS)

Christmas in January

Today is Candlemas, so our church service this morning was a slightly odd combination of a Mozart mass, worship songs, incense and candles. It serves as a reminder that Christmas truly lasts 40 days, so I pulled out this Candle stamp to honour the day.

If it'd be more organised I'd have used it last week for 52CCT, but I wasn't :-)

I was playing around with faux panelling yesterday, and decided to repeat that today to transform the CAS Colours and Sketches image into a one layer version. I think I pulled it off OK.

Color Throwdown 377: Kraft, Grey and Yellow
CAS Colours and Sketches #158
One Layer Christmas #24
Addicted to Stamps and More #178: Holiday

Clarity Calendar - Jan

Any fellow Clarity addicts are likely to have the 2016 Clarity Calendar. I think it scores a perfect hattrick for any crafter

1. Beautiful artwork from Barbara Gray to cheer you through the year
2. Detailed (pictures and words) instructions so you can create your own version of the masterpieces
3. A new challenge encouraging us all to submit our reproductions for review :-)

Well it encouraged me take down the calendar and have a bash anyway. I'll be honest, and say I'd tried this once before at a Clarity Retreat. I hadn't been terribly happy with what I produced, however, with more time, and fewer distractions I am much prouder of this effort.

Clarity Calendar Challenge - January

100th Blog - Clarity Daffs

I know, I know, blog posts and I can be a bit like buses - none for ages, and then (wait for it) four all at once. Can you tell I allowed myself a crafty weekend?

In honour of this momentous number of blogs I've decided to load my monthly Clarity challenge entry first. Barbara continues to be my inspiration, and I have so many Clarity stamps that I just have to make myself use them to make beautiful artwork.

This month's challenge was 'Say it with Flowers'. Running out of time, and needing a card to be sent abroad (i.e. flat and light) I took the simple Daffodil Square and coloured it with pencils. The palette is courtesy of Colour Q, and the Tic Tac Toe over at Just us Girls helped me decide how to put it together, as I whipped out a couple of Spellbinder dies to quickly and neatly create a topper and matting layer.

Clarity Challenge 35 - Say it with Flowers
Just us Girls 328 - Tic Tac Toe (Dies, Stamps, Flowers)
Just Add Ink 296 - Just Add Nature
Colour Q 326 - Chocolate Chip, Wisteria Wonder, Old Oliver, Daffodil Delight

Wedding Blessings

Sorry, I've been slacking busy with other things, again. But, much to my amazement, in the interim I've acquired a couple of followers. Thank you, and welcome, I hope you continue to like what you see.

Christmas cards all made and sent, and a few thank you cards also in the post, the new year heralds other card making opportunities, starting with a friend's upcoming wedding.

The design is inspired by their wedding stationery, which has a smart bold navy blue swirl, and more of a dot matrix version behind. I've tweaked this slightly going with a muted coloured, smaller version of the swirl in the background.

Thank you to Less is More for challenging me to use my flourish with only one layer and Always Playing with Paper for the spin on the colour scheme (although I confess my teal went a bit more turquoise)

Less is More 258 - One Layer, Flourish
Always Playing with Paper 56 - Colour: Navy, Teal, White and Orange
Stampin Royalty 312 - One Layer