Diva Red cards

 These are the cards I did yesterday with Moira and Janet at Gissing - far too hot to do anything but craft in a very leisurely way!
The first card was Moira's, inspired by Laura Williams (am sure Moira will correct me if I got the surname wrong) which has an acetate overlay - on mine it is far flatter than the original, which is how I managed to scan it.
The base card is 8" square, and the main panel is 7". The Sheena flower stamps were stamped with stazon and masked, then the background was done using distress inks on a mat, sprayed with water and mopped up - I used old paper, weathered wood and black soot, bit of an odd combo but I didn't have my box of ink pads with me, and that was what was available, and I really liked the result.

Once it was all dry, we used mildew cleaner (yes, I know, that was what we thought - would have been bleach but Moira had run out of it, and it does work!) to bleach out the flowers from the background. I coloured the leaves in with watercolour pencils after bleaching them.
More flowers were stamped onto the acetate with stazon again, then painted on the reverse with acrylic paints - despite the heat it took a time for the acrylics to dry, so we all ended up finishing off later at home.
The other card was based on one
  Janet
did a while ago using shaving foam  marbled card left over from a Clarity workshop, but we used alcohol inks on some new Chromo(?) card from Clarity, which is very shiny - butterflies are spellbinders dies, not sure about the seed head ones.

July technique tags

 The theme for the Chocolate Baroque technique tag challenge for July was to use triple (tiered )stamping - pile up 3 or more pieces of card of decreasing sizes and stamp over the whole lot at one go (it does help to use repositionable glue to hold the layers together before stamping): once these are layered onto matching mats and stuck together, you get a decoupage effect, and the mats hide any missed bits of stamping. It's a simple and effective technique that I have used for cards in the past, so I rashly thought this month's tags would be a doddle.........................

it wasn't, so I will  show some of the discarded efforts as well as the final tags!
 I started by using spellbinder dies to cut out the label shape, and stamped the cottage from patchwork landscapes - so far, ok. You need to colour the layers separately, which was when I coloured some sky as trees having assumed it was a wonky bit of stamping, then I found that the next size up of the dies was way too large, and drawing round the edges of the dies I first used and cutting out the shape was way too fiddly.
Next idea was to use some Sizzix circle dies - and yes, I did check the sizes first this time! I used a stamp from the poppy meadow set of stamps, which was both large enough and easier to colour - snag this time was trying to get a poppy head in the centre of the smallest circle - these were the nearest I got, so a different die shape for the next version. This was a square label by x-cut, which also has to be handcut for the layers, but was a simpler shape to cut, it was also far easier to get the poppy in the centre of the smallest shape.
Snag this time was trying to line up the layers with the base image on the tag - after several botched versions, I had the bright idea of  stamping the base image onto a larger piece of card and cutting it to match the layers - as you can see, it didn't work very well either!
This was when I gave up on the arty versions and went for bog standard simple! Just cut 3 sizes of rectangle in white using a guillotine and 3 matching in blue slightly larger - even with measuring it was far quicker than using dies!
 I layered up one set centrally and the other to one side, stamped in chipped sapphire distress ink and coloured in with a water brush. Layered everything up onto a matching dark blue tag - just need to find a bit of ribbon now before they go in the post.
Was really glad I made an early start this time  - am usually fairly late starting - have even started on the August tags too!

Clarity East today

 Had a lovely messy inky day at Bawburgh with Janet Pring today (we all admired Janet's smart new apron) - still getting ink off my fingers!
We used Janet's set of distress re-inkers, filigraphy stamps and a couple of stencils throughout the day.
The first 7" sq cards involved putting drops of reinker onto a blending mat, spritzing with water then sponging through the block stencil - once that was dry, we sponged a palish ink through the flower stencil to give an indication of where to put the cut-out stamped petals and leaves. Yes, I believe the designer's  original  idea was to stamp over the stencilled image - you need very good eyesight and co-ordination to do this, way beyond us, so we trimmed the background card down to size then stamped, cut out and glued!
We used our own version of multicolour inkpads, mostly using the same reinkers we used in the background - I  did add stickles glitter glue over the flower petals (thanks Jeannette)- matt is a mid blue grey colour, not as dark as seems in the scan.
We had a set of stencils each, so I tried a different colour combination while waiting for the first one to dry, but used the distress ink pads and brushes - background was scattered straw and wild honey, and I stamped the flower with rusty hinge, and used spare leaves from the first card.

 The second card again used our DIY inkpads and some of the smaller stamps stamped randomly to create the background. We cut this up into 5cm wide strips, and I darkened the edges with stormy sky and dusty concord before matting them onto the purple card and adding flowers from Janet's collection. Sentiment stamped in dusty concord onto a strip of paper sponged with ink picked up from the DIY pads.
Our afternoon session was even messier - we had great fun with shaving foam marbling! Fortunately there was lots of spare card, as we all ended up with piles of backgrounds - all went swimmingly until we came to the stencil bit............. This involved putting the flower stencil over a sheet of card, the using a spreader to splodge the inked shaving foam through the stencil, scraping it off and leaving to dry before adding more foam to tint the background - well, that was the idea, and Janet had 2 lovely samples to prove it could be done........
The foam had other ideas, got under the stencil, splodged everywhere when we scraped it off - you name it, it did it!
we did eventually end up with sort-of ok in many cases, with a few people managing lovely clean prints to the great envy of the rest of us.
We edged the image with pens before trimming down and matting onto a marbled background and onto a white card blank.

June tags

 These are my tags for this month's  Chocolate Baroque technique challenge - Margaret asked us to use a masterboard this month.
I used two different ones for these, the toppers are the same though.
For the first one I dug out my long disused glimmermist sprays, and sprayed an A4 sheet with 2 different blues and a silver before stamping using various CB butterfly stamps from the 'orphan' box in night of navy SU ink - I also used a Crafty Individuals dragonfly stamp in silver. It was quite difficult to get a photo due to the shine of the glimmermists, and I have replaced the photos with scans.
The second base I used distress inks, mostly broken china and chipped sapphire, before stamping with a Crafty Individuals dragonfly background stamp in chipped sapphire. A small CI butterfly stamp and an old Elusive Images oriental butterfly in a purple ink, with a script stamp and an alphabet stamp from the mini scripts set filled in the gaps with forest moss ink.
The poppy image on both tags is from poppy meadow, stamped in black versafine , coloured with promarkers and cut out. The butterflies were part of the main image from butterfly flourish, also in versafine but clear embossed before colouring with promarkers again, but adding a spray of silver sparkle.
I used pinflair glue gel to stick them onto the tags to give a bit of dimension.

tranquility

 I fell in love with this Clarity Stamp stencil, and couldn't resist trying it out with the large stamp from the Chocolate Baroque tranquility stamp set, especially as the bullrushes sort of match!
The stencil is a 7"x7" two-part one, with an inner and an outer, and I used both - admittedly, the outer one was just to show the space I had to stamp in. I lightly pencilled round the inside of the frame on a 6"x6" piece of white card before removing the outer stencil and stamping the figure. I wanted a dreamy misty look, so used versafine smoky grey to stamp with, and watercolour pencils to add some colour to the statue. I was trying to get the effect of moss and lichen on an old statue. The background was sponged with distress inks, mainly broken china and peeled paint, and some foliage from the same set was added at the top. I then tried to match up the inner stencil over the stamped image and sponged round it with a mix of forest moss, tea dye and chipped sapphire inks - forest moss seems to have come out as the dominant colour, but the others are there.
A simple mat of green card before mounting onto a
white 8"x8" card blank.
The second version uses the same sizes, this time with a cream base card. This time I reversed the stencil and twisted it around so that the bullrushes matched better with the stamp, and stamped the image with butterscotch adirondack ink. I coloured the image with the same ink using a waterbrush and added touches of peeled paint distress ink, a more definite image and more resembling stone.
Background with distress inks in tumbled glass, peeled paint and faded jeans using inkduster brushes and the traditional torn copy paper.
The stencil was sponged round with tea dye ink for the bullrushes and forest moss for the rest, this time dragging some of the ink to the edges of the card.
Mounts were dull gold and green, card blank is a cream pearlescent - wording is a Penny Black stamp I found when rummaging in a sale bin at the last Thetford show, a bargain at 50p!

lots of owls

Since Moira introduced me to the Hobby Art owl stamps, I have become quite addicted to these cute little guys - and I don't normally do cute! Customers at the Country Market like them too, and they often go as quickly as I can make them, it does take ages cutting them out. They are all coloured with promarkers and on distress ink backgrounds.
Branches on the edge of cards are using a Clarity stamp stencil, and the tree trunks in the background of another are also from a Clarity stencil.
The woodgrain effect was done using a Sizzix embossing folder, inking it up with brown ink and then pressing a  sheet of paper over the top - I repeated this 3 times to cover an A4 sheet of card, so that I could cut out two 6"sq pieces. Distress inks in brown and green were randomly sponged on the card to create a weathered effect, then i used a small circle die to cut the nest hole out.
The cut out bit was sponged with darker inks, then glued in place on the base card - place the main piece of card on the base first, then glue the cutout into the hole to make sure it all fits properly. The big owl was glued onto the 'hole' piece, the the main piece of card glued down and the baby owls perched on the rim of the hole. Remaining big owl sits on a diecut branch from the Stampin Up bird punch.

Clarity East workshop

 Had a lovely day today at the Clarity East workshop with Janet Pring - we used the same woodland stencil set,  moon masks and  woodland animals stamp set all day.
The first card used the outer stencil - after taping the stencil down we created a landscape using the now traditional torn copy paper before stamping the deer. I used Stampin Up inkpads in night of navy and pear pizazz as my adirondack pads are sadly drying up, but borrowed Janet's espresso adirondack for the deer.
Our second card used both parts of the stencil, and practically every brown inkpad I could lay my hands on, and that was quite a few! We began with the inner stencil, and sponged ink around it to make a frame - I know I started with adirondack espresso, and I think latte, watermelon and butterscotch were the main others, but not sure by now.

 After finishing the frame, we carefully taped the outer stencil over the inked bit and added the landscape and whatever animals we felt like - I couldn't resist adding the owl. However carefully the stencils were lined up, I think everyone had a halo image by the time we had finished.............
I always take plenty of spare card with me, so had time to do another version while waiting for the stamps to get to me - basically the same colours, but this time I didn't ink round the edges of the card, and I did manage a smaller halo this time.
For the third card after lunch we used a gelli plate, but with inks rather than acrylic paints - I definitely prefer this effect, I may even be persuaded to get a gelli plate yet!

We used two colours of ink brayered onto the card and either dabbed with a sponge or spritzed with water before taking a print - we all had several pieces of card for this, as it was quite easy to put the card the wrong way and get the colour bands going the wrong way as it was quite difficult to see which way the stripes went.
After creating our basic background, we added the large moon mask and sponged round it, then created our torn paper landscape. The first one used caramel and cranberry inks as a base, and butterscotch and cranberry for the stamping. The foliage round the edges was a wild grasses stamp, stamped the right way up
at the bottom and upside down at the top.
For my second version I chose different colours, I know the green was juniper but can't remember what the dark purply blue was, sorry. This time I used part of the woodland inner stencil for the tree.