Clarity Challenge - In the garden

When is a Clarity Blooming Corner not a corner? When it is stamped repeatedly, hand-drawn leaves added, coloured, then cut up into individual flowers and sprays and randomly arranged to create a beautiful foreground to the "In the garden" Clarity Challenge.

I started the process by stamping the the Clarity Stamp Blooming Corner 21 times on a piece of white card.  With the corner not featuring any leaves, I added these to each of the corner stamped images with a black micron pen.  I then coloured all the flowers and leaves using a selection of 10 shades of pinky-purple spectrum noir pencils for the petals and 3 shades of green for the leaves.  Once all the colouring was complete, I cut them all up to create a selection of flowers, mostly individual flowers but also a handful of multiple flower sprays.  The flowers were then shaped by lightly embossing the back to create a dome, these were then arranged around the outside of the prepared background.  The photo does not do justice to the depth of the flowers.  

The prepared background had been created using the Clarity Birdhouse stamp set, using Spectrum Noir pencils to enhance the texture of the birdhouse and fence.  The vine from the Birdhouse originally framed the whole background but this has been covered on all but the top of the design.

At first this was designed as a card, but the work it took and the fact the flowers and leaves hung over the edges it has become an artwork that shall be framed for display in a box frame.

An idea, that sprang to mind when I heard the challenge title, really turned out rather therapeutic with lots of colouring.  I'm sure I will be using this technique again, but maybe on a smaller arrangement!

Clarity Challenge - Love - Feb2016

This is the Valentine card I made for my Hubby, who is so kind and thoughtful and has taken the household reins whilst I have been working away, so heartfelt love to him.

Although it might not be that obvious all of the stamps are Clarity, with a bit of a twist.

The L is quite obvious with the Elegant Lady stamp and the hand drawn shadow.

The O is made from the leaves from the naked tree set, with the addition of the little bird from the birdhouse set (at 10 o'clock on the wreath).

The V gave me the greatest challenge with the two sides of the Blooming corner masked off one at a time and stamped at the appropriate angle.

The E is sponged through a letter stencil (of my own making) then the Butterfly from the Butterfly tree stamped through the stencil.

The 4 images were stamped on individual cards then edged with Promarkers to give the impression of greater depth, before attaching to the background card.  The use of a sepia colour joins the individual images.

Clarity words

 This months entry for the Clarity challenge. http://claritystampchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/challenge-15.html

The theme was words, so I was limited to a handful of words that I currently own (and no poems).  Although I have created many cards using the wonderfully useful letter box, I set myself the challenge to us the single word "Dream", which I had not previously used.  

Most of the card was created with watercolour pencils, which were wet-brushed after direct application, to soften the look.  The Clarity stamps used were the fence and birds from the birdhouse set (using Promarkers to create the shadow).  The split tree was used to create the grass and plants near the fence.  Then the inspiration for the whole card, the word "Dream" from the Birdcage set.

I would also like to add a few words in tribute to Maya Angelou, who died this week.  I was only recently introduced to the words of this inspirational lady; introduced by another inspirational lady Barbara Gray.  I have since read a number of her works and would encourage you to take the trouble to look her up.

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 
― Maya Angelou

Clarity birdhouse stamps

My entry to the 'build a scene' challenge on the Clarity stamp blog.  The bird house stamps where a present from Santa, and this was my very first play!  I can see that I will be having great fun with these stamps.

The background was created with sponging across the edge of torn paper, then the silhouette birdhouse stamps stamped on the background card.  The coloured foreground was then created on translucent paper with alcohol inks.