Clarity August Challenge ...Animals

 

This is my entry for Clarity August Challenge which just happens to be Animals this month, since May I haven't had much Crafty time with having the builders in so after 3 months I was having withdrawal symptoms, as it is Bank Holiday weekend I have allowed myself some ME time.

 

 

This card came about by accident. This morning the postie delivered 2 letters one was an early birthday card from my lovely sister Sue the other was 2 clarity stencils from C& C.

The birthday card is really beautiful but I will save it for a blog entry on my birthday.... but I rang my sister to say the card had arrived safely and admitted I had opened it and how had she made the background .... so after lunch I came up here to the attic and using the dove stencil I tried to recreate what she had explained . Three attempts later I had a background I could use, so then I went on to make this card.

The background was made using Clarity coated card which I splodged with Worn Lipstick & Peacock Feather distress ink, while I was waiting for it to dry I coated the dove stencil with Perfect Medium and laid it face up on the base plate of my Grand Calibur and then carefully laid the clarity card face down onto the stencil, using my cutting mat to make the sandwich, because I only wanted to transfer the perfect medium evenly onto the card not emboss it. I undid the sandwich and sprinkled with clear embossing powder which I heated up, then I smeared it lightly with Black Soot distress ink and once dry I buffed it up with a soft cloth to reveal the pink and blue colour.

Anyway having spent a couple of hours making this background I thought I had better use it ... out came the Clarity Dove of Peace & Peace stamps and my card made. I realised that by using the doves and the decoupaged dove topper  I could enter it into the Clarity August Challenge 'Animals'. So I'm off to the Clarity Challenge page to enter .... bye for now xx Annie

F&F challenge #95 Bingo card

I love the idea of this challenge and my first instinct was to go for the 'Full House' and make what I laughingly call my 'Pizza style' cards with loads of embellies on, but this time I thought 'No' I would try to restrict myself to a few items and see what happened! so here it is:

 

I know the old saying is ' blue & green should never be seen' but I do like certain shades of green with blue. I found some coredinations card in a midnight colour which I ran through with garden trellis embossing folder when I sanded it back it was just a paler blue reveal so I swiped peacock feather distress ink over it and then that gave me my colour scheme - blue and teal.

The topper was made using Poppy stencils Fantasy Willow with dimensional paste ... a new technique for me .. it took several goes to get a result because I was being too heavy handed and squishing the paste under the stencil. I do love the effect which is much more dimensional than this photo shows, when the paste had dried I used my new fave thing ..gilding wax in fabulous patina colour this made the tree look even more pearly. The rest was just matting and layering which I die cut with spellbinders grand rectangles which are an absolute 'must have' for someone like me who can't cut a straight edge freehand. A piece of ribbon and a button and a stamped sentiment and I was done.

So my Bingo card line is Blue, Diecut and Ribbon ... not quite as minimal as I hoped as I did use a button and (teal) green from the other lines ... but I really did enjoy this challenge, I find doing these challenges really makes me think outside my comfort zone and  sometimes I like the end result! hope you have a go and enjoy yourself as much as I did.. Bye for now till next time xxx Annie