Fairy at the bottom of the garden!

Good morning (actually its last night, but it will be morning when this goes live) Here is another of my Clarity Pick of the Week cards.  This is using the lovely Fairy and Toadstools.

Thats it for today (or last night, tired now) I am on Create & Craft again today at 8am, 2pm,6pm, If your still unsure about putting the Storybook together you should tune in, would love you to join me!

Some Hunkydory 3 for 2 cards.

Good morning all, the sun is out and its warm! The only problem with that is that it makes me want to sit in the garden instead of working, maybe I will allow myself a sun break later. I have been busy at the weekend making samples and prepping demo's for the Hunkydory Pick of the Day, so here are a taster of the samples.

This is an 8x8 card using the mens vintage kit,  I halved one of the postage stamp cardblanks and inked it around the edges, used a little topper, one of the cards in the kit, some brown dottie silk art and some mirri.

 This is using the Ladies vintage kit, I halved one of the shaped card blanks and scored to make the card shape,covered in patterned paper from the kit, mounted the little topper onto a mini card and punched some buttons from dottie and swirly silk art card.

 This is an 8x8 using the Poppy kit and some red curly wurly silk art card, and some mirri of course!

Dont forget that every item on the shows is included in the 3 for 2 offer for today only! so dont miss out. Anne-Marie still has loads of demo's to do, so please join her on Create & Craft and Ideal World.

See you tomorrow for some more cards!

Brain is asleep,cant think of a title, but here's a Clarity card!

No really, the brain is on a serious go-slow today. Its all happening all at once and I need a list remind myself to make a list!!! Then I need a note to remind me to remember the list...

I have decorating to do, new shelves for the temple (my craft room), clean the decking, go shopping, order hutch jackets to keep the outside bunnies warm in winter, clean the fishtank out, go the bank, laundry, eat something, mow the lawn, put the fireplace back (long story), finish personal cards, buy Mart's birthday present, then back in work tomorrow! Stoppppppp, i wanna get off!

And I didnt even get time to show you some of my Clarity cards from the Pick of the week, so best make a start now hadnt I!

I was really pleased with the artwork on this one but then decided the setting was rubbish, but I didnt want to damage the picture by trying to take it back off.

This one is a version of one of my cards that Barbara demo'd, its using the bouncing brayer technique-try it, its theraputic!

Right back to it, I just remembered another job- go buy the wall fixings for the tv bracket, £55 for a wall bracket but you have to buy the screws separately, how does that work!!!

One more sleep!!!!

If you think your excited about the launch of the Claritystamp Pick of the Week, just imagine how excited us Clarity dt girls (and lovely Paul) are, we neeeeeed that double Dvd!!!!!

There are also tons of fantastic stamps on the shows too,so get your order in and set the box to record so you dont miss any of the stunning demo's.

Did I mention I am excited!

2 blog posts on the same day!

2 blog posts in 1 day!

Firstly, thanks to everybody who joined me for the Hunkydory shows, and everybody who emailed.

Im in the green room waiting to go into the studio for the 4pm Hunkydory show, and I realised you still hav'nt seen some of my Clarity cards from the last Clarity weekend.  So I thought i would schedule a couple of posts to pass the time/keep me out of mischief.

This is using the Shepherds set.  I stamped on my cardblank and cut it out to form an aperture.  I then stamped onto double sided adhesive. I cut the backing into sections and covered the sections with Diamond Sparkles, Gold leaf strips and flakes, and coloured bits with copics.

I then attached decorated panel to the back of my aperture.

I think these will be great for my 'religious' cards.

Thanks for looking!



A catch up, and some tv show times.

Good morning all, I cant believe its Wednesday again, someone please stop that clock for 5 minutes!!!  A quick catch up then, I say quick not because there's not much to say but because there's not much time.  The weekend was fantastic at Harrogate, I met some really lovely people and catch up with friends old and new.  Elaine and I were waited on hand and foot on Saturday night when we stayed at Len & Heather's, theres a lot to be said for a man that can cook!

Monday, I was pretty much out of it, definiteely needed the rest.  Yesterday I was back in Preston preparing for todays show's, which leads on nicely to telling the times.

11am, 4pm and 7pm all on Create and Craft.

I hope I can stay awake long enough, I may have been in the worst hotel in the whole of Peterborough last night!

I got to go, typing one handed while curling hair has not been completely successful!

Hope you can catch the shows later, have a good day whatever your up to.

Its not Billy Goat Gruff, its a Yule Goat!

Good morning-ish, its wet on The Wirral but we seem to have been spared most of the horrible high winds, so cant complain really.

Today I thought id show you one of my Claritystamp Yule Goat cards.  This is an 8x8, displaying (as always) my wonderful photographic skills!

I inked with Expresso Adirondack and coloured with Promarkers. The lovely linen binding was given to me by the lovely Sue Wilson a few weeks ago, I knew it would be perfect for my Clarity cards.  The gems, card base and co-ordinates card stock are all from Cardcraft Plus.

Links to go shopping are over on the right, as always.

Have a great day gang!

Another quick peek,shhhh dont tell the boss!

Well I may or may not get my legs smacked for showing you, but I couldnt contain myself- you have to see the lovely 'Window' designs in the POD! The colours, the new poetry, the new designs,!

You can see the whole kit including the other new shaped pieces tonight at 9pm on Ideal World for the launch.

Dont forget to email the studio, Anne-Marie would love to hear from you!

Hunkydory Pick of the Day!

You know how I like to pull a kit to pieces and do something different with it right? (its the rebel in me)

Well here is a couple of quick alternative ideas for using the very beautiful Window to the Heart kit that Anne-Marie will be launching at 9pm tomorrow (Tuesday) on Ideal World.  There is also some new design foiled card too- dont miss it!

Thanks for looking!

I missed it on TV!

Im gutted that I didnt get to watch the Clarity shows on C&C this morning, I promised to take the kids to the car boot sale at Tranmere Rovers.  I would probably be wasting my time 'trying' to watch anyway because the internet connection was shocking yesterday when i tried to watch the In the Classroom show.  So if anyone wants to take pity on me and stick the Clarity shows on disc and send it to me.......

Here is a card using the Poppy stamp.

I coloured with PM's and then masked/stamped some of the flowers, and just doodled swirls in others.

Thanks for looking!

Workshop dates for September

Happy Thursday to you!

Its a bit noisy where I am right now, its amazing how hard a little kid can throw a huge heavy bowling ball isnt it.  ooh spoke too soon, burger and chips x 3 has just arrived so its gone quiet for 2/3 minutes.  Steve is in the lead with 40, his young lady is on 6 and Amber has managed 7 so far-there will be no living with Steve if he whitewashes them,yes really!

Anyway, while Im sat around trying not to cramp their style I thought it would be a good time to let you know the dates for my September workshops so far.

Wednesday 7th Sept   Rubber stamping Techniques.

Saturday 17th Sept Clarity Rubber Stamping, using the stunning Calligraphy Tree.

For more details and to book onto these or any of the other great workshops call 01772880852 or visit the website http://www.cardcraftplus.co.uk/

See you tomorrow!

Reflection/mirror technique, Clarity Dove but no brayer.

Good morning, its not noon just yet so its still morning!

A lady was talking about this card on a forum recently which started a discussion about the reflection/mirror technique, so I thought I would share the info on this particular card.

I didnt actually employ a reflection technique because I stamped onto velum, the translucency meant I could just turn it 'back to front' without losing any detail or depth of ink colour, I did the same for the extra wings that dont show up too well in the picture.  I coloured with white gel pen but bould have used an embossing tool for the same white effect and more dimension to the feathers.  Nothing scary there is there, go and get your velum out then!

The stamps are available from the Clarity shop,

The beautiful embossed card etc is from Hunkydory/ Cardcraft Plus, links to both shops can be found over on the right, toward the top-------->

Thanks for looking, hopefully see you tomorrow!

Diddy little Hunkydory card.

Where does the time go to, someone please tell me!  I promised I would show you the diddy little Easel I made on Create & Craft on Friday, well its only Tueday so better late than never.

This is using just 3 of the tiny toppers on one of the Christmas BOGOF topper sheets.

The sizes are

Silk Art card base  18cm x 12cm

3 x pieces to mount toppers  6cm x 6cm

Can you work out how to make it, shout me if you cant!

Short one today, I have much to do.

See you tomorrow for a Clarity card, have a good day!

Clarity Snowflake bauble card.

Good morning to you, are you having a chilled out Sunday morning? me too, infact I might still be in bed- Its actually Saturday night and im scheduling this to go live on Sunday morning, is that cheating?

Im off work for a week now, but already I have surrendered to the call of the inkpad! I have a handful of cards to do for Barbara, but I wont be able to show you just yet.

Sooo, I thought I would show you a card using the lovely new snowflake stamps.

I stamped and clear embossed the smallest snowflake and then inked over.

The large flakes were gold embossed onto the nesty die-cut baubles and layered up.

The verse was gold embossed

I edged with gold pen, added some peel-offs that Christine Bell kindly gave me a couple of weeks ago, finished with a few gems from Hunkydory.

Thanks for looking!

A hand up my dress!

Im not often seen in a dress, and today was the first time on tv, oops.  When the soundman comes with your mic pack you have to clip the mic, hide the wire under your top and clip it onto the back of your skirt/trousers, they can access it easily if there is a problem.  If your wearing a dress and there is a problem the man has to stick his hand up your dress while you smile nicely for the camera! Fantastic, its been about 4 years since anyone had there hand up my clothes!

Anyways,, here is one of the cards i made on this mornings show

Will photograph the little diddy one later for you!

Join me at 4pm for some non-christmas crafting.

As promised,3 panel Acetate card, quick 'how to'.

Im having a small (very small at this point) episode, because I cant find the Rocking Snowglobe I brought home, its probably somewhere obvious like...in the fridge or the microwave-yes i do things like that too when im not with it!

The good news is the 3 panel card didnt go AWOL, so here it is, hope its helpful.

Remove all the die-cut pieces from your 3 panel, leaving a solid panel and 2 apertures

Put double sided tape around the frames of both apertures

remove dst and attach shaped acetate to aperture

fold other aperture over acetate covered aperture, you know have your basic card

attach foiled topper to the front of card and turn over to attach the matching unfoiled topper to the back of the aceatate window, line up with the topper on the front to be sure you have no 'workings' showing.

Your done!

I will hunt for the snowglobe asap, in the meantime I am supposed to be packing for Peterborough! Would love you to join me at 11am and 4pm tomorrow on Create and Craft.

Have a great day one and all.

x

Am I too much of a twit for twitter?

Probably yes! but I thought it might be time to check it out- with the help of the lovely Nikky Hall from Polkadoodles, she is soooo techy!  So once you are registered you have to install bits and bobs so you can get the most out of it and stuff, then try and install it on my phone-not been succesful with that yet but my phone doesnt like me very much anyway.

Soooo, If your a tweeter (is that what its called?) and you would like to follow my ramblings, my username is MariaSimms1

And if your already following, thank you!

Would you like to see a card today?

 here is an A5 card using one of the new Snowflakes and matching verse from Claritystamp.

I stamped onto heat resistant Acetate using Versamark, and embossed white.

I stamped the verse onto black using Versamagic cloud white- its better than the white brilliance pad.

The punch is an EK from Cardcraft Plus, the swirl card is from The Paper Mill Shop, Acetate is from Crafters Companion, Mirri is from Cardcraft Plus.

I will try and get some Hunkydory samples photographed later or tomorrow for you.

Im sat here in my Pj's and its 3pm, time to put the computer away and do some work!

Thanks for stopping by, hope your weekend is going well.

Hugs!

A rude awakening- literally!!!

Forget showing you a card today, I have something far juicier to tell you!

I woke up early hours, in my hotel room, to the sound of tapping, the tapping turned into knocking, the knocking became very insistant. Now, you probably wont know this but its not a great idea to disturb my sleep- i turn into a proper dragon!  So, I stomped out of bed and went to have a look to see what was going on, and there in the corridor stood a bloke STARK NAKED!  It was not pretty if im honest, so my response was "Shut the hell up and go get a key, and cover the chipolata while your at it"  On reflection, I could have politely suggested he visit reception for assistance, nah!

Anyway, its a lovely day in Peterborough, Im just in the Green Room watching Steph on screen painting, I must have a go!
I might post a card later, time allowing. If your not busy why not join me at 11am, 3pm, 6pm on Create & Craft.

Have a good day gang!

Its soooo Hunkydory!

Hopefully this post will go live on Friday morning, im scheduling it before i go to bed-alarm set for 6am!  Just a couple more card reminders using the POTD kits from last week, I will be doing a total of 6 create & craft shows on Friday/Saturday using this kit and the Twas the night, and my personal fave Frosted Christmas Elegance.

I feel all nervous again because I have'nt done any shows for about 6 weeks,silly woman, whats the worst that can happen on live tv! erm....

Right, its approaching 11pm (thursday night) so im off!

Hope you can catch the shows, i love to hear from you all.

Verrrrry quick reminder, while I remember!

Very quick are the key words, I have about 8 mins to get Stevie and his golf clubs 4 miles away!  Then i have to pack the car ready to leave for Peterborough.

So, just reminding you that I will be on Create & Craft tomorrow and Saturday for 6 shows, the first one is 9am tomorrow.

I will be demo-ing 3 of your fave Hunkydory collections.

Would love to hear from you if you have time to email the studio!

Have a good day.