Poppies to Remember

Each year the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we observe a Two Minute Silence. Armistice Day on 11th November marks the end of the First World War and is a day to remember and honour those who have paid the price for our freedom. It is a day about paying tribute not only those who died but also to their families, those who were injured and those who survived.

The poppy was adopted as a symbol of Remembrance after the First World War. When the children were younger, we would arrange play days with their friends and sit and make lots of things with poppies on. I always thought it was such a great way to sit and teach them the importance of Remembrance Day and feel proud to wear the items they made alongside the traditional paper poppy they usually got from school. The children grew up and play dates stopped happening but they never forget the importance of the day. I still create something or another with a poppy at this time of the year that I can wear and/or put on my worktable. I love poppies and are really special to me on a personal level.

So today, let's create something with poppies on. I fell in love with the Art Nouveau Poppies Groovi Plate Set (http://www.claritystamp.co.uk/Groovi/19357-/Art-Nouveau-Poppies-Groovi-Plate-Set) the minute I saw them and have been dying to use them. Today I had a day at home so was determined to create something special while I had a chance and share the step by steps if you are interested in creating it too.

1.) With the matt side down, emboss the outline of the poppy design and circle on red parchment using the No.1 embossing tool from the Art Nouveau Poppies Groovi Plate A5 Square. Front will look like this :-

 

2.) Emboss the outer two squares from the Square Nesting Groovi A5 plate so the poppy design sits on the right hand side on the square (you can have it on the other side if you wish) on the back. Front will look something like this :-

3) On the back, on the left side emboss a border of poppies from the Art Nouveau Poppies Groovi Border Plate so the front looks like this :-

4.) In the space between the inside square and the round poppy design emboss using the Large Lace Netting Groovi Plate A5 Square. Front view is :-

5.) Let's put some lace work in the square border. I choose to use the Straight Border Pattern Piercing Grid No. 2. I used the border that fits perfectly in the double outline. From the front, start with perforating with the 1-needle tool the squares without the middle perforation (if that makes sense).

6.) Remove it from the border plate, turn the parchment over to the back and line up the holes on the Straight Basic Piercing Grid A5 Square and emboss the hotes between the squares using the No.2 embossing tool.

7.) On the front, perforate the zig-zag border from the pattern piercing plate outside the outer square.

8.) On the A5 piercing grid, on the back, emboss the holes in between the perforations.


9.) I wasn't going to put colour on this piece but then changed my mind and coloured the poppies, leaves and stems in the circle and the border on the left from the back using distress markers.


10.) Using the 2-needle tool, from the front, perforate between the border poppies design in the sections in the circle design that were not coloured.
 

11.) Cut between all the perforations using parchment scissors or snips (Perga Cutters).


12.) Mount the piece on 14.5cm square Red Parchment (glossy side is up), 15cm square white card, and 15.5cm square black card using brads. Stick this piece on a folded 17.5cm square white card.


I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. All plates, tools, papers, card are available from http://www.claritystamp.co.uk.

Love and Laughter
Tina

Lots of Noel Sparkle

Good afternoon,

Over the last few days I have been playing a lot more at making a mess and learning that inky painty fingers are okay and to let it go. And, oh boy, is this lesson taking a long time to sink in. I started with wiping my hands every couple of minutes and then 10mins and now I can go on for a couple of hours before I run into the kitchen to scrub my hands.

Today Maria is on Hochanda showcasing the new Groovi Christmas Cracker plate that Pat Murphy designed for Claritystamp. I am rubbish at creating 3D items because my brain just doesn't work like that so I decided to pick a few elements from the plate and create a card. Seeing as I still have not got 'lets make a mess and scare the children' thing out of my system, I decided to do stencilling and use my new mini circle gelli plate (a new obsession) on the parchment as a background.

So here is a step by step (lots of photos because I remembered) to this card:-

1.) Stick the Jo's Bubble Stencil on A4 parchment paper using masking tape on all 4 sides. I love love love this stencil.

 

To put colour on the parchment I am using Distress stamp pads Peacock feathers and Broken China and a Clarity stencil brush.

2.) Starting with the Peacock Feathers ink pad and brush the colour on with the brush by sweeping back and forth from left to right and vice versa. Once you are happy with the colour, repeat with the Broken China ink pad but from just one side of the stencil. I went from right to left. This will be the back of your work where all the embossing and colouring is done on.

3.) Time for the mini circle gelli plate (of course, you can skip this step but I just wanted to play with mine) to add a little starry background on the largest circle. I brayered the Chipped Sapphire onto the mini circle gelli plate.

Placed the 4x4 Stars stencil over the large circle.

And pressed the mini circle gelli plate on the stencil quite firmly as I need to go through 2 layers of parchment. Because this ink pad is dye based, let it dry (or blot with tissue paper).

4.) Using the A5 Nesting Square, emboss the outmost square, leaving out the circle areas.

5.) From the Christmas Cracker plate, emboss 3 scallop circles from the plate in the large circle.

6.) Emboss snowflakes, stars, lights, trees in the circles and frame from the plate so it looks something like this. This is what mine looks on the front so far. I think I may have got carried away a bit with the snowflakes and stars because I liked doing them.

7.) Using the A4 square Alphabet Picture Frame, I embossed 'NOEL' in the frame.

8.) In the smaller circles I perforated on the front the flower design from the Diagonal Border Grid Piercing Pattern Plate1 as seen between the masking tape. You don't need to pierce the middle hole as we are going to cut out between these holes to make stars.

9) The square border was looking a little plain so I embossed between the double outside the border on Christmas Cracker plate

10.) Colour on the back the trees and between the double outline of the square and frame with green and brown felt pens (or colour pencils).

11.) Emboss the lights, stars and snowflakes.

12.) On the back, using the A5 Straight grid, I embossed a few random dots on the trees and some of the tiny stencilled circles.

13.) Using the parchment craft scissors (or snips) cut between the perforations to get the cut out stars.

14.) Add a little gold sparkle on the stars and the tops of the tree sand lights with a Sakura quickie glue pen Gold Glamour Dust.

15.) Repeat with the Diamond Glamour Dust on the snowflakes, lights, and dots on the trees. I think I love glitter.

Cut the piece to size and mount on coloured card stock using brads before sticking it on a white folded square card to finish.

Two other cards I did for the Maria's shows were a bit quicker but lots of fun to do.

That's it for today ... I better go clear up the mess on my workspace so I am ready for the chaos I may create tomorrow. Everything on here today is available from www.claritystamp.co.uk.

Enjoy.

Love and Laughter

Tina Cox

Pretty in Pink

Good Evening.

I was beginning to feel very guilty about ignoring my blog and seeing as I did not get a chance to send in a few samples for today's Groovi one day special with Barbara Gray and Paul Church on Hochanda, I created a framed picture with step by steps for all to try for today's blog. 

First thought this morning was I was going to create something quick and simple and it was going to be in pink ... I am having a pink day and I like pink. However, the finished project ended up taking a bit more time than I had expected because ... Well, I guess because I was having too much fun creating it and using some of the lovely new plates being demonstrated today on Hochanda at 8.00pm and then tomorrow at 9.00am, 12.00pm, 4.00pm and 7.00pm. Really really really beautiful new Groovi plates designed by Jayne Nestorenko.

This is what we will create:-

Plates used - A4 Alphabet picture frame, A5 Jayne's roses, A5 Jayne's roses name, A5 Spring background, A5 Straight piercing grid, Border Straight piercing pattern plate 1.

A few things I may (most likely will) forget to mention and saves me from repeating myself -

1.) All the embossing is on the back.

2.) All the colouring is on the back. I used Distress markers but you can use pencils too.

3.) All the perforating is done from the front whether using the 2-needle tool or the piercing border        plate 1.

Ok, let's start ...

Emboss the frame outline on the A4 Alphabet picture frame on A4 regular parchment.

Emboss the leaves and stems from A5 Spring background in the wide sections of the frame.

On the back, colour between the embossed section of the leaves and frame, leaving out the outer most square for the moment.

Emboss the pattern of the first line of the border on the straight piercing plate 1 on the inside the outer most square of the frame.

Colour between the sections of the embossed patterned dots.

From the front, perforate the border along the outside of the frame.

So it looks like this ...

On the back, emboss over the A5 straight piercing grid.

On the inside of the frame, emboss the design along the 4 corners from the A5 Jayne's roses.

Colour the roses and leaves from the back so it looks like this on the front ...

From the A5 Jayne's roses name plate emboss the butterfly - The outer three sections on pink parchment paper and the rest of the butterfly design on regular parchment plater.

Colour the sections of the butterflies from the back.

Perforate from the front the sections between the leaves and stems on the frame piece and outside the 2 butterfly outlines using a 2-needle tool.

Cut between all the 2-needle perforations and the perforated border pattern using parchment craft scissors or parchment snips.

Mount the frame piece on another piece of parchment paper (19.5x19.5cm), pink card (20x20cm) and black card (21x21cm) using brads. I mounted the butterflies in the centre of the frame using brads.

Lots of perforating and cutting, not quite what I had intended to do when I started, but it was well worth it. I now need to find a square frame to put it in to hang it in my workroom with all my other butterfly creations (before I break any of the leaves and stems). Wondering if it needs glitter .......

All the plates are available from www.claritystamp.co.uk and really hope you can tune in to Hochanda on Sky 663, Freeview 39, Freesat 817 tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 9.00am, 12.00pm, 4.00pm and 7.00pm to watch the live demos with lots of hints and tips from Barbara Gray and Paul Church. To watch it on your computers or tablets, the address is https://www.hochanda.com where you can watch live or on catch up if you miss any of the shows.

Enjoy.

Love and laughter

Tina

Thank You

Good Morning.

A bit early for me to be this organised, right? Today I am having a 'Sofa Day' which will work out as I had made this card yesterday (and a coupe of other quick thank you cards). For my 'Sofa Day', I am going to do this step by step and write a few wordy blurb for it, call the hospital to make various appointments for various people in the family, dad's accounts, my online bills to pay, reply to lots of emails and messages that I have not been able to get back to in the last few days and have a catch up on FB which I have not been able to do either. Chocolate, popcorn and lots of coffee and tea to keep me going...

Today's card is one to say 'Thank you' ... I am lucky enough to have so many wonderful family and friends who love me and support me and I feel I don't say a thank you often enough. So here is a THANK YOU for all of you...

Clarity Groovi Plates used:

A5 Square - Nesting Squares, Straight and Diagonal Grids

Border Plates - Funky Henna, Bunting Wave, Lace 1 Border, Straight and Diagonal Perforating Borders

On regular parchment paper emboss the outermost square.

Just inside the square, emboss the lace design.

Emboss the flowers on the lace design.

Colour, on the back, (I used distress markers) between the lace design. From the front perforate using the 2-needle tool around the lace and square.

Cut between the perforations with parchment craft scissors or snips.

On blue parchment paper, with the glossy side up, emboss the outside 2 squares from the nesting squares plate and flower from the funky henna plate. This flower is going to be made up in layers so I embossed parts of it on regular parchment paper and the blue parchment paper.

Perforate the lace borders from the front using the straight perforating border plate.

This is where the design I had in my mind started changing. I found out that I did not want to use the outermost square I had embossed in this design. And instead of working everything in straight lines and squares I wanted to change angles. So I placed the diagonal perforating border plate at an angle to perforate the lace border.

Perforate a different border from the diagonal perforating border plate outside of the three sides of the smaller square. Once all the perforations are done, emboss the dots on the back by placing the perforated lace patterns on the appropriate straight and diagonal grids (Oops, I forgot to take the photos for these steps) to do the white work around the lace.

Emboss "Thank you' from the bunting wave border plate.

Colour on the back parts of the flower design. Perforate, on the front, inside and outside the3D flower elements using the 2-needle tool.

Cut between all the perforations on the blue parchment piece and the flowers. I also embossed the flower petals on the blue parchment.

Mount the pieces on blue parchment and black card using brads and the 3D flower elements on the main flower with brads. Stick this on a white folded card.

These are the other 2 quick 'Thank you' cards I made yesterday.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,

P.S. Tomorrow, watch fabulous demonstrations by Maria Simms and see the inspirational samples by the Clarity design team tomorrow on Hochanda (Sky 663, Freeview 39, Freest 817, online at www.hochanda.com) between 13.00-14.00 and 17.00-18.00

Take Care. (((Big Hugs)))

Love and laughter

Tina