Clarity Challenge ... January

Came as one heck of a surprise to find myself the winner of the "Things with Wings" challenge at Clarity Stamps for January ... especially as I had no intention of EVER entering a challenge ... that will teach me, huh?!?!?!  

As well as a lovely voucher to spend at Clarity I got to be "Guest Designer" for a forthcoming challenge and after having a mini-breakdown when I misunderstood what the theme would be I was told what the theme actually was and, well, "Anything But A Card" just set my juices flowing!  

Here is my offering ... I never make a note of what colours I use or how I actually do anything but this time I Kept Notes as I went along ... and then couldn't understand any of them when I came to write them up.

Hopefully there is enough info here for anyone interested but do, of course, leave a comment if you want anything explaining any further.

SO to begin with I did my favourite technique … ok, one of my favourite techniques as I have a few! … splodge some Distress Inks on one of those brown flexible crafty mat thingies and squirt with water and then just swish and swoosh my card through the colours!  Never quite know what I am going to end up with but am rarely disappointed and love, love, love the fact you never get the same effect twice. In this instance I used Walnut Stain, Brushed Corduroy, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire, Weathered Wood, Evergreen Bough & Iced Spruce … yeah, I know, probably way too many but I just love it when you swish and swoosh and get just a hint of a random colour appearing.

I use cheap PVA glue from the DIY store to stick the background to the heart and then trim to size when dry … same for the back! Edges were inked with Chipped Sapphire and Walnut Stain.

Next came another favourite product … Grunge Paste … spread through the Clarity heart stencil that I randomly placed here and there on the heart  - let it dry and then put the stencil back in place and randomly coloured it with the same colours as the background applied with both Clarity stencil brushes and blending tools then I just rubbed gilding wax in Autumn Bronze and Ultramarine to highlight the paste even more.  I am not a glittery, sparkly, shiny crafter and my PASSION is grunge but this time the gilding wax worked!

Another thing I love to do is emboss acetate … save all the packaging that arrives and then tear it into shape and emboss it … this time I wanted it less shiny so painted the back of it with Raw Umber acrylic paint and then wiped most of it off again … you use almost a whole roll of kitchen paper but, hey, needs must! 

Finally the sentiment was stamped with Versafine Black onto white card that had been stuck to a piece of Grungeboard and then heat embossed – tore the edge and then inked up using Antique Linen, Walnut Stain and Gathered Twigs and the two little hearts are Grungeboard which were coloured with Walnut Stain & Gathered Twigs and then partially embossed … everyone says they look just like tooled leather which is kinda, sorta the effect I was hoping for.  Garden string was wrapped around the top right hand side of the heart and there you have it!