New Beginnings

This year is turning out to be one of new beginnings in many ways.  The resurrecting of the blog started it, then there has been Pixie's Snippets Challenge.  Now I think I shall be really brave and try my hand at the Clarity Stamp Challenge. 

Just to make it more difficult for myself I have got out my Gelli Plate.  I am still new at all this so please be gentle with any comments.

Ok, here goes.  Firstly I apologise that there are no photos of the various stages but acrylic paint dries very quickly, as I am discovering, and then I got so engrossed in what I was trying to do that I forgot to take any!

The theme for this month's challenge is 'New Beginnings'. Looking at the art work already submitted and the ideas from the design team there are a lot of new home, new baby, wedding ideas so I thought I would go a bit obscure and do Spring.  Having decided that the rest evolved as I got going.  I did make one change in that my original plan was to do an ATC but I was not sure if this was allowed so mounted the ATC onto a bigger background and made it a card.

The Gelli Plate print background

So here is what I did.  First the Gelli Plate print background was made using a 6 x 6 Gelli Plate, Clarity Leafy Swirls template, green, yellow, white and blue acrylic paint and a piece of the Clarity card made for the Gelli Plate.  I am still in the experimental stage with my Gelli Plate and I think I may have let the paint dry a bit too much but the resulting print was very subtle and I liked it so decided to stick with it.

I trimmed down the print to leave a narrow white border then rounded the corners.  To remove the white border I blended it with Adirondak Mushroom which is the nearest colour I have to the brown of the Kraft Card.  This was then mounted onto a card blank with rounded corners.

My favourite part showing the blended edge

The ATC

Next I made the ATC.  I stamped a Clarity bare tree with Adirondak Rust slightly to the left of the middle of the card then put in the green hills and blue sky using Adirondak Lettuce and Stonewashed, a stencil brush and a piece of torn paper. It gives a much gentler colour wash than the brayer, more spring like. The blossom on the tree is done with Spectrum Noir pens PP3 and PP4. The ATC was then mounted onto a piece of kraft card with a narrow border. This was attached to the card blank on the left before I used the Clarity Letter Box Kit and Adirondak Rust to stamp 'spring' straight onto the card front - a bit brave there!

So there you have it, sorry it has turned into an essay! It would have been so much less wordy with photos, maybe next time!


I guess I should show you the finished card.  Hope you like it.

First attempt at the Clarity challenge

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Take care and God bless.  Pippa.