I took myself off this moring to the beach, I know I'm lucky to live so close to the sea. There is nothing better than a sunny day in England by the seaside, as you can see from the photo I took this morning. That is the river Mersey in all its glory. I even managed a short walk, didn't over do things, just went as far as I could manage, while remembering that I also had to walk back to the car park. The beach was fast filling up with families, there were lots of walkers and mad joggers. It was a really happy scene.
Then it was back home, and a spot of lunch, a nice poached egg on toast! I've finally got my timings right with the poached egg, so I had a nice gooey yolk. After that I turned my attention to my new stamps that were delivered yesterday. These are Clarity stamps and will be used in Lesson 18, which is the first Saturday in July. So I hope to be able to join in. These caught my attention as the set is adorable, but also has so many uses, the birds can be used in any pic, as can the cat, the fence, bird house etc. It was difficult to know where to start. So I went back to CnC and checked out the end of lesson 17 to see what Ms Gray had done.
And it was something like this. Or this is my take on it. I don't have the range of adirondiacs, so I used TH ink pads. I dug around to find some proper coated card stock, the encaustic paper is just as good as Clarity paper for brayering, it has the same qualities. This is the second attempt, for the first try I used a darker blue, but didn't like it, so I went with the light blue from the TH range, or as he calls it Tumbled glass, it is ideal for skies. I also put in some clouds, using some strips of cotton wool, dunked onto a versamark watermark pad, placed on the card, I then place a clean piece of copy paper over it and use the brayer. I used an archival ink for the silhouette stamping, it doesn't bleed when you brayer onto it. Though you must let it dry thoroughly. Then it was a case of stamping the birds, cat and foliage, and the fence. I left the masking tape on and used that as a kind of guide for the wonky line.
After that I took a gamble on re-creating the scene on one of the wooden hearts. The heart is A5 in size, so I cut an A4 piece of coated card stock in half, drew round the heart so I had a guide line for the final picture. I had to leave out the cat sadly, but managed to squeeze the other bits in along with the sentiment.
You do have to take your time with this cardstock, it is slightly slippy, so patience is required when stamping, plus accurate positioning. It is worth it though. It also makes the brayering a doddle, as does the blending mat. It saves all that faffing with the copy paper. I have to organise myself for these sessions, the glass cutting mat has to be clean and free of all bumps, I need room to brayer, I make sure I have some wipes or a small container with some soapy water in it, kept away from the work area! I get the stamps ready, and mounted. I was going to indulge in some clarity handles, but then thought that was a bit silly as I do have a lot of acrylic blocks. I'm actually now much preferring the thin acrylic blocks, much easier to use. I also added to my adirondiac collection, taking advantage of the flexi pay, and got Meadow and Stonewashed.
The new positioning of furniture in my bedroom is forcing me to be a tidy crafter! My craft desk is now by the window, to take advantage of the light, but that means I have to make sure that the desk is closed up when it is sunny otherwise the inkpads will dry out. It is no bad thing to have to be tidy, at least now I can find things.
I may head off to Southport tomorrow, what I do each day depends on the body and the mind, both have to be up for the challenge. I've now got my new glasses, finally I can see the world clearly! They fit perfectly, and the prescription is spot on. The optician said that there was a slight difference, but not much, but things certainly seem much clearer! I really don't understand those who are reluctant to wear glasses, there have been a few on CnC who have been daft about wearing glasses, there is no shame so what is the problem?
Well I now need a cup of tea, I hope the sun is shining wherever you may be, enjoy the weekend.
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