Hello crafty friends. Got a busy day today – amongst a couple of work commitments I’m also getting ready to go to Clarity Towers tomorrow for a couple of live shows featuring the fabulous Christmas windows A5 stamp set (amongst other things!) Create & Craft TV are still not broadcasting live, but thankfully ClarityCrafts are able to put on live demos on Facebook and YouTube – I’ll be on screen at 10am & 2pm tomorrow (Friday) and you can find the links on their website or go to their YouTube channel.

So, I thought I’d give you a taster with the stamps, starting with the Shepherds and building a little scene. I first cut a couple of masks from Clarity’s reusable mask material – one to fit on the window and the second following the line of the landscape in the image, extending it across the card. I stamped the window in the centre of a 5×5 card blank. covered it over and laid the landscape mask on top. I then brushed ‘chipped sapphire’ Distress Oxide into the sky around the top of the window, starting on the mask each time and brushing outwards to give me a soft edge.

I switched the mask for the other section to cover the sky and brushed a little ‘salvaged patina’ Distress Oxide scross the ground. Taking the mask off the stamped image, I coloured the shepherds with Pergaliner B (oil based) pencils, then shaded Pergaliner A (watercolour) pencils into the background and spread the pigment with a waterbrush. I filled in the star using a gold metallic gel pen.

Of course, I had to add a frame with a square embedder and then finished with a suitable word sticker.

There’s so much potential with these stamps, so I do hope you can join me tomorrow – there’s lots more to share with you. Even if you can’t, you’ll be able to catch up afterwards on YouTube (which may or may not be a good thing!)