Hello friends and welcome to the first of my weekend posts! I had a bit of a lazy morning today, after the busyness of yesterday’s Clarity Social TV shows but am spending the afternoon with my baby grandson, so all’s well in my world. I’ve got another of my demos from yesterday to share with you, using these fabulous Royal Gnomes stamps that Barbara drew for the King’s Coronation two years ago (how time flies!) I was particularly excited as, having looked at these for the show, I thought they’d make great cards for kids (and bigger kids too!) especially if we had some sentiments. Well, I sent a quick email to Barbara suggesting that, together with a few thoughts on possible wording and, next thing I knew, a brand new pack of sentiments dropped through my letterbox – my suggestions had been turned into stamps!

So, I jumped into action to make a first card fit for a King! After stamping the Royal Gnome onto one of Clarity’s 3.5″ squares of stencil card, I covered him over with the pre-cut mask that’s in the set and then laid Clarity’s castle mask cross him to create my background scene. I first sponged ‘pumice stone’ Distress Oxide down from the mask to create an undercoat, then used a torn piece of copy paper to sponge ‘hickory smoke’ and define the walls of the castle with shadows.

I lifted off the castle mask and switched to the clouds (one of my favourites, as you may have noticed!), using a stencil brush and ‘broken china’ Distress Oxide to create my sky. I shaded in the king with Pergaliner pencils, then used Dorso oil and a blending nib to smooth out the colour on his cloak and crown (trying to make it look a bit more velvety!) I also used Clarity’s metallic gel pens to highlight the jewels in his crown, so they shimmer a little

At this point, he was still levitating slightly, so I picked up the torn copy paper again, laid it across his feet and sponged ‘rustic wilderness’ Distress Oxide across it so he looks like he’s standing on the lawn. Obviously I added one of the new sentiments, then popped it onto a mount cut from Clarity’s ‘lattice’ nested doodle frame-it panel dies and then onto a 5×5 card blank.

I am totally in love with these little Royal Gnomes and like a dog with two tails at having my suggestions turned into a set of sentiments! Back to reality, though, I’m going to pop this little chap into the galleries at Just Us Girls where their theme is stencilling, and at StencilFun too.