The Christmas break is definitely over .......

Happy Monday!

It's been back to normal today ..... early start getting hubby off to work and the little man off to school.  All the Christmas decorations and the tree are down and packed away again.  And it's been busy in the old craft room.

I must say the week didn't get off to a brilliant start though .... the car wouldn't start (again!!).  Not surprising really as we've hardly been anywhere in it this last couple of weeks.  It did mean though that the trip to the dentist had to be cancelled .... yeah!!! ooops .... I mean that's a shame!  All been rescheduled though so I don't get out of it that easily .... it's only a check up!!!

Have you been watching Barb on the telly?  We've had two days with the lovely lady, showcasing lots of brand new Clarity goodies to get your 2016 craft stash off to a great start.

There's been a couple of new Super Stencils ..... great for those larger projects.

A fab collection of Clarity masks  ..... great for creating lovely landscapes.  But why not use them for other designs as well ......

A CAS birthday card using the outer part of the bunting mask
Simply add colour through the mask with various inks ..... I used Distress Inks

I then drew round the edges using a black fine liner pen to add more definition and also added a few dots of white paint to some of the bunting flags for a bit more interest.

Add a suitable sentiment  to finish it all off ...... this is actually a mix of one of the Clarity word chains and one of the sentiments from the Best Wishes set.

Why not use the moon masks to create circle designs on your projects .......

The large circle to create the centrepiece  for a Wee Folk Scene

Then again, using the outer part of the masks to ink through I added more circles around the scene

I then covered up the scene using the large moon mask, and spritzed water over the outer circles to remove some of the ink and give this cool speckled look

Another of the word chains is the perfect way to finish

The moon masks are also great for the Bokeh technique ......

And what about those new Wee Shops and Houses stamps .... how cute are they?!  And ....  they come with that fabulous storage binder to keep all your Clarity stamps nice and safe ..... I need to get myself some of those and get organised I think!

Great for CAS designs ..... I love black and white with a hint of colour (especially red).
Stamp the house in a line across your card. Choose one of them to stamp again and layer over the top using foam pads to add dimension

Add a touch of colour ...... 

And again finish with one of the Word Chains

I added in a few ink splats around my word.

Why not try stamping them onto Kraft card .....

This time I did a little bit of masking to off set the houses and I embossed them using a white detail powder

Add a touch of colour .... I used Distress inks again, mixed with a little water and applied with a brush.

To finish off I used some texture paste and a brick wall stencil

Once the paste was dry I brushed colour over the top .... Distress inks again, and also added a touch of shading around the edges.

Guess what ..... those word chains came in handy again!

Well thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.  It's time to go and tidy the disaster zone that's otherwise know as the old craft room ...... wish me luck!!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx