Clearly Besotted June Release Day

Hey. It’s Release Day. Lots of sets for you to enjoy . Today’s set is Magical Corners and I’ve enlisted my trusty vellum again to act as a softening layer over the image.

You can see certain bits of colour being more prominent and that’s simply the wet glue having dried and the vellum becoming a little more transparent in that area. I added some watercolour around the edges of the stamped image so that it gives more of an ‘underwater’ sea feel.

The image was first coloured in with alcohol markers and you can see I’ve stamped the sentiment on top of the vellum- I used Ranger Archival Ink which dries well. Stazon also works on vellum too. The vellum is simply wrapped around the panel and secured at the back.

Well it’s almost time to be able to get the release….at 8pm GMT tonight

Please now go over to visit Clearly Besotted‘s blog (and on Instagram too) and then onto see my lovely teamie Michelle for her video. Lastly pop over to visit our fabulous guest designers Alberto Gava, and Francine Vuilleme and Kitty Day to see some wonderful projects.

All sets are available tonight on the Clearly Besotted store and also from Art Creatiu, Cloud 9 Crafts, Card Nouveau , Butterfly Reflections Ink and Simon Says Stamp too.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the look at these sets. Hoping you get to snag the ones that you’re after,

See you soon,

Keren x

Clearly Besotted June Teasers Day 4

Hi! Hope you’re still enjoying all these sneak peeks. I’m doing a card using ‘Bee Well’ today and after completing realised it had bee’n created in a bit of a rush- so please forgive the extra dodgy drawn bits. I absolutely adore the bee sets whenever Clearly Besotted do them, so I was bee-lighted to use this set.

My poor Dad was recently in hospital and this would have been a fun card to send him. The bees have been coloured in with alcohol markers and a little glitter added to their blue wings.

The sentiment is perfect (as they often are). The little bees have enough character to steal the show all by themselves.

Adding a touch of glitter to the flower centres gives a subtle sparkle.

Now it’s time to see more. There are still more cards and inspiration to come . Pop over to Clearly Besotted either on their Facebook page or Instagram account.

Now please visit the bee-autiful Michelle Short then onto our lovely guests… who are all so talented and have wonderfully different styles..  Kitty, Alberto and Francine.

See you tomorrow for our release day.

Keren x

Clearly Besotted June Teasers Day 3

Hi everyone! By now you probably all now that I often follow a theme through, and today is no exception. I’ve created a slightly odd scene, imagined from the corners of my weird brain! I’m using the new Balloon Bunch Line Up set.

I started imagining an under-the-sea balloon party where the balloons were giving off bubble a little like champagne does in a glass. Why those critters are able to hold their breath under water? No idea- they’re obviously magical. Why are the balloons bubbling? Again, no idea. And why have I added a seagull from yesterday’s set? Truthfully- it was left over on my desk and it seemed to be a good addition to the scene. Am I weird? Obviously!

The balloons are easy to colour. You can see that not even bothered to blend the colours. I wanted to show those of you who are new to using alcohol ink markers, that you can get fun depth even with doing the easiest things. You can also see that I’ve wrapped the vellum around a piece of card that I’ve mounted to the base, which is a great way of hiding adhesive behind the transparent vellum.

What occasion would you send this card for? No idea, but it would certainly make me smile, albeit quizzically if I received it in the post!

I love playing around with opacity and transparency and seeing what effects they can have on my projects. Definitely recommend you try it too. Makes you feel all experimental 😉 haha!

There’s plenty more to feast your eyes upon with Clearly Besotted either on their Facebook page or Instagram account.

Please now pop over to see lovely Michelle, and our lovely guests Francine, Kitty, and Alberto .

See you tomorrow when we’ll have something buzzy instead.

See you tomorrow,

Keren x

Clearly Besotted June Teasers Day 2

Hello! I hope there’s some sunshine where you are. It just might be that summer is slowly creeping towards us. Today’s set is called Sunny Day Play and I smiled when I saw it. I have a real interest in Interior Design and there’s a fun show called ‘Interior Design Masters’ where contestants compete with design briefs to win a prize designing the Interior for an important client. Lots of the series have had a challenge involving beach huts. Granted, I’m not able to design the inside, but I had fun creating a colourful beach hut scene.

I’ve used some blue tinted vellum to create a sea. Just cut a wavy top edge and then secure the sides and bottom using a very fine line of wet glue. Once dried it’s not really visible. This gives you a pocket that you can slot the cute characters into and it’s an easy way of making it look as if they’re in the sea.

The sand is coloured using a simple dotting technique with your alcohol pens. There’s nothing hard about any of the colouring here. I love the snorkelling hippo- I wonder if he’s discovered any underwater treasure. Granted, some of our UK seas might not be as easy to see into, but I’m guessing he’s having fun all the same!

The seagulls are a fun addition to add to your beachy scene. Snorkelling hippo is so engrossed that he hasn’t noticed the seagull on his back!

I wonder what you’d create with this set. It will make cool one layer cards too as the complete background is one of the stamps in the set.

Now please go on to see the super talented Michelle and our equally talented guests, Kitty, Alberto and Francine.

 Please also visit Clearly Besotted either on their Facebook page or Instagram account.

See you tomorrow for a little more vellum-y goodness xx

Clearly Besotted June Teasers Day 1

Hello everyone! How are you doing? It’s great to be back sharing some fun new Clearly Besotted sets. First up ‘Balloon Bunch Corners’. When I first saw it, I immediately thought of a photo booth so went with it!

To create the glitter curtain, I just trimmed some matt gold cardstock. It naturally curls a little, adding to the sense of movement. Those glasses are the perfect props for photos and those little guys are having the best time! I’m not one for photo booths particularly but I’d happily join in with this one.

Love the balloons. Adding in some white gel pen details is easy and adds some faux sparkle. I coloured the streamers with gold gel pen and added shading over it with alcohol ink. It covered it surprisingly well.

I added a strip of corrugated paper at the bottom- I wanted it to look a little like the ridges of a carpet. I had lots of fun creating this and know you’ll love this set too.

Now it’s time to There are still more cards and inspiration to come . Pop over to Clearly Besotted either on their Facebook page or Instagram account …and my fabulous team mate Michelle Short.

We’ve also got more loveliness from our super guests Francine, Kitty and Alberto .

See you tomorrow, with something very summery

xx

Clearly Besotted May Release Day!

We’ve made it. It’s Release Day. Those 6 sets are available today at 8pm GMT. I thought I’d do something a little different – using the Telling Tales Line Up. It’s nice when you give a book to give bookplates or even to say ‘given to….from’ so there’s a record of the gift.

Aren’t they fun! The gorgeous purple cats (why not!!) and the little dragons. If you want a copy of the Canva file that I created with the different frame designs on, do let me know.

I love sets that have so many colour options. Change the trees and dragons and cats and will look very different- and as you have seen, you can also chop up the image to use in different ways.

Fun times ahead for this little crew and there’s lots of fun ahead if you manage to get your hands on the new set. I hope you guessed that the theme is books and games.

It’s nearly time to be able to get the April release….at 8pm GMT tonight

Please now go over to visit Clearly Besotted‘s blog (and on Instagram too), to see Michelle (with her great video) and then onto visit our fabulous guest designers Alberto Gava, and Francine Vuilleme and Kitty Day to see more amazingly creative projects.

All sets are available tonight on the Clearly Besotted store and also from Art Creatiu, Cloud 9 Crafts, Card Nouveau , Butterfly Reflections Ink and Simon Says Stamp too.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s sets. You can see them all in more detail by visiting the Clearly Besotted Facebook page.

Take care,

Keren x

Clearly Besotted May Teasers Day 4

Hello everyone. How’s your day going?

A day is always better if you have chance to read a good book and I thought the ‘Clever Corners’ set might make a fun origami styled bookmark with a little editing.

They’ve been so usefully designed so that we can trim some of the image off and then I added some of the pencil elements from the other image on the stamp set.

To create the folded paper corners I used an easy tutorial here. The secret to these is to use a thin paper. Quality scrapbook paper that’s got a decent thickness might prove too hard to fold. I did do that with the orange and pink ones but it was much easier with the thinner word design paper.

Nearly there with our release. We’ve got one more day until the release.

As usual, please make your way to visit my lovely teamie Michelle,

There are still more cards and inspiration to come . Pop over to Clearly Besotted either on their Facebook page or Instagram account and then our super guests , Kitty ,Alberto and Francine .

Please pop back tomorrow for one final post.

See you then,

Keren x

Clearly Besotted May Teasers Day 3

Hi again. I love today’s set ‘Your Move’. We have a real chess fan in our house. He tries to get me to play matches with him, but he’s thrashed me in only a few moves so I tend to avoid playing him if I can!

My son was pretty unimpressed when he saw my card. He scornfully commented that both the chess board is inaccurately coloured (should be green and white) plus you’d never ever have a yellow and blue set. I tried to explain that artistic licence was applied, but he wasn’t having any!

I’ve used the set called Viking Plushies for the sentiment. I’d love to save it for my son’s birthday but I’m not sure he’d like to receive it!!! I added some blending for the sky and grass using Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn and Tumbled Glass.

I tried to colour the pieces as if they were shiny. Hopefully they’re giving off that vibe using Copic Markers and a white gel pen.

There‘s lots more inspiration to come . Pop over to Clearly Besotted either on their Facebook page or Instagram account.

We’ve also got more clever projects from lovely Michelle and our super guests Francine, Kitty and Alberto .

Please pop back tomorrow,

Clearly Besotted May Teasers Day 2

Lovely to see you back today. We’ve a really fun set today called ‘Rhyme Time’. It’s full of some famous characters that you’ll spot.

I just went completely left field with the scene. What is it? What’s the story? No idea…it just seemed like having random nursery characters hanging on a line seemed the right thing to do!!

It made me smile- and I hope it does too. It needs a good sentiment- not entirely sure what suits.. any ideas?! I’ve used the word paper again.

Have you noticed the tiny little pegs? They were fun to create with some brown cardstock. I cut out lots of little stars and hearts to give it some atmosphere.

Now it’s time to see more. There are still more cards and inspiration to come . Pop over to Clearly Besotted either on their Facebook page or Instagram account.

We’ve also got more loveliness from Michelle and then our super guests Francine, Kitty and Alberto .

See you tomorrow (hopefully!)

Keren x

Clearly Besotted May Teasers Day 1

Hi everyone! How are you? Lovely to have you back with me for another 5 days of projects using the fab new sets from Clearly Besotted. All six sets will be available on May 1st. This month there’s a definite theme- and I’m sure you’ll work it out pretty soon.

Today’s set is called ‘Tall Tales’ and you can either use one of the main images as a corner and there are so many characters that can sit atop the stacks of books.

Just a bookmark? Well it’s so useful if you’re a reader like me or bookmarks make such practical gifts. The way that the stamp is designed, it’s very easy to stamp twice and then stack on top of each other to make an even higher stack of books.

Having a bookmark having a ‘tail’ is very useful- so I added an eyelet (anyone still have a stack of those?!!) and some ribbon.

You can see the sparkle courtesy of a white gel pen and a few doodles. You might wonder why there’s a winged animal holding an icecream- but it’s a magical fictional scene- and who wouldn’t want to eat an icecream whilst brandishing sparkly wings?!

You might think that having a character added to the bookmark using foam pads would get in the way of closing a book. But I’ve used it as a stopper so it won’t slip down into the book making it quicker to find your place. I chose some worded paper to fit in with the book theme.

Well it’s time to head to see some more inspiration.

It’s time to visit to my amazing teamie Michelle, its good to have her back as we missed her last month. We’ve also got our lovely guests again…  Kitty, Alberto and Francine.

Please also visit Clearly Besotted either on their Facebook page or Instagram account.

Hope to see you here again tomorrow.. same time, same place 😉

Keren x