Thursday’s Blog is always Blue, so here’s a cool blue piece, 

which – how shall I put it?  evolved.

Shall we start with a blank white piece of Claritycard?

Here’s what else I used:

3 remountable Ducks Claritystamp Set
Large Sapling Tree
Small Sapling Tree
Both Trees Very Special Offer 

Claritymat A3
Moon masks
Low-tack masking tape

Brayer

Juniper Adirondack
Denim Adirondack
Denim Blue Promarker
Black Micron Pen.

Ready? Steady? Go!

Run Low-tack masking tape around all 4 sides of the 
A5 Claritycard – that’s the shiny stuff.
Add a huge moon mask.

Before we get ink all over the Claritymat, 
let’s tear a hill with a sheet of copy paper. 
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Now ink up the brayer in the Juniper,

and transfer the ink to the mat, by rolling up and down.

Brayer an undercoat of Juniper in the sky. 
This makes for a wonderful blue; wait and see. 

Now load the brayer with the dark blue Denim, and transfer the ink onto the mat again, right next to the Juniper. 
Notice how I avoid getting ink on the edge of the rubber roller – this will help get that lovely air-brushed effect, 
with less of the stripes! 

Lay down the sky at an angle and straight over the Juniper. 
Take a look at the scrap white paper underneath the artwork; 
this will tell you the angle and where to begin rolling.

Let’s flick it round, so you can see what it’s supposed to look like, without developing a crook neck!

Remove the huge Moon mask carefully, 
so that you can use it again, and again, and again…

Now for the Hills. Reload the brayer in Juniper. 
Yes, I know. I should have cleaned my brayer first.
I should have gone to bed at ten last night, too, but I didn’t. 

Now time to blend the 2 ink colours. 
Roll the Juniper up the side of the Denim, so that they overlap.
Your brayer will be coated with the blend now.

Position the front hill where you want it, 
and start rolling back and forth.
With the brayer, I mean!

Go back to the mat for more blue-juniper mix.

Move the hill mask, to add a lighter hill in the background.

Move the hill mask one more time 
and add a third, faded hill in the far distance.

Dark, lighter, lightest = front, middle, back.

So now we are really getting to grips with the blending mat!
Buff your work with a paper towel.

Let’s use the ink on the ClarityMat for stamping, too.
Ink up the large Sapling tree.

and plant at the front.

Ink up the smaller tree, 

and plant in the background. Place the hill mask over the front hill, so that the tree sits behind the hill.

Add the duck in flight. Again, take the ink from the mat.
Blast!!!! The back tree is a bit dodgy. 
Don’t you hate it when that happens?!
Never mind….keep going!
Pretend the sun is shining on it…

Try and tart it up with a Promarker…

Maybe toning the whole card down by brayering a coat of light Juniper over the whole card will take the attention off the 
botched tree….

And every single one of you is looking at the dodgy tree now!!!
Forget the tree! 
Pretend I never mentioned it!
Admire the wonderful airbrushed border!

It’s no good. 
My “that’ll do” mantra isn’t working.
It would have been great;
now it’s just grate.

This requires a radical overhaul.
Are you ready for this one?

Time for some pen work….

Start with the leaves on the offensive tree….

You can’t do one without the other!

Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. 
Hills next.

Might as well add a few furrows. 
Get a bit of depth going…
And let’s jazz up the duck, too.

Close up, you can see the dot dot dots…

How about a dot-dash line around the top?
Fade it out though.

Now that’s better. Much better.
Yes, I will put my name to that one!

Too much of a border. Trim it back.
Just need to find some dark blue to mount it on.

Much happier with this now, don’t you agree?

And the best thing is that, we have developed a new technique!
We’ve used silhouette stamps to colour in images, 
and then we have added the lineart! That’s a first. 
I could have sworn that we usually draw the picture and THEN colour it in!

Hope you like it
x

Much love,