A Sunday Clock Making with Karen Clare

Sometimes you just have to forgo your Sunday morning snooze in favour of a good crafty cause and today was one of those days. The talented Karen Clare was running a clock workshop in Kent, which was the perfect excuse to ditch the housework, husband and kids and trundle round the M25 and catch up with my mum and sister, who also love to craft, over paint, stamps and all things fun. 

Karen's workshops are always so relaxed and she is a great tutor so for me it is well worth the trip when I do join her and her merry band of crafters on the odd occasion. They always make me feel very welcome which is lovely. 

Karen is known for her love of clocks, and today we created a lovely layered clocks. which are made by Samantha K Gifts. They are so cleverly designed, cut from a layer of mdf and 3 layers of acrylic, and help give great dimension and depth to a project. 

When she suggested we plan out our projects I don't mind admitting it put me in a flap. I never ever have a vision of what I am creating, I am more of a lob everything at it and see what happens kinda gal. My plan got as far as me drawing out a circle then I binned it and took my own haphazard approach. It worked out ok though thankfully ( after a few attempts anyway, but the joy of acrylic is if you don't like it you can wash it off!).

While many of the class opted for beautiful warm colours and fairies, after much deliberation I decided I wanted to use some of my stamps by Visible Image on my design so went with a colder,stormy kind of  background to work with the stamps.The first layer was sponged directly onto the mdf base ( after two initial coats of gesso), using soft blues and grey acrylic paint. 

On the second layer, an acrylic plate, I created clouds with a mask, which I outlined with a white Posca pen.

Layer 3 was where it all started to come together. On the back of the acrylic I stenciled raindrops, and added some blue to the bottom to create a puddle. and on the front I stamped my main image and a sentiment. I wont lie, it took a few attempts to get it right as stamping on acrylic appears to be a bit of an art (that I haven't perfected!)  but luckily with some hand sanitizer and a tissue the stazon ink was easily removed so I could persevere until I was happy. 

For the final layer, on the rear of the plate I stamped raindrops, using an Inkylicious raindrop stamp. I coloured them in with a silver Wink of Stella pen to add some sparkle, tying it in with the wording. One of the other class members kindly supplied some vinyl cut numbers for us to add, in return for a small donation to a very worthy cause Lily's Little Legs ( thanks Denyse!) 

I am so pleased with how this turned out once all the layers were put together, and it really is a simple yet effective project. If you want to see what the other ladies created then keep an eye on Karens blog here as I am sure she will be uploading her own post at some point this week. They were all amazing, and all so different,  so well worth a look.

Thank you Karen and all my fellow crafters for a really wonderful day. Hopefully I will see you all again soon.

Lynda

xxx