Inspired by Barbara Gray

For Christmas, I was very fortunate to get some DVDs by Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps along with some of her stamps and other bits and pieces.

Before Christmas John had a chest infection - in fact, he ended up having to go to A & E two days before Christmas to be checked out - he's still being troubled by the airways disease, but the infection has subsided. Meanwhile, he passed his germs on to me just at the wrong time! I began to feel unwell on Christmas Eve and am not sure how I got through Christmas Day with all the cooking etc, but I did. However, yesterday is a bit of a blur and today likewise. I stayed in bed for quite a while today and am still in my PJs now.

I've been curled up watching some of the DVDs by Barbara, so I thought I'd have a bit of a play to see if it helps me to feel better.

This first card involved brayering with a rubber band round the roller. I inked up with Adirondack wildflower rainbow ink pad, but, unfortunately, this hasn't been used for ages and had become muddied, so the background turned out to be very dull and dark, but I stuck with it, using the Clarity tree stamp in various ways, including the hedgerows from using the stamp sideways.

For the second card, I've brayered with Big & Juicy vibrant primary (toning this down by brayering a lot on paper before committing to the card) adding a little stormy sky DI across the top. I stamped the Clarity Christmas tree and then used the tree silhouette that I'd used for the previous card several times in the background, all stamped with Adirondack espresso.

The background of the third card was brayered using Big & Juicy Happy Birthday, once again using the tree silhouette in various ways together with a My Mind's Eye wild asparagus stamp.

I think I need to practise a lot before I can get anywhere near the standard of success Barbara Gray achieves, but at least I've had a play and tried to divert my attention from how I feel.

I'm linking these for:

Anything goes 57: the colour blue and one other colour (the first card)
Gingerloft 30: Christmas and winter
Incy wincy 126: winter wonderland
One stop craft 163: winter wishes
Fairytale 31: something simple
Sunday stamper 186: do anything you wanna do
Crafty cardmakers58: use it three times - I've used the tree silhouette stamp more than three times in different ways on each card
The stamp man: use a technique you've not used before (rubber band for hills and paths)
Little miss muffet 25: anything goes
Stampin for the weekend 23: anything goes
Stampelsonne 52: free choice of subject
Our daily bread 90: anything goes
The crafty pad 152: anything but Christmas
Sparkles forum 27: anything but a Christmas card
Everybody art 173: anything goes