Blue Anenomes

Hello all,
Today's post is a card I made for my Auntie's birthday this Tuesday.
 As I'm now into double figures as far as how many posts I've made, (woo hoo!) & the fact that the theme was blue,  I thought I'd take a leap into the world of challenges & enter Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers. Fingers crossed I can do the linking bit right!.

 My weekend was fab & I managed to pack quite a bit into it as my Mum & Dad took our little 3 year old on her 1st whole weekend away to Dorset in their caravan.
 This meant we were child free for 2 whole days! We ordered a film & had a lovely M&S meal on Friday night & after working in the shop on Saturday we went for a lovely meal in Bath. Sunday was a shopping trip to Bristol & whilst Nick went to a friends to watch the footie, I got down to some crafting in the afternoon - perfect! :-).

Anyway, here's what I managed to create

 

I've been playing around with Indigo Blu stamps lately & have been browsing their blog for tips & inspiration especially as we've been using their products in our shop workshops. This card was inspired by one of their design team Clare Charvill's cards as I just loved the blues & this stamp that she'd used.

I stamped the Indigo Blu 'Anenome Corner' twice in black onto coconut white card & coloured the image with promarker pens.

I distressed the edges of the card with peacock feathers & shabby shutters distress inks ( I think I'm becoming a bit obsessed with these colours!) & double layered the whole thing onto turquoise & aqua card & then stuck it onto a white card blank.

 I then cut the flowers from one of the images & curled them slightly (although my pics don't show this very well) & attached them just at the base of each flower onto the main image with cosmic shimmer dries clear pva.

I stamped the Steampunk Dreams, Sam Poole sentiment in black onto white card & heat embossed with clear embossing powder & then tore around the edges which I then inked with the same 2 distress inks. This was then stuck onto the card with 3D foam.

I stamped & coloured the butterflies (a kanban stamp I think) with the same colours, cut them out & attached them to the card just by their centres.
I then added lime green stickles lightly to the butterflies & the flowers for a tiny bit of sparkle.

I then made an insert for the the card using the same colours & butterfly stamp & a Creative Expressions Nature's Sentiments stamp.

 

Hopefully my Auntie will like her card & I hope you do too!

 

Thanks for stopping by, any comments are much appreciated

Amy x

Beach Huts & Bunting

Hello!, hope you all had a lovely weekend?
We had quite a bit of mild & sunny weather here over the weekend. Saturday being the best day, but I was working in the shop so I didn't actually get to see that much of it :(
Never mind, hopefully there will be more on it's way soon.

Today's post is a card we made at our workshop a couple of weeks ago. I really like this Michael Powell stamp 'Shore Thing' as it reminds me of the beach huts in Lyme Regis in Dorset just along the coast from where our first shop was in West Bay.
 West Bay is where the fab TV series Broadchurch was filmed. We've been avidly watching it every week & tonight is the last episode so can't wait to find out who the killer is! I have my suspicions!

Anyway, back to my card

 

The image was stamped twice with black soot distress ink & heat embossed with clear embossing powder, then coloured with mustard seed, worn lipstick & salty ocean distress inks used as watercolours.

 

I only coloured the beach huts & boat on the second stamped image as these were then cut out & stuck on with 3D foam.

 

The background was created using cosmic shimmer vintage shimmer spray in egyptian blue on linen card to give a 'watery' feel to the card.

 

I mounted all this on turquoise card with red & white bakers twine wrapped around the lower section with a sentiment also stamped in black soot & heat embossed.

 

The final touches were the bunting also attached with 3D foam & glossy accents on the beach huts, boat & glass in the lighthouse.

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

Amy x

Embroidered Flowers

  Hi all!
 Today I thought I'd share with you the creations I made at the freehand machine embroidery workshop I attended last week.
 I'm not a very confident user of a sewing machine but have always fancied having a go at this technique & when my sister gave me the workshop as a Christmas gift I was thrilled.
The workshop was at a fabric shop in Trowbridge called Fabric Magic, I'd never been there before but it's a lovely shop full of loads of gorgeous fabrics & haberdashery & they also run quite a few workshops.
There were 4 of us attending the workshop & we all had a friendly chat over a welcoming cup of coffee & then we got started on our sewing with the help of Sally who was teaching the class.
Once the machines were set up with the appropriate needles & threaded ready to go, we started with stitching a freehand flower shape & the filling it in with the thread by machining up & down each petal repeatedly.
 This took quite a bit of getting used to but we were all really pleased with what we came up with.

                                         I made these 4 flowers of various sizes & colours.

Once we'd all got the hang of this technique, we moved on to embroidering onto dissolvable fabric in a similar way. After embroidering a flower or butterfly design we then cut away the image & immersed it in water to dissolve away the backing so that we were left with just the flower/design.
 

I had a really enjoyable day, & the time absolutely flew by. I had a mooch around the shops after the workshop & then headed back home stopping off in Bath on my way for a spot more shopping & to pick out some beads for some of the jewellery making workshop ideas I have in mind for our shop.

 

I have now been inspired to get my Mum's old early 1980's sewing machine serviced & up & running so I can play around a bit more with these techniques & some other sewing ideas I have.

So watch this space!

 

Off to get organised for an afternoon working in the shop & for our card making workshop tonight. We're using Indigo Blu stamps & mega flakes so I'm really looking forward to it!

 

See you soon, thanks for stopping by

 

Amy x

 

Flower Garden

A quick post tonight as I have an early start tomorrow.  I'm attending a freehand embroidery workshop, something I've wanted to try for ages & my big sister bought me the workshop for a Christmas gift.  I'm really looking forward to it & if all goes well I'll post some pictures of what I create.
Todays post is of two cards made in exactly the same way just using a different colour pallet.
 The project was a design I came up with for my shop's cardmaking workshop a few weeks ago.
 Both mine & Carole's group of ladies made the card in the turquoise, yellow & orange colour way, but I also made a monochrome version just to show how different the same project could look by changing it to black & white.

 

The papers were from a Papermania monochrome 12x12 stack & die cut using Spellbinders for the frames, flowers & foliage, inked with black soot distress ink & finished with cosmic shimmer pearlescent pva for the centres of the flowers. The sentiment was from Creative Expressions.

 

 

This is exactly the same card but using brighter colours & Bo Bunny papers. This is the card my group made at our workshop. We used shabby shutters, mustard seed, & salty ocean distress ink

I also think this would work well for a Christmas card using the Spellbinders poinsettia die & a Christmas sentiment, so maybe we'll do this card for another workshop later on in the year.

 

Thanks again for reading my blog. Your comments & feedback are much appreciated.

 

Amy x