Wednesday 16 July 2014

Blue borders

Hi there bloggers, hope you're all enjoying this glorious sunshiny weather!?. I'm hoping it continues into next week as I've got the week off, Yey! 

My card today was made when I was playing around with ideas for last week's workshop at Out Of The Blue.
 We are concentrating on the products Julia Watts used at our demo day at the beginning of June so it encorporates a That Special Touch mask, Cosmic Shimmer water colour paints, a Creative Expressions Frame Stamp & Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle Texture Paste - my favourite product to play with at the moment!.


I started by using the Sea Green Sparkle Texture Paste through the Filigree mask & setting it aside to dry for a good few hours. 
I tried heating with a heat tool but it didn't really work very well. So, whilst I had a few pastes & different masks at hand I set up a bit of a production line & tried out a few colours & designs, so be prepared for a few posts featuring this technique!.

Next I stamped with faded jeans & heat embossed the sentiment & Garden Frame inner & outer frames & die cut them with Spellbinders Lacey Squares which fits this stamp perfectly.
I then painted the design with Golden Aqua, Golden Pear & Golden Malachite water colour paints from the Garden Tones set.


I then layered onto pearlescent lime green card & pale blue card & mounted into the centre of my sparkle paste background.
Around the outer edge of my card I added dots of pearlescent PVA & a double pale blue grosgrain ribbon bow in the bottom right corner finished with a turquoise resin rose in the centre.


That's it for today, I'm off to get ready for work.
 Just had a new delivery from Creative Expressions so I'm going to be drooling over the new Sue Wilson dies & new colours of Sparle paste that just arrived!.

Hope your day is a good one & thanks for all your lovely comments.

Amy x 

Thursday 10 July 2014

July workshop project


Hi there bloggers! & a big welcome to my 3 new followers!
Its so nice to have you here & thanks for choosing to follow my Crafty Little Ideas.
You can also follow via Bloglovin & I'm just claiming my blog
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I'd also like to say a big thank you to you all for leaving me such lovely comments on my last post, all of which are very much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time.

Today I am sharing the project my half of our crafty group will be making at our first July workshop tonight.

After our demo day with Julia Watts last month lots of people said how much they had enjoyed the day but that they would really have loved to get hands on & have a go at some of the techniques she had shown us & use some of the products she was demonstrating.
So we decided to base our July workshops around the products  & techniques from that day.


I created my background by dabbing green aqua Cosmic Shimmer shimmer paint through one of the decorative corners from the Decorative Elements That Special Touch mask in the four corners of a piece of coconut white card.
Once dry, I then spritzed the background with mango blush & Egyptian blue shimmer mists & dried with my heat tool.
I then used the A4 heart lattice embossing folder to emboss the piece of card & blended some peacock feathers distress ink lightly over the top to make the embossing a bit more prominent.
This was then layered onto a piece of white card that I painted the edge of with gold shimmer paint & then onto aqua card onto my card blank.


I stamped the inner & outer frames from the Creative Expressions Garden Frame stamp & the sentiment in the centre with black ink & heat embossed with clear embossing powder. 
I then painted the flowers etc with green aqua & gold shimmer paints.
I die cut some frames with Lacy Squares Spellbinders from white card & painted the scalloped edges with the gold shimmer paint & stuck my floral designs on top layering with more aqua card & 3d foam for dimension.


I added a double bow in orange organza & teal silky crush to the bottom right of the card with a flat backed pearl embellishment from Hobby House that I had also painted with the shimmer paints to match.

A few touches of stickles glitter glue & some gold pearl pva glue to the flowers added the final touches to my card.

Hope you like it & that you'll pop back soon.

Amy x

Tuesday 1 July 2014

Reach for the stars

Hello there bloggers! Welcome to July & also a big welcome to my newest follower, thank you for following my crafty little ideas here in blogland.

My card today was inspired by all those out there that have been sitting exams recently & striving to reach their goals.

Fairies have been the recent theme for our workshops using the beautiful Lavinia stamps designed by Tracey Dutton which we are currently stocking in the shop. 
I particularly wanted to use one the Sweet Poppy stencils also currently in stock & also designed by Tracey.

I wanted to try to do something a little different to the scene scapes that I've been playing around with lately.

I chose the 'Make A Wish' stencil which features a fairy sat on a crescent moon reaching for a star.



First of all I tried using black texture paste through the stencil but after a couple of tries I just couldn't get a good enough image that I was satisfied with.
So, I decided to just draw inside the stencil with a black fine liner pen.
I then coloured in the image with promarker pens for her body, hair & grey shadowing on the moon & then painted her wings & the white of the moon with cosmic Shimmer shimmering iridescent watercolour paints from the Garden Tones set.
I then inked around the edges of the piece of card with peacock feathers & faded jeans distress inks.

Next I drew through the stencil again onto some copy paper, cut the image out & placed it over my coloured fairy design to create a mask. 
I then placed the 'Criss Cross' That Special Touch mask over the top & spread 'Aurora Sparkle' Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle Texture Paste through it to create a starry sky.


The outer background was inked with the same distress inks & then stamped all around the edges with the 'Miniature Stars' Lavinia stamp.
Both were mounted onto black card & the cut circle sentiment was computer generated, inked & added to the bottom left of the fairy with 3d foam.

I tied a double bow with black & blue organza ribbons & added a silver vintage button to the centre & stuck it bottom right of the fairy. I also added some Hobby House chocolate aurora sparklers in the top left corner.

To finish I applied glossy accents over the moon, stars & sentiment wording & then dots of star dust stickles to the miniature stars.


That's it for tonight, hope you like it & hope you pop back again soon.

Amy x