Friday 28 November 2014

Fabulous Forty!

Well, I must apologise for being abscent for a little while.
 But I think I have good reason, I've been celebrating my 40th birthday!. 
I've had a few days away here & there over the last week or so with family & friends & have been treated to some yummy meals out & gorgeous gifts. 
My best friend from school also celebrated her 40th birthday & my card today is the one that I made for her.


I cut the 40 with my cricut machine out of pale blue card. I then colour washed the numbers with some Lilac heaven & Blueberry ice Inkadinks that I received in the post along with lots of other gorgeous goodies from Imagination Crafts.
I've really enjoyed working with these inks & I'm looking forward to sharing some more projects that I've made using them as part of my new Design Team role for Imagination Crafts.

I also created my background with the two colours of inks & then spritzed the numbers & background with watered down mica powders to add shimmer. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't pick this up very well.
I then used Heartfelt Creations Sun Kissed Fleur Swirls stamps & stamped it randomly over the background with Dusty Concorde distress ink. Once dry,  I removed some of the colour from the centre of the flowers by brushing with water & then blotting with kitchen paper.


After trimming the background to fit my card blank, I stamped & cut more flowers from the offcuts, shaped them & added some turquoise micro beads to the centres.
My sentiment is also from Imagination Crafts.



I used all the same colours for the inside of the card plus a Phill Martin sentiment stamp to finish.



I hope you like the finished card.
Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back again soon.

Amy x 

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Flutterby Butterfly

Hello & welcome back.
 Phew! What a busy week its turning out to be.
 This week we are hosting our annual Christmas Shopping Evenings at Out Of The Blue, with last night being the first of the 3 evenings. 
I was kept very busy running up & down the stairs, topping up items that had sold, chatting to our loyal customers & handing out festive drinks & nibbles.
Looking forward very much to the next 2 nights which are no doubt going to be just as busy, so I thought I'd grab these few spare moments to share my card with you.

It's a pop up box card that my half of our workshop group made a little while back using Visible Image  stamps.
Visible image design & make all their own clear stamps so if you're not familiar with them, please check out their fab products, some of which we are very pleased to stock in our shop.


I've used 4 stamps by Visible Image, Large Butterfly, Butterfly, Butterfly Sentiment & Tall Grass.

I used a template to create the base box card out of a sheet of A4 cream card. There are lots of instructions on how to construct pop up boxes of varying sizes available on YouTube etc.
 Once constructed & decorated the card folds flat enough to fit inside an envelope.
 I created my own background paper by making a piece of A4 card wet & then using Cosmic Shimmer Water Paint Garden Tones set & applying the various colours in patches.
Once dry the background has a beautiful shimmer to it.
I then stamped the 2 sizes of butterfly stamps randomly with distress inks that toned in with the shimmer paint.
The A4 background card was then cut into panels, mat onto lilac card & applied to the panels on my base box.


I stamped & embossed 3 large butterflies & 4 small butterflies & painted them with the same Cosmic Shimmer paints & cut them out.
I added distress glitter to the butterflies & made antennae from craft wire with tiny beads on the ends.
I stamped & embossed the Tall Grass onto lilac card several times & then cut around it & glued it inside the inner supports inside the box & onto the back panel.
The butterflies on acetate were then glued in & around the grass so they appear to be fluttering .


I stamped the Butterfly sentiment on to the offcuts of my background sheet & chopped it up, attaching it to the very front panel with 3D foam pads.


It was great fun making this card & although it was maybe a little time consuming to complete within the 2 hour workshop timescale, many of our class members came back to show more pop up cards they had then made at home based on this design.
These butterfly stamps are some of my favourite stamps to use & are great for lots of occasions.

I'd like to enter this card in the Visible Image November Challenge.

Thanks for visiting
See you soon

Amy x 




Monday 3 November 2014

Exciting times!

Hello my friends, welcome back & welcome to my new followers too!.
Well, I have some exciting news to share with you today.
I recently saw that Imagination Crafts were looking for DT members & I decided to try my luck & apply.
Imagine my delight when I was offered one of the positions!!
So, as of the 1st December myself & the other design team members will be showcasing products from Imagination Crafts & bringing you some inspiring projects.
 I do hope you'll keep stopping by to see what we come up with.


So today I thought it appropriate to show you a card I have made using Imagination Crafts products.



I stamped the Decoupage Stamp Sets - Owls Border twice & coloured with promarkers.
I cut away the background in the middle of the design ready for my own created background to show through.
I then cut out the little owl & decoupaged it onto the main coloured image with 3d foam.
I die cut a silver scalloped frame for my owl image using a spellbinder.
Next I created my background by scraping diamond Sparkle Medium through the Random Stars background stencil.
Once dry I then added my owl image with 3d foam to give depth.



Finally, I matted & layered this onto vintage silver card to match the frame around my owls & then again onto navy card edged with blue dimensional paint dots.

Before I go I thought I would share some pics of the cake & other bits & bobs I made for my daughter's birthday this week.
She turned 5 & like most 5 year olds she is completely obsessed with all things to do with the Disney film Frozen.
So that was the theme of the party which we hosted for 20 children.
 Unfortunately, Daisy got chicken pox a couple of days before her birthday but after a trip to the doctor we were given the OK to go ahead with the party.





I'm pleased to report that the chicken pox seem to be on their way out,  just in time for her to go back to school!.

Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon.

Amy x