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

 

Annabell's garden & Mother's Day Millie

Hi everyone, hope you've had an enjoyable weekend?. Mine has been busy as usual, infact the whole week has been a bit hectic but filled with things to do with craft, so I really don't mind at all. I even managed to pop in to see Carole's stand at the craft fair in the Town Hall which quite handily is next door to my shop. As you can guess she had some fab creations on display & I think she'd had quite a successful day.

 For those of you that follow my crafty friend Carole, you will know that this week we have taught 2 cardmaking workshops for my shop Out Of The Blue. The 1st on Tuesday was a rescheduled class for a local craft group that was originally postponed due to the snowy weather we had a few weeks ago, the second was our own on Thursday evening which was very busy with lots of promarkers & die cutting but a great atmosphere even though we over ran quite a bit!.

The idea is that Carole & I come up with seperate projects but use the same products. Our group is split so that half make my design & half make Carole's & this way they get to see 2 different ways they can use the same items.

This is the card that my half of the group made on Thursday, ( sorry, not a great photo ) we were aiming for  Spring time colours so that the card would be suitable for Mother's Day or Easter. We used Spellbinders labels 11 & Wild Rose Studio Annabell's garden, garden bunnies stamp as the main components.

After I made this easle card I used the same layout to make 2 Mother's Day cards for my little girl Daisy to give my Mum & Mother in law. Again I used a Wild Rose Studio stamp, Millie with pot from the Milton & Co range. I used flexmarkers & promarkers to colour her in,  pretty mauves for the papers finished with flower embellishments die cut using my tattered florals die & punched daisies with pearls.

 Both Nannies really loved their cards, especially the personal messages Daisy added! ( a 3 year old's handwriting leaves a lot to be desired! )

That's it for now, I'm off to work on next week's workshop project & enjoy my Mother's Day evening meal that's being prepared for me as I write this.

Thanks for stopping by, your feedback & comments are much appreciated!
Amy x

Grandad's Shed

Morning all! Hope you all had a great weekend. I was busy working in the shop as usual on Saturday, which was pretty busy with only a week to go until Mothering Sunday & the weather wasn't too bad either which meant that there were quite a few people out enjoying a wander around the town.

Todays post is a a special commission I did a little while ago for a friend to give her Dad for his 65th birthday from her two little girls. It's always hard to find a gift for a man & even harder to find something to mark a special birthday.  She told me that he likes gardening & that the girls often join him on his allotment. So here is what I did.

 

It's a box canvas painted with acrylic paints & pebeo silver relief outliner. I added glossy accents to the areas I wanted to look shiny. The picture continues round the edge of the canvas & it can either be stood on a shelf or hung on the wall.

Apparently he liked it very much & I have since created several more canvas gifts for my friend to give for christenings, birthdays & weddings.

 

That's it for today. I'm off to pick up my 3 year old little girl from my sister's house. She had her very first sleep over at her Auntie's last night! The house was so quiet yesterday that I was able to prep for this weeks workshop & get a little bit organised!

 

Thanks for stopping & taking a look

 

Amy x

Flower Power

After starting off so well, it seems like ages since I've been able to sit down & write a post. Time has flown by in a a blur of hectic weekends & trade fairs. Can you believe we've been ordering our Christmas decoration & card ranges for the shop already?. What with that & trying to fit in project ideas for the cardmaking workshops I run with the help of my friend Carole, I've stuggled to find the time.
This week we were up at the NEC in Birmingham for the Stitches trade fair. It was great to see all the new product launches from all our favourite craft companies & I can't wait for all the new goodies we ordered to arrive so I can have a play!. I'm feeling really inspired after all the creative ideas we saw.

Anyway, tonight saw our 2nd cardmaking workshop take place with some great results. The room filled up very quickly & everyone got straight down to some serious crafting! The atmosphere was a great mix of concentration & chatter.

Tonights card had a Spring / Mother's Day theme so Carole & I chose to do a flower pot design using lovely springy colour card & patterned papers & some die cut flowers. We left the group to decide how they were going to mix the colours together & everyone seemed really pleased with the results.

It's lovely to see everyone's finished card & how different they all look just by changing a few elements. Veronica chose some lovely colour combinations. It's hard to see due to the light in the photo but all the flowers have been inked around the edges too.

Leanne is quite a new member of our group & has come up with some lovely cards already. She's really chuffed with her finished card as you can see!

That's it for now, hopefully I'll get chance over the next few days to contribute a few more of my own crafty little projects. This weekend promises to be a bit more chilled out.

Thanks for following

Amy x