Season of Joy

Phew, what a busy week!. 2 workshops for Out Of The Blue & non stop Christmas deliveries & sorting to do in the shop. 

The weather seems to be changing & customers are buying with Christmas gifts & crafting in mind.

This first card is the project my half of our group made on Thursday at our Out Of The Blue card making workshop.

 It was quite a busy 2 hours with lots of heat embossing & stencilling with texture paste.

The card was made with the Season Of Joy Dreamweaver stencil & silver embossing paste.

After applying the paste onto purple card the paste was heated with a heat tool until it bubbled & added texture.

Here is a closer view of the texture achieved by this technique.

The background was made by embossing white card with an embossalicious embossing folder through my grand calibur.

Before running it through, I applied perfect medium to the debossed side of the folder. The clear ink was then transferred to my piece of card as it went through & the pattern was embossed into it at the same time.

Once removed from the folder, I applied silver embossing powder all over the piece of card & heat embossed it.

I then inked the embossed stars with dusty concord distress ink.

Areas of the scenery were enhanced with the same ink to create shadowing & depth &  I also applied treasure gold silver.

Final touches were silver & lilac ribbon tied with a double bow & some die cut & embossed Snowflakes edged with silver.

I also made the same card to show it in another colour way.

Finally, here's the card we made at the workshop on Tuesday. An additional workshop to our normal schedule.

We were asked to do this workshop as part of the Discover South Gloucestershire festival 2014.

This card was designed by Carole, my co workshop teacher & everyone really enjoyed making it, including me.

Its made using the Dasher & Tree stamps by Sam Poole from Creative Expressions. 

 If you don't already follow Carole's blog please pop over & check it out at 

Carole's Crafty Creations

She makes some beautiful cards & other great crafty projects.

Right, that's it from me for tonight. Its way past my bed time & I have another busy day tomorrow in the shop.

Thanks for joining me & please pop back again soon.

Amy x 

Festive Tree

Well, I can't believe we are on the verge of October already & that its been so long since my last blog post!.

I must apologise for my absence & lack of commenting on your projects but its been quite a busy time.

Covering staff holidays, our own holiday, Hubby's 40th & our little Daisy starting school has meant not a lot of time for blogging I'm afraid,  plus we are now on the build up to Christmas in the shop with lots of ordering & deliveries to sort.

Anyway, I have managed to fit in a bit of crafting time recently, mainly playing around with ideas for our Out Of The Blue workshops. So hopefully I can get back into the swing of things & post a bit more regularly.

My card today was the result of playing around with some  Dreamweaver stencils ready for our October workshops.

We did one of our 1st Christmas workshops a couple of years ago using this Dreamweaver  tree stencil with embossing paste & mica powders so I thought I'd use it in a different way for this card.

I started by creating my background with alcohol inks on glossy white card stock. The technique I used was one I saw on  a youtube tutorial, there are quite a few videos on there showing this technique. 

I randomly dripped 2 different colours of alcohol inks ( in this case red & green ) all over a sheet of acetate. I then dripped blending solution randomly over the top to dilute the colours & allow them to spread out a bit more.

Next I put my glossy card face down on top of the colours & placed another sheet of acetate over the top to create a sandwich. I then pressed down & rubbed my hand over the acetate to spread the inks around & allow the glossy card to pick up the colours.

This creates a completely random, quick drying effect 

I cut down my background & used a snowflake background stencil, also from Dreamweaver & inked through it with festive berries & evergreen bough distress inks.

I off centred the tree to the right & spread black glossy embossing paste through it. I then left this to dry.

I stamped the Phill Martin Christmas sentiment on the offcut of my background, cut it out & backed it onto red card.

I die cut & layered my snowflake in red & green ( Spellbinder Snowfkake Wonder ) & added a black pearl to the centre.

I tied some red ribbon & added it to the left of the tree & attached the sentiment & snowflake near the top. 

To finish, I mat & layered onto red & green card & added red, green & gold stickles to the baubles & star at the top of the tree.

Well, thank you for taking a look, I hope you'll pop by again soon. 

I'm going to make a big effort over the next few days to stop by & catch up with what you've all been up to.

See you soon

Amy x 

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 

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

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 

Fairy festival workshop card

Happy Friday! Hope you've all had a good week so far & have lots of lovely plans for the weekend?

Today I'm sharing with you the card I made for my half of the group to make at our workshop for Chipping Sodbury Festival.

As mentioned in my last post, the theme for the festival this year is 'Disney' & so I decided to use Lavinia stamps to create a fairy/Tinkerbell type of card.

 All the stamps used were Lavinia Stamps which I really enjoyed using.
 The designs are so effective in black silhouette & so I stamped my fairy & the background designs onto rainbow card stock & mat onto black card.
 I stamped my fairy twice, the second fairy was then layered on top of the first.
Her wings were shaped to give dimension & I added stickles glitter glue to add sparkle. I then covered her with glossy accents although this doesn't really show in the photos.

The background was made by cutting a circle out of the card blank. I cut another circle out of rainbow card, stamped & inked around the edges & then I mounted my 'moon' on black card behind my circle aperture to give depth.
The 'believe' sentiment was attached with 3d foam & I added stickles & distress inks to finish.

This card was also the inspiration for my fairy canvas for my window display as seen in my last post.

Here's the finished card on display in my window alongside some Lavinia stamps & other crafty goodies.

Thanks for stopping by, please pop back again soon.

Amy x 

Julia Watts demo day & Festival Window

Hello blog friends, sorry it's been a little while since my last post. Lots has been going on in the land of Out Of The Blue & so my post today will be a bit picture heavy, please bear with me.

On Saturday 7th June we were very lucky to have Julia Watts visit us at Out Of The Blue for a day of demonstrations. 

We had split the day into five 1hour sessions & people then chose which hour they wanted to book onto. 

As always Julia was very informative about all of the products she was demonstrating & some great tips were picked up on how to use the gorgeous new shimmer paints, masks & sparkle texture pastes from Creative Expressions. 

We had all hands on deck in the shop, me running backwards & forwards between the hall & the shop & we'd also enlisted Carole's help to be Julia's 'magic hands' for the day.

It was a very successful day with over 80 people attending in total. We've had great feedback from all who came & I'm sure we will be inviting Julia back for another demo day again soon.

Here's a pic of me giving Julia a little gift to say thanks.

After Julia's visit my focus then had to turn to our window display for the Chipping Sodbury Festival.

Every year the town hosts a festival with lots of events taking place over 1 week. Lots of local people get involved including the schools & there is a street procession with floats & a princess with her attendants to end the week. 

The shops & businesses in the town are encouraged to join in by creating a window display using the theme of the festival.

This year the theme is 'Disney' & there is also a 'spot the error' competition with prizes for the person who can spot the most!. 

I decided the theme for our window would be Tinkerbell/Peter Pan. I ordered in lots of Lavinia stamps & Sweet Poppy stencils as I thought their beautiful fairy designs would fit in quite nicely & we could then use them for our card making workshop for the festival too.

I decided to hand paint 3 canvas panels with one of the Lavinia designs. Here's how it all came together.

You can just about see my pencil drawing of the fairy in this one.

All that was left to do was paint in her wings & add some glitter with sparkle texture paste.

Then I had to attach the 3 panels to 1 big wood panel to put in the back of the shop window. I then made other bits & bobs relating to my theme & added some fairy items that we sell plus some distressed ladders with faux trailing ivy intertwined. 

Here are the finished results.

Did you spot the error?!

Anyway, thanks for staying through until the end!, I'll be back soon to share my card I made for the festival workshop.

Hope you'll pop back.

Amy x