'Love You' card using Woodware 'Lovebirds' stamp set & Koi Brush Markers.

Welcome back & Happy Valentine's Day!.

Thank you for visiting my crafty little blog. Today I'd like to share a 'Love' inspired project made using the Woodware 'Lovebirds' stamp set.

The 'Lovebirds' were stamped in clear versamark ink onto watercolour paper & heat embossed with white embossing powder.

Next I coloured/painted the birds using various colours of Koi brush markers, water & a paint brush.

I used blues & greens of the same pens,water & a large, flat paint brush to create a colour wash for the background. The flowers from the same stamp set were second generation stamped randomly over the background with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.

The 'Love'  & 'You' are from a stamp set by Wow! Embossing powders.

These were stamped in Picked Raspberry Distress Ink onto water colour card, cut out, distressed around the edges & mounted onto lilac card & then onto the background, one above each bird.

To finish, I added some polka dot lilac ribbon across the bottom of the card.

Thanks for stopping by, please pop by again soon to see some more of my crafty little projects.

Amy x 

Being unique is better than being perfect - Box canvas using Woodware stamps & Wow! Embossing powders.

Welcome back to my crafty little blog.

Today I'd like to share with you another decorated canvas design.

This was a project we made at my shop Out Of The Blue in Chipping Sodbury near Bristol.

We teach workshops twice a month & try to add some different projects other than just card making.

Like the last canvas project I posted recently, this is made by using the reverse of the canvas. 

As our workshops are only 2 hours long, to save time I prepped everyone's blank canvas using turquoise acrylic paint.

We then spread texture paste through a Creative Expressions mask & once removed sprinkled glittery Wow embossing powder over the wet paste & heated with a heat tool until the paste bubbles & adds more texture.

The effect is lovely & also means the paste dries pretty quickly. Another time saver!.

Clear Versamark ink was dabbed around the edges of the canvas & heat embossed with the same powder.

We stamped the Woodware Whimsical Flower onto watercolour paper & coloured/painted the flowers with Koi brush marker pens.

The flowers were cut out & layered up leaving some areas unglued for shaping & to add dimension.

The flower was glued in place to the left side of the front of the canvas box.

Next, we created the sentiment to place in the recess of the box frame using another clear stamp set from Woodware.

Mini flowers were added & distress ink was blended around the edges.

The choice was given to add ribbon to the back to hang on the wall, but I think this canvas looks better just stood on a shelf as it is.

Just a few touches of Stickles glitter glue were all that was needed to finish.

As it's Valentine's Day tomorrow I'll be posting again tomorrow with a love themed card so please come back to take a look.

As always, your comments are much appreciated.

Amy x

Jeepers Creepers! Woodware sneaker card.

Welcome back to my crafty little blog.
Today I'm sharing a card design we made at our card making workshop at my shop Out Of The Blue in Chipping Sodbury near Bristol.
This card design went down very well with our craft ladies. They said it would be perfect when they find it hard to come up with a card for a male or someone of that 'inbetween' age.

For this card we used the Jeepers Creepers Sneaker stamp set from Woodware.

The main sneaker image was stamped twice in black ink & heat embossed onto watercolour card & then coloured with koi brush markers.
The images were cut out & holes created to thread twine through for the laces.
One sneaker was layered with 3 d foam onto the other.

The backgrounds were created with the background sneaker stamp & the other stamps in the Jeepers Creepers set.
The sneakers were raised up onto die cut circles along with the sentiment.

Thanks for visiting my blog.
Please leave me a comment & pop back again soon.

Amy x

Friends are flowers in the garden of life canvas. Paperartsy JOFY stamp set 42

Hello & welcome back to my crafty little blog.

It's been a while since I last posted a project, so today I'm going to catch up a bit by sharing a canvas I made for my friend for her 40th Birthday.

We're both really busy & struggle to find the time to meet up very often so as well as this little gift we went on a spa day!.

It was a lovely relaxing treat with no kids to worry about & we felt really chilled at the end of the day.

Here's the canvas:

I decided to use the Paperartsy JOFY stamp set 42.

 It has the sentiment 'Friends are flowers in the garden of life'.

 I used a 6 x 6 deep edge square box canvas blank & painted it with Paperartsy fresco finish paint which dries quickly with a lovely, even, chalky finish.

I also painted the inside of the back of the canvas as this was going to now be the front!.

I cut some strips of turquoise card to fit the front panels of the box frame & using black ink stamped the loopy edging design across the top & bottom, filling the loops with lilac paint

I used the foliage down both edges & painted those & on a seperate piece of white card stamped the small flower & leaves which I coloured with promarkers.

I stamped the girl twice & coloured both girls with promarkers alternating the colours to match in with my background & flowers.

I cut them out & cut the legs & hair bun off of one of the girls.

I repositioned the hair bun & legs so that the front girl is shorter than her friend & has a different hairstyle.

They were then glued into place on the front of the canvas, one in front of the other.

I stamped & coloured the sentiment onto white card, added some flowers & blended around the edges with distress ink.

This was then glued into the back recess of the box canvas.

I then printed a personalised message onto card & glued it into place on the back of my box canvas along with some polka dot ribbon to hang it with.

Thanks for visiting.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday & I'll be back again very soon with another project to share.

Amy x

Pick a Daisy card ,Paperartsy Eclectica Lin Brown set 26

Hello again everyone.

 Hope you enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend & managed to get some crafting done?.

 Other than working in the shop on Saturday I had a relaxing weekend & made this card for my Mother in law who is celebrating a big birthday tomorrow. Not saying how old though as she's not keen to broadcast it & after all, age is just a number, as my husband wrote inside.

Here's the card I made using Papersrtsy Eclectica Lin Brown 26 stamp set & stencil 024.

As I wasn't incorporating a number on the card I thought it fitting to use Daisies as my theme because

 my daughter ( her Granddaughter) is called Daisy.

I created the background with a colour wash using Koi Brush Marker pens on watercolour card.

I mixed some green mica powder with pearlescent texture paste & applied it through the stencil & then heated with a heat tool once the stencil was removed. 

This added more texture for my background which I stamped with the foliage & open Daisy from the stamp set using Peacock Feathers & Dusty Concord distress inks,

I stamped the main Daisy twice with black memento ink onto white card & coloured with the same colour Koi Brush markers as I used for the background.

I cut these out & layered the head on top of the base Daisy, curling the petals & leaves to add dimension.

I added the stamped sentiment, cut into segments & finished the card with stickles glitter glues & liquid pearls to match the colour scheme.

Off to bed now, I'm feeling rather full after we took the birthday girl out for a vintage tea party this afternoon. We filled up on lots of yummy tea,cake & sandwiches!.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave me a comment if you can.

See you again soon

Amy x 

You're The Bee's Knees canvas. Paperartsy JOFY stamp set 30.

Hi Everyone, it's been a while since my last post but I've been busy crafting & have lots to share.

First, as it's nearly back to school time, I thought I'd share the projects I made with my little girl for her to give as thank you gifts thank you to her teachers before breaking up for the school holidays.

The school have been teaching the children about Bees, their habitat, their importance in our lives & how they contribute to the food chain. So what better theme to use for teachers gifts?!.

I love JOFY stamps from Paperartsy & immediately thought of  JOFY stamp set 30 to use for this project. 

Here's what we made:

A canvas that says ' You're the bees knees'.

The canvas base  was painted with Paperartsy fresco finish paint, stencilled with flowers & fresco finish paint using JOFY stencil 007, then stamped with the honeycomb design from the set using white paint.

With the background completed, we stamped flowers from JOFY stamp set 13, the large & small bumble bees, hexagon with sentiment in the centre, & two bee hives. 

These were all coloured using Koi brush marker pens.

We cut the layers of one of the hives & glued over the top over the other hive to create 3d flaps.

We stuck everything into place adding twisted wire to the large bumble bee to make it appear like it's flying out from the hive.

All the bees were given a touch of sparkle with yellow Stckles glitter glue & their wings had a coat of Glossy Accents.

Daisy wrote a personal message on co-ordinating coloured card stock which we stuck to the back of the canvas adding some ribbon for hangng in between the two layers.

We then made a matching gift bag to pop the canvas in along with a Burt's Bees mini gift set.

We loved using this stamp set I have more projects made with it to show you soon.

Thanks for stopping by

Amy x 

Easter Treat Box made with Inky Doodles stamps.

Hello again, thanks for coming back to visit my blog.

Today I'm sharing another Easter project that we made at one of our Out Of The Blue paper craft workshops recently.

We have started stocking Inky Doodles stamps in the shop & the Spring Applique set was perfect for this project - an exploding box with a treat inside!.

So, we started by cutting & scoring a box shape & lid.

Square pieces of card were cut to fit each panel & then these were decorated with the stamped & coloured bunnies, hens, sheep, chicks etc.

These were all coloured with promarkers & extra colour was added with blended distress inks.

The chocolate Lindt bunny is sat within a strip of card decorated with flowers. To stop him rattling around once the box is shut he is held in place with a sticky dot.

The perfect little treat for Easter!.

Hope you have lots of treats lined up this Easter.

Please pop back again soon for more Spring project ideas.

Amy x 

Spring Chicken Card.

Hello, & welcome back. Thanks for visiting my blog. 

Well, I've built up a collection of projects since I was last here & I'd like to start sharing them with you, so here we go.

Today, as we are approaching the Easter bank holiday weekend I thought I'd share a Spring card made using the Spring Applique, Ditzy Prints, & Stitched Alphabet stamp sets from Inky Doodles.

I have to say, these stamps have already proved to be a very popular range in the shop so we will be re stocking again soon.
The stamps are lovely to use, easy to colour & have such cute designs with lots on one sheet which makes them great value for money
All of the images were stamped with black archival ink & coloured with a selection of promarker pens & then layered up with 3d foam.
I used Distress inks to blend a sky & grass background, around the die cut frame & also around the outer, ditzy floral background.

I used the Stitched Alphabet stamp set to stamp the letters to spell 'Spring', coloured them with yellow promarkers  & stuck them in place with 3d foam.
I finished off the card by adding some twine, ribbon & a button & mounting onto a Kraft card blank.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a relaxing Easter spent with friends & family.
Don't eat too much chocolate though!

See you again very soon.

Amy x 

Follow Your Dreams Esme

Well Hello there!

As you've probably noticed I've been missing for a while.

It's been a busy old time since my last post with preparations for Christmas in the shop.

The gift side of the shop goes a bit mad at this time of the year & we also hold our annual Christmas Shopping Evenings at the beginning of November. Not to mention half term holidays in October & Daisy's birthday party which I was brave enough to host at our house!!.

 

 

My project I'm sharing today is a Birthday card for my friend's daughter who turns 6 this week.

You may remember my card for her brother Finley featuring the Max Rocks stamps from Visible Image.

For this card for Esme, I have used the Fairy Dance stamp from Stampendous.

 

 

I wanted to keep this card very girly as it is going to be put in a frame & hung on the wall in her bedroom. So of course it had to be pink, purple & sparkly.

This stamp was the perfect image as when us 2 mums get together Daisy & Esme are forever dancing & twirling around in pretty dresses practicing their ballet moves!.

 

 

The image was coloured with my Inktense pencils & an extra skirt added over the top of the original to add dimension.

The Follow Your Dreams sentiment from Visible Image was stamped over a blended Distress Ink sky & foliage was stamped down the edges in green using a Lavinia stamp.

 

 

The image was layered onto white card & a background made with Brushos. The larger background was a mix of picked raspberry & dusty concord over stamped with a rose design, also from Stampendous.

I embossed around the edges with sparkly pink Wow! embossing powder & added a cluster of flowers & leaves & of course, lots of stickles glitter glue.

 

 

Thanks for visiting.

I hope to be back again very soon.

 

Amy x

 

 

 



Summer smile

Hello there blog friends & Hello September!.

I can't quite believe Autumn is almost upon us.

Although I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Summer, I have to admit, I have been enjoying getting back onto a routine with school runs & set hours working in the shop this week.

It's also lovely to have lots of new goodies arriving in the shop for the Autumn/Winter season & I really do love all the colours this season will bring.

Today's project is a card made using the Chrysanthemum background stamp from Wow!, clear embossing powder & Distress Inks.

The background was stamped twice onto white card with versamark ink & clear embossing powder. 

Chipped Sapphire, Picked Raspberry & Peacock Feathers distress inks were blended randomly over the background.

I selected some of the flowers from one of the backgrounds & cut them out to layer together to make the flower embellishment.

I stamped the smile sentiment onto a strip of card with blue archival ink & blended the distress inks around the edges after cutting an inverted 'V'.

The strip & embellishment were then stuck in place onto the background which was then mounted onto a matching layer & then the card blank. A droplet of Cosmic Shimmer Pearlescent PVA glue was added to the centre of the flower to finish.

Very easy & relatively quick to make but quite effective.

Thanks for stopping by, please visit again soon, your comments are much appreciated.

Amy x 

Clean & Simple designs for Out Of The Blue

Hello again blog friends.

Today is Thursday & also the day we hold another of our Card Making Workshops at Out Of The Blue.

We held the same workshop last week with the theme of CAS cards - clean & simple.

This is not a genre of card making I normally turn my hand to very easily as I sometimes struggle to know when to stop adding more to my designs. 

Less is generally more with clean & simple cards along with a good amount of white space.

However, once I sat down & got started making my samples for the Workshop, I really got into it & was pleased with the results. 

So, here's what we've been creating for our August workshops

These cards are all A6 in size & made using the Flower Head Stamp set from Woodware & Color box cats eye que ink stacks in various colour combinations.

These stamps are great as they stamp a solid flower so no colouring is needed as the ink does all the colour work for you!. So, dead easy & quick too!.

We used masking techniques to layer the flowers one behind the other & some of the flowers had more than one colour ink applied.

Finishing touches were stickles glitter glue, faux pearls, ribbon & cosmic shimmer pearlescent PVA glues. 

I'm particularly liking the Decadent Teal & Decadent Grape colours in the range by Phil Martin & have ordered other colours, due to arrive in the shop today.

We intend on completing at least 3 cards each if time permits but there's always lots of chatter & tea & cake at our workshops so we'll see how it goes!.

Thanks for stopping by

See you again soon

Amy x 

Thank you teacher

Hello & welcome back. It's been a while since my last post so I have a few projects to share with you over the next couple of weeks.

 I've been pretty bad at checking out what you've all been up to lately too, so now that the school holidays have arrived I'm hoping to catch up with you all very soon. 

It's just been such a hectic time lately!.

My daughter Daisy has just finished her first year at infants school. As a thank you to her teacher & teaching assistant the mums all clubbed together to buy vouchers. 

Daisy also wanted to make something a little more personal for them just from her so here is what she made for them - with a little bit of help from me!. 

We made these 2 hanging canvases. 

Each was painted with turquoise chalk paint & then embossed with the leaf pattern using  grunge paste through a leaf mask from creative expressions.

While the Grunge paste was still wet I sprinkled it with one of the gorgeous new colours of embossing powders by Wow! called Long Island Teal which we are now stocking in the shop along with the other new colours.

This was then heated with a heat tool causing the paste to bubble & the powder to sink in & also end up with a layer of gorgeous gold sparkly teal on the surface.

We stamped branches & owls & coloured them with promarkers.

These are both stamps by Creative Expressions.

We coloured 3 owls & cut & layered them up with 3d foam.

The little punched heart was also heat embossed with one of the new powders from Wow!. This colour is a fab pinky red called Florida Sunset.

To finish, we added the 'thank you' sentiment made using a Wow! stamp, some stamped & coloured leaves & some small punched flowers embossed with Wow! Mulberry mist with pearl PVA centres.

Daisy wanted to write her own message on each of them so I drew some lines on some turquoise card & once she'd written what she wanted to say, we stuck them to the back of each canvas with some ribbon in between to hang.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my little blog.

Please leave me a comment if you can as I always read them & they are greatly appreciated.

See you again soon 

Amy x 

Live Your Dreams

Welcome back blog friends. I hope you're all enjoying the beautiful sunshine we've been having recently?.

Hopefully it will now continue, fingers crossed into July when we get to take our annual holiday in beautiful Dorset.

Today I'm sharing a card I made using the Lost In Thought stamp from Indigoblu.

I created the background with black & brown Brusho paints, over stamped with Honeycomb Background using white paint & sepia versafine ink.
I distressed around the edges with a pair of scissors & blended brushed corduroy & black soot distress inks.
Stampendous shabby white Frantage was sprinkled here & there to add some texture & light.

I stamped the girl in black & used the Brushos as watercolours to paint her. I was aiming for a kind of grungy look.

I cut around her leaving a few millimetres around the edge.

She was then mounted onto the background, to the right with 3d foam.

The Live Your Dreams sentiment from Visible Image was stamped in black & heat embossed with clear powder, cut out & distressed with brushed corduroy. 

This was then added to the background with 3d foam.

I mat & layered onto card distressed with brushed corduroy & then onto a craft card card blank.

I think this card would be great to give a teenager, maybe off to college or uni.

Finally, here's a picture of me with my little Oompa Loompa!

Her school had a float in the Chipping Sodbury Festival procession the theme of which was Musicals & they chose Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

See you again soon

Thanks for visiting

Amy x