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 

Floral layers card

Hi bloggers!. I thought I'd share with you a card I made as the project for my half of our group to follow at one of our recent workshops for my shop  Out Of The Blue. 

We were using a set of floral stamps from Woodware that we have used for several workshops since,  with the idea being to show our craft group the multiple uses, effects & varying projects you can achieve from the same product. 

Flower stamps are always so useful & versatile & this clear stamp  set comes with 3 sizes of flowers that you can layer - layered flowers was the brief for this workshop.

I was very taken with a technique I had seen Sue Wilson use to make a background so thought I'd have a go too. 

On cream card I blended 3 colours of ink & once dry, stamped the 3 sizes of flowers over the top in clear ink & heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

 I then stamped the 3 sizes of flowers over the top again in clear ink but this time heat embossed with white embossing powder. This technique creates a lovely layered & textured background which I then cut down to mat onto cream & then turquoise card. 

I then layered this onto a piece of cream card around which I had stamped the flowers in brown ink.

 Onto the offcuts of my background sheet I stamped & embossed more flowers, cut them out & layered them together & attached them to my card along with some stamped leaves & beige ribbon to co ordinate.

I then stamped the sentiment in brown ink on cream card, cut it into a banner & distressed  it around the edges.

I tucked & glued it under the flower, & curled it slightly to add dimension before glueing into place.

I finished the card by adding some pearl gems & stamping inside the card. 

Hope you like the finished result, I'll be back with another project soon using the same set of stamps.

Thanks for following & leaving your comments which are always much appreciated.

Amy x 

Mr Zentangle Owl

Morning everyone. Hope you've all had a good week & have lots of crafty plans for the weekend?. I'm hoping to have a day of crafting tomorrow & I've gathered a nice stash of crafty goodies from the shop to try & come up with some new projects for future workshops.

My card today is another Zentangle card as we have another workshop this Thursday using the Dreamweaver stencils for Zentangle.

This particular owl stencil proved to be very popular with our group last week, not surprised really, as owls still continue to be a very popular theme in both our craft & gift sections of the shop.

 

 

This was actually my first attempt at Zentangle & I quite liked the result.

Once I'd finished the owl I simply mat & layered him onto black & white card stock & patterned paper. I die cut some flowers & layered them up, punched a strip of white card with a Martha Stewart border punch, stamped the sentiment from Indigoblu & edged the black card with white pearl cosmic shimmer pva. I also added some faux stitching .

 

One of my New Year's resolutions was to enter more blog challenges, so I'm going to enter this card in 2 today.

 The first is Country View Challenges where the theme is Monochromatic

& the second is Crafty Cardmakers and more where the theme is Black & White & you can win goodies from Woodware.

Pop over & take a look, there's some fab projects on both.

 

That's it from me today, I'm off to work in the shop.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

See you soon

 

Amy x

 

Cliffs & Crochet!

 

Things have been quite busy since my last post. We have been sorting out all of the Christmas deliveries in the shop, planning our annual Christmas shopping events & also holding 2 card making workshops. The first was for a local carers group who approached us because one of their members attends our regular workshops, the second was for our usual group of ladies & we are holding another with this same project this Thursday too!.

 

Here's the creations our group made last week

 

The cards were based on a design by Linda Walmsley who is one of the design team members for Indigoblu . Please check out her blog here, she really does some fab designs.

As you can see, our group really enjoyed making their 8 x 8 cards & I just love how they all put variations to the original design to make it their own.

I'm sure our ladies this Thursday will love making it too as we start getting into festive mode.

 

I'd also just like to say a big Hello! to my newest follower Julie. It's lovely to have you here.

Julie is my oldest friend & we have spent many happy hours crafting together over the years.

Julie makes the most beautiful oil cloth bags & if you'd like to see them please go & have a look at her Facebook page Bags By Boo.

Julie has lots of patience & after I told her that I'd taught myself how to chain stitch she kindly showed me how to crochet a Granny square!

Here's my first attempt

 

 

It's quite addictive & during our second crochet get together I think you can see the improvement I made

 

So when I got home I made another!

 



 

Crochet is something I've really wanted to get to grips with & I'm really chuffed with my granny squares. Hopefully I'll produce a blanket at some point ( not in these colours though! ) but for now it will be put aside as I need to concentrate on other more pressing projects.

 

Anyway, see you soon & thanks for stopping by

 

Amy x

 

 

 

 

A very vintage birthday

Hello bloggers!

 Well, I hope you've all been taking advantage of the fab weather we've been having? It's just what we've all been waiting for & I spent my Sunday out in the park all day with friends & family enjoying a picnic & playing rounders ( badly!).

 

Today's post is the project my group will be making at our card making workshop this Thursday & the following Thursday.

Twice a month my shop 'Out Of The Blue' holds workshops where Carole & I teach a group of 16 ladies. 

 Our workshops have been running for well over a year now, still going strong & growing all the time.

 

 

We'll be using Crafty Individuals  ''Hats and Bonnets' stamp and also their 'Floral Frame' mask to create the background.

The image was stamped in black memento ink on white card & coloured with promarkers. I also filled in all around the ladies with a grey promarker & outlined them with a darker tone of grey to make them stand out a bit more.

Then I distressed around the edges of the card with seedless preserves, milled lavender, shabby shutters & bundled sage distress inks & mat & layered onto card that I'd edged with a promarker to tone in.

I positioned the mask onto some glossy white card stock & inked through only the top right section with the above colours. I then repositioned it & did the same with the bottom left section so that my stamped image sat nicely within.

I found that the inked areas had a more defined edge by using glossy card but that once the ink had sunk into the surface I was unable to add any more colour or blend, so I added each colour a bit at a time.

Once I removed the mask I blended the two greens all over the remaining white areas.

 

Next I cut & embossed two medium spirals out of the glossy card with my Bitty Blossoms Spellbinder I blended with the same distress inks as before & added leave cut with my Foliage Spellbinder. These were then glued into the corners of my card.

 

 

I stamped the sentiment in black, again on glossy card & blended with distress inks & edged with promarkers & positioned it to the lower left of my card over a strip of lilac crochet ribbon.

The whole thing was then layered onto white card edged with a promarker & then onto a white card blank.

I think our ladies will enjoy using this stamp on Thursday, it's got a very classy, vintage feel to it which I really love & we've not really used masks very much so far.

 

Please pop over to Carole's blog in the next couple of days to see what her half of our group will be creating with the same stamp & photos of us all on the night.

 I've had a sneaky peek at her card & it's gorgeous!

 

Thanks again for stopping by, hope you like my card & as always I'm very appreciative of your comments.

 

Amy x