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 

Spring Bunny

Back again with another bunny card made with my newest stamp purchase from Clarity.

I managed to fit in a bit of crafting yesterday when the weather went a bit rubbish & rainy & here's what I ended up with.

I used a mask to create the flowers, stems & butterflies, inking through it with a selection of distress inks.
I inked around a shaped piece of card to create the clouds & blended around the edges with peacock feathers.
The bunny was stamped in sepia & coloured with promarkers, cut out & fixed in place with 3d foam.

I stamped small flowers around the green shimmer paper & layered onto pink & then onto my card blank which I had edged with peacock feathers.

I painted some resin daisies white & yellow & added some gilding wax.

I stamped the sentiment directly onto my card & added some stardust stickles to the stenciled flowers & pearl cosmic shimmer pva to the middles of the flowers & butterflies to finish.

That's it for my Easter card creations for this year.
Hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend.

Amy x 

Easter Bunny Blessings

Hello crafter's, hope you're all enjoying this Easter weekend?

Its been beautiful here with the sun shining all day yesterday & most of today.

We've been doing a spot of DIY here & catching up on household chores which is a bit boring but hopefully, after I've finished work in the shop today I'll be able to enjoy a bit of a break with Nick & Daisy & maybe even fit in a bit of crafting time somewhere too.

My card today is an Easter card I made with the Clarity Stamps I bought at Ally Pally last Sunday. 

My friend Julie & I were really taken with the samples that were on display on their stand. One card in particular stood out & I just had to buy the stamps so I could come home & make my own version.

I don't know if Barbara made the card I saw & I have looked through the Clarity blogs to try to link to it but all I could find were other cards made using the same stamp set.
Anyway, here's my card

I chose to create my flame coloured background using a blend of mustard seed & festive berries distress inks with my ink duster brush which I love to use.
I cut a circle placing it on my background & then blended the colours around it.
I then cut a hill shape from a piece of card & used this as a mask & blended a mix of shabby shutters & evergreen bough to create my hill.
I then covered up the hill & stamped the foliage from the stamp set in sepia versafine either side.
Using the same ink I stamped the Stampendous Easter Blessings along the base & added a few more leaves.

I then stamped my bunnies onto cream card, coloured them with  promarkers & cut them out. I covered them with glossy accents & when dry glued them to the top of the hill & added a bit of shadowing around their bottoms with a promarker.

I used the same foliage stamp to stamp around the edge of my card blank & layered my scene onto brown & green card with distress inks around the edges.
I then created an inner for my card to match.

I'm going to enter this in Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers week 303 Eternal Flame, where the theme this week is Flame Colours.
You can find all the details here.

I'd also like to enter this card in the Crafty Catz Challenge #227  where your creation has to contain something beginning with the letter B.
My B is for Brown & of course Bunnies!
Details for this challenge are here.

Well, that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.
Hope you all enjoy the rest of the Easter holiday.
See you again soon.

Amy x 

Julia Watts Demo Day Announcement

Hi all, bit of a busy week or so since my last post.

 The nice weather has encouraged some extra customers into the shop with Easter just around the corner & we've had lots of new ranges arriving for the Spring/summer season which means all change & lots of rearrangement of displays.

 Trouble is, once you change one display, they all need changing! It can be a long job to say the least but one I enjoy. 

We've also been arranging an exciting craft event in the shop.  We have booked Julia Watts to come & do a demo day for us at the beginning of June. 

Lots of our workshop ladies have already booked their spaces for the day & we've been busy sorting advertising, tickets etc.

Here's the advert that will be going in local press over the next few weeks. 

Be great to see you on the day if any of you fancy a trip to Chipping Sodbury!

Here's a picture of our Easter dresser display in the shop.

We always have an Easter tree with lots of lovely, pretty hanging eggs, chicks etc. I have great intentions to make some of my own decorations to hang & sell but never seem to get enough together to make a nice selection.
Will try harder for next year.

This picture is our current Easter window display featuring Herdy the sheep.

We came across this range of products when we visited the Lake District last year & fell in love with herdy & all those lovely bright colours. Its been selling well in the shop, especially since putting this window together. We think it makes a lovely gift for Easter for all ages. The range is based on the Herwick breed of sheep which you see everywhere up in the Lakes.

I was also really excited to visit Ally Pally at the weekend. I'd never been to this craft show before having mainly only attended trade ones so was interested to see what it would be like in comparison. I went with a different head on (makes me think of Worzel Gummidge!) as I was looking at things from a customer's point of view rather than my usual retailer view point. I found it much more relaxed, very friendly & very inspiring.

Me on the left, Julie on the right, just arrived at Ally Pally

I took my friend Julie along with me who I am enjoying spending lots more time with since she has moved back up here from Cornwall. We had a lovely day out & spent lots of time watching Leandra from Paperartsy doing a fab demo with their gorgeous range of chalky fresco finish paints. Julie was very taken with these.
We also had a very lovely conversation with Helen & Mark from Visible Image, admiring all the samples on their stand & I came home with a few stamps to play with. Can't wait!

Then finally we had a chat with Julia who was demoing on the Creative Expressions stand & she told me off for not stopping by for a chat sooner!
I'm so looking forward to her coming to the shop for the demo day, Im going to start counting down the sleeps!.

Time had just run away & it was time to head home, heads full of lots of inspiration & itching to use my new purchases.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post, its quite a long one!
See you again soon with a craft project to show you.

Amy x 

Mother's Day card in purple

Well, here I am again! Two posts already this week & its only Tuesday!

Yesterday I shared the card I made for my Mum & today I'm  going to show you the card I made for my Mother in law for Mother's Day as I mentioned in my last post.

My Mother in law is very into her pinks & purples so that was my starting point.

 I also wanted to use the Woodware stamps we were using at our Workshops this month so that whatever I made could be shown as a sample at both classes or maybe even end up being the project we made. 

Here's what I came up with

I started by cutting a circle in the middle of my scalloped edge card blank. I then cut the waste circle slightly smaller again & stamped & embossed the Happy Mother's Day sentiment in the centre, inking around both circles & the scalloped edges of the card.

I used a tiny leaf stamp ( from a kanban set I think)  to stamp all around the outside of the circle aperture.

The sentiment circle was then mounted onto lilac card & stuck behind the circle aperture using 3d foam pads.

I stamped the 3 sizes of Woodware flowers onto white card stock several times, cut out & inked them with the same purple ink.

They were then layered together & stuck around the aperture & distress glitter was added to the centres along with a few pearl gems in the top right corner of the card to finish.

I also stamped a flower inside the card along with the Have a Lovely Day sentiment from Creative Expressions.

Quite simple really especially by using just one colour of ink.

This didn't end up being my groups project for our March workshops, I'll share that card with you soon.

Thanks for visiting, & 'hello' to my newest follower Rebecca. 

I'm now a new follower of your blog too!.

See you again soon

Amy x 

My Mum's Mother's Day card

Hello all, hope you had a good weekend & that all you Mums were treated to a lovely day. 

 The sun was certainly shining here on Sunday & we spent a good few relaxed hours wandering around Bath browsing the shops, enjoying some lunch & then returning home via the park & ride bus which Daisy always gets quite excited about!. 

Then when we got home I also managed to fit in a bit of crafting too.....what more could I ask for?! 

I thought I'd show you the card I made for my Mum this Mother's day.

I've been playing around with the Sam Poole 'Doodle Flowers' set of stamps recently & was inspired by one of her designs.

The colours are ones I used to use all the time in my glass painting projects years ago & were always a best seller.

The background was made using Sam's technique inking through a mask, rotating it & inking through again. 

After rotating again, clear embossing/texture paste was then scraped through the mask with a palette knife & left to dry.

I then cut  a square to the bottom right of the background.

 On a separate piece of card I then stamped & embossed the Happy Mother's Day sentiment,  inked around the sentiment & then mounted the background over the top using foam pads. 

The flowers & leaves were then stamped onto blue & lilac card stock with clear ink & clear embossing powder & the smaller flowers were embossed with cosmic shimmer Tropic Aqua Blaze powder.

The flowers were then cut out,  shaped, folded & layered. Pearl gems & distress glitter were added to the centres.

I then finished the inside of the card with a flower & leaves to

 co ordinate. 

Really enjoyed making this card & also the one I made for my Mother in Law which I will be sharing with you soon.

 I always love working with flower images.

 A definite favourite for me. 

See you soon, thanks for stopping by.

Amy x 

WOYWW 251 Willis

Well, firstly I must apologise for my absence. It's been a while since my last post but I'm here now with some projects to show you over the next few posts & I thought what better way to get back into things than to join in with this weeks WOYWW.
 All of the details for which can be found  HERE.
Please hop over & have a go too.

So, here's my desk, a bit of a mess & in amongst all of the crafting goodies you may have noticed an added guest!?.

This is Willis.


 She's our silly, soppy, dafty, crafty cat!!
Seriously, there is no stopping her getting in on some crafting action!
Every time I sit down to create something, there she is plonked right in the middle!
Crafting obviously runs in the family.



Behind Willis you can just about see 2 cards, the one on the left is a sample to take along to our next workshop tomorrow evening & next to it is the card I have made for my Mother in law for Mother's day on Sunday.
Front left is the card that my group will be making tomorrow evening at our workshop. I will be posting about these cards at a later date. All of these were made using the same flower stamps.



So that's it for tonight.



Goodnight from me

And goodnight from Willis!



XX