First attempts at crochet

I've been wanting to learn to crochet for a while, since I never seemed to get on with knitting.
I found a nice simple pattern for a granny square blanket in a craft magazine and had a go at that.

This is the first square I made, the pattern is a mixture of chain stitches and treble stitches, that goes round for four rows before adding another row of a contrasting colour.

Once I got the hang of the pattern the pile of squares soon grew, I found I was able to crochet in a range of places, including travelling in a car, and when I took my mum to blood donors, the next blanket I make I intend to work on while camping in the summer.
I've got four complimenting colours for my squares now I just need to stitch them together and do a row of treble stitches around the outside.

After mastering the granny squares I decided to try something abit more complicated so did these little owls out of a book a friend got me for Christmas.
Aren't they cute, we've call them Horace and Boris.
Hopefully making more owls to sell on craft stalls soon.

Wedding Fair

I know this is a craft blog but I thought I would just share a few pictures from my day job.
At the weekend I attended a wedding fair to promote my florist shop.

 This is a picture of my stand I was really happy with the colour cloth I choose as this sort of pale blue is really on trend at the mo and also the vintage style bunting finishes it off well.

  This is a mock up brides bouquet I made in fresh flowers including roses, carnations, and orchids, I was very pleased with how this turned out. I choose to do a set of matching flowers for one end of my stall and think this worked well and will continue to use the idea of a theme at future wedding fairs.

Here are the matching orchid corsage on wrist band and rose buttonholes one in fresh and one in silk.

And here is a matching table arrangement in tall glass vase which is filled with crystals and pearls

The last picture I just had to add, is off the extremely blue, blue raspberry ice cream which was being sold by fellow exhibitor husky ices who have the cutest ice cream van in the world.














So I know this post wasn't crafting but I just had to share the lovely flowers I made for this event. check back soon for another crafting post.

Bank Holiday card making.

With the extra day off work for the Easter bank holiday I decided to have a crafting day and make some cards, I then managed to keep up the momentum and make more cards through the following week, totalling 14 cards and six more friendship teas to sell in the shop.
So here are the cards I made, many of them are made using new items from my last stampin up splurge.

First up a couple of small note cards, on both of these I have stuck a coloured square just a fraction smaller than the card and have stamped on to it in a darker shade. I like the effect this gives just being one colour. I've then added some depth by accenting it with cream bits stuck on with foam pads. Stamp sets used here include loving thoughts, apothecary art, collage curios and aviary. I normally have stampin up stamps in wood mount but read on another blog that aviary was best purchased in clear which I did and I agree its much easier to see where a cage is to place the birds in or on it.

Next a simple but elegant anniversary card the strip of print poetry paper matching up lovely with the flowers on top of the cake. Stamps used including loving thoughts, and love and laughter.

This card uses papillon potpourri and coordinating butterfly punch which is such a lovely shape, I will admit to not getting the two side butterflies level but fixed this problem by stamping more butterflies to create a more random looking pattern, the light ones are created by stamping the image once on scrap paper then continuing to stamp with out re-inking. the word again is from loving thoughts many stamps from this set fit well in to the modern label punch.

For this card I used a stamp from the apothecary art set I cut the shape out by hand but hope to invest in the matching framelit dies at some point. This stamp set pairs up lovely with the loving thoughts set and in this card compliments the strip of print poetry paper really well.

Another card using the apothecary art set this single layer card has had the image stamped in coloured ink then the sentiment embossed in gold, gold corners were also added. this simple card could be interpreted in many colours.

Next a thank you card using the tea shoppe set. Tea cups are very on trend at the moment and have a nice vintage feel. The cup of thanks sentiment is a quirky way of saying thank you.

Another simple card using the collage curios set I love this set as it fits in the 1 inch circle punch a dream and can be mixed and matched with the different pictures and circles. I like this card thou feel it may have worked better being slightly smaller to start with.

This card really show off the versatility of the collage curios set and the lovely print poetry paper, I like the effect of the curly label punch with the circles and feel I've got the balance of patterned paper and stamped images right. Other stamps used include pretty petites and elementary elegance.

 Another version of this style of card with a different colour scheme this one also has an added soda pop top which has been run through a big shot to flatten it. I think this makes a lovely little accent.

The next three are made using the feeling sentimental set, these stamps have a lovely vintage sketchy feel and I think make nice cards for men, the shapes have been cut using some sizzix framelits which I've found is a quick and easy way of creating impact and makes a nice chance from just straight edges and squares.

The last card also uses the feeling sentimental set. Just part of each image is used, I wouldn't have thought of doing this till I saw another card like this I like how it looks though. I added coloured pearl embellishments to each end of the sentiment and I think this helps with the vintage feel of the card.




So there you go cards I have been making recently I hope you like them and have inspired your own crafty doing. I do believe that sometimes you can just get in the grove for crafting and at these times you should do as much as you can, I think mine was helped by the slightly better weather and retro choices of music while I worked, not listened to status quo and genesis for ages.

Stampin up workshop.

Recently hosted another stampin up workshop.
Had a really good time making a card and the people we invited also had fun and enjoyed my baked goodies, chocolate chip cookies and a new favourite honey and lemon kisses, theses are honey and lemon biscuits sandwiched together with honey and lemon butter cream, which to me tastes abit like solid cough medicine, unfortunately forgot to take a picture of them.
Any way our demonstrator Zoe showed us a nifty technique using the holes created with punches and die cuts.

using the butterfly shaped hold created from a die ink was added to a roller and rolled over the hole like a stencil this created a solid  in the shape then a large background stamp full of text was inked in a complimenting darker colour and stamped over the top still through the stencil, once the stencil was removed accents of pearls and red heart were added to finish off this simple but stunningly sophisticated card.

The same technique had also been applied to this gift box this time using the hold created from a flower punch. and boxed had been finished off with a little thank-you banner on a stick.













Next it was on the card we would be making these were vintage inspired.

Mum's Card

My card

 Starting with a base of crumb cake coloured card which was distressed at the edges, we added embellishments of lace, a patterned paper strip, paper flower and glittered heart. Mum chose to do hers horizontal and I chose vertical.
A line of stamps in a complimenting colour was added we did butterflies and bees, and it was finished with a sentiment on cream card. I really like these cards and show that you don't need alot of something special like the lace to make an impact.









My newly ordered items from stampin up have now arrived and I look forward to creating and sharing lots of lovely things with them. Check back soon to see what I've been up to.

First attempt at being a design team member

Last year I signed up to be a volunteer design team member for craftsyle products and a while back they sent me some items and asked me to create for them card samples and post them back. In-between to very busy times at work I have managed to get the samples made and recently sent them back. I thought I would also share pictures of my cards on here.

The range of products I was sent was called Cut and create and was decoupage animals, four farmyard and four jungle with coordinating sentiments and backing papers.
I've not done a great deal of decoupage so it was fun to try something different, here's what I managed to produce.

I tried to include a range of styles including easel cards and a diamond topped one. I must admit this range is not something I would have chosen myself and do hope that if I'm picked to make samples again I get something other than decoupage.

A card for a wonderful mum.

Thought I would just quickly share the card I made for Mum for mother's day.

It's done using stampin up twitterpated paper and my curly label punch. the sentiment is stamped on to vellum in two different colours and then on to grey card with white ink. There's also small punched butterflies in grey card and vellum.
I was rather pleased with the effect and thought it made a change from a traditional card, my Mum is wonderful so her card should say so.









I was really impressed with the stamped bits on vellum and look forward to working more with the medium.

Sin Free Cupcakes

I always like to have a range of things available in my shop for Mother's Day with price tags to suit every budget. This year one of my favourite pocket money buys is these little cupcakes.

These cute little gifts are made using a facecloth, I've gone with pink and lemon ones, and topped with either a bath pearl or mini soap. I made the mini soaps by melting down a bar of pears soap and pouring it in to a heart shaped silicone ice cube tray, this meant they were easy to pop out once set. 

I think the presentation of these really sets them off I've placed them in fancy cupcake wrappers and then popped them in a cello bag. As a finishing touch I'm displaying them in the shop of a wire cupcake stand.

Sorry I've not been bloging much recently but have been busy at work getting things sorted before a little mini break last week to Scotland for my other half to launch the paperback copy of his book, "The Only Genuine Jones"  the weather was stunning and we had a lovely time, stopping at The Clachaig Inn.

Sunshine on the mountain snow.