Craftstyle samples vintage florals.

I was sent some items this week by craftsyle products to make some quick samples ready for a show on create and craft this weekend. The range is called vintage florals and consists of four flower themes I was sent two of the lilies and tulip which each have toppers in a range of sizes and selection of sentiments, they are precut toppers which is handy for creating something quick and are or a very good quality card with gold foiling detail. there is also a section of  in-keeping and delightful backing papers.
Here's what I created with them.

This first card is a portrait card with a scallop edge on to which I have placed a strip of one of the backing papers edged with a gold coloured paper out of my stash. On top of this is placed one of the toppers medium size with a sentiment on top of that affixed with foam pads to give it some depth. I then cut out one lily head from another topper to place in the bottom corner.

The next card has a pre-shaped base and is made of a pearled card so I haven't covered it up with lots of backing paper. I took one of the smaller tulip toppers and as the sheet has two of this size I cut the front leaf and two flower hears from the second one, I shaped them abit using an embossing tool on a soft surface. I'm very pleased with the definition this gives, I then attached these to the topper with foam pads. A sentiment is placed across the top corner and is it is finished off with three gold pearls.

The last card I made is done on a stepper base.
I have created a stopper for it using textured card and a sentiment which is raised on foam pads.  Some textured card is also used on the base of the front section of the card to continue the theme. the main front section has a lager sized topper placed on it with a verse sentiment across one corner the back side panels have had one of the backing papers added to them which pick up on the  handwriting theme on the lily topper.









All in all I'm pleased with these three samples and hope to catch a glimpse of them on the show.

More Craftstyle samples

Here are a few more samples I have done for Craftstyle Products. Like the ones before they were cut and create decoupage characters but this time there were Christmas themed.

First up is this friendly looking snowman. He was nice and easy to cut out big bold shape. The built up topper is placed on a background of silver glitter paper to give it a frosty feel and large dotty green paper. Then a sentiment is placed at the bottom. I do like how the sentiments and backing papers available with the characters match up in colours this makes making a coordinating card really easy.

Next is this festive robin, for this I cut away his red tummy on one of the layers and put in some red glitter paper instead, I really like how this looks and ties in well with the red glitter paper behind the sentiment. The topper and sentiment are placed on a background of holly patterned paper to complete the festive look.

Next we have Santa, he was abit trickier to cut out with the fluffy line of his beard and hat. I used his without the first layer which had the frame on as this fitted better on the style of card. Part of the background is done in small dotty paper and some in embossed paper which had stars on it, to give it abit of colour I carefully inked the stars and used gold heat embossing powder. The card is held in pace with a sentiment which acts well as a stopper.

The lase character I did was the happy reindeer, he is layered up and placed at a jaunty angle on some embossed card which had a snowflake pattern. Some silver snowflakes continue this theme before the sentiment is placed on as well, I like how the sentiment sheet had some different things like this one as well as the traditional Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings.

The last sample I did was using one of the new shaped cards I was sent. this jolly round Santa belly shows the small dotty red paper as well as another patterned paper which had poinsettias on. Some gold glitter paper was used to create the buckle and some dotty embossed card was used to create the beard. I think this is a quirky and fun card.










Products used to create these samples are being showcased on Create and Craft today so hoping to catch a glimpse of my handy work.

Crafting with the WI

I went along with my Mum to one of her WI groups this week as the speaker was the team from a local craft shop cutting edge crafts they talked about the different things the shop sold and about the various workshops and classes they held. We then all had a go at making a couple of things with the packs and instructions they had put together for us.
here are the things I made

 A birthday card with some matting and layering topped with ribbon, sentiment layered topper and paper flowers. I thought this was rather pretty.

And a bookmark with some pre-done die cut elements and butterflies with pearls.
I enjoyed making both and was interesting to watch other people I think crafter can easily forget that not everyone crafts and we should be thankful for our gifts and talents.

A couple of cards

Sorry I don't seemed to have blogged much recently will try harder to bring you all news of my crafty creations.

Here's a couple of cards I've made recently. they are very different to each other but I like them both.

The first one is a fun congratulations card for a new job. It uses stampin up owl punch to make a little police man owl. This is a very versatile punch I search all over the internet and found it being turned in to a nurse, Santa a pirate and all manner of other things but I couldn't find a police one, but I am rather pleased with the one I've done, he's got his little hat on and googly eyes.

The second is a more sophisticated birthday card made using a tattered lace die these dies are quite new to the market and work in majority of machines it went lovely through my big shot and created this amazing delicate design. I will be using this again and again.









So there you go two very different cards I've created recently.

WI Spring Fair

I recently attended a Spring fair of a local WI group. They are a new group and this was their first fair, it was held in the evening midweek rather than a Saturday and I think this worked quite well for ladies with busy lives.
Here's a picture of my stall

As at the recent wedding fair I did I've stuck with the light blue cloth and vintage pattern bunting I think it gives a really nice approachable look. I tried out a new idea of displaying some of my handmade cards and zip charms using some display boards and ribbon.

 Although this gave hight to the display lot of people didn't seem to look at it. I don't think I'll be using this display style on my next craft stand as it will be in a marquee and not sure out it would fair with outside drafts.
It was an enjoyable evening with lots of lovely cake.
Items that sold well included the friendship teas and tissue packs.
Hoping that they will hold more events like this in the future which I can attend.

More can be found about this lovely bunch of ladies here

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.