Common Blue Butterfly Canvas

Good evening everyone! Hope you are well :-) I am here with a make I am really proud of. I wanted to make something based around some of the gorgeous butterfly photos I have managed to take so far this year and so I printed my photo onto canvas. I then took a plain canvas and played with a new medium. Acrylic modelling paste. I used a palette knife to smear this over a stencil which I had secured to the canvas with tape. I then removed the stencil and washed between each area I treated. I left this to dry, then painted with dark metallic blue paint, then I painted the rest of the canvas and the tops of the texture paste made with the stencil with this too. I let this dry, then got out my spray inks and pearlescent paint medium. I masked the canvas then used a length of hessian and sprayed the yellow ink onto this to give like a waffle like effect. I sprayed green ink onto a stencil then mixed the ink with the pearlescent medium to give a glimmering green effect. I decorated with cotton lace, hessian butterflies and pearls as butterfly trails.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Crafting from the Heart: Anything Goes

Imagination Crafts: Anything Goes

My Craft Creations: Anything Goes

Use your stuff: Layers

Anything But a Card: Anything Goes

That Craft Place: Anything Goes

4 Crafty Chicks: The Great Outdoors

4 Krafty Girls Challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you for looking and for all your lovely comments!

Creative Blog Hop Q&A

I have been asked by my lovely and extremely talented Sarah Hurley team colleague to take part in a Creative blog hop. Its very difficult to capture your craft journey in one post but I will give it a try and hope for the best!

What am I working on?
I have been taking photos of butterflies-my passion as anyone who follows me well knows! I have been working on a way to include these in my crafting and have been playing with some new mediums. Here is a photo of one of my projects I have just finished (I will create a separate post to explain how I made it)

Ever since I have been blogging I have come from cards and then expanded my crafting into all sorts of new crafts-I now even sew which I thought I would never be able to do! I am very glad to have been brave enough to try new crafts and I really feel my blogging has encouraged me in doing so-its wonderful to be part of a wide supportive network of crafters!

How does my work vary from others in my genre?

I always find these questions really difficult to answer-I think if I asked the people who follow my blog they would have a much better idea of how it does. I will do my best to answer though. I try to make my crafts varied and try new things, I may have come from card making but now I like to create lots of different crafts and share these with my followers and crafty peers.

I am told that I have a very distinct style, but I am not sure how to describe this. I love bright colours and I love creating vibrant and eye catching makes, and I also like to make really practical makes I can use everyday like my phone case. 

I also love to create upcycling projects like my tin can brooches and lightbulb baubles.

I include some of my favourite makes below for you to look at.

My phone case and a gemstone butterfly necklace

A CAS card and my beaded curtain tie backs

A male card and a ribbon flower hairband

A wicker butterfly decoration and an altered lampshade

A CAS butterfly card and a pair of altered flip flops

My tin can brooches and faux butterfly frame

A ribbon wreath and altered lightbulb baubles

A Sweetheart butterfly canvas and a Ship card

My kindle case and a Christmas card with its own wreath

How does your writing/creative process work?

I quite often have my best ideas just as I am falling asleep! This is a blessing and a curse, but im glad for it-my mind is always trying to think of what I am going to make next. As for writing my blog it depends on my mood-but I try to make a structure of how I came to make something, how I made it and which products I used and a little greeting and thank you to my lovely followers. They are after all the best part of blogging!

Thank you so much for reading my post and I hope you enjoyed it. 

I pass the torch on to:

Erin 

and Amy

Suzanne's 'Outside In' Scrapbook

Good afternoon everyone, hope you are well! I am here with a really special project for one of my friends who is poorly. She loves nature so for her birthday I thought I would make an 'outside in' scrapbook with pretty pictures of flowers, wildlife and scenery for her to look at when shes feeling low.

I used Papermania Sew Lovely range of papers, ribbons, bows and decoupage sheets, twine, eyelets, tags, photos, wooden embellishments and felt. For the front cover I chose quilted paper, then used a decoupage sheet label which I handwrote the title on. I then gave this texture and a 3D effect by matting with two different shades of felt. Fawn and Lime green.

On this page I made a pocket where I stored a photo tag, but also used little photos of flowers and wildlife as embellishments on the pocket and page.

A photo of a Small Copper butterfly on a tag I made, with a gold eyelet and twine to pull these tags out. I singed the ends of the twine with a lighter so they didnt fray.

A comma butterfly on the reverse of the tag.

On this page I made a pocket and decorated this with measurement tape embellishment, a ribbon and a matching bow. In my pocket is another tag with photos on.

Another tag with eyelet and twine fastening. My photo was taken at an exotic butterfly exhibition.

Another exotic butterfly photo I took at the exhibition.

For this page I cut around the decoupage sheet heart negative space to make a frame for my peacock butterfly photo, I then used the heart as a base to cut my common blue butterfly photo into a matching heart, just with no frame. I added ribbon and a wooden butterfly embellishment.

This page I made a pocket then decorated the far corner with decoupage sheet embellishments.

A photo I took of some gorgeous cloud patterns during a sunset on a tag with an eyelet and twine fastening.

This page I decorated with a tape measure die cut.

This page I switched round my pocket so the opening faces the side of the scrapbook rather than the top. There are two tags in this pocket.

A photo of a Crocosmia plant in my garden on a tag.

A collection of photos-two of plants in my garden and one of a spectacular firework I managed to photograph. I once again used felt as a mat for one of my images to make it stand out on the page.

On this page I made a pocket and used a photo of a seagull on the beach as an embellishment, I also embellished with a ribbon and bow.

The front of the tag from the previous page

And the reverse of this tag.

A beach photo at twilight.

A pocket which faces the side again, decorated with ribbon and a photo of a fireworks display.

The tag from the page above, a photo of a beautiful sunset against a tree.

The reverse of the tag with a photo of gorgeous cloud patterns during a sunset.

The last page of the scrapbook with a photo of an Aquilegia from my garden. I then dried out some of our seed heads and put seeds in an envelope I made with Sew Lovely papers for her to use in her garden should she choose to. Its one of my most loved plants!

I really hope she loves it!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

2 Creative Chicks: Mini Album/Book/Organisers

A2Z Scrapbooking: Anything Goes

Really Reasonable Ribbons: Things with wings and ribbon

Handmade Harbour: Summer Fun

Pennys Paper Crafty Challenge: Anything Goes

4 Crafty Chicks: The Great Outdoors

4 Krafty Girls Challenge: Anything Goes

Creative Knockouts: Friendship

Thank you for looking and for all your lovely comments!

Nautical Ribbons Beach Card

Good evening everyone, hope you are well :-) I'm sure we all have photos of pretty beach scenes in our photo collection and in my aim to print and make use of the photos I take (rather than them all sitting in a computer folder being neglected!) I thought I would find some pretty photos to make cards with. It instantly increases the stash you own for crafting being able to use what we already have! :-)
I used Papermania a All Aboard tag which I cut from a larger sheet of that paper-I then placed an eyelet and added twine which I burnt at the edges to stop it fraying. I hand wrote my sentiment on this. I used Coredinations card as my mats for the photo and the textured paper underneath. I placed this on Kraft card blank, then added my nautical ribbon from Crafty Ribbons as an embellishment, along with a wooden heart button.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
Crafting from the Heart: Anything Goes
Incy Wincy Designs: Strings and Things
The Kraft Journal: Sun Challenge
The Crazy Challenge: My Summer Vacation
The Paper Girls Challenge: Red, White and Blue
Crafting at the Weekend: Anything Goes
Daring Cardmakers: Summer Holiday

Thank you for looking and for all your lovely comments!

Crafty Ribbons Challenge: Yellow

Good morning everyone! Hope you are well :-) I am here with my creation for Crafty Ribbons Yellow Challenge. I had this gorgeous material with bold yellow stripes amongst the colours and embellished using yellow accents. You can find the tri stripe ribbon here and the Polka dot button here. I used Papermania Fat Quarter Fabric in brights, the button and ribbon are linked above from Crafty Ribbons and Cotton Batting for padding out my case. I started by measuring my ipod, and cutting out two lengths of fabric-to cover the device and enough for a flap to button up. I cut the same from the cotton batting. I then cut a 1inch rectangle of fabric for my button clasp. I started by folding this over on itself with the rough edges inside the retangle and stitched on a sewing machine ready to go later on.

I folded one length of fabric so I could see where the middle of the case was and then sewed on my catch. I then pinned my case, leaving a gap at the bottom to turn the right way out. Once this was stitched and pulled the right way out I then got my ipod and saw where the fabric met the top of my device. I stitched each side to make the pouch, then the flap folded down on top. Lastly I hand sewed my polka dot button on, making sure to sew where the catch would finish to give a secure finish.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Just Inspirational Challenge: Anything but a card

Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes

Try it on Tuesdays: Colours of Summer

Imagination Crafts: Anything Goes

Natalie and Amy's Challenge: Summertime

Sisters of Craft: Anything Goes

Creative Moments: Anything Goes/Celebration

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges: Feels Like Summer

Thank you for looking and for all your lovely comments!

All Crafts Challenge June/July Mid Post Inspiration

Good morning everyone! Hope you are well :-) We are here with our Midway inspiration creations for you-I really hope you'll come join in our challenge here and pop by my design team members blogs to tell them what you think! :-)

I start with our Guest Designer:

Lisa S. 

with this gorgeous creation, thank you Lisa, its been lovely to have you join us!

Amy

Andreja

Deborah

Mrs A

I hope you feel inspired from our creations and will join us in our All Crafts Challenge which you can find here!