Beautiful by Jo King

Hi, my name’s Jo and Anna Marie has kindly invited me to contribute a blog post. I must admit I was delighted to be asked but a little bit anxious at the same time as I had no idea what to contribute, so I thought I would start at the beginning, so to speak!

I first discovered Anna Marie Designs a few years back and like so many people, loved all her creations, at the same time thinking “I could never do that”. Anyway, I bought some products from the website and signed up for the newsletter. I must admit I was always a little bit envious of those lucky people who were able to attend the Creative Weekends, which due to personal circumstances, I was unable to do – and then the breakthrough came! Anna Marie and Tim started a YouTube channel with video tutorials.

The card I have made is taken from two of the first tutorials Anna Marie shared with us – the flower and the 12 x 6 card and is dedicated to all those of you out there who, like me, marveled at Anna Marie’s work and didn’t believe they would ever be able to achieve anything close to it.

I have made so many of these cards, I have lost count. I made one for a relative’s special birthday and that started the ball rolling! Family and friends and friends of friends now order these from me for all the big birthdays, weddings , anniversaries, etc – all you have to do is add the age and/or name of the person to make it a little bit extra special.

At the start, I followed Anna Marie’s tutorial to the letter, using the exact products she had used but once you get going, you will start to experiment with all the other wonderful products on the website. For example, Anna Marie’s original card was made with the dotty cardstock, however, she now has the beautiful Blissful paper pads available which all mix and match with each other and are a dream to work with. I also find the Inka Gold waxes so useful as they can be mixed with warm water to become an ink spray which means you can then transform plain white embellishments into the colour of your choice – another valuable lesson I learned from one of Anna Marie’s video tutorials and, in fact, I have done this on my card with the wheat sprays – I only had white ones remaining so I sprayed them with the magenta inka gold.

LIST OF PRODUCTS USED

12” x 6” blank card 12” x 12” Blissful Pink Paper Pad 12” x 12” Blissful Cotton Paper Pad

“With Love” Blissful Sentiment MDF Fences MDF Birdhouse MDF Bird

Americana Décor Chalky Paint – Promise Viva script stamp from Dandelion set Natural Fibre

Grass Green Card (leaves) Raffia White Wheat sprayed with Inka Gold (Magenta)

Dried Bloom Flower Mixed Flower Stamens/Flower Buds Voile

I hope you like the card I have created and that it will encourage you to take a look at Anna Marie’s YouTube channel and website where you will gain plenty of inspiration and ideas to start creating your own beautiful projects.

Have fun!

A Note From Anna Marie: We love your card Jo. Thank you for your wonderful post and beautiful project. I cannot wait for the next one. xx

If you would like to watch our Video Tutorial that inspired Jo to make her beautiful card please click Video link above.