Favourite Eileen Hull die.....

Hello Friends and New Followers!

This month, Eileen's Inspiration Team are sharing their favourite of Eileen's dies - that is a difficult ask for me because anyone who knows me knows that I love ALL of Eileen's dies, her Scoreboard dies have been a revolution in die cutting and a pure joy for those of us who love 3D crafting!

In the end, after much deliberation, I went for Eileen's Cantilever Sewing Box die (660768) and her beautiful Flower, Pansy die for my creation, I hope you like it!

I made this as a thank you gift for a friend I am visiting, I am away at the moment, if I missed a post, I apologise!

I die cut all the elements for the sewing box, using Sizzix Matboard.

To construct the boxes I used a strong wet glue and wrapped an elastic band around the box until dry.  I then applied strong tape to add my paper.  You could attach your design paper first (or paint the board) and then die cut, but I just prefer to do it this way.  Once dry, I assembled the sewing box according to the instructions.  You can download the instructions by clicking download, HERE.

I lined the insides of the box with the reverse side of the same beautiful Maja Design papers I used for the outside.  I painted the box struts with PaperArtsy paint in Cherry Blossom and added some knobs to the top, after painting them with the same colour of paint.

The flowers were die cut using Eileen's Flower Pansy die (661109) and using a product called Flower Making Foam, after seeing my lovely blog friend Lisa use it so beautifully... here.  I had so much fun making my flowers!  After die cutting and giving them a little touch of Eileen's Color Box Blend Ink in Tutu, I pressed the petals onto my hot craft iron and let them 'curl' into shape and assembled them, adding some stamens to the centre.

I hand dyed some seam binding, colouring it with Picked Raspberry Distress Spray Stain and assembled my little floral decoration.

A final look at the finished sewing box, these wonderful little boxes are ideal for storing lots of bits and pieces and/or sewing items.

All month long, my teamies on Eileen's Inspiration Team will be sharing their favourite Eileen dies.  If you do have time I hope you will pop over HERE each week for some wonderful inspiration!

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs, Anne  xxx

Melt It at A Vintage Journey

Hello Friends

It is time for a new challenge at A Vintage Journey and our wonderful Julia is hosting the challenge.  Here is what Julia has to say:

This month we're asking everyone to MELT IT! Get out the UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel), beeswax, encaustic wax, embossing powders or good old wax crayons and a heat tool and get melting to create something in a vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journalling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk style!

 I had the pleasure of attending Creativation in Phoenix, Arizona this year and I attended a couple of classes with Seth Apter and watched his many demos with his new Baked Textures Embossing Powders by Kim Evans of Emerald Creek - they are fantastic!  This fitted so well into Julia's theme too!

I didn't take step by step photos as I did this at nightime and really, I was just playing.  Seth used a collage of vintage papers in his demos, I used some beautiful vintage music paper for mine, gluing it to a 5" x 7" piece of grey board and leaving it to dry thoroughly.

Now for the fun bit!  I applied three coats of the gorgeous Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture embossing powder - it is truly amazing how much this looks like Encaustic work, I almost didn't want to cover it up!

Next, I applied embossing ink randomly around the edges and then applied Rocky Road Baked Texture, it has a wonderful chunky feel to it, with a lovely mix of ingredients and it dries to a quite glossy finish.

Seth's Maze die is one of my favourites, I die cut two pieces and embossed the first one with Chunky Rust Baked Texture - this is so different to any other EP I have ever used, it has lots of 'fuzzy' bits in it and once melted, these fuzzy bits create a wonderful soft feel and gives a wonderful textural look.  It is hard to describe but wonderful to feel!

I cut down the second Maze and embossed this with the amazing Patina Oxide Baked Texture, the photograph does not do it justice, it has a wonderful mix of colours from green through to gold - it is quite delicious!

It needed something in the centre so I found some rusty Prima trinkets and stacked them along with one of Kim Evans of Emerald Creek's fancy brads, which I also covered with the Patina Oxide EP.

To finish off I used one of Tim Holtz Idea-ology drawer pulls, which I also coated with the Patina Oxide EP and added the chit chat sticker 'Grateful' because I have a lot to be grateful for this year already!

  I do hope you will visit us over at  A Vintage Journey where you will find some fantastic makes from my talented teamies.  We all hope that you will join in the fun with us this month.  Our wonderful sponsor for the month is:


www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk

who are offering a £20 voucher to one lucky winner!

I want to be slightly indulgent here, to say that I am grateful to my Son, Michael who treated me to a very special trip of a lifetime, to Creativation 2018; to Eileen Hull for making me feel so welcome in the team, allowing me to demo for a couple of sessions on the Sizzix stand, on the Gel Press stand and assisting her to run two of her amazing classes - I learned so much too.  And, not forgetting the shopping trip to Joann's! There were others on the team and elsewhere, who I had not met before that made me feel very special too, some dear long standing blog friends who invited me to dinner and unwittingly saved me from being  'Billy no-mates' in my hotel room that night.  Thanks to Jenny Marples too, for assisting me on the trip there and back which sadly, was more than a little bit eventful - sorry Jenny!  I am also grateful to the many people who gave me such wonderful products to bring home and try, it was like Christmas all over!  Thank you Eileen, Seth Apter, Kim Evans, Ann Butler and so many others, I really did have an amazing time!

I didn't take many pictures at Creativation but this one taken by Eileen says it all about our trip to Joann's, I am excitedly clutching a bolt of Tim Holtz fabric.... and yes, I did buy (ahem) a few other bits and pieces!

Thanks so much for your visit, it really does mean a lot!

Hugs, Anne xx

Guest Designer at Frilly and Funkie!

Hello Friends

I am over the moon thrilled to be Guest Designer over at Frilly & Funkie Challenge Blog, after being chosen as Design Team Favourite for the Most Memorable Gift Challenge.

The current challenge is being hosted by the super talented Zoe who has chosen the theme of 'All You Need Is Love' .  Zoe says 'Create a vintage or shabby chic project with the word 'LOVE' somewhere on the project.  It can be the focus or just a tiny detail'.

Here is what I created for my guest piece:

I created a small 6" x 6" canvas.  I apologise that I did not do a step by step but I was busy preparing samples to take to Creativation (more of that another time) and I wanted to get this completed before I went and just ran out of time....  I will explain though, how I created the canvas.

1.  Paint the canvas with white acrylic paint (or you could use gesso)
2.  Apply a crackle medium - I used Weathered Wood Crackle Medium
3.  Once dry, apply Tim Holtz Broken China Distress Paint
4.  Gently scrape away small sections of the crackle and apply a covering of Viva Decor Rusty Paper, randomly, and wiping some off here and there (the corners are lighter) and leaving some heavier in places to give the appearance of natural rust.
5.  Die cut a heart from red card, apply two coats of clear Embossing Powder and then a final coat of red Embossing Powder.
6.  Whilst the third coat is still hot, ink up a patterned (red rubber) stamp with Black Archival ink and apply this to the embossed heart.  Leave a moment or two to cool and then remove the stamp.

7.  Cut a small red heart, give this three coats of clear Embossing Powder, ink up the 'love' word stamp with Black Archival ink and press this into the heart.
8.  Take a Tim Holtz Idea-ology pocket watch, line it with some music design paper, add the embossed small heart and some die cut flowers.
9.  Attach the watch to the canvas over some messy thread (a tip picked up from the lovely Tracy Evans).
10.  Stamp the 'love' sentiment onto tissue paper with Black Archival ink, and once dry attach this to the canvas with Distress Collage Medium.

I just love the sentiment, it is a Visible Image stamp, with quite distressed wording, and I think it works well with Zoe's love theme!

Thank you again to Linda Coughlin and the Frilly and Funkie team for having me as Guest Designer, it has been a real privilege!

Thanks too, for your visit, I hope to see you again soon, maybe even tomorrow!!

Hugs, Anne xx