Fall-O-Ween (2) for Eileen Hull

Hello Friends!

This is my second post this month for Eileen Hull, this time using two of Eileen's journal dies and Halloween papers from DCWV (Die Cuts with a View).

Sadly, this is my last post as part of Eileen's Inspiration Team, I have taken the difficult decision to step down from the Team after four and half wonderful years.  I will miss my Teamies a lot but I will still be using Eileen's dies and inks as often as possible, I do believe that Eileen designs some of the best dies in the industry.  My grateful thanks to Eileen and the whole team!

I have two projects to share with you, one using Eileen's Wrapped Journal and one with Eileen's Passport die along with papers from DCWV (thank you DCWV!).

I am not going to take you through step by step this time, but I have some photos to share of the cover and inside of each album.  This one is made with Eileen's Wrapped Journal (Sizzix 662816).  It will hold four signatures, with plenty of room for more.

The papers are wonderful for creating the signatures, I have used a whole range of them - although choosing was quite difficult.  I always like to add a tag/ticket holder in my journals and I love to add pockets to the inside front and back.

Journal Number 2

For this journal I used Eileen's Passport die (Sizzix 660331), which is my favourite (currently) of Eileen's journal dies.  It is such a handy size.

Again, my signatures were made with the beautiful DCWV Halloween papers, the paper pad comes with stickers and elements that can be used as tags.  Some of the papers are beautifully foiled too.

I added tabs to the signature covers to add some interest.

Here are the DCWV paper pads that I used, one is pattered and one is plain - the plain one is full of gorgeous Halloween coloured papers.

To finish off both journals, I added some handmade charm hangings, a few die cuts and Sari ribbon, sparkly twine and yarn.  I had such a lot of fun making these!

So there we have it, two more Halloween journals finished, I seem to be building up quite the collection!  I may even be back with more before Halloween.

Thanks so much for all your support whilst I have been part of Eileen's team, I hope to see you in Eileen's Fan Club (there are over 3,000 members now!) or here in the future!

Hugs, Anne  xxx

Fall-O-Ween for Eileen Hull

Hello Friends

This month Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team are celebrating Autumn by creating Fall-O-Ween projects, either creating an Autumnal project or a Halloween project!  Of course, I went for Halloween!

Do please check out Eileen's blog HERE all this month for inspiring projects.  Eileen also has a Fan Club of Facebook HERE where over 3,000 members share ideas and projects.

For my project I used Eileen's new Wrapped Journal (Sizzix 662816), Tim Holtz latest Halloween fabric gifted to me by Jenny Marples and Halloween buddy Juli Riedel (of Voodoo doll fame).  Thanks again ladies!

The journal was created during a super fun crafty day with some dear and fabulous friends - Rita McGranthin, Annie Gilmour and Tracy Evans, three exceptionally talented ladies!

I covered the journal, inside and out with Tim Holtz latest release of Halloween fabric, it gives the journal some added strength.  I don't have any process shots (sorry) but we were having fun playing and I forgot, so I am showing you how I finished the journal off instead.  Having said that, all of Eileen's journals are just a dream and very easy to put together.

Here, on the inside cover you can see how the fabric (on the cover) goes with Tim's latest Halloween paper (on the signatures).  The gravestones, cat and hat are all from older dies from Tim Holtz.  The gravestones were covered in two of  Seth Apter/Emerald Creek's Baked Textures in Rocky Road and Patina Oxide.  The words are from a Tim Holtz stamp set.

You can see here that I used Tim's Design Tape to give strength to the signature.  The fabulous witch is a die from one of Tim's previous Halloween releases.  She is missing her broomstick and cat here!

The signature cover this time was stamped with Tim's Gothic background stamp and white embossing powder was added.

Again, another of Tim's Halloween dies and word for the ghosts, the bats are from a very old Memory Box die.

The spider's web was stamped with Tim's cobweb stamp and embossed with white, the spiders are from one of Tim's very old die sets.  They were embossed with Rocky Road Baked Textures - they look quite creepy in real life!

From Tim's latest Halloween release, Mr Bones just had to make an appearance - I bought him for my Guest month with Simon Says which you can see HERE if you missed it.

On the cover I used an old Tim flourish die as a branch for the Raven to sit on.  The Raven is actually one of Tim's older stamp releases, he was stamped, fussy cut and then covered with embossing ink and coated with Seth Apter's Rocky Road Baked Texture.  The closure is one of Tim's Idea-ology Custom Knobs.

The tag was created using Tim's new Alcohol Lift Ink on Yupo - my first experiment with this new technique, it was so easy and such fun to do!  Thank you to my lovely friend Kath who bought me the set for my birthday whilst we were at a craft event!

To finish off I added some charms from my stash and some sparkly orange yarn.

Another Halloween project done and dusted!  Thanks so much for your visit,
I hope to see you again soon, I have a couple more Halloween journals to
share next week using Eileen's journal dies and papers from DCWV.

Hugs,  Anne  xxx

Mini Album Makers BLOGAVERSARY & GIVEAWAY

Hello Friends

This month sees the Blogaversary of Mini Album Makers and we are celebrating by having a Blog Hop and Giveaway!!

We are giving a $25 gift certificate from Blitsy.com to one lucky reader whose name will be chosen at random from all of the comments on the Design Team blogs (so please be sure to leave one).  In addition, our sponsor,  Lindy's Stamp Gang will give a $25 gift certificate to one lucky participant in our challenge.

Congratulations to Autumn on achieving a wonderful first year, the blog has gone from strength to strength and it has been such a pleasure to see so many amazing entries!  If you have arrived here from the wonderful Jennie Atkinson's blog, then welcome!

I have gone all teeny tiny this month and created a vintage looking domino album, with a sea theme.

I am sharing a few step by step instructions, in case you have not tried a domino album before.  I will not be adding measurements as I find that dominoes come in a whole variety of different sizes and I would not want to confuse anyone!

I measured the domino carefully and then took some cream card, scored it to fit the domino size, then spritzed it with Lindy's Stamp Gang Moon Shadow Mist in Golden Doublooms.  Whilst this was drying I added some gilding flakes to the edges of each of the dominoes and left these to dry too.

I attached my images to the front of each domino with Distress Collage Medium and then coated each with two coats of Collage Medium.  This is a really important step if you wish to coat the dominoes with Resin, as it seals the image properly.  The Ice Resin dried with a slight vintage tone.

Next, I mixed the Ice Resin (use your chosen type of Resin) and added it to the top of each domino and left these to dry thoroughly (it may take a day or two).

Before attaching the accordion element to each domino, I added a picture to each of the 'pages' and added a piece of ribbon to each cover. and then attached the accordion to the covers.

To finish off I added some Tim Holtz Chit Chat words and two jewellery beads to each domino to represent feet.

A final view of the completed mini album!

Please do visit my teamies during this blog hop, their projects are amazing!  Be sure to leave a comment on each one, we have two wonderful prizes on offer, a $25 prize from Blitsy.com another $25 prize from one of our wonderful sponsors, Lindy's Stamp Gang. 

Nancy Wethington - Art-From-The-Heart

Jennie Atkinson - Live the Dream

Anne Redfern - RedAnne (That's me)

Maria Lillepruun - Magic Attic Design

Alison Bomber - Words and Pictures 

Inna Bronnikova

Autumn Clark - SewPaperPaint

Please do join in our challenge this month, at Mini Album Makers, we do love seeing your wonderful creations!

Thanks so much for your visit,  the talented Maria Lillipruun is the next stop on the hop. I hope you enjoy hopping around to visit everyone! 

Hugs, Anne xx