I Love 'EWE'

Hello Friends

I am back today with my Guest designer project for AALL & Create.  I was challenged to use Olga Heldwein's Spooks stamp (AALL & Create #136) and do something completely different with it.

After much head scratching I had a light bulb moment and saw a sheep ... in the pumpkin... so I made a Valentine card.

To create the card I used the following:

Stencil #49 (Olga), Stamp #33 (Tracy Evans) and Stamp #136 (Olga)

I stamped the pumpkin twice, made hand drawn heads (and later some curly top knots), added some hand drawn legs and simply doodled some 'wool' onto the bodies.

The sky was created using Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass.  I put the stencil over the sky and used a baby wipe to wipe away some of the colour.  The heart was stamped using Stamp #33 and the heart was coloured in with a red marker.  The small hearts were hand drawn and also coloured with the red marker.  The letters are by Tim Holtz.

The sheep were grounded using Peeled Paint Distress Ink and a stamp from set #33.

I may not look at all my stamps in a different way in future but it was an interesting challenge and one I really enjoyed and, on the plus side, I have DH's Valentine card made early!

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

Hugs, Anne xx

Floral Chunky for That's Crafty

Hello Friends

I have a little sneak peek for you, of my Guest designer piece this week for

That's Crafty.

I hope you will find the time to go over to That's Crafty to have a look.

Thanks so much!

Hugs, Anne xxx

Ring Binder - Edison themed

Hello Friends

My AALL & Create project this week uses one large stamp and one stencil to create a handmade ring binder to store design ideas.

This is a view of the full ring binder so you can get a view of the whole design.

I began by stamping the image (AALL & Create #142 - Edison Game by Olga Heldwein) in Archival ink onto a piece of heavy white cardstock and used Distress Inks in Antique Linen, Gathered Twigs and Blueprint Sketch to colour the cardstock.  I coloured the light bulbs in with Distress Markers in Scattered Straw and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks.

I cut two covers and a spine in chipboard, added a Tim Holtz ring binder mechanism.  I coloured the cardstock with Blueprint Sketch Distress ink and then dampened a stencil (AALL & Create #50 by Aurtour de Mwa), placed it on the covers, pressed them with a cloth, lifted them and left the covers to dry. This is the inside of the ring binder.

I used a stencil (AALL & Create #2 by Olga) and some Ranger Texture Paste on the front cover only, it adds some lovely texture.

I cut the stamped and coloured cardstock to fit the back, front and spine of my ring binder.  The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that I have the front and back the wrong way round in this photo! I inked around the edges of each piece and glued the three pieces together with strong wet glue.

I cut some plain cardstock to fit the binder and used a regular sized hole punch to create the holes.I created a pocket on the inside front of the binder and used a stencil (AALL & Create #50 by Autour de Mwa) along with Blueprint Sketch Distress ink.

Stamps and stencils can be purchased from AALL & Create at www.aallandcreate.com/boutique where you will also find a list of stockists worldwide.

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

Hugs, Anne xx

Bugs - Just Because

Hello Friends

My project as Guest designer for That's Crafty this week

is all about bugs....

Here is a sneaky peek:

If you have time, I would love you to visit HERE to see my whole project.

As always, thanks so much for your visit, I really appreciate you taking the time.

Hugs, Anne xxx

Layered Fern Canvas

Hello Friends

My AALL & Crete project for this week uses a beautiful large stamp by

the talented Tracy Evans - Numbered Botanical #110.

I have gone a bit grungy this week and used a 5" x 7" canvas board.  I don't have any step by steps because I was crafting late at night and photographing the steps was not really an option!

For the background I used three different colours of Distress Oxides - Squeezed Lemonade, Scattered Straw and my favourite Gathered Twigs.  Starting in the middle with the lightest colour I worked towards the edges.  Once the inks were applied I stamped the image with Versafine.

I stamped again onto a separate piece of paper, ripped it around the fern and coloured the edges with Distress Oxides.   I stamped and cut out a further fern, coloured it with Peeled Paint Distress ink and layered this up onto the canvas.

I cut out and attached the sentiments and tucked some cotton behind the word Fern.

To finish off I used several colours of Distress Paint to create splats all over the canvas and then added the numbers randomly over the canvas.

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

Hugs, Anne xx

ATC Chunky

Hello Friends

My project as Guest designer for That's Crafty is an ATC Chunky. 

 I can only show you a sneak peek here but if you would like to see more, I would love if you could pop over to That's Blogging Crafty -  HERE.

Thanks so much for your visit and any comments you may wish to leave here and/or over there, I truly appreciate it and hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx

Time to Bloom...

Hello Friends

Today I am sharing my latest project for AALL & Create.  

I used the beautiful flower/domino stamp (#149) from the latest release by Tracy Evans.  It is a great size stamp to use with DL sized cards but I wanted something a little larger.

The base is 6.1/2" square of Watercolour card and I used my Watercolour Paints by 13@arts.  They are highly pigmented and retain their colour beautifully when diluted with water.  I wet the base card and just 'dropped' the colour in and just let if flow.

I stamped the image two times onto card, coloured two of  the flowers, again with the paints.  I fussy cut one of the flowers and ripped around the second coloured flower, leaving some of the base stamping intact.

Once the paint was dry I stamped onto the base card.

I added the torn card, lining it up over the stamped image and layered up the flower, adding some Glossy Accents the the centre of the flower to make it pop.   To finish off I added some coloured splatters using the different colours of paint that I used to colour the base and flower.

If you wish to buy any of the various releases of AALL & Create stamps you can find the worldwide stockists HERE.

I am adding this to Craft Stamper January Take It, Make It Challenge here.

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again next week.

Hugs, Anne xx

That's Crafty Storage

Hello Friends

Welcome to my next weekly post for That's Crafty, it is just a sneak peek again... who doesn't need some pretty storage to house those wonderful new Christmas goodies.

If you have time and/or you would like to see the whole piece, I hope you can visit That's Crafty blog HERE. 

Thanks for looking, I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx

Artist Trading Coin Mini Album

Hello Friends!  Happy New Year!  I wish you all the very best for 2019!

A new year and a new challenge at Mini Album Makers.  As always, it is anything goes as long as it is any handmade mini album, scrapbook, journal and book arts.  Our focus is on completed works, so no layouts or journal spreads that are not part of a complete handmade book project.  Please ensure you read the rules over at Mini Album Makers.

Artist Trading Coins seem to be all the rage at the moment with lots of people swapping them.  I made a mini album to hold three coins securely for posting.

I cannot take any credit for the design of this mini album, I saw a YouTube video a few years ago by a lady called Kathy Orta King, HERE.  I wanted my album to be large enough to accommodate the ATCoins which are 2.1/2" in diameter, so I changed the measurements of mine.

I found a beautiful sheet of 12" x 12" paper in my stash and some Prima self adhesive letters that I thought matched nicely.

Take a sheet of 12" x 12" paper and cut it down to 9/3/4" x 12".  I am listing the score lines below:
On the 9.3/4" side - Score at 3.1/4" and 6.1/2"
On the 12" side - Score at 2", 2.1/4", 5.1/4", 5.1/2", 8.1/2" and 8.3/4"

Cut as shown above.  The 2" piece will be the cover for your album (shown middle, left above).  Make sure to keep the little 1/4" tabs intact as these will form the pockets. I used a hole punch to cut little finger holes in each of the small pockets.

Once all of the little tabs are glued into place, the inside of the completed album should look something like the above.

To finish off I used a left-over piece of card to strengthen the fold over tab.  I also added a metal eyelet to the flap and added a length of hand dyed vintage ribbon to act as a closure.  And so, there you have a quick and easy album to store ATCoins for sharing.  My ATCoins are not new, they are from a previous post here.

Our fabulous Sponsor this month is Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts who are offering a package of goodies to one lucky winner.

Website - http://www.gslcuts.com/Store/
Blog - http://gslcuts.blogspot.co.uk/
Instructionals and Kits - http://gslcuts.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html


We do hope you will join us this month at Mini Album Makers, it would be lovely to see you there.

In the meantime, I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xxx