Birthday Card Organiser for AALL & Create

Hello Friends

I am back again this week with my Guest designer project for AALL & Create, it is a Birthday

Card Organiser which holds cards for 12 months of the year.  It was quite easy to make and is a great idea for organising cards for the whole year long.

The book itself is quite large, approximately 9 inches square by just over 2.1/2 deep (finished book) and I decorated it in my favourite theme!

 I cut some mountboard for the cover and spine.

I joined the spine to the covers with strong tape, leaving a gap so the cover was flexible. I also went around all the edges with the black tape (not shown) as I wanted a black border on the finished organiser. I set this aside to work on the inside folders.

I cut six pieces of card for the inside folders.

To create each folder, fold up from the bottom and fold back so that you have a pocket on each side.  You do not need to glue anything, folding back gives the pocket strength.  Using a standard hole punch, punch holes in the open side, through all the layers as shown above.

If desired, decorate the pages, I used some pretty papers from my stash.  I also decorated the pocket edges (not shown.  Adding paper gives the folders a lot of strength.

For the organiser cover I created two masterboards.  I brayered several layers of paint onto the card, applying a final layer of watered down gesso to tone down the colour.  I used AALL & Create stencil #39 to add some extra texture.

I cut a piece to fit the inside spine before attaching the ring binder mechanism (by Tim Holtz).  You need to do this before covering the spine on the outside of the organiser, otherwise the fixings will show on the outside of the organiser.

I cut the covers to size and added them to the organiser.  I used AALL & Create stamp #210 by Tracy Evans to add some further texture and then add some splatters of white gesso and black paint.

To decorate the cover I used stamp sets #137, #198 by Olga Heldwein and stamp set #196
 by Bipasha BK.

 I coloured these and fussy cut them out and applied these to the cover.

Here is a view of the inside, I added months to the folders and also added a card so I could list the birthday each month.

Finally, I added pockets to the inside front and back covers.  I am really pleased with the results of the organiser and it is very practical too!

You can find a list of worldwide stockists of all of the stamps and the stencil I used HERE.

As always, thanks for your visit, I really do appreciate it.

Hugs, Anne xx

Red Leather Journal

Hello Friends

I do love making journals and this week I am sharing a red leather journal created with Eileen Hull's latest Notebook die (Sizzix 663635).  This die is a brilliant size and cuts all in one piece so it is perfect to use with leather.

I started with a beautiful piece of red leather, this is approx 1.5cm thick, I find that this is the best thickness to use without putting any strain on your machine.

When cutting with leather I like to cut with the wrong side facing down so that the score lines do not show on the outside of the journal.  Once cut I attach some co-ordinating card to the inside with a strong adhesive.  This does cover up the score lines inside but also adds some stability and because the leather is soft, it still bends nicely.

Note:  If your leather is thick, do not add any extra bulk by attaching card first and take care when running through your die cutting machine, ensuring you use the right combination of plates for your machine.  If it is too thick you could damage your machine.  When I get a new piece of leather I do a little test with a small piece of leather first and if I meet any resistance I stop.

I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder to emboss the leather, one half at a time, using a busy pattern means that it is not necessary to match the design fully (the join will appear on the spine).

The Notebook die does not come with holes punched in the spine, which is great because you can choose how many holes you would like.  I punched two holes at each end with my cropodile and added eyelets.  I wanted to have an elastic closure so I punched two holes in the back of the journal and added eyelets to allow the elastic to feed through.

I like to add pockets to my journal and I used the same co-ordinating card to make one closed and one open pocket.

To create the closed pocket, I did this in a single piece, following the above measurements.  I folded it and glued the two small edges to create an open topped 'envelope'.

Once glued together, I added a closure to the lid and front that could be fastened with some light string.  I punched a small circle to add to the tail of the string to prevent fraying.

I created an 'open' pocket using the above measurements.  I folded and glued this in place on the back cover.  The advantage of attaching this pocket is that it hides the elastic closure fixings.  To attach the elastic closure, I fed it through the eyelet holes and stitched (or you can staple it) it together before attaching the pocket.

I fed elastic through the spine and tied it in a knot, leaving sufficient room to add a couple of signatures.

You can then create signatures to fit your journal and add these.  The size of the finished journal is 5" x 3.3/4", a nice handy size to fit in your handbag/purse.

I do get asked where I get my leather from, I purchase it in the UK from a company called Artisan Leather.  To make this size of journal I buy an A4 size, this will make two full journals in this size.

In the USA, Eileen Hull sells leather in her Etsy shop which you can find HERE.

Here is another look at the completed journal.  It has already gone to a good home!

If you have any questions please leave them in the comments and I will do my
best to answer them.

Thanks so much for your visit, it is much appreciated.

Hugs, Anne xx

Tracy's Poppies for AALL & Create

Hello Friends

I am back this week with my Guest designer project for AALL & Create.  I made two cards with the beautiful newly released stamp sets by Tracy Evans #206 (Hexagon Stem), #200 (Hope) and #210 (Background Mash Up) together with stencil #59 by Autour de Mwa.

My favourite background technique at the moment is brayering with paint.  I created two backgrounds using similar techniques but with different colours.

The first card uses light colour paint tones, all brayered separately onto mixed media cardstock.

I don't dry between each layer, I just keep adding the colours until I am happy with the result.  I then applied the stencil, using both paint and gesso dabbed through with an old makeup sponge.

I cut down the parts of the background I liked, to fit my card and mounted these onto black card.

For the above card I stamped, coloured and fussy cut four poppies from stamp set #200 and over-stamped these lightly with stamp #210 to add some texture.  I added two flowers to the card and then layered up the flowers with sticky pads to give them some dimension.

For my second card I simply brayered in a different set of colours, adding some stencilling as previously.  This time I stamped stamp set #206 directly onto the brayered base, stamping six further poppies and layering these up as before, after over-stamping each of the poppies with stamp set #210.

The sentiments on both cards are stamped from the two flower stamp sets.

You can find worldwide stockists for the stamps and stencil I used today, HERE.

I do apologise if I have not visited you lately, sometimes life just gets in the way

but hopefully normal service will be resumed soon!  In the meantime, thanks so

much for your visit, it is much appreciated, especially in these days where blog visiting seems to 

have fallen out of favour somewhat.

Hugs, Anne xx

Journal Page for AALL & Create

Hello Friends

My Guest designer project for this week is something a bit different from me, a journal page.  I don't really do much journalling, as a rule, so I thought I would chance my hand at it, using a new released

stamp set #199 by Tracy Evans for AALL & Create.

My journal is a standard size with 8.1/4" x 5.1/4" sized pages.  I didn't want to work directly in the journal so I cut some mixed media paper to fit.

I used watercolour paints to create my backgrounds and added some splatters.

Adding some stencilling with with AALL & Create stencil #59 by Autour de Mwa and some further stamping using AALL stamp #210 by Tracy Evans created some extra texture.

Next, I stamped the flowers across the page and coloured them with  watercolour paints.  

I stamped, painted and fussy cut some extra leaves and added them, followed with the sentiment

from stamp set #199.  Finally, I added the pages to my journal and doodled around the edges.

You can find worldwide stockists for all of the AALL & Create products I used HERE.

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

Hugs, Anne xx