Tremendous Friend

Hello Friends

I really hope you are fairing well during this awful pandemic.  We are in our 7th week of lock down in our house now but we are doing our best to keep ourselves entertained.  David is spending time doing lots of things in our tiny garden and I have re-organised my craft room several times!

My Guest designer project this week for AALL & Create is something a little different from me, it is a shaker card.  Janet Klein has done sets of the most adorable little girl and boy stamps and I love this little girl with her butterfly friends and the fabulous sentiment.  I used Janet's AALL stamp set #299 - Tremendous Friend along with Autour de Mwa's Lotza Dotz stencil (#39).

I have a few pictures to show you the process, I am sure you all know how to create a shaker!

A close up to show you the fabulous sentiment...

You can find a list of worldwide stockists for the stamp and stencil I used HERE

I thought whilst I am here, I would share what I made in one of Tracy Evans's on line workshops at the weekend.  We used Eileen Hull's Notebook die by Sizzix along with Tracy's beautiful stamps.  It was great fun and I loved it so much, I made two!  I will definitely be doing more of Tracy's classes!

As always, thanks for your visit.

Stay safe and well.  Hugs, Anne xx

Tiny Houses and Passion Flowers

Hello Friends

I have created a mixed media project for AALL & Create this week, using a couple of  Tracy Evans' recently released stamp sets along with the Tiny Houses die by Tim Holtz for Sizzix and his Brickwork 3D Embossing Folder.

I have condensed the photos, so as not to make the post too long. 

First I cut the tiny houses from thick black card and then embossed each piece with Tim's 3D embossing folder, before dry brushing each of the pieces, first with white gesso and then Quinacridone acrylic paint.  Before putting the houses together I randomly stamped with Tracy's Mesh stamp (No. 262).

Next, I stamped Tracy's Passion Flower stamp set (No. 278) onto Tim Holtz tissue wrap.  I coloured the flowers on the reverse side with acrylic paint and then ripped the tissue close to the flowers before applying these to the tiny houses with matt medium.

I added the roof to each of the tiny houses and added a further strip around the bottom of each house.

To finish off I added some hessian string along with some words to the front and back of each house.

You can find a list of worldwide stockists for the stamps I used HERE.  We do encourage you, wherever possible, to purchase from your local stockists, particularly during these difficult times.

I do hope you are all staying safe and well and continue to do so.  As always, thank you so much for your visit, it is appreciated.

Hugs, Anne xxx

Floral Journal

Hello Friends

I hope you are all well and coping with the lockdown and social distancing.

My Guest designer project for AALL & Create this week is a mini journal.  I decorated the journal with Tracy Evans'  Create It Grunge stamp set (#150) along with the Totally Dotty Stencil (#87) by Autour de Mwa.  I also used Eileen Hull's Notebook die (Sizzix 663635) for the journal base.

I am still trying to use up some of my brayered sheets of left over card, the one here was also used to clean off my stencil after using texture paste.

• Top left shows the sheets of card that I started with.  They are both left overs from another project.

• Top right shows the covers of my signatures, one is a left over and the dotty one was created by applying several colours of paint through the Totally Dotty Stencil.

• Bottom left shows the die cut journal.

• Bottom right shows the flower stamped three times, coloured with watercolour paint and then fussy cut to allow some depth to the flower.

I stamped the flower onto the front of the journal and then added the fussy cut flower on top.

The above is a view of the back of the journal showing how I added the elastic closure.  It also shows the lovely textures I achieved by cleaning off texture paste from my stencil and then brayering over the dried paste with red and yellow acrylic paint.  It feels lovely to the touch.

You can find a full list of the worldwide stockists of the stamp and stencil sets I used HERE.

Short and sweet this week, but if you do have any questions on anything I have shown,

please let me know and I will do my best to answer.

Thanks so much, stay safe and well!

Hugs, Anne xxx

Tracy Evans' Happiness & Nature

Hello Friends

I hope you are all keeping safe and well in these difficult times.  After our third week in lock down we are getting quite used to it now and have established a simple routine, which helps!

My Guest Designer project for AALL & Create this week uses Tracy's beautiful Happiness & Nature stamp set (#281) along with a left over piece of brayered card, to create a card.

I loved the background colours and decided not to cover it up too much.  I had some die cuts left over too from a couple of Bipasha's dies - Code #12 and Cells #14.

I stamped Tracy's flowers onto watercolour card.

I watercoloured four flowers in the end, using two different colour combos.

I trimmed the brayered cardstock and mounted it onto a red mat and then stamped the flowers onto the base.  I prepared the die cuts that I wanted to use and in the end I went for the lighter of the two sets of flowers.

Before adding the die cuts I felt I wanted a little more texture so I stamped Tracy's Mesh stamp (#262) here and there using Red Carnation Archival ink, and also some Distress Oxide (Spiced Marmalade).

Here is the finished card again, with the die cuts added.  I finished off by adding a sentiment from the Happiness & Nature stamp set.

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

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

Stay safe and well.  Hugs, Anne xxx

Unfurling Petals

Hello Friends

I had to miss posting for AALL & Create last week, I was just a little under the weather and couldn't bring myself to do any crafting.  All is well now and we are in lock down for the next 12 weeks in our house so, if I can get my mojo back, hopefully I can buck my ideas up and post a little more regularly again... fingers crossed.  I hope you are all managing well with the social distancing etc.

The Guest DT are posting mixed media projects this week.  I used Olga Heldwein's beautiful Unfurling Petals stamp set #273 and I have combined it with Olga's stencil - Twirling Tendrils #86 to create a mixed media board.

I started by creating the background by brayering paint onto the media board.  I stamped and coloured the Unfurling Petals stamp onto white card and coloured it in with the same colour as the background.

I brayed some green paint next and then used the Twirling Tendrils stencil to stencil some white paint over the background.

I gathered a few bits and pieces together to layer up on the top of the board.

To finish off  I added some twine and a co-ordinating button.

A list of stockists selling AALL & Create products can be found HERE.  We are hoping that AALL & Create fans will support their local stockists, especially in these difficult times.

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

Take care and stay safe and well.

Hugs, Anne xx