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

Seahorse ATC Stack for That's Crafty

Hello Friends

I hope that you are looking forward to the New Year, it is hard to believe that it is tomorrow!

I am delighted and very honoured to have been asked by Laura Holland of That's Crafty to be Guest Designer for the next three months, so each week, on a Monday, I will be sharing a new project created with some wonderful products from That's Crafty!

I can share a little sneak peek of my first project here:

 If you have time, I would love it if you could visit That's Crafty to see my whole project, there is a lot more to see.

Thanks so much for taking the time, it only remains for me to say I hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve and all the very best to you for 2019! 

Hugs, Anne xx

AALL & Create Project 1

Hello Friends

I was completely dumbstruck when Abs (Autour de Mwa of AALL & Create) asked me to join his Design Team for a temporary period of three months, it was not something I ever expected and I am over the moon happy!  Each Thursday I will post a project using AALL & Create stamps and stencils.

I would like to thank everyone who left me messages on Facebook, I was really humbled by the comments by friends on this temporary appointment, thank you all!

Even though summer is long gone, I could not resist Olga Heldwein's gorgeous Underwater Wonders stamp set to create an underwater scene.

I started with a large MDF tag.

I painted the tag with gesso ant then applied some crackle paste here and there.  After painting over the tag with Dina Wakley turquoise paint I applied embossing paste through Stencil #39.  Once the paste was dry I used ink through the stencil here and there, it is very subtle.

I am so in love with Olga Heldwein's gorgeous seahorse stamp!  I stamped in Potting Soil Archival ink and used watercolour paints to colour my seahorses and then fussy cut them out.

I coloured a few of the shells from the stamp set and cut them out.

Next, I used embossing paste through Stencil #44, coloured the starfish and ammonites with ink and cut them out.

To create the sea floor I added some greenery, my cut out stamped elements, some real shells, wood planks and some art stones.

Finally, to finish off, I added some words from the stamp set and also some charms from my stash.

I hope you will join me next week when I will have something completely different to share with you.  

Should you wish to purchase any AALL & Create stamps or stencils you can find a complete list of world-wide stockists in the e-shop HERE.

As always, thanks so much for your visit, I really do appreciate you taking

the time.  Hope to see you soon.  

Hugs, Anne xxx