AALL and CREATE weekend...

Hello Friends!

Firstly, I must apologies if I have not visited you, I have had two very busy and wonderful crafty weekends away, lucky me!

This weekend I visited That's Crafty in London for the first leg of  AALL & Create's World Tour and what a fabulous weekend it was too!  I just wish I could have continued on to day 3 too!  It was worth the seven hour journey there....

Out of respect to the individual designers I cannot share any of the details with you but I hope you enjoy seeing the creations we made.

My first class was with the hugely talented Tracy Evans who taught us some amazing techniques (with her own wonderful range of stamps and stencils)  to create a beautiful textured tag.   I am totally in love with this tag!  Tracy's enthusiasm is very infectious!

The afternoon class, also with Tracy saw us using beautiful bold colours to make two different styles of accordion cards.  Lots of inky, painty and stamping goodness!

Day two was spent with Aida Domisiewicz (also the owner of 13Arts) using lots of Aida's exclusive 13Arts products and Aida's AALL&Create stamps and stencils.  I was totally out of my comfort zone making this beautiful project but I loved every minute of it!

As well as meeting up again with the adorable Autour De Mwa (Abs), it was so lovely to meet more of the AALLandCreate Designers, Aida, Olga Heldwein and Fiona Paltridge and of course my dear friend Tracy Evans.  I felt like I was in the presence of Crafting Royalty - thank you to each and every one of them for making the weekend lots of fun, I have not laughed so much for ages!!  

Along with learning new techniques, meeting up with crafty idols, it was incredible to meet wonderful new friends too - Gayna Hurst, Donna (Ragdoll), Tina Thompson-Theis and so many others.  Laura Holland and Graham ensured that the whole weekend ran smoothly and of course the shop was a huge temptation!  Huge thanks to Laura and Graham!

AALLandCreate stamps and stencils are available worldwide, you can see a full list of stockists HERE.

I am adding project 1 to The Mixed Media Monthly challenge (sadly it is their last one).  Project 1 has thread wrapped around the butterfly and string wrapped around the wire at the top.


Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon with a new
Eileen Hull project!

Hugs, Anne xx

Leather Journals ...

Hello Friends!

  All this month Eileen Hull's team are sharing projects from the new e-Book (Gifts to Die For - details on my sidebar if you wish to purchase one).  As I have already shared my project HERE, I am sharing some Christmas gifts I made for my lovely friends Jenny and Tracy.

Being in a bit of a tizzy with all the Christmas prep etc., I forgot to take photos of the journals (I know, I blame my age - lol), so Jenny took some photos for me - thank you Jenny!

I made the red leather one for Jenny and the turquoise one for Tracy.  I am not going to share lots of details on how to make the journals as I have done that in several previous posts, using Eileen's wonderful Passport Book die (Sizzix 660331).

I personalised each journal with a name tag and made a page marker for each, using Tracy Easson's fabulous stamp set 'We are Three'.  The page markers were then laminated to give them strength and I added a die cut 'today' to the top.  I also used our very own Tracy's sentiment stamp from her new stamp set by AALL & Create.

Each journal has two signatures and a 2018 diary.  I purchased very reasonable diaries from the shop that sells everything for £1, took the covers off and slipped them into a handmade holder so that they would match the other elements in the journal.

Finally, I added a pen holder and pen to each journal, along with a name tag (I am practicing stamping onto leather - still have a lot to learn!).  The journal on the left is shown from the back and the one on the right is from the front.  The beautiful leather I used on both journals is from a UK company - Artisan Leather.

Useful Tip: I have found, when cutting leather, it is easy to cut right through the scored areas of the die (the spine) and it can be difficult to patch them up again.  I use the Sizzix Premium Crease Pad and it scores the lines perfectly, without cutting them through.

You may have seen a photo on social media but here we all are having a wonderful time, meeting up for lunch (6 hours long!) and a chat about all things crafty!

Thanks so much for your visit.  I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Hugs, Anne xxx