Eileen Hull - Heartfelt Creations Journal die

Hello and Happy Mother's Day to all you UK Mums today!

Today I am sharing another journal that I made with Eileen Hull's fabulous new Journal die, by Sizzix,  which is due out very soon now!  You can Pre-order it now in the UK from Country View Crafts HERE.

As I love anything to do with the sea, I used Andy Skinner's Fossil stencil, Andy's Mega Crackle Technique and lots of DecoArt products to create the Journal cover.

This is how the journal starts off, this one was cut with Sizzix |Mat Board which is similar to Mount Board, it is very sturdy and will take a lot of wet products without warping.

I used Andy's Mega Crackle Technique to get to this stage (do dry naturally after each stage).
1) Cover the piece with Gesso or Paint (I used a mix of black, green and blue paint)
2)  Apply a coat of DecoArt Weathered Wood Crackle Medium
3) Apply a coat of DecoArt Crackle Paint
4)  Apply a coat of DecoArt Ultra Matte Varnish
 I applied a wash of DecoArt Paint in very watered down Prussian Blue

I stencilled in black and once it was dry I stencilled again with DecoArt Modelling Paste.

At this point I was not happy with the black showing through and I gave the whole thing a coat of thinned down white Gesso.  It did cover up some of the crackles but I wasn't too unhappy about that, it still had a nice 'rough' surface.

Next, I applied a wash of my favourite colour of DecoArt paint - Cobalt Teal Hue randomly over the base and Quinacridone Gold (again watered down) for the stencilled fossil area.

I love the colours now!  Next, I over-stamped the journal using Cobalt Teal Hue and a bubble stamp from IndigoBlu.  The sentiment is also from the same IndigoBlu set - Under the Sea.  I added lots of splatters in blue and white paint.  To finish off I added one of the closures that comes with the die, and some hand dyed ribbon.

I love to finish off my journals with a matching hinge clip and charm.  The clip and the seahorse were embossed with Stampendous embossing powder and I strung some tiny shells with elasticated jewellery thread.

I created three signatures for the inside, in the style of a junk journal, using up papers from my 'left over' box.

I hope you like my sea themed, Andy Skinner inspired Journal!

If you would like to see another of my Journals, there is another one being shown by Susan from Country View Crafts HERE.  It is one that I have not shown before and it is quite different to the one I am showing here today.

I am so thrilled that Susan at Country View Crafts has Eileen Hull's fabulous new HeARTfelt  Journal die on Pre Order too, at a fantastic price!

And last, but not least, Eileen Hull has created a Journal too, this is being featured over on the A Vintage Journey blog.  If you do have time, I hope you will have a look, it is a real beauty!

Thanks for you visit, hope to see you soon.
Hugs, Anne xx

Wood.. A Word ... Something Wild ...

Hello Crafty Friends!

A quick post from me today.  The lovely Cheryl at Creative Carte Blanche is challenging

us this month to create something using Wood.... A Word ...and Something Wild.

I was lucky enough recently to attend an Andy Skinner Ministry of Mixology workshop where I created a project you can see HERE, if you missed it first time around.  I loved it so much that I bought another kit from Tando Creative and had another go!  I created a sea themed box for our (fairly new) bathroom (which already has a seaside theme). 

I would not be fair to Andy if I went into detail on all the techniques I used to create  this piece but I can tell you that I used Gesso and lots and lots of DecoArt Media Fluid Paints to create the frame.  The panel inside uses one of Andy's newest stamps - Toxic.

The above is a close-up of the inner frame which has lovely faux rusty bolts added.

And here is a close up of the inner piece on which I used Andy's new stamp and also attached

my lovely metal seahorse.  The seahorse was plain white initially and I just touched him up

with some paint.  I LOVE him!!

I am entering this at Creative Carte Blanche, where they have some wonderful entries
so far, if you want a treat, do pop over and have a look.  The CCB team always provide such
wonderful inspiration for us too.

So, by way of explanation, my Wood is the frame, my Word/Words are' beach and drift' and my Wild is the seahorse - I have this vision of looking through the porthole of a ship and seeing him - a bit far fetched I know, but that's how my mind works - lol.

Edited:  I have just noticed that SanDee & Amelie's challenge is Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial - mine is more industrial but I think it fits the theme.

As always, thanks for looking and I hope to see you again soon!

Big hugs, Anne xx

Grungy Love

Hello Everyone, this is one of two posts today...

The lovely Sara Emily is our host at Anything But Cute where we are celebrating Valentine's Day with a 'Grungy Love' theme.

In Sara's own words - "To celebrate St. Valentine's Day, we would like to see you make a Grungy Valentine's project for your sweetheart!  It can be a card, tag, or anything else you might give a loved one to show them how much you care.  Just make sure it's grungy!" 

For my Sweetheart's Valentine creation I used a 6 inch square wood base (purchased from Indigo Blu), lots of paint in some of  his favourite colours, some random stamping, a grungy crackled heart and some 'industrial' embellishing.

I gathered together some of the items I wanted to use.  DecoArt Media Gesso in white, Indigo Blu Gesso (Gee-so-good) in black and my favourite background stamps, Rugged Edge by Limor Webber for Indigo Blu.

I painted the wood board with a good layer of the white gesso and once dry I added a few pieces of Tim Holtz tissue tape.

I then added some colour, not too heavy, I just lightly loaded my brush, first with Tim Holtz Distress Paint in Scattered Straw and then some Indigo Blu English Cottage acrylic paint in 'Grandma's Teacup' - this paint goes a long, long way and you only need a tiny amount.

It was a bit too blue for my liking so I added some more of the white gesso to knock back the colour a little bit.  Next, I took a couple of the stamps and stamped randomly using the Indigo Blu black gesso.  I still wasn't entirely happy so I got out my Andy Skinner Industrial set of stamps and I stamped randomly over the entire board, using Wendy Vecchi's Archival Ink in Watering Can.  I love the way the gesso stamping comes to the fore and is slightly dimensional - and the Archival Ink stamping goes to the back.  I am happy with my background now.

Next up is the heart embellishment.  I cut a heart freehand and coated it with the Indigo Blu gesso in black.  Once dry I added a coat of my favourite crackle medium - Weathered Wood by DecoArt.

Once the heart was dry I painted the heart with DecoArt Qunacridone Magenta Media Fluid Acrylic, with just a tiny drop of Paynes Grey added in to give the heart a slightly more grungy look.

As with all crackle techniques it is best to 'seal' the crackle and I used the DecoArt Ultra-Matt Varnish, it really does give a beautiful matt finish.

To grunge the heart a little more I twisted some black wire and added two lengths to my heart.

I thought the base looked a little bare so I added some cogs to two of the corners.  The cogs were cut from some thick card using my new Memory Box Cog die.  

To make the heart 'pop' a bit more I went all around the outside edge of the heart with a charcoal pencil and then smudged it with my finger.  In real life it makes the heart look really dimensional.

To finish off I added some chit chat words by Tim Holtz.

I hope you like my grungy, masculine Valentine Project and I hope you will join us at Anything But Cute this month in our 'Grungy Love' mixed media challenge.

As I have used Indigo Blu stamps and paints I would like to enter this into Indigo Blu's latest challenge - where the theme is Anything Goes.

I would also like to enter into Countryview Crafts challenge where the theme is Make your

Own Background.

As always, thanks so much for looking, I have another project up already today - sorry for bombarding you but it is just the way it is sometimes!

Hugs, Anne xx

Artist Trading Block Favourites

Hello Friends

I apologise for my long absence and lack of visits, hopefully by early next month

I will be be in a better position to rectify that, I hope you will bear with me....

This month at Art With Heart we are not having a challenge (and things are being changed up for future months).  Eileen Hull has released some fabulous new products at CHA (like the cantilever sewing box I featured here and here) and Eileen has also re-released some all time favourite dies.  One of these is the large Artist Trading Block (ATB) die (Szzix 658983) which is my personal favourite.  The Design Team are showcasing these re-released dies during this month. 

First up is my Artist Trading Block Storage Cabinet, details of which can be found here.  I used some fabulous G45 papers to cover the cabinet.  This shows how versatile the ATB die is, you can create 3D projects with it.

Next is my Valentine Heart Box, details can be found here.  This was the first ATB I ever made and DH still has it out on show to this day.

My next choice is my Circus themed ATB using Tim Holtz's Big Top Circus stamp set (details here).

Another favourite is an Andy Skinner inspired ATB, made using DecoArt products and Andy's Faux Letterpress Technique (details here)

My final choice is a project made for our lovely DT member Anna-Karin, we held a virtual baby shower for her, following the birth of her beautiful baby Leo (details here)

I hope you can see how wonderfully versatile the Artist Trading Block (ATB) die is.  I have made houses with it - and even a steam train, it is such a fun die to use.

Edited:  I have had some very exciting news.  Thanks to Eileen Hull and Jo Packham of 'Where Women Create'  I have had four pieces published in Sizzix's newest book release 'Make it a Party'.  I am so thrilled and honoured, it is a beautiful book and wonderfully illustrated and it is my first time ever being published!!

Thanks for looking, take care and I hope to see you soon!

Hugs, Anne xx

Ring Out the Old, Bring in the New at Anything But Cute

Hello Everyone

I hope you have had a great start to the New Year!  I am thrilled to be the Host this month at Anything But Cute, and since it is the beginning of a new year I have chosen 'Ring Out the Old, Bring in the New' as my challenge theme.  To celebrate the New Year, we would like you to create a mixed media card or project using something 'new', perhaps you got some fabulous new craft item for Christmas or you have something new that you have not used yet - please do remember to tell us what the new item is!

For my birthday and Christmas this year I received some beautiful Sandra Evertson Archival Casts, by Prima and I really wanted to use the beautiful Archangel from the Archangels set. 

 It just seemed right to create a shrine for the Archangel.  I did some research on Pinterest to get some ideas and found a great board here.  Near where I live there is a real life shrine (photo at the end of this post) which has fascinated me for years. 

I started by cutting two Tim Holtz Cameo frames from black mount board (mat board) and I used Tim's Sized rectangle die to cut an aperture in one of the frames.  I measured the opening and created a 'box' to go between the two frames.  The spool was later trimmed to fit in the gap to create a sturdy stand.

The next view shows the assembled box, this was painted with black gesso all over and once dry I applied a coat of Americana Weathered Wood Crackle Medium.  This is part of Andy Skinner's Mega Crackle technique.  You can see a video of Andy using the technique here.

To create the base crackle I added a little DecoArt Media Fluid in Raw Umber to some DecoArt Media Crackle Paint.  You can use up to 20% of coloured paint in the crackle paint to colour the Crackle Medium but I just wanted a hint of colour so I just used two little drops of the paint.

Once the paint is applied, this is how the result looks.  It starts to crackle immediately and dries fairly quickly, but you really do need to let it completely dry before moving on. 

To tint the shrine I used a thin wash, a mix of DecoArt Quinacridone Gold and water.  Before the first layer dried I mixed some Prussian Blue Media Fluid with water and lightly brushed this over the entire piece.  In real life it looks a little mottled, which I like.  This is a view of the back.  I always seal all of the crackled area with a sealant, in this case I used Ranger Glue and Seal.

To give the Archangel an aged look I first painted it with a thin coat of white gesso, followed by a very thin layer of Weathered Wood Crackle Medium and then finally a coat of DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Titanium White.  The cracks are quite subtle.

Here is a close up showing the mega crackle on the shrine and the lighter crackle on the face of the Archangel.  The hair was lightly tinted with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Quinacridone Gold.  The crown was painted with DecoArt Media Fluid in Metallic Gold

I also used my new Tim Holtz flower punch to create some flowers to decorate the shrine.  The flowers were punched and then coloured lightly with Candied Apple Distress Spray Stain.  I scrunched the wet flowers and used three sets of petals for each flower, adding white stamens from my stash.

I attached the finished flowers along with some Tim Holtz Holiday Greenery.

As I mentioned earlier, we have a real life shrine near where we live, it fascinates me because no matter what day of the week, or hour of the day you visit, it is always filled with flowers.  It is on a steep hill on a very narrow road and stopping to have a look is not easy.  It think it is beautiful and there is a great view of the Derbyshire hills behind.

Thanks so much for joining me here today, I hope you feel inspired to join in our challenge at Anything But Cute and I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx

Art With Heart - Favourite Things

Hello Friends

Our theme for this month's challenge at Art With Heart is 'Favourite Things'.  The Inspiration Team are sharing their favourite things all this month and we would love to have you play along!  It really is an anything goes challenge - just share your favourite things, whether it be a die, paint, colour or project - how easy is that!  Please do join us....

The biggest problem I had was trying to decide what my favourite thing is.... in the end I settled for Eileen Hull's fabulous new Cantilever Sewing Box.  I just love doing 3D projects and this sewing box goes together like a dream, it is such a useful box too - ideal as a real sewing container or as a gift box, or a jewelry box, like the one I made here.

I recently attended an Andy Skinner class (with some of my lovely blog friends) and I wanted to do  this box using one of the techniques we learned in class, to give the box a vintage feel.

I won't go into a lot of detail about the construction because I showed that in my previous sewing box post, but I will show you how I covered this one.

Once I had painted the whole piece I decided I would rather cover it in paper, than leave it as it was.  However the coat of DecoArt Americana Decor paints gave me a good strong base.

I used several sheets of thin card, first coating each with DecoArt Media Gesso and letting them dry.

Next was a thin coat of Cobalt Teal Hue DecoArt Media Fluid paint.

Once dry I covered it with DecoArt Weathered Wood Crackle Medium and let this dry before applying a thin coat of DecoArt Titanium White Media Fluid.

Once dry (it dries very quickly) I applied a coat of thinned down DecoArt Quinacridone Gold to give it an aged look.

I cut the sheets into strips and applied them to the base sewing box and to the struts before attaching these to the box.

I lined each of the boxes with some co-ordinating paper (Maja Design) and used a couple of Tim Holtz hitch fasteners on each of the box lids.

The flower is a Tim Holtz die - Tattered Poinsettia.  I spritzed the petals with Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain.  I added some Tim Holtz greenery and covered the central bauble with the fabulous Tim Holtz Vintage Platinum Distress Glitter Dust.

I did not want the box to just be for Christmas so I attached some sticky back velcro to the box and to the flower so that it can easily be removed.

Here is another look at the finished box.  I have got my fingers crossed that the recipient likes it!  I hope you will join in our challenge at Art With Heart, HERE.

Thanks, as always, for looking and I really appreciate any comment you leave, I hope to catch up with you shortly.  Hugs, Anne xx

A Valentine Artist Trading Block

Thanks so much to my latest followers, it is lovely to have you along on my crafty journey.

This month, for my Design Team piece for The Artists on the Block I have used an Andy Skinner technique - Faux Letter Press.  You can find Andy's tutorial HERE.

I am very lucky as I received a box of paint and other mediums from DecoArt, as part of Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team.  The new Media Range of paints from DecoArt are my latest love, you can create soft colours with them or vibrant or grungy colours, as you will see in my piece today.

I have not done step by step photos because Andy explains them really well in his tutorial - and to be honest, I got a bit carried away and forgot!

Andy did use a variety of colours and sizes for his blocks but I used similar sized pieces so that I could add whole words, (Love You, Be Mine) rather than random letters.

The base is one of Eileen Hull for Sizzix Artist Trading Blocks, this is the largest one and measures 3" on all sides.  I painted the whole of the base block with black Gesso so that it would not soak up too much paint and then painted over with Raw Umber DecoArt paint. It only needed one coat.

The letters are from Tim Holtz - Ideaology Kraft Resist Chipboard Alphabet.  It is quite an old set, I simply sanded the shiny top, applied Gesso and then painted them the same way Andy did.  I used  Pyrrole Red paint for the letters, then flicked Carbon black paint over and then covered each letter with Quinacridone Red paint (it is transparent) which gives the letter a slight sheen.  The punched hearts were done in exactly the same way and then stamped with some latin type script.  The base for each letter is painted with Raw Umber and edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The flower was created using Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral die.  I used two of each design on the die, except for the spiky one.  It is years since I made one of these flowers but you can see how I did it in my blog post HERE - yes it is VERY old, but the technique works beautifully with any of Tim's Tattered Floral dies.

To finish off I added some wooden beads, as feet, also painted with Raw Umber.  I also tied some lovely red jute twine around the middle of the block.

I would like to enter my block into Pamellia's first challenge over at Frilly and Funkie, which you can find HERE.   The challenge is called Valen-twine and you must use twine, jute, cord or string. There is a $25 prize for one lucky winner to spend at the Funkie Junkie online shop.

I would also like enter Julia's challenge at the Artist Trading Post Exchange which is Flower Power! I hope my single big flower qualifies. There is a £10 voucher for the winner to spend at the Artist Trading Post on-line or bricks and mortar shop.

Thanks so much for looking, I will be back on Friday when we have a new challenge beginning over at A Vintage Journey, I hope you will join us then.  Hugs, Anne xx