Winter Wishes Blog Hop

Hello Friends

Warm thoughts are unfolding, as we begin to enter a festive time of year.

 Eileen Hull (Eileen Hull Designs) and Kim Evans (Emerald Creek) and The Teams have created a fun Blog Hop Challenge to kick off the American Thanksgiving and Winter festivities - Winter Wishes.  I was thrilled to be asked to join in the Blog Hop.

To play, all you need to do is follow along and comment on every blog in the Hop.

If you play along and link up your own creation using Eileen and Emerald Creek products, you will get 2 bonus entries for the draw.  The Challenge closes on Sunday November 25th, with the Winner announced on Cyber Monday.

The PRIZE includes an Eileen Hull Journal Die and a $50 gift certificate to the Emerald Creek shop, how fabulous is that!!

I used Eileen Hull's Passport die (Sizzix 660331) and beautiful stamps from Emerald Creek (Snowy Trees and Country Lodge).........to create a 'Shaker' Journal

After die cutting the journal, I painted all of the elements with Dina Wakely Heavy Body paint in Ruby.  I stamped  the winter scene, embossed it with Emerald Creek Onyx Frost Allure Embossing Powder and painted it with watercolour inks.

To create the 'Shaker' element I die cut three further journal fronts and cut an oval into each one. Tip: To ensure the ovals match up, simply use one of the oval cut fronts, line it up and mark with a pencil before cutting.

The wintry image was added to the base of the front, two further journal fronts (with the oval cut) were glued on top, two teaspoons of glitter was added and a layer of acetate was placed on top to seal in the glitter and image.  Finally, the last journal front was added to seal all the elements.

The Christmas trees were stamped and embossed with Emerald Creek Onyx Frost EP, coloured with watercolour inks and applied to a snowy background cut from white card which had been glittered to represent snow.

A dyed seam binding closure was added, together with a fun reindeer charm.

I hope you will 'hop' around to visit the other designers to see what they have created with products from Eileen Hull and Emerald Creek and of course, we would love you to join in too.

The blog hop order:

Eileen Hull
Kim Evans
Gwen Lafleur
Pam Bray
Ann Barnes
Lisa Hoel
Jennalee Anderson
Diana Hetherington
Anne Redfern - you are here!
Elizabeth Robinson
Susana Magenheimer
Julia Aston

I hope you enjoy the hop and good luck!

Hugs, Anne  xxx

Flip Album tutorial for Mini Album Makers

Hello Friends!

Each month a member of the Mini Album Makers Design Team shares a tutorial and I would like to share with you my very first Flip Album, created after watching many tutorials on YouTube for inspiration.  I do hope you will find time to have a look at my tutorial over at Mini Album Makers!

Here is a sneak peek for you:

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit here (and hopefully there too), I appreciate any comments you may wish to make.  

All of us at Mini Album Makers hope that you will join in our challenge this month .

Regards,  Anne  xxx

Melt It at A Vintage Journey

Hello Friends

It is time for a new challenge at A Vintage Journey and our wonderful Julia is hosting the challenge.  Here is what Julia has to say:

This month we're asking everyone to MELT IT! Get out the UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel), beeswax, encaustic wax, embossing powders or good old wax crayons and a heat tool and get melting to create something in a vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journalling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk style!

 I had the pleasure of attending Creativation in Phoenix, Arizona this year and I attended a couple of classes with Seth Apter and watched his many demos with his new Baked Textures Embossing Powders by Kim Evans of Emerald Creek - they are fantastic!  This fitted so well into Julia's theme too!

I didn't take step by step photos as I did this at nightime and really, I was just playing.  Seth used a collage of vintage papers in his demos, I used some beautiful vintage music paper for mine, gluing it to a 5" x 7" piece of grey board and leaving it to dry thoroughly.

Now for the fun bit!  I applied three coats of the gorgeous Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture embossing powder - it is truly amazing how much this looks like Encaustic work, I almost didn't want to cover it up!

Next, I applied embossing ink randomly around the edges and then applied Rocky Road Baked Texture, it has a wonderful chunky feel to it, with a lovely mix of ingredients and it dries to a quite glossy finish.

Seth's Maze die is one of my favourites, I die cut two pieces and embossed the first one with Chunky Rust Baked Texture - this is so different to any other EP I have ever used, it has lots of 'fuzzy' bits in it and once melted, these fuzzy bits create a wonderful soft feel and gives a wonderful textural look.  It is hard to describe but wonderful to feel!

I cut down the second Maze and embossed this with the amazing Patina Oxide Baked Texture, the photograph does not do it justice, it has a wonderful mix of colours from green through to gold - it is quite delicious!

It needed something in the centre so I found some rusty Prima trinkets and stacked them along with one of Kim Evans of Emerald Creek's fancy brads, which I also covered with the Patina Oxide EP.

To finish off I used one of Tim Holtz Idea-ology drawer pulls, which I also coated with the Patina Oxide EP and added the chit chat sticker 'Grateful' because I have a lot to be grateful for this year already!

  I do hope you will visit us over at  A Vintage Journey where you will find some fantastic makes from my talented teamies.  We all hope that you will join in the fun with us this month.  Our wonderful sponsor for the month is:


www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk

who are offering a £20 voucher to one lucky winner!

I want to be slightly indulgent here, to say that I am grateful to my Son, Michael who treated me to a very special trip of a lifetime, to Creativation 2018; to Eileen Hull for making me feel so welcome in the team, allowing me to demo for a couple of sessions on the Sizzix stand, on the Gel Press stand and assisting her to run two of her amazing classes - I learned so much too.  And, not forgetting the shopping trip to Joann's! There were others on the team and elsewhere, who I had not met before that made me feel very special too, some dear long standing blog friends who invited me to dinner and unwittingly saved me from being  'Billy no-mates' in my hotel room that night.  Thanks to Jenny Marples too, for assisting me on the trip there and back which sadly, was more than a little bit eventful - sorry Jenny!  I am also grateful to the many people who gave me such wonderful products to bring home and try, it was like Christmas all over!  Thank you Eileen, Seth Apter, Kim Evans, Ann Butler and so many others, I really did have an amazing time!

I didn't take many pictures at Creativation but this one taken by Eileen says it all about our trip to Joann's, I am excitedly clutching a bolt of Tim Holtz fabric.... and yes, I did buy (ahem) a few other bits and pieces!

Thanks so much for your visit, it really does mean a lot!

Hugs, Anne xx