Butterfly Lady...

 Hello Friends

I am back with a mixed media project as Guest designer for AALL & Create.

I used Olga Heldwein's gorgeous new Flutterby stencil #98, Olga's Take Flight stamp set #367, Autour de Mwa's Bubble Block stamp set #310 along with his Totally Dotty stencil #87.

Starting with the Totally Dotty stencil I created a Gel Press background using PaperArtsy paints, adding several layers of paint to create a delicate stencilled look.

To create the butterfly, I applied Versafine Clair ink (Fallen Leaves) through the butterfly (Flutterby stencil) to white card, carefully going around the edges to create a border.  I then applied clear embossing powder before heat setting, and then cut out the butterfly.  I used Seth Apter's Izink Dye Spray in Sunflower to add colour to the butterfly.

I prepared my media board by inking around the edges with the same Versafine Clair.  I stamped and watercoloured the lady and then fussy cut her.  The sentiment is a Tim Holtz one.

I stamped a few elements from the Take Flight stamp set onto my background, stamped and cut out the circular element for the butterfly lady to sit on.

To finish off I added the lady, her wings and the sentiment to the background and then mounted the background to my board.

A list of worldwide stockists for the stamps and stencil I used can be found HERE.

As always, thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon.  Keep safe and well in the meantime.  Hugs,  Anne  xx

PS. A few people have asked me to share the artist's messy desk I created a while back for one of Tracy Evans' Hochanda shows, and here it is.  I used matchboxes to create the desk and Tracy's stamps to decorate it. 

Trio of Artist Trading Cards

Hello Friends

For my Guest project this week at That's Crafty, I have created

a trio of ATCs using Seth Apter products.

Here is a sneak peek:

I hope I have tempted you to pop over HERE for a look!

Thanks so much

Hugs, Anne xx

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

Mini Album Makers - May Challenge

The first of the month means it is time for a new challenge at Mini Album Makers!

During a 'purge' of my craft room I found some chipboard ATC bases.  I used several Stencil Girl stencils and Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays to create my mini album.  

 

These are the products I used to create my mini album, three Lindy's Stamp Gang colours - Shabby Turbine Teal, Time Travel Teal and C'est la vie Cerise (which is a beautiful shade of blue).

All of the three stencils are by Seth Apter for Stencil Girl.

I started by dabbing Gesso over the ATC's to give them a little texture.  Once dry I used Ranger Crackle Paste and one of the stencils on two of the ATC's that would become the front and back covers of the album.  I used 8 ATCs in total.

Once the crackle was dry I opened up one of the sprays and dabbed the colour onto the crackle so that it would seep into the cracks.  For the other ATC's I sprayed both sides of them with the LSG sprays.

I sprayed Lindy's spray onto a length of vintage seam binding, scrunched it up whilst drying and added this to four of the ATC's, leaving a small gap between.  The four remaining ATCs were attached over the seam binding.

Turning to the front side of the album I added some script stamping and one of the stencils.

On the reverse side I added some script stamping and another stencil, all of the stencilling was done using DecoArt Media Paint in Cobalt Teal Hue.  The small circles have been stamped using a hand carved stamp by Kate Crane, it was a freebie in one of her classes.

To finish off the inside I stamped images from Chocolate Baroque and IndigoBlu onto tissue paper, coloured them with watercolour pencils and applied with Mat Medium.  The great advantage of using tissue paper is that you can make your seahorses face either way, so double duty from one stamp...

Here is a close-up to show you the sentiment, using Tim Holtz Small Talk tickets.

To finish off the album I attached a large seahorse charm which I coloured with Ranger Alcohol Ink.

Our Sponsor for this month is Lindy's Stamp Gang who are offering a $25 Gift Certificate to one lucky person!

Website - https://www.lindysgang.com/

Blog - https://lindysgang.blog/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/lindysgang/

  As always, our challenge is Any Handmade Book Goes.  Enter any form of handmade mini albums, scrapbooks, journals and book arts.  Our focus is on completed works, so no layouts or journal spreads that are not part of a complete handmade book project.  You do not have to provide a tutorial, but we wish you would.  Feel free to use one of the DT tutorials to make your project and give proper credit where due.

I hope you will have time to visit Mini Album Makers to see what my talented teamies have made, and hopefully join in this month!  Thanks so much for your visit, I truly appreciate any comments you may wish to leave!

Hugs, Anne xx

Organising with Eileen Hull dies ...

Hello Friends

This month Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team are sharing projects using Eileen's dies to help us get organised.  In my case I have created a couple of things that a boy or girl (or grown up!) might find useful on their workspace/desk.

I used one of Eileen's new dies (Cardbox, Planner Storage & Organiser- Sizzix 662361) and also one of her original Scoreboard dies (Block/Cube/Bank Sizzix 658983) to create a notepad holder and a phone/pen holder.  I also used some wonderful stamp sets by AALL & Create (Set #13 and #14 by Olga Heldwein), they are such fun stamps!

In my stash of papers I have lots of painty backgrounds that I created after taking a couple of classes with Seth Apter - for this one I used his monoprint technique and then brayered some white gesso over the top to lighten the colour and add more texture before adding some paint splats.

I die cut the planner box from my painty card and constructed it, it comes in one main piece and goes together like a dream.  I made two boxes and glued them together to give double the storage space.  You can of course, have a whole row of these, free standing or glued together - they are very substantial and will hold CDs, small books, cards, pens, pencils, brushes - whatever you choose to organise!

I stamped and fussy cut the character for the front, added some hashtag stamps from the same stamp set, made a couple of bookmarks and notepads, all stamped from Set #13 and #14.  Don't you just love that little character peeking over the edge!!

I wanted to make something to house a mobile phone and so I used the Box/Cube, it was originally designed to be able to have a hole cut in the top to make the box into a bank.  I used the idea to cut a larger hole that would house a phone.

I also cut six holes that can house pens, scissors etc., before constructing the box, again cut from my painty background card.  I added the stamping from Set #13.

A view from the top so that you can see the hole I cut for the mobile phone.  I simply measured the phone and cut the hole with a sharp knife.  For a larger phone you could simply cut the hole diagonally and still have room for a couple of holes for pens etc.

I used the left over pieces of card to create some notepads and a couple of bookmarks...

I decided to create a robot (as you do!) with a small block and some bits I had in my stash, his 'lightbulb head' is covered with one of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology domes and his body has been stamped with a stamp from Set #14 of the AALL & Create stamp sets.

I hope you will visit Eileen's Blog to see what my talented team mates have been making this month, there have been and will be posts each week sharing organising ideas.

As always, thank you so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon!

Best Wishes,  Anne xxx

Book Club Part 2 - Eileen Hull

Hello Friends

I am a bit late posting this, but hopefully better late than never.  In my last post HERE I shared a project using one of Eileen Hull's latest Book Club release (Card Box, Planner Storage) and today I have another of the dies in the new release - Stamp and Photo Storage Box (Sizzix 662359).  It is a ScoreBoard L die, so it will easily cut through thicker card, such as Mat/Mount Board.

As many of you know already I just love Eileen's Journal die and when I saw the Photo Box, I immediately thought that it might just fit inside the Journal and so I went off to experiment!  Of course you may want to use it in the more traditional way, and use it to store stamps and/or photos!

Here is a picture of the finished project.  I created a travel watercolour box.

I started off by creating the cover for my journal and the box, using lots of paint, applied with a brayer and stamping here and there.

I used a Stampendous set of stamps to stamp out the paint brushes for the front of the Journal.  I stamped them and then elongated them by hand, drawing longer handles and coloured them in with watercolours.  The 'make art' was stamped using Tim Holtz's Worn Text stamp set.

I covered the Stamp and Photo Storage Box with some of the painted paper and plotted out where to punch holes, so that I could fit paint brushes onto the front.  I threaded through 3mm elastic cord and slid some old brushes in, temporarily.

  The Stamp & Photo Box itself measures 6.1/8" x 4.1/8" x 1/2".

I  constructed the Journal and then glued the box to the inside back and added some new paint brushes into the threaded elastic.  The box of watercolour paints fit very neatly into the Stamp & Photo Storage box.

I added one signature made up of watercolour paper and I used Seth Apter stamps to decorate the cover of the signature.

Here is a view of the inside with the paints slipped into the back.  You can't see it here, but there was room for a small water spritzer too, so anyone who loves watercolour painting will be all set!

I hope you like my slightly unusual way of using Eileen's new Stamp and Photo Storage Box!  All month Eileen is showing other Team Members creations using the new dies, I hope you might have time to visit HERE to see all the wonderful projects that can be made with Eileen's fabulous new Book Club release! 

As always, thanks so much for your visit.

Hugs, Anne xx

Cracking Up at A Vintage Journey

Hello Friends

This month at A Vintage Journey the fabulous Alison is our host and Alison's challenge is 'Cracking Up'.  Here is what Alison had to say:

'Share your crackled projects - whether your crackle is stamped, painted, texture paste or any other kind of crackle.  To be a winner or Pinworthy mention, your project must be in a vintage, shabby, mixed-media, art journalling, industrial or steampunk style.'

I was so totally inspired by my talented friend and team-mate Jenny Marples' September project, using Seth Apter's dies, that I bought one of the sets to make my 'Cracking Up' project for Alison's wonderful challenge.  Here is my project...

To create the crackle background I used DecoArt Media Crackle Paint and when it was dry
I made a very light wash using Cobalt Teal Hue Media Fluid Acrylic mixed with water.

I cut the square using Seth Apter's Robo Square die by Spellbinders.  I painted the squares with Viva Decor Rusty Paper. 

 Once dry I gave them a coat of Quinacridone Gold Media Fluid Acrylic and touched up here and there with Cobalt Teal Hue.

To create the backing for the piece, I did this in the same way as the squares.  I also went around the edges of the piece with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to give a more 'aged' appearance.

To create the 'wrapped' piece I followed a tutorial by Seth Apter and Julie Fei Fan Balzar HERE.  It is such fun using bits of wood, wire and scraps of  wool, thread and charms.

Here's another look at the final project, I added a Tim Holtz die cut dragonfly.  The wings were cut twice, one in card and once in acetate.  The acetate was coloured with alcohol inks.  The body and lower wings were coloured with Distress Inks and then the body was coated with Ranger Crackle Accents.  The words are Tim Holtz Idea-ology chit chat.

This month at A Vintage Journey we are sponsored by Tando Creative who have a prize for a randomly drawn winner.  We will also choose three Pinworthies who will be offered a Guest appearance for a later challenge - so we hope you will join in!

Take care, hope to see you again soon!

Hugs, Anne xx