Secret Santa at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone and welcome. If you've joined me from A Vintage Journey or from Nikki's blog you'll already know that today's the day when we reveal the Secret Santa projects each of us created for a fellow Creative Guide.

You'll see on the main blog post over at A Vintage Journey that this is a blog hop with a very special Give-Away twist.
Find the other Creative Guides' blogs here;
Brenda - Bumblebees and Butterflies
Astrid - Astrid's Artistic Efforts
Jennie - Live The Dream
Nikki - Addicted To Art
Jenny - you are here!!!
Jools - Creative Journey
Julie - Juliz Design Post
Anne - Redanne
Julia - Create With Me
Chris - My Corner of Heaven
Alison - Words and Pictures
S@andy - My Crafty Life on the Internet
Annie - Curious & Crafty Treasures
You'll find out more about our special blog hop at the end of this post.

And now to the gift I created...

It was a privilege to be chosen to create a present for my lovely teamie Jennie Atkinson (Live The Dream), but it also filled me with trepidation - well have you SEEN the incredible works of art she creates?!! I settled on altering a journal with the idea that she could take it with her on one of her sailing holidays for doodling, drawing, making notes or whatever else takes her fancy.

To make it easier to pack the umpteen layers I wanted to include needed to be relatively flat! When you're faced with a huge blank kraft coloured space it can be hard to know where to start but it occurred to me that adding an initial layer of tissue wrap would help to define where things should be placed. After applying a thin coat of gesso, some texture paste stencilling and a couple of strips of lace it was time to have fun with Distress Spray Stains. By sticking to a very neutral 'Jennie style' colour palette with drips and light misting I knew it wouldn't detract from the top layers.

You'll recognise items from Tim Holtz ephemera packs and a fun Found Relative behind the tag window. Some stamping, stitching and rub-ons added detail whilst Idea-Ology can always be relied upon to heap on industrial style interest.

And to top it all off the lettering, spelling out the name of Jennie's aptly entitled blog. Cut from grungepaper it had a combination of Walnut Stain, Peeled Paint and Brushed Pewter Distress Spray Stains added which marbled together to create a fabulous aged metal look. I've not included photos of the back of the journal here as that was left relatively plain; the tissue, gesso layer but stencilled with paint before being spritzed with Distress Spray Stains to help reduce the overall thickness.

So that was Jennie's Secret Santa gift and I'm pleased to report that she liked it!
As for me, I was BEYOND excited to receive this INCREDIBLE perpetual calendar from the wonderful Anne (Redanne)!!! She seriously got it spot on with this and I now have it sat proudly on display in my craft room helping me to keep track of those deadlines. Thank you Anne xxx

And now, I mentioned at the top of this post that this is part of a very special blog hop. We would like to give each and every one of you who enter our challenges and who read our blog posts a Christmas gift and the nearest we could think of doing this is to offer our Christmas Give-Away. Over at A Vintage Journey blog you'll see a lovely present for one lucky person.

Now just to be friendly we would like you to -

1. Visit all the blogs of the Creative Guides (listed at the beginning of this post) and leave them a comment.

2. Go back to the A Vintage Journey blog and leave a link up on the Linky below to a post on your blog where you have mentioned our Give-Away and linked it back - this might be a new post just with the Give-Away info in it or you could include it in a post you are writing for something else (just like you would if you were entering a challenge).

If we have more than 30 links there will be a second Give-away added and if we get more than 50 links there will be a third..

Make sure you have linked by 23.55 on Sunday 21st December (when the Linky closes). The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced on our next challenge post on 26th December.

Good luck everyone, enjoy the hop and thank you in advance for taking part.
Jenny xxx