Christmas in July for Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome! For the past week it's been Cec Wintonyk's turn to host the latest challenge over on the Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog. She's called it 'Christmas in July'; "You might be experiencing summer heat but let's think cool by getting a head start on Christmas preparations. Your vintage or shabby chic creation could be a card, something to present a gift in or a decor item for the house or tree."

The team will choose their top four picks with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie and the next three will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique, so there are plenty of reasons for joining in the fun.

There's a whole host of seasonal releases going on right now and although I'd rather not think about Christmas until much closer to the actual event, it is exciting to see what's being lined up for the holiday season. In particular I've really been taken with the new Snowglobe #2 die set from Tim Holtz. The little village with snow topped roofs looks so inviting - but remains, for now, only available to pre-order. So I got to thinking about a way of recreating a similar look with the dies I do have right now and of course I reached for my favourite Cityscapes, Suburbia set (which has previously taken me to New York City, Tuscany and the Orient). Now it's time to head off to the beauty of the Swiss Alps.

Here's the completed card, taking that idea of snowy die cut rooftops adding a backdrop of glacial mountains and an aged background with hints of metallic shine. And of course there's a tutorial to follow so you can create your own versions.

• Start with a sheet of gold Metallic Kraft Cardstock, lightly sand it (in one direction) before brushing light swipes of Black Soot Distress Paint over the top. When dry rub Tree Branch Archival Ink over the top, direct from the ink pad. Set this sheet aside to dry fully then cut a piece large enough to cover a 6" square leaving a small border.
• Cut a piece of white card just smaller than the altered metallic sheet and cover completely with Texture Paste through the Dot Fade stencil.

• When the paste is dry cover the card with white gesso, then Picket Fence Distress Paint. When dry brush a highly diluted mix of water and Hickory Smoke Distress Paint over the card, allowing it to seep between the raised dots. Before it dies completely rub gently over the surface of the raised dots with a moist towel/cloth to bring them back to a white colour. This will also make the lower layer streaky so rub in a vertical direction.

• Take a smaller piece of white card, press Candied Apple Distress Oxide ink into your craft mat, spritz with water and dip the card into the ink. Continue to dip then dry with a heat tool until the card is covered, then add drips of water over the top. Allow the water droplets to reactivate the ink and dry.
• Repeat this process with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide inks. Press a small amount of Black Soot Distress Oxide ink into your craft mat, add a little water, mix and splatter over the three strips of card. Soak up the leftover ink onto a separate small piece of white card, covering it as before.

• Using the Cityscapes Suburbia set cut the roof buildings from the red, brown and cream card, roofs and trees from white card and the balconies, window frames etc from the Hickory Smoke and altered Metallic Kraft cardstock. Layer together as shown, inking the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

• Take a wide strip of white card the same width as the stencilled layer and cut into 'mountains' as shown above. Ink the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.
• To finish, layer the stencilled card over the square metallic layer, then add the 'mountains' about a third of the way down from the top. Add the buildings and trees using dimensional foam to support the upper layers. Cut a white Woodlands tree and another from green Kraft Cardstock which has been pre-sanded to reveal the core. Layer together and add to the bottom of the 'scene'. Finally add Small Talk Occasions stickers (or similar) and stick onto a 6" square card blank.

Now here's a couple of close ups of the finished card showing some of those details, freshly chilled and ready for Christmas!

That's it for my DT project for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge 'Christmas in July'. Make sure you hop on over to see what my talented team mates have been inspired to create for this Christmas themed challenge, and remember to link your own shabby chic or vintage Christmas projects, to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes that are up for grabs.

Have a fantastic end to your week, take care of yourselves and get creative! Jenny xxx

Vintage Sewing Themed Travelers Notebook Journal for Eileen Hull Designs

Hi everyone and welcome! Thank you so much for the continued support and positive feedback for my Travelers Notebook style journals, created using Eileen Hull's 'Journal' die. Today's offering is a vintage sewing themed journal which incorporates more than just junk journal pages; I have been inspired by my good friend Anne Redfern, a fellow member of Eileen's Inspiration Team, who adds all sorts of practical pockets and accessories to her journals. I highly recommend you check out her recent tutorial for a professional yet easy to achieve pocket insert HERE.

And so to my latest journal, which gave me the perfect opportunity to experiment with Dina Wakley's range of paints, stamps and stencils. Have to say I love the results that can be achieved and how easy they are to use! First up here's the video walk through of the journal from my YouTube channel;

Now, as promised in the video, here's the tutorial for recreating the journal cover (click on each image for a close up);

Having glued the journal covers together, cover them in Black Gesso (or cut from black mountboard) before using Dina's White Gesso to apply a contrasting and uneven layer over the top on both sides.

Apply pieces of sewing pattern paper over the top with Matte Distress Collage Medium.

Add a much thinner layer of the White Gesso over the paper to blend with the background.

Add offcuts from Tim Holtz 'Memoranda' paper stash with the same Distress Collage Medium.

Stamp the small blooms from Dina Wakley's 'Homage to Frida' and 'Abstract Blooms' stamp set with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink. You may need to heat set this layer as it's sitting on the Collage Medium.

Add uneven swirls of Dina's 'Rosy' Acrylic Paint over the stamped flowers (the ink will be absorbed by it).

Add a half moon swirl over one side of each flower with Dina's 'Elephant' Acrylic Paint.

Mix four parts 'Elephant' Acrylic Paint to one part 'Evergreen' to get a softer colour.

Paint over the leaves with the mixed colour, again absorbing the underlying ink.

Add Dina's 'Umber' Acrylic Paint to some sponge, dab onto the small bloom stamps, and then stamp over the corresponding painted flowers (reapply the paint each time you stamp them).

Use Dina's 'Jumbled Numbers' Stencil to add a random layer of White Acrylic Paint numbers over the whole design.

To finish the front cover use the plaque that can also be cut from the Journal die, paint it with black and white gesso as before, stamp the words from the Homage to Frida set and cover in Glossy Accents. And finally thread your choice of elastic, thread, ribbon etc through the pre-cut holes (there's a tutorial for that on the die packaging) and you are ready to add inserts of your choice!

Here are some close up photos of the additions inside this one as seen on the video;

You can see on the tag where I used Eileen Hull's 'Word Stitchlits' dies to cut the word Sunshine.

Using the same Dina Wakley small bloom stamps on the elements inside the journal helped tie it all together.

Here is the envelope I made using layers of sewing pattern paper and Eileen Hull's 'House/Pocket' Stitchlits die.

Here's another of the words and the heart from the 'Word Stitchlits' die set cut into the smaller tag.

I quadruple embossed a scrap of card with Emerald Creek 'Charred Gold' Embossing Powder before pressing one of the images from Dina Wakley's 'Homage to Frida' stamp set into it with Jet Black Archival Ink.

This close up shows the beautiful effect you get from the multiple colours/sizes of granules contained in the embossing powder.

And finally on the back cover of the journal is the 'Embroidery Hoop', cut from Eileen Hull's die, painted with Dina Wakley's 'Elephant' Acrylic Paint, and holding a piece of fabric stamped and coloured with another of Dina's 'Abstract Blooms' and Acrylic Paints (following the steps used on the cover).

I also mentioned in my video some free downloadable pages and inserts - here are the links to those;

check out Astrid Maclean's gorgeous journals and fabulous free downloadables here -
https://astridsartisticefforts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/passport-to-paris-and-some-journal.html

and the hugely generous Wenda has a wonderful array of downloadable inserts for Travelers Notebooks and more -
http://www.wendaful.com/free-printable-inserts/

YAY! You've made it to the end of this post! Hope you've enjoyed the journey and picked up some useful ideas along the way. I'll add a list of most of the products used in the making of this journal below. If you have any questions please do shout out - it seems to take longer to share projects than to create them these days so I may have forgotten something along the way!
Whatever you're up to for the rest of the week hope it's a good one, take care of yourselves and get creative! Jenny xxx

In The Good Old Summertime with Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome! It's Kathy Clements' turn to host the latest challenge over on the Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog, and she's called it 'In The Good Old Summertime'; "it's time for those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Whether you vacation at the beach, in the mountains, or enjoy a relaxing "Staycation" in your own back yard, your challenge is to create a vintage or shabby chic project that shows what you love best about summer. Use summer colors in your project. Be sure to tell us in your post what you love about summer, and how you've represented that in your project."

The team will choose their top four picks with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie and the next three will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique, so there are plenty of reasons for joining in the fun.

I love the long, light Summer evenings spent sitting in our garden at home (when the weather is warm enough). It is a little piece of paradise, full of mature shrubs, trees and climbers, and there's nothing better than catching heady wafts of summer jasmine in the air. What better than to capture some of that magic of a Summer garden in Junk Journal format!

I used a whole host of orange, yellow and contrasting aqua shades of Distress Paint to colour the Eileen Hull Designs Journal cover before stamping over with, amongst others, Wendy Vecchi's 'Spring Bouquet' design repeatedly. Applying Transparent Paste through Tim Holtz Roses Stencil and a Prima IOD clay mould decorated with Remnant Rubs and die cut lettering completed the look. Inside lots of 'junk' pages were unified with Memoranda paper and lots of stamping using a whole host of Wendy Vecchi stamp sets.

To give you a better idea here's my video walkthough;

And as promised in the video here are some photo highlights;

That's it for my DT project for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge 'In The Good Old Summertime' I hope you've enjoyed today's post and hope you take the chance to watch the accompanying video walkthrough. Do make sure you hop on over to see what my talented team mates have been inspired to create for this Summer themed challenge, and remember to link your own shabby chic or vintage Summertime projects, to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes.

Have a fantastic end to your week, take care of yourselves and get creative! Jenny xxx