A Time to be Grateful at The Funkie Junkie Challenge Blog

Hi everyone and welcome. It's time for another challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. Suzz is your host for this one and with Thanksgiving fast approaching in the US she's called it 'A Time to be Grateful'. "Around this time of the year when we start to get into the holidays and the rush of everything it is a good time to reflect on what we are grateful for. My challenge to you is to capture that in your art. Show what you are grateful for in any type of project, it could be a journal page, a card, or anything else that expresses your gratitude. You choose how to show your thankfulness and share it with us."

As ever, the Design Team will choose their top four picks, with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and three additional outstanding entries will receive Top 3 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.

Reflecting on the many things to be grateful for I decided to thank and celebrate those people I count as my good friends in my journal.

(click on the image to see this in even more detail)

And here are the individual pages close up;

As ever I took some photos of the process taken to create this journal spread, starting with a session creating Gel Plate prints with Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints. I chose a range of coordinating pastels that included Sand, Heather, Buff, Mineral, Rosy, Elephant and Eggplant (to add to the depth of some of the prints) and pulled a mix of small pieces on white tissue paper.

To add decoration to some of the prints I used four of Wendy Vecchi's Background Stamps. The 'Tiled' stamp was used with paint to imprint on top of pulled prints.

Here I used the 'Register' stamp on some pulls to add text with a pale grey Archival Ink.

The 'Wire with a Twist' stamp was pushed into the wet paint on the Gel Plate before the print was pulled.

The 'Old Quilt' stamp was used with some of the Mineral Paint on top of a pulled print.

Having created a patchwork of tissue prints on the two sides of the journal spread I set about stamping the flowers, using Wendy Vecchi's 'Simple Reality' flower stamp with a dark brown Archival Ink. Some brown watercolour paint was used to add shading to the leaves and I drew over some of the edges with a white gel pen.

After initially considering using a deeper purple shade for the flowers I went with a subtle contrast of pale blue, stamping the flower onto the printed tissue a couple of times with the same Archival Ink as the ones on the page before cutting them out and adding a little white gel pen detail to the centres. These were then stuck over the ones on the page.

With the flowers in place I used coordinating Archival Inks to stamp some of Tim Holtz 'Ornate Trims' across the spread, joining the two parts together and leading the eye across the pages. They were enhanced with more white gel pen highlighting.

The words expressed the gratitude I have for my friends and came from Wendy Vecchi's 'Friends & Art' Stamp Set.

Finally I added a little Venise Lace trim and dots of Wendy Vecchi's 'Cornflower Blue' Liquid Pearls.

So that's my take on the theme 'A Time to be Grateful'. My talented team mates have also come up with their own gratitude projects for this challenge so make sure you hop on over and check them out HERE. And remember to link up your own shabby chic or vintage pieces to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes that's up for grabs.

Thanks for visiting,
Jenny xxx

Products used to create this journal page are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Stamp It/Stencil It - Simple Reality

Wendy Vecchi 490 Background Stamp - Tiled

Wendy Vecchi 490 Background Stamp - Register

Wendy Vecchi 490 Background Stamp - Wire with a Twist

Wendy Vecchi 490 Background Stamp - Old Quilt

Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Stamp Set - Friends & Art

Tim Holtz Stamp Set - Ornate Trims

Wendy Vecchi Liquid Pearls - Cornflower Blue

Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints and Gessos

Ranger Archival Inks

Felt Christmas Pocket for Eileen Hull Designs

Hi everyone and welcome. This month Eileen's Inspiration Team are sharing 'Seasons Greetings' with our festive themed makes. For this one I've experimented with using felt as the base for a Christmas Pocket using Eileen's Sizzix Scoreboards 'Box, Post' XL Die. Here's the finished soft pocket that has a button closure.

The basic shape was cut from Kunin Eco-Fi Plus Felt in that beautiful deep grey Granite colour; since it's a heavyweight felt it can hold the shape and structure of the pocket. To bring more interest to the background I added some grey lace along the main edges and a patchwork of painted tissue pieces in a  using soft gel medium securing it in place with decorative stitching.

Taking inspiration from an accordion Tiny Book created earlier this year I included felt 'trees' using Eileen's Sizzix Scoreboards 'Spring Leaves' L Die and little houses using her Sizzix Scoreboards 'House Ornament' L Die. These were stuck onto the patchwork background using dry adhesive - I'd recommend using something like Bondaweb on the back of the felt before die cutting it to make application easier.

Eileen has shared her passion for using embroidery stitching and it's infectious! French Knots became falling snow and Satin Stiches were used to cover the roofs with a wintery touch. It is much easier to sew through the felt base before it has been assembled.

With the decoration completed the pocket was ready to be assembled. I stuck strips of card onto the base and side sections to strengthen them further before adhering some dark grey interfacing to the inside to cover the stitches. Once thoroughly dry the sides were glued together and I did some 'invisible stitching' with grey cotton thread to ensure they didn't pull apart over time. A buttonhole was machine stitched onto the flap closure with a button added to the front of the pocket to complete the closure.

You can see all of the amazing projects that Eileen's Inspiration Team have made this month using her new dies by visiting Eileen's website.

For now, thanks for visiting,
Jenny xxx

Eileen Hull Designs Sizzix Scoreboards XL Die 'Box, Post' available in the UK at Country View Crafts and in the US at The Funkie Junkie Boutique

Celebrate with The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog

Hi everyone and welcome. It's time for another challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. Cec is your host for this one and she's called it 'Celebrate'. "Your challenge is to create a shabby chic or vintage project to celebrate someone or something special. Since celebrations are happy occasions, your project should be made with lots of happy, bright colours. Keep your dull or neutral colours to a minimum please because as winter approaches we will have lots of that naturally so your bright colours must be predominant."

As ever, the Design Team will choose their top four picks, with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and three additional outstanding entries will receive Top 3 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.

It seemed a good chance to make a start on getting some celebratory festive cards made - glory only knows how long it will take to send things abroad so as soon as it's safe to do so these will be in the post! They feature Eileen Hull's Snowman and the required bright colours.

Here's a brief tutorial showing how these cards were created. I started with some colourful textured card created in a previous Saturday Showcase and using a mix of Seth Apter Izink Pigment Inks and ICE by Aladine with a little acrylic paint. The card was cut into six strips ready for adding to the six A6 size card blanks.

To coordinate with the colourful strips I pulled out a piece of paper that had previously had some paint printed onto it (a Gel Plate fail!) and added layers of Izink Pigment Ink in blue and white. Having splattered it with the gold the paper was cut into six pieces (with a tiny offcut strip) ready for adding to the card blanks.

Moving on to the snowmen I stuck some text from an old German fairy tales book onto card and toned it down by spreading a thin layer of  'Avalanche' Izink Pigment Ink over the top. The snowman bodies were cut using Eileen's die and edged with 'Vintage Photo' Archival Ink.

The hats were created by using Eileen's die to cut card painted with 'Sky' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint and 'Thundercloud' Izink Pigment Ink - there are hat two options available on the die.

Eileen's die also cuts the eyes, nose, arms and two different styles of scarf for the snowman. The ones cut for these were coloured with more Izink Pigment Ink.

Having stuck the backgrounds created earlier onto the card blanks I stamped a Tim Holtz 'Ornate Trims' border on either side of the coloured strip and added a greeting from his 'Yuletide' stamp set above it.

The snowmen were assembled and added onto each of the cards to complete them.

So that's my take on the theme 'Celebrate'. My talented team mates have also come up with their own celebration projects for this challenge so make sure you hop on over and check them out HERE. And remember to link up your own shabby chic or vintage pieces to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes that's up for grabs.

Thanks for visiting,
Jenny xxx

Products used to create these cards are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Eileen Hull Designs Sizzix Scoreboards L Die - 'Box, Snowman'

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Stamp Set - 'Ornate Trims'

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Stamp Set - 'Yuletide'

Seth Apter Izink Pigment Inks by Aladine

Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints and Gessos

Ranger Archival Inks