Surf's Up! at Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome. Over at the Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog we are already half way through the latest challenge, 'Surf's Up'. This is what our host for this challenge, Kathy Clement, is looking for: "Who's ready for a little sand, a little sun, a little surf? Let's take a little stroll beside the shore and create a vintage or shabby chic project with a beachy theme. Use ocean colors or beach images to add a fun seaside feel to your project."

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 Frilly and Funkie and the next three 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.

Cocktail Card

Falling fully into Kathy's theme I created a card that takes us to cocktail hour at the beach with the waves lapping gently onto the shoreline and weathered wood all around. The gesso resist background had Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide blended over and wiped away from the white areas before the Botanical Background was stamped with Cornflower Blue Archival Ink. Beneath the tag, Linen Ribbon and Star Adornment you can see painted Woodgrain Paper and a little Design Tape peeking out.

 A video tutorial for creating the tag background can be found HERE and involves Distress Oxide Ink, Distress Resist Spray and Seth Apter's 'Dirty Sand' Baked Texture Embossing Powder. I added some stitching around the edge and included an Index Clip at the bottom.

Of course centre stage is the sunset cocktail, stamped onto spare card, painted with Distress Paints (because they blend together beautifully) glazed with clear embossing powder and fussy cut to layer over the tag. The sentiment from the Letter It 'Birthday' stamp set was embossed with Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder to add an extra touch of glamour.

That's it for my beach themed card for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge. My talented team mates have also created lots of amazing 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 floral projects to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes.

Take care of yourselves and get creative!

Jenny xxx

More May Flowers with Eileen Hull Designs

Hi everyone and welcome. This month Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team are celebrating May with projects created using Eileen Hull Designs various floral dies (both Bigz and Thinlits from Sizzix). Last week I shared a Floral Heart Wreath along with a tutorial for making the flowers and foliage - you can find it HERE. Since then the sun has remembered where we all are and now the flowers in my garden are blooming in abundance!

Feeling inspired by this month's theme and needing to create a hinged box for the Handmade at Helen's workshop at the weekend I created a second project using Eileen's flower dies;

Based on Eileen's Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Book & Pages, Trinket Box & Frame I made a simple hinged lid with an aperture cut in the centre and painted it with Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints (Marine, White and Ancient). Feeling it needed a little more decoration I applied embossing ink using one of Seth Apter's rubber stamps and applied his Baked Texture 'Deep Sea' Embossing Powder from Emerald Creek Crafts. It is the perfect match for the Marine colour!

The all important flowers were cut from thin card using Eileen's Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 13PK - Stitchy Flowers & Leaf. I spritzed them with water before scrunching together and left them to dry for a few hours. Once glued together to form the blooms with added leaves I sprayed them with a mix of Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord Distress Spray Stains before highlighting with the Ancient Acrylic Paint. The leaf fronds were cut from white card using Eileen's Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 4PK - Floral Arch & Words and were arranged with the flowers to trail over the lid and sides of the box.

Though not heavy, the weight of the flowers is sufficient to hold the lid down as well as adding that glamorous finishing touch. Some coordinating ribbon and drops of Liquid Pearls 'White Opal' from Ranger completed the look.

Now, I mentioned earlier the workshop at Handmade at Helen's - this is a fantastic shop/venue in Dumfries where they have lots of exciting guest designers attending as well as a wealth of craft supplies to entice you. I had been asked to teach the assembled group of wonderful ladies how to create a Trinket Box and Junk Journal in one day, so they had their work cut out for them!

Needless to say they quickly grasped the various design alternatives and were soon putting their own spin on each project using the wide variety of materials and media that Helen had provided. By the end of the day they all had beautiful creations to take home and have promised to share them with everyone in the Eileen Hull Fan Club - in fact I know Shirley and Gael already have! In the interim I have my own photos to share alongside some taken by Helen - strangely enough most of them were camera shy or otherwise occupied at this point but Shirley and Jenny were happy to appear with their projects;

A huge thank you to everyone who came along for the class and made it such an enjoyable day. And special thanks to Helen who did a superb job organising everything (including a gorgeous lunch) and making me feel so welcome.

That's it from me for today. I'll be back again tomorrow with my latest project for the Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog. In the meantime take care of yourselves and get creative!

Jenny xxx

AALL & Create - Quirky Blossoms by Tracy Evans

Hi everyone and welcome! Phew, well after a whirlwind weekend teaching up in Dumfries (more of that to come) I'm back with you today to share a new project for AALL & Create.

Quirky Blossoms by Tracy Evans

I love a flower;  you simply can't go wrong with them, and Tracy Evan's 'Quirky Blossoms' are an absolute pleasure to use. She has added plenty of detail to them so you can keep it simple with the one colour option (as I have done here) or go to town and add lots more by picking out the individual lines. Choosing to go with the simple option meant I could add more pattern and colour to the background, which is where one of Autour de Mwa's new stencils came in rather handy! Here's a 'work in progress' photo so you can see what I mean;

Above you'll see the stencilling over the brayered background followed by the application of colour over the initial layer of stamping - I used a combination of Dina Wakley Media acrylic paints in Sedona, Marine and White. By using the Stamp Platform I could re-stamp the flowers precisely once painted to add all that gorgeous detail back in. The addition of the sentiment from the set seemed to sum up what I feel about these clever designs.

Here are a couple of close ups of the finished card so you can see all those little details;

You can purchase Tracy's stamp set 'Quirky Blossoms' and Autour de Mwa's stencil from AALL & Create HERE and it's also available from many of your favourite retailers across the World listed on the same page).

That's it from me for today. I'll be back soon with more about the fun I had over the weekend and even more projects to inform and inspire you. In the meantime take care of yourselves and get creative!
Jenny xxx

May Flowers with Eileen Hull Designs

Hi everyone and welcome! This month Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team are celebrating May with projects created using Eileen Hull Designs various floral dies (both Bigz and Thinlits from Sizzix). Well we've all had enough of the rain by now I'm sure so it's about time those flowers started blooming!

Unsure where to go with this theme, I started making flowers before remembering there was a woven twig heart wreath lurking in my stash. Ah ha! An idea was born! It took a little time and some creative input from my team mates but hopefully you'll like the results...

I kept the natural feel to the wreath by wrapping coils of burlap and gauze around it before adding an abundance of flowers and leaves. To keep the heart balanced and hanging straight I added a weight (an old rusty nut) and hid it with the butterfly, and only you know it's there!

Now it's time for the lowdown on how to make those flowers and leaves so you can create your own floral wreath;

Flower/Leaf Tutorial

Cut the large and small versions of the five point flowers from white felt using the Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 13PK - 'Stitchy Flowers & Leaf'. Starting with the larger flowers mix up Colorbox Blends Ink 'Wildberry' with a little water, soak the felt with water and apply the ink to the outer edges, allowing it to bleed gently towards the centre as they dry.

Cut the larger stamens from Paper Leather or strong card from the same die set and apply the 'Wildberry' Ink over them. When the flowers are dry stick them to the stamens and add a bead of 'Ballerina' Liquid Pearls to the centre.

For the smaller white felt flowers again soak them with water before applying a mix of Colorbox Blends Ink 'Melon' to the centre, letting it bleed outwards as it dries. Finish with a bead of 'White Opal' Liquid Pearls in the centre as before.

Using the Sizzix Bigz Die - 'Leaves, Spring' cut leaves from Paper Leather or strong card and colour them with Colorbox Blends Ink 'Frog'. Use a white Gelly Roll pen from Sakura (or similar) to doodle around the leaves (thanks to my team mate Mitsyana Wright for teaching me this) and add dots of Glossy Accents to imitate drops of dew. With the same die cut serrated edge leaves (as shown above) from stiffened crinoline and colour with Colorbox Blends Ink 'Leaf'.

To create the 'fronds' peaking out from behind the flowers cut the floral arch from the Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 4PK - 'Floral Arch & Words' from Paper Leather or strong card. I left these un-inked and just cut them in half.

The layered butterfly was cut using Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 6PK - 'Birds & Butterflies' from Paper Leather and embossed with Letter It™ Embossing Powders 'Bridal Tinsel'. I discovered it layered perfectly over a brass filigree butterfly from The Funkie Junkie Boutique. That led me to add the 'Ballerina' Liquid Pearls to the centre heart shape and include dots of 'Brass' Liquid Pearls over the whole wreath.

The Close Ups

Here are some close ups of the finished wreath so you can see it in more detail;

That's it for now from me, but remember to hop on over to the Eileen Hull Designs website to see what my fellow team mates have created with their May Flowers.

Take care and get creative!
Jenny xxx

AALL & Create - Vocalist by Bipasha BK

Hi everyone and welcome! Well now it really is official - I've been invited to join the AALL & Create DT 2018!!! As you can imagine I'm thrilled and hugely honoured to have this opportunity to work with such a hugely talented team. And it's already time to share my first project with you.

Vocalist by Bipasha BK

This beautiful Border Stamp set is incredibly detailed so once you've created an inky or (as in this case) painted background the stamps will do all the design work for you. Here's a couple of 'work in progress' photos so you can see what I mean;

Above you'll see the initial stamping with the main image over a paint brayered background - I used a combination of Dina Wakley Media acrylic paints in Sedona, Turquoise and White. Then below you'll see where I used the Turquoise paint to cover over a couple of the images before re-stamping them and adding the other words in the set.

And here are a couple of close ups of the finished card so you can see all those little details;

You can purchase this wonderful Border stamp 'Vocalist' from AALL & Create HERE and it's also available from many of your favourite retailers across the World listed on the same page).

And to see more of Bipasha BK's stamp designs in action make sure you get your copy of Craft Stamper Magazine June 2018 issue where I have a four page feature using them in combination with Seth Apter's 'Chunky Rust' Baked Texture Embossing Powder (and there's even a Giveaway for some of those amazing powders!)

That's it from me for today. I'll be back soon with more projects to inform and inspire you. In the meantime take care of yourselves and get creative!
Jenny xxx

Neutral Point of View at Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome. Over at the Frilly and Funkie Challenge blog we are already half way through the latest challenge, 'Neutral Point of View'. This is what our host for this challenge, Sara Emily Barker, is looking for; "We're seeing a lot of pastel and brighter colors this time of year. For this challenge we're inviting you to step away from all that color and play with your neutral art supplies. You can add a few pops or hints of color, but be sure we see mainly neutrals on your vintage or shabby chic design. (Think black, white, gray, brown, beige, cream, ivory; even gold and silver.)"

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 Frilly and Funkie and the next three 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.

Wine Blueprint Card

My contribution to this challenge started with the background - another of those ones that started with white brayering resisting the Distress Oxide Ink (in this case the Walnut Stain flavour) with the swipe of a damp cloth. Stamping the Botanical Background with Acorn Archival Ink proved to be a match made in heaven, especially when layered onto black Classic Kraft Stock, sanded to reveal the core.

This background sat for some time as I pondered what to put on top of it. And then, in a flash of inspiration (well no, a happy accident on an untidy desk with a pile of stamps toppling over) I literally fell upon the Wine Blueprint set and realised that was my answer! So now my trusty Stamp Platform worked it's magic; I stamped the two images with black Archival Ink, painted each element with Dina Wakley Paints (that luscious burgundy vine is my allowable pop of colour) and re-stamped to add the image details again. The Dylusions white Paint Pen was invaluable for adding a few highlights.

Finally, the sentiment, an appropriate one I thought! It came from the 'Birthday' Letter It stamp set from Ranger and was embossed with Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder, again from the Letter It range. To ensure the detail stood out I used the black Dylusions Paint Pen this time (handy they both come in a set) to trace around the edges of the embossing. That word fits perfectly within the curves of the bottle don't you think!

That's it for my neutral coloured card for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge. My talented team mates have also created lots of amazing 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 floral projects to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes.

Take care of yourselves and get creative!

Jenny xxx