New Techniques : Embossing Glaze

Hello and welcome! 

I have been experimenting with some new Tim Holtz products, namely Embossing Glaze which is a totally different thing to Embossing Powder. Tim has a very good video HERE showing the many different techniques for this Glaze and I have experimented with three of them to create the background for this tag.

It is also the fifth Friday of the month and the team over at A Vintage Journey are sharing their inspirational tags. So do hop over HERE to see some how we have all had fun creating!

Back to my tag and I have used Embossing Paste on the top of Texture Paste and used it as straight forward embossing on the small tag and the little chaps tie ......

..... and had fun layering stamping and rub ons and using metallic wax.

And here are the details of how I created the background tags.

These two tags were in my bits box - experiments with Distress Oxides and Distress Inks. 

For the background tag I have stamped with various small stamps mainly from Tim's Field Notes set using a light grey ink and then for some darker elements used rub ons from various sets which I have recently fallen in love with all over again!

I have used Weathered Wood Embossing Glaze for this tag. After adding Texture Paste through a stencil I then covered it with the Glaze before heat setting. The Glaze will attach to anything that is sticky or wet.

One of the techniques Tim suggests is using Distress Markers to create the damp surface and then covering with the Embossing Glaze. This worked really well on the small area of the tie.

Finally Walnut Stain Distress Ink was blended around the edges. 

I cut a small decorative tag from the small inked tag.

I then used the Embossing Glaze with an embossing pad and stamp, using it in the same way as ordinary Embossing Powder. It dries quite differently though - with a subtle shine.

I used Metallique Wax around the edges of both this small tag and the larger one.

I really love this colour combination - the rusty oranges and the turquoise blue ....

The gold wax around the edge of the tag is just about visible.

As always thank you for joining me and I hope you have a lovely crafting weekend!

Jennie x

Christmas in July with Eileen Hull

Hello and welcome to Christmas in July!

I am just loving Eileen Hull's Chapter 3 release and especially the gorgeous mitten die. I was itching to make a vintage Christmas mitten, so here it is .... in July!

And I couldn't stop at one, so made a pair!

I don't really have much in the way of Christmas stash so these Vintage Mittens are made mostly with my usual favourite vintage elements.

I did manage to find some Christmas paper and a couple of bells though!

White Felt Mitten Tutorial

I used the die to cut two slightly off white felt mittens. I found this gorgeous vintage photo online and printed it on ordinary copy paper. I played around with a couple of dies to see which size would fit well before cutting out the photograph and using my sewing machine to stitch around the edges.

Lace from my stash, some of which has been dyed with tea. 

It was lovely to use up some smaller pieces too.

I decided to sew the two mittens together at this point as I find I start glueing things on and then it becomes difficult to get the project under the sewing machine needle!

It's a bit tricky sewing around the thumb but I just "walked" the machine manually and it worked well.

I played around with some lighter lace and glued it on with Fabric Glue.

I decided not to go with the thumb piece in the end.

I embellished the top of the mitten with some bits and pieces from my general stash, although I did find a little wooden Christmas hanging ornament quite by chance! The ribbon has been tea died and the tag made from a little set of stamps which I find useful all year round.

If I am using pearl (or any) buttons in my project they might be glued on but I add a little cotton to make it look as though they have been sewn on. 

 

I feel it does make a difference!

Lace Mitten Tutorial

This was a piece of net lace which is quite see through, so I layered it onto some iron on interfacing. The only interfacing I had was quite thick and squishy so the mitten feels quite different to the felt one.

I then used the die to cut one mitten from felt and another from the lace.

I adhered lace in the same way as the felt mitten and then used my sewing machine to sew around the edges. This was more difficult given the "puffy" nature of the interfacing .... so don't look too closely!

I didn't want to cover up too much of the lace so die cut a small tag from Christmas paper and added a couple of bells to my ribbon along with the sentiment tag.

I really enjoyed making these vintage mittens and I think they will make a lovely Christmas present in their own right. The top is a little narrow but I am sure the mitten can be filled with some lovely Christmas Pot Pourri or little sweets.

Thank you for joining me today and I do hope you have a go a using this fabulous die. 

And do hop on over to Eileen's blog to check out more inspiration from Eileen's Inspiration and Educator Teams.  Click the link HERE.

Jennie x

Eileen Hull dies:

Sissix Scoreboards Box/Mitten #664510

Speckled Egg Wonder

Hello and welcome to my first outing with the wonderful new Distress Ink ..... Speckled Egg! I knew as soon as I saw it that it would be a firm favourite and I am in love with it already.

Our new challenge at A Vintage Journey starting today is 

Watercolour Wonders 

and the lovely Deb is our host this month. She is asking us to see what we can create with water reactive mediums. There are lots of options: watercolour paints, dye inks that react with water, or any of those wonderful powders that bloom to life when sprinkled onto a wet surface.

I love to use my Distress Inks as watercolours and have enjoyed painting these lovely cone flowers and then used some watery Distress Ink Techniques for the background of the tag and the die cut ribbon.

I love how subtle these watery Distress Inks are when matched with Vintage Photo Inks and tea dyed papers. 

The cone flowers were painted with Speckled Egg and Fossilized Amber added for the cone tops. I just squish the pad onto my craft mat and add a little water to paint.

Blending some Vintage Photo around the edges gives some definition but is a little difficult when the flowers are so small !!

I used Tim's  Wrinkle Free Distress Technique for my background adding a little Antique Linen in with the Speckled Egg and then overstamped again with Speckled Egg using a Linen stamp. (I think the sun must have come out as I took this photo as the colours are a little bleached!)

I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to stamp on my tea dyed paper and to add a little background stamping.

I really love these colour combinations and I can see there will be another Distress Ink that does not leave the desk!

Thank you for joining me and I hope you will find some time to join us in our challenge. We always love to see your entries. Hop on over to A Vintage Journey to see all the details and for some fabulous inspiration from the rest of the team.

Have a great weekend!

Jennie x

Eileen Hull Designs Christmas Launch Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome!

Thank you for taking part in the Eileen Hull Sizzix Chapter 3 Release Party Blog Hop! Both the Inspiration and Education Teams are excited to share with you their projects using these fabulous new Snowman and Mitten dies. We hope you will be inspired too and share how you use the dies in the Eileen Hull Fan Club.

But wait .... there's more .... the Release Party continues! You won't want to miss the Facebook Live at Eileen Hull Designs at 12:00 noon Eastern time today (that's 1700 hrs in the UK). Join the chat, and a random commenter will win the Snowman die. We are so glad you joined us to celebrate the Chapter 3 Release.

So hop with us through all the projects and leave comments on the different designers' blogs and a lucky commenter will win the Mitten Box die.

Check out my projects and the blog hop list is at the end of the post.

I absolutely adore the mitten die and Fair Isle Mittens came to mind!

I have used a Tim Holtz Stamp (Happy Holidays) and shades of Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet, Peeled Paint and Seedless Preserves) to give the look of shaded stranded knitting.

This just looks so Shetland!

Using board to create the covers I have made a little knitting notebook ......

..... the pages inside have been decorated with more "wooly" style stamps and stencils.

The die comes with a set of lovely heart shapes which make fabulous hanging embellishments.

My second project to whet your appetite is using the cute little snowman die! 

I created a fence from the pieces which make up the box, distressing them with white crackle paint.

I had some fun "dressing up" the snowman. Hats, scarves and facial features are all part of the die.

Creating a fence and a stand from the cloud,  gave me a background to decorate with flowers and berries.

This makes a really lovely 3D Christmas ornament.

Finally here is the full list of Eileen Hull's Team blog hop participants - make sure to visit all of them and leave a comment on each post to be in with a chance to win

Have fun!

Jennie x

Hop Participants

Madeline Arendt

Julia Aston

Jennie Atkinson - you are here!

Debbie Bankston

Karen Bearse

Susie Bentz

Pam Bray

Sue Eldred

Anna-Karin Evaldsson

Annette Green

Maggi Harding

Lisa Hoel

Anita Houston

Sarah Lizzie

Jenny Marples

Elizabeth Robinson

Tonya Trantham

Cheryl Waters

Mitsyana Wright

Nicole Wright

With Heart and Soul

Hello and welcome! It is the first of the month and so time to share my project for the Mini Album Makers Challenge.

Today I am sharing a small wraparound mini album using a very simple construction and which over the years has always been a favourite.

The mini album has been made from cardstock but has a crackled painted front ......

..... which gives the cardstock a really old feel.

Lockdown has been a wonderful opportunity to learn new skills and I really enjoyed at two hour online workshop with Seth Apter last month where I learnt about some new ideas for mixed media collage. So the inside of the little book has a totally new take on collage embellishment. I used Gel Plate papers for my background and have decorated with stamps, washi tape, text paper, and rub ons.

Here is how it came together:

I took a piece of A4 cardstock and cut two strips 2¾" deep. I then scored at 3", 6" and 9".

The two strips were joined in the middle. It really doesn't matter how many pieces you join as long as you have an even number.

I went with six folded pages.

I then started building up my pages, first by covering each page with prints from a gel print session ...

 ... and then adding text paper and washi tape.

A stamping layer came next.....

.... and finally a layer of rub ons (which I may say after Seth's class I have fallen in love with all over again!)

I cut a cover from the same cardstock as the book 9½" x 2¾" and scored at 3", 3½", 6½" and 7". This gave me a suitable spine for my pages, but you would need to adjust this if you have more pages.

The cover was painted on both sides with PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic (Byzantium) and then when dry I used a pallette knife to apply DecoArt Crackle Paint. It is quite randomly added but dries very well!

I then glued the book to the cover as shown above. I had made a bit of a mess of the painting on the flap so added a little collage to hide it!

The front flap was decorated using a collage created in the same way as the inside ....

..... and I added a small wooden plate on the spine, capturing the ribbon under both the plate and the collage on the front of the book.

As always thank you for joining me and do hop on over to the Mini Album Makers Challenge blog to be inspired by the rest of the makes from the Design Team.

Jennie x