This is a unique challenge blog where we are inspired by and focus on the Vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial, timeworn and steampunk genres and encompass the talent, flair, expertise and ideas of many artists that we are inspired by. We welcome all types of projects - cards, journaling, assemblage, layouts, albums, atcs, altered art in fact whatever you want to share (as long as it is in good taste).

Friday 29 May 2015

Tag Friday

Hi All

It's a five Friday month which means there is a bonus post for you and we are sharing Tag Friday inspirational tags from the team. For this there is no theme, no particular focus - other than Tim of course and just sheer motivation to create from the Creative Guides taking part.

I used Tim's new colors of Cracked Pistachio and Mermaid Lagoon to stencil the Burlap background of my tag, then used black embossing paste on the Blossom Stencil.  To see more on how I created my tag - please stop by at  my blog.


I had great fun putting this tag together using Tim's products in my own mixed media style. I used Wallflower Stash papers, Tissue Tape, Texture Paste, Distress Spray Stain and some of the fabulous little stamps in the Correspondence Set … and my favourite flower from the Flower Garden Set.  Do join me on my blog if you want to see more.


I used an extra long tag as the base for my project and one of Tim's older stamps/I had great fun playing with various mixed media techniques. If you want to see more, just hop over to my blog.


I've created an Alcoholic Butterfly for my tag today - dribbling alcohol inks over some Clearly For Art Whiteout film for a really funky look.  I inked up the tiny watercolour hearts for the first time, and you'll see I've been at the Harlequin Mixed Media Thinlits again too, with a touch of Glossy Accents to catch the light.  Do come and check out all the details over at Words and Pictures.


My tag for AVJ's Tag Friday is also my tag for Tim's May Tag for 2015. I had to change things up just a little and with a little improvising. For all the details you can visit me HERE.


Shari
I never let an opportunity pass to experiment using Tim's monthly tag techniques.  For today's tag, I'm practicing the water coloring techniques that Tim featured in his tag for April, to make a couple of tags for upcoming birthdays.  I have a few detail photos at my blog, if you'd like to come over for a closer look.


CHRIS
My tag continues our challenge theme for the month and is creatively inspired by Tim's remnant rub resist technique although you'll recognise more than that, lol...
http://www.mycornerofheaven.com/2015/05/tags-over-at-vintage-journey-today.html
You'll find the step x step and products over on my blog. Chris xxx


Having been intrigued by the new 'Worn Wallpaper' used by Tim and his team for the Eclectic Elements booth at the recent Spring quilt market - see post HERE - it connected in my mind with Tim's 'Eroded Metallics' technique. Could I reproduce a similar look to that gorgeous layered wallpaper using Distress Paints? Well I'll let you be the judge of that but here's the resultant tag (and don't worry, there's a step by step over on my blog so you can see how my mind was working!)...


S@ndy

Joining in on the shaker craze I've made my tag - a shaker tag. I used Tim's Distress Paint Marbling technique for the background and one of his great Mover & Shaker Dies. For more details and photos please stop by my blog here.

Nikki
For my 'anything Tim goes' tag I created a tag card with a Father's Day theme. Distress paint marbling, lots of die cutting and glossy accents on this one. More details today over at my blog - Addicted to Art.


My tag is inspired by my love of photo booth photos plus the Correspondence papers and ephemera. I also got to use some of new products I bought back from holiday recently and as I didn't use the memo pin and token embellishment on my Tim tag this month I've tried it out here.


My Tag is using Tim's Design for his May 2015 tag, making a few improvisations and personal touches of my own. Would love for you to pop over HERE to Juliz Design Post to see more.


We hope you have enjoyed out line up today and feel inspired to create some tag art of your own.
If you haven't yet had time to join in our current challenge 'Spring Colours' or if you want to submit another entry, you still have a week left in which to do so. Thank you to everyone who has linked one of the amazing projects that are currently on show.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda and the Team xxx


Monday 25 May 2015

Destination Inspiration - May Recipe #4 - Memories of Paris

Hi everyone, Annie here, and welcome to the fourth of this month’s Destination Inspiration posts using our May recipe: 

Product: Any of Tim's dies with the word ‘Vintage’ in the title 

Colour: Stormy Sky 

Technique: Tissue Wrap Collage from Compendium of Curiosities (Vol. II page 38 ) 

Substrate: Cardstock 


Below is my finished make, using all of the items above, although I did have to improvise on the tissue wrap.


As I did not have Tim Holtz tissue wrap in my stash I took some tissue paper and stamped on it using Tim's Paris Memoirs Stamp Set and Jet Black Archival Ink, which I heat dried. Then I was able to continue with Tim's Tissue Wrap Technique from CC2 as detailed above. Once the tissue paper was dry I chose Vintage Photo Distress Paint and Stormy Sky Distress Ink, which you can view in the background of the finished card.


I then took Tim's Vintage Cabinet die and made a card. These TH Sizzix Bigz dies can cut two layers of card with ease. The folded edge of my card was placed slightly away from the left hand side of the die, enabling me to make my card shape. ( see below) I also took another die, which fits inside and cut 2 frames.


I love Tim's Sizzix dies French Flight, which comprise of both stamps and dies and you can see the result above. 
One of the frames was inked with Stormy Sky and then layered flat on to the card. The Tissue wrap background was then placed within the arch. Both were adhered with Cosmic Shimmer Glue.

Tissue tape was adhered to the second frame as you can see below. 

Distress Markers in Barn Door and Cracked Pistachio were applied to the butterflies. Tumbled Glass Distress Marker was used to colour in the word 'Paris'. 

Vintage Photo Distress Ink was then applied to all of the die cut stamped images, not forgetting to ink the edges :-)


So that's the fourth May Recipe......wonder who will creating for next week!!
Can you Guess ???
Until then.............................Crafty Hugs and keep inky


Annie xx

Friday 22 May 2015

Our invited guest today is.....


Hello everyone,

We're delighted that the very creative and talented Sue Carrington is joining us today as our very special guest.  Many of you will know Sue, irl or simply by her blog and service on various DTs.  When Sue agreed to guest with us today we knew we would be in for a treat and she hasn't disappointed...





Hello ! It's Sue here and very excited to be invited to join A Vntage Journey for the day ! I live in the UK have been crafting is some form or other for as long as I can remember. My life was totally transformed when I was introduced to embossing powder and things just went from there. Mixed Media has become a true passion of mine and I love getting really messy with paint, ink and sprays !

When I saw the theme of Spring Colours this sent my mind in to a whirl as there are so many gorgeous colours associated with this season. That coupled with the beautiful Distress colours that have been released so far this year gave me a wide field to play in ! I knew I wanted to use the gorgeous Perspective stamp set so the project was centred around the beauatiful butterfly that's part of this set.


I started with 2 pieces of grey board that's already covered with white card. I then glued dictionary paper to each piece and I always coat paper with glue to protect it from the moisture from sprays or whatever I decide to throw at it ! While the glue was still wet I spritzed both pieces with Shabby Shutters and Wild Honey spray Distress Stains.


 I used the Eye Chart stencil and spread texture paste through and again, while it was still wet spritzed with Peeled Paint spray Distress Stains. I then dried it off and added some stamping using the numbers stamp from the Perspective set with Watering Can Archival ink. I decided I want to add some drippage so stood the panels up and sprayed them with the wonder Abandoned Coral spray Distress Stain, spritzed it with water and watched it run !


 The numbers stamp is fantastic for creating a master board that can be cut up and used for different projects. I've used Fern Archival ink on the below and then die cut a lattice using hte Lattice die.


I've used Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink over the lattice. I stamped the butterfly directly on to the board then stamped a second one on to some card that I'd blended more Distress Ink over. The second butterfly was cut out and positioned over the first so the antenna was ni the right position. I found the large flower in my stash and spritzed it with Abandoned Coral spray Distress Stains. The colour is so bright !


 I kept the negative from the die cut and used a piece of dictionary paper behind it that I blended Distress Inks around. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and is stamped onto white card that I've blended Distress Inks over. I've added a couple of the Tim arrows and a flower from the adronments Nature set.


 I covered the revers ofthe panels with the beautiful Wall Flower paper, it's so hard to cut this up ! The panels are held together with a hinge that's glued in to place.


It just leaves me to say a big thank you to Brenda for inviting me to join A Vintage Journey today. I hope youv'e enjoyed my project and for more details please visit me at Stamping Sue Style.

Sue
x



This is stunning Sue - a great example of various techniques resulting in a fabulous and creative make - thank you!

We hope that you will show your appreciation for Sue's work by visiting her blog and sharing some love.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Chris xxx
For Brenda and the AVJ team

Monday 18 May 2015

Destination Inspiration – Good Luck

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Hi everyone, Nikki here, and welcome to the third of this month’s Destination Inspiration posts using our May recipe:
Product:  Any of Tim's dies with the word ‘Vintage’ in the title  
Colour:  Stormy Sky
Technique: Tissue Wrap Collage from Compendium of Curiosities  (Vol. II page 38 )
Substrate:  Cardstock

Well I did find this one a challenge! I chose to use the Vintage Valise die (as I didn't have many to choose from) and ended up with a Good Luck card.

I won’t detail out the technique as Sandy and Julia have already covered this in previous posts. I started with some white card stock and a die cut label which I painted black to contrast against the background. I also randomly painted the white card in stormy sky to remove the white. I laid over my tissue and ensured I got some good wrinkles.
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Once dry I added distress paints in vintage photo and stormy sky – making the label area a different colour. I also added some black paint around the edges and smudged some pencil around the label to create a shadow.
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 I cut my vintage valise and then added vintage photo distress stain to the corner pieces and handle to make them darker. I had to heat dry this as it was over a relatively non absorbent surface. I really like the effect this created, all crinkled and old looking.
IMG_7455-1 I decided I needed a little splattering over my valise so covered up the ‘label’ and used some watered down acrylic paint and a paintbrush to flick over the case.
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For my letters I sprayed and then inked some card with gathered twigs and used Tim’s alphanumeric thinlets to cut out Good Luck.
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Having put my valise together I decided it would be good on a card so added some paper from one of Tim’s paper stashes.
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Do pop back next Monday to see what the fourth Creative Guide creates with this month's recipe.
Thanks for visiting today.
Nikki

Friday 15 May 2015

We have very talented Guests today!

Good morning everyone,

We have great pleasure in introducing our Guest Creative Guides this morning - Pinworthy winners from a previous challenge - Suzz, Nicole and Deb with THREE wonderfully creative projects...




Hi!  My name is Suzanne Czosek.  I am thrilled to be part of the pinworthy guests. The Vintage Journey Design Team is talented and inspiring. 


I live in Illinois in the Midwest of the United States.  My family consists of my dear husband, my lovely 3 children and our two sweet dogs.  I have been blogging about my art since 2008.  I have always loved dabbling in art.  I love playing with inks and stamps and trying new artistic endeavors.


Today I am sharing a journal page that started with one of Tim's layering stencils sprinkled with spring colors.  When I think of spring colors I think of pretty pastels like pink, yellow and softer shades of colors.  When I started my journal page I was thinking of the first real colors of spring we see and it is the green of the grass, plants and flowers starting to renew and the blue skies overhead. 


This page uses a layering of the stencil with white embossing paste on a nice sturdy mixed media paper.  I added a light coat of Antique Linen Distress Stain Spray to age my background.  Then I decided to use up some of my glimmer mists where the spray nozzle doesn't work anymore.  I just opened up the bottles and started pouring on the colors and tilting the paper every which way to get some drips and splotches. After that dried I wanted a pop of black and decided to use the Remnants to add some texture.


The finishing touches was really pulling out a mix of odds an ends and layering them together in a fun way and adding the finishing details.

Visit Suzz's blog here.





Hello AVJ Travelers!  Time to buckle up and enjoy the creative journey with me… Nicole Wright.  I’ll be your creative guide for today’s journey.  I have traveled all the way from Calgary, Alberta Canada where the snow is melting and spring is popping!  I have a passion for all things inky, distressed and messy.  I love to create with layers, textures, stamps, inks and my Sizzix dies! 
As designers we work to inspire our audience.  The talent here on AVJ is without a doubt some of the most creative designers out there.  I’ll be sharing a project inspired by the super talented Brenda Brown!  I was inspired by a few design elements she shared and sometimes that’s all it takes to get us creating in the right direction.  I’m heavily influenced by all the amazing designers I stalk.  Thank you to the team for hosting me again on A Vintage Journey.  I love spending the day with you and your travelers.

OK, so I had this idea awhile back.  I had the canvas, duo butterflies, dragon fly and the intension to make a mess.  But something wasn’t clicking.  Then there it was a recent “Reverse Canvas” (http://www.vintagejourney.com/2015/04/destination-inspiration-april-route-2.html) project Brenda had posted here.  I was stuck on the flat surface of the canvas not the canvas itself!  Flip it around and now we are cooking…I mean creating!


There is always a lot of watercolor paper on hand when I’m creating.  I love the texture, weight and inking I can do with it.  I almost always create my own background by inking, stamping and adding some texture with stencils.


Good luck finding one of my designs without a Sizzix die added!  I love these new Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlit dies.  They add a delicate element to any project.  Cutting “beautiful” in black makes it pop from all that is going on around it.


Brenda’s use of tissue wrapped around the reverse canvas is brilliant.  Using this technique is a great way to frame out the natural shadow box that is created when you reverse the canvas.  The colorful fluttering creatures pop right off the canvas!


Thanks for all the inspiration the Vintage Journey Team shares.  I always love being asked to be a part of the journey.  I hope you get just as inspired and share your spring colours, dies and stamps for this month’s challenge.  For a few more photo’s travel over to my part of the world and say EH…Canadian Nickel Scrap’n.
 
You can visit Nicole's blog here.




Hello, my name is Deb Riddell and I am tickled pink to be here at A Vintage Journey, what an amazing honour!  In keeping with the Creative Guides tradition of using their baby pictures here on AVJ, here's me when I was a tot a very long time ago!


I live in British Columbia, Canada on a small acreage with my hubby and our three rescue dogs, who are much better known as our kids!  I am new to the wonderful world of Tim Holtz and mixed media and have learned so much from the talented Creative Guides here at AVJ.  I started out my own creative journey as a decorative and water colour painter but when I discovered the folk art and primitive styles of art, I branched out into creating home decor and decorative items using fabric, paper and paint.  From there it was a short hop to mixed media and my life long love of antiques and vintage treasures meant that Tim Holtz's vintage style drew me like a moth to a flame.  My favourite place to be is down in my studio, playing with all my new Tim Holtz toys and getting my fingers covered with ink, stain and glue.

The May challenge of 'Spring Colours' that Astrid set for us immediately made me think of the soft greens, blues and pinks that start to appear as the winter snows melt away here in Canada.  I was especially inspired by the delicate petals and colours of the cherry and apple blossoms that burst forth at this time of year and here is the canvas that I ended of making.


I coloured the background of the canvas with distress stain and ink, spritz and flick, stenciling through Tim's 'Blossom' layering stencil with transparent texture paste and some random stamping.  The honeycomb on the left was cut from grunge paper with Tim's 'Frameworks' die and the branches along the top were die cut using Tim's 'Bird Branch' die.


The cherry blossoms were die cut from tissue paper using Tim's 'Tattered Floral' die and gently coloured with distress ink.   A fragment charm was stamped with a butterfly stamp using Tim's 2008 August technique challenge and the typed token was coloured with distress paint.  The little bird on the clothespin was sanded, colored with distress ink and then overstamped with a text stamp.  I made a small tag to clip into the clothespin that was stamped with block stamps and embossed.


I randomly added some of the off cut hexagons from the 'Framework' die back into the honeycomb.   Some were covered with paper from Tim's 'Wallpaper' paper stash, others had remnant rubs applied and some were embossed with letters using Tim's new 'Typewriter and Keyboard' embossing folder.  The bunny image was resized and colored with distress ink and a water brush and the daffodils and narcissus flowers were fussy cut and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I colored the 'grass' along the bottom with distress ink and spritz and flick and then hand cut the grass texture.  The word band was coloured with distress paint and some alcohol ink and the mirror stars were coloured with alcohol ink and glued to each side of the word band.  The wee bees, from a K & Co chipboard set, were added last.


So that is my creation for this month's 'Spring Colours' theme, thanks to Astrid for her wonderful prompt that inspired it!  I have a step by step tutorial over at my blog if you are interested in learning more details on how I made my canvas, hope you will stop on by and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you to the Creative Guides for asking me to be a guest designer here at A Vintage Journey, it is a dream come true, and thank you for taking the time to view my project.  Happy Spring everyone! 

You can visit Deb's blog here.



Wow!  Three stunning projects and each so very creative and beautiful in their own way.  It's amazing to see just how Tim's influences can result in such different results but that is exactly the objective!  THANK YOU Deb, Nicole and Suzz for these fabulous pieces of work and for sharing your inspiration and creativity with us all here today!

We're half way through the challenge folks and we'd love to see more of what you're doing.  The winner of the £20 shop voucher, so generously donated by our sponsor Country View Crafts, will be chosen at random so EVERY ENTRANT is in with a chance of winning!

Have a great weekend everyone, make it crafty if you can!  >;o)

Chris xxx
For Brenda and the Vintage Journey Creative Guides

Monday 11 May 2015

Destination Inspiration - May Recipe #2 - Enjoy the Journey

Welcome to another Monday Destination Inspiration!  Julia here with the 2nd post for May using this interesting recipe:
Tool:  Any of Tim's dies with the word "Vintage" in the title  
Colour:  Stormy Sky
Technique: Tissue Wrap Collage from Compendium of Curiosities  Vol II Page 38    
Substrate:  Card 
I have to say - I was the one that chose the technique for the recipe this month - and I guess I didn't really look at exactly what it was -  as it is a rather strange one!!??!!  (I'll explain below)
I must have 30 of Tim's Alterations dies and the ONLY one that had the word VINTAGE in its title (as required in our 'Recipe') was the Vintage Globe -  so my card's theme of TRAVEL was chosen!
Now, as per the Tissue Wrap Collage Technique -  I began by stamping the luggage from the Time Travelers set onto the base panel.  (this step ends up seemingly unnecessary as it gets lost completely when you layer on the Tissue Wrap, paint and ink!)
I die cut the Vintage Globe out of Grungeboard and adhered it over the stampings with Glue N Seal.
Next, I spread Glue n Seal over the whole panel and quickly laid a piece of Tissue Wrap/Melange over it, wrinkling it as I went and pushing it tight over the edges of the globe piece to define it.  Notice how I found a piece of tissue that said Travel with definitions below it!  At this point you can sort of still see the luggage stampings!
After this was dry, I dabbed Bundled Sage Distress Paint over the entire panel - then removed most of it with a baby wipe.
When this was dry, I sponged Stormy Sky Distress ink over the entire panel, spritzed a little with water and dried it with my heat tool.  At this point, you really cannot discern the luggage!
To finish it off -  I layered the panel to a slightly larger piece of Smokey Shadow card stock and then to the white card base.  I took a map Pocket Card, added a Small Talk Sticker and Remnant Rub/Words and a File Tab with a plane sticker.  I sponged the edges with Ranger Distress Walnut Stain and curled the corners a bit and adhered it to the panel with foam dots.
I sponged two Mirrored Stars with Ranger Distress Stormy Sky Ink and added one to the top corner and one over the sentiment strip.  The sentiment and frame were made from stamps in Tim's Saying Stuff set. That was also adhered with foam dots.
So, all in all - I think this came out pretty well using the May Recipe!  A little bit of a funky technique - but that's what challenges are for right?   -  to try new things!  Sandy had a fun creation last Monday - and I can't wait to see how the next two Creative Guides use it this month!
Be sure to check back next Monday to see another creation using this recipe!
Hugs xx

Stamps:  Saying Stuff  and Time Travelers - Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous
Paper:  White, Smokey Shadow - PTI, Grungboard and Tissue Wrap/Melange - Ranger
Ink:  Ranger Distress Stormy Sky and Walnut Stain, Archival Jet Black
Accessories:  Vintage Globe Die - Alterations/Tim Holtz/Sizzix, water mister and Glue N Seal - Ranger, foam tape,  Idea-ology Small Talk, Remnant Rubs/Words, Pocket Cards, File Tabs, Mirrored Stars.