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 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

19 comments:

  1. Just been over to see each and every one of these amazing projects - SERIOUSLY worth visiting as these ladies have ALL pulled out every stop to deliver some outstanding projects. Thank you so much for joining us at AVJ Suzz, Nicole and Deb!!! Jenny x

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  2. What a wonderful trio of projects, and like Chris says in her concluding words, it's amazing to see the number of different interpretations possible under the banner of Tim Holtz style...... Great to find out a little more about each of you too ladies, and thanks so much for joining us here at AVJ!

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  3. Stunning projects from all three of our lovely GCG today - each one so very different yet all in Tim's style. It is lovely to have you here and also lovely to find out a little more about you too. Jennie x

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  4. What a treat to have Suzz, Nicole and Deb here at AVJ and with such inspiring and beautiful projects. Love the cute baby pics and the introduction. All three projects are outstanding with fabulous details ...... TFS your wonderful makes and the inspiration behind them

    Best wishes and have a great weekend
    Annie x

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  5. A wonderful trio of designs, all so different yet equally fabulous. Thank you Suzz, Nicole and Deb for sharing with us today - your creations are now on our Guest Designer Pinterest board too. Nikki xx

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  6. Thanks for inviting me to join the journey! I am honored to be sharing my art with Nicole and Deb!

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  7. Wow, what a gorgeous line up of projects by three amazing artists! So great to read more about them! :)

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  8. Thank you AVJ for sharing your space in blogland! Suzz and Deb your projects are stunning and I'm thrilled to be here with such talent. Always a pleasure to be apart of the extended AVJ Family!

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  9. Thank you AVJ for sharing your space in blogland! Suzz and Deb your projects are stunning and I'm thrilled to be here with such talent. Always a pleasure to be apart of the extended AVJ Family!

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  10. Thank you to the Creative Guides for this amazing opportunity to share my work here at AVJ, especially in the company of such incredibly talented people as Suzz and Nicole. Your Spring Colours creations are wonderful, love them both!

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  11. Welcome Suzz, Nicole and Deb! What gorgeous spring projects you have brought to inspire us today! Love the embossed background and creative use of a zipper Suzz, and your beautiful framed butterflies Nicole - the colors are glowing like neon! and your lovely little yard scene with the blossoming tree, the trellis, garden blooms and cute rabbit Deb! We appreciate your being our guest Creative Guides today! Julia xx

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  12. Wow - three stunning projects from Suzz, Nicole and Deb - beautiful spring palettes, and so creative.
    Alison xx

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  13. Three wonderful projects shared by Suzz, Nicole and Deb . Congrats ladies on your pinworthy wins to be guest designers on AVJ . Your projects are wonderful n definitely fit this months theme - spring colours

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  14. amazing inspirational work - wow - beautiful x

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  15. Stunning projects from our very talented guest designers. TFS.
    Julie x

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  16. Welcome Suzz, Nicole & Deb!! Talk about Talented Guest Creative Guides Galore!! Amazing and unique creations from Suzz, Nicole & Deb! Thank you all for being here with such inspiring projects!! XOXO-Shari

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  17. Beautiful and inspiring pieces ladies!! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  18. Welcome to our lovely guests, thank you so much for sharing your talents with here on A Vintage Journey. Your creations are sure to inspire our readers as well as the Creative Guides.

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  19. Stunning guest samples from three amazing artists, thank you each for sharing your ideas, designs and talents on AVJ, we so appreciate you taking the time to join us xxx

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