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).

Monday 29 June 2015

Destination Inspiration - June Terminal 4

Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures, and I'm delighted to have arrived at Terminal 4 to share June's fourth and final Destination Inspiration project with you.

Packed in the travel bag this month we had:
Main Colour - Walnut Stain
Technique - Layering Stencil and Texture Paste
Substrate - Watercolour Paper
Product - Any Tattered Die

Three of my fellow Creative Guides have already shared their inspiration with you, keeping us all fuelled for the journey (you can see their roadmaps of inspiration again at the end of the post), and now it's my turn.  Here's what I came up with...  (I had to make this some time ago before life got busy, but I'll do my best to remember how I put it together!)


I started by cutting a large tag out of a sheet of watercolour paper, and applied texture paste through the fabulous Typo stencil before spritzing with Walnut Stain Distress Spray.  I tried to keep some whiter spaces, and places where you can really see the delicate splatter pattern from the spray.


I decided I wanted the Typo lettering to pop a little more, so I did some dry-brushing with Picket Fence Distress Paint to highlight the texture.


I'm not much of a flower-maker in the general way of things, but I know where to go when I do want to do some... my fellow Creative Guide Jennie has some amazing tutorials over at her blog Live the Dream, and I almost always go there for help when I'm using the Tattered Florals die.


I followed her Cabbage Rose design for my large flower (I've enjoyed the results in the past, and it didn't fail me this time either) and a sort of half version of the same for the smaller ones.  I did less curling of the petals on the small roses as my book pages I was using weren't really strong enough to take it.


So with all my components in place, I now had the fun of adding collage elements and embellishments to finish the whole thing off.


I used one of the brilliant Photobooth photos, and layered up paper scraps and other ephemera to frame it.


I altered my metal embellishments with alcohol ink and some Treasure Gold.  I think the clock looks pretty good peeking out from behind the roses.


I particularly like the effect on the WordBand.  I thought about applying paint to accent the lettering, but decided I rather liked how subtle the words are like this.


I like the dark Teakwood and Espresso alcohol inks contrasting with the bright gilding.


I needed something a little brighter to carry the eye on a longer journey and capture the light in places, so I grabbed some thick card off-cuts from the Frameworks Honeycomb die which were hanging around on my craft table and gave them a coat of Antique Linen Distress Paint and then one of Rock Candy Crackle Paint.


Once it was dry and cracked, I pressed the pad of my Walnut Stain Distress Stain down onto them to let the ink sink into the crackles to highlight them.


The seam binding at the top has had a close encounter with the Walnut Stain inkpad so that it tones in with the rest of the tag.


And I'm a complete spatter fiend at the moment - can't resist it!  You can see the dry-brushing and a little hint of Treasure Gold highlighting the texture here too.


So there you have it... my roadmap of inspiration to re-charge your batteries for the next stage of the journey.


 I hope you like it.

As promised, here's a recap of all the Destination Inspiration projects from this month.  I love seeing how each Creative Guide uses the same luggage from the travel bag to create such different and individual projects.


Terminal 1 - Jennie



Terminal 2 - Anne



Terminal 3 - Astrid



Terminal 4 - Alison


So there you have it - I hope your creativity is firing on all cylinders after all that.  You've still got a bit of time left to come and join in S@ndy's Celebrations challenge, so get cracking!

What will be packed in the travel bag next month?  And how will each Creative Guide use the components to fuel our onward Vintage Journey? You'll just have to come back each Monday to find out... Bon Voyage!

Alison xx

Friday 26 June 2015

Our special invited guest for June is -

It is with great pleasure I introduce our special Guest Creative Guide today - this is one super talented lady whose love of Tim shines through everything she makes. I am sure you will have seen her work and will want to pop over to her blog to see more.

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Hi everyone!  My name is Bobbi Smith. I am thrilled to be a guest today at A Vintage Journey!  I’ve been a crafter all my life, however I really found my niche in paper-crafting about 20 years ago, when my children were young and have never looked back.  I have worked, taught and designed in this wonderful paper crafting industry on and off for several years and love it!  I bought my first Distress Inks about 15 years ago and started my creative "Distress" journey.  I'm always excited when Tim comes out with new product lines, new stamps and new dies.  I love all forms of Art, but really gravitate towards vintage, distress and grunge styles. I live in central Illinois.  I'm a wife, mother to two adult children and 2 fur babies.

The theme this month is "Celebrate"!  I think what better way to celebrate, than with everyday moments!  I made a double layered flat panel canvas for today.  I love the dimension and can't wait to incorporate it in my decor.



 I started off with an 8 x 8 and a 6 x 6 flat panel canvas.  I gave them a quick wash of Antique Linen Distress Paint.  Then dried with my heat tool.
I added some Wendy Vecchi Crackle Texture Paste through Tim's Flourish Layering Stencil.  I started at the top left and continued through the bottom right.  After the paste is completely dry and cracks have appeared,  I applied a wash of Walnut Stain Distress Paint to 6x6 & 8x8 canvas ( a little goes a long way).  I pushed color around on my canvas with a baby wipes and a little water if needed, then dried with heat tool.  I repeated step with Black Soot Distress Paint very sparingly.
I love the distress it creates!
 I painted a sheet of Grungeboard with a Silver Daubber, then let air dry.  I cut Tim's new Watering Can out of the painted Grunge.  Then I painted middle strip on watering can with Black Soot Distress Paint and Silver Daubber to create a Gunmetal look and let air dry.   I sanded some of the paint off of the watering can to expose some of the Grunge.  Then to really bring out the distress, I used some Walnut Stain Distress Ink and a blending tool over the surface of the watering can and wiped off any excess ink.  I added splatters to both canvas panels and the watering can, then dried with heat tool.

 Next I diecut several flowers from Tim's new Mini Tattered Floral dies, using Kraft Core cardstock.  Tim has a great how to video here!  The only thing different I did, was sand my Kraft Core cardstock and bend my petals with a bone folder before rolling them. ( tip- it is much easier to sand intricate pieces with cutout still in tact)

 I diecut the words "celebrate, everyday and moments" from the "handwritten journey" and "handwritten celebrate" die collections using black Kraft Core cardstock.  Then I sanded to expose the kraft ( tip- it is much easier to sand intricate pieces with cutout still in tact).  I stamped dots randomly using Watering Can Archival Ink on 8x8 panel.  Then I stamped mesh randomly on 6x6 canvas using Watering Can Archival Ink and dried with heat tool.
 I punched six butterflies out of Wallflower Vellum, using Tim's new large butterfly punch.  I applied a little Mushroom Alcohol Ink to butterflies and let dry.  After the butterflies were dry, I glued a double layer to appear 3-D.  I smeared a little Antique Linen Distress Paint  randomly on some mini fasteners, long fastener, memo pin and heart charm and dried with heat tool.  Then I applied a little Mushroom Alcohol Ink on all idea-ology pieces and let air dry.
 I cut the backs off of the mini fasteners and long fastener and gave them a little smash with my hammer .  Then I glued mini fasteners to watering can, they lay nice and flat.  I glued the heart charm to top of memo pin and long fastener to top of hart charm.
I glued the 6 x 6 panel to the center of the 8 x 8 panel.  I glued watering can, flowers, words and butterflies as seen in photo.  Then stuck memo pin in flowers and applied some Remnant Rubs to canvas panels.
 I would like to thank Brenda and the entire team of A Vintage Journey for inviting me to spend the day with them.  You all are such a inspiring and talented group of ladies!  I hope you enjoyed my project, you can visit me here at:

Vintage Muse Designs
http://vintagemusedesigns.blogspot.com




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What can I say other than I just love this project and post Bobbi and celebrating everyday moments is just the most perfect way to acknowledge the special little moments in our lives.

Thank you for being a Guest Creative Guide today and joining the team with your inspirational ideas and creative talent.

To all our readers and challenge contributors you have one more week to join in Sandy's fabulous challenge and join the wonderful entries we already have.

Have a great weekend and remember .....

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
Oprah Winfrey

hugs Brenda, Bobbi  and the Team xxx


Monday 22 June 2015

Destination Inspiration June Recipe # 3

Hello all, Astrid  here with the next Destination Inspiration of the month.
I hope you have enjoyed the projects my amazing team mates created on the previous Mondays.
Just as a little reminder, - our "recipe" this month is as follows:
Product: Any Tattered Die
Technique: Layering Stencil : Texture Paste
Colour: Walnut Stain
Substrate: Watercolour Paper.
I made a large 8 x 8" card, using a 7 x 7" piece of Ranger Watercolour paper as my main substrate.
I started by adding some Wendy Vecchi Crackle Texture Paste through Tim's Mesh Layering Stencil.
I did this quite randomly, just making sure there was some texture on each side.
After the texture paste had dried and had done it's crackling bit, I started to add colour, using Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink and a Blending Tool. I spritzt with water so the ink would start to run into the cracks a bit. I also added several strips of Tissue Tape for interest.

I added more colour using Mermaid Lagoon, again spritzing with loads of water to get a sort of water colour effect. Fresh and new ink pads do this beautifully and I loved the effect, however the colour was too bright for me, so I decided to tone it all down a bit with Picket Fence and Antique Linen Distress Paints. I also added quite a lot of Walnut Stain, both the ink and the spray, doing more spritzing with water to make the colours blend.
As you can see, I managed to get some smudges also, but that did not bother me too much as I knew they would be covered over. 
Next I gathered my embellishments. 
I made some flowers using both the Tattered Florals die and the Tattered Flower Garland die and followed the wonderful tutorial Jennie has on her blog.


I also cut a clock from packaging material (corrugated card)  using the Weathered Clock die. I covered it with Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint and then edged it with Walnut Stain. I then layered it all up together as you can see in the photo below.

A photo from the Photo Booth collection was added along with a few scraps of Remnant Rubs


To finish it all off I did some back ground stamping, using a text stamp by Finnabair, I also added a little banner cut with the Tattered Banners die with a rub on and some rusty wire. 


A butterfly stamped and cut with the French Flight stamps and matching dies was added to the clock still to balance the overall design of the card.

I matted and layered the water colour paper layer and then adhered it to a 8 x 8 card blank and that was pretty much it.

Don't forget to come back next week for the final Destination Inspiration using this month's recipe, and there is also still plenty of time to play in our Celebration themed challenge.

Thanks for visiting our blog
xxxxx
Astrid

Friday 19 June 2015

Pinworthy Inspiration

Welcome to our Pinworthy Inspiration Day and we are very lucky to have two very talented artists and AVJ regulars as Guest Creative Guides today, you are all in for a fabulous treat and a heavy dose of creativity, originality and individuality. 



First up is .........




Hi my name is Tracy Evans, mother of three, Laura and Ryan and fur baby Mitzi and married to Ian. I am an eclectic crafter, focusing a great deal on rubber stamping but I love trying my hand at anything, wherever the mood takes me. I love inky fingers and spending many fun filled creative hours playing (cough) working in my craft room. A piece of paper, card, alterable item, canvas I love them all, any product is viable when it comes to craft and I love nothing more than starting on one path and ending on an entirely different one at the end of a project. I can't remember what life was like when I didn't create and I don't care to remember either, I love this creative journey and who knows where it may take me next!


I decided to create a canvas for my Guest slot, inspired by my Garden and Tim Holtz June tag (which I have linked to in my blog post). This canvas represents everything I love, birds, texture, layers and lots of fun in the process.


This shows the background of my canvas prior to any decoration, completely inspired by Tim Holtz June tag, however, I did change the background colour, using Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain to give just a subtle colour to the background. Once I was happy with the background I decided to add my decorative elements.


I added a touch more detail to the background of my canvas adding a further layer of interest applying texture paste through the Dot Fade Layering Stencil, along with subtle splatters of paint using Fired Brick Distress Paint .


I die cut the bird from mountboard using Tim Holtz Bird Silhouette die, along with a second layer cut from the Wallflower Paper Stash. I also added touches of red to the bird, applying Fired Brick Distress Ink over the Dot Fade Layering Stencil. I also added ‘Special Delivery’ , from the Correspondence Stamp Set, stamped with Vermillion Archival Ink.


To add a further layer of interest I die cut three hearts from mountboard using the Heartfelt Die, coloured with Fired Brick Distress Ink. I also included a couple of Remnant Rubs for added interest.


For further dimension I included a Collage Key which I coloured with Alcohol Inks Rust and Ginger.


A circle of rusty wire has also been added again to add texture to my design. I also included two die cut feathers, cut from mountboard using the Feather Duo die, coloured with Distress Inks Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain; applying the inks to a non-stick craft sheet, spritzing with water and mopping up the beads of ink with the feathers and then drying with a heat tool. I then spritzed each of the feathers with Antique Linen Distress Spray Stain and dried once again with a heat tool.



Beautiful Tracy, a fantastic canvas to celebrate all things summery and your wonderful garden. I love how the gorgeous greens reflect the change of hues in the grass and foliage with those fabulous pops of colour peeping through just like the flowers in the border. Thank you for sharing your special Tim inspired canvas.


Now it's over to Vicki who has a tag that never was - read more here and her blog to find out more.



Hi, it’s Vicki (that crazy chick) from Calgary, Alberta, I’m elated to be back at AVJ and Celebrating! June, in my world, is full of great things to celebrate; my best friend’s birthday (8th); my parent’s wedding anniversary (10th); a day dedicated honouring the fathers, father-figures, doggy daddys and all amazing men (21st); as well as Io’s birthday, she is turning 6 or 47 in Mountain Dog years (20th), where does the time go?. I also celebrated my third blogiversary on the 12th.


Today I am Celebrating my 100th post!

  “…it is a steppingstone and a milestone at the same time.”
- Andy Fishman


This is the first tag I never made.
It is inspired by Tim's March tag from 2012.





This is the best photo I have of the butterfly embellishment. Here you can see the collage of copper and gold papers,the colour of the inks to create the patina and the matte finish of Tim's faux rust technique.



Once I curved the wings, to create dimension, and added it to the tag it becomes much harder for camera to catch all the colours and textures. That metallic paper is SO SHINY!



The wood grain stamp is one of my favourites, I use it often for cards. I like how quickly you can create a furniture feel with the simple addition of hardware. The label sticker fits perfectly in the label pull, it was meant to be.

You can see all the step-by-step photos on my blog [dig] that crazy chick.

Thank-you again to all the lovely and talented people at A Vintage Journey for coming up with such a great diversity of challenges and in-turn amazing inspirational projects. It is always an honour to be invited here as a guest. I am already looking forward to the monthly bits of awesome that will be arriving in July.

Fabulous Vicki, you're absolutely right that stamp is perfect for creating a gorgeous wood like background and your butterfly is stunning. I want to know more about how this tag came into being so I know where I'm popping off to real darn quick.


Our thanks to both these lovely ladies for their dose of inspiration and I am sure you will want to go visit their blogs too.
Don't forget the 'Celebrations' challenge runs till the 2nd July so if you haven't been able to join in yet there is still plenty of time.
In the emantime have a wonderful weekend and enjoy whatever you have got planned.

hugs Brenda and the team xxx