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 31 August 2015

Destination Inspiration, terminal 4

Well  Trace here from inkypinkycraft, and for this months destination Inspiration...my fellow Creative Guides and myself have chosen four Tim Goodies for this journey...these are :

1. Product - Alcohol Inks
2. Technique - Alcohol Ink Ombré CC Vol 3, Page 57
3. Colour - Butterscotch
4. Substrate - Metal Foil Tape

So here is where these ingredients have taken me, on this journey at Terminal 4...


I couldn't resist playing with Halloween , and I love this Tim Holtz skull - I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new one out... So here is what I did .. I decided to create a layered tag...something I love to do as you have lots of room to create detail and yummy layers of Tim yumminess.



The large tag was for the base layer, I used alcohol ink card for my ombre and some foil tape added to a smaller tag #8 for the middle layer.

I added some colours of alcohol ink to a test piece before following Tim's instructions in Compendium as in ingredients to create my ombre effect..





I had torn the paper which ended up allowing the ink to soak into card giving a dark stripe but I quite liked it...

Again using the alcohol ink ..and for the foil tape part, I covered the smaller tag and embossed using damask texture fade, I then applied some butterscotch and also slate inks to the surface .


I then rubbed the surface with black soot paint dabber, and left for a few seconds before rubbing away some of it (sorry forgot the photo!)

Now to grunge up the ombre piece, I took out my trusty sanding grip and lightly sanded some areas..


And then applied some walnut stain distress ink which highlights the scuffed areas


For the large tag I coloured the tag using fossilized amber distress ink, which matched the butterscotch colour of the alcohol ink..and then applied some hickory smoke through this fab gothic layering stencil in small areas



To complete the base tag I scuffed edges, added some of the new and old tissue tape for Halloween and inked edges.


I then added the foil covered tag ..and more tissue tape..I love builidng up my layers ..


I added some rub ons...you need to make sure the distress ink is completely dry...and this takes a while or heat dry..

I stamped the skull, in jet black archival onto the ombre panel and added to the top of all those layers..


I comleted the tag with some dyed seam binding..


And here is the completed tag...my destination for terminal 4 


Well hope you like my make for today, 
keep those fingers inky!
trace x

Friday 28 August 2015

Welcome to our Guest Creative Guide

Hello lovely crafters it's Brenda here home from a very hot holiday in Lanzarote but back to flash floods and much cooler weather, brr in fact it has been quite chilly in the evenings. So let's have something to cheer us up and I'm thrilled to leave you in the hands of a fabulous artist and crafter, someone who creates the most stunning projects and is here to share her fabulous talent with us all.
It is none other than Jan Hobbins - over to you Jan

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Hello!  It's Jan Hobbins here from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  I'm very excited to be your Guest Creative Guide today, here at A Vintage Journey.

My introduction to scrapbooking started 10 years ago when I went to work for my sister who had just purchased a scrapbook store.  I've been hooked ever since!  I'm currently on the Sizzix Design Team and have enjoyed the challenge of creating with dies, especially those Tim Holtz ones!  I have also had the privilege of being on the Tim Holtz Media Team and for a few years now, creating for his CHA booth.
 I think I've always been drawn to anything Tim creates.  His products reflect everything I love about paper crafting; from the different mediums, to the papers, embellishments, and the dies. To me, it's all about using your imagination to take something as simple as paper and just create art.  If you would like to see more of my creations, you can find me here.

For the monthly theme, Things with Wings, I was inspired by Tim's wonderful Wallflower patterned papers and vellum collection.  I've been using his patterned vellum with many different dies lately, I love the light airy look of vellum flowers and for this project, butterflies.  For my project I've created a small shadow box, hope you enjoy!


I love making little vignettes inside boxes.  I have created a few with those Tim Holtz clocks too.


The base for my shadow box is Tim's square 5.5" x 5.5"Configurations box (TH92883).  If you aren't familiar with these, they are a sturdy paper board box filled with small boxes and include a framed acetate lid.  I removed the boxes and lid and will save those for another project.  To start off, I inked my edges with Walnut Stain Distress ink.


Pieces of paper from the Wallflower collection were cut out to cover the entire inside and outside of the box.  They were adhered with Ranger's Multi Matte Medium.  I like using this gel medium, it's a super strong paste, its also a good sealer, and dries clear.


The edges of the inside and outside pieces were inked before adhering.


To make my little shadow box that's within the larger box, I cut out four sides and a back from chipboard.  The sides are approx. 1" deep and my box measures 2 1/2" by 2". (the same size as the metal frame)  So you will have a back that's 2 x 2 1/2, 2 sides that are 1 x 2", and 2 sides that are 1" x 
2 1/2".  It's probably easier at this point to make a small slit on one of the longer sides to secure your outside wing.  I didn't decide to use the wings until after my box was constructed so it was a bit more awkward to make a cut with my craft knife through the chipboard.  It's just a small slit, about 1/2 long, just enough for the bottom of the wing to fit into. To adhere these pieces together, I applied Ranger's Matte Medium to the outsides and then wrapped tissue tape around the box.  The tissue tape is thin and secures the sides of the box. A small piece of patterned paper was cut out to fit the inside, inked, then adhered.  Cover the inside and outside walls with patterned paper.  


The Tim Holtz Foundry Frame (TH93198), which should be the same size as your box, is adhered to the top.  Before adhering, I lightly painted the frame with Peeled Paint and Mustard Seed Distress Paint, wiping off the excess, so there's just a hint of colour. 


 Adhere this to the box using a strong adhesive (I used SookWang tape).


The metal wings are from Tim's Regal Adornments pkg.(TH92903) and were also lightly painted with Frayed Burlap Distress Paint.  I attached the wings with hot glue on the backs, the outside one secured into the slit.  I was worried the inside wing would to be heavy to hold with just glue on the end, so I stacked a few tiny globs of hot glue near the center of the wing underneath before adhering, to give it something to rest on.  I hot glued the box to the inside of the shadow box.


For my small butterflies, I used one of my favourite dies, the Tim Holtz Decorative Strip, Butterfly Frenzy (659575).  There's a lot of butterflies on this die, all shapes and sizes.  The larger butterfly is from the Bigz die, Butterfly Duo w/ Texture Treads (660236).  This has two different butterflies on the die and it comes with a coordinating embossing folder.  I cut out three of the larger butterfly and embossed the top layer only.  These three layers are adhered together with a clear glue dot.  All the butterflies are cut out from the Wallflower Vellum paper.  I get asked a lot about what to do with the patterned vellum, especially the larger patterns.  I use them more for the colour and once they are die-cut you don't really notice the pattern or illustration.  I know it's hard sometimes to cut up those beautiful illustrations, but they make the most beautiful translucent flowers and of course butterflies!  You can even add in more colour with alcohol ink.  Before adhering the butterflies, I glued in my letterpress word "fly"(Tim Holtz Idea-ology TH93130 letterpress blocks) that had been lightly painted with Mustard Seed Distress Paint.  The butterflies were randomly adhered onto my shadow box, the larger one on top of the blocks.  I also die-cut some Tiny Tattered Florals (660227 Thinlits Die) with Core-dinations Distress Cardstock and glued those inside the Foundry Frame with a few butterflies, and around the bottom of the shadow box.


I finished off my project with a quote, "Your Wings Already Exist, All You Have To Do Is (Fly)."  I printed that on white cardstock, cut it into pieces, added in black lines with a marker, and adhered to the inside of my box.  My project is done!  
Hope you enjoyed my rather long tutorial, ...sorry about that!  I think wings have a symbolic meaning for many different reasons, and they appeal to everyone.  This would make a great gift for any occasion!

Thanks so much for having me here!

Jan

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Thank you for being here Jan and with such a fabulous project too, it is absolutely delightful and I adore the wings in the little added box, such a great design.

Well fellow travelers I am sure you have loved Jan's post please do pop over to her blog to see her other amazing work and if you haven't yet joined our Vintage Journey challenge you have till next Thursday evening (UK time) to enter. The new challenge will go live on Friday 4th September and we will have some exciting news to share with you. Also don't forget to join us Monday for the last in our August Destination Inspiration terminal pit-stops.

My huge thanks to Nikki for sharing the last two Friday posts with you whilst I was away she did a brilliant job.  We really do have the most incredibly talented team here at AVJ and wonderful people who pitch in and help out in whatever capacity they can. Thanks ladies you are super-stars.

Thanks for joining us today and have a fabulous weekend.

hugs Brenda and the AVJ Team xxx

Monday 24 August 2015

Destination Inspiration-Departures at Terminal 3

 
Welcome to Terminal 3 of our travels to Destination Inspiration.  It's me Shari (Ain't That Artsy Fartsy) and I will be hosting today's leg of our journey with my bags packed for, what will be for me, my final ride with the AVJ Creative Guides. 
 
My journey is taking me on a bit of a detour at the moment, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I won't veer back on course and meet up again with my AVJ Teammates in the future.  I hope that will be the case, but until then, I leave you with what I created using this month's ensemble--
 
  • Product - Alcohol Inks
  • Technique - Alcohol Ink Ombre-Compendium of Curiosity 3/Page 57
  • Color - Butterscotch
  • Substrate - Metal Foil Tape  
 
 
I couldn't help but include a little bit of Anne's challenge theme of Things with Wings to my Destination Inspiration project, too!  Let me show you a little bit of what I did to incorporate this month's valise items onto this card--
 
 
I gathered items of metal foil tape, Adirondack Alcohol Inks and matte & glossy stocks.  My metal foil tape is actual ducting tape-It works the same as any 'craft-grade' metal foil sheets, it's just short in width and there will be seams.  Embrace Imperfection, right?
 
 
The first place I applied the AI Ombre technique was on stock that I covered with metal foil tape.  I used Butterscotch AI & Lettuce AI, then Butterscotch AI again with Terra Cotta AI.  See the seams?  I'm completely OK with this because....
 
 
...I die cut those pieces with Tim's Butterfly Duo die, and once these get run through their texture fade, the seams will be virtually invisible! 
 
 
Now onto the background.  I'm using a piece of glossy stock and the grungy circles image from Tim's Psychedelic Grunge stamp set. 
 
 
I stamped the circles onto the glossy stock with Distress Embossing Ink and covered with clear embossing powder.  I carefully heat set with my embossing heat gun, taking care not to get the tip of the gun too close to the stock, because the glossy stock can bubble. 
 
 
Here's the second place I used the AI Ombre technique--For my background, I used Sand, Butterscotch and Lettuce AIs.  I applied each color separately then blended together using the AI Blending Solution. 
 
 
I rubbed the raised surface of the embossed circles with Coffee Archival using my finger.  Then I ran the panel through my sewing machine to add the messy stitched border. 
 
 
I used a couple of extra die cut butterflies to use as my templates to machine stitch an outline, then I outlined the outline with my water brush and Black Soot DI. 
 

After running the butterflies through their texture fade, I glued clear seed beads to the bodies using Diamond Glaze. 
 
 
I added the butterflies to the surface along with a Small Talk sticker, attached the panel to a mustardy-brown card base and inked all of the edges with Black Soot DI and my ink blending tool. 
 
I've hope you've enjoyed this 3rd sojourn along our travels to Destination Inspiration.  We'll be waiting for you at Terminal 4 next Monday--Until then, happy creative travels!
 
 


Friday 21 August 2015

Pinworthy Inspiration Day

Hi everyone and welcome to the third Friday in our monthly schedule where we invite recent Pinworthies to share a project on this month's theme. This month we are joined by three ladies who were pinworthies in May for our Spring Colours challenge. We welcome back Joan, Amanda and Mayoori to share their projects for 'Things with Wings'.

Hi, My name is Joan and I am honoured to be asked to be guest designer here at A Vintage Journey. I live in a village in North Yorkshire with my husband and two cats. I've been a crafter one way or another most of my life. I'm primarily a card maker but do dabble in other types of art and have recently started to try a little mixed media. I bought my first rubber stamps over twenty years ago and it is very rare for me to create anything that doesn't incorporate stamping. 

For my DT piece I have kept it pretty simple using two favourite sets of stamps and the lovely new distress ink colours.

I started by randomly stamping the background stamp over my piece of card and embossing in white. I added colour with mermaid lagoon and cracked pistachio distress inks and then some random stamping with the distress inks and the butterflies in black archival.

I stamped and fussy cut the flowers and coloured with abandoned amber and brushed corduroy DI's.
The butterflies were stamped on some distressed ink coloured card and cut out.
Finally I die cut and coloured the Bigz butterfly and embossed it, added some treasure gold in aquamarine to it and the other butterflies and mounted the piece onto some black card . 
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Hi Everyone 
I'm Amanda also known in the blog world as Ink-A-Pink and it is such a thrill and honour to have been invited here today at AVJ as a Guest designer. Thank you so much to ALL the very talented Creative Guides for giving me this wonderful opportunity to share some of my creativity with you all. I have to keep pinching myself that this is for real and not a dream- I mean little ol' me - Guest Designer - who would have thought it! 
Speaking of little ol' me, here I am young and innocent ....................

..............So a bit about me (bare with me I'm not too good at talking about myself). I'm a Yorkshire girl born n bred living in England's Steel City, Sheffield. From a very young age I have always had a keen interest in anything Arty or Creative whether it be in the 'doing' or the 'viewing'. I have hand painted T-shirts, knitted, sewed, made cards, painted in watercolours and pencil sketched, mainly people, over the years and though I occasionally still let my pencil take a walk along the page or let the paint flow freely from the brush I now spend most of my time crafting making either cards, journal pages or mixed media projects. I began devoting alot more of my time to crafting in 2011 and have only been blogging since February 2015 so despite having an arty background I feel my creative journey is only just beginning as I have so much more learning and playing to do! To quote Picasso - 'Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life' - and for me this is never truer! 

Time now to share a little of my creativity. When I knew the challenge theme this month was 'Things with Wings' chosen by the uber talented Creative guide Anne my first thoughts were of Tim Holtz's beautiful butterfly stamp in the Perspective stamp set so I stuck with my initial thoughts and altered a canvas using mainly Tim Holtz products, making the butterfly the focal image.

With Brave Wings She Flies
I used the wrinkle free distress technique on my back ground panel and Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I love this technique as it allows for a gradual build up of colour and creates really interesting and unique results. 
I added detail to the panel using Tim Holtz stamps and stencils- I was spoilt for choice! I also stamped some random circles using a bottle top dipped in acrylic paint and lightly spritzed the background with perfect pearls before double mounting onto white and black card stock . 
For my focal image -the butterfly and its ‘base’, I stamped and embossed the butterfly twice and added colour, highlights and a touch of gilding wax to the wings. After shaping both butterflies to give dimension I adhered them together by their bodies .

I coiled a length of silver wire to form a circle and twisted it around itself to fasten tight and inked up a length of chicken wire using black alcohol ink.
The canvas I covered with Menagerie Tissue Wrap lightened with acrylic paint, scuffed with archival ink adhered Tim Holtz tissue tape to the left hand side and bottom edge and mounted onto black card stock .
I then brought all the elements together and added the finishing touches - a deep blue gem and ideology pen nib to embellish the butterfly,some remnant rubs, a few hex nuts, metal letter beads spelling the word ‘Fly’ to the background panel and a small talk sticker 'With brave wings she flies’ to the canvas! 

And here it is my Guest Designer altered canvas
I do hope you like my altered canvas and if you wish to see more you are very welcome to pop by my blog ink-a-pink.blogspot.co.uk.
Just before I go I would like offer my thanks again to all the lovely AVJ ladies for this opportunity and for making me feel so welcome . 
You have made little ol' me so very very happy! 
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Mayoori
Hello A Vintage Journey friends.
I am Mayoori and live in beautiful Seattle city with my 2 loving teenage daughters and very supportive husband. I have been scrapbooking since 3 years, trying all the styles, learning from fellow crafters. Since few months I have been trying mixed media projects and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am really excited to be part of A Vintage journey. It's an honour to be a guest designer on this prestigious blog.

Today I am sharing a layout. This is my younger daughter who tried to do a flip while jumping in the lake.
Here are some close up photos:

 
 
 
I have used Tim Holtz ruler stencil, rub ons, ranger ink pads. Please visit my blog for a step by step
photo process -
http://butterfliesnbuttons.blogspot.com/2015/08/fly-spread-your-wings.html
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Wow - inspiring creations ladies with lot's of wonderful techniques too. Thank you all for your time creating these for us.

If you would like to enter our current challenge at A Vintage Journey you can find it HERE.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend with lots of happy crafting.

Nikki and the Creative Guides
xxx