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 28 September 2015

Destination Inspiration - Last stop for September - Terminal 4

Hello, Nikki here, and welcome to the last stop on our September journey. My fellow travellers have shared some wonderful creations this month using the nominated contents of our luggage. As a reminder we are travelling with:

Product - Distress Inks
Technique - Wrinkle Free Distress
Featured Colour - Wild Honey
Substrate - Anything 3D

Let's review the inspiration to date:
Terminal 1 - Astrid with her wonderful, autumn toned altered box for her alphabet stamps:
Terminal 2 - Alison gave us a masterclass of craft, imagination and story telling:
Terminal 3 - Julia shared a fabulous little house full of glorious details that just makes you smile:

And so for our final stop this month I have created a reverse canvas shadow box incorporating Tim's Bird Silhouette die.

I began on the reverse side of a canvas and used tissue tape to cover the outer edges to hide the staples. I then added some texture paste through Tim Holtz clockwork stencil. I changed the colour of the frame at one point but this is how it ended up - I painted it with brown acrylic and once dry - dry brushed gesso over the surface to catch the embossed areas. I then took my wild honey paint and dry brushed again - the colour showing over the white gesso.

Next I used the wrinkle free distress technique to colour some card - far more than I needed of course! The first was just wild honey and scattered straw but on some I then added some browns for contrast. I die cut the bird silhouette out of the wild honey piece and added a little vintage photo around the edges. I also die cut the bird out of mountboard and painted it brown before gluing the two elements together.
I took one of the slightly darker wrinkle free distressed pieces of card and added a little picket fence distress paint by placing the paint on my kraft sheet, spritzing a little and swiping the cardstock through it. This became the background for the shadow box.
I also cut some branches out of my distressed card too. I added some small talk chit chat stickers to complete the piece.


A new journey will begin in October with a new kit big so do look out for the first Destination Inspiration post of the new month next Monday.
In the meantime you still have a few days to enter our September challenge - Home Sweet Home.

Reminder... we are seeking two new Creative Guides
If you would like more information and details please email Brenda...  brenda_brown25@hotmail.com by Monday 5th October.

See you soon

Friday 25 September 2015

Welcome Annette to AVJ and new Creative Guide call

Happy Friday everyone. It's week 4 of our September schedule which means lots of inspiration and a magnificent tutorial from our Guest Creative Guide - I'll let her introduce herself and what she is sharing today.


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Hello everyone, it's Annette Green from Melbourne, Florida, USA. I'm proud and honored to be your Guest Creative Guide today here at A Vintage Journey.

My creative journey began when I was very little when I realized I had a talent for drawing. I entered contest after contest and actually won quite a few! Although I graduated college with a degree in the business side of Advertising, I quickly adapted to graphic design instead, and spent 15 years doing so. When my daughter was born, I stayed home full time to be a mom and began scrapbooking, quilting, cross-stitching and stamping. I loved it all! Over time, I have evolved into a full time paper crafter, designer and instructor and love every single day that I get out of bed in the morning because I'm doing what I love!

I first heard about this Tim Holtz guy way back when he created his first series of his 12 Tags of Christmas. I was totally and completely in love with his style! His products are some of my all-time favorites. I absolutely love all things vintage and distressed, so his products really speak to me. I incorporate so much of his line into everything I make. To see more of my creations, please visit my blog aptly named Annette's Creative Journey.

For the current Home Sweet Home challenge theme, I chose to create a welcome frame/home decor piece for the table in our foyer. Something for everyone to see when they enter my home. Fall is my favorite time of year, so I gave it a warm, Autumn feel.



My creation started with this thrift store frame I found for less than a dollar.


I took out the glass and cleaned it well, then painted the frame with two coats of white gesso.


Once the gesso was completely dry, I painted two coats of the new Ground Espresso Distress Paint. I made sure to leave streaks so it resembled wood and had a distressed feel. Once the paint was dry, I sealed it with a coat of Glue & Seal.


For the background in my frame, I cut a 4 1/4" x 11" piece or Ranger Mixed Media Cardstock and used Tim's Distress Ink Blending/Spritz & Flick technique to blend warm earthly colors like Forest Moss, Fired Brick, Fossilized Amber and Rusty Hinge.


In addition to the Spritz & Flick, I misted some water onto the large stamp in the Papillon set (CMS106) by Stampers Anonymous and stamped it onto the Distress background, letting the water do its magic. Once this was heat set and completely dry, I added a few spritzes of Perfect Pearls Perfect Copper Mist.


With the glass for the frame now clean, I stamped the leaves from the Falling Leaves set (CMS097) with Timber Brown Staz-On ink and set that aside to dry.




With Forest Moss Distress Paint, I painted the Letterpress letters spelling out Welcome, having to cheat a bit for the first E, using the ampersand. I did two coats of paint for this too.


Next, I die cut Kraft Core cardstock pieces from the Tattered Pinecone and Tattered Leaves dies, and gave each piece a light sanding.



I used Tim's Faux Tea Roses technique to create small distressed flowers and starting assembling my frame, using hot glue.


I veined my leaves, inked them, and spritzed with more Perfect Pearls Mist, using various colors like Perfect Copper, Heirloom Gold, and Forever Green.


I wish you could see this detail in person. The stamped leaves seem to float above the background layer. The photo just doesn't do it justice.


Here's another look at my finished Fall Welcome Frame, which is now sitting on my foyer table. Thanks for taking the time to follow my tutorial. I hope you've enjoyed it. And thanks for having me here today!

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This is utterly delightful Annette and we are so pleased you have shared this wonderful frame with us. The stamped flowers on the glass look stunning over the inked background - such a great idea. Thank you for taking the time to create such a special project to share with everyone.

One more week left folks to join in the current challenge 'Home Sweet Home' and a new challenge beginning next Friday at midnight (BST). We look forward to seeing you here again.

For anyone who may be interested we are looking for
  two new Creative Guides 
to join our talented team. If you would like more information and details please email me at brenda_brown25@hotmail.com by Monday 5th October. Many thanks.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda and the AVJ Creative Guides. xxx



Monday 21 September 2015

Destination Inspiration - September - Terminal 3

All Aboard at Terminal 3!   Greetings fellow travelers!  Julia here today as your AVJ Creative Guide this week for our Destination Inspiration journey!  We always travel light for these journies - and for each Monday in September our trunks contain these 4 essential items:
1.  Product - Distress Ink
2.  Technique - Wrinkle Free Distress: Compendium of Curiosities Vol 1 Pg 33
3.  Color - Wild Honey
4.  Substrate - Anything 3D
Well - 3D is right up my train track - I LOVE making 3D items - and I'm also joining in with  Jennie's AVJ September Challenge Home Sweet Home - here is what I created with my Essential Items!
I made my house using the Sizzix Where Women Cook Box House die along with window and door dies from Where Women Cook Windows and Movers and Shapers Mini Openings Set
After die cutting the house pieces - I used the Wrinkle Free Distress technique on them - rubbing Fossilized Amber and Wild Honey on my craft mat, spritzing with water and pressing my pieces onto the mat.  I dried the pieces with my heat tool and then gently touched them back onto the mat to pick up dots of color - and dried the pieces again.
For the roof - I stenciled the pieces with the Burlap Stencil and Wild Honey Ink - then I pressed them into what was left on my craft mat of the spritzed inks.
After die cutting the windows and door out of the house walls - I added 'lace curtains' (Tim's Trimmings/Lace) to the tops of my windows, a die cut kitty (Cozy Kittys/Poppy Stamps) looking out of the back window (I added another kitty to the doorway - you'll see that below) and pieces of vellum 'glass'.
Now I must say - that at this point I had to go take a class in structural engineering to figure out how to get the roof together properly (!!)  Sizzix has instructions on their website but the photos/instructions were rather hard to follow.  I ruined one roof and then decided to try making one out of light computer paper and finally figured it out! (Mostly a matter of which one's a hill fold and which one's a valley fold!)

So -  moving right along - I am a person who has a great connection to the houses that I live in - I think it's because growing up I lived in the same house until I left when I got married.  Kent and my present home is Our Happy House because I love the style of it - it's cozy inside, we have two sweet gray kitties to share it with and I have several garden areas that I love to plant, care for and cut flowers from to bring inside! 

Here is the front of Our Happy House The 'happy' is a Celebrate Script thinlits die.  The 'our house' are Big Chat stickers.  You can see the 2nd kitty peeking out of the front door here.
My little house was definitely inspired by my big house - particulary the black fence!
I die cut my fence using Tim's On the Fence die and I cut it out of  a piece of black Coredinations Distress paper.
Here are the other sides of our happy house.
When I die cut the side windows they ended up a little 'wonky'!! So I framed them using a black Stabilo pencil that I then rubbed with a wet finger to smudge trying to trick the eye into thinking the windows are, in fact, plumb!!.  My garden flowers are made from Tiny Tattered Florals and I used Remnant Rubs/Botanicals on all sides.  I added dots to the leaves and lines to the fence with a White Souffle Puffy pen to add a little whimsy.
I particularly used the words below - as my 65 year old sister recently had a serious heart problem that required triple bypass surgery.  I was afraid I was going to lose her.  It made me realize that I need to be thankful each and every day just for being alive and not worry if I don't have all the material things I think I need - they are really not important at all.  So this side of our happy house reminds me of that.
  Here's a close up view of the kitties looking out of the window and doorway.  I cut them out of gray cardstock.
And here are my cat models - sisters - Boo on the left and Scout on the right! 

I hope you have enjoyed your journey from Terminal 3 with me today.  I know I had a wonderful creative trip making Our Happy House!  Another Creative Guide will be here next Monday over at Terminal 4 to take us on another creative journey!



Friday 18 September 2015

Pinworthy inspiration


Welcome to A Vintage Journey for out renowned Pinworthies Post and first a huge apology that I am late at the mark in getting this post live. Google Chrome keeps crashing on me and at the same time last night my internet decided to go down so I was stuck. But here we are now with two amazing ladies and their projects, both have been here before and I know you will love seeing what they have been making.

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Hello. I'm Nicola (aka Paper Profusion) and I'm thrilled to be a guest designer here at A Vintage Journey today. It's wonderful to have the opportunity to feature again at one of my favourite blogs - very many thanks to all the team for inviting me.

As my details were published before by AVJ, plus I think I've exceeded the limit of photos in this post, please see previous AVJ post to find out more about me.

I was really pleased when I learned that the theme to work towards was 'Home Sweet Home'. Those familiar with my blog are bound to know that Christmas is my favourite topic to craft about. Christmas, for me anyway, is all about being at home, in the company of loved ones. One of my most pinned creations to date is a chipboard house that I decorated for Christmas so I decided to make another Christmas home decor project with lots of emphasis on TH products and techniques.

Without further ado, here's the whole project together...


Starting with the front of the house, the roof outer sides have been dry embossed with TH 'Tiles' texture fade, versamarked with a brayer and then heat embossed with white EP. TH tinsel is used liberally throughout the whole project. The front walls have been decorated using a TH holly stencil. The deer, number 25 and fence are all made using TH dies. Idea-ology pieces also feature strongly.


Checkout the sides of the house where again TH stencils and distress techniques abound.


The chained 'wooden' doors actually open, to see who is inside you'll need to pop over to my own blog.


I've made copious use of TH dies and Idea-ology and am now addicted to using Clear Rock Candy crackle on any piece of paper that crosses my path!

At the rear I've used some TH Christmas stamps to 'paint' a biblical scene. Lots of distress inks, paints and glitters feature too.


Last but not least! No home would be complete at Christmas without a reindeer-led sleigh stopping by. All products (bar berries) are made using products by the magical TH! Don't you think my version is positively blingalicious!




You are most welcome over at my own blog.to see more of the project and find out in greater detail how it was made.

Huge thanks again to all the über-talented ladies at A Vintage Journey for inviting me to guest design. It's been a pleasure to create this project - only problem now will be having to part with it!

Nicola x


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Hello Everyone 

I'm Amanda, known in blogland as Ink-A-Pink and I am as totally thrilled and honoured as I was last month to have been invited back this month as a Guest Designer here at A Vintage Journey. To be able to share a little of my creativity on such a prestigious blog really is for me, a dream come true .Thank you so much to all the super talented Creative guides here at AVJ for this fantastic opportunity. I am truly grateful and incredibly humbled .


Having shared a bit about myself last month ,which if you missed it you can read it here, I thought this time I would tell you a little more about me by way of the thoughts I had about the question Jennie asks us to think about for her challenge theme this month - 'What does 'home' mean to us? 

Here are some of my musings : When I purchased my first house I remember wanting it to be a place where both myself, friends and family would feel a warmth, a welcome, a place that was full of LOVE, a place no one felt they wanted to leave in a rush and looked forward to coming back to, a place where invites weren't always necessary, a place where you could truly be yourself and share on any level even if it brought with it heightened emotions at times both good and bad it wouldn't matter because it was a house full of LOVE - a HOME! I guess what I'm trying to convey is that for me it doesn't matter what a house is made of or how much it cost ,its location or what it looks like as long as its full of LOVE - only then do I feel I can truly call it home!

This brought to mind the quote 'A house is made of bricks and stone but only LOVE can make a HOME'

and so my inspiration for this challenge theme was born. 

( I would like to sincerely apologise for the quality of some of the photos! Try as I might I just couldn't seem to get the perfect shots despite numerous attempts with different cameras). 

I have altered a wooden box frame to depict the words of the quote


The frame is altered using Tim Holtz distress paint, Archival ink and Gold gilding wax to give it a more aged appearance. 

The corner decoration are die cuts using Tim Holtz Mixed Media thinlit dies, stamped and inked with Tim's products to add detail. The quote is stamped using individual alphabet letters and Tim's alpha stickers to give emphasis to the words 'house', 'home' and 'love'. An ideology memo pin and heart pendant with a couple of gems embellish the frame.



The brick wall is created using a mix of Deco Art Textured Sand paste and Paper Artsy Grunge paste applied through Tim Holtz Brick Wall layering stencil, painted using acrylic paint (brown and burnt Umber) and a dry brush. Admittedly, it did take time and a great deal of patience but it was definitely worth the extra hours spent to get a result I was happy with.To the touch it really does have that rough, gritty feel of real bricks. (Such a shame you can't reach in to the screen and feel for yourself)


The large hearts are covered with dictionary definition pages relevant to the quote -'Home' and 'Love'. stamped and distressed with Tim's products and the edges caught with gold gilding wax. The small heart is die cut from Tim Holtz Heartfelt Bigz die and crackled using Finnabair Texture Crackle Paste and an ideology cog inked with gold Alcohol ink to embellish . 


The bottle is crackled using Rock Candy Crackle paint. Gold gilding wax was used to help highlight the cracks and add a touch of opulence on both the crackle elements . 

Some rusty wire to attach a few chosen 'Home ' related chit chat stickers to, a 'LOVE' tiny tag tied to the vial neck and of course some stones to represent the words in the quote finish off my altered frame . 


I did enjoy making this and I do hope you like what I have created.You are very welcome to pop by my blog to read and see more. 


Before I go today I would just like to say a huge Thank you once again to all to all the lovely Creative Guides at A Vintage Journey for this opportunity and for making one of my crafty dreams a reality. 

Take care everyone

Amanda

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Well ladies you've done yourselves and us proud, your projects are amazing and I need to come on over and take a closer look. Thank you so much for designing and making such special pieces and sharing your creative talents here at AVJ.

Thanks to all you lovely readers too, we look forward to seeing you again on Monday for our next pit stop at a Destination Inspiration.

Have a lovely weekend.

hugs Brenda and the team xxx