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 July 2017

July Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal #4

Welcome to our 4th and last Destination Inspiration post for July -  Julia here to welcome you to Terminal #4 at the train station this week!  
Here are the contents of our travel bags this month:
1.  Product - Flower Dies
2.  Technique - Any marbling technique
3.  Color - Purple   (sounds like a movie doesn't it?!)
4.  Substrate - Glossy Card.

And here is what I created using these supplies!
I have lots of photos to share just how I put this together.
I used Tim's Marbled Stains technique found on page 46 of his Compendium of Curiosities Vol II.  
First, I sprayed Distress Stains in Picket Fence, Wilted Violet and Twisted Cintron onto my craft mat.
Then I dragged my glossy card stock panel through the colors.  
(I wasn't sure how this would come out on the glossy card since it wouldn't absorb as well as on card stock - but it worked!)
I partially dried the panel as I let the colors move and blend - and then I spritzed the panel with water to make the colors marbleize and dried it again.
I made three panels using the same process.
I die cut the pieces using Tim's Tiny Houses die - cutting the pieces for the bigger house and the roof (cut roof piece not shown here).
To give an aged look, I sponged all the edges with Ranger Distress Walnut Stain.
I stamped  (Mini Bouquet set) and die cut (Flower Garden and Mini Bouquet Die Set) the cone flower and stem out of Kraft Core Coredinations paper,  I die cut (Grass Strip from MFT) grass strips out of the green Kraft Core and sanded all the pieces to reveal some of the kraft core.
I constructed the house and started decorating.  The stamped sentiment is from Stampotique.  I punched the bird out of left over marbled glossy card and layered it onto the sentiment adding a Tiny Twinkle for it's eye.  I added some Clipping Stickers, a Quote Chip, and a Small Talk sticker.  I drew lines around each one with a Black Stabilo Pencil and smudged the lines with a moist fingertip.
I adhered the grass strips with foam dots so it stood out from the tiny house a bit.  You can see the marbling nicely here in this photo below.
 Another view of the pretty marbling on the side panel.
Then I turned my attention to the back of the house.  I punched the bird flying the other way and layered it to the back of the bird seen from the front.  I added this wonderful quote from Stampotique, embossing it in black onto a piece of Coredinations Card stock, distressing the edges and sponging with Walnut Stain ink.  I added the florals from Layers/Botanical and the pup from Paper Dolls who fit quite nicely standing in the grass in that bottom space!
To make the roof piece look a little more 'roofy' -  I just scored some random-distance lines on it. (Hopefully you can see the lines a bit in this photo)
I attached my tiny house to a slice of birch tree that my husband cut for me from a fallen branch we found on a walk down our town's bike path.  It gives the tiny house a solid base for display!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I created using the July Travel Bag supplies.  If you missed the previous July posts you can see them here.
Week 1 - Autumn
Week 2 - Tracy
Week 3 - Deb



Friday 28 July 2017

Another amazing guest today .........

It's Friday Guest day and look who has come to join us - it's the amazing Karen. She has created the most amazing project for us today and I'm just gonna hand over to her for all the details. Welcome Karen.




Hi Crafty, Ink Loving Folk!! So exited to be a guest blogger for A Vintage Journey!! My name is Karen Bearse, I am of French Canadian, Kiwi heritage &  live in VA, USA with my husband, teenage daughter & a feisty Siamese cat named Arwen. Also miss terribly my 2 boys away at College (eek). I love all things inky and am a total technique junkie. My style depends on my mood but is usually grungy, colorful and slightly bohemian. A teacher of art journal, canvas, mini-albums, altered books and in fact teaching a Mix Media Canvas Book, my first travel class in Florida in August, a tad daunting. I am also on a number of DTeams with some of the awesome Creative Guides. The quality & inspiration on this blog is amazing! Hopefully I can bring something to the table.


On to my project!! Yay for the theme "All Squared Up" with Tracy Evans! I am lucky to be a DT member with Tracy over on Eileen Hull Designs. As soon as I heard the theme my brain instantly went to The Tardis from Doctor Who. A bit of a geek/fan girl & quot-er of shows, I have wanted to make a book to jot down my favorite quotes, photos & snippets for ages. I have already decided more then one book will be needed but let's start with the first in the series. I just had to use Eileen's Journal die for this as I am totally addicted to making these books. The bonus is the journal will fit 3 books inside, Midori style so I can have separate books for my shows. I hope you follow along & make your own book! There is a supply list at the end of my post.


First cut 2 of the die shapes out of mat board. Flip one of the pieces as shown so you have a front & back piece. One of the issues I have had making books is keeping my back page in the right direction as I work. Sounds simple but then the paint is being slung... so simply mark an arrow in pencil on the page spine which way is up. I marked out where my Tardis was going so and covered the rest of the pieces- minus the spine in super heavy gesso, creating texture with a spatula along the way. Once dry a stencil was used with Light Molding Paste to create my square swirly image. Hot Tip: I wish I had flipped my stencil to intersect the swirls but I am embracing the imperfection!


I was going for a Doctor Who episode look, one of my favorites, where the Doctor meets Vincent Van Gogh. Imagine being a time traveler who can go back & meet some of the greatest artists of all time! With the color scheme in mind I painted the spine Pure Sunshine on both sides. Once dry I cracked the spine to break the mat board, peeled off a strip of paper (I find this helps the spine line up better) on the right, back side of the spine & attached a strong glue strip.


Stamp the outside spine randomly with archival ink. I found the perfect stamp for this project Starry Swirls. Once dry the spine was painted with Tide Pool which is fairly translucent with glitter and dries to a sort of glaze. That makes it easy to wipe off the mist from the next step and gives the spine extra strength.  Next up Color! After masking off my Tardis area with washi tape, I spritzed with Glimmer Mist keeping the like colors in the same areas when re-misting. 


Let dry a bit then took the color off the raised modeling paste areas with a paper towel & baby wipe being careful to just pull the paint off the embossed parts. A bit tedious but worth it. You can skip this step if you are using a darker paint on the raised area. I knew I wanted to do yellow & gold so I needed a fairly white surface.
 

Use a hard foam piece & pick up a very thin layer of paint on it. Slide the foam across the top of the embossed areas only hitting the high points. This helps keep the paint on the embossed areas. I also added a bit of silver to bring out the texture.


Let's cut out a Tardis! I embossed mat board with a folder I have had for years. After cutting out the top 2 "windows" it was painted with Deep Waters & once dry, dry brushed with Raven Black. I made some extra pieces to approximate the top of the police box, was not overly concerned with it being perfect. I wanted to put a light bulb on top for the light but settled for an hour glass charm that was in my stash painted with the same blue. I added some details like photos of my 2 favorite Doctors, David Tennant & Matt Smith.


Adhere the covers together. Overlap the front cover at the spine lining up the book using the middle hole as a guide. I had the idea to use a Doctor Who lanyard to wrap around my book to keep it together. I love the idea of the claspy bit. You just pull it apart to open & click it shut. I did need to make the center hole bigger & add a 2nd hole as the ribbon is quite thick. The Cropodile Big Bite to the rescue! Of  course you can always punch the holes before you put the spine together with a regular Cropodile.


There are many ways to thread your elastic cord. I decided to go with most of the cord hidden on the inside. Simply start by threading your cord from the inside to the outside in the middle right hole, leaving a tail that will be tied off when finished. Now go through the lower right hole back to the inside, then bring the cord across the spine & into the left bottom hole & out. Thread it up into the middle left hole to the inside & over the inside of the spine then out the right middle hole. (there will be 2 cords in the middle by the time you are finished). Thread the cord up into the top right hole to the inside & along the spine then out the top left hole. Bring it back down into the middle hole to the inside of the spine. Tie a knot with the tail in the middle of the spine. I really hope this makes sense as it is hard to describe in writing! You want your cord to have enough tension to hold the papers in place but there should be some give so the papers slide in & out. You can actually fit 4 books in with the cord done this way.


I had a Van Gogh calendar & used the painting "A Starry Night" for the inside covers of my book. Using cotton fabric for the covers of my first 3 books seemed a good way to go. Dr. Who, Games of  Thrones & Star Wars. I wanted the covers to be strong but pliable so I covered cardstock with the fabric. I think the best glue for this, is double sided adhesive by Therm*O*Web. A dry glue that is nice & strong, they sell it by the sheets & is my go to when adding paper or fabric to my covers. You have options on the size of the inside books the largest can be 8 3/4" (22.23cm) tall x 9" (22.86cm) wide. Simply take 4, 5 or 6 sheets of paper this size & fold the stack in half- voila a book!  I went with 8 1/4" (20.95cm)  x 8 3/4  (22.23cm) mainly because of the size of my fabric. 


The signature pages or inside papers were a bit tougher & caused creativity & brain powers to be used. As I don't live in England, land of The Doctor ephemera & wasn't keen on what I could find on line for paper, thinking of individual episodes was the way to go. I landed on the Paper House Discover line. There is London which of course the Doctor spends a lot of time there, most of the companions also come from England. There is Rome where of course Rory became a Roman & spent 2000 years protecting Amy. There are also maps, travel stickers & even a 3x4 card that says "a cup of tea", perfect for Rose's Mom who was always suggesting tea & in fact a cup indirectly saved the world by moving along David Tennant's regeneration.


Now where are those Star Wars papers I bought in 2010???? The best part about this type of book is I can add pages as I find the ephemera. I also had the brilliant idea to find old calendars to use as backgrounds. Of course at some point I had finally gotten rid of my old outdated calendars-that is why we should never, ever throw anything out! Add that to my thrift store list! If you would like to see a few decorated pages (it's bigger on the inside) you can check out my blog post here. Thanks so much to A Vintage Journey for letting me play today!!

Supply List:
Eileen Hull The Journal die by Sizzix
Tattered Angels-Glimmer Mist- True Turquoise, Jack Frost, Pomegranate, Merlot Gold
Finnabair Acrylic Paint by Prima -Metallic:  Pure Sunshine, Fresh Orange, Deep Waters, 
-Opal Magic: Green-
-Sparks: Ginger Magic, Raven Black
Therm*O*Web- icraft Easy-Cut adhesive sheets.
Liquitex- Super Heavy Gesso,
Elastic Cord
Stamp-Starry Swirls by Stampendous
Dina Wakley Stencil- Mosiac Swirl
Photos of Dr. Who- BBC
Doctor Who Lanyard purchased at Hot Topic
Alphabet from stash by Thickers. 


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O wow, yes you certainly have brought something to the table Karen - the most fabulous journal indeed and what a brilliant idea to collect quotes and snippets from one of your favourite tv shows, love it. Thanks also for the tip about tearing a strip from the back of the spine to help it line up better - must try that one. I just love your bright jolly cover and how you incorporated the squares on it through the tardis - so clever. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to create such a creative project and explaining it all in such great detail. I shall pop over to see some of the decorated pages too.

Well follow that - if you have been making up some of these fabulous journals like Karen don't forget to show them over on the Eileen Hull Fan Club Page - there's so much inspiration over there for making them up.

If you have a 'squared up' project to share with us, don't forget you have till the 3rd of August to enter Tracy's fabulous challenge  We look forward to you joining us and also on Monday for another Destination Inspiration post.

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda, Karen and the Team xxx

Monday 24 July 2017

July Destination Inspiration - Pulling Into Terminal #3

Hello and thank you for stopping by, Deb here to share a project with you created with the contents of our July Destination Inspiration travel bags:

Product - Flower Dies
Technique - Any Marbling Technique
Colour - Purple
Substrate - Glossy Card


I took the opportunity to play with a couple of different marbling techniques, something I'd not attempted before, in creating my Choose To Shine mixed media canvas, read on for the how to.

I searched on YouTube for some videos on water marbling techniques and discovered that there are some very specific materials needed for traditional water marbling which I didn't have.  But then I found a video by Crystal Shaulis on water marbling with cornstarch.  Cornstarch I had so I played around with some purple and white acrylic paints and a cornstarch (with a bit of flour) water bath to create these marbled papers.  The purples dissipated in the water bath so the colours were rather muted but I had fun playing and will definitely explore this technique more.


Next I did some faux marbling on glossy cardstock with Ranger Alcohol inks (Sunshine Yellow and Butterscotch), Alcohol Blending Solution and white and gold Mixatives that was inspired by this YouTube video by beetlewing.

Flowers were die cut from the purple marbled paper with Tim Holtz's Tiny Tattered Florals and Small Tattered Florals dies and Platinum Stickles applied to the centers of the flowers.


Tim's Bird Branch was die cut from Deco Foil Foam Adhesive and the die cut foam then covered with Amethyst Watercolor Deco Foil.  The foiled foam die cut was adhered over top the alcohol ink marbled glossy cardstock which had been mounted onto a piece of burlap Textured Surfaces.

A label was cut from the purple marbled paper with Tim Holtz's Styled Labels Movers and Shapers die and a phrase from his Clippings Stickers applied over top.  The quote was outlined with a black Micron pen and then embossed with multiple coats of clear embossing powder.


A Quote Chip was inked with Antique Linen and Ground Espresso Distress ink and a piece of burlap from my stash was frayed and a few threads pulled out before singeing it with a lighter to age it (be very, very careful if you try this technique that you don't catch it on fire!!).

To bring a bit more purple into my design I cut a piece of Gina K. 120 lb white cardstock about 1/4" larger on all sides than the burlap background and inked the edges with Distress Oxide in Wilted Violet and Seedless Preserves, spritzing it with water to activate the Oxide ink.


A Small Easel was die cut and adhered to the back of the inked cardstock for displaying the finished project.

The burlap panel was adhered over top of the Distress Oxide inked background and the prepared components assembled.  The marbled label was added to the top left corner;


and some of the Tattered Floral flowers arranged around it.


The foiled Bird Branch die cut was outlined with a black Micron pen and a white Gel pen to add definition,


and the burlap square, the Quote Chip and another marbled Tattered Floral flower were layered on the bottom of the panel.


I hope that you have enjoyed seeing how my July Destination Inspiration project came together.


If you missed the previous stops on our July Destination Inspiration journey, click here to see Autumn's project and here to see Tracy's and be sure to stop by next Monday when Julia will be here with the final stop on our July travels.  And remember to check out our July challenge, All Squared Up, you have until August 3rd to enter for a chance to win a lovely gift from Tando Creative!  Thanks again for stopping by today and as always, happy creating!

Deb xo

Friday 21 July 2017

Pinworthy Guests For July

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by.  We have three very talented Pinworthy guests with us today; Barbara from Yaya Scrap & More, Lucy from With Glue and Glitter and Nate from Le Scrap de Nate .  They have all created amazing projects for our current All Squared Up challenge to inspire us, enjoy!

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Hello everyone! It's an honor and a pleasure to take part on this wonderful blog, thanks so much for this wonderful opportunity.

I am Barbara, 55, married to the most patient man in the world and I have two children, male and female, aged 16 and 12, so my life is quite full! I started my creative journey when I was  child, at 5 years I cut newspapers and made collages, I had much fun painting with pens and watercolors too. I've gone through several creative experiences to arrive at traditional scrapbooking in 2005. It seemed to me a different way to collect my children's photos.  I met Tim Holtz's blog during my Internet tours, at that moment there was my turning point, I realized what I really like to do and the style I love most! I enjoy experimenting in different field, but my passion is always Tim and his style! I hope to give you some creative inspiration with my project.


I decided to create my first Eileen Hull Journal with my style inspired by Tim.  The covers are dedicated to the sea and nature, so it's ready to keep  photos and memories of this summer!

To follow your monthly theme, "All Squared Up",  I chose to decorate  inside and outside  my covers with Tim Holtz's stencil 'Tiles'. I started creating the background with Distress oxides, randomly stamping in the corners with the stamp  "Script" by Wendy Vecchi and using the stencil with the Ranger texture paste gloss. Once dried, I sprayed the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Stain Spray.

I used the square shape also to create the decoration  inside my journal.


To create my focal point on both my covers, I used two different  stencils by Tim Holtz, with Ranger texture paste Opaque crackle. Once they've dried I painted them with Broken china and Cracked Pistachio  Distress Oxides.


I hope you like my first Journal and I hope I gave you some creative ideas for your projects. Thanks again for letting me to take part in your blog! To see a short tutorial and some close ups of the project you can visit my blog!



Hello, everybody. I'm Lucy of With Glue and Glitter. I am so honored to be chosen as a guest designer for A Vintage Journey. I have been a crafty person my whole life. I've made messes (meaning serious paint splotches on the floor) in every home I've ever lived in. Fortunately my mom encouraged my creativity and I didn't get into too much trouble. My real job is as a Pediatric ER doc so being creative is a nice outlet from the stresses of working in an emergency department. My recent creative journey started about 2 years ago when I decided to make little cardboard houses which I am still eagerly doing. I started doing online craft challenges about a year ago to broaden my craft skills. I've found this to be seriously fun as well.


The picture I've included is a photo from a bike trip I took last year where I rode from the border of Canada and Washington state to Lake Isabella in California about 1800 miles along the Sierra Cascades bike route. This is my favorite photo from the trip because I remembered to suck in my belly and pose to minimize my girth.


Now onto my project. I was afraid when I was asked to be a guest designer that I wouldn't be able to come up with any good ideas, but I fortunately I did have some ideas. This project is called City on the Square. It's based on something I read about Vincent Van Gogh using a frame device for perspective. I didn't think that the great masters in art had to resort to a technique like that, but apparently it was not rare. To achieve my perspective of the city, I drew a set of squares increasing in size by 1/2" increments, cut the centers out, painted them different colors from dark (receding) to light. Then I added buildings from Tim Holtz' Cityscape dies that were stained with different inks. I gradually made them larger and layered more buildings to the outer square frames. When I glued all the frames together I glued strips of cardboard on the backs of each frame to give them more dimension.

There is more on my blog.

Thank you again everyone at a Vintage Journey for this honor.



**I have translated Nate's post from the original French into English with the aide of Google Translate and my very poor high school French, apologies to Nate for any inaccuracies!**

Bonjour ,
c'est une belle  récompense que vous me donnée  là  ,Un grand merci à toute l' équipe pour cette deuxième invitation parmi vous comme invitée designer créatif de juillet.

Hello ,
This is a great honour you have given to me here, a big thank you to all the team for this second invitation among you as an invited creative designer for July.


Je suis Nate, j'habite en France , je suis marié et 2 grands enfants dont je vais fêter cette année la naissance de mon premier petit fils  par ma fille ,j'ai de quoi  lui préparer sa venue en scrapbooking.

I am Nate, I live in France, I am married and have 2 grown children and this year will celebrate the birth of my first grandson by my daughter.  I am preparing for his coming in scrapbooking.
Je scrap depuis longtemps  ,mais je dois dire que  j' ai pris un virage à 180 degrés ,je m'amuse à créer patouiller , vieillir des objets de récupérations  afin de leurs donner un aspect respectable de mon imagination débordante.J'affectionne tout les styles ,y a tellement de savoir faire de  richesse à découvrir sur vos blogs ou chacune à sa façon de faire .

I have been scrapbooking for a long time, but I have to say that I took a turn 180 degrees and am having fun playing around, aging found objects to express my overflowing imagination.  Styles, there is so much to know and a wealth to discover on your blogs as each has his own way of creating.

Pour le thème du challenge de juillet  All squared up, j'ai décidé de confectionner une boite  avec la base carrée  , je l' ai faite de façon a ce qu" elle tourne pour y découvrir chaque face ou j'ai inclus  4 autres carrées pour y nicher mes papillons .

For the July challenge theme All squared up, I decided to make a box with a square base, I made it so that it turns to discover each face and I included 4 other squares to nest my butterflies.

Ma  boite à papillons.
My butterfly box.


Pour cette réalisation , j'ai utilisée un papier épais sur lequel j'ai enduit du  Gesso , puis saupoudré de multiples couleurs  de poudres Brusho  pour avoir un effet mélangé .

For this technique, I used a thick paper which I coated with Gesso and then sprinkled with multiple colors of Brusho powders to have a mixed effect.
 

j' ai coupé un gabarit  dans de la cartonnette pour confectionner un cube ,puis 4 autres cubes plus petit pour présenter mes papillons.

I cut a template from cardboard to make a cube, then cut 4 other smaller cubes to display my butterflies.


Du Gesso , des poudres Brusho ,de la peinture, divers tampons papillons , des mots, de la cire doré, des embellissements , des engrenages .....

Gesso, Brusho powders, paint, various butterfly stamps, words, gilded wax, embellishments, gears .....

Je vous invites à venir voir les détails directement sur mon blog.  Merci à vous toutes, passez un bel été, à bientôt.

I invite you to come see the details directly on my blog.  Thank you all, have a great summer, see you soon.

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Wow, fabulous creations one and all, thank you so much to Barbara, Lucy and Nate for joining us here at A Vintage Journey for our All Squared Up challenge!  Hope that you have been inspired to join us too, you have until August 3rd to add your All Squared Up creations, can't wait to see what you create!

Deb xo

Monday 17 July 2017

July Destinations Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal 2

Hello and welcome to Terminal 2 of our Destination Inspiration posts for July. We have a wonderful array of travel ingredients for you this month:

Product - Flower Dies
Technique - Any Marbeling Technique
Colour - Purple
Substrate - Glossy Card

Here is what I have created for the second leg of our journey:

I decorated one of Tim Holtz Etcetera tags using the paint marbeling technique.
I began by adding Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves and Twisted Citron Distress Paint to a Non-Stick Craft Sheet and then spritzing the paint with water. I only added a small drop of Seedless Preserves as this colour is quite strong.
Make sure the paints are nice and fluid.
I drew around the Etcetera tag onto a piece of glossy card, cut out the shape and then swiped my cut out piece through the beads of paint. Look how the paints marble, I love this technique.
I spritzed the paint with water, I love the effect. I tried not to add too many layers of paint as I wanted the marbling to be visible and some white space still remaining.
Now onto my layers for my design. I coloured a piece of cheesecloth with Wilted Violet Distress Ink to tone with my background and then dried with a heat tool and scrunched the cloth whilst drying.
I added a picture to a Tim Baroque Frame, the glue was still visible at this stage as I take time to play around with the composition. I added five random pieces of Chatter Design tape to the background along with some Texture Paste through the Trellis Layering Stencil to add yet a further layer of interest.
At this stage I decided I was happy with the composition and began to layer my elements.I die cut a Wildflower using Tim's Wildflowers #2 Thinlits Die, I cut from black card which I though worked well against the more colourful backdrop.
I added some Bouquet pieces, the white giving a contrast to the other colours. I also applied Twisted Citron and Wilted Violet Distress Crayon to the stencilled areas.
Some twisted silver wire adds further dimension and interest and I added a touch of Twisted Citron Distress Paint to my frame, applying with my finger.
A few delicate splatters of black paint and delicate scratchy lines around the edges.
'Hope is never lost' Quote Chip and random Remnant Rubs complete my design.
I hope you have enjoyed the second leg of our journey for July.

I hope I have given you a little inspiration to play along with the travel ingredients. We will have stage three of our journey next Monday and if you would like to see Terminal One of our journey, please stop by HERE.

Tracy Evans
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