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 August 2017

August Destination Inspiration - Pulling Into Terminal 4

Hello everyone, Deb here today with the final stop on our Destination Inspiration journey for August.  If you will remember from Nikki, Alison and Annie's posts our travel bags are packed with the following supplies:

Product - Texture Paste
Technique - Layering
Colour - Neutrals
Substrate - Glass

Now I cannot tell a lie, I had one heck of a time deciding what I was going to do with these ingredients!  After much indecision and rummaging through my craft stash I came upon some of Tim Holtz's Mini Mason Jars and the accompanying Photo Clip Kit and the idea for my Beware Halloween altered mason jar was born.


It went through a few design changes and bumps along the road as you'll see in my step out photos but I really love how it turned out in the end.  I even ended up adding a battery operate votive to make it into a spooky Halloween night light.


Read on for my how to if you'd like to make one of your own.

I initially was going to use the large skull and crossbones stamps from Tim Holtz's Regions Beyond stamp set inside the jar so I used the stamp as a template to see where to put the texture paste on the outside of the jar.  I added both crackle paste and sanded texture paste in the beginning but the crackle paste flaked off once dry so I ended up going over the jar again with more of the sanded texture paste.


Once dry, the texture paste was sealed with matte medium and then washes of beige, brown and dark brown acrylic paints were added, letting each wash dry thoroughly in between.

To line the inside of the jar, dark brown kraft core cardstock was run through the Poison Labels Texture Fades embossing folder and sanded to reveal the kraft core (I forgot to take a picture before I put it inside the jar so this is a remnant that was left over!).


The embossed cardstock was curved around the back 'wall' on the inside of the mason jar and crushed walnut shells were coloured with dark brown acrylic paint and mushed into the bottom of the jar.

I decided to use the small skull and crossbones from Tim's Mini Halloween stamp set instead of the larger image, so stamped it onto Heavystock mixed media cardstock that was coloured with Antique Linen and Old Paper Distress inks and then spritzed with Pumice Stone and Gathered Twigs Distress Spray Stain.  To emphasize the eye sockets, I coloured them in with a black Sharpie and fussy cut the stamped image.


The skull was tacked on the inside of the mason jar with a bit of matte liquid adhesive and a couple of Lost Zombie hands that I had left over from a previous project were added in the same manner, positioned so that they appeared to be reaching up from the dirt to grab you bwa-ha-ha-ha!  You can't see it in the picture but I also added a 'toxique' label from Tim's Curiosities Ephemera pack layered overtop of the embossed cardstock in the back.

The Photo Clip Kit that coordinates with the Mini Mason Jars was stippled with multiple colours of brown, rust, teal and black acrylic paints for a rusty appearance.


Jute string was wound around the edge of the lid and coloured with shades of black and brown Distress inks.  A piece of coffee stained cheesecloth was inked with the same colours and added to the top of the rusty lid.  Some labels from Tim's Curiosities and Halloween Ephemera packs were added to the sides and back of the jar.


The word BOO from Tim's new Halloween Typography letters was adhered together with some liquid adhesive.

The Gothic alphabet stamp from the Mini Halloween set was stamped onto more Heavystock that was coloured with Antique Linen and Old Paper Distress inks and then some 'blood spatters' were stenciled onto the stamped image through the Speckles stencil with Aged Mahogany Distress ink.


A wee chipboard bat was coloured black and adhered onto the top of the bulldog clip.

Then in my usual style I got on a roll and forgot to take anymore in process pictures so here are some close ups.

A 'beware' Halloween Typed Token was coloured with Mushroom alcohol ink and attached to the jute twine around the lid.


One of Tim's Pumpkin Pieces and a couple of putka pods from my stash were added to the top of the lid along with the BOO word and a couple of Boneyard Findings bones.


No Halloween make would be complete without a spider so I coloured a chipboard spider with a black marker and added him to the back of the Photo Clip, hanging him off some fiberglass spider web that was in my stash (no idea what this material actually is but it makes great spider webs!).


And here are a few more close ups of the finished jar.





 I hope that you've enjoyed seeing how I used the contents of my travel bag this month!


And here's a review of the other projects made by the Creative Guides participating in our Destintion Inspiration journey this month.





Love the diversity of these projects!  Thanks so much for stopping by today and hope that you have entered our Watercolour challenge this month, if not you have until September 1st so break out those watercolours and join in the fun!  Have a great week and as always, happy creating!

Deb xo

Friday, 25 August 2017

Our very special guest is a returning Creative Guide.

Welcome to our monthly special guest spot and we have non other than the amazing Jools Robertson who was a Creative Guide back in the early days of this challenge blog. It's lovely to have her back amongst the fold and creating a very wonderful canvas with fabulous process steps.

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Hello!
I'm so pleased to have been asked to be a guest designer especially as I love watercolours, it has always been my go to medium, so I jumped at the chance!
It also gave me the opportunity to use some of my recent favourite Tim Holtz stamps Flower Garden, Mini Bouquet and Wildflowers.

Here's a little about me, I was always encouraged to be creative from a very young age, both my parents were creative and as a child I would sit quietly for hours drawing, painting and cutting up! 
In fact looks like I was making something with my sock in the picture!!
Nowadays I work full time as a Textile Designer working on commercial Interior projects and developing product collections, so I’m constantly being creative working with textures, design and colour which I love.

In my spare time, I enjoy all types of arts and crafts and working with multimedia and particularly altered art using paint, die cutting, stamps, using lots of colour, texture and experimenting with 
new techniques.

http://joolsrobertson.blogspot.co.uk/

Here's my Wildflower Watercolour Canvas, using the beautiful Tim Holtz stamps with
lots of  lovely layers and  textures.


 I  applied Polyfiller to the back of a 12'' x 12'' canvas and allowed to dry overnight.


Once dry I applied white Gesso to the frame and the canvas.


Applied Crackle paste through a stencil to the frame.


 I cut a piece of watercolour card approx 1/4'' larger than the frame aperture as it will slide under the frame, applied Crackle Paste through the stencils.


 Once dry I stamped the Wild Flowers onto the Watercolour card with Black Stazon.


 Start to apply colour to the Watercolour paper by spraying with Distress Spray Stains Milled Lavender, Peacock Feathers and Iced Spruce.


 Then using a large wash brush to blend.


Applying water colour to add depth at the base of the page.


To colour the frame I used washes of Cobalt Teal Hue.


  and Dioxazine Purple.


 Followed with Carbon Black, if it got to heavy I spritzed with water and blended.


I stamped the  Flower Garden and Mini Bouquet onto watercolour card, cut out and coloured with watercolour paints and Distress Spray Stains Milled Lavender, Peacock Feathers, Dusty Concord and Iced Spruce.


 Highlighted the flower heads with tiny brushstrokes of Schmincke Aqua Bronze- Silver.


Arranged the flowers and fixed with Cosmic Shimmer Glue
and highlighted the frame, dry brushing with Metallic Silver.


Stamps
Flower Garden
Mini Bouquet
Wildflowers

Distress Spray Stains 
Milked Lavender
Dusty Concord 
Peacock Feathers
Iced Spruce

Watercolours
Sennelier
Prima
Jane Davenport

Stencils
Tim Holtz Latticework
Imaginations Weatherwash
DecoArt  American Decor Botanical

DecoArt
Media White Gesso
Media Crackle Paste
Media Fluid Acrylics
Cobalt Teal Hue
Dioxadine Purple
Carbon Black
Metallic Silver

Schmincke Aqua Bronze- Silver

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Wow, Jools you've created such a beautiful flower canvas project and a great step out explaining the steps you took to make it. I love the colour palette and the texture you added to the frame and also how you incorporated the watercolours into the design. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today and for sharing your amazing talent with us.

We still have one more week for you to enter the watercolour challenge, Amanda and the team did an amazing job with all their samples and we there are lots of lovely entries but still space for more if you have an idea up your sleeve. We look forward to seeing it.

Thanks for all your wonderful support, we will be back on Monday with the last August Destination Inspiration post and that'll be Summer gone for this year I suppose. Summer you say - what Summer? I know there really hasn't been much of one in the UK this year, just those lovely few hot days we had back in June. Maybe we'll get an Indian one - well we can hope can't we????

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda and the Creative Guides. xxx



Monday, 21 August 2017

August Destination Inspiration Arriving at Terminal 3

Hi everyone...Annie here with the 3rd stop on this month's journey DI post. I hope you are enjoying the fabulous inspiration provided by Nikki and Alison, which can be viewed by clicking HERE and HERE.
It never ceases to amaze me how we can take 4 of the same products and end up with a totally different outcome and I certainly enjoyed creating my home decor piece. Sorry for mentioning Christmas but I guess it will be here before we know it !!!!
The contents of our  August Travel bag are as follows:

Product - Texture Paste
Technique - Layers
Colour - Neutrals
Substrate - Glass

And here is my finished make, though I hope you forgive the pop of red from my lovely Robin X
I had intended to use a more Neutral napkin but when he popped through the letterbox I just had to add him to my bottle xx
 As you can see I started off with an empty bottle...having enjoyed the contents !!!
 Yesteryear Chalk Paint by Decoart was applied straight on to the clean glass ( no need to prime)
 Once dry I applied some grunge paste and you can see that where I was pressing with my fingers some of the paint came away...but thats okay as once dry it will be covered with another coat of Yesteryear Chalk Paint
 Second coat of paint applied as mentioned above x
 Lots of texture as you can see below
 I then applied Decoart Weathered Wood around the shoulders of the bottle and then randomly on the main bottle/sides.
 When almost fully dry I applied my second colour of Chalk Paint by Decoart called Whisper. A  lovely cream coloured paint.
 I so love the way the Weathered Word reacts and the amazing crackles.
 A closer up of the random cracks below.
 More crackles.
 I also applied some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age the textures/crackles then I applied Decoart Matte Varnish
 Some stardust sparkle was sprinkled on to the mate varnish for that added Christmas feel.
 I then adhered the napkin with gel medium applying the medium to the bottle before laying the napkin on top. Then some more gel medium was applied over the napkin, taking care not to tear it.
I applied the same gel medium to the neck of the bottle and then wound some string around. 
A little snowflake gem was attached to some silver thread.
 And here is the bottle sitting on my windowsill

I hope you have been inspired and if I have missed anything just ask xx
Our monthly challenge is being hosted by the lovely Amanda and her theme is Watercolour. The challenge is open until 31st August so why don't you join in with us. This month's sponsor is Craft Obsessions who are offering a prize to be spent at their online store. 
One of the Creative Guides will be back next Monday with the 4th leg of our journey so I hope to see you there....until then....Happy Crafting !

Huge hugs Annie xx