Destination Inspiration Terminal 4 Vintage Christmas Card

Hello friends and welcome to the 4th and final stop of this month's Destination Inspiration posts. Astrid here with another Christmas card. In case you missed the previous posts, this is what we have in our travel bag this month:

Product : Distress Oxide

Technique : Faded Layers

Colour : Blues

Substrate : White Card

Well this was the first time I tried the Faded Layers technique (you can read all about it in Tim's Compendium of Curiosities Volume 3 page 58). And like my teamies, I did not find it easy....

Like all of us this month I decided to make a Christmas card:

I started by making the Faded Layers panel, choosing 3 bluetones of Alcohol Inks and Yupo paper

I used Denim and Cloudy blue for a first layer and then deepened it with a second layer adding a little Silver Mixative to it too for some sparkling effects.

I mixed in some Aqua  to deepen the colour still further and then used Tim's snowflake stencil to create my faded layer next:

On to the rest of the card, I die cut a snow flake from white card and the word Peace from copper metalic Kraft core and dabbed them lightly with Oxide Inks in Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans for the snowflake, and a little Black Soot mixed in on the word die

I also added a little Distress Glitter to the snowflake for some extra sparkle.

Next I gathered some further diecuts and embellishments and then it was almost time to assemble my card, when I decided I had not used the Oxide Ink ingredient sufficiently. So I took a Kraftcard card blank and used Faded Jeans and Walnut Stain Doxides all around the edges.

I used a piece of white card to mat my faded layer panel, arranged my embellishments until I was happy with the composition and then I was done.

I put some Stampendous Ancient Silver embossing powder around the edges of my card

Well there you have it, and as this is the last stop on our journey this month, just as a reminder, here are the incredible projects my teamies created, using the exact same ingredients:

                           Anne                                             

                  

 

Sara Emily

                                                                                  

Nikki

I am always amazed how using the exact same products and techniques, 4 different people can come up with such different projects. Nikki and I even used the same stencil and yet our cards are so different from each other......

Well that's it for now, - there are still just a few days left to join in our Mini Marvels challenge. If you have not yet done so, we would love to see you there!

Thank you for your visit and happy crafting!

Astrid

A Mini Marvel Guest ........

Welcome Everyone, it's the fourth Friday in the month and I'm really ........ extremely ...............

and positively HAPPY to introduce our Guest for November .........

a fabulous journaller and designer, Kate Crane.

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Hi everyone, Kate Crane here, and I'm very happy to be here! Not only do I have a passion for all things mixed media, I also have a passion for creating anything small and tiny so when I was asked to be a guest designer for this challenge I was delighted as I knew it would be right up my street.

I have been creating mixed media art and art journaling for about nine years now, and regularly teach classes both in person and on-line. You can find details of all of my projects as well as my classes on my blog, where you will also find links to other social media platforms.

Small is beautiful, and although it can be tricky working on such a small scale it is so worth it for the cute results! I created a journal using small greyboard shapes, and then stitched tiny signatures in-between.

I began with eight small greyboard pieces from a Tando Creative grab-bag measuring just 3.5 x 5 cm each. I  coated each piece in black gesso on all sides, allowed it to dry, and then added a coat of white gesso on one side only. I scribbled into mine a bit while it was wet which is an optional step.

I also used a small heart and a washer and added a coat of white gesso to those too.

Once the gesso dried on my small boards I added some scraps of patterned paper using matte medium.

For colour I used DecoArt Fluid Acrylics in Quinacridone Red, Cobalt Turquoise Hue, Green Gold, Carbon Black, along with some Decoart Tinting Base. I painted random patches of colour (making sure the colours did not overlap) on just seven of the pieces, and then used my fingers to add light amounts of Tinting Base where the colours joined. The patterned papers can be painted over or you can allow them to show.

Using coordinating colours of Archival ink as well as some black, I stamped all over the backgrounds using a selection of stamps by Andy Skinner, The Artistic Stamper, and Paper Artsy.

To finish these off I added some doodling with a white gel pen, and some touches of DecoArt Fluid Acrylic in Metallic Gold with the edges of an old credit card, and also painted all of the edges in gold.

Now, on to the cover. I used Tinting Base along with two shades of blue to paint random patches of colour.

I also used Quinacridone Red to paint the heart and then added stamping using an Andy Skinner stamp.

To complete the base of the cover I added a layer of DecoArt one-step crackle, and then added DecoArt Antiquing Cream to really highlight the cracks. The Antiquing cream is added to the whole page and then wiped off with a dry cloth allowing the colour to settle in the cracks.

Once dry I added the heart, and then painted the washer in Metallic Gold and added that too.

I cut several pages for the inserts in cartridge paper measuring 6 x 4.5 cm, and then aged them a little using Distress ink in Walnut Stain.

Nearly there! A length of ribbon or tape is all it takes to hold this little book together. I laid all of my pieces along the tape and then marked the tape where I wanted the signatures to go. The folded signatures will fit just in-between the greyboard pieces. This enabled me to stitch the signatures in the right place along the length of ribbon before gluing all of the other pieces into place.

I love using acrylic paints as you can get such vibrant colour. They are also a very forgiving medium ... if things don't go according to plan you can just paint over it!

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Wow, how's that for a magnificent mini marvel of a project? Thank you Kate, it's beautiful, such a delightful little journal and fabulous process steps for us to see exactly how you put it together. It may well have been a bit tricky but the care and attention to detail was worth all the concentration you put in, just to see it in the photographs it looks perfect, but I can imagine it's even better in real life and holding it in your hands. We really appreciate you making this for our challenge this month and for being our wonderful guest.

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We have some fabulous creations linked to the Mini Marvels challenge and we hope we will see some more of you there with your small creations, remember anything up to 4 x 4 inches. ATCs and similar are perfect, so are small canvases, small journal pages and even toppers that you have designed and made for your cards. Lets see what you are creating at the moment. You have till next thursday to get it linked and don't forget there is a fabulous prize from Southern Ridge Trading Company and you might be chosen as one of our Pinworthy Guests too.

Take care and have a great week.

hugs Brenda, Kate and the Creative Guides xxx

Destination Inspiration - Terminal 3 - Alcohol Ink Christmas Card

Hello and welcome to our third stop of this month's Destination Inspiration. Nikki here to share my creation with our selection of product, technique, colour and substrate. 

Product : Distress Oxide

Technique : Faded Layers

Colour : Blues

Substrate : White Card

We have seen some fabulous designs from Anne and Sara Emily and now it is my turn! I think we have all struggled a little bit with the Faded Layers technique!

I began with my Faded Layers panel, at this point I wasn't sure where I was going but just wanted to make sure I could get an effect! It is subtle but hopefully you can see it.

I added a few blue toned alcohol inks onto glossy card - I added a tiny bit of a rusty colour after this photo for a bit of contrast. Next I selected a stencil and worked on removing to reveal the 'fade'!

I then moved onto my distress oxides - I now had a plan to create a layered Christmas card.

A little bit of background stamping in archival before some oxide was added to my craft mat and spritzed. I lay my card into it to get lots of lovely splodges!

Next I added a some pumice stone DI all over the card and spritzed with water and threw droplets on the card to remove some of both inks.

I then stamped with distress oxide ink and spritzed again to soften the stamped images.

I needed blue layers for matt and layering so took the same DO and sponged around the edge of the cut to size card. I later added a little sponged paint too - as I needed a slightly darker blue to tone with the Faded Layers alcohol ink panel.

I die cut a tree and reindeer from kraftcore card and embossed with a dots folder. I then sponged paint over to tone down the colour and highlight the raised surface.

I stamped my greeting on a scrap of the alcohol ink panel in Versamark and embossed in white.

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to come back on Friday for our Guest Designer this month - I have seen who it is and the project and you won't want to miss this Mini Marvel creation!

Our latest challenge runs for another couple of weeks so do join in with your own Mini Marvel creation!

Nikki

Addicted to Art

Pinworthy Inspiration For November

Hello and thank you for stopping by, we have some wonderful Pinworthy Inspiration to share with you today. Cec from CW Card Creations and Iris from Whimsytouches have created some wonderful tiny projects for our current Mini Marvels challenge, enjoy!

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Cec 

I am a retired Director of Finance and live with my wonderful husband of 42 years just outside Toronto, Canada. We have one daughter who is married and has blessed us with two fabulous grandchildren. I love jazz, reading crime mysteries, cooking, walking and travel.

I have been crafting for as long as I can remember, have done many different ones over the years and still do some counted cross-stitch and some sewing. I started card making around 2006 but really just dabbled at it until 2009 when my job disappeared and then I had lots of time on my hands. As time went on I started to make more vintage and shabby chic cards and was hooked. In the past couple of years I have added more mixed media to my repertoire. I have been blessed to be a member of some fabulous design teams over the years and show my creations on my blog, CW Creations.

Thank you to the team here at A Vintage Journey for the opportunity to visit and share one of my creations.

When I read that the theme for this month set by Anne would be Mini Marvels I was thrilled because I love working in small spaces. I decided to make a micro album and a box to fit it in.

I started with the album and as usual I got really carried away so there are a lot of pages, which means way too many photos for here. I hope you will pop over to my blog where I will give details on each page.

The album itself is 3 3/4" long x 2 1/4" wide x 2" thick and all the pages are tied together with a strip of sari silk and opens like a tag album.

The album is built with some pocket pages that hold photo mats sized to fit those little photos that came in the school package. There are lots of pages that have tuck spots with journaling cards added and a few pages that are for interest only with stamping or embossing.

This was a great way to use up paper scraps or in my case pads that were feeling unloved so there is a variety of manufacturers represented but I tried to tie everything together with lots of black and cream as well as Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The box was built from chipboard and it measures 4" long x 3" deep x 3" high. I used lace, flowers, ribbon and gems to decorate the box top.

Iris

Hello makers! I am so excited to be a Guest Creative Guide at Vintage Journey and share my Assemblage piece "Power Struggle". A little about me; I live in the Washington DC metro area and I am an Arts and Crafts Enthusiast. I have never met an art medium I did not like. I enjoy creating with clay, acrylic paint, sprays, metallic waxes, texture medium, paper, and metal. I like sculpting, creating mixed media canvasses, assemblage, altering bottles, making jewelry. My style ranges from modern, Shabby to Steampunk/Industrial.

The theme for this month is right up my alley. I like to create small and specially create assemblages. Just love small objects encased inside something, creating a small world where we get to peek inside and wonder what't going on.

For my project I created such a small world inside a Tim Holtz box. I wanted to add a little bit of layers and needed a way to attach the the little doll hands without looking like they were just glued to the box. I lined the inside edges with Amaco's Sculptamold, a modeling compound. It's a a combo of plaster and paper mache. Modelers use it to make scenery. You just add a little water. It sets fast and takes two days to air dry. Or you can stick in the oven to dry; 185 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-30 mins (depending on thickness) with the over door slight open (helps get moisture out). The heat will not harm the wood either. Don't heat over 200 degrees or more than half hour at time. Been using this product for other projects and tested it a few times.

The little container with words is made of Polymer Clay. The letters are made of chipboard. I have also added metal gears. Everything was painted with Teal and Brown Milk Paint to add a little color to the gears for a cohesive look. The hands are from a vintage porcelain doll kit, where I had used the other doll parts on other projects, and needed to do something with my hands (ha! ha! a little pun there). The hands have been attached with Apoxie Clay. Well, I hope you like my little assemblage and will visit me on my blog Whimsytouches.

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Once again, our Pinworthy guest Creative Guides have wowed us with their projects, thank you so much for sharing your talent with us all!  Hope that they have inspired you to join in our Mini Marvel challenge too, you have until November 30th to create your tiny masterpieces, can't wait to see what you make.  Happy creating everyone!

Deb and the Creative Guides xo

Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal #2

Hello friends and visitors! It's Sara Emily here with you today to guide you through the 2nd leg of this month's creative journey. Each Creative Guide is using the same four items in our travel bag. To review, we are using the following ingredients:

Product:  Distress Oxide

Technique:  Faded Layers

Colour:  Blue,/Teal/Green

Substrate:  White Card

You can see my talented teammate, Anne's fabulous Christmas tags here. While she says she is not a fan of alcohol inks, I can say I'm not a fan of the Faded Layers technique. But I'm always up for a challenge! I've never had success with the technique using the old alcohol ink papers, but I tried it this time on both the old glossy alcohol ink papers and on some Yupo paper Anne sent me last year. Thank you, Anne! This stuff is the ticket!

Substrate and color:

I chose Bottle, Stream, and Mermaid alcohol inks and Yupo white cardstock (yup, that's what the package says it is). The panel pictured above is not the one I ended up using. I tried this 4 times before I came up with a background I was satisfied with.

I applied my AI colors to my craft mat, squirted the colors with AI Blending Solution, and dipped and dragged my card into the puddle until I was pleased with the outcome.

Technique:

 I made a puddle of Blending Solution and dipped my clean felt applicator into it, and then gently tapped that onto my surface through my tree stencil. You can see I masked off areas as needed, since I wanted to give the appearance of distance in a forest.

Here is what it looked like before I did the next two steps. 

I wanted it to look like the trees were dusted with snow, so I took a clean felt applicator and added Snow Cap Mixative to it. Having replaced my stencil, I tapped this through on just the right side of the trees in the foreground. Once this dried, I took my Speckles stencil and a new clean applicator with blending solution and repeated the Faded Layers technique around the trees. You might be able to see the speckles in the close up photo below.

Product:

Well, I kinda goofed on this, but it turned out all good. I could have sworn the product was alcohol inks, and was the reason I chose Faded Layers as the technique. ( Imagine my shock when I saw Anne's post listing Distress Oxide as the product! No time to start over!) I did happen to use a little Distress Oxide on my trees, so that keeps me honest about the product, I hope.

I die cut my trees for the background and dipped in Peeled Paint Distress Oxide and a touch of Evergreen Bough and Forest Moss (not shown) Distress inks.

For the cut Christmas tree on the car and bow, I colored my die cut white card with Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss (again not shown in my process photo). Before gluing the edges of the two trees and tying it up with string, I put some foam dots between the layers to give it dimension.

Other stuff:

Using the same die set (Home For the Holidays Thinlits) for the entire card, I cut Merry Christmas and the package from gold Metallic Kraft Core and the snowbanks from vellum. I edged the vellum with DecoArt Snowriter and Glamour Dust. The car was cut from Kraft Core Nostalgic, a scrap of Woodgrain card and bumper, tailpipe and hubcaps from a leftover altered scrap of silver Metallic Kraft Core. Lastly, I finished up with a light splatter of Picket Fence Distress paint and matted with white card and more Nostalgic Kraft Core.

Thank you for stopping by today! Our current challenge, Mini Marvels runs until the last of November! I hope you'll join us!

Please stop back next Monday when another Creative Guide will be taking you through yet another creative journey using the travel bag contents.

Hugs!

Sara Emily