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).

Friday, 26 October 2018

Creative Card Making with Autumn

Welcome!  Autumn with you today to share our October Creative Card Making tutorial.  I was in the mood to do something messy and wild and created this very rustic, organic card for you.

 

I started off by gluing some torn Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap to a square watercolor panel with Matte Glue and Seal.  I scraped DecoArt crackle paste over the surface and let it air dry, then came back in and watercolored the panel with Antique Linen Distress Oxide and Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I distressed the edges of the panel then dipped the rim into watery Vintage Photo to provide some contrast.


Next, I gathered my elements, to include two die cuts from the new Tim Holtz Skeleton Leaves and two from the old Wallflowers 2.  I sponged these with Distress Inks as shown using Rusty Hinge, Crushed Olive and Vintage Photo.  I grabbed some handmade flowers I made with the Tattered Florals die and the Large Daisy punch.  The Scroll die was painted with Adirondack Butterscotch paint and dipped in Rusty Hinge. 


Here's a close up of the layers... 


I tucked sisal fibers beneath the flowers.  Check out that crackle...


I added a Handwritten Love die above a stamped scrap, which I cut into a banner.


I splashed the card with green Perfect Pearls spray for interest.  I hope you've enjoyed this project and are inclined to play along in our Autumn Splendour Challenge, where you will find loads more inspiring makes.  Thanks for visiting today, Autumn

Friday, 19 October 2018

Autumn Splendor All Purpose Card Tutorial

Welcome aboard for this month's challenge tutorial post! It's Sara Emily (sarascloset) here to take you step by step through the creation of my inspiration piece for this month's current challenge, Autumn Splendor.


With the glorious colours of fall it would be oh so nice to see some falling leaves, pumpkins, acorns or any other favourite images that brings fall to mind. Just remember to create your project in our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.


 I was a little short on time this month, so I decided to use up a few things I already had on my desk. These two strips of kraft card stock embossed with Tim Holtz Lumber 3D embossing folder worked perfectly for a base. I simply painted them using Ground Espresso paint using the foam top, which leaves the paint mostly on the raised portions.


 I glued the pieces to a second card to make the base layer and trimmed to the size I wanted. I blended with Ground Espresso ink.


To make the focal panel, I used the old iron off embossing technique and Tim Holtz Nature's Wonders leaf stamps.


Using my stamp platform, I inked the sumac leave cluster with embossing ink and stamped repeatedly for each leaf to get really good coverage.


I covered my card with white embossing powder, shook off the excess and heated just until melted. If you heat too much, the lift technique will not work nearly as well.


Next, blend with chosen Distress Oxide inks, and wipe from the embossed areas.


Fold a piece of plain kraft paper over the completed panel to cover it entirely. I have a roll of kraft wrapping paper that works perfectly for this; it's a little on the heavier side. Turn iron on high and iron over the kraft. I keep a travel iron just for crafting, but there are craft irons on the market, or you could use your regular iron.


Here is a photo showing the ink removed from the blue panel to the kraft. I may just use that kraft on another project.


I inked a maple leaf stamp from the same set with two Archival inks and stamped on the panel.


I used the script from Tim's Entomology set and Forest Moss ink for some background stamping. The ink is supposed to be resisted by the little bit of embossing that is left on the panel. I think I may have ironed too hard, or perhaps I didn't heat the powder enough, because that didn't happen in this case. I inked only portions of the unmounted stamp, and then 'rolled' the stamp over the panel, so the stamping is random.


To finish the panel, I blended with Forest Moss ink, heavier on the edges, working lighter toward the center. I don't have a process photo of it, but then I splashed the panel with a little water and dried with my heat tool to get some variation in color. I also splattered on watery Ground Espresso ink with my splatter brush.


Now onto the leaves. I die cut a couple of the leaves using Tim's Skeleton Leaves from Classic Kraft Stock and sanded them fairly heavily.


I added color back in using Distress crayons and heated to melt the color into the card stock.


 I stamped scrap vanilla card with both Ground Espresso Distress ink and Potting Soil Archival inks using a few more of the leaves from Nature's Wonders. I colored them with a water brush and various Distress inks and fussy cut.


To give the leaves dimension, I wet the backs, and shaped them with my flower shaping tools. These consist of a foam pad insert from an costume jewelry box and a swizzle stick. LOL!


For a finishing touch to my card, I painted this sweet pumpkin charm from The Funkie Junkie Boutique. The 'wood' panel was adhered to a card blank cut from Distress Heavy Stock and the blue panel was adhered using adhesive foam to pop it up a bit.


The leaf cluster was assembled, along with dyed seam binding and some flowers from my stash. I thought it needed just a bit of white in the arrangement, and I found the embossed and crackled Laurel Impresslit I had rejected from another project.

Thank you so much for joining me for this tutorial. You still have plenty of time to join in our Autumn Splendor challenge and you can get all the details HERE along with some fabulous inspiration from the Creative Guides. You have until November 2 to link your project. We look forward to seeing what you create! And please stop back next week, when Autumn will be back with another card tutorial to tempt you with.

Happy Crafting!
Sara Emily

Friday, 12 October 2018

Back to Nature Pinworthy Winners

Hello Creative Travellers!

Jennie here with you today to announce our three chosen Pinworthy winners for our Back to Nature Challenge last month.  The challenge theme prompted some wonderful submissions and we thank you all for joining in and sharing your creativity with us.

Selecting three pinworthies is very difficult and we always have difficulty in narrowing our choices down to just three winners. So after much deliberation these are the three projects which really caught the eye of all of us:

In no particular order:



Two beautiful but very different cards. We loved the gorgeous subtle neutrals of the wildflower meadow with the tumbled leaves and also the vivid colour tones of the leaves against the wonderful inky spattered background.



A fabulous Autumn wreath with the most glorious texture, dimension and colour. The beautifully embossed, inked and stamped background is stunning too.



A very unusual exploding box with stunning Autumn embellishments made from polymer clay.

Congratulations to you all. 
We will be in touch shortly with your badges and your creations will be pinned to our Pinterest boards.

Thank you again to all of you who joined in the Back to Nature Challenge. We hope you will join us this month for Sara Emily's fabulous Autumn Splendour Challenge. All the details and inspirational projects created by the Creative Guides can be found HERE.

Have a great weekend!

Jennie x

Friday, 5 October 2018

October Challenge : Autumn Splendour

Hello fellow travellers, and welcome to our latest challenge here at A Vintage Journey. Sara Emily here with you today from sarascloset as your hostess for this challenge:

AUTUMN SPLENDOUR 

With the glorious colours of fall it would be oh so nice to see some falling leaves, pumpkins, acorns or any other favourite images that brings fall to mind. Just remember to create your project in our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

I hope you will love what the Creative Guides have created to inspire you and that you will find time to play along with us this month. We can't wait to see what you will create!
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Oh, how I love autumn's boldly colored foliage and blue skies!  I chose to make a super quick and easy card that's chock full of the season's colors. Please stop by my blog to see some close ups, and I'll have a full tutorial on how I created it right here in a couple of weeks.


I created this little folio for Sara Emily's wonderful theme. It doubles as a birthday card for my daughter whose birthday was just recently. If you want to see what is hidden inside, please visit me on my blog.



I absolutely adore the colours of Autumn and wanted to create an art panel with as many of the colours of this season as possible. I have used PaperArtsy Infusions over a gesso background and incorporated a number of paper clay embellishments as well. Do join me over on my blog if you would like to see more.

Alison


Ah, autumn... pretty much the only time when really bold colours start to appear on my craft table!  For my Autumn Splendour, I wanted to capture the glory of the changing leaves against one of those vivid blue autumnal skies you sometimes get.  Do come over to Words and Pictures to see more details of this huge jumbo tag.



For this wonderful theme I used lots of dies to create my tag.  Autumn is my favorite color palette so I used every one that I possibly could.  I hope you enjoy and will stop by my blog here to see more.
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Surely you are inspired by so many wonderful autumnal projects! Please join us for this colorful challenge; we are looking forward to seeing your fabulous projects.

We are always amazed by your talent and creative takes on the theme every month. The Creative Guides select three Pinworthies at the end of each challenge which are featured in a post the following month. If you are one of our chosen entries you will receive a badge of honour and your projects are pinned to our Pinterest boards.

Happy creating!
Sara Emily and the Creative Guides