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 30 November 2018

Tag Friday

Welcome everyone to a new Tag Friday and I think our fourth one for this year. Tag Fridays occur when there are five Fridays in the month and we have this special event to complete the monthly schedule. It is an opportunity for the Creative Guides to get out the inks and paint and enjoy a session without the constraints of a theme. We hope you might like to join in and share a tag or two that you have been creating this month. (see below)



'Tis the start of the holiday season (how quickly that came!) so I just had to make a Christmas tag!
If you'd like to see how I put my Christmas tag together - please saddle up your reindeer and fly in your sleigh over to my blog!



With the holiday season soon to be upon us, I decided to do something a little different for this Tag Friday and incorporated my hang tags into a couple of Christmas cards.  Pop on over to my blog for my Christmas tag card tutorials!



The inspiration for this tag set was the beautiful set of stamps by Lynne Perrella, one made into a card and the other just a tag. If you want to see how they came together, just pop by my blog



I recently bought a flower arranging magazine which had some lovely inspiration for Christmas and Winter arrangements. I would never have thought to combine lime green with red and white! Do join me over on my blog if you would like to see more.



One my favorite newer crafty goodies is Tim Holtz Botanical 3D Texture Fade. I've combined it with Tim's Skeleton Leaves, some older leaf die cuts and flowers from my stash for a super quick make. If you have a minute, please pop over to sarascloset for the details.



Hi everyone...its lovely to join in with Tag Friday and I just had to share the super cute deer from Tim Holtz Cool Yule Dies by Sizzix. He really is so sweet and I just fell in love with him. For details of the process and products used click HERE
Hope you have a great time creating your own tags too xx



A pair of simple wintry tags from me... well, it's December 1st tomorrow, so I thought it was about time to break out the winter stamps and dies.  These are really all about the backgrounds for me - a chance to play with the Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide (finally!).  Do come over to Words and Pictures and check out some close ups.



Are you ready, Christmas is nearly here!  I did a small grungy tag with, none other than, Santa.
I hope you will stop by for a friendly visit to my blog here to see more of the Jolly Guy.
Hope to see you there.


Brenda

 I'm really starting to get Christmas under way and decided to use the lovely paper dolls pack and some collage elements for this Christmas Tag. The process steps are over on Bumblebees and Butterflies if you'd like to see more.

Amanda


For my Tag Friday contribution I decided to challenge myself to create a tag using only the 'bits and pieces' I had laying around my work desk that I have neglected to tidy away over the last couple of months.  If you would like to find out more then please feel free to pop by my blog.


So having been inspired by the fabulous makes by the Creative Guides please do share with us any tags you may have posted during the month of November or make and post one before the linky closes on the 6th December. We would love to see what you have been focusing on and you have unlimited entries. Our host of this month's challenge (Sandy) will choose one of those submitted as a Pinworthy and it will be pinned on our Pinterest Board and showcased in next month's Winner's post. The linky will close 23.55 GMT on the 6th December so you have one week to get your entries in.
Have fun.

hugs Brenda and the Creative Guides
xxx



Friday 23 November 2018

Creative Card Making - Christmas!

Christmas Cards with Tim Holtz Shifter Layering Stencils and Stampers Anonymous Festive Overlay stamp set.
Hi everyone, Nikki (Addicted to Art) here with our monthly Creative Card making feature. I have created a set of Christmas cards featuring two of Tim Holtz's recent products; Festive Overlay stamp set and Shifter Stencils.

My cards are 5 x 7 inches. I began with my stencilled layers - each card using a different stencil - Shifter Stencils - Trees and Stars plus 2 older layering stencils - Stars and Snowflakes. For the shifter versions I used white embossing powder on versamark for the first position and then shifted the stencil and added texture paste.
Once I completed all four I added Distress inks and oxides in varying colour schemes. I brayered over the surface of some of the texture with white gesso to highlight the texture. 
Here is close up of the Snowflakes with Gesso brayered over the surface.....
Christmas Cards with Tim Holtz Shifter Layering Stencils and Stampers Anonymous Festive Overlay stamp set.
....and the shifted stars - some embossed and some texture paste. I let the ink absorb into the texture paste on this one to contrast with the white embossed stars.
Christmas Cards with Tim Holtz Shifter Layering Stencils and Stampers Anonymous Festive Overlay stamp set.
I then stamped the Festive Overlays in coordinating colours and die cut ovals to place on the cards. I added various embellishments - seam binding, twine, rhinestones and punched stars to complete the cards.
Christmas Cards with Tim Holtz Shifter Layering Stencils and Stampers Anonymous Festive Overlay stamp set.

Christmas Cards with Tim Holtz Shifter Layering Stencils and Stampers Anonymous Festive Overlay stamp set.

Christmas Cards with Tim Holtz Shifter Layering Stencils and Stampers Anonymous Festive Overlay stamp set.

Christmas Cards with Tim Holtz Shifter Layering Stencils and Stampers Anonymous Festive Overlay stamp set.
Thanks for visiting today. We are back here at AVJ next Friday for one our favourite Tag Fridays. In the meantime do join in this months challenge - Paper Stash.
Nikki
xxx

Friday 9 November 2018

Autumn Splendor Pinworthy Winners

Welcome aboard! Sara Emily here with you today to announce our three chosen Pinworthy winners for our Autumn Splendor challenge last month.  We had some wonderful entries, and we thank you all for joining in and sharing your creativity with us.

Selecting our pinworthies is very challenging, and we always have difficulty in narrowing it down to just three winners. So after much deliberation here are the three projects which really caught the eye of the Creative Guides:

In no particular order:







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 Autumn Splendor challenge. We hope you will join us this month for Sandy's challenge Paper Stash. All the Challenge details and an inspirational gallery of projects created by some of the Creative Guides can be located here.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting!
Sara Emily

Friday 2 November 2018

Paper Stash

Hi vintage travelers and welcome to a new challenge.  It's S@ndy - I'm your host this month with the theme of "Paper Stash".   Here is exactly how the challenge goes:

I am sure we all have them, those endless bits of beautiful scrapbook papers we have hoarded over the years. Create a project of any kind using them in creative ways in our preferred vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk styles.

We love to see what you make and how your imagination interrupts the challenge.  I invite you to link your creations below.  The creative guides have some fabulous Paper Stash projects to share as well - so let's take a look.

For this challenge I went with a Twist Panel Pop Up card.  I used some great paper from Graphic 45 and a die set from Karen Burniston.  I hope you will visit my blog where I have a video clip of how it opens.  Hope to see you there.

Our challenge this month is fabulous, but oh so difficult to cut into some of my absolutely favourite Paper Stash !!! I have used Eileen Hull's dies (Trinket Box and Needlework Book) to make a box with a little book inside using these gorgeous vintage papers, labels and tags. Please do join me on my blog if you would like to see more.

Tim Holtz Worn Wallpaper and Festive Overlay Stamp Set
Like many others, when I purchase new paper I really am reluctant to start using it! I have kept this project simple and got ahead with my Christmas Card making using the fabulous Tim Holtz Christmas Worn Wallpaper and Festive Overlay stamp set. More details and cards over on my blog today.

 
For our Paper Stash challenge, I pulled out the leftovers from my Tim Holtz Christmas pages from the last few years and pieced together a December Daily travelers journal using the Eileen Hull die.  I hope you'll pop by SewPaperPaint to see the details.

I am currently involved in a mail art group swap and decided to make the envelopes to send my swap items in, from one of my favourite paper collections. If you would like to see more, do come by
my blog

I am so happy to be playing in Sandy's Paper Stash challenge this month. Like many crafters I have so many lovely papers and it was really nice to be able to create this card for a dear friend's birthday, incorporating lots of papers/details. To view the step by step process on my blog click HERE Looking forward to viewing your entries xx

Brenda

I've chosen to make a vintage Christmas card using an off cut of an old 12x12 paper and a piece of the new Tim Holtz worn wallpapers. I really must use more of my paper stash to make cards this year then I'll hopefully make a bigger dent in the stack I've gt up on a shelf. If you'd like to see how the card came together please visit me over at Bumblebees and Butterflies.



Well, there you have it and I think you will agree, that's some awesome makes from the Creative Guides.  Don't forget to get that paper out and add your awesome project to the link below, you have until December 6.