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 28 December 2018

Creative Card Making With Deb

Hello everyone, hope you all had a joyous Christmas with family and friends and are now getting a chance to sit back and relax!  It's Deb here today and I have some quick and easy thank you cards to share with you using some of your Christmas leftovers (because if you are like me, quick and easy is the only type of card you have the interest or energy to make right now LOL!)


These little 4" x 4" (10 cm x 10 cm) thank you cards were created with Christmas gift wrap and ribbons dug out of the recycling bin, some leftover Christmas scrapbook papers that were on my desk and a few stamps and die cuts.  Quick, easy and a great way to say 'thanks' for the Christmas gift by incorporating some of the wrapping papers and ribbons that they were packaged in!

Banners Full Of Thanks Card


Cut a 4" x 4" card blank from white cardstock and then cut 3 banner shapes from leftover Christmas scrapbook papers and one from kraft cardstock.  Stamp the work 'thanks' onto the kraft banner.


Make an envelope from upcycled Christmas wrapping paper, you can turn the pattern to the inside of the envelope if you prefer.  I have a We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board but if you don't have one simply cut a 6 5/8" square from the wrapping paper, cut a V notch in the middle on all four sides, score and fold in the sides between the V notches.  Voila, an envelope!


Adhere the stamped kraft banner on top of the scrapbook paper banners and thank you card #1 is done.


Washi Tape Thank You Card


With some alphabet dies (these are Tim Holtz's Alphanumeric dies) align the thank you sentiment on your work surface and then pick up the arranged letter dies with some low tack tape (think I learned this trick from Jennifer McGuire).


Die cut the sentiment into the front of your 4" x 4" card blank and cover another 3" x 3" piece of cardstock with overlapping layers of Christmas washi tape (this is one of Tim Holtz's Christmas Design Tapes).  Add a strip of the same washi tape down the outside edge of the card front.


Adhere the washi tape covered square behind the 'thank you' cut outs, make an envelope from more upcycled Christmas wrapping paper and thank card #2 is done.


Heartfelt Thank You Card


Die cut two circles with a nesting circles die set (this set is by Gina K. Designs), cutting the largest circle from sanded gold Metallic Kraft-Stock and the inner circle from Christmas scrapbook paper.  Die cut a heart in the center of the smaller circle and adhere a piece of upcycled Christmas wrapping paper behind it.


Cut a 4" x 4" card blank from a coordinating Christmas scrapbook paper and adhere the nested die cut circles on top. Make another envelope from the same upcycled Christmas wrapping paper as you used behind the heart cut out and thank you card #3 is done (note: you can ink the edges of your die cuts if you'd like before adhering them but that step is totally optional :O)


Woven Ribbon Thank You Card


Cut a 4" square from cardstock and add a line of double sided tape around all four edges.  Gather some bits and bobs of Christmas ribbon and weave them together, over and under, using the tape around the edges to hold the woven ribbons in place as you go.


Trim off the excess ribbon and die cut a 'frame' from some nested square dies (these are Tim Holtz's Stitched Squares dies), adhering it overtop of the woven ribbon square.  Die cut a small square for your sentiment and stamp 'thank you' onto it in a diagonal orientation.  Cut a 4" x 4" card blank from kraft cardstock and adhere the framed woven ribbon onto the front.


Adhere the stamped sentiment on top of the woven ribbon, make another envelope from some upcycled Christmas wrapping paper and thank you card #4 is done.


I hope that you've enjoyed seeing how these quick and easy thank you cards came together and that you will be able to use these ideas to make some of your own.  It's a great way to add a personal touch to your thank you cards with the added bonus of upcycling/recycling some of that Christmas wrapping paper and ribbon!


Thanks as always for stopping by today and don't forget to check out our current 'Star Light Star Bright' challenge, you have until midnight January 3rd, 2019 to enter.  And speaking of 2019, I'd like to take this opportunity on behalf of all the Creative Guides here at A Vintage Journey to wish you a very Happy New Year, may it bring you and yours much happiness, prosperity and good health!

Deb xo

Friday 21 December 2018

Star Light Star Bright Tutorial

It's Julia here - back with a short tutorial showing how I made my card for this month's Star Light Star Bright challenge!
 First I die cut all my pieces -  the starry sky, the reindeer family and the landscapes.
To create snowy tops to the landscape pieces I inked the top edges with Versamark and then embossed with Shabby White Frantage Embossing Powder.
  I die cut the stars out of a panel of blue Core-dinations paper and layered it over a panel of Metallic Silver Paper.  I adhered the landscape pieces along the bottom.  I had die cut the deer out of gold metallic paper - and then decided I wanted them to have textured fur coats!  So I embossed them with Dirty Sand Baked Texture Embossing powder.
For the large star in the sky - I used a 3D star die.  It was larger than I wanted so after I die cut it out of silver metallic paper, I drew lines along all of the edges about 1/4" in and cut on the lines to make the star smaller.
I creased the star on the score lines and adhered it to the starry night sky using a thick foam dot so the dimension of the star wouldn't get flattened!  I adhered the deer with thinner foam dots. 
And to finish it off -  I added a Metallic Sticker/Holiday Talk.

You can still join in our December Challenge by linking up your Star Light Star Bright creation here on the challenge post.  You have until Jan 3rd at 6 pm Greenwich time!
Thank you so much for stopping by A Vintage Journey today!
May we wish you a happy holiday season!
Paper:  White - PTI,  Silver and Gold Kraft Stock Metallic Paper - Tim Holtz/Idea-ology, Blue Kraft Core-dinations.
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories:  Winter Wonderland Die - Tim Holtz/Sizzix, Stitched Landscape dies - Poppy Stamps, 3D Star - Savvy Dies, heat tool, Dirty Baked Texture Embossing Powder - Emerald Creek, Shabby white Frantage Embossing Powder - Stampendous, Metallic Stickers/Holiday Talk - Tim Holtz/Idea-ology, thick foam dots. 

Friday 14 December 2018

Paper Stash - Pinworthy Choices and Tag Friday Winner

Hello - S@ndy here with you today to announce our three Pinworthy winners for our Paper Stash challenge last month.  We had some fabulous entries, and we thank you all for joining in and sharing your creative adventures with us.

Selecting our pinworthies is difficult for the Creative Guides, and  narrowing it down to just three winners is a task taken seriously. So after much deliberation here are the three projects which really caught the eye of the Creative Guides:

In no particular order:



Congratulations to our winners - we will be in touch shortly with your badges and your creations will be pinned to our Pinterest boards.
Thanks once again to all of you who joined in the Paper Stash challenge. We hope you will join us this month for Julia's challenge Star Light Star Bright. All the Challenge details and an inspirational gallery of projects created by the Creative Guides can be located here.

Now for those of you who submitted a tag for our Tag Friday, we have a winner.  
That winner is:

#3 Karen's Creation


Congrats Karen!

Have a wonderful holiday season and happy crafting!
S@ndy & the Creative Guides











Friday 7 December 2018

December Challenge: Star Light Star Bright

Hello fellow Vintage Journey travelers, and welcome to our December challenge!  It's Julia with you today from Create with Me as your hostess and here is my challenge for you!

Star Light Star Bright

This month we are asking you to to create with stars. Fill up the dark winter sky with them or use one really big one as your central focus. Stencil them, stamp them, emboss them or die cut them. Make a card, make a star box, make a canvas, create a journal page - remembering to create in the vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial or steam punk styles.

I'm pretty sure you will be excited by what the Creative Guides have to share below and that you, in turn, will be inspired to create your own Star Light Star Bright project to share with us!

 I created a winter scene with snowy hills and a family of deer gazing up at the large silver star  standing out among the millions of smaller stars in the night sky!   You will find a few more photos of my card here on my blog.
I'll be back here at AVJ on 12/21/18 posting my full tutorial for you!

We are very lucky here in Shetland to have clear skies where it is possible to see so many stars clearly in the night sky. They sparkle so brightly you can almost hear them! Do visit me over at Live The Dream if you want to see how I made my frosty and sparkling star for Julia's lovely challenge.

My trio of starry tags came about as part of another collaborative crafting process via Skype.  If you'd like to find out more, do come and visit me at Words and Pictures.  You'll get a proper look at the sparkling starlight there, as well as being able to see those twiggy trees without huge shadows under them - yes, I gave myself another tricky photography task with these!

I have created a seasonal wall hanging in time for Christmas for this challenge. I had great fun making this one as it was another adventure in Skype crafting! Gather a few distant friends, connect via technology, and create 'together' while following a few rules! All the details can be found over on my blog.

The day started with a large mdf board, my paints and mediums, the ipad and a thought that I would create something wintry or Christmassy. The ipad linked me to a crafty skype session with lovely teamies and this is what appeared. If you'd like to see the process steps please pop over to Bumblebees and Butterflies where all will be revealed.

I decided to create a reverse canvas for Julia's lovely challenge. Unfortunately the light here has been so bad, that I was unable to take step out photos of this project, but for a description please head to my blog, for further details.

My favourite die for this year is Tim Holtz Merry Moose, he always makes me smile! I created a small vignette -and it lights up too! You can see more HERE 

I really wanted the Star of Bethlehem to  be the focus of my card, but if you stop by sarascloset you'll find that's not the only star in the night sky!

For the last couple of years, around this time I have enjoyed creating a project/ piece of art that has a wintery, snowy feel so I saw Julia's challenge as an opportunity to continue my trend by creating a snowy scene with a winter blue sky full of falling snowy stars.  For more details please feel free to pop by my blog.
 
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 will be pinned to our Pinterest boards.

You have until January 3, 2019 at 6 pm Greenwich time to add your link!

Happy creating!
Julia and all of the Creative Guides