Creative Card Making - Buffalo Plaid and Pine

Hello everyone!  Julia here with this month's Creative Card Making Post.  I'm sure everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that the mad rush of the holidays is over and hopefully we all found some time to settle down and enjoy them as well!

So with winter officially upon us, my mind has turned to snow and cold weather, cozy warm houses and buffalo plaid blankets!  

(Buffalo Plaid definition: a broad checkered plaid pattern usually of two colors)

I have two cards to share today inspired by winter and warmth.  

They are the same design but made with different colors.

I recently purchased these lovely dies from The Greetery, Botanicuts: Pine Bough and the Cozy Cup Coaster die and couldn't wait to get them out and create with them. 

I splattered this card with white water color paint.

I adhered chunky glitter to the pine needles.

 How different it looks just by changing colors!

 I splattered this card with yellow ochre water color paint and added just a touch of Distress Evergreen Bough on the white pine needles.

;'

Here are a few photos of my process.  

I die cut lots of pieces as my plan is to make more cards than just these two. 

Easier to do it all at once, right?!

I die cut the pine needles out of green cardstock for the first card but then also sponged them randomly with Evergreen and Pine Needles Distress Inks to give them more depth.

I glued the brown pine branch over the bigger pieces of pine needles and glued the smaller pine needle pieces over the branch (like a sandwich!) which adds even more dimension.

I assembled the pine cones (you just glue the little top piece onto the base and the other pieces just slip into the slots!) and then used colored pencils to color them along the under-edges (is that a word?!).  I brushed over the coloring with a water brush to soften the colors a bit.

I die but the coasters - one red and one white.

To create the plaid,  I masked along the lines impressed on the coaster using sticky notes and sponged every other section with Distress Black Soot, moving the masks along as I sponged.

The lines on the coaster make it very easy to keep your sponging straight!

One direction finished!

Then I turned the coaster and repeated the sponging in the other direction. And there you have the buffalo plaid! I love just looking at this!

And here are all the same pieces done with white card.

I just used a dark orange colored pencil on these pine cones, sponged the branch piece with Distress Vintage Photo and sponged just touches of Evergreen Bough on the pine needles.

Before putting the cards together, I ran some glue along the pine needles and sprinkled with chunky glitter.

After assembling the pieces onto the coasters I splattered the kraft card with white watercolor paint and the white card with yellow ochre water color paint.  Then I adhered the coaster to the card base.  The scalloped edge card base was cut with the Noted: Scalloped Square die from Papertrey Ink.  

My cards are 3 3/4" square.

I hope you have enjoyed my Creative Card Making offering today and I would also like to remind you that you still have until Jan 2nd to link up your card for our December Challenge: Holly Jolly Christmas found here.

From all of the Creative Guides at A Vintage Journey

We wish you a very Happy New Year!

We look forward to you joining us each month in 2020 for our AVJ challenges!

Holly Jolly Christmas Card Tutorial

Hello again Vintage Travelers,

It's S@ndy here with you today to share how I made this festive Holly Jolly Christmas Card.

I hope your holiday season is Merry & Bright and that you have had a chance to join our challenge this month.

When I hear Holly Jolly, my mind goes straight to Santa.  For this Santa the St Nick die from Tim Holtz was used.  When using this die, it is an exercise in paper piecing.  This is a large card measuring 5" X 7" leaving lots of space on the inside for writing a personal note.

I kept the inside clean and simple by using one extra panel edged with Vintage Photo Oxide Ink and one stamp from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  The other cards I made for this year are smaller but I needed a few larger ones for those special people in my life.

 Start with the basic card shown here in manila.  The other two panels for the front of the card are shown above as well.  

 Beginning with the craft colored panel stamp with background stamp in different areas using first and second generation stamping.  This panel was stamped with one of Tim Holtz's older script stamps and the Gina K amalgam ink, Chocolate Truffle.

 To give the panel a wintery look, rub some white pigment ink around the outside of the panel.  By doing this, it will make the background seem to move to the back.

 To give the panel a vintage look, it was stamped around the edges with the same amalgam ink and then clear embossing powder was added and heated.  This gives a nice frame for Santa.  I used some stamps from my stash that were stamped off the edge of the panel.

 When using a die that has not been used for awhile, I need a refresher.   A practice template, shown above, was made to help me remember how the pieces go together.  This is also a good way to see if edging is needed.  I liked the Vintage Photo Ink on the beard.  I drew around the face section so I could cut it out.

The template was used to cut out the face section on the final piece. By lining them up and then drawing around the opening - you get perfect placement.

 The face section was cut away because Velvet paper was used here - I wanted the face to look as if it were in the background behind his beard.

 Before Santa is placed on the card, the holly leaves need to be trimmed off (shown in the circle above) because they will be replaced with green later.

 After Santa was edged - he was placed on the card and then the mustache, hat and nose were added.  The nose is made with Nuvo Drops.

 The finishing touches were added - the holly leaves with small beads for the center and the eyes and eyebrows.

The Happy Holidays greeting was stamped on a banner (both from Elizabeth Craft Designs) and added to the card with foam tape to make it pop up.

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones,

S@ndy

Window On Your World And Tag Friday Pinworthy Winners

Hello everyone, it's time to announce our Pinworthy winners for November's 'Window On Your World' challenge as well as for our Tag Friday link up!  So many lovely entries, the Creative Guides want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to join in our challenges, we love seeing your creations.

First up here are the three Pinworthy Mentions for our November 'Window On Your World' challenge:

Cathy

Nancy

Irina

And now for our November Tag Friday link up winner:

Kerstin

Amazing creations one and all, don't you think?  Cathy, Nancy, Irina and Kerstin, we will be sending you your Pinworthy Mention badges to display on your blog or website soon and will pin your projects to our Pinworthy board on Pinterest.  Thanks so much again for participating in our November challenge and we hope that all of our followers will also join in our current Holly Jolly Christmas challenge, can't wait to see what you create!

Deb and the Creative Guides

Holly Jolly Christmas

Hello fellow travelers,

Today is the start of a new challenge, Holly Jolly Christmas, and this month Anything Goes as long as it says Christmas and is in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

As always - you are in for a big treat because the Creative Guides have outdone themselves once again. Let's not waste any time chatting, let's get started.

S@ndy



When you say Holly Jolly - I think of Santa. I have added the big guy here with a vintage vibe - to see how I made this card come back on the 20th to see a complete tutorial. See you then.

Jennie



Three little Christmas houses, three techniques! I was going to make just one ... but got completely carried away it was so much fun. Do join me over on my blog for more details.

Deb



For Sandy's wonderful challenge theme I decided to alter one of Tim Holtz's Oh Deer clear acrylic clipboards (that I had in my stash and had totally forgotten about!). Hope you can pop on over to my blog to see how it came together, happy holidays everyone!

Ann



For the theme of this month, I made a snow-covered hut. This is a project that I have always wanted to complete. Thanks to Sandy for the wonderful theme that gave me the motivation to complete. I hope you can pop on over to my blog to see how it came together, happy holidays everyone!


Jo



I love everything Christmas so I had great fun Art Journaling this Holly Jolly Christmas page using lots of Tim Holtz products. To see how it came together please pop over to my blog Let's Art Journal.

Sara Emily



For Sandy's festive challenge, I decided to alter a pair of pine cone gift boxes I've had in my stash for years. I welcome you to my blog to see how I've incorporated some old mixed media products along with Tim Holtz new Thinlits die cuts to take these from old cardboard to vintage Christmas.

Astrid



Most of my crafting time at the moment is spent making Christmas cards, so I thought I would share this one for our challenge this month. If you would like to see more details, please visit me on my blog

Barbara



Christmas is my favorite time of the year! At this moment I'm really obsessed with the black background for Christmas projects! I created two mixed media Christmas tags using a lot of Tim Holtz products, a lot of embossing powders and Prima Marketing wax! If you want to see another different couple of tags with the same concept you can find them on my blog Yaya Scrap & More.

Toni

For Sandy's fabulous challenge I've put together this little 'Christmas greetings' assemblage. If you'd like to see how the different elements came together, please hop over to my blog. Oh! and by the way.....'.have a very Merry Christmas !'

I'm sure you will agree that the Creative Guides have shared a wonderful variety of projects, cards and techniques. We look forward to seeing your version of Holly Jolly Christmas. You have until 2 January 2020 to enter your projects.

Happy Holidays,

Vintage Journey Creative Guides

Enter your project here.  Entries close 2 January 2020