Destination Inspiration, Terminal 3 - Alison

Hello all, it's Alison here arriving at Terminal 3 of Destination Inspiration.  We've already stopped for wonderful projects at Terminal 1 with Anne and at Terminal 2 with Deb, and now it's my turn to create with the contents of the travel bag this month.
Just as a reminder, this is what's in the suitcase:

Product - Paint

Substrate - Tag

Colour - Smoky Grey Blue (think Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood)

Technique - Resist (paint, embossing or mediums)

And here's the tag I came up with...

I started by putting a coat of PaperArtsy Chalk Fresco Paint onto a plain manila tag, and then stamping Tim Holtz's Cracks background in Versamark and clear-embossing it.

So that was my paint and my resist - now for something for it to resist!  I used Distress Stains in Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood and Hickory Smoke to create the almost stained glass look.

Having the coat of paint underneath means the Stains don't soak into the tag in the same way - they sit on the surface a little and create lovely effects as you dry them.  You can see the grain of the paint brush strokes too, which I really like.

By now I'd covered all the travel bag contents requirements, so I was free to go in any direction with what to put over my background.  Whatever I did next, I would still have my lovely light-catching resist mosaic.

The gorgeous Bird Silhouette is a favourite die of mine so I cut him from some Tim Holtz paper and inked the edges with Ground Espresso DI.

Some more paper scraps provide the "ground" for him to stand on.  He's mounted on padded tape, by the way, to give that extra touch of dimension.

I was in a gentle frame of mind, so I cut some soft off-white Wildflower die-cuts to go behind him (also inked with Ground Espresso)...

... and I added some actual dried Wildflower stems to the mix.  I love the fragile dimensionality - not one for sending through the post, this!

Adding the lower parts of the stems was an afterthought.  They're just tucked in, but I think they're positioned about right to create the illusion that they're all attached somewhere behind his back.

Obviously I needed some words - Small Talk stickers to the rescue, as so often.  I can't think what I did before these little phrases were released.

So that's my Destination Inspiration tag for you.  I hope you like it.

Do drop in next Monday to see who's at Terminal 4 and, in the meantime, we'd love you to come and play in Amanda's fantastic Stencil It challenge - there's still plenty of time.  Thanks so much for stopping at Destination Inspiration with me today.  See you again soon.

Alison x

Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal 2

Hello everyone, Alison here, arriving at Terminal 2 of our Destination Inspiration posts this month.  Just to remind you, here's what's in the travel bags...

Substrate - Canvas

Colour - Bubblegum Pink

Technique - Texture Paste through a Stencil

Product - Lace

I hope you've already seen Jennie's lovely creation at Terminal 1, and here's where I landed up with the contents of my luggage...

It's a pretty chunky 6x6 canvas, so there was lots of room to play on the sides too.  But it also means that we're pretty photo-heavy today in order to try to catch things from every angle!

Pink isn't a colour I use often (though it has been known - there are some links in the sneak peek back over at Words and Pictures if you're curious), and I simply don't have anything which would count as a true Bubblegum Pink, so I cooked up a combination of Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick which I hope is quite bubble-gummy.  And, since straight pink doesn't quite look like "me" to me, I added in the spice of some Ripe Persimmon and some soft Dried Marigold to the mix.

I started by gluing several lengths of lace across the lower part of the canvas and then stencilled texture paste through one of Andy Skinner's stencils, all of this spilling over the sides too, of course.

I gave it all a coat of DecoArt Everlasting Chalky Finish (White) and then a coat of the Primitive (a soft stone colour) after that as I'd decided to add some crackle (of course).  I applied the crackle glaze (the one specially formulated for the chalk paints) with my finger so that I could be nice and random with how thickly or thinly it was spread in different places.

Once dry, I went again with the Everlasting, and it crackled up nicely to give a weathered, aged finish (excuse the deep shadows - morning sunlight on my craft desk!).

Then I started adding my colours... just love how they split and run over the cracks and the lettering.  You'll notice it's mostly nice and bright here...

... but as it dried overnight, it took on a softer hue, especially over the lace.  I could have solved that with a layer of matte medium and reapplying bright colours over that, but I rather liked the slightly gentler effect.

As you can see, I lightened up towards one corner of the canvas - it's mostly just Worn Lipstick and Dried Marigold up here.

And of course, the colour shading carries on over the sides...

 so that the bottom edge is pretty full on...

... as is the right hand side.

The left side shades towards the pastels as the front of the canvas does...

... and the top is very pale and subtle except for the right end where it meets the full on colour again.

It took me a while to sort out exactly what was going to go on top of all this colourful texture.  I knew flowers had to be part of it... 

But it took me a while to decide a photo was also needed, and then to get the right photo.  This beauty is from one of Finnabair's ephemera packs.

As you can see I'd initially thought one of these large wordbands would be the main focal point, with no photo at all...

... but once the photo arrived there was still room for this one, altered with some alcohol inks, to keep its place.

The breakthrough for me - from something which seemed pretty but not quite alive - was when I tried out some of these gorgeous Calico Craft Parts maple leaves.  

And when I remembered I had the tiny flower heads used on a couple of my favourite projects and brought them into the picture too... 

Well, that's when I started to get really happy.

And the final piece in the puzzle, the one that made me think, "ah, now we're getting there", was the rusty wire to hold the large wordband in place.

At last I had a canvas which hit the spot for me.  I hope it does for you too, and I hope you'll be back next Monday to see who's arriving next at Destination Inspiration.

In the meantime, do come and play along with Astrid's Texture and Embossing Pastes challenge (which all the DIs this month could also serve as inspiration for, given the travel bag contents!), and do remember to pop in on Friday to check out our Pinworthy Guests.  See you again soon!

Alison x

Words and Pictures

Destination Inspiration - June Terminal 4

Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures, and I'm delighted to have arrived at Terminal 4 to share June's fourth and final Destination Inspiration project with you.

Packed in the travel bag this month we had:

Main Colour - Walnut Stain

Technique - Layering Stencil and Texture Paste

Substrate - Watercolour Paper

Product - Any Tattered Die

Three of my fellow Creative Guides have already shared their inspiration with you, keeping us all fuelled for the journey (you can see their roadmaps of inspiration again at the end of the post), and now it's my turn.  Here's what I came up with...  (I had to make this some time ago before life got busy, but I'll do my best to remember how I put it together!)

I started by cutting a large tag out of a sheet of watercolour paper, and applied texture paste through the fabulous Typo stencil before spritzing with Walnut Stain Distress Spray.  I tried to keep some whiter spaces, and places where you can really see the delicate splatter pattern from the spray.

I decided I wanted the Typo lettering to pop a little more, so I did some dry-brushing with Picket Fence Distress Paint to highlight the texture.

I'm not much of a flower-maker in the general way of things, but I know where to go when I do want to do some... my fellow Creative Guide Jennie has some amazing tutorials over at her blog Live the Dream, and I almost always go there for help when I'm using the Tattered Florals die.

I followed her Cabbage Rose design for my large flower (I've enjoyed the results in the past, and it didn't fail me this time either) and a sort of half version of the same for the smaller ones.  I did less curling of the petals on the small roses as my book pages I was using weren't really strong enough to take it.

So with all my components in place, I now had the fun of adding collage elements and embellishments to finish the whole thing off.

I used one of the brilliant Photobooth photos, and layered up paper scraps and other ephemera to frame it.

I altered my metal embellishments with alcohol ink and some Treasure Gold.  I think the clock looks pretty good peeking out from behind the roses.

I particularly like the effect on the WordBand.  I thought about applying paint to accent the lettering, but decided I rather liked how subtle the words are like this.

I like the dark Teakwood and Espresso alcohol inks contrasting with the bright gilding.

I needed something a little brighter to carry the eye on a longer journey and capture the light in places, so I grabbed some thick card off-cuts from the Frameworks Honeycomb die which were hanging around on my craft table and gave them a coat of Antique Linen Distress Paint and then one of Rock Candy Crackle Paint.

Once it was dry and cracked, I pressed the pad of my Walnut Stain Distress Stain down onto them to let the ink sink into the crackles to highlight them.

The seam binding at the top has had a close encounter with the Walnut Stain inkpad so that it tones in with the rest of the tag.

And I'm a complete spatter fiend at the moment - can't resist it!  You can see the dry-brushing and a little hint of Treasure Gold highlighting the texture here too.

So there you have it... my roadmap of inspiration to re-charge your batteries for the next stage of the journey.

 I hope you like it.

As promised, here's a recap of all the Destination Inspiration projects from this month.  I love seeing how each Creative Guide uses the same luggage from the travel bag to create such different and individual projects.

Terminal 1 - Jennie

Terminal 2 - Anne

Terminal 3 - Astrid

Terminal 4 - Alison

So there you have it - I hope your creativity is firing on all cylinders after all that.  You've still got a bit of time left to come and join in S@ndy's Celebrations challenge, so get cracking!

What will be packed in the travel bag next month?  And how will each Creative Guide use the components to fuel our onward Vintage Journey? You'll just have to come back each Monday to find out... Bon Voyage!

Alison xx