A little extra musical inspiration...

Hello all!  It's Alison here, your tuneful host of this month's Words and Music challenge.  Our new itinerary means that in the third week of our challenge month we stop off for a while with the host for some extra inspiration.  It might be a tutorial for their challenge project, or a whole new creation.

I pretty much shot the bolt with my step-by-step for Under the Greenwood Tree over at Words and Pictures, so I'm here with a fresh bit of musical inspiration for you... a quick tag full of melodies and musical thoughts.

For my main project - Under the Greenwood Tree - I went for some song lyrics as the inspiration, so this time I've taken the other approach to the theme and used both music paper and some words about music on my tag.

I started by gluing down some vintage music paper onto a standard #8 tag.

I applied Versamark ink through the Tim Holtz Harlequin stencil and then a couple of coats of Seth Apter's fabulous Vintage Beeswax powder.  Just look at that glossy dimension, and the warm honey-coloured tone.  It's lovely.

I spritzed some Pumice Stone Distress Spray, followed by Broken China, and then flicked water droplets over the top, and sanded the edges for a more distressed look.

I added a wash of white paint, wiped back, and then splattered tiny droplets, and used a lid to add some circle shapes in a couple of places.

These Sizzix Coffee Marks die-cuts had been hanging around on the table for a while after being rejected from some other project, but I decided their time had come.

I stamped the quote from my PaperArtsy EAB03 Music and Silence stamp set, cut it into sections, and doodled around the edges with a fine black pen.

The wonderful Paper Doll dancer was also asking to come and dance amidst the music.

And just down by her feet, you find out who wrote those words.

I mounted the tag on some white card, just to echo all the white accents going on, and doodled some more fine black lines around the edges of the tag.

The whole thing is topped off with some Distress Ink-dyed crinkle ribbon and curly paper string.

I don't use black very much, but it was already there in the printed music, so I went with it - but to me this doesn't look very "me"... what do you think?  It's always good to experiment though, right?

I hope this has given you an extra nudge to come and get musical with us this month at A Vintage Journey.  Check out the details of the Words and Music challenge as well as the fabulous inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides and then come and join us on the journey.  We'd love to see you there.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Alison xx

Creative Card Making Tutorial in a Rusty, Crusty Style

Welcome! It's the fourth Friday of the month, and that means it's time for our 'Creative Cardmaking' feature here at A Vintage Journey. Sara Emily here sharing some ideas for putting together a card focusing on our preferred genres - vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk style.

My husband reminded me his brother's birthday was coming up and wanted to mail him a card today. Yikes! This is a simple card and took me less than an hour from idea to photo session. Using a selection of Tim Holtz products makes this super easy.  I have a product list on my blog. Sadly, I have no step by step photos, since I was really pressed for time.

I started by choosing this dapper fellow from the Paper Dolls pack, and my vignette was formed from that. I thought the chap looked a little bit like my brother in law. I knew I would add some gears (there's always plenty of them in the Closet!), so next I chose an appropriate, old Tim Holtz paper stash paper for my background. These are all kind of jumbled up, so I don't know which pad it's from. To add some timeworn quality to the paper, I dipped it in a watery puddle of Vintage Photo Distress Oxide and dried it. Gently tapping it into the remaining ink and then adding Seth Apter's Patina Oxide Baked Texture randomly and heating gives it some rusty interest. Distressing the edges with a distressing tool (or you could use scissors), and blending the edges with a dark brown ink (I used Ground Espresso) always adds some vintage or timeworn quality.

An easy way to add some interest to the Paper Dolls is to provide a backdrop for them. You could do this with some ephemera or vintage papers from your stash, but I chose to do some stamping on a scrap of cardstock laying on my desk. I dipped it in the leftover Vintage Photo DOX on my craft mat, spritzed with water and dried. Add some darker Distress ink randomly, and splash with some water, then dry for some more vintage goodness. The stamp is one of my newest of Tim's inked in Watering Can archival. More distressing and tearing off edges, then swiping with a Distress Crayon, heated to melt. I backed this panel with a scrap of chipboard to give it sturdiness and add little dimension from the background panel.

To give my little fella some life, I patted him with Faded Jeans and then Vintage Photo DOX pads, spritzing lightly with water and drying between colors. I edged with Ground Espresso ink.

Finally I layered it all up on black card stock, then an old gold embossed paper from my stash, and then onto a black card blank.  Before layering onto the blank, I distressed the edges and swiped on Distress crayon and heated to age it.

 Lastly, I tucked in some die cut gears from my stash. I made these quite a long time ago, so I don't remember what I used to give them the rusty patina, but they went quite well with Seth's powders, don't you think? A Chit Chat sticker adhered to the torn edge from the hand made ephemera panel makes a snarky Birthday greeting.

 So, there you have it!  I'm pretty satisfied with my quick card, but I think I would have chosen a different color for his suit in retrospect. I'm quite pleased at the seredipity in this project. I made it month's ago, but it fits in perfect with our current 'Rusty and Crusty' challenge. You still have several more days to play along! I can't wait to see what you will make!

I hope I've provided you with some tips or techniques you can use on your own project. Please let me know if I did!

Crafty hugs!

Sara Emily