A Guest post today and last month's winners

Happy Friday everyone!

Being the second Friday of our challenge we have great pleasure in publishing a project from the first of our Guest Creative Guides for this month as well as announcing our winner and Pinworthy mentions from last month's challenge!

Our Guest CG today is our winner from Challenge #26, the very talented Pamellia...

---

Hello Everyone! My name is Pamellia Johnson and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wonderful husband and our two little girls, Scully (a teacup Maltese) and Pebbles (a teacup black Pomeranian).

Creativity runs in my family, so it's no surprise that I enjoy crafting. I have been dabbling in all sorts of crafts for most of my life, but I only recently discovered my true passion, mixed media! Thanks to the influence of Tim Holtz and a host of other talented designers, there's nothing I enjoy more than getting messy! I just can't pull myself away from those inks and sprays!

I'm very excited and honoured to be here again this month as a Guest Creative Guide for Astrid's challenge SPRING COLOURS! I have had this box squirrelled away for quite some time and I just knew this was the perfect time to pull it out and decorate it. Who can resist Tim's bright and cheery ink colours, and that's exactly what I will be storing in my box!



My box started as a plain, unfinished piece. I gave it two coats of Gesso as a base and then I used a variety of Tim Holtz stamps and his smudge technique to add some designs. Next I used the Tim Holtz Latticework stencil and some Crackle Paste to lay down the pattern. While the paste was still wet, I coated it with Ranger Clear embossing powder to act as a resist.





I sprayed with Tim Holtz distress sprays Mermaid Lagoon and Peeled Paint as well as a little Dylusions Jade. For the flowers I crinkled up paper and dabbed some Picket Fence paint on the wrinkles. Then I spritzed with Tim Holtz Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord.







For the butterfly, I swiped my craft sheet with Picked Raspberry and Dusty Concord and then spritzed with water. I swished the butterfly through the colours to get the lovely mixture. The bottle is filled with Tim Holtz Distress glitter Antique Linen. For the windows, I used one of my favourite Tim techniques, embossed shrink plastic. These are just a few of Tim's techniques I used to complete my Distress Ink Spray Storage Box.





I would like to thank Brenda, Chris and the entire team of A Vintage Journey for inviting me to spend another wonderful day with them. It is always such a treat to be here with such a talented group of artists whom I admire so much! I do hope you will head to your craft room and pull out those beautiful Tim Holtz colours and join in on the challenge. For lots more photos, drop in for a visit - My Little Craft Things.

---

Such a gorgeous project Pamellia, thank you so much!

Now we will announce the winner of last month's 'Through the looking glass' challenge, hosted by Julia. The winning number, selected by random.org is....



#19 Felicie  http://feliciescreativwelt.blogspot.com/2015/04/2-spiegel.html



Felicie, you win the £20 shop voucher from our Sponsor, Country View Crafts. An email will be with you in the next few days.


Our 3 Pinworthy mentions are...

#14 Shilpa http://nagaonkarshilpa.blogspot.in/2015/04/here-and-now.html

#21 That Crazy chick http://digthatcrazychick.blogspot.ca/2015/04/looking-through-glass.html

#32 Deb Riddell http://paxtonvalleyfolkart.blogspot.ca/2015/04/a-boy-and-his-dog.html

Well done to all of you, blog badges and invitations will be with you in the next few days!

---

That concludes our post for today but don't forget to come back and visit us on Monday when there will be another inspirational post from one of our Creative Guides.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Chris xxx
For Brenda and the Vintage Journey Creative Guides

Destination Inspiration - May Recipe #1 - You're Just My Type

Hello fellow travelers,

Welcome, S@ndy here - it is my pleasure to be here today with the first of this month's Destination Inspirations.  Each month we have a recipe to follow and four Creative Guides to interrupt it in four different ways.  Please stop by each Monday to see how each guide has used the ingredients.

This month the recipe is:

Tool:  Any of Tim's dies with the word "Vintage in the title  

Colour:  Stormy Sky

Technique: Tissue Wrap Collage from Compendium of Curiosities      

                                             Vol. II page 38 

Substrate:  Card (in the states - Cardstock)

Here's what I cooked up

I made a greeting card and have selected Tim's Vintage Typewriter using the Tissue Wrap Collage technique for the message page.  You can see the Stormy Sky on the message and on the letters spilling out at the top. 

  

 

For the inside, I simply printed my message on the computer and then cut another typewriter - this time using the Mover and Shaper size. I used the same colours as on the cover for my panels and glued them on.

 

 

Here's How I Did It!

 

Using the Vintage Typewriter Die #657836, I cut it out using black paper.

 

Next I used some metallic silver paper to highlight the handles and then used some silver scraps and backed the keys.  I wanted my paper to have some dimension and look as though it is winding through the roller so I wrapped some tissue around a toothpick and placed it in the opening.

 

I selected some letters at random from some grunge board pieces that I had in my stash.

 

After colouring the letters with Stormy Sky Distress Ink I followed the directions from the Compendium of Curiosities Vol. II page 38.
I curled the ends a little and added some Stormy Sky around the edges.

 

I embossed the front panel with an embossing folder and then edged and coloured lightly with Stormy Sky.

 

The base of the card is black so I added my panel to a craft panel and then added it to the black card.  To finish it off I used two of Tim's great corners.

 

Next I simply assembled the card after colouring the rest of the letters with Stormy Sky.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope to see your entry in this months challenge.  Astrid, our lovely hostess, is challenging you to show your "Spring Colours".  Don't forget to look in next Monday when Julia will be revealing her take on this months recipe.

 

Have a great week and stay crafty,

S@ndy

Spring Colours

Welcome everyone to our latest challenge and happy Mayday to you all!

To celebrate Spring (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere), I have chosen Spring Colours for our theme. The theme itself of course is fairly easy, but it is important to remember that this is a Tim Holtz inspired challenge, so when choosing our top 3 entries, we want to see Tim's influence clearly represented in your project. If you describe it in your post even better! You do not have to use Tim products, though his wonderful Distress range of course offers plenty of choice, but we do want to see that your project is inspired by one of his wonderful techniques that he so freely shares.

You can make anything you want, as long as it clearly follows our challenge rules. And if you want to double check, - just click HERE

Like usual, the team have prepared some inspiration pieces for you, so without further ado, here goes:

Astrid

I am delighted to be challenge host this month and decided to use my favourite Spring Colours,  Yellows, Blues and Greens. Tim has so many wonderful Spring themed stamp sets right now, so I made some of them the focal point of my little canvas. To get more details all you need to do is hop over to my blog

Brenda

The colours for my Spring palette butterfly were chosen when I was looking out of the window at the blossoms and flowers in the garden. I have used Tim's layered butterfly and cameo frame dies and a mixed media technique using oil pastels and distress stains to create the mottled effects on the butterfly wings.

Julia

I think we may see lots of butterflies for Astrid's Spring Colours challenge! I water colored mine using a water brush and Distress Markers trying to make her look like a Monarch butterfly and set her against a crackle paste stenciled brick wall where she is gathering its warmth!  If you would like more details on how I created my canvas, please stop by my blog post here

S@ndy

I know I'm dating myself with this term but couldn't resist using Tim's Bird Crazy Stamp Set for this canvas.  Some of us remember sharing a "party line" with our neighbors.  I hope you enjoy my combination of this colourful theme with party birds on a wire.  For more photos and details please stop by my blog My "Crafty" Life On The Internet.

Alison 

For me, spring is full of vivid greens, the fresh blue of the sky (so uplifting after the grim greys of winter) and the delicate white of blossom; and I just love the dappled look of sunlight through the new growth of the re-awakening trees.  I've tried to capture some of that on my small canvas using texture paste, die-cuts, lots of Distress Sprays, glossy embossing, as well as inky shading and splatter.  Do come over to Words and Pictures if you'd like to see more.

Anne

I always know that Spring has arrived when the beautiful Star Magnolia in our garden bursts open it's buds into the most glorious display of flowers.  I have tried to emulate the flowers using Tim's Tattered Florals die and using the beautiful Spring colours of Cracked Pistachio and Abandoned Coral on my box.  You can see more on my blog here.

Terry

Astrid's choice of Spring Colors brings to my mind the wonderful birds that come out to play in my yard, along with the butterflies and lovely flowers! I decided to alter a burlap panel using a variety of products by Tim Holtz. For more details, please stop on over HERE.

Jennie

What I love about spring here in Shetland are the light nights and the dramatic change in the colours of the sky, sea, sand and hills after the winter gloom. With these colours in mind I decided to alter a Cabinet Card Frame using Distress Inks and Wrinkle Free Distress Techniques and of course flowers made using the Tattered Florals Die. Please hop on over to my blog if you want to know more.

Nikki

Spring colours and a spring theme for me this time using a number of Tim Holtz dies and plenty of inky and painty fun. I set my little piece on some painted corrugated card to create a shabby feel.
Be great to see you over at Addicted to Art where I will share the details today.

Julie

For me Spring Colours are bright colours from Daffodils, Tulip, Crocuses and Berries to name a few. A super challenge which took me out of my comfort zone of a soft muted palette. Love to have you pop over HERE to Juliz Design Post to see my project in detail.

Trace

To me the Spring is about the blossoming flowers and soft mellow sunshine that breaks through with its soft warmth and not yet intense heat and colour of the summer. So I created this piece using very unusually for me yellow, plenty of idea-ology and another of those gorgeous photo booth images.All the detail can be found on my blog here.

Chris

Using a mixture of techniques (Wrinkle free distress, Spritz and flick distress) as well as products such as Texture paste, Distress Stains etc) these combine with other brands to create this bright and colourful card.  This topic leaves so much to your imagination and creativity that we hope you'll join in this challenge!  More details can be found here. Chris xxx

Well, I'm sure you'll agree with me, with 12 creative guides having contributed, there is plenty of inspiration here, and of course we hope you will decide to play along.

Just as a little reminder, our challenge is now a monthly one and one randomly chosen winner will receive a £20 gift voucher from our very generous sponsor, Country View Crafts. We will continue to have our Pinworthy blog badges for the Top 3, who will be chosen by the Creative Guides (DT).

You have until May 31st  at 6:00 pm GMT to link up your creation!

An InLinkz Link-up

Destination Inspiration - April Recipe #4 - Make Today Count

Hello A Vintage Journey friends!  Julia here today. It's my assignment this month to create for the 4th week of the Destination Inspiration posts.   Four of the Creative Guides are posting on Mondays every month, using four ingredients chosen by the four participating Creative Guides.
The recipe we created for April is:

Product - Distress Paint

Substrate - Canvas

Technique - Grungepaper flowers (Vol 1 of Tim's CC Book, page 65)

Color - Picket Fence

I made a hanging cone using a Sizzix Cone Die to give to my sister for her 65th birthday (with a gift card inside!)

Now - before you say "hey - where's the canvas???!!  (Yes - I heard you say that....)  I layered canvas panels over my die cut cone shape. Below - you see the shape cut out of Mat Board - and below that - the same shape cut out of sticky back canvas.  I cut the canvas part into four pieces along the score lines so I could decorate them separately and adhere them individually to each panel of the mat board cone.

First - I used Wendy Vecchi Black Embossing paste with Tim's Scribbles die on each of the canvas triangles.

Look how cool it came out and the paste gives it such a nice texture!  Even though the panels were each stenciled separately - the pattern looks like it matches up in lots of places!!??  I sponged the edges a bit with Distress Tea Die and adhered each panel to the mat board cone. The canvas has a sticky back so it was so easy to layer it on. Then I splattered over it with Picket Fence Distress Paint, tapping a brush full of paint on my finger.

I made grunge paper flowers according to Tim's instructions on page 65 of his Compendium of Curiosities Vol 1.  I first adhered more of the Sticky Back Canvas to a piece of Grunge paper and die cut it with Tattered Florals.

I sponged the flowers with Distress Antique Linen - then pounced on it with Picket Pence Distress Paint.  The sponge top gives it a fun circular design - which sometimes you don't want - but I liked it on my flowers.

So then we fast forward to all the sides completed (well - I did add a couple more things which you may notice in the close up photos!)  I painted the scallop top edges (part of the cone die) with Picket Fence Distress paint and sponged the edges with Tea Dye Distress Ink. I adhered them to the cone with ScorTape. I sprayed Crinkle Ribbon with Barn Door Distress Stain.  I looped a piece through Ring Fasteners placed through holes on the top and adhered a folded piece  along with Tinsel Twine inside the point at the bottom of the cone before closing it up.

I added my sister's name and the year using Label Letters.  I added sentiments on each side using Small Talk stickers.

I dropped one drop of Watermelon Alcohol ink onto the Gum Drop to color it (I saw Tim do it on a Video from CHA -  the ink spreads instantly - like magic - to color the whole Gum Drop with one little drop! so cool!).  I dabbed the Mini Numerals with Picket Fence Distress Paint - and layered them over the same numbers from Alpha Parts - Framed,  using foam dots.

The small flower centers are Shimmer Brads from Making Memories.  I also splattered some Picket Fence paint on the flowers in addition to dabbing them previously.  I made the little heart using Tim's new Movers and Shapers 3 mini Dies (heart, butterfly, star).  I embossed it with Wendy Vecchi Red Geranium Ink and Embossing Powder.

I slipped two interesting buttons from my button box onto the Tinsel Twine hanging out of the bottom of my cone.

I stenciled the Happy Birthday from Wendy Vecchi's All Occasion Sentiments with Wendy's Archival Red Geranium Ink.

And now, as a recap (or in case you missed one) -  here are the 4 projects we created for your inspiration for the month of April - using

Product - Distress Paint

Substrate - Canvas

Technique - Grungepaper flowers (Vol 1 of Tim's CC Book, page 65)

Color  -  Picket Fence

Week 1 -  Anne

Week #2 - Brenda

Week #3 - Trace

Week #4 - Julia

Also - a reminder!   You still have a few more days (ends 4/30/15) to join in this month's A Vintage Journey challenge, Through the Looking Glass, which I hosted. You will find the challenge and the link  HERE. 

Thanks so much for joining us today!   We hope we have inspired you with our Destination Inspiration projects this month!  They are really quite varied and lovely, don't you think??    Hugs - Julia xx