Destination Inspiration - Arriving At Terminal 2

Hello travellers, welcome aboard to Terminal 2. This is Tracy here to share the second leg of our Destination Inspiration journey for the month of May. You can view Astrid's Destination Inspiration, Terminal One HERE.

So what do we have in our bag to inspire you:

Product: Sprays or Brushos

Technique: Gesso Resist

Colour: Blue

Substrate: Card

I opted for a masculine tag accordion for this months creation using tones of blue, brown and touches of white to lift the design.

 

I began by placing the mini layering stencil onto one of the tags and then applying Gesso over the tag, remembering not to add too much Gesso so that it does not bleed under the stencil.

Dry the Gesso with a heat tool. Mine has a tint of brown to it as this was colour left on my stencil from a previous project but this does not affect the technique in any way.

I repeated this process with the Gesso on all four tags. The tags were all die cut using Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplate Die.

To add a further layer of interest to the background I also splattered the Gesso onto the background using a paintbrush and then once again dried with a heat tool.

From this picture you can see the added texture the splatters of Gesso add to the background.

I then applied a good layer of Broken China Distress Ink to the background, blending with an ink blending tool to apply. I distressed the edges of the tag to add to the vintage/aged feel of the design.

And now the magic of the technique. Spritz a piece of dry kitchen towel with a touch of water and rub over the Gesso areas, which resist the ink and now appear in white, giving a pop to the design in the background.

From this picture you can also now see the splatters, adding a further layer of interest to the background.

Take a piece of acetate or recycled plastic packaging; spritz the plastic with Gathered Twigs Distress Spray Stain.

Spritz the stain with water.

Now dab the inked plastic onto the background. This way I can place the spray exactly where I want it on the tag and then dry with a heat tool.

I repeated the same process with the spray on all four tags. I then flicked water onto the background to bleach out some of the areas and then dried with my heat tool.

As you can see the Gesso resist is still visible and so are all the other layers added to the background.

Now it was time to add some focal imagery and further layers to my design. I used Tim Holtz Sideshow stamp set to add my focal imagery to all the tags using Black Archival Ink.

I added circles of white paint to spotlight each of the images.

Jenny's challenge this month is "Sew Special" so I thought I would also add a touch of random machine stitching to my design. I also included some embossed circles using Tim Holtz Typewriter and Keyboard Texture Fade set, cutting them up to add further interest.

I added stamped numbers to the background to add a further layer to the design.

I had a piece of watercolour paper on my desk and used the perforated edge to add random pieces to my design.

Delicate splatters of white paint have also been added.

I love adding layers to a piece of work and this was so much fun to create.

Thank you for travelling along with me, I hope you enjoyed the journey! Please pop back next Monday to see the next creative step along our journey from our next Creative Guide.


Please check out our current challenge (link in the side bar) and of course there will be several Inspiration Journeys too during the rest of the month.

Tracy Evans

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Winner and Pinworthies for Spring Is In The Air

All we can say is WOW - what a great array of wonderful entries for Spring Is In The Air.  It was such a joy to visit all your posts this past month.  But before we reveal who our April Winner and Pinworthies are, it's our very great pleasure to welcome Aisha of Enter Into the Magic as our Guest Creative Guide today.  Aisha was the winner of our Industrial theme in February, and I know you're going to absolutely love what she's created for the Sew Special challenge currently being hosted by Jenny.  So let me hand you over to Aisha to introduce herself.

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Hi my friends my name is Asia (Aisha) and I'm from Poland.   I have been scrapbooking for 3 years. In mix media style I'm only two years but I know this is something what I love.  In my projects I mix a few styles - retro, fantasy and steampunk with a little bit of magic.  I use dark, deep colours, textures, flowers and lots of metal parts.  The most fun for me is to use in my art small watch parts, gears and cogs.  Usually I create mix media canvases, boxes and altered items.

Mix media is for me self-expression.  I like that every project can tell different story and show different emotions.

I'm so happy to be a guest designer here at A Vintage Journey.  Today I would like to show you an old box with a dragon eye.  This month challenge is "Sew special" so I added to my project some different fabrics to create an interesting background.  I used lace, gauze, tulle and thread.

What I did first was to use stencil and modelling paste to create the wall.  When it was dry, I applied black gesso and Antiquing Cream in Carbon Black.  I wiped some gesso with wet wipes.  On the corner I put on some modelling paste to create dragon effect ;) Next I applied some acrylic paints -Gold and just touch of Inka Gold Old Silver . 

On the front of the box I added beautiful dragonfly wings.  I covered them with black gesso, and added some colours. There is also a small elf hiding in a cabochon.

On the side of the box I put a gold steampunk dragonfly with some small gears.

On the top I glued amazing flourish frames with dragon eye inside. For my background I used modelling paste and lots of gauze, tulle and lace. I start to add all embellishments - flowers, buttons, metal parts and little bottle. I painted everything with black gesso.

To make the texture of my box more interesting, I sprinkled some micro beads. I covered them with black gesso. As the final step, I started playing with colours. I used mists: Distress Spray Stain - Peacock Feathers, Tarnished Brass; 13 arts - Pearl Violet, Turquoise Light; and mica powders - Blue Opal Magic, Gold Opal Magic, Purple; and DecoArt acrylic paints - Cobalt Turquoise, Rich Espresso, Venetian Gold.

I hope you enjoyed my make and found it inspirational.  More photos you can find on my blog ;) XOXO Aisha 

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Wow - what a fantastic piece of altered art, Aisha, with great textures from all those fabrics.  Thank you for joining us this month to share your inspiring artwork.  Do take a trip over to Aisha's blog Enter Into the Magic to see lots more of her creations. 

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And now it's time to see who our talented April winners are.

The winner of the prize voucher sponsored by Country View Crafts, as selected by Random Generator is...

That's LauraVi of Vive La Vi with these charming springtime ATCs.

Congratulations, Laura!  Your winner's badge and prize voucher will be on their way to you soon, and we hope you'll join us as a Guest Designer here at A Vintage Journey in the months to come.

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Now onto our selected Pinworthies chosen by the Creative Guides. This is always difficult with so many wonderful creations but these three are the ones we felt really captured the challenge with their submissions.

#18 Maura:  Butterfly Slipstream

#24 Vintage Handmade:  Altered Spoon

#16  sarascloset

Congratulations to our Winner and Pinworthies. We will be in contact shortly with your badges and invitations to be a guest designer here at A Vintage Journey.

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Thanks again to everyone who entered, and we hope to see you again this month for Sew Special.  Remember, one of our Creative Guides will be back on Monday to share the next Destination Inspiration.  You'll have to drop in to find out who it is and what they've done with the contents of this month's travel bag, so we'll see you again soon!

S@ndy, Alison and the AVJ Creative Guides

Destination Inspiration -All aboard for May Terminal 1

Hello, hello and happy May!! This is Astrid with a little project to hopefully inspire you....

 It's time to jump aboard for yet another leg of our Destination Inspiration journey. We have a lovely collection of things in our travel bag this month, - let's have a peep inside:

Product: Sprays or Brushos

Technique: Gesso Resist

Colour: Blue

Substrate: Card

What a fun collection to start playing with, so come along on the journey and I'll show you what I made:

As you can see, it's a little triptych with three different card panels. 

Below you can see how I put this together:

I cut a piece of blue card to 6" by 12" and scored it at 4" and 8" along the 12" side.

I then cut  three separate pieces of white card just slightly smaller, so 5.75 by 3.75 ", and decided to use the gesso resist technique by scraping gesso through 2 different but similar stencils and also by using a background stamp.

For those of you who are new to this technique, - gesso will act as a resist to any water based ink or spray as it resists the water/ translucent elements in these products. So when you add colour, the gessoed areas remain much lighter. You can use stencils, stamps or even just scrape on the gesso over your substrate. These are the stencils and stamps I used: from left to right: Tim Holtz Shattered, Memorybox Lathenai and a stamp from Local King Rubber Stamp.

Here is the first one, after I added colour. I used Tim Holtz Distress Spray Tumbled Glass and Cobalt Blue Brusho. I sprinkled on a bit too much of that, so it got quite dark in the centre.

Here you can see the next stage, - I lifted some of the Brusho off again using a baby wipe and then added more blue using Distress Inks in Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire around the edges and also did some background stamping using various Tim Holtz stamps.

The next two panels were done in a very similar way:

The one on the left used the Rubber King stamp, the one on the right the Memorybox stencil. As I used a little too much gesso on there, some of the detail of the stencilling got lost.

Time to finish the different panels.

For the fhe first one, that became the middle panel, I just adhered a large Petaloo flower from my stash to the centre and also a little Tim Holtz word band.

For the next one I used one of Tim's Thinlet dies with matching stamp, - it was coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils and I also did some further stamping in Black Archival.

Finally for the last one I used the Dragonfly from the Classics 1 set by Stampers Anonymous and stamped it first straight onto the card, and then stamped the wing separately again.

And below the finished card after adhering the wings to the dragon fly, - again coloured with Inktense pencils and a little gold Aqua Tint for a bit of shimmer.

Now, it was at this point that I decided to make the triptych into a little booklet, so I made a cover for it, putting some ribbon in a matching colour underneath, so it could be tied shut.

The paper I used for the cover are papers I designed myself, - you can find them as freebies on my blog here if you are interested. The words Artist Journal are again from the Classics 1 set. As I had printed the papers on rather glossy paper I sanded the surface a little so the stamping would adhere better, I also added a little gesso behind the stamping to give it more tooth.

And here is the finished booklet, ready to give to someone as a special card.

I hope you have enjoyed this first leg of the journey, like I said, if you like printed papers, just head over to my blog (there are several others there as well), and don't forget to come back next Monday, when it is time for the second leg of our journey. Do check out our current challenge also (link in the side bar) and of course there will be several Inspiration Journeys too during the rest of the month.

Thank you so much for visiting today and have a lovely month of May!!

xxx

Astrid

Sew Special

Hi everyone and welcome! It's Jenny here as host for the latest challenge here at A Vintage Journey. This month we are all about fabric;

Add fabric to your entry in some way be it felt, burlap, ribbon or cloth and if you're really feeling brave maybe include a touch of real or faux stitching!

We are looking forward to seeing what ideas you have to incorporate this Sew Special theme in your vintage, shabby, mixed-media, art journalling, industrial or steampunk projects.

This month we are proud to be sponsored by the wonderful people over at Calico Craft Parts who have generously offered a prize bundle for our random winner.

They are a family run UK business specialising in wood craft products including birch plywood plaques, MDF wood shapes, craft blanks and kits, all perfect for altered art, home decor, craft fair makes and gifts. Check out their amazing range at www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/

As ever there will be a lucky random winner (who wins our sponsor's fabulous prize) and three Pinworthies, selected by the Creative Guides and invited to rejoin us as Guest Creative Guides for a future challenge.

Let's see how the Creative Guides have incorporated fabric into their projects this month;

Jenny M

This challenge finally gave me chance to play with my Eileen Hull Sizzix Stitchlits Thin Dies. If like me you hate having to punch separate holes to stitch through in order to add sewing detail to your projects these are the best! I grabbed some Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements fabric and set to it. You can find out more HERE including a step by step for the background.

Jennie

I had lots of fun making this small Vintage Pillow for Jenny's fabulous challenge using some old linen which takes texture paste and inks beautifully. Hop on over to my blog if you would like to see more!

Julia A

I created a little Needle Book for my Sew Special project using Eileen Hull's Passport Die.  I have ribbon, lace and felt on my creation - and I even did a hand stitch on the button!

Please stop by my blog for more photos, details and a view of the inside of my Needle Book.
You'll find it all here.

Astrid

When I read Jenny's challenge theme I was filled with trepidation, sewing and me just don't go together, but when reading the detail it all became fun. I decided to take a very vintage shabby chic route with this project. If you want to see more, just come over to my blog for a full description.

Anne

My thoughts immediately went to Tim's dress form die when I saw Jenny's theme.  I was also inspired by one of Richele Christensen's quilting projects and made a pin cushion 'button' box using fabric I hand stamped and one of Eileen Hull's dies.  You can see more over on my blog.

S@ndy

What a great challenge from our lovely hostess, Jenny.  I used a burlap panel this time along with some pretty pink embellishments to go with the theme - Sew Special.  I have a tutorial for you on my blog, My "Crafty" Life on the Internet.

Deb

Jenny's wonderful theme was the perfect opportunity for me to make a gift for a special blogging friend who just happens to be a wonderful seamstress!  I made a card for her using a needle and thread blueprint stamp by Tim Holtz and then made her a little needle book with a die by Eileen Hull.  If you'd like a closer look, I have some step by step photos on my blog, hope you can stop on by!

Julie

I was so pleased to be able to join in with Jenny's challenge this month. I love sewing themed projects and always feel you can go to town adding many textures and embellishments. I would love for you to stop by my blog HERE to see the info and close up photographs. 

Brenda

I delved back into my stamp archive to find this gorgeous dress form which has been triple embossed and stamped and I altered lots of 'sew special' elements to create the focus for the theme. I love using the reverse side of a canvas to create depth and I added a dress form butterfly. Take a trip over to Bumblebees and Butterflies to see how I made the ruler tape border.

Julia S-W

I've made a gift card holder and wallet using untreated canvas fabric, paint, vintage book paper, stamping and machine stitching. For more details please click here to visit my blog. 

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You can see with these amazing pieces from the Creative Guides just how many ways fabric and stitching can be included in your projects. Now we look forward to seeing your sewing creations. This challenge is open until Thursday 2nd June.