Pinworthy Inspiration

Hi everyone and welcome. Today we have some 'Make it Spooky' inspiration from two of our recent Pinworthies; we welcome Rupa and Remya to share a project based on our current challenge theme.

RUPA

Hello! I am Rupa from Bangalore ( India) and am here with my Pinworthy guest post. 

I work from my studio at home and churn out a lot of projects with household trash. I love making home decor items with things that would normally end up in the trash can!

I admit I had a few sleepless nights when Nikki told me about the “Spooky” theme here at AVJ and I thank the entire creative team for giving me this opportunity to make my first project in this theme!

Here it goes...

I made a book box, have used the lid of a packaging box for this. I have used the traditional spooky colours here as this was my first make. Once gessoed in black, I have stencilled with DecoArt sprays on the cover and layered with pattern paper from Tim Holtz Lost and Found stack.

The focal point is a Tim Holtz alterations die that I won here at AVJ for the Secret Santa contest. Thanks Brenda. 

The bat was cut with chipboard and I have used crackle paint from DecoArt and highlighted with metallic lustre in burnished brass. The spine too has a few layers of colors using the dry brush technique and have added a few spooky charms too.

Once you open the box...there are 15 spooky tags that I inked and distressed to show the witches love the same, lol!

Here is a look at all of them. Hope you liked this and just so to let you know how big this project t is....

Cheers, Rupa

REMYA

I am Remya, from Bangalore, India and I am super excited to be the Guest Designer at "A Vintage Journey" for the "Spooky challenge". An Electronics Engineer by Qualification, I took a break from my busy IT Career for taking care of our lovely son and this in turn got me lot of spare time which I started dedicating for my long lost love to crafting. Crafting, Painting and Sketching were my pastimes from a very young age. Even though I do not restrict myself to any particular style, Vintage is my favorite. Am greatly influenced by Tim Holtz and his art work !!

October is synonymous with Halloween. A day dedicated to remembering the departed souls including Hallows was aptly called "All Hallows Eve" which contracted to Hallowe'en or Halloween, and many activities go along with it. Carved Pumpkins - Jack-o'-lantern and many such SPOOKY themes are displayed everywhere inviting "trick-or-treating".

And being October, there could be no better theme for an art work than "SPOOKY". Here below is my "SPOOKY" take.

To start with, got a canvas nailed on to a frame and reversed it. The open frame was then covered with Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements Melange with Multi Medium Matte. Sticking pattern paper directly in the inner periphery of the frame would have been otherwise difficult. Then blended Distress crayon Hickory smoke by rubbing along the inner edges. It gave a very smoky effect. I selected the background papers from the laboratorie stash, chose the 6×6 size paper of worn wallpaper. Stuck it along the edges and the substrate was ready !

Now for the embellishments to go into the frame. White card stock was cut using the Ornate Frame Die and applied distress crackle on it. Once dry applied distress paint - Spiced marmalade, walnut stain, hickory smoke over it. This accentuated the cracks.

The bottles were given a coat of distress crackle (by now you would have guessed it - I Love Crackle) and set aside for natural drying. It needs to dry naturally to get the real crackle effect. Heating makes the crackle paint to bubble up. Once dry I poured alcohol ink into it and moved it around, so that it covers the entire inner part. The cracks and alcohol ink gave it a rusty look.

The alphabets "SPOOKY" (chip boards) were first painted with distress paint: picket fence and spiced marmalade before applying distress crackle. I then cut out strips pf paper with poison labels from the laboratorie stash and distressed it with old paper dye and walnut stain.

This was my favorite of all. I cut out the picture of vintage lady from the laboratorie stash to fit the inner part of the pendant. The glass dome to fit on it was given a coat of alcohol ink. I stuck it using glossy accent. The ageing effect it gave was eye catching. 

Once all the embellishments were completed, assembled them in the frame. The final bit - the ghost die is from Sizzix : Ghosts #2 Halloween Sizzix Originals Ghost Die.

Hope you all enjoyed this spooky canvas frame.

Hugs

Remya

Two amazing projects ladies - thank you so much. I am in awe at all the wonderful details on them both - just fabulous.

There is still plenty of time to join in our 'Make it Spooky' challenge - these creations have certainly inspired me!

Nikki

xxx

Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal 2

Hello travellers, welcome aboard to Terminal 4. This is Tracy Evans here to share the second leg of our Destination Inspiration journey for the month of October. You can view  Destination Inspiration, Terminal one HERE.

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

Product: Crackle Paste

Technique: Layering Colour Through Stencils

Colour: Greens and Golds

Substrate: Some Kind of Box

I decided to continue with a spooky theme to coordinate with our current challenge from Anne which you can find HERE.

I began by breaking up crayons into small pieces and adding them to my skull mould. I used all green tones as per our ingredients.

Melt the crayons with a heat tool and tap the mould several times onto a flat surface so that the melted crayone moves into all the crevices of the mould. Continue to add broken crayons until the mould is full and then allow to dry completely, overnight is best.

Now onto decorating the box; I used one part of a box, the base in this case. I mixed DecoArt Media Crackle Paste with a touch of DecoArt Media Green Gold Fluid Acrylic. The main reason for this was not only to tint the Crackle but so that once decorated I did not have any white areas showing in my design. Do not mix too much paint with the paste or the consistency will change.

I painted the inside of my box with two coats of Green Gold Fluid Acrylic and then dried with a heat tool.

I created a wash with the Green Gold simply mixing the Fluid Acrylic with a touch of water.

I then added the wash over the Crackle areas.

I then created a wash with Burnt Umber Fluid Acrylic.

The wash was then applied over the box base to give a vintage tone to my piece. I love how the darker wash settles into the cracks.

I added a panel to the inside of my box base and decorated using Tim Holtz Twisted Layering Stencil. I applied several layers of Peeled Paint Distress Ink first to the stencil using a piece of Cut 'n' Dry Foam and then added touches of Gathered Twigs Distress Ink for shading.

I love adding layers of colour to stencils, it adds so much depth to the design.

I removed the skull from the mould and then added touches of gold highlights using DecoArt 'Gold Rush' Metallic Lustre.

I love how this came together and the gold highlights really pick out the detail in the skull. I also added a touch of background stamping to the back panel using Tim Holtz Ledger stamp.

A few delicate splatters of paint add a further layer of interest to the background along with cotton twine and a circular piece of rusty tin wire. I also included two Idea-ology stickers.

The crackle paste really adds wonderful texture to the box base. I applied the Crackle Paste randomly so that some areas were left open and no Crackle Paste added. This adds to the worn vintage feel.

This angle shows you in more detail all the layers added to my design.

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 more inspiration for you over the next couple of weeks.

Tracy Evans

xxxx

 

Winner and Pinworthies for the Create Within a Frame Challenge

Welcome everyone to the post where we excitedly announce our Create Within a Frame challenge winner and pinworthies!  We were so inspired by your interesting and creative entries - you all deserve a great round of applause!

So first (drum roll please!)  we are excited to reveal our winner that was selected by the Random Generator:

Congratulations to Lisa from A Mermaid's Crafts with this gorgeous mixed media frame.

Congratulations Lisa you win the fabulous DecoArt fluid media paints and tinting base. We hope you have fun using them.

********

Now a round of applause for our creative pinworthies chosen by a consensus of all the creative guides.  It is always so difficult to narrow it down to just three -  and here they are:

Jane - Isle of Crafty Creations

 Pam - The Journey Awakens the Soul 




Jul D - Handmade

What a great job creating within a frame this month ladies!  Your badges will be sent to you shortly, along with an invitation to join us as a guest at A Vintage Journey in the near future!

Thanks again to everyone who joined in the September Challenge - and we hope to see you linking up to Anne's October  Make it Spooky challenge  - it's pretty scary over there!!!

Julia A and all the Creative Guides

Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal 1

Hello friends and visitors, it's Astrid here inviting you to come along on the ride for our next round of Destination Inspiration posts, where the creative guides hope to inspire you with step by steps using 4 specific items in our travel bag. So this month, this is what we have:

1. Product: Crackle Paste

2. Technique: Layering colour through a stencil

3. Colour: Green & Gold

4. Substrate: Some kind of a box

So, first of all, let me show you where I landed up, and of course I will then share with you some of the stations in between.

It's a box I plan to use to store my various die-cuts. I tend to die-cut in badged.

The box I used was  the empty box in which my mobile phone came, this is what it looked like:

It's a nice and sturdy box, strong enough to hold all of the product I was planning to use on it.

First up a layer of Decoart crackle paste and in places some Wendy Vecchi Gold Embossing Paste, I wanted to make sure I got some of those gold tones in from the start. Once dry and nicely crackled, colour was added with the help of Decoart Media Green Gold and Sap Green, and also some Golden brand Iridescent Gold, to bring the gold tones out more.

Here you can hopefully see how the darker green sinks nicely into the cracks.

I wanted more of a vintage look however, so next I adding Decoart Antiquing Cream in Raw Umber, wiping it away with a baby wipe from the central bits when it was dry.

Now I had decided to cover the top of the box with a separate paper panel (just in case I messed it up), so while things were drying on the box, I started to work on that.

I used Paper Artsy infusions, Lemoncello, Golden Sands and The Sage for this piece, partly straight on to the watercolour paper I was using, and partly on my craft mat, dipping my paper to pick up more paint. Of course everything was blended with plenty of water. Now this piece was not used for the background, but to cut my main embellishment, Tim's wonderful layered leaf.

Some of the raised bits were highlighted with Treasure Gold in a mix of Renaissance Gold and White Fire.

Next I cut a piece of card to the size of the top of the box and coloured it with the help of Distress Inks, stencils and stamps:

The stencils were all Tim Holtz, the stamps by Gabrielle Polacco and Finnabair. The colours I used were Peeled Paint, Forest Moss, Rusty Hinge and Aged Mahogany.

Now all that was left to do was put it all together.

I adhered the leaf to the background panel, cut a filigree metal embellishment into quarters for the corner and added a little key to the center of the leaf.

A few more finishing touches, adding some shadows around the leaf for more depth, and a die cut word, using gold mirri card, - just looked as if it needed something still.

Another filigree embellishment on one of the sides, to show where the box opens. I added a little pearl in the centre of it, using a pearl pen.

And here is the finished box, small enough to fit on my craft desk, yet big enough to hold my prepped die cuts ready to go.

Well, that's it for today, thank you for travelling along on this first leg of the journey, and be sure to come back next Monday to see what the next Creative Guide has in store for you. I am sure you will not be disappointed!

xxx

Astrid

October Challenge - Make It Spooky

Hello everyone, Anne here to welcome you to our October challenge - 'Make It Spooky'!

As we approach All Hallows' Eve we want you to create a vintage, shabby, industrial, steampunk or mixed media project to celebrate the spookiness of Halloween.  Don't limit yourself to black, orange and purple - just Make It Spooky!

We have some wonderful and inspiring projects to share with you from our Creative Guides and we are all looking forward to seeing what you create.

Anne

I absolutely adore Halloween and could not wait to use my new Tim Holtz Village Manor and Lost Zombie dies to create a spooky three dimensional scene to fit inside a beautiful glass dome.  You can see more on my blog.

Brenda

Love Halloween challenges don't you?  Well Anne has kept this simple and open, just make it spooky!  So I had great fun altering a box to keep my Halloween charms and embellishments in.  There's lots of crackle and sanding with a few remnant rubs to finish it off.  There are more photos and details over at Bumblebees and Butterflies if you'd like to join me there with my shabby spooky creation.

Alison

For Anne's fabulous Spooky theme, I've created a tag with an eerie story attached.  To augment my travelling stash I've used some additional ingredients - including the used laundry softening sheets from the tumble dryer here in the hotel where I'm staying.  Come over to Words and Pictures to meet The Patchwork Poisoner, if you dare!

Astrid

For Anne's spooky challenge I created this little scene, which was a challenge for me in more ways than one...  If you want to know more, you are welcome to check it out on my blog.

Jennie

I decided to make a spooky art journal page for Anne's challenge this month using some of Tim Holtz's Halloween Ephemera and more muted Halloween colours!  Do join me over at Live the Dream if you would like to see more.  Happy Spookings!

Amanda

For Anne's 'Make It Spooky' challenge I have had a spooktacular time altering skellie heads!!! Each one has had a complete make-over using a range of products to give them their own unique image and personality.  They would love you to stop by here to see them in all their spookiness!

Julia S-W

As soon as I saw Anne's Challenge I loved it!  I wanted to go as spooky as I dare so found some already frightening images of children and made them just a little more scary.....  I've made two media boards which could be put to various uses or just kept as they are for decoration.  You will find all the details on my blog.

Tracy

I have just taken delivery of a new skull mould and this months challenge from Anne gave me the perfect opportunity to connect with my spooky side.  I had fun with my DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics combined with stencils to create a Halloween Block.  Don't you just love those teeth!  Pop by my BLOG for more details.

S@ndy

I had another chance to use the Alcohol Ink on Yupo Paper technique that is so much fun.  I have used this technique for my tag along with other found objects from my stash.  For more information and links to the products I used please stop by for a visit to my blog here.

Annie

Hi everyone. Today I am sharing a Prima altered clock using Graphic 45 papers, glue mediums, various elements from my stash.  I have thoroughly enjoyed making this for Anne's fabulous challenge theme and I look forward to seeing your projects too.  For more details please see my blog.

Aren't they wonderfully spooky projects?  We are all looking forward to seeing your spooky makes!

Our sponsor this month is the wonderful Susan from Country View Crafts who is offering a £20 voucher to spend in her online shop, to one randomly selected entrant.

We also award Pinworthy badges to the Top 3, as chosen by the Creative Guides and an invitation to be a Guest Creative Guide here at A Vintage Journey for a future challenge.

The closing date for entries is Thursday 3rd November 2016.

Happy Crafting - Anne  xx

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