April Destination Inspiration - Arriving At Terminal 1

Welcome to the first leg of our journey for April. Tracy here arriving at Terminal 1 with a fabulous list of ingredients for our travel bag:

Product - Distress Inks/Paints

Technique - Stencil Monoprinting

Colour - Green

Substrate - MDF

I thought long and hard about this challenge and opted to alter one of Tim Holtz Etcetera thickboard tags, the smallest from the set of three. The thickboard is my faux MDF as I had not actually got any MDF anywhere in my stash, so artistic licence and all that!

I have quite a few step by steps for this tags as I added many layers during the process.

I began by painting the tag with Distress Paint Cracked Pistachio. I then cut three strips of card to add to the tag. My idea behind this was to add texture and interest in the background. I then painted the tag and the strips of paper with a second coat of paint.

I then painted Peacock Feathers Distress Paint onto a scrap of white card.

I then pressed the card onto the painted background. The reason I applied the paint this way was to give a more random feel to the background. I often apply inks this way and its a fabulous way to add delicate layers of paint.

I then dried the layers of paint and repeated the same process once more.

For my next layer I opted for some stencil monoprinting; applying Black Soot Distress Ink to Tim's numeric stencil. Remember to ink the reverse of the stencil so that the numbers appear the correct way when added to the tag.

Spritz the inked stencil with water.

Place the stencil, inked side down and then press with a piece of kitchen towel to ensure good contact.

I love the black inking against the green and blue background.

Repeat the same process and then dry the ink with a heat tool.

Next I played around with ideas for the focal image and I opted for a small embroidery hoop which I painted with a wash of Peacock Feathers Distress Paint and then dried with a heat tool.

At this stage I decided to hold fire on adding the focal point and added some shading to the edges of the strips of card and to the edges of the tag, scribbling Salty Ocean Distress Crayon around the edges and then smudging with my finger.

I applied DecoArt Media Titanium White Fluid Acrylic over Tim Holtz Mini Nordic Layering Stencil to add a further layer of interest.

I love adding layers to my designs and I continued with the layering process, adding some Design Tape from Tim's new release called Chatter.

I like to add my layers in odd numbers as much as possible as I love the look and feel of odd numbers in artwork.

 I then added my focal image, the embroidery hoop and opted to add a fabulous Paper Doll to the frame.

I inked Tim Holtz Cling Foam Stamps Block Lower Case with Peacock Feathers Distress Paint, applying with a piece of Cut 'n' Dry Foam.

 I also added touches of Picket Fence Distress Paint.

This gave me tone on tone lettering which I could then highlight further with a black Pitt Pen later in the layering process.

I went back to the scrap of white card I added paint to earlier and then die cut some Mini Tattered Florals from the card.

At this stage I decided that I wanted three die cut flowers.

I added a small amount of Twisted Citron Distress Paint to my non-stick craft sheet and then dipped the rolled flowers into the paint to cover some of the petals lightly with paint to add texture.

I repeated the same process for all three flowers. Now that I was happy with all my layers I then began to add the finishing touches to my design.

I added the flowers to the side of my focal piece and I also added delicate splatters of white paint for further interest.

I added one of Tim's Quote Chips to the centre of my embroidery hoop.

From this picture you can clearly see all the layers I have added to my design.

I added some black pen markings to my lettering and to the edges of my tag and also included some delicate dots of white paint.

I love how the embroidery hoop has a woodgrain finish that is clearly visible under the wash of paint.

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope you enjoyed my step by steps. Please pop back next Monday for the next leg of our journey.

If you would like to join in our monthly challenge, please click on the link in the side bar.

Tracy Evans x x

The Magic of Three

Hi everyone......it's Annie of Curious "N' Crafty Treasures here as your host for this month's April Challenge and the theme is " The Magic of Three".  

Here are the challenge details :

"Using Three of something adds more interest and power whether it is a conversation, art or numbers. Let us see you use three of something in your challenge project (numbers, techniques, stamps, colours, words, products - the list is endless!) 

Let us know what your magic 3 components are and ensure your project is in our vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journaling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk styles that we favour".

Further Travelling Instructions are  also available on the Sidebar.

As always the Creative Guides have composed the most fabulous projects for this months challenge theme and I am sure you will be inspired.........grab a cuppa and enjoy the journey!!!!

 Annie

For my project I have used Three of Tim's Tiny Houses, three of his finials, three of his Quote Chips and various other products by Tim, including papers, number, arrow, Idea-Ology Botanicals and Paper Dolls. For more details/photographs please visit my blog HERE

Deb

I had so much fun exploring how many ways I could incorporate trios of design elements into my mixed media frame for our Magic Of Three challenge.  Hope you can stop by my blog to find out how many threes I managed to use!

Julia

I've been wanting to use my new City Scape dies and Annie's Magic of 3's challenge was the perfect chance to get them out -  I have 3 houses, 3 trees - a flower, airplane and car to carry your eye around my little scene, and 3 sentiments inside the box (one is on the floor and you can't read it in this photo!)

If you'd like to see that 3rd sentiment and details on how I put this together - please stop over at my blog.

Alison 

I've got a tiny trio for you - an ATC of trilling, chirping birds, perched amidst the springtime leaves.  There are three words to go with my three birds - all adding up to the Magic of Three.  Do come over to Words and Pictures if you'd like to see the details.

S@ndy

 

 Such a fun challenge - I got to go stash diving for this one and came up with lots of great items & used them quite literally, including a 3 letter word as a final touch.

Brenda

I loved playing in my A4 journal for this great challenge from Annie layering lots of paints for the background and layering up bits and pieces for my collage, as you can imagine I enjoyed every minute of it. If you would like to see how it all came together then please pop over to Bumblebees and Butterflies to see my magic of three in more detail.

 Amanda

 For my 'Magic of 3' project I have created an art panel working with quite a few variables of 3 .There are more details on my blog if you fancy popping by to find out what they are. 

Sara Emily

I had a lot of fun putting the Magic of Three to use on my wall hanging. I hope you will take a minute to stop by sarascloset for close-ups and to see how I made my tags and altered my embellishments. You might even want to guess how many groups of three I used on this--I stopped counting after 10!

Jennie

Like everyone else I have been experimenting with the new Distress Oxides and decided to use three of my experimental tags for my little project but realised I also ended up using three colours, three cogs and three labels !! Please do join me over at Live The Dream if you would like to see the wonderful Distress Oxide backgrounds before I covered them up!

Tracy Evans

It's a long time since I have created a journal page and this challenge seemed the perfect opportunity to put that right. I love using three of anything in a composition and my pages have multiples of three in abundance. Please pop by my BLOG for step by steps.

Nikki

I had great fun playing with distress paints, crackle texture paste and distress crazing collage medium on this large MDF tag. There are lots more details over at Addicted to Art today.

Jenny

It has taken some time but finally my latest junk journal is ready to be revealed in full! During it's creation I have relied heavily on the Magic of Three as a design rule. Hop on over to my blog to see a video and close up photos of the contents.

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Now you can't fail to be inspired by all those wonderful projects!

We do hope you will join in with us on the Magic of Three Journey this month and you can link up your entires by using the Inklinkz below. 

(Do remember to check the Travelling Instructions to make sure you qualify for the prize draw and Pinworthy badges).

Our sponsor this month is Emerald Creek Craft Supplies who are offering a gift certificate to our Random Org winner. You can check out their online store HERE.

As always the Creative Guides choose three entries who are awarded our Pinworthy Badges and the chance to be a Guest Creative Guide in future challenges.

Best wishes in the challenge Annie and The Creative Guides

xxxxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Destination Inspiration : Arriving at Terminal 5

Hello Travellers! Jennie with you today and please don't adjust your sets, you are this month arriving at an extra Terminal! We've had an extra Friday and now an extra Monday for this our current challenge, so hop off and enjoy the extra stop at Terminal 5.

First a wee reminder of what is in the Travel Bag:

Substrate : Canvas

Colour : Teals and Turquoises

Product : Acrylic Paint

Technique : Layering Stencils

Whilst looking for a piece of canvas for this project I found (hmmmm rather embarrassingly .....) a canvas journal I must have bought about three years ago and completely forgot I had. So here is my first page in that journal .....

In terms of watery type acrylic paint I only really had one pot ..... but I thought it would be a good experiment in seeing how many different hues I could get. So this is all done using a pot of DecoArt Cobalt Turquoise Hue.

To start I added some crackle paste through a layering stencil directly on to the canvas and when it was fully dry watered down the paint and splodged it here and there with a paint brush. I am so used to working on paper and being able to swish things around with more water that I got quite a shock when the paint sank into the canvas! I added a few splatters of Vintage Photo Distress Ink but again it wasn't the same sort of effect I normally get!

I decided to work with my embellishments next experimenting with the different levels of colour. The frame was a little dark so I painted a very thin layer of crackle paint over the top to tone it down.

All my new Tim Holtz purchases are still sitting on the desk so I had some fun layering lots of the lovely vintage labels and photographs (so lovely that they are all cut out already!)

As this is a page in a journal I haven't raised the layers too much with foam pads. It is quite effective just glueing the middle of pieces and letting the edges "float".  The only embellishment on foam is the Victorian girl.

You can see the detail here of the crackle paint over the turquoise acrylic and the little flowers which got a good scrunching in the paint!

I always like to splatter everything with some watered down gesso and Vintage Photo Distress Ink but I do place a little piece of paper over any faces as they don't really look very pretty with dollops of paint!

Thank you for joining us here at A Vintage Journey today for this month's final Destination Inspirations post. Next week there will be a brand new travel bag so do check back to see what the Creative Guides make with the new items. 

And you still have a few days left to enter our Happy Birthday Challenge - All Aboard!

Have a great week and happy crafting!

Jennie x

SaveSave

Tag Friday for the end of March

What better way to (almost) end our Birthday celebrations than with a Tag Friday post? We just love it when there's a fifth Friday in the month because we can play to our hearts content and just have fun with new techniques and new products. I think you're gonna love the inspiration from the Creative Guides taking part.
Also it will be worth you reading right to the end of the post as there's a special message and invitation to join in with us.

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Alison 

I love Tag Friday.  I've got what is definitely a springtime tag for you today, even though it was actually made in the depths of February!  It's part of my ongoing watercolour obsession - the flowers were all "coloured" with my lovely paints, and I had a wonderful time arranging them over the textured wall.  Do come over to Words and Pictures to see the details of my Wallflowers.

Julia

I was excited to get a chance to play with my new Distress Oxide Inks for this month's Tag Friday.  I used them spritzed with water on my craft mat and also through stencils.

Please join me at my blog post here to see just how I created my background and put together my tag!

Tracy Evans

I opted to decorate one of Tim Holtz Etcetera Tags using Seth Apter's monoprint technique. I have added many layers to this design resulting in a fabulous textural piece. Pop by my BLOG for more indepth pictures. 

Brenda

Watercolour paper, two distress oxides and some picket fence distress paint and that's all I used for my background. I think it has a feel of old, aged wallpaper don't you? I just love the paper dolls - saves me cutting out the found relatives lol. I would be very happy to see you over at Bumblebees and Butterflies if you'd like all the details.

Astrid

Like many people I decided to have a play with my new Oxides. I turned my original tag into a card, using a few of my other new goodies. If you want to see how all of this came together, just visit my blog

Nikki

My MDF tag features Tim Holtz products new and old - crazing collage medium, wildflower dies and stamps, mini tattered florals and the fab new words design tape. Do pop over to Addicted to Art for all the details.

Deb

Oh how I love Tag Fridays!  I had a wonderful time playing with some new to me Tim Holtz dies and embossing folders and combined them with some tried and true favourites.  I've a few step out photos on my blog on how I created it, hope you can stop by for a look.

Jennie

I always love our AVJ Tag Friday as it is a good excuse to make my tag from bits and pieces left over from other projects and which never seem to get put away! I am sure you will recognise a few of them! Hop on over to my blog if you would like more details.

S@ndy

What I love about Tag Friday is that we can cre8 whatever we like. Come by my blog here to see how I made this fun tag.  Would you believe that lovely flower is made from baby wipes that were dried after using them for clean up.


Jenny

Like many of the other Creative Guides I've been giving those new Distress Oxides a work out in combination with some new stencils and Paper Dolls. It's all part of a much bigger project that will be unveiled to you all very soon. For the time being there's a chance to see the tags (more than one!) on my blog and a sneak peek of their eventual home on my blog.


Wow what an incredible variety of styles using so many different products and techniques, I hope you enjoy looking at them and popping over to leave some love for everyone.

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It's incredible we are celebrating our third birthday.

As a special part of our celebrations we thought you might like to share in the fun and join in with Tag Friday and of course it's very special to those of you who read our posts and share our love of this creative Vintage Journey. I have added a linky below so you can link a tag to us, it's only open for a week and ends just before the new challenge starts a week today. There's a little prize for someone chosen by Random Org, just a little "Thank You" for sharing your creative talent with us and stopping by to leave comments and support us every month.

It's the Movers and Shapers Mini Bird and cage by Tim Holtz.

We look forward to seeing what you share and don't forget there will be a fifth Destination Inspiration post on Monday still using the current contents of our travelling bag.

Have a wonderful weekend.

hugs Brenda and the Creative Guide xxx

An InLinkz Link-up