Holly Jolly Christmas

Hello fellow travelers,

Today is the start of a new challenge, Holly Jolly Christmas, and this month Anything Goes as long as it says Christmas and is in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

As always - you are in for a big treat because the Creative Guides have outdone themselves once again. Let's not waste any time chatting, let's get started.

S@ndy



When you say Holly Jolly - I think of Santa. I have added the big guy here with a vintage vibe - to see how I made this card come back on the 20th to see a complete tutorial. See you then.

Jennie



Three little Christmas houses, three techniques! I was going to make just one ... but got completely carried away it was so much fun. Do join me over on my blog for more details.

Deb



For Sandy's wonderful challenge theme I decided to alter one of Tim Holtz's Oh Deer clear acrylic clipboards (that I had in my stash and had totally forgotten about!). Hope you can pop on over to my blog to see how it came together, happy holidays everyone!

Ann



For the theme of this month, I made a snow-covered hut. This is a project that I have always wanted to complete. Thanks to Sandy for the wonderful theme that gave me the motivation to complete. I hope you can pop on over to my blog to see how it came together, happy holidays everyone!


Jo



I love everything Christmas so I had great fun Art Journaling this Holly Jolly Christmas page using lots of Tim Holtz products. To see how it came together please pop over to my blog Let's Art Journal.

Sara Emily



For Sandy's festive challenge, I decided to alter a pair of pine cone gift boxes I've had in my stash for years. I welcome you to my blog to see how I've incorporated some old mixed media products along with Tim Holtz new Thinlits die cuts to take these from old cardboard to vintage Christmas.

Astrid



Most of my crafting time at the moment is spent making Christmas cards, so I thought I would share this one for our challenge this month. If you would like to see more details, please visit me on my blog

Barbara



Christmas is my favorite time of the year! At this moment I'm really obsessed with the black background for Christmas projects! I created two mixed media Christmas tags using a lot of Tim Holtz products, a lot of embossing powders and Prima Marketing wax! If you want to see another different couple of tags with the same concept you can find them on my blog Yaya Scrap & More.

Toni

For Sandy's fabulous challenge I've put together this little 'Christmas greetings' assemblage. If you'd like to see how the different elements came together, please hop over to my blog. Oh! and by the way.....'.have a very Merry Christmas !'

I'm sure you will agree that the Creative Guides have shared a wonderful variety of projects, cards and techniques. We look forward to seeing your version of Holly Jolly Christmas. You have until 2 January 2020 to enter your projects.

Happy Holidays,

Vintage Journey Creative Guides

Enter your project here.  Entries close 2 January 2020

November Tag Friday

Hello and welcome to another Tag Friday here at AVJ. We just LoVE these fifth Friday's in the month where we get to create without a theme ..... time to play, experiment and have fun.

And what a lineup we have for you today!

Barbara

I am very happy to participate in the last Tag Friday of this year! For this occasion, my tags could only be dedicated to Christmas time! I know they are unusual with a black background, but Tim Holtz's stamps mixed with gold and platinum inks make them truly festive! If you want to see my creative process, you can find it on my Yaya Scrap & more Blog.

Alison

I've barely been in the craft room lately, but I can't bear to miss a Tag Friday, so this was a good shove in the direction of the craft table.  I started with a mop up tag and went on from there, grabbing scraps and bits and bobs which were lying around.  Do come and visit Words and Pictures to see all the close-up details.

Astrid

My tag this month is part of a wider project that is a gift to a crafty friend. If you would like to see more detail of the tag and the full project, you are welcome to visit my blog

Annie

Hi Everyone x It's so nice to be able to share my Jumbo Tag with you today.  Christmas will be upon us soon and I am only just getting my Christmas cards started....Eek !!! For  the tag process details please visit my blog by clicking HERE

Jo

This Merry Moose is one of my favourite Thinlets from Tim Holtz so I couldn't resist using it to create this double-sided Mixed Media tag showing the same scene in Autumn and in Winter. To see how it all came together please find full details over at my blog Let's Art Journal.

Amanda

Having missed a couple of our Tag Friday's this year I'm happy to be contributing to this one, especially as its our final Tag Friday of 2019. I'm sharing a  mixed media long tag called 'Peace' over at 'ink-a-pink' and you are very welcome to pop by to see and read more....

Sara Emily

I'm happy to be contributing to the last Tag Friday of the year! Please visit sarascloset for more details!

Jennie

I recently had a bit of a clear out of my "bits box" and I found these two tags which had been created a long time ago using the Wrinkle Free Distress Technique but which I thought would work together as a Christmas tag. Do join me over on my blog if you would like to see more.

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Thank you to all the Creative Guides who have contributed this month and I am sure you will want to visit their blogs to leave them some love!

We love it when you join in! So please do link up with us and share any tags you have made this month, or will make before the linky closes next Thursday evening. You might be chosen as a Pinworthy to be pinned to our special Pinterest Board.

 We also look forward to catching up with you all next Friday for a new challenge hosted by Sandy.

Have fun and a great "crafting" weekend!

Jennie and the Creative Guides

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Vintage Easel Card - Creative Cardmarking

Hi everyone, Nikki here to share an idea for this months Creative Cardmaking post. I am not normally one for fancy card folds but I recently saw a version of this card and thought it would make a great 'special' Christmas card.

The card is based on a square - so any size could be used. I used a 6 inch square card. I added an extra fold at 1 1/2 inches. All I then needed to do was remove the corners. I marked in pencil at 3 inches along the short edge and cut to the additional fold. I could then mirror this at the other end easily.

 You can see in my picture above some extra bits of card. There are 2 squares to fit the base and the easel part of the card, and an extra piece for the inside, although I used cream card in the end as you can see below.

I covered my 2 squares with some Christmas themed paper - I added a little ink to the edges. I didn't have quite enough and wanted an extra bit for my greeting on the base so I cut a square out of the top piece and replaced with the cream square stamped with some Christmas words.

The focal point on the card is the Poinsettia - I die cut several layers from Tim Holtz Tattered Poinsettia die and used Festive Berries and Aged Mahogany Distress inks to colour.

Tim's Holiday Greens dies were used to add some Holly and greenery behind the Poinsettia - again I used Distress Inks (Pine Needles and Mowed Lawn) to get some colour variation.

I chose one of the greetings from Tim Holtz stamp set Festive Overlays - stamped on card and then layered before using foam pads to raise this - so the easel stands up!

And it also folds flat - well it would if the flower wasn't a little dimensional - but I found it would still - just - go in the envelope which came with the card - but I won't be putting it in the post!

Now to decide who to give it to!
Thanks for stopping by today. Our latest challenge - Window on Your World - still has 2 weeks to run as there are 5 Fridays this month. That also means we will be back next week with Tag Friday.

In the meantime - have a great weekend.
Nikki
xxx

Window On Your World Tunnel Book Tutorial

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by.  It's Deb here with you today to share a tutorial on how I made my Winter Wonderland tunnel book for our Window On Your World challenge.

Grab a cup of your favourite beverage and let's get started.

Cut a piece of 12" x 12" scrapbook paper in half so your have two pieces measuring 6" x 12".

Score both pieces on the long side, starting at 3 1/2" and scoring every half inch up to 6 1/2".

Fold on the score lines as shown.

The 3 1/2" segments will become the front cover of your tunnel book and the 5 1/2" segments will overlap to form the back cover of your book.

Adhere the back covers together, making sure that the back of the tunnel book is 6" wide from score line to score line.

We now have the cover of our tunnel book completed, set it aside for now.  Cut 4 pieces of cardstock, each one just a smidgen less than 6" square.  Set one 6" square piece aside for the time being (sorry, forgot to take a picture of that step!).

Select 3 graduated nesting dies, I used circular dies that measured 5", 4 1/2" and 4".  Center the 5" die on one of the 6" square pieces of cardstock and die cut a window.  Place another piece of 6" square cardstock behind the die cut opening, lining up all of the edges, and center the 4 1/2" die in the opening.  Die cut the window on the second piece of cardstock.

Place the third 6" square behind the piece with the 4 1/2" window and center the 4" die within the opening.  Die cut the third window.  Set all of the die cut pieces aside for the moment.

Ink the last piece of 6" square cardstock with Distress inks in shades of blue, dipping it into puddles of ink until you are happy with the colour.

Ink more cardstock with Distress inks in shades of green in the same manner and die cut two Tree Line die cuts.  Die cut the Winter Wonderland stag from sanded Classic Kraft Stock and add the wreath around his neck if you'd like (the wreath die is from the Village Christmastime die set).

Overlay the 4" die cut window onto the inked background so that you get the placement right and adhere the Tree Line die cuts, overlapping and offsetting them slightly.  Adhere the deer on top of the Tree Line die cuts.  Add some snow along the bottom if desired with a white sparkle embossing powder.

Apply double sided tape to the back of the background panel and adhere it onto the back cover of your tunnel book.

Stencil a design onto the front of the 4" die cut window piece (this is Carta Bella's Holly stencil).  Die cut some Mini Holiday Greens from more Distress Ink coloured cardstock.

Adhere the 4" window onto the front of the 1/2" accordion fold that is closest to the background, centering the window top and bottom and side to side.  I found it easier to use a liquid adhesive for this step so you had a little play time to make the sure the window was centered properly in your tunnel book.  Adhere the die cut greenery around the opening, making sure that it doesn't obscure your focal point.

Stencil the 4 1/2" die cut window  piece with a design of your choice (this is Simple Stories Happy Trials stencil) and stamp and die cut some Mini Swirly Snowflakes.

Adhere the 4 1/2" window on top of the next 1/2" accordion fold in our tunnel book.  Adhere the Mini Swirly Snowflakes on top of the window, staggering them so you can still see the Mini Holiday Greens die cuts behind.

Stencil a design on the last 5" die cut window piece.  Make sure that whatever stencil you use has a repeating pattern as we will be continuing this design onto the inside covers of your tunnel book (this is Tim Holtz's Starry Layering stencil).  Die cut some stars from sanded gold Metallic Kraft Stock.

Adhere the 5" window on top of the last 1/2" accordion fold in your tunnel book.  Don't glue the stars around the outside quick yet.

Line up your stencil with the pattern on the 5" window and continue to stencil the pattern onto the insides of your tunnel book covers.

Adhere the die cut gold stars around the outside of the 5" window, staggering their placement so you can see the layers below.  Cut more Tree Line die cuts from green inked cardstock and adhere them on either side of the tunnel book covers.  Die cut two Woodlands trees from green inked cardstock and adhere one on each side, over top of the Tree Line die cuts.  Add a small gold star to the top of each tree if desired.

Decorate the front covers of your tunnel book with more Tree Line die cuts and some Mini Paper Snowflakes die cuts.  I designed the covers to overlap slightly but if you don't want them overlapped trim a 1/2" off each cover so the meet in the middle (probably best to do that before you decorate the inside of the covers!!).  Dye a piece of ribbon with Distress Ink to tie around our tunnel book to keep it closed and you are done.

Here are a few closeups of the completed Winter Wonderland tunnel book.

Hope you enjoyed seeing how it came together and that you will consider joining in our Window On Your World challenge, you have until December 5th to enter.  Thanks so much for stopping by today and as always, happy creating!

Deb xo

Inky Wings Pinworthies

Hi everyone x Annie here with details of the Pinworthy mentions for our Inky Wings challenge theme. As always it is very hard to choose three projects and we would like to thank everyone for joining in with us. We love to visit and view your entries so keep them coming xx.

So without further ado here are the team's Pinworthy choices: 

#6 Kerstin 

Such a wonderful home decor piece by Kerstin. Fabulous details to look at, which look  even more amazing when lit.

#4 Helen

 A wonderful Halloween card by Helen with inky bats and background as well as the great city scape.

#16 Lisa

 

Another great home decor piece by Lisa, showing bats and ghosts around her little house. Love the idea of the bats flying overhead. 

We will be sending you your Pinworthy badge to display on your blogs shortly and we will be pinning your fabulous entries to the "A Vintage Journey Pinworthies Board" on Pinterest.

There is still plenty of time to enter our current challenge which is "Window on Your World"  and you can find all the details HERE along with some fabulous inspiration from the Creative Guides.

As always  we would like to say "Thank You" for joining us in our challenges and we look forward to seeing what you create this month!

Happy Crafting
Annie xx