Creative Card Making with Jennie

Hello and welcome to this fourth Friday of the month which means that one of us shares a Creative Card Making tutorial. And this month it is my turn!

I don't think it matters where you live in the world but postage today is very expensive and yet it is lovely to be able to send cards for all different occasions. As a result I have been working hard on my single layer stamping techniques and combining this with my love of the ATC.

So today I am going to share with you how I put this card together which looks extremely effective but is all one layer.  And ..... the best thing is you can have a number of ATC sized pieces all ready to make a card whenever you need to. I know that many of you will probably already use this technique but I am sure there will be some Creative Travellers with us who have not tried it yet!

I like to use a good quality card for the stamping so took an A4 sheet of white cardstock and trimmed it up into nine ATC sized pieces - 2.5" x 3.5".

Having chosen the stamps I wanted to use I then had to think about what order I would be stamping them in to have the most important stamped element sitting on the top. In this instance it is this wonderful flower, with the second layer being the circular post stamp and finally two background stamps, one text and the other more detailed. The stamping will be done from top to bottom with each top layer being masked. I have limited myself to three layers here but you can do many layers ..... !

I have tried lots of different mask products but always come back to the good old post it note! I find the sticky piece at the top of the pad is more than sufficient to adhere to the project and they will last a good few times without disintegrating. (Use a larger post it note pad for larger stamps.) Just ensure that you stamp a largish piece of your stamp onto the sticky layer. Then fussy cut the flower for your mask.

I then stamped my flower onto the ATC.

And masked it with the post it note flower. This flower had alot of "floppy" leaves so it needed a bit of washi tape to hold it in place as well.

Then to stamp my second layer, ensuring that some of the stamp lies over the flower.

I made a mask of this circular stamp and adhered it on top of the area of stamping.

This then allowed me to use my two background stamps to stamp over the whole of the ATC. This time I have used Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) to get a lighter look.

And hey presto! when you take all the masks off everything is layered behind the flower.

I used a few of my stamp sets to create some different designs in the same manner and then had a lovely relaxing time painting them.

I blended a little Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) around the edges of the ATC and added a gold edge with Gold nib style pen. I like to layer the ATC onto a piece of corresponding card just slightly bigger than the ATC (2.5/8"x 3.5/8").

Whenever I need a card I add the layered ATC onto  a plain 6" x 6" card blank with my sentiment stamped in the bottom corner. (Again you can get ahead and stamp a few to have ready!)

It is easy to make up a nice little batch of ATCs using different stamp sets and have them ready to add to card blanks as and when you need them.  It is also a great way to familiarise yourself with some of the stamp sets you might not have used for a while.

It can get a little bit addictive! and don't forget about extending it to the envelope as well.

I hope this tutorial might inspire you to grab some of your stamp sets and see them in new light and go some way to saving you a little money next time you need to send a card.

Thank you for joining me me on the Creative Card Making journey today and don't forget there is still a little time to join in our current challenge which is "Tissue Paper".

Jennie x

Tissuepaper Book Box tutorial by Astrid

Hello friends and welcome for our tutorial post here at AVJ. As the host for this month's challenge, it is my turn to share a tutorial for the project I made for that..

As you may remember, I altered one of these bookboxes that I am using to keep my wax seal stamps in. So let's get started:

Here you can see what the box looked like to start with. To cover it I used an old technique using scraps of plain tissue paper to end up with a sort of leather look surface.

I tore a hug pile of tissue scraps, the fact that they have this strange colour is just due to the bad lighting when I took the photo, they are actually white.

I adhered them to all sides of the box, including the spine of course, using gel medium.

I then gave it all a coat of clear gesso and then coloured everything with a mix of Distress Oxide Sprays and Decoart Media paints, until eventually I was more or less happy with the result, and then promptly forgot to take a photo of that stage, - sorry.

While the box was drying I started work on the front panel.

I adhered a piece of Tim Holtz tissue wrap to a piece of card with Collage Medium and then toned it down with some Decoart Media Translucent White paint, gently removing some areas with a slightly damp baby wipe.

I then turned to the inside of the box. I covered the inside of the lid with a piece of rice paper from Stamperia.

I then used Distress crayons and collage elements to add further interest.

First I used a stencil and texture past, then I added some washi and parts of paper serviettes (all further examples of tissue paper of course) and finally finished it with a wax seal.

I used similar elements for the front panel, moving collage elements around until I was happy with the final composition  and then adhered the panel to the front of the box.

The final stage was to highlight some of the raised  bits created with the tissue paper with Treasure Gold gilding paste and then to fill my box with my ever groing collection of wax seal stamps. I love how wax seals can create a finishing touch to collage projects and journals, and using them has definitely become somewhat of an addiction...

Well that's it from me for today. There is still plenty of time to add your own tissue paper project to our challenge and we would love to see what you can come up with!

Thank you so much for your visit today and hopefully see you next week when one of us will share a creative card making post with us all here.

Book It! Challenge Pinworthies And May Tag Friday Winner

Hello everyone, Deb here to announce our choices for the May Book It! challenge and for our May Tag Friday linkup!  As is always the case you did not make the Creative Guide's choices easy, so many amazing entries and we want to thank all of you for joining in our challenges.

First up, here are our Pinworthy picks for the Book It! challenge:

#8 Jannet

We adore how Jannet's wonderful cover opens up to reveal an amazing tea party diorama and who doesn't love Alice In Wonderland!

#13 Cathy

Cathy's amazing medical themed vintage book is incredibly detailed but the most wonderful part of all is how she dedicated it to her father-in-law who was a doctor.

#23 Katrina

The cover of Katrina's fab Dogs and Pups lap book has a wonderful vintage feel and her decision to donate it to a local dog rescue association (where she found her own beloved pup Luther!) was such a special and generous idea.

And our Tag Friday winner was:

#7 Beulah Bee

Love that Beulah Bee used that wonderful vintage wedding photo and then showcased it so perfectly inside the Idea-ology Lace Frame with that lovely floral lace stamp and Perfect Pearls!

Congratulations to all our amazingly talented winners, we will be sending you your AVJ Pinworthy badges to display on your blogs very soon.

Thanks again to everyone who entered our May challenges and we hope that you will also enter our current Tissue Paper challenge for a chance to win your very own Pinworthy badge!  Thanks as always for stopping by today and happy creating,

Deb and the Creative Guides

Tissue Paper, our challenge for June

Hello A Vintage Journey fans, welcome to our June challenge! This is Astrid and I am excited to host our challenge this month and show you all the amazing and diverse projects my teamies have created. Hopefully you will feel inspired to play along!

This is what we would like you to do this month:
As the title suggests, use tissue paper. There are many different ways you can incorporate tissue paper into your project - create texture by scrunching it up, stain it, paint it, wax it, stamp on it, emboss on it. You could use cheap tissue from the supermarket, recycle gift wrapping tissue, or even use old dressmaking patterns. Just remember to create in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

So let's begin by showing you our projects:


Astrid


I decided to alter a book box to keep my wax seal stamps in. I have an ever growing collection of these and this book box seemed the perfect place to house them. I have used several different techniques using tissue paper and you can find more photos of both the inside and the outside of the box on my blog.


Nikki


For our Tissue Paper challenge I have taken inspiration from a recent workshop I attended with our very own Brenda Brown. I have adapted the workshop project in a number of ways and, of course, incorporated Tissue Paper. The details of this version and the original workshop design can be found at Addicted to Art today.


Ann


What a great opportunity to get out the tissue paper you love and play. For our Tissue Paper challenge, I have taken inspiration from the Photo Frame Wall. To find out more please feel free to stop by my blog.

Jennie


I have been experimenting with my Gelli Plate and discovered that some tissue paper takes paint beautifully! I created the silhouette flowers with die cuts and layered the tissue paper onto stamped card. If that whets your appetite for more then please hop on over to Live the Dream where I explain it all !


Jo


I had lots of fun art journaling for Astrid's fabulous Tissue Paper challenge. Inspired by a beautiful display of flowers in my garden, I used a couple of new techniques with tissue paper to create the background as well as all the foliage and flowers on this page. Please pop over to my blog to see how it all came together.

Sara Emily


I am really drawn to the many bird images on Tim Holtz Aviary Collage Paper, and his new-to-me Crochet Thinlits lacy die cuts. If you would like to see how I used these and other bits to create this vignette, please join me for a brief tutorial on my blog.

Toni


I love Astrid's challenge, and agree with her on just how versatile tissue paper can be. I particularly like the way it disappears when you apply it to a surface. If you'd like to know more about how I've used it to upcycle this plant pot, hop over to my Artistic Craft Dabbler blog and all will be revealed.

Annie


I had great fun creating this mixed media jumbo tag for Astrid's fabulous challenge theme. Lots of paint, crackle medium, DI's, wax and a tissue napkin from my stash were used in my project.
If you would like to view the details then pop over to my blog by clicking HERE

Barbara


I'm so thrilled to take part in the fabulous Astrid's June challenge! I created a canvas using Tissue Paper for the background of my frame! I colored Tissue Paper with Distress crayons and I love the way it turned out, so vivid! You can find step by step on my Blog!!

S@ndy


For this challenge I used some Tim Holtz Tissue Paper as my background. After a little color, glue and stamping it's ready to go. I hope you will join me at my blog here to see how it happened.

Well I am sure you will agree that these projects are full of inspiring ideas and illustrate just the versatility of tissue paper and the many creative possibilities it can be used for. Now we cannot wait to see what you might come up with!!
Thank you so much for being part of our journey here and have a wonderful month!

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Tag Friday and INTRODUCING .........

Welcome Everyone to a new Tag Friday post which can only be seen when there are five Fridays in the month. Today do we not only have a wonderful array of tags to share with you we are also announcing the new Creative Guides joining our wonderful 'A Vintage Journey' team. We have four amazingly talented artists who I'm sure many of you will know from your crafty travels in blogland. So without further ado let's see who they are.

Ann

AnnChuangCrafts

I live in Taipei, Taiwan. It is only a small spot on the world map, but I love and thank this land. In this country, I can create freely, and my inspiration is endless. In my childhood, my father was my first art teacher. Once, he taught me to stamp with my fingers, and then he used a pen to draw a few strokes. Surprisingly, they became a bunch of chickens. This was my first experience of art. I felt amazed and since then I've been fascinated with art. In 2012, I accompanied my daughter to participate in paper art courses, and it was then that I started to make cards. At first, even making very simple cards would take me hours, but the look of pure joy that people showed me after receiving a handmade card was worth every second! I also fall in love with Mixed Media. For the past few years, I have been working with mixed media. Different media have their own individual effects, but when they are mixed together, there will be different results. I enjoy the surprises in the creation process. I especially like vintage, shabby, steampunk style. So when invited to join the Vintage Journey team, I was honored to have the opportunity to work alongside the other Creative Guides. I am absolutely thrilled to be part of this wonderful Team and I'm looking forward to sharing my creations with all of you along the way!

Barbara

Yaya Scrap and More

Hello everyone! First of all, I want to tell you that I'm really thrilled to be part of this wonderful and super talented team! As a second thing, I introduce myself! I'm Barbara (aka Barbarayaya), I'm Italian and I joined this wonderful craft world since 2005. I officially started with traditional scrapbooking (layout and mini-album) but I'm actually a crafter from birth! At about five years old, I cut out everything from my mother's magazines to make collages and divided my colored pencils (I owned into exaggerated quantities) into small packages held by an elastic band according to their color: all yellows, all reds, etc. etc. After my initial approach with traditional scrapbooking, I came across the magical Tim Holtz's world and I can say that this was the turning point of my creative journey. I have never abandoned this style in which I find my best way to express my personality and my art. I have approached Mixed media a couple of years ago, I love it very much because it allows me to mix styles and products. Last thing and I think it will make you smile: I don't have a scrap room but only a tiny corner inside my kitchen that has also become my "studio"! And who cares if every so often some microscopic grain of embossing powder or glitter flies towards my kitchen stove: in this way, I am so happy!!! I'm sure that this new adventure will be wonderful!

Jo

Let's Art Journal

I started Art Journaling in 2015 as a way of expressing my life through words and pictures, and I'm captivated by the variety of techniques and materials that can be used to create so many different styles of art. As my career focused on adult learning I've always been a creative person, and have found art journaling very therapeutic and rewarding, it helps me breathe; a bit of a cliché - but so true. Each page is inspired by what I see, do, feel and hear so it's personal to me and allows me to express myself. It's a fun way to record life events and memories too. Over the years my passion for art has expanded to creating cards and tags, especially for my family and friends, as well as decorations and items for around the house. I love nothing better than to experiment with different techniques and products, get creative, put my ideas into practice and have lots of fun doing so. This has become a passion of mine and I'm delighted to be able to share it with you here at A Vintage Journey!

Toni

Artistic Craft Dabbler

Hi everybody! I'm Toni and I'm delighted to be here, as a Creative Guide, at A Vintage Journey. My personal journey into the realms of mixed media and paper crafts, began like many people, as a child. My mum encouraged my brothers and I to draw and paint and there was always a ready supply of paper and pencils in our house. I studied art at Moseley School of Art, and went on to train as a teacher. I've enjoyed a long career, teaching children with Special Educational Needs. I am now retired and love having more time to devote to my arty crafty adventures. I started my blog, Artistic Craft Dabbler, in 2010 and it is a never ending  joy, to discover that all over the world, there are so many like minded people! My style is eclectic, embracing anything from the occasional clean and simple to full on industrial grunge. I love experimenting with new products but also like to incorporate recycled materials and found objects, hence, I am a compulsive hoarder of anything that 'might come in handy'. I'm very excited to be joining this terrifically talented team and hope that you too, will enjoy the journey as much as I do.

We welcome these lovely ladies to the team and I know everyone is looking forward to seeing what they make.

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Onto the inspiration for the day and the wonderful tags created by members of the team with no theme or other constraints, just sheer unadulterated playtime tags.

Jo

Hello everyone, I'm so thrilled and honoured to be part of this wonderful Challenge Blog and Creative Guide team! As I love Art Journaling, I thought I'd create a "Tag Journal" of double-sided tags. Here's the first one which captures my new adventure here at A Vintage Journey; both sides are vintage style, one side is the front cover of the tag journal reminding me to embrace the journey and the other is a tribute to the support and kindness shown by my fellow Creative Guides. Please find full details of my process and materials here at my blog.

Ann

I'm so honored to be part of this wonderful Creative Guide team! This is my first Tag Friday, I had some wrinkle-free fun with distress paints and I was really happy with the outcome of this vintage tag. Do pop over to my blog, there are more details.

Deb

I've been working with a lot of bright colours lately and was in serious need of a grungy vintage fix so decided to make my Full Of Possibilities tag with lots of lovely vintage ephemera, crackle paste and Distress Oxide Sprays.  Pop on by blog for my how to and I'd also like to take this opportunity to send a huge warm welcome to our wonderful new Creative Guides!

Astrid

Before introducing my tag to you I would like to express a huge warm welcome to our four new creative guides. I am sure everyone will agree that they are going to be a fantastic addition to our team! As to my tag, when I started with it, I had no idea where I was going, but after numerous layers of paints, inks sprays and papers, this is what was the result, - vintage shabby chic. If you want to see more detail, just head over to my blog.

Toni

I am thrilled to be joining in with Tag Friday, as one of the new Creative Guides, here at A Vintage Journey. It really is a dream come true for me! My tag has a spring theme and I've used lots of Tim Holtz products including, my newest favourite, those gorgeous Transparent Wings. You can see how this came together over on my Artistic Craft Dabbler blog

S@ndy

It's time for those summer vacation trips and I have made my tag to depict the excitement of a new adventure.  You may be surprised to see what the tag itself is made from.  Please visit my blog for all the details by clicking here.

Alison

Hello all!  What an exciting day... not only the joys of Tag Friday itself, but also such a joy to welcome our four new Creative Guides to the journey.  With all that excitement, my tag needed a bit of peace and quiet to recover... do come over to Words and Pictures to experience the serenity and silence!

Jennie

There were so many small pieces of tea dyed lace, net and ribbon sitting on my desk I decided to sew them randomly to a calico tag. Something a little different! Do hop on over to Live The Dream if you would like to see more details. And may I add my welcome to the fabulous new Creative Guides joining us on our creative journey.

Sara Emily

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to our newest team members! I've just finished a big crafty project that's taken weeks of spare time to complete, so tonight it was fun to have some instant gratification with my Distress Oxide Sprays and new to me Tim Holtz The Professor stamps using an old Tim technique. I welcome you to drop by my blog for the details.

Barbara

Hello everyone! I'm really happy and honored to be here on A Vintage Journey with this group of talented artists! I chose my favorite color palette, rust and turquoise for my first tag here with you! You can find a short tutorial on how I created the background on my Yayascrap blog.

Annie

Hi everyone x I am so happy to be joining in with Tag Friday this month and even happier to be welcoming Ann, Jo, Toni and Barbara to the  AVJ team. I am lucky enough to have been on another team with Toni and to have met up with her at a workshop in London a few years ago, which was so nice x For my tag process details you can hop over to my blog HERE

Brenda.

 I have been lucky to get my hands on some of the new Andy Skinner products some of which I have used here on my large size 10 vintage tag. For a few more details and photos it would be lovely to see you at Bumblebees and Butterflies.

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It's a pleasure to have all four of the new team members contributing a tag today, thank you ladies. They are just so keen to get started and join in, I know they are just gonna fit in perfectly. Please welcome them with a comment below and maybe pop over to their blogs to leave some love.

I'm sure you are enjoying the complete randomness of the styles and personal themes that everyone in the team has put together for today. Enjoy your wander through and thank you for being here to see what we create.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda and the Team. xxx

We always love to see your fun tags that you have been creating and would love you to join the party by linking any tag you have made during the month of May.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter