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Showing posts with label Vintage Journey Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vintage Journey Challenge. Show all posts

Monday, 11 February 2019

Valentines card



Prompted by A Vintage Journey's Challenge "Your Hearts Desire" I got out my romantic colours, Valentines to me says pinks and reds.
I tried a few stencils straight onto a cream card base creating a patterned heart stamped with some text but I wasn't happy with it. I tried it on watercolour with a coloured background and red speckles embossed in red and gold but it just seemed too flat.


The embossing called for more layers and texture and seemed to suit a more vintage design. Heading off in another direction I cut some foliage with a memory box die and used paper from my stash to create a collaged heart to cover the original design.


I embossed a graphic 45 sentiment in gold on a rich red card. I glued the heart over the foliage so it framed it and finished off with the sentiment mounted on some foam tape. A few red speckles on the heart pulled the card together.
I wonder does Valentines day get more people making cards than Christmas? Christmas is so busy  and most of us do not need stacks of Valentine cards. Whether you are making cards or not a Happy Valentines day to all.

Thank you for all your comments I do read and appreciate each of them it is good to know you are not just talking to yourself!

Link for Vintage Journey Challenge

Monday, 24 September 2018

Back to Nature Autumn tag

I have changed the look of my blog a little so I can use bigger pictures. Pictures are so central to visual work. Today I wanted to experiment with Paperartsy's infusions and grunge paste. I worked on some book pages adhering them to card and cutting out a die from the Tim Holtz Bookplate and tag die. Next I used the paste through a stencil. Once it dried I used a heavy sprinkle and spritz of Slime  infusions.


By the time I had finished the text has almost disappeared. I love the range of colours that the infusions create. The texture paste  highlighted this effect as the colours pool and swirl around the patterned surface. I did use some distress ink in olive and forest moss but most of the colour comes from the infusions. I added very little to this as I wanted to allow the texture and colour show through.


I used some gold and terracotta embossing powder to create a defined edge. I die cut some tiny leaves from the Tiny Tattered Florals framlits set  and finished off with some dark brown Autumn plants from my garden.


This tag is partly inspired by the challenge over at A Vintage Journey where they prompt you to use natural objects, colours and themes this month. It is hard not to be conscious of nature at the change of seasons so much shifting colour and form in the garden as everything bursts its borders and dries out or turns rich browns and golden colours.


The tag is finished off with a quote from Van Gogh.

I am linking up to A Vintage Journey where they are challenging you to get  Back to Nature
Also joining in with That's Crafty Forever Autumn Challenge

Friday, 24 August 2018

Robin Egg Embossed Card

I was playing around with embossing this week and made a couple of cards. In the first I finally used the egg stamp Yey!


I have also used an embossing folder that I have had for ages and never tried out. I was prompted by both Paperartsy's Baked texture challenge and Vintage Journey's resist challenge. It all turned into quite a stash project. I started with patterned paper from my stash. I stamped some text to add detail to the green and cream open spaces on the paper. I embossed with the folder adding a little extra embossing with the folder at the bottom to make a longer piece. I used 2 coats of versamark and clear embossing powder to create a resist and then inked it with gathered twigs DI. I love the grungy, gritty effect created where small particles of embossing powder have stuck to the debossed areas and resisted the ink.


The snippet of book paper is from an old encyclopedia. Luckily I still had the bird entry


I avoided the bottom section with the embossing powder so the ink covers it all and creates a darker area giving a different effect. The card is finished off with my stamped fusycut egg, a coloured scrap of book paper and a pensive young lady from Tim Holtz Paper dolls. These colours all relate to the colours of the egg and the card is mounted on cardstock called - "Robin Egg." How appropriate was that!


Joining in with
Vintage Journey's challenge How Can you Resist
Artistic Stamper's challenge Anything Goes

Embossing folder used is Anna Griffin 'Aviary'
Stamp set Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous 'Bird Feather'
12 x 12 patterned paper by Bo Bunny 'Et Cetera - Watermark'
Robin Egg cardstock is by Kaisercraft

Monday, 30 July 2018

Shrine to female botanists


I posted the tag accordion last night just after midnight so it looks like I have been super prolific today! I made this today but I am still thinking of nature themes. I wanted to join in with A Vintage Journey this month. I started with a stamp. I love this thoughtful looking Victorian woman surrounded by fossils and plants. She reminds me of all those amazing lady botanists who never gained recognition for their work but whose discoveries lie demurely hidden within the publications of many famous male botanists. Like Ellen Hutchins who is considered the first female botanist in Ireland, or Jeanne Baret a botanist who was the first woman to sail around the globe. if you are interested in finding out more about them I have put links below. The sentiment I settled on was by Richard L Ratliff:

"I tend the flowers of my mind
Watering our memories as they bloom"

These words seemed perfect for all those women who persevered in developing their minds and enriching their lives despite the way women in those days were discouraged from taking their 'work' seriously. Once I had settled on this subject and stamp. I wanted to make a sort of shrine to these inspiring ladies. My husband cut out three base pieces for me in plywood and I cut three sheets of book paper to use as my background papers.


I had great fun dipping the paper in puddles of distress ink and infusions to create three backgrounds. I used my lovely new stencil by Sheena Douglass. I used some crackle paste on the left panel. On the right hand panel I use Paperartsy grunge paste.

this image is of the finished panel

The centre panel I simply used for the stamped image. While these dried off I stained my base panels with a dark brown distress stain and then some Distress metallic stain. I ended up covering this up later!

I used Washi tape to create hinges for the shrine.


I stamped the fossil lady onto the centre piece with black archival ink and added a bit of the tree branches from a Tim Holtz tree stamp onto the right panel to balance the strong black out a little. While everything was drying I printed out my sentiment with the computer and tore it into strips. I coloured these pieces in puddles of wet distress ink and edged them with a little brown distress so they would blend into the background a little. Once all the ink and paste was dried I glued on my decorated papers and  the sentiment pieces. I added rock candy crackle paint pretty much all over. You can see it created a great shine and texture. It also intensified the colours of the ink which were quite dingy when I first inked the paper.


I finished off the edges with treasure gold because lets face it a shrine has to have a little gold.


I just made it in time to join in with A Vintage Journey for their July Challenge  Get Sentimental
Im also going to join in with Love to create who say Anything Goes this month Challenge #10

Products Used:
Stamps - Paperartsy Ink & the Dog Collection A6 Petals Plate 3 and Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Regal Findings
Stencil - Sheena Douglass Wild Foliage
Sizzix Tim Holtz movers and shapers dies -  Mini Vintage Cabinet Card
Treasure Gold Renaissance
Distress ink - Crushed Olive, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade, Shabby Shutters, Gathered Twigs,
Paperartsy Infusions in Rusty car
Paperartsy Grunge paste
Deco Art Crackle paste
V&A Floral Washi tape
Tim Holtz Rock Candy crackle paint
Tim Holtz Distress stain in Ground Espresso and Antiqued Bronze
Book pages from an old book on fly fishing

If you are interested you can read more about Ellen Hutchins here and Jeanne Baret here

Friday, 6 July 2018

Seascape flag book Tutorial

Finally it was cool enough in the studio to return to my flag book. The bright sunny pictures show how hot it is. This photograph was taken at 8.00pm!


To make a similar flag book you need:
2 pieces heavy chipboard  6"x7" for covers
2 pieces of patterned paper 7' x 8" to cover the front and back covers
2 pieces of patterned paper 5 3/4 x 6 1/2 " to decorate inside the front and back covers
1  piece card stock (I used a blue colour to match my flags)  12 " x 6 1/2 "
Paper cut or torn into 6 strips lengths of approx 12" long x 3 1/4" high

The chipboard covers are each covered as separate pieces. I used some long horded 7Gypsies Mariner paper.


I added lots of deep sea Seth Apter embossing power to the edges of my covers


To make the spine I creased at; 1 1/2",  2 1/4",  3", 3 3/4",  4 1/2",  5 1/4",  6",  6 3/4",  7 1/2",  8 1/4",  9",  9 3/4",  10 1/2"  Folded along the creases to form an accordion with 1 1/2 inches unfolded at each end this is used to attached the spine to the covers.



The accordion spine is attached to the covers right up to the edge of the boards leaving a small space top and bottom. I forgot to photograph this step but check out the links below if you want to see detailed instructions. At this point I added patterned paper on the inside covers.



To make my flags I decorated 2 A4 pieces of paper. For the top row I tore the sheet into strips. I wanted a sky and horizon line. Using distress stains and inks to create a light sky with a range of blues I then added a darker horizon line along the bottom of the strips with salty ocean stain.



Once dry I tore the strips into shorter flags and added stamped details in manganese blue archival ink and clear embossing powder.


For the bottom row I wanted to suggest the depths of the sea.  I used distress ink archival ink and stencils on the whole sheet .


Again I then tore it into strips and stained the white exposed edges.


I added archival stamping with clear embossing to give it shine, layers and texture.


Finally I tore the strips into shorter flags and finished off the edges. Before gluing in the flags I finished the cover. I added more deep sea embossing to the inside covers.


The covers were then decorated with lots of stamping and clear heat embossing. I made an embellishment using a stamp from Paperartsy Eclectica ESA06 by Seth Apter. I stamped onto patterned paper, embossed and then edged it with treasure gold to create a metallic edge. I used this to attach a ribbon tie for the book closure.


The ribbon wraps around the closed book and ties on the front cover holding the book closed.


With the cover finished I then attached my flags.


If you want to try making a flag book you can of course simply use patterned paper or decorate your flags however you want.  Avoid media that is very dimensional as the flags have to move past each other and you dont want them to catch. Also you want them to lie flat when the book is closed. My book only uses two sets/rows of flags you can have as many sets/rows as you like. There are lots of tutorials for making flag books. Lizzy Wurmann has a good video; LINK or this tutorial on scrapbook-crazy.com is also good:  LINK

I am glad to be organised enough to join in with Mini Album Makers again this month HERE


Also joining Fashionable Stamping for the first time - their current Challenge #136  Seaside


Thursday, 28 June 2018

little Girls Blue Card

I am much more confident with regular distress ink than the Distress Oxides. I was playing with Distress Oxides trying to redress the balance a little. I did some wrinkle free distress with Cracked Pistachio and Vintage photo  then I blended through a couple of stencils with both colours trying to use brown on top of green and green on top of brown. I finished off with some archival ink stamping in Manganese blue and black, some of my yummy Tim Holtz Design tape and a couple of stamps from my ephemera box.



It still seemed a little dull and flat to me, could be the colours I used but I think after years of the glowing colours of blended distress ink I find the oxidised finish challenging. To try and fix this I mixed some Manganese Blue archival ink into Paperartsy Grunge paste. I used another stencil to create some texture on the smaller piece.


I scraped the left over paste onto the edges of the larger piece added some versamark over the dried paste and embossed it with a mixture of  Seth Apter's Deep Sea and Ranger Antiquities Verdigris embossing powder. Happy now with a  little more texture and shine, I assembled the card, added a sentiment and some Tim Holtz Paper dolls (I coloured their dresses with a touch of peacock Feathers Distress ink).


As I used lots of inventor and scientific stamps in the background I thought it would be good to have little girls rather than boys or gents. Challenging us all to any dream we imagine.



Hope you are all getting a little time to play this week. Thanks for your visit.

Stencils used are all Crafters workshop 6x6
Mini Numerals
Mini Ledger
Mini Harlequin

I am joining in the Vintage Journey Challenge for June stencil it
Also joining in with Creative Artiste Mixed Media at:
www.creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.com.au  Challenge 39

Also joining in with the Country View Challenge which is 'The Written Word'  I was thinking how much the words change the way we see these girls making us think about all their potential and the possibilities before them. Also makes me wonder did they fulfill all their dreams?. I do hope so.

Sunday, 27 May 2018

Paper Boat on a Caribbean Sea

I have made things with paper and card since I was a little girl but origami still defeats me. I have tried it often but it really is not my forte - that is probably why I enjoy making paper boats it is the only folded form I can make with any success. When I noticed the May theme for A Vintage Journey was Words and Music I thought I would try a boat and use the song Caribbean Blue by Enya. This song was very much part of my early romance with my husband and I love music and the lyrics's imagery of sailing away to a blue sea.



I used a sheet of vintage music coloured with distress ink and perfect pearls.I also used lots of stencils to produce seaweed, bubbles and wave patterns. Once the boat was folded I stamped with archival and edged the boat with lots of my favorite Emerald Creek/Seth Apter embossing powder - in "Deep Sea" of course!


I decided to use the clean up wipe for making the sail as it was such lovely colours and had a great windswept shape to it.
Hope everyone is enjoying the balmy weather we have had here in Ireland, long may it last.

Simon Says Stamp  is also challenging everyone to make something Inspired by a Song link
A Vintage Journey Words and Music link
Also joining Creative Artiste Challenge #38