Merry Christmas and 'Au Revoir' to A Vintage Journey

 I can't believe that after nearly 7 years we have decided to call an end to the challenges and posts on the A Vintage Journey Challenge Blog. I have been so proud of what we have achieved in terms of the philosophy and talent that it has brought together. It went beyond my wildest dreams but for several reasons I think that now is the right time.

Life for me has now changed in terms of retirement, new goals, different responsibilities and this year particularly the Covid-19 pandemic, I have wandered away from the creative paths I was following and lost the focus I once had. I hope it will return someday but for now I'll just follow the road I am on and enjoy the new journey.

I am however submitting my last project for AVJ which has two themes - To 'Celebrate the Season' by making an ATC or a set of ATCS depicting Christmas scenes or colours plus the ending of the challenges and inspirational projects that the whole team has contributed to over nearly 7 years. 

I started by making some backgrounds during another fabulous crafty Skype session with two of my AVJ friends, Nikki and Alison, who live fairly near to me and I have met in person.

I chose this finished design because of the bright and colourful effects it gave me and then cut it into ATC sized pieces. It was made with Christmas tissue paper. stencils, acrylic paints and stamps.

Close-ups

ATC backgrounds - Stamped holly leaves painted in green and berries painted red to help bring it all together. Die-cut leaves and sentiments.

Finally berries, boxwood twine and shabby muslin bow to finish it off.

These are such sweet little pieces of art I decided to mount them in white frames with a background piece of the original tissue paper used in the mixed media backgrounds - see end of the post.

My third ATC for the second part of the challenge includes a recycled background from an old Tim Holtz tag book, it also incorporates his stamps and inks, one of his frames, his design tapes and his remnant rubs. This was where my love of the Vintage genre started.

It really didn't take long to put this one together but I had to include a heart as I will treasure these AVJ years with the friendships I've made and the people we have touched all around the world. These are indeed such wonderful memories that I will hold in my heart forever.

Thanks to everyone who has travelled with me on this amazing journey. Although this is the first project and post for quite a few months I am hoping I will get back into the swing one day soon.

Take care and huge hugs Brenda xxx

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A Vintage Journey Tutorial Post

The full tutorial for this shadowbox project is over at A Vintage Journey today. To follow along and create your own version pop over to see the process steps and photos to go with them.

DecoArt products

Mediums - Soft Touch Varnish.

Media Fluid Acrylics - Titan Buff, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Titanium White, Paynes Grey, Burnt Umber
Chalky Finish - Everlasting, Heirloom

CELEBRATE at A Vintage Journey - shabby vintage frame

Over at AVJ we are asking everyone to share what they are celebrating in their art and craft at the moment. I always think there is so much to celebrate and enjoy in the artistic and creative world we live in.

For me the celebration comes at many different times - often when I have created something I feel very proud of;  when I've devised a new technique that gives a great result;  when I see some of my artwork in print;  when I have finished a workshop and the attendees love what they have done or when I've simply had a fabulous session of creating on my own or with a group of friends.

This piece today was inspired by family. My daughter married about 15 months ago and I'd made quite a few of these shabby hearts for the invitations and for decorations at the reception.

As I am working with only one hand fully functioning (I've dislocated my left shoulder so that arm is in a sling) I thought I would use one to celebrate both family and all things shabby vintage.

Process steps - dry between painty layers
1. Seal a piece of greyboard with white gesso, dabble, dip and dribble some burnt umber paint,  add some raw umber around the edges and also add some splatters,
To break it up drag some random thin layers of gesso using the flat of the palette knife.

2. Tear and adhere some tissue collage papers. Sand the edges and blend in some brown distress ink. Add a little colour to the images. I used cadmium red hue, titanium white and titan buff.

3. Take the small media board and seal with a coat of white gesso. Scrape a layer of white crackle paste using a small piece of credit card type plastic, keeping it flat so it is an uneven layer. When dry dribble, spritz and dry a couple of different pink mixes , dry and repeat with titan buff. Sand and blend brown distress inks round the edges.

4. Take a deep shadowbox frame and adhere metal corners onto it., then stipple some gesso over the insides and outsides. When dry add a little watery pink to the corners then sand and distress the edges like before. Seal with a coat of varnish.

5. Assemble. To finish I painted a little TH star painted with the deeper pinkier colours to bring the heart into the feel of the whole piece. I chose a star because that is the symbol my daughter loves and for me has come to represent my children, their spouses and our grandchildren.

I also lifted the panel to give it quite a bit of height within the frame.

So let's see what you're celebrating in your artwork this month.
Pop over to A Vintage Journey and join the fun.

xxx

DecArt products

Media white gesso, white crackle paste, 

Media fluid acrylics - raw umber, burnt umber, used cadmium red hue, titanium white, titan buff.

Tag Friday at A Vintage Journey with new Andy Skinner stamp

It's Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey and at last I have been inspired to make something. I have been copying over all the tags made by the amazing Creative Guides and just looking at what they have been producing inspired me to take a couple of hours at my work desk and see if I could get motivated. This is the result - a really grungy tag using one of Andy Skinner's new stamps and a small part of one of his new transfer sheets!

Process steps

1. Cover a tag with text papers and glue both the underside and topside of them using decoupage sealer/glue. Take a stencil and mix some white modeling paste with white gesso and  spread it through using a palette knife. 

2. Take some dark colours and paint and rub them over the background and dry.

3. Take white crackle paint and drag some through the stencilled textures with a palette knife. 

4. Paint, rub and spritz the same paints adding quinacridone gold to the mix and layer several washes until you are happy with the results.

5. Stamp the Plague Doctor onto an oddment of left over paper/card, tear and paint then adhere to a small rectangle of grungy background.

6. Gather some elements together to create your design and finish with a rubbing from a transfer sheet to add the word.

There we have a finished tag, the first project I have made in 6 weeks! I don't think I have ever been away from my desk for so long in all the time I have been blogging and that's 9 1/2 years!!!

I hope I can keep some momentum going now but I don't think I am going to be a prolific as I was with creating art but who knows?

I hope you can pop over to the AVJ blog to see he amazing line up we have for you to take a look at. 

A huge thank you to the wonderful Team who have kept me going and inspired me to get myself into gear today.

Thank you to you too for being here.

Have a great weekend.

xxx

Faux gold leaf? - Metals for A Vintage Journey

It's the first Friday in July and the start of a new challenge at A Vintage Journey.

This month we would like to see some kind of precious metal feature in your project. Think gold, silver, brass, copper, aluminium or steel. It could be in the form of embellishments, cardstock, paint, gilding wax, foil, gold leaf, rub ons, or paints. Just remember to ensure that you create in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby,mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

For this month's challenge I have created a 5 x 7 inch journal panel and kept the focus with metallics in any way I could.

 For the background I used heavyweight watercolour paper and cut my background piece and laid it an arrow die on the flat side to take the impression but not cut it. I then dribbled, spritzed and dried some areas of prussian blue, turquoise interference, and emperor's gold before blending quinacridone gold mainly around the edges. To finish I brayered emperors gold over the whole piece - it got picked up on the raised areas and looks somewhat like faux gold leaf.

 I kept the embellishing simple as I didn't want to hide much of that opulent background. The globe was die-cut from gold crd and I used Andy Skinner's satin sunset and crystal glaze embossing powders on it.

The metal pieces were all altered with dazzling metallic paints with some gesso and burnt umber media fluid acrylic.

I think the lovely lady looks as though she has embarked on a cruise adventure. I wonder who she is with and where she is going?

I hope you have a little time to pop over to see what the other Creative Guides have created for the line up and maybe you will get a chance to make something yourself for Amanda's great challenge.

Supplies from Country View Crafts

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - prussian blue hue, quinacridone gold, interference turquoise, burnt umber

DecoArt Dazzling Metallics - emperor's gold, pewter, ice blue
Andy Skinner embossing powders - crystal glaze, satin sunset

Tag Friday

It's the fifth Friday in May and we have a Tag Friday post over at A Vintage Journey today showcasing lots of wonderful inspiration tags, so worth taking a look.

Process steps

Layer of gesso using a palette knife.

Dips and drips of sap green and cerulean blue drying between each layer.

Blend over hickory smoke and gathered twigs and splatter with water - dry off water with a piece of kitchen towel.

Spritz lightly with water and heat dry.

Stencil with coffee archival ink.

Stamp the Imperial Rover bicycle with hydrangea, coffee and black archival inks and leave to dry. (I used a stamp platform).

Mask the words and bicycle and stamp over some gears and text from the Tech Trauma set using watering can archival ink.

Add the vintage photo and mini collage with Secret Journey stamped and cut from the Word Up set.

There we have a stamped and stencilled collage of images on a painty/inky distressed background.
I wonder who the cyclist is and where he has been journeying to?

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you get a minute to go walkthrough the amazing line up of fabulous tags over at AVJ, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Enjoy your weekend.

Supplies from Country View Crafts

DecoArt Media - Fluid Acrylic Paints - burnt umber, cerulean blue, sap green, titan buff.

DecoArt Media - White Gesso

Stamps - Andy Skinner - Imperial Rover, Tech Trauma, Word Up

Stencil - Andy Skinner - Inspire

Vintage Photo - Tim Holtz - Vintage Photo Strips

Book It! A Vintage Journey challenge and Eileen Hull Passport Book

I Just love creating handmade books, mini albums and journals etc and as  a child I was an avid reader but all I seem to read about these days is new techniques and craft ideas etc. :o) x

There is nothing better than curling up with a good book to take us away to another place! This month over at A Vintage Journey we'd like you think about books - perhaps you will make a book, or a journal, create a journal page showing a scene from one of your favourite books (do please tell us what book!) or a card showing someone reading or made using text stamps, stencils or word stickers. Just remember to create in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

I attended a workshop with the lovely Antonis Tzanidakis last weekend and bought some of his papers and stamps to play with. I decided to use these to make a little grungy, mixed media passport style book.

Process steps

1. Cover some black card with patterned paper - I used Mechanical Fantasy from Stamperia by Antonis. Cut two covers from the die.

2. Cut a spine from mountboard, stamp it with the typewriter from Tim Holtz Inventor set.  Daub some paints over it, stamp it and dip in some watery colour washes using the same as you just used.

3. Add some additional colour to the papers and spine, seal them with matte medium and give a coat of clear crackle glaze and leave it to dry naturally.

4. Paint the back of the covers with the titan buff paint. With a palette knife drag over cobalt blue and quin gold and dry. Stamp. Repeat the dragging over with white gesso. Seal with a coat of matte medium mixed with both the quin gold and cobalt blue and when that is dry again give a coat of the clear crackle glaze and dry naturally.  Also crackle glaze the spine.

5. Brush everything (inside and outside of the covers) with oil paint to get into all the cracks, then rub back with a baby wipe and dry kitchen roll to leave the cracks and crevices aged with the paint.

6. Stick the covers to the spine and add embellishments to the front. It was here I swapped the inside and outside covers over. I prefer the painty layers to the patterned papers.

7. Die cut pages with patterned papers and watercoloured papers and insert them as three signatures  into the booklet using elastic.

My book is now ready to use tor any "Stuff, ideas and things"

I hope you will be able to pop over to AVJ to see some other wonderful creations from the members of the team posting this month and maybe we'll see you joining in as well?

xxx

Supplies from Country View Crafts

Stamperia Mechanical Fantasy paper pad - Antonis

DecoArt premium acrylic paint- titan buff

DecoArt Media acrylic paints - Cobalt Teal Hue, Quinacridone Gold
DecoArt Clear Crackle Glaze, Matte Medium

Tim Holtz stamps - Inventor
Eileen Hull dies
Tim Holtz supplies