Against the Grain Pinworthy Winners

Hello! Thank you for traveling along with us with our Against the Grain challenge! We enjoyed visiting each one of your wood inspired entries.

Even though we didn't have many entries, they were all exceptional making narrowing it down to just three favorites a very difficult task. But without further ado, here are the Creative Guide's three Pinworthy choices:

#1 Ann Sullivan Barnes

#5 Lys at Impression Scrap

The 'wood planks' on Lys's 'fence' are so realistic you would think you were sitting in your back yard! Be sure to check out her blog, because she's got some great close up shots and a brief tutorial.

#11 Elle of Empire of the Cat

Elle actually had two great projects linked up, and it was hard to choose between the two. We loved how she embraced the challenge and used wood grain in so many creative ways on her fun project. Be sure to visit her blog, as she takes you through her creative process.

I will be sending you your Pinworthy badge to display on your blogs shortly, and we will be pinning your gorgeous entries to the A Vintage Journey Pinworthies board on Pinterest.

There is still plenty of time to enter our current challenge,  Celebration Time Come On, and you can find all the details HERE along with some fabulous celebratory inspiration from the Creative Guides.

Thank you for traveling along with us on our creative journey, and we can't wait to see what you create this month! It's time to get crafty!

Sara Emily and the Creative Guides

Against the Grain Framed Collage Tutorial

Hello! It's Sara Emily here, and as promised, I have a step by step tutorial for you on how my framed collage for our current challenge, Against the Grain, came together. There's still plenty of time to create something with wood or  faux wood grain effects and play along.  We've already got some great projects showing up in our gallery! Hopefully one of these easy techniques I'm sharing today will tease you to join us on A Vintage Journey this month.

There are lots of close ups at sarascloset, so I'll get straight to the how-to. (All products are Tim Holtz unless otherwise specified.)

I start with choosing a frame from my stash. I bought a set of three of these 8 x 10 frames at a sale a while back, and I've used one so far for my vintage garden collage using resist techniques HERE.  I wanted a similar finish ton my frame, but changed it just a bit to go with my colors on this piece.

 I remove the frame backing/artwork and give the frame a coat of DecoArt crackle medium. Allow it to dry.

Once completely dry, brush on DecoArt chalky paint. Avoid overlapping the paint, as this takes away from the crackle effect.

In the end, I decide to dry brush with Ground Espresso paint to compliment my background and elements. It's very subtle, but helps to take the frame from shabby to more vintage.

Now it's time to make the background. I cut watercolor paper to fit the frame and spray it with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide sprays and splashes of water.  I dry with a heat tool and add more color in blue oxide sprays.

Here's a little secret I use with my oxide sprays and stretch my supplies: I line my spray box with waxy palette paper for each color group of sprays I use. The spray doesn't soak into the waxy surface (in fact, it remains tacky), and this allows me to use up that over spray at a later date. I just activate it with the tiniest bit of water and dip my paper into the puddle. I blend the ink further on my panel with another spritz from my water bottle. This allows me to add just a bit of color in a more controlled way.

After drying my panel, it was time to do some background stamping. I use three archival inks (Faded Jeans was cut out of the photo when I made the collage), tapping the ink pad on various areas of the Fragments stamp. I stamp off the first impression onto a scrap and then make the second impression onto my panel.

Using a School Desk stamp, I do more background stamping this time using just Hickory Smoke archival ink, first generation.

I move onto my collage elements. I prepare a couple more panels using my over spray palette paper from the background panel, and choose one to emboss with an old Compass embossing folder. The other will be stashed for another project.

To bring out the design, I lightly blend with Oxide ink and a blending tool. I spray very lightly with water to soften.

I tear the two side edges. To get a nice straight tear line, I just draw a line of water using my wet finger where I wish to tear the paper, allow it to soak the paper and gently tear. When the panel is dry, I blend with Frayed Burlap ink and Faded Jeans Oxide ink.

I decided I needed more wood grain on my project, so I apply crackle medium and chalky paint to a kraft panel using the steps I did on the frame. I seal the panel with Vintage collage medium, and when dry, emboss with the 3D Lumber folder.

To bring out the grain, I blend with Distress Crayons. Not shown, I cut the top and bottom edges and blend with Ground Espresso crayon.

I die cut the Destinations globe two times from bristol board and blend with Vintage Photo ink.

I apply Stampendous embossing fluid to the land masses with a paint brush and heat emboss with Emerald Creek Fractured Ice powder, leaving it with a nice rusty appearance.

I pick a pair of good friends from my Paper Dolls pack and color with crayons and edge with Oxide ink.

I stamp a couple tickets from the Ticket Booth set onto a panel from my stash. (I believe I used the same oxide sprays I used on previous mentioned panels, but this time blended with Vintage Photo ink.) Because I want a nice crisp impression (unlike the background stamping), I use my stamp platform to stamp these several times in archival ink.

Using the corresponding Framelits dies, I cut them out and blend them with Frayed Burlap ink.

The final step was to add some words to my collage. I altered a pair of Quote Chips by gluing card scraps to them.

I cut letters using the newer Alphanumeric Tiny Type Upper set, glued them to the chip and gave them a second coat of collage medium to be sure they didn't go anywhere. I know these little die cuts can be fussy to glue. To make it easier, I just scoop out a tiny bit of collage medium on my mat and using my tweezers, dip them one by one into the medium and place them on the chip. You need to work fast as this adhesive dries quickly.

Finally, I blend the edges of the altered chips and another Quote Chip straight from the package with Vintage Photo ink.

All that is left to do is to adhere the background panel to the frame backing, reinsert it and assemble my collage elements. Not shown, I use waste card board of different thicknesses between the layers to give the collage dimension.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the steps I took to make this framed collage, and that it might inspire you to try your hand as some 'wood working' of your own and share your wood or faux wood grain effect project with us this month at A Vintage Journey.

And if you're still in need of more inspiration for the challenge,  I have another woody project HERE, inspired by fellow Creative Guide, Toni. Thanks for the inspiration, Toni!

Thank you for stopping by today!

Happy crafting!

Sara Emily

Against the Grain February Challenge

Hello friends and visitors! It's Sara Emily here to start us off on our new February challenge, which we are calling 'Against the Grain'.

Most of us love the look of wood and there are a lot of art/craft products out there that help us achieve beautiful wood grain, including stamps, stencils, embossing folders, paper and mixed media products. We would love to see how you add a touch of wood texture or appearance to your vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk projects. 


To get you started the Creative Guides have been busy putting together some wonderful wood grain inspiration for you. Have a look at how we're going against the grain...

Sara Emily

This being my last project as a Creative Guide, I wanted to make something special to remember my time with this lovely and talented group of girls. You can visit my blog to see some close-ups and a few words about this make, but I'll be back here in a couple of weeks with a full tutorial of this project and how I made my faux wood.

Deb

With Valentine's Day on the horizon I decided to make a Valentine inspired mixed media plaque incorporating a few different faux wood techniques for Sara's February challenge.  Pop on over to my blog for the details and happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Alison

My weathered wood plank background for Sara Emily's great challenge hosts a collection of golden timepieces to bring to life the quote from one of my new word stamp sets.  Come over to Words and Pictures to spend some golden minutes (it won't take hours, I promise!) finding out how I made my planks.

Jo

I experimented with a fun technique using Distress Ink and gel medium to create a wooden plank background for my art journal page. This provided the perfect backdrop for the pretty flowers and my Tim Holtz "metal" hearts and quotes. To see how it came together please pop over to my blog Let's Art Journal.

Barbara

At this moment I am slightly obsessed with Tim Holtz's Heartbeat Thinlits Die. Valentine's Day is around the corner so it's the right time to use it. I created a background with the Woodgrain Paper, Distress oxides and Distress Crayons. For the heart faux wood, I used Lumberjack stamp set by Tim Holtz. To see the details and read how I made my card, take a look at my blog Yayascrap & more.


Amanda

Having been M.I.A for the last few challenges I am happy to be back today contributing to Sara Emily's challenge.
I have used woodgrain cardstock, a woodgrain embossing folder, wood chips and a wood panel to create a mini 'Art Plaque'. And what could be more ideal nestled amongst all that 'woodgrain than some of natures beautiful butterflies! If you would like to find out more you are welcome to  pop by my blog, ink-a-pink.

Toni

I love a good challenge that helps me to use up some of my hoarded stash! If you'd like to see how I've used some lovely, real wood veneer, on this Passport Book, hop over to my blog with this link and I'll show you a step by step. Thank you Sara Emily ! x

I'm sure you will agree that the Creative Guides have shared a wonderful variety of creative wood grain projects and techniques.

We're looking forward to seeing how YOU will use wood texture or appearance on your  vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk projects.  We hope you have fun in this creative journey, and as always, we'll be selecting some of our favorites as Pinworthies to go on our Vintage Journey Pinterest boards.  Thanks so much for stopping by today and happy crafting!

Sara Emily and the Creative Guides

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Creative Card Making With Sara Emily

Welcome to the first Creative Card Making post of 2020! It's Sara Emily here, and I'm sharing a pair of simple cards that are suitable for winter birthdays/just because or they may be added to my 2020 Christmas card stash. Because they are in the vintage style, I think they fit in nicely with Alison's challenge theme, We're All Getting Older!.

First, I'll share some close-ups, and then I'll finish up with my tutorial. To see the holographic effect of this snowflake, one has to turn the card in the light.

The colors look a little different in my craft room light, but this blurry photo shows off the textures of the flakes.

Here's how the cards came together; it wasn't a clear path, but I've tried to simplify my process. I have just a few process photos, but you should be able to get the idea as I talk my way through.

Not at all feeling creative, but having a couple hours to play, I started by having a go with one of my yet unopened Oxide sprays. I made  a bunch of backgrounds on water color paper using Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire Distress Spray stain. I die cut Icy Flake from one of the backgrounds.

I applied Crackle paint from a brand new jar to the flake, but didn't get the best crackle. I later read the directions, which calls for a shake, which I didn't do. Could that be the reason? It's so thick, I don't think it could be shaken; perhaps stirred.

When dry, I scribbled with Distress Crayon to help accentuate what little crackle there was.

I cut a second flake from white card, and heat embossed with Holographic powder. Initially, I planned to reinsert this into the deep blue background over a background from my stash (pictured below).

But I wasn't feeling it, so I stamped a piece of white card I cut into a suitably sized card blank with Distress ink and one of Tim Holtz Flurry & Pine stamps. I wanted to leave a white border, so I used washi tape to mask the edges before stamping. I used the remaining ink on the stamp after each impression by stamping on the stash background I ended up not using.

I removed the tape, and a bit of the card tore. To cover my boo-boo and to make the card more vintage, I decided to blend with Frayed Burlap and splash with a little water.

I decided I liked the snowy background for my crackled snowflake, so I stamped another white card blank.

This time I used Tim Holtz Design tape, thinking it might not pull at the card. Wrong! Two of the strips really stuck onto the card, even with gentle application. You can see the devastation in the close-up photo below. Perhaps I need to use a better quality of card.

Not one to give up easily, I tried several scenarios to rescue the beautiful snowy card, including the ink and splash distressing used above, but ended up applying more of the Design tape back over the torn up edges. This is a trick I picked up from Zoe Hillman who makes the best vintage cards. I used foam adhesive to give dimension to the layers.

To finish the card, I used this heat embossed snowflake from the Snowflake & Wreath die set by Tim Holtz and a gum drop I colored with Alcohol Pearls and ink. The chippie is from my stash. I decided not to use the glittery snowflake on this card; it just didn't go with the design tape edge.

    

Using the original snow flurry stamped card, I ended up layering the two snowflake die cuts, offsetting them and topping with a gum drop for a second card. You can see in the close-up below, to  age the snowflake a bit, I tapped it with Distress ink.

So now I have two cards for my stash, ready to send out if I need them or a good start on my Christmas card stash for 2020!

 Thank you for taking this tortuous creative journey with me today; I hope you didn't get lost along the way! Perhaps I've given you some ideas to try when things don't go the right way right away! There's still plenty of time to join in with our current  challenge, We're All Getting Older! Please come and join us on this first leg of our 2020 Creative journey. Happy crafting! Sara Emily

Autumn Splendor Pinworthy Winners

Welcome aboard! Sara Emily here with you today to announce our three chosen Pinworthy winners for our Autumn Splendor challenge last month.  We had some wonderful entries, and we thank you all for joining in and sharing your creativity with us.

Selecting our pinworthies is very challenging, and we always have difficulty in narrowing it down to just three winners. So after much deliberation here are the three projects which really caught the eye of the Creative Guides:

In no particular order:

Tracey

Amanda

JulD 

Congratulations to you all.

We will be in touch shortly with your badges and your creations will be pinned to our Pinterest boards.

Thank you again to all of you who joined in the Autumn Splendor challenge. We hope you will join us this month for Sandy's challenge Paper Stash. All the Challenge details and an inspirational gallery of projects created by some of the Creative Guides can be located here.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting!

Sara Emily

Autumn Splendor All Purpose Card Tutorial

Welcome aboard for this month's challenge tutorial post! It's Sara Emily (sarascloset) here to take you step by step through the creation of my inspiration piece for this month's current challenge, Autumn Splendor.

With the glorious colours of fall it would be oh so nice to see some falling leaves, pumpkins, acorns or any other favourite images that brings fall to mind. Just remember to create your project in our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

 I was a little short on time this month, so I decided to use up a few things I already had on my desk. These two strips of kraft card stock embossed with Tim Holtz Lumber 3D embossing folder worked perfectly for a base. I simply painted them using Ground Espresso paint using the foam top, which leaves the paint mostly on the raised portions.

 I glued the pieces to a second card to make the base layer and trimmed to the size I wanted. I blended with Ground Espresso ink.

To make the focal panel, I used the old iron off embossing technique and Tim Holtz Nature's Wonders leaf stamps.

Using my stamp platform, I inked the sumac leave cluster with embossing ink and stamped repeatedly for each leaf to get really good coverage.

I covered my card with white embossing powder, shook off the excess and heated just until melted. If you heat too much, the lift technique will not work nearly as well.

Next, blend with chosen Distress Oxide inks, and wipe from the embossed areas.

Fold a piece of plain kraft paper over the completed panel to cover it entirely. I have a roll of kraft wrapping paper that works perfectly for this; it's a little on the heavier side. Turn iron on high and iron over the kraft. I keep a travel iron just for crafting, but there are craft irons on the market, or you could use your regular iron.

Here is a photo showing the ink removed from the blue panel to the kraft. I may just use that kraft on another project.

I inked a maple leaf stamp from the same set with two Archival inks and stamped on the panel.

I used the script from Tim's Entomology set and Forest Moss ink for some background stamping. The ink is supposed to be resisted by the little bit of embossing that is left on the panel. I think I may have ironed too hard, or perhaps I didn't heat the powder enough, because that didn't happen in this case. I inked only portions of the unmounted stamp, and then 'rolled' the stamp over the panel, so the stamping is random.

To finish the panel, I blended with Forest Moss ink, heavier on the edges, working lighter toward the center. I don't have a process photo of it, but then I splashed the panel with a little water and dried with my heat tool to get some variation in color. I also splattered on watery Ground Espresso ink with my splatter brush.

Now onto the leaves. I die cut a couple of the leaves using Tim's Skeleton Leaves from Classic Kraft Stock and sanded them fairly heavily.

I added color back in using Distress crayons and heated to melt the color into the card stock.

 I stamped scrap vanilla card with both Ground Espresso Distress ink and Potting Soil Archival inks using a few more of the leaves from Nature's Wonders. I colored them with a water brush and various Distress inks and fussy cut.

To give the leaves dimension, I wet the backs, and shaped them with my flower shaping tools. These consist of a foam pad insert from an costume jewelry box and a swizzle stick. LOL!

For a finishing touch to my card, I painted this sweet pumpkin charm from The Funkie Junkie Boutique. The 'wood' panel was adhered to a card blank cut from Distress Heavy Stock and the blue panel was adhered using adhesive foam to pop it up a bit.

The leaf cluster was assembled, along with dyed seam binding and some flowers from my stash. I thought it needed just a bit of white in the arrangement, and I found the embossed and crackled Laurel Impresslit I had rejected from another project.

Thank you so much for joining me for this tutorial. You still have plenty of time to join in our Autumn Splendor challenge and you can get all the details HERE along with some fabulous inspiration from the Creative Guides. You have until November 2 to link your project. We look forward to seeing what you create! And please stop back next week, when Autumn will be back with another card tutorial to tempt you with.

Happy Crafting!

Sara Emily