Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal 5

Hi everyone and Happy New Year to you all! Jenny here with the final Destination Inspiration in the current series. As a reminder the contents of our travel bag this time round have included;

Product: Lace

Technique: Heat Embossing

Colour: Silver

Substrate: Chipboard or Cardboard

This set of ingredients came to my rescue when assembling and finishing a canvas which, at first, had stubbornly refused to come together. In the end they became the key elements...

Recently I followed one of Wendy Vecchi's fabulous tutorials to create a set of 'cracked glass floral specimens' on pieces of mountboard. They've been sitting on my craft table teasing me ever since, so I started a canvas background for one of them to sit on. Great fun was had applying multiple layers of orange and pink shades of Distress Paint (from the vibrant Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon to the palest Wild Honey and Tattered Rose) before wiping the remains of Hickory Smoke and Gathered Twigs paint from my brush to add a touch of vintage. Trouble was that made it a bit too drab so the gentlest of silvery swipes with Brushed Pewter added an essential shimmer. Finally I broke up the colour with a look of torn lace, courtesy of some white texture paste and a Vintage Quilt stencil.

The floral plaque needed something to make it stand out so I framed it with a piece of silver embossed card before layering it onto a raft of other snippets of card (kraft, patterned and corrugated). I also wanted to add some rusted silver metal elements to the collage but it looked too harsh for such a feminine canvas so the lace, dyed to match, provided the perfect foil, as well as being a way to guide the eye across the design.

So that's it for my contribution to this round of Destination Inspiration projects. In case you missed any of them make sure to stop by the other posts from Julia A, Deb, Anne and Sandy.

Our 'Winter Magic' challenge closes on Thursday 5th January so there's still time to get those last minute entries in. Then the team will be back on Friday with the first challenge of 2017. Until then take care of yourselves and may you have a successful and creative year ahead.

Celebrating Wendy Vecchi as an artist and a Give-Away

Hi everyone, as it's the fourth Friday of the month we usually have an invited guest Creative Guide, but today we thought we would mix things up a bit and share with you some projects and links back to the amazing Wendy Vecchi's blog.

Some of us on the team here at AVJ were lucky enough to attend Wendy's UK workshop back in August and had an awesome day with Wendy who is not only a very talented artist but a great teacher. So it is with great pleasure that we share her talents with you today.

Wendy had super projects for us to make and here she is with all the boxes that we had made in the morning.

In the afternoon she taught us techniques ......  

...... and we made some fabulous tags. These are Wendy's samples.

Wendy is always looking for new ways to use products and in one of her newer blog posts - which she has called 'still looking ..... beyond the obvious' she has used Tim's acrylic icicles .....

.... in a completely different way, transforming it into grass.

I'm sure you will have seen Wendy's signature products, stamps, stencils, inks, embossing powders, texture and embossing pastes and also her art parts ranges and more. On her blog she shares with us how to use them creating tutorials with beautiful projects in her own inimitable style, whether that be as art journal pages -

- cards with stamps-

- cards using die-cuts -

- 3D projects -

- plaques -

- a journal (on the England tour) -

-or just using scraps.

Wendy is also a source of never ending new techniques both on her own blog and as a designer for Ranger, such as -

faux graniteware

glittered embossing powder -

using archival ink and rubbing alcohol (surgical spirit in the UK) .....

At the end of her Ranger tutorials Wendy likes to add some hints and tips - check this one out. This sweet card uses her newsprint paper.

So today not only have you got all this wonderful inspiration from Wendy but she has very kindly sent us a give-away too. On the 12th December I will run random org number generator and one lucky person who has left a comment on this post will win all these fabulous goodies.

Stamp it - stencil-it ROSE

Stamp it - Stencil-it HOLIDAY ICONS

Stencils for art - diamonds are a girls best friend

Stencils for art - funky words

Stencils for art - polka dotty

Stencils for art - happy holidays

Wendy Vecchi designer series archival ink - violet

Wendy Vecchi designer series archival ink - pink peony

Thank you Wendy for your generosity and it is a pleasure to share your amazing talent and projects with our readers.

Just before we go I thought I would share an AVJ family photo - those of us who attended Wendy's workshop -

Nicky, Julie, Annie, Anne, Jenny, Tracy, Brenda

Thank you for joining us today and don't forget to leave your comment below and to be on the safe side it's best to have done it by the end of the 11th December London time.

Don't forget you have one more week to enter our November challenge. Although it is called 'Baby you're a Firework' it does not have to have fireworks in the subject of your entry - you only need to have included glitter, bold colours or ink and paint splats so that it is inspired by the flashes of colour and sparkle of fireworks.

See you again on Monday with the last of our DI posts for the month and a round-up of the Creative Guides projects that were included in November's travel bag. Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda and the Creative Guide team. xxxx