Paper Stash at AVJ

Yes we all have them drawers or shelves stacked with patterned papers that we dip into but never seem to reduce the pile. Well here is a chance to get into them and decide what to use for a challenge sample.

Sandy is our hostess today and is asking us to create a project of any kind using some designer papers in creative ways and in one of the AVJ preferred vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk styles. My choice was a vintage Christmas card and I used two of the stamps from the new Tim Holtz Stamptember release.

I used paper from an old Christmas pad as well as my new worn wallpapers. Because the worn wallpaper was directly below the frame I wanted to knock back the central area and used a couple of layers of watery gesso and then some distress oxides.

Wanting to get the frame covered with some of the DecoArt clear crackle paste before I went to bed I layered it on with a palette knife and left it overnight but realised the next morning that I had forgotten to seal/prime the surface underneath.   I rubbed in some raw umber and titanium white antiquing creams and left it for about 20 minutes and then started wiping away with a damp baby wipe. It looked a bit dull and murky so I began rubbing in some more of the white antiquing cream and hey hello, what a fabulous effect it gave me. Very little of the crackle lifted and as I rubbed the white in and rubbed away again just using my fingers this most amazing cracked ice effect appeared. Love it, so I didn't bother to try and rub any more away, I just left it.

I designed the card as I went along choosing the layers and these are the inked and stamped die-cuts and elements.

I decided to add some natural elements to the card and chose these pepperberries that I picked up a few weeks ago.

I also painted a small glass star with a white paint pen and stuck on.

I hope you get a moment to pop over to the main A Vintage Journey challenge blog where you'll find some more fabulous inspiration from some of the Creative Guides.

Thanks for stopping by and .....

xxx

Wallpaper and dress forms for Country View Crafts

My turn again to share a project over the CVC blog and I had great fun creating an easel board using some of the newer products from Tim Holtz.

If you'd like to see the process steps and more photos please pop over to take a peak at how it all came together.

Updated from CVC

I thought I would make an easel card using the Tim Holtz wall paper and his inventor 3 set of stamps with the lovely dress forms. You could use the composition and ideas to make an ordinary card but I have gone with the faux encaustic again.

Cut some thin greyboard and adhere a piece of the wall paper onto it using decoupage and then seal it with the same product. You will see that decoupage is very versatile and can be used as a glue, a sealer between layers and as a finish (top layer like a varnish). Scrape a thin and random layer of decoart crackle paint over and leave to dry.

I stamped the dress forms using black archival and then took greyish blue and neutral grey Amsterdam inks to paint n some of the dress form bodies and frames.

I distressed the edges of the panel with a distressing tool and blended in ground espresso distress ink knowing it was likely to move and seep a bit with the layer of DecoArt clear modeling paste on top. 

I stamped the scissors onto matte silver card, cut them out and again blended the brown DI around them and then laid them into the top of the paste just very gently pushing them into it.

The next layer I painted the scissors with a little raw umber and yellow oxide to tarnish them a bit, added some words and the gave another coat of clear modeling paste and added half a snap fastener as an inclusion.

I coloured up a canvas board using cerulean blue, light grey, titan buff and titanium white with a wet wipe to blend the colours. I gessoed using a brayer to create some highlights and then gave it a 'dirty' wash using burnt umber, raw umber, cerulean blue and titan budd with some decou-page sealer and water. I'll have a mini tutorial in my next post at the end of the month to see this with photo steps, so keep an eye out for it.

Eh voila, I just needed to add a mount board easel and it's finished.

I love making these easel cards, they don't take much longer than making a card one but they certainly have more impact especially if you can hand it to a friend but even paying the extra postage is worth it for a special occasion.