Luggage Tags for CVC

Welcome everyone, I am sharing my second DT project for the Country View Challenges July theme of  'on your travels' and I have made two luggage tags.

I began by using the wrinkle free distress technique on two tags using frayed burlap and antique linen DIs. Using black archival ink I stamped various images using Tim's 'documented' set

I made up two small tags and used Artistic Outpost stamps from two or three sets to create these minis to go over the larger backgrounds. I used a water brush and DIs to colour both the images and the backgrounds.

A couple of words to add to the mix.....

 ..... and we have two luggage tags for the journey. 

I hope you can join us at CVC this month - the theme really fits the holiday season in the northern hemisphere.

Have a great weekend and hopefully enjoy some creative time.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Visual Journey #27

DT sister Trace was so kind when she die-cut and stamped the fresh brewed coffee stamps and dies from Tim Holtz and she sent me several sets of each so I am happily using them in my projects. There just had to be a page in my journal as I LOVE Starbucks frappuccinos, in fact it has to be a caramel one, they are my secret treat. There are even some days I will go without lunch just so I can have one and not have to worry too much about the calories (and I have lost a stone since the new year!!!!).

After gessoing the pages and leaving them to dry I daubed distress paints ( antique linen and frayed burlap) onto the pages, spritzed them with water and dabbed them over with an artists sponge and heat dried.

using the two same colours of paint and some foam I blended the paints through a mask.

I decided that with the die-cuts I was using I needed to 'ground' them so I darkened a strip at the bottom with walnut stain distress ink and stamped with pine needles DI. I used the same pine needles to blend through Tim's typo stencil, this has to be my favourite at the moment.

I cut out the stamped images I wanted to use and thought I would paint them with a mix of distress paints and distress inks so I thought I would show you my palette - I always use a piece of craft mat.

I typed and printed some extra coffee words and a quote, inked the edges of everything with walnut stain and adhered it all to the pages.

When I look back over this journal in the future, these pages will always raise a smile from me I'm sure, simply because of my love of frappuccinos. 

Although I called this painting it is really adult colouring in but I believe totally in this quote.

“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” – Vincent Van Gogh

Thanks for sharing another week of my visual journey.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

 As always if you would like to share the visual journey collection you will find the code to add to you post here -

get the InLinkz code

... and I look forward to sharing in your pages through the linky below.

Thanks for taking the time to share your work with me and each other.

An InLinkz Link-up

New stamp sets at PaperArtsy

I am really pleased to be one of the designers at PaperArtsy tonight with samples for the new Hot Picks stamps being released.

I chose two sets of background stamps to work with and had great fun making these.

This is a 5 x 7 card with a multi layered mixed media background using the stamps between layers of Fresco Finish paints, die-cuts and grunge paste to create depth and dimension. Just a small collage on the top so the stamps can still be seen.

Another 5 x 7 card and again with several FF paint layers but not with the texture the previous one has. I also used the stamps on the mini tag and framework die-cut.

A size 8 tag with clear embossed text stamp, layers of Fresco Finish paints and then bolder stamps to provide a collage background for the added washi tape, framed photo and  a couple of embellishments.

Thanks Leandra for asking me to take part, I loved using the new stamps with the painty layers. I'm looking forward to seeing what other people have made as well and watching Leandra's video. So pop over to the PaperArtsy blog to see what's happening.

hugs Brenda xxx

Destinations at AVJ

Welcome to Bumblebees and Butterflies, we start a new challenge today at A Vintage Journey and Nikki has chosen Destinations.

Whilst deciding what to make for this great theme I was taken back to some travel cards I made recently for Country View Crafts. I take lots of photos when I am away or even just out on short vitis but I never have the time to make them into an album or scrap them so I am wondering if I would make my own travel cards as memory joggers to look back on.

First I need somewhere to keep them and I have this white 8 x 8 album in my cupboard just waiting to be used. I began by distressing it lightly with pumice stone DI and drying it.

For the cover I started with a piece of black/kraft coredinations card stock cutting it to size and sanding the edges. Using the Correspondence paper stash by Tim Holtz I cut two more layers, distressing the edges and also adding some pumice stone and barn door DIs to the top one. You can see I made it into a pocket with the black tag poking out from within.

Searching in my ephemera box I found some collage pieces and I used Tim's adventure block thinlits dies to create the title. I also die-cut the plane. car and arrow following Tim's industrial technique using foil.

I thought the tag would be useful as an addition as well as part of the collaging on the front cover and used a black tag with barn door distress paint to stamp the background and then dipped it into picket fence distress stain and walnut stain distress paint.

The destination title is raised and mounted onto chipboard to give it some prominence with the collage elements adhered behind it. I added remnant rubs to add to the atmosphere and idea of the theme including the number 19 to the train check ticket. 

The centre of the cash key was punched from some left over snippet of sprayed card and more remnant rubs used to create interest.

I am now looking forward to making some travel cards to do in the album - hopefully you will see more of this in the future.

Have a great July and please pop over to A Vintage Journey to see the rest of the team's amazing creations and hopefully you will be inspired to join in the challenge.

I can't believe this is the 6th day in a row that I have posted and I will be back again on Sunday with a special post - oh and while you are here don't forget I have a giveaway going until the 13th July. It is open to all followers and can be found here. If you are one of my blog or email followers please feel free to enter.

I am off to Wales for the weekend looking forward to catching up with lots of cousins in the Tenby area.

Take care and have a good weekend yourself.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Visual Journey #26

Yikes you know what week we are on????? Yep you got it, half way through the year (in fact that was last week as I am one behind at the moment).

We are all going away as a family in August and our minds are turning to the sun, sea and sangria of Lanzarote. I combined those thoughts with a workshop I did recently on brayering techniques and decided on a sea theme with a brayered background and I really quite like the end result.

I began with three dark, opaque colours of fresco finish paint using Leandra's monotone look.

I then added more opaque and translucent colours until I achieved this (and guess how many colours I used in the end - 12!!!!).

To get my class started on our workshop we talked briefly about adding household items to the brayer including elastic bands and this technique reminded me of a watery effect - so using chipped sapphire distress ink we got this - .......

.... and then repeating with snowflake ff paint we got this -

I also added some 'bubbles' using Tim's stencil and mermaid lagoon distress ink.

Next I stamped the nautical blueprint stamps using scraps of leftover inky pieces of card and cut out the shapes and names.

Finding a left over sample of the monotone brayered paint technique from the workshop I dipped it in walnut stain distress ink and began putting the pages together. Finding a shell stamp from an old Craft Stamper magazine, I added that and a tresaure collage stamp using white pigment ink.

When I was happy with it I actually added some journalling about our impending holiday in Lanzarote and the memories it invokes.

Are you in Summer mode at the moment or are you in winter mode (according to what part of the world you live of course)?

Well I definitely want to start packing now, but will have to wait another month I am afraid.

Enjoy your holidays and breaks wherever you are.

hugs Brenda xxx

 As always if you would like to share the visual journey collection you will find the code to add to you post here -

get the InLinkz code

... and I look forward to sharing in your pages through the linky below.

Thanks for taking the time to share your work with me and each other.

An InLinkz Link-up

On your travels at CVC

Memory Travel Cards.

When making decisions about what to make for this challenge I was reminded of Tim's fabulous sheet from the Lost and Found stash depicting all the hotel badges from around the world so I thought I would combine it with the fabulous photo booth characters. I set about making some memory travel cards for each individual using the 12 x 12 cut down into 3 x 4 pieces as the backgrounds..

Mixing Tim's papers, photos and ephemera was a delight I loved cutting and sticking these together to create little memory cards for each person.

I began by choosing and placing all the collage pieces on a background to see what would work. Immediately you can see that the background and elements merge together so it's difficult to see the focal parts that help tell a story about the character.

I needed to tone down the backgrounds so I used antique linen distress paint spritzed with water .....

and dipped the backgrounds and dried them several times until I was happy with the results.

Now I was happy that I could use these and as you move to the individual cards there is a story for each one.

This is Marie who travelled to Florianopolis in the beautiful state of Santa Catarina, Brasil in 1946 to see her mother who had moved there. Her travel memory card reminds her of her journey from Kings Highway, Brooklyn in June of that year and as her mothers home was very small she stayed in the Lux Hotel.

Henry has a pen pal in France and he travelled from Times Square in New York to see his friend. The year was 1951 and this independent young man was eager to be staying at Le Grand Hotel.

George had a wonderful vacation in Columbia but missed his girlfriend tremendously and was so pleased to travel home to Manhattan to see her.

Nancy travelled to Paris in 1942, her parents were quite unaware of her trip and thought she was going to California to visit some friends. This was an unusual visit, travelling incognito to the Hotel Mondrial in Paris, trying to avoid being noticed as she had a very secret job to do. Her memory card was very special to her after the war reminding her of this unique role she played in helping Britain win the war.

I love the idea of making travel memory cards with snippets of ephemera as memory joggers later in life. I am useless at finishing my travel albums but a card would be so much quicker and easier, I think it is something I will adopt in the future when I travel to places.

I hope you will have fun with the travel theme at Country View challenges, do pop over and see all the wonderful inspiration from the team.

Thanks for stopping by today - enjoy the rest of the week and hopefully some creative time.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tim's tag for June

Under the wire or what??? Just managed to squeeze a bit of time last night to get this tag done while Ken was up the driving range and having a golf lesson - phew.

I've had to improvise quite a bit for this tag, I don't have the blending pad so I use distress inks colours directly onto the stencil and went from there. It's a different effect but I rather like it and it's not too dissimilar. The colours I used were victorian velvet, iced spruce, evergreen bough and the new hickory smoke.

I do have some of the coffee cup die-cuts that Trace sent me but I have already used them this week (see coffee lovers card here) so I decided to use my unused tarnished trophies die and create a tarnished patina effect using distressed products. (I think I feel a tutorial coming on, but I just didn't have time last night).

The pieces I gathered together to add to the tag.

I wanted to keep some of the details quite similar so I added hessian but used remnant rubs ....

.. the pin and coin in the ribbon is almost the same .....

...l but the trophy and ephemera is very different with a hand made price tag lol.

I am so pleased I managed to fit this in before the end of the month, I shall of course be linking to Tim's June tag link up.

Thanks again for stopping by, it's a very busy week here on Bumblebees and Butterflies so I shall see you again wednesday, thursday and friday.

take care.

hugs brenda xxx