Do you have a way with words?

This project is for the first FaceBook Country View Crafts challenge of 2024, led by Jane she asked that people use words, verses or sentiments on their make. I love using text of all kinds on my projects and used a variety of Tim Holtz stamps (Papillon, Perspective and Classics #4). I was lucky to be gifted the Tim Holtz Distress Watercolour Pencils for Christmas so I loved taking the opportunity to play with these as well and used them to colour in the large butterfly - I wouldn't normally give a butterfly a rainbow effect but I just loved the experimentation of using them to see what they can do.

Materials

Archival Ink  Jet Black, Coffee

Distress Oxides  Vintage Photo, Hickory Smoke, Walnut Stain, Tattered Rose

Distress Watercolour Pencils  Candied Apple, Peacock Feathers, Tattered Rose, Picked Raspberry, Hickory Smoke, Salty Ocean, Twisted Citron, Rustic Wilderness, Picket Fence

Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Paper Dolls, ephemera, Stamps Classic#4

xxx

Last workshop of 2023

 A Starry Christmas Eve

I made this frame project for my last workshop at Country View Crafts on the 12th December.

The focal landscape was made up of 3 media boards and die-cuts from the Tim Holtz Holiday Blocks dies,

The blue sky background was created by stamping and embossing the stars on watercolour paper then spritzing it with water then distress sprays drying and layering the colours to get a distressed look.

The die-cut elements were distressed by dry brushing and I added snowtex, distress glitter  and stickles. 

The workshop was a great success and the participant's versions were magnificent. It was a fabulous fun day with a lovely group of ladies, of whom most have been with me since my very first class at Flitwick. 

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

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Skype Collaboration - Wooden houses

It's been so wonderful to have skype sessions with my two lovely friends Nikki (Addicted to Art) and Alison (Words and Pictures) during lockdown and really it's been the only time I have sat and created anything. I've spent so much time in the garden and, since we have been allowed out more, Ken and I have spent at least two days a week visiting National Trust places and beautiful gardens, so between that and walking on our local Ranges to try and keep fit (a bit!!) there really hasn't been much time left. 

When wondering what we could do for this session I showed the girls some little houses Ken had cut me from wood and we agreed we'd each have a set of three and couldn't wait to see the outcomes.

As I worked on the painty layers and decided to add some small windows and doors I began to get the feel that these belonged in a farm yard, what do you think?

Photo taken outdoors in the garden.

Process steps

*Seal with gesso using a palette knife to spread it over.

*Scrape cobalt blue and grey acrylic paints randomly over the walls and dry.

*Sand the sides.

*Scrape on some resist paste and give a coat of white chalky paint and gently heat to wipe away leaving some of the previous colours showing through.

*Use a blending tool and foam to add some yellow oxide and tita buff , both mixed with a little glazing medium - this ages the paint a bit.

* Rub with some dry kitchen towel, a wet wipe and buff the walls before scraping some white chalky paint randomly down all the sides.

*Paint the roofs black.

*Sand the edges again and rub in some brown distress ink.

*Outline where you want the windows and doors with a pencil then cut away the paint layers with a sharp knife. Darken them by using sharpie pens.

*I knocked in two rusty nails for chimneys.

Photo taken indoors in a light tent. They could almost be in a snowy setting.

Side view straight on.

Photo showing side windows

Nikki's version. I love the gorgeous tissue layers, the beautiful bright colours and the  sequencing of the phrase over the three layers.

Alison's version. These are very much in her beautiful shabby, cottage garden style and the added stamping, painted flowers and rusty elements really bring them to life.

Please click the links to be transported over to see more details of these fabulous wooden house sets.

xxx

Vintage shabby emboss resist - New Technique

I'm using some of the Andy Skinner new release stamps today - Mandal and Pebble Beach to create this emboss resist background.

I started by scraping some gesso thinly over my card and when it was dry I added some London Brick chalk paint rubbed it around, spritzed it with water and dried it.

I stamped the mandala and pebble beach stamps with embossing ink, covered it with the embossing powder and heat set it . When the card was cool  I squeezed over a little white chalk paint and  again spritzed with water and rubbed it around then took my heat gun and gently wafted it over the surface not getting too close. I let it cool and repeated heating until it was almost dry, then took a wet wipe and gently rubbed over the surface to reveal this gorgeous shabby design

I wouldn't recommend stamping over the surface, it was a nightmare and I had to use both black and white posca pens to touch it up!!! ;o))

xxx

Andy Skinner Creative Expressions - Stamps - Mandala, Pebble Beach,
Andy Skinner Creative Expressions - Matt Chalk Paint - London Brick
Miscellaneous - White Gesso, White Chalk Paint

Revisiting old Techniques - Emboss Resist

I love this technique and have used it alot in the past but I thought I would update it to create a vintage shabby timeworn look.

Process Steps

1. Paint a coat of acrylic paint over the surface and dry - I used rust.

2. Stamp with embossing ink, cover with clear embossing powder and heat.

3. When cool paint over the entire surface with another colour, this time I chose ocean breeze.

4. Leave it to dry until it's just tacky to the touch then wipe over with a damp cloth to remove the paint from the embossed image. The harder you wipe the more you will reveal. If like me you are using something like greyboard that rubbed back to the original surface take the underneath color and with your finger fill in the rubbed out area and distress by dabbing it gently.

5. Give it a timeworn look by adding a couple of watery washes of rust and quinacridone gold and leave to dry naturally.

6, Sand the edges and rub around with brown or rust coloured permanent inks - I used coffee archival.

xxx

Supplies

Andy Skinner Creative Expressions - Artist Pigment Paint - Rust

Andy Skinner Creative Expressions - Matt Chalk Paint - Ocean Breeze

Andy Skinner Creative Expressions - Stamps - Old Seals, Create, Gypsie Queen,
Tando Creative - Media Board

Miscellaneous - Embossing ink, embossing powder

Antique enamelled bottle and media tile

Framed media tile.
Hold on tight to your dreams.

Process steps

Take a greyboard die-cut bottle and paint a coat of raw umber over the whole surface and dry.

Next paint it with tinting base but leave the edges almost dry brushed so that the brown paint underneath shows through in some places. Dry.

Poke two small holes through which you can thread the wire to tie the test tube to it.

Press the whole bottle into an embossing ink pad and cover with clear embossing powder, heat and leave to cool then give it a second coat. Sand the edges and rub brown distress ik round them.

Take the test tube apply some clear crackle glaze and leave to dry.

Paint a coat of tinting base over the media board tile and when it's dry using a palette knife used horizontal to the surface, scrape a very light coat of gesso over to create some random texture.

Alter the wildflowers and stems with some paint and archival inks. I tend to rub some paint light over the surface and when dry dip them in more watery paints and finish by rubbing archival inks around the flower parts.

Mix watery wash of pink, spread a little over your craft mat and dip the tile base  in and dry. Repeat several times mixing different shades of the pink. (I used pyrrole red, titan buff and titanium white). Splatter a little burnt umber.

Sand the edges and rub some brown distress ink and seal with a coat of soft touch varnish 

The test tube should now be ready for a couple of coats of both raw umber and white antiquing creams rubbing them with a dry cloth between each layer. Then secure it to the die-cut bottle with some rusty wire.

Assemble the parts and add to a frame.

DecoArt Products

Media Fluid Acrylics - Raw Umber, Pyrrole Red, Titan Buff and Titanium White

Mediums - Tinting Base, Clear Crackle Glaze, White Gesso, Soft Touch Varnish

A new take on my antique enamelled number plates using my DecoArt paints. This is an update to my original post which can be found here from the 19th September 2015. It inspired the layers for the die-cut bottle.

Revisiting old techniques - Water Distressed Layers

Here's another of my techniques and layer combinations using acrylic paints. I like to turn to these when needing some inspiration and I have been documenting them on media boards as a resource.

You will find them added to my Tutorials and step x steps page found on my sidebar.

This one - Water Distressed Layers - I taught at Ministry of Mixology in April 2019.

Process steps

1. Paint a coat of acrylic paint (phthalo green-yellow) and heat dry.

2. Paint a thickish coat of a different colour (I mixed PGY with some hansa yellow and titan buff) and splatter with largish water droplets. 

3. Start to heat the board but before the watery spots dry lay a piece of clean dry kitchen paper over it to absorb the water. It sucks up some of the paint that has mixed with the water and leaves these gorgeous splatter spots.

4. Repeat step two and three with a coat of another colour (I used the above colours with titanium white). 

5. Move straight onto step six or stamp some text first using archival ink.

6. Finally repeat steps two and three with titanium white. 

7. Finish with some brush splattering of the same colours (I used the last green that was still on my palette and added water to it).

You could leave the finished background looking clean or you could add a watery frame around it.

I'm loving making these technique boards into mini pieces of art.

xxx