Tag Friday April 2016 at A Vintage Journey

 Hello Everyone and Welcome 

Today over at A Vintage Journey its 'Tag Friday!' I'm sure many of you are already familiar with this tradition but for those of you who aren't let me explain. When there are 5 Fridays in a month, the 5th Friday sees some of the AVJ Creative Guides create and post a tag created in their style. 

So here I am today sharing my 'Tag Friday' tag with you all.

I decided to take this opportunity to have a real good play with my Tim Holtz Distress crayons!

Apart from some Gesso and a little Texture paste the crayons did the rest.

Taking a #8 tag I applied a coat of black Gesso and let dry. I used Gesso, rather than acrylic paint as I wanted that 'dry matt' look and feel that it gives. 

 I then picked up small amounts of white gesso and applied it using a dry flat head paintbrush by just catching the top of the  black gessoed surface to give like a 'scratchy' appearance. 

Out came the crayons to add colour. Again I used them by just catching the surface of the tag, aswell as drawing some 'full' lines of colour randomly and smudging them out with my fingers. I continued like this until I was happy and I had great fun just going with the flow!
I kept the detail simple - texture paste stencilling and stamping -though the stamping isn't that clear to see but I kind of like that.

My focal image is the beautiful cone head flower from Tim Holtz 'Garden Flower' stamp set stamped using black Archival ink  onto watercolour card stock and painted using the distress crayons as a watercolour paint.

That's the versitility of this product -the crayons can give really bold , vibrant intense colour when used 'neat', water them down and they give a much more subtle hue. Using them with a paint brush enables you to 'work inside the lines' too with more precision. 

I distressed the watercolour card stock panel with Distress Crayons smudging it into the panel . I love how the crayons pick up the texture of the cardstock . 

I used a width of lace, a few gem dots, a silver eyelet and an Ideology NO.3 File tab to finish off my tag .

I enjoyed creating with my Distress Crayons and I can see this being the start of a wonderful friendship between us! 

Be sure to stop by A Vintage Journey blog if you haven't done already and see all the other fabulous tags some of my fellow Creative Guides have created . 

I woiuld like to enter my tag into the following challenges: 
Thats Crafty- Go Figure Challenge April 29th 2016.
Thank you for taking the time to pop by today and for all the lovely comments you leave - both are appreciated greatly . 
Enjoy your weekend 
take care 
Amanda 
xxx

Destination Inspiration -Terminal #4 at A Vintage Journey, April 2016

Hello Everyone 

Its lovely to see you all again and thank you so much for stopping by today. Hope you all had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead . 

 I begin my week by greeting you at Terminal #4 of this months Destination Inspiration over at 
A Vintage Journey  
showing you what I have created with the contents of our travel bag. 

It would be great if you could join me there . 

Maybe I can tempt you with a little sneak peak 

Hope to see you soon

Amanda 

xxx

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2016- April 2016

Hello Everyone and Welcome 

How are you all doing? Hope you are lucky enough to be enjoying some warmer Spring days , possibly even some glorious Sunshine. So far this week, there 's been 3consecutive days of beaming rays shining down in my little corner of the world and its been wonderful. 
So not really the ideal weather to be stuck indoors crafting, but I had a tag , Tim's tag ( amongst other things) to make so that's what I've been doing - crafting with Tim and spending 'drying' time outside enjoying the sun. Perfect!   

It was my first play with the mosaic Kit so I decided to follow Tim's tutorial for this months tag pretty much to the letter making only a couple of changes due to a lack  of a few of the supplies. You can see Tim's for April 2016 and how he created it here and as he explains everything so so well in his tutorial there really is no need for me to go into any great detail. 

So here is my take On Tim's tag for 12 tags of 2016- April. 

and a few photos of the creative process.

The Bird

Die cut, grouted, paper pieced and left to air dry before glazing ....

.....and now with the glaze applied to the paper pieces.

Impressed? You bet I was! With the kit, its ease of use,its ability to be distressed and the fabulous end result- so cool! I would highly recommend investing in this kit, if you haven't already. I hesitated at first but am so glad I splashed the cash in the end. I am looking forward to using it again soon.  

The Woodgrain card stock panel  
I used Antique Linen distress paint, Broken China and Hickory Smoke distress stains.

The Tag
I used Ground espresso and Walnut Stain distress spray stains. Once the tag was dry I blended in some Brushed Corduroy distress ink with a blending tool as I don't yet have that colour in the spray. Seems I forgot to take a photo of the tag( sorry) but you will see it in the following photos of the top and bottom of the tag. 
I used an Ideology word token ( don't have the number ones) tied with natural twine to the arrow and did some hand sewing over the vial sticker (my machine is not currently in situ). I altered the star with mushroom alcohol ink (mm the 'lens' hasn't picked this up in this shot) and attached an eyelet to seal the tag hole.   

Some more hand sewing over the ruler tape and a trio of bleack gem beads to embellish the right corner completed my tag for April 2016.

 If I show you the finished tag again you can see on this photo that the 'lens' has captured the brown tint on the star and the fabulous gloss of the mosaic tiles. 

I always enjoy making Tims tags and this one was no exception- Thank you Tim. 

Time now to head on over and link my tag up to   

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2016- April  

and then look forward to seeing and creating next months- only 8 more sleeps to go - Yay!

Thank you so much for popping by today! Your visits, comments and follows are always very much welcomed and appreciated. 

Hope you have a lovely weekend and the sun shines downs on you all

Take care 

Amanda 

xxx

Love and Peace!

Hi There

How ya all doing? Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. 
 I've been getting inky making a couple of cards/ art panels ( not decided as yet) for a few challenges that are running at the moment, in fact I'm cutting it fine as the clocks nearing the deadline as I type. So with that said I better crack on with this post.

So the challenges that I had in mind when creating these pieces are (in no particular order) 'Hip to be Square' over at Frilly and Funky , Crazy for colour at Anything but Cute and 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' at That's Crafty .

It was  the hip to be square challenge that I guess got my initial idea and inspiration flowing and that was of the 'Tye dye' fashion of the 60's and 70's. I remember how much I used to love tie dying  t'shirts and sneakers back in my formative years when I was so cool and trendy (coughs). I loved the whole hippy look , the long fringed skirts and the embroidered tops , the denim and tie dye t'shirts - I still have a wardrobe full of them but before I bore you with tales of my youth, my thoughts were along the lines of  'I wonder if I can create a tie dye look using paper or card and the same method as you would if you were using fabric?

Well it was worth a try - so I gathered up my supplies - dylusion sprays - I wanted vibrant colours so opted for 3, some basic copier paper (you could use lightweight card stock) and some string.

I cut the paper into squares and then concertina folded them, one along the vertical (or horizontal depending how you look at it) the other along the diagonal. I then tied string around the folded paper, just as you would when tie dying fabric . 

 

Next I sprayed the folded paper using 3 different colours of spray drying off between each. Once happy I cut the string and opened up the folds. I have to say I was pretty impressed with the results.

 The vertical fold 

and the diagonal fold

Once completely dry I adhered the squares of tie died paper to a piece of square card to give them the extra strength they needed. I added a touch more vibrancy to the colours using Tim Holtz distress crayons. I also darkened the edges of the panels with black soot distress crayon and smudged it with my finger .

Now all that was needed were my focal images and there was only two stencils I had in mind- Andy Skinners 'Hippy Chick' and for the lettering, one by Iamagination Crafts called 'Peace, Love, Joy'. The font was just perfect for the 60's/ 70s mood/ feel / look  I was trying to portray .

Both the 'Chicks' and the 'words' are stenciled using texture paste and Deco Art black acrylic paint.

Further detail was added to both panels using a selection of stamps and Black archival ink and just a few splats of acrylic paint added to the 'Peace' panel.

Both panels are adhered to a square white card mount, edges distressed with mustard seed distress ink and then onto a black card square mount.

Here are a few photos of each of the funky art panels...
.....first up 'Love'

I love how the addition of mustard seed distress crayon adds a vibrant sunshine glow.

  

and now 'Peace!'

Oh what messy inky fun I had creating these two pieces of funky vibrant art -  I loved every minute 
(even my deeply stained fingers). I can but hope you like, maybe even love them too. 

Time now to enter them into the following challenges 

Frilly and Funkie -'Hip to be Square' 

Anything but Cute- Challenge #11 Crazy for Colour  

Thats Crafty Challenge April 01 2016 - All Things Bright and Beautiful' 

Thanks as always for stopping by today, your comments, visits and follow are greatly appreciated .

Wishing you all a fabulous week ahead . 
Hope its full of Love , peace and Jelly babies 

Take care 

Amanda 

xxx

Spring is in the Air- A Vintage Journey- April 2016 Challenge

Hello Everyone and Welcome

Hope you have all had a great week and been fortunate enough to enjoy at least some sunshine wherever you may be in the world.

So today sees the start of the 4th month of the year ( where did the other 3 go ??) and that means as today is the first friday in April its the start of a brand new challenge over at A Vintage Journey .

Lovely Sandy is the host this month and she has chosen a challenge theme befitting of the season - 'Spring is in the Air'. Here's what she says:

'Leave those winter blues behind . Make anything that says SPRING using pastel colours . Its your choice, a card, a canvas, 3D or a tag etc but remember it should be in one of the vintage, shabby , mixed media, art journaling, industrial or steampunk styles that we favour '

   As usual there will be one lucky winner who wins our sponsor's prize  which this month is a £20 voucher to spend at  Country View Crafts 

The Creative Guides also select 3 pinworthy winners who will not only win a pinworthy badge to display on their blog but will also be invited to rejoin us as a Guest Designer for a future challenge.

So with 'Spring in the Air' I have embrace my 'inner calm' and created a mixed media canvas using a more serene colour palette with just subtle accents of darker hues to give it a fresh, crisp 'spring like' appearance  while still retaining a little bit of 'grunge'.

I even managed to refrain from using any black soot !!! Yes, not a single dot of black soot was used in the making of this canvas !!

I began by priming a 5"x7" canvas with a coat of gesso and let dry. Next came the paint and I chose to use Tim Holtz distress paints, watered down to create paler hues - cracked pistachio applied to the left of the canvas, mustard seed down the centre and broken china to the right .

I realised at this point I should have adhered some tissue tape to the canvas before painting so did it at this stage making sure to take it over the edges as well as on the face of the canvas . I then added more paint and gesso to the canvas, remembering to keep it subtle, fresh and 'spring like'.

Now for the detail - stamps and stencils provide this using various products- Watering can Archival ink , distress inks, texture paste, Tim Holtz layering stencils, script stamp and a speckle stamp.

 It still needed a little more, I felt, so I kept stenciling and stamping until I was happy. I then used my splatter brush and the paints to create some splatters before spritzing with perfect pearls and adding  gentle touches of silver gilding wax.

 Now for some close ups of the background 

 The butterfly and Time piece

 As Spring officially begins when the clocks go forward I wanted to acknowledge that somewhere on my canvas so I found a wooden pocket watch embellishment in my stash and altered it with a coat of gesso. Once dry using my finger I caught the gesso surface with hickory smoke distress paint.

 The butterfly is from Tim Holtz 'Perspective' stamp set and is stamped and coloured using the same  archival ink and distress inks as I used for the canvas.  I embellished the butterfly with an ideology game spinner and hitch fastener to represent the hands of a clock . 

I also applied some Tim Holtz crazing medium to the edges of the wings to create a subtle crackle

The letters on the wordband are highlighted using Tim Holtz distress crayons. They do the job so much quicker and easier than using paints. I attached it to the canvas using brads..... 

... and here it is my 'Spring is the Air' canvas !  

 I hope I have offered some inspiration with my mixed media canvas and if you haven't already, be sure to pop by A Vintage Journey to view some of my fellow Creative Guides inspiring projects.

With this challenge only just beginning there's still plenty of time to enter and don't forget if you do you could be chosen as the random prize winner or one of the 3 pinworthy winners . 

I would like to enter my Spring is in the Sir canvas into the following challenges 
Stamps and Stencil Challenge: Spring is in the Air! 
Country VIew Crafts , April Challenge: Spring!  

Thank you so much for popping by today! Your visits, comments and follows are always very much welcomed and appreciated. 

Hope you have a lovely weekend and the sun shines downs on you all

Take care 

Amanda 

xxx