A New Road!

It is an Artistic Outpost blog hop and there are new and exciting things happening and I will be taking "A New Road" and I am sure loving the journey! For more information about the AO new adventure click HERE and HERE for the new direction. You will want to join in the blog hop and check out all the exciting and fabulous creations my DT Sisters have for you.

Gerrie, Lisa, Suzanne, Tracy, Linda, Alison, Terry (Me), Kate

This is the first time I have used the Windows and Doors collection and just love them and thought it was so appropriate for all avenue AO will be traveling. This vintage old door is so inviting and along with the sentiment was stamped using Wendy's Watering Can Archival ink. I wanted a softer feel and chose to not go with black ink. Will also link this up to Inspiration Journal's "A Few of My Favorite Things" AO and Tim, you know it and Simon Says Stamp Monday "Big Stamp."



I used sponge applicators to add Vintage Photo, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters for coloring the bricks and foliage and the door with Antique Linen.

The sentiment was inked with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo and of course distressed. For the tag background, I inked over Tim's Lattice stencil with Distress inks of the previous colors and added a few rub-ons for fun!
 



Thank you so much for visiting today and have a wonderful day!



My Word Is Love!

Here we are with challenge #2 at A Vintage Journey and the theme is "Say It With Words," chosen by Alison! The DT has many fabulous words to share with you, so be sure to stop by and feast your eyes! If you join in and we sure hope you do, remember we are all about being Tim Holtz inspired through his products, techniques and his vintage style! Country View Crafts is our generous sponsor, so come on over and join in our traveling adventures!

Don't you just love this saying from Tim's new "Nature Walk" stamps and the images are to die for! I just thought it would be perfect for my DT challenge project!

I had thought about stamping this saying on some wrinkled and distressed paper and tearing the edges, but then decided the Arch Frame would work quite nicely for the shape.

My Arch and Arch Frame were cut from grunge, embossed, painted with Distress Vintage Photo, inked over with Black Soot, raised areas wiped off lightly and then a light sanding to reveal the paint and part of the grunge paper. I guess you could call this "Painted Grunge." I love the look of this as it has kind of a leather appeal!

I used the Movers and Shapers Arch piece to cut another outer frame, which was painted using Antiqued Bronze Metallic paint, crackled, distressed with Black Soot and then cut away the outer perforated area.

Next was to take some plain card stock, stencil, ink and distress, stamp the sentiment in Black Archival. I had actually cut a duplicate frame from copy paper to know where to center my stamp! Sorry, I can't guess in such a tight squeeze!

Added some embossed, highlighted and shaded Movers and Shapers with a couple of gears and rusted out a pen nib with paint and clear embossing powder.

Now onto the winner of my Blog Candy, "The Compendium of Curiosities III," which will be signed and shipped directly to you from Tim via Mario is SANDRA, who is feeling lucky on her blog this week. WooHoo to you!

 

Congratulations Sandra and please contact me by the 23rd, so I have your current address. A big thank you to all of you who joined in my giveaway and also shared with others. Well I thank you so much for stopping by today and riding along! Enjoy!

Travel Tag!

Today I am sharing another tag I created using the stencil I made with Tim's ink well and feather movers and shapers. The Creative Guides at A Vintage Journey have plenty of "Tim" inspiration for you while we fill in for this Friday's "Winners Post."



If you want the details on the making of the stencil, click HERE.   After the 1st step stencil magic was completed, I inked with Broken China, Peeled Paint and Rusty Hinge, shading with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.  I felt the ink wells and feathers blended in too much in the background, so I outlined those using broken lines of black and with an applicator shaded slightly around the outer shapes.

Next step was to pull out Tim's stencil and randomly inked in Black Soot.. Yes, I hand cut the hands from tissue tape! Should I have used the rubs - Oh yes!

My traveling friends and ticket were stamped in Black Archival, inked with Antique Linen and fussy cut. Finished off with a few chit chats and some metal pieces. Lots of distressing of various types, so we are entering this in "D is for Distress" at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and remember that next week I will draw the Blog Candy winner of a signed copy of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities III. If you have not entered there is still time.



The Journey Begins and Blog Candy!

It is finally here and challenge #1 is all about Tim at "A Vintage Journey! Our first "Anything Tim" challenge has been chosen by the fabulous Brenda! You will so want to stop by and see what all my lovely DT Sisters have created for your viewing pleasure and will be so inspired to join in! There is also a prize from our sponsor Country View Crafts  and other fun events! Warning in advance that this will be a long post and photo heavy, something I don't like to do to you, so forgive me and bear with me as there is so much to share. A vintage journey could only be about "Tim" and all the inspiration he shares all over the world and some really amazing products.

When I was invited to join in the launch and be a member of the "Creative Guides," I could hardly contain my excitement! I just love everything Tim and he is the reason I ever continued stamping after seeing him in action in 2008. Now I have grown from my first workshop and continue to learn when I can and how I can, so don't ever think you can't do something! I had an idea what I was going to do, but like so many of you, it evolved into a mixed media altered project. This will be linked to Frilly and Funkie's "Stencils and Texture."

My idea was to make my own stencil, using some of Tim's movers and shapers and that was the start. When I finished my tag, I loved it so much that I could not cover it up and so the journey began!

I remembered those pictures and decided to use them and have a little shadow box covered with the glass, but this was the start and I will share the details a little later. It was finished off by backing it with some Kraft resist and torn text from the same paper, some gears and distressed trim.

The Traveler was stamped in Sepia Archival and using an applicator, I color him with Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy and Tattered Rose, fussy cut and popped up a little.

And my Traveler needed to know where he was going, so I made him a compass cut from foil backed paper, painted and sanded off in areas. The compass was stamped on clear packaging and the entire compass backed in white. At certain angles you can see the reflection and if you look closely, the subtle crackle can be seen on the board.

The background of the print was covered in white gesso. After this dried I applied a washy coat of Antique Linen and Crackle Medium, then added some stenciling when that dried. Again when dried, I gave a spray of Butterscotch Color Wash and blotted most off, highlighted with Treasure Gold, and then a heavy coat of Espresso Color Wash, then misted with water to blend and left to dry. Once dried (gosh all the layers take so much time with drying), I flicked on some large water drops, flicked on Vintage Photo Paint with a toothbrush, bits of stamping and then sealed with Matte Spray.

Finished off with some Idea-ology metal that had paint rubbed into the words and ball chain.

The actual frame was gesso, covered with the paint and crackle mix, stained with Vintage Photo and Picket Fence and then varnished.

So do you love that before or what? And now my BLOG CANDY offer to celebrate my new and exciting venture and just in time for Linda's CC3C a signed copy of Tim's new Compendium of Curiosities III! I made contact with Mario about how I wanted to give a copy of this fabby book, who is just as rocking as Tim and he cooks and was thrilled at the idea. So you must let me know you would like to enter the drawing, be a follower of my blog and if you already are a follower a second toss in the hat and if you want to share my blog candy, I will even add your name again! It would also be wonderful if you follow AVJ! I will announce the winner on March 21st the date of the second challenge at AVJ. The winner will need to contact me by the 23rd, so Mario can get it signed and shipped, so do check back! Good Luck!

Now the steps for my own personal Tim stencil! Arrange movers and shapers where you desire and I actually had some blank stencil material. Next lay over tag, clear emboss the ink well, heat set, next stamp wood grain (or whatever you wish) in Archival, clear emboss.

Now the inking begins of the shapes, clear emboss, heat set and then ink your tag as desired. I then ironed away the embossing.

Thank you so much for stopping by and joining me on my new travel adventure! Sure hope to see you join in the challenges and have a great time! Remember it is all about Tim and our love of his techniques and products! Have a great journey!

Stamps: Tim's
Distress Inks: Clear Emboss, Vintage Photo Antique Linen, Walnut Stain, Old Paper, Pumice Stone, Brushed Corduroy, Tattered Rose
Archival Sepia
Distress Paints: Vintage Photo, Antique Linen
Distress Stains: Vintage Photo, Antique Linen
Clear Embossing Powder
Dies: Tag,  Movers/Shapers, pocket watch, ink & feather, Vintage Lace
Mixed Idea-ology
Kraft Resist
Foil Backed Paper

Oh Christmas Tree!

How are you all doing? All caught up and ready to enjoy the Christmas season? I am still working on it and need to finish up my cards/tags will be traveling a distance! Hey, at least I finally went out and did a little Christmas shopping this last weekend! Seriously, where does time go??

As you can see, I am still having some fun with snowy effects! It is so cold here and I mean really cold and yet there is not a snowflake to be found! I feel if it is going to be that kind of cold, at least let there be snow!  I do believe these lovely little "Birds Of A Feather" Artist Outpost sweeties are pretty excited about their Christmas tree and can't wait to open up the packages! Lisa's Bloggers Challenge is "Joyeux Noel" and this will be linked over there!

I first inked the background with Distress Inks (Antique Linen, Old Paper, Brushed Corduroy) then did a spritz and flick with water and added a little snow! Next was to use my new Hollybough stencil and Bundled Sage, Fired Brick and Brushed Corduroy was applied.

The tree was cut from a greenish paper, but further inked and snow applied on the branches with whit paint and some flicks for fun. It is not a Christmas tree if not decorated and the lovely girls wanted some lights and garland and a star for good measure (which was colored with red alcohol ink).

The girls were stamped in Coffee archival and watered colored. I use Tattered Rose for flesh tones! And of course they were fussy cut. I stamped part of the sentiment from Christmas Chalk in Coffee Archival.

I do believe it was the younger of the two, who suggested standing of the box for a closer view of the decorated Christmas tree. Doesn't it appear as if they are enjoying the festive moment?

The packages were cut using my new die from Mr. Tim! Love that die!

Well I do thank you for visiting me today and I know you are all busy with your Christmas preparations. I will be finishing my inky part of Christmas this week, but will be around during breaks to visit you! The current challenge at Artistic Outpost is still "Anything Goes" and there is a random gift certificate to be given to someone, so come on over and join in!

Merry & Bright!

I hope you are all doing well and getting excited and ready for the Holidays. Sadly I am not a shopper, well except for crafty stuff. It sure would be much easier if my husband would start and then I would always know what to give him! OK, enough of my being silly! This tag/card was kind of a "Mystery" for me in a few ways and since Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge theme is "It's A Mystery," we are going over there for a visit!

So onto the mystery part of this! Not sure if my technique is a mystery, but what I was going to do with the tag after certainly was. It literally sat for several days as I had not a clue what I would do.

How it started is when my "Shatter" new Tim release arrived from Linda's Funkie Junkie Boutique! I ordered this as soon as I saw it and yes I saw the spider webbing, which of course is so Halloween perfect, but I also saw breaking ice from when I lived in New York.

I also took inspiration from Tim's new blog post with the bells and word band. While the paint was wet on the bells and my snowflake brad, I sprinkled on some of that Rock Candy glitter. The plan was to also add some rubs as I saw a delightful card from Brenda, but I just did not know how that would work over all this crackled texture! I had already stamped and cut out the gentleman silhouette, which I knew he would be walking on ice!

So here is the scoop on the tags background. I placed the stencil over the tag and applied modeling paste, let it dry, then I applied Rock Candy Crackle. Once it dried, the fun with colors began.

After I was pleased with the colors, I diluted some Glossy accents with water and brushed this over the entire tag and sprinkled on a little RC glitter. Love that stuff and you will hardly ever hear me say that about glitter.

Sorry this was kind of photo heavy, but it was a process and I know many times I am nervous about using different products and mixing it up.

Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment which always makes me happy! On a personal note, my daughter has opened an Etsy shop "Fraudess" for jewelry she creates. If you have some time and would like to take a look and give her suggestions that would be great! I know many of you have shops and would be better suited to give her ideas compared to me!