Some tags and a bit of a ramble...

Hello friends, thanks for taking the time to drop in here! Today I am finally sharing the tags I made for my altered file folder that you can see in detail HERE

I actually made some more tags still, but I thought sharing just these 4 with a little detail was probably enough for one post......

As each of these tags has an image of a child on them, I want to dedicate them to the issue that has been on my mind almost constantly these last two weeks or so. The issue I am referring to is the one of what is happening in the United States around the separation of asylum seeking parents from their children. Of course I know that Trump reversed his policy and promised that the children would be returned to their parents. Well that was over a week ago and there are still more than 2000 children separated from their parents and no clear plans of how and when they will be returned. Thinking of these poor children and their parents makes me feel sick to the stomach, - I just feel so helpless in the face of this. If only I could give them all wings, like I did with some of the kids on these tags, so that they can fly back to their parents. Oh and by the way, all of these were created well before the horror of this tragedy broke in the news...

Anyway, sorry for the ramble and on to the tags....

This one is a size 8 tag that I ran through one of Tim Holtz's 3D folders. Next I coloured it with a mix of Distress Oxides and normal distress inks and to give it a bit more definition I then added just one spritz of Distress Spray in Ground Espresso.

I then took one of the paper dolls, paper pieced a hat and some wings on him and collaged him onto the tag in addition to some strips of washi tape. The final step was to add some shadow around him with a Stabilo All pencil.

The background to tag number two was created with the help of Distress paint, gesso, background stamping and stencilling with archival ink in Hickory Smoke.

The girl is a Paper Whimsy image that again I gave some wings and collaged onto the tag together with some fussy cut roses from one of the Prima collections plus some more washi tapes etc.

Tag number 3 again was run through a Tim 3D embossing folder, coloured with Antique  Linen and Vintage Photo Distress ink and some Distress Spray spritzt through a stencil. The little girl is of course another paper doll and the other collage elements were either stamped or cut from Tim Holtz paper collections.

The final tag is a size 10 tag. I started by stencilling with some Decoart Crackle paint. When it had crackled I added colour with Antique Linen Distress Paint, some Vintage Photo Distress Spray, some Decoart Antiquing Cream and some Ground Espresso Distress Crayon. I did some stamping around the edges and then finished it off with yet another paper doll and a couple of Tim die cuts plus some other bits and pieces from my collage box.

I love the effect of the crackle paste through the stencil. The darker shadows around the boy were created with the help of a brush dipped into the Ground Espresso spray bottle.

Well, that's it for today. I hope I have not upset anyone with my political ramble, I know I have quite a few American visitors and I firmly believe everyone should be allowed to their own opinion, so if some of you feel that what Trump did was right, I won't hold it against you.

Thank you for your visit and continued support

xxxxx

Vintage Christmas cards (further variations)

Hello friends! Well, here we are, nearly the weekend and that much closer to Christmas......
Today I have 3 further Christmas cards to share.

Below a short tutorial of how I made them:

All of them started with some textue paste and a stencil:

I then added colour with a mix of Acrylic paints in Titan Buff, White and Burnt and Raw Umber, I used different brands, Decoart Fluid Acrylics, Golden Fluid Acrylics and Paper Artsy Frescos, using both a brayer and my fingers.

On one of them I also used Distress Crayons to get a kind of patina effect.

Raised bits were also highlighted with Treasure Gold.

I then added various die cuts and vintage images as focal points, and that was pretty much it.

Below a few close ups still:

Below a short slide show to see them in close up

I am going to add one of the cards to the following challenges:
Countryview Crafts: Stencils
That's Crafty: Stencil it
Frilly and Funkie: Timeworn

Thanks for your visit like always

xxxxx

Words That Are Special

Hello friends and lovely to have you drop by! It's the first Friday of the month and that means a new challenge at A Vintage Journey

The lovely Jennie is our host and the theme she chose is Words That Are Special. This is what Jennie had to say about the challenge:

We often use words for cardmaking, scrapbooking, journaling, layering backgrounds, stamping, collage, in mixed media work, on our tags …. In fact words are often an integral part of our design processes for many of our projects. This month show us words that are important or special to you and how you incorporate them in your vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial or steampunk art.

Well I love words and decided to make a fold-out card with 4 panels with some of my favourite sayings. It's based on a project that I found on Pinterest. Here are the different panels:

I have written a quick tutorial of how to make this, and of course you can decorate it in whatever way you wish. The base of mine is Kraft Card. This is what you will need:

A3 card for the front, back an inside strip and the backing of your inside panels

White card for the front and back, inside covers and panels.

A selection of paints, inks, stamps etc

Method

1. Fold A3 card in half along the long side, this gives you an A4 folded card. (8.5 by 11 approx)

2. Cut this in half giving you a folded card panel that is 21 cm wide and 14.7 cm high (8" by 5 3/4 approx)

3. From the remaining card cut a strip along the long side about 4 cm high (1.5" Approx)

Fold this strip concertina style.

4. The inside panels can be any size that fits inside the covers, I made mine 11.5 cm high and 9 cm wide (4.5 x 3 3/4 " approx).

5. Create panels for the covers, inside covers and inside cards in what ever way you wish

6. Adhere to covers and insides.

7. Glue concertina fold strip in place and then adhere your 4 inside cards.

Hope my description makes sense. Below I will show you how I decorated mine with paints, inks, stencils and stamping.

Front cover using stencils by Tim Holtz and Andy Skinner, Decoart Media acrylic paints, Distress Crayons and Infusions.

Stamps by Tim Holtz, coloured with Big Brush Pens

Back cover, using similar techniques.

Stamps by Wendy Vecchi, some doodling with white pen and a Tim word sticker.

Inside left , using Distress inks and stamps and stencils by Tim and Andy Skinner

Inside right  same thing. These insides will be mostly covered by the fold out cards of course....

And here some close ups of the inside cards, all done in a similar way, using Distress inks and stamps from various sets by Tim Holtz.

I changed the colour ways subtly to go along with the background of the covers.

Well, that's it, I had great fun putting this together and will definitely make more of these, you could use it and put tags inside, or even use the panels as photo mats and make a little brag-book or something.

Do make sure to check out what my talented teamies have made for this challenge if you have not done so already and get all the details of the challenge this month, all you need to do is CLICK HERE

Hope you will join in with our challenge and have a wonderful weekend!!

Destination Inspiration for a Vintage Journey.

Hello dear visitors. Today I have a step by step project on the Vintage Journey blog, where every Monday the Creative Guides do a step by step project using 4 specific projects, colours and techniques. Today is my turn, and here is a corner of what I made:

If you want to see more, just click HERE.

Have a wonderful week and see you next time.

xxx

Tag number 3

Time for the next tag, I am still creating one every day (but posting only every second day or so)...

This one is very different from number one and number two. 

It started out looking like this. The background was done with the help of a gelli plate, two colours of acrylic paint (Decoart English Iron Oxide and Golden Hansa Yellow Hue) and a stencil.

Next came some background stamping, using Orange Blossom and Sepia Archival inks.

Finally, the focal image is a scrap of a paper serviette, blended into the background with the help of a bit more of the same paints and some further stamping.

A couple of little embellishments and some Tim Holtz word stickers finish it all off.

Well, that's it for today, short and sweet.... I am having fun with these little wooden tags, even though I am not quite sure how I am going to use them. That's why there is no ribbon or twine at the top yet. I have all sorts of ideas floating in my head as to what I'll do with them, but more about that at some other point. Meanwhile, thanks for your visit today, your kind comments always warm my heart.

xxx

Back from down under and tag-a-day round two.

Hi everyone and thanks for dropping in. As mentioned yesterday, I am finally back from Australia where I spent most of July and August with my little grand children. After winter there, it's back into nearly Autumn here in the northern hemisphere, but I had the most amazing time both with family and meeting some craft friends too. More about that at the end of this post.

Sorry for the terrible picture, but they just never stood still lol...

Towards the end of August Spring is on the way....

Today will see the start of a new challenge I have set myself, namely to create a tag a day for 10 days in a row....
Here's number 1.

It's happened to me before, when back after a long time of no crafting, I find that my mojo is still left behind where ever I have been. Some years back I found that one good remedy is to do just a little project every day. So here we go, just a little tag, created on a small tag shaped piece of balsa wood. I got 10 of these ages ago and found them in my stash, no idea anymore where they came from or who made them, sorry.

I started by colouring some texture paste (Finnabair Sand Paste) with a little Decoart fluid acrylic in burnt umber. An idea I got from Brenda, who just did an amazing project for our latest A Vintage Journey challenge.

Next colour was added with various brown and blue toned paints by both Decoart and Golden.

More colour and toning down was achieved with the help of some Decoart Antiquing creams.

And finally the tag was embellished with some Calico Craftparts, altered with the help of paints and embossing powder and some flowers.

While in Australia, I spent one wonderful day meeting up with some crafty friends, we had such a great day, exchanged gifts and had the most amazing time!

Here they are, 4 wonderful Ozzy ladies, from left to right: Margaret, Heather, Helen, and Adriana.
Thank you girls for the most amazing day!!

Well, that's it for now. Tomorrow I will share tag number two and some more photos of our crafty get together. Thanks for your visit today and have a great week!

Creating substrates and an experiment

Hello all and thanks for dropping in. I am still hugely enjoying doing an online class with Kate Thomson called Children of the Wild. In one of the many videos Kate shows how to make amazing mixed media backgrounds and I had great fun experimenting. Here is a little portrait I did on one of them.

The backgrounds are very textured, so doing the portrait straight on top, was not easy, I think a next time I would do that differently. But, - you live and learn. Below some further substrate examples:

Kate suggests to do these on old ledger paper, but I don't have any of that, so instead I used some 12 by 12 scrapbook papers with a ledger like background. As the techniques are part of the class, I can't really share them, but here are some more samples:

I used chalk paints mostly Decoart and Paper Artsy and played around with a muted colour palette which I think suite these techniques so well. Obviously stamps and stencils play a part as well.

Kate's site is called Fractured Angelics. I so love the "fractured" elements she uses in her work and shows examples of in her class.

Here is a smaller piece, started as a 12 by 12 and then cut into smaller parts. I incorporated more blue and quin. gold in these ones.

Here is another cut part of the same piece and my portrait was done on one of the other smaller pieces.

Here you can see just how much texture there was on the substrate, - kind of obvious it was going to be hard to draw straight onto that, but I just had to give it a go. I used pencil, stabilo All and tinted charcoal for the drawing.

This is probably my favourite bit of the piece, I love how the colours work against the stencilled bits.

Anyway, that's it for now, I'll experiment some more, so stay tuned :o).

Thanks for your visit like always and have fun with being creative!

xxx