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!

Birds of A Feather!

We are on our way to Spring and I can't wait to see all the new little birdies, bulbs and perennials revealing their beauty! While I was working on Tim's March Tag, all I could think about was how perfect Artistic Outpost's "Birds of A Feather" would be for this technique!

Since I am sharing this over at AO as part of my DT commitment, if you would like all the details and more pictures, please stop over HERE!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the beginning of Spring and all the renewal of the season! If you have missed my blog candy offer, there is still time and the link is HERE.

Tim's March Tag 2014

With all the excitement of starting on the DT at A Vintage Journey, I have been even more Tim inspired! There is still a week to join the first challenge and it is "Anything Tim," so stop on over. I absolutely will not bore you with the details of how I made this tag, because you probably already know or can find all the guidelines on TIM's blog. 

For the most part I followed all the steps with a few changes. One I did not have that new "spritzer," but it will make it on my list! I used a mix of reinker and Perfect Pearls and used the mini mister. I do wish I had used a darker ink for the stamped main images as I think the Vintage Photo was a little too light and more so on the second tag, but all is still good! A Splash of Color is the challenge theme at Inspiration Journal and we are flying over there to share.

I had already ordered the Nature Walk stamp set from my Funkie Junkie friend and I will say that 20% off really helps when you have found you ordered 12 stamp sets, so I went with the smaller version of stamps!

 

That Lattice stencil is gorgeous and the little eggs I picked off some cheesy little nested Michael's item, that I knew would come in handy one day!

Could not resist adding some feathers from my dear Fred, which I have done whenever possible. It is just a little more of a tribute kind of thing now! OK, we won't go there, but I do miss that little guy!



 

The second stamped birdie barely showed up with the stencil activity, so we had a painted wing compromise!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! It is very warm here today and almost a little too warm so quickly!

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.



Paper Chase!

Happy Anniversary to Country View Challenges! I was thrilled and honored to have been among the Top 3 for their January challenge and asked to be a guest designer for March! Well March is also my personal anniversary, so I am in good company! The challenge theme is "Paper Chase" and Country View Crafts is offering two prizes, so have a look and join in! Here is my take!

I decided to use the Crafty Individuals stamps that Chris had gifted to me as it seemed so appropriate for the anniversary celebration at CVC and the fact these stamps have quite the paper trail! Chris and I both love birds and have had many of these beauties for pets. My little birds were stamped in Sepia and clear embossed and then a subtle splash of color, Tattered Rose for the bodies. I used a marker to add yellow to the beaks and then shaded with Antique Linen around the sweeties.

Computer generated the "Happy Anniversary" in hopes of blending in with the chit chat stickers. I used Tim's background stamp and applied paint to colored paper. All edges have been distressed and I finished off with inking some pre-made flowers, highlighting with Treasure Gold,some distressed die-cut trim and a movers and shapers bird. My birds are taking flight to Inspiration Journal's "Splash of Color" and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "D is for Distress."

And talking about Anniversaries, I am offering my own blog candy right HERE. Thank you for visiting today and I hope you are having a great March!

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

Happy Anniversary!

Good Wednesday to you all and thank you for stopping by on this very special day! It is our 31st anniversary and I am pretty excited! 31 years is a long time to spend with someone and you actually can't hardly remember a time they weren't there! Looking back on when we met, we were actually young adults (28 and 31) and so often we both wonder where did the time go? And while on the subject of "Tick Tock," this is perfect timing for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! Will also share this with Frilly and Funkie's, "Stencils and Texture" and Inspiration Journal's "Splash of Color."

This is a taggy kind of card I made for my hubby and of course I wanted to keep it in a manly theme, no flowers for my guy! The stamps I used are all Artistic Outpost, Apothecary, SteamPunk, Typography and Whimsical Melange. Since Wednesday is my day to share at Artistic Outpost, you can find all the details and more photos over there in my DT post! So stop on over HERE and remember the new March Referral is in full swing!

Have a great day and be sure to stop by on FRIDAY! I am going to spend some quality time with my hubby today. Thank you again for taking the time to visit and comment!