Guest Post at A Vintage Journey

I'm a Guest Creative Guide over at A Vintage Journey today!  I've created a special "Wings"project for them, here's a sneak peek:

Hope you join me there for my tutorial!


Jan

5

Waves & Bubbles Mini Configuration's Book

Hi Everyone!  Today I am thrilled to share my first post as a member of the Tim Holtz Media Team.  This project started with one Texture Fade Embossing folder, the Waves & Bubbles Set and a technique from Wendy Vecchi that I wanted to use.  It became a completely different project than what I had intended, which is what I love about crafting!

We just got back from holidays, so I think I was inspired by the beautiful turquoise mountain lakes of Jasper Provincial Park, the white sandy beaches on the Sunshine Coast in B.C., and of course all the ocean life.



Every summer we visit an International Sand Castle competition in Parksville, and the entries are amazing.  I decided to create this book for my photos of these amazing sculptures and a few of the shells we have collected.

Using the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Mini Configurations Book (9 x 6in) and Ranger's Dina Wakley White Gesso, I painted my book and the boxes inside.  Gesso primes your surface, making it ready to accept different mediums.

After everything was dry, I applied a coat of Evergreen Bough Distress Paint.  I did not paint the backs of the boxes(these will be covered) and the front of my book (just around the edges).  I enjoy using this type of finish on boxes, it creates a neat texture and just by changing the colour combinations, can look so different.  I used it on this Halloween box on a previous post.  Your darkest colour goes on first.

I used Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Evergreen Bough, and Bundled Sage Distress Paint to dry brush onto my book.  For those of you not familiar with dry brushing, it is applying a very small amount of paint on your brush, and removing or brushing some off before applying it to your surface.  You can see on my small white paper, what your brush strokes should look like. Your paint is applied very lightly so it dries quite fast, therefore you can work quickly.  Not all your surface is covered with each colour, and that is how you get this textured look. 

 You can go back and reapply some or all of the colours, achieving whatever look you want.

After your painted boxes have dried, apply adhesive to the backs and insert into your box.

Now for the front cover of your book.  Using Wendy Vecchi's archival ink and rubbing alcohol technique, you will need archival re-inkers, speciality stamping paper, a spatula and a craft mat. I used 

Ranger's Aquamarine,Viridian and one drop of Hydrangea.  Pour a small amount of rubbing alcohol to your mat and add a drop of each colour.  Mix the ink slightly into your rubbing alcohol.  I mixed mine too much as you can see in my photo, but I took my paper (cut to 9 x 6in) and swiped it through the ink.

Because you are not using water, the rubbing alcohol doesn't seep through your paper and when heated, the speciality paper does't warp.  I did mine a second time after I dried it, as I wanted it a bit more of the green tone and not as blended this time.

That's better, I like the darker contrast!  Once it dried, I was ready to emboss.

My paper was too large for the embossing folder to fit completely, but I just inserted it across the bottom first.  After that was embossed, I embossed the top left corner of my paper.  I was ok with the parts that weren't embossed, they were going to be covered up anyways.

I wanted my paper to have a somewhat aged or distressed look, so I sanded the raised areas and the edges of my embossed paper.  With my Antique Linen Distress Ink Pad (normally I use my Ranger Blending Tool, but I wanted the raised areas really dark) I swiped across the sanded areas to give them definition.  My next step was to paint on top of everything with a combination of Antique Linen, Old Paper, and Frayed Burlap Distress paint.  I dabbed on a bit of Antique Linen in different areas, then with a damp paper towel, rubbed the paint using a circular motion.  This removes most of it but leaves a light layer of paint.  I alternate the different colours and apply the same technique. 

It gives the embossed paper a little bit of an aged look and a kind of pearly finish.  The trick is, not to apply the paint too heavy and just do a small area at a time.  You can always add more paint, but you can't remove it if you have too much!

Once everything is dry, apply your embossed paper with Ranger's Gel Medium to the front of your book.  Now you are ready to embellish.  Don't you hate it when sometimes you do a background that turns out really good, and find it so hard to cover it!  I try and pick my least favourite part and use that place to cover, but sometimes you just like all of it!

Using the Tim Holtz Movers & Shapers Mini Sand & Sea (small seahorse & starfish), and Sand & Sea Bigz (large sand dollar, seahorse, starfish)  dies, I die-cut several pieces with chipboard.  I'm never sure how many I will use, so I just cut out more than enough and save the extras.  The first thing I do, is gesso all the pieces.  I like to have a nice white base to work with, especially when using light colours.  I find that when you paint directly on top of chipboard, sometimees the light colours aren't as vibrant or you have to apply more layers of paint.  Once the gesso was dry, I applied Ranger's Texture Paste to some of the pieces.  I just noticed on my photos, I didn't end up using the small seahorses, wonder where they disappeared to?

The larger sand dollar with the starfish glued to the top, had texture paste applied with my finger.  When I'm working with small pieces, I tend to use my finger when applying mediums, it's just faster and I have more control.  I applied the paste heavier around the starfish, so it just looks like it is part of the sand dollar.  Once that was dry, I painted with Antique Linen paint, and inked the edges with Frayed Burlap and Pumice Stone Distress ink.  I applied Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint and set aside to dry.  Once it was dry, I applied Frayed Burlap Distress Paint on top and wiped off the excess, so the paint just stayed in the cracks.  The other large sand dollar and texture paste applied with a small spatula to give it more texture. After I painted it with Antique Linen Paint, I shaded the edges lightly with Distress inks.  The Distress Ink colours I used for all the pieces, were a combination of Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Scattered Straw, Pumice Stone, Evergreen Bough, and Bundled Sage.

One seahorse had texture paste applied with a Tim Holtz stencil called Dot Fade, then painted with Antique Linen Paint.  The other seahorse was painted with Antiqued Bronze Distress paint.  After the paint was dry, I added a drop of Antique Linen paint to a small amount of Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint on my craft sheet.  I applied this to my bronze painted seahorse and let dry.  Because I added in some paint, it didn't crack very much, but the colour still showed slightly through from underneath.  I added a bit of Evergreen Bough paint to the edges.  The other seahorse, I didn't add as much paint, just a small dot, and it ended up cracking more.  I also painted the edges, after the crackle dried, with Evergreen Bough.  The small sand dollar was painted with texture paint, then painted with Antique Linen, and edges inked.  The small starfish was painted with Antique Linen, when embossed with Ranger's Weathered White Embossing Powder.  I put small amounts of paint on my craft sheet and then dab lightly with my finger, bits of colour on top of the embossed pieces.  It gives it a grainy finish.

A couple of small pieces of gauze were stained, the ends frayed and then adhered to my book front.

I die-cut some "ocean greenery" with my Tim Holtz Spring Greenery Decorative Strip die and his new Wallflower Vellum paper.  I just chose a few different smaller patterns of the vellum to die-cut.  With these, my gauze, some frayed Tim Holtz Linen Ribbon, Natural Twine, Alpha Chips Elementary Chipboard letters, sea shells, and my die-cuts, I was ready to adhere these to the front of my book.  I used glue dots and pop-dots for almost everything, I found they stuck better.

For the inside, I added in my photos, some sea shells we have gathered over the years, some sand saved in a Tim Holtz Corked Dome, Tim Holtz Compass Coin, Word Band, Mirrored Stars, Linen Ribbon and starfish and greenery die-cuts.

I haven't decided how I want to place my photos in the box yet, I just have them sitting in there.  I can't make my mind up, whether to do an accordion type mini album or a book album, or just leave them like they are.

This little book is going on my coffee table, so we can all enjoy the sandcastle photos.  It's the perfect way to display and save those tiny treasures that seem to get lost or put away in a drawer too.  I've had the sea urchin shell for a long time, but was always worried it would break when handled.  Now it's safe in its own little box!

Thanks for stopping by and having a look at my tutorial, and I hope I've inspired you to try different techniques or make your own coffee table book!

Have a great day,

Jan

43

Christmas Configurations Book

Today I have a tutorial on the Sizzix Blog.  I hope you visit me there to see how I created this Christmas Configurations Book:

There's lots of Sizzix inspiration inside too!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jan

5

Configuration Book - Apothecary Style!

I was honoured to be asked again to do a few projects for Tim Holtz and his CHA Summer booth.  The day my box of goodies arrived, I was out grocery shopping.  I literally dumped the bags on the counter when I saw the box on the table and immediately opened it.... forget the groceries!!  I think when I saw my little bags of his new ribbons, I actually squealed like a little kid!  Love these, pictures do not do them justice!
We were told that one of the themes for Tim's booth was an old laboratory/Apothecary shop.  So, the first project I'm going to show you is my Apothecary Configuration Book using Tim's Halloween papers, rub-ons, dies, ribbons and Idea-ology embellishments.

I wanted it to look like an old book, so I left it quite plain on the outside.

  

To get this look, I painted the sides and outside with black gesso first.  I used a bigger brush that was a bit coarse, to get the texture.  Next, I added layers of different colours of Tim Holtz Distress paint (orange, red, and browns), drying in between layers of colour.  I don't cover the entire area, just quickly and uneven.  I also wipe off excess in some areas with a damp cloth.  I used black paint at the very end, and dry brushed it on.  The frame in the middle of the book is Sizzix's Tim Holtz Ornate Frame die, which was glued on before I painted the book.  The skeleton and curiosities word are Tim's new rub-ons, which I applied to an oval piece of paper and glued on at the very end.  On the spine of the book, 

I glued on before I painted, paper die-cuts cut from Sizzix's Tim Holtz Beaded & Snowflake Garland Decorative Strip die.  The numbers are also Tim Holtz rub-ons.  Love Tim's rub-ons, they go on so easy... he needs to make more!

Here's the inside of my book.  All the papers are from Tim's new collection, Laboratorie.

These mini burlap panels are new and so fun to alter.  I painted black gesso in the middle and let dry.  Next, I glued pattern paper, tearing the edges so it's uneven.  I covered it with Rock Candy Crackle Paint and let dry.  I applied a bit of Distress Paint to parts of it.  The tissue tape, Laboratorie, is also new.  The cobweb is Sizzix's new Tim Holtz Cobwebs Decorative strip die, which I think is my favourite!  Well, one of my favourites!

I covered my bottles, first with Claudine Helmuth's Matt Medium, let dry, and then Rock Candy Crackle Paint.  Stain it a bit with alcohol ink, and apply the rub-ons.

There's an Ornate plate with a piece of oval paper behind it that was dipped in Utee, then cracked, so it looks shattered.  The little feather and inkwell are also new dies, plus the dome with the spider(a rub-on) on it.  Did you know that the little metal label that says curiosities, has a clip in the back, so it fits over the edge of the box?  How cool is that?

I embossed a square piece, the same size as my opening, of Tim Holtz Shattered cardstock with Sizzix's Poison Texture Fade.  After sanding the paper, I glued it to a thin piece of chipboard.  I attached his hinges and a gear (with a ring fastener in the middle and some of his new ribbon) to the front,  and then covered the back with patterned paper, covering the brads.  Attach the other half of the hinges to your box edge and  you have a door.  

For the inside, I cut these labels out from his paper and distressed.  I attached with a pin and one of his Halloween Muse Tokens.  For the back of the box, I embossed shattered cardstock again, but with the Bookplate Texture Fade.
I think that's everything!  As I write this, I'm sitting here thinking, on a few things, how did I do that? I did write things down on a scrap piece of paper, but that is buried beneath the ever growing pile on my desk!  Time to clean up so I can get busy making a new mess!
I'm going to save showing the other projects for another day, I didn't intend to go into such detail about everything!  Hope my book inspires you to try one!

Have a great weekend,

Jan

12

CHA

I don't think I've stopped since returning from CHA or it seems like I haven't.  It's been a busy few months for me and I think it's starting to catch up on me.  We had a very busy but enjoyable trip to Anaheim.  Even though it was cold for there, it was nice to see green grass and palm trees!  Pat wore her pedometer while at the show, and we averaged about seven miles a day!
I mentioned that I had been working on some secret CHA projects before I left, so I am going to share those with you all today.
I still can't believe that it actually happened to me, but I was asked to work on some projects for Tim Holtz!  I felt so honored to be asked, and especially after seeing what all the other artists created, I am so amazed that I was part of this group.  The photos just don't do them justice, their projects were so unique and beautiful.  Tim's booth is so cool, I love all the vintage objects he has on display.  I would love to have some of those in my home!
First up, here are my two layouts that I created, using his new line of paper, French Industrial.  Love this paper! Sorry, not the greatest photos, it's really hard to take good ones with the lighting!

This is a wall hanging I created using his new Cabinet Card Frames, Ring Fasteners, French Industrial paper, Compass coin, and Tissue Tape elements.  I also used an antique spool, Tim Holtz Baubles, ribbon, Screw Eyes and grunge board; embossed and diecut with Sizzix's Tim Holtz Hanging Sign and Book Cover Texture Fade.

This isn't a great photo of the journal I made, it was quite high up.  The cover was made with grunge paper and embossed with Tim's Clock texture fade.  I painted and inked it to get the look of old leather.

I didn't have these Industrial Sticker letters to play with, so they were added at the show.  Love the look of these, can't wait to play with them!  I made a strap with his ruler ribbon and new Buckle, then attached it to the cover with a clock, spinner, gears, chain, and new Enameled Tag.

These cards were created with the new Birthday Blueprint stamps, Tim Holtz tissue (the balloon and hat), Label Letters, Lost and Found paper, Kraft-Core Core-dinations cardstock, and images painted with Distress stain.  It's hard to tell in the photos, but I stamped two images and pop-dotted parts of the stamped image.

I didn't get good photos of my other projects at the show, but here are some I took before I sent my projects in.

This is a Configuration box turned into a cabinet.  I cut the cover in half, and removed the longer sides, making it into doors.

Here's a close-up of the new little Ring Fasteners.  They are like a brad with a ring attached.  Love these!  I used Fragment charms(alcohol inked and stamped) for the backing and Baubles to hang from the rings.

The love was made with Tim's Grunge Blocks and Seasonal paper.  The blocks are different thicknesses so they look like printer blocks.  The little jar of wishes is made with his corked vials, new wishbones, Remanent word rub-ons, and vial labels.  The flowers were cut out with one of my favorite Sizzix dies, the Tattered Flower Decorative Strip die.

The Tim Holtz Melange Tissue flowers are stained (Picked Raspberry and Victorian Velvet Distress stain) and the centers are Tim Holtz light bulbs.  I die cut the flowers with the Tattered Flowers Bigz die, the X O is cut out from the Sizzix Valentines Stacked Words strip die, and the small heart (cut from acrylic and stained with alcohol ink) is from a Movers and Shapers Mini Love Struck set.  The key is a Collage Key.  The papers and tissue tape are a mixture of old and new products and to finish it off, the Pulley Wheels.

And finally, here are my cards made with Tim's Sizzix Clock, Phone, Camera, Typewriter, and Fan dies. I also used his new Label Letters, French Industrial Paper, Tag Labels, Buckle, Wishbone, Remanent word rub-ons, and Elements Tissue Tape.

Yes, now that I look at everything, I was a busy gal!  As I said before, it was such an honor to be asked to do this, and I can't thank Tim and Paula enough for the opportunity!
I'll leave you today with some other photos of Tim's booth so you can see the amazing creations his antiques, and one of my favorite memories of CHA, meeting Tammy Tutterow!

I'm sure I will be sharing more photos of CHA, but until next time,


Jan

7

Happy New Year!

I'm ready for a brand new year, time to put 2010 behind me and move on.  I've noticed in the scrapbook world, everyone is busy choosing their word for the year; at least those who follow Ali Edwards .  I was thinking about choosing a word to follow throughout this year, but I couldn't seem to settle on one.  A friend of mine sent me three ceramic words for Christmas, "Live, Laugh and Love" and these words just seem to fit in my life right now.  So, I think these will be my words for the year 2011.

I was spoiled by my husband this Christmas, he bought me a ScrapBox EZ View Desk!  It took two days of cleaning my room and shuffling things around to fit the desk in, but I love it!  I will take some photos and post them soon!  I still want to go through all my stuff, sort out everything and reorganize.

Here is my layout for Urban Scrapbook's January kit.  This year, every month the kit will be about using a different technique.  January's kit is about using glimmer mist so be sure to check out what the rest of the design team have done with the included mist!

I had "Frost" glimmer mist in my kit, which I masked the chipboard snowflakes in the kit, my Tim Holtz ribbon, the Pink Paislee elements, the journalling card, felt Queen & Co. snowflakes, and I painted a small amount on my American Crafts letters.  I also colored some of my ribbon with distress ink (red and green) by stamping the ink directly on my craft mat, spritzing with water and dragging the ribbon through it.  Love how vibrant the ribbon turns out!  I took this photo on Boxing Day, when we went for a walk (out at Lake Isle) and three deer ran across the road in front of us.  The same thing happened to me last year!

After I cleaned up my scrapbook room, I was inspired to create something yesterday.  I've been wanting to do something with my Tim Holtz "Configuration Box" for awhile, so I decided to work on it.  I covered all the edges with his tissue tape (love that stuff!) and decided to use Basic Grey's Curio paper and some of the embellishments.  Funny thing, the tape wasn't sticking as well as I wanted, and I was kind of stuck on how I wanted the boxes, so I decided to see if there were any ideas on the internet.  I couldn't find anything on Tim Holtz's blog using the boxes, and I saw only a couple of them made up on other sites; so I went back to work.  After dinner, I decided to check on some websites before I went back to my scrapbook room and there, on Tim's blog were two videos about using his boxes!  He must have read my mind! Lol!  He had some great tips, one of which was using Claudine Hellmeth's "Matte Multi-Medium to secure the tape better and use as a glue.  I never thought of using this, and I had a jar of this too!  Anyways, I went and fixed all the tape and used it to glue the paper, which worked really well!

I would highly recommend using this product, I even used it to glue on the metal legs, as Tim suggested and it held really well!  Here's my finished project:

I did something a little different with the side and back, not sure if I like it.  What do you think?

I had a bird theme going on here, this little black wire bird started it!

I took some of the boxes out, so my bird would fit and it wouldn't look as cluttered.  I had so much fun doing this, I think I might pick up a few more!

That's all for now, have a great week! 

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