Vintage Journey - Guest Creative Guide

Hey everyone, check out Vintage Journey where I am Guest Creative Guide this month.  Vintage Journey has such a great collection of art by a pretty amazing lineup of creative talent, I am honored to join them!  The theme for July is "Destinations".  Vintage Journey features vintage/shabby chic/Tim Holtz inspired art.  Are you excited yet??

My project is a traveler's bag to collect and keep ephemera from my journey.  "Destinations" is a word pregnant with meaning and sparked many thoughts.  My approach was "Destination: Home" and an exploration of what that meant.  Hop on over to the Vintage Journey blog to see my traveler's bag along with the techniques and processes I used to create it.  Enjoy!!

Altered Surfaces - CC3C #33

Hey, CC3Cers!  How's your summer?  Hope you're getting lots of time to create and experiment with your inks, powders, and paints and to study your copy Compendium of Curiosities, Volume III!!  Just two more challenges counting this one and we will have completed our course of curiosity.  Our last two challenges are techniques (YAY!!)  

This week's challenge is sponsored by Inspiration Emporium with a fantastic $50 gift certificate.  Nice shopping spree there!  The Curiosity Crew choice gets a nice little bundle of swag donated by Tim Holtz and Mario Rossi.  Wouldn't that make your day??

All the rules & regs are found here on Linda Ledbetter's blog.  Be sure and leave a little buzz on the Curiosity Crew blogs to keep your eligibility alive.  This crew is so varied and talented, you're sure to find some inspiration to get you going!

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Now on to this week's project....

I decided to make a tag this time.  I began with a #8 manila tag.  I did the technique, found on page 45 of Tim's book, on a few different pieces.  You are going to have a high rate of success achieving this one. Its really easy and Tim's instructions are great.  Pay attention, though, when he says to let your embellishment piece cool a bit during the process!  I do recommend multiple colors, it really adds grungy goodness.

This piece got a little hot.  Its supposed to be a grungy piece, so its not ruined.  I'll use it somewhere else.  I LUV ampersands.

The technique requires a nonporous surface, so I thought I'd experiment with sealing a piece with metallic paint and making it nonporous.  Its a different look, but I really did like it.  I included it on this piece so you'd see the technique on a couple of different kinds of surfaces.  This is from Wendy Vecchi's Mat Minis Flower Pots.

I cut a lot of tiny snips slanted right and then left along the cone of the coneflower.  It created an irregular edge that made the flower look a bit more natural.  I inked the edges with Vintage Photo and then Hickory Smoke.  I'm tellin' ya, Hickory Smoke is going to be a new favorite for inking and distressing edges.  The background is made with embossing paste tinted with Aged Mahogany and one drop of Vintage Photo reinker.  I sprayed the tag with Hickory Smoke Distress Stain Spray.  The flowers are colored with Vintage Photo, Fossilized Amber, and Twisted Citron Distress Markers.

I selected a Small Talk sticker phrase.  I snipped it and applied to a scrap of black card stock and then traced the edges with a Twisted Citron Marker to tie in color.  I trimmed around the word blocks and popped them out.

I've got a feeling you guys are going to rock this one.  Can't wait to see what surfaces you dig out of your stash!!

Frosted Film CC3C #32

Hello summa!!  I can take a hot week over a cold day anytime and I LOVE summer.  I was born for shorts and flip flops.

We had a certain teacher come to the shop and teach a few years ago who was wearing some really cute shoes she had decorated.  I can't tell you her name (it starts with Wendy and ends with Vecchi), but she's sort of a sandal enthusiast.  Okay, she's a full blown sandal freak but this was a great idea.  Based on her inspiration, I started doing make and takes in the summer at the store for tourists to trick out their flip flops and, of course, tricked out my own.

This summer mine were kind of sad.  I had done them forever ago and they needed an update. I thought this challenge was a good time to do that AND do a tutorial on how to interchange your FFF (flip flop flair).

Our challenge this week uses Tim's self adhesive Frosted Film.  You can pick some up at your local craft shop or order it from our sponsors, Funkie Junkie Boutique or Inspiration Emporium.  It comes in a roll like waxed paper and you get a ton of it, 12 x 72 inches.  You can apply it to a variety of surfaces to give a soft, translucent frosted effect.  The technique Tim teaches is on page 59 of Compendium of Curiosities.  You'll need your own copy for our challenges and for your own general creative health and well being!

I've employed Tim's technique using Frosted Film and die cut butterflies from his new Butterfly Duo die and embossing folder set.  As you can see in the photo, I tested my coloring on the die cut scraps, which I recommend that you do.  I differed a little in the way I applied color from Tim's book in that I  put a few drops of Archival reinker on a felt applicator and inked my die cut pieces.

A little text over my butterflies with my favorite script stamp.

I shaped the butterflies with a heat tool.

I heat shaped a white butterfly layer and stapled the two together with my mighty Tiny Attacher.  LUUUV that thing.  I used my dark brown waxed linen to wrap and form a butterfly body and to partially hide the staple.

I hand stitched some strips of Tim's Eclectic Elements fabric on the edge, pulled the thread and made yoyo's for a backing for my little butterflies.  

I wanted to create some antennae but the waxed linen was too thin.  So I braided some strands, tied some knots and then cut between the knots.

I glued the antennae and the die cut greenery sprigs to the yo-yos with fabric glue.  Now time for the tie assembly.....

I like to make these so that I can tie and untie them on my flip flops.  So here's my system:

Thread a tapestry needle with waxed linen or a narrow ribbon.  Tie a knot at the end and another knot about 6-8 inches higher.

Pull the needle from back to front of the yoyo.  Your higher knot will catch and leave a 6-8 inch tail.  Stitch the butterflies to the yo-yos, with the last stitch coming out the back.  Knot the thread to secure and then cut the thread to leave another 6-8 inch tail.  You can trim and shorten these later if they're too long.

I needed to do it this way for my butterflies.  If you use flowers, you can just thread your tie through a button flower center, leaving the tails hanging from the back.

I used a button and red ribbon so it would be a little easier to see to a demo.

Here's how you tie the FFF to your flips:

This is challenge number 32.  We're gonna have to start using Roman numerals, this thing is getting so epic!!  If you aren't aware or are new to our challenges ("welcome!!!" in high falsetto), please check out the beautiful Linda Ledbetter's website for poetically worded guidelines and advice that will make you eligible to win inspiring prizes!  Funkie Junkie Boutique has donated a generous $25 gift certificate to a lucky random winner.  Tim Holtz and Mario Rossi have donated a incredibly cool cache of giveaways to the Curiosity Crew choice.  Be sure to leave a note on each Curiosity Crew blog to be eligible to win either prize!!

Three more chances to win!

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Thank you so much to all of you who expressed thoughts and good wishes for my husband.  He's on the mend and doing great.  I so appreciate your kind words and care.