Guest Designer For A Vintage Journey-Stay Curious...

Hello crafty friends! OOPS I'm a little late!  Blogger didn't go off! I am so delighted to be invited to be Guest Creative Guide at A Vintage Journey again! It is such an honor to create along side the amazingly talented Creative Guides. Tracey's  "Industrial" challenge this month is perfect for me, because I love a good vintage grunge project. I decided to step out of  the strict vintage steampunk look, by including some very current stencil work on my piece.

I started by cutting a piece of foam core to size and covering it with plain kraft colored tissue paper. I inked it with Ground Expresso to deepen it a little, and added texture paste through a DecoArt stencil.  While the paste was still wet. I added one of my own custom blend embossing powders I've been playing with. I heat dried, allowing it to bubble up just a bit. The finished  product reminded me of a motherboard gone Steampunk.

For my next layer, I cut and distressed a piece of corrugated board and painted it with Folkart Metallic Gunmetal Grey.  Next, I added some embossing with brown embossing puffs, and another of my embossing powder blends. I was inspired to make this after watching an episode of American Pickers, and Mike was interviewing in front of an old rusted tin roofed barn. Inspiration comes from the strangest sources! Following that, I selected 3 tags and covered them with my 3M metallic repair tape, and punched the holes. I embossed them with Tim Holtz steamy Texture Fades and added some color using the alcohol inks shown. I sanded the tags and added more color: Copper alcohol ink Mixative and Distress paints in Antiqued Bronzeand Black Soot. The paints were applied, dried with a heat gun a little, and wiped off to leave an old industrial look. I added yet more texture by embossing with some of my specially blended powders, which gives these a real greasy look. I may be the oddest female on earth, because I love the smell of old engine oil-- I think it was my upbringing watching my brother restore old cars.

 The first tag was embossed with an Artful Muse Texture Fade and I added a Small Talk sticker edged with chalk ink.

The second tag was embossed with the same TF, but I mixed it up a bit.  I inked up a Tim Holtz Phrases 2 stamp in chalk ink for the quote and stapled it on with Tim's Tiny Attacher.

The last tag was embossed with the Steampunk Texture Fade and again, I chose some appropriate Small Talk. I attached a length of various chains from my stash to the tags to finish my piece.

I want to thank the girls at A Vintage Journey for inviting me to play along today, and I want to extend a special thank you to Nikki of Addicted to Art for her inspiration!  Perhaps you recognize the design--I am privileged to admire Nikki's artwork every day I go into my Closet, because "I Imagine, I Believe, I Create" sits front and center of my workspace. Thank you Nikki, for your lovely gift and for your amazing inspiration!

I would like to enter this into the following inspiring challenges:

SanDee and amelie's Steampunk Challenges-February-Anything Goes-Steampunk/Industrial

Country View Challenges-February-Make Your Own Background

Emerald Creek Dares-Blogger Scramble-Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps Challenge # 181 Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Shake It Up! I shook up my embossing powders and some secret ingredients to make my own embossing powders.

Altered Eclectics Anything Goes

Card and Scrap Challenge # 112 Layers

Happy Little Stampers February Mixed Media Challenge Paint

Southern Ridge Trading Company Anything Love I LOVE rust and grunge!

-Sparkles Forum Challenge # 77 Something For the Males

Thank you for stopping by today and for all your lovely comments.  I read and appreciate each one!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

UPDATE: