Our Dirty Little Secret

Good evening, and thank you for visiting my Closet to see what I've been making here. This is my project that I made for my husband.  Our 19th wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of the month, and I wanted to make him something special.  Here's a dirty little secret we have...we can never remember what year we were married!  I can almost hear those gasps!  At least we both forget, but we can always remember the month and date.  So I did some sleuthing today, and found our marriage certificate.  This inspired me to create something with the actual year we tied the knot on it, so we won't forget AGAIN!

 A Vintage Journey Challenge #14 With a Flourish wants to see what we can do with our flourishes on our projects-- we can use our flourish stamps, stencils, die cuts or whatever we have.  The winner of this challenge will receive a generous shopping voucher from Country View Crafts on-line shop. I'm up for the challenge, and I've used Tim's Alterations Scrollwork On the Edge Die (yes, I checked the definition of scrollwork and it includes flourishes!), Recollections Flourishes stamp, an old brass flourish stencil and my daughter brought it to my attention the frame has flourishes!

 I started by making this background on watercolor paper.  I inked up the flourish stamp with Vintage Photo Distress Ink by swiping it on, laid my first piece of paper on the stamp and used my brayer to get the image.  I did this again, using the second generation print for my background.  Before it dried, I spritzed it with water.  Then dried it, inked it with my ink blending tools with various Distress Inks, dried again, spritzed lightly with  Dyslusions Pesto spray ink (so happy to see Tim has his line of spray inks out now--missed that post and chance to win some:(.  Going to have to make some room in the Closet for these!), spritzed again with water, dried again, more Distress Ink and finally gold Perfect Pearls Spray Mist. It's just gorgeous, but couldn't get the true effect in the photo.

After this was dry, I added texture paste through a flourish stencil.  I love how the color of the sprays and inks comes through.  This photo was taken before the left side paste was dry, so it still looks white.

 There's a new challenge at Compendium of Curiosities 3, Challenge 11 to use the Effect Powders technique on page 52 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3.  The Curiosity Crew will select a winner who will receive an awesome assortment of Tim's goodies, courtesy of Tim and Mario. And a  lucky entrant will win a very generous $50 shopping spree to Inspiration Emporium !  You've got to go check out all the wonderful inspiration the crew has made for us and join in!

I have some old Distress Embossing Powders--Peeled Paint and Tattered Rose--they must be at least 12 years old!  But so pretty, so I just had to use them along with my newer Effect Powder--Antique Linen. I was inspired by Curiosity Crew member Marjie Kemper to mix it up a bit, by using one of the Effect Powders along with one of the old colors. I used the Effect Powders technique on Grungeboard I die cut with Tim's Scrollwork On the Edge die. I can't tell you anything else without giving away the technique. This looks a little bright, since it was photographed under my work light.  You can see from this photo, my finished piece ended up a little different!  Initially, I had stamped my sentiment in Sepia Archival Ink over some Distress Ink using a masking technique, but I wasn't happy with how if faded into the background, so I had to go with Plan B and make an oval to go over it for my sentiment, now stamped in black.

 There's a challenge over at Frilly and Funkie From the Heart that says to create a vintage project with hearts as the focal image.  I'm not sure this is the focal image--there seems to be a bit going on here. I used the same technique on my pink heart, but since it is not listed as one of the Effect Powders, I'm not thinking this is the technique.  I liked it anyway, so I stuck it on there.  My other heart is cut from a scrap I was trying things out on, that went into the scrap heap. The paper was too pretty not to use.

.

  

 I was inspired by Tim in this piece by the busyness, grunginess and the use of vintage things he uses in his work, not to mention borrowing some of his great techniques and using many of Tim's awesome products.

There's a really fun (as usual) challenge from Craft Hoarders Anonymous-- Craft Hoarders Anonymous #16 Who Loves School and Office Supplies?--to use at least one office or school supply on our projects. There is some awesome inspiration there by the design team-so get over and take a look!  Who doesn't love school and office supplies???  I know I do!  I have quite a few vintage  office and school supplies, and I wanted to put one of my very special hinge clips on this. Yes, I have a small hoard of these!  I think I can spare one; it's already rusty and crusty--just perfect for this project. That's a found -on- the- road ball chain that I added a little alcohol ink to and used it to hang some Idea-ology and a trinket that I (no kidding) pulled out of a pile that just happened to have the #19 on it!  Since it is our 19th anniversary, it made the cut.  I antiqued that a little with alcohol ink also. Those two little gold balls are map pins--another office supply?

This was taken early on in the process, before I decided to add the map pins and the "19" trinket.  I included this shot because you can really see that pretty antiquing on the chain and the great authentic rust on the clip.

 While this is not an authentic office supply, it is a paper clip from Spare Parts.  I jazzed it up a little using a manila folder (office supply) and a Creative Memories circle punch to make a disc to put over the circle at the top of the clip.  I stamped the year we were married (lest we forget) using Hampton Arts calendar stamps.  I inked it with Vintage Photo and added Crackle Glossy Accents.  It made some lovely crackling, and wish I had used this product on my Assemblage clock.

 The calendar page is from Tim's Lost and Found paper stash (a calendar is an office supply, right?), distressed with a little Pesto Dylusions spray I had left in the spray box, and Walnut Distress Ink--hmmm...should have used the distress tool on those edges...hindsite 20/20 and all. Antiqued one of Tim's pen nibs with alcohol ink and used it to direct our eye toward the circled date.  You can see the yummy texture pasted stenciling here.  Anne Redfern inspired me to make a second Scrollwork die cut out of the manila folder and offset it to make a shadow.  I distressed it first with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  It actually was kind of necessary  to give some separation and definition to the darkness of my  layering pieces. Thanks for the great idea, Anne! I think it looks a lot better using with letters as you did!

You can really see the flourishes on the frame--good eye, Lauren!

Another view of the layering and the flourish detail on the frame.

 I mentioned earlier I had to cover that poor judgement call of using sepia instead of black ink on my sentiment. (The sepia looked good on my trial piece of grunge.) I die cut and embossed the edges of  the oval using Nestabilities die, and stamped my sentiment in Archival ink. To make this,  I used a piece of scrap card stock that I had been testing first and second generation stamping of the flourish stamp--it was too pretty to throw out. It's pretty much done like the background, but I did only the stamping, then some Wild Honey and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. It looks quite different because it is a different paper base and I didn't use the Dylusions. I layered it with an oval chipboard piece and foam mounting tape. (Everything that was adhered to the grungeboard and the embossing powders had to be done with either super sticky dimensional glue dots or Crafter's Pick glue--nothing else would stick.)

A little bit too much light on this , but it helps to show the layering I did with the sentiment.

A little peek around the back of the oval die cut.

I would also like to enter this into Inspiration Emporium's Inspiration Journal Fall Is In the Air since our anniversary is in the fall, and I've chosen fall colors for my project. They say "you name it, if it's a part of your Fall then it can be a part of ours".All entries have a chance to win a very generous $50 to spend at Inspiration Emporium's on-line store.  You've got to get over there to check out all the inspiration!

I so enjoy all your comments, and appreciate you taking the time to hang in there with my long posts!  Have a wonderful week!