Words to Remember-Guest Designer at A Vintage Journey

Welcome friends and visitors! I'm super excited to be a Pinworthy Guest Designer at  A Vintage Journey today, where this month Jennie has chosen the theme 'Words That Are Special'! I've chosen several favorite quotes from my collection of Tim Holtz stamp sets and a not so pretty decorated wooden block for my project. If you scroll down you can see how this looked before. I've also written a tutorial on how this all came together.

Here's what I started with: a decorated wooden block,  a plastic pocket watch shaped frame (I broke off the bow), wooden "feet" (the one shown below is actually a different shape than the ones I used on my project), and a knob from my junk drawer,all of which I gave 2 coats of gesso. My hubby graciously drilled a hole in the block for the screw on the knob to fit down into.

To make the crackle background on the block, I first painted it with a DecoArt chalky finish paint followed by DecoArt Americana Decor Crackle medium. When the crackle dried, I painted on another chalky paint to reveal the cracks. The chalky paint colors I used are Relic and Primitive.

I repeated the same process on the knob before gluing it in place. The rusty ring around the knob is made by embossing a  Prima gauge image from the 'Rust and Dust' set on plain tissue wrap using Ground Espresso Distress ink and brown embossing puffs. I adhered it with DecoArt Matte Medium, adding the chain from my stash, DecoArt Sand Paste, glass bead gel, and Prima mini art stones. I colored it with Prima Alchemy paints in Metallique Steampunk Copper and Light Patina, Deco Art Burnt Umber and Quinacridone Gold media paints, and Patina Green Antiquing Cream.

While the Alchemy paint was out, I put a little on my craft mat and spritzed with water. I dipped the crackled block in the paint and allowed it to dry. I repeated using both colors listed above. I heat embossed  two of my quotes in Versamark embossing ink and black powder. The 'Simplicity' quote came in a set I got with Distress crayons, and the other two are from a set I won for one of Tim's tag challenges called 'Ponderings'. The ring (previously a pocket watch frame) was given the same rusty treatment as the topper minus the art stones.

I stamped the quote shown below in Ground Espresso Distress Archival ink, and shadowed it with a Sharpie pen, and highlighted 'create' and 'wish' with my white pen. I'll show some step out photos on the flowers later in the post. Since the surface is a little bumpy, this isn't the neatest work I've done, and the ink bled through the white pen, so that led me to decide on my 4th set of important words...

What I constantly need to remind myself is to embrace imperfection. Happily I had one more word band left in my stash to age with some Distress paint, Alchemy paint and some heat embossing. I twisted up some wire and sealed their sharp ends with gel medium and embossing powder heated to finish off the ends of the band and adhered it to my 'broken watch'. This was a stamped image I had in my leftovers box. It was imperfect to start with so I thought it was 'perfect'! I gave it a good coating of UTEE and cracked it, showing off the cracks with Distress stain. The outer rim of the watch was done in the same fashion as the topper. 

Here's a closer glimpse of those little wooden feet.  I was going for a tarnished brass look. What d'ya think? I used Distress paints in Tarnished Brass (Yeah, I know, right?!), Cracked Pistachio and Black Soot to get the patina.

To make the industrial flowers and greenery, I used a scrap of manila folder to which I had added contractor's foil tape. I used Tim Holtz Tattered Florals and my old Spring Greenery strip die, shaped them and colored with Tarnished Brass and Black Soot paints. I heat embossed with Distress powder and added touches of the Prima Metallique paints. I added tiny gears (Memory Box and Tim Holtz Thinlits) for the centers painted with Prima paint and heat embossed with Emerald Creek's Hammered Metal. The greenery is colored with Peeled Paint and Black Soot Distress paints.

Here's another look at the four sets of words that are special.

I'd like to thank the talented Creative Guides for having me as their Guest today. Please drop by A Vintage Journey for some incredible inspiration from the Creative Guides and the other Pinworthy Guests. I hope you will take some time to share what words are special to you!

I'm sharing this with the following challenges:

A Vintage Journey February Challenge: Words That Are Special

Scrapy Land Challenge #60-Add Texture I used 3 Sizzix dies and one from Memory Box.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge-Use Your Favorite Tool Well, that's easy--my heat tool; can't live without it for embossing, special effects and even to speed up the drying process. Next in line would be my Big Kick, although sometimes it hates me.

Word Art Wednesday Challenges Weeks #270-272 Anything Goes

SanDee and amelie's Steampunk Challenge-New Stash/Forgotten Stash  My new stash is DecoArt products: Chalky Finish paints and crackle medium and Tim's Ponderings stamps. Old stash is practically everything else.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-Fantastic Florals

Creative Artiste Challenge #23 Anything Mixed Media Goes

We Love to Create- Challenge #3- Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Stamps and Stencils-Texture, Crackle and Paint!

Happy Little Stampers February Mixed Media Challenge-Tear/Rip Please read: I checked for "tear" synonyms and included in them were "Crack, hole, break, damage, fissure, imperfection and tatter", all of which I have on this one block.

 Thank you to my friends and visitors for stopping by and for all your fabulous comments! They mean so much to me!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily