All Aboard at A Vintage Journey

Welcome friends and visitors! I have some thrilling news to share with you! Today I am super excited to be posting my first project as a Creative Guide at  A Vintage Journey! And what could be better than sharing a special day with a special friend- Autumn of SewPaperPaint is along for the ride, too! Brenda is  hosting the blog's  3rd birthday celebration and has chosen the theme 'All Aboard'.

Come join in our ALL ABOARD challenge where you choose what you want to step on board with and although we still need to see you working with the styles and genres listed in the banner at the top of the page you can choose whether you share a card, some altered art, a journal page, a painting, in fact whatever you fancy, but with no theme to follow. Let's have some fun, share our current creations and enjoy the informal feel of our birthday celebrations!

I've created a grungy vintage card  that expresses my delight in finding A Vintage Journey 3 years ago, even before I began blogging. It is truly 'love found'!

Here are the ingredients used and the steps I took to make this textured background.

Ingredients:  Distress inks: Chipped Sapphire, Ground Espresso and Black Soot Archival, Ranger Transparent Matte texture paste, Tim Holtz Clockworks stencil,  Remnant Rubs-Words, Stampendous stamp,  manila folder, black card, card blank, water spritzer, and sanding block.

1. Cut manila file folder to size.

2. Blend Chipped Sapphire ink through stencil, varying the value.

3. Spritz inked stencil and flip over onto a separate surface. Place clean paper towel over stencil and press to transfer watery ink. Save this for another project. (You can skip this step and just clean your stencil.)

4. Clean stencil, flip to reverse side from step 2 and blend Ground Espresso ink through it onto a separate surface. Save this for another project.

5.Spritz inked stencil with water and carefully realign on first inked card, repeating the monoprint technique listed above. I left the stencil in place for about a minute then removed it. I spritzed the card lightly with water and dried with my heat tool. I repeated the monoprint technique two times to get some nice variation of color.

6. Clean the stencil and realign it over the double inked card so the clocks are covered by the stencil. Spread transparent texture paste through the stencil, remove, and clean stencil and knife. Allow paste to dry.

7. Once dry, blend heavily with Ground Espresso again, working into recesses. Wipe ink from pasted areas with damp paper towel. Spritz lightly with water and heat dry.

8. Stamp portion of stamp using archival ink.

9. Apply Remnant Rub and sand over it with sanding block.

10. Distress edges of card and ink with Ground Espresso.

11. Matte with black card and inked card blank.

I added some love (Tim Holtz  Handwritten Love Thinlit)  and tucked in some vintage book page.

More book page topped with a Mixed Media Thinlit rusted up with DecoArt Sand Texture paste and paints.

I distressed this couple from one of Tim's ephemera packs. Adding DecoArt Ultra Matte varnish and Distress Micro Glaze before giving it a wash of watercolor paint gives the photo instant age. I backed it with more Thinlits--this time a pair of Labels and a scrap of water color paper dipped in some of the same inks as on the background. An unfortuitous splatter of Black Soot paint blackened one of my love's teeth, bless his heart! 

I'm sharing my card with these fine challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday-Based on a Book I used pages torn from a book.

Mixed Media World- MMW#22-Anything Mixed Media Goes!

Artistic Stamper March's Creative Challenge-Springtime I used background stamping. Spring is the season of Love!

Country View Challenges-March 2017- Inspired by Tim Holtz Even my love looks a little like Tim Holtz!

Scrapy Land Challenge #61-Anything Goes I used Sizzix dies: Thinlits Labels, Handwritten Love and Mixed Media.

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #272-273-Anything Goes

I'm just so tickled pink to be a Creative Guide and 'all aboard' at A Vintage Journey, and I'm still pinching myself! It's going to be odd not to be playing along in the gallery, as I've rarely missed a challenge, but I'm going to love being on this vintage journey with the other talented Creative Guides!

I hope you will join us in our 'All Aboard' challenge this month! Please hop over to the challenge post              to see all the great inspiration by the Creative Guides--you will be so happy you did! Happy Birthday to A Vintage Journey and all the Creative Guides!

Our sponsor this month is Country View Crafts who are offering a £20 voucher for a randomly chosen winner.

Thank you for stopping in today and for leaving your lovely comments! I really get a kick out of reading them and, I do try to return the visit, eventually!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily