Thursday, December 28, 2017

Tag Friday for A Vintage Journey


 

Hello dear friends! It's that special time at A Vintage Journey when we have 5 Fridays in the month, which means we celebrate by having Tag Friday! Of course, that's Thursday here on this side of the pond. Please be sure to take a minute to pop into the blog to see all the stunning makes by my teammates.



I started with a tag I pulled from my scrap bin. The background is a simple monoprint made while cleaning my stencil from this project. I dipped it in brown oxides and inks left over from inking my deer die cut. The  token is from this year's Ideaology Christmas tokens, and I colored 'wonder' with Distress crayon. The words are Tim's Christmas Clippings, which i cut apart to make my own phrase and mounted them on chipboard. I edged with Frayed Burlap and Ground Espresso for a shadow.



I colored some card by dipping it in a puddle of green Distress Oxides and inks wiped on my craft mat and sprayed with Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold spray. I cut my Mini Holiday Greens from this card and added icy sparkle with my FAVORITE crafty Christmas gift-Nuvo Glitter Drops. Thank you, Autumn! You made my 12 days of Christmas SO special! I couldn't wait to use this oh-so-fun product! The berries are treated to Opal Liquid Pearls. Of course, I couldn't catch the incredible sparkle from the drops!


I layered my tag on Tim's Christmas paper stash using a couple scraps I had left over from this card. Because it was a patch job (Is it obvious?), I covered the joint on the back side with design tape. I stamped a portion of a yet unused stamp from Inkadinkado on Tim's stamping paper (also new to me) in Olive Archival and fussy cut. There's still a little room left at the bottom for a personal note.

This is my last post for 2017. Thank you so much for your support and encouragement throughout this year! I can't wait to see what YOU will create in 2018! Again, I want to thank everyone who sent me special Christmas greetings; I will be e-mailing you with a personal message of gratitude.

 May you be blessed in the New Year!
Sara Emily

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Dear Santa Final Week for 12 Weeks of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style


 Dear friends! I want to thank each one of you who sent me such lovely Christmas greetings! I will be e-mailing you personally, but for now I just want to say how deeply touched I am by your thoughtfulness and generosity.

 I am crossing the finish line at Linda's 12 week challenge 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style with my week 12 offering. Linda has done an amazing job of inspiring so many with her tag challenge for years, and each year her shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique generously sponsors the challenge with three random prizes: generous vouchers to the shop. But that's not all! EVERYONE who participates, completes all 12 weeks, and follows the simple guidelines receives a 10% coupon good on their entire order from The Funkie Junkie Boutique placed in the month of January.

You can see Linda's festive tag HERE. At first glance, what first inspired me about Linda's tag was the textural combination of the rustic burlap with the whimsical tissue fringe. When I read her post about finding elements in her craft room left from previous projects to add to her tag, I was so impressed with how perfectly all those bits worked together. Inspired by that idea, and tried to pattern my card along those lines.

The Kraft Stock scrap, the Santa image, snowflake, and berry sprig were all leftovers from previous projects. The red panel in the back right is a side panel from one of the Vignette Box covers from my Vignette boxes HERE. (I cut off the bottom panels of each cover so the boxes would sit flat and so I could easily access the lights. I did not glue my covers to the boxes in case the lights ever needed to be replaced.  I guess I'm pretty optimistic to think my daughter will treasure these little vignettes for years to come!)


If you look closely, you can see that scrap of Kraft Stock tucked under Santa. It was my first try at embossing and sanding the Kraft Stock for this project. I didn't like how it turned out, and I ended up using it as my experimental piece for different mediums and techniques, so it really should have gone in the trash. Just a little more sanding made it usable for this project, but if you were to peek under the Santa panel, you would not be pleasantly surprised.


This was a stamped Santa image left from the first time I pulled out my new Christmas Classic stamps so long ago. (I wish I had taken some in process photos, as this went through a LOT of changes.) The colors were too pink for the project I was working on at the time, but I thought it had potential, so into the scrap bin it went. I know I used Distress Oxides to color it at first, and gave it a coat of Collage Medium (I think) in random thicknesses at one point, but still didn't use it in that second project, so again, back in the bin. I guess I must have tried drying it with a heat gun, because it has crazing in some areas. (I know I didn't use Crazing, because that's mostly all dried up in the jar.)

For this card, I was trying to color match the reds (which were quite pink) to the reds of the Vignette cover panel and fringe. I added Fired Brick Distress ink with a water pen, and as you can see it didn't stay where I put it, because of the sealed surface. I was OK with the "paint outside the lines" look, but the color still wasn't right. Next I used a brush to add some Watermelon alcohol ink, let that dry and dry brushed with chalk paint to add back some white and soften the lines. Finally I splattered with watered down chalk paint which absorbed some of the color beneath. Oh, well.


I had to include this blurry shot to show you the gorgeous shimmer on my snowflake die cut; wish I could remember what I used on it. I think I may have sprayed Perfect Pearls into my Distress Oxides on my craft mat to make a puddle and then dipped my die cut into that.


Well, that's a wrap for this year's 12 Tags of Christmas entries. I had a blast taking inspiration from Linda, and I cannot thank her enough for her hard work and dedication to making this challenge such a success year after year, even when she is at her busiest! Thank you so much, Linda!

I would like to share in these challenges:
Scrapy Land Challenge #80 Anything Goes I used two Sizzix dies and a 

Wishing you all a safe and Happy New Year! I will leave you with this quote...

“Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” -Goran Persson

Hugs and Blessings!
Sara Emily

I used the following products which can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Destination Inspiration for A Vintage Journey

A joyful Christmas Eve or Christmas day to my friends and visitors, depending on where you are in the world! My wish is that you are having a day of peaceful celebration with family and friends. I have a Destination Inspiration tutorial up on A Vintage Journey today. If you have a few minutes, I hope you'll stop by!


I'm also sharing with:
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Scrapy Land Challenge #80 Anything Goes I used Sizzix and Impression Obsession die sets.

Merry Christmas!
Sara Emily

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - 12 Tags of Christmas Week 11

Hello friends and visitors! Welcome back! I have been away visiting my Mom in Florida, and had a wonderful visit. Now it's time to finish up those last minute Christmas preparations!



 Here is my card version of Linda's week 11 12 Tags of Christmas Funkie Junkie Style; you can see her sweet retro tag HERE. Linda's 12 week challenge, which is just about winding up (she's posted her last tag already) is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Three lucky winners will receive gift certificates for a shopping spree to the shop, and everyone who completes the challenge and follows the simple guidelines will receive a discount coupon to use on their January Funkie Junkie orders!


I was really inspired by Linda's plaid band topped with red burlap. To make my plaid background, I blended a panel with Candied Apple Distress Oxide and  splashed with water. I embossed it with Tim's Plaid Texture Fade. I swiped the raised areas with dark metallic wax  (from my stash) on my finger to highlight the ridges.

I adore the faded Merry Christmas stenciling on Linda's tag, and I happened to have a panel already blended with Candy Apple Distress ink (I think) on my work top. I blended it with Bundled Sage ink and edged with Versamark ink and black embossing powder and heat embossed.

In place of Linda's Carved Christmas stamped sentiment I heat embossed the Mini Doodle greetings stamp to make my sentiment, fussy cut it and a black card mat.


I made this card for my friend whose son is a ski instructor while he's in college, so I chose this Christmas paper doll. I added Grit Paste and Rock Candy Distress Glitter for snow. I used some scraps colored with Distress inks and Oxides to cut my Holiday Greens.


Only one more to go to complete Linda's challenge! So sad! It has been so much fun, and a big thank you to Linda for her amazing inspiration!

I'll be back on Christmas Day, but if you won't be checking the blogs before then, I want to wish you all the Merriest Christmas! May your heart be filled with joy and may you feel God's Blessings!

I'm sharing with: 
Scrapy Land Challenge #80 Anything Goes I used a Sizzix die cut set.
SumMore Fun Mood Board #17 Inspired by the red and green colors, the snow and greenery.


Thank you for your many visits and kind words throughout the year!
Hugs and Blessings!
Sara Emily 

The following products were used and are available for purchase at The Funkie Junkie Boutique: