Creative Card Making with Amanda

Hi Everyone and Welcome

Amanda here with you today continuing our regular monthly 'Creative Cardmaking' post that we began last March when we restructured our timetable.

The general idea is that we as Creative Guides will share our ideas for putting together a card in keeping with our preferred genres - vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

So today I am sharing a monochrome card that has an industrial feel. It's real quick and easy to make so perfect for those occasions when you require a card quickly.

I guess given its style it would be considered an ideal card for a male recipient but I have to say I would be more than happy to receive a card like this and I'm most definitely not male!!

I actually made this card last year not long after Tim Holtz released his 3D Texture Fades embossing folders (wow that seems like so long ago now) and in my keenness to 'test drive' a couple of the folders this card came about but unfortunately I failed to capture process shots- sorry!

The two 3D Texture Fades EP's I used are 'Foundry' (left) and 'Mechanics' (right)

For those of you who aren't familiar with the 3D embossing folders (though I'm sure most of you are by now) its worth watching Tim demoing how to use them here to ensure you will get the best results.

I embossed three pieces of black cardstock, as per Tim's instructions one with the 'Mechanics' folder, two with the 'Foundry' folder. To highlight and enhance the depth and dimension of the embossing I applied silver gilding wax over the embossed patterns using my fingers.

Heres how the 'Mechanics' panel looked at this stage

After adhering this panel to a double mount of metallic and black cardstock I began bringing my card design together.

Using a white handmade card as the base I adhered a piece of Tim Holtz tissue wrap (Melange) to the right hand side of the card base

and to the left hand side I adhered one of the 'Foundry' embossed panels.

The mounted 'Mechanics' panel was then adhered on top as the focal feature. 

Sections of the second 'Foundry' embossed panel were cut from the whole to provide the three 'bars' you can see in the finished design. There's a narrow thin one you can see above, a short rectangular one you can see below 

and one with a bit of both!

All are embellished with a few of my much loved hex nuts. 

The deeply embossed gear/cog on the top right of the 'Mechanics' panel is also embellished with a metal gear to finish off. 

I'll leave you with a more 'arty' shot of the finished card.

I hope you have enjoyed your time here with me today and that maybe I have offered some 'Creative Card Making' inspiration. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and be sure to pop by next Friday when we begin our new challenge. 

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and if like me you reside in the colder climates be sure to stay warm and toasty! 

Take Care 

Amanda 

x

(ink-a-pink)

Put Your Stamp On It Tutorial

Hello everyone, Deb here to share a tutorial with you on how I made my Think And Wonder postcard for our current 'Put Your Stamp On It' challenge.

Here's the challenge brief:

For this challenge we would like to see some stamps on your creations, a minimum of one stamp but the more the merrier! Stamp your backgrounds, fussy cut or die cut some stamped images, add some stamped sentiments; whatever you'd like as long as it is in one of our preferred vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial or steam punk styles.

I decided to use some of the sadly neglected stamps in my stash and settled on a couple of sets from Artistic Outpost - Think And Wonder and Ephemera Background.  I cut a piece of Distress Mixed Media Heavystock to 5" x 7" and inked it with Bundled Sage Distress Stain and Antique Linen and Old Paper Distress Inks.  The first layer of stamping was done with Distress Archival inks in Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso and the image of the young girl was then stamped with Ground Espresso Archival and clear embossed.  The young girls image was masked off and the Ledger Script stamping added over top.

The young girl was lightly tinted with Inktense pencils and a water brush.

Bits of torn Floral Collage Paper were added here and there to the postcard with Matte Distress Collage Medium.

Transparent Gloss Texture Paste was applied through the Mini Floral Layering Stencil.

Once the texture paste had dried, Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso Distress Inks were applied around the stenciled areas, taking care not to get any ink on the young girls face and wiping the ink off of the Transparent Gloss texture paste to reveal the pattern.

Florals were die cut from Distress Ink coloured cardstock with the Small Tattered Florals die in colours to coordinate with the Floral Collage Paper (Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Dried Marigold and Abandoned Coral).  The branch was die cut from kraft cardstock and inked with Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain DI.

Two sentiments from the Think And Wonder stamp set were stamped with Ground Espresso Archival Ink, clear embossed, cut to size and then coloured with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint DI, aging the edges with Walnut Stain.

The florals were added to the top of the postcard and some Prima Art Ingredients Metallic Micro Beads were added to the centers and under the flowers.  The sentiments were bumped up on black foam squares and adhered to the postcard.

And that was it!  Here are a few closeups of the completed postcard.

Hope that you have enjoyed seeing how my Think And Wonder postcard came together.

And I also hope that you will join us for our 'Put Your Stamp On It' challenge, you have until January 31st to enter and we can't wait to see what you make!  Happy creating,

Deb xo

Star Light Star Bright - Pinworthy Choices

Julia here today to announce the Creative Guide Pinworthy Choices for my December Star Light Star Bright Challenge!.

Mr. Linky was bright with all of your beautiful star projects and we thank you for taking the time to create and join us at A Vintage Journey during the busy holiday season!

The Creative Guides take the task of choosing 3 pinworthies quite seriously - checking to see that the AVJ guidelines are followed and that the challenge theme is used.  It is very difficult to narrow our choices down to just three!

So here, in no particular order, are the December Star Light Star Bright Pinworthies:

 Lisa Hoel

Suzz

 Jul

 

Congratulations to our winners - we will be in touch shortly with your badges and your creations will be pinned to our Pinterest boards.

  Thanks once again to all of you who joined in the Star Light Star Bright challenge. 

We hope you will join us this month for Deb's January challenge Put Your Stamp On It. 

All the January challenge details and an inspiring gallery of projects created by the Creative Guides can be found here.

Wishing you a happy and creative 2019!

 and all the Creative Guides

Put Your Stamp On It Challenge

Hello fellow travelers and welcome, it's Deb here with you today to announce our January challenge at A Vintage Journey:

Put Your Stamp On It!

For this challenge we would like to see some stamps on your creations, a minimum of one stamp but the more the merrier! Stamp your backgrounds, fussy cut or die cut some stamped images, add some stamped sentiments; whatever you'd like as long as it is in one of our preferred vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial or steam punk styles.

We can't wait to see what you create with your stamps, our Linky tool at the bottom of the post will be open until January 31st, so get stamping and join in the fun. In the mean time, check out the projects below that the Creative Guides have made to inspire you, enjoy!

Deb



I decided it was high time that I used some of the sadly neglected stamps in my stash for our Put Your Stamp On It challenge and settled on a couple of lovely stamp sets from Artistic Outpost. Pop on over to my blog for some close ups and come back here to A Vintage Journey on January 18th when I'll have a step by step tutorial to share with you!


Jennie



What a fabulous challenge - to get out our stamps and play! I decided to make a set of ATCs from a painted and stamped Masterboard, along with some smaller stamped labels and butterflies. Do join me over on my blog for more details.


S@ndy



What a great opportunity to get out the stamps you love and use them once again. With Valentine's Day coming up - what could be better than the Queen Of Hearts? I also got out the background stamps that have been in the drawer for awhile. To see more details on my card please
visit me at my blog here.


Alison



What a lovely challenge to start the New Year... everyone's got time to do some stamping, right? I decided to let one main stamp do the talking with this tag (with some additional words from one of my own quote sets), so do come over to Words and Pictures to enjoy some winter sun with me.


Astrid



2019 is going to be the year where my main creative outlet will be journaling. So for this month's fabulous challenge I will share some of the pages in my various journals and how I combine stamps with other products. If you want to see more do come and visit my blog.

Brenda

 Well I have a similar idea to Astrid and have decided to start a new journal this year focusing on natural elements. I love my garden and collecting bits and pieces when out on walks and at the coast, it really interests me so I thought combining it with my art has to be something that will give me inspiration and direction. This is the cover so I'm all ready to go. If you would like to see how I layered up and created it you will be very welcome over to Bumblebees and Butterflies.


As always, the Creative Guides have outdone themselves, hope that you are as inspired as I am and that you'll join our 'Put Your Stamp On It' challenge. Have fun and happy creating!

Deb and the Creative Guides