Something Old for Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome! It's my turn to host the latest challenge over at Frilly and Funkie and I've called it "Something Old"; I'm sure, like me, there will be lots of you who love all things vintage and enjoy nothing more than discovering old and unwanted treasure at thrift shops and junk markets. The challenge this time is to use something old either as the basis of your project or as an addition to your vintage or shabby chic creation.

The team will choose their top four picks with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie and the next three will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique, so there are plenty of reasons for joining in the fun.

You know you have your family well 'trained' in your creative ways when they become experts at spotting old 'treasures' in need of a makeover or perfect for adding to projects. A little while back my husband spotted a pile of metal objects sat rusting in the rain out in my Father in Law's back garden. They were all destined for the tip but hubby had enough foresight to salvage them. One of the items in this pile was an old metal toolkit tin which had a fabulous patina, brought to life with a few coats of clear lacquer. Now successfully rescued, the tin had a look of a well loved travel paint box about it so I decided to add the 'paints', art tools and a freshly completed dreamy Tuscany landscape inside a vignette tray.

Time to share how this came together. I added a single drop of Distress Oxide Reinker to water to create a watercolour 'paint'. The hills of Tuscany are a patchwork of vineyards and farmland so these were represented by the patchwork of ephemera on some papers from the Memoranda collection. I painted stripes of Faded Jeans, Worn Lipstick, Fossilized Amber and Iced Spruce across a piece of paper cut to fit inside one of the vignette trays, blending them together with more water. 

The same process was used on more pieces of Memoranda paper, this time blending dilute Broken China, Peeled Paint, Cracked Pistachio and Fossilized Amber over them to represent more fields.

These layers were left to air dry before being cut into shape and edged with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Ink.

To create the typical warm Tuscany villas I blended Fossilized Amber and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide Ink over more paper, cutting out the buildings and roof tops with the Cityscapes, Suburbia dies.

No other tree epitomises the Tuscan landscape like the Italian Cypress so they were an essential addition, cut using a Suburbia die from paper blended with Cracked Pistachio and Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Ink.

The 'paint palette' was created on a piece of watercolour card, later stamped with images and coloured with Old Paper Distress Stain Spray. I mixed a drop of each Distress Oxide Reinker previously used on the landscape with transparent paste and applied it to the palette.

The various 'tools' were also coloured with a mix of Distress Oxide Inks and Alcohol Inks to age them.

Finally I altered the vignette tray with Ground Espresso and Tarnished Brass Distress Paints and Rust Alcohol Ink before adding the various painted paper layers to build up the Tuscany landscape.

Now for some close ups of the finished 'artist's tin'...

I hope you enjoyed seeing the transformation of this old rusty tin. That's it from me for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge "Somthing Old". Do make sure you hop on over to see how my talented team mates from both the Frilly and Funkie sides of the Design Team have incorporated something old into their creations. And remember to link your own shabby chic or vintage projects to be in with a chance of winning.

For now, take care of yourselves and get creative! Jenny xxx