Spring Flowers at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone and welcome on this Friday morning. This is the first post of the day for me and it's for the next challenge at A Vintage Journey. Jennie (Live The Dream) is our host and as many of you will know she has a passion for paper flowers. With that in mind here's her challenge theme;

"As (hopefully) spring will be in the air by this time, let’s see your makes adorned with spring flowers - you might want to use stamps, handmade flowers from dies, ideology blooms or bought blooms as long as they have been stamped, made or altered using a Tim technique or product. They don’t have to be actual spring flowers, but just the colours of spring."

Apart from an all consuming love for anything Tim I'm also completely hooked on Artist Trading Blocks (ATB's) and they make the perfect vehicle on which to display handmade flowers.

Inspired by Tim's Junk Bonanza trip I went down the route of wild Spring flowers 're-greening' a discarded collection of bottle tops and rusted trellis.

This 2" square ATB was cut from mountboard and covered in paper from the latest Menagerie collection. This particular design proved to be the perfect size for covering both the insides and outsides completely for that distinctly vintage shabby feel.
The edges were smeared with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint.

Next for the rusted trellis. I love getting this texture created quickly and my 'go to' method these days is to cover plain card with a couple of layers of metallic embossing powder (in this case Ranger's gold) followed by a couple of layers of Distress Embossing Powder (I used Walnut Stain but Vintage Photo works equally well). You can't over heat Distress powder and a little more heat than usual allows the two powders to combine beautifully.

As the amount of trellis used on this smaller box was restricted I chose only to add a few inserted pieces. In this case they were cut from an alcohol ink altered metallic sheet to add a contrast in texture and a touch of shine.

Now to the foliage. Tim's Kraft Coredinations cardstock has become such a favourite of mine as it cuts so well through the Sizzix Alterations Spring Greenery Strip die and looks fantastic when sanded and inked. I chose to use three designs and colours to add to the untamed natural feel.

The flowers were cut from another Strip die, Tattered Flowers. The whiter ones were actually coloured with Old Paper Distress Stain, edged with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and centred with a combination of Wild Honey Distress Paint and Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

The mini purple flowers were cut from the reverse side of the bottle top backing paper, inked on the edges to give them a little more depth of colour, and completed with Idea-ology mini fasteners in the centres.

And now for those Catkins... I cut four of the same twig shapes from that Spring Greenery Strip die I mentioned earlier, sandwiching them together to make a much thicker stem. After applying a coat of Gathered Twigs Distress Paint, I dipped the ends into my Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi white embossing paste and then into some Antique Linen Distress Embossing Powder.
By heating this mixture the powder was 'set' and the paste puffed up to form the perfect textured Catkins.

The box lid was a great place to add not just flowers and foliage, but some more 'discarded items'. As well as a nut and cog I created a flattened bottle top from a painted chipboard die cut and a painted piece of embossed metal foil.

I know this isn't your traditional Spring project but I love the way the bright bottle tops work with those shabby flowers and of course now I have another super little box to use as the most glamorous packaging for a gift (if I can bear to part with it that is!!)
I am going to enter this into Eileen Hull Designs current Art With Heart Challenge - April Showers. Make sure you hop over and take a look as there is a Sizzix Prize Pack up for grabs!

Please do make sure to hop over to A Vintage Journey to see the most beautiful DT projects inspired by Jennie's theme. There's a gift voucher up for grabs from Country View Crafts for one lucky winner so that's a great reason to enter too.

I've got another post coming up later so I hope you can join me then, but for now take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Links to Country View Crafts;

Sizzix Scoreboards XL Die - Blocks/Cubes

Sizzix Dies

Tim Holtz Distress Products