Words That Are Special at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone and welcome! Today sees the launch of the latest challenge at A Vintage Journey called 'Words That Are Special'. Our host for this challenge is the amazing Jennie Atkinson. Here's what she has in mind for this theme; "We often use words for cardmaking, scrapbooking, journaling, layering backgrounds, stamping, collage, in mixed media work, on our tags …. In fact words are often an integral part of our design processes for many of our projects. This month show us words that are important or special to you and how you incorporate them in your vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial or steampunk art."

This month we are sponsored by Country View Crafts who have generously offered a £20 voucher to their online store for a randomly drawn winner. And three hand picked Pinworthies will be offered the chance of a guest appearance for a later challenge, so there's plenty of reasons to join in.

Having returned from the trade show in the US with a brand new Distress Oxide pad in my mits the temptation to play proved overwhelming! First opportunity available and I was back in the craft room having fun, exploring the first of many possibilities. With the basis of a card made I really needed some special words to bring it all together and make the eventual recipient ponder perhaps. Not only did they add meaning to and otherwise random collection of images, the bold lines also added to balance the finished composition, providing a focal point; it's something I've found in the past - the right words in the right place can really finish off a project perfectly.

Here's the 'how to'; I started by applying several colours of Distress Ink (Salty Ocean, Broken China, Brushed Corduroy and Frayed Burlap) to the centre of my craft mat and added some Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide to one side - you will contaminate your oxide pad if you smooch it over the Distress Inks but it can be removed easily by wiping away. Spritz the inks with water to form droplets on your mat.

Swipe your card through the various inks - you'll get the familiar deep translucent look to the Distress Inks and a more chalky, softer look from the Distress Oxides. I added mine to a slice of Tim's new Distress Mixed Media Heavystock as it has less colour than manilla to affect the look of the inks and is designed to take all sorts of abuse without warping. I dried the first layer before going in for a few more dips.

I continued applying more ink droplets from the residue on the craft mat and in between added droplets of water from my mister bottle. Normally this reacts with the Distress Inks by removing the colour back to the base, but with the addition of Distress Oxides these wet areas only go back a little way to reveal the underlying colours.

With all the ink added I blended a couple of the same inks over any 'colour light' areas and onto the edges of the card.

Now for a really exciting reaction - I stamped the Nordic background over the inky card using the Distress Oxide. At this stage it looked very soft and the image wasn't as distinct in some areas as I wanted.

Bearing in mind Distress Oxide is a brand new combination of Pigment and Die ink I misted a fine layer of water over the whole tag to 'activate' the pigment part of the ink and allow the die part to wick a little.

This was when the magic really happened, revealing a much clearer image the like of which I've only been able to achieve using Distress Paint as a resist to inks in the past. But then when Distrsss Paint is dry it remains fixed whereas Distress Oxide remains water-reactive. I was happy at this stage but could have continued adding more water for a less defined look to the image. It's such a game-changer!

With the main portion complete and the process repeated on a Heavystock Tag, I stamped a couple of the flowers and stems from the Mini Bouquet set in the centre of the card, die cutting them with the coordinating Mini Bouquet die set.
Some of the new Journey Design Tape was added to the bottom of the tag.

Here's one of the new Paper Dolls, already cut out and ready to colour with Distress Markers. I trimmed this one a bit more as I'm a little OCD with my fussy cutting but  as most of the work was already done that didn't take long!

Finally I stamped some of the Wildflowers on the tag as a background element, Some stitching was added to the edges of the card and tag before layering together on a card, and of course the final all important words were added - some Quotations Metallic Stickers had just the right ones!

Let's take a look at some close ups of the finished card so you can see the details a little better; you'll spot the machine stitching (deliberately wonky!) extra Journey Design Tape and gold detailing using a paint marker pen.

So that's where this month's fabulous theme took me. Now please do hop on over to A Vintage Journey to see what my fellow Creative Guides have come up with - it's well worth the visit! Then it's over to you - the challenge will remain open for a month so there's plenty of time to get those creative juices flowing and link up your entries to be in with a chance to win.

Off now for some Friday fun. Whatever you're up to take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx