AVJ Dies & Distress

Hi Everyone,

 

I am back again! in good time for once for the latest challenge over at A Vintage Journey which this time is being hosted by Annie who is asking us to use our  'Dies and Distress' products.  They are a Tim Holtz inspired challenge blog, however, it is all about Tim's style, so the dies you use do not have to be from Tim's Sizzix range. Check out their Travelling Instructions for more details.  The challenge is sponsored by Country View Crafts and the challenge winner will receive a £10 gift voucher to be redeemed at their online store.
  

Well I don't know about you but I don't need any prompt at all to use any of the distress products or my dies so I got to work and put together this project which is using plenty of Tim's dies, distress products and of course techniques used by Tim himself.  

 

 I started by gathering together a few die-cuts I already had left over from other projects and a sheet of 8" x 8" paper from my stash.  I cut a trellis die cut out of the centre as I already had in mind to use this just as a backing and wanted to make use of the bit that was going to be covered up. This backing paper was distressed on the edges and inked with Vintage photo.   After the photo was taken I also added a die cut arrow, more of which you will see next. 

 

I started with a die cut from corrugated cardboard using the pocket watch frame and centre dies and I used Versamark and Vintage photo distress embossing powder to give it a lovely rusty look.  The hands are a die-cut arrow from the new Artful Arrows bigz die which was given the same treatment as above. This clock background is part of the Expedition ephemera pack and was simply glued to the back of the pocket watch.  You get a glimpse of a small piece film strip ribbon which is just tucked in amongst the flowers. 

 

The pocket watch chain is a piece of old broken jewellery and it has been connected to a ring fastener. It is glued into place at the top of the watch, but the chain itself  falls freely.  The  Pink card with the script on it is just plain white cardstock cut down to size, distressed with Victorian Velvet distress ink and applicator and stamped with the Indigo Blu script stamp again in VV.  The edges were distressed and inked like the backing paper.

 

 



 

The feather is die-cut using the mini feather and inkwell movers and shapers set.  It die cuts quite solid and I wanted to soften it up so I put more cuts into the feather and inked the edges to define the detail.  I also shaped it a little, I am quite pleased with how this came out, it looks like a resin feather.

To the left of the feather you can see the on the edge doily distressed die-cut which has simply had the edges inked.

  

 

The ivy below is die-cut from the Spring Greenery Decorative strip as is one of the larger leaves amongst the flowers.  This die cut has been painted with peeled paint distress paint, and then I have given them a little detail with a pokey tool and coloured pencil before inking the edges and shaping a little.  The little butterfly is one of four taken from a stamp on the attic treasures set.  It has been stamped using black archival ink and coloured using Stormy Sky distress stain.  I have also added a small cog in the centre of the hands.
 

This Photo shows two more die cuts, the trellis as you saw earlier was cut from the centre of the backing paper, and the Vintage lace decorative strip was used for the lacy edge below the special delivery label, again taken from the Expedition ephemera pack.

 

 

 

Onto the lovely Dragonfly which was constructed using two die-cuts from Tim's lovely new Layered Dragonfly and embossing folder set. Just one was embossed and the other was left blank. They were both coloured using a a mix of distress stains on a craft mat, dried and then the wings were given a good coat of Rock Candy distress crackle. When this was dry, I made up a spray with Stormy Sky distress re-inker and spritzed lightly over the wings and part of the body so the blue went into the crackles. I dropped Shell Pink alcohol ink onto a dazzler gem, and when dry used my finger to dab a tiny bit of treasure gold onto the top to pick up the detail. the crackled dragonfly was glued directly over the other coloured one just on the body only so the wings would lift, and then the dazzler was added to the body. 

 

 

Here is a close up of the wings which looks lovely with the stains picking up the detail of the crackle.

The dazzler on the body had shell pink alcohol ink dropped onto it and then I gave it a tickle of Treasure Gold to pick up the detail

 

 

.  Most of the flowers are from the Flower Garland decorative strip which has also cut a couple of the leaves. I used different papers to get different effects. The carnation type flowers (bottom centre and top left) are dyed with distress stains and scrunched up tight, dried, opened out slightly and layered. The large daisy to the left is coloured core card inked on the edges and layered up, the large cream one in the centre is cut from a drinks can (this using the smallest flower on the steel tattered florals die) and painted with antique linen dp the pink centre is again core card. The other cream flower to the right is simply painted and inked. dp has been used on all the flower brad centres to match as they were all silver to begin with.

 

 

Another look at the finished project but framed in a deep frame as wall art

 

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There is still plenty of time to join in this fabulous challenge so why not give it a go.

Thank you as always for dropping by today and hope you like what you see.

Mo x