Paris

Today I chose to travel back to Paris whilst Art Journaling for the new challenge that is being hosted by the lovely Alison over at A Vintage Journey which is:

We’re all getting older.

It has nothing to do with your age, it’s all about making things look older; here’s what the challenge is about:

“Time for weathering and distressing, or some ageing and antiquing. Make a project using techniques for making the new look old, whether that’s paper projects, altered art or mixed media. Just remember to ensure that you create in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk”.

I created a worn and distressed Art Journal page of Paris making the collaged papers look old.

To start, I ripped pieces of book pages about France which came from an old encyclopaedia and also pieces from a sample of Paris themed wallpaper. Then I collaged them onto the page using matte gel medium.

Once dry, I distressed the collage papers by staining them using Ground Espresso and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks. I did this by stamping the ink pads onto an acrylic block, spritzing with some water and pressing/dripping the ink onto the page and also by painting diluted ink along the edges of each of the collaged papers. To add to the worn grungy look, I also lightly sprinkled the page with some Dark Brown Brusho powder, spritzed it with water to activate the colour and dried it with my heat gun. Next I added some white gesso using a baby wipe and when dry, I edged the collaged pieces using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker smudging the ink with my finger.

I stamped a series of Paris related stamps using black Archival ink; the stamps included some little round “T” postage mark stamps from Prima Marketing and also a birdcage, bee, “Paris”, filigree branch and two crowns by Graphic 45 from Hampton Art. I then splattered the whole page with black DecoArt acrylic paint using a paintbrush.

I die cut some flower shapes and a round disc from dark brown and blue patterned papers using some Spellbinders dies and my Big Shot machine. Then I used two rectangular pieces of the same patterned papers which I distressed using scissors, the Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and the Dark Sepia Big Brush marker. I cut out an oval picture of the Eiffel Tower from the wallpaper sample and backed it with white card. Then I layered them all onto the page using double-sided tape and added some pearl gem stickers along the edge of the patterned paper.

To finish, I added a butterfly sticker from Tim Holtz and some pretty pale blue silk roses which are stuck in place using Glossy Accents.

If you want to join in the fun why not create a weathered, distressed or age effect too and share it with us at A Vintage Journey, it would be lovely to see you there!

For more Inspiration, please pop over to see the amazing creations from my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey too.

It seems like many years have passed since we visited Paris, so I guess I must be getting older but hopefully not as worn and distressed as my page (grin!).

This is one of the yummy patisseries that we went to – can you guess which cake I chose from the lovely display here?

My favourite is always the strawberry tarts, they are so delicious and I only had one, I promise … well I only had one everyday for the week we were there (double grin!).

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

I’m pleased to join Art Journal Journey where I’m hosting the Something New challenge this month as I took “new” papers and distressed them to make them look old. Also smooshing the Distress Inks directly onto the neutral collaged papers to make them look old was “new” to me and I’m so glad it worked; it was so much fun making them worn and grungy (grin!).

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Paris wallpaper sample
• Book pages from old encyclopaedia
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Brushed Corduroy, Ground Espresso)
• Colourcraft Brusho (Dark Brown)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Hampton Art 7 Gypsies (Birdsong ICO151)
• Prima Marketing Clear Stamps (Rossi Belle 587499)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Spellbinders Die Cut – Unknown
• The Works Paperstack (Vintage Experience CRO239/TW6)
• X-Press It! double-sided tape
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Salvage Stickers (Crowded Attic #TH92898)
• The Works (Craft Flowers)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Poundworld (Pearl Embellishments)