Against the Grain

Our new challenge this month over at A Vintage Journey is Against the Grain, which is being hosted by the lovely Sara Emily. Here’s what it’s all about:

“Most of us love the look of wood and there are a lot of art/craft products out there that help us achieve beautiful wood grain, including stamps, stencils, embossing folders, paper and mixed media products. We would love to see how you add a touch of wood texture or appearance to your vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk projects”.

I experimented with a fun technique using Distress Ink and gel medium to create a wooden plank background for my art journal page. This provided the perfect backdrop for my “metal” hearts, pretty flowers and quotes.

For the background I dragged three different Distress Ink stamp pads from right to left horizontally across my page, as you can see the mixed media paper I use is textured which helped create the wood grain effect. Then I applied some gel medium over the top using a paintbrush making sure my brush strokes were continuous and in one direction to create the wood grain finish; the ink colours used were Brushed Corduroy, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso. To build up the wood grain, I repeated this process four times in total ensuring that the gel medium was dry before adding the next layer …

… on applying the ink for the second layer I also divided the page into wood panels using the Ground Espresso Distress Ink and a black marker smudging the inks with my finger …

… and before I applied the fourth and final layer of ink and gel medium, I rubbed the page hard with a baby wipe which removed some of the gel medium and ink to give an aged and worn look; the mixed media paper I used was 250gsm so it can take this type of treatment.

For the heart I drew and cut a heart from some silver recycled packaging and then ran it through an Elegant Embossing Folder from Tim Holtz. I applied some black acrylic paint over the top to emphasis the embossed parts of the image and when dry I wiped the access paint off with my finger which gave it a tarnished look. The heart is also edged with a black Sharpie permanent marker.

I arranged my “metal” heart onto the page with some pretty die cut flowers which are Tim Holtz Botanical Layers and also some Sparkle Little Birdie Flowers; everything is stuck into place using glue dots. The tiny silver hearts are cut from the same silver packaging using a Falling Hearts Thinlet set by Tim Holtz. To finish, I added three Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers that read “have an open heart”, “no beauty shines brighter than that of a good heart” and “follow your heart”.

I hope you are inspired to join in the Against the Grain fun over at A Vintage Journey, and for more inspiration you’ll find some amazing creations from my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey too, it would be lovely to see you there!

My page reminds me of springtime and it seems that spring is on it’s way with all the beautiful flowers that are flowering already, here’s a springtime Camellia that flowers just around the corner from us – isn’t it gorgeous (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 the Hearts challenge over at Art Journal Journey that is being hosted by the lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth this month with the hearts and wording on my page.

I’m also pleased to join the Floral Frenzy challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the pretty flowers that I included on my page.

I’m pleased to be able to join the Layers challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my page too.

I’m joining in the With Love challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my art journal page too.

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

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Brushed Corduroy, Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Marker (Black 199)
• Recycled silver packaging
• Tim Holtz Sizzix 3D Texture Fades A6 Embossing Folder (Elegant 664172)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic paint (Black)
• Sharpie Permanent Fine Point Marker (Black)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology (Botancial Layers #TH93554, Small Talk Stickers #TH93193)  
• Little Birdie (Sparkle Little Birdie Flowers SKU213726)
• Stix2 glue dots
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Falling Hearts 664415)
• Ranger Glossy Accents