Guest Creative Guide for A Vintage Journey ~ 'Love is in The Air'

'A flower cannot blossom without sunshine

And a man cannot live without love'

I'm delighted to have been invited to be a Guest Creative Guide by the wonderful team over at A Vintage Journey. I feel truly honoured for my project to be featured on the AVJ blog, alongside the work of so many of my favourite designers.
Astrid is the host of the current challenge and she has chosen to go with a seasonal theme, 'Love is in the Air'. You can see her gorgeous tag book, as well as the rest of the design team's gorgeous projects here,  http://www.vintagejourney.com/2015/01welcome-toni-a-guest-creative-guide.html
Regular visitors to A Vintage Journey, will know that this challenge blog celebrates all things 'Tim Holtz'. In keeping with this ethos, I've altered  a little paper mache box, which is in the shape of a book. I've used some of my most favourite 'Tim' products and techniques in the process.

It measures around 8 x 11 cm, so is quite small. I covered the outside with gold embossed black tissue paper. This is a technique I just love, it creates a really luxurious surface and it's very easy to do! Just stamp your image with Versa Mark ink, cover with gold embossing powder, apply heat and watch the magic work!

I made two pieces of embossed tissue and adhered one to the front and one to the back of the book. I then ripped a strip of black cotton fabric, and adhered this to the spine of the book, overlapping the covers by about 1cm. I used Ranger Matte Glue n' Seal for adhering both the tissue paper and fabric. The fabric has given the spine of the book a really authentic look and has worked much better than I'd anticipated. I used Helmar 450 Quick adhesive to secure some metal numbers to finish off the spine.

I painted the inside of the 'book' with red acrylic paint and adhered a stamped sentiment on one side.

In order to glitz up the inside, I covered  the base with Glossy accents and sprinkled on Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter, which I had firstly coloured with Red Pepper Alcohol Ink.It's lovely and sparkly!

Prior to decorating my 'book', I spent an enjoyable evening making over a dozen red roses. Red roses are such a traditional expression of romance, that I really wanted to include them in my project.

Here are some of them drying, after being painted with crimson acrylic paint. To make the flowers, I used Tim's Tattered Pine Cone die, and followed his instruction, which he showcased on his Twelve Tags of 2014, April tag. You can see the tag and a video of how to make the flowers, by following this link. Once my flowers were dry, I gave them a light spritz with Perfect Pearls, Heirloom Gold spray. I then adhered a dozen roses inside my book box, in order to create a bed of roses for it's resident.....

...and here she is, 'Love', a little 'Frozen Charlotte' from Tim's Ideaology, Fractured Dolls. This is the larger one of the pair. I gave her a pair of die cut wings, which I painted gold and added a crackle finish to. I used a Remnant Rub On, to add the word 'Love' across her heart. I then adhered her to the base with several layers of dimensional tape, stacked together. She nestles into the box quite snugly. To finish off my book box, I painted the sides with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint. I then added an Ornate Plate and some metal filigree corners to the front cover. I also adhered a few gems here and there. The sentiment was constructed by re-figuring some Remnant Rub Ons to  the words 'lives' and 'here'. More roses, some greenery and of course some dyed seam binding were the final touches. 

I had a really good time creating this piece and I'd like to thank Brenda and the rest of the team for inviting me to be a Guest Creative Guide. I hope you will hop over to A Vintage Journey, where you can read a little bit about me and see the fabulous work by the resident AVJ design team. Many thanks everybody x

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