Rustic Charm ~ A Vintage Journey ~ New Challenge

Hi everybody! We have a new challenge over on the A Vintage Journey Blog. Astrid is our fabulous host and she has called the challenge 'Rustic Charm'. This is what Astrid has to say about it.......

Rustic describes a design that is natural, rough, aged and casual. We would love to see you create a project using these elements: think nature inspired textures and simple and earthy colours.  Just remember to create your project in one of our preferred styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

I'm sure you'll agree that there is something for everyone with this challenge ! If you hop over to the AVJ blog with this link you will see Astrid's gorgeous project, as well as a fantastic array of inspiring projects by the other Creative Guides. My project is a little, rustic style, notebook  because of course, you can never have too many note books! 

I started by stripping off some of the facing, from a piece of card board. I had to persevere as it seemed to be well glued on!

I also cut two pieces of card for the covers measuring 6 x 4 inches and covered each side with papersfrom Tim Holtz Wild Flower Paper Stash. I also used a palette knife, to add crackle medium, to my piece of corrugated card.........

I spritzed the crackled cardboard, with Antique linen Distress Spray, and sprinkled on some Paper Artsy Infusions. This gave a nice mottled finish and added a little more texture. I then adhered the card board to the front cover.......

 

.......and  wrapped a length of  vintage copper wire around the middle. I also punched holes into the top of each cover and added metal eyelets. I used a standard hole punch to mark the position of the holes, then punched them out, using a Cropodile. I was then able to use the hole punch to make corresponding holes in my papers.

The bird was die cut using Tim Holtz's Feathered Friends Die. One of my 'lock down' acquisitions ! I used cork fabric, which I must say cut very easily. I used alcohol inks to colour the individual pieces but left the wing in it's natural colour. Once assembled, I adhered it to the front cover. I used a paper cutter to cut the notebook papers to a size which is slightly small than the cover. I punched holes in the top of each page and assembled the notebook using ring binders. Here is a view of the inside........

To finish off, I added a tim Holtz chip board Quote Chip, and four faux rusty nails, these are little plastic embellishments, that hve been heat embossed with Distress Embossing powder. They did slightly melt, as I was heating them !  

Well, this was an enjoyable project to make and now I have yet another useful notebook to add to my collection or maybe this one will be given as a gift. If you fancy having some fun with rustic finishes, then please come and join us over on the A Vintage Journey Blog. We would love to see your projects that have a distinctive 'Rustic Charm'  x