Vintage Travel Guestbook

So I'm getting really excited about heading back down south in 2 weeks for my best friend's wedding in New Orleans. It will be a nice break from work, I will be able to enjoy staying in NOLA for 3 days,and then home to Mobile to catch up with friends and fam for 4 days. I can't wait to see everyone!! It will be one of the first times I've traveled by myself, I mean I have flown plenty of times but usually had to keep up with a group (for work trips) or had Jimmy with me. Not that I'm scared or anything, but it will be a new experience for me.

I volunteered to make her a custom guest book for the wedding and I came up with a pretty good idea. I bought a cream-canvas covered Heidi Swapp album about 8x6 and decorated the outside, then made some inside pages that guests can add to. It will be set up next to the photo booth and guests can add pictures and write a message using jars of washi tape and pens! I haven't found the right jars yet but I did finally finish the book and the little sign with 'instructions'. Here are some pics....

And a few closies of the embellshments I used. I used alot of paper from a K&Co travel stack that had these cool stamps. I cut them out individually, inked them with TH Vintage photo, and then heat embossed them. After I had the placement right I added vintage buttons from my stash, flowers, and some cut enamel brads. 

Elephants are a central theme for the wedding too, since it's at the Audobon Zoo and also the wedding logo is elephants. I tried to encorporate that on the front cover as well as using all stamps from places that are part of H &J's story...Mexico, Alabama,  Texas, &  Louisiana.

Here are a few pictures of the inside pages I did for guests to add pictures and write on!

Next is a cute little frame that I found (along with the one used on the front cover). In the dollar$ bin at Michael's...All that's left is to distress it and add the 'instructions' for guests. Also I am letting the Bride-to-Be decide what pic she wants on the front cover!

This is what the mini frame looked like before:

And after! I 'distressed' the detail work with TH ink in vintage photo and some of my Faber Castel Gelatos in gold using a wetted brush, then added the flowers and brad at the bottom.

Here's the 'instruction' part:

And inside the front cover:

Last page of the book,

I had so much fun making this little interactive album that I hope once I bring it down there for the wedding some of my other friends may want one...I could see myself doing any theme. Its basically a scrapbook for the photo booth pics! All that's left to do now is make the jars and buy some washi tape and paint pens in the right colors. I really enjoyed sharing this with you today & love reading your comments...have a great week!

Until Next time~ VV

2 Birthday cards with a Beachy twist

Hi friends! It's been a while since I've been able to post on here, I've been working like a mad woman and it seems things probably won't slow down until after the holidays. Such is the life in retail. I was off yesterday, and was able to get a few hours of crafty time in, but still didn't get as much done as I'd like. But it was extra fun because hubby joined me for the last part of it to make a birthday card for his mom. Here are a few pics of his card:

Excuse the pics, hubby took these on his phone and I had to steal them since we sent the cards off in the mail already!

And here are some pics of my card:

I enjoyed sharing a little crafty goodness with you today. I have a lot of projects in the works just have to make time to get them going, I think tonight may be another crafty night since I'm on the late shift again tomorrow, hopefully I will be back soon to share some more and show you some of my awesome fall pics from the beautiful Pacific Northwest :) Enjoy your Wednesday- I'm off to work!

FDFF Challenge: Embossing + CSI Case File #82

Hello friends! It's time for some more inspiration and fun over at Frosted Designs for our Fabulous Friday Challenge! This time we are asking you to create any OTP project, layout, or card using any type of embossing! I happen to love embossing...actually heat embossing in particular is my favorite, so I couldn't wait to get going on this challenge! I  was very pleased with my result, and I hope it inspires you to create! Our wonderful sponsor this time is Molossi! They have some awesome stuff !!

I used the palette and inspiration over at CSI...it's my first time incorporating one of their challenges. I just really liked the color palette, it made me think outside the box and get the creative mojo going. I knew I was going to do heat embossing for my background and some paper elements, but when I saw Case File #82 I knew it would work! I used all of the colors for the scheme. I used the following Evidence: stamps, hearts, doodling, cursive, funky scallops, masking, wet medium (gesso). I used the following Testimony: I heart 8 things, prompt words play and fun, handwrite in cursive

This was the CSI case file:

I hope you will join us over at FD for the Fabulous Friday challenge! It's a great prize from our sponsor, there are quite a few stamps they are carrying that I'd like to get my hands on myself! Good luck and we can't wait to see what you create! Until next time, Peace Y'all~VV

new year, new adventures, new crafts!

Good day everyone! Today is the first day of 2013!!! Can you believe it? I am extremely excited to start fresh, wipe the slate clean, and start to tackle some of my new goals for this year. Jimmy and I have an important move coming up in April and I will spend many, many hours in the few months ahead preparing for it, packing away, organizing and getting rid of unneeded things. We are embarking on a cross country journey and moving back to his home state of Oregon. I am very, very excited to experience life in a different part of the country and hopeful that there will be better job opportunities for his field of work there. We are both able to transfer with our companies, but I have been with mine for almost 6 years and he is looking for something better as soon as we get out there. We might even be renting a HOUSE instead of a tiny apartment which is very, very exciting!! All firsts for us as newlyweds. And I do have some life-goals in mind for myself for this year, but for now, I want to share what my 'crafty' goals are for 2013:

1. To turn my little Vintage Vixen Crafts blog and fb page eventually into an Etsy business, selling handmade mixed media canvasses, embellishments, custom albums and mini albums.

2. To expand my repertoire of crafting skills, by taking up something new or using a new product or tool.

3. To attempt Tim Holtz's 12 tags of 2013! Starting with January!

4. To complete my some of my list of pinterest projects!

5. To build/design my ideal crafts studio in our new home in Portland, with LOTS of organization!

With that said, I would like to share with you my very first mixed media canvas that I completed yesterday. I am not sure that I will be selling this one yet, but I have plans on making some more in the very near future! I have lots of ideas! I have to admit, I got this idea from one of my very favorite scrappers, Kelly Foster from her blog All the Pretty Things. A few weeks ago, she posted about how she was puzzled about how to use this cool cork piece that came in her DT kit, and instead of stowing it away in the pile of  stuff she was saving to alter, she ended up pulling it back out and making this cool canvas. I was really inspired by the quote she used, and I thought it would be a good starting point for not only my first canvas, but also for the new year! Here's a photo of her canvas as seen in this post:

Simply amazing, right? How could you not be inspired!! So even though I got the idea from her...well I used the quote but I didn't really use any of her design except for the layout of the words a little bit and the tags she used. I went for a totally different color scheme and I think my canvas is a little larger because I was reusing something that I already had. I tried to take step by step photos so you can see how I started building it, but got lost towards the end in the creative process, sorry! So here is a recap of what I did to create my canvas:

First, I started off by spray painting an old canvas I had lying around...one that I painted myself a while back that I didn't really like anymore, its about  13x24 size I think. 

Next, I let it dry for a while and took it into my craft room. I wanted to start my background using a mask, which I don't own any of yet, but I had this cutout paper with a pretty damask pattern so I used that to start with some of my new Gesso! It got kinda messy:

  After I masked both corners of the canvas using my fingers and a plastic knife, I heated it to dry. then I ripped my paper in half that I used the gesso on and sprayed it with Smooch Spritz in candleglow and caramel mocha. Then I heated it again and you could see the texture ridges on the paper from the knife, which was cool!! Also, while the gesso was still wet I scrunched up some tissue paper on the edges to add more texture. I had fun ripping away and making several layers with it.

I also pulled out some of my favorite papers, and decided on a color scheme of taupes, greys, yellows, whites, creams, and teal with a hint of black. Alot of colors I know but I knew it would work, this is my color scheme for my dream living room too! LOL!

I started to pull out all the other supplies that I thought I might need. They are pictured here except for the different adhesives I used including Sticky Thumb pop dots, large glue dots, and a permanent glue stick.

After I had my first 2 layers dry, I began to place my other background elements, including a 12 x 12 piece of corrugated cardboard, the remants of my masking sheet, and some patterned paper that looks like wooden planks that I cut into strips, distressed, and inked. I laid that behind the masked sheet and then used pop dots to pop it up. Also I pinned down the cardboard piece with lots of glue gloss and some tiny brads poked through the canvas, one in each corner. This is what it looked like in that step:

For the next step, I punched some large circles out of the mini grey dot paper, inked them in black, and tucked them under the edges on each side of my middle cardboard piece. I also started fussy cutting out some of the flowers from the Authentique paper and pop-dotted them up into place. I also tried stamping my large Heidi Swapp chandlier stamp and music notes stamp in a few places and used my new distress embossing powder in black soot, but it didnt' come out how I thought. I think my surface was too wet or sticky or something cause the image didn't really come out very clear.

Next, I fussy cut some cute cameras from the American Crafts' Amy Tangerine paper and colored them in with distress markers in antique linen and broken china.

 After that I inked them up good with Top Boss and sprinkled over generously with UTEE, then I was ready to heat them up for that cool, glossy look!

Here they are done and stacked up together on my canvas:

So after that step, I kinda stopped taking pictures cause I was fully into the creative process! I just started laying my pieces around until I was happy with the placement. I started with my patterned papers on the cardboard piece, then started adding more flowers to my fussy cut ones, buttons, lace, tulle, canvas, brads, resin flowers, and really piled the stuff on! I also used some of my TH fragments that I made last week, tying them all with twine.

After I had most of my elements in place, I made sure everything was glued down well and added tiny bits of washi tape, stickles for sparkle, and also small stamps in random places to make sure to tie in more of the black on my page. Also, I place my alphas around almost as the last step. 

 And here are a few close ups of all around the canvas, so much prettiness going on I had to make sure to snap them all! 

 And my favorite, the cameras stacked up in my 'burlap' canvas camera bag made out of Maya Road burlap circles, brads, and twine.

  Best photo I could get of it hanging on the wall, I will take more in daylight when it's not so cold out! 

 I plan to make a few more of these and get them up on my facebook page and see if they sell! If you have any special requests for a specific quote, theme, color scheme, or style please comment or message me on my facebook page! I am super excited about making my next one, not sure yet if I will sell this one yet! Right now it's my 'baby'! Took me almost 8 hours do! Until next time crafty friends, Peace Y'all~ VV

Supply List:

Papers used- Basic Grey 'Out of Print', MME 'Miss Caroline' -curious, Recollections grey mini dot, American Crafts Amy Tangerine 'sketchbook', Echo Park 'note to self', Lilybee Designs 'memorandum time clock', Authentique 'Blissful' collection 'happiness'

flowers- Prima Marketing and Recollections

Tim Holtz- distress inks in black soot, vintage photo, and antique linen

distress markers- antique linen and broken china

fragment charms, memo pins, alpha tiles, metal key pieces

Purple Pumpkin- twine in yellow, teal, brown, crochet doily

Ranger Stickles- crystal and patina

Smooch Spritz by Clearsnap- caramel mocha, candlelight, river mossy, pralines n' cream

Stamps- Heidi Swapp, 7 Gypsies, Prima Marketing, Studio G, and Recollections

Thickers- Amy Tangerine in 'goodness' 'scene' and 'muse' also 'Doll'

StazOn jet black ink and Top Boss Embossing ink

Other- washi tape, vintage lace, vintage buttons, corrugated cardboard, brads, spray paint, Gesso, UTEE, Maya Road burlap pieces, paper distresser, adhesives, Martha Stewart tinsel glitter, 

& misc chipboard pieces