Back at it!

Hi friends and followers. I cant believe it's been so long since I've updated here. Right at 6 months! What can I say? Life has been pretty hectic. Since July I have changed positions with the company I'm currently working for 3 times, and I've changed locations 3 times as well. It seems now though that things are finally starting to settle back down and that couldnt happen soon enough for me. I've been really working my butt off lately. 

Along with work craziness comes stress and I've been dying to get back into the studio. I finally got the chance last week and completed an arf journal page I've been wanting to do for a while, inspired by the Sundays with Sandee series over at the Frosted Designs blog. Here is the inspiration page created by Sandee Setliff:

Here are a few photos of what I created. I did a 2 pager and added a vase to my table. I used patterned paper for the table top that reminded me of tile. For the flowers I used brown coffee filters. 

This is the whole page:







I hope to have much more to share with you soon. I'm officially #backatit in the studio creating. It feels so great to get some fun time in. I have lots of things planned for the summer so stay tuned! Here are some sneaks of my ideas:

Dollar Store revamped wedding cards for all those weddings you're attending!
Mermaid drift wood beachouse sign
Tim's Tags of 2015, I've got to catch up!
More art journaling
Bottlecap windchime
Scrappy pages
Father's day shadow box
Mixed media canvases

That is about all for now! Thanks for reading!
Until next time- VV

Word of the Year! my first venture into art journaling..

Hi everyone! I am very excited to be here today to share my very first ever art journal page! I have been influenced, awed, and inspired by fellow Frosted Designs team member, Sandee to take a leap of faith and try it out! I had no idea how much fun it would be! If you haven't been following her Sundays with Sandee series on the Frosted Designs blog, you should stop what you're doing and go check out some of her videos right now!! You can find them all here: http://frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/p/sundays-with-sandee.html

So one of the posts that really inspired me was her 'word of the year' page. I spent several days researching this new idea of using one word for your new year's resolution instead of a list of several things. Obviously, its alot simpler and easier to remember, but it's more than that. After much thinking, I tried to pick a word that would help me in every aspect of my life, health wise, work wise, etc. When I ask myself about a decision Im about to make I will use this word to help me make the right decision. The word I chose is THRIVE.

I think it's a perfect fit for what I want to accomplish this year. I want to get healthier, become more active, advance in my career, and accomplish more creatively. I want to stand up for my life, and do what's best for me and my husband, instead of taking on tasks or volunteering for things when I could have better spent my time doing something else.I want to ultimatley look back on this year in 2015 and say that it was a time of determination and strength for me to push forward to something better. I think so far it hasnt been too bad of a start. Yesterday was the perfect kick-off to what i hope will be a better routine for Jimmy and I.

Ok, enough chat, now to share some pics of my page. The first thing I did was take some gesso with a mask I have (not sure the brand) and put it over several parts of my page. As you will see, thru pencil drawings, water misting, and using my gelatos it created kind of a 'resist' effect which was a happy accident. I was expecting to be able to color over it and was really only using it for the texture. This is a photo of the first step, after I gesso'd then drew my base which was a 'rock wall. Originally I was going to make it solid but in hand drawing all the stones I found a natural place where a hole should go so I added it.

The next photo is after I colored in the rock wall using some gelatos, grey and yellow, misted over with water, smudged with my fingers, and then dried it. I also took out some of my grungeboard letters in this step and started to figure out placement.

The last picture I took before the finishing touches was when I began to draw in the vines. I drew them in with pencil, then used several gelly roll pens to re trace them in the later step. I also had already glued down my letters that were colored with gelatos then inked over with Tim Holtz distress stain in vintage photo. The sun behind the wall is also pencil drawn then colored using sharpies, then gelatos blended in.

And this is the finished product. I added the 2014 in grungeboard letters at the bottom which I covered in Dylusions spray white linen and stickles in Tiara. The quote off to the side is from a song and I did some more journaling in very small letters on the tails of my hearts. Mostly affirmations to myself about the individual ways I want to THRIVE in 2014.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I really love reading all your blogs and getting comments. I hope to give you some bloggy love soon! Maybe later today after I tackle this laundry pile and go for our walk. Then it's back to the studio for more creative time!!!! I hope you have a great week & can get some creative therapy time in for yourself. Peace~ VV

Supply List from the Frosted Designs store: Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray - melted chocolate, Ranger Dylusions Creative Journal, Faber Castel Gesso, Faber Castel 50's Diner gelatos, water brush, Gelly roll pens

Other: Stickles 'tiara' Tim Holtz grunge board letters, Tim Holtz distress stain 'vintage photo' epoxy heart stickers, bird stamp from stash, Tim Holtz distress markers-bundled sage, spun sugar, broken china, antique linen, pencil

FDFF Challenge: Ribbon, Twine & Washi Tape!

Hi Friends! It's been a while... I am still getting settled in here and starting to catch up on DT projects, I did finally finish this mixed media canvas and it's perfect for the challenge we are hosting over at Frosted Designs this week- the challenge is to use at least 2: Ribbon, Twine, or Washi Tape. For my project I used Twine and Washi Tape. It was so much fun creating this canvas...I have lots of ideas for more, whenever I get the creative time to do them all!

So come on over and join us for this challenge! It's easy to play along! Just link up your project to the sidebar no later than July 17th to be eligible for our prize! I am so jealous of whoever wins this one!!! It's a very generous one!! Our sponsor this time is Donna Downey- a fabulous mixed media artist and kind of a mini inspiration for me to create my project this time! Here's her website- http://www.donnadowney.com/  you will win a $65 value online class where you'll have access to 5 different designers and make 15 different projects. Wow right??? So get to work.. it will be hard to pick a winner this time, but good luck! 

And until next time, Peace Y'all! 

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