Dreams come True !

Hello Crafters,
Welcome to my page today and I have some good news for you.
By now, you all know my love for Vintage and it was a dream come true moment when Chris asked me to guest design this month at A Vintage Journey for their blogoversary.
The challenge this month is "Anything Tim" and as for me, all my projects have a (over)dose of Distress and  Vintage .A blog that inspires me the most and the products that I can't do without, I just had to take part in the celebration!
Do drop in there to know a little bit more about me and also to take part in the challenge and the celebrations. The goodies to be won are endless and irresistible!

It was my other dream to have a drift wood décor piece and today I present to you my “faux drift wood”  deco item which can light up any table. After all we are talking about celebrations at AVJ, right…

To make the drift wood, I used a horizontal piece of box, made a few circular openings on the top ( you will see why in a while) and inserted the empty tape rings.

 I stuck layers of tissue paper and cheese cloth and then spread homemade texture paste with a spatula all around the box. Once dry, I took my first collection of Distress stains, picket fence, walnut stain, brushed pewter and weathered wood and applied them and voila, my lovely faux drift wood piece was ready. Doesn't it look like it one of those pieces “washed off “the shore?

For the front panel: I have printed this lovely table quote from the net on kitchen tissue and have adhered it on canvas cloth with gel medium. I aged the canvas with DI antique linen and Vintage photo andflicked some black soot distress stain too.

The edges have been given a shabby look by machine stitching. I Have fastened the banner on the panel with TH hardware findings, which have been painted with black soot and brushed pewter D Stains and then “rusted up” using paper Artsy rusting powder.

The side panels: I made a faux frame using garden twigs and painted it with picket fence and brushed pewter D stains.

 I then printed the table manners quote and then framed it behind the frame with an acetate sheet too from packaging. Simple embellishments here, with a resin star fish cracked up with picket fence distress crackle and then walnut stain to highlight the cracks.

The back panel: A miniature banner that says it all. I dipped it in UTEE to get a glassy finish and have hung with natural twine.

 I have a thick layer of coconut coir for some dimension and texture here. I wanted the back to be simple to reveal the “faux texture” here. Looks good right?

Floral embellishments in the front: I love making them! All these lovelies are made using mostly TH tattered florals die. It’s amazing that you can make  a wide range of flowers with this single die. One of my favorites and I can’t do without it! The foliage too is mainly TH and the lovely ferns are using Tattered lace die.

The subtle colors of the flowers are all using distress inks and I wanted a soothing color palette on the drift wood, nothing too bright. I also did a “Tammy Tutterow” bow …colored the seam binding with DI and made the bow using her instructions to make a handmade bow maker!

The butterfly was my first experiment with D stains. When I got the package, I just opened the package and tried out the marbling technique with the few colors that I have and ran a water color paper over. I took all the stains in a lovely rainbow pattern and I use the monarch butterfly die to get this one. One dip in UTEE and this delicate thing turned out to be a toughie!

The little bee is a stamp and has been colored using D inks and sipped in UTEE too. A closer look and you can see the rusted hardware and a customized Ideology token! Do you see it hanging there, lol…yes I made that with a token die and D stains and wrote “avj” just so that it reminds me of this wonderful day!

The entire piece weighs like real drift wood and some wooden feet colored with picket fence D stain helps it to balance well!

Phew! Ready for a little more…

The Top panel: is where the surprise is…remember the circular cut outs? What do you think it is for???

Have a look…this is ultimately how I envisioned this drift wood to be on the table…

After all, “The fondest Memories are made gathered around the table” right… and with celebrations on here at AVJ, don’t you think the table needs to be brightened up…here it is…

With the candles and the cutlery…

A closer look at the center and you can see a battery operated LED candle glowing beneath the lovely lotus!

As the sun sets, it gets warmer…

The back side with the add on’s..”BON APPETIT”!

Finally, the end is here. Thank you so much for putting up with my loooong post…I had to share every bit with you, after all it took me 4 days to finish this!

Thank you Chris, Brenda and the entire AVJ team for this opportunity and hope this satisfies your creative needs and makes you play along the “anything Tim” challenge.

I would like to enter my drift wood decor in the following challenges...
Inspiration Journal - Spring
That's Crafty Challenge - wings"n" things
Unruly paper Arts- I am lucky ( can't get luckier being a guest at AVJ)
The Shabby tea Room - Spring Blooms
City Crafter Challenge Blog - inspired by the colors, beach, drift wood, dinner ware, star fish, lovely blooms!
(PIN) spirational Challenge- Spring
Lawnscaping Challenge - Distress (there is a lot of it!)
MIXED MEDIA WORLD - Anything Goes
Re cycle, Re purpose, Re invent- Anything goes

Until my next creative journey,

Happy Crafting and re cycling.

Cheers.