Tim Holtz Archival Inks Wonderful Life Collaged Vignette Tray

I'm back again as promised to show you my project using the new Tim Holtz Distress Archival Inks from Ranger.  You can never have enough Archival Inks in my opinion. They are my go to medium, because I like that they are permanent, water proof, and keep their color forever. I am so happy that Tim decided to bring the colors of his Distress Ink line into the Archival Ink family, and I love the 12 colors he added. There is Fired Brick, Crackling Campfire, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, Rustic Wilderness, Evergreen Bough, Salvaged Patina, Speckled Egg, Prize Ribbon, Villainous Potion, Kitsch Flamingo, and Frayed Burlap. When I first saw the line up of colors released I instantly thought of the sunset sky in all its colorful glory, so I set out to create that sky in my head with collage. A card wasn't going to be big enough, so I grabbed a Vignette Tray instead and began my scene. Enjoy!

 

Using book pages, ink over them (a few paragraphs for each color) with Crackling Campfire, Wild Honey, Salvaged Patina, Speckled Egg, Prize Ribbon, Villainous Potion, and Kitsch Flamingo Distress Archival Inks using Ink Blending Tools.

 

Tear the colored pages following the words on the pages, into irregular strips so there are straight and curvy parts. Using the smaller tray from the Vignette Set, plan out the sky area using the strips of colored pages, starting in the center and starting with Wild Honey.  Add Crackling Campfire around the Wild Honey and fill in with Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg. Once you like the look, add Collage Medium under and stick the pieces down brushing over the top of them as well, letting the edge pieces just hang off. Add Kitsch Flamingo above while adding more strips of Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg. Then start adding in the darker colors above (Villainous Potion and Prize Ribbon), still adding in the Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg. Fill in any bare spots with other colors for a more variegated look. Once the sky area is filled and dried, sand off the strips that are hanging over, by lightly rubbing the sander on the edges until the strips fall off. 

 

 

Ink more book pages with Evergreen Bough, Crushed Olive, and Rustic Wilderness, but this time ink vertically so that the words are running up so that there will be a different pattern of the words. Tear strips again, but make them straighter and tear towards you so that there will be a white paper edge between the strips. 

 

 

Starting with the Rustic Wilderness strips, collage a row touching the sky area with the white torn edge at the top. Collage a row of Evergreen Bough below that in the same way with the white edge showing and touching the Rustic Wilderness row. Repeat with a row of Crushed Olive. Add a row or two of Evergreen Bough and Crushed Olive, then a row or two of Rustic Wilderness, making sure to leave about 3/4 inch of Vignette Tray blank. Sand the edges off.

 

 

Ink a piece of book page about 2 x 3 inches, with the words going down this time with Frayed Burlap Distress Archival. Use scissors this time and cut five strips about 1/4 inch wide and three inches long for tree trunks. Ink the edges of the tree trunks with more Frayed Burlap. Choose three of the strips and place them evenly on the tray to see where you want the trees to be making sure the bottom of the trunk will be on the last Rustic Wilderness strip and collage those down. Take more book paper and ink over a 2 inch or so circular area with both Crushed Olive and Evergreen Bough. Do three of these, and then use your fingers and tear around the circle to look like the leaf area of the tree. Ink the edges of these with Rustic Wilderness, and collage on top of the trunks to complete the trees. Save the other two trunks for later in the project.

 

 

You will use dictionary paper for this part. Using the Paper Village and Paper Village 2 Thinlits Dies from Sizzix, pick five different house shapes, and only die cut one of each shape. Use scissors to cut off the sides that you won't need...you only need the house front. Decide which order you want the houses to be in and ink the first house front Kitsch Flamingo, the second Crackling Campfire, the third Wild Honey, the fourth Salvaged Patina, and the last Villainous Potion. Ink the edges of each in the same color. Lay each house top over a piece of black cardstock, and free hand around the top of the house for the roof or cut 1/4 inch wide strips to join together for a roof top. On the house front that has double roofs, you can do one of each kind. Collage the houses and roofs on just below the trees so that the trees look like they are behind the houses. On the house with the double roofs, use a black pen to lightly draw the divider line between the house parts.

 

   

Using the doors and windows die pieces from either set, die cut five doors and several windows out of whatever size you want using black cardstock. Arrange the doors and windows on each house to figure out the arrangement but don't glue down yet. Ink over a small piece of book page using the last ink you haven't used yet, Fired Brick, just leaving the wording direction normal. Die cut this with the five smallest hearts from the Stacked Tiles Hearts Thinlits. Ink the edges of the hearts with the same ink. Lay a heart on each house where you like the look of it somewhere in or close to the roof area. Collage all the windows, doors, and hearts on. Note: Using tweezers to place the small bits helps a lot on this part. 

 

  

Using more book page facing normal, ink over a small piece (1 x 5) using Frayed Burlap. Cut five slightly looking trapezoid shapes (door width on top and slightly longer bottom) with scissors for the walkway of each house connecting to the doors. Ink the edges in the same ink and collage these on underneath each door. Ink over more book page with Crushed Olive and Evergreen Bough for the last two trees, but this time tear the shape more like a pear than round. Ink the edges with Rustic Wilderness. Collage the two tree trunks on so that they look like they are in the front yard and add the tree tops to them. Punch ten holes with a regular hole punch on any of the green areas from the tree tops book pages. Collage a hole on each side of the door and walk way to look like bushes.

 

 

Ink over more book page reading normal with Frayed Burlap, and tear strips toward you so you have the white torn edges about two book lines thick, and enough to collage one row. Collage the pieces on meeting up with the grass and walkway area so it looks like a path along the houses. Ink over more book page with the words facing up for one row of grass that should cover up the rest of the tray, using all three green inks. Collage those on meeting the path with white torn border up. When dry, sand all three edges to remove the overhang pieces. 

 

 

Paint all four edges of the Vignette Tray with Black Soot Distress Paint bringing the paint up slightly over the border and showing a little on the tray top, and let dry. Using the Botanical Remnant Rubs, cut off the Wonderful Life sentiment and rub on to the top right center of the tray. Using Label Letters, collage numbers 1 - 5 onto the door fronts, and add Collage Medium over the sentiment as well. Let all this dry well, and then use a white pen to doodle around the doors, windows, hearts, bushes, trees, trunks, path, grass, and outside border of the tray. Use a black pen to hide any mistakes if any.

 

 

Paint over three small screw hooks if they are not already black, with Black Soot Distress Paint, and let dry. Use a ruler to help you find the middle of the tray along the very bottom edge (4.5 inches since the tray is 9 inches long).  It has to be the very bottom on the edge piece of the tray to make sure the hook has ample space to screw in to, because if you do this on the back on the tray the screw will go through to the back, and you don't want that. Mark this 4.5 with a pen first and then push a Craft Pick in and make a small hole into the edge piece. Do the same at 1 inch and 8 inch, so you now have three tiny hole markers that go into the edge piece. Screw in the hooks at each hole mark and add a little Collage Medium to the hole before you screw in the hook for extra strength. Let dry. 

 

Supplies: 

(Ink Blending Tool, Sanding Block, Scissors, Die Cut Machine, Die Pick, Ruler, Craft Tweezers, Hole Punch, Remnant Rub Tool, Craft Pick) 

-Book Paper, Dictionary Paper 

-Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Vignette Tray Set (small), Label Letters, Botanical Remnant Rubs 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Archival Ink: Fired Brick, Crackling Campfire, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, Rustic Wilderness, Evergreen Bough, Salvaged Patina, Speckled Egg, Prize Ribbon, Villainous Potion, Kitsch Flamingo, Frayed Burlap 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Brush (small) 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium: Matte 

-Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits: Paper Village, Paper Village 2, Hearts Stacked Tiles 

-Ranger Surfaces: Black Cardstock 

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint: Black Soot 

-Ranger Fude Ball Pen: Black 

-White Gelly Roll Pen #5, Screw Hooks

 

I'll be back again soon. Until then, I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!