We are so lucky that very talented artists are happy to guest for us at AVJ and today we have the very lovely and gifted Toni Burrows with us. Toni resides at Artistic Craft Dabbler and I fully recommend an excursion soon if you haven't visited her part of blogland yet. She is a very artistic lady who has a love of Tim and a very unique style. Enough said from me, let's see what Toni has created for all of us today.
Hi everybody! My name is Toni and I’m delighted to be a
guest of the incredibly talented team here at A Vintage Journey. As a lover of all things Tim, it’s an honour
to be given the opportunity to showcase a project using his fabulous products
and techniques.
By day I’m a teacher, I actually have two part-time jobs,
one as a peripatetic Teacher for Visually Impaired Children and the second as a
pottery teacher in a primary school. I live in the West Midlands with my
husband and second son Max. We are all lovers of vintage style and collectors
of... well... pretty much anything that takes our interest. Fortunately we live
in a large Victorian house and I’m lucky enough to have a big attic room to
craft and stash all my stuff in!
Like most of the crafters I read about, I also started from
a young age. My mum always encouraged us to draw and make things. She taught me
to how knit and my dad fostered my interest in sewing. He started a tailoring
course when we were youngsters and bought an electric sewing machine, which was
quite something back in the late 1950’s. My two brothers and I went to a
fantastic secondary school called Moseley School of Art. This was a state
school that specialised in teaching a variety of visual arts. We studied all the usual subjects but also
had lessons in graphic design, dress making,
pottery, drawing and painting. One
of the greatest things I learnt there was to ‘look’.
I absolutely love the theme Astrid has chosen for the
current challenge, ‘Love is in the Air’ my project is a little altered a paper
mache book. My initial thoughts were to make something pale and pretty but as I
got started my thoughts turned towards full on romantic luxe and that of course
has to include red roses. I’ve used Tim’s Tattered Pine Cone die, and included
two of my all time favourite Ideaology items, an Ornate Plate and one of the
original Frozen Charlotte Dolls.
I covered the book with black tissue paper which I had
firstly stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder. I used a strip of
black fabric to cover the books spine and glued on a couple of metal numbers.
I painted the inside of the book with red acrylic paint and
used Rock Candy Distress Glitter, coloured with Red Pesto Alcohol ink, to coat
the inside of the deeper half of the book box. I made a stamped label to fit on
the other side.
I then had great fun using Tim’s Tattered Pine Cone die to
make lots of roses. Some were used on the cover and a dozen to go inside. I
painted them red and spritzed on some gold spray once they were dry.
I used the rest of the flowers to create a bed of roses for
my little Frozen Charlotte to nestle into.
I gave her some gold wings with a crackle finish and used a
Remnant Rub On word, ‘love’ across her heart. Here she is again....
I also used Remnant Rub Ons to create the phrase under the
Ornate Plate, ‘Love Lives Here’. I had to do a bit of doctoring of the words,
as the words ‘here’ and ‘live’ don’t feature.
I’ve had a great time creating this project and it’s been
wonderful to be able to share this with you all. There are a few more details
on my blog if you’d like to have a closer look.
I’d like to thank the fabulous members of the AVJ Team for inviting me to travel along with
them, for this part of their journey. Many thanks also to Tim for his constant
innovation, encouragement and enthusiasm.
And we would like to thank you too Toni for creating such a beautiful project for the current challenge. I love the idea of the book and the wonderful elements you have included, especially the bed of roses, very creative.
Please pop over to see more of Toni's work on her blog and leave her a little Valentine love for such a wonderful project. If you haven't seen the challenge at AVJ yet, it runs till Thursday evening (London time) so there is still an opportunity to take part and maybe you could be winning the £10 gift voucher from Country View Crafts.
Have a great week everyone.
hugs Brenda, Toni and the Team xxx
