"J Is For...." ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Hello everyone...

We have a fun new challenge starting today over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and this week the challenge is called ~ "J Is For...."

So, what is J for...will you choose July, jump rings, jewel or journaling. We challenge you to be inspired by the letter J and can't wait to see your interpretation of our theme.

Me? Well, I chose J for...journey and created this passport style card for my project. As always, I hope you love what I've made and can't wait to read all your comments!

...and here's what I did:

To begin with I created this tri fold book card from kraft card and used a corner punch to round off the corners of each tiered section of the card.

I then needed to make my backgrounds, and for this I used Manila card and "swooshed" each piece of card through Tea Dye, Antique Bronze, Old Paper and Brushed Corduroy Distress Stains that I had applied to my craft sheet and spritzed with water. I picked up every last bit of the stain from the sheet to create these gorgeous marbled backgrounds before drying them with a heat tool. I then used Walnut Stain Distress Ink through the Dot Fade Layering Stencil to apply some detail onto each piece of inked card, distressed and inked the edges and then attached them to each of the five pages of the card.

For the cover, I used the Mini Jalopy Die and die cut the car from chipboard before painting it with Black Soot Distress Paint. I added this to the cover with an Artful Arrow, die cut from chipboard covered with metal foil tape and applied various colours of Distress Paint over the top to give a really worn, rusty look but still keeping the shine.

As embellishments, I attached some Film Ribbon tape, Sprocket Gears, Mini Gears and some various nails and washers that I had in my "one day, these will come in useful" box! To complete it, I added some Remnant Rubs and stamped the date and stars.

For the second and third page in the book, I used the Sizzix Gadget Gears die to die cut chipboard, which I then painted with Walnut Stain Distress Paint before embossing each of the pieces with Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder.

I still needed to get more rust onto each piece and for this, I added small amounts of Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint over the top of the powder.

I attached the gears onto the page, together with some Tissue Tape, various items from the Expedition Ephemera pack and added another Remnant Rub and an Idea-Ology Tab File.

On page four, I added some more Tissue Tape and stamped the word, Miscellaneous.

For the final page in the book, I stamped the Tim Holtz verse onto the centre and doodled a line around the verse. A few Black Soot paint splats and a piece of Tissue Tape completes this page.

To keep the book together, I hand dyed some Crinkle Ribbon using Distress Stains and wrapped it around the two back pages of the book, leaving the front page to fall open. I kept the ribbon in place by attaching a Hinge Clip, aged with Distress Paints, a Swivel Clasp and a Philosophy Tag to hang freely down the side.

So, that's it from me for this week and I really hope you've enjoyed my photo tutorial and loved my project because I had so much fun making this. As always, if you're looking for some more great ideas and inspiration, then you need to look no further than the blog to see all the wonderful creations from my very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. Good luck....

Thank you so much for all your visits today, I really do appreciate them all and love reading all your comments!!

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:

Tim Holtz Sizzix Gadget Gears Bigz Die

Tim Holtz Sizzix Mini Old Jalopy & Arrow Movers and Shapers Die

Tim Holtz Sizzix Artful Arrows Bigz Die

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Rubber Stamps ~ Live The Life, Script Stars and Miscellaneous

Tim Holtz Layering Stencil ~ Star

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder Vintage Photo

Distress Paints ~ Walnut Stain, Black Soot, Antiqued Bronze and Tarnished Brass

Distress Ink ~ Walnut Stain

Distress Stain ~ Antique Bronze, Old Paper, Tea Dye and Brushed Corduroy

Idea-Ology ~ Film Ribbon, Philosophy Tag, File Tabs, Sprocket Gears, Ephemera Pack, Swivel Clasp, Hinge Clips, Remnant Rubs, Mini Gears Sprockets, Tissue Tape and Crinkle Ribbon

Archival Ink ~ Black

American Crafts Dear Lizzy Roller Date Stamp

Ranger 12 x 12 Kraft Cardstock

Metal Foil Tape

Black Fude Ball Pen

Ranger Craft Sheet

Ranger Blending Tool