In The Family ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Hello everyone...

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend and looking forward to the week ahead and of course, the start of a brand new week means that it's the start of a brand new challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and this week it's called ~ IN THE FAMILY! So, what will you create and how will you interpret this challenge? The family of distress colours? Your ancestors? Friends you feel are closer than your biological family? The people you share your home with? There are a lot of answers to the question and how you answer our call to creativity is entirely up to you!

For my project, I created and embellished a frame using a photo of my Grandmother. I've always adored this photograph and for me, it encapsulates the era perfectly and I couldn't resist using it and hope I've made my Grandmother very proud with what this piece that I've created!

To begin with, I'd actually made this frame about 4 months ago but when it came to it, I hated it with the project I'd created it for and it never got used. Since then, it's been languishing under a pile of papers waiting for it's day to come and finally, it found it's purpose and I just knew it was the perfect for this project.

The actual frame is cut from chipboard and measures 10" x 8". The chipboard was then primed with a coat of Gesso and left it to dry before I added a layer of Wendy Vecchi's Gold Embossing Paste. Once the paste was completely dry, I then added a layer of the Crackled Paste over the top which I had dyed to this antique brown colour, with Potting Soil Re-inker. It's so wonderful to watch those crackles appear and once the paste had done it's job, I added a little more ink over the top, using a piece of Cut N' Dry and the Potting Soil Archival Ink Pad.

The next stage was to create the inside to the frame and for this, I cut another piece of chipboard, for the backing and a piece of Manilla card, both measuring 10" x 8". I added some Old Paper and Frayed Burlap Distress Stain to my craft mat, misted it with some water and then swiped the card through the inks, picking up all the colour from my mat, then dried it with a heat tool. Using the remainder of the stain on my sheet but adding some Vintage Photo, Antique Bronze and Brushed Corduroy to the mix, I then swiped through a size 8 and size 5 tag and picked up the stain on the sheet but this time, making it slightly darker and richer than the previous layer of card. Again, I heat dried the tags and then distressed the edges of each tag using a Walnut Stain Distress Ink and a Distresser Tool and threaded some Linen Ribbon through the top.

Next, I took the piece of stained card and sandwiched it between the chipboard backing and frame, attaching it with a strong adhesive glue. 

Using the larger of the two tags, I stamped the Tim Holtz verse down the side of the tag and attached this tag, together with the smaller tag (with a Remnant Rub added), onto my background.

I then matted the vintage photo of my Grandmother onto a backing of cream card, adding the year down the side using Deco Industrious Stickers, and mounted the image over the top of the two tags, setting it slightly off centre and placing a Journaling Ticket behind.

To complete the frame, I added various sizes of handmade paper roses, which are inked with Distress Ink and die cut using the Tattered Florals die and placed these along the bottom with some stained Crinkle Ribbon and twisted pieces of Film Ribbon.

I attached an Ephemera ticket to a Memo Pin and placed that amongst the flowers before attaching other various pieces of Idea-Ology, Prima Junkyard Findings Clock Parts metal embellishments and a beautiful vintage button from my own stash.

As a finishing touch, I added a Pen Nib, inked on the tip with Black Soot Distress Paint and added to a BBQ skewer to give the effect of a real pen.

...and that completes my vintage framed family photograph! 

I hope you've enjoyed this week's tutorial and that this piece will inspire you to use your precious family photos in some of your projects ~ I'd love to see any that you create. 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 Tattered Florals Bigz Die

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Rubber Stamps ~ Tiny Words

Distress Ink ~ Walnut Stain, Victorian Velvet

Distress Stain ~ Antique Bronze, Old Paper, Frayed Burlap and Brushed Corduroy

Idea-Ology ~ Film Ribbon, Industrious Stickers, Ephemera Pack, Hinge Clips, Remnant Rubs, Linen Ribbon, Memo Pin, Journaling Tickets, Pen Nibs and Crinkle Ribbon

Wendy Vecchi Crackled Embossing Paste

Wendy Vecchi Metallic Gold Embossing Paste

Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink Pad ~ Potting Soil

Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink ~Potting Soil Reinker

Archival Ink ~ Black

Ranger Size 8 and Size 5 Manila Tags

Ranger Craft Sheet

Ranger Blending Tool

Prima Junkyard Findings and Vintage Button from my own stash