The Good Old Days

Hello everyone (for the second time, if you've already seen What's On My Workdesk today), and thank you so much for dropping in.  It's lovely to know you're there...  

I'm sharing a triptych with you today; let me start with a quick front and back, and then I'll show you some details.  I managed to capture some late evening sun (up in my usual tree), so there are some photos which really glow nicely with winter gold, though you have to deal with the occasional shadow of a branch!

I knew I wanted to enter the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge to Embrace the Old, as well as Something Old at Live and Love Crafts.  You can interpret them in a number of ways, but I went straight to vintage - one of my favourite styles to play with - I suppose partly because it's a form of time travel.  It's so often where my muse leads me - which is what they'd like to know about over at Frilly and Funkie.

One of the first things that turned me on to Distress Inks and stamping was the possibility of creating things with a look of the Good Old Days.

Like Rachel in Friends (who, when put on the spot, can only come up with Yesteryear and Yore -as in "days of...") I'm not necessarily particular about which period I play in.







I've done some Renaissance style, some Medieval, some 18th Century, but I suppose I'm most often drawn to the Victorian and Edwardian periods.

So when SSSaS asked us to Embrace the Old, my thoughts went straight to some of the gorgeous images created by the delightful Ignacio at Nicecrane Designs - so this also serves as a DT piece for Nicecrane.  The images I've used are from the lovely Children in the Victorian Age III set.

For this triptych, I used my new Cabinet die for the first time, bought in the sales I've been trawling.





I cut three frames from thick chipboard, and gave them a coat of Whitewash acrylic paint on both sides.

Starting with what's officially "the back", I layered some stamping using Archival inks - the Tim Holtz script from the Apothecary set, an Artistic Outpost flourish - part of a larger stamp in the Serenity set, and a shabby clock by Prima.

I also inked around the edges with Vintage Photo DI, and added some White Fire Treasure Gold for a gilded look.

I altered some metal embellishments - the TH Idea-ology bookplate and one of his clock faces as well as a decorative picture frame that I got on ebay.  

They've had a coat of Snowflake Fresco paint by PaperArtsy, some Vintage Photo inking, and then I sanded with an emery board to reveal some of the metal again.

Once the picture frame had been altered, I cut one of the Nicecrane images to fit (anyone who has a magic way to cut ovals to particular sizes when you can't draw round them, I'd love to know about it).

When she was in place, I added a layer of Glossy Accents to create a glassy domed cameo effect, which I think you can see quite well in the close-up above.

I'm very pleased with the shabby chic, worn effect on the metal pieces.  And I also love my new little alphabet stamps, the Playful Letters by Hero Arts.

I shan't be abandoning my little £1 alphabet completely, but for now these are a new favourite way to add words to projects.






If we turn over to the "front" (I like both sides, so I'm reluctant to make a definitive decision on what's front and what's back!), you see three more images from the set.

I cut them using the arched house from the Artful Dwellings die; it echoes the arch of the cabinet die beautifully, though they did need to be trimmed slightly shorter at the bottom.

And I layered them onto the panels with some frayed cheesecloth in between.










At the foot of each image I added some paper lace.  I took some plain paper cut using the TH Vintage Lace Decorative Strip Die, distressed it with some Vintage Photo DI, and gave it a coat of UTEE.

For the background, I stuck some of the glorious TH tissue wrap Melange onto my painted chipboard.  And in another version of "embracing the old", I edged these panels using my all-time favourite floral flourish by Stampology - which has been with me since the beginning of this crazy crafting journey.











The delicate wooden flourishes are by Crafty Emblies, and embellished with some of the mulberry paper roses I got on ebay.







The panels are joined together with some TH jump rings which have also had some painty attention, slotted through holes made with the smallest setting on my revolving punch.  

And there you have it...  Apologies for the long post, but it was a complicated piece, and needed lots of pictures.  If you're still with me on my little time-travelling journey into the past, thank you so much for taking the time - I really do appreciate every single visitor and comment.





History, with its flickering lamp, stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.
Winston Churchill

I'm entering this in the following:
Embrace the Old at Simon Says Stamp and Show
Vintage Stamping Challenges, appropriately enough, would like to see something Vintage this month
At Loves Rubberstamps Challenges they want to see Dies or Punches being used
Live and Love Crafts want to see Something Old - vintage all the way for me
And Frilly and Funkie's first challenge of the New Year is to Follow Your Muse... mine has once again led me down a vintage path

If you like the images, you can find them here... 

And it's well worth a visit to Nicecrane Designs in any case - there's a wealth of amazing images, and incredibly reasonably priced.