Dream, Play, Grow

Hello everyone.  I'm very excited to be hosting the second challenge at A Vintage Journey, and there's no big surprise about the theme I'm offering up.  I would like you to Say It With Words!

Tim Holtz makes it so easy to "say it with words".  You could use one of the many fantastic sentiment stamps, or ChitChat stickers, AlphaParts, Grungeboard lettering (either pre-cut, or using the fabulous WordPlay die), or any of the other alphabet stamps or dies you can think of, or all of them together!  Whatever you pick, let the words be at the heart of your project.

You can find all the challenge details and rules here at A Vintage Journey, along with lots of amazing inspiration from my fantastic team-mates... but before you go rushing off, here's my starter for ten for you.

Words have always been central to my life (at work and at play).

I love them for their meanings, their sounds and also for how decorative they can be.  

So there's decorative script stamping here, a sentiment which means a great deal to me, and the three large AlphaParts words on the tags which are there for their meanings, but also want to be said out loud!

There's even a bonus thought on the back - but we'll get to that!

I started with a jumbo tag... the size 12 (10.5 x 5.125 inches), and folded it to create a little wallet.










The inking on the outside is a combination of Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge, with some darker accents coming in later from Walnut Stain and Black Soot.

And I used my new favourite TH stencil - the latticework pattern.









I covered three small tags with old book pages and inked them up to match.  

The lettering is the Newsprint AlphaParts, and I've simply dabbed Antique Linen Distress Paint directly onto the surface - doing my best to leave the bases black, to give extra dimension.








The glorious Papillon text is stamped randomly in Sienna Archival ink, and the main recurring images along with the words are - again, no surprise - butterflies.

The horizontal Papillons appear here on the cover.











I've used a couple of Idea-ology Hitch Fasteners for the closure, with little metal tassels added to the end of some pale twine to fasten it.














Undo that, and you open up to the interior...

On the inside, I did some marbling and some wrinkle-free distress technique using Distress Paints in similar colours, but with Antique Linen added to the mix.  

And once it was all dry, I also did some inking and stencilling on the inside too.












The vertical Papillon butterflies take pride of place on the central panel.

They're stamped in a combination of Coffee and Black Archival, and clear embossed.











The largest was stamped a second time on acetate and cut out to add that little lift towards flight.










The sentiment is an absolute favourite - not least because it hits very close to home!  

Again it's stamped in the two colours, and clear embossed for extra definition and the "now you see it, now you don't" factor.














The other mini tags take their place on the left wing, with two of the other actions necessary to discovering who you want to be.
















You need to dream, play, and grow, I'd say (all long, monosyllabic, open vowel sounds - full of space and time).













And there's no need to have any destination in mind on this particular journey.












As well as the Papillon text, echoing the outside cover, I've used my favourite script stamp here - from the Apothecary set - stamped in Antique Linen Distress Paint.

(Spot the tiny rub-on lettering too!)












And I simply couldn't resist adding some meadow flowers - layered in Rusty Hinge DI and Coffee Archival.








All done?  Well, not quite... there's one final bonus to this tag wallet.

On the back of the outside I've stamped another absolute favourite (one that doesn't get to come out and play very often, sadly). 

This is a Unity stamp by Christy Tomlinson, and you don't need me to tell you that these words are also central to my way of thinking.














Again it's the double ink stamping - I love the shading effect you get.












Some Antique Linen DP splatter and we're finally there...

I hope this will inspire you to Say It With Words at A Vintage Journey. You have a fortnight to play, and we'd love to see what you come up with.  Remember it's Vintage or Tim Holtz style, and with words at the heart of it.  See you there!







Words can light fires in the minds of men.  Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.
From The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

From one challenge to another - I'd like to enter this in A Splash of Colour at the Inspiration Journal challenge sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium.