Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Family Portrait


For this project I was inspired by one of my many, many collections: vintage tintypes. Not only do I like the look of these early photographs, they always pique my curiosity about the lives of the people shown. 


In keeping with the age of the tintypes, I decided to use vintage book cloth torn off of vintage book covers as one of the ingredients. I love the natural fade to the bluish-green book cover and the textured brown of the leather-like cover.



I wanted to echo the Victorian-feel of the tintype in the piece, so I decided to use dies from Spellbinders to create both a frame and a background. For the background, I nested two dies from the Elegant Labels Four set...


...and cut from the brown book cloth that was pulled off of the cover.


For the tintype frame, I used the third die from the same set and used it to cut the bluish-green book cloth, also pulled off from the book cover. I cut the same shape from a piece of card stock to glue behind the book cloth to make it sturdier.


To create the frame for the tintype, I cut out the central portion of this die cut and added some dimension by rubbing it with some dye ink from an ink pad.


I threaded two small strips of hand painted paper through the slots at either end of the frame and then glued it to the tintype, which was cut to match the shape of the frame.


To stay true to the source of the book cloth, I decided to use a piece of book board, cut to approximately 7" x 5.5", as the substrate for this piece. I covered it with light weight paper and painted the surface an amber shade with acrylic paint. It was distressed a bit with dye ink as well.


With all the ingredients now ready, I assembled the pieces to create "Family Portrait" and feel like I have honored the couple in the tintype and given them new life!






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Supply List

Spellbinders Paper Art Supplies:

GC-001 SpellbindersTM Grand Calibur® Machine
S6-005 SpellbindersTM Nestabilities® Elegant Labels Four

Other: tintype, book board, vintage book cloth, paper, card stock, acrylic paint, dye ink, adhesive, dauber applicator, paint brush, scissors, guillotine paper cutter

25 comments:

PocketSize said...

Wow, that is beautiful! I may have to invest in some of those Spellbinders dies. I love the materials and colors you put together in this piece, and the particular dies you used really do make the look.

Kathryn Dyche said...

You have a great eye for color, texture and layers.

elle said...

Brilliant!

tndj said...

So beautiful and love the layers.

Angela said...

Amazing. Love how you created the patina on the book-board and the aging on the whole project is just fantastic.
New follower
Angela

Robyn said...

nice project

Anonymous said...

beautiful work, as always, seth. i LOVE that photograph and that border is sooooo beautiful! i've never had or wanted a die cut machine but i do now! i had no idea there were such pretty and fun things to make with it!

Ita said...

Hi this card and all the work you did is so different.
Smiles
Ita

Stephi said...

wow!!! Stunning work!

HappyScrappin said...

Love the book cloth leather look. Beautiful and creative.

scrapally said...

love love love it.thanks for sharing....I love doing old pics as well and can't wait to try this.....

Unknown said...

This is completely awesome Seth. Completely!! N, xo

Jo Murray said...

Lovely work Seth. Those tintypes are a great find.

Unknown said...

Wow....I really love this piece. Now, I need to find the materials you used.

Debra Lovell said...

WOW! Really cool! Love,Love,Love the papers.Im now a follower,as you have some Great Inspiration!! Thanks! "Happy Spring"

Unknown said...

just beautiful what an inspiration

Leslie said...

Awesome job, Seth! Love everything about this!

Parabolic Muse said...

This is stunning, Seth. And that blue!
Not sure I've ever seen a tintype. They are really cool looking.

Anonymous said...

Seth this is awesome do u know if I can use Tim holtz vagabond with these dies? Thanks Francine

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the process Seth!

bellefrogworks said...

Wow Seth - that is just gorgeous. I don't do vintage very well - but I love how it looks. You have such a talent for combining things like old book cloth and dies and creating something very unique!

Lynn Cohen said...

So much work goes into your creations! Another prize winner this!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I can't believe how much that die cutting machine has changed your art. It's fantastic to see a die cutting machine used by a mixed media person and not a scrapbooker. I remember someone asked me one time what could be done with a die cutting machine if they didn't scrap or make cards. I didn't know how to answer the person, but now I'll just send her to your blog!! Lovely use of the machine, the dies, and the other materials.

vetrafurniture said...

Hey thanks for posting the great information.I hope you spent lot of time for update this Blog. family portrait photography

Lagene said...

Fantastic vintage portrait!