All Things Pumpkin

As you may know I love all things pumpkin, so today my page gives thanks to this autumnal treat. I’m also pleased to say a big hello to the T Gang over at T Stands for Tuesday – Happy T day!

The background is inspired by a great technique I discovered on one of my blog friend’s posts and I just had to try it out. Her site is called Blending Colours and here’s the post. Although I didn’t have the exact same products I decided to improvise and give it a go using Colourcraft Brusho Colours and Liquitex matte gel medium. So I sprinkled two colours of Brusho Powders onto the page then painted gel medium over the top using a wet paint brush (as I found it thins down the gel medium). I made sure that I kept the brush strokes in the same direction and was rewarded with this lovely wood grain effect. I really like the colour variation and think this is because each Brusho colour is made of separate colour components. Once the gel medium had dried I added a border using ink from a Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and an old plastic gift card and added highlights using a Uniball Signo white gel pen. Next I applied the sentiments which are rub-on transfers by Royal & Langnickel and the label from a bottle of Pumpkin Spice syrup. As we had discovered the syrup in a Moose Coffee shop I cut a moose out of paper from a Craft Asylum Paper Pad, then I outlined it with a black Sharpie marker and stuck it to the page using double-sided foam tape. To finish I punched out some hearts from the same paper and stuck them to the page using a UHU Stic, outlining them with a Uni Pin black marker once the glue had dried.  This new technique with the gel medium and Brusho powders is certainly one I will try again, I think there are endless applications for this effect.

Last week you may remember seeing Linda’s delicious pumpkin roll that she had baked. I was so impressed I decided to try making one myself. This is the recipe I found and although it rose too high making it a little thick to roll, it was still light and fluffy and tasted wonderful. Definitely one I’d have again and it was perfect with a nice cup of tea. Thanks for the inspiration Linda, although I’d love to try your recipe as it looks so much more professional than mine!

Our pumpkin beer is finally ready to drink, so over the weekend we decided to try it. It came out really nice with a lovely hint of pumpkin and the smell of pumpkin spices. This is the 27th batch of beer that my hubby has brewed, it’s a nice coppery colour and came in at 5.78% abv (alcohol by volume). We first had pumpkin beer on holiday (vacation) in Maine at Federal Jacks bar in Kennebunkport where they serve it with a shot of spiced rum added, so to remain authentic, we tried it that way too. It’s so nice and warming on a cold autumn day, though I limit myself to only one as it’s quite potent!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Colourcraft Brusho Colours (Dark Brown, Yellow)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush artist pen (Black 199)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Sharpie Permanent Fine Point marker (Black)
• Creative Rox Craft Asylum Paper Pad (Into the woods 480326)
• Syrup label
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Transfers (Thanksgiving Sentiments #ROY522 RUB-ON)
• Tonic Studios Paper Punch Accent (Hearts Sider 830E)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• The Range Double-sided foam tape