Mrs. Claus

Whilst visiting family over Christmas, we came across a sign in a café window and I instantly knew it had to become a journal page as it’s served with Christmas Cheer!

The sign was wooden so to create this effect I started by using a technique I have used before which is Colourcraft Brusho Colours and Liquitex Matte Gel Medium. I sprinkled Brusho powders onto the page then painted the gel medium over the top, keeping my brush strokes in the same direction. I added more texture with Pine Needles Distress Ink, running the ink pad vertically down the page and using a blending tool to lightly disperse the colour, I then covered this in gel medium too. The result was quite bright so I added a very thin layer of white gesso to some parts of the page, then covered the whole page with Crushed Corduroy Distress Ink using a blending tool. To achieve a glossy finish and make the green and brown pop more I applied a coat of diluted PVA glue. I then edged the page with a black Big Brush marker which I applied using an old gift card. I fussy cut the words from a photo of the sign and stuck them to the page with a UHU Stic. When the glue had dried I outlined them with a white Uniball gel pen and a black Uni Pin marker. The teacup and saucer are also from the sign and I enhanced the colours and design using Derwent Inktense pencils. I painted tea in the cup using diluted Tea Dye Distress Ink and a white gel pen. For the tag, I distressed the edges with scissors, stamped red script using Memento Ink and edged it with Distress Inks. I stamped the words onto the tag using black Archival Ink and added some highlights with a white gel pen. I wanted the tag to depict the tag from a teabag immersed in the cup so I inserted the string under the rim of the cup before I stuck it down with a UHU Stic. I used the same white gel pen to overwrite the “served with Christmas Cheer!” and cut it out with fun scissors then edged it with Distress Ink and white gel pen and stuck it to the page with a UHU Stic. To finish I added a lovely red bow recycled from a bag of shortbread biscuits, a beautiful glass candy cane which is a wine glass charms that I picked up in a local Charity Shop, as well as the red snowflakes and little gem stones.

I thought we would join Mrs. Claus, so we chose tea which is served in our new Christmas mugs along with mince pies – delicious! We got these china mugs as Christmas presents, a Robin one for me and one for my hubby with his initial on – aren’t they gorgeous! I’m saying a big hello to the T Gang over at T Stands for Tuesday – Happy T Day! I hope you all had the best of times over Christmas and wishing you a very Happy New Year!

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:

• Pébéo White Gesso
• Colourcraft Brusho Colours (Emerald Green, Dark Brown)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Pine Needles, Brushed Corduroy, Black Soot)
• Memento Ink (Love Letter)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Artist’s Pen (Black 199)
• Derwent Inktense Ink Pencils (Poppy Red 0400, Teal Green 1300, Apple Green 1400)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Kaisercraft clear stamps (Script CS572)
• Docrafts A5 clear stamp set (Alphas Folk DCE 907115)
• Home Bargains (Recycled Tags)
• Poundland (Christmas Craft Pack 17139-MC16)
• Oaktree UK Eleganza Craft Stickers (3mm 418 Gems Red No.16)
• Pier Wine Charms
• Fun Cut Scissors
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Everbuild PVA Bond
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape
• Xpress It double-sided tape