With the recent Chinese New Year, our new Thai cookery books and shopping at an Asian supermarket, I was inspired to create this page.
The background is painted using Distress Ink which I applied like watercolour using a paintbrush and diluting the ink with water on an acrylic block. I was amazed by the texture I achieved just with my painting and I think the vibrancy of the colours ties into the Asian theme too. Next I stamped ink from a Terracotta Spectrum Aqua marker using a Kaisercraft stamp, which merged with the background because Distress Inks are reactivated when they become wet, which I like. Next I tore pieces of black and gold card from the Eastern Promise themed topper pack from Hunkydory and edged them with a gold metallic marker, and then stuck them to the page with double-sided foam tape. I also added butterflies which I punched out of the same card using a Tonic Studios Simplicity punch. The oriental style dream tag, birds and red sun, flowers and butterflies are stickers by Penny Black. I really like the transparency of the stickers and added some shadow around them with an Aqua marker then doodled around them using a black Uni Pin marker to add further definition. The gold lines, flowers and dots are outline stickers which I outlined with a black Uni Pin marker to make them stand out more. To finish I added some green rhinestones to add extra sparkle.
We love cooking and eating Chinese and Indian food and as we enjoyed our visit to The Giggling Squid Thai restaurant so much, we bought a couple of Thai cookbooks to add to our growing cookbook collection. Of course that meant a trip to our local Asian supermarket to stock up on ingredients as most of them cannot be found in our regular store. This included Thai basil, galangal, shrimp paste, chilli bean paste and a variety of curry pastes for our new Thai recipes, black beans and oyster sauce for our Chinese cooking and creamed coconut for our Thai and Indian curries.
Before you enter the Supermarket itself, you are greeted with a lovely array of fruit and veg. We always stock up on fresh herbs, Cyprus potatoes and fruit – this time we treated ourselves to lychee, yum!
The shelves are full of goodies, this is the spice section where we bought our Kaffir Lime Leaves for our Thai recipes and on opposite side of the aisle are all the nuts and dried fruits.
They have a wide range of tea and coffee, we always buy our favourite Chinese Gunpowder Green Tea.
Here is the green tea in our glass teapot from Japan, it makes two mugs of tea, just enough for hubby and me. As T Stands for Tuesday I’m saying a big hello to the T Gang – Happy T day!
I’m also pleased to be able to join Linda’s theme “50 Shades of Red” over at Art Journal Journey.
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:
- Spectrum Aqua Marker (Terracotta, Slate)
- Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire)
- Script metallic pen (Gold)
- Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
- Kaisercraft clear stamps (Sketchy CS878)
- Hunkydory Crafts Luxury Topper Collection (Eastern Promise EAST104)
- Penny Black 2006 Stickeroos (Butterfly Party #10-181)
- Tonic Studios Simplicity Punch (Flora & Fauna Butterfly 916E)
- Magenta Style Outline Stickers (Daisy Gold 93326G)
- Hobbycraft Outline Stickers (Gold Scenes 5934211001)
- Hobbycraft Stickers (Green Rhinestone 5971511004)
- The Range double-sided foam tape
Lovely page! We love Chinese and Thai food, too. You’re lucky to have such a wonderful Asian supermarket locally. You’ve inspired me now to try some Thai cooking!
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Thanks so much Kristah! The Asian supermarket is fascinating, I could spend all day looking around as they have so many ingredients I haven’t seen before 🙂 . Enjoy your Thai cooking 🙂 and wishing you a great week! J 🙂
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What a wonderful post! I love Thai food too. Ever since I travelled round Thailand and Cambodia in the early 70s. I only ate street food because it was so scrumptious, and it gets cooked in front of your eyes, so you can check hat goes into it (lol).
Lucky you that you have an Asian supermarket nearby. But I remember our local Asian supermarket in Bristol when we lived there. A fascinating place. Thank you for sharing photos of the shop.
Your journal page is beautiful. I love those butterflies.
Happy Valentine’s T-Day,
Lisca
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Lol … I bet the street food was amazing! Bristol is such a great place, I have spent many happy times there :-). Thanks very much and wishing you the happiest T Days on this Valentine’s Day! J 🙂
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What a gorgeous page! We don’t go to the Asian supermarket any more, seeing this I think we may start again! Hugs, Chrisx
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Thank you Chris! Have fun at the Asian supermarket and wishing you a Happy T Day! J 🙂
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I love your Asian inspired piece Jo. The red really pops off those more muted colored in the background. And wow-that is a huge Asian market. We have one in Portsmouth but it is way way smaller than this one. Still, I love going in because I always find so many interesting things. Hope you enjoyed your homemade Thai food. 🙂 Happy T day. Hugs-Erika
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The supermarket is huge and has two floors, we only went to the ground floor to shop for food so next time we visit I hope to look upstairs at the homewares :-). Many thanks Erica and wishing you a Happy T Day! J 🙂
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super page Jo! Not so familiar with Thai cuisine but how gorgeous that ethnic shop looks! It reminds me of when I got into Indian cooking and shopped for the special spices. And I still enjoy it very much. Happy arting, happy cooking and happy T day too! Thanks for joining again at AJJ too!
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Thanks Linda! It’s fun looking round the shop, there is so much to see :-). Happy T Day! J 🙂
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I was surprised how similar your Asian market looked like the one I go to. They seem to have the similar theme, too. Fresh fruits and veggies that are foreign to “regular” markets, as well as the various spices and ingredients to create great Thai food. It is wonderful to see that although we live so far apart, our Asian markets are so similar. I’ve never seen those lime leaves, though, and would love to find them at my market.
Your beautiful Asian inspired journal page is beautiful. Isn’t that background technique incredible? I know the first time I tried it, I was shocked at how nicely mine turned out. Yours is fabulous. Your butterflies are the shining stars of the journal page.
I love your little tea pot, and admire that you chose loose leaf tea, which I prefer, too. I’m still looking for Jasmine flower tea. I can find straight Jasmine, but none with the little white flowers that make the tea so much more special.
Thanks for sharing your incredible art journal page, your Asian market, and your darling tea pot with green tea for T this Tuesday. I wish we lived closer. I always grow Thai basil in my garden every year and would gladly share mine with you.
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Thanks, that is very kind of you! Your Thai Basil would be much appreciated and a great addition to our Thai dishes :-). Jasmine Flower Tea sounds delicious, I’ll look out for ir next time. Happy T Day! J 🙂
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This page is gorgeous dear Jo – I love how all the elements and colours go so beautifully together in that pieces and what an AMAZING supermarket! I really can smell all the exotic flair of the spices – looks like a fantastic place to visit!
I also would like to taste this fabulous green tea- it is for sure much better than the cheap ones I had tasted yet!
I am pleased with this lovely entry you made for Linda’s theme and say Thank you!♥♥♥!!
Another wowser for the collection over at Art Journal Journey!
Happy T-Day dear Jo!
oxo Susi
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The supermarket is amazing, I could spend all day there and it sounds like you would really enjoy looking around too :-). I really love the vibrancy of this page and had so much fun creating it, the design seemed to just flow together. Thanks so much and wishing you a Happy T Day! J 🙂
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Beautiful journal page and love all the food you bought at the Asian shop. Enjoy your delicious cooking nd green tea, happy T Day, hugs, Valerie
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Thanks dear Valerie 🙂 . Happy T Day! J 🙂
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i love the Piece you created with that awesome grungy texture! and i envy you for this asian Supermarket. i don´t think i would get everything i needed here. but i love asian Food, too. and good you are reminding me of green tea, it is said to be quite healthy.
happy t-day, jo!
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Thank you! I really enjoyed creating the background for this page :-). For us green tea is a treat once a day, the rest of the time we tend to drink hot water. Happy T Day! J 🙂
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Beautiful Asian page – I like especially the red butterflies! And the background with this fabulous texture! Your glass tea pot looks great, there the flavour of the tea will be delicious!
Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy T Day!
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Thanks so much Rike! The glass teapot does make the perfect cup of tea :-). Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy T Day! J 🙂
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What a great shop to explore and buy your Asian ingredients. I could spend quite a while browsing those shelves. Your page looks wonderful and those beautiful butterflies seem to be flying from the page.
Happy T Day
Yvonne xx
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Thanks a lot Yvonne! It’s such a wonderful place to explore and you can spend many happy hours looking around. I’m really pleased with those beautiful butterflies too and I love the way this page turned out. Wishing you a Happy T Day! J 🙂
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It all looks terrific and the little tea pot is wonderful
Happy T Day
Love Chrissie xx
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Thanks Chrissie! Wishing you a very Happy T Day! 🙂
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You are much more adventurous in you cooking than i’am… Any Chinese food , Korean etc… is always eaten out…lol! Love your ArtJournal page too… so pretty… Happy happy T day! Hugs! deb
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Lol … it’s so nice to go out and have it cooked for you too :-). Thanks very much and have a very Happy T Day! J 🙂
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GREAT JOURNAL PAGE ♥♥♥ Nice market too. Before we moved to the country we lived in the Metro/St.Louis Missouri are and were lucky enough to live close to a small Asian market that had all sorts of yummy and “INTERESTING” things. It was enjoyable to just browse around and see what you could find. After moving to the country I never made it back often and then whey were gone. A victim of city expansion of some sort and I never found out if they relocated or just retired. Happy T Day!!!
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It sounds like you had fun visiting the Asian market, such a shame it’s now gone. Thanks so much, this page was so enjoyable to create :-). Wishing you a very Happy T Day! J 🙂
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Wow, when you do a theme you really carry it through. Art. Food (-: The little tea pot is darling. I used to drink a tea by Celestial Seasonings called Morning Thunder. It was a black gunpowder tea. Haven’t seen it in years. Have a Happy T Day
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Thanks so much, I love creating art it helps me breathe and is a lovely reminder of my life! The little teapot is cute and makes a lovely cup of tea :-). Happy T Day! J 🙂
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Your Asian post is a delight!! Love the colorful art you created…it flows so nicely and gorgeous colors. Thanks for taking us shopping, and for the tea! Happy T day! ♥
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Thanks so much! Nice play on words too, using the word “delight” made me smile … lol :-). Wishing you happiness this T Day! J 🙂
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we went to the Asian supermarket at the weekend too and have been making spring rolls..love your page
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Mmm, your homemade spring rolls sound so delicious! Thanks for your lovely comments and wishing you a great week! J 🙂
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A stunning page! I love the your painted background with the punch of red, fabulous! Xx
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Thanks so much Alison! I really like the way it turned out too :-). Happy Wednesday! J 🙂
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Lovely page, Jo. You’re brave to try your hand at Thai cooking – so many ingredients! What a fascinating market. A freind and I are going to a Thai restaurant this Friday. I shall report back;-)
HapptyDay! Hugs, Eileen
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Oh, how lovely I bet you and your friend will have a wonderful time! Happy T Day this Wednesday! J 🙂
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hi jo,your page are stunning,love the softness of the backround and the red butterflies,so amazing work.
wishing you a great week 🙂
hugs jenny
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Thanks very much Jenny! Wishing you a great week too! J 🙂
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I’ve never had gunpowder green tea, but I’d love to try it some day. I enjoy Asian and Indian food but am very insecure about cooking it myself lol. It’s restaurants for me, I’m afraid.
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I love cooking and enjoy the challenge of making these lovely recipes 🙂 . Wishing you a great week! J 🙂
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Hi Jo! A lovely page with an adorable design!
The Asian supermarket looks amazing, I’m sure you’ll do delicious meals with these yummy ingredients. I adore your Japanese glass teapot!
Mar 🙂
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Thank you Mar, you are very kind! We have already made a red Thai curry which tasted amazing :-). Happy Friday and have a great weekend! J 🙂
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Hi Jo! I absolutely love the work of art you created for the 50 shades of red theme! Our youngest daughter is adopted from China, so we celebrated Chinese New Year, too, by going out to our favorite Asian restaurant. I loved reading about The Giggling Squid and your local Asian food market, too!
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Your page is really gorgeous Jo and beautifully coloured (love that red).
We love Thai food too (home made) – looking at all the lovely ingredients you got, I can imagine the very tasty meal you’ll be creating – any chance of sending any leftovers down here? no? …you’ve eaten it all! 😦
Hope you have a great weekend… Gill xx
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Thanks Gill! You always make me smile … I’d be happy to share my leftovers with you … lol :-). Have a great weekend too! J 🙂
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Your artwork here is tremendous, I love the way it is on a slant, and the colour scheme with the magenta/pink reds and lime and black and white and the coffee coloured “dream” is just great. Love the butterflies and flowers too. I do like this very much.
How interesting to read about the Asian food in the Supermarket. Now you have given us somewhere else to go to and suggested some new food to investigate.
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What a lovely page you created!I wish we had Asian food in our supermarket Wonderful ingredients you have there!Happy belated T Day!
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Many thanks Karla and wishing you a Happy belated T Day too! J 🙂
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