Life is like a tea cup

It was a beautiful sunny day on Friday so we decided to we walk into town and run some errands, we also stopped by Alices Tea Room where we saw a pottery teacup sign saying “Life is like a teacup, to be filled to the brim and enjoyed with friends”. This reminded me of our T Day get together over at T Stands for Tuesday so I created this page!

I wanted to experiment and create a background that looked like old cracked plaster work, so I started by sketching some crack marks on my page and then covered the page with white gesso using a palette knife. Next I used Spectrum Aqua markers to add some colour by scribbling the ink on an acrylic block and applying them with a baby wipe, I also dragged the acrylic block across the page so the ink added texture. I then emphasised the crack marks I had sketched by painting diluted Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker ink over them and adding fine detail using a black Uni Pin marker and a white gel pen. I fussy cut a teacup image and stuck it to the page using a UHU Stic, then I painted the image using Derwent Inktense pencils to emphasis the colours, patterns and textures. I covered the rose buds on the image with silk ones which I cut in half to reduce their thickness and adhered using Glossy Accents. I added paper twine to a tag, distressed the edges and stuck it down using double-sided foam tape. The torn papers are from a paper pack from my local craft shop, which I edged with the Cold Grey Big Brush marker and stuck to the page using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium. Then I added more fine detail to the image and torn paper edges using a black Uni Pin marker and white gel pen. Next I adorned the page with some adhesive fabric patterned with little roses which I cut out and also some lace outline stickers and leaf border stickers. To finish I stamped the sentiment onto tissue paper using Archival Ink and attached it to the page using Matte Gel Medium.

As my inspiration was the sign I saw whilst “Out and About”, I’m pleased to be able to join Yvonne from Meggy’s Way again over at Art Journal Journey.

We were delighted to visit Alices Tea Room again. Here is the pretty little teacup sign we saw on one of the dressers in the Tea Room.

We sat in another part of Alices this time and had a lovely view of the toadstools and flowers adorning the window.

There is so much thought and detail gone into the interior design – there are stairs on the ceiling and chairs as lights, upside down electric plug sockets and even the door fittings are back to front!

We were kindly bought a voucher for afternoon tea as a gift, which we decided to use as it was such a sunshiny day. There was a delicious selection of sandwiches, crisps (chips) and salad.

We also had the yummy scones which we topped with cream, strawberry jam and fresh strawberries. The mismatched tea service caught my eye too with the beautiful gold patterned plate and the tiny roses on the saucer.

It was all accompanied by a pot or two of green tea, don’t you just love the table – “I’m late, I’m late for a very important date!” Luckily this isn’t true for my weekly catch up with Elizabeth and Bluebeard over at T Stands for Tuesday, where you share a drink and chat to the T Gang – wishing you all a Happy T Day!

Although the top tier of cakes was very tempting especially with the fondant icing “Eat me” on top, we were full up and so we took them all home to enjoy the next day.  What a wonderful time we had, hope you enjoyed it too!

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
• Spectrum Aqua Markers (Lime, Olive, Moss, Slate)
• Derwent Inktense Ink Pencils (Shiraz 0600, Fushia 0700, Field Green 1500, Leaf Green 1600, Mustard 1700, Willow 1900)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Dovecraft upper and lower case Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
• Craft pack of patterned papers
• Teacup image
• White tissue paper
• The Range (Craft Tags CRO740 PO/21200)
• Wilko (Paper Twine)
• Poundworld (Adhesive Pattern Fabric U-80945)
• Docrafts Anita’s Outline Stickers (Delicate Lace Borders – white ANT8101510)
• PSX Design Stickers (Florentine Alphabet Green SR6042)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• X-Press It double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape