Flora and Fauna

I am so delighted to be hosting Art Journal Journey this month and my challenge is

Flora and Fauna

For this challenge Flora refers to plant life and Fauna to the animal kingdom. In nature, flora and fauna compliment each other, so it’s up to you to decide whether you include only plants, animals or combine the two together.

I started by selecting stamps of plant life and animals from my craft stash; for Flora I chose a tree, some different flowers, leaves and fruit and then for Fauna I chose a bird, some insects including a bee, butterflies and a dragonfly, a hedgehog and some paw prints. I stamped my flora stamps onto white tissue paper and my fauna stamps onto brown tissue paper using black Archival Ink which I used for all of the stamping on this page. Well that’s what I thought anyway, but as you can see this is correct for all except the bee, I think he must be flying onto the white flora tissue paper to find the flowers (grin!). Then I ripped the edges of the tissue paper and stuck them onto the page using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium along with some gold star tissue paper and homemade papers which I made sometime ago using brown tissue paper and a Script stamp and also white tissue paper and a Sheet Music stamp. Once the gel medium was dry, I also stamped the corresponding wording “Flora” or “Fauna” directly onto the page alongside each stamped image and edged them using Willow and Ink Black Derwent Inktense pencils and a black Derwent Graphik marker. Then I added two different brown washi tapes, the thicker one depicts a flower, butterfly, bird and squirrel to tie into the theme and they are all edged with the Willow and Ink Black Derwent Inktense pencils. Next I arranged some wooden tiles for the “Flora” and “Fauna” wording and also some colourful postage stamps from my hubby’s childhood collection which portray different flora and fauna. The postage stamps are stuck to the page using a UHU Stic and as you can see I kept the flora ones at the top of the page and the fauna ones at the bottom to correspond with the tile wording that I had added. To finish, I stamped different words onto white tissue paper and stuck them onto the page using UHU Stic; they detail types of flora and fauna:

• as flora refers to plant life the words I added included flower, fruit, tree, leaf, fungi
• as fauna refers to the animal kingdom I included the words bird, reptile, fish, amphibian, insect, mammal.

I hope that this art journal page provides you with some ideas for your designs and that you are inspired by this month’s Flora and Fauna theme over at Art Journal Journey too. I am really looking forward to visiting you and seeing all your wonderful creations!

As some of you know, my art journal pages are inspired by things I see and do and I often share photographs along with my journal page to illustrate this. So I thought I would share a couple of different Flora and Fauna collages using photographs that have featured on my blog over the last couple of years – I hope you like them! This first one reminds me of springtime as most of the photos were taken this time of year.

This one reminds me of summer walks and happy discoveries!

If you are looking for my post featuring the new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday or T Stands for Tuesday, please click here.

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Art Journal Journey, as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

With the page focusing on stamping and animals, I’m pleased to be able to join Fashionable Stamping Challenges and their Animals challenge.

I’m also joining the Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

With the collaged tissue background and all the stamping on this page, I’m also pleased to join the creative challenge over at The Artistic Stamper where the theme is Backgrounds.

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:

• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Derwent Inktense Pencils (Willow 1900, Ink Black 2200)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.05mm)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Sanguine 188 B)
• Hampton Art Graphic 45 cling mounted rubber stamps (Tropical Travelogue ICO133)
• Hampton Art Bella Blvd cling mounted rubber stamps (Sand & Surf ICO226)
• Hampton Art 7 Gypsies cling mounted rubber stamps (Birdsong ICO135)
• Art Impressions wood mounted rubber stamp (Tree P-1398, 4 Point Star Background G2983)
• Papermania wood mounted rubber stamp (Daffodil Tile 39454)
• Magenta wood mounted rubber stamp (Flowers & Dots 2111D)
• Royal & Langnickel Clear Choice Stamps (Pressed Leaves MIN-CCS102)
• Hampton Art wood mounted rubber stamp (Cherry Background KN2466)
• Eco Green Recycled Rubber Art Stamps (Petal Party #04309)
• Free Stamp Set with Craft Beautiful Magazine (Winter Wonderland)
• Stampendous wood mounted rubber stamp (Tiny Paw AA017)
• Sugarloaf Inc. wood mounted rubber stamp (26551)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Script CS752)
• Woodware Craft Collection Clear Magic Singles (Sheet Music JGS111)
• Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
• Tissue Paper (White, Brown)
• Postage Stamps from my hubby’s childhood collection (Ghana, Rhodesia, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, Bulgaria, Ceylon, Australia, Hungary, Romania, Dominica, Kenya)
• Crelando (Decorative Tape)
• The Works (Wooden Alphabet Tiles)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic