Beer from Japan

The Fleetwood Beer Festival always has interesting World Beers available and we have tried different Hitachino Nest Beer from Japan two years running. The one we tried this year is called DAi DAi Ale which has the most amazing fruity orange taste. I just fell in love with the cute owl on the beer bottle labels too, so inspired by Erika’s recent visit to Japan I decided to use them to create this page!

I started by covering the page with an orange decoupage paper which I patched together so it was mostly pattern matched; like all the paper pieces it is stuck in place using a UHU Stic. The red vertical lines are cut from the same decoupage paper and I fussy cut the Japanese documents from a design paper. They are outlined with a black Derwent Graphik marker and I used a Topaz Spectrum Aqua marker to add shadows smudging the ink with my finger as it was applied. Next I painstakingly added some navy blue dots to the centre of each of the flower circle designs of the decoupage paper; they were made from the die cutting the circular borders. I added the circular borders vertically over the red lines and they are die cut using my Sizzix Big Shot and a Spellbinders die. I used some of the same recycled blue card to back the beer labels that I had soaked from the front and back of two beer bottles; they are stuck to the page using double-sided foam tape. To finish, I added the beer cap to the top left-hand corner of the page from one of the beer bottles.

This beer is brewed by Kiuchi Brewery and they have been brewing Japanese Sake since 1823. They make a number of Hitachino Nest Beers including the two beers shown on my page which are:

• DAi DAi Ale which is brewed with fukuremikan orange and special hops. This is an Indian Pale Ale with a ABV of 6.2%.
• White Ale is a wheat beer flavoured with coriander, orange peel and nutmeg. This is a Belgian style white beer with an ABV of 5.5%. We tried this one last year and I saved the label.

With the owls I have included on this page, I’m joining the Flora and Fauna challenge that I’m hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and I hope to see you there!

Some of my blog-friends created some beautiful tulip artworks over the last couple of months, whilst thinking of spring, so I thought I’d show you our tulips which are now in full bloom!

Here they are when they started flowering and I received them with the fun metal owl (in the background) as a gift last year. I like that the colours and the owl remind me of the page that I sharing with you today (grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs 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:

As I used die cuts on this page, it fits the Stencils, Die Cuts or Both over at Try it on Tuesday where you still have over a week to join in the fun!

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Flowers so I’m pleased to join this theme with my orange flowery background.

I’m also joining Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Animal Magic challenge with the owls I included on my art journal page.

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:

• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.03mm)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Topaz)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Die Cut System (Pearl Effects S5-194)
• Viva Gade Decoupage Paper (London 25584)
• Japanese Panel A4 Design Paper
• Recycled navy blue card
• Beer bottle labels
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape