Art is …

Whilst out walking in the glorious sunshine recently, we saw some beautiful butterflies. So this page is inspired by sunny days, flowers and butterflies!

To remind me of sunny days, I started by blending yellow and parchment Liquitex acrylic paint to make a soft yellow colour and applied it to the page using a baby wipe. I then stamped three different circular images using Memento Inks; these are a doily stamp by Dovecraft using London Fog ink, a circle of swirls which is actually part of a tree by Personal Impressions using Bahama Blue ink and finally a small flower stamp by Woodware Craft which I clustered into a circle using Lulu Lilac ink. Then I used a paintbrush to add very fine splatters of black acrylic paint and large splatters of white acrylic paint. The quote is a stencil from The Crafters Workshop and I used Black Soot Distress Ink and a blending tool to apply it straight onto the background; I like the dreamy look this achieved. Enjoying art journaling as I do, this quote really speaks to me and it reads:

“Art is just another way of expressing our inner most thoughts onto concrete media. Where form and function come together in beauty colour and shape”.

The three main butterfly images are: a tag which I tied with a string bow, a Belize postage stamp from my hubby’s childhood collection and a picture that I fussy cut from an encyclopaedia. They are all stuck to the page using double-sided foam tape. To finish, I added lots of small flower stickers to add some sparkle.

I’m joining the Flora and Fauna theme over at Art Journal Journey and I hope you are inspired by this theme too, it would be great to see you there!

Here is one of the wonderful butterflies we photographed whilst on one of our walks along the Lancaster Canal. This delicate small butterfly is called a Gatekeeper and was basking in the sunshine on the bank of the canal. Some fun facts about this butterfly are:

• Gatekeepers are common and widespread in Europe and the British Isles which has its own subspecies (britanniae).
• The gatekeeper got its name from patrolling hedges and verges, aided so they say, by the sharp black eyespots on its forewings, which have two white pupils.
• As gatekeeper butterflies are commonly found around hedgerows and field gates, they are also known as a “hedge brown”.
• The nectar of bramble/blackberry flowers provides a valuable food source for these butterflies so they are more abundant in the height of summer.

Challenges

As you may know, I enjoy taking part in blog challenges as they provide me with inspiration (whether it be colours, techniques or images) for my pages and they are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

With all the pretty flowers on my page, I’m pleased to join the challenge over at Moo Mania and More where their theme is Even More Flowers.

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Stencil It challenge with my “Art is …” stencilled art journal page.

I’m joining a new challenge today where the lovely Tracey is on the Design Team; it’s over at Paperbabe Stamps and from their #73 Challenge … Picture Inspiration, I choose to create my page of yellow and included the flowers and butterflies too.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Stencil It challenge with the stencilling I used on my art journal page.

I’m also joining Mixed Media World and their theme is Anything Goes…optional Pink; there are a few pink touches o this 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:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Cadmium Yellow Medium, Parchment, Ivory Black)
• Colvin & Co acrylic paint (White Titanium)
• Memento Ink (London Fog, Bahama Blue, Lulu Liliac)
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Black Soot)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Dovecraft Curiosity Corner Clear Stamps (Lace & Doile DCCS009)
• Personal Impressions Marion Emberson Designs (Birds and Trees PICSA6179)
• Woodware Craft Collection Francoise Collection Stamp Set (Flower Style Wood Set FRSWS003)
• The Crafters Workshop Jaime 6×6 Stencil (Mini Art Is TCW261S)
• The Range Craft Tags (CRO740)
• The Dorling Kindersley Illustrated Family Encyclopaedia
• Postage Stamp (Belize 1974)
• Fancy Stickers Sheet (Flowers & Butterflies 28965)
• The Range double-sided foam tape