Happy January

I love the snow so had the idea of creating an all white page with some fabulous new Tim Holtz Thinlets and this lovely black and white photo of a little girl in the snow – Happy January everyone!

I started by covering the background in snowfall, firstly by layering a snowflake stamp and a snow dot stamp by Sheena Douglas using Hickory Smoke Distress Ink, London Fog Memento Ink and Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink. Then I stamped the circular snow stamps from BoBunny using Black Archival Ink by stamping the image on a piece of card first then onto the page to create a lighter image. With the background finished, I added the photo of the pretty little girl in the snow which is recycled from an old magazine and mounted onto a piece of card. As you may have noticed, the circular BoBunny stamps in the background have words on them which say “Frozen, Love, Snow, Sled, Winter” which seemed the perfect match for the little girl image.

I added the word “January” which is also recycled, this time from an old calendar. Then I decorated the page with some snowflakes from a Tonic Studios die set, a Spellbinders leaf swirl die and lots of Tim Holtz foliage and Tim Holtz tree thinlets, all of which are cut out of white card stock using my Big Shot machine. The Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets that I used to create the foliage included Garden Greens and also a new addition to my craft stash, the Holiday Greens Thinlet set (grin!).

The trees were also created using a new set of Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets called Woodlands (double grin!).

Some of the die cuts are coloured using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker and a silver metallic pen, and I also used some Inkylicious Fluffy Puffy Stuff to add some texture; simply added the Fluffy Puffy Stuff to the die cut and then comes the fun part, heat it with a heat gun which makes it puffy and 3-dimensional. To finish the die cuts, I also added some glitter using Icicle Stickles and then I arranged and layered them onto the page using some glue dots and a Zig Memory System glue pen.

This page captures the magic of a beautiful decoration that we had on display over Christmas, I think it looks so pretty with the snow and trees …

… whether it is lit up or not (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:

The lovely Alison/Craftytrog is hosting her Geometric Shapes challenge over at Art Journal Journey so I’m pleased to be able to join in the fun with all the circular snow stamps that I used on my page.

As this page captures the snow and frost of January days, I’m joining the Cold and Frosty Colours challenge over at Moo Mania & More.

I’m also joining the lovely Wen and her Simply Neutrals Tuesday party over at Apple Apricot with my neutral Happy January art journal page.

Inspired to create this page by my love of snow, I’m happy to join the Put Your Stamp On It challenge over at A Vintage Journey as I used more than one stamp for the background of my Mixed Media Style page.

I’m pleased to join the “New” (Fresh Start) challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps as my page was created to using new die cut sets.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge their challenge is Use Something New challenge so I’m pleased to join them as I used some new Tim Holtz products to create this page.

Don’t forget that you still have well over a week to join the Something Old … Something New challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too, it would be lovely to see you there!

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:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Hickory Smoke)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (London Fog)
• Tsukineko Brilliance Ink (Platinum Planet)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233)
• Script Metallic Pen (Silver)
• Inkylicious (Fluffy Puffy Stuff)
• Stickles (Icicles)
• Sheena by Sheena Douglas Clear Stamp Set (Winter Woodland) – Creative Stamping Magazine Issue 62
• BoBunny Stamps (Snow Days Clear Stamps 13705563)
• Tonic Studios Christmas Trio Die Set (Falling Snowflakes 1792e)
• Spellbinders – Swirl Leaf Die
• Sizzix Thinlets Tim Holtz Alterations (Garden Greens 661206, Holiday Greens 658759, Woodlands 660978)
• White Card Stock
• Old Magazine – image
• Old Calender – wording
• Recycled white card
• Stix2 double-sided tape and mini glue dots
• Zig Memory System 2-Way Glue (Dual Action Glue Pen)