Opposites for Country View Challenges

I’m so pleased and honoured to be Guest Designer over at Country View Challenges for their Opposites challenge this month. Opposites could be night and day, hot and cold or up and down etc. Both parts of the ‘theme’ should be included in the project which could either be one single item (like my art journal page) or a pair (like two ATCs depicting the two opposites).

I found this theme very inspiring and created an art journal page which features Colour versus Black & White with both of these featuring on my page.

I started by drawing a pencil line to divide the page and then to create my colour background I painted Kuretake watercolours onto the right-hand side of the page by applying water first then painting Red Madder, Turquoise Blue, Colbalt Violet and Sap Green over the top.

Once dry I used three stencils from Creative Expressions to apply Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks using a blending tool over the top of the watercolour paint. I mirrored the stencilling on the left-hand side of the page by turning the stencil over and applying Black Soot Distress Ink using a blending tool which created my black and white background.

I stamped two flowers from the Flower Garden Tim Holtz stamp set onto a book page using black Archival Ink. I coloured one of the flowers using the same watercolour paints and Distress Inks that I used to colour the background, as well as Lemon Yellow watercolour paint for the centre of the flower.

I placed the flowers on the opposite page using a Zig Memory System glue pen to stick them down along with the “Colour” and “Black & White” wording which I created using a labelling machine, colouring the “Colour” one using the watercolour paint; this finished the page.

I hope that you are inspired by this month’s Opposites challenge too and are able to join in the fun! Don’t forget that there is also a chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop if you do and for more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from the Design Team over at Country View Challenges.

In February, I was delighted to win and also to be awarded Design Team Member’s Special Mention for the art journal pages that I entered into the Black & White Plus One challenge at Country View Challenges.

I can’t wait to play with these new crafting goodies that I purchased from Country View Crafts shop with the £20 voucher that I won – thanks very much!

I have really enjoyed spending time with you today and I’d like to say a special thank you to Country View Challenges for giving me the opportunity to design for them!

Thanks so much! 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:

• Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paint set (Rose Madder, Sap Green Light, Turquoise Blue, Colbalt Violet, Lemon Yellow)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry, Black Soot)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Creative Expressions Mini Stencils (Ornamental, Graduated Grid, Heart Cluster)
• Tim Holtz Collection Stamper Anonymous (Flower Garden CMS215)
• Tim Holtz Stamp Platform from Tonic Studios
• Pears Cyclopaedia 2007-2008 Edition
• Dymo Letratag Personal Label Maker with white paper labels
• Zig Memory System 2 Way Glue (Dual Action Glue Pen)