Celebrating the New Year

I created this page to welcome the New Year with fireworks lighting up the sky and a row of very pretty houses (grin!). I hope that 2021 is a better year for everyone and as the words say “may love and laughter light your days and warm your heart”.

I started by painting the background with purple and silver acrylic paints to create my night sky, making sure the brush strokes were pulled from the edges to the centre of the page so it looked like explosions of light.

Next I stencilled the fireworks using a Creative Expressions stencil and Ranger Texture Paste. The wording was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet and I die cut the “2021” using a Folk Alphabet die set from Docrafts.

To finish, I fussy cut the houses from an old Christmas card and arranged them onto the page using double-sided tape.

These houses are so beautifully drawn and wonderfully detailed. The front doors reminded me of my family’s tradition of welcoming the New Year; on New Year’s Eve at the stroke of midnight one of us knocks on the front door and when invited in, enters the house carrying a piece of coal which is said to bring good luck for the coming year (grin!).

This tradition stems from when, on the stroke of midnight people opened the back door (to let the old year out) and asked the first dark haired man to be seen, to come through the front door carrying salt, coal and bread. This meant that the following year everyone in the house will have enough to eat (bread), enough money (salt) and be warm enough (coal).

Do you have any New Year traditions?

Wishing you all the very best for 2021 – Happy New Year!
Stay safe! x

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of the materials that were used to create this art journal page:

• Liquitex Basics Acrylic (Dioxazine Purple)
• Poundland Metallic Acrylic (Silver)
• Creative Expressions Mini Stencil (Fireworks)
• Ranger Texture Paste
• Old Christmas Card
• White Cardstock
• Docrafts X-Cut A5 Die Set (Folk Alphabet XCU 503286)
• Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet (Pen & Ink SS360)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Stix2 double-sided tape

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as they provide me with inspiration and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today: I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika from BioArtGal over at Art Journal Journey and her Favourite Things challenge this month as I love to celebrate the New Year and recycled one of my favourite Christmas cards to create this page. I’m joining the Celebrate challenge over at Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge Blog as I’m celebrating the New Year with my page. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Squares challenge with all the squares detailed on the houses especially the windows. I’m pleased to be able to join Paperbabe Stamps too and their #134 – Anything Goes challenge with my 2021 page. I’m pleased to join the Sparkle and Shine challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge too with all the shine from the silver metallic paint in the background and sparkle from the glittery snow on the houses.