Hello Spring

I’m thrilled to have joined the wonderfully talented Design Team over at Country View Challenges and today I’m pleased to share my second project for our First Signs of Spring challenge.

I would like to say a special thank you to Susan for the lovely introduction today over at Country View Challenges and also to the Design Team for their warm and friendly welcome (grin!).

I really enjoyed creating this mini art journal page with the little bunnies, pretty butterflies and colourful blossom. I used a Sizzix Bunny Scene Thinlits die set which is a great design for both journaling and cards and it was so easy to use.

For the background, I covered the chipboard page with two coats of white gesso and then two coats of Speckled Egg Distress Paint. I applied some white gesso over the top using a brayer and for the grass I painted Twisted Citron Distress Paint along the bottom of the page. When dry, I rubbed a baby wipe through a Waves stencil from Creative Expressions which removed some of the paint, leaving a lighter mark in the shape of the stencil. I splattered the page using white gesso and the two Distress Paints, and left it to dry. Then I applied Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink around the edges.

The Bunny Scene and butterflies were die cut from some white linen texture cardstock using the Sizzix Thinlits set and my Big Shot machine. I used one of my favourite techniques to create the wood effect on the tree using Distress Inks and gel medium; I dragged Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso stamp pads over the tree and then I painted gel medium over the top, keeping the ink and brush strokes flowing vertically up the tree trunk and along branches to mimic the wood grain.

For the bunnies, I masked their tails so that they stayed white and I coloured them using the Tea Dye and Vintage Photo inks. I used a black marker and white gel pen for their eyes.

For the blossom, leaves, grass and flowers I used the Bunny Scene Thinlit again; they were cut from some linen textured cardstock that I had coloured green, yellow, pink and purple using Distress Inks (see ink colours listed below). After cutting them out they were stuck in place, like all the elements on the page, using gel medium.

I used the same cardstock that I had coloured to create the triangles for the bunting and an Alphanumeric Label Thinlits set from Tim Holtz for the white cardstock letters. The bunting triangles were arranged over some waxed thread using glue dots. To finish, I added some pearl gems to the white butterflies and stuck them in place.

I hope that you are enjoying our First Signs of Spring challenge over at Country View Challenges too; it would be lovely to see you there, and if you do join us then you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts website too (grin!).

I also want to thank you for your lovely comments and wishes of congratulations last week when I joined the Country View Challenges Design Team with my first project. I’m so looking forward to sharing my creations with you, visiting your blogs and being inspired by your projects too!

I love this bunny scene and the butterflies reminded me of the ones in my craft room (grin!).

You can see the butterflies here as they fly above my craft desk; I was surprised how tidy it looks, my hubby will tell you that my craft room isn’t normally this tidy (double grin!).

Hoping that you are all staying safe and well!

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

The chipboard mini art journal album, Bunny Scene Thinlits die set, Distress Paints and Creative Expressions Stencil that I used on this page were all Christmas presents – yay (grin!).

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this mini art journal page:

• 663320 – Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 3PK – Bunny Scene By Olivia Rose
• Ranger – Tim Holtz® -Distress Paint – Speckled Egg
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Paint Dabber – Twisted Citron
• Creative Expressions Mini Stencil – Waves
• Ranger , Tim Holtz® Distress Archival Mini Ink Pad Kit #3
• 659765 Sizzix Big Shot Starter Kit (White & Gray)
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Tea Dye
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Mowed Lawn
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Forest Moss
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Twisted Citron
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Mustard Seed
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Fossilized Amber
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Seedless Preserves
• Ranger – Tim Holtz® – Distress Ink Pad – Speckled Egg
• Ranger Roller – Small Brayer 2 1/4
• Docrafts Papermania (Mini Chipboard Album 15x15cm)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso, Picked Raspberry)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Alphanumeric Labels 664177)
• Trimits (Waxed Thread CB923)
• Simply Creative (Pearl Gemstones)
• Stix2 glue dots

Challenges I’m pleased to be able to join the Groundhog Day over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as I used a technique that’s an old favourite of mine to create the tree wood grain and my Distress Inks are my preference when it come to adding colour, I use them again and again. I’m joining LTCCB #55 – February Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my Happy Spring chipboard page. I’m also joining MIUCB #46 – Anything Goes + Fancy Fold over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the fun stencilling and wood grain techniques that I used to create this page. I’m pleased to join the lovely Valerie over at Art Journal Journey and her Heavy Metal challenge this month, I’m being a bit cheeky and hoping the heavy metal rings holding my book pages together which are an integral part of my Happy Spring page (15x15cm in size) photo allows me to join in the fun.