Just Believe – Tag

Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Things With Wings.

For my papercraft inspiration I created a tag with a beautiful bee and honeycomb die set – I hope you like it!

I started by covering a chipboard tag with a wash of watered-down white gesso and then applied some Ranger Crackle Texture Paste and left it to dry overnight. Then I stained the crackle and added some shading to the tag, using some Ground Espresso Distress Ink, applying it like watercolour. I cut the honeycomb, flowers, foliage and bees from various colours of Linen Textured Cardstock using a Bee Hive Sizzix Thinlits set by Olivia Rose. I arranged them onto the tag using Crafter’s Companion Glue Tape and to finish, I added a Label Sticker from Tim Holtz that reads “Just Believe”.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing papercraft projects from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us. Please be sure to check out the rules here.

This tag was a special surprise for my Sister, who loves bees. These are the pretty fairy lights that my sister has in the canopy of her sun umbrella; these bees look so pretty all lit up at night (smile!).

Stay safe and well!

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

Challenges

As well as Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

MIUCB#65 – Anything Goes + optional Embossing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my tag.

Spring Season May 2023 Challenge over at the Four Seasons Challenge, like Darlene I included bees enjoying the spring flowers on my tag.

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Joyful Tag

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing my second tag for November’s Tags Only challenge, which I’m delighted to be hosting this month.

For this Christmasy festive tag, I used another MDF tag by Creative Expressions covering it with Driftwood acrylic paint by DecoArt. Then I used one of my favourite techniques to create a wood effect background using Distress Inks and matte gel medium. I did this by dragging Frayed Burlap, Crushed Corduroy and Tea Dye Distress Ink pads vertically down the tag and applying matte gel medium over the top keeping the brush strokes vertical; the gel medium dragged the ink down the tag to give a wood grain effect. Next I die cut the flowers from different colours of Tim Holtz Kraft Cardstock – Classic using a Floral Edge Sizzix Thinlits set and pieced them together. I added the “Joyful” wording from a Christmas Sticker book by Tim Holtz and I tied on some white paper twine, red and green ribbons which finished the tag.

I hope you are inspired to join our Tags Only challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have two chances to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts.

Here are some of the materials that I used to create the tag from Country View Crafts.

I hope that you are staying safe and well!

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

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #179 – Anything Goes challenge with my Joyful tag.

MIUCB #61 – Anything Goes + Optional Open Technique over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my favourite wood grain effect technique that I used on this tag.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #26 where Anything Christmas Goes with my festive Christmas tag.

Tags Only at Country View Challenges

I’m so delighted that it’s my turn to host the challenge over at Country View Challenges this month which is Tags Only.

I chose this theme as I don’t create tags very often and who doesn’t love a tag, they are such fun to make! As the Tags Only title suggests we only want to see tags for this challenge, so no including them on cards, pages or other projects please.

I look forward to seeing what you make and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the shop! Before you enter your project though, please read the rules!

For my first tag, I used an MDF tag by Creative Expressions which I covered with Speckled Egg and Salvaged Patina Distress Paint. When dry, I added some letters to the background using a Tim Holtz Mini Layered Stencil Set #16 and some Speckled Egg Distress Ink. Then I stamped some grungy dots using a Urban Tapestry stamp set for Tim Holtz and some Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink. Next I stamped numbers and circles using black Archival Ink and a #489 AALL & Create stamp set and I splattered the tag with white DecoArt acrylic paint. Gladys the flamingo was die cut using a Sizzix Time Holtz Thinlits set from different colours of Tim Holtz Kraft Cardstock – Classic. Once stuck in place I added the label sticker by Tim Holtz which reads “You Do You”. To finish, I tied some black paper twine and ribbons to the tag.

I had so much fun using the Gladys Flamingo Sizzix Thinlits set from Tim Holtz to create this MDF tag and here’s the crafting goodies from Country View Crafts that I used (grin!).

For more inspiration please see the amazing tags from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

Stay safe and well! x

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

Challenges

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #179 – Anything Goes with my tag.

Stencil Fun Challenge and their Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil as I used a letter stencil by Tim Holtz on my tag.

LTCCB#71 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my Gladys Flamingo tag.

For the man in your life

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is For the Man in your life.

My page showcases a tag with a wonderful quote from Alan Turing which reads “Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of, who do things no one can imagine”.

I started by covering the background with some Hickory Smoke and Tea Dye Distress Ink and then I applied Liquitex matte gel medium to reactivate the ink so I could drag the colours horizontally across the page. When dry, I stamped the grid pattern over the top using black Archival Ink and a homemade stamp, and then I added lots of Remnant Rubs by Tim Holtz. Next I cut a large cog of design paper, which was from Kaisercraft, into pieces and added them around the page, this included creating a pocket for the tag.

The tag was die cut, using a Tag Collection Framelits set by Tim Holtz, from the remains of the cog paper. The quote was printed using a Dymo label printer and when stuck in place, I edged and coloured the tag using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I added some of the Remnant Rubs and to Finish, I added a eyelet using a We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile punch and eyelet setter.

My page is a tribute to Alan Turing, founder of computer science and cryptographer, whose work was key to breaking the wartime Enigma codes.

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing a pint of Strongarm beer brewed by Lion Brewery (perfect for Henry!) that we had at a local Micro Bar, it’s a North East Ruby Red Ale and tasted out of this world – Happy T Day everyone!

Hope that you’re all staying safe and well!

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

Challenges

As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #168 – Anything Goes challenge with my butterfly page.

Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my art journal page.

Christmas Gift Bag

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing these pretty Christmas gift bags for this month’s Christmas Gifting challenge. I’ve filled them with a couple of Christmas presents already – perfect (grin!).

Each bag was created from a piece of white A4 cardstock using an easy and fun folding method – please see full instructions below.

I started by stamping the poinsettias onto a piece of white A4 cardstock using a Christmas Time stamp set from Tim Holtz with Crackling Campfire and Rustic Wildness Distress Inks.

To create the bags, place the cardstock in front of you on a flat surface, making sure to place it in “portrait” orientation so that the top of the bag is on the right-hand side, then use a metal ruler and a stylus to score a crease mark 4cm wide down the left-hand side of the cardstock. When you’re done leave this unfolded as it will later become the bottom of the bag.

Of course if you have them, you may find it easier to use the groove on a Tonic Studios trimmer with a bone folder to make all the fold marks instead (this photo shows the 4cm wide crease mark).

Next turn the cardstock so it’s “landscape” in orientation and place a crease mark 1cm wide along the right-hand edge of the cardstock and sharply crease the fold. Keeping the cardstock in “landscape” orientation and leaving the 1cm folded, score a crease mark in the centre of the cardstock and then sharply fold.

Run a bead of glue along the 1cm fold and press the cardstock together where they overlap, weight down and leave to dry.

Orientate the bag so the openings are at the top and bottom and then make a 2cm wide score mark vertically down each side of the bag, which will crease mark both the front and back of the bag. Open the folds and use the crease marks to fold the bag inwards to create an accordion effect.

Next create the bottom of the bag using the scored crease lines to fold the left and then the right-hand sides inwards making sure you crease the bottom folds all the way to the corners to create a triangle of folded paper on either side; I sharply creased the triangle folds using a bone folder.

Then fold the triangles over each other like an envelope and stick them in place using a bead of glue and leave it to dry.

To finish, I punched two holes in the top of the bag using a We R Memory Keepers Tools Crop-A-Dile Hole Punch & Eyelet Setter; the holes are 4cm from each edge of the bag. Then I attached a tag using some red recycled ribbon; the tag was created using some of the white cardstock, the Christmas Time stamp set and Distress Inks again and embellished with a gold bell.

I hope you are inspired to join our Christmas Gifting challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the  (grin!).

I hope 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.

For the sake of brevity I am no longer listing the individual items that I used to create my page, however I’m more than happy to let you know which particular product was used if you contact me via comments below or using the following contact me link. You can find most of the products that I used over at Country View Crafts too.

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #156 – Anything Goes with my Christmas gift bags.

MIUCB #55 – Anything Goes + 3-D Project over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the folding techniques I used to create this 3-D gift bag.

Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog and their MLCCB #40 – November Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas gift bags.

Challenge 130 – Christmas Presents over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with my Christmas bags that I created for presents this year.

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and their Challenge #105 – Anything Christmas Goes with my pretty Christmas gift bags.

Stamping Sensations and their Christmas challenge with my stamped Christmas gift bag and tags.

Christmas challenge over at We Love Stamping with my stamped Christmas gift bags and tags – thanks so much Brenda for highlighting this challenge in your lovely comment!

Mr Frost Tags

It’s a new month so we have a new challenge at Country View Challenges for November which is Christmas Gifting (anything but a card).

This challenge is being hosted this month by the lovely Miriam who says “this could be a handmade gift or even packaging for a Christmas gift – no cards this month”.

I can’t believe that Christmas is nearly here so it was nice to get a head start making these fun Snowman Tags for this years Christmas presents.

I started by die cutting the snowman using a Mr. Frost Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some white and black linen textured the paper. I also die cut the main body of the snowman, hat and scarf again from some cardstock to back the tag and provide more strength.

I coloured the edges of the main body of the snowman with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink using a blending tool, the scarf and hat band using red and green TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers, his carrot nose using Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the twig arms using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The die cut pieces were layered together using Liquitex matte gel medium and I added a holly gemstone embellishment to the hat.

I used a We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Hole Punch & Eyelet Setter to punch a hole in the hat and threaded through a piece of black paper twine. The wording on the back of the tags was stamped using a Sketch Greenery stamp set from Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink.

For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

I hope you are inspired to join our Christmas Gifting (anything but a card) challenge too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).

I love how these tags turned out and can’t wait to add them to Christmas Presents this year. Here’s how they are currently displayed in my craft room; it looks like they will make wonderful Christmas tree decorations too (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.

For the sake of brevity I’m no longer listing the individual items that I used to create my page, however I’m more than happy to let you know which particular product was used if you contact me via comments below or using the following contact me link.

Country View Crafts also sell both the Mr. Frost Sizzix Thinlits Set by Tim Holtz and the Sketch Greenery stamp set by Tim Holtz that I used to create these tags.

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and their Challenge #104 – Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas tags.

Any Holiday Occasion over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my snowman Christmas tags.

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #155 – Anything Goes with my festive tags.

MLCCB #40 – Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Mr. Frost Christmas tags.

Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog with my Mr. Frost tags.

First Signs of Spring at Country View Challenges

I’m so excited and honoured to have joined the wonderfully talented Design Team over at Country View Challenges . It’s such an inspirational blog and being part of this team is a dream come true – thanks so much for your warm and friendly welcome!

At Country View Challenges our challenge for February is First Signs of Spring, which is being hosted this month by the lovely Miriam.

I love celebrating the different seasons and creating this blossom and birdsong art journal page was so uplifting (grin!).

When I thought of birdsong, I knew that I had to use these beautiful images from my new Forest Paper Pad by Stamperia; this included the forest panel on the left hand side of the page, the pretty bird tag and the square nest image. They were cut out and edged with a Dark Sepia marker and/or some Black Soot Distress Ink. To make them look more Spring-like, I added additional colours by painting Distress Inks over parts of the images; it’s important not to add too much water when doing this otherwise you could ruin the image. I used Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron ink to add more vibrancy to the green areas of the forest panel and to the bird’s feathers, and also to add green leaves to the bare trees and colour the leaves on the nest image. I painted some Mustard Seed ink to add more vibrancy to the yellow feathers of the bird and also to add some colour to the nest. Then finally I painted the eggs using Speckled Egg ink and left them all to dry.

For the background, I coloured the page with splashes and drips of Hickory Smoke, Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss Distress Ink. I did this by stamping the ink pad onto an acrylic block, spritzing with water and pressing the block onto the page.

Then I brayered some white gesso over the top to push the colours into the background more and then splattered the page with white acrylic paint. I stencilled dots vertically down the page using a Halftone Layering Stencil from Tim Holtz and Ranger Crackle Paste; this is the first time I have used this paste and it was so easy to apply with a palette knife – I love the results (grin!).  

Next I stuck the Stamperia paper pieces in place using double-sided tape. Then I created the blossoms and leaves using Tim Holtz Thinlits and some white linen card stock which I had coloured using Distress Inks. The blossoms were coloured with Mustard Seed and Fossilised Amber ink and die cut using a Tattered Florals Thinlit set. The leaves using Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron and Forest Moss Distress Ink and cut using a Garden Greens Thinlits set. After shaping the flower petals and adding a gold pearl to the centre of each flower, I arranged them onto the page using glue dots. To finish, I added the “blossom” and “birdsong” wording which was created from some Field Notes Ephemera by Tim Holtz, an alphabet stamp set and black Archival Ink.

For more inspiration you’ll find some amazing First Signs of Spring creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

I hope you are inspired to join us too, and if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use at Country View Crafts (grin!).

The birds in our garden have been very active of late. We’ve even seen the Great Tits that are on my page, but we have noticed that this pair of Coal Tits visit our bird feeders more frequently.

This made me smile, can you think of a good caption for this photo? Maybe the bird is saying “Hello, is anyone there?” or “It’s really dark in here” (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.

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

• Stamperia – Cristina Radovan – Forest 12×12 Inch Paper Pack
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Mowed Lawn
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Forest Moss
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Black Soot
• 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 – Speckled Egg
• Ranger Roller – Small Brayer 2 1/4
• THS144 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil – Halftone
• Ranger Texture Paste Opaque Crackle 3.9 Fl Oz (116 Ml)
• 659765 Sizzix Big Shot Starter Kit (White & Gray)
• TH94051 Tim Holtz® Idea-Ology™ – Ephemera Field Notes
• Ranger Archival Ink Pad, Jet Black – 90mm X 62mm
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Hickory Smoke)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175B)
• Stix2 double-sided tape and glue dots
• Creative Expressions (Luxury Cardstock with Linen Textured Finish)
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Garden Greens  661206, Mini Tattered Floral 661806)
• Pearl Gemstones
• Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)

Challenges I’m pleased to join the #136 – Patterns challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with the stencilled lines of dots that are on my page. I’m joining MIUCB #46 – Anything Goes + Fancy Fold over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different techniques I used, including the fun way that I coloured the paper images so they became more Spring-like. I’m also happy to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my art journal page too. I also pleased to be able to join in the fun at Love to Craft Challenge Blog and enter my spring blossom and birdsong page in their LTCCB #55 – February Anything Goes challenge.

Noël

It’s a new month so we are launching our December challenge over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

I hope you’ll join in the fun too; it would be lovely to see you there!

I love Christmas so I created this art journal page to wish you happiness this Christmastime!

Having made my Christmas cards I had a pile of paper which I had used to die cut fir tree branches from using a Tim Holtz Thinlits set, so rather than throw them away I used them to create my background. They had been coloured using Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles Distress Inks and I stuck them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium.

When dry, I added some green highlights to background pieces using an Alpine Green Blend coloured TriBlend alcohol marker from Spectrum Noir. The birds, branches and baubles were fussy cut from some design paper by Docrafts and arranged onto the page with a tag from the same Docrafts paper and die cut set.

I added the “Noël” wording and a snowflake to the tag and then I stuck the tag onto the page using double-sided foam tape. The bow was made from some red and white striped ribbon and stuck onto the tag using Ranger Glossy Accents. To finish, I added lots of green glittery snowflake foam stickers.

I hope that you are inspired to join our Anything Mixed Media Goes Challenge too, you just need to use 3 different mediums to enter so I kept it simple and only used Distress Inks, alcohol markers, design paper, ribbon and stickers this time.

For more amazing inspiration please check out the fabulous creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.

I love Christmas and have been enjoying putting up our Christmas decorations this week; here I am in our Christmas robin themed room that I have just finished decorating (grin!).

Merry Christmas and stay safe!

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:

• Die cut off cuts
  • Recycled white paper
  • Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles)
  • Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Holiday Greens 658759)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Spectrum Noir TriBlend (Alpine Green Blend)
• Docrafts Papermania A4 Ultimate Die Cut & Paper Pack (Folk Christmas PMA160933)
• Ribbon
• Poundland (Christmas Craft Pack – snowflake stickers)

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Creative Artiste, 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 Tracey over at Art Journal Journey and her Meaning of challenge this month as I love Christmas and also the meaning of the French word Noël is Christmas. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with Christmas art journal page. I’m pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my Noël page too. I’m also happy to join the A Time to be Grateful challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as I’m always thankful when Christmas is here – I love it! I’m also pleased to join the Fun With Dies challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the die cut pieces I used to create the background and die cut tag on this page.

Love, Peace, Joy

To join in the fun over at the 25 Days of Christmas Tags I made a tag and then decided to create an art journal page using the tag, as its colours matched my brand new Winter Holidays TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker set perfectly – I hope you like it!

I’d also like to say a special thank you to lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations for her insight into alcohol markers which helped me decide on these TriBlend markers that I used for the first time on this page – such fun!

For the tag, I started by cutting a piece of Kraft cardstock using the largest tag design from the Framelits Tag Collection from Tim Holtz. I covered it with white gesso and when dry, I edged the tag using Ground Espresso Distress Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. Then I splattered it with white gesso to give a snowy effect and added grungy dots using a Spritz & Speckles stamp set from Paperbabe Stamps and some Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink. The “love, peace, joy” wording were stickers from Kaisercraft and the large snowflakes were cut out of two green-blue glitter papers and some corrugated silver cardstock using a Tonic Studios die cut set. They are layered together with some pretty pearl snowflake gems from Habico and to finish I tied a piece of recycled brown ribbon to the tag.

I’m pleased to be able to join the 25 Days of Christmas Tags with my tag which was inspired by Tracey McNeely’s snowflake tag posted on Day 11 of the challenge.

For my journal page, I started by stamping the bird onto the page using a Winter Woodland stamp set and some black Archival Ink. Then I coloured the bird and branch image using the TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers; the colours I used were Green Turquoise Blend, Gold Yellow Blend, Earth Brown Blend and Alpine Green Blend. I created a template to cover the bird and branches so I could stamp the background with the “joy” wording using Hickory Smoke and Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink. Then I applied some white gesso to the stamped wording to push it into the background more. I created some 3D snow on the branches using some Fluffy Puffy Stuff from Inkylicious which is always fun to use as you heat it using a heat gun so it became fluffy and puffy (grin!). I stuck the tag in place and then I cut some little snowflakes from the glitter paper using a Thinlits set from Tim Holtz and layered them together with some of the pearl snowflake gems which finished the page.

I treated myself to these TriBlend pens recently after some discussions with Tracey and they are great to use although I still have a lot to master when applying and blending them. As this was new to me I started off small, creating this snowy bird scene which was a great learning experience. I’m looking forward to using them again soon – thanks again Tracey for all your help and insight, you’re a star!

Hoping that you’re all staying safe and well! 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 all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Kraft cardstock
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Framelits (Tag Collection 658784)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Ground Espresso)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
• Paperbabe Stamps Stamp Set (Spritz & Speckles)
• Ranger Distress Archival Ink (Ground Espresso, Hickory Smoke)
• Tonic Studios Christmas Trio Die Set (Falling Snowflakes 1792e)
• Poundland (Glitter Paper)
• Wilkos (Corrugated Cardstock – Silver)
• Stix2 glue dots
• Habico Signature Collection (PP1100  – Pearl Snowflakes)
• Recycled brown ribbon
• Creative Stamping Magazine Issue: 62 (Sheena by Sheena Douglass – Winter Wonderland Stamp Set)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Spectrum Noir TriBlend (Green Turquoise Blend, Gold Yellow Blend, Earth Brown Blend, Alpine Green Blend)
• Great Impressions Wood-mounted Stamp (Joy Background J87)
• Inkylicious (Fluffy Puffy Stuff)
• X-Press It! double-sided tape
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Paper Snowflakes 661599)

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as I always enjoy taking part, 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 Wendy K over at Art Journal Journey and her Birds challenge this month with the bird that I included on this page. I’m so happy to be able to join the #132 – Frosty Feels or Cool Tones challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my frosty snowflake scene. I’m pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – November Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas season page. I’m also joining in the fun at Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge and their Happy Holidays challenge with my Love, Peace, Joy tag and page. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything But A Card challenge with my tag and page. I’m also joining the Challenge # 118 – Gold or Silver or Glitter over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with the silver and glitter papers that I used. I’m also pleased to join Challenge #83 – Anything Christmas Goes over at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge with my Love, Peace, Joy art journal page. I’m also pleased to join the Christmas challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge too.

Autumn Greetings

Our new challenge this month over at A Vintage Journey is Pairs, Trios and Sets, which is being hosted by the lovely Toni. Here’s what it’s all about:

“For this month’s challenge we would like to see you create a set that works together. It could be ATCs, tags, triptyches, or any other grouping. Just remember to create your project in one of our preferred styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk”.

To wish you happy Autumn Greetings, I had fun creating this art journal page with its set of pretty autumnal tags and a faux bark background to display them on.

I cut four tags out of white cardstock using a Tag Collection Framelit from Tim Holtz. Then I laid three of the tags in a stamping platform so I could create a continuous picture; the ferns were stamped using a Leaf Print stamp set and the grungy dots are from an Urban Tapestry stamp set, both of which are by Tim Holtz. I gradually built up the colour of the autumnal scene using Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed Distress Inks. I also stamped the “Autumn Greetings” wording, which was from a Wild & Free stamp set from a magazine, using Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink. Then I used glue dots to stick the fungi in place which are from a Field Notes Ephemera Pack by Tim Holtz.

I repeated the stamping for the forth tag and added one of the Ephemera Pack fungi too.

To showcase the tags, I created a faux bark background using white gesso, Distress Inks and a Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. I spread some Pébéo white gesso over the page using a palette knife to create the bark texture and left it to dry. Then I covered the page in Rusty Hinge and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink applying it like watercolour using a paintbrush. To intensify the colours I also dragged the Distress ink pads horizontally over the page and smudged the ink with my finger. To add more detail and contrast I used a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker; firstly by scribbling the marker onto an acrylic block and dragging it across the page so the ink caught on the gesso texture, and secondly by drawing on the page and smudging the ink with my finger and also a baby wipe.

To finish, I added some brown string to each of the tags and then I mounted the set of tags onto the page using double-sided tape.

For more inspiration you’ll find some amazing creations from my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey blog. I hope you are inspired to join in with our Pairs, Trios and Sets challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!

My page reminds me of a beautiful walk that we went on when we stayed with our dearest friends in Maine, America where we saw these pretty rusty coloured ferns (grin!).

We saw lots of fungi too, this one happens to match my set of tags beautifully (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.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create my set of tags and art journal page:

• White Cardstock
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Framelits (Tag Collection 658784)
• Ranger Tonic Studios Stamping Platform
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous (Leaf Prints CMS273, Urban Tapestry CMS061)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Brushed Corduroy)
• Creative Stamping Magazine Issue 87 (Wild & Free Stamp Set)
• Ranger Distress Archival Ink (Vintage Photo)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Ephemera Pack (Field Notes #TH94051)
• Stix2 glue dots
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175B)
• X-Press It! double-sided foam tape

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like A Vintage Journey, as I always 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: I’m so pleased to be able join the #131 – Picture Inspiration challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my tags and page as the autumnal colours, leaves and tree bark match the picture inspiration and my set of tags match the panel design too. I’m happy to join the Home is Where the Heart is challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as my page like our home is full of happy memories of our dear friends and travels to America. I’m pleased to join the Mix It Up Challenge Blog and their MIUCB #43 – Anything Goes + optional twist of Making Your Own Background with the continuous stamping technique and faux bark background. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything But A Card challenge with my set of autumnal tags and page. I’m also joining the Thinking Of You challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge as my art journal page makes me think of our friends in America.