I’m so delighted that it’s my turn to host the challenge over at Country View Challenges this month, so to welcome 2022 I have chosen the theme of A Year to Sparkle and Shine.
We would like to see LOTS of sparkle and shine on your projects, no “token” gems or sequins please; you really need to go sprinkle that sparkle! This means that you can use lots of different sparkly and shiny products (like metallics, sparkly embossing powders, glitters, lustres, foil, glazes, mirror cardstock, mica sprays or paints etc) as part of your designs.
For my very sparkly art journal page, I started by covering the background with Silver DecoArt Extreme Sheen Metallic Paint and then sprinkled some Black Sparkle Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder over the top and heated it with a heat gun. Then I added some rub-on transfers from a Numbers pack from Tim Holtz and the wording which were Metallic Alpha Stickers by Tim Holtz. To finish, I added Crystal Twinkle Stars from Creative Expressions.
Here’s all the crafting goodies from Country View Crafts that I used to create this page (grin!).
For more inspiration please see the amazing sparkly and shiny creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.
I look forward to visiting you and 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!
Stay safe and well!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you. Hugs, Jo x
I can’t believe that it’s December already but here we are launching our December challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
All you need to do is to use three or more different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!
With it being Christmas, I recycled an old Christmas card for this page and had fun experimenting, this time with acrylic paints, to try and match the design and colours of the card’s background. To do this, I painted Deep Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Hooker’s Green Hue Permanent and Mars Black Liquitex Basics paints onto the page and left them to dry. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and rubbed some of it off using a wet wipe to create the mottled effect. Then I splattered the whole page with white acrylic paint. Next I stuck the Christmas card image of the angel in place and added some rose gold star and dot outline stickers. The wording was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and reads “My wish for you…The blessed angels sing…Peace on earth, good-will to men…Words of hope and tender thought…Filled with joy and gladness” and “A Merry Christmas to all”.
For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.
Here’s another pretty angel that we light this time of year, she’s made from glass and is from Prague; a place we would normally visit at Christmastime (grin!).
I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x Wishing you a very Happy December and Festive Season!
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.
Challenges
As well as Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to join the following challenges:
Paperbabe Stamps and their #157 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas angel page.
It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday which for the next 2 weeks is Winter Wonderland.
As some of you will know I can never resist using my Merry Moose Thinlits set this time of year, so today here he is walking through a winter wonderland at sunset (grin!).
I positioned a circular template from an Inkylicious template and stencil set to mask out the sun and then I painted some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to mark out the sky and foreground. For the snowy foreground, I added some Ranger Texture Paste using s palette knife and when dry, I painted some Prize Ribbon Distress Ink and Pébéo white gesso over the top. Then I splattered the whole page using the white gesso, which when dry acted as a resist when I added the next layers of colour, forming the snowfall. To create the sunset, I gradually built up the layers of colour by painting the sky with some Abandoned Coral Distress Stain to form the clouds and I reflected some of this colour onto the snowy foreground too. The sun was painted using Mustard Seed Distress Ink and the same Abandoned Coral Distress Stain, and to add a bit of snowy sparkle I also added some Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink over the sun and clouds. I used a Tall Pines Thinlits set to cut the trees from some white cardstock and then I covered them with some Ranger Texture Paste and coloured them using some of the Distress Inks/Stain and white gesso. The “Winter Wonderland” wording was stamped onto some tissue paper using a free stamp set from a magazine and black Archival Ink; it was stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium.
The moose was die cut using the Merry Moose Thinlets from some Classic Kraft Paper, both by Tim Holtz. He was edged using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker, and I added a piece of ribbon for a scarf before sticking him in place. To finish, I splattered the whole page with white acrylic paint.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful Winter Wonderland creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!).
Over the years, I have created tags, journal pages and even Christmas cards using this Merry Moose Thinlits set, here’s some that have a winter wonderland feel about them; they all hold such happy memories of dear friends and my time on Design Teams! I hope you are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!
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.
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.
Challenges
As well as Try it on Tuesday , I’m pleased to join the following challenges today:
It’s a new month so we are launching our November challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
All you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see you there!
I was inspired by my good friend Craftyfield to stamp using Colourcraft Brushos, so I used them to create the diamond background. I did this by sprinkling Scarlett, Terracotta, Orange and Yellow Ochre Brushos onto a Vintage Diamond mini stencil by Creative Expressions. Then I spritzed the stencil with water and pressed it onto the page like a stamp; I did this a number of times to build up the background. When dry, I stencilled some texture paste by Tim Holtz which I had coloured using Salvaged Patina Distress Paint through a Moroccan That Special Touch of Mica Mask by Creative Expressions. Then I splattered the page using the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and also some black DecoArt acrylic paint and left to dry. To finish, I added three fussy cut butterflies and the wording which was a Kaisercraft sticker; it reads “Perfect Moments”.
For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.
Perfect moments made me think of this post box that I discovered outside my local post office, isn’t the crochet cover amazing – it made me smile for the rest of the day (grin!). I like the way the colours of the sun and butterfly match my page too (double grin!).
I hope 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.
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.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #155 – Anything Goes with my festive tags.
As Halloween weekend is upon us, I created this page full of Spooky Fun to wish you all a Happy Halloween!
I started by adding the panels of wrought iron and ghost images which were from an old magazine and then I added some striped washi tape to fill in the gaps between the panels. The wording was also cut from magazine pages; so all the letters matched some of the backgrounds were coloured using a black Faber-Castell marker and some of the letters using a Gold Spectrum Aqua marker. Once the wording was stuck in place, I added some touches of gold to the letters using a gel pen and I outlined them using black Glitterations border stickers which added a bit more sparkle.
The purple ivy die cuts and coloured papers that I used to die cut the autumnal leaves from, were leftover from other projects; the leaves were die cut using a Fall Foliage Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. To finish, I splattered the whole page with some black DecoArt acrylic paint.
The wrought iron reminded me of the gates at Lytham Hall. There have been spooky goings on reported at the gatehouse, where these gates are situated, which include phantom cars and white paranormal sightings; if your interested you can check out the full story here titled Ghosts at Lytham Hall.
Hoping 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.
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.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
I love this time of year, so my page today is inspired by autumnal colours and some spooky bats to celebrate Halloween; I hope you like it!
I started by adding the large leaves, which were some leftover pieces of Botanicals Collage Paper by Tim Holtz, sticking them in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I smooshed lots of Distress Inks over the page, the colours I used were Seedless Grapes, Spiced Marmalade and Twisted Citron. Next I added more foliage using an Urban Tapestry stamp set by Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink and then I splattered the page with black DecoArt acrylic paint. The black wreath circles and bats were die cut from black cardstock using a couple of Sizzix Thinlits sets; they were Pretty Wreath Thinlits by Peter Hughes and Halloween Hangouts Thinlits by Tim Holtz. The “Halloween” wording was created using letters from some Chipboard Quote chips by Tim Holtz. To finish, I added three Small Talk stickers which were also by Tim Holtz and read “stay curious”, “don’t forget to fly” and “be brave”.
Tracey was asking if I have lights on my autumn window display, well as you can see here I do (grin!).
I even have bats up for Halloween too and I managed to capture them here with the moon shining through the window – so spooky (double grin!).
I 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.
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.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today with my Batty Halloween page:
Art Journal Journey and lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations who is hosting this month with her My favourite colour is October challenge as Halloween and the colours are synonymous with October.
Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Halloween.
For this challenge, I created an art journal page full of fun and spooky pumpkin magic; I hope you’ll join us too, it would be lovely to see you there!
For my grungy background, I started by covering the page with leftover pieces of Halloween papers by Tim Holtz using Liquitex matte gel medium. Next I added some pieces of washi tape and then I stencilled a diamond pattern using a Vintage Diamond mini stencil by Creative Expressions and some Black Soot Distress Ink. I applied some white gesso using a brayer and when dry, I used a baby wipe to smear some Carbon Black Liquitex Acrylic Ink over the top. I also used the Carbon Black ink to add drips down the page and left it to dry.
As some of my leftover papers were die cut, I noticed that one of them spelled out “Halloween” so I coloured the letters using a Gold Spectrum Aqua marker. The pumpkins were cut using a Halloween Hangouts Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some leftover paper that had been coloured using acrylic paint. I added more detail and shading to the pumpkins using the Gold Spectrum Aqua marker and I used some gold glitter to add sparkle to the eye and mouth cutouts. The letters for the quote were cut from the same leftover paper as the pumpkins, using an Alphanumeric Labels Thinlits set by Tim Holtz; the quote reads “There is magic in the night when the pumpkins glow by moonlight”.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful spooky and fun Halloween creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!).
This page reminded me of the Halloween pumpkin tealight that we bought in America many moons ago; it looks so wonderful when it’s all aglow – Happy Halloween!
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.
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.
Challenges
As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
I had so much fun creating this mixed media page and as using up leftovers is one of my crafting goals this year, I used some leftover paper that I had coloured using Kuretake watercolour to create my autumnal leaves for this page too (grin!).
Don’t forget that you still have until the end of this month to join our #76 Challenge – Anything Mixed Media Goes over at Creative Artiste; you just need to use three different mediums to join in the fun – I hope to see you there!
I started by covering the chipboard background with a layer of Pébéo white gesso and left it to dry, and then I applied a layer of black chalk paint over the top. When dry, I sanded the page in a vertical motion using a piece of sandpaper to expose some of the white gesso underneath to create a worn vintage chalkboard appearance. Next I created the leaves using some leftover paper that was coloured using Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Scarlet Kuretake watercolour paints; I die cut three sizes of the same leaf shape from a Fall Foliage Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and then I applied some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the leaves to give them more of a grungy look. I stuck the “Everyday is a true blessing” wording in place, which was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet, and then I arranged the leaves around it using Liquitex matte gel medium. I added dots of Pumpkin Ranger Liquid Pearls and to finish, I splattered the page with the white gesso and also the black chalk paint.
As we had frosts in April that affected the apple blossom, I feel very blessed for the crop of Braeburn apples that we picked this year from our apple trees in our garden. I used some of them to make this delicious cinnamon apple cake with maple frosting which goes perfectly with my cuppa for T Stands for Tuesday – wishing you all a very Happy T Day!
I 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.
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.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Art Journal Journey and lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations who is hosting this month with her My favourite colour is October challenge with my autumn blessings page (15x15cm).
Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Autumn Blessings.
I love autumn and I’m always thankful for the autumnal colours so my page features lots of colourful leaves and a fabulous saying that reads “May your blessings be as countless as the autumn leaves”.
I hope you like it and are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!
I started by stamping the wording onto the page using a Sophisticated Script stamp set by Concord & 9th and black Archival Ink; touching up the lettering in places using a black marker. Then I had a happy accident as I didn’t realise the black marker that I used was water-based, so when I added some Tea Dye Distress Ink using a wet paint brush it reactivated the black marker; I quickly changed my brush strokes so they were in a diagonal pattern away from the lettering and it resulted in this beautiful grungy look – I love how it turned out (grin!).
Next I selected lots of leftover papers that had been coloured with different acrylic paints, Distress Inks and Brushos. Then I die cut the different leaves from them using a Fall Foliage Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. I added more colour to the leaves using Crackling Campfire, Fired Brick, Fossilized Amber and Ground Espresso Distress Ink. Then I arranged them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium and to finish, I splattered the whole page using black DecoArt acrylic paint.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful Autumn Blessings creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!).
As T Stands for Tuesday and autumn is in the air, I’m sharing some homemade parkin which is a gingerbread cake traditionally made with oatmeal and black treacle, which originated in Northern England. I always make it this time of year as it’s one of my dad’s favourites, and today I’m enjoying a piece with my cuppa (hot water this time) – Happy T Day!
I hope that you’re all staying safe and well, and sending you autumn blessings!
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.
Challenges
As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
As you may remember one of my goals this year is to recycle and use up leftovers in my craft stash, so I created this vintage page using some recycled items; I hope you like it (grin!).
I started by covering the chipboard page with Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink using a blending tool. Then I added lots of postage marks and text using a Craft Sensations stamp set and Black Soot Distress Archival Ink. I splattered the page using some Black Soot Distress Ink and edged it with a black Faber-Castell marker. Then I added a piece of die cut lace cardstock, which was recycled from a wedding invitation, to the right hand side of the page. The pretty postage stamp, featuring two wrens, was also recycled from my hubby’s childhood stamp collection. It was mounted onto a piece of black cardstock, also recycled from the wedding invitation, and then framed using two pieces of lace border which were outline stickers. I added the wording which were from a Clippings sticker set by Tim Holtz and to finish, I splattered some black and white acrylic paint over the page.
My hubby very kindly gifted me his childhood postage stamp collection for my art journaling. Many of the postage stamps are displayed in a large book but some, like this wren stamp, were part of a collection and still mounted on their original book pages. This Wild Birds stamp was a special issue from Hungary being published between 1973-1974.
Here’s it’s original page with the other stamps that formed part of the collection and wow, as you can see at the time they only cost 10p. It’s so interesting that they list the prices for this collection for other countries too, as you can see under the postage stamps on the bottom of the page (grin!).
Hoping that you’re all stay safe and well! x
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.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Let's Art Journal 