T Day ATCs and a Big Thank You

I had a lovely surprise in the post, some happy mail from Bleubeard and Elizabeth which contained the napkins from the napkin swap to celebrate T Stands for Tuesday 9^th Anniversary – thank you so much!

Although it wasn’t part of the napkin swap, I created an ATC for each of those taking part; so today I’m sharing how I made them (smile!).

Using some old playing cards as my base, I started by covering the front of 9 cards using some Pébéo white gesso with a brayer and left them to dry. Next I added some torn Dictionary page pieces over the top using Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I coloured them using washes of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Kuretake Watercolour paint and then I stamped them using a Fragments stamp by Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink.

I used a couple of die cut sets to cut out the teacups and saucers, the flowers and little bird from some coloured papers. The teacups and saucers were stamped using the Fragments stamp and Moonlight White Brilliance Ink. Everything was arranged onto the ATCs using Liquitex matte gel medium along with various DoCrafts stickers to create the “T Day” wording and a number “9” which was die cut.

For the reverse of the ATC, I covered the back of the cards with black DecoArt Acrylic paint and I stamped the Fragments stamp using the Moonlight White Brilliance Ink. The wording was printed using a Dymo Letratag Label Maker and I stamped the “Handmade with love…” using black Archival Ink; everything was stuck in place with some of the die cut flowers.

As you may know Bleubeard and Elizabeth kindly sent some amazing postage stamps as part of the napkin swap which you can see here – thanks so much, they are so beautiful!
It looks like I may have the pink flowered international stamp that was mentioned on Bleubeard & Elizabeth’s blog post last week – yippee! Also the black and white washi tape was holding the ATCs together which I plan to recycle.

Of course all the napkins are fabulous and I received so many that I couldn’t fit them all in one photo (grin!).

I can’t wait to get creative with them on my art journal pages – thank you so much to everyone who sent napkins for the swap! Also a big thank you to E and Sharon for organising everything – you’re both stars!!!

I had such a lovely surprise when I found all these stunning ATCs amongst the napkins; from top left to right we have Sharon, Elle, Lisca, Bleubeard & Elizabeth, Chris and Mia). It was so kind and thoughtful of everyone – thanks so much!

All the teacups featured on this post allow me to join this week’s T Day – wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

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.

Challenges

I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #176 – Anything Goes challenge with my ATCs.

LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my ATCs that I created from old playing cards.

Challenge #62 – Anything Goes at Ally’s Angels with my handmade ATCs.

MIUCB#61 – Anything Goes + Optional Smooshing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my smooshed watercolour background my ATCs.

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Happy 9th T Day Anniversary

I’m so happy to share the page that I created to celebrate the 9th T Day Anniversary over at T Stands for Tuesday.

Posting this page was somewhat delayed as we were awaiting everyone’s napkins that were sent to Bleubeard & Elizabeth for the napkin swap (smile!). As I created this celebratory page using one of the napkins that I swapped, I wasn’t able to post it earlier but Bleubeard & Elizabeth have asked us to share our napkins today, so here it is – I’m also sending a big thank you to E for organising and co-ordinating everything!

I started by using a paintbrush with some water to wet and then tear out pieces of napkin to create my scene. The pieces were layered together using a glue stick – did you notice there are nine animals (2 monkeys, 2 birds and 5 butterflies) on the page to celebrate the 9th anniversary. I added some heart and circular stickers from Docrafts that were luckily the same soft pink as the napkin; the circular stickers read “love”, “blog” and “hello”. I also added a transparent pocket using an offcut from a cellophane bag.

This pocket holds a card; the front of the card wishes everyone a “Happy 9th T Day Anniversary” and also thanks Bleubeard & Elizabeth for organising T Day and on the back of the card I’ve listed those who took part in the napkin swap. The card was created by recycling a playing card which I covered, on both sides, with Pébéo white gesso. When dry, I stamped the front using a Fragments stamp from Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink. The letters were die cut using a Sizzix Thinlits set, coloured using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and then stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. To finish, I added some stickers from the same Docrafts set, that I used on the page, and then on the back I wrote the names of the nine people who took part in the swap.

Here are the two napkins I sent to swap; I thought the English currency with the Queen was particularly relevant due to this year being the Queen’s 70th Jubilee; and I loved the vintage animal design napkin as soon as I saw it and I know how much Bleubeard & Elizabeth love palm trees so it seemed perfect – I hope you like them too! If you’re interested you can see more napkins that were swapped over at T Stands For Tuesday.

We’re having a pint of home crafted Smuggler’s Gold beer and a glass of sangria with some nibbles to celebrate too – cheers and Happy T Day!

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 T Stands for Tuesday, I’m pleased to be joining Paperbabe Stamps and their #174 – Anything Goes challenge with my celebratory page.

T Stands for Tuesday – Goodbye dear Friend

As some of you will have noticed, this week I published my T Day post on Sunday instead of Tuesday, but with the recent sad news over at T Stands for Tuesday about Eileen, I wanted to pay a special tribute to her with this post.

My heart broke when I read the news, Eileen was such a generous person and a talented artist. She was so inspirational and we often compared notes, products and techniques when it came to our art. I will miss her support, encouragement, camaraderie and friendship very much!

I have so many happy memories as we have exchanged Christmas cards over the years and like many of you, I received one of her amazing ATCs to celebrate T Stands for Tuesday 5^th Birthday Anniversary. It was sent with some amazing crafting goodies too, which was so kind.

She loved writing poems and verses too which she included here – yet another of her many talents! It reads:
Every Tuesday we gather for tea,
Bleubeard, Elizabeth, the whole gang and me.
Sharing our lives, our talents and tips
With tea cups, and glasses pressed to our lips.
Across the oceans, across the miles,
We gather to bring each other some smiles.

When I created this page using her homemade teacup stencil the following year, here’s what she had to say:
“OMGoodness, Jo! I was delighted to see that you used my teacup stencil to make your background paper. It’s beautiful and certainly fits the rainbow theme. Thank you for the shout out. Happy T-day and Happy 6th to us! Eileen xx”.

In fact her ATC still takes pride of place in my craft room and has been shared a few times in photos on my blog which she always commented about:
“ …Aww, you gave my #5 ATC card pride of place too. I’m touched. Have a Lovely Sunday. Stay safe and well. Eileen xx”

I have so many happy memories of her and our friendship that we forged here in Blogland; she will be very much missed and will always be in my heart!

Hoping that you 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.

Love and hugs, Jo x

Merry Little Christmas Au Revoir at A Vintage Journey

Over at A Vintage Journey our challenge this month is Merry Little Christmas which is sadly our very last challenge. It’s been an honour and a pleasure to be part of such a wonderful team and blog – thank you so much for all your inspiration and support over the years!

We have come together to create small ATC creations to share some Christmas cheer and also to say “au revoir”. So if you would like to participate in our challenge one last time please create an ATC project depicting a Merry Little Christmas and/or Au Revoir theme; we hope to see you there!

Creating ATCs is a first for me, who’d have thought that I’d have so much fun creating these mini artworks (grin!). Here are my Merry Little Christmas ATCs that I created to wish you all happiness this Christmas!

Using some old playing cards as my base, I started by covering them with scraps of Botanicals or Halloween Collage paper from Tim Holtz using Liquitex matte gel medium. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso using a brayer and when dry, I added Vintage Photo Distress Ink with a blending tool.

I applied another layer of white gesso over the top and then added some holly leaves and berries. The holly leaves were die cut using a Holiday Greens Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some white paper which I had coloured using Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles Distress Ink. The berries were also die cut from some white paper which had been coloured with Festive Berries Distress Ink. When they were stuck in place using matte gel medium, I splattered the ATC with some white acrylic paint.

The stars are stencilled using a Sparkle stencil from Tim Holtz and VersaMark Watermark ink which I covered with gold Ranger embossing powder. I also edged the ATC with the embossing powder before heating everything with a heat gun. The glittery snowflakes were cut using a Mini Paper Snowflakes Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some glittery paper. To finish, I added the wording from a Christmas sticker book by Tim Holtz.

Here’s my Au Revior ATC which I created to celebrate A Vintage Journey; including all the amazing participants of our challenges and my fellow Creative Guides. The quote “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” (Dr. Seuss) that I included seemed appropriate as it’s so bittersweet to see A Vintage Journey end.

To create this mixed media ATC, I started by covering an old playing card firstly with white gesso and then with black DecoArt acrylic paint. I used the Sparkles stencil by Tim Holtz, VersaMark Watermark ink and gold Ranger Embossing powder again. Then I added one of the badges from A Vintage Journey, that I had printed and distressed using some Vintage Photo Distress Ink, to top and tail my ATC design. The Dr. Seuss quote was created using a label machine and the red hearts were cut from some cardstock using a Falling Hearts Thinlits set from Tim Holtz. To finish, I added some the white wording which were from a Small Talk Remnant Rubs set by Tim Holtz.

I hope you are inspired to join in the Merry Little Christmas and/or Au Revoir challenge themes and for more inspiration you’ll find some amazing ATCs and beautiful heartfelt words from my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey too.

I have really enjoyed my time at A Vintage Journey, from joining in the challenges to becoming a Creative Guide something that I always wished for. I have made some wonderful friends along the way, thank you for being part of my creative journey – it’s been a blast! x

Of course I seem to have been singing “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” all month too and my favourite version has to be by Judy Garland from the musical Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) – the lyrics seem very pertinent for this year too.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create these ATCs:

• Old playing cards
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Collage Paper (Botanical #TH93705, Halloween #TH93712)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo, Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Festive Berries)
• Recycled white paper
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Holiday Greens 658759, Paper Snowflakes Mini 661599, Falling Hearts 664415)
• The Range (5×5 Dies Holly)
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Layering Stencil (Sparkles THS132)
• Tsukineko VersaMark (Watermark Stamp Pad)
• Ranger Embossing Powder (Gold)
• Glitter wallpaper
• Tim Holtz idea-ology (Christmas Sticker Book #TH93999)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• A Vintage Journey Badge – computer printed
• Dymo LetraTag Label Maker and Labels
• Craft Sensations (Luxury Cardstock with Linen Texture CRO241/GE)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Remnant Rubs (Tiny Text #TH93695)

Challenges I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with my Christmas ATCs. I’m pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my Merry Little Christmas ATCs. I’m pleased to be able to join the A Time to be Grateful over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as I am thankful to have been part of such a fabulous challenge blog and team. I’m also pleased to join the Fun With Dies challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with all the Tim Holtz Thinlets sets that I used to created my ATCs.