Let’s Get Messy

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which is Let’s Get Messy.

I’d also like to send a warm welcome to the lovely Pia and the lovely Viv, who have both joined our Design Team; this is their first challenge with us so be sure to check out their blogs and show them some love!

This messy page was created using leftovers. The background was a piece of card that I used under my journal pages whilst creating them to protect the page underneath; it’s messily covered in paints, stenciling, stamping, texture paste and marker pens. It looks like I also used this card when I created some some ATCs too, as you can see from the black acrylic paint outlines. I added the flowers which I stamped sometime ago onto some white tissue paper and also the stamped typewriter which was already fussy cut out. I also found the red hearts and “Be still and listen” wording in my craft stash, so added them to my design. To finish, I stamped the word love above the typewriter and some tiny framed hearts using black Archival Ink.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the amazing creations from Pia and Viv as well as the rest of my Design Teamies (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

I was so pleased to meet Chris from pearshapedcrafting, one of my design team buddies from Try it on Tuesday, at Lytham Hall a few weeks ago; we had such a lovely time together – thanks so much Chris!

We had fun chatting, exploring and admiring all the beautiful snowdrops.

Of course, as T Stands for Tuesday, I also enjoyed a cuppa too with our lunch; here’s my green tea and a slice of Honeycomb Cheesecake – Happy T Day everyone and many apologies for not being around lately, I’ve had lots of family stuff going on!

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 Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to join the following challenges:

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Erika at her BioArtGal blog and her Seeing Red challenge with the red hearts on my page.

Love

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

Happy New Year everyone! For my mixed media page I used lots of leftovers that I had in my craft stash – yay!

I started by collaging leftover papers onto the page using a glue stick; this included torn pieces of recycled sheet music, leftover pieces of Aviary Collage Paper by Tim Holtz, some bits and pieces of plaid and ruler design papers. When the papers were stuck in place, I covered the edges of the papers with some Liquitex matte gel medium and left it to dry; this allowed me to smudge the black Faber-Castell marker ink that I added around the edges, more easily, with my finger. Next I applied some Earl Grey, Coconut and Caramel Faber-Castell Gelatos by applying them to the page and then smudging the colour with my finger. I added two hearts and the “love” wording which were also leftover. To finish, I splattered the page using both white and black DecoArt acrylic paint.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. 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 join you there!

Recently, there have been some beautiful cloud formations and colours in the evenings; the sunset pinks, creamy yellows and greys all look so pretty together (smile!). I thought Bleubeard & Elizabeth might like the view of the silhouette palm trees in our back garden too.

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 Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

MIUCB #63 – Anything Goes + optional no stamping over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my Love page which was created with no stamping.

Double D Challenges and their Hearts challenge with the two hearts I added to this page.

More Than Words challenge and their Love Letters challenge with my Love page.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Today I’m sharing another page over at Art Journal Journey for the challenge theme Snowy Winter; like me all you need to do is add snowflakes or include snow to your page.

I started by covering the chipboard page with a used baby wipe that was stained blue using mop-up inks from previous projects; like all the paper elements it was stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. The blue snowflakes were created from blue tissue paper using a Paper Snowflakes Mini Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz; they melted into the background beautifully. The deer was cut from some white cardstock using a Reindeer Bigz Die by Tim Holtz; it and was coloured using Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy and Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Pitt Pen. When stuck in place I added his nose which was a red mini pom-pom. I added some glittery foam snowflake stickers and some white glittery stars which were created using a Snowy Stars Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and covered in Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder Glitter by Wow!. To finish, I added the “up in the clear sky” wording which was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book.

I hope that you are inspired to join in the fun this month too! I’m really looking forward to visiting you and seeing all your wonderful Snowy Winter creations (smile!).

As T Stands for Tuesday and to continue the Rudolph theme, I thought I’d share this fun mug that we saw whilst out shopping – Happy T Day everyone!

Hoping that you’re all staying safe and sending you best wishes this holiday season! Hugs Jo x

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

Challenges

As well as Art Journal Journey, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Challenge #65 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog with my Rudolph Reindeer page.

All Hearts Come Home for Christmas

Today I’m sharing a page that I created to remember family at Christmas including those who are no longer with us, as the wording says – All hearts come home for Christmas!

The brick background was created using a stencil and Ground Espresso, Brushed Corduroy and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks. Next I added the red door which was a recycled Christmas card and I arranged some leftover glitter paper across the bottom to create the snowy foreground. The snowflakes were die cut from the leftover glitter paper too, using a Paper Snowflakes Mini Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. To finish, I added the wall plaque which reads “All hearts come home for Christmas” from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and I added some snow to the top using the glittery paper.

I was pleased to use all the recycled materials as part of the design and with the snowflakes on my page, I’m joining my Snowy Winter challenge that I’m hosting over at Art Journal Journey.

My closest family members went for a Festive Afternoon Tea on a very cold and icy day. We went to The Villa, which is a gorgeous country home set in it’s own grounds near to where we live.

We went to celebrate and remember a very special loved one, my dear dad who passed away this time last year. He loved Christmas so the setting was perfect with all the beautiful Christmas decorations!

We had our family dog with us, so we sat in the cosy lounge/bar area.

Of course the Festive Afternoon Tea was amazing; this setting is for two people to share and we enjoyed pigs in blankets, salmon and leek tart, a selections of sandwiches and patisseries, mince pies and a mulled spiced fruit scone served with clotted cream and jam – delicious and so very filling (smile!). As T Stands for T Day, you’ll also find tea and coffee and although it’s not pictured we enjoyed some mulled wine too – Happy T Day wishes! .

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

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

Challenges

As well as Art Journal Journey, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:

Stencil Fun Challenge and their December Stencil Fun with optional Holidays with the brick stencil I used to create the background and the Christmas Holidays that are celebrated on this page.

Challenge #130 – Christmas Anything Goes over at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge with my Christmas page.

Time for Tea

As it’s time for tea at T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a page that I created using one of the napkins that I kindly received as part of the napkin swap – Happy T Day everyone!

I started by covering the page with Speckled Egg Distress paint and some white acrylic paint; mixing the paints on the page using a paintbrush. I ripped the pieces of a pretty Alice napkin and when the page was dry, I stuck them in place using a glue stick. Next I stencilled some Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink through a Vintage Diamond mini stencil by Creative Expressions. Then I added some black stamping using a Black Soot Distress Archival Ink; the stamps were a Tiny Dots stamp and a Script stamp from Kaisercraft and club and spade shaped stamp. To finish, I cut out and added various images from an Alice Stamperia paper pad.

As strawberry tarts feature on my page and happen to be one of my favourites, I’m sharing this one from our local bakery. It’s a shortcrust pastry base filled with a creamy custard and topped with glazed strawberries and it goes perfectly with my cup of green tea – yum!

Maybe you could join in the tea party too (smile!).

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

I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Elle from Empire of the Cat is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Fairytales, Folklore & Fables – Tell Me A Story so I’m joining her with my page which tells the story of Alice and her Adventures in Wonderland where she meets the Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and joins the tea party.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #178 – Anything Goes challenge with my Time for Tea page.

Challenge #63 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels with my Alice page.

LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog as I created my Time for Tea page using pieces of napkin.

I’m also joining a new challenge blog that’s just started this month called Stencil Fun Challenge which is Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil (with optional Halloween Colours), so as I had fun using the Vintage Diamond stencil on my page – Happy Stencilling!

Deeply Loved

As it’s the first Friday of the month, we are launching our October challenge over at Creative Artiste today. As always our challenge is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by my hubby; it’s our wedding anniversary tomorrow (smile!).

I started by adding water to the page and then some Orange Kuretake watercolour paint gradually building up washes of colour to give a smooshed effect. Then I splattered the page using the same paint and some white acrylic paint. Next I fussy cut the flowers and foliage from some decoupage paper and stuck them in place using a glue stick. The wording was a Kaisercraft sticker and reads “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage”; it was edged with a black Faber-Castell marker. To finish, I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. 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 join you there!

Here’s my hubby and me, I can’t believe that we’ve been married 34 years – time sure does fly when you’re having fun!

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

As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #178 – Anything Goes challenge with my anniversary page.

MIUCB #61 – Anything Goes + Optional Smooshing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my smooshed background that I created using watercolour techniques.

Challenge #62 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels with my Deeply Loved page.

My Heart

It’s a new month so it’s time to launch a new challenge over at Country View Challenges which is Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness.

The lovely Debs is hosting and says that the title for her challenge is inspired by John Keats ode to Autumn, in particular the first stanza, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. So think of the colours, ripened fruit, late flowers, watery sunshine, swelling nuts and gourds, anything you associate with early Autumn.

My page captures autumnal leaves as we’ve noticed on our woodland walks that the leaves are falling early this year, with layers of leaves already forming on the woodland floor.

I started by covering the chipboard page using white gesso and when dry I rubbed some of the gesso off using a baby wipe to give a distressed look. Then I used a Falling Leaves stamp set by Tim Holtz to layer leaves around the edges of the page using quite a few different colours of Memento Ink; the colours included London Fog, Pistachio, Toffee Crunch, Rich Cocoa, Love Letter, Dandelion and Potters Clay Memento Inks. The wording was a sticker which I edged using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker. To finish, I splattered the page with black DecoArt acrylic paint and added two sparkly Gumdrop Heart gems.

I created this page with my hubby in mind as he loves autumn and this season brings both birthday and wedding anniversary celebrations – “when I follow my heart it leads to you” (smile).

For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges. I hope you’ll join us, it would be lovely to see you there and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!

Wishing you a Happy September and I hope that you’re staying safe and well! x

Challenges

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their #175 – Anything Goes challenge with my autumnal page.

LTCCB#70 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my autumn love page.

Time stood still

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Keep It Simple.

This challenge was really hard for me as keeping things simple isn’t something I normally achieve (smile!), so to keep it simple, my design centred on a sheet of cardstock from Kaisercraft with some pretty framed flowers.

I started by cutting the Kaisercraft sheet into three pieces and then arranging it onto the page. Before it was stuck in place with a glue stick, I coloured the background pale pink using some watered down Pickled Raspberry Distress Ink. Then I added the pink roses which were washi stickers and to finish, the wording which was a Kaisercraft sticker and reads “In these moments time stood still”.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the wonderful Keep It Simple creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

As T Stands for Tuesday, here’s my friend’s cappuccino for you coffee lovers and our pots of tea; I fell in love with the beautiful teacup and saucer with the elegant gold accents and pretty pink roses – 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 join the following challenges:

The lovely Chris from Pearshapedcrafting is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen When We Were Young so I’m joining her with the words that I included on my page which are very poignant for me as we have been sorting through boxes with my mum, the contents of which hold strong memories of my childhood and as such it seems ‘time stands still’ and everything around you seems to stop for a while as you remember (smile!).

Paperbabe Stamps and their #174 – Anything Goes challenge with my clean and simple page.

Make A Wish – Birthday Card

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges with another birthday card for this month’s Happy Birthday Challenge.

My feminine design was inspired by some pretty Sleeping Beauty Stamperia papers which I used to create this card.

I started by cutting a page of the Sleeping Beauty paper pad for a 6×6” blank card and stuck it in place using some double-sided tape. From the same paper pad, I cut the “Make a wish” birthday cake panel, edged it with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker and stuck it in place using double-sided foam tape. The “Happy Birthday” was die cut using a Female Occaions Sizzix Thinlits set from a couple of contrasting papers and I pieced them together onto the card using some double-sided tape. I coloured the “Happy Birthday” lettering using some Tarnished Brass Distress Paint and then I added some Ranger Glossy Accents over the top.

To finish, I added some drops of Glossy Accents onto the card and left it to dry to form clear 3-dimensional beads.

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

If you’re interested, here are the other products that I used to create this page.

I hope that you’re 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 #174 – Anything Goes challenge with my birthday card.

Ally’s Angels and their Challenge #61- Anything Goes with my pretty paper inspired card.

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.