Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing my second art journal page for this month’s Time challenge.
For my Time Machine page, I started by covering the background with some design papers; the border on the left-hand side and clock panel on the right were from a Voyages Fantastique Paper Pad by Stamperia. The clock panel was ripped and then edged, like all the paper pieces, using Ground Espresso Distress Ink. I fussy cut the “Time Machine” image and clocks from the same Stamperia Pad and used some leftover Pocket Card pieces by Tim Holtz for the numbers and background ledger. They were arranged onto the page with a tag which I created using a Tag Collection Sizzix Framelits set by Tim Holtz. The tag was coloured using Ground Espresso, Tea Dye and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink; I did this by applying the ink to an acrylic block, spritzing with water and then pressing the block onto the tag. I added a gold brad to the tag and some gold highlights using a gel pen and to finish, I applied some Ranger Glossy Accents around the brad and to the clogs and edges of the clock faces.
I hope you are inspired to join our Time 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.
Here are the papers that I collaged together to create this page. I hope you will join us too, it would be lovely to see you there (smile!).
Stay safe and well and thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
With Alison the Craftytrog posting a page for “Pretty Woman” as part of her Play It Again Sam challenge over Art Journal Journey, it made me think about other films from this era that I used to watch. The movie “One Fine Day” sprang to mind so I created this romantic page – do you remember this movie?
With romance in mind, I added a wash of Tattered Rose and Antique Linen Distress Ink to the background, applying it like watercolour. Then I used the same Distress Inks and Pistachio Memento Ink to stamp some stamps from an Etcetera and also a Sketch Greenery stamp set by Tim Holtz. Next I added some pretty doily and flower stickers from Kaisercraft and the heart and butterflies were from a Simple Vintage die cut set by Simple Stories. I added two brads to the “One Fine Day” wording, which was also from Simple Stories set, before sticking it in place using double-sided foam tape. To finish, I added the pink raindrop gems as I love the scene when they are in the park splashing around in the puddles.
If you are not familiar with this movie, One Fine Day was released in 1996 and it’s an American romantic comedy starring George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer. It’s about two single working parents who meet as strangers unexpectedly, along with their young children, one day in New York City.
Here’s the trailer for this film, which includes a glimpse at the scene where they are splashing in the puddles (grin!).
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.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
The lovely Alison the Craftytrog is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Play it again Sam so I’m joining her with my “One Fine Day” page.
Paperbabe Stamps and their #165 – Anything Goes challenge with my romantic page.
It’s a new month so we are launching our August 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 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 started by colouring the edge of the page with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and smudging the ink with my finger. Then I added the design paper to the top left-hand corner; I ripped and distressed the edges of the paper using a pair of scissors before sticking it in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. I also tore and distressed the edges of the sheet music, and I used a new technique by using water to dampen the top left-hand corner of the sheet music so that the paper could be manipulated more easily in order to fold it back before applying some matte gel medium to hold it in place. Next I applied some Brushed Corduroy and Tea Dye Distress Inks, that I had diluted with water, to give the music sheet more of a worn and vintage look. The vintage images were Washi tape stickers which I adhered to some white cardstock and then cut out; they were stuck in place using the matte gel medium. I added a dark brown brad to the tag image and then I stuck the paper flowers and leaves, which were by Little Birdie, in place using glue dots. To finish, I added the Kaisercraft sticker wording which reads “memories filled with cheer”.
For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.
The sheet music on this page was gifted me by my sister and brings back so many happy memories of her playing either her piano or violin when I was young – they definately were “memories filled with cheer!” (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
As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with the typed wording on the tag and quote that I added to my page.
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my vintage page.
The Birthday Celebration! challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I’m sure they have many “memories filled with cheer” as they celebrate their 11th Birthday – thanks for all the challenge fun over the years and wishing you all a very Happy Birthday!
MIUCB #52 – Anything Goes + Mixed Media over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the mixed media and techniques that I used to create this vintage page.
Mixed Media Lovers and their Challenge #4 Mixed Media Lovers; this is a new blog challenge blog that’s just starting up so I’m so pleased to be able to join them.
Our new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday for the next 2 weeks is Travel and Adventure.
I also want to welcome the wonderfully talented Tammy from My Craft Central who has joined our design team; she is such an inspirational artist and I’m so happy that she has joined us.
For my travel and adventure page, I’m sailing the high seas using some beautiful papers from Stamperia. I hope that you are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!
I started by using one of my favourite techniques which involved smooshing some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink onto the centre of the page; I used a re-inker for this so I placed some ink onto an acrylic block, spritzed it with water and then pressed the block onto the page. When dry, I ripped a piece of Stamperia design paper in half and stuck it to the left and right-hand sides of the page using a glue stick.
For the tags and additional images, I used some more of the Stamperia papers and also some vintage stickers that have been in my craft stash for a while. I layered the paper pieces and stickers together and secured the ship tag and the anchor using some brown brads before sticking them in place using double-sided foam tape.
To finish, I added the wording which are Small Talk stickers from Tim Holtz; they read “no journey is to great if you find what you seek”, “adventure is worthwhile” and “travel the world over to find the beautiful”.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies to see where their Travel & Adventure has taken them (grin!).
This page reminded me this fabulous T-shirt which we bought for my hubby whilst holidaying in New England, it’s from the Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland, Maine.
When we travel, we always enjoy looking at and trying the different local beers and here is my hubby checking out the different varieties at a supermarket in Maine; as you can see from the overhead signage Shipyard make a pumpkin ale which is where we got the idea of home-brewing our own pumpkin beer – my favourite (grin!).
As life on the high seas is thirsty work, I’m also joining T Stands for Tuesday with all these beers and saying a big welcome to the T Gang – cheers and Happy T Day!
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.
Here is a list of the materials that were used to create this art journal page:
Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Tumbled Glass, Tea Dye)
Stamperia 8×8 Inch Paper Pack (Around the World)
Pritt Stick
Vintage Stickers
Craft Sensations (Brads)
Tim Holtz idea-ology Sticker Book (Small Talk #TH93193)
Challenges
As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #147 – Anything Goes with my mini art journal page.
As last month signified our wedding anniversary and my hubby’s birthday, this page was inspired by love!
I really like the worn grungy look and feel to this page and I embossed the tiny hearts on a large red heart to depict how our love has grown over the years (grin!).
I started by covering the page with pieces of decoupage paper by VivaGade, old sheet music and Botanical collage paper by Tim Holtz using Liquitex matte gel medium. Then I alternated layers of Pébéo white gesso using a brayer and some Distress Inks to create the grungy look, allowing each layer to dry before applying the next; the Distress Inks I used were Brushed Corduroy, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso and they were applied by stamping the ink onto an acrylic block, spritzing with water and either pressing the block or dripping the ink onto the page.
For the hearts I used some red foil cardstock cutting the smaller hearts using a Falling Hearts Thinlit set from Tim Holtz. I also got creative and used the Thinlit to emboss the large heart with lots of tiny hearts. Before sticking the hearts in place I marked where the large heart was to be placed and then painted black DecoArt acrylic around the edges dragging the paint outwards. I did the same with white acrylic paint and then splattered the page with both the black and white acrylic paints flicking the brush so the splatters emanated outwards from the heart. When dry, I stuck the hearts in place and added two black brads to the large heart. The “love” wording was created from the red foil and some white cardstock using a Shadow Script Thinlits set from Tim Holtz which finished the page.
Don’t forget that you still have another week to join our Embossed challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, it would be lovely to see you there!
For our wedding anniversary we ordered some delicious food from a new local takeaway called Elvin’s Street Food. The food is influenced by traditional Middle Eastern recipes that have been passed through generations of the owner’s family and they have an extensive vegan menu too. The owners pride themselves on using local produce from across Lancashire and being eco-friendly using easy to recycle packaging for their meals.
I had the “Sweet Kickin’ Chicken & Butterbeans”; this is spiced-infused chicken breast pieces and butterbeans slow-cooked for a rich and creamy texture, sweetened with homemade apple sauce. It’s served with rice, flatbread, salad, fresh mango and pomegranate salsa and yoghurt dip, and I also had a side order of fries – so yummy!
My hubby had “Lebanese-Style Yoghurt Chicken”; this is grilled chicken breast pieces marinated in yoghurt and Lebanese spices. It’s served with the same extras and he had the same side order of fries!
As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m also sharing the amazing mango lassi that I had to drink – this yoghurt based mango concoction was so delicious! Happy T Day everyone!
Hoping that you 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:
Viva Gade Decoupage Paper (Paris)
Old sheet music
Tim Holtz idea-ology Collage Paper (Botanical #TH93705)
Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
Pébéo White Gesso
Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Brushed Corduroy, Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso)
Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199, White 101)
Brads (Round Black)
DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
Artist Discount Acylic Paint (White)
Stix2 glue dots
Recycled white cardstock
Pritt Stick
Challenges
I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, 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 happy to join the Home is Where the Heart is challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my vintage page as my home is always filled with love.
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 techniques I used to create the worn grungy background for this page.
I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything But A Card challenge with my art journal page.
I’m also joining Sandee & amelie’s Steampunk Challenge and their Winter Special 2020 challenge of Anything Goes – Steampunk/Industrial with my romantic hearts and worn grungy industrial background.
My sister kindly bought me a beautiful rusty style robin garden decoration, as you may know I love robins and it really makes my day when I see them in our garden so this was the perfect gift. I wanted to capture it along with the words she wrote on the note that she gave me with this gift which reads “now you can have robins in your garden all the time” (grin!).
For the background I stamped the pink blossoms using black Archival Ink and a blossom stamp from Stampendous; they are painted using Twisted Citron Distress Ink for the leaves and a mixture of Fired Brick Distress Ink and White Linen Dylusions Ink Spray for the flowers with additional touches of Putty colour from a Winsor & Newton Promarker. I applied Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink using a blending tool through a doily stencil randomly around the flowers then I spritzed the stenciling with water to re-activate the ink to give a washed out effect.
For the robins, I drew around my robin garden decoration using a pencil onto some mixed media paper and then spread Ranger Texture Paste in-between the drawn lines using a palette knife to create the rust texture. Once dry, I gradually coloured the texture paste to build up the rust effect using quite a few layers of Sanguine and Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush markers and Rusty Hinge Distress Ink. Next I cut the robins out of the mixed media paper and I applied some Orange Soda and Mango Faber-Castell Gelatos by scraping them over the raised areas of texture paste and smudging the colour with my finger which finished the rust effect wonderfully.
For the sign, I cut a piece of white cardstock to size and stuck the message that my sister had written on one side of the card. I coloured the other side using a Sanguine and Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and attached the four seasons stickers from Graphic 45 over the top. I then framed the front and the back edges with texture paste using a palette knife and I also used the texture paste to cover a brad too. When dry, I add a piece of cotton string to the sign and then coloured both the string and the texture paste using the Sanguine and Dark Sepia markers and then the Orange Soda and Mango Gelatos to create a rusty effect.
Next I attached the sign by the string to the page using the brad; this allows it to be turned over to reveal the message from my sister which reads “now you can have robins in your garden all the time!!”; which is why I chose to list all the seasons on the other side (grin!).
The robins look so pretty in my garden; I have placed them just outside my kitchen window so I can see them all the time and as you can see they are so beautifully rusty – perfect!
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.
Challenges
With rusty texture that I created, I’m pleased to join the Texture challenge over at Art Journal Journey that I’m hosting this month; thanks to everyone who has joined so far!
I’m so happy to join the Staying In The Background challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the pretty stamped and stenciled background that I created on this page.
I’m also happy to be able to join the #128 – Dimensions challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with the rusty elements and signage dimension on my page.
I’m joining the Complimentary Colours challenge over at Country View Challenges with the blue background and rusty orange of the robins.
I’m also joining the Favourite Stencil (and why) challenge over at the As You Like It Challenge with my stencilled background; I love the pretty doily pattern that this stencil creates as it looks so delicate, this stencil is also versatile as it can be joined together to create one whole doily or just used randomly as I did on this page.
Here is a list of all the scrap materials used to create this art journal page:
I am so delighted to be hosting Art Journal Journey this month and the challenge theme that I have chosen for this month is Texture.
We would like you to have fun creating texture on your pages. As you can see from the different panels on my page there are lots of possibilities to create texture. This could be by adding texture paste, crackle paste, high density mediums like gesso, paints or embossing powder. You could also use embossing folders, layers of papers, die cuts, fabrics or chipboard pieces too. The choice is yours!
I couldn’t just choose one texture so I decided to create my page using 21 different texture panels to inspire you and as I started creating the panels they turned into little scenes, I hope you like them (grin!).
If you’re interested, here’s close up pictures and full details of how the panels that make up my page were created. There’s also a list of all materials I used at the end of this post too.
1. Foil For my first panel, I stamped a dragonfly using black Archival Ink onto some coloured foil, which is recycled from an Easter egg wrapper. I stuck it onto the panel using a glue stick and to create the worn textured look I added some black Archival Ink to emphasis the creases and then I rubbed the foil back to its base silver colour with a baby wipe. To finish I added the glittery flower.
2. Teabags & staples Using staples I attached a used teabag to the panel and then I stuck three teacups on the top which were die cut from some design paper.
3. Glass beads I coloured the panel with some Summer Sky Memento Ink and then applied Liquitex Glass Beads Texture Gel over the top with a palette knife. Whilst the medium was still wet I pressed some pretty blue glass beads into the texture gel. When dry I added the little orange fish which is a brad.
4. Dried leaves I used matte gel medium to layer together a yellow skeleton leaf, a dried beech leaf and a die cut flower, which was cut from some linen textured paper using a Wildflower Tim Holtz Thinlet.
5. Fabric, threads and lace The panel was covered with some self-adhesive fabric and layered with a piece of frayed muslin, some Hessian/burlap and some threads which I topped with a lace flower.
6. Corrugated card I added a piece of corrugated card, which was recycled from some packaging, using matte gel medium then applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top. When dry, I emphasised the corrugations using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. The postage stamp is from Graphic 45 and was distressed using the Dark Sepia marker, Tea Dye Distress Ink and black acrylic paint.
7. Elastic bands I applied some matte gel medium to the panel and sprinkled on some Orthodontic elastic bands that CJ kindly set to me (grin!). When dry I covered them with white gesso and highlighted the circles using a Dark Sepia marker. Then I edged the panel using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and coloured some of the circle centres using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. To finish, I added three little hearts that were in my craft stash; they were created using the Falling Hearts Thinlet set from Tim Holtz and glossy white cardstock.
8. Crackle I covered the panel with white gesso and when it was dry I applied Earl Grey, Caramel and Coconut Faber-Castell Gelatos smudging the colours with my finger. To create the crackle I used a BoBunny stamp and some Toffee Crisp and Rich Cocoa Momento inks and Black Archival ink.
All the letters for the “texture” wording were created using an X-Cut die set; they were cut from both black and white paper and then layered together onto a panel of textured design paper.
9. Glitter I cut some different coloured glitter sheets into squares and then stuck them onto the panel using a glue stick.
10. Cork I simply stuck a piece of cork designed paper onto the panel.
11. Paint Splatter To add more texture I used some high density Liquitex paint, splattering Vivid Lime Green, Cold Grey and Bright Aqua Green onto the panel and leaving it to dry.
12. Wood This is one of my favourite techniques; I applied Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy and Ground Espresso Distress Ink pads vertically down the panel and used a paint brush to add some matte gel medium over the top keeping the brush strokes in a vertical direction. I repeated the process a couple of times making sure each layer dried before adding the next.
13. Texture paste I applied some Ranger Texture Paste to the panel using a Vintage Diamond stencil. When dry I coloured the panel using Salty Ocean and Cracked Pistachio Distress Inks, then emphasised the texture paste using some Midnight Sparkle lustre wax.
14. Napkin I simply covered the panel with a gold embossed napkin using a glue stick.
15. Wooden chipboard pieces and rust effect I started by sticking the cogs in place using matte gel medium. When dry I added layers of different shades of rust and brown acrylic paints which I had created by mixing Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow and black acrylic paints. When dry I added more detail using Dark Sepia and a Sanguine Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. Then I added some patina by lightly stippling some Bright Aqua Green acrylic paint over the top.
16. Paper layers I covered the panel with leftover paper pieces and edged them using a black Uni Pin marker. The flower is a paper sticker and the foliage was cut using a Funky Floral Thinlet from Tim Holtz and coloured using two green Winsor & Newton Promarkers.
17. Doily and gems I added lots of texture to the panel using layers of doily which I edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a Dark Sepia marker. They are stuck in place using double-sided tape and then embellished with some textured gemstones to add some shimmer and shine.
18. Embossing Folder, thread and buttons I used an embossing folder to add a flower design to a piece of Kraft cardstock and then coloured the raised embossed design using a white Uniball gel pen and Aqua Green Promarker. Then I wound some wax thread around the panel and attached a big button.
19. Drywall/Plasterboard Tape I added some drywall/plasterboard tape to the panel and coloured it using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and White Linen Dylusions Ink Spray. I splattered the panel with black DecoArt acrylic paint and added some washi tape to create the foreground. Then I added the mushrooms which are from the Field Notes Ephemera Set from Tim Holtz.
20. Embossing enamel and die cut trellis The panel background was coloured using Tea Dye and Antique Linen Distress Ink and Dandelion and Pistachio Memento Ink. The trellis was die cut from white cardstock covered in black Archival Ink and Chunky Silver Stampendous embossing enamel. I added two little birds which were stamped using black Archival Ink, coloured with Promarkers and fussy cut out.
21. Tissue Paper For the final panel, I crumpled some white tissue paper and then added it to the panel using matte gel medium. When dry, I coloured it with Lemon, Cadmium Yellow, Cerulean Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna watercolour paint. The flower was cut from some Kanban cardstock using a Wildflower Tim Holtz Thinlet.
Once the panels were complete I stuck them onto the page using double-sided tape; I coloured the background with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker to outline the panels before sticking them in place.
Do you have a favourite panel? It’s hard for me to choose, maybe number 3 with the beads and little fish, number 6 as I love the corrugated card, number 15 with cogs and rust or number 20 as you know I adore robins (grin!).
I hope that you are inspired to join us at Art Journal Journey this month too! We are really looking forward to visiting you and seeing all the Texture that you create on your pages (grin!).
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.
Challenges
I’m joining the It’s A Wrap challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the Easter Egg wrapping, corrugated packaging and tissue paper wrap I used to create my panels.
I’m happy to be able to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my page.
I received another lovely surprise in the post, a gorgeous summer vibe card from my dear friend Nan. She knows how much I love the beach and ice cream so her card is perfect – thanks so much!
My page was inspired by Nan’s fabulous card design with the pastel-shade colours, the beach and summer vibe, the words/text, and of course the ice cream (grin!).
I coloured the background using Spectrum Aqua markers by scribbling the marker onto an acrylic block, spritzing with water and then pressing the block or dripping the ink onto the page. I mopped up wet ink with a piece of kitchen towel so the colours merged into each other; the Spectrum Aqua colours I applied were Yellow, Sea Green, Topaz, Aquamarine, Orange, Crimson, Purple and Gold. My hubby says it looks like melted ice cream (grin!).
When dry I added lots of words related to summer which are rub-on transfers. I stamped the beach huts onto some mixed media paper using black Archival Ink and then coloured them with Uni Posca paint pens; the colours I used were Violet, Pink, Yellow, Light Blue, Red, Orange and Light Green. I fussy cut them out and stuck them to the page using a glue stick. The little tags were cut from white linen textured card stock using Tag Collection Framelits from Tim Holtz and edged using a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker.
I added some little hearts to the tags which were cut from some different colours of Sizzix adhesive backed cardstock that was kindly sent to me by Nan, using a heart punch kindly gifted by CJ – thank you both! To finish, I added some black brads to the tags and then some ice-lolly/popsicle stickers.
With Nan’s amazing writing and adornments, my hubby instantly knew who the card was from when he saw the envelope on the door mat; he was all smiles when he told me something had arrived in the post (grin!). On opening it he noticed the ice cream van straight away, not surprising as he loves ice cream so much (double grin!). It’s so kind and thoughtful of Nan and very much appreciated – thanks very much!
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.
Challenges
I’m pleased to join the lovely Alison AKA Craftytrog over at Art Journal Journey and her Pockets and Tags challenge this month; the hearts on my tiny tags were inspired by Alison’s journal pages – thank you!
I’m joining in the fun I do like to be beside the seaside challenge over at Country View Challenges with my summer beach vibe page.
I’m also happy to be able to join the #126 –Anything Goes challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my page.
I had a lovely surprise as my hubby kindly bought me a bottle of cherry beer; this particular one comes with a paper wrap which he thought would be perfect to use on a journal page – how cool is that!
I really enjoyed using the paper wrap from the beer (grin!). I started by creating lots of tags and panels out of the paper wrap using a square die cut set and a Tim Holtz Framelit set; I mounted them onto some recycled card using a glue stick and then edged them using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker.
The background was created using the leftover pieces of the paper wrap which I collaged with some brown paper recycled from the parcel of goodies that CJ kindly sent to me. I lined the edges of the collaged papers using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and then added some Pébéo white gesso using my finger. When dry, I gave it worn grungy look using some Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Then I arranged the tags and panels onto the background using either double-sided tape or double-sided foam tape. To finish, I added three large gold brads through the holes in the tags.
This beer is Bacchus Kriekenbier which is a Belgian fruit beer based on “Bacchus Oud Vlaams Bruin” (Old Flemish Brown) with the addition of “krieks” (Morello cherries).
Flemish Old Brown is a dark brown beer flavoured with 15 % cherries which is matured in oak casks. It has a pleasant sour cherry taste – so delicious!
As T Stands for Tuesday, my cherry beer is perfect to share with the T Gang too – Happy T Day everyone!
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 glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I 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 pleased to join the lovely Alison AKA Craftytrog over at Art Journal Journey and her Pockets and Tags challenge this month with my cherry beer page.
I’m also happy to be able to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my page.
Don’t forget that you still have time to join our Tag You’re It challenge this month over at A Vintage Journey too, it would be lovely to see you there!
Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Framelits (Tag Collection 658784)
The Works (Die Cutting Set – Squares)
Paper wrap from Bacchus Cherry Beer
Recycled card
Pritt Stick
Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
It’s a new month so we are launching our July challenge over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
I was inspired by summer damselflies and had fun playing around with lots of mixed media to create this art journal page.
I started by applying Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink to the page using a blending tool and then spritzed with water so that the inks blended and dispersed over the page. When dry I applied some of the Twisted Citron Ink through a Shedded stencil by Andy Skinner and also wiped a baby wipe through the stencil to remove some of the ink.
I stamped some Vintage Circles using a stamp set from Woodware Craft Collection with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink and also some fern leaves using a Tim Holtz stamp set and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink. The black circles are stencilled using a Dutch Doobadoo stencil and Black Soot Distress Ink. I stamped the damselfly stamp which was free with a magazine using black Archival Ink so they look like they are flying around the page and then I splattered the page with Carbon Black Liquitex Ink. The wording “don’t forget to fly”, “with brave wings she flies” and “use your wings” are all Small Talk stickers from Tim Holtz.
The central “Until you spread your wings you’ll never know how far you’ll fly!” wording was created using a couple of Kaisercraft Journal Cards which I cut to size, dyed with Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink and embellished with a black metal dragonfly brad. Then I edged them with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and layered everything together with some pretty flowers and leaves which finished the page.
I hope that you are inspired to join our Anything Mixed Media Goes Challenge too! For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too – it would be lovely to see you there!
Here is the pretty blue damselfly that inspired this page. They are very similar to dragonflies but the easiest way tell them apart is when they are at rest like this one; damselflies fold their wings up and hold them together across the top of their backs whereas dragonflies hold their wings out perpendicular to their bodies when resting, like an airplane. This is a Common Blue Damselfly; it is fairly common throughout the UK and is seen from May through to September.
If you’re interested here are some more differences between damselflies and dragonflies (which made me think that the free stamp I used is a damselfly – grin!):
Damselflies have much smaller eyes than dragonflies and their eyes always have a gap between them whereas dragonflies wrap around the head from the side to the front of the face.
Damselflies have narrow bodies like twigs, whereas dragonflies have bulkier bodies giving it a shorter, thicker appearance.
Both dragonflies and damselflies have two sets of wings, damselflies have wings that are the same size and shape and dragonflies have hind wings that are larger than the front set of wings.
Hoping that you are all staying safe and keep 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 join the lovely Erika from her blog BioArtGal over at Art Journal Journey and her When It’s Hot challenge this month with my damselfly page as they appear when it’s hot.
Art journaling always makes me happy as it helps me breathe and I love to capture memories on my pages, so I’m entering the Do What Makes You Happy challenge over at Country View Challenges too.
Let's Art Journal 