So today I’m sharing the birthday card, that I made for my mum this year, featuring a huge Thinlits butterfly from Tim Holtz (smile!).
I started by creating a masterboard from watercolour paper smooshing it using Salty Ocean and Peacock Feather Distress Inks. When dry, I cut a panel from the masterboard and stuck it onto a 6×6” card using double-sided tape. Next I added some white rub-on transfers from a Remnant Rubs set by Tim Holtz and used some outline stickers to add some silver dots and a silver border around the panel. The large butterfly was die cut from white cardstock using a Perspective Butterfly Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and to finish, I added the “On Your Birthday” wording which was from a topper set.
I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing Things with Wings designs from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.
This is the gate that greets you at my mum’s house and as you can see it features many “things with wings” (smile!).
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.
It’s a new month so it’s time to launch our June challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
My mixed media page was inspired by summer days with a sunny golden sky for the bright red flowers and butterflies to bask in – Happy June everyone!
I started by covering the background with Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue Liquitex acrylic paint and then I stamped five different stamps to pattern the background using Memento Inks and Archival Ink. This included three stamps from Kaisercraft using Love Letter and Toffee Crisp Memento Inks, a starburst stamp using Dandelion Memento Ink and a Woodware Craft Collection stamp using black Archival Ink. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and I splattered the whole page using the yellow and also black acrylic paint. The two flowers were washi tape stickers and the wording was from a Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet. To finish, I added the red ephemera butterflies.
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 you there!
We’ve seen lots of red poppies recently and we discovered these on one of our walks (smile!).
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
As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
Paperbabe Stamps and their #169 – Anything Goes challenge with my summer page.
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.
Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Spring Colours.
We hope you’ll join in the fun and you can use any medium you like as long as we can see spring colours as part of your design. There are lots of spring colours to choose from and I was inspired by the green, yellow and neutral colours of spring.
I love collaging so I arranged some recycled images of a cute bunny rabbit, a hare and the “Spring” wording onto the page with a pretty daisy paper from The Diary of an Edwardian Lady paper set, and some recycled Encyclopaedia pages; they were stuck in place using a glue stick. I stamped the wording “Spring is in the air” onto the Encyclopaedia paper using black Archival Ink, and then I added two lots of thin washi tapes and the offcut strips of paper. To finish, I added all the spring ephemera pieces which were from a Field Notes ephemera pack or cut from some Pocket Cards; all of which were by Tim Holtz.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the wonderful spring colour 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 and to continue the spring hare theme on my page, here’s a couple of beers we enjoyed recently including Hopping Hare Pale Ale by Badger Brewery. The other is a Mango Wheat by Blue Moon – 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 Try it on Tuesday , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
It’s a new month so we are launching our April challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
My mixed media page was inspired by spring and some new Simple Stories materials that I got as an early birthday present (grin!).
I started by covering the background with Parchment Liquitex acrylic paint and when dry I used a Moroccan stencil by Creative Expressions to apply some Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the top. I removed some of the ink using a baby wipe and then I applied some Brushed Sage Distress Ink through the stencil too. Next I added the pretty spring paper which was free from a magazine and based on designs from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. I edged it using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker smudging the ink with my finger. Next I arranged and layered all the different paper pieces together; some of which were leftovers, some were fussy cut from Kaisercraft papers and the main images with the words “Enjoy the simple life” and “My heart” were chipboard pieces from Simple Stories. To finish, I splattered the page with some 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 you there!
Simple Stories is a new brand to me and I was lucky enough to be treated to some chipboard and die cut pieces as well as some papers for my birthday; they’re all so gorgeous and I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of them soon (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.
Challenges
As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
Paperbabe Stamps and their #164 – Anything Goes challenge with my spring page.
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.
It’s a new month so we are launching our October challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
My mixed media page was inspired by the sunny Indian Summer we’ve been having of late, so I’ve transported us back to a summer walk along the Lancashire canal and the lovely yellow Iris that we saw flowering there (grin!).
I started by ripping and collaging some sheet music and design papers from Kaisercraft and American Crafts onto the page using a glue stick. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso and Salvaged Patina Distress Paint over the top. When dry, I added lots of small pieces of design paper, which I had leftover in my craft stash, using Liquitex matte gel medium to stick them in place. The fern foliage and yellow Iris flowers were washi tape stickers and I cut the pretty butterfly image from some Kaisercraft design paper. To finish, I added the wording which were Finnabair stickers that I edged with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker; they read “Be still. Listen.”, “Just breathe” and “Be led by your dreams”.
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!
We always enjoy this walk along the canal and seeing the different boats, plants and wildlife along the way.
Here’s a view of one of the bridges where we saw the pretty yellow Iris flowering along the waters edge; it’s such a beautiful and peaceful place to walk (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:
Touchy Feely challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the texture I created using the leftover paper pieces which I layered together on this page.
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #153 – Anything Goes with my summer walk art journal page.
Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Going round in Circles.
Today my page features a collection of vintage circles; I hope you like it and are inspired to join our challenge too, it would be lovely to see you there!
For the background, I dragged Speckled Egg and Hickory Smoke Distress Ink pads vertically down the page and then applied some Liquitex matte gel medium over the top; I did this a number of times to build up the colour letting the gel medium dry before applying more ink.
Next I die cut lots of different sized circles from two design papers from a DIY Shop American Crafts paper pad and edged them using Ground Espresso Distress Ink. Then I added layers of washi tapes and lots of Tim Holtz ephemera, salvage stickers and remnant rubs to the circles and I splattered them and the page using Ground Espresso and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.
Before sticking the circles in place using a glue stick, I added shadows underneath them using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker smudging the ink with my finger. To finish, I outlined each of the circles with a black fine line marker so they stood out more.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful circle creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!).
As T Stands for Tuesday, I thought I would continue the circle theme with my Hot Beef Barm (slices of beef in a barm cake which is a popular flattish bread roll from North West of England where I live) served with onion gravy and chips which went very nicely with a pint of Unicorn beer – Happy T Day everyone!
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’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.
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 #151 – Anything Goes with my nature art journal page.
Die-na-mite over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with all the circular die cuts and Tim Holtz Ephemera die cuts that I used to create this vintage page.
It’s a new month so we are launching our September challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, this is a monthly challenge and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
I created a mixed media page using lots of leftovers from previous art journal pages; I hope you like it!
I started by covering the background of the page with the letters using one of stencils from a #16 mini stencil set by Tim Holtz and some leftover Iced Coffee Faber-Castell Gelato which was applied with a baby wipe.
Next I edged 4 Poster Cards from Tim Holtz, like I did all the paper elements on this page, using a black Faber-Castell marker and arranged them onto the page using double-sided tape. Then I added lots of leftover bits and pieces; this included a piece of mixed media paper which had been coloured using green Distress Inks, some flowers and foliage that had been die cut using Tim Holtz Thinlits and coloured using Distress Inks, some ribbon, some torn paper, some tissue paper and note paper that had been stamped using Finnabair stamps and black Archival Ink, a ruler from a Kaisercraft Journal Card and some die cut pieces of trellis that had been covered with Aged Silver Stampendous Embossing Enamel.
They were arranged onto the page using a glue stick or double-sided tape, and I layered together a doily, a recycled butterfly gift tag and some leftover die cut letters and wording to read “Be forever happy”. I added some sparkly gems to the centre of the yellow flowers and a green wooden bird and then to finish, I coloured the “Aug” and “Sept” wording on the Poster Card using Tri-Blend Spectrum Noir markers.
As you can see I used lots of different mediums to create this page but all you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our Anything Mixed Media Goes Challenge.
For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. I hope you are inspired to join us; it would be lovely to see you there!
This page was inspired by our walks at Lytham Hall that we enjoyed over the summer (grin!).
There are lots of woodland walks so we were able to stay cool in the shade and out of the summer heat. I’m now looking forward to seeing the leaves change to their colours over the coming months with the autumn on its way.
Our walks also take us by these flower borders in the walled gardens which always look so beautiful (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’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.
Challenges
As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #151 – Anything Goes with my nature art journal page.
De-stress with distressing over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my distressed grungy stencilled background, Distress Inks, and also the torn papers, trellis and ribbon.
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Glimmer and Sparkle challenge with the glimmer and sparkle of the yellow flowers with their glittery gem centres.
Mixed Media Lovers and their Challenge #5 Mixed Media Lovers as I used lots of mixed media to create this nature page; this is a new challenge blog so why not join in the fun too!
Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Use Book Pages.
I have some old books in my craft stash that I use for my art journaling and I used quite a few different books to create this page, in fact the only items that aren’t book pages are the sparkly butterflies (grin!).
I started by collaging the background with lots of different torn book pages from an old dictionary from my school days, a Pears Cyclopaedia, an old David Copperfield novel and an old novel with Kraft paper pages. They are stuck down using a glue stick and some Liquitex matte gel medium, and I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and left it to dry.
Next I fussy cut the gladioli image from an old garden flower book and stuck it in place using a glue stick.
Then I die cut some pages of an old poetry book to create the red border (using a Spellbinders set) and the “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? …” sonnet by William Shakespeare; I layered them together and stuck them onto the page using double-sided tape.
To finish, I added some pretty butterflies to add some sparkle.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and see how our Guest Designer and Design Teamies used book pages on their wonderful creations too (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!
I always look for books for my art journaling in charity shops and here are two books that I bought back in 2013 with every intention of using them on my pages, but they are so beautiful and precious that instead they remain on my bookshelf and I find myself reading them often. As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my “With a cup of tea” book with the T Gang today and wishing you all a Happy T Day!
My page was also inspired by these beautiful gladioli that are flowering in our garden too (grin!).
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’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.
Challenges
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 my type on the book pages I used on this page.
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my typewriter art journal page.
De-stress with distressing over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my distressed book pages which I achieved by tearing them and covering them with white gesso.
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Glimmer and Sparkle challenge with the glimmer and sparkle of the butterflies on my page.
Let's Art Journal 