Thank You – Snowy Winter

As it’s the end of December, I’m sharing my last page for the Snowy Winter challenge over at Art Journal Journey which I’ve been hosting this month.

Thank you so much to everyone who joined me; I really appreciate all your kind comments and support throughout the month and have thoroughly enjoyed visiting your blogs and seeing all your wonderful artwork (smile!).

_{Please note: I took this photo earlier this week and will add any names I’ve missed when the challenge has finished (smile!).}

My page celebrates all of you who joined in the fun and I chose to design a page full of gifts, like you’re artworks were this month. I started by die cutting lots of squares from different Christmas design papers by Docrafts and arranged them onto the page with some blue square stickers. Then I painted some Cracked Pistachio Distress Stain between the squares giving it an icy snowy look. When dry, I added lots of stickers to the squares and background; they included tags, presents, bells, snowman, trees, snowflakes and stars. Next I printed the names of those who joined the challenge using a Dymo LetraTag Label Maker and once stuck in place, I decorated them using some silver Stickles glitter and a sequin snowflake.

I hope you had as much fun as I did, I enjoyed creating snowy winter pages for this challenge whether it was in my mini journal or …

… in my A4 sized journal.

Thank you all for your participation and lovely comments, you made it such a joy to host this challenge!

I’d like to say a special thanks to Bleubeard & Elizabeth and the rest of the AJJ Team for asking me to be a guest host; it’s always a pleasure to join you!

Not only is tomorrow a New Year, it’s the start of a new month which brings a new challenge at Art Journal Journey and I can’t wait to see what the new theme is and say hello to our new host – see you there! 

I hope you’ve had a safe and happy Christmas. Wishing you all the very best for 2023! Hugs Jo x

Thanks for joining me and if you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

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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.

Christmas Reindeer

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays!

I am so delighted to be hosting Art Journal Journey this month and the challenge theme that I have chosen is Snowy Winter; like me all you need to do is add snowflakes or snow to your page.

For my Christmas Reindeer page, I started by stamping lots of snowflakes onto some cream paper by Docrafts using Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink and I arranged it so it covered the right-hand side and left-hand side of the page. For the reindeer panel, I tore the edges of a piece of the Docrafts paper and used a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to colour the edges. I stuck this paper onto a piece of white cardstock and adhered the reindeer and sleigh ephemera along with some gold snowflake outline stickers, a gold “Merry Christmas” foam sticker and the “dashing through the snow” and “let it snow” wording which were from a Christmas Sticker Book by Tim Holtz. Then to finish, I stuck the panel onto the page framing it with two gold filigree border outline stickers.

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!).

This reindeer reminds me of Sven from the animated feature film Frozen, who is very lovable (smile!). If you haven’t seen the film here are some of Sven’s best moments from Frozen and Frozen II.

Hoping that you’re all staying safe and well this Christmastime – enjoy! 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:

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #30 and their Christmas Anything Goes Challenge as my gold and neutral page matches their photo inspiration and celebrates Christmas.

December Anything Goes Winter Challenge over at The Four Seasons Challenge with my winter reindeer page.

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

A Christmas Song

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges with my second page for our Christmas Anything Goes challenge this month.

I love robins especially at Christmastime and had lots of fun creating this page using some of my favourite crafting goodies by Tim Holtz.

I started by covering the chipboard page using Twisted Citron and Rustic Wilderness Distress Paint and when dry, I applied some white gesso over the top using a brayer. Then I stamped some fir tree branches over the page using Pine Needles and Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink and a Sketch Greenery stamp set; all by Tim Holtz. The page was splattered using white DecoArt acrylic paint and left to dry. The papers are from a Tim Holtz Worn Wallpaper Christmas set; I tore them into pieces before sticking them in place using a glue stick. The snowflakes were die cut from the same paper using a Paper Snowflakes Mini Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. For my robins I cut three different birds using a Silhouette Birds Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some brown and red Kraft Cardstock – Classic by Tim Holtz and once stuck together added some glitter to their red breasts using Red Stickles and a tiny black gemstone for their eyes. To finish, I added the wording from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker book which reads “A Christmas Song” and “Message of Love”.

I hope you are inspired to join our Christmas Anything Goes 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 (grin!).

As you may have seen from a previous post, I always visit our local garden centre for their Christmas evening with my family and this year there was free face painting. I know what you’re thinking this is for kids, but as no one was waiting I asked the lady if she would paint my face and she said yes so of course I couldn’t resist – can you guess what I asked for?

Yes I love robins so much that that’s what I asked for; well maybe it looks like a cross between a robin and a cardinal, but who cares, as you can see it really made me smile – wishing you a Merry Christmas and all the very best for the New Year! x

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:

Art Journal Journey which I’m having fun hosting this month; I chose the challenge theme Snowy Winter so like me all you need to do is add snowflakes and/or snow on your pages. I hope to see you there!

December Anything Goes Winter Challenge over at The Four Seasons Challenge as robins and poinsettias always remind me of winter and Christmastime.

Challenge #65 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog with my a Christmas Song page.

Christmas Robins

I was kindly gifted some part-used topper and cardstock sets by M, my very dear MIL, which were from a charity shop. Of course, I fell in love with the robin designs as soon as I saw them, so I created this simple, fun page (smile!).

I started by covering the whole page with a piece of cardstock, that had lots of robins sitting on a branch hanging their stockings. Then I had fun adding all the hanging baubles and bells from the branches using some coloured baubles stickers and some thin strips of silver border outline stickers. To finish, I used the toppers from the same robin pack to create the signage which reads “Flying by to wish you a Merry Christmas”.

It was so kind of M to think of me and gift me such gorgeous cardstock and toppers for my art journal pages (smile!); I’m looking forward to creating more pages with these goodies!

Hoping that you’re all staying safe and well and Happy Journaling! Hugs Jo 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 following challenges:

Art Journal Journey which I’m having fun hosting this month; I chose the challenge theme Snowy Winter so like me all you need to do is add snowflakes and/or snow on your pages. I hope to see you there!

Paperbabe Stamps and their #182 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas page.

Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #47 – Anything Christmas Goes challenge with my Robins flying by Christmas page.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #29 where Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas Robins page.

Double D Challenges and their Christmas Stockings challenge with the robins’ Christmas stocking on this page.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I’m so delighted to be hosting Art Journal Journey this month and the challenge theme that I have chosen for is Snowy Winter; like me all you need to do is add snowflakes and/or include snow as part of your page design.

Today’s page was inspired by a Christmas Event at our local garden centre which I attend every year with my family.

I started by painting some white acrylic paint to the centre of my chipboard page and some Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg Distress Paint around the edges. Then I used a clean paintbrush to pull the white paint out to the edges to produce a starburst effect. When dry, I stamped some small snowflakes using Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink over the page. Next I added some cute animal Christmas scenes which were 3D stickers and to finish, some pretty snowflake embellishments.

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

The Christmas Event is held in evening and Santa was there to greet us as we arrived at the garden centre.

We always have fun looking at the Christmas displays, listening to the live Christmas music and of course, shopping.

It’s become a family tradition to attend this evening and it’s such a lovely way to start the Christmas festivities!

We also enjoyed the complimentary mulled wine and mince pie – yum! As T Stands for T Day, I’m sharing the mulled wine with you, grab a glass and Happy T Day!

Hope that you’re all staying 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 Art Journal Journey, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #182 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas page.

MLCCB #47 – Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my fun Christmas page.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #29 where Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas page.

Merry Christmas

It’s a new month which means we have a new challenge at Country View Challenges for December which is Christmas Anything Goes.

This challenge is perfect as I love all things Christmas and as I love all things Tim Holtz too, this page features lots of his products. Wishing you a Happy December and all the very best for the festive season!

I started by covering the page with white gesso using a brayer and then I stenciled some snowflakes using a Mini Layered Christmas Stencil Set #50 by Tim Holtz and Ranger Crackle Texture Paste. When dry I added the festive foliage which was die cut from different colours of Kraft Cardstock-Classic by Tim Holtz using a Funky Festive Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz; they were layered together using matte gel medium. To finish, I added the wording which was die cut from the black Kraft Cardstock-Classic using an Alphanumeric Script Thinlits set by Tim Holtz.

For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

I hope you are inspired to join our Christmas Anything Goes challenge too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).

I’ve already been decorating for Christmas and here’s one of my Christmas wreaths; this ones on my back door and was hung with a pretty metal robin decoration (smile!).

Hoping that you are all staying safe and well – Happy December! x

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:

Art Journal Journey and the Snowy Winter challenge that I’m hosting this month as their are lots of stencilled snowflakes on my page.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #28 where Anything Christmas Goes with my Merry Christmas page.

LTCCB #71 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my Christmas page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #181 – Anything Goes challenge with my festive Christmas page.

MLCCB #47 – Anything Christmas Goes over at the Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Merry Christmas page.

Snowy Winter at Art Journal Journey

I am so delighted to be guest hosting Art Journal Journey this month with my Snowy Winter theme.

As winter is here, we’re looking for snow and snowflakes on your pages; this could be linked to a winter scene or even Christmas as it’s now December.

For my page, I started by using a Stencil Template set by Inkylicious for the moon and a Stencil Mask by Marianne Designs for the trees, and painting Seedless Grape Distress Ink like watercolour onto the page. Then I coloured the moon using the Inkylicious Stencil using the same Seedless Grape Ink and then the trees using Pine Needles Distress Ink. Next I used a Cozy Winter Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz to die cut the snowflakes, adorable bear, branch and woodpecker from some white cardstock and different colours of Tim Holtz Kraft Cardstock – Classic. I die cut some pine needles to add to the branch using a Holiday Greens Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and then I layered everything together and stuck them onto the page. I splattered the page with white acrylic paint and to finish, I added the wording “a white Christmas appeared” which was from a Christmas Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.

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; please, don’t forget to take a look at the RULES.

Wishing you a very Happy December and Happy Journaling! 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 #64 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog with my Snowy Winter Christmas page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #181 – Anything Goes challenge with my winter page.

Stencil Fun Challenge and their December Stencil Fun – Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil with the stencils that I used to create the background on my wintery page.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #28 where Anything Christmas Goes with my winter Christmas page.

Merry Moose Wonderland

I’m so delighted to be hosting this month’s challenge over at Sparkles Monthly Challenges choosing #158 – Die Cuts and/or Punches as my theme.

I love nothing better than using die cuts for my papercraft projects and I used quite a few die cuts for this page including one of my favourites – the Merry Moose Sizzix Thinlits by Tim Holtz.

It looks like Merry Moose is looking forward to Christmas this year while walking through a winter wonderland; I hope you’ll join in the fun too, it would be lovely to see you there (smile!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with a layer of Speckled Egg Distress Paint and left it to dry. Then I used lots of Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits to create the scene; this included a Branched Birch Thinlits Set which was cut from some white linen cardstock, a Woodlands Thinlits set for the fir trees cut from some green foil corrugated cardstock, a Merry Moose Thinlits set from some cream linen cardstock and a Winter Wardrobe Thinlits set for his bow from white linen cardstock. I layered the trees together using double-sided tape and I cut out the snowy foreground from some of the white linen cardstock. The Merry Moose was coloured using Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso and Antique Linen Distress Ink and his bow using a Dark Red Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker. The two little robins, flying across the page, were stamped using a Picket Fence Studios stamp set and black Archival Ink; they were coloured using a Earth Brown Blend and the Dark Red Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers and then fussy cut out. To finish, I added the “walking in a winter wonderland” wording which was a die cut sticker from a Christmas Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenges, and for more inspiration please check out the amazing Die Cuts and/or Punches projects 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.

Here are all the Thinlits sets I used to create my Merry Moose Wonderland page.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a couple of pints of Dark Side of the Moose beer; it’s from Purple Moose brewery in Porthmadog, Wales and we enjoyed it last week at one of our local pubs – Cheers and Happy T Day everyone!

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

Challenges

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their #180 – Anything Goes challenge with my Merry Moose page.

MLCCB #47 – Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Merry Moose Wonderland page.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #27 where Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas Merry Moose page.