Beatrix Potter

Our new challenge theme over at Try it on Tuesday for the next two weeks is Childhood, so I created a page to remember my favourite childhood stories and author, Beatrix Potter.

You’ll find some beautiful inspiration from the Design Team over at Try it on Tuesday too, I hope you will join us!

I started by experimenting with Colourcraft Brushos and making a spray using Dark Brown Brusho powder and water which I mixed in a spritzer bottle. I sprayed it over the page and left it to dry, it gave a lovely pinkish egg-shell colour, which I thought tied in nicely with the Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck. But then I remembered that duck eggs are white! (grin). Then I fussy cut a black and white picture of Beatrix Potter, a colour picture of Hill Top Farm in the Lake District where she lived, her illustration of “Cecily Parsley Makes Cowslip Wine” and some text from an old 2016 magazine article celebrating her 150^th Birthday. I also fussy cut a picture of peas and a picture of the Lake District from the same magazine and I cut The Tale of Peter Rabbit book and my favourite characters from a leaflet, this included: Peter Rabbit; Peter Rabbit being chased by Farmer McGregor; Peter Rabbit jumping into a watering can; Peter Rabbit running on all fours; Appley Dapply; Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle; The Tailor of Gloucester; Mr. Jeremy Fisher; and Jemima Puddle-Duck. I collaged all the fussy cut pieces onto the page using a UHU Stic and when the glue was dry I outlined some of the pieces using a black Uni Pin marker. To finish, I added two pieces of blue ribbon and then stuck a recycled blue button where the ribbons overlapped using Glossy Accents and a pretty blue polka dot flower.

From my page, have you guessed who my all time favourite character was – it was Peter Rabbit! As a child I loved the Beatrix Potter stories and still have many of her books in my craft room which I have been known to sit and read now and then with a cup of tea (grin!). In the front of these books you will see my egg cup from my childhood too, it features Peter Rabbit and I have fond memories of dipping my soldiers (thin strips of toast) into my runny egg yolk (double grin!).

We used to holiday in the Lake District every year when I was a child and I have many happy memories of visiting Hill Top Farm too so I was pleased to include this on my page.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my cup of green tea and a homemade Belgian Bun – Happy T Day!

This was the first time that we have made these buns and they tasted delicious. They are not to be confused with Chelsea Buns that I used to make when I was younger, as they have Lemon Curd filling rather than butter so have less fat content – yay!

Also if you are visiting from the T Gang and like Street Art then you may wish to check out my previous post here.

Challenges

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

I’m pleased to join the lovely Yvonne from Meggy’s way, who is hosting A World of Fantasy challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my Beatrix Potter page as she definitely created fantastical animals for her stories.

I’m joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my art journal page.

Over at That’s Crafty! Challenge Blog their theme is Animal Magic so I’m pleased to join this challenge with Beatrix Potter’s magical animals that I included on my page.

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:

• Colourcraft Brusho (Dark Brown)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.3mm)
• Old Magazine
• Beatrix Potter Leaflet
• Blue Adhesive Ribbon
• Recycled blue button
• Wilko Stickers (Flower Embellishments)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• UHU Stic

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Take a Ride

Today we are starting a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday called Take a Ride. It’s up to you how you wish to travel, maybe by plane, boat, train, car, fantasy machine or like me in a vintage hot air balloon.

There are more fabulous inspirations from the Design Team over at Try it on Tuesday too, we hope to see you there!

I started by adding a used baby wipe which had lemon and violet paint on it to the background, some purple vintage hot air balloons torn from some decoupage paper and lots of bits which I had saved from die cutting papers and card and couldn’t bear to throw away (grin!); they are all stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. When the gel medium had dried I wet the page with water using a spray bottle and sprinkled Lemon and Purple Colourcraft Brushos over the top watching the colours burst to life as the powders were activated by the water. I added a few layers of Brusho powders until the colour intensity was to my liking and left it to dry. Next I sprinkled water over the page with my fingers and blotted the page dry which removed the Brusho colour where the water droplets had landed. I then cut another set of the purple vintage hot air balloons from the decoupage paper and stuck them over the top of the ones on the page, matching the designs; I did this because some of the Brusho colours had bled into the original images. Once the glue had dried, I outlined the balloons using some Derwent Graphik markers.

Next I applied some Titanium White Liquitex ink to the top of the page tilting the page so it ran downwards depicting paths etched into the sky. I also splattered the page with some black DecoArt acrylic paint and the same white ink drying it with my heat gun so the Brusho colour didn’t seep into it. I used a rub-on transfer set from Kaisercraft to add more hot air balloons and the inspirational quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson which reads “Don’t follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”. To finish, I outlined all the die cut bits and white splatters with a Derwent Graphik fine line marker.

There are lots of different textures on this page, it looks so amazing close up!

I’m pleased to join the lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover, who is hosting the Count your blessings challenge over at Art Journal Journey as it’s a joy to be able to travel; this page reminds me of the time we saw a sky full of hot air balloons, whilst on holiday in America, at the Alburquerque Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico (grin!).

As my vintage hot air balloons and fantastical sky reminds me of steampunk, I’m pleased to join SanDee & amelie’s Steampunk Challenges for their Anything Goes – Steampunk/Industrial challenge.

I’m also joining the Summertime challenge over at Moo Mania & More with my summery coloured page.

Over at Paperbabe Stamps their challenge is Anything Goes so I’m pleased to join in the fun with my vintage hot air balloon page.

I thought the T Gang, over at T Stands for Tuesday, may like this arrangement of the everlasting sweet peas from our garden; they are arranged in my old fashioned teapot which I picked up for 50p at our local carnival weekend. It didn’t have a lid but it’s perfect for these pretty sweet peas (grin!) – Happy T Day!

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:

• Colourcraft Brusho Colours (Lemon, Purple)
• Liquitex Ink! (Titanium White)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.03mm & 0.8mm)
• Recycled Baby Wipe – used to mop up paints
• Recycled die cut bits – paper and card
• Docrafts Deco Sheets Papier Patch (Vintage Air Balloons PMAT69328)
• Kaisercraft Rub Ons Up, Up & Away Collection (Black & White RB869)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Amour

Today I have created an art journal page to celebrate love as I’m so looking forward to the wedding of some very dear friends next month. I used my favourite blue Brusho colours to create the dreamy background and thought that Paris would be the perfect city for Amour (grin!).

I started by sprinkling Turquoise and Ultra Marine Colourcraft Brusho powders onto the page and spritzed them with water. I love watching the colours burst to life as you add the water and as Brushos are made up of the different component coloured powders that create the main colour, purple can be seen on the page too from the Ultra Marine powder. Once dry, I stamped Eiffel Tower image onto the page and also onto some blue/grey spotted design paper using a stamp called “City of Love” by Penny Black and black Archival Ink which I used for all the stamping on my page. I used the same “City of Love” stamp to add the black swirls along the edges of the page, as well as the two hearts and the word “amour” over the background. Again I stamped these images onto the blue/grey paper, fussy cut them out and edged them using a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. Then I stamped a leaf tile stamp from Rubber Soul, two birds sitting on a branch from Dovecraft and the word “Paris” from 7 Gypsies stamp set by Hampton Art directly onto the page. Next I added some diamond-shaped border stickers by Kaisercraft and also silver outline stickers along the edges of the page; then I outlined them both with a black Uni Pin marker, which took quite a while as the outline stickers are quite an intricate design. I then added the stamped blue/grey paper images to the page sticking them in place using a UHU Stic. For the main Eiffel Tower image, I layered it over a white doily and it is stuck into place using double-sided tape. I then added the black round brads to the “amour” signs, lots of flowers which I had embellished with blue gems and also a glittery silver butterfly which finished the page.

Paris is such a lovely place to visit, here is the Eiffel Tower when we visited some years ago; it looks spectacular by day and by night (grin!).

The wrought ironwork is amazing, if you want to find out more about the Eiffel Tower please check out my previous post.

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 Gill from gibbyfrogettcraftations who is hosting the Inspired by … challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my love inspired page.

I enjoyed using all the different stamps to create my Amour page design, so I’m also pleased to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Stamping Sensations.

I’m joining in the fun over at The Artistic Stamper and their Colour it Blue challenge as they have chosen my favourite colour as their theme this month.

With my vibrant Brusho coloured page, I’m also happy to join the Bright and Cheerful challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the Written Word (add some text in some form) challenge over at Country View Challenges with my Amour art journal page.

I’m also very happy to join the lovely Design Team over at PaperBabe Stamps and their Anything Goes Challenge.

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:

• Colourcraft Brusho Colours Crystals (Turquoise, Ultra Marine)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.2mm)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Penny Black 2007 wood-mounted stamp (City of Love 3800K)
• Rubber Soul wood-mounted stamp (Leaf Tile 276K)
• Dovecraft Clear Stamp (DCCS014)
• Hampton Art 7 Gypsies Vintage cling mounted rubber stamps (Birdsong ICO151)
• Craft Sensations Design Pad (Vintage Glory 154898)
• Kaisercraft Sticker Set (Fly Free SS289)
• Docraft Anita’s Outline Stickers (Timeless Borders ANT810117)
• Dovecraft Premium Paper Doilies (Painted Blooms DCDLS010)
• Brads (Round Black)
• Poundland (Accessories Pack 60911, Gem Florettes 117128)
• The Works (Wooden Craft Butterflies CR1292)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Tyger

Inspired by some Urban Street Art in Blackpool and a wonderful poem by William Blake, I created this Tiger art journal page (grin!).

I started by mixing some Liquitex acrylic paints to produce an orange and dark purple colour and along with some yellow Liquitex acrylic I stippled them onto the page using a paintbrush; as this is a high density acrylic this produced some lovely texture. They are applied so that purple was at the top of the page, orange in the middle and yellow at the bottom to give an ombré effect that matched some of the street art we had seen. To intensify the colours and give more of a spray effect, I applied purple, orange and yellow Brusho Powders over the top of the acrylics and spritzed with water, watching the colours burst on the page and whilst they were blending I used my heat gun to dry them. Next I drew a border around the page using a black Derwent Graphic marker and stamped some hexagonal shapes so they flowed vertically on the page using black Archival Ink. The tiger is fussy cut from an old book of poems that I purchased from a charity shop (thrift store) and is stuck onto the page using a UHU Stic. I used some recycled black paper and also the leftovers from the tiger image to create leaves using Tim Holtz Garden Greens thinlets and my Big Shot machine. They are held in place with sewing machine stitching along each of the main stems which was fun technique to try considering my page is attached within a book (grin!).

Next I added yellow, orange and black beads using Glossy Accents and then cut the title, first verse and author of the poem from the same book as the tiger image. The poem is called The Tyger and is by William Blake, the verse reads: “Tyger! Tyger! burning bright in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye, dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”. I cut them out in an abstract pattern to match the page design, edged them all with black Faber-Castell marker and stuck them in place using a UHU Stic. To finish, I added more detail with a white Uniball gel pen and black Derwent Graphic marker which included some white dots in the centre of the larger hexagonal shapes and also some faux stitching around the border.

Blackpool has some amazing Urban Street Art and this is the fabulous tiger than inspired my page, you can see the ombre effect and of course the majestic tiger. This was created by Otto Schade when he took part in the 2016 Sand, Sea and Spray Festival in Blackpool.

There are a number of other artworks in the same area .

This mural just around the corner and it was created at the same 2016 festival and is a self-portrait based collaboration of Bane & Pest (also known as the Color Nomads) and Smile1.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the urban street art in Blackpool, there are still others to see which I’ll be sure to share, as I find that they are such wonderful inspiration for my art journal pages (grin!).

Challenges

With the leaves and tiger that I included on this page, I’m joining the Flora and Fauna challenge over at Art Journal Journey that I’m hosting this month. I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see you there!

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Ombré challenge with my brightly coloured ombré background.

I’m pleased to join the lovely Tracey and the rest of the DT over at That’s Crafty! Challenges for their A Stitch in Time challenge as I used both machine and faux stitching on my page.

I’m joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their For the Boys challenge with my William Blake inspired art journal page.

As I used die cuts to create the leaves on my page, I’m also reminding you of our Stencil, Die Cuts or Both theme over at Try it on Tuesday which runs until Monday/tomorrow evening and be sure to check out our fun new challenge on Tuesday!

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:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Navy, White)
• Colourcraft Brusho Crystals (Purple, Orange, Yellow)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.1mm, 0.8mm)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Docrafts Papermania Mini Cards & Stamp Sets (Capsule Geometric Krafts PMA105308)
• Sizzix Thinlets by Tim Holtz (Garden Greens 661206)
• 100 Great Poems
• Recycled black paper
• Brighton Bead Shop (Assorted Seed Beads)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• UHU Stic

Hello Spring!

With sunny days and warmer temperatures, it feels more like spring! My garden definitely looks more spring-like too with the beautiful daffodils and birdsong. So today I’m capturing those happy spring memories on my art journal page.

To start, I applied Mustard Seed Distress Ink concentrating the colour around the edges of the page; I did this by stamping the ink pad to an acrylic block and picking up the ink using a paint brush. Then I sprinkled some Leaf Green Colourfast Brusho powder onto the page and spritzed with water and watched the colours magically explode into life; I did this a few times until the intensity of colour I wanted was achieved. While the background was still wet, I used a stencil to apply Hickory Smoke Distress Ink using a blending tool and I stamped a daffodil tile stamp by Papermania using the Mustard Seed Distress Ink and also black Archival Ink, and also a small Flower & Dot stamp from Magenta using Teal Zeal Memento Ink; I really like the way the inks blended with the other background colours. I added a border of thin washi tape around the edge of the page and also around the wording “Hello Spring!” which I recycled from some junk mail. The pretty birds and daffodils are from a decoupage set which I fussy cut and stuck to the page using double-sided foam tape. The eggs are from an incomplete set of outline stickers from a charity shop (thrift store), which I stuck onto some textured recycled card and stuck to the page using a UHU Stic. To finish, I added some yellow bows which I made using recycled ribbon from a birthday gift.

Here are some of the beautiful daffodils flowering in our garden to welcome spring!

My pottery lamb stopped by to check them out too (grin!).

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/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the recycled junk mail, textured card and ribbon that I collaged onto this page!

With the stamping and pretty birds on my page, I’m pleased to join The Birds & the Bees challenge over at The Artistic Stamper.

I’m also pleased to join in the fun at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Trio of Something challenge with my pretty trio of decoupage bird images (if you look closely you will see the bird sitting on the flowerpot repeated three times on my page) and also my trio of eggs.

I’m also joining the Allsorts Challenge Blog and their New Beginnings challenge as my art journal page depicts the change in seasons, to welcome spring.

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:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mustard Seed, Hickory Smoke)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Colourcraft Brusho Colour (Leaf Green)
• Tsukeniko Memento Ink (Teal Zeal)
• Papermania wood mounted stamp (39454)
• Magenta wood mounted rubber stamp (Flowers & Dots 23111D)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Recycled junk mail magazine
• Hunkydory Spring is in the Air Designer Decoupage (Garden Birds and Bunny Meadow)
• Recycled textured card
• Outline Stickers (PP570)
• Yellow Ribbon – recycled from present
• The Works (Washi Tape Set)
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)
• UHU Stic
• Docrafts Stick It! double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Fire and Ice

Today at Try it on Tuesday we are launching a new challenge called Fire and Ice, where you are asked to use hot or cold colours. This new challenge runs for two weeks and we would love for you to join us.

I had fun creating an art journal page using hot fiery colours and icy glittery flowers (grin!).

I started by applying Pébéo modelling paste using a Swoosh stencil from Creative Expressions and a feather mask from Craft Sensations. Once the modelling paste had dried, I spritzed the page with water and sprinkled Brilliant Red, Scarlet, Orange, Yellow and Lemon Colourcraft Brusho Powders over the top and spritzed them with more water so that the Brusho colours fully covered the page. I controlled where individual colours went by adding each Brusho colour separately then spritzing the powder with water after each application; replicating flames with a red glow in the centre and oranges and yellows around the edges. I then dried the page with my heat gun and stuck a glitter adhesive border strip along the bottom edge. For the quote I cut out a circle of patterned paper and stamped the quote using an alphabet stamp set and black Archival Ink. It is by William C. Hannah and reads:

“The day will be what you make it, so rise like the sun and burn”.

It is edged with a gold outline sticker and then with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and a black Derwent Graphik marker. I stuck it on top of a circle of pink tissue-thin fibrous paper which I ripped around the edges leaving some of the silky fibres intact to give a textured feathery look; they are both stuck down using double-sided tape. Then I added some pearls, gems and glittery flower embellishments around the quote and to the background of the page; sticking the flowers in place using Glossy Accents. Next I fussy cut the phoenix from an old magazine and backed it with white card and I edged with a black Derwent Graphik marker. It is stuck to the page using double-sided foam tape and I stuck some torn pieces of the pink fibrous paper to represent feathers using a Zig Memory System glue pen and added some of the pearls and gems to give it a 3D look which finished the page.

I hope you will join in the fun over at Try it on Tuesday where you will find loads more inspiration from my fellow Design Team Members too.

As the quote I used inspires new adventures, I’m also pleased to join the lovely Erika N, also known as BioArtGal, who is hosting the “New Year, New Adventures” challenge over at Art Journal Journey.

We often visit the Blackbird café with our friends and as I’m featuring my favourite drink of green tea I’m pleased to join T Stands for Tuesday – Happy T Day! The drinks at this café are always served with a little treat on the side. If you look closely at the teaspoon you will see an Iced Gem biscuit, these little treats took me right back to my childhood (grin!).

If you haven’t come across Iced Gems before, you may be interested to know that:

• Iced Gems are tiny round biscuits (maybe 2cm diameter) with a swirl of hard icing on top.
• They were first made over 150 years ago in Reading and were apparently the result of a biscuit making accident back in the 1850s when Huntley and Palmer shrank their biscuits during the cooking process when experimenting with some new biscuit technology. They called the resulting mini biscuits Gems.
• In 1910 they added icing to these mini biscuits to create the product we know today.
• There were different ways of eating them; maybe the icing first, or the biscuit, or as I preferred both together. Leaving them to melt in your mouth was a good idea too as they were quite hard if you tried to chew them.
• Today’s iced gems have five colours of icing, white, yellow, orange, red and purple, which seem to be different from what I remember and there is also now a chocolate version too.
• They are said to be most popular in France, America, Canada, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Sweden.

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:

• Pébéo Modeling Paste
• Colourcraft Brusho Colours (Brilliant Red, Scarlet, Orange, Yellow, Lemon)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.05mm, 0.1mm, 0.8mm)
• Creative Expressions That Special Touch of Mica Mask (Swoosh)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
• Paper bundle from local craft shop
• Fibrous light weight Mulberry paper (Pink)
• White card
• Old magazine
• The Range (Glitter Adhesive Border Strips CR0517)
• Starform Outline Stickers (Gold 1144)
• Trimcraft (Adhesive Pearls SCDOT056)
• The Range (Craft Embellishments CR0824)
• Poundland (Accessories Pack)
• Hobbycraft (Rose Gem Stones 5666091006)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• UHU Stic
• Docrafts Stick It! double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Oh, Deer!

I’m so excited that December is here as I can put up my Christmas decorations; I started on Friday and it took me a couple of days to complete this task (grin!). I thought I’d create a page with the help of this deer who seems to be celebrating by decorating his antlers with Christmas baubles too (double grin!).

My idea was to create a snowy silver birch woodland background so I started by applying some torn pieces of white napkin using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium to add some texture. Then I added Brushed Corduroy, Spiced Marmalade and Hickory Smoke Distress Inks like watercolour by applying each ink to an acrylic block and then using a paintbrush to apply them to the page. I then sprinkled some Dark Brown Colourcraft Brusho powder over the top, spritzed with water and watched the powders explode with colour. I dried the page with my heat gun and then I applied a thin layer of PVA glue here and there in order to seal in some of the colour. Once the glue had dried, I applied a thick layer of Pébéo white gesso over the top using a palette knife and used the heat gun again to create some lovely texture as the gesso bubbled under the heat.  I emphasised this texture by using Silver Grey, White Sparkle and Apple Green metallic lustres by Craft-T products. I love how the gesso enhanced the background texture and that it looks like silver birch bark covered in snow. Next I ripped some branch and berry images from a napkin and stuck them around the edge of the page using a UHU Stic. With the background completed, I tore some silver Curling Ribbon (that was recycled from a present) into thin strips and then curled it with some scissors. I arranged the red and green baubles which are stickers and tied the strips of ribbon to them as if they were hanging down the page. I fussy cut the red reindeer from an old magazine and as the reindeer had white writing across it I covered it with small pieces of the red paper that I tore from the off cuts and coloured the edges with Crimson, Burgundy and Scarlet Spectrum Aqua markers. I mounted the reindeer image onto a piece of white card and outlined his eyes and nose with a Derwent Graphik marker so they stood out more. He is stuck onto the page using double-sided tape and I wrapped the ribbons around his antlers as I stuck him down so it looked like the baubles were hanging from them; this took a little time as it was quite fiddly. To finish, I added more sparkle to his antlers using some little silver dots and some red and green bells which are from the same sticker set as the baubles.

You may remember the Winter Wonderland Decorations that I made last month. I had a few requests to show them again when I had created my winter window display, so here they are (grin!). As you can see I made a few more of these decorations and trimmed them with lace, and as it’s December they are being displayed with some Christmas decorations too.

They look so magical at night with the fairy lights!

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing my green tea in some new mugs that were bought for us, their design reminded me of the reindeer page (double grin!) – Happy T Day!

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. Being a new month there are lots of new exciting challenge themes too, so here are the ones I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Sheila from Orange Esmeralda over at Art Journal Journey and her “Let’s Celebrate” challenge with my reindeer celebrating Christmas!

I’m joining the “Christmas” challenge over at Country View Challenges with my Christmas themed page and it was lots of fun also including their option of using reds and greens as part of my page design.

With my snowy reindeer scene I’m also joining in the fun over at A Vintage Journey and their “Winter Wonderland” challenge with my “Art Journaling” and “Mixed-Media” style page as it was created to remember the joy of putting up my Christmas Decorations this year and I used lots of different media to create it.

Being inspired by Chris and the fabulous textured backgrounds that she created for her happy snowman and baubles, I’m also joining the “Torn, Ripped and Burnt” challenge over at PaperArtsy with the torn and heated elements that I used to create my silver birch textured background and happy reindeer with baubles.

I’m also pleased to join the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their “Anything Goes” challenge.

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:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Brushed Corduroy, Spiced Marmalade, Hickory Smoke)
• Colourcraft Brusho Colour (Dark Brown)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Craf-T Luster Rub-ons Color Kit #4 (Silver Grey, White Sparkle, Apple Green)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Crimson, Burgundy, Scarlet)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.05mm)
• Poundland (Luxury Napkins 70371)
• Old Magazine
• Bauble Stickers from Charity Shop
• Recycled Curling Ribbon (Silver)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape