Stars shine

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing this art journal page as inspiration for this month’s Seeing Stars challenge.

I started by covering the page with white gesso and then added a layer of Bronze Distress Paint. When dry, I used a baby wipe to remove some of the Distress Paint giving the background a grungy distressed look. Next I used an AALL & Create Sparkles stamp set to stamp the starbursts using Elderberry Memento Ink and the Bronze Distress Paint. To finish the background, I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint. The owl panel and wording were cut from a Cosmos Stamperia paper pad and I die cut the stars from the paper using a Snowy Stars Thinlits set by Tim Holtz.

I hope you are inspired to join our Seeing Stars 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.

The owl on my page reminded me of the one we saw on a walk at Glasson Dock; it was such a surprise to see this Little Owl sitting in the tree looking right at us – we were so lucky that day (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.

Challenges

I’m pleased to join Paperbabe Stamps and their #170 – Anything Goes challenge with my starry page.

Seeing Stars

It’s time for our new challenge this month over at Country View Challenges which is being hosted by the lovely Sue whose theme is Seeing Stars; we would like to see stars as the main focus of your projects please.

For my page I used some lovely AALL & Create stamps to create this starry page.

I started by covering the chipboard page with black DecoArt acrylic paint and left it to dry, then I added some white acrylic paint over the top allowing the black paint to show through a little. Next I stamped the stars using Peeled Paint, Barn Door and Fossilized Amber Ranger Distress Archival Inks and then I covered them in complimentary WOW! embossing powders. I used the same stamp set to add the numbers using black Archival Ink and also splattered the page with the Inks and some of the black acrylic paint. To finish, I added the wording “Shine like the stars” and “Shine brightly” which were from a Metallic Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.

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

Here’s the stamp set, ink pads, embossing powders and sticker book that I used to create my page; the shimmer and shine looks amazing close up (smile!).

I hope you’ll join us, it would be lovely to see you there and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!

Wishing you a happy June and I hope that you’re 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 Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #168 – Anything Goes challenge with my freesia page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes theme with my starry page.

Special Christmas Delivery

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing a card as inspiration for this month’s Cats and/or Dogs challenge. As I featured cats on my first project, my design this time includes this cute dog who already seems to be in the Christmas spirit (smile!).

This was a simple card design; for the background I started ripped a panel of design paper and I applied some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the torn edges before sticking it onto a blank white 6×4” card using a glue stick. The Special Delivery wording and the cute dog, sending Merry Christmas wishes, was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Snippets Ephemera set and the rest of the sentiments were from a Christmas Sticker Book also by Tim Holtz; they were all edged with the Vintage Photo Distress Ink before sticking them in place.

I hope you are inspired to join our Cats and/or Dogs 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.

I made quite a few Christmas cards for family and friends using this technique; here are some of my favourites (smile!).

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their #168 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas card.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge and their #136 – Christmas Sentiments challenge with the Tim Holtz Christmas sentiments that I added to my card.

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and their Anything Christmas Goes challenge with my cute dog Christmas card.

MLCCB #44 Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Christmas card.

Layer It Up challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my layered papercraft card.

My Sweetheart

It’s time for our new challenge this month over at Country View Challenges which is being hosted by the lovely Rachel whose theme is Cats and/or Dogs.

For my page I used some beautiful cat images from the Lady Vagabond paper pad by Stamperia.

I started by covering the chipboard background using a Silver Metallics Acrylic by DecoArt and when dry, I dragged a black Archival Ink pad and a Rusty Hinge Distress Ink pad over the top to create the worn metal background. Next I cut out the different pieces of Stamperia paper, edged them with the Rusty Hinge Distress Ink and them collaged them onto the page. I applied some Ranger Glossy Accents to highlight the rivets on the papers and make them look more 3-D. Then to finish, I added the “My Sweetheart” wording which was from a Clippings Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.

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

I love how this page turned out and here are some of the materials that I used.

I hope you’ll join us, it would be lovely to see you there and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!

Wishing you a Happy May and I hope that you’re 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 Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #166 – Anything Goes challenge with my freesia page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes theme with my spring coloured flowers page.

MIUCB #59 Anything Goes + optional 3-D project over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the mixed media page and techniques that I used to create the worn metal background.

Spring is in the Air

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing my second page as inspiration for this month’s Spring is Coming challenge.

I started by painting the page using Sapphire Blue Glitter Dust DecoArt paint and when dry I applied some Rustic Wilderness and Twisted Citron Distress Paint to the foreground and to create the tree shapes. Next I used a Tall Pines Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and white cardstock to create the trees and then I painted them using the Distress Paints; they were stuck in place using matte gel medium and I added some highlights using a white gel pen. Next I doodled all the pretty spring flowers using purple, white and yellow Uni Posca paint pens which took quite bit of time as there were so many layers of colour and lots of flowers (smile!). The adorable deer family was die cut from some leftover cardstock which was coloured using Vintage Photo and Tea Dye Distress Inks using Darling Deer Thinlits set by Tim Holtz; their white dots were added using a white gel pen and some clear Ranger embossing powder. The wording “Spring is in the air” was recycled and finished the page.

I hope you are inspired to join our Spring is Coming 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.

This deer is a rusty metal stake in my garden, isn’t he spectacular – we were kindly gifted it last Christmas (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.

Challenges

As well as Country View 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 and she is asking for pages inspired by your favourite movie or song.
As I love musicals the deer on my page reminded me of the lyric “Do, a deer, a female deer” which you may remember is from the song “Do-Re-Mi” from the Sound of Music. I used to sing this all the time when I was younger and can even still remember all words (grin!) – can you? (If not check out the video below).

Easter/Spring challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my spring page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #164 – Anything Goes challenge with my spring page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes theme with my spring colours page.

With Love

It’s time for our new challenge this month over at Country View Challenges which is being hosted by the lovely Corrie whose theme is Spring is Coming.

With all the spring flowers starting to grow in my garden it looks like spring is on its way, so with this month’s challenge in mind I created this page “with love” full of spring coloured flowers.

I started by covering the chipboard background using a couple of stamps; the first was from the Etcetera stamp set from Tim Holtz using Moonshine White Brilliance Ink and the second was a Carabelle Studio stamp using black Archival Ink. Then I die cut all the flowers and foliage using a Floral Tropics Sizzix Thinlits set from some Tim Holtz Kraft cardstock and some leftover pieces of linen textured cardstock. I arranged them around a circular die cut piece of white cardstock which I had stuck one of the flowers onto and also the wording “With love” which was created from a Sizzix die set that my sister kindly gifted me (grin!).

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

I hope you’ll join us, it would be lovely to see you there and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!

It feels like Spring is on its way with all the spring flowers and greenery in our garden – wishing you a Happy April and Spring!

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their #164 – Anything Goes challenge with my spring page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes theme with my spring coloured flowers page.

Mothering Sunday

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing my second page as inspiration for this month’s Mother’s Day challenge.

I started by stamping the chipboard page using an Architecture stamp set by Tim Holtz and Moonlight White Brilliance ink. Then I die cut the flowers from white cardstock using a Brushstroke Flowers #3 Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and I coloured them with Distress Inks; the petals with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink, the stamens with Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge ink and the leaves with Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn ink. I arranged them on the left-hand side of the page and then I applied Ranger Glossy Accents over the centres of the flowers. To finish, I added the white wording which were Tiny Text Rub-ons by Tim Holtz.

I hope you are inspired to join our Mother’s Day 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.

I love the pretty flowers and stamped arched windows I created as part of the page design, it reminded me of church and Mothering Sunday – if you didn’t know in the UK we celebrate Mother’s Day on the fourth Sunday of Lent which is also known as Mothering Sunday.

Mother’s Day maybe on a different date depending on where you live: this year in UK and Ireland it’s on Sunday 27th March; in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand it’s Sunday 8th May; France it’s Sunday 29th May; Spain it’s Sunday 1st May.

If you are interested here are some interesting facts about Mother’s Day in the UK:

• Mothering Sunday in the UK has a religious origin.
• It does not fall on the same date each year due to its connection to Lent.
• England was the first country to dedicate a day to Mothers.
• It’s often celebrated with Simnel Cake or Mothering Cake which dates back to the 18th Century.

I hope that you are staying safe and well, and for those of you celebrating – Happy Mother’s Day wishes!

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:

The lovely Valerie of Bastelmania is hosting Art Journal Journey and has chosen Spring with my spring Mothering Sunday page.

Rather Blustery Day challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as keeping things clean and not smudging the stamping is often difficult for me hence why a lot of my pages are grungy in design (grin!); for this page I stamped the image and left it to dry overnight – yay, it worked!

Paperbabe Stamps and their #163 – Anything Goes challenge with my Mother’s Day page.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Add Some Green challenge with the green leaves on my page.

Bit O’Green challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the green foliage on my page.

Celebrate

It’s time for our new challenge this month over at Country View Challenges which is being hosted by the lovely Evelyn whose theme is Mother’s Day.

Inspired by my mum and her love of freesias, I created this art journal page to celebrate Mother’s Day.

To create my bokeh background, I covered the page with Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink using a blending tool. Then I applied the circles using a Sun & Moon stencil and white gesso, slightly overlapping some of the circles as I went. To finish the background, I splattered the whole page with black DecoArt acrylic paint. For the freesias, I die cut the flower heads using a Fresh Freesia Sizzix Thinlits set by Prima Marketing from some white cardstock that I had coloured using Abandoned Coral, Mustard Seed and Scattered Straw Distress Ink. The stems were die cut using the same Thinlits set from some green Kraft cardstock by Tim Holtz. Once arranged on the page, I added the wording which reads “Celebrate”, “It’s your day” and “XOXOXO” which were Sentiments Label Stickers by Tim Holtz.

It was my first time using these pretty Fresh Freesia Thinlits and I love how they look on my page with these Sentiments Label Stickers by Tim Holtz; both were from Country View Crafts and I’m sure I’ll be using them again soon (grin!).

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

As T Stands for Tuesday, here’s the cute mug that I usually have at my mum’s when I visit (grin!) – Happy T Day everyone!

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

The lovely Valerie of Bastelmania is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Spring; as Mother’s Day is synonymous with Spring here in the UK and the colours are spring-like I’m joining her challenge with my page.

For The Love of Mixed Media challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as my mixed media page was created for my mum and mother’s day.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #162 – Anything Goes challenge with my freesia page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes theme with my celebrate Mother’s Day page.

Use At Least One Stencil challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I used a stencil to create my bokeh background.

Love with all your heart

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing my second art journal page for this month’s Hearts and Flowers challenge.

I started by covering the chipboard background using Botanicals Collage Paper by Tim Holtz and Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I coloured the flowers using some colourful Spectrum Noir markers and a white gel pen and then I added some shadows and edged the page using a Ground Espresso Distress Ink. Next I stuck the three sparky Gumdrop Hearts by Tim Holtz onto the page and I added the wording “Love with all your heart” which was from a Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker book. To finish, I added some Ranger Glossy Accents to the flowers which highlighted the colours beautifully.

I hope you are inspired to join our Hearts and Flowers 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.

This glass heart hangs in my dining room and was gifted me by a very dear friend as a house warming present many years ago; it reminds me of my page.

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.

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. You can also check out the Tim Holtz products that I used over at Country View Crafts too.

Challenges

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

I’m pleased to join the lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover over at Art Journal Journey and her What’s Your Style challenge this month with my romantic style page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #160 – Anything Goes challenge with my hearts and flowers page.

Love Is In The Air challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my love inspired page.

Funkie Frilly Valentines over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog with my vintage valentine page of frilly flower petals and glittery hearts.

Always & Forever

It’s time for our new challenge this month over at Country View Challenges which is Hearts and Flowers.

Jane is our host for this month and she would like to see BOTH hearts and flowers on your creations. We look forward to seeing what you make and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!

I started by painting the background with Brushed Sage Distress Ink which I had watered down like watercolour. Then I added Rustic Wilderness and Twisted Citron Distress Ink using a blending tool through a Heart Cluster Mini Stencil by Creative Expressions. I added the stamping using a Fragments stamp set by Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink. Next I die cut the poinsettias and foliage using a Festive Bouquet Thinlits set from Kraft Paper, both by Tim Holtz, and added more colour and detail using Spectrum Noir markers. The tiny red hearts were created using a Falling Hearts Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and arranged vertically so they cascaded down the page. To finish, I added the wording from a Metallic Sticker Book by Tim Holtz which read “Always & Forever” …”In my heart” and “Love you” … “XOXO”.

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

Here’s a couple of the products from Country View Crafts that I used to create this page. I love the poinsettia Thinlits from this Festive Bouquet set; they turned out so beautifully.

I often have a cuppa whilst crafting so I included my cup of tea to join the T Gang today over at T Stands For Tuesday too – Happy T Day everyone!

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their #160 – Anything Goes challenge with my hearts and flower page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes Challenge with my Always and Forever art journal page.