Faith in every flower

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which is Use A Stencil.

I had fun using four stencils to create this page, I hope you like it (smile!).

For my bright and cheery stencilled page, I started by covering the background with Mermaid Lagoon and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks. I blended some Seedless Grape Distress Ink along the edges of colours blending them together. I used the same three Distress Inks to stencil the dots, squares and crosses over the top. Next I applied some Ranger Texture Paste through a flower stencil and left it to dry. To finish, I added a sticker which reads “Faith in every flower”.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and the rest of my Design Teamies (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

Like my page, our flower bed is looking very bright and cheery with all the colourful flowers that are currently in bloom (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 Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to join the following challenges:

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Aimeslee this month, who has chosen Flowers as her theme; so I’m joining in the fun with the stenciled flowers on my page.

Stencil Fun Challenge and their May Stencil Fun – Anything Goes with optional Flowers challenge as I had fun using all the stencils to create this page.

Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog and their Challenge #69 – Anything Goes with my flowery art journal page.

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Let’s Get Messy

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which is Let’s Get Messy.

I’d also like to send a warm welcome to the lovely Pia and the lovely Viv, who have both joined our Design Team; this is their first challenge with us so be sure to check out their blogs and show them some love!

This messy page was created using leftovers. The background was a piece of card that I used under my journal pages whilst creating them to protect the page underneath; it’s messily covered in paints, stenciling, stamping, texture paste and marker pens. It looks like I also used this card when I created some some ATCs too, as you can see from the black acrylic paint outlines. I added the flowers which I stamped sometime ago onto some white tissue paper and also the stamped typewriter which was already fussy cut out. I also found the red hearts and “Be still and listen” wording in my craft stash, so added them to my design. To finish, I stamped the word love above the typewriter and some tiny framed hearts using black Archival Ink.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the amazing creations from Pia and Viv as well as the rest of my Design Teamies (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

I was so pleased to meet Chris from pearshapedcrafting, one of my design team buddies from Try it on Tuesday, at Lytham Hall a few weeks ago; we had such a lovely time together – thanks so much Chris!

We had fun chatting, exploring and admiring all the beautiful snowdrops.

Of course, as T Stands for Tuesday, I also enjoyed a cuppa too with our lunch; here’s my green tea and a slice of Honeycomb Cheesecake – Happy T Day everyone and many apologies for not being around lately, I’ve had lots of family stuff going on!

Stay 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 join the following challenges:

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Erika at her BioArtGal blog and her Seeing Red challenge with the red hearts on my page.

Floral Frenzy at Sparkles Monthly Challenge

Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Floral Frenzy.

I had fun creating this page full of flowers using lots of different papers (smile!).

I started by applying a thin coat of Pébéo white gesso to the chipboard page and then I created a panel using some watercolour paper by smooshing some Peeled Paint, Twisted Citron and Rustic Wilderness Distress Inks onto it. When dry, I tore the edges of the paper panel and stuck it to the page using a glue stick.

Next I created the large flowers; I stamped the flowers onto three different pink design papers using a Flower Garden stamp set from Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink. Then I fussy cut them out and cut out some of the petals and stuck them together to create a single flower of patchwork petals. I also cut some smaller flowers from the pink papers using a Small Tattered Florals Thinlits set from Tim Holtz. Then I arranged them onto the page with some leaves that were die cut from two different green design papers using Wildflowers Stems #1 Thinlits set by Tim Holtz; everything was stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I coloured the centre of each of the flowers using a Yellow Promarker pen. To finish, I added the wording “so happy together” which was a Kaisercraft sticker.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing Floral Frenzy 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.

Like on my page, there’s a floral frenzy going on in my garden at the moment – I love this time of year as all the plants are flowering so beautifully (smile!). This is a glimpse at some the flowers in our garden at the moment – top left is Aquilegia or Ladies Bonnet, top right is Armeria Maritima or Thrift and bottom left is Tulip.

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 Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #167 – Anything Goes challenge with my floral page.

Stamping Sensations and their Anything stamped with option of Floral and Fauna challenge as I included stamped flowers on my page.

Alcohol challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the Promarker alcohol ink pens that I used as part of my design.

We Love Stamping and their For a Lady (or Girl) challenge with all the pretty stamped flowers on my page.

Not A Card challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my mini art journal page of flowers.

Painting the Roses Red

To join a few challenges including our I Can Hear Music challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, I created this fun “Painting the Roses Red” page using my new Alice Through The Looking Glass papers from Stamperia – I hope you like it!

I started by covering the background with some grey and silver acrylic paints, smudging them onto the page using a baby wipe. Then I layered some decoupage paper and design papers over the top using a glue stick and Liquitex matte gel medium.

The framed images were cut from the Alice Through The Looking Glass papers by Stamperia, decorated with some washi tape roses and mushroom stickers and then layered together on the page. To finish, I added the wording which were letter stickers by Docrafts.

Do you remember this fun song from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland?

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing this Lancaster Red beer and wishing the T Gang a very Happy T Day and sending E very happy birthday wishes! If you look closely at the bottom of the pump clip, you can see the Red Rose of Lancaster which is a heraldic badge dating back to medieval times and is often see here in Lancashire as it’s our county flower.

Hoping 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

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 Painting the Roses Red page.

A Study in Contrast challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my contrasting colours of black and white to the red.

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

The importance of a moment

Inspired by a new paper pad and Ric Rac ribbon, I created this Shabby Chic styled page with a beautiful quote that reads “Sometimes you don’t realise the importance of a moment until it becomes a memory”.

I started by covering the chipboard page with some pretty hummingbird and flower designed paper using a glue stick. Then I added three pieces of cream Ric Rac ribbon vertically down the left-hand side of the page, sticking them in place using double-sided tape. I placed a flower and leaves by Little Birdie over the bottom of the ribbon. Next I added the wording which was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet and to finish, I edged it using a Uniball white gel pen.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a bottle of Cherry Wheat Beer that my hubby got me for Christmas. It was so delicious and reminded me of our trips to Belgium; I thought that it tied in nicely with the colour of my page (grin) – Happy T Day!

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 Bleubeard & Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover is hosting this month over at Art Journal Journey and her challenge is What’s Your Style, so I’m joining in the fun with my Shabby Chic styled page.

#148 – Use Ribbon, Raffia or Twine over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge with the new Ric Rac ribbon that I used on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #161 – Anything Goes challenge with my art journal page.

Mr Frost Tags

It’s a new month so we have a new challenge at Country View Challenges for November which is Christmas Gifting (anything but a card).

This challenge is being hosted this month by the lovely Miriam who says “this could be a handmade gift or even packaging for a Christmas gift – no cards this month”.

I can’t believe that Christmas is nearly here so it was nice to get a head start making these fun Snowman Tags for this years Christmas presents.

I started by die cutting the snowman using a Mr. Frost Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some white and black linen textured the paper. I also die cut the main body of the snowman, hat and scarf again from some cardstock to back the tag and provide more strength.

I coloured the edges of the main body of the snowman with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink using a blending tool, the scarf and hat band using red and green TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers, his carrot nose using Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the twig arms using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The die cut pieces were layered together using Liquitex matte gel medium and I added a holly gemstone embellishment to the hat.

I used a We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Hole Punch & Eyelet Setter to punch a hole in the hat and threaded through a piece of black paper twine. The wording on the back of the tags was stamped using a Sketch Greenery stamp set from Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink.

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 Gifting (anything but a card) challenge too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).

I love how these tags turned out and can’t wait to add them to Christmas Presents this year. Here’s how they are currently displayed in my craft room; it looks like they will make wonderful Christmas tree decorations too (grin!).

Hoping that you are all staying safe and well!

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

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.

Country View Crafts also sell both the Mr. Frost Sizzix Thinlits Set by Tim Holtz and the Sketch Greenery stamp set by Tim Holtz that I used to create these tags.

Challenges

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

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and their Challenge #104 – Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas tags.

Any Holiday Occasion over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my snowman Christmas tags.

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #155 – Anything Goes with my festive tags.

MLCCB #40 – Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Mr. Frost Christmas tags.

Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog with my Mr. Frost tags.

Everyday is a true blessing

I had so much fun creating this mixed media page and as using up leftovers is one of my crafting goals this year, I used some leftover paper that I had coloured using Kuretake watercolour to create my autumnal leaves for this page too (grin!).

Don’t forget that you still have until the end of this month to join our #76 Challenge – Anything Mixed Media Goes over at Creative Artiste; you just need to use three different mediums to join in the fun – I hope to see you there!

I started by covering the chipboard background with a layer of Pébéo white gesso and left it to dry, and then I applied a layer of black chalk paint over the top. When dry, I sanded the page in a vertical motion using a piece of sandpaper to expose some of the white gesso underneath to create a worn vintage chalkboard appearance. Next I created the leaves using some leftover paper that was coloured using Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Scarlet Kuretake watercolour paints; I die cut three sizes of the same leaf shape from a Fall Foliage Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and then I applied some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the leaves to give them more of a grungy look. I stuck the “Everyday is a true blessing” wording in place, which was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet, and then I arranged the leaves around it using Liquitex matte gel medium. I added dots of Pumpkin Ranger Liquid Pearls and to finish, I splattered the page with the white gesso and also the black chalk paint.

As we had frosts in April that affected the apple blossom, I feel very blessed for the crop of Braeburn apples that we picked this year from our apple trees in our garden. I used some of them to make this delicious cinnamon apple cake with maple frosting which goes perfectly with my cuppa for T Stands for Tuesday – wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

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 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: Art Journal Journey and lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations  who is hosting this month with her My favourite colour is October challenge with my autumn blessings page (15x15cm). Chalk it Up! challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog with the chalk paint background on my autumnal page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #153 – Anything Goes with my autumn blessings page. #144 Autumn Colours over at Sparkles Monthly Challenges with the autumn colours I used on this page. LTSCB #150 – Anything But A Card over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my autumnal mini art journal page. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Not A Card challenge with my autumnal mini chipboard art journal page. Challenge #6 Mixed Media Lovers with my mixed media autumnal page; this is a new challenge so I thought I’d join in the fun!

A very wonderful place

As you may remember one of my goals this year is to recycle and use up leftovers in my craft stash, so I created this vintage page using some recycled items; I hope you like it (grin!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink using a blending tool. Then I added lots of postage marks and text using a Craft Sensations stamp set and Black Soot Distress Archival Ink. I splattered the page using some Black Soot Distress Ink and edged it with a black Faber-Castell marker. Then I added a piece of die cut lace cardstock, which was recycled from a wedding invitation, to the right hand side of the page. The pretty postage stamp, featuring two wrens, was also recycled from my hubby’s childhood stamp collection. It was mounted onto a piece of black cardstock, also recycled from the wedding invitation, and then framed using two pieces of lace border which were outline stickers. I added the wording which were from a Clippings sticker set by Tim Holtz and to finish, I splattered some black and white acrylic paint over the page.

My hubby very kindly gifted me his childhood postage stamp collection for my art journaling. Many of the postage stamps are displayed in a large book but some, like this wren stamp, were part of a collection and still mounted on their original book pages. This Wild Birds stamp was a special issue from Hungary being published between 1973-1974.

Here’s it’s original page with the other stamps that formed part of the collection and wow, as you can see at the time they only cost 10p. It’s so interesting that they list the prices for this collection for other countries too, as you can see under the postage stamps on the bottom of the page (grin!).

Hoping that you’re 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.

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: Art Journal Journey and lovely Wendy K from wendyscraftjournal.blogspot.com who is hosting this month with her Vintage challenge with my vintage style page. Stitch It challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog with all the faux lace on my page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #152 – Anything Goes with my vintage page. LTSCB #149 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my vintage mini art journal page which includes stamping. MIUCB #53 – Anything Goes + Monochrome over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my distress techniques that I used to create my vintage page.

Own your story

I really enjoy creating these mini pages in my chipboard art journal, and I had so much fun making these typewriter keys using some new Distress products and the Typewriter 3D Texture Fades from Tim Holtz (grin!).

For the background, I covered the page with my new Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and a tiny amount of black DecoArt acrylic paint to dull the colour. When dry, I dragged a Black Soot Distressl Ink pad vertically down the page and then applied some Liquitex matte gel medium over the top using a paint brush to create a woodgrain effect.

For the typewriter letters, I started by covering a piece of mixed media paper with the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and my new Crackling Campfire Distress Ink and left it to dry. Then I dry embossed the paper using the Typewriter 3D Texture Fades by Tim Holtz. To highlight the texture, I dragged a black archival ink pad over the top of the letters to colour them and applied some Iced Coffee metallic Faber-Castell gelato smudging the colour with my finger. Then I splattered some Tarnished Brass Distress Paint over the top which finished the worn grungy look. They were cut out, edged with a black Faber-Castell big brush marker and then stuck into place using either double-sided or double-sided foam tape.

To finish, I added the typewriter which was stamped using a stamping platform, a stamp set from Craft Sensations and some black Archival Ink; it was stamped onto some of the mixed media paper that I had coloured with the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and Crackling Campfire Distress Ink. I fussy cut it out and added the wording “own your story” which was a rub-on transfer from a Tiny Text Remnant Rubs set by Tim Holtz.

As T Stands for Tuesday and to link the the story theme of my page, I’m sharing these fabulous teapots that we saw whilst out walking; they were in a charity store window and feature Robin Hood, Dick Turpin and Shakespeare – Happy T Day everyone!

Hoping that you are 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 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 typewriter page (this mini art journal page measures 15x15cm). Dry Emboss challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I used Tim Holtz 3D Texture Fades to dry emboss the typewriter letters for my page. LTSCB #148 – Old School over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my old school typewriter as they are generally not used nowadays with computers etc (grin!). Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my typewriter art journal page. Mixed Media Lovers Challenge Blog and their Challenge #4 Mixed Media Lovers with my mixed media page; this is a new blog so why not join in the fun too! MIUCB #52 – Anything Goes + Mixed Media over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different materials and techniques that I used to create the background and typewriter letters for this fun mixed media page.

Memories filled with cheer

It’s a new month so we are launching our August challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

All you need to do is use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see you there!

I started by colouring the edge of the page with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and smudging the ink with my finger. Then I added the design paper to the top left-hand corner; I ripped and distressed the edges of the paper using a pair of scissors before sticking it in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. I also tore and distressed the edges of the sheet music, and I used a new technique by using water to dampen the top left-hand corner of the sheet music so that the paper could be manipulated more easily in order to fold it back before applying some matte gel medium to hold it in place. Next I applied some Brushed Corduroy and Tea Dye Distress Inks, that I had diluted with water, to give the music sheet more of a worn and vintage look. The vintage images were Washi tape stickers which I adhered to some white cardstock and then cut out; they were stuck in place using the matte gel medium. I added a dark brown brad to the tag image and then I stuck the paper flowers and leaves, which were by Little Birdie, in place using glue dots. To finish, I added the Kaisercraft sticker wording which reads “memories filled with cheer”.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.

The sheet music on this page was gifted me by my sister and brings back so many happy memories of her playing either her piano or violin when I was young – they definately were “memories filled with cheer!” (grin!).

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x

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

For the sake of brevity I am no longer listing the individual items that I used to create my page, however I’m more than happy to let you know which particular product was used if you contact me via comments below or using the following contact me link.

Challenges As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with the typed wording on the tag and quote that I added to my page. LTSCB #148 – Old School over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my vintage designed page. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Summertime Blues challenge with the blue design paper, images and flowers on my page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my vintage page. The Birthday Celebration! challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I’m sure they have many “memories filled with cheer” as they celebrate their 11th Birthday – thanks for all the challenge fun over the years and wishing you all a very Happy Birthday! MIUCB #52 – Anything Goes + Mixed Media over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the mixed media and techniques that I used to create this vintage page. Mixed Media Lovers and their Challenge #4 Mixed Media Lovers; this is a new blog challenge blog that’s just starting up so I’m so pleased to be able to join them.