Cute as a bug

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Let's Art Journal

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

My mixed media page was inspired by a pretty Sunflower napkin that I just had to buy whilst out shopping.

I started by cutting panels from the napkin and sticking them onto the page using a glue stick. Then I added some colour between the napkin pieces using watered down Jasmine and Spice Spectrum Aqua Markers. Next I stamped a hexagon design from Docrafts over the top using Toffee Crunch Memento Ink. To finish, I edged the napkin pieces with black Glitterations border stickers and I added the cardstock stickers of a bee, flower and the wording “Cute as a bug”.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. All you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see join you there!

The sunflowers reminded me of September as we always have family holidaying with us this time of year who kindly gift us flowers which are often sunflowers; here’s the beautiful bouquet from last year (smile!).

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

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

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Neet from Hickydorums is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Fur and/or Feathers; bees can be furry so I’m joining in the fun with my page (smile!).

Paperbabe Stamps and their #175 – Anything Goes challenge with my sunflower page.

LTSCB#157– Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my sunflower napkin inspired page.

Be Yourself Be Happy

Posted on August 5, 2022 by Let's Art Journal

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

My mixed media page was inspired by pretty pink roses and showcases Stamperia images and papers (grin!).

I started by applying Liquitex Parchment acrylic and white acrylic paint to the background. When dry, I stamped a crackle design from BoBunny using Terracotta Memento Ink and a Script stamp from Kaisercraft using Toffee Crunch Memento Ink. All the papers and images were from Stamperia; I fussy cut the roses, trellis, butterfly and birds and then I arranged them with the arched window which was die cut using a Cathedral Window Sizzix Bigz Die by Tim Holtz. I even used the window cut outs, that were leftover, as fence panelling layering everything together using a glue stick. To finish, I added a Kaisercraft sticker which reads “Be Yourself Be Happy”.

The roses on my page reminded me of these beautiful roses that my sister kindly bought for my mum; we always had roses in our garden growing up and I remember the wall of our garage being totally covered with soft pink roses like these (smile!).

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

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

Challenges

I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Chris from Pearshapedcrafting is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen When We Were Young so I’m joining her with my memories of roses from my childhood.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #173 – Anything Goes challenge with my pretty garden page.

LTCCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my mixed media art journal page.

MIUCB#60 – Anything Goes + optional Clean & Simple over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the techniques I used to create my garden scene.

You are my happy

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Let's Art Journal

It’s a new month so we are launching our July challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by some pretty mosaic paper that my sister kindly gifted me; it reminded me of summer holidays in Greece (smile!).

I covered the whole page with a piece of mosaic paper using a glue stick and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top and left it to dry. Next I added some Snow Cone Faber-Castell gelato using a wet finger to smudge the colour over the gesso and paper to give it a washed out look. Then I used a Mosaic Stencil by Tim Holtz to apply some Ranger Crackle Paste to the page using a palette knife. When dry I added the blue flowers which were washi tape stickers, some shiny green gel dome stickers, the “You are my happy” sticker from Kaisercraft and the little white butterflies which were die cut and embellished with some green striped washi tape down the centre.

This journal page made me think of our holidays to Skiathos, which is one of the Greek islands. This was the view of the town as we approached it by water taxi which picked us up at our hotel.

We always enjoy walking and exploring, so we walked up to the top where the church was and this was the view looking back down towards the port.

We had such a wonderful time exploring the island, it was such a beautiful place; maybe one day we will return (smile!).

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

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

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #171 – Anything Goes challenge with my summery page.

Take time

Posted on June 3, 2022 by Let's Art Journal

It’s a new month so it’s time to launch our June challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by summer days with a sunny golden sky for the bright red flowers and butterflies to bask in – Happy June everyone!

I started by covering the background with Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue Liquitex acrylic paint and then I stamped five different stamps to pattern the background using Memento Inks and Archival Ink. This included three stamps from Kaisercraft using Love Letter and Toffee Crisp Memento Inks, a starburst stamp using Dandelion Memento Ink and a Woodware Craft Collection stamp using black Archival Ink. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and I splattered the whole page using the yellow and also black acrylic paint. The two flowers were washi tape stickers and the wording was from a Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet. To finish, I added the red ephemera butterflies.

We’ve seen lots of red poppies recently and we discovered these on one of our walks (smile!).

Stay safe and well! x

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

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #169 – Anything Goes challenge with my summer page.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their It’s Up In The Air theme with my butterflies flying in the summer sky.

LTCCB#68 Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my mixed media journal page celebrating summer.

Take time to smell the flowers

Posted on May 6, 2022 by Let's Art Journal

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

My mixed media page was inspired by the outdoors and the spring tulips that are flowering at the moment (grin!).

I started by covering the whole page with some Pébéo white gesso and I added some washes of Scattered Straw and Tattered Rose Distress Ink over the page. Next I added pieces of book pages from a Pears Cyclopaedia using a glue stick and then I stencilled the Reverse Honeycomb design by That’s Crafty using Ranger Texture Paste. I splattered the page with Peeled Paint, Tattered Rose and Vintage Photo Distress Inks and when dry, I coloured the stencilled texture paste using black Archival Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. The flower images and words were cut from a Romantic Garden House paper pad by Stamperia that my sister kindly bought me for my birthday; they were edged using the Vintage Photo Distress Ink before sticking them into place. To finish, I added three wooden button pink flowers which I had laced some cream wax thread through.

As you may remember we plant tulips bulbs every year and these Purple Dream Lily Flower Tulips are new to our garden. They have been flowering for over a month now and the flowers are huge; they are very impactful and look amazing (smile!).

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

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

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

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

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Feminine theme with my pretty flower art journal page.

Sunday in the Park challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog with my outdoor page as we see tulips flowering in the park near us this time of year too.

MIUCB #59 Anything Goes over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different techniques that I used to create this page.

Enjoy the simple life

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Let's Art Journal

It’s a new month so we are launching our April challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by spring and some new Simple Stories materials that I got as an early birthday present (grin!).

I started by covering the background with Parchment Liquitex acrylic paint and when dry I used a Moroccan stencil by Creative Expressions to apply some Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the top. I removed some of the ink using a baby wipe and then I applied some Brushed Sage Distress Ink through the stencil too. Next I added the pretty spring paper which was free from a magazine and based on designs from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. I edged it using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker smudging the ink with my finger. Next I arranged and layered all the different paper pieces together; some of which were leftovers, some were fussy cut from Kaisercraft papers and the main images with the words “Enjoy the simple life” and “My heart” were chipboard pieces from Simple Stories. To finish, I splattered the page with some black DecoArt acrylic paint.

Simple Stories is a new brand to me and I was lucky enough to be treated to some chipboard and die cut pieces as well as some papers for my birthday; they’re all so gorgeous and I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of them soon (grin!).

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

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

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

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

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

Snowdrops

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Let's Art Journal

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s March already but here we are launching March’s challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by the snowdrops that are flowering at the moment, especially those on display amongst the woodland leaves at Lytham Hall (grin!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with some old dressmaking pattern tissue paper using Liquitex matte gel medium and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top. When dry, I added some more pieces of the dressmaking tissue paper and I coloured around the edges of them with Ground Espresso Distress Ink using a baby wipe. The snowdrop image was fussy cut from an old garden book and I arranged it on the page with some leftover die cut pieces which were coloured in autumnal coloured ink. Then I splattered the page with white acrylic paint and left it to dry. Next I added the white text, the smaller wording were Field Notes Rub-ons by Tim Holtz and the larger letters were Metallic Stickers by Tim Holtz.

We always enjoy walking at Lytham Hall and the snowdrops are looking particularly lovely this year; creating a carpet of white amongst the woodland.

There are so many different snowdrop varieties to be found at Lytham Hall and they all look so beautiful (grin!).

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

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

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Valerie of Bastelmania is hosting Art Journal Journey and has chosen Spring as her theme and snowdrops to me make me think that spring is on its way.

For The Love of Mixed Media challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my mixed media page portraying my love of snowdrops.

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

Add A Die Cut over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the die cut pieces I added to my page.

Friendship

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Let's Art Journal

It’s the first Friday of the month so it’s time to launch February’s challenge over at Creative Artiste which is Challenge #79 – Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page is all about friendships as they have been very precious to me over the past few months – thank you everyone for all your support and kindness!

I started by collaging my chipboard page with Poster Cards and Layers Remnants by Tim Holtz using Liquitex matte gel medium. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using my finger and when dry, I edged the collage pieces and page with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker. To finish, I added a pink washi tape flower and the wording which was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet.

For more inspiration, please see the wonderful mixed media creations from my fellow design team over at Creative Artiste. I hope you’ll join us too; it would be lovely to see you there!

I chose the pink accents and flowers for this page due to this beautiful bouquet – they make me smile!

I hope that your staying safe and well! x

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

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

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 mixed media page as I love to collage and cover backgrounds with white gesso.

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

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their With Love Challenge as this friendship page was created with love for all my dear friends.

My wish for you

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Let's Art Journal

I can’t believe that it’s December already but here we are launching our December challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

All you need to do is to use three or more different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

With it being Christmas, I recycled an old Christmas card for this page and had fun experimenting, this time with acrylic paints, to try and match the design and colours of the card’s background. To do this, I painted Deep Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Hooker’s Green Hue Permanent and Mars Black Liquitex Basics paints onto the page and left them to dry. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and rubbed some of it off using a wet wipe to create the mottled effect. Then I splattered the whole page with white acrylic paint. Next I stuck the Christmas card image of the angel in place and added some rose gold star and dot outline stickers. The wording was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and reads “My wish for you…The blessed angels sing…Peace on earth, good-will to men…Words of hope and tender thought…Filled with joy and gladness” and “A Merry Christmas to all”.

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

Here’s another pretty angel that we light this time of year, she’s made from glass and is from Prague; a place we would normally visit at Christmastime (grin!).

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x
Wishing you a very Happy December and Festive Season!

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 join the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #157 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas angel page.

Happy Holidays/Christmas challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Christmas page.

Challenge #106 – Anything Christmas Goes over at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge with my Christmas art journal page.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Sparkle Mode challenge with the sparkling sky and stars that I created for this page.

Yuletide Delights over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my pretty Christmas angel page.

Sparkles Christmas Monthly and their #131 Non-Traditional Colours challenge with my purple, green and black page.

Everyday is a true blessing

Posted on October 5, 2021 by Let's Art Journal

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.

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!