Hello Winter

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

Whilst tidying up, I found this adorable robin image that I had saved from an old calendar and just couldn’t resist creating a page with it straight away; I even abandoned another page that I was creating, oh and also the tidying up (grin!).

I started by covering the background using white acrylic and Speckled Egg Distress Paint. Then I die cut lots of holly and fir branches using a Holiday Greens Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some green coloured cardstock; I added more colour to them using a Dark Green Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker. The cones were die cut using a Funky Festive Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some brown Kraft cardstock – Classic by Tim Holtz. The holly berries were die cut using an old Festive Holly set and the wording using a Sizzix Doodle Alphabet and Letters set; they were all cut from orange paper which I later coloured using Orange and Sunflower Spectrum Aqua markers. I fussy cut the robin and stuck him in place, then I die cut the snowflakes from the remaining calendar paper. All of the foliage and snowflake pieces were arranged onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium and to finish, I splattered the whole page using white acrylic paint.

I love robins and have quite a few beautiful metal robins in my garden; one Christmas my dearest friend in America bought us this pretty red robin sitting in a heart – isn’t it delightful (smile!).

Hope that you’re all staying safe and well, and wishing you a Happy December!

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:

Art Journal Journey and the Snowy Winter challenge that I’m hosting this month as their are snowflakes on my wintery scene.

LTSCB #158 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my Hello Winter page.

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

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

Challenge #64 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog with my Winter page.

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Believe in Yourself

It’s a new month so we are launching our November 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 golden colour of the sunsets that we see this time of year; I hope you like it (smile!).

I started by covering the page with Wild Honey, Fossilized Amber and Vintage Photo Distress Ink by smooshing them onto the page using an acrylic block; I did this by stamping the ink pad onto the acrylic black, spritzing with water and then pressing the block onto the page gradually building up the layers of colour. Next I stamped a Hessian stamp by Kaisercraft over the whole page using a VersaMark Watermark ink pad and covered it with Gold Ranger embossing powder. I cut some lace edged ovals from white cardstock using a Basic Shapes die cut set by Marianne Designs and then I arranged them onto the page with some Weathered Garden Chipboard Die-cuts by Simple Stories, a gold frame, two gold banners and a washi tape flower. To finish, I added some small white acrylic hearts.

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!

November brings golden sunsets looking over the beach where we live, so I was inspired to use golden autumnal colours on this page.

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:

MIUCB #62 – Anything Goes + optional Open Technique over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the ink and acrylic block technique that I used to create my smooshed background.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #180 – Anything Goes challenge with my sunset coloured page.

Deeply Loved

As it’s the first Friday of the month, we are launching our October challenge over at Creative Artiste today. As always our challenge is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by my hubby; it’s our wedding anniversary tomorrow (smile!).

I started by adding water to the page and then some Orange Kuretake watercolour paint gradually building up washes of colour to give a smooshed effect. Then I splattered the page using the same paint and some white acrylic paint. Next I fussy cut the flowers and foliage from some decoupage paper and stuck them in place using a glue stick. The wording was a Kaisercraft sticker and reads “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage”; it was edged with a black Faber-Castell marker. To finish, I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint.

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!

Here’s my hubby and me, I can’t believe that we’ve been married 34 years – time sure does fly when you’re having fun!

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 #178 – Anything Goes challenge with my anniversary page.

MIUCB #61 – Anything Goes + Optional Smooshing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my smooshed background that I created using watercolour techniques.

Challenge #62 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels with my Deeply Loved page.

Cute as a bug

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

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”.

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 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

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.

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!

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

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.

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 you there!

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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 you there!

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

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.

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 you there!

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.