Hello March

It’s the first Friday of a new month, so it’s time for a new challenge over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, which as always is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

I would also like to send a warm welcome to the lovely Fiona from http://www.craftystamping.blogspot.com/ who has joined our Design Team; please be sure to visit her blog and show her some love!

My mixed media page is saying “Hello March” and celebrating the pretty crocus that flower this time of year!

I started by covering the background with a couple of cyclopaedia book pages and then covered them with some Villainous Potion Distress Paint applying it like watercolour. When dry, I applied some Yellow Ochre Kuretake Watercolour and I stamped some foliage and a circular filigree stamp using a Magnolia Grove stamp set by Kaisercraft, black Archival Ink and Dusty Concord Distress Archival Ink. Next I added some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and layered some more of the stamping over the top, to create a distressed grungy look. Then I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint. The crocus were fussy cut from an old garden flower book, edged with a black Faber-Castell marker and stuck in place using a glue stick. I stamped the “Hello March” wording using a Sophisticated Script stamp set by Concord & 9th and black Archival Ink, then to finish I highlighted the letters with a white Uniball gel pen.

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!

Every year, there is a beautiful display of crocus’ at the church in Poulton-de-Fylde; which is a small town near to where we live.

These little crocus flowers look so amazing and it’s always such a beautiful sight as they cover the church yard in so much colour!

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

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

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Valerie of Bastelmania and her Anything Goes challenge with my Hello March page.

MIUCB #64 – Anything Goes + optional Distressing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my distressed background crocus page.

Triple B Challenge where everything is about Birds, Blooms and Butterflies so as their March challenge blog was launched this month, I’m joining them with my spring blooms.

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Enjoy Today

It’s the first of the month so it’s time for a new challenge at Country View Challenges which is Be Sentimental.

The lovely Jane is hosting and she would like to see your crafting makes which include a sentiment and/or some inspiring words.

I started by covering the page with Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint and when dry I stamped a couple of Fragment stamps from a Stamper Anonymous stamp set by Tim Holtz using Moonlight White Brilliance Ink by Archival and Peeled Paint Distress Archival Ink. Next I added the torn pieces of paper and the pretty flowers which were from an Idea-ology Worn Wallpaper Scraps set and then to finish, I added the wording and frames from an Idea-ology 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.

We are looking forward to seeing your makes and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the shop, Country View Crafts! Before you enter your project though, please read the rules!

The flowers on my page reminded me on the Wild Prickly Roses (Rosa Acicularis) which can be found on one of our beach walks; they smell divine in the summer when in bloom and form rose hips later in the year which stay on the plant throughout the winter.

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:

Challenge #66 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog with my Enjoy Today page.

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Erika at her BioArtGal blog who invited me to join her Seeing Red challenge after seeing the flowers on my page; I’m so happy to join you with the touches of burgundy red on the flowers.

Christmas Reindeer

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays!

I am so delighted to be hosting Art Journal Journey this month and the challenge theme that I have chosen is Snowy Winter; like me all you need to do is add snowflakes or snow to your page.

For my Christmas Reindeer page, I started by stamping lots of snowflakes onto some cream paper by Docrafts using Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink and I arranged it so it covered the right-hand side and left-hand side of the page. For the reindeer panel, I tore the edges of a piece of the Docrafts paper and used a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to colour the edges. I stuck this paper onto a piece of white cardstock and adhered the reindeer and sleigh ephemera along with some gold snowflake outline stickers, a gold “Merry Christmas” foam sticker and the “dashing through the snow” and “let it snow” wording which were from a Christmas Sticker Book by Tim Holtz. Then to finish, I stuck the panel onto the page framing it with two gold filigree border outline stickers.

I hope that you are inspired to join in the fun this month too! I’m really looking forward to visiting you and seeing all your wonderful Snowy Winter creations (smile!).

This reindeer reminds me of Sven from the animated feature film Frozen, who is very lovable (smile!). If you haven’t seen the film here are some of Sven’s best moments from Frozen and Frozen II.

Hoping that you’re all staying safe and well this Christmastime – enjoy! Hugs Jo x

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

Challenges

As well as Art Journal Journey, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #30 and their Christmas Anything Goes Challenge as my gold and neutral page matches their photo inspiration and celebrates Christmas.

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

Challenge #65 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog with my reindeer page.

Ho Ho Ho

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is It’s all about Santa.

For my Santa page, I started by covering the background with Tumbled Glass and Speckled Egg Distress Ink; painting the inks onto the page, like watercolour, vertically down the page. Next I stamped a script Christmas stamp by Paperbabe Stamps and some mini snowflake stamps, over the background, using Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink. Then I fussy cut the Santa and reindeer image on the left-hand side and stuck it onto the page with two other Santa images; one was a recycled tag which I framed with gold border outline stickers and the other was a topper by Hunkydory. To finish, I added the glittery red snowflakes which were foam stickers and the “Ho Ho Ho” wording.

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

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a Rosey Nosey beer hand pump; as you can see, I forgot to include the pint of beer in my photo but luckily there are plenty of other drinks in the bottles in the background for me to qualify for TSFT this week – Happy T Day everyone!

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

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

Art Journal Journey and the Snowy Winter challenge that I’m hosting this month with my snowy scenes and snowflakes on this page.

MLCCB #47 – Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Santa Christmas page.

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

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I’m so delighted to be hosting Art Journal Journey this month and the challenge theme that I have chosen for is Snowy Winter; like me all you need to do is add snowflakes and/or include snow as part of your page design.

Today’s page was inspired by a Christmas Event at our local garden centre which I attend every year with my family.

I started by painting some white acrylic paint to the centre of my chipboard page and some Salvaged Patina and Speckled Egg Distress Paint around the edges. Then I used a clean paintbrush to pull the white paint out to the edges to produce a starburst effect. When dry, I stamped some small snowflakes using Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink over the page. Next I added some cute animal Christmas scenes which were 3D stickers and to finish, some pretty snowflake embellishments.

I hope that you are inspired to join in the AJJ fun this month too! I’m really looking forward to visiting you and seeing all your wonderful Snowy Winter creations (smile!).

The Christmas Event is held in evening and Santa was there to greet us as we arrived at the garden centre.

We always have fun looking at the Christmas displays, listening to the live Christmas music and of course, shopping.

It’s become a family tradition to attend this evening and it’s such a lovely way to start the Christmas festivities!

We also enjoyed the complimentary mulled wine and mince pie – yum! As T Stands for T Day, I’m sharing the mulled wine with you, grab a glass and Happy T Day!

Hope that you’re all staying 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 Art Journal Journey, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

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

MLCCB #47 – Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my fun Christmas page.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #29 where Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas page.

Tags Only at Country View Challenges

I’m so delighted that it’s my turn to host the challenge over at Country View Challenges this month which is Tags Only.

I chose this theme as I don’t create tags very often and who doesn’t love a tag, they are such fun to make! As the Tags Only title suggests we only want to see tags for this challenge, so no including them on cards, pages or other projects please.

I look forward to seeing what you make and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the shop! Before you enter your project though, please read the rules!

For my first tag, I used an MDF tag by Creative Expressions which I covered with Speckled Egg and Salvaged Patina Distress Paint. When dry, I added some letters to the background using a Tim Holtz Mini Layered Stencil Set #16 and some Speckled Egg Distress Ink. Then I stamped some grungy dots using a Urban Tapestry stamp set for Tim Holtz and some Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink. Next I stamped numbers and circles using black Archival Ink and a #489 AALL & Create stamp set and I splattered the tag with white DecoArt acrylic paint. Gladys the flamingo was die cut using a Sizzix Time Holtz Thinlits set from different colours of Tim Holtz Kraft Cardstock – Classic. Once stuck in place I added the label sticker by Tim Holtz which reads “You Do You”. To finish, I tied some black paper twine and ribbons to the tag.

I had so much fun using the Gladys Flamingo Sizzix Thinlits set from Tim Holtz to create this MDF tag and here’s the crafting goodies from Country View Crafts that I used (grin!).

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

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #179 – Anything Goes with my tag.

Stencil Fun Challenge and their Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil as I used a letter stencil by Tim Holtz on my tag.

LTCCB#71 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my Gladys Flamingo tag.

Autumn Greetings

I’m having so much fun creating pages using the beautiful napkins that I received as part of the napkin swap over at T Stands for Tuesday. So today I’m sharing my third page, this time I used an autumnal mushroom designed napkin to send you all Autumn Greetings!

I started by painting the edge of the page with Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre Kuretake watercolours. When dry, I stamped a crackle design by BoBunny, over the top of the watercolours, using black Archival Ink. Then I stencilled the ivy using Black Soot Distress Ink; the stencil template was created using an ivy die cut from a Garden Greens Thinlits by Tim Holtz. Next I carefully tore the napkin, around the autumnal mushroom image, and stuck it in place using a glue stick. To finish, I stamped the “Autumn Greetings” wording using Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink.

It was my hubby’s birthday last week which happened to coincide with a Beer Festival at one of our local pubs. With my autumnal page and as T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing one this “All the leaves are brown” ale – it’s by Brewster’s Brewery and is a California Common Style beer at 4.8% ABV made with British malt and hops; it’s amber coloured, zesty and fruity.

We also both had a BBQ Fried Buttermilk Chicken Burger topped with maple-cured bacon and cheese, and served with BBQ sauce, onion rings and chips – so yummy!

Cheers and Happy T Day!

Creating pages using the napkins from the T Day napkin swap is so much fun! If you’re interested you can find them here:

1. Bee Wellington Boots – Bee napkin from Erika
2. Time for Tea – Alice napkin from Lisca
3. Autumn Greeting – Autumnal napkin from Chris – this post
4. Mischievous Cats – to be posted in November

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 joining the following challenges:

The lovely Elle from Empire of the Cat is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Fairytales, Folklore & Fables – Tell Me A Story so I’m joining her with my autumnal page as mushrooms have a long history in Magic and Folklore; in the UK it is often thought fairies live in them (smile!).

Paperbabe Stamps and their #179 – Anything Goes challenge with my autumnal page.

Challenge #63 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels with my Autumn Greetings page.

Stencil Fun Challenge which is Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil (with optional Halloween Colours); with the stencil which was created from a Tim Holtz die set that I used on my page.

Time for Tea

As it’s time for tea at T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a page that I created using one of the napkins that I kindly received as part of the napkin swap – Happy T Day everyone!

I started by covering the page with Speckled Egg Distress paint and some white acrylic paint; mixing the paints on the page using a paintbrush. I ripped the pieces of a pretty Alice napkin and when the page was dry, I stuck them in place using a glue stick. Next I stencilled some Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink through a Vintage Diamond mini stencil by Creative Expressions. Then I added some black stamping using a Black Soot Distress Archival Ink; the stamps were a Tiny Dots stamp and a Script stamp from Kaisercraft and club and spade shaped stamp. To finish, I cut out and added various images from an Alice Stamperia paper pad.

As strawberry tarts feature on my page and happen to be one of my favourites, I’m sharing this one from our local bakery. It’s a shortcrust pastry base filled with a creamy custard and topped with glazed strawberries and it goes perfectly with my cup of green tea – yum!

Maybe you could join in the tea party too (smile!).

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 joining the following challenges:

The lovely Elle from Empire of the Cat is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Fairytales, Folklore & Fables – Tell Me A Story so I’m joining her with my page which tells the story of Alice and her Adventures in Wonderland where she meets the Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and joins the tea party.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #178 – Anything Goes challenge with my Time for Tea page.

Challenge #63 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels with my Alice page.

LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog as I created my Time for Tea page using pieces of napkin.

I’m also joining a new challenge blog that’s just started this month called Stencil Fun Challenge which is Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil (with optional Halloween Colours), so as I had fun using the Vintage Diamond stencil on my page – Happy Stencilling!

So Beautiful

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which for the next 2 weeks is Autumn Colour or Scene.

I love autumn and this challenge gave me the perfect excuse to use lots of autumnal stamps and some pretty autumnal stickers; I hope you like it!

I started by creating the background using a VersaMark Watermark ink pad and some brown embossing powder; I did this by dragging the ink pad over the page and stamping the leaves before I covered everything in the embossing powder and using a heat gun. I added some of this diluted Ground Espresso Distress Ink as a wash over the page and then stamped the autumn wording “Hello Autumn”, “Autumn the year’s last loveliest smile” and “Autumn Blessings” using Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink. Next I added all the colourful autumn leaf and acorn stickers, and to finish I added a Pocket Card by Tim Holtz and a yellow banner by Simple Stories, which reads “so beautiful”.

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

As I was making this page, I was reminded of our autumn window display which you can see here. As T Stands for Tuesday, I’ve also included my cup of Cinnamon Orange tea – Happy T Day everyone!

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

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their #177 – Anything Goes challenge with my autumnal page.

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

Love you to the moon and back

Today’s page is in memory of my dad who passed away just before Christmas last year; it would have been his birthday today.

The two cute dogs are from a birthday card that I bought and with his passing never got to give him; I loved the image so I used it to create a page to remember him by and to say “love you to the moon and back”.

I started by stamping the background using a Mini Dots stamp by Kaisercraft and black Archival Ink, then a couple of stamps from a Mister Fox stamp set by Kaisercraft using Peeled Paint and Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink. Then I added the black and white striped washi tape to the bottom of the page to create the foreground; the washi tape was recycled from the napkin swap package that I received from Bleubeard & Elizabeth – thank you! Next I stuck the two adorable dogs in place, which were fussy cut from the birthday card and to finish, I added the “Love you to the moon and back” wording using letters from a Metallic Stickers Alpha Silver set by Tim Holtz.

Parkin was one of my dad’s favourites and one of his birthday treats (smile!). It’s a type of gingerbread cake that originated in northern England made with oatmeal and black treacle. This particular parkin recipe has been passed down through generations of my dad’s family and I enjoy making it, as well as eating it – it will always remind me of him!

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 Neet from Hickydorums is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Fur and/or Feathers so I’m joining her with the dogs on my page.

LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog as I created this page using a recycled birthday card and washi tape.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #176 – Anything Goes challenge with my autumnal page.