Notarianni Ice Cream

We always enjoy visiting our favourite ice cream shop, Notarianni’s, for a takeaway tub of ice cream! With birthday celebrations it means that we have an extra special treat of visiting their Ice Cream Parlour for a sundae, so I created a page to celebrate our recent visit and later in the post you can even check out which yummy sundae we had too (grin!).

I started by covering the page with white napkins that I recycled from the Ice Cream parlour that we visited. I layered the napkins using Liquitex matte gel medium to cover the background quite thickly to create texture. Once the gel medium was dry I painted it with Parchment Liquitex acrylic paint and Pébéo white gesso. As both the paint and gesso were high density I scraped a palette knife over the top to give a smoother finish so it looked like the silky texture of the vanilla ice cream we had. Next I added some gold lacy borders on the left-hand and right-hand sides of the page and arranged some gold circles diagonally across the page, all of which are outline stickers. The green and white stripes are washi tape which I used to cover the edges of the page alongside the lacy borders, to back some of the small circles, and also to create a counter for the ice cream and bottle image to sit on which is edged with some of the gold lace border too. All of the images are fussy cut from a free leaflet from the parlour and depict the Notarianni Ice Cream history through the generations. I always enjoy reading and finding out more about the places and I often hope to recycle this sort of leaflet on my pages. I backed the images onto some white card that I recycled from some clothes packaging and stuck them over the gold circles using glue dots.

The waitress at the Ice Cream Parlour also kindly gave me some Notarianni Ice Cream stickers too, so I mounted them behind some of the gold circles, cut them to shape and added them to my collage. To finish, I used outline letter stickers to add “1928” and for the wording which is their strap-line and always makes me smile, it reads:

“You can have any flavour you like as long as its vanilla!”

Notarianni Ice Cream has a long history and dates back to 1928, as you may have guessed from the name they make Italian Ice Cream and keeping to their family tradition they sell one flavour only which is vanilla. There are a variety of ways to enjoy the ice cream, on a cone, tub, sundae, floats or milkshake and there are so many toppings to chose – sprinkles, nuts, honeycomb, sherbet, chocolate flake, toffee, chocolate or raspberry sauce. If you are interested, here’s the link to Notarianni’s website and menu. It is now run by the third and fourth generations of the family and they have a loyal following from locals and tourists who, like us, return again and again.

They close over winter and on visiting the ice cream parlour we found that it has been remodelled with a super new counter.

This time we chose a Banoffee Sundae which has slices of banana and toffee sauce served with two scoops of vanilla ice cream and is topped with whipped cream, and we also had a chocolate milkshake served in one of their cool milk bottles (grin!).

I’m sure that we will be visiting again soon (double grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to be able to join the lovely Alison/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the recycled materials I collaged together to create my art journal page!

As I reused and altered napkins, free leaflets, packaging and stickers to create this page, I’m pleased to join the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Pimp It Up! (reuse or alter something) challenge.

I’m happy to be able to join the Simply Neutrals Tuesday party again over at Apple Apricot with my vanilla ice cream page (grin!).

I’m also happy to join the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Add some Texture challenge with my ice cream textured background.

With the circles I added to my page, I’m pleased to join in the fun over  at That’s Crafty Challenge and their Going Round in Circles challenge.

This page also fits our Recycle Something challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, I hope to see you there!

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Pébéo White Gesso
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Parchment)
• Recyled napkins
• Recycled leaflet
• White card recycled from packaging
• Notarianni Ice Cream stickers
• Anita’s Outline Stickers (Sew Retro Gold ANT810136)
• Starform Outline Stickers (Circles Gold 1144)
• Outline Stickers (Alphabet Gold)
• Docrafts Papermania Patterned Craft Tape (Capsule Collection – Spots and Stripes Festive PMA462302)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)

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Happy Easter

As it is Easter this weekend I was inspired to create an art journal page to wish all of you who celebrate – a very Happy Easter!

I started by applying diluted Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink to the page by stamping the pad onto an acrylic block and picking the ink up with a wet paintbrush. Then I sprinkled on some Leaf Green Colourfast Brusho powder and spritzed it with water to watch the colours burst onto the page. I used a stencil by Dutch Doobadoo Masks to add a dot design using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and a circle design using Mustard Seed Distress Ink. I also added Picked Raspberry Distress Ink using a star stencil from Creative Stencils and then stamped a Script stamp by Kaisercraft using black Archival Ink. Next I edged the page with the Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and a blending tool and splattered the whole page with white and black DecoArt acrylic paint. The eggs and flowers are made from felt and are stuck to the page using a UHU glue pen and glue dots. I drew lines on the page for the stems and then covered them with either strips of black gems or black border Glitterations stickers. I also added some little black flower stickers and the words “smile” and “fun” which are stickers from Sandylion Sticker Designs and stamped some leaves from Hampton Art using black Archival Ink. To finish, I fussy cut a “Happy Easter” banner which I recycled from an advertising leaflet, backed it with white card, edged it with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck it to the page using double-sided tape.

Continuing the Easter theme, here are some of the little chicks and eggs that are adorning my seasonal window (grin!)

There are about 24 chicks adorning the branches – aren’t they cute!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Happy Easter so I’m pleased to join in the fun and wish you all a Happy Easter!

I’m pleased to be able to join the lovely Rosie from Rosie’s Bastelwelt who is hosting the Spring challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my colourful springtime Easter page.

I enjoyed using stamping and stencilling to create this page so I’m also happy to join the Stencils & Masks challenge over at The Artistic Stamper.

I’m also joining the Use a stencil and Three Mediums challenge over at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge as I used stencils and at least three mediums which included Distress Inks, Brushos and Acrylic paints to create my Happy Easter page.

I’m also joining the Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday challenge as I used a fun inking technique layering the different Distress Inks using stencils and a blending tool to create my colourful Easter art journal page.

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Spiced Marmalade, Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry)
• Colourcraft Brusho Colours (Leaf Green)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White, Black)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.8mm)
• Dutch Doobadoo Dutch Mask Art A5 (Geometric Tiles)
• Creative Stencils Craft Essentials (MAOB0004 – Stars)
• Kaisercraft Clear Stamp (Script CS752)
• Hampton Art Bella Blvd cling mounted rubber stamps (Surf & Turf ICO226
• Advertising leaflet
• White card
• Poundland (Design Gems 175751)
• Docrafts Papermania Glitterations Stickers (Black Border ANT8181015)
• Sandylion Sticker Designs Kelly Panacci (Stitches & Borders KSCB102)
• Aldi (Easter Collection Bonnet Accessories 25099751)
• Home Bargains (Decorative Sticks 38352)
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)
• UHU Glue Pen
• The Range double-sided foam tape

The Call of Spring

It’s time for a new theme at Try it on Tuesday which is The Call of Spring …Mood Board:

I can’t wait to see your creations using this photo inspiration and as usual you have the next two weeks to join us. You can find fabulous inspirational creations from my fellow Design Team Members along with guidelines for joining our challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too, so why not pop over and take a look.

For today’s page, I was inspired by the pretty birds, pink blossoms, green foliage and blue skies from the mood board – I hope that you like it (grin!).

To represent birdsong, I started by stamping a Sheet Music stamp from the Woodware Craft Collection onto white tissue paper using black Archival Ink, which was then stuck onto the background using Liquitex matte gel medium. Once the gel medium had dried, I applied Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean Distress Inks by applying the ink pad to an acrylic block, spritzing with water and pressing the block onto the page. I also splattered droplets of the diluted ink over the page using a paintbrush and then dried the page with my heat gun before I added some white gesso using my finger to mute some of the colours a little. I used the Chipped Sapphire and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks again to stamp some Halftone Circle stamps from Altenew and then I also stamped some feathers from a Steampunk stamp set by Docrafts using black Archival Ink. The white doilies are from Dovecraft and are stuck to the page using a UHU Stic. I distressed their centres a little by rubbing them with a wet finger to remove some of the doily so the background showed through. The bird image of the starling and pretty blossoms is from an old calendar and is stuck in place using a UHU Stic; I ripped and distressed the edges and then coloured them with a mixture of Chipped Sapphire and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink which I diluted with water and applied using a paintbrush. I added the word “Spring” which is a rub-on transfer by Royal & Langnickel and splattered the page with DecoArt black acrylic paint. Then I added some small white dots using a Pentel white gel pen to the starling image so it blended with the background more. I made some pink blossoms using some fabric flowers which I coloured with Blossom Spectrum Aqua marker. I added some yellow pearls gems to the centre of the flowers and melted them using a heat gun to add more texture, curled the petals and then stuck the flowers in place using glue dots. To finish, I added some small green pearls and also some pink and yellow flower rhinestones to the background which added some sparkle.

As T Stands for Tuesday my drink related photo this week is of these pretty cups, the colours reminded me of springtime. I saw them when we visited Gerrards which is our local auction house, for those of you who live in the UK you may have seen this auction house on Flog It! or Dickenson’s Real Deal! It’s such a fun place to visit especially when the live auction is taking place although I need to sit on my hands to stop myself from bidding for anything (grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Rosie from Rosie’s Bastelwelt who is hosting the Spring challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my snowdrop page!

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Colour Effect so I’m pleased to join this challenge too with my background splatters and bursts of Distress Ink colours!

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Pentel Hybrid Gel Grip (White)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Blossom)
• Woodware Craft Collection Clear Magic Singles (Sheet Music JGS111)
• Altenew Stamp Set (Halftone Circles 490220)
• Docrafts Creativity Essentials Clear Stamps (Steampunk DCE907125)
• White Tissue Paper
• RSPB Calendar – old
• Dovecraft Premium Paper Doilies (Painted Blooms DCDLS010)
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Sentiments (Spring Sentiments ~ROY-506)
• Home Bargains (Fabulous Florals 22803)
• The Range (Adhesive Pearls SCDOT056)
• The Works (Flower Rhinestone Stickers)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)

Mother’s Day Card

There’s still another week to join in the fun over at Try it on Tuesday with our Mum’s the Word challenge, where you are asked to be inspired by all things mother related such as a mother’s birthday, quotes for mothers, mother and child, animal families, Mother’s Day or any other way you would like to interpret this special mother theme!

Although Mother’s Day is celebrated throughout the world, here in the UK it is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent whereas in many other countries it is celebrated on the second Sunday of May. As I’m in the UK, we celebrated Mother’s Day this last Sunday so I’m sharing the Mother’s Day card I created for my mum for the Mum’s the Word challenge (grin!).

I started by using a lattice die from Spellbinders to cut a piece of white cardstock using my Big Shot die cutting machine. I stuck the lattice onto a white 6×4 card using Liquitex matte gel medium. Then I stamped two roses onto some mixed media paper using a stamp from Urban Stamps and black Archival Ink. They are painted using a Scarlet Spectrum Aqua marker, I did this by scribbling the marker on an acrylic block and picking the ink up with a wet paintbrush and gradually building up the layers of colour; I love the pretty watercolour effect that this produced. Then I fussy cut the roses and arranged them on the card with some leaves which I die cut from green design paper from Crafter’s Companion using Garden Greens Sizzix Thinlets by Tim Holtz and my Big Shot machine. The leaves are edged with a Moss Spectrum Aqua marker and stuck to the card using a Zig Memory System glue pen. I added a piece of satin ribbon along the left-hand side which I tied into a bow and a strip of clear gems. To finish, I added a few single clear gems and also the wording which are Peel-off stickers that I coloured using a black Sharpie permanent marker.

I do hope you will join us at Try it on Tuesday and if you pop over to the main blog you’ll find some amazing Mum’s the Word inspiration from my fellow Design Team members, as well as who is in our Top 5 for the previous Vintage Challenge.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the following challenges too:

• Moo Mania & More and their Colour Effect challenge with the scarlet watercolour effect I created for the roses on this card.
• Country View Challenges and their Postcards (6×4) challenge as my card is postcard-sized.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge as my feminine Mother’s Day card also fits their Girl Power challenge.
• As I stamped the roses for this card, I’m pleased to join the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge and their March Challenge: Anything Goes!: (stamping MUST be included) challenge.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing this lunch I had whilst out with my parents around this time last year. We had a delicious ham and cheese toastie each and I had a ginger beer, my dad had a white coffee and my mum a cappuccino. I’m saying a big hello to the T Gang and sending you all Happy T Day wishes!

My post is brief today as I haven’t had much time for blogging this last week due to family illness. I’d like to thank everyone for their kind wishes regarding my dad, he is doing much better and is now back home which is a great relief to all our family and friends. I hope to find the time to visit you all soon and in the meantime thanks for your understanding and wishing you every happiness! Jo x

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this card:

• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Scarlet)
• Sharpie Fine Point Permanent Marker Pen (Black)
• Spellbinders Die (Unknown)
• Docrafts Papermania 4×4” Urban Stamps (Birthday Rose PMA907221)
• Sizzix Thinlets by Tim Holtz (Garden Greens 661206)
• White card stock
• Daler-Rowney Mixed Media Paper
• Crafter’s Companion Luxury Designer Paper Pad (Angelica & Adam Collection A&A-PAP6-M)
• Dovecraft Essentials Peel-Off Stickers (Family G DCPO-17)
• Poundland (Design Gems 175751)
• Zig Memory System 2 Way Glue (Dual Action Glue Pen)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Docrafts Stick It! double-sided foam tape

Mum’s the Word

The new theme over at Try it on Tuesday is Mum’s the Word which means all things mother related, it maybe quotes for mothers, mother and child, animal families, Mother’s Day or something else related to mothers. Over at Try it on Tuesday  you’ll find lots of wonderful inspiration from the Design Team.

This challenge runs for the next two weeks and I hope to see you there!

My art journal page today is inspired by my mum as it’s her birthday and Mother’s Day this month as well as the different ways you can say mother (a suggestion from one of my non-blogging best friends – thank you!). So I started by stamping some of different names you can call your mother using a VersaMark watermark stamp pad and an alphabet stamp set from Dovecraft. Then I covered the words with gold Papermania embossing powder and shook and tapped off the excess powder onto a piece of scrap paper, and also removed any stray powder using a paintbrush. Then I used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder by sweeping the gun over the stamped wording until the embossing powder melted to a glossy finish and became smooth and dimensional. Next I stamped some pink doilies and blue swirls onto the page; I did this using Angel Pink Memento Ink with Doily stamps from Kaisercraft and also Dovecraft, as well as Summer Sky Memento Ink with a Serpentine Background stamp from Art Impressions. I applied Blossom and Teal Spectrum Aqua Markers to the background by scribbling the ink onto an acrylic block, spritzing with water and pressing the block onto the page. To mute the colours and wording I applied Pébéo white gesso over the top using a palette knife. I cut some pieces of pink doily and stuck them to the edges of the page using a UHU Stic. The teal leaves are cut from some design paper using Sizzix Thinlets by Tim Hotlz, they are edged with the Teal Spectrum Aqua marker and stuck in place using a Zig Memory System Glue Pen. The wreath and matching flowers are fussy cut from a magazine article about Mother’s Day. I mounted the wreath on a circle of card before sticking it to the page using double-sided foam tape. The matching flowers are mounted on top of some yellow and pink paper flowers and the “With love and cuddles” wording is a card topper from Kanban; they are all stuck in place using double-sided tape. To finish, I added some pretty gold tiles and the “Mum” wording which are outline stickers.

I hope you will join in the fun at Try it on Tuesday with your Mum’s the Word creations too!

As you may be aware, I regularly go to a local café with my mum so today I’m sharing my mum’s cappuccino …

…. and my green tea along with a toasted fruit bread to share (grin!). I’m pleased that these drinks cater for both the coffee and tea drinkers in the T Gang (grin!) over at T Stands for Tuesday – thanks for visiting and Happy T Day!

With the spring colours I used on my page, I’m pleased to join the lovely Rosie from Rosie’s Bastelwelt who is hosting the Spring challenge over at Art Journal Journey and also the Think of Spring challenge over at Moo Mania and More.

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tsukeniko VersaMark (Watermark Stamp Pad VM-001)
• Docrafts Papermania Embossing Powder (Gold Shellac PMA4021007)
• Tsukeniko Memento Ink (Angel Pink, Summer Sky)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Blossom, Teal)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Kaisercraft Clear Stamps (Doily CS297)
• Dovecraft Curiosity Corner Clear Stamp (A5 Lace & Doile DCCS009)
• Art Impressions wood mounted rubber stamp (Serpentine Background T-2773)
• Sizzix Thinlets by Tim Holtz (Garden Greens 661206)
• Poundland Design Pad (Vintage Chic CRO701/PL4)
• Dovecraft Collections Back to Basics III (Paper Blossoms DCBL005)
• Dovecraft Paper Doilies (Floral Muse DCDLS005)
• Kanban Paper Craft Toppers (Flower and Cupcakes 900858)
• Magenta Style Outline Stickers (Gold 1227)
• Docrafts Anita’s Outline Stickers (Modern Alphabet Gold ANT8101000)
• UHU Stic
• Docrafts Stick It! double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Pretty Snowdrops

The snowdrops flowering in our garden always make me think of spring so in order to remember one of the first flowers of the year and also the beautiful displays we have seen at Lytham Hall of late, I was inspired to create this snowdrop art journal page.

I started this page by covering it with squares of decoupage paper using Liquitex matte gel medium. Once dry I edged the squares with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and smudged it with my finger. Then I stamped some postage marks and text using black Archival Ink and covered the whole page with green paint that I had mixed from Liquitex Christmas Green acrylic paint with some black and white DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic paints. Once the paint was dry I rubbed and removed some of the paint using a baby wipe to give the page a worn look and then covered the whole page with PVA Glue to brighten the green colour and give it a glossy finish. Next I added some Pébéo white gesso with my finger and stencilled a doily image by Craft Sensations using a Bud Green Spectrum Aqua marker. I stamped a doily image using white DecoArt acrylic paint by applying the paint to the stamp using a brayer making sure that I washed the stamp immediately afterwards so the paint did not ruin the stamp by drying onto it. Then I splattered the page with black DecoArt acrylic paint using a paintbrush. With the background complete, I added a white lace border on the left hand side of the page which is an outline sticker, a pretty circular bird sticker from Docrafts and some black button letters which spell out the word “Snowdrop”. I die cut some brown paper which I recycled from a notebook using a Spellbinders die set and my Big Shot die cutting machine and arranged them onto the page with: a white doily by Dovecraft which is stuck down using a UHU Stic; a snowdrop image that I fussy cut from an old book of garden flowers and stuck into place using a Zig Memory System glue pen; text from the same book about snowdrops which I mounted on white and black card using double-sided tape; and finally a “S” alphabet letter sticker again mounted on white and black card.

If you are interested, here’s a close up of the text I included on my page.

This is one of the small clumps of snowdrops in our back garden before the snow came this week (grin!).

We went to see the snowdrop displays again at Lytham Hall this year, which have now almost finished and although they didn’t seem to be as bountiful this year the displays were still very beautiful. Here I am on a cold sunny day last week amongst the pretty snowdrops. I’m well wrapped up against the cold, do you like my new winter hat with its two bobbles or pom poms (grin!).

You may remember the amazing displays of snowdrops at Lytham Hall that I posted last year, so if you would like to see more of these pretty snowdrops please take a look my post here.

I so enjoyed reading the different stories associated with how the snowdrop flower came to be that I thought I would share a couple of them with you:

• Garden of Eden: When Eve was cast out of the Garden of Eden, continuous snow covered the earth leaving it cold and barren. The angel, who appeared to comfort Eve, caught a snowflake and breathed upon it. The snowflake fluttered to the earth and gave birth to the snowdrop which later came to symbolize hope and rebirth.
• German Legend: With the creation of snow, God tasked it with visiting the flowers of the earth to gather colours. Seeing that the gentle snowdrop was a kind and generous soul, the snow agreed to allow the snowdrop to bloom first every spring in exchange for her colour. So white snowdrops can be seen flowering amongst the snow each spring.

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Rosie from Rosie’s Bastelwelt who is hosting the Spring challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my snowdrop page!

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Think of Spring so I’m pleased to join this challenge too!

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their In My Garden challenge with this snowdrop art journal page.

I’m also joining the Use a stencil and Three Mediums challenge over at The Mixed Media Challenge as I used a doily stencil and at least three mediums which included Spectrum Aqua marker, acrylic paints and Memento Ink to create my page.

I’m also pleased to be able to join in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my art journal page.

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Christmas Green)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White, Black)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tsukeniko Memento Ink (Cottage Green)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Bud Green)
• Prima Marketing Clear Stamps (Rossi Belle 587499)
• Kaisercraft Clear Stamps (Script CS752)
• Dovecraft Curiosity Corner Clear Stamps (A5 Lace & Doile DCCS009)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Spellbinders Die Set (Unknown)
• Viva Gade Decoupage Paper (Skagen 25561)
• Trimcraft (Decoupage Papers SCDEC064)
• Recycled brown paper from old notebook
• Oxford Book of Garden Flowers
• White card
• Dovecraft Paper Doilies (Painted Blooms DCDLS010)
• Docrafts Papermania Label Stickers (Botanicals PMA157234)
• Docrafts Anita’s Outline Stickers (Delicate Lace Borders ANT8101510)
• Home Bargains (Love Letters 22738)
• PSX Designs for Creativity Stickers (Florentine Alphabet Green SR6042)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Everbuild 501 Universal PVA Bond
• UHU Stic
• Docraft Stick It! double-sided tape

Beer Festival 2018

As you may remember, every February we volunteer at the Fleetwood Beer Festival, where we serve beers to customers and meet some lovely people in the process. This year’s festival was so relaxed and we tasted so many amazing beers that it was difficult to choose which ones to include on my art journal page (grin!).

I started this page with an image of glasses filled with beer which I recycled from a magazine; it is stuck to the page like all of the other papers using a UHU Stic. Then I cut some strips of dark grey wood effect paper from a Docrafts paper pack, tearing the edge on one side and colouring all the edges with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. Next I took our tasting notes that we used at the festival and cut out the beers we most enjoyed, arranging them on the page so the colour of the actual beer matched that of the beers in the glasses. I also cut the beer festival wording from an old magazine too and I edged them and the tasting notes with the Cold Grey Big Brush marker before sticking them in place. I added a star brad to each of the tasting notes, which I pushed through the page and fastened into place. I also covered the back of all the brads with masking tape to protect my next journal page. As our beer festival supports the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) I added one of their badges to my page, removing the pin from the back and sticking it in place using double-sided tape. To match the orange on the badge and sea theme, I also added three little orange fishes to the page which reminded me of the Dutch Fishman Fish & Chip catering truck at the festival too; they often came round with free tasters for us to enjoy (grin!).

There were over 100 beers at the festival this year and we enjoyed trying around 50 of them over the 3 days of the festival, as you can see from our photo we only had a small taster of each – well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it (grin!).

We liked quite a few a few beers this year and the ones I included on my page were:

• Chocolate Orange Stout by Amber Ales in Derbyshire (ABV/Alcohol By Volume 4%) – it is a dark and creamy beer and tasted just like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange in a glass and was my favourite beer, yum!
• Harveys Sussex Bitter (ABV 4%) – this is a well-balanced easy drinking amber bitter and it’s from Sussex; this is one of the beers we use to drink all the time when we lived in the South of England.
• Moonshine is from Abbeydale Brewery in Sheffield (ABV 3%) – this is a pale ale with a hop aroma and grapefruit to finish. My hubby wrote “nice” on his notes and I found he often had this one in his glass (grin!).
• Lemon Dream (ABV 5%) from Salopian Brewery in Shropshire – this is a golden ale that is brewed using organic lemons which adds beautiful subtle zesty aromas and has a citrus filled fruity finish.
• Rhubarb and Ginger Pale Ale from Settle Brewery in North Yorkshire (ABV 9%) – this is a zingy pale ale and is made using Yorkshire rhubarb balanced with fiery root ginger and tasted very smooth.
• Mutiny on the Bounty (ABV 2%) from Campervan Brewery in Edinburgh – this is a yummy dark milk stout and gets its unique aroma from the use of roasted coconut, it tastes of rich chocolate and a touch of coffee and vanilla. Again it’s a dark beer so one of my choices (grin!).
• Yorkshire Pride (ABV 7%) from Acorn Brewery in Wombwell – this is a well-balanced light golden ale, it tasted like a regular bitter and was very easy drinking and smooth.
• Schiehallion (ABV 8%) from Haviestoun Brewery in Cumbria – this is a crisp and refreshing Scottish craft lager with a lingering, fresh grapefruity finish. It takes its name from the famous mountain Schiehallion (pronounced “She-hal-i-on”) in Scotland.

As T Stands for T Day I’m joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth and the rest of the T Gang with my Beer Festival art journal page and photos – cheers! If you are not keen on beer then there is a bar where you can get tea, coffee, soft drinks, water etc as well as a Cider Bar which sells (hard) cider and also a Gin and Prosecco Bar – wishing you all a very Happy T day!

I’m also pleased to join the lovely Rike from rike’s art, who is hosting the Animals A-Z challenge over at Art Journal Journey as F is for Fish on my page today!

We  like to support the RNLI so we were pleased that our local lifeboat station took delivery of a brand new lifeboat this weekend. The boat sailed from Poole, Dorset where it was built, even carrying out a sea rescue along the way and was carried to the lifeboat station from the sea on it’s trailer as the tide can be up to 3 miles away. It was a lovely sunny day, but so cold with the Siberian winds we have been experiencing for a week or so. There was a good turn out of people to see it and it arrived at 13.24 hours which was no accident as 13-24 is its identification number (grin!).

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Old Beer Magazines
• Fleetwood Beer Festival 2018 Programme
• Docrafts A4 Ultimate Die-Cuts and Paper Pack (Festive Fauna PMA160949)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233)
• RNLI badge
• Metal Brads (Stars – Brown, Fish – Orange)
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape