Thank you – Hello Springtime at AJJ

As it’s the end of the month, I’m sharing the last page for the Hello Springtime challenge over at Art Journal Journey which I’ve been hosting this March, so thanks very much to everyone who joined in the fun!

I appreciate all your kind comments and support throughout the month and thoroughly enjoyed visiting your blogs and seeing all your wonderful Hello Springtime artwork so I created this page to remember you all and to say thank you!

I used my garden as inspiration for this page as it is coming to life now springtime’s here, so I decided to create a garden wall with pretty flowers to showcase all the names of the people who joined the Hello Springtime challenge this month at Art Journal Journey (AJJ).

I started by covering the page with a thick layer of Parchment Liquitex acrylic paint and sponging a mixture of Christmas Green and Swedish Blue Liquitex acrylic paint over the top. Once the paint was dry, I stencilled a brick design using a mixture of red, yellow and black acrylic paint to create the brown colour and when dry I loosely outlined the bricks with a black Uni Pin marker to give them more definition. Then I used a texture stamp from Tim Holtz using Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to give a grungy look to the areas not covered with the brick design. For the foliage, I stamped Cottage Ivy Memento Ink using a stamp from Kaisercraft. Then I used my Dymo LetraTag label machine to create all the names of the people who joined the challenge this month which took some time as I cut each of them out and then stuck them in place along the brickwork. For the “thank you”, I stamped the banner and thank you using a couple of Hampton Art stamp sets using black Archival Ink onto some card by Docrafts. I fussy cut the banner out and gave it more of a worn look using Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and a blending tool. I cut the AJJ logo out, and stuck it and the thank you banner in place using double-sided tape. I also added the “March 2019” and “Hello Springtime” labels that I created using my Dymo machine and then to finish, the sparkly flower embellishments using Ranger Glossy Accents.

I’d also like to that Gerrina who entered my challenge after I photographed my page. I have now added Gerrina’s name to my page too (grin!).

I had so much fun creating all my pages for this challenge and I hope you did too!

I’d like to say a special thanks to Susi and Bleubeard & Elizabeth for asking me to be a guest host, they provided such valuable support and encouragement, thanks so much!

I have also been overwhelmed with everyone’s participation and lovely comments; it has been such a pleasurable experience – thank you all! Jo x

Tomorrow is a new month and brings a new challenge at Art Journal Journey and I can’t wait to see what the new theme is and say hello to our new host – 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:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Parchment, Christmas Green, Swedish Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Cottage Ivy)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Brushed Corduroy)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.05mm)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Magnolia Grove CS822)
• Tim Holtz Collection Stampers Anonymous (Urban Tapestry CMS061)
• Hampton Art cling mounted rubber stamps (7 Gypsies Vintage – Birdsong ICO151, Doodlebug Design Inc – Thankful ICO162)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Dymo LetraTag Label Maker and White paper Labels
• Art Journal Journey logo – computer printed
• Docrafts Papermania Capsule Collection Tags (Elements Wood PMA174318)
• The Range (Craft Embellishments CRO824)
• Stix2 double-sided tape
• Ranger Glossy Accents

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Say it with Flowers

I’m looking forward to seeing the flowers bloom in my garden over the summer, so I thought I’d celebrate by creating this colourful summery flower page using some of my favourite colours of Distress Ink (grin!).

For the background I used Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks. I used one of my favourite techniques to apply them to the page which is to stamp the ink pad directly into an acrylic block, spritz the block with water and press it into the page. I really like the vibrant colours and blotting paper effect which results. Next I added white and black splatters of acrylic paint using a paintbrush. Using black Archival Ink I stamped flower images by Hampton Art over the page, I then created the stems using a dotty border stamp, masking the flowers as needed so the stems are behind the flower heads. I added a leaf stamp, again by Hampton Art, to the stems too. Then I added the butterflies and four sayings to the page using a stamp set by Crafter’s Companion and the same black ink. They read “All things grow with love”, “Flowers whisper what words cannot say”, “Take time to smell the flowers” and “The earth laughs in flowers”. I doodled some white flowers and added details to the stamped butterflies, flowers and leaves using a white Uniball gel pen and a black Uni Pin marker. To finish, I added some Rhinestone Flower stickers to the centre of some of the white flowers I had doodled.

I’m pleased to join the Flora and Fauna challenge that I’m hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month, it would be great to see you there!

My page reminds me of two types of flower that can be found in my garden, firstly perennial Daisy (Leucanthemum), that this was a new addition to my garden a couple of years ago and last year the plant had doubled in size giving this lovely display of white flowers.

These annuals are called mesembryanthemum and I buy them every year, they can be found in the same flower bed normally growing under my pottery toadstool which is a similar colour to my page (grin!). I like that this flower only opens when the sun is on them and the petals close up for the night – don’t they look spectacular! The official name is a really hard one to pronounce, so I just refer to them as “pretties” (double grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Art Journal Journey, 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 Flowers so I’m pleased to join this theme with my Say it with Flowers art journal page.

I enjoyed creating the background using my favourite technique to apply colours of Distress Ink and stamping all the flowers, so I’m also pleased to join the Backgrounds challenge over at The Artistic Stamper.

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Time Out challenge with my flowers and “Take time to smell the flowers” sentiment.

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

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

• Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint, Chipped Sapphire)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Ivory Black)
• Colvin & Co Artists Acrylic (Titanium White)
• Uni Pin Fine Line Marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Hampton Art Bella Blvd cling mounted rubber stamps (Sand & Surf ICO226)
• Hampton Art Doodlebug Design Inc. cling mounted rubber stamps (Thankful! ICO162)
• Crafter’s Companion Signature Collection by Sara Davies stamp set (Just for You – Butterfly Lullaby S-BL-ST-JUS)
• The Works (Rhinestone Flower Stickers)