Two for Tea

This page celebrates friendships and tea as there’s nothing better than chatting over a cuppa with friends (grin!).

I wanted to recycle some pretty greeting card envelopes so I ripped a brown, cream, white and two different shades of pink into pieces and collaged them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium. I added two rose rub-on transfers and then I stencilled modelling paste, using a lace stencil, over the pink sections and once dry applied some white gesso using a baby wipe to tone the colours down a bit. Next I splattered white DecoArt acrylic paint over the whole page using a paintbrush. The teacups and saucers are fussy cut from a magazine, edged with Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck in place using double-sided foam tape. I created two vintage style envelopes to hold the teabags using a small white tag envelope. For the centre panel of each envelope I used a pretty bird sticker and also a piece of card from the same sticker packaging which I stamped with a Bella Rossi stamp which details tea and other drinks. Both panels are edged with pearls and leftover borders from a Penny Black Stickeroo set. I inserted a recycled empty teabag that I had dried into the top of each one and stuck them to the page using glue dots. I also arranged them onto the page with a piece of string which is recycled greeting card trim, so it looked like a teabag string and held the end of the string down with a pretty cream rose. The small tag is from the same greetings card as the trim and it is embellished with a piece of the Stickeroo border and also one of the pearls. It is stuck down using double-sided foam tape and I added another cream rose to secure the string. To finish the page, I added some pearls to the background.

As I used the lace stencil, this page is also for the Stencil, Die Cuts or Both challenge over at Try it on Tuesday where you still have another week to join in the fun!

Flowers and birds means this page also matches the Flora and Fauna theme over at Art Journal Journey that I’m hosting this month. This page marks the second week for this theme and I’d like to thank all of you who have joined in the fun, I hope you are enjoying getting creative with this theme!

A trip to the Blackbird café with friends is always welcome, today I’m sharing our tea – green tea for me and earl grey for my forever friend!

As it T Stands for Tuesday I’m saying a big hello to my T Gang friends and wishing you all a Happy T Day!

We often visit this café and I have posted about it a few times, you may remember these beautiful birdcages (grin!). If you want to see more of the café then here’s a link to my previous post.

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:

With the neutral colours I used, I’m also pleased to join the Simply Neutrals Tuesday party over at Apple Apricot.

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Flowers which I’m also joining with the roses and violets that I included on my page.

I’m pleased to join a new challenge blog today where the lovely Valerie is on the Design Team, it’s at Mixed Media World and their theme is Anything Goes…optional Pink.

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 Modeling Paste
• Pébéo White Gesso
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia B 175)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Prima Marketing Clear Stamps (Rossi Belle 587499)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Old Magazine
• Small tag envelopes
• Docrafts Papermania Label Stickers (Botanicals PMA157234)
• Recycled birthday card tag and string trim
• Dried teabags
• Penny Black Stickeroos (Vintage Roses #10-142)
• Poundworld (Pearl Embellishments 137920-A)
• Craft Sensations (Ivory Deco Flowers CR0736-GE)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Advertisements

Glass Art

As part of my birthday celebrations we went to Garstang and stopped by John Ditchfield’s Glasform gallery and studio. This is always a lovely place to visit and you can watch them making their glass artworks too, which is amazing!

I started by selecting images from freebie leaflets that were supplied by the Gallery in the carrier containing a birthday present that I had selected, more on that later (grin!). I tore and glued the front of one of the leaflets to the left-hand side of the page using UHU Stic. I then selected some softly ink-stained recycled baby wipes that I thought would compliment the images. I have quite a few baby wipes to recycle that I have used to mop up inks and paints from other art journal pages; they are just too nice to through away. I cut the baby wipes to fit the remainder of the page and stuck them in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. I then backed all the remaining images with some recycled white card from some packaging, fussy cut them out and then stuck them all to the page using Liquitex matte gel medium again, which finished my 99.9% recycled page.

The studio is located in a barn and you can watch glass artworks being made, which is amazing!

It’s full of inspiring pieces like this glass ceiling hanging …

… or this beautiful wall of glass!

It’s mesmerising to watch the artists transforming the heated glass in front of your eyes! This is the glass artist John Ditchfield and he is heating the glass …

… then it’s time to blow it …

… heat and blow it some more and then roll it in coloured glass …

… put it in a mould and blow it again …

Wow, look at the shape of this piece, isn’t it stunning! Here it is still molten and while it’s cooling he is turning it on the pole to retain the shape and using large scissors to bevel the end where it is attached to the pole. When ready it’s removed from the pole and slowly cooled in a kiln for 16 hours or so …

… then with some work, hey presto you have a light shade!

Then there’s the gallery to look around too and this photo collage of neutral glass artworks is for Simple Neutrals Tuesday party over at Apple Apricot. There is so much to look at including beautiful vases, a green shimmery toadstool with the fairy on top, lamps, bowls, fish and the most adorable sheep (grin!).

With so many beautiful pieces to choose from …

… it was hard to choose one birthday treat!

Here’s my present, a very pretty glass robin, isn’t he the cutest (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday and we went to Garstang, I’m sharing a pint of Beer Baracus  from our lunch at The Royal Oak. I grew up watching B.A. Baracus on the A-Team television series and I had to laugh when I saw the hand pump as I can just imagine him saying “Drink it, fool!” (grin!). Cheers and wishing you a very Happy T Day!

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 Alison/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my recycled and collaged art journal page!

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

I’m joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Sparkle and Shine challenge with the beautiful shine from the images that I used on my 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 (wow, I think this is the shortest materials list I have ever posted – grin!):

• Recycled free leaflets
• Recycled baby wipes stained with ink having been used to mop up ink and paints when creating journal pages
• Recycled card from packaging
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Nature’s Beauty

Our new challenge at Try it on Tuesday is Nature’s Beauty and the Design Team have some amazing inspiration for you, whether it is flowers, plants, animals or scenes of nature.

My art journal page today is a scene capturing the peacefulness and serenity of dragonflies over water, which for me, encapsulates nature’s beauty.

I started by painting diluted Shabby Shutters and Salty Ocean Distress Ink onto the background by stamping the ink pad onto an acrylic block and applying it to the page with a paintbrush to create a watercolour effect. Then I used a Distressed Dots stencil from That Special Touch of Mica Masks by Creative Expressions to apply Mowed Lawn and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks using a blending tool. I stamped some foliage using an Eco Green stamp set made from recycled rubber and a Tan Spectrum Aqua Marker. Then I added some Pébéo modelling paste using the Distressed Dot stencil to add more dimension and when the paste was dry, coloured it with Parchment Liquitex acrylic paint. I fussy cut the grasses, leaves and iris from a wallpaper sample and stuck them onto the page using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium. To add more detail and definition I doodled outlines on them with a black Uni Pin marker and white Uniball gel pen, then added some shadows using a Slate Spectrum Aqua Marker. The dragonflies are rub-on transfers by Royal & Langnickel and I positioned them so that one is sitting on a leaf and the other is flying off into the distance. I stamped some bees from a Graphic 45 stamp set by Hampton Art using black Archival Ink and coloured them using a yellow Spectrum Aqua marker. To finish, I added two stickers with the words “peaceful” and “serenity” which I thought captured the scene; they are edged with the Tan Spectrum Aqua marker and stuck in place using double-sided tape.

As it is T for Tuesday, I’m sharing the enjoyable time that we had at the local Pavilion Café in Ashton Gardens with our friends. Ashton Gardens is a municipal park which was established in 1874, it is situated in the centre of St. Anne’s on the Sea and is a lovely place to explore with its various display gardens including the most beautiful Rose Garden. The café building is a replica of the former bowling club pavilion known as the Ashton Institute.

This café always has a yummy array of cakes to choose from …

… and there is lovely art displayed on the walls which you can buy if you want to.

As T Stands for Tuesday, maybe you would like a green tea, hot chocolate or glass of water (of course they had coffee too, sorry I forgot to take a photo of our friends selection which included a cappuccino which I know you may prefer – grin!). As well as our drinks we enjoyed a bacon butty and a slice of salted caramel cake – yum! Wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

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 Alison/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the recycled rubber art stamp set and wallpaper that I collaged to create this page!

With the stamped bees that I included on my nature page, I’m pleased to join The Birds & the Bees challenge over at The Artistic Stamper.

As I used and altered the wallpaper for my 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 also joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Add Some Texture challenge with all the texture I created with the Distress Inks, stencils, modelling paste and wallpaper.

With the circles that I stencilled onto my page, I’m also pleased to join the Going Round in Circles challenge over at That’s Crafty Challenge.

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 (Shabby Shutters, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Chipped Sapphire)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Tan, Slate, Yellow)
• Pébéo Modeling Paste
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Parchment)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Eco Green Crafts Recycled Rubber Stamps (Petal Party #04309)
• Creative Expressions That Special Touch of Mica Masks (Distressed Dots)
• Hampton Art 7 Gypsies Cling Mounted Rubber Stamps (Birdsong ICO151))
• Wallpaper sample – recycled
• Royal & Langnickel Tip of the Brush (Insect Collection #TIP1484 Rub-on)
• Little Yellow Bicycle Cardstock Stickers (PD-140)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

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)

Capture the Magic

I wanted to create an art journal page to remember my birthday which was last week, I had the most amazing time and thought I would recycle an old birthday card which I have treasured for a while.

To continue the recycled theme, I started by gluing some red netting from a bag of oranges to the page; this was quite difficult to do as the glues I had just didn’t want to hold the stretchy net in place. So I secured it as best I could and then used my heat gun to dry the glue, which happily melted the netting and looked really cool (grin!). Then to ensure the netting would stay in place I covered the whole page with white tissue paper using Liquitex matte gel medium, building up the layers of tissue paper to ensure all the netting was covered; I love all the background texture that the netting and tissue paper created. When the gel medium was dry, I scribbled Watermelon, Guava, Butter Cream, and Caramel Faber-Castell Gelatos onto the page and smudged them with my finger; they blended beautifully on top of the gel medium. I also added some Metallic Icing Faber-Castell Gelato to add contrast, some Abandoned Coral Distress Ink by applying the ink, spritzing with water and letting it run over and down the page and then I splattered the whole page with DecoArt black acrylic paint using a paintbrush. Next I recycled a cardboard tube to stamp circles of Pébéo white gesso and also black Soot Distress Ink onto the page. All the butterflies and flowers are from a birthday card and I fussy cut them out, edged them with Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and arranged them onto the page using glue dots and double-sided tape. To finish, I added the wording “Capture the Magic” using Tim Holtz Label Letters which I mounted onto some of the cream recycled birthday card before sticking them to the page with glue dots; for me this page definitely captures the magic of my birthday!

My birthday celebrations started with lunch at our favourite restaurant Coco’s Soul Food, you may remember it from previous posts (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’ll start by sharing some fizzy drinks that we selected while waiting for our food order, the choice is Passion Fruit, Lychee or Guava – Happy T Day!

You may be surprised to see that I didn’t have my usual Tropical Mango Chicken Salad but Jerk Chicken Enchiladas – so yummy! My hubby had the same and the portion was so big that there was enough for lunch the next day too (grin!).

Then we went on a lovely walk along the River Ribble and back through Avenham Park which was built in the 1860s and is Victorian in style. The day was sunny with some April showers and as the afternoon brought with it happy blue skies we had fun time exploring!

There were great views across the river …

… and of Silver Birch trees …

… and pretty blossoms!

I thought this photo of pretty blossoms would be perfect to enter into the Simply Neutrals Tuesday party over at Apple Apricot which is hosted by the lovely Wen.

There were quite a few old Victorian bridges on the walk too.

Walking back through the park, there was a Japanese Garden which was a beautiful setting for this old house in the background.

Along the railings that enclosed the garden were over 2000 aluminium eggs decorated by local schools for Easter – amazing!

There was also a wonderful display of daffodils and a waterfall which was a surprising discovery!

As well as pretty pink blossoms which remind me of the colours and flowers on my page.

I’m sure that I will be sharing more birthday treats with you again soon and thank you so much for all the lovely birthday wishes on my blog last week, it really made my day!

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 Alison/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the recycled materials that I collaged onto this page including the netting, tissue paper and one of my favourite birthday cards.

As I reused and altered materials 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.

As I created this page to capture the magic of my birthday celebrations, I’m also pleased to be able to join the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Happy Birthday! challenge – wishing you a Happy 9th Birthday too!

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

This page fits nicely with the Recycle Something challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too where you still have another week to join in the fun, it would be great 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:

• Faber-Castell Gelato (Watermelon, Guava, Butter Cream, Caramel, Metallic Icing)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Abandoned Coral, Black Soot)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Marker (Dark Sepia B 175)
• Stamp – recycled circular cardboard tube
• Recycled birthday card
• White tissue paper – recycled from gift packaging
• Red netting – recycled from a bag of oranges
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology (Label Letters #TH93072)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Recycle Something

Our new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday for the next two weeks is Recycle Something and the design team have created some amazing inspirational projects, so please pop over and take a look.  I hope you will join us as I’m looking forward to seeing all of your recycled creations!

I always have lots of different bits and pieces to recycle in my craft stash so I decided to create an art journal page using recycled packaging, a birthday card insert, magazines, postage stamps, tags, a doily and some buttons.

I started by applying some Dark Sepia Big Brush marker by scribbling the ink onto an acrylic block and using a wet stiff-bristled paintbrush to apply it to the page creating faint lines of colour. I added a piece of bordered paper recycled from a birthday card to the right-hand of the page and then for the first layer of collage, I used some pieces of an old music magazine and box packaging which included an international postage document, some brown strapping tape which had threads running through it and brown corrugated cardboard. I tore these items into pieces and like all the collaged items they are edged with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush Marker and stuck them to the page using a UHU Stic. I also used the threads of the brown strapping tape to add texture by fanning them out on the page using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium to hold them in place. I arranged them with three British postage stamps, from 1973 and 1974, which I recycled from my hubby’s childhood collection; they were already on torn envelopes which I left as part of the collage so they are exactly the same as my hubby left them as a child which makes them even more special to me. Next I added lines of white and black DecoArt acrylic paint using a recycled gift card to add some depth and interest. The second layer of collage consisted of some more of the brown strapping tape and some turquoise speckled paper from a magazine which I cut into rectangles and layered onto the page. Then I covered the whole page with splatters of white and black DecoArt acrylic paint. The letters are cut from various magazines and once the glue had dried I edged them with a black Derwent Graphik pen. I then added recycled tags from some bath towels, clothing and a birthday present; I adorned the tag holes with some recycled metal press studs which still had cotton threads attached and then I stuck them to the page using either double-sided tape or double-sided foam tape. For the central tag, I used a recycled doily that was used to serve some after dinner mints on from a restaurant we went to; it is torn into quarters and stuck to one of the brown tags, and the butterfly and torn brown card with the metal brad is recycled from a birthday gift tag. To finish, I added the buttons which are recycled from the button stash that I have accumulated from different clothing over the years.

Being Easter this weekend we received a couple of lovely Easter eggs from family, so I used them to make these Easter chocolate nests by melting the chocolate eggs and using it to cover Rice Crispy cereal, then filling each of the nests with homemade chocolate fudge icing and some chocolate mini eggs, chocolate covered raisins and tiny marshmallows – so yummy!

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing our cup of green tea and chocolate nests that we’ve been having for our elevenses and wishing you all a Happy T Day! I apologise in advance as I’ll probably be late visiting you as it’s my birthday today so we have a few celebrations planned, which I’ll be sure to share with you soon (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 Alison/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my recycled collage art journal page!

As I reused materials 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 where a splash of colour is acceptable so I do hope my page of neutrals with the blue is ok.

I’m also joining the Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

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:

• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White, Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia B 175)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.3mm)
• Recycled Birthday card – paper insert
• Recycled packaging box – document, strapping tape, corrugated box
• Old magazines – music, letters, turquoise splattered paper
• Postage Stamps (British 4.5p from 1973 and two x 6.5p from 1974) – recycled from hubby’s childhood collection
• Recycled Tags – towels, clothing, birthday with butterfly and brad
• Doily recycled from restaurant
• Recycled Metal Press Studs with cotton threads from clothing they were removed from
• Buttons
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• Docrafts Stick It! double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Songbird

I was so excited to use a new bird and verse stamp set that I recently purchased that I decided to create a page using some of my most treasured design papers, postage stamps and metal decorations that I have had in my craft stash forever – I hope you like it!

A number of blog challenges inspired my design too, including our current theme over at Try it on Tuesday of The Call of Spring – Mood Board, where I was inspired to use the blackbird and the panel design from the photo inspiration. There is still another week to participate in this challenge, so please pop over and take a look, it would be great to see you there!

I started by selecting some vintage design papers that have been sitting in my craft stash for a while; this included a pretty white flower, a lovely text design and a note paper with tabs which are all from a paper bundle of odds and ends from my local craft store, and also a beautiful blossom paper from a design pad. I cut the papers and also some images from a wallpaper sample into various sizes, edged them with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and collaged them onto the page using a UHU Stic. Once the first layer of papers covered the page I applied some white gesso using my finger to give more of a worn look and create more depth. Next I stamped the bird stamp from a Stampendous Songbird stamp set onto some American Crafts design paper using black Archival Ink and also Pistachio and Cottage Ivy Memento Ink for the branches and leaves.  The verse is from the same stamp set and reads:

“When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth’s aflood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a branch
To greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to live”.

The stamped images are edged with the black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck into place using a UHU Stic along with some smaller pieces of design paper, lace trim and some Crowded Attic stickers by Tim Holtz. The yellow feathers and “Spring” wording are rub-on transfers by Royal & Langnickel and the two postage stamps are from my hubby’s childhood collection; as you may know he gifted them to use on my art journal pages so they are very special to me. The postage stamps are from Costa Rica 1938 which celebrates the National Exhibition of 1937 with a purple orchid called Guaria Morada and also a Hungarian postage stamp from Magyar Posta 1958 featuring some pretty pink crocus type flowers. To finish, I added some metal decorations of flowers and a bird sitting in a tree which are secured using brads.

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing my cuppa of green tea and a yummy Hot Cross Bun filled with Crumbly Lancashire Cheese from our local cheese factory – delicious! I’m saying a big hello to Bleubeard and Elizabeth and the rest of the T Gang – Happy T Day!

If you are interested, here are some facts about Hot Cross Buns:

• A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with sultanas, currants or raisins and marked with a cross on the top.
• The traditional method for making the cross on top of the bun is to use short-crust pastry however some recipes use a paste consisting of flour and water.
• The buns mark the end of Lent and are traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the United Kingdom, although they have been in our supermarkets since just after Christmas (grin!).
• Generally, they are split in two, toasted and served with butter, but here in the North of England we often serve them filled with cheese and my favourite has to be Lancashire Cheese which is a regional white cheese. The one in my photo is the Crumbly version of this cheese made locally by Dewlay – yum!

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 that I’m joining today:

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.

Using some of my most treasured design papers, postage stamps from my hubby’s childhood collection and precious metal decorations on my Vintage Style art journal page means that I’m able to also join in the fun over at A Vintage Journey, where the theme is Treasure.

With my neutral coloured page, I’m joining in the fun at the Simply Neutrals Tuesday party over at Apple Apricot as dear Susi highlighted this challenge in one of her posts recently.

Including the bird and verse stamping as my page focal point on my spring songbird page means that I’m pleased to join Fashionable Stamping Challenges and their Springtime challenge.

I’m also joining the Forest Friends challenge over at Stamping Sensations as you find songbirds in the forest which is my stamped focal point.

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)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Tsukeniko Memento Ink (Pistachio, Cottage Ivy)
• Stampendous Cling Rubber Stamp (Jumbo Songbird CRS5029)
• Design Paper Bundle
• Craft Sensations Design Pad (Authentic Vintage CRO730/R)
• Wallpaper sample
• The Works Design Pad (Classic Vintage CRO707/TW7)
• American Crafts 2×12 Paper Pad (DIY Shop 366665)
• Tim Holtz Salvage Stickers (Crowded Attic #TH92898)
• Dovecraft Creative Ribbons (Sweet Paris Lace DCCR24)
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Transfers (Bird’s Nest #ROY-563, Spring Sentiments #ROY-506)
• Postage Stamps (Costa Rica 1938 celebrating the National Exhibition in 1937 featuring a purple orchid called Guaria Morada, Hungary Magyar Posta 1958)
• The Works (Metal Decorations)
• UHU Stic