Light the way

For today’s page, we are travelling back to Prague to look at the most beautiful chandelier in St. Nicholas church.

I started by covering the page with pieces of music sheet and old dictionary pages, then I applied some white gesso using a brayer and left it to dry. I stamped the script text using black Archival Ink and an Etcetera stamp set by Tim Holtz. Next, I stencilled the stars using Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink and I also applied some of the ink around the edges of the page. Then, I used an ornate baroque style stencil to apply some Ranger Texture Paste , which I mixed with Iridescent Bright Gold Liquitex Acrylic Ink before applying it to the page. I also coloured some of the background using this gold paste by applying it with my finger. When dry, I used a Daler-Rowney gold metallic acrylic paint marker and black UniPin fine line marker to add some contrast to the stencilled gold paste. I added the metallic word stickers by Tim Holtz, which read “Enjoy today”, “Collect beautiful moments”, “Light the way” and “Find joy in the ordinary.” I splattered the page using the Gold Liquitex Acrylic Ink, and then to finish, I added the chandelier image, highlighting the candles using the gold metallic marker.

St. Nicholas Church is a late-Gothic and Baroque church located in Prague’s Old Town it was built between 1732-1737.

It has the most magnificent chandelier of antique crystals, which is 4.5m in diameter and weighs 1.5 tons.

This is one of the views from the front steps of St. Nicholas church; the Old Town Square where you’ll find an amazing Christmas market and buildings of various architectural styles. The Gothic church in the centre is Church of Our Lady before Týn and is a well-known landmark.

We headed to the Christmas market after visiting St. Nicholas church, where we enjoyed a cinnamon crepe and a hot chocolate – yum! As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m saying a big hello and welcome to the T Gang and wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

I hope that you are staying safe and well!

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

Challenges

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Vicki Parson from stampedsmiles.com and her Light challenge with my Light the way page.

Menorca

It’s time for our first challenge of the year over at Try it on Tuesday, which for the next two weeks is Winter Blues.

I decided to escape to Cala Galdana, Menorca for my winter blues page; creating a smooshed blue background using one of my favourite techniques and recycling a postcard, calendar page, restaurant business card and napkin from our holiday travels.

For my page background, I pressed some Mermaid Lagoon and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks onto an acrylic block, spritzed the ink with water and then pressed the block onto the page. I also splattered some of the inks from the acrylic block over the page using a paint brush. Next I tore the white napkin into pieces and applied them to the page using a glue stick. I arranged the postcard, calendar picture and business card together using double-sided tape and then stamped the “Menorca” wording using a Sophisticated Script Letters stamp by Concord & 9th and some Paris Dusk Memento Ink. Then to finish, I added the “Cala Galdana” wording which was detailed on the recycled napkin.

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

Here’s the beautiful beach at Cala Galdana, Menorca.

There are lots of walking trails and you can easily walk along the beach or promenade to the other side of the horse-shaped cove.

We loved the Sa Lluna restaurant that we often visited; the people were so friendly and the food was amazing and so very yummy! We often had the three course set menu and here were some of our favourites (starting top right going around clockwise) we have: Prawn Cocktail which was very delicious with the crab sticks and pineapple that were added; stuffed aubergine with a Menorcan cheese sauce and served with salad; Fideuà which is a seafood dish that is similar to paella but with pasta noodles instead of rice; Flan de leche or crème caramel, a custard dessert with clear caramel sauce which they were kind enough to let us have as dessert with every meal, even when it wasn’t on the set menu (smile).

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m also sharing our drink of Estrella Damm which is a Spanish beer and is pictured here with a very tasty lasagne – cheers and Happy T Day!

We had such a wonderful time and the weather was lovely; the perfect way to beat those winter blues!

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 able to join the following challenges today:

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Erika from BioArtGal; she has chosen It’s On The Calendar as her theme so I’m joining with my Menorca page.

Mix It Up Challenge – MIUCB #69 Anything Goes + optional Mixed Media / MIUCB #68 Winner & Top Picks

Winter Snowman

So do you wanna build a snowman … well I had fun building mine for this fun seasonal page (smile!).

For the wintery sky, I covered my chipboard page using Villainous Poison Distress Paint which I blended with some white and black acrylic paint using horizontal brush strokes. Next I hand cut some white cardstock to form the foreground and die cut the tree using a Woodlands Sizzix Thinlits by Tim Holtz; they were edged with Seedless Grape and Black Soot Distress Ink before sticking them in place. Then I spattered the page with white acrylic paint. The snowman was die cut using a Mr. Frost Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some white and black linen textured the paper. I coloured the edges of the main body of the snowman with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink using a blending tool, the scarf and hat band using red and green TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers, his carrot nose using Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the twig arms using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The die cut pieces were layered together using Liquitex matte gel medium and I added a holly gemstone embellishment to the hat, then stuck him onto the page. To finish, I added the wording which was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and read “Far across the snow, on the frosty hills”.

Here’s one of my Christmas cupcakes; it’s a chocolate cupcake and the snowman was created using marshmallows, a Rolo chocolate, chocolate sprinkles, buttercream icing and some candied orange – super cute (smile!).

Hoping that you are all staying safe and well and are having a wonderful Christmastime! 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 able to join the following challenges today:

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Wendy K from Wendy’s Craft Journal; she has chosen Above Us Only Sky as her theme so I’m joining with my snowy winter sky.

Deer Family

Today’s page was a quick make on one of my mini chipboard journal pages. It features a cute deer family for our Nature challenge over at Art Journal Journey; I hope to see you there!

I started by covering the edges of my chipboard page with some Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker. Then I cut the pretty forest backdrop from a Forest paper pad by Stamperia. The deer family were die cut from some cream linen-textured cardstock using Darling Deer Sizzix Thinlits by Tim Holtz and were coloured using Ground Espresso, Brushed Corduroy and Antique Linen Distress Inks. I arranged them onto the page using a glue stick along with the wording which were from a Sentiments Word Sticker Pad by Finnabair.

You’ll also find a deer family on these pretty mugs, they often make an appearance this time of year and are pictured here with a couple of custard slices that we enjoyed with our Ceylon tea for our elevenses (yum!).

Stay safe and well!

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

Challenges

Double D Challenges – Oh Deer Challenge

Smallest Things

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

My mixed media page was inspired by family visiting in September.

I started by covering the page with white gesso, keeping my brush strokes vertically across the page. When dry, I applied a wash of Black Soot Distress Ink to create a distressed background with the gesso acting as a resist. Next I stamped some black Archival Ink using a fragments stamp set by Tim Holtz and then I splattered the page with black acrylic paint. I tore the flowered papers, edged them with a black Faber-Castell marker and I also die cut the script wording from the same papers. I arranged them all onto the page using a glue stick and matte gel medium. To finish, I added the “sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts” wording, which was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. All you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see you there!

The papers I used for this page were gifted me earlier this year by the same family member (M) who gifted me this beautiful bouquet of flowers when they visited, which in turn …

… inspired the colours and flowers on my page – thank you so much M!

We had such a lovely week together and visited a number of places local to us. We laughed as we took what we called “a mini cruise” (literally 3.5 mins on a ferry) to visit Knott End – such fun!

We had a lovely lunch at The Bourne Arms pub, where I forgot to take a photo of my yummy Cannelloni but remembered to take one of my dessert which was a Knickerbocker Glory!

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

MIUCB #67 Anything Goes + optional Make Your Own Background over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the background that I created and techniques that I used.

Let’s Get Messy

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which is Let’s Get Messy.

I’d also like to send a warm welcome to the lovely Pia and the lovely Viv, who have both joined our Design Team; this is their first challenge with us so be sure to check out their blogs and show them some love!

This messy page was created using leftovers. The background was a piece of card that I used under my journal pages whilst creating them to protect the page underneath; it’s messily covered in paints, stenciling, stamping, texture paste and marker pens. It looks like I also used this card when I created some some ATCs too, as you can see from the black acrylic paint outlines. I added the flowers which I stamped sometime ago onto some white tissue paper and also the stamped typewriter which was already fussy cut out. I also found the red hearts and “Be still and listen” wording in my craft stash, so added them to my design. To finish, I stamped the word love above the typewriter and some tiny framed hearts using black Archival Ink.

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

I was so pleased to meet Chris from pearshapedcrafting, one of my design team buddies from Try it on Tuesday, at Lytham Hall a few weeks ago; we had such a lovely time together – thanks so much Chris!

We had fun chatting, exploring and admiring all the beautiful snowdrops.

Of course, as T Stands for Tuesday, I also enjoyed a cuppa too with our lunch; here’s my green tea and a slice of Honeycomb Cheesecake – Happy T Day everyone and many apologies for not being around lately, I’ve had lots of family stuff going on!

Stay 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 which is being hosted by the lovely Erika at her BioArtGal blog and her Seeing Red challenge with the red hearts on my page.

Love and Devotion

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which is All You Need is Love.

I started by covering the page with Pébéo white gesso as, when dry, it’s a wonderful base medium for the Faber-Castell Gelatos that were used to colour this page, making them easier to smudge and blend. I used Watermelon and Coconut Gelatos which I scribbled over the background and smudged with my finger and a little water. Next I added the fragments of gold tissue paper that I had previously die cut; they were leftover from another journal page. The love and devotion heart image was fussy cut from an old magazine and once stuck in place, I surrounded it with some blue and cream pearl gemstone clusters which finished the page.

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!

I’m sharing this romantic Valentine’s dessert served in a pretty white teacup from Lytham Hall café. It’s a chocolate cupcake topped with pink icing, silver sprinkles and dark chocolate! It almost looks too good to eat!

Stay 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:

MIUCB #63 – Anything Goes + optional no stamping over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my romantic page which was created with no stamping.

Double D Challenges and their Hearts challenge with the Love and Devotion Heart hearts page.

More Than Words challenge and their Love Letters challenge with my Love and Devotion page.

Thankful Everyday

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which is Winter Blues.

My page today was created with lots of blue scraps that I had in my craft stash which included recycled papers from greeting cards, recycled envelopes, recycled book pages, leftover stamped tissue paper, old calendar pages, recycled foil from sweets and a photo from an old magazine. I simply collaged everything together using a glue stick and some Liquitex matte gel medium after edging them all with a black Faber-Castell marker. To finish, I added some measuring tape designed washi tape, a blue washi tape flower and the “Thankful everyday” sticker from Kaisercraft.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the amazing Winter Blues 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 my pretty blue mug of tea with a piece of spiced apple cake made with apples from my garden (smile!) – 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:

LTSCB #159 Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my paper scraps collage page.

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Mia from https://craftartista.blogspot.com/ this month who has chosen Use a Photo; I used pieces of sky and rocks from a photo in a magazine as part of my collage papers which you can see here:

Be Thankful

Today I’m sharing a thankful journal page and wishing all of you that are celebrating this week – a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I started by covering the chipboard page with some scraps of neutral coloured papers; I cut the papers into triangles before collaging them onto the page and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using my finger. I added the framed wording “when I count my blessings I count you twice” which was a sticker from Kaisercraft and the “Be thankful” wording which was washi tape. Next I added two flowers from a Tim Holtz Ephemera pack and two die cut autumnal leaves that were coloured using Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. To finish, I added two little chipboard owls.

For our wedding anniversary last month, we went to a new local Chinese restaurant called “Blessings House” and had the most amazing time (smile!).

The beautiful picture on the wall is cross stitch and was sewn by one of the restaurant’s family – it was very detailed and must have taken ages to create!

We had the lunch buffet with starters and soup; our choices were Sweetcorn and Crabmeat soup and one of each of the starters which were Curry Samosas, Spring Rolls, Salt and Pepper Chicken, Spare Ribs, Chicken Satay, Prawn Toast and Seaweed.

We shared our mains of Chicken in Satay Sauce, Sweet and Sour Pork and Chicken with Mushrooms – it was all so yummy and very filling!

I forgot to take photos of our drinks at the restaurant, so as T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a couple of pints that we enjoyed at the pub around the corner on our way home (smile!) – Happy T Day everyone!

I hope you’re all staying safe and well! x

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

Challenges

I’m pleased to join the following challenges:

The lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from https://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/ who is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Collage Fodder, Food & Drink or Both so I’m joining her with my collage fodder page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #181 – Anything Goes challenge with my thankful page.

LTSCB#158 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my Be Thankful page; I used lots of scraps to create this one.

November Anything Goes Fall Challenge over at The Four Seasons Challenge with my autumnal thankful page.

Sparkle & Shine

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Sparkle & Shine.

For my sparkly page, I mixed some gold metallic Liquitex Acrylic Ink with Ranger Texture Paste and then I used it to stencil the swirls. Next I applied some of the gold acrylic ink onto the page with some Salvaged Patina and Prize Ribbon Distress Paints spritzing them with water to blend them. When the page was dry, I splattered the page with the gold metallic ink and also some white acrylic paint. For the heart, I embossed a piece of silver metallic cardstock using an Engraved Embossing Folder by Tim Holtz and cut out a heart shape. Then I applied some black metallic wax to the embossed pattern on the heart along with some of the gold ink and both Distress Paints. I added the wording from a Metallic Sticker Book by Tim Holtz which read “Shine brightly”, “Light the way” and “Start each day with a grateful heart”.

To finish, I added a sparkly embellishment to the heart; it’s a pearl surrounded by tiny diamante gems which was kindly gifted to me by the lovely Tracey.

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 and last weekend we officially moved to winter with the clocks going back an hour, I’m sharing our winter mugs. There pictured with a couple of mince pies – I know it’s early to have these but we treated ourselves when we saw them in the shops. As you can see my hubby’s “G” winter mug is very sparkly too – 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:

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

Stencil Fun Challenge and their Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil with the stencil that I used to create the metallic swirls on my page.

Can You Handle The Pressure and their Anything Goes Embossing with a Twist of Pumpkins with the embossed heart on my page – thanks for the invite Darlene!