Spring in the Garden

With the sunny days we have been having of late, I have found myself pottering around in the garden. Weeding my flowerbeds, planting seeds and preparing everything for summer, so I created this page to celebrate using some pretty crafting goodies that my dear friends Nan and Eileen sent me – thanks so much!

I applied Begonia, Blossom and Peach Spectrum Aqua markers to the background, by scribbling the individual colour onto an acrylic block, spritzing with water and pressing the block onto the page.  Then I covered the edges and middle of the page with some Apricot Liquitex acrylic paint using a baby wipe. Next I added the large “spring” wording which is a rub-on transfer by Royal & Langnickel and created a blue border to the page using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker, a Navy Spectrum Aqua marker and a black Uni Pin marker. To create the tags, I stuck some pretty spring stickers from my friend Nan onto some pink tags which I recycled from some lingerie and also onto some flowery tags by Docrafts. They are edged with the Navy Spectrum Aqua marker and stuck in place using double-sided sticky tape over some white thread. I embellished them with the different coloured pastel enamel dots and three wooden craft flowers. The bird boxes and blue bird are from the same rub-on transfer set and to finish I added the three pieces of washi tape, around the edges of the page, which were gifted me by my friend Eileen.

Challenges

I’m pleased to join the Hello Springtime challenge that I’m hosting over at Art Journal Journey with my spring in the garden page – I hope to see you there!

I’m joining in the Play with Paint challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I had fun applying paint to my page using a baby wipe.

I’m also joining Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my spring page too.

As I included flowers on this page, it also serves as a reminder for our Say it with Flowers challenge over at Try it on Tuesday where you have until next Tuesday to join in the fun!

I feel blessed to have received such kindness and gifts from both Nan and Eileen:

Here’s the happy mail that I received to welcome spring from the lovely Nan, thank you so much I really enjoyed using the beautiful stickers to create this page – perfect!

Here’s the happy mail that I received to celebrate T Stands for Tuesday 5^th Birthday from the lovely Eileen along with some wonderful crafting goodies too – thank you so much!

Their cards and ATC have pride of place in my craft room – thank you from the bottom of my heart (grin!). It was so wonderful to think of you as I was creating this page too and I hope that you like it as much as me!

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:

• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Begonia, Blossom, Peach, Navy)
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Peach)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.05mm)
• Recycled Pink Tags
• Docrafts Papermania Capsule Collection Tags (Elements Wood PMA174318)
• White thread
• Spring Stickers – thank you Nan!
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Transfers (Spring is Coming #SUG666)
• The Works (Pastel Enamel Dots, Craft Flowers)
• Washi Tape – thank you Eileen!
• Stix2 double-sided tape
• Ranger Glossy Accents

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Give Thanks

I was so excited to receive some happy mail from the lovely Nan! Every element was so detailed from the envelope which had the most stunning handwriting in orange and yellow ink and pretty autumnal leaves, to the beautiful hand painted sunflower card with honeycomb embossing, to the wonderful goodies I found inside (grin!).

So I created a “Give Thanks” page to recognise this kindness and incorporate some of the lovely Peanuts Thanksgiving stickers that Nan kindly gifted to me – I hope you like it!

I started with a neutral background of Parchment Liquitex acrylic paint which I applied using a baby wipe. Next I used two of That Touch of Mica Masks from Creative Expressions; firstly a honeycomb design to match the embossing that Nan had created on the card and secondly a leaf design to match the pretty leaves I found on the envelope. I applied Morocco and Dandelion Memento Ink through the honeycomb stencil using a sponge; these colours were inspired by the orange and yellow inks that Nan had used.

Then I stamped a hexagonal geometric shape using Rich Cocoa and Toffee Crunch Memento Ink through the leaf stencil onto the page, and outlined the edge of the leaf designs with a Sepia Spectrum Aqua marker. Before I removed this stencil I coloured the rest of the stencil design with the residue ink, that was left on the stencil from the stamping, using a sponge. Next I stamped “Give Thanks” onto the page using an alphabet stamp by Papermania and black Archival Ink, and then I darkened the letters using a black Derwent Graphik Marker so they stood out more.  To create the octagonal shapes, I created a template and used it to draw and cut out octagons from different papers; this included papers from the Into the Woods paper pad by Craft Asylum, a paper pack from my local craft shop and a piece of grid paper from my hubby’s old postage stamp album. I stuck one “Peanuts” sticker onto each of the octagons and then I edged them with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck them to the page using double-sided foam tape. To finish, I added some sparkly green Bling Stickers and edged the page with the black Big Brush marker.

I was so delighted to receive this happy mail and here you can see the front of the envelope with the most stunning handwriting in orange ink surrounded by pretty autumnal leaves with a round moon postage stamp and the beautiful sunflower hand painted card (grin!).

Even the back of the envelope was a work of art with the cute bear and flowers. One of my favourite sentiments “Hello Sunshine!” was also kindly included; the sunshiny yellow ink is perfect and Nan’s handwriting always looks so amazing. I also found some wonderful goodies inside (double grin!).

The card now has pride of place in my craft room! I’m in awe of the sunflower that Nan painted; it looks so professional and is so detailed. Sunflowers always seem such happy flowers and happen to be a favourite of mine – it makes me smile every time I see it (triple grin!). Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness dearest Nan!

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:

As receiving this happy mail warms my heart, I’m pleased to join Chris from Pearshapedcrafting who is hosting the “101 Ways to Stay Warm” challenge over at Art Journal Journey.

I really enjoyed using these different techniques with the stencils and love the layers of colour and designs that resulted, so I’m also joining the “Stencils” challenge over at the Country View Challenges.

I’m joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge too and their “Thanks/Thanksgiving” Challenge with my “Give Thanks” journal page.

I always enjoy using stamps on my pages and it was fun to add texture to the leaves by stamping through the stencil, so I’m pleased to join the “November Challenge: Anything Goes!: (stamping MUST be included)” at the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It 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:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Parchment)
• Tsukeniko Memento Ink (Morocco, Dandelion, Rich Cocoa, Toffee Crunch)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Sepia)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.5mm)
• Creative Expressions That Special Touch of Mica Masks (Honeycomb, Take a Leaf)
• Docrafts Papermania Clear Stamp Set (Capsule – Geometric Mono)
• Papermania Alphamania A-Z Clear Stamps (Leftovers Alphabet PMA9071102)
• Craft Asylum 6×6 Paper Pad (Into the Woods 480326)
• Paper pack from local craft shop
• Grid postage stamp album paper
• Peanuts Thanksgiving stickers – a gift from the lovely Nan!
• Poundland (Bling Stickers 2561793)
• The Range double-sided foam tape