Love you to the moon and back

Today’s page is in memory of my dad who passed away just before Christmas last year; it would have been his birthday today.

The two cute dogs are from a birthday card that I bought and with his passing never got to give him; I loved the image so I used it to create a page to remember him by and to say “love you to the moon and back”.

I started by stamping the background using a Mini Dots stamp by Kaisercraft and black Archival Ink, then a couple of stamps from a Mister Fox stamp set by Kaisercraft using Peeled Paint and Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink. Then I added the black and white striped washi tape to the bottom of the page to create the foreground; the washi tape was recycled from the napkin swap package that I received from Bleubeard & Elizabeth – thank you! Next I stuck the two adorable dogs in place, which were fussy cut from the birthday card and to finish, I added the “Love you to the moon and back” wording using letters from a Metallic Stickers Alpha Silver set by Tim Holtz.

Parkin was one of my dad’s favourites and one of his birthday treats (smile!). It’s a type of gingerbread cake that originated in northern England made with oatmeal and black treacle. This particular parkin recipe has been passed down through generations of my dad’s family and I enjoy making it, as well as eating it – it will always remind me of him!

Hoping that you all 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

I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Neet from Hickydorums is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Fur and/or Feathers so I’m joining her with the dogs on my page.

LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog as I created this page using a recycled birthday card and washi tape.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #176 – Anything Goes challenge with my autumnal page.

Together

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Animals – Real or Imaginary.

Here’s my page which was inspired by and features some adorable giraffes.

For my smooshed background, I used a grid mini stencil from Creative Expressions like a stamp to add Weathered Wood Distress Ink to the page; covering the stencil with the ink, spritzing with water and then pressing the stencil onto the page. I added some Wild Honey Distress Ink to the page using the same technique but this time applying the ink pad to an acrylic block, then spritzing with water and pressing the block onto the page. I added the photo images and wording which were Kaisercraft stickers and I used the same stickers to create create a platform for the giraffes to stand on. The giraffes were die cut from different colours of Kraft Stock Classic Paper from Tim Holtz using a Gertrude Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz; I used Liquitex matte gel medium to stick them together.

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 was inspired by these beautiful giraffes from Blackpool Zoo; we visited earlier this year and as they happen to be my favourite, we made a bee-line to see them as soon as we arrived (smile!).

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 be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Neet from Hickydorums is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Fur and/or Feathers so I’m joining her with my adorable giraffe page.

MIUCB#61 – Anything Goes + Optional Smooshing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my stencil and acrylic block smooshing techniques that I used to create my background for this page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #175 – Anything Goes challenge with my Together page.

My Heart

It’s a new month so it’s time to launch a new challenge over at Country View Challenges which is Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness.

The lovely Debs is hosting and says that the title for her challenge is inspired by John Keats ode to Autumn, in particular the first stanza, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. So think of the colours, ripened fruit, late flowers, watery sunshine, swelling nuts and gourds, anything you associate with early Autumn.

My page captures autumnal leaves as we’ve noticed on our woodland walks that the leaves are falling early this year, with layers of leaves already forming on the woodland floor.

I started by covering the chipboard page using white gesso and when dry I rubbed some of the gesso off using a baby wipe to give a distressed look. Then I used a Falling Leaves stamp set by Tim Holtz to layer leaves around the edges of the page using quite a few different colours of Memento Ink; the colours included London Fog, Pistachio, Toffee Crunch, Rich Cocoa, Love Letter, Dandelion and Potters Clay Memento Inks. The wording was a sticker which I edged using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker. To finish, I splattered the page with black DecoArt acrylic paint and added two sparkly Gumdrop Heart gems.

I created this page with my hubby in mind as he loves autumn and this season brings both birthday and wedding anniversary celebrations – “when I follow my heart it leads to you” (smile).

For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges. I hope you’ll join us, it would be lovely to see you there and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!

Wishing you a Happy September and I hope that you’re staying safe and well! x

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #175 – Anything Goes challenge with my autumnal page.

LTCCB#70 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my autumn love page.

Time stood still

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Keep It Simple.

This challenge was really hard for me as keeping things simple isn’t something I normally achieve (smile!), so to keep it simple, my design centred on a sheet of cardstock from Kaisercraft with some pretty framed flowers.

I started by cutting the Kaisercraft sheet into three pieces and then arranging it onto the page. Before it was stuck in place with a glue stick, I coloured the background pale pink using some watered down Pickled Raspberry Distress Ink. Then I added the pink roses which were washi stickers and to finish, the wording which was a Kaisercraft sticker and reads “In these moments time stood still”.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the wonderful Keep It Simple 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, here’s my friend’s cappuccino for you coffee lovers and our pots of tea; I fell in love with the beautiful teacup and saucer with the elegant gold accents and pretty pink roses – 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:

The lovely Chris from Pearshapedcrafting is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen When We Were Young so I’m joining her with the words that I included on my page which are very poignant for me as we have been sorting through boxes with my mum, the contents of which hold strong memories of my childhood and as such it seems ‘time stands still’ and everything around you seems to stop for a while as you remember (smile!).

Paperbabe Stamps and their #174 – Anything Goes challenge with my clean and simple page.

Lake District

When sorting through some boxes at my mums, we came across some old maps from our holidays when I was younger. I have so many fond memories of those holidays that I decided to create this Lake District page (smile!).

I started by stamping a Tiny Dots stamp from Kaisercraft onto the background using Picked Raspberry Distress Archival Ink and black Archival Ink. Next I stamped some ferns over the top, as they are native to the Lake District, using a Leaf Prints stamp from Tim Holtz and some Peeled Paint Distress Archival Ink. Then I applied some white acrylic paint over the top using a brayer to push the images and colours into the background. I ripped a Lake District map, keeping the corner image, “The Lake District” wording and die cutting the birds and branches from it using a Silhouette Birds and also a Small Tattered Florals Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. I edged all the paper pieces using a black Faber-Castell marker and then I stuck them in place using a glue stick. To finish, I added the wording which were from a Kaisercraft Sticker sheet; they read “Happy”, “When I look back I want to remember this moment” and “Beautiful”.

I have fond childhood memories of visiting Kendal, Bowness-on-Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere, Hawkshead, Keswick and Grange-over-Sands in the Lake District; I think this bird is adorable as he looks like he’s fell walking like we always used to on our holidays (grin!).

Here are the old maps from my childhood that inspired my page – don’t you just love the raven on the English Lakes front cover (smile!).

Hoping that you all 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

I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Chris from Pearshapedcrafting is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen When We Were Young so I’m joining her with my Lake District page which was inspired from happy times when I was young.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #174 – Anything Goes challenge with my Lake District page.

LTSCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with the old maps that I used to create this page.

MIUCB#60 – Anything Goes + optional Clean & Simple over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my simple design of stamping and map pieces on this page.

Lazy Days of Summer

It’s time for a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday which for the next two weeks is Summer Blooms.

My page was inspired by some beautiful Provence Stamperia papers that were full of summer blooms.

Having chosen one of the 8×8″ pages from the Provence paper pad, I wanted to extend the background across my page so I painted the page with washes of Violet, Ultramarine and Sap Green Kuretake watercolour paints. Then I stamped the page using a couple of Kaisercraft stamps and some Distress Archival Inks; this included a Script stamp using Seedless Grape ink and a flower stamp from a Magnolia Grove stamp set using Seedless Grape and Peeled Paint inks. I used a Paperbabe Stamps stencil to create the vertical stripes on the page using a baby wipe to remove the watercolour paints.

Next I stuck the 8×8″ page in place and edged it using some striped washi tape. “The Lazy Days of Summer” wording was cut from a 12×12″ paper sheet by Graphic 45 and to finish, I added the butterflies and watering can Die-Cuts which were also from Stamperia.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the wonderful 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!

Lavender in the garden always reminds me of summer and the butterflies seem to love it too; these are Painted Lady butterflies.

This one’s a female Common Blue butterfly.

As T Stands for Tuesday and summer is here, we’ve been enjoying these chilled fruity drinks – Happy T Day!

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 be joining the following challenges:

The lovely  Chris from Pearshapedcrafting is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen When We Were Young so I’m joining her with my page as when I was young I experienced lazy days of summer during summer holidays.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #173 – Anything Goes challenge with my summery page.

LTCCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my summer blooms art journal page.

MIUCB#60 – Anything Goes + optional Clean & Simple over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the techniques I used to re-create and extend the background on my page.

Be Yourself Be Happy

It’s a new month so we are launching our August challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by pretty pink roses and showcases Stamperia images and papers (grin!).

I started by applying Liquitex Parchment acrylic and white acrylic paint to the background. When dry, I stamped a crackle design from BoBunny using Terracotta Memento Ink and a Script stamp from Kaisercraft using Toffee Crunch Memento Ink. All the papers and images were from Stamperia; I fussy cut the roses, trellis, butterfly and birds and then I arranged them with the arched window which was die cut using a Cathedral Window Sizzix Bigz Die by Tim Holtz. I even used the window cut outs, that were leftover, as fence panelling layering everything together using a glue stick. To finish, I added a Kaisercraft sticker which reads “Be Yourself Be Happy”.

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 join you there!

The roses on my page reminded me of these beautiful roses that my sister kindly bought for my mum; we always had roses in our garden growing up and I remember the wall of our garage being totally covered with soft pink roses like these (smile!).

I hope that 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 be joining the following challenges:

The lovely  Chris from Pearshapedcrafting is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen When We Were Young so I’m joining her with my memories of roses from my childhood.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #173 – Anything Goes challenge with my pretty garden page.

LTCCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my mixed media art journal page.

MIUCB#60 – Anything Goes + optional Clean & Simple over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the techniques I used to create my garden scene.

Magic is everywhere

It’s time for a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday which for the next two weeks is Make It Magical.

For my magical page, I started by covering the background with Prize Ribbon and Villainous Poison Distress Paints. Then I fussy cut the wizard image, which was recycled from an old book, and stuck it in place. I applied some Pébéo white gesso to continue the bright glow from the wizard image across the bottom right-hand side of the page. Then I splattered the page with the gesso too. I used Moonlight White Brilliance Ink by Ranger to stamp all the stars using a Lavinia stamp, the “Magic is everywhere” wording using stamps by Paperbabe Stamps and the constellation stamps which were from Kaisercraft. To finish, I added lots of tiny gemstones to highlight the stamping on the page.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the wonderful 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!

We enjoyed a magical time with our friends this weekend, and I made these egg, bacon and cheese breakfast sandwiches one morning – they are very yummy (smile!). As it’s the 9th Anniversary at T Stands for Tuesday, I’m pleased to share them and my cuppa with my T Gang friends – wishing you a very Happy Anniversary T Day!

The breakfast sandwiches were fun to make; if you’re interested here’s a video showing you how to make them – enjoy!

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 be joining the following challenges:

MIUCB #60 Anything Goes + Optional Clean & Simple over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different techniques that I used to create my mixed media magical page. Paperbabe Stamps and their #171 – Anything Goes challenge with my Magic is Everywhere page.

You are my happy

It’s a new month so we are launching our July challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by some pretty mosaic paper that my sister kindly gifted me; it reminded me of summer holidays in Greece (smile!).

I covered the whole page with a piece of mosaic paper using a glue stick and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top and left it to dry. Next I added some Snow Cone Faber-Castell gelato using a wet finger to smudge the colour over the gesso and paper to give it a washed out look. Then I used a Mosaic Stencil by Tim Holtz to apply some Ranger Crackle Paste to the page using a palette knife. When dry I added the blue flowers which were washi tape stickers, some shiny green gel dome stickers, the “You are my happy” sticker from Kaisercraft and the little white butterflies which were die cut and embellished with some green striped washi tape down the centre.

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 join you there!

This journal page made me think of our holidays to Skiathos, which is one of the Greek islands. This was the view of the town as we approached it by water taxi which picked us up at our hotel.

We always enjoy walking and exploring, so we walked up to the top where the church was and this was the view looking back down towards the port.

We had such a wonderful time exploring the island, it was such a beautiful place; maybe one day we will return (smile!).

I hope that 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

As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #171 – Anything Goes challenge with my summery page.

Own Your Dreams – Recycle

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Recycle.

I love to recycle and use up leftovers on my art journal pages so I collaged different paper pieces that I recycled from a Home Store magazine with some leftover sticker pieces.

I started by recycling a couple of the magazine pages by cutting out the different textured and patterned panels and arranged them onto the page using a glue stick. Then I added the large yellow flower which was a washi tape sticker and some leftover pieces of yellow and brown border stickers from Kaisercraft. I used some border outline stickers from Docrafts to frame the paper pieces and to finish, I added the “own your dreams” wording by Kaisercraft.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the wonderful Recycle 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!

Now summers here with peaches are available in the shops and as T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a yummy Peach Bellini. Like my page it’s simple to make (measurements are for a champagne glass):

Add 3tbl of homemade Peach Puree.
Add 2tbls of Peach Schnapps.
Add chilled Prosecco and stir if needed.

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 be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #169 – Anything Goes challenge with my recycled page.

LTCCB#155 Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with recycling old magazine pages to create my page.