Tis the season to be … fluffy

As you probably know by now I love robins so I just couldn’t resist using this beautiful robin image, it reminded me of the fun saying “tis the season to be …fluffy”.

I coloured the page using an Earl Grey Faber-Castell Gelato to match the grey background of the robin image. The Gelato was scribbled onto the background and smudged with my finger which I had wet with a little water. The robin image was fussy cut from an old magazine that a dear friend gifted me for art journaling. Once stuck in place using a glue stick, I trimmed the image to fit the page. I arranged some of the trimmed pieces of leaves around the edges of page creating my wintry scene. For the wording I used some silver glitter stickers and then to finish, I splattered the page with both white and metallic silver acrylic paints.

As T Stands for Tuesday and to wish you all a Happy T Day, I’m sharing another fluffy robin that is on my winter mug.

If you’re wondering why robins sometimes look fluffy, it’s because on chilly days they puff out their feathers to keep warm. This puffing fluffs out their down feathers, giving some insulation to help the robin maintain its body temperature. So when winter’s here – “tis the season to be …fluffy (grin!).

Over Christmas we’ve also been enjoying this chocolate Yule Log from a local bakery, it was so very yummy! Not too sweet and covered in a thick layer of chocolate, and if you look closely…

…there’s even a little robin on the top (double grin!).

I hope you’ve had a safe and happy Christmas. Wishing you all the very best for 2021!

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

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

• Faber-Castell Gelatos (Earl Grey)
• Old magazine
• Pritt Stick
• The Range (Alphabet Stickers – Silver Glitter)
• Poundland Metallic Acrylic (Silver)
• Art Discount Acrylic Paint (White)

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as they provide me with inspiration 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 Tracey over at Art Journal Journey and her Meaning of challenge this month as I created this page to celebrate the winter season and fluffy robins. I’m joining the Celebrate challenge over at Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge Blog as I’m celebrating the winter season with my fluffy robin page. I’m pleased to be able to join the fun LTSCB #140 – Winter Wonderland challenge over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my fluffy robin sitting in his winter wonderland. I’m also pleased to join the Sparkle and Shine challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge too with all the sparkle from the glitter letters and silver metallic paint on my page. I’m also joining Paperbabe Stamps and their #134 – Anything Goes challenge with my “tis the season to be … fluffy” robin page. I’m happy to join the MIUCB #44 – Anything Goes + optional twist of Clean and Simple challenge over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the techniques for my simply constructed page too.

Christmas Wishes

I created today’s art journal page to send you Christmas wishes – wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas filled with peace and love!

I started by covering the page with Pébéo white gesso and then I spread some clear glitter glue over the top using a palette knife. All the festive images were cut from old magazines and stuck in place using a glue stick.  I splattered white acrylic paint around the edges of the images and left it to dry.

The black circles were stamped onto some white tissue paper using a Snow Day stamp set from BoBunny, some black Archival Ink and black Papermania Embossing Powder; they were stuck down using a glue stick. I added some texture over the white background around the images by applying Ranger Texture Paste though a Sparkle stencil from Tim Holtz; I love the white on white effect that this created. When dry, I finished the page by adding the “Christmas Wishes” wording which was recycled from an old Christmas card.

One of our Christmas traditions is to treat ourselves to a Festive Feast sandwich from our local deli in town; it’s filled with stuffing, turkey, bacon, sausage, cranberry sauce and mayonnaise (grin!).

They make sandwiches to takeaway so we bought the sandwich home to enjoy with one of the beers from our homemade advent calendar. This Belgian IPA had a fruity finish and tasted of coriander and orange peel, and both the beer and the sandwich were very yummy (double grin!).

This past week, we’ve loved all of the beers that we have tried from our advent calendar so as T Stands for Tuesday, I thought I’d share some of the other beers with you and say a big hello to the T Gang – cheers and Happy T day!

This one is specially brewed for Aldi by Brewdog Brewery and there is an interesting story behind this beer. It started with Aldi supermarket selling a copy of Brewdog’s flagship beer, so Brewdog then made a beer called YALDI IPA and launched it on Twitter (Brewdog is in Scotland and “yaldi” is apparently slang for happiness). Aldi replied on Twitter to Brewdog saying “would have gone with ALD IPA, send us a crate and we’ll talk”. Apparently the customer enquiries went through the roof after their conversation on Twitter, so they got together and Aldi now sell this beer as a special edition; it’s marketed as their “own label IPA”.

Erika will be pleased that we have tried this Push Pineapple beer too; I was looking forward to trying this one myself and it didn’t disappoint! This is a Pineapple Milkshake IPA; it is called “milkshake” as it contains lactose which gives a creamier mouth feel and makes the beer sweeter as brewer’s yeast can’t ferment it. Lactose is traditionally used in stouts to give them a sweeter and creamer taste. This beer had a lovely pineapple flavoured finish too – so delicious (grin!).

Wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas!

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

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

• Pébéo White Gesso
• Glitter Glue (Clear)
• Art Discount Acrylic Paint (White)
• Old magazines
• Pritt Stick
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Mixed Media Stencil (Sparkle THS132)
• Ranger Texture Paste
• Recycled white tissue paper
• BoBunny Stamp Set (Snow Day)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Papermania Embossing Powder (Black)
• Recycled Christmas Card Topper
• X-Press It! double-sided foam tape

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as they provide me with inspiration 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 Tracey over at Art Journal Journey and her Meaning of challenge this month as I created this page to send you happy Christmas wishes. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with my Christmas page. I’m also pleased to join the Celebrate challenge over at Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge Blog as I’m celebrating Christmas with this page. I’m happy to join the MIUCB #44 – Anything Goes + optional twist of Clean and Simple challenge over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the techniques I used to create the clean and simple white on white background. I’m also joining Paperbabe Stamps and their #134 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas Wishes page. I’m also pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas page too.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

There is still another week to join our Winter Wonderland challenge at Try it on Tuesday so I thought I’d create this wintry page to join in the fun; it was inspired by our travels to Prague at Christmastime (grin!).

I started by sticking a magazine image of a couple walking in a winter wonderland onto the page and then I covered the remainder of the page with black acrylic paint leaving a frame of white around the image. Next I dragged some of the black paint towards the image using a flat paintbrush to marry the black and white areas together. I stamped some white acrylic paint over the black background using a piece of scrunched up tissue paper and when dry, I added the wording which was created using some white letter stickers. The snowflakes were cut from some recycled white tissue paper, an old magazine page and some white card stock using a Tonic Studios die set. I layered them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium and then to finish I splattered the page using white acrylic paint.

We often visit the Christmas markets in Prague this time of year and as we are staying home this year, I find myself very thankful for all the wonderful memories we have of our time there.

Prague is a magical place especially when it snows and here I am enjoying the snowfall whilst listening to Christmas carols by the tree on the previous photo.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing another of my favourites … Kozel dark beer and don’t you just love this sign; Kozel happens to mean “male goat” in Czech (grin!) – Happy T day!

What could be better than walking in a winter wonderland with Michael Bublé too (double grin!).

Hoping that you all stay safe and well!

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:

• Old magazine page
• Pritt Stick
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Recycled white tissue page
• Art Discount Acrylic (White)
• Simply Creative Alphabet & Number Stickers (White Glitter SCSTK025)
• White Cardstock
• Tonic Studios Christmas Trio Die Set (Falling Snowflakes 1792e)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as they provide me with inspiration 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 Tracey over at Art Journal Journey and her Meaning of challenge this month as this page reminds me of Christmas and Prague. I’m pleased to join LTSCB #140 – Winter Wonderland challenge over at the Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with the snowy winter wonderland that I created on this page. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with winter wonderland page. I’m pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my winter Christmastime page. I’m also joining the # 119 Non-Traditional Christmas Colours challenge over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with my black and white Christmas winter wonderland page. I’m pleased to be able to join the A Time to be Grateful over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as we are always thankful to visit Prague especially when it snows as we love nothing better than walking in a winter wonderland. I’m also pleased to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my winter page too.

Free to Fly

It’s a new month so we are launching our October challenge over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

I had fun creating this page from various mixed media including a recycled magazine page, white gesso, markers, stickers, rub-on transfers and paint; it was inspired by the butterflies that have been sunning themselves on the slate in our front garden – I hope you like it!

I started by tearing a blue page from a magazine into squares and collaging them onto the page using a Pritt Stick and some Liquitex matte gel medium. I intensified the white areas of the page by painting them with Pébéo white gesso allowing the gesso to smudge onto the blue paper squares too. When dry, I edged the squares with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker smudging the ink with my finger and then with a black Uni Pin marker.

Next I stuck the pretty 3D butterflies onto the page and added some numbers and words which are rub-on transfers from two Remnant Rub sets by Tim Holtz.

I added some border stickers to frame the “Free to Fly” wording and then to finish, I splattered the page with white acrylic paint.

All you need to do is use three different mediums on your projects to join our Anything Mixed Media Goes Challenge and for more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too; it would be lovely to see you there!

This is one of the beautiful butterflies that have been sunbathing on the slate in our garden. This butterfly is a Red Admiral which is widespread across the UK; it has a wingspan of about 2 inches (5 cm) and has distinctive black wings with red bands and white spots.  The Red Admiral butterfly is known to be unusually calm so it allowed me to get quite close to take this photo (grin!).

Hoping 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 join the lovely Chris aka pearshapedchris the Hold The Line challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the two lines of border stickers that I used to frame the title of my page.

I’m pleased to be able to join the #128 – Dimensions challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with the 3D butterflies on this page.

I’m also happy to be able to join the Anything Goes over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Free to Fly art journal page.

I’m also joining the Mix It Up Challenge Blog and their Anything Goes + optional twist of Distressing (ink or tool) with the techniques I used to collage and distress the pieces of magazine on my journal page.

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

• Old magazine page
• Pritt Stick
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233)
• Uni Pin Fine Line Marker (Black 0.5mm)
• Home Bargains You & Me Stickers (Beautiful Butterflies 22742)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Remnant Rubs (Specimen #TH94047, Tiny Text #TH93695)
• Sandylion Sticker Designs Kelly Panacci (Stitches & Borders KSCB105)
• Artist Discount Acrylic Paint (White)

Self-Belief

While tidying up my craft room I came across a motivational photo that I used to have on my work desk which always made me smile and inspired me to be more adventurous, it depicts “The power of self-belief”. It reminded me of a lion photo that I had saved from an old magazine so I just had to create this page – I hope you like it (grin!).

For the background I covered the page with Scattered Straw and Antique Linen Distress Ink with a blending tool and then I spritzed with water and left to dry; I love the dreamy way the inks blended with the bursts of colour. Then I splattered the page with black DecoArt acrylic paint dabbing it with a piece of kitchen towel to smudge and reduce the intensity of the colour.

For the lion and wording, I used a picture from a magazine. I experimented by die cutting the trellis pattern into the left-hand side of the picture to blend it into the page; I really like the result (grin!).

I die cut the letters for the wording using a Docrafts alphabet die set from the remainder of the magazine page. They are edged with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker before sticking them in place and surrounding them with pieces of the trellis, which finished the page.

Here’s the photo that inspired my page, I love how the kitten looking into the mirror depicts how powerful self-belief is and I’m a great believer in being able to achieve something if you set your mind to it (grin!).

I hope that you are 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

With the background and trellis texture that I created on this art journal page, I’m pleased to join the Texture challenge over at Art Journal Journey that I’m hosting this month; it would be lovely to see you there!

I’m so happy to join the Staying in the Background challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the dreamy background that I created for this page.

I’m also pleased to join in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their No Stamps Allowed challenge too as no stamps were used to create this page.

I’m pleased to join the Time Out Challenge where for their Challenge #170 they are challenging you to be Adventurous; I’ve been adventurous three-fold in that my art journal page inspires me to believe and therefore be more adventurous, secondly in that I experimented by die cutting into the magazine picture to blend it into my page, and thirdly because I focused on making my page more paper-based so I could play along at this challenge blog.

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

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Scattered Straw, Antique Linen)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic Paint (Black)
• Old magazine
• The Works (Die Cutting – Trellis)
• Pritt Stick
• Docrafts X-Cut A5 Die Cut Set (Folk Alphabet XCU503286)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Zig Memory System 2-Way Glue (Dual Action Glue Pen)

Beautiful Self

Inspired by a beautiful notebook that my sister bought me, I created this fun Highland cow page as a reminder to ‘Just be your beautiful self’ (grin!).

I started by taking a page out of the notebook to use as part of the collage background. I dyed the page with inks, firstly Bluebird ink for the sky and then with Leaf Green, Fern Green and Prickly Pear ink for the grass; they are all Wendy Vecchi Blendable Dye Inks.

As the page was lined I ripped the paper diagonally, positioning the pieces so the lines ran from left-hand side up to the right-hand side diagonally across the page. I collaged them using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium along with some torn pieces of kitchen towel and baby wipes that were used to mop up blue and green inks and paints from previous art journal pages that I had created. When dry, I painted Ultramarine and Sap Green Kuretake watercolours to add more colour to the sky and grass. The highland cow is from an old magazine and layered some of the pieces of coloured paper, kitchen towel and baby wipes over the edges to blend it into the background. As you can see, I created my page background so that it matches and blends with the felt/fabric look of the highland cow image background.

For the foliage and daisies I used a Wildflower Stems #2 Thinlet set from Tim Holtz: cutting the tall grasses from brown tissue paper and layering them on top of the background using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium; I used white cardstock for the leafy foliage which I stamped using black Archival Ink and a Finnabair Stamp, coloured using the Leaf Green, Fern Green and Prickly Pear Wendy Vecchi Blendable Inks and Mowed lawn Distress Ink, and edged using a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker; and I used some linen textured cardstock for the daisies which were coloured using the Leaf Green and Prickly Pear inks and also watered down Watering Can Wendy Vecchi Blendable Ink for the petals. Once stuck into place using a Zig glue pen, I edged the leafy foliage and daisies using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker so they stood out more. Then I added a Kaisercraft sticker which reads “Just be your beautiful self” which finished the page.

Here’s the beautiful A4 notebook that inspired my page.

You may notice that I always list the materials I use for pages at the end of my posts and as you can see here I use this type of notebook to record these details, so this gift was perfect (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m also sharing my cuppa (of Ceylon Tea) which I often enjoy whilst crafting – wishing you all a very Happy T day!

Hoping that you 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 lovely Halle from Halle’s Hobbies over at Art Journal Journey and her A Stitch In Time challenge this month with the faux felt/fabric background.

I’m pleased to join in the Summer Fields challenge over at Country View Challenges with my highland cow summery field art journal page.

I’m also happy to be able to join the #121 – Sketch challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my page; the green and blue splits the page and images.

I’m also joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Sprays and Splashes challenge with the splashes of green ink on the die cut foliage.

Don’t forget that you still have time to join our monthly Anything Mixed Media Goes challenge over at Creative Artiste Challenge Blog too!

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

• Notebook page
• Ranger Wendy Vecchi Make Art Blendable Dye Ink (Bluebird, Prickly Pear, Leaf green, Fern Green, Watering Can)
• Recycled kitchen towel and baby wipes used to mop up inks and paints
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paint set (Ultramarine No:64, Sap Green No:53)
• Old magazine
• Pritt Stick
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Wildflower Stems #2 664164)
• Recycled brown tissue paper
• White cardstock
• Prima Marketing Finnabair Clear Stamp (Old Receipt #966980)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mowed Lawn)
• Craft Sensations (Luxury Cardstock with Linen Texture CRO240/GE)
• Zig Memory System 2-Way Glue (Dual Action Glue Pen)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt Artist Pen (Black 199, Cold Grey IV 23)
• Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet (Fiesta! SS284)

Colour me beautiful

Over at Try it on Tuesday our new challenge for the next two weeks is Lovely Ladies.

We are asking that your page is not just feminine but also features a female image too. I used stamps to add the female images to the background of my page and fussy cut some old magazine images for the two lovely ladies – don’t you just love that hat!

For the background, I applied Antique Linen Distress Ink and Angel Pink Memento Ink to the page by applying the ink pads directly to the paper and pulling them vertically down the page to create stripes. Then I used a wet paintbrush to soften and blend the inks a little. Once dry, I stamped the cameos, perfume bottles and filigree over the background with a Kaisercraft stamp set using black Archival Ink. Next I applied some white gesso using my finger over some of the stamped images to push them back and add some depth to the design. My two lovely ladies and wording were fussy cut from some old magazines and stuck in place using a glue stick. I edged the wording with some black Glitterations border stickers and then stuck some striped black and white ribbon under the images. To finish, I added two large clear gemstones to the ends of the ribbon and three pretty pink acrylic daisy flowers.

I hope that you are inspired to join us too, for more inspiration my Design Teamies have created some Lovely Ladies creations for you over at Try it on Tuesday, so please pop over and take a look (grin!).

I’m also pleased to join the lovely Mia from Craftartista over at Art Journal Journey and her Flowers challenge this month with pink flowers on this page.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I think the glamorous ladies on my page might enjoy a Poinsettia which is a cocktail made from Cranberry Juice, Orange Liqueur and Prosecco. Here we are serving them in a posh champagne glass – cheers and Happy T Day!

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.

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

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Angel Pink)
• Kaisercraft Clear Stamps (75 Cents CS864)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Old Magazines
• Pritt Stick
• Docrafts Papermania Glitterations (Black Borders ANT8181015)
• Craft Sensations (Self-Adhesive Deco Ribbons CRO244/16R)
• Poundworld DecoTime Scrapbook Accessories (Gems Art#54745)
• Stix2 Glue Dots
• Home Bargains Crafty Things (Acrylic Daisy Stickers 50650)

Past birthday celebrations at Zen

I have happy memories of past birthdays, spending time with friends at the Zen Restaurant. We like to go each year but with everything going on, we stayed at home this year so I decided to create this page to celebrate instead (grin!).

I started by applying some gold metallic paint to the background using a brayer and then stamping the same gold paint using a Serpentine background stamp from Art Impressions. Then I stamped some pretty fish using an Oriental Zen stamp set from Paperbabes Stamps and Toffee Crunch Memento Ink. Next I added some stickers and the business card from the restaurant, then the orchids which are napkins which I stuck in place using a very thin layer of Liquitex Matte Gel. The lanterns, dragon statue and tea pot are fussy cut from some old magazines and stuck in place using a glue stick. Then to finish, I added some gold glitter enamel dots.

The Zen Restaurant specialises in Thai and Chinese cuisine, and the interior of the restaurant is beautifully decorated with lanterns and the napkin rings are orchids which I included as part of my page design.

The gold, swirls and fish on this lovely painting at the restaurant also inspired my page design.

The food is delicious and I always have the Salt & Pepper Squid starter.

This is Sizzling King Prawns with Ginger and Spring Onions with jasmine rice.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m also sharing this fabulous teapot with a dragon design containing Chinese tea, isn’t it beautiful – Happy T day!

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 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 happy to join the lovely Valerie from Bastelmania over at Art Journal Journey and her Geometric Shapes challenge this month with the rectangles and dots on this page.

I’m pleased to join in the Animal Magic challenge over at Country View Challenges with the fish and magical dragon on this page.

I’m pleased to be able to join the Birthdays challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my birthday celebration page too.

I’m also joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Happy Birthday! challenge too as I created this page to celebrate my birthday – Happy Birthday to SSSWC too!

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

• Poundland Metallic Acylic Paint (Gold)
• Art Impressions Wood Mounted Rubber Stamp (Serpentine Background T2773)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Toffee Crunch)
• Paperbabe Stamps (Oriental Zen Stamp Set)
• Orchid napkin
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Penny Black Stickeroos (Unfolding #10-160)
• Business Card – Zen Restaurant
• X-Press It! double-sided tape
• Old Magazines
• Pritt Stick
• Dovecraft Premium (Glitter Enamel Dots DCDOT036X18)

Be your beautiful self

I fell in love with the image of this beautiful lady in her diamante headdress which I found in a magazine, so decided to create this sparkly page to showcase it along with some inspirational wording – what do you think (grin!).

I started by applying some Pine Needles and Shabby Shutters Distress Ink using a blending tool through a Discovering Planets stencil from Sheena; I choose these colours as when blended they matched the eye colour on the image that I used. Then I applied some white acrylic paint to the page using a palette knife and stencilled the diamond shapes using a Creative Expressions stencil and some Ranger Texture Paste. When the paste was dry, I coloured the diamonds using a silver Daler Rowney paint marker.  Next I added some lines of black acrylic paint, Pine Needles Distress Ink and white acrylic paint using an old plastic gift card and then splattered the whole page with some black acrylic paint. The image of the beautiful lady is mounted on some card before sticking it over a silver doily. I covered the teardrop shaped diamonds on her headdress with some teardrop gemstones to give a 3D look; it was a happy serendipity that they were the exact same size as those on the image. To finish I added some Small Talk stickers from Tim Holtz that read “be your own beautiful self”, “leave a little sparkle wherever you go” and “choose to shine”.

I love a bit of sparkle as you can see here; this is one of my favourite hats and has lots of diamante on it (grin!).

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 lovely Eileen from The Artful Crafter and her Green challenge over at Art Journal Journey this month with my green page background.

I’m also happy to join in the The Eyes have It challenge over at Country View Challenges with the beautiful lady on my art journal page.

I’m joining in the Stencil Fun challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my stencilled ink and texture paste background.

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

• Sheena by Sheena Douglas Create A Flower Stencil (Dissolving Planets SD-STEN-CAF-PLA)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Pine Needles, Shabby Shutters)
• Creative Expressions Mini Stencil (Vintage Diamonds CEMSDIAM)
• Ranger Texture Paste
• Daler Rowney Acrylic Paint Marker (Silver)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Recycled Gift Card
• Art Discount Acrylic paint (White 011)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Stickers (Small Talk #TH93193)
• The Works (Silver Doily)
• Old magazine
• Graham & Brown (Adhesive Jewels)
• X-Press It! double-sided tape

Be Thankful

I have plenty to be thankful for including the wonderful life with my hubby and my dearest friends; so as its Thanksgiving next week I had fun creating this autumnal thankful page.

I’m sending Happy Thanksgiving wishes to those of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving next week, have a wonderful time!

To start, I painted the page with Hooker’s Green, Yellow Oxide and Raw Umber Liquitex acrylic paint and then applied Pébéo white gesso over the top with a brayer. When dry, I stamped some leaves by Tim Holtz using Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso and Hickory Smoke Distress Archival Ink and a grid design by Sheena Douglass using Potter’s Clay, Cottage Green and Rich Cocoa Memento Ink. I also stamped some grungy dots using black Archival Ink and both of the above Distress Archival Inks and then I splattered the page with white gesso. Next I recycled some thanksgiving magazine images of a dinner service portraying a turkey, duck, pheasant and partridge; they are fussy cut, edged with a Sanguine Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck to the page using a UHU Stic. They are arranged with some pretty acrylic daisy flowers and autumnal coloured leaves which I die cut using Tim Holtz thinlets. The leaves are cut from some textured metallic papers, edged using Ground Espresso Distress Ink and a blending tool, and stuck into place using glue dots. To finish, I added the “Be Thankful” wording which is a piece of washi tape which I stuck onto some white card and stuck into place using double-sided tape.

The autumn leaves seemed to have been and gone quickly this year; when we walked around Lytham Hall with our friends this week we found that most of the trees had lost their leaves so there was a thick coating of leaves along the pathways. There were really only these Beech trees which still retained their beautiful autumnal leaves.

Of course, little Ellie was in her element chasing leaves and picking up sticks, although I think this stick may have been a little big for her. As you can see her coat has got quite long so she’s off for a trim at the doggie stylists this week (grin!).

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

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 Peace & Tranquility challenge over at Moo Mania & More with my reflective Be Thankful page.

I’m joining in the Recycle challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I recycled magazine Thanksgiving images on this page.

I’m also pleased to join Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday and the Autumn & Gratitude theme with Be Thankful autumnal designed page.

I’m pleased to be able to join in the fun over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog for their Anything Goes + Watercoloring with my autumnal mixed media art journal page.

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

• Liquitex Basic Acrylic Color (Hooker’s Green, Yellow Oxide, Raw Umber)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous (Falling Leaves CMS097)
• Ranger Distress Archival Ink (Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso, Hickory Smoke)
• Sheena by Sheena Douglass Create a Flower Rubber Stamps (Funky Textures 2)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Potter’s Clay, Cottage Ivy, Rich Cocoa)
• Creative Stamping Magazine Issue #61 (Autumnal Treasures)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Recycled images from Old Magazine
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Sanguine 188 B)
• UHU Stic
• Crafty Things (Acrylic Daisy Stickers)
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Fall Foilage 660955)
• Paper Bundle from local Craft Shop
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Ground Espresso)
• Stix2 glue dots
• Washi tape
• Recycled white cardstock
• X-Press It! double-sided tape