Extraordinary

Looking at old holiday photos of Greece, I was inspired by the old weathered shutters and doors. I used one of my favourite techniques to create the background and some lovely images from an old magazine – I hope you like it (smile!).

I started by creating the worn wooden background by dragging Peeled Paint and Brushed Sage Distress Ink pads vertically down the page and layering Liquitex Matte Gel Medium over the top; the gel medium reactivates the inks and helps create the wood grain texture. When dry, I dragged some Black Soot, Weathered Wood and Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink pads over the top and more gel medium; the gel medium was applied using a paintbrush and I ensured my brush strokes were continuous and in one direction vertically down the page in order to create the wood grain finish. Next I experimented by adding some Ranger Crackle Paste vertically down the page and when dry used sandpaper on some of the areas to give it more of a distressed look. Then I added more layers of the Weathered Wood and Cracked Pistachio Distress Inks to colour the crackle paste and achieve the worn painted wood look I was after. The black and white images of the doors and shutters were from a magazine and the number “1” with the brick background was from a wallpaper sample; I cut them out, backed them with some card and edged them with a black Faber-Castell marker. They were arranged using double-sided tape and to finish, I added the “what seems ordinary is often the extraordinary” wording which is a Small Talk sticker from Tim Holtz.

These shutters and doors were taken many years ago when we visited Crete, which is one of the Greek Islands. The weathered doors looked amazing although I’m sure the locals think they are just ordinary, hence the wording on my page.

We enjoyed exploring the town and taking in the beautiful scenery.

The doors and shutters were beautifully rustic and distressed and I seem to remember enjoying the shade in this doorway, as we had sunny hot weather too (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 Wendy from wendyscraftjournal is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Doors and/or Arches so I’m joining her with my old weathered door inspired page.

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

LTSCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with the scrapped magazine images that I used on my page.

MIUCB#60 – Anything Goes + optional Clean & Simple over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the techniques I used to create the worn weathered wood background.

Welcome to my Garden

Wanting to join in the fun at Art Journal Journey again, I created this page by recycling an arch from a magazine and combining it with some Garden House Stamperia papers.

I started by arranging the arch image from the magazine onto the left-hand side of the page, layering some Stamperia papers behind it so it looked like you’re looking into a garden room. I used a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker to darken the floor and I fussy cut the spade and pots, from the same Stamperia pad, arranging them on either side of the archway. Next I created the brickwork by stencilling Ground Espresso and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks and applying some Ranger Texture Paste over the top. I layered more colour over the bricks using Black Soot, Vintage Photo and Crackling Campfire Distress Ink gradually building up the colour until they matched the colours of the arch. The pots of flowers, shelf of flower pots, wreath and welcome sign were fussy cut from the same Stamperia pad and stuck in place, which finished the page.

The brickwork reminded me of the beautiful brick walls in our garden; here you can see some of the pretty flowers that we have flowering currently including Million Bells which have have an abundance of pink flowers with a trailing geranium in the centre. You can just see our Welcome sign on the far right too (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 Wendy from wendyscraftjournal is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Doors and/or Arches so I’m joining her with the garden arch on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #172 – Anything Goes challenge with my brightly coloured page.

LTSCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with the scrapped magazine image that I used on my 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.

Bluebells are Bluebells

We have lots of bluebells flowering in our garden this year, so I created this page by recycling some magazine images and sheet music. Bluebells always make me smile as they remind me of my Grandad Westy because he used to sing a song called “Bluebells are bluebells” at family get togethers.

I started by covering the page with Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks and when dry, applying some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer. Next I tore some sheet music paper and added it to the page using a glue stick and I applied some more white gesso over them too. Then I used a Docrafts stamp to add some more music notes using Grape Jelly Memento Ink. The bluebell images and wording were cut from some magazine pages and to finish, I added some purple foam glittery hearts.

Here’s the pretty bluebells flowering in my garden; the fun song that my Grandad Westy used to sing went “Bluebells are bluebells, Bluebells are blue, Bluebells are bluebells when bluebells are blue” (smile!).

I hope that you’re 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 Alison the Craftytrog is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Play it again Sam where you’re page need to be inspired by a song or movie; so I’m joining her with my Bluebells Are Bluebells song page.

A Study in Contrast challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the contrasting light background and darker bluebell images on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #166 – Anything Goes challenge with my page.

Wild and Wonderful challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the wild and wonderful bluebell images on my page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my bluebell page.

Happy

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Black and White + 1, where we would like you to use black and white plus one other colour on your entries.

Limiting colour options is always a challenge for me, so I decided to create a black and white collage background and see where my creativity took me; I ended up adding a dark cherry colour as my “plus 1” – what do you think?

I covered the page with leftover pieces of white tissue paper which had been stamped with black Archival Ink and some black and white Botanicals/Halloween Collage papers by Tim Holtz; they were collaged onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium. Next I added some pieces of an old magazine page (which was where the cherry coloured inspiration came from) and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso using a brayer over the whole page and left it to dry. I mixed some Kuretake watercolour paints to match the cherry colour and used it to add a colour wash over the collage pieces and also some splatters. For my flowers, I arranged some white paper flowers onto the page and drew in their stems using a black marker. The leaves were stamped using a Carabelle Studio stamp set and black Archival Ink. To finish, I added the “Happy” wording panel which was by Kaisercraft.

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!

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing our mugs of green tea along with my hubby’s favourite Black Forest Gateau (which happens to be cherry like my page … smile!) and my favourite cream filled meringue – 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 #162 – Anything Goes challenge with my happy page.

Add A Die Cut over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the die cut paper flowers that I added to my page.

Spooky Fun

As Halloween weekend is upon us, I created this page full of Spooky Fun to wish you all a Happy Halloween!

I started by adding the panels of wrought iron and ghost images which were from an old magazine and then I added some striped washi tape to fill in the gaps between the panels. The wording was also cut from magazine pages; so all the letters matched some of the backgrounds were coloured using a black Faber-Castell marker and some of the letters using a Gold Spectrum Aqua marker. Once the wording was stuck in place, I added some touches of gold to the letters using a gel pen and I outlined them using black Glitterations border stickers which added a bit more sparkle.

The purple ivy die cuts and coloured papers that I used to die cut the autumnal leaves from, were leftover from other projects; the leaves were die cut using a Fall Foliage Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. To finish, I splattered the whole page with some black DecoArt acrylic paint.

The wrought iron reminded me of the gates at Lytham Hall. There have been spooky goings on reported at the gatehouse, where these gates are situated, which include phantom cars and white paranormal sightings; if your interested you can check out the full story here titled Ghosts at Lytham Hall.

Hoping 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.

For the sake of brevity I am no longer listing the individual items that I used to create my page, however I’m more than happy to let you know which particular product was used if you contact me via comments below or using the following contact me link.

Challenges

I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:

Art Journal Journey and lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations  who is hosting this month with her My favourite colour is October challenge with my autumnal Halloween page.

The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and their Grunge, Ghouls or Giggles with my Spooky Fun page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #155 – Anything Goes with my Halloween page.

LTSCB #150 – Anything But A Card over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my Spooky Fun page.

Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog with my spooky page.

Wonkey Donkey

Last weeks beer brewing post and the donkeys that are now back on the beach inspired this fun beer page (grin!).

As I’m still in recycling mode, I created this page using an old Beer Festival Programme, a poster and a fun Wonky Donkey hand pump clip; this was a lovely reminder of the local Beer Festival that we normally volunteer at every year, but of course, for obvious reasons, it didn’t taken place this year.

To start, I pulled the Wonky Donkey sticker off the front of the hand pump clip and arranged it onto the page with the other collaged pieces which were torn from the beer festival programme. The beer glasses and festival wording were cut from a poster and I coloured the middle pint of beer with a black marker to darken it as I always enjoy darker beers. The collage pieces were all edged with the Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and then stuck in place using a glue stick.

As T Stands for T Day I’m joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth and the rest of the T Gang with my art journal page – cheers and wishing you all a very Happy T day!

On one of our walks we captured the donkeys on the beach; donkey rides for the children are a traditional feature of seaside resorts here in the UK. The donkeys tend to have their names on their harnesses, so let me introduce you to Rambo, Teddy and Bobby (grin!).

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.

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

• Wonky Donkey Beer Hand Pump Clip
• Fleetwood Beer Festival 2020 Programme
• Beer Festival Poster
• Faber-Castell Big Brush artist pen (Black 199, Cold Grey IV 233)
• UHU Stic

Challenges I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #146 – Anything Goes with my fun art journal page. Love to Scrap Challenge Blog and their No Rulz 4! theme where their are no rules and you can create anything, so I’m joining in the beer art journal page. Don’t forget that there is still another week to join our For the man in my life challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too!

For the man in my life

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is For the man in my life.

I created this masculine page using a recycled magazine image and lots of leftover papers and stamped images. I hope that you like it and are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!

I started by adding the pocket watch image which was recycled from an old magazine. Then I collaged lots of leftover papers some of which had been stamped using black Archival Ink; they were all edged with some Rusty Hinge Distress Ink before sticking them in place using a glue stick. Next I stuck some silver border stickers alongside some of the papers to straighten their edges and match the silver of the pocket watch image. Then I added three small Victorian tags and some black brads. To finish, I added some wording which were Small Talk stickers from Tim Holtz.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful For the man in my life creations from my Design Teamies too (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday and some of the T Gang have been asking about the beer that we brew, I thought I’d share one of my hubby’s favourite hobbies to wish you all a very Happy T Day!

My hubby tends to brew beer every couple of months and as well as trying out new beers we also have some old favourites, like this pumpkin beer served with sugar and pumpkin spice around the rim of the glass – so yummy!

We brew Pumpkin Beer every October and start by roasting the pumpkin in the oven to make the puree.

The grains (malted barley) are weighed.

Then the water is heated in a Brew Devil which is an all-in-one microbrewery and once at temperature the grains and pumpkin puree are added to the water where they release their sugars.

Once the natural sugars from the grains and pumpkin have been released into the wort (as it is now called) it is drained and then boiled with different hops and spices being added at different times. After the wort has finished boiling the cooler goes in.

When the wort is cool enough it is poured into the fermenting vessel and the yeast is added. Once fermented (around 2 weeks on our beer fridge which keeps it at a consistent temperature) the beer is bottled and left somewhere warm for 2 weeks to carbonate and then somewhere cool for 2 weeks to condition. It is then ready to drink!

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.

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

• Old magazine
• Pritt Stick
• Leftover papers
• Leftover stamped papers
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Rusty Hinge)
• The Works (Victorian Style Tag Stickers)
• Docrafts Anita’s Outline Stickers (Silver Borders)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Sticker Book (Small Talk #TH93193)

Challenges As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #145 – Anything Goes with my masculine page. Love to Scrap Challenge Blog and their No Rulz 4! theme where their are no rules and you can create anything, so I’m joining in the fun my art journal page. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Masculine challenge with my masculine journal page. MIUCB #50 – Anything Goes + Stamping challenge over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog as I used collage techniques with stamped papers on my page.

Hello Little Sunshine

Today I’m sharing a page that was created with just recycled magazine images and some stickers that I’ve had forever (grin!).

It celebrates all the bright and colourful spring flowers that we’ve been seeing of late!

I started by tearing different spring images from magazines of flowers, food and a cute little bunny rabbit and then I arranged them on the page using a glue stick. I added the pretty cardstock flowers and wording from a sticker set which finished the page – well that really was simple to create (double grin!).

Spring is in bloom in the gardens along the seafront where we live, with these beautiful tulip and hyacinth flower beds.

They look and smell amazing; it’s such a beautiful flower display!

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.

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

• Recycled magazine images
• Pritt Stick
• Poundland (Cardstock Stickers)
• X-Press-It! double-sided foam tape

Challenges I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today which are: Art Journal Journey where the theme is Inspired By in honour of Eileen from The Artful Crafter’s Blog who picked the theme and was supposed to host this month but sadly passed away shortly after her heart surgery last month – she is greatly missed! I’m so pleased to be able to remember her by joining AJJ with my page which was inspired by spring. Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #142 – Anything Goes with my page. LTSCB#144 – Spring Forward over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my spring page. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and their Bright, Cheerful Colors challenge with my brightly coloured spring page. MIUCB#48 Anything Goes + No Stamping over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my spring page which was created with no stamping.

The Singing Ringing Tree

As you may remember, I was surprised that I had never featured The Singing Ringing Tree before on one of my posts. We visited this sculpture a couple of years ago for my birthday, so it inspired this page – I hope you like it (grin!).

I started by adding the image of The Singing Ringing Tree, which was from an old magazine, using a glue stick; it was edged with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. I coloured the white areas of the page by stamping a Steampunk Background stamp and the “Explore, Discover, Journey” wording using Hickory Smoke Distress Archival Ink and adding some Hickory Smoke and Salty Ocean Distress Ink. The letters were die cut using Alphanumeric Bold Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and were cut from some silver corrugated cardstock. I covered the letters using Silver Grey lustre wax and black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker to give it a grungy metallic appearance. Before sticking them in place I added some Pébéo white gesso over the stamped areas to push the colour back and then I stuck the letters down using Liquitex matte gel medium. I outlined the right-hand side of the letters using a black Uni Pin marker so they stood out more and then to finish, I added three metal music notes using Ranger Glossy Accents.

Reminded of our visit, I also found some of our photos to share with you (grin!). The singing ringing tree is located a little way from the road so we parked and then walked to the sculpture; Panopticon means “structure providing a comprehensive view”.

It was a short trek to The Singing Ringing Tree which is a wind powered sound sculpture resembling a tree and set in the landscape of the Pennine Hill range overlooking Burnley in Lancashire.

This 3-metre (10 ft) tall sculpture was designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of Tonkin Liu and has amazing views across the Pennine Moors.

It comprises of galvanised steel pipes; some are structural and others are cut across their width to produce sound by harnessing the energy of the wind.

It was a windy day when we visited so we got to hear the haunting sounds of The Singing Ringing Tree, if you are interested to hear the sounds and see more of the view please check out this video.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a photo that you may remember of me with my cup of green tea and a Chorley cake which was actually bought the same day that we visited this sculpture – Happy T Day!

You can find out more about Chorley Cakes which are a sweet treat here in Lancashire on my previous post Use Your Scraps; the title of this post also reminded me to wish Elizabeth a very Happy bEARTHday for later this week!

I hope that you’re staying 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:

• Old magazine image
• Pritt Stick
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233, Black 199)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Hickory Smoke, Salty Ocean)
• Docrafts Creativity Essentials A5 Clear Stamps (Steampunk Background DCE907128)
• Royal & Langnickel Clear Choice Stamps (Traveller MIN-CCS103)
• Ranger Distress Archival Ink (Hickory Smoke)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits Die Set (Alphanumeric Bold 665205)
• Wilkos (Corrugated Cardstock – Silver)
• Craf-T Products Lustre Rub-ons (Color Kit #4 – Silver Grey)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Uni Pin Fine Line Marker (Black 0.1mm)
• The Works (Metal Musical Notes)
• Ranger Glossy Accents

Challenges I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today which are: Art Journal Journey where the theme is Inspired By in honour of Eileen from The Artful Crafter’s Blog who picked the theme and was supposed to host this month but sadly passed away shortly after her heart surgery last month – she is greatly missed! I’m so pleased to be able to remember her by joining AJJ with my page which was inspired by The Singing Ringing Tree. Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #142 – Anything Goes with my page. LTCCB#57 – April Anything Goes over at Love to Craft Challenge Blog with my Singing Ringing Tree mixed media page.