Bee Wellington Boots

My page today was inspired by some beautiful wellies (Wellington rain boots) that were a surprise present from my mum.

My page design includes a napkin that I received as part of the napkin swap over at T Stand for Tuesday, I think this napkin was from Erika as it has busy bees on it.

If you are interested, I’ve also recycled the washi tape that came as part of the napkin swap, see my page Love you to the moon and back.

I started by creating a hexagon template from some card using a compass; I used this template to draw and then cut out hexagons of the napkin and also some blue paper that was recycled from a book cover. I arranged them onto the page using a glue stick and edged them all using some gold border outline stickers. Next I die cut the honeycomb from some leftover gold cardstock using a Bee Hive Sizzix Thinlits set by Olivia Rose. They were arranged onto the page with some white rub-on transfers for the wording and also some white flower stickers which I also added to decorate the napkins. To finish, I added two bees which were stamped and die cut using a Beehive Buzz Pink Ink Designs set, and were coloured using Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend markers.

Here are the pretty wellies that my mum kindly bought me; the colours, bees and honeycomb inspired my page design.

Wellies is a term that we use in the UK for Wellington boots which are also known as rain boots or gumboots in other parts of the world:

• Wellington boots, or “Wellies” are named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington who wore and popularised them here in the UK.
• Wellington’s boots were made of leather, but in 1856, the Scotland-based North British Rubber Company (now known as Hunter Boots) began manufacturing rubber Wellington rain boots. Being made from rubber enhanced the boots by giving them more flexible movement and making them 100% waterproof.
• The nickname “gumboots” is a nod to the natural rubber that rain boots are made from. Natural rubber, which is obtained from trees, is called “gum rubber” hence the name gumboots.

As T Stands for Tuesday and keeping with the bee theme, here’s my apple juice and ginger beer in a glass that we purchased when we visited Maine Mead Works in America which has their bee logo on it – Happy T Day everyone!

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 yet more busy fuzzy bees … ha,ha!

LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog as I created this page using a scraps of book page and gold cardstock as well as a napkin.

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

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Things with Wings

Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Things with Wings.

So today I’m sharing the birthday card, that I made for my mum this year, featuring a huge Thinlits butterfly from Tim Holtz (smile!).

I started by creating a masterboard from watercolour paper smooshing it using Salty Ocean and Peacock Feather Distress Inks. When dry, I cut a panel from the masterboard and stuck it onto a 6×6” card using double-sided tape. Next I added some white rub-on transfers from a Remnant Rubs set by Tim Holtz and used some outline stickers to add some silver dots and a silver border around the panel. The large butterfly was die cut from white cardstock using a Perspective Butterfly Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and to finish, I added the “On Your Birthday” wording which was from a topper set.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing Things with Wings designs from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.

This is the gate that greets you at my mum’s house and as you can see it features many “things with wings” (smile!).

I hope that you’re 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 Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

MIUCB #59 Anything Goes + Optional 3-D over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different techniques that I used to create my 3-D butterfly card.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #169 – Anything Goes challenge with my butterfly card.

50 & Fabulous Birthday Card

Today we are launching a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, which is Use Animal Print.

I created this card for a dear friend of mine who is definitely 50 & Fabulous (smile!).

I started by creating a panel from some recycled wrapping paper which had a pink leopard skin design. Then I stuck it to a card, that I made from a piece of A4 white card stock, and framed it using some sparkly silver zebra striped washi tape and black Glitterations border stickers.

Next I die cut the different paper elements from either black cardstock, the pink wrapping paper or some cardstock that I had covered in the silver sparkly washi tape; I used an X-Cut Folk Alphabet set for the numbers and letters, a stitched circle die for the circles and a tropical flower and foliage die set for the flower and leaves. I embellished the circles with a circular silver outline sticker and the leaves with some of the black Glitterations border stickers before layering all the die cut pieces together using Liquitex matte gel medium.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing Animal Print designs from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.

With animal print in mind, I thought I’d also share these pretty Snake Head Fritillary flowers pictured here in my garden; their Latin name is Fritillaria meleagris and meleagris means “spotted like a guineafowl“, the name “snake’s head” may refer to snakelike appearance of the nodding flower heads when in bud. We planted them in our garden border last year after rescuing them from the poorly plant section of a garden centre, and with this being their first year flowering we were delighted to see so many flowers (grin!).

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

As well as Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #165 – Anything Goes challenge with my sparkly animal print card.

You make my heart smile

As it’s February, here’s the art journal page that I created to wish my hubby a Happy Valentine’s Day this year (grin!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with white tissue paper that I had been previously used to mop up some black acrylic paint; it was stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium building up the layers of tissue paper to create texture for my grungy background. Next I stuck some leftover circle outline stickers onto the background and then I applied gold metallic acrylic paint over the whole page. The hearts were die cut from red cardstock using a Sizzix Bigz Heartfelt die by Tim Holtz. Once in place I added more colour to the hearts and edged them using Derwent Inktense pencils. I stamped the hearts using an Etcetera Tim Holtz stamp and gold metallic paint applying it to the stamp using a brayer. Then I used the same stamp set to add more text to hearts and to the background using black Archival Ink. The page was splattered using black acrylic paint and to finish, I added the “You make my heart smile” wording which was from a Metallic Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.

I love this photo of me and my hubby who always makes my heart 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

I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover is hosting this month over at Art Journal Journey and her challenge is What’s Your Style, so I’m joining in the fun with my grungy styled Valentine’s page.

Art Journal at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my Valentine’s art journal page.

For The Love of Mixed Media challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as my mixed media page was created for my hubby who makes my heart smile and I love very dearly.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #162 – Anything Goes challenge with my heart page.

Something Big-Something Small over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge with the large and small Valentine’s hearts on this page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my Valentine’s page.

Don’t forget that you still have another week to join us at Try it on Tuesday for our Add Some Texture challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!

Snowflakes

Our new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday for the next 2 weeks is Snowflakes.

I hope you are inspired to join us; it would be lovely to see you there!

For my snowflakes page, I started by applying Distress Inks using one of my favourite smooshing techniques; I applied some Tumbled Glass and Prize Ribbon Distress Ink to an acrylic block, then I spritzed the block with water and pressed it onto the page gradually building up the layers of ink. When dry, I stamped some snowflakes over the top using a Frozen Fractals stamp set from Simon Says Stamp, and Peacock Feathers and Prize Ribbon Distress Ink. Next I stuck the “Let it snow” wording in place which was a foam sticker and to finish, I added some sparkly snowflake silver outline stickers.

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

I love this time of year and have quite a few snowflake window clings as part of my winter display – Happy Holidays everyone!

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.

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

As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to join the following challenges:

Yuletide Delights over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my distressed snowflake page.

Choose a theme and stamp it challenge over at Stamping Sensations with my Snowflake themed page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #157 – Anything Goes challenge with my let it snow page.

Anything Goes with the option of CAS challenge over at We Love Stamping with my stamped snowflakes.

My wish for you

I can’t believe that it’s December already but here we are launching our December challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

All you need to do is to use three or more different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

With it being Christmas, I recycled an old Christmas card for this page and had fun experimenting, this time with acrylic paints, to try and match the design and colours of the card’s background. To do this, I painted Deep Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Hooker’s Green Hue Permanent and Mars Black Liquitex Basics paints onto the page and left them to dry. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and rubbed some of it off using a wet wipe to create the mottled effect. Then I splattered the whole page with white acrylic paint. Next I stuck the Christmas card image of the angel in place and added some rose gold star and dot outline stickers. The wording was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and reads “My wish for you…The blessed angels sing…Peace on earth, good-will to men…Words of hope and tender thought…Filled with joy and gladness” and “A Merry Christmas to all”.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.

Here’s another pretty angel that we light this time of year, she’s made from glass and is from Prague; a place we would normally visit at Christmastime (grin!).

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x
Wishing you a very Happy December and Festive Season!

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

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their #157 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas angel page.

Happy Holidays/Christmas challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Christmas page.

Challenge #106 – Anything Christmas Goes over at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge with my Christmas art journal page.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Sparkle Mode challenge with the sparkling sky and stars that I created for this page.

Yuletide Delights over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my pretty Christmas angel page.

Sparkles Christmas Monthly and their #131 Non-Traditional Colours challenge with my purple, green and black 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.

It’s all about time

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is It’s all about time.

For this challenge I was inspired by the time I have spent this month celebrating my hubby’s birthday and also our wedding anniversary. I hope are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!

The background was a wallpaper sample detailing a large clock face, roses and the words “Take time to love the little things”; it was stuck in place using a glue stick and then cut to size, and I collaged the remnants together to create the panel on the left-hand side of the page. I also added more detail to the rose images using a white Uniball gel pen so they stood out more. Next I stamped the two clock faces onto some design paper by American Crafts using black Archival Ink and a couple of stamp sets by Kaisercraft. I cut them out and arranged them onto the page with some silver roses and circles which were outline stickers and a quote from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet which reads “Love the time we spend together”. To finish, I fussy cut the two butterflies from the wallpaper sample and stuck them onto the page.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful It’s all about time creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday and we’ve been out celebrating, I’m sharing our drinks and meal that we enjoyed for our wedding anniversary (time sure does fly, we celebrated 33 years of marriage this year!). My hubby had chicken with black pudding in a mustard sauce and I had a warm bacon and chicken salad; I couldn’t eat all mine so we had some for lunch the next day (grin!).

Cheers and Happy T Day!

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

As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today with my page:

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #154 – Anything Goes with my page.

Thinking of you over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

MIUCB#54 – Anything Goes + Paper Piecing challenge over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog.

Love to Craft Challenge Blog and their LTCCB#63 – October Anything Goes challenge.

A very wonderful place

As you may remember one of my goals this year is to recycle and use up leftovers in my craft stash, so I created this vintage page using some recycled items; I hope you like it (grin!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink using a blending tool. Then I added lots of postage marks and text using a Craft Sensations stamp set and Black Soot Distress Archival Ink. I splattered the page using some Black Soot Distress Ink and edged it with a black Faber-Castell marker. Then I added a piece of die cut lace cardstock, which was recycled from a wedding invitation, to the right hand side of the page. The pretty postage stamp, featuring two wrens, was also recycled from my hubby’s childhood stamp collection. It was mounted onto a piece of black cardstock, also recycled from the wedding invitation, and then framed using two pieces of lace border which were outline stickers. I added the wording which were from a Clippings sticker set by Tim Holtz and to finish, I splattered some black and white acrylic paint over the page.

My hubby very kindly gifted me his childhood postage stamp collection for my art journaling. Many of the postage stamps are displayed in a large book but some, like this wren stamp, were part of a collection and still mounted on their original book pages. This Wild Birds stamp was a special issue from Hungary being published between 1973-1974.

Here’s it’s original page with the other stamps that formed part of the collection and wow, as you can see at the time they only cost 10p. It’s so interesting that they list the prices for this collection for other countries too, as you can see under the postage stamps on the bottom of the page (grin!).

Hoping that you’re 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.

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 Wendy K from wendyscraftjournal.blogspot.com who is hosting this month with her Vintage challenge with my vintage style page. Stitch It challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog with all the faux lace on my page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #152 – Anything Goes with my vintage page. LTSCB #149 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my vintage mini art journal page which includes stamping. MIUCB #53 – Anything Goes + Monochrome over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my distress techniques that I used to create my vintage page.

Choose Happiness

Inspired by a pretty mismatched teacup and saucer, I created this vintage page using some new Tim Holtz products.

I also used some old book pages to remind you that there is still another week to join our Use book pages challenge over at Try it on Tuesday; I hope to see you there (grin!).

I started by adding a piece vintage flower paper, from a Worn Wallpaper Scraps set from Tim Holtz, to the left-hand side of the page. It was stuck down using Liquitex matte gel medium which I used for all the paper elements. Then I tore a dictionary page and edged the pieces with black Faber-Castell marker before sticking them into place. When dry I outlined the word “vintage” at the bottom of the dictionary page with a black fine line marker. The rose was fussy cut from an old garden flowers book and I added some shadow using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker and outlined it using a black fine line marker. The wording were Quotations metallic stickers from Tim Holtz and read “It’s all perspective”, “Choose happiness” and “There is beauty in simplicity”. To finish, I added some gold dot outline stickers and black gemstones which I layered together.

As T Stands for Tuesday, here’s the mismatched teacup and saucer that inspired my page with my pot of green tea which I enjoyed whilst sat in the café gardens at Lytham Hall. I just loved the pink rose on the inside of the teacup and the pretty aqua green colour with the gold accents – 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.

For the sake of brevity I’m 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 Wendy K from wendyscraftjournal.blogspot.com who is hosting this month with her Vintage challenge with my vintage rose page (size 15x15cm). Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #151 – Anything Goes with my vintage art journal page. De-stress with distressing over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my distressed dictionary pages. LTSCB #149 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my vintage page.