Hello March

It’s the first Friday of a new month, so it’s time for a new challenge over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, which as always is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

I would also like to send a warm welcome to the lovely Fiona from http://www.craftystamping.blogspot.com/ who has joined our Design Team; please be sure to visit her blog and show her some love!

My mixed media page is saying “Hello March” and celebrating the pretty crocus that flower this time of year!

I started by covering the background with a couple of cyclopaedia book pages and then covered them with some Villainous Potion Distress Paint applying it like watercolour. When dry, I applied some Yellow Ochre Kuretake Watercolour and I stamped some foliage and a circular filigree stamp using a Magnolia Grove stamp set by Kaisercraft, black Archival Ink and Dusty Concord Distress Archival Ink. Next I added some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and layered some more of the stamping over the top, to create a distressed grungy look. Then I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint. The crocus were fussy cut from an old garden flower book, edged with a black Faber-Castell marker and stuck in place using a glue stick. I stamped the “Hello March” wording using a Sophisticated Script stamp set by Concord & 9th and black Archival Ink, then to finish I highlighted the letters with a white Uniball gel pen.

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!

Every year, there is a beautiful display of crocus’ at the church in Poulton-de-Fylde; which is a small town near to where we live.

These little crocus flowers look so amazing and it’s always such a beautiful sight as they cover the church yard in so much colour!

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

Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Valerie of Bastelmania and her Anything Goes challenge with my Hello March page.

MIUCB #64 – Anything Goes + optional Distressing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my distressed background crocus page.

Triple B Challenge where everything is about Birds, Blooms and Butterflies so as their March challenge blog was launched this month, I’m joining them with my spring blooms.

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Love and Devotion

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which is All You Need is Love.

I started by covering the page with Pébéo white gesso as, when dry, it’s a wonderful base medium for the Faber-Castell Gelatos that were used to colour this page, making them easier to smudge and blend. I used Watermelon and Coconut Gelatos which I scribbled over the background and smudged with my finger and a little water. Next I added the fragments of gold tissue paper that I had previously die cut; they were leftover from another journal page. The love and devotion heart image was fussy cut from an old magazine and once stuck in place, I surrounded it with some blue and cream pearl gemstone clusters which finished the page.

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’m sharing this romantic Valentine’s dessert served in a pretty white teacup from Lytham Hall café. It’s a chocolate cupcake topped with pink icing, silver sprinkles and dark chocolate! It almost looks too good to eat!

Stay 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:

MIUCB #63 – Anything Goes + optional no stamping over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my romantic page which was created with no stamping.

Double D Challenges and their Hearts challenge with the Love and Devotion Heart hearts page.

More Than Words challenge and their Love Letters challenge with my Love and Devotion page.

Be Thankful

Today I’m sharing a thankful journal page and wishing all of you that are celebrating this week – a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I started by covering the chipboard page with some scraps of neutral coloured papers; I cut the papers into triangles before collaging them onto the page and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using my finger. I added the framed wording “when I count my blessings I count you twice” which was a sticker from Kaisercraft and the “Be thankful” wording which was washi tape. Next I added two flowers from a Tim Holtz Ephemera pack and two die cut autumnal leaves that were coloured using Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. To finish, I added two little chipboard owls.

For our wedding anniversary last month, we went to a new local Chinese restaurant called “Blessings House” and had the most amazing time (smile!).

The beautiful picture on the wall is cross stitch and was sewn by one of the restaurant’s family – it was very detailed and must have taken ages to create!

We had the lunch buffet with starters and soup; our choices were Sweetcorn and Crabmeat soup and one of each of the starters which were Curry Samosas, Spring Rolls, Salt and Pepper Chicken, Spare Ribs, Chicken Satay, Prawn Toast and Seaweed.

We shared our mains of Chicken in Satay Sauce, Sweet and Sour Pork and Chicken with Mushrooms – it was all so yummy and very filling!

I forgot to take photos of our drinks at the restaurant, so as T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a couple of pints that we enjoyed at the pub around the corner on our way home (smile!) – Happy T Day everyone!

I hope 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 following challenges:

The lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from https://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/ who is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Collage Fodder, Food & Drink or Both so I’m joining her with my collage fodder page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #181 – Anything Goes challenge with my thankful page.

LTSCB#158 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my Be Thankful page; I used lots of scraps to create this one.

November Anything Goes Fall Challenge over at The Four Seasons Challenge with my autumnal thankful page.

T Day ATCs and a Big Thank You

I had a lovely surprise in the post, some happy mail from Bleubeard and Elizabeth which contained the napkins from the napkin swap to celebrate T Stands for Tuesday 9^th Anniversary – thank you so much!

Although it wasn’t part of the napkin swap, I created an ATC for each of those taking part; so today I’m sharing how I made them (smile!).

Using some old playing cards as my base, I started by covering the front of 9 cards using some Pébéo white gesso with a brayer and left them to dry. Next I added some torn Dictionary page pieces over the top using Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I coloured them using washes of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Kuretake Watercolour paint and then I stamped them using a Fragments stamp by Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink.

I used a couple of die cut sets to cut out the teacups and saucers, the flowers and little bird from some coloured papers. The teacups and saucers were stamped using the Fragments stamp and Moonlight White Brilliance Ink. Everything was arranged onto the ATCs using Liquitex matte gel medium along with various DoCrafts stickers to create the “T Day” wording and a number “9” which was die cut.

For the reverse of the ATC, I covered the back of the cards with black DecoArt Acrylic paint and I stamped the Fragments stamp using the Moonlight White Brilliance Ink. The wording was printed using a Dymo Letratag Label Maker and I stamped the “Handmade with love…” using black Archival Ink; everything was stuck in place with some of the die cut flowers.

As you may know Bleubeard and Elizabeth kindly sent some amazing postage stamps as part of the napkin swap which you can see here – thanks so much, they are so beautiful!
It looks like I may have the pink flowered international stamp that was mentioned on Bleubeard & Elizabeth’s blog post last week – yippee! Also the black and white washi tape was holding the ATCs together which I plan to recycle.

Of course all the napkins are fabulous and I received so many that I couldn’t fit them all in one photo (grin!).

I can’t wait to get creative with them on my art journal pages – thank you so much to everyone who sent napkins for the swap! Also a big thank you to E and Sharon for organising everything – you’re both stars!!!

I had such a lovely surprise when I found all these stunning ATCs amongst the napkins; from top left to right we have Sharon, Elle, Lisca, Bleubeard & Elizabeth, Chris and Mia). It was so kind and thoughtful of everyone – thanks so much!

All the teacups featured on this post allow me to join this week’s T Day – wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

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:

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

LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my ATCs that I created from old playing cards.

Challenge #62 – Anything Goes at Ally’s Angels with my handmade ATCs.

MIUCB#61 – Anything Goes + Optional Smooshing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my smooshed watercolour background my ATCs.

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.

Happy 9th T Day Anniversary

I’m so happy to share the page that I created to celebrate the 9th T Day Anniversary over at T Stands for Tuesday.

Posting this page was somewhat delayed as we were awaiting everyone’s napkins that were sent to Bleubeard & Elizabeth for the napkin swap (smile!). As I created this celebratory page using one of the napkins that I swapped, I wasn’t able to post it earlier but Bleubeard & Elizabeth have asked us to share our napkins today, so here it is – I’m also sending a big thank you to E for organising and co-ordinating everything!

I started by using a paintbrush with some water to wet and then tear out pieces of napkin to create my scene. The pieces were layered together using a glue stick – did you notice there are nine animals (2 monkeys, 2 birds and 5 butterflies) on the page to celebrate the 9th anniversary. I added some heart and circular stickers from Docrafts that were luckily the same soft pink as the napkin; the circular stickers read “love”, “blog” and “hello”. I also added a transparent pocket using an offcut from a cellophane bag.

This pocket holds a card; the front of the card wishes everyone a “Happy 9th T Day Anniversary” and also thanks Bleubeard & Elizabeth for organising T Day and on the back of the card I’ve listed those who took part in the napkin swap. The card was created by recycling a playing card which I covered, on both sides, with Pébéo white gesso. When dry, I stamped the front using a Fragments stamp from Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink. The letters were die cut using a Sizzix Thinlits set, coloured using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and then stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. To finish, I added some stickers from the same Docrafts set, that I used on the page, and then on the back I wrote the names of the nine people who took part in the swap.

Here are the two napkins I sent to swap; I thought the English currency with the Queen was particularly relevant due to this year being the Queen’s 70th Jubilee; and I loved the vintage animal design napkin as soon as I saw it and I know how much Bleubeard & Elizabeth love palm trees so it seemed perfect – I hope you like them too! If you’re interested you can see more napkins that were swapped over at T Stands For Tuesday.

We’re having a pint of home crafted Smuggler’s Gold beer and a glass of sangria with some nibbles to celebrate too – cheers and Happy T Day!

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 T Stands for Tuesday, I’m pleased to be joining Paperbabe Stamps and their #174 – Anything Goes challenge with my celebratory page.

Use your wings and shine

I’m a bit behind on crafting this month but I wanted to join Art Journal Journey and Wendy‘s fabulous Doors and/or Arches challenge again before the end of the month – so this is only my second entry for this challenge, I’m not sure where July has gone (eek!).

This is also my second post of the day, so as you may be looking for my Make It Feminine inspiration for Try it on Tuesday – please find it here.

I started by covering this chipboard page with Pébéo white gesso (it’s a great medium for the Gelatos that I’m using next) and left it to dry. Then I applied some Lemon, Mango and Lime Faber-Castell Gelatos by scribbling them onto the page and using a wet finger to disperse the colour. I also used a wet wipe to distress and remove some of the Gelatos colour allowing the white to show through. Next I stamped the page using black Archival Ink and an Architecture stamp and a Fragments stamp; both stamp sets were from Tim Holtz. The bird was die cut from some Simple Stories cardstock using a Sizzix die and to finish, I added the wording which were Small Talk stickers from Tim Holtz.

To celebrate the 9th Anniversary of T Stands for Tuesday, I shared a breakfast sandwich and some of you were asking if it was a bacon butty. This isn’t what we know in the UK as a bacon butty (although it does contain bacon); this sandwich is something a bit more special and it isn’t typically English either just something I saw on the internet.

A bacon butty is a fairly plain sandwich with bacon in it; usually the bacon is “back” bacon rather than “streaky” bacon as shown here.

The bacon is often served on two slices of white or brown bread along with red or brown sauce. The “butty” part of it is a Northern term here in the UK for a “sandwich”.

Of course, being “up North”, we also have a bacon “barm” or “bap” too which is a type of “bread roll” and a whole other story (smile!) – wishing you all a Happy T Day!

I 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 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 arches that I stamped on my page.

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

MIUCB#60 – Anything Goes + optional Clean & Simple over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my simply created page using Faber-Castell Gelatos colouring techniques.

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.

Stars shine

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing this art journal page as inspiration for this month’s Seeing Stars challenge.

I started by covering the page with white gesso and then added a layer of Bronze Distress Paint. When dry, I used a baby wipe to remove some of the Distress Paint giving the background a grungy distressed look. Next I used an AALL & Create Sparkles stamp set to stamp the starbursts using Elderberry Memento Ink and the Bronze Distress Paint. To finish the background, I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint. The owl panel and wording were cut from a Cosmos Stamperia paper pad and I die cut the stars from the paper using a Snowy Stars Thinlits set by Tim Holtz.

I hope you are inspired to join our Seeing Stars challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts.

The owl on my page reminded me of the one we saw on a walk at Glasson Dock; it was such a surprise to see this Little Owl sitting in the tree looking right at us – we were so lucky that day (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

I’m pleased to join Paperbabe Stamps and their #170 – Anything Goes challenge with my starry page.