Leave a little sparkle

Sorry for my absence and thank you so much for all your kind thoughts and messages with regards to my dad passing away just before Christmas.

I would also like to thank Craftyfield for kindly covering for me during my absence as it was my turn to host this month’s challenge over at Country View Challenges; to welcome in 2022 I’ve chosen the theme of A Year to Sparkle and Shine.

“We would like to see LOTS of sparkle and shine on your projects, no “token” gems or sequins please; you really need to go sprinkle that sparkle! This means that you can use lots of different sparkly and shiny products (like metallics, sparkly embossing powders, glitters, lustres, foil, glazes, mirror cardstock, mica sprays or paints etc) as part of your designs”

I created this mini art journal page as inspiration; you still have until the end of this month to join me with your sparkly creations. I do hope that you will join in the fun, it would be so lovely to see you there!

I started by applying two coats of Villainous Potion Distress Paint to my chipboard page. Then when dry, I used a stamp from a Christmas Time stamp set by Tim Holtz to add all the starbursts using VersaMark Watermark Ink and two types of Gold Ranger embossing powder.

Next I stamped the wording and added some tiny stars around the page using a new Dovecraft stamp, the Watermark Ink and Gold Ranger embossing powder. Then I stuck the cute sparkly dog in place which I had fussy cut from an old recycled Christmas card and to finish, I used a white Uniball gel pen to add some highlights and the snowy foreground.

You’ll find lots more sparkly and shiny inspiration from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

I look forward to visiting you and seeing what you make and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the shop, Country View Crafts! Before you enter your project, please read the rules!

Stay safe and well!

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

Challenges

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

Art Journal Journey and the lovely Erika from BioArtGal who is hosting this month with her Let’s Face It challenge; I think the sparkly dog’s face looks super cute on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #159 – Anything Goes challenge with my sparkly page.

Love To Scrap Challenge Blog and their LTSCB #153 – Anything Goes challenge with me Leave a little sparkle page.

Out with the Old, in with the New over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the new word stamp and old recycled Christmas card image that I used to create this page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Four Legged Friends challenge with the sparkly dog I added to my page.

Anything Stamping Goes with the option of Wings challenge over at We Love Stamping with my stamped Leave a little sparkle page.

Sparkly Snowflakes

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing these very sparkly snowflakes for January’s A Year to Sparkle & Shine challenge, which I’m delighted to be hosting this month.

The chipboard background was covered with white gesso and then some Ranger Texture Paste was applied through a snowflakes mini stencil by Tim Holtz. When dry, I coloured the page using Peacock Feathers and Prize Ribbon Distress Ink. All the other snowflakes were recycled from Christmas present wrapping; the felt snowflakes were coloured using the Distress Inks and when dry, they were arranged onto the page with a large snowflake. I covered them all with lots of Icicles Ranger Stickles Glitter Glue which made them shimmer and shine beautifully. The wording was from a Christmas Sticker book by Tim Holtz and reads “the snowflakes come down, the winds of winter blow”. For some extra sparkle, I added lots of Crystals, from a Twinkle Stars set by Creative Expressions, to the centre of the large and each of the stencilled snowflakes.

I hope you are inspired to join our A Year to Sparkle & Shine 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.

Snowflakes decorate my windows this time of year and these window clings are very sparkly too (grin!)

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. You can also check out the products over at Country View Crafts too.

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. Hugs Jo x

A Year to Sparkle & Shine

Happy New Year everyone!

I’m so delighted that it’s my turn to host the challenge over at Country View Challenges this month, so to welcome 2022 I have chosen the theme of A Year to Sparkle and Shine.

We would like to see LOTS of sparkle and shine on your projects, no “token” gems or sequins please; you really need to go sprinkle that sparkle! This means that you can use lots of different sparkly and shiny products (like metallics, sparkly embossing powders, glitters, lustres, foil, glazes, mirror cardstock, mica sprays or paints etc) as part of your designs.

For my very sparkly art journal page, I started by covering the background with Silver DecoArt Extreme Sheen Metallic Paint and then sprinkled some Black Sparkle Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder over the top and heated it with a heat gun. Then I added some rub-on transfers from a Numbers pack from Tim Holtz and the wording which were Metallic Alpha Stickers by Tim Holtz. To finish, I added Crystal Twinkle Stars from Creative Expressions.

Here’s all the crafting goodies from Country View Crafts that I used to create this page (grin!).

For more inspiration please see the amazing sparkly and shiny creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

I look forward to visiting you and seeing what you make and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the shop! Before you enter your project though, please read the rules! 

Stay safe and well!

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

Christmas Wishes

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges for this month’s Christmas Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas Wishes art journal page.

The collage background was created using lots of Christmas Ephemera from Tim Holtz; they were stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a baby wipe and then I painted a thick layer of gesso around the edge of the page. I applied a layer of Ranger Texture Paste over the edge of the page too, using a palette knife, to make it look like icy snow. The candles and foliage were die cut from Tim Holtz Kraft papers using a Candlelight and also a Festive Bouquet Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. I added more colour and shimmer to the die cut pieces using some Craf-T Lustre waxes and they were edged using Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink. Before sticking the candles in place, I applied some of the Lustre wax to create the candle’s glow and I also splattered the page with white gesso. To finish, I added the “Christmas Wishes” wording which was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book.

I hope you are inspired to join our Christmas Anything Goes challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have two chances to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).

I love Christmas and here’s a beautifully embroidered mat, that adorned our festive table whilst visiting family recently – wishing you a Safe and Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year! 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. You can find most of the products that I used over at Country View Crafts too.

Challenges

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #158 – Anything Goes with my Christmas Wishes page.

Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog and their MLCCB #41 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas art journal page.

Challenge #106 – Anything Goes Christmas over at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Blog with my Christmas Wishes page.

Cold As Ice challenges at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog with my snow laden scene.

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.

Yule Tide

It’s a new month which means we have a new challenge at Country View Challenges for December which is Christmas Anything Goes.

This challenge is perfect as I love all things Christmas and I created this Yule Tide page to celebrate and wish you a Happy December and all the very best for the festive season!

I started by covering the page with Christmas Collage Paper from Tim Holtz and then I edged the page using Gold Ranger Embossing Powder. The snowflakes were die cut from some white cardstock using a Mini Paper Snowflakes Thinlits set from Tim Holtz and then covered in the Gold Ranger Embossing Powder.

To finish, I added some word stickers which were from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and read “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night”, “Baby it’s cold outside” and “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” and also some images from a Tim Holtz Ephemera Pack which read “Special Delivery” and “December 25”; they were all edged with the Gold Ranger embossing powder before sticking them in place.

For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

I hope you are inspired to join our Christmas Anything Goes challenge too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).

This Yule Tide page had me yearning for this chocolate Yule Log that we buy every Christmas from a local bakery, it’s so yummy – not long to wait now (double grin!).

Hoping 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.

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. You can also check out Country View Crafts as they sell many of the Tim Holtz and Ranger products that I used.

Challenges

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

Yuletide Delights over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my Yule Tide page.

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

Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Yule Tide 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 gold embossing powder adding sparkle to my page.

Winter Wonderland

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday which for the next 2 weeks is Winter Wonderland.

As some of you will know I can never resist using my Merry Moose Thinlits set this time of year, so today here he is walking through a winter wonderland at sunset (grin!).

I positioned a circular template from an Inkylicious template and stencil set to mask out the sun and then I painted some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to mark out the sky and foreground. For the snowy foreground, I added some Ranger Texture Paste using s palette knife and when dry, I painted some Prize Ribbon Distress Ink and Pébéo white gesso over the top. Then I splattered the whole page using the white gesso, which when dry acted as a resist when I added the next layers of colour, forming the snowfall. To create the sunset, I gradually built up the layers of colour by painting the sky with some Abandoned Coral Distress Stain to form the clouds and I reflected some of this colour onto the snowy foreground too. The sun was painted using Mustard Seed Distress Ink and the same Abandoned Coral Distress Stain, and to add a bit of snowy sparkle I also added some Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink over the sun and clouds. I used a Tall Pines Thinlits set to cut the trees from some white cardstock and then I covered them with some Ranger Texture Paste and coloured them using some of the Distress Inks/Stain and white gesso. The “Winter Wonderland” wording was stamped onto some tissue paper using a free stamp set from a magazine and black Archival Ink; it was stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium.

The moose was die cut using the Merry Moose Thinlets from some Classic Kraft Paper, both by Tim Holtz. He was edged using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker, and I added a piece of ribbon for a scarf before sticking him in place. To finish, I splattered the whole page with white acrylic paint.

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

Over the years, I have created tags, journal pages and even Christmas cards using this Merry Moose Thinlits set, here’s some that have a winter wonderland feel about them; they all hold such happy memories of dear friends and my time on Design Teams! I hope you are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!

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 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 today:

Art Journal Journey and lovely Chris from http://pearshapedcrafting.blogspot.com/ who is hosting this month with her All Kinds of Weather challenge with all the snow falling on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #156 – Anything Goes with my Merry Moose page.

Make Your Own Background challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the winter wonderland background that I created for this page.

LTSCB #151 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my Winter Wonderland page.

Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog and their MLCCB #40 – November Anything Christmas Goes with my Winter Wonderland Christmasy page.

Autumn Blessings

I feel very blessed to have won one of the challenges over at Paperbabe Stamps and I choose some Maryleedee stamps from the Paperbabe Stamps shop as my prize, which are just perfect for colouring (grin!).

Today I’m featuring this super cute Maryleedee as part of my windy autumn scene.

I started by covering the background with some leftover Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and then I used Burnt Sienna, Black, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Scarlett and Hooker’s Green Kuretake watercolour paints to paint the autumn trees and green foreground. The leaves were die cut using a Fall Foliage Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some leftover mixed media paper that had been coloured using Tea Dye Distress Ink. I added more colour to the leaves using the Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Scarlett watercolour paints and then I arranged them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium, making them swirl in the wind. I also used the paper that I had die cut the leaves from to stencil Rusty Hinge Distress Ink onto the tree foliage. The wording “Autumn Blessings” was created using some letters from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet.

I stamped the Paperbabe Stamps Marydeelee stamp onto a piece of mixed media paper using black Archival Ink. She was coloured using TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker pens; the colours were Gold Brown Blend for her hair, Alpine Green Blend for her eyes, Fair Skin Blend for her face, arms and legs, Dark Red Blend for her lips and boots, True Blue Blend for her dress and Gold Yellow Blend for the bow. To finish, I cut her out, stuck her in place and added a bit more detail to her dress using a white gel pen.

The Maryleedee stamp was so much fun to use and colour; I love the way she turned out! Aren’t her boots fabulous; my hubby often calls me cute as I tend to hold my feet like that too (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.

Challenges

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

Art Journal Journey and lovely Chris from http://pearshapedcrafting.blogspot.com/ who is hosting this month with her All Kinds of Weather challenge with my windy autumnal page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #156 – Anything Goes with my Maryleedee page – thanks so much for the stamps!

Trees challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the painted autumnal trees that I added to this page.

Make Your Own Background challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the autumnal background I created using inks and watercolour for this page.

LTSCB #151 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my Autumn Blessings page.

Christmas Gift Bag

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing these pretty Christmas gift bags for this month’s Christmas Gifting challenge. I’ve filled them with a couple of Christmas presents already – perfect (grin!).

Each bag was created from a piece of white A4 cardstock using an easy and fun folding method – please see full instructions below.

I started by stamping the poinsettias onto a piece of white A4 cardstock using a Christmas Time stamp set from Tim Holtz with Crackling Campfire and Rustic Wildness Distress Inks.

To create the bags, place the cardstock in front of you on a flat surface, making sure to place it in “portrait” orientation so that the top of the bag is on the right-hand side, then use a metal ruler and a stylus to score a crease mark 4cm wide down the left-hand side of the cardstock. When you’re done leave this unfolded as it will later become the bottom of the bag.

Of course if you have them, you may find it easier to use the groove on a Tonic Studios trimmer with a bone folder to make all the fold marks instead (this photo shows the 4cm wide crease mark).

Next turn the cardstock so it’s “landscape” in orientation and place a crease mark 1cm wide along the right-hand edge of the cardstock and sharply crease the fold. Keeping the cardstock in “landscape” orientation and leaving the 1cm folded, score a crease mark in the centre of the cardstock and then sharply fold.

Run a bead of glue along the 1cm fold and press the cardstock together where they overlap, weight down and leave to dry.

Orientate the bag so the openings are at the top and bottom and then make a 2cm wide score mark vertically down each side of the bag, which will crease mark both the front and back of the bag. Open the folds and use the crease marks to fold the bag inwards to create an accordion effect.

Next create the bottom of the bag using the scored crease lines to fold the left and then the right-hand sides inwards making sure you crease the bottom folds all the way to the corners to create a triangle of folded paper on either side; I sharply creased the triangle folds using a bone folder.

Then fold the triangles over each other like an envelope and stick them in place using a bead of glue and leave it to dry.

To finish, I punched two holes in the top of the bag using a We R Memory Keepers Tools Crop-A-Dile Hole Punch & Eyelet Setter; the holes are 4cm from each edge of the bag. Then I attached a tag using some red recycled ribbon; the tag was created using some of the white cardstock, the Christmas Time stamp set and Distress Inks again and embellished with a gold bell.

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

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. You can find most of the products that I used over at Country View Crafts too.

Challenges

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #156 – Anything Goes with my Christmas gift bags.

MIUCB #55 – Anything Goes + 3-D Project over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the folding techniques I used to create this 3-D gift bag.

Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog and their MLCCB #40 – November Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas gift bags.

Challenge 130 – Christmas Presents over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with my Christmas bags that I created for presents this year.

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and their Challenge #105 – Anything Christmas Goes with my pretty Christmas gift bags.

Stamping Sensations and their Christmas challenge with my stamped Christmas gift bag and tags.

Christmas challenge over at We Love Stamping with my stamped Christmas gift bags and tags – thanks so much Brenda for highlighting this challenge in your lovely comment!

Mr Frost Tags

It’s a new month so we have a new challenge at Country View Challenges for November which is Christmas Gifting (anything but a card).

This challenge is being hosted this month by the lovely Miriam who says “this could be a handmade gift or even packaging for a Christmas gift – no cards this month”.

I can’t believe that Christmas is nearly here so it was nice to get a head start making these fun Snowman Tags for this years Christmas presents.

I started by die cutting the snowman using a Mr. Frost Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some white and black linen textured the paper. I also die cut the main body of the snowman, hat and scarf again from some cardstock to back the tag and provide more strength.

I coloured the edges of the main body of the snowman with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink using a blending tool, the scarf and hat band using red and green TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers, his carrot nose using Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the twig arms using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The die cut pieces were layered together using Liquitex matte gel medium and I added a holly gemstone embellishment to the hat.

I used a We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Hole Punch & Eyelet Setter to punch a hole in the hat and threaded through a piece of black paper twine. The wording on the back of the tags was stamped using a Sketch Greenery stamp set from Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink.

For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

I hope you are inspired to join our Christmas Gifting (anything but a card) challenge too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).

I love how these tags turned out and can’t wait to add them to Christmas Presents this year. Here’s how they are currently displayed in my craft room; it looks like they will make wonderful Christmas tree decorations too (grin!).

Hoping 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.

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.

Country View Crafts also sell both the Mr. Frost Sizzix Thinlits Set by Tim Holtz and the Sketch Greenery stamp set by Tim Holtz that I used to create these tags.

Challenges

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

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and their Challenge #104 – Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas tags.

Any Holiday Occasion over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my snowman Christmas tags.

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #155 – Anything Goes with my festive tags.

MLCCB #40 – Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Mr. Frost Christmas tags.

Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog with my Mr. Frost tags.