Tag Archives: Ranger

Autumn/Fall

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Hi everyone! I am so delighted to be in the Designer Spotlight this month over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Thanks so much for inviting me!

This week the theme is Autumn/Fall.

As it is the first Monday of the month, Simon Says Stamp are featuring Tim Holtz so I created this birthday card as I have lots of family birthdays this time of year.

For the centre piece of my card, I stamped a maple leaf using a Tim Holtz Maple Sketch stamp and black Archival Ink onto a piece of Ranger Kraft paper which I tore along the edges to give it more of a rustic look and then coloured using a Sanguine and Black Faber-Castell marker. I also added a piece of lace and bound some twine to the bottom of the Kraft panel and attached a button which I threaded using the same twine.

I used the Tim Holtz Maple Sketch stamp again to stamp the maple leaf onto some Watercolour card stock using my Tim Holtz stamping platform. This enabled me to stamp the watercolour card again after I had coloured the leaf using Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry Distress Ink. I cut out the leaf, edged it with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck it over the top of the leaf that I stamped on the Kraft panel using double-sided foam tape so it stood out more. The card was completed by mounting the finished Kraft panel onto a 6x4inch card which I made from white cardstock, stamped with a repeating pattern of “Happy Birthday” using Rich Cocoa, Toffee Crunch and Potter’s Clay Memento Ink and then finely splattered with Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry Distress Ink.

Maple leaves always reminds me of fall in New England …

… so the colours on my card were inspired by this beautiful tree in Biddeford, Maine that we saw this time last year whilst on vacation to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

It happens to be our 31st wedding anniversary tomorrow, so as T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing a photo of me and hubby enjoying some samplers of beer at Banded Brewery in Biddeford, Maine which we also visited whilst we were there – cheers and Happy T Day!

Which reminds me to wish Erika a very Happy Anniversary too!

I enjoyed creating this card with my Tim Holtz products for the Autumn/Fall challenge and I hope you will join in the fun too! For more inspiration please check out the fabulous creations from the Design Team over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

Don’t forget that Simon Says Stamp is generously giving away a $50 voucher to shop at the Simon Says Stamp Store! and one lucky participant will be randomly drawn to win this voucher. How amazing is that! Good Luck to everyone!

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

Here is a list of materials to make this card:

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Dare to be different

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Our new challenge over at A Vintage Journey this month is hosted by Annie who has chosen the fantastic theme Inky Wings and here’s the challenge description that Annie kindly provided:

“Make any project you like as long as ink and wings are included in some way. This includes backgrounds, stamped images, art journals, and portions of your project coloured with ink. Any kind of ink is welcome, so let’s get creative within our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk”.

If, like me you want to have fun art journaling with wings and lots of different inks, then why not join our challenge too; it would be great to see you there (grin!).

I started by painting Blueprint Sketch and Twisted Citron Distress Ink onto the background and stamping some Kaisercraft lattice, barcode and tiny dots stamps using black Archival Ink. Then I splattered the page with Carbon Black Liquitex Ink and had fun dripping Black Soot Distress Ink vertically down the page. I added some lacy Halloween collage paper from Tim Holtz using Liquitex matte gel medium, crunching the paper up at the edges to add texture. It is edged with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and also some more of the Black Carbon Liquitex Ink which I spritzed with water so it looked misty. I then stamped more of the tiny dots using black Archival Ink over the edges of the collage paper. I drew a butterfly and outlined it with the black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker then added some drips to the ends of its wings using the Black Carbon Liquitex Ink. For the antennae I used Liquid Pearls and when everything was dry, I painted the butterfly with a thick layer of white gesso. Next I chose some contrasting colours for my butterfly to match the words I used on this page; it is coloured using Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick Distress Inks and Tangerine and Poppy Red Derwent Inktense pencils. I added more detail to the butterfly wings using a black Derwent marker and a white Uni Posca Paint Pen and then covered it with Ranger Glossy Accents so the colours stood out more. Then I splattered the whole page with some Titanium White Liquitex Ink and to finish, I added the wording which reads “Dare to be Different” which I created using an alphabet die set and my Big Shot machine.

For more inspiration, please pop over to see what my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey created for our Inky Wings challenge, it would be lovely to see you there!

With it being October I seemed to be channelling Halloween hence the dark and moody design, whilst also thinking about this Common Blue butterfly that I saw in our garden; it was amongst a lot of Painted Lady butterflies so it seemed the words “dare to be different” were appropriate (grin!). This one is the female of the species and has the pretty orange dots along the edges of its wings unlike the male which is coloured all blue. These butterflies like grassland habitats such as the coastal dunes where we live.

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

Challenges

I’m pleased to join the lovely Eileen of The Artful Crafter and her Dreams or Wishes challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my “dare to be different” wishes.

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

  • Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Black Soot, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick)
  • Kaisercraft Clear Stamp (Flutter CS853, Mister Fox CS173, Tiny Dots CS360)
  • Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
  • Liquitex Ink! (Carbon Black, Titanium White)
  • Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collage Paper (Halloween #TH93712)
  • Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
  • Ranger Liquid Pearls (Ivy Green)
  • Pébéo White Gesso
  • Derwent Inktense Pencils (Tangerine 0300, Poppy Red 0400)
  • Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.5mm)
  • Uni Posca Paint Pen (White)
  • White Cardstock
  • Docrafts X-Cut Alphabet Die Set (Centurion XCU503083)
  • Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
  • Zig Memory System 2-Way Glue (Dual Action Glue Pen)

Celebrating Friendship

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Today I find myself thinking of friends so I created an autumnal coloured journal page to celebrate friendship. I feel very blessed for the friendships I have made over the years including those here in blogland – thank you (grin!).

This page is especially poignant as my dear friend who passed away earlier this year is having a remembrance service  this weekend in Maine, USA (where she hails from although she lived here in England) and as she was known for her beautiful smile, I wanted to capture this on my page too.

The background of the page was created using Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade and Scattered Straw Distress Inks; I dragged the ink pads on the paper, spritzed with water, blended them lightly with a paint brush and left them to dry. I stamped an ornate circle stamps from Kaisercraft and also a faux zig-zag stitch and little stitched flower stamp from Urban Stamps using black Archival Ink. Then I splattered the page with white and black acrylic paints using a paint brush. Next I added some pretty stickers from Kaisercraft; this included a border, a butterfly, a patterned doily, flowers, and wording saying “remember”, “love your smile”, “friends fill your life with joy, your soul with sunshine and your heart with love” and “smile”. For the heart, I covered a white heart tag with a border sticker from the same Kaisercraft sticker sheet, cut around the heart shape and edged it with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink and Elderberry Memento Ink. It is stuck to the page using double-sided tape and decorated with a bow which I made from some satin ribbon which finished the page.

Talking of dear friends, we have just picked the grapes from our friend’s garden.

They kindly give them to us every year …

… so we can make grape jelly – thanks so much! As I’ve been making the jelly this week I think the colour of this autumn treat must have inspired the colours of my page too (grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika aka BioArtGal and her Polka-Dots, Stripes, Plaids and Patterns challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my patterned background.

I’m joining the Autumn Glory challenge over at Moo Mania & More with my autumnal coloured page.

I’m pleased to join the Stitch It challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I included faux stitching on my page.

I’m also happy to join #103 – Picture Inspiration Challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps as I included some of the autumnal colours on my page.

I’m also pleased to join the Celebrate! challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday as my page celebrates friendship.

Don’t forget that you still have until next Tuesday to join our Hot, Hot, Hot! Challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too, it would be lovely to see you there!

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

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

  • Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Seedless Preserves)
  • Kaisercraft Clear Stamps (Magnolia Grove CS822)
  • Docrafts Papermania Urban Stamps (Craft Collection – Pastels PMA907222, PMA907223)
  • Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
  • Art Discount Acrylic (White)
  • DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
  • Tsukineko Memento Ink (Elderberry)
  • Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet (Bombay Sunset SS339, Cherry Tree Lane SS329)
  • Kaisercraft Sticker Book (Antiquities SK807)
  • Stix2 double-sided tape

Shall we dance?

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I created this page to remember the amazing time that we had at the cinema watching the live André Rieu concert from Maastricht which was a belated birthday present from my hubby (grin!).

I started by covering the background with The Blue Danube sheet music by Johann Strauss II as he happens to be my favourite classical composer and this was one of the pieces of music that was played during the concert. I stamped around the edges of the page using some of the floral Musicality stamps from Docrafts and black Archival Ink. Then I applied some Gold Champagne Faber-Castell Gelato and black Faber-Castell Big Brush Marker, smudging the colours with my finger. Next I fussy cut André Rieu, the title and the list of music from the programme that we were given and stuck them onto the page. I also stamped “Kings of Disco” and added it to the list of music as they were the surprise guest act for the concert finale which was amazing too. I added a striped border of stickers to the title “André Rieu Shall we dance?”, two gold glitter corners to the list of music and some gold swirls and dots to the background which are Glitterations stickers. The red roses and flowers are rub-on transfers and to finish the page, I chose three Small talk stickers from Tim Holtz which read “the music of my heart”, “Professor of Music” and “being enchanted”; they are edged with the black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker.

The André Rieu Maastricht 2019 concert was shown across cinemas in the UK and we went to The Flower Bowl to watch it in comfort on our very own sofa. The music and atmosphere was magical, we forgot we were at the cinema as it felt like we were transported there (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday and I thought this gold coffee set would match my page nicely, I’m sharing this beautiful set which was on sale at our local auction rooms. For cat lovers and those who prefer tea there is also this pretty tea pot too – Happy T Day!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika aka BioArtGal and her Polka-Dots, Stripes, Plaids and Patterns challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my striped sheet music background.

I’m happy to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my hot art journal page.

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:

  • Sheet Music – The Blue Danube
  • Docrafts Creativity Essentials A5 clear stamp set (Musicality DCE907112) DCE907115)
  • Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
  • Faber-Castell Gelatos (Gold Champagne)
  • Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
  • Concert Programme
  • Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set upper & lower case (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
  • Docrafts Papermania Glitterations (Gold Flowers ANT8181020, Gold Frame Circles ANT8181020)
  • Poundworld Rub-on Transfers (Vintage)
  • Tim Holtz idea-ology (Clipping Stickers #TH93583)
  • Penny Black Stickeroos (Vintage Roses #10-142)
  • Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
  • Pritt Stick

Be your own kind of beautiful

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Today I was inspired by a seahorse mosaic that you can find in St. Anne’s on the Sea where I live; I always love seeing artwork when I’m out and about and this dancing seahorse is one of my favourites!

I started by covering the page with Salty Ocean Distress Ink by stamping the ink pad directly onto a blending mat, spritzing with water and pressing the mat onto the paper a number of times to build up splashes of ink to depict seawater.

Then I applied Cracked Pistachio Distress Stain through a circular stencil from Inkylicious and also blotted the stencil onto the page to mop up the excess Stain. Next I used a mosaic dot stamp using both Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink; firstly through the circle stencil to add more details to the large circles that I stencilled and then to the rest of the background so it looked like bubbles of water. I outlined each of the stencilled circles by stamping white acrylic paint using a plastic tube and then smudged the white gesso over the circle. When the paint was dry I coloured it with the Platinum Planet ink using my finger. I added more bubbles by stamping some dot stamps from Paperbabe Stamps using Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and then I splattered the page with some white acrylic paint which finished the background. The foliage is tissue paper which I die cut using Tim Holtz thinlets and my Big Shot machine which I then stuck to the page using Liquitex matte gel medium; I wasn’t to careful how I stuck them down as I wanted them to look like they were floating and moving in the water.

My dancing seahorse is fussy cut from a colouring book and coloured using Gold, Yellow, Sunset and Amber Spectrum Aqua markers to match the seahorse colours of the mosaic. Then I used a blending tool to blot Rusty Hinge Distress Ink onto the seahorse to add texture and give it more of a 3D look. It is stuck in place using matte gel medium, detailed using some black Derwent Graphik markers and a white Uniball pen for its eye. The words “Be your own beautiful self” are cut from a 3×4” card by Kaisercraft, stuck in place and outlined with a black marker pen. To finish, I added some silver and blue sequins to the background to add some sparkle.

This is the pretty seahorse mosaic and the words say “Golden sun rise on our sands moonlight pass us by. As seahorse dance among the waves. Our sandgrown spirit flies”. I particularly like the words as it mentions being “sandgrown” which applies only to the Flyde coast area where I live and literally means someone born by the seaside; I happen to be a Sandgrown’un too (grin!).

This is the other beautiful mosaic, this time of a pretty mermaid and the verse reads “We dream fondly of seas. Her waves lap softly on our shore. While mermaids songs drift onwards. Our peace to breathe once more”.

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

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika aka BioArtGal and her Polka-Dots, Stripes, Plaids and Patterns challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my circle patterns on my background.

I’m also happy to join in the Under the Sea challenge over at Country View Challenges with my seahorse art journal page.

I’m joining the Anything Goes challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my dancing seahorse too.

I’m pleased to be able to join in the fun over at Creative Artiste Challenge Blog for their Anything Mixed Media Goes with my mixed media art journal page which included inks, paints, papers and sequins.

Don’t forget that you still have until over a week to join our Hot, Hot, Hot! Challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too, maybe you can use hot colours like those I used for my seahorse; it would be lovely to see you there!

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

  • Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Shabby Shutters, Rusty Hinge)
  • Inkylicious Stencil (Sun & Moons)
  • Tim Holtz Distress Stain (Cracked Pistachio)
  • Docrafts Papermania Mini Cards & Stamp Set (Capsule Geometric Krafts PMA105308)
  • Tsukineko Brilliance Pigment Ink (Platinum Planet)
  • Paperbabe Stamps Stamp Set (Birthday Wishes)
  • Art Discount Acrylic (White)
  • Sizzix Thinlets Tim Holtz (Garden Greens 661206, Wildflower Stems #2 664164)
  • Recycled dark and light green tissue paper
  • Animal Kingdom Suduko & Doodle Book
  • Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Gold, Yellow, Sunset, Amber)
  • Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.05mm, 0.1mm)
  • Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
  • Kaisercraft 3×4” Cards (Life’s Treasures CM108)
  • Poundland (Assorted Sequins)
  • Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
  • Ranger Glossy Accents

Thank you for your part in my journey

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I recently won some goodies at Paperbabe Stamps so I thought I would create this page to celebrate. I used some of the stencils, stamps and even the packaging that I received from taking part in their challenges – thank you so much!

I started by painting the background with pink, blue and orange DecoArt Glamour Dust glitter paints. When the paint was dry, I used a blending tool to add Black Soot, Mermaid Lagoon and Picked Raspberry Distress Ink through a mixed media stencil from Paperbabe Stamps. Next I stamped some butterflies, hearts and bubbles from a couple of stamp sets from Paperbabe Stamps, so that they flowed vertically down the page, using black Archival Ink. Then I splattered the page with white DecoArt acrylic paint and dried it with my heat gun. I added a couple of circular stickers and business cards which I layered on top of some round shapes that were die cut from some pink polka dot patterned paper. The stickers and business cards were included as part of the packaging from Paperbabe Stamps; I love the wording “I thank you for your part in my Journey” and the images of the beautiful faces which are examples of what you can create using some of the Paperbabe Stamps templates and stamps.

Here are the goodies that I won recently, I used the Iso Fun stencil for this page and I’m also looking forward to using the alphabet stamp set soon – yay! I’d like to say a big thank you to Kim from Paperbabe Stamps for the goodies and also thanks to all of her design team for their inspiration!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika aka BioArtGal and her Polka-Dots, Stripes, Plaids and Patterns challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my patterned background and polka-dot paper.

I’m pleased to be able to join Challenge #101 – Sketch over at Paperbabe Stamps with my art journal page; the layers of die cut circles and business card represent the circle and the sentiment the logo. Thanks so much for all the wonderful crafting goodies!

I’m also joining the Use a Stamp challenge over at Moo Mania & More with my page.

I’m joining in the Stamp It challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with all the stamps that I used on my page.

I’m also pleased to join in the fun over at the Creative Artiste Challenge and their Challenge #53 – Anything Mixed Media Goes as I included paints, inks, stickers and papers on my page.

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:

  • DecoArt Glamour Dust Glitter Paint (Celebration Pink, Sapphire Blue, Tiger Orange)
  • Paperbabe Stamps Mixed Media Stencils (Iso Fun)
  • Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Black Soot, Mermaid Lagoon, Picked Raspberry)
  • Paperbabe Stamps Stamp Set (Butterfly Pieridae, Birthday Wishes)
  • Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
  • DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
  • The Works M&C Boutique (Paper Block, Cutting Dies)
  • Spellbinders Die Set
  • Stickers recycled from Packaging – Paperbabe Stamps
  • Business Cards recycled from Packaging – Paperbabe Stamps
  • Stix2 double-sided tape
  • Pritt Stick

Boys & Girls

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We would love you to join our new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday for the next two weeks – Boys and Girls/Children.

I had fun creating a journal page with dictionary pages from my school days, primary coloured paints, some boys and girls’ vinyl stickers and the word “happy” – I hope you like it!

I started by randomly adding pieces of dictionary pages leftover from previous projects onto the background using Liquitex matte gel medium. Once dry, I added some stripes of yellow, red and blue watercolour paint. Then I used a baby wipe and a trellis stencil to pick up and move the paint around the page and left it to dry. I stamped “Happy” and also some flowers using black Archival Ink, separating the page into sections so I could add the white vinyl stickers of the boys and girls. I outlined each of the stickers, which took some time, with a black marker pen and added detail to the stamping using a white Uni Posca paint pen. To finish, I added the border using the white pen and a black Sharpie permanent marker.

For more inspiration please pop over to our blog and check out the amazing creations from my Design Teamies!

Quite often it’s the small things that make me happy, like this bacon butty which I was treated to last week when I was out with my mum and it was so yummy (grin!). As T Stands for Tuesday my photo also includes my mum’s cappuccino – Happy T Day everyone!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika aka BioArtGal and her Polka-Dots, Stripes, Plaids and Patterns challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the trellis pattern on my page.

I’m joining the Numbers and/or Letters challenge over at Moo Mania & More with my page.

I’m pleased to join in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge too.

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:

  • Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours (Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Ultramarine)
  • Rowney Georgian Water Colour (Crimson)
  • Creative Expressions Mini Stencils (Ornate Trellis CEMSTRELLIS)
  • Art Impressions wood mounted rubber stamp (Happy)
  • Great Impressions wood mounted rubber stamp (Flower Sketch Board F327)
  • Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
  • Craftime Designer Vinyls (Boy & Girl B/W PBDV02)
  • Handwriting Marker Pen (Black)
  • Uni Posca Paint Pen (White)
  • Sharpie Permanent Marker Pen (Black)