Beer Festival 2019

As you may remember, every February we volunteer at the Fleetwood Beer Festival, we work behind the bar serving customers and of course trying all the different beers, you can find our favourite ones on my art journal page below (grin!).

This page is created using recycled materials; this includes some beer packaging that contained one of my hubby’s Christmas presents, our Beer Festival magazine tasting notes and also a Beer Festival flyer. I started by selecting the tasting notes for our favourite beers; as we taste the different beers we always enjoy writing our opinions on the tasting notes provided in the magazine so these are included too (grin!). I arranged them onto the page so they are surrounded by pieces of the black and tan beer packaging and like everything on this page they are stuck down using a glue stick. The “Beer & Cider Festival” wording is also from the Beer Festival magazine and the glass of beer image is from a flyer; they are all stuck onto a piece of recycled card to give them more stability. I cut them out, edged them with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck them in place. Then I coloured and shaded the “Beer & Cider Festival” using a Yellow and also a Gold Spectrum Aqua Marker so it stood out more which finished the page.

The beers listed on my page included:

• Milk Chocolate Stout (Alcohol By Volume or ABV 5%) North Riding Brewery in Scarborough, North Yorkshire – a dark milk chocolate stout. The addition of lactose mutes the bitterness of the hops and dark malts to produce a sweet stout.
• Amber Necker (ABV 3.9%) Pennine Brewery in Well, North Yorkshire – being amber in colour, this is a great session beer with a smooth and creamy texture and a fantastic hoppy aftertaste.
• Dark Side of the Moose (ABV 4.6%) Purple Moose in Porthmadog, Gwynedd – a delicious dark ale with a deep malt flavour and a fruity bitterness.
• Lemon Dream (ABV 4.5%) Salopian Brewery in Shrewsbury, Shropshire – a light gold ale brewed with wheat malt and subtly flavoured with fresh lemons.
• Dark Ruby (ABV 6%) from Sarah Hughes in Sedgley, West Midlands – a dark strong ale with a good balance of fruit and hops, leading to a pleasant, lingering hops and malt finish.
• Don’t Give A Dram (ABV 4.9%) Sonnet 43 Brewery in Coxhoe, Country Durham – Full-Bodied reddish Brown ale with a low hop content and tastes of toffee and caramel. Nourished in former whiskey oak barrels, hence the name.
• Jaipur (ABV 5.9%) Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell, Derbyshire – Flavoursome IPA packed with citrus hoppiness that’s nicely counterbalanced by malt and underlying sweetness and robust fruit flavours.
• Stay Puft (ABV 5.2%) Tiny Rebel Brewery in Newport, Wales – This marshmallow porter has the classic roasty qualities of a proper dark ale, with a smooth sweetness.
• Guzzler (ABV 3.6%) York Brewery in York, Yorkshire – Refreshing golden ale with dominant hop and fruit flavours developing throughout.

The busiest day was Friday, as you can see the hall was quite packed with people trying the 100+ beers and ciders that we had on offer. If you look carefully you’ll see me in the photo (grin!).

We had lots of fun chatting with customers, listening to the live bands and of course, sampling many of the beers (double grin!).

You can see all the casks of beer where we were serving in the background, this size of cask is known as a “firkin” and holds 9 imperial gallons which is 72 pints. We always like to try the beers that we are selling and write notes so that we can recommend a particular beer to our customers (well that’s my excuse for trying so many and I’m sticking to it) – Cheers!

Challenges

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m joining the T Gang with my beer related post and wishing you all a very Happy T day!

I’m pleased to be able to join the lovely Rike from rike’s art and The Colour Yellow challenge over at Art Journal Journey as I had fun including yellow on my beer festival art journal page.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge their challenge is Typography, so I’m pleased to be able to join this challenge too as I collaged plenty of letter typed papers on my page.

I’m also pleased to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my Beer Festival 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:

• Festival tasting notes magazine
• Beer packaging
• Festival Flyer
• Recycled Card
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Spectrum Aqua Marker (Yellow, Gold)
• Pritt Stick

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Tea & Biscuit Club Arundel

Today we are celebrating a shop in Arundel called The Tea & Biscuit Club which we visited last month when staying with family. We have been enjoying some “Christmas Pudding” tea that we bought to enjoy over the winter season so I decided to create this art journal page to capture our happy memories!

I started by covering the page with some Parchment Liquitex acrylic paint and as we visited Arundel during winter, I choose some fir tree and berry branches to decorate the background. These were from a Branches stamp set by Inkadinkadoo and I stamped them using Cottage Ivy and Toffee Crunch Memento Ink and also Peeled Paint Distress Ink. I added the large round shop logo to the page, which was recycled from the paper bag that we received when we purchased our tea. Then I arranged some pretty flowers and tags which are Anthology Collectable die cuts from Kaisercraft; the flowers look similar to the flowers from the tea plant. I also added some stars and a square winter scene from a decoupage set as we visited the shop at winter time; they are all edged with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck in place using double-sided tape.

The Tea and Biscuit Club is a speciality tea shop in Arundel which is located on the High Street.

It is very welcoming and sells many teas and accessories.

It has teas from around the world with over 60 blends of black, green, white, herbal and fruit infusions. They blend the tea themselves and you can choose which tea you want from the jars they have on the counter – they all smell delicious!

We wanted a tea to drink over Christmas and during the winter month with cinnamon and orange flavours, so we chose their “Christmas Pudding” tea. This is a Christmas spiced black tea with a zesty fruit infusion creating a very festive aromatic blend – it tastes yummy!

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my drink related page and photos and wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

By the way, the “biscuit” referred to in the shop name is a British biscuit and is similar to an American cookie.  In case you are wondering, the term “biscuit” can be applied to two different products:

• In the UK, a biscuit is typically hard, flat and unleavened, it is crunchy and may be topped with chocolate or have currants in it and is often served with a hot drink like tea, in fact you often dunk a biscuit in your cup of tea.
• In the US, however, a biscuit is typically a soft, leavened savoury quick bread, a bit like a British scone (in texture) and might be served with bacon and eggs on it or smothered in gravy and you tend to have it for breakfast.

So in summary, a British biscuit is an American cookie and an American biscuit is a British scone and the American scone is something else entirely (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 Alison/Craftytrog and her Geometric Shapes challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the circular, square and star shapes that I included on my page.

As this page captures the winter season, I’m joining the Cold and Frosty Colours challenge over at Moo Mania & More.

I’m happy to join the Put Your Stamp On It challenge over at A Vintage Journey as I was inspired by happy memories of this tea shop in Arundel to create my Art Journaling Style page; this included using some stamps.

To create this page I recycled the label from the paper bag that we received when we purchased our tea, so I’m pleased to join the Recycle Something challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge too.

I’m also joining the lovely Wen and her Simply Neutrals Tuesday party over at Apple Apricot with my neutral coloured 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:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Parchment)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Cottage Ivy, Toffee Crunch)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Peeled Paint)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
• Inkadinkadoo Stamp Set (Branches 65-32007)
• Recycled label from gift bag
• Kaisercraft Collectables (Anthology C7938)
• The Works 3D Decoupage Book (Sweet Winter Season)
• Stix2 double-sided tape

Smiles and Goals

At the start of the New Year I like to look back at what we have achieved and also set new goals for the year, so I don’t forget this year I’ve captured them on this art journal page – I hope you like it!

My background was created using three different colours of Liquitex acrylic paints; these were Christmas Green, Vivid Lime Green and Bright Aqua Green. My first layer of paint was a mixture of Christmas Green and Aqua Green, I covered the whole page using a paintbrush. Then I added patches of all three paints to the page, blending the paints together at the edges so they merged together. Next I used a different stencil to apply each of the paints with a sponge; a diamond stencil for the Christmas Green, a circle stencil for the Lime Green and a hexagon stencil for the Aqua Green. Then I stamped a Script stamp by Kaisercraft using black Archival Ink over the page and added splatters of white DecoArt acrylic paint. I die cut some black card with a geometric design on it, that I had recycled from some cookie packaging, using Tim Holtz Sizzix Wildflower thinlets and stuck them to the page using a Zig Memory System glue pen. Then I stamped some little butterflies onto the page and also onto some white card stock using black Archival Ink. I fussy cut the butterflies out of the card stock and then stuck them over the butterflies that I had stamped on the page. The two sentiment cards are cut from a 12x12in design paper by Kaisercraft; the sentiments seemed perfect as they depict looking back at achievements for 2018 and looking forward at goals for 2019; which I wrote on the reverse of each card. As I wanted them to be easily removed so I could look at the information I had written on the reverse, they are attached to the page using some photo corners which I coloured black using a Faber-Castell Big Brush marker (grin!).

Looking back, I have lots to be thankful for during 2018 which includes celebrating significant milestones like my birthday and our Wedding Anniversary, getting things done like our garden renovations, making new friends and meeting up with old friends like on our trip to America.

2018 has been a really special year for me with regards to blogging too as I was lucky enough to join the amazing Design Team at Try it on Tuesday, as well as hosting and guest designing at different Blog Challenges and making some wonderful new friends along the way –  I had so much fun, and if you are interested you can find all my blogging awards and achievements here. A big thank you to everyone involved in making 2018 so special!

I definitely found the sentiment “I’ll look back on this & smile” to be true!

I’m sure 2019 will be as much fun and as always I’ll be sharing these moments with you on my blog throughout the year as I capture them on my art journal pages, so I’m looking forward to fulfilling the sentiment “Smile, Laugh, Love, Live, Grow, Happy Today”.

Wishing you all the very best for 2019 too!

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 Alison/Craftytrog and the Geometric Shapes challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the different geometric shapes that can be found stencilled in the background and within the papers I used to create this page.

As it’s a new start to the year, I’m pleased to be able to join a new challenge blog today; over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog, their theme is Anything Goes + optional twist of Sentiment As Main Focus so I’m joining in the fun with my art journal page (grin!).

I’m happy to join the Put Your Stamp On It challenge over at A Vintage Journey as I used stamps in the background and for the pretty butterflies on this page; I was inspired by the New Year to capture my goals and create my Art Journaling style page.

I’m pleased to join the “New” (Fresh Start) challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps as my page was created to capture Smiles of 2018 and my New Year Goals for the coming year (grin!).

I’m joining in the Let’s Party! challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as my page celebrates past achievements and looks forward to 2019!

I’m also joining Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Something New challenge as I used new design paper from Kaisercraft to create this page.

Over at The Artistic Stamper, their challenge is Anything Goes, so I’m pleased to join this challenge too as my page fits their criteria of matching the theme and including stamping 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:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Christmas Green)
• Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic (Vivid Lime Green, Bright Aqua Green)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Creative Expressions Mini Stencil (Vintage Diamonds CEMSDIAM)
• Circle Stencil
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Script CS752)
• Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlets (Wildflowers 66190)
• Crafter’s Companion Signature Collection by Sara Davies stamp set (Just for You – Butterfly Lullaby S-BL-ST-JUS)
• Recycled Card – Cookie packaging
• White Card Stock
• Kaisercraft Hello Today Collection (New P1665)
• Poundland (Fairy Stickers 29236)
• Zig Memory System 2-Way Glue (Dual Action Glue Pen)

Thankful

It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday and our theme for the next two weeks is Thankful.

This could be a thank you card, harvest festival, Thanksgiving or anything that you are thankful for. For more inspiration please take a look at the amazing creations from my Design Team teamies over at Try it on Tuesday.

I’m so thankful to have spent time with our forever friends in Maine and this page was inspired by the beautiful autumnal displays, flowers and birds that I saw in my friend’s garden/yard celebrating Fall and giving thanks to the season – I hope you like it!

To create the background, I stamped most of the stamps from the Bella Rossi stamp set by Prima Marketing onto the page using Hickory Smoke Distress Ink, a script stamp by Kaisercraft using black Archival Ink and a leaf stamp from Crafter’s Companion using Antique Linen, Old Paper and Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I splattered the page with Morocco Memento Ink, by stamping the pad directly onto an acrylic block and using a wet paintbrush to flick the ink onto the page. To dull down the Vintage Photo leaves that I had stamped I covered them with white gesso using a wet wipe blending the colour across the page so it gave it an aged look. I used some washi tape that I had bought on my holiday, for the letters; it had the word “thankful” repeated on it so I cut and placed the individual letters onto the page, which finished the background. Next I cut out two pumpkins from some pumpkin beer packaging that I brought home with me and stuck them in place using a glue stick. They are arranged and layered with some square autumnal images which I cut from a sheet of Autumn design paper by Graphic 45 and also some autumnal leaves and pretty birds which are from a decoupage set by Docrafts. All the pieces are edged with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck in place using either double-sided tape or double-sided foam tape. To finish, I curled the leaves to give more of a 3-D look.

Here is the beautiful Fall welcome that greeted us at my friend’s house (grin!).

There were two pumpkins so I used two on my page.

Their garden/yard is filled with wonderful ornaments, flowers and happiness; this area housed bird feeders and bird boxes and could be seen from the kitchen window …

…which meant we saw some amazing birds; this included black-capped chickadees like the one above, tufted titmouse, yellow-bellied sapsuckers and white-breasted nuthatches. So of course I added birds to my page (grin!).

The yellow flowers and fall colours in their garden were also spectacular so these are included on my page too – Happy Autumn!

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing the fridge full of beer including the pumpkin beer which was in the box that the pumpkins on my page were cut from. You can find them on the middle shelf and this particular pumpkin beer is from Smuttynose Brewery. We were most impressed that they had a beer fridge and as you can see we had quite a selection of beers to chose from – cheers and Happy T Day!

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 Linda from heARTfullyinspiredby Linda, who is hosting the Creature Comforts challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the warm autumnal colours that I used to create this page.

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Autumn so I’m pleased to join their challenge with my Fall celebration page.

Inspired by my freind’s garden and fall displays, I’m also joining the Autumn Splendour challenge over at A Vintage Journey with my Art Journalling and Mixed Media Style page.

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Take Flight challenge with the birds on my art journal page, one of which has taken flight (grin!).

I’m pleased to be able to join the Plant-tastic challenge over at Country View Challenges with the autumnal flowers and leaves on my page.

The challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday is Give Thanks! so I’m joining them too with my Thankful art journal page.

Over at Stamps and Stencils their challenge is Spooky Fun with an Autumnal Twist so I’m happy to join them with my autumnal 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:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Hickory Smoke, Antique Linen, Old Paper, Vintage Photo)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Morroco)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
• Prima Marketing clear stamps (Bella Rossi #587499)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Script CS752)
• Crafter’s Companion Clear Stamps Autumn Morning Signature Collection by Sara Davies (Rustling Leaves S-AUT-ST-RUS)
• Washi Tape
• Recycled Packaging from a box of Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale
• Graphic 45 Paper 12×12 sheet (Autumn Collective #4501622)
• Docrafts Anita’s Foiled Decoupage (Autumn Birds ANT169593)
• Pritt Stick
• Stix2 double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Time Flies

I find that time passes surprisingly quickly and sometimes I’m left wondering how I got to the age I am or even that it’s the end of April this year already! Not that I’m complaining I enjoy every day and so created a page with the old adage in mind “Time flies when you’re having fun”.

This page started with a background that I had overworked on a previous project and looked muddy as a result, so I applied a thin layer of gesso and stencilled Pébéo modelling paste on the top using a clock stencil. I added some paper clock faces and also some leftover pieces of brown cog decoupage paper that were destined for the bin using Liquitex matte gel medium. Next I coloured the page with Metallic Mint, Iced Coffee, Iced Chai and Mango Faber-Castell gelatos to create a rusty metal look. I also emphasised shadows and shapes using Sanguine and Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush markers whilst building up the layers of colours with the gelatos. I then added some splatters of both black and white DecoArt acrylic paint using a paintbrush. For the wording I used some metallic letter stickers; they are stuck onto some black card which is recycled packaging and mounted on a piece of corrugated card which I coloured to look like rusty metal using the gelatos and Big Brush markers again.

To finish, I added the sparkly copper butterflies which are stickers and the copper adhesive gemstones. I like the rusty metallic look of this page and all that lovely texture and shine too (grin!).

I can remember as a child when summer holidays seemed to last forever and as I’ve got older time just seems to fly by! So why not have some fun too, we find it’s the simple things that bring the most joy like spending some time at St. Anne’s Pier.

Where we always enjoy playing the 2p (two pence) waterfalls (grin!).

Time sure does fly when you are having fun and those ice creams are so good too! By the way, one of those ice creams is for my hubby, honest (double 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 Alison/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the recycled background, materials and leftovers that I collaged onto this page!

Over at A Vintage Journey their theme is Rusty and Crusty, so I’m pleased to join their challenge with my rusty Industrial Style page.

I’m also joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Pimp It Up! (reuse or alter something) challenge with the recycled background and materials.

I’m pleased to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

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:

• Pébéo White Gesso
• Pébéo Modeling Paste
• Faber-Castell Gelato (Metallic Mint, Iced Coffee, Iced Chai, Mango)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Sanguine 188 B, Dark Sepia 175 B)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White, Black)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Leftover decoupage paper from Santoro
• The Works (Paper Toppers)
• Recycled black card
• Recycled corrugated card
• Habico Signature Collection (Rose Gold Foil Alphabet Upper and Lower Case PP1077)
• The Range (Craft Butterfly Stickers CRO420)
• Docrafts Adhesive Dome Borders (Forever Friends – Opulent FFS351111)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Violet Butterfly

Yellow and violet are colours that are prevalent in my garden at the moment with all the pretty spring flowers that are in bloom. So with a number of challenges in mind, I created this journal page using a yellow and violet colour combination, some recycled materials and a lovely new Postcard Butterfly stamp that I just couldn’t wait to use (grin!).

I started by recycling some book pages which I ripped and stuck to my page using Liquitex matte gel medium. Then I used a yellow pastel coloured acrylic paint which I diluted further with white gesso and painted over the whole page varying the shade of the colour. Next I mixed some pastel purple acrylic paint with white gesso and stamped it onto the page using some recycled bubble wrap; to do this I wrapped the bubble wrap around an acrylic block which gave a stronger and cleaner stamped finish as I dipped it in the paint and applied it to the page. Next I added some leftover pieces of butterfly decoupage paper using Liquitex matte gel medium and when the gel medium was dry I outlined all the collaged pieces with a black Derwent marker. Then I stamped some Ground Espresso Distress Ink using corrugated cardboard from some packaging in a criss cross pattern and covered the whole page with splatters of white and black DecoArt acrylic paint. I stamped a Butterfly Postcard stamp from Stampendous using black Archival Ink onto a piece of yellow and white paper and also the butterfly image from the same stamp onto some purple paper that I recycled from an old notebook. I fussy cut the images out and along with some yellow leaves, a piece of recycled beige card from some packaging and a spotted purple card leftover from card making, I edged them with the Ground Espresso Distress Ink and a blending tool then stuck them onto the page using glue dots, double-sided tape and foam tape. To add some shine to the purple butterfly wings I covered the black dots with Glossy Accents. Then I added some purple flowers and metal vintage embellishments which I accessorised with some tiny yellow and violet pearls, which finished the page.

We have quite a few yellow flowers in our garden including daffodils and forsythia as well as purple crocus and hyacinths, and both of these colours can be found in these pretty pansies that are in our planters which we can see from our kitchen window.

This variety has quite big flowers, aren’t the colours of this yellow one amazing!

If you are interested, here are some fun facts about pansies:

• The pansy is a member of theViola family.
• Their name comes from the French word, pensée, which means thought or remembrance.
• Pansies are one of the oldest cultivated flowers and are also one of the most popular plants in our gardens.
• In the language of flowers, the pansy represents thoughts of lovers and in the 19th century this flower was used in love potions.
• Pansies are edible and their petals have a mint flavour; they are often added to salads and desserts.
• The flower is used as a natural dye.

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 Alison/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey as I used stamps recycled from packaging and recycled book pages, packaging and leftovers to create this page!

With the stamped butterfly as my focal image and butterflies being part of the animal kingdom, I’m also happy to be able to join Fashionable Stamping Challenges and their Animals challenge.

With the stamping I used to create this art journal page, I’m also joining in the fun at the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge and their April Challenge: Anything Goes!: (stamping MUST be included).

I’m also joining the Color Wheel! challenge over at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge as I used a complimentary pair of colours, which are opposite each other on the colour wheel, yellow and violet to create my mixed media art journal page.

I was also inspired by Corrie’s use of book pages on her Design Team creation over at Country View Challenges so I’m also joining their Pimp It Up! (reuse or alter something) challenge.

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:

• Pébéo White Gesso
• Aldi Script Ready Mixed Paint (Pastels – yellow, purple)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Ground Espresso)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black, White)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.05mm)
• Stamps made from bubble wrap and corrugated cardboard recycled from packaging
• Stampendous Cling Rubber Stamps (Butterfly Post CRP147)
• First Edition Deco Maché Decoupage papers (Vintage Butterfly FEDEC112)
• Paper Bundle from local craft shop (Yellow and white circles)
• Recycled purple memo paper
• Recycled beige card from packaging
• Leftover purple dot card from card making
• The Handmade Paper Company (Nature’s Touch of Art)
• Wilko (Flower Embellishments) leftover pieces
• Poundworld DécoTime (Vintage Stickers 54748)
• Trimcraft (Adhesive Pearls SCDOT056)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)
• Docrafts Stick It! double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Recycle Something

Our new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday for the next two weeks is Recycle Something and the design team have created some amazing inspirational projects, so please pop over and take a look.  I hope you will join us as I’m looking forward to seeing all of your recycled creations!

I always have lots of different bits and pieces to recycle in my craft stash so I decided to create an art journal page using recycled packaging, a birthday card insert, magazines, postage stamps, tags, a doily and some buttons.

I started by applying some Dark Sepia Big Brush marker by scribbling the ink onto an acrylic block and using a wet stiff-bristled paintbrush to apply it to the page creating faint lines of colour. I added a piece of bordered paper recycled from a birthday card to the right-hand of the page and then for the first layer of collage, I used some pieces of an old music magazine and box packaging which included an international postage document, some brown strapping tape which had threads running through it and brown corrugated cardboard. I tore these items into pieces and like all the collaged items they are edged with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush Marker and stuck them to the page using a UHU Stic. I also used the threads of the brown strapping tape to add texture by fanning them out on the page using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium to hold them in place. I arranged them with three British postage stamps, from 1973 and 1974, which I recycled from my hubby’s childhood collection; they were already on torn envelopes which I left as part of the collage so they are exactly the same as my hubby left them as a child which makes them even more special to me. Next I added lines of white and black DecoArt acrylic paint using a recycled gift card to add some depth and interest. The second layer of collage consisted of some more of the brown strapping tape and some turquoise speckled paper from a magazine which I cut into rectangles and layered onto the page. Then I covered the whole page with splatters of white and black DecoArt acrylic paint. The letters are cut from various magazines and once the glue had dried I edged them with a black Derwent Graphik pen. I then added recycled tags from some bath towels, clothing and a birthday present; I adorned the tag holes with some recycled metal press studs which still had cotton threads attached and then I stuck them to the page using either double-sided tape or double-sided foam tape. For the central tag, I used a recycled doily that was used to serve some after dinner mints on from a restaurant we went to; it is torn into quarters and stuck to one of the brown tags, and the butterfly and torn brown card with the metal brad is recycled from a birthday gift tag. To finish, I added the buttons which are recycled from the button stash that I have accumulated from different clothing over the years.

Being Easter this weekend we received a couple of lovely Easter eggs from family, so I used them to make these Easter chocolate nests by melting the chocolate eggs and using it to cover Rice Crispy cereal, then filling each of the nests with homemade chocolate fudge icing and some chocolate mini eggs, chocolate covered raisins and tiny marshmallows – so yummy!

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing our cup of green tea and chocolate nests that we’ve been having for our elevenses and wishing you all a Happy T Day! I apologise in advance as I’ll probably be late visiting you as it’s my birthday today so we have a few celebrations planned, which I’ll be sure to share with you soon (grin!).

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 Alison/Craftytrog, who is hosting the Recycle and Collage challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my recycled collage art journal page!

As I reused materials to create this page, I’m pleased to join the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Pimp It Up! (reuse or alter something) challenge.

I’m happy to be able to join the Simply Neutrals Tuesday party again over at Apple Apricot where a splash of colour is acceptable so I do hope my page of neutrals with the blue is ok.

I’m also joining the Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

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 Crafter’s Acrylic (White, Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia B 175)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.3mm)
• Recycled Birthday card – paper insert
• Recycled packaging box – document, strapping tape, corrugated box
• Old magazines – music, letters, turquoise splattered paper
• Postage Stamps (British 4.5p from 1973 and two x 6.5p from 1974) – recycled from hubby’s childhood collection
• Recycled Tags – towels, clothing, birthday with butterfly and brad
• Doily recycled from restaurant
• Recycled Metal Press Studs with cotton threads from clothing they were removed from
• Buttons
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• Docrafts Stick It! double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape