Black, white and one other colour

Our new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday is Black, white and one other colour. To inspire you further please see the fabulous Design Team creations over at our blog.

It was quite a dilemma choosing the one other colour for my art journal page (grin!), in the end I decided on Abandoned Coral in the form of both a Distress Spray and Distress Stain. I’m really looking forward to seeing which one other colour you choose too!

I started by covering the page with white gesso and when dry I applied Pébéo modelling paste with a palette knife, over the top using a Floral stencil by Tim Holtz. Next I used a Rossi Belle stamp set to stamp some images onto the background using black Archival Ink and rubbed the images with a baby wipe which removed some of the ink giving a distressed look. Then I sprayed Abandoned Coral Distress Spray over the flowers that I had stencilled and left it to dry. Once dry I layered some more white gesso over the background and then applied some Abandoned Coral Distress Stain, repeating the layers until I reached the look I was after; I let the white gesso and Distress Stain dry between each application so they didn’t blend together and become a muddy mess. Next I added some black DecoArt acrylic paint, firstly through a stencil from Creative Expressions using a sponge and then by adding black splatters using a paintbrush. I used some bubble wrap and a cardboard tube to stamp white DecoArt acrylic paint onto the page and then splattered the page with the white paint too. The flowers are cut from black and white numbered card from Kanban using the Wildflower Sizzix Thinlets by Tim Holtz and my Big Shot machine. They are edged with black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and then stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. To finish, I added three Small Talk stickers from Tim Holtz and outlined them with a black Derwent Graphik marker; I thought the wording was appropriate for this page considering my colour palette was limited to black, white and one other colour, they read “out of limitations comes creativity”, “be fearless” and “creativity take courage”.

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing my pot of green tea at a café in town called Elbourne’s Tea Emporium. I thought it matched the black white and one colour scheme with the red wrapper of the biscuit and heart hanging from the teapot, the white tea service and the black table. In case you are wondering, the little red heart is attached to the tea infuser as they use loose leaf tea. In the photo, you can also see a cup of Earl Grey tea, a glass of cloudy lemonade and a glass of ice water too but the cappuccino is hiding behind the plant (grin!) – 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, who is hosting Creature Comforts challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the soothing warmth of colour that I included on my art journal page.

Over at Country View Challenges their challenge is Plant-tastic so I’m pleased to join them with the flowers on my art journal page.

I’m pleased to join their Back To Nature challenge over at A Vintage Journey, as I was inspired by my limited colour palette to create this floral Mixed Media style page.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, their challenge is Anything Goes so I’m pleased to join this challenge too.

I’m also joining the anything goes theme called It’s been a while… over at Stamps & Stencils 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:

• Pébéo White Gesso
• Pébéo Modelling Paste
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Tim Holtz Distress Spray (Abandoned Coral)
• Tim Holtz Distress Stain (Abandoned Coral)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black, White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.1 mm)
• Tim Holtz Layering Stencil (Floral THS077)
• Prima Marketing Clear Stamps (Rossi Belle 587499)
• Creative Expressions That Special Touch of Mica Masks (Moroccan)
• Recycled cardboard tube – stamp
• Recycled bubble wrap – stamp
• Sizzix Thinlets by Tim Holtz Alterations (Wildflowers 661190)
• Kanban (Mackenzie Numbers Black Background Card CRD1763)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Stickers (Small Talk #TH93193)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Two for Tea

This page celebrates friendships and tea as there’s nothing better than chatting over a cuppa with friends (grin!).

I wanted to recycle some pretty greeting card envelopes so I ripped a brown, cream, white and two different shades of pink into pieces and collaged them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium. I added two rose rub-on transfers and then I stencilled modelling paste, using a lace stencil, over the pink sections and once dry applied some white gesso using a baby wipe to tone the colours down a bit. Next I splattered white DecoArt acrylic paint over the whole page using a paintbrush. The teacups and saucers are fussy cut from a magazine, edged with Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck in place using double-sided foam tape. I created two vintage style envelopes to hold the teabags using a small white tag envelope. For the centre panel of each envelope I used a pretty bird sticker and also a piece of card from the same sticker packaging which I stamped with a Bella Rossi stamp which details tea and other drinks. Both panels are edged with pearls and leftover borders from a Penny Black Stickeroo set. I inserted a recycled empty teabag that I had dried into the top of each one and stuck them to the page using glue dots. I also arranged them onto the page with a piece of string which is recycled greeting card trim, so it looked like a teabag string and held the end of the string down with a pretty cream rose. The small tag is from the same greetings card as the trim and it is embellished with a piece of the Stickeroo border and also one of the pearls. It is stuck down using double-sided foam tape and I added another cream rose to secure the string. To finish the page, I added some pearls to the background.

As I used the lace stencil, this page is also for the Stencil, Die Cuts or Both challenge over at Try it on Tuesday where you still have another week to join in the fun!

Flowers and birds means this page also matches the Flora and Fauna theme over at Art Journal Journey that I’m hosting this month. This page marks the second week for this theme and I’d like to thank all of you who have joined in the fun, I hope you are enjoying getting creative with this theme!

A trip to the Blackbird café with friends is always welcome, today I’m sharing our tea – green tea for me and earl grey for my forever friend!

As it T Stands for Tuesday I’m saying a big hello to my T Gang friends and wishing you all a Happy T Day!

We often visit this café and I have posted about it a few times, you may remember these beautiful birdcages (grin!). If you want to see more of the café then here’s a link to my previous post.

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:

With the neutral colours I used, I’m also pleased to join the Simply Neutrals Tuesday party over at Apple Apricot.

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Flowers which I’m also joining with the roses and violets that I included on my page.

I’m pleased to join a new challenge blog today where the lovely Valerie is on the Design Team, it’s at Mixed Media World and their theme is Anything Goes…optional Pink.

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 Modeling Paste
• Pébéo White Gesso
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia B 175)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Prima Marketing Clear Stamps (Rossi Belle 587499)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Old Magazine
• Small tag envelopes
• Docrafts Papermania Label Stickers (Botanicals PMA157234)
• Recycled birthday card tag and string trim
• Dried teabags
• Penny Black Stickeroos (Vintage Roses #10-142)
• Poundworld (Pearl Embellishments 137920-A)
• Craft Sensations (Ivory Deco Flowers CR0736-GE)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Star Light, Star Bright

I was delighted to win the “Not a card” challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge recently and I was even more delighted when the goodies that I bought with my prize voucher arrived. I couldn’t wait to use them all so I created this page to celebrate my new stash of 4 stamp sets, 2 single stamps and a book of label letters.

As part of my celebratory page, I also decided to incorporate the current Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge of “Star Light, Star Bright” and also their Wednesday Challenge “Anything Goes” showcasing Tim Holtz products, as well as their logo colours of gold, brown, turquoise and pink.

I started by creating a star template to use as a mask, having stuck the star mask onto the page I chose one of the texture stamps from BoBunny and also a sponge stamp from Finnabair, stamping them both using black Ranger Archival Ink. I then outlined each of the stars using the mask and a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. I removed the mask and applied some Pébéo white gesso over the page to vary the tone of the background in readiness for the next layer of stamps and colour. Using the same black Archival Ink, I stamped three postage marks from the Rossi Belle stamp set onto the page and I also stamped two car “Component” stamp images by Tim Holtz onto a piece of white paper. I added them to each side of the page using a UHU Stic and cut off any excess paper so they fit the page. Next I applied Cracked Pistachio, Picked Raspberry and Ground Espresso Tim Holtz Distress Inks to the page using a blending tool, and also by diluting the ink on an acrylic block and pressing the block onto the page.

In the main I avoided getting these colours on the stars, however I wasn’t too worried as I thought any splashes of colour added to the grungy look of my page. I then coloured the stars using Fossilised Amber Distress Ink using it like you would watercolour; I did this by applying the ink to an acrylic block and using a paintbrush, varying the tone as I painted. I stamped a leaf silhouette by Simon Says Stamp and a berry branch by Inkadinkado using the same black Archival Ink. The wording is created using Label Letters from the Tim Holtz idea-ology collection and they are covered with Ranger Glossy Accents to give them a shine as the page is star themed. To finish, I also added some shine around the edge of the star and to the leaf silhouette and berries on the branches using the Glossy Accents again.

I’m so pleased to join my very dear friend Sheila from Orange Esmeralda who is hosting the “Let’s Celebrate” challenge over at Art Journal Journey, it’s a pleasure to  celebrate with you all (grin!).

I’m also joining in the fun over at Try it on Tuesday and their “Colourful” challenge with my bright starry page.

Here’s the goodies that I ordered from Simon Says Stamp, I’m so pleased with all the products and I’m sure that I will be using them often – thank you so much!

When I saw the “Star Light, Star Bright” challenge title it immediately reminded me of the nursery rhyme:

Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

So I based the wording I used on my page around this rhyme. If you are interested here’s some facts about this nursery rhyme:

• The words allude to the superstition that you can wish upon a star.
• It is believed to be of late 19th century American origin and reached Great Britain by the early twentieth century and is now known worldwide.
• The rhyme is often read to children at bedtime.
• “Star Light, Star Bright” is also part of the lyrics of Madonna’s 1983 single Lucky Star.

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:

• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Cracked Pistachio, Picked Raspberry, Ground Espresso, Fossilised Amber)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Homemade star mask
• BoBunny Stamps (Rough It Up #12105155)
• Prima Marketing Inc. Finnabair Clear Stamp (Sponge #961909)
• Prima Marketing Inc. Clear Stamps (Rossi Belle #587499)
• Tim Holtz Components Collections (COMO13CAR)
• Simon Says Stamp Clear Stamp Set (Leaves And Scribbles SSS101445)
• Inkadinkado Cling Stamps (Branches 65-32007)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology (Label Letters #TH93072)
• Ranger Glossy Accents