Mere colours …

As I shared a Halloween page to launch our Autumnal Colours and/or Halloween challenge over at Country View Challenges this month, my second creation is an autumnal art journal page featuring a beautiful quote by Oscar Wilde.

For the background I stuck a piece of kitchen towel onto the page which had been stained with Crackling Campfire, Rusty Hinge, Fossilized Amber, Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso and Peeled Paint Distress Inks. It was stuck down using Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I stamped some fern images over the top using a Leaf Prints Tim Holtz stamp set and Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink. Then I used the fern stamp again to add the gold ferns using a VersaMark Watermark stamp pad and some Gold Ranger embossing powder. I edged the page using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and I stamped the quote using an old alphabet stamp set and some black Archival Ink. To finish, I used a white gel pen to make the letters stand out more; the quote is by Oscar Wilde and reads “Mere colour … can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways”.

I hope you are inspired to join our Autumnal Colours and/or Halloween 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 (grin!).

At this time of year, I always find myself thinking for our dearest friends in Maine (America) and the holidays we’ve enjoyed with them. The autumnal colours and ferns remind me of our woodland walks around their lake property.

Like the quote says, the autumnal colours speak to my soul – so breathtaking (grin!).

A few years ago, we even celebrated our wedding anniversary whilst we were there (double grin!). It seems like yesterday that me and my hubby got married but this year we find ourselves celebrating 33 years of marriage – sending my hubby all my love on our Anniversary and always! x

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’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 Ranger and Tim Holtz products I used too.

Challenges I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey and lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations  who is hosting this month with her My favourite colour is October challenge with my autumnal coloured October page (15x15cm). Fall Gratitude challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog as I’m being thankful and paying homage to the autumn season with my quote and fall colours. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #153 – Anything Goes with my autumnal page. LTSCB #150 – Anything But A Card over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my autumnal mini art journal page celebrating autumn. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Not A Card challenge with my autumnal mini chipboard art journal page. Challenge #6 Mixed Media Lovers with my mixed media autumnal page; this is a new challenge so I thought I’d join in the fun!

Everyday is a true blessing

I had so much fun creating this mixed media page and as using up leftovers is one of my crafting goals this year, I used some leftover paper that I had coloured using Kuretake watercolour to create my autumnal leaves for this page too (grin!).

Don’t forget that you still have until the end of this month to join our #76 Challenge – Anything Mixed Media Goes over at Creative Artiste; you just need to use three different mediums to join in the fun – I hope to see you there!

I started by covering the chipboard background with a layer of Pébéo white gesso and left it to dry, and then I applied a layer of black chalk paint over the top. When dry, I sanded the page in a vertical motion using a piece of sandpaper to expose some of the white gesso underneath to create a worn vintage chalkboard appearance. Next I created the leaves using some leftover paper that was coloured using Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Scarlet Kuretake watercolour paints; I die cut three sizes of the same leaf shape from a Fall Foliage Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and then I applied some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the leaves to give them more of a grungy look. I stuck the “Everyday is a true blessing” wording in place, which was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet, and then I arranged the leaves around it using Liquitex matte gel medium. I added dots of Pumpkin Ranger Liquid Pearls and to finish, I splattered the page with the white gesso and also the black chalk paint.

As we had frosts in April that affected the apple blossom, I feel very blessed for the crop of Braeburn apples that we picked this year from our apple trees in our garden. I used some of them to make this delicious cinnamon apple cake with maple frosting which goes perfectly with my cuppa for T Stands for Tuesday – wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well!

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

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 I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey and lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations  who is hosting this month with her My favourite colour is October challenge with my autumn blessings page (15x15cm). Chalk it Up! challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog with the chalk paint background on my autumnal page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #153 – Anything Goes with my autumn blessings page. #144 Autumn Colours over at Sparkles Monthly Challenges with the autumn colours I used on this page. LTSCB #150 – Anything But A Card over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my autumnal mini art journal page. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Not A Card challenge with my autumnal mini chipboard art journal page. Challenge #6 Mixed Media Lovers with my mixed media autumnal page; this is a new challenge so I thought I’d join in the fun!

Be still and listen

It’s a new month so we are launching our October challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by the sunny Indian Summer we’ve been having of late, so I’ve transported us back to a summer walk along the Lancashire canal and the lovely yellow Iris that we saw flowering there (grin!).

I started by ripping and collaging some sheet music and design papers from Kaisercraft and American Crafts onto the page using a glue stick. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso and Salvaged Patina Distress Paint over the top. When dry, I added lots of small pieces of design paper, which I had leftover in my craft stash, using Liquitex matte gel medium to stick them in place. The fern foliage and yellow Iris flowers were washi tape stickers and I cut the pretty butterfly image from some Kaisercraft design paper. To finish, I added the wording which were Finnabair stickers that I edged with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker; they read “Be still. Listen.”, “Just breathe” and “Be led by your dreams”.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. All you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see join you there!

We always enjoy this walk along the canal and seeing the different boats, plants and wildlife along the way.

Here’s a view of one of the bridges where we saw the pretty yellow Iris flowering along the waters edge; it’s such a beautiful and peaceful place to walk (grin!).

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x

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

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 Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Touchy Feely challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the texture I created using the leftover paper pieces which I layered together on this page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #153 – Anything Goes with my summer walk art journal page. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my Indian Summer inspired page.

Leave your fears behind

The new challenge for October over at Country View Challenges is Autumnal Colours and/or Halloween.

This challenge is being hosted by the lovely Corrie who “would like you to make something in yellow ochres, burnt oranges, muted greens and/or browns OR you could go all out on the oranges, greens and/or purples with a Halloween project”.

I love autumnal colours so I created this Halloween page to wish you a Happy October!

I covered the bottom of the page with Crackling Campfire Distress Ink and the top of the page using Fossilized Amber Distress Ink using a blending tool; blending the two colours together when I reached the centre of the page. Next I used two Visible Image stamp sets which were a “Leave all your fears behind” stamp set for the crow, trees and wording, and a “Learn to fly again” stamp set for the birds. Layering the different stamp images together, to create my page design, using black archival ink and black Ranger embossing powder. I finished by splattering the page with some water, to reactivate the Distress Inks so that some of the ink was removed too when I mopped up the water with some kitchen towel, which completed the grungy Halloween look.

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 Autumnal Colours and/or Halloween challenge too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).

October means that it’s time to add some Halloween pieces to my autumn display like these fun pumpkin window clings – wishing you a happy autumn and Halloween!

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/Ranger and Visible Image products I used too.

Challenges As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey and lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations  who is hosting this month with her My favourite colour is October challenge with my October autumnal colours/Halloween page. Challenge #144 Autumn Colours over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge with my autumnal coloured Halloween page. Touchy Feely challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the glossy texture that I created using the embossing powders on this page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #153 – Anything Goes with my autumn colours Halloween page. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my art journaling Fall/Halloween page.

A very wonderful place

As you may remember one of my goals this year is to recycle and use up leftovers in my craft stash, so I created this vintage page using some recycled items; I hope you like it (grin!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink using a blending tool. Then I added lots of postage marks and text using a Craft Sensations stamp set and Black Soot Distress Archival Ink. I splattered the page using some Black Soot Distress Ink and edged it with a black Faber-Castell marker. Then I added a piece of die cut lace cardstock, which was recycled from a wedding invitation, to the right hand side of the page. The pretty postage stamp, featuring two wrens, was also recycled from my hubby’s childhood stamp collection. It was mounted onto a piece of black cardstock, also recycled from the wedding invitation, and then framed using two pieces of lace border which were outline stickers. I added the wording which were from a Clippings sticker set by Tim Holtz and to finish, I splattered some black and white acrylic paint over the page.

My hubby very kindly gifted me his childhood postage stamp collection for my art journaling. Many of the postage stamps are displayed in a large book but some, like this wren stamp, were part of a collection and still mounted on their original book pages. This Wild Birds stamp was a special issue from Hungary being published between 1973-1974.

Here’s it’s original page with the other stamps that formed part of the collection and wow, as you can see at the time they only cost 10p. It’s so interesting that they list the prices for this collection for other countries too, as you can see under the postage stamps on the bottom of the page (grin!).

Hoping that you’re all stay 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 I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey and lovely Wendy K from wendyscraftjournal.blogspot.com who is hosting this month with her Vintage challenge with my vintage style page. Stitch It challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog with all the faux lace on my page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #152 – Anything Goes with my vintage page. LTSCB #149 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my vintage mini art journal page which includes stamping. MIUCB #53 – Anything Goes + Monochrome over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my distress techniques that I used to create my vintage page.

Be forever happy

It’s a new month so we are launching our September challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, this is a monthly challenge and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

I created a mixed media page using lots of leftovers from previous art journal pages; I hope you like it!

I started by covering the background of the page with the letters using one of stencils from a #16 mini stencil set by Tim Holtz and some leftover Iced Coffee Faber-Castell Gelato which was applied with a baby wipe.

Next I edged 4 Poster Cards from Tim Holtz, like I did all the paper elements on this page, using a black Faber-Castell marker and arranged them onto the page using double-sided tape. Then I added lots of leftover bits and pieces; this included a piece of mixed media paper which had been coloured using green Distress Inks, some flowers and foliage that had been die cut using Tim Holtz Thinlits and coloured using Distress Inks, some ribbon, some torn paper, some tissue paper and note paper that had been stamped using Finnabair stamps and black Archival Ink, a ruler from a Kaisercraft Journal Card and some die cut pieces of trellis that had been covered with Aged Silver Stampendous Embossing Enamel.

They were arranged onto the page using a glue stick or double-sided tape, and I layered together a doily, a recycled butterfly gift tag and some leftover die cut letters and wording to read “Be forever happy”. I added some sparkly gems to the centre of the yellow flowers and a green wooden bird and then to finish, I coloured the “Aug” and “Sept” wording on the Poster Card using Tri-Blend Spectrum Noir markers.

As you can see I used lots of different mediums to create this page but all you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our Anything Mixed Media Goes Challenge.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. I hope you are inspired to join us; it would be lovely to see you there!

This page was inspired by our walks at Lytham Hall that we enjoyed over the summer (grin!).

There are lots of woodland walks so we were able to stay cool in the shade and out of the summer heat. I’m now looking forward to seeing the leaves change to their colours over the coming months with the autumn on its way.

Our walks also take us by these flower borders in the walled gardens which always look so beautiful (grin!).

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x

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

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.

Challenges As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #151 – Anything Goes with my nature art journal page. De-stress with distressing over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my distressed grungy stencilled background, Distress Inks, and also the torn papers, trellis and ribbon. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Glimmer and Sparkle challenge with the glimmer and sparkle of the yellow flowers with their glittery gem centres. LTSCB #149 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my leftovers page. Mixed Media Lovers and their Challenge #5 Mixed Media Lovers as I used lots of mixed media to create this nature page; this is a new challenge blog so why not join in the fun too!

Book pages

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Use Book Pages.

I have some old books in my craft stash that I use for my art journaling and I used quite a few different books to create this page, in fact the only items that aren’t book pages are the sparkly butterflies (grin!).

I started by collaging the background with lots of different torn book pages from an old dictionary from my school days, a Pears Cyclopaedia, an old David Copperfield novel and an old novel with Kraft paper pages. They are stuck down using a glue stick and some Liquitex matte gel medium, and I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and left it to dry.

Next I fussy cut the gladioli image from an old garden flower book and stuck it in place using a glue stick.

Then I die cut some pages of an old poetry book to create the red border (using a Spellbinders set) and the “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? …” sonnet by William Shakespeare; I layered them together and stuck them onto the page using double-sided tape.

To finish, I added some pretty butterflies to add some sparkle.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and see how our Guest Designer and Design Teamies used book pages on their wonderful creations too (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

I always look for books for my art journaling in charity shops and here are two books that I bought back in 2013 with every intention of using them on my pages, but they are so beautiful and precious that instead they remain on my bookshelf and I find myself reading them often. As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my “With a cup of tea” book with the T Gang today and wishing you all a Happy T Day!

My page was also inspired by these beautiful gladioli that are flowering in our garden 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.

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.

Challenges I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with my type on the book pages I used on this page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my typewriter art journal page. De-stress with distressing over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my distressed book pages which I achieved by tearing them and covering them with white gesso. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Glimmer and Sparkle challenge with the glimmer and sparkle of the butterflies on my page. Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my art journal page.

Own your story

I really enjoy creating these mini pages in my chipboard art journal, and I had so much fun making these typewriter keys using some new Distress products and the Typewriter 3D Texture Fades from Tim Holtz (grin!).

For the background, I covered the page with my new Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and a tiny amount of black DecoArt acrylic paint to dull the colour. When dry, I dragged a Black Soot Distressl Ink pad vertically down the page and then applied some Liquitex matte gel medium over the top using a paint brush to create a woodgrain effect.

For the typewriter letters, I started by covering a piece of mixed media paper with the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and my new Crackling Campfire Distress Ink and left it to dry. Then I dry embossed the paper using the Typewriter 3D Texture Fades by Tim Holtz. To highlight the texture, I dragged a black archival ink pad over the top of the letters to colour them and applied some Iced Coffee metallic Faber-Castell gelato smudging the colour with my finger. Then I splattered some Tarnished Brass Distress Paint over the top which finished the worn grungy look. They were cut out, edged with a black Faber-Castell big brush marker and then stuck into place using either double-sided or double-sided foam tape.

To finish, I added the typewriter which was stamped using a stamping platform, a stamp set from Craft Sensations and some black Archival Ink; it was stamped onto some of the mixed media paper that I had coloured with the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and Crackling Campfire Distress Ink. I fussy cut it out and added the wording “own your story” which was a rub-on transfer from a Tiny Text Remnant Rubs set by Tim Holtz.

As T Stands for Tuesday and to link the the story theme of my page, I’m sharing these fabulous teapots that we saw whilst out walking; they were in a charity store window and feature Robin Hood, Dick Turpin and Shakespeare – Happy T Day everyone!

Hoping that you are 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’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.

Challenges I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with my typewriter page (this mini art journal page measures 15x15cm). Dry Emboss challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I used Tim Holtz 3D Texture Fades to dry emboss the typewriter letters for my page. LTSCB #148 – Old School over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my old school typewriter as they are generally not used nowadays with computers etc (grin!). Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my typewriter art journal page. Mixed Media Lovers Challenge Blog and their Challenge #4 Mixed Media Lovers with my mixed media page; this is a new blog so why not join in the fun too! MIUCB #52 – Anything Goes + Mixed Media over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different materials and techniques that I used to create the background and typewriter letters for this fun mixed media page.

Memories filled with cheer

It’s a new month so we are launching our August challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

All you need to do is use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see you there!

I started by colouring the edge of the page with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker and smudging the ink with my finger. Then I added the design paper to the top left-hand corner; I ripped and distressed the edges of the paper using a pair of scissors before sticking it in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. I also tore and distressed the edges of the sheet music, and I used a new technique by using water to dampen the top left-hand corner of the sheet music so that the paper could be manipulated more easily in order to fold it back before applying some matte gel medium to hold it in place. Next I applied some Brushed Corduroy and Tea Dye Distress Inks, that I had diluted with water, to give the music sheet more of a worn and vintage look. The vintage images were Washi tape stickers which I adhered to some white cardstock and then cut out; they were stuck in place using the matte gel medium. I added a dark brown brad to the tag image and then I stuck the paper flowers and leaves, which were by Little Birdie, in place using glue dots. To finish, I added the Kaisercraft sticker wording which reads “memories filled with cheer”.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.

The sheet music on this page was gifted me by my sister and brings back so many happy memories of her playing either her piano or violin when I was young – they definately were “memories filled with cheer!” (grin!).

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x

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

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 Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with the typed wording on the tag and quote that I added to my page. LTSCB #148 – Old School over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my vintage designed page. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Summertime Blues challenge with the blue design paper, images and flowers on my page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my vintage page. The Birthday Celebration! challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I’m sure they have many “memories filled with cheer” as they celebrate their 11th Birthday – thanks for all the challenge fun over the years and wishing you all a very Happy Birthday! MIUCB #52 – Anything Goes + Mixed Media over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the mixed media and techniques that I used to create this vintage page. Mixed Media Lovers and their Challenge #4 Mixed Media Lovers; this is a new blog challenge blog that’s just starting up so I’m so pleased to be able to join them.

Celebrate Summer

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing a mini art journal page for this month’s Monochromatic challenge to celebrate summer.

With all the fabulous summer sunshine we’ve been enjoying recently, my monochromatic page features shades of yellow and was created using Tim Holtz products.

I started by preparing the chipboard page with a layer of white gesso and then I coloured the page various shades of yellow using Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, and Scattered Straw Distress Inks. Then I sprayed some White Linen Dylusions Spray Ink over the top and left it to dry. I applied some Ranger texture paste through a stencil from a #16 mini stencil set by Tim Holtz; the wet texture paste reactivated the inks turning it yellow so I sprayed some more of the White Linen Dylusions Spray Ink over the top. When dry, I stencilled some numbers and letters around the texture paste using the two other Tim Holtz stencils from the #16 set and some Fossilized Amber ink. For the flowers, I used a stamping platform to stamp the flower heads and stems onto some mixed media paper using a Flower Garden stamp set and the Fossilized Amber ink. They were coloured using the Mustard Seed and Fossilized Amber inks which I applied like watercolour paint, then I cut them out and stuck them in place using matte gel medium. For the wording, I die cut the letters from some mixed media paper, which I had coloured with the Fossilized Amber ink, using an Alphanumeric Label Thinlits set. The letters were stuck onto two banners which were die cut from white cardstock using a Tag Collection Framelits set. To finish, I splattered some white DecoArt acrylic paint over the page.

I hope you are inspired to join our Monochromatic 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 (grin!).

The colours, flowers and wording on this page were inspired by a visit to the Garden Hub Plant Centre at Lytham Hall whilst out walking.

Where we saw these gorgeous yellow cone shaped flowers called Echinacea.

There were also handwritten chalkboard signs displayed amongst the flowers, including this one which inspired the “Celebrate Summer” wording on my page (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.

Here is a list of the materials from Country View Crafts that I used to create this art journal page:

• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Mustard Seed
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Fossilized Amber
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Scattered Straw
• Ranger Dylusions Ink Sprays – White Linen
• Ranger – Texture Paste – 3 Pack
• MTHS016 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil – Mini Stencil Set #16
• CMS215 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Cling Mounted Stamp Set – Flower Garden Stamp Set
• 660200 Sizzix Big Shot Machine Only (White & Gray)
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Alphanumeric Label)
• 658784 Sizzix Framelits Die Set 8PK – Tag Collection By Tim Holtz
• DecoArt Acrylic (White)

Challenges As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with the typed die cuts that I used on my page. Shimmering Summer Fun Challenge over at The Funky Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my shimmery and summery yellow shabby chic page. The Birthday Celebration! challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge who are marking their 11th Birthday with my summer celebration page – thanks for all the challenge fun over the years and wishing you all a very Happy Birthday! Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #149 – Anything Goes with my summer page. MIUCB #52 – Anything Goes + Mixed Media over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my happy summer page.