Christmas Wishes

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

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

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

I love Christmas and here’s a beautifully embroidered mat, that adorned our festive table whilst visiting family recently – wishing you a Safe and Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year! x

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

For the sake of brevity I am no longer listing the individual items that I used to create my page, however I’m more than happy to let you know which particular product was used if you contact me via comments below or using the following contact me link. You can find most of the products that I used over at Country View Crafts too.

Challenges

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

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

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

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

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

My wish for you

I can’t believe that it’s December already but here we are launching our December 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 to use three or more different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

With it being Christmas, I recycled an old Christmas card for this page and had fun experimenting, this time with acrylic paints, to try and match the design and colours of the card’s background. To do this, I painted Deep Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Hooker’s Green Hue Permanent and Mars Black Liquitex Basics paints onto the page and left them to dry. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and rubbed some of it off using a wet wipe to create the mottled effect. Then I splattered the whole page with white acrylic paint. Next I stuck the Christmas card image of the angel in place and added some rose gold star and dot outline stickers. The wording was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and reads “My wish for you…The blessed angels sing…Peace on earth, good-will to men…Words of hope and tender thought…Filled with joy and gladness” and “A Merry Christmas to all”.

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

Here’s another pretty angel that we light this time of year, she’s made from glass and is from Prague; a place we would normally visit at Christmastime (grin!).

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x
Wishing you a very Happy December and Festive Season!

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 join the following challenges:

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

Happy Holidays/Christmas challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Christmas page.

Challenge #106 – Anything Christmas Goes over at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge with my Christmas art journal page.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Sparkle Mode challenge with the sparkling sky and stars that I created for this page.

Yuletide Delights over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my pretty Christmas angel page.

Sparkles Christmas Monthly and their #131 Non-Traditional Colours challenge with my purple, green and black page.

Yule Tide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hoping that you are all staying safe and well!

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

For the sake of brevity I’m no longer listing the individual items that I used to create my page, however I’m more than happy to let you know which particular product was used if you contact me via comments below or using the following contact me link. You can also check out Country View Crafts as they sell many of the Tim Holtz and Ranger products that I used.

Challenges

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

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

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

Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Yule Tide page.

Challenge #106 – Anything Christmas Goes over at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge with my Christmas art journal page.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Sparkle Mode challenge with the gold embossing powder adding sparkle to my page.

Autumn Blessings

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

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

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

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

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

Hope that you’re all staying safe and well!

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

Challenges

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s all about time

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is It’s all about time.

For this challenge I was inspired by the time I have spent this month celebrating my hubby’s birthday and also our wedding anniversary. I hope are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!

The background was a wallpaper sample detailing a large clock face, roses and the words “Take time to love the little things”; it was stuck in place using a glue stick and then cut to size, and I collaged the remnants together to create the panel on the left-hand side of the page. I also added more detail to the rose images using a white Uniball gel pen so they stood out more. Next I stamped the two clock faces onto some design paper by American Crafts using black Archival Ink and a couple of stamp sets by Kaisercraft. I cut them out and arranged them onto the page with some silver roses and circles which were outline stickers and a quote from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet which reads “Love the time we spend together”. To finish, I fussy cut the two butterflies from the wallpaper sample and stuck them onto the page.

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

As T Stands for Tuesday and we’ve been out celebrating, I’m sharing our drinks and meal that we enjoyed for our wedding anniversary (time sure does fly, we celebrated 33 years of marriage this year!). My hubby had chicken with black pudding in a mustard sauce and I had a warm bacon and chicken salad; I couldn’t eat all mine so we had some for lunch the next day (grin!).

Cheers and Happy T Day!

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

For the sake of brevity I am no longer listing the individual items that I used to create my page, however I’m more than happy to let you know which particular product was used if you contact me via comments below or using the following contact me link.

Challenges

As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today with my page:

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #154 – Anything Goes with my page.

Thinking of you over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

MIUCB#54 – Anything Goes + Paper Piecing challenge over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog.

Love to Craft Challenge Blog and their LTCCB#63 – October Anything Goes challenge.

Batty Halloween

I love this time of year, so my page today is inspired by autumnal colours and some spooky bats to celebrate Halloween; I hope you like it!

I started by adding the large leaves, which were some leftover pieces of Botanicals Collage Paper by Tim Holtz, sticking them in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I smooshed lots of Distress Inks over the page, the colours I used were Seedless Grapes, Spiced Marmalade and Twisted Citron. Next I added more foliage using an Urban Tapestry stamp set by Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink and then I splattered the page with black DecoArt acrylic paint. The black wreath circles and bats were die cut from black cardstock using a couple of Sizzix Thinlits sets; they were Pretty Wreath Thinlits by Peter Hughes and Halloween Hangouts Thinlits by Tim Holtz. The “Halloween” wording was created using letters from some Chipboard Quote chips by Tim Holtz. To finish, I added three Small Talk stickers which were also by Tim Holtz and read “stay curious”, “don’t forget to fly” and “be brave”.

Tracey was asking if I have lights on my autumn window display, well as you can see here I do (grin!).

I even have bats up for Halloween too and I managed to capture them here with the moon shining through the window – so spooky (double grin!).

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 with my Batty Halloween page:

Art Journal Journey and lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations  who is hosting this month with her My favourite colour is October challenge as Halloween and the colours are synonymous with October.

October Anything Halloween challenge over at the Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge.

Grunge, Ghouls or Giggles over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog with my grungy page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #154 – Anything Goes with my page.

Spooky/Halloween challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

LTSCB #150 – Anything But A Card over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with this Halloween art journal page.

Spooky/Halloween challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Challenge #6 Mixed Media Lovers with my mixed media Halloween page; this is a new challenge so I thought I’d join in the fun!

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.