Beer & Ale

I created another masculine page for our It’s a Man’s World challenge over at Try it on Tuesday where there is still another week to join in the fun, it would be lovely to see you there!

This time my page celebrates Beer & Ale using some vintage images from old magazines and a background that I had created sometime ago to experiment whilst trying out a new technique using Brushos – such fun!

For the background, I stamped a Steampunk Background stamp from Docrafts onto the page using a Versamark Watermark stamp pad and then I sprinkled Sandstone, Dark Brown, Terracotta and Yellow Ochre Colourcraft Brusho Powders over the top and used a paintbrush to brush the powder over the stamp images so that it clung to the Watermark Ink. Then I then spritzed the page with water a few times and watched the Brusho colours burst to life; if you want the stamping to be more defined spritz lightly with water – such a fun technique! Next I fussy cut some vintage brewery and beer images from some old magazines, stuck them in place using a glue stick and outlined them with a black Uni Pin Marker. The “2/11” plaque, letters for the “beer” and “ale” wording and large button are all Salvage Stickers from Tim Holtz. Next I added the cogs and gears which are wooden chipboard pieces from Boozybear using Ranger Glossy Accents and to finish, the words “collect beautiful moments” which are Small Talk stickers from Tim Holtz.

As you probably know by now, me and hubby like our beer and I thought Bleubeard and Elizabeth over at T Stands for Tuesday may like the story of how this beer came to be called Old Tom. It’s brewed at Robinsons Brewery in Stockport, Cheshire and it’s almost as old as the brewery itself. It’s a dangerous 8.5% ABV, that’s why I only have a taster in my glass (grin!). This beer was born in 1899, when Tom, the old brewery cat, was sketched into immortality by the head brewer. It is rich and warming, and has a distinctive deep port wine finish, with bitter hops balanced by the heady aromas of dark fruit – cheers and Happy T Day!

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

Challenges

I’m pleased to join the lovely Halle of Halle’s Hobbies and her Words to live by challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the words “collect beautiful moments”.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, their theme is Transport It, so I’m pleased to join in the fun as you can see in the images that the beers on my page are being transported by men, locomotives, horse and carts.

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

• Tsukineko Versamark (Watermark Stamp Pad)
• Colourcraft Brusho Colours (Sandstone, Dark Brown, Terracotta, Yellow Ochre)
• Docrafts Creativity Essentials A5 clear stamp set (Steampunk Background DCE907128)
• Old Magazines
• Uni Pin Fine Line Marker (Black 0.2mm)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Salvage Stickers (Crowded Attic #TH93898)
• Boozybear Chipboard Pieces (Cogs andGears)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Stickers (Small Talk # TH93193)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Pritt Stick

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Lytham St. Annes

Loving the happy colours of some vintage images of Lytham St. Annes that I found in a magazine, I was inspired to create this happy page to celebrate where we live and sunshiny weather which I have been wishing for of late (grin!).

I started by blending some white and blue Liquitex acrylic paints to cover the background of the page; varying the colours and also adding some Peach Liquitex acrylic paint to produce an aged and worn look. Next I added some blue and white striped washi tape vertically and horizontally onto the page, then lots of rub-on transfers and stickers to build up the design; they include some vintage black and white rub-on transfers, some beach designed stickers and rub-on transfers and also some 3D fabric flower and heart stickers. I used a black Uni Pin marker to outline some of them so they stood out more. To finish, I cut out the Majestic Hotel and Lytham St. Annes images from a local advertising magazine, mounted them onto some black paper and stuck them to the page using double-sided tape or foam tape.

We feel very blessed to live by the sea and there is nothing better than walking along the beach. One of our favourite regular walks is with our very good friend, where we start at Fairhaven Lake …

…. and walk alongside the dunes towards the beach which you can just about see in the distance …

… along the beach passing the beach huts …

…. and past the pier and then back along the promenade returning to Fairhaven Lake. It’s about 4.25 miles and we always see lots along the way whether it’s winter birds or the summer tourists (grin!).

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

Challenges

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

I’m pleased to join the lovely Halle of Halle’s Hobbies and her Words to live by challenge over at Art Journal Journey as the words say Lytham St. Annes is the perfect resort especially when you live here (grin!).

I’m happy to join the #193 Here Comes The Sun challenge over at Moo Mania & More with my sunshiny page.

I’m joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Vacation challenge with my Lytham St. Annes art journal page.

I’m also joining the Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday Summer Vibes! Challenge as this page reminds me of summer.

Don’t forget that you still have over a week to join the It’s a Man’s World challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too, it would be lovely to see you there!

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

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Swedish Blue, Navy, Apricot)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.5mm)
• The Works (Washi Tape Set)
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Create-A-Collage (Travel Collage #ROY-871)
• Craft Planet Metallic Waterfall Sticker Set (Beach PO#9622)
• Wilko (Let’s Create A5 Stickers)
• Old Magazine
• Coloured Paper (Black)
• Stix2 double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Make a wish

With the garden blooming with colour and happiness, I created a bright coloured flowery art journal page which was also inspired by a few of my favourite challenge blogs – I hope you like it!

I started this page by collaging pieces of flowery decoupage paper onto the background using Liquitex matte gel medium and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso. When it was dry I used a couple of stencils to add dots over the white gesso using Abandoned Coral and Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink. Next I stamped the flower images from Magenta using black Archival Ink and coloured them using red, orange, pink, purple, yellow, light and dark green Uni Posca paint pens. I added more detail to the flowers using a black Uni Pin marker and a white Uniball gel pen and then added some sparkle using Ranger Stickles. The fairy is a wooden shape which is coloured black using a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and covered with some glitter glue; it is stuck in place using Ranger Glossy Accents. I doodled lots of small dots using the white, pink, yellow and green Uni Posca paint pen and outlined them using a black Uni Pin maker. The “make a wish” wording, which I thought the fairy may be asking, is a sticker from Kaisercraft and I outlined it using a black Uni Pin pen so it stood out more. To finish, I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint.

The flowers are starting to bloom in our garden, here’s what our flower beds look like at the moment.

They have changed so much over the last few months as we head towards summer (grin!).

Challenges

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

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika N, also known as BioArtGal, who is hosting the In the Sky/In the Air challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the fairy flying between the flowers on my page.

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Use Stencils! challenge as I used a couple of  dot stencils on my art journal page.

I’m also joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Bright Colors Moodboard challenge with the bright colours and purple flowers on my page.

There are a few more days left to join our 10^th Birthday Party at Try it on Tuesday, so grab our badge and join in the fun, be colourful and share your art that you love to create with us.

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
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Abandoned Coral, Cracked Pistachio)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Uni Posca Paint Pen (Red, Orange, Pink, Purple, Yellow, Light Green, Dark Green)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.2mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Marker (Black 199)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Stencil (Dots)
• Magenta Self-Cling Stamp (Delicate Daisies C40296-0)
• DecoTime (Patch Paper DS9454)
• The Works (Fairy Shapes)
• Ranger Stickles (Icicle)
• Hobbycraft (Light Green Glitter Glue)
• Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet (Secret Garden SS283)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Ranger Glossy Accents

Birthday Wishes

As it’s our 10^th birthday at Try it on Tuesday and I always enjoy a lovely cocktail when it’s my birthday, I thought we could raise a glass at the Let’s Party challenge too!

You are invited to join our party which lasts for another week so have fun, be colourful and share the art that you like to create with us. To celebrate we also have our 10^th birthday party logo that you can display on your blog too.

I started with a purple background from a previous project that had gone wrong so I covered it with white gesso and when it was dry I scribbled on some Passion Fruit and Coconut Faber-Castell gelatos over the top and smudged them with my finger which I had wet with water. As gelatos reactivate when wet and I wanted to keep the next layers of colour crisp, I covered the page with Pébéo transparent gesso to fix the gelato colour in place. Next I added three pieces of sheet music using Liquitex matte gel medium and applied some DecoArt white acrylic paint over the page using a brayer. I stencilled some Vivid Lime Green Liquitex acylic paint through an Art Mask from Carabelle Studio and left it to dry. Then I applied some Red Cherry Faber-Castell gelato along the edges of the page and also to define the edges of the sheet music pieces; smudging it with my finger again. Next I cut the tag from some Kaisercraft paper using a Tim Holtz Framelits die and my Big Shot machine, and edged it with Red Cherry and Lime Faber-Castell gelatos. I tied a piece of lime green ribbon to the tag and stuck to the page using a glue stick. I created the large chevron shape on the left-hand side of the page from three pieces of washi tape and added the flowers, circular wording and circles which are stickers from Kaisercraft; some are fussy cut and edged with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. I also edged the page with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and splattered the whole page with black DecoArt acrylic paint. The cocktail image is recycled from an old birthday card; it is fussy cut and stuck in place using a glue stick. I stamped the words “happy”, “birthday wishes” and “sparkle” using a stamp set from Paperbabe Stamps and black Archival Ink. To finish, I added three mini butterflies and also some tiny red gemstones to add more sparkle.

My friend sent me this card as we always celebrate my birthday with a cocktail and she knows that a cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a cosmo happens to be one of my favourites (grin!).

If you are interested it’s made with ½oz Fresh lime juice, 1oz Cranberry juice, ½oz Cointreau, 1½oz Vodka. Place all the ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake well and strain into a large cocktail glass – yum (double grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m joining the T Gang and wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

Challenges 

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika from the blog BioArtGal  and her In the Sky/In the Air challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the butterflies flying up my page – maybe wou’d like to join me for a cocktail Erica (grin!).

I’m joining in the Happy Hour challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my birthday cocktail page – cheers!

I’m pleased to join the Paperbabe Stamps Challenge #93 – Sketch as the sketch inspired my page design.

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 Gesso (White, Transparent)
• Faber-Castell Gelato (Passion Fruit, Coconut, Red Cherry, Lime)
• Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic (Vivid Lime Green)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White, Black)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Carabelle Studio Art Mask (Sur Fond de Mosaique MA60049)
• Sizzix Framelits Tim Holtz Alterations (Tag Collection 658784)
• Paperbabe Stamps (Birthday Wishes Stamp Set)
• Sheet Music
• Kaisercraft Paper Fiesta! Collection (Siesta P1859)
• Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet (Fiesta! SS284, Say Aloha SS281)
• Recycled Birthday Card
• Michael’ Washi Tape
• Ribbon (Lime Green)
• Docrafts Papermania (Adhesive Stones – Red PMA351607)
• Poundland (Mini Glitter Embellishments 59409)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Pritt Stick

Tulips

I’m so delighted with the new tulips which are currently flowering in our garden that I have created this bright and colourful page to remember them (grin!).

I started by applying Hickory Smoke, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron Distress Ink to the page by stamping the ink pads onto an acrylic block, spritzing with water and pressing the block onto the page. Then I used the same Distress Inks to stamp some Halftone circles from Altnew and also to add some dots using a blending tool through a stencil. To add some contrast, I stencilled a honeycomb pattern using Black Soot Distress Ink and then I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint. The tulips are fussy cut from an old flower book and stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium and when they were dry, I outlined them using a black Uni Pin marker. To finish, I added the wording to capture the look and feel of the beautiful tulips in my garden: “sunshine”, “April” and “tulips” are rub-on transfers by Royal & Langnickel; “you colour my life”, “this is awesome” and “smile” are from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet.

Our flower bed currently looks like this with the tulips adding some amazing pops of colour alongside the pretty bluebells.

Last October we planted two different types on tulips in assorted colours which are beautiful and they have been flowering for about 4 weeks now (grin!). These are standard tulips …

… and these fringed tulips which have a pretty frilly edge along their petals.

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 Wendy from Wendy’s Art and Craft Journal  and her Having Fun challenge over at Art Journal Journey as I had fun creating this page to remember the beautiful tulips in our garden.

I’m joining the Spring Fever challenge over at Moo Mania & More with my spring tulips page.

I’m also happy to join in the Easter and/or Spring challenge over at Country View Challenges with my spring tulip art journal page.

I’m joining in the Going Around In Circles challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge too as I included stamped, stencilled and sticker circles on my page.

I’m also pleased to join the Flowers/Garden challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my art journal page that was inspired by the tulips in my garden.

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

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

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

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Hickory Smoke, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Altnew Clear Stamp Set (Halftone Circles)
• Stencil (Dots)
• That’s Crafty! Dinky Stencil (Reverse Honeycomb Background TC031)
• The Oxford Book of Garden Flowers
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Sentiments (Spring #ROY506, Summer #ROY505)
• Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet (Fiesta! SS284)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Springtime

Our new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday is Springtime.

As usual, you have two weeks to create your art, you can use any medium and digital is always welcome. Don’t forget to check out the wonderful inspiration provided by the Design Team over at the blog too!

Inspired by springtime flowers, I collaged the background of the page using Tim Holtz Collage Paper and some white paper that I had stamped using a lilac stamp; they are stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. As I was experimenting stamping the lilacs using Magenta, Purple, Moss, Bud Green and Chocolate Spectrum Aqua Markers to give a watercolour effect I thought I would use them on this page rather than throw them away. Then using black Versafine Ink, I stamped the “springtime” wording using an alphabet stamp and also added some clocks, both from Docrafts, as well as some bees and butterflies from Hampton Arts. The daffodils are fussy cut from an old flower book and stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. When the gel medium was dry, I outlined them with a black Uni Pin marker. To finish, I coloured the wording using light green, yellow and pink Uni Posca paint pens and then covered each of the letters with Ranger Glossy Accents to give a 3D effect.

Whilst out walking around Glasson Dock for my birthday we saw lots of beautiful daffodils along the roadside.

These daffodils look just like the ones on my page (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing our pot of green tea that we had at a lovely café in Glasson Dock – Happy T Day everyone!

Challenges

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

I’m pleased to join the lovely Wendy from Wendy’s Art and Craft Journal  and her Having Fun challenge over at Art Journal Journey as my page links to having springtime fun.

I’m happy to be able to join the Easter and/or Spring challenge over at Country View Challenges with my springtime page.

I’m also joining in the Beautiful Blooms challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the stamped lilacs and pretty daffodils on my page.

Over at The Artistic Stamper, their challenge is New Growth, so I’m pleased to join this challenge too with my springtime 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:

• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Magenta, Purple, Moss, Bud Green, Chocolate)
• Versafine Ink (Onyx Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.2mm)
• Uni Posca Paint Pen (Light Green, Pink, Yellow)
• Docrafts Papermanina Tina Higgins wooden stamp (Lilac PMA9061108)
• Docrafts Creative Essentials A5 clear stamp set (Steampunk DCE9071102)
• Hampton Art Graphic 45 cling mounted rubber stamps (Tropical Travelogue ICO134)
• Hampton Art 7 Gypsies Vintage cling mounted rubber stamps (Birdsong ICO151)
• Lion White Paper
• Tim Holtz Collage Paper (Halloween #TH93727)
• Oxford Book of Flowers
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

One Spring Night

As I’m hosting Art Journal Journey this month I have created another springtime page for my Hello Springtime theme. I hope you are enjoying the theme so far, we have had so many amazing entries and there is just under a week left for you to join in the fun, I hope to see you there!

This page was created using a pretty greetings card of a hare sitting in the moonlight, and as it reminded me of a tea service that I had seen in a local shop I was also inspired to create an abstract design for this page.

I started by masking off three areas of the page with low tack masking tape and then I painted some pastel blue arylic paint  which I blended with Swedish Blue Liquitex acrylic paint; I chose blue to match the dots on the tag and it was also one of the tea service colours. When the paint was dry I removed the masking tape and edged the blocks of colour using some gold outline border stickers. Then I added some gold flower tiles to the white area of the page and some gold flowers and circles to the blue areas, all of which are outline stickers. The hare moonlit image is fussy cut from the greetings card and the spring daffodil tag is from a wallpaper sample; they are both decorated with a piece of gold outline border sticker and are then stuck in place using double-sided tape which finished the page.

This is the tea service that I saw in one of our local shops; as you can see it influenced my abstract design with the blocks of soft pastel colours, little animals and pretty gold accents.

It must be fun to drink your tea or coffee and see the bunny rabbit at the bottom of the cup (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m saying a big hello to the T Gang with my drink related post and sending you all Happy T Day wishes!

Challenges

I’m joining in the Play With Paint challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I had fun creating the blocks of colour for this page using masking tape and paint.

As I included flowers on this page, it also serves as a reminder for our Say it with Flowers challenge that is running for another week over at Try it on Tuesday – I hope to see you there too!

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

• Script Ready Mixed Acrylic Paint (Pastels – Blue)
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Swedish Blue)
• Docrafts Anita’s Outline Stickers (Straight Line Borders Gold ANT8101016)
• Elizabeth Craft Designs Outline Stickers (Gold – 0157, 0442)
• Recycled greetings card – National Trust Moonlit Wood by Caroline Gordon
• Wallpaper sample
• Stix2 double-sided tape