Wild and Free

With the warmer weather of late we have been having fun in the garden. We have weeded our flower beds and added a mulch of bark and have been watching the spring flowers grow and new foliage shoot up. So I created this happy page to celebrate, using some soft spring colours as well as some fun techniques and the wording “all good things are wild and free” (grin!).

I started by stamping the page with a dot stamp from Woodware Craft Collection using Rose Bud Memento Ink and a flower stamp by Hampton Arts using Rich Cocoa Memento Ink. Then I covered the page with pastel shades of pink, turquoise and orange acrylic paint and also Pébéo white gesso; they are all applied using a brayer to build up layers of colour. Once dry I added the large flower sticker and some leftover letters and frame stickers from Little Yellow Bicycle.

The wording “all good things are wild and free by Henry David Thoreau” and “Just be” which included a sweet little bird are from the same sticker set; the little bird with the flower in his beak reminded me of some Goldfinches that come into our garden to take pieces of a silver leaved plant called Cineraria, not sure why they want it, but it’s fun to watch them (grin!). Then I outlined all of these stickers using a black Uni Pin marker and a white Uniball gel pen so they stood out more and had fun doodling all the dots using black, white and pink Uni Posca paint pens. To continue the spring theme I added more little birds, flowers and as we are making lots of new discoveries this year in our garden I also added the “Discoveries” wording which are all fabric stickers from Little Yellow Bicycle.

As you may remember we replanted our flower beds last year and here’s what they look like at the moment. The apple trees are sprouting and should be in bloom soon, the bluebells are out in force and the bark mulch looks great – I love it!

We discovered that we had crocus in our garden and along with daffodils they have finished flowering but we do have some tulips starting to bloom that we planted in October last year. This beautiful pink frilly variety reminded me of my page (grin!).

Challenges

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 represents having fun gardening.

I’m joining the Polka Dots challenge over at Moo Mania & More with the polka dot stickers and dots on this page.

I’m pleased to be able to join the Easter and/or Spring challenge over at Country View Challenges with my spring pastel coloured page.

Over at The Artistic Stamper, their challenge is New Growth, so I’m also joining this challenge too with my springtime flower page.

I’m also pleased to join the Spring Flowers! challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday with happy spring flower inspired 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:

• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Rose Bud, Rich Cocoa)
• Script Ready Made Paint (Pastels)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.2mm)
• Uniball Signo Gel Pen (White)
• Uni Posca Paint Pens (Black, White, Pink)
• Hampton Art Bella Blvd cling mounted rubber stamps (Sand & Surf ICO226)
• Woodware Craft Collections Francoise Collection Stamp Set (Flower Style FRSWS003)
• Home Bargains (Room Décor Embellishment Art 01194)
• Little Yellow Bicycle (Cardstock Stickers Fresh Verse PD-140, Fabric Favourites PD-220)

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Spring Hare

This page was inspired by an image from a magazine of a hare sitting in a lush green meadow and from that sprang the idea of extending the scene so the meadow filled my page – I hope you like it!

As this page was created with spring in mind, I’m pleased to join the Hello Springtime challenge that I’m hosting over at Art Journal Journey too. I’d like to thank all of you for your lovely comments and wonderful creations so far, I hope you are having fun getting creative with this theme as much as I am (grin!).

To start I coloured some white paper with inks to match the colours on the magazine image; first I applied Mowed Lawn, Pine Needles, Twisted Citron and Forest Moss Distress Ink to a blending mat, spritzed with water and pressed the matt onto the white paper to create a green mottled effect.

I repeated the process using Fozzilized Amber, Mustard Seed and Scattered Straw Distress Ink, then Old Paper, Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo Distress Ink and finally Elderberry Memento Ink, Milled Lavender and Seedless Grape Distress Ink. When the papers were dry, I used the green mottled effect paper to cover the background by ripping the paper on the diagonal and layering it onto the page so the white edges formed part of the design to look more like fabric; it is stuck down using a glue stick and Liquitex matte gel medium. Then I ripped the magazine image and stuck it on the left-hand side of the page.

Next I die cut some flowers using a Wildflower thinlet from Tim Holtz from the yellow and purple paper I had made. I intensified the colour of the yellow flowers using Fossilized Amber and then arranged them with foliage that I created using some brown string, embroidery silk thread and pieces of green and rusty-brown baby wipe that had been used to mop up inks and paints from previous projects. They are all stuck into place using Liquitex matte gel medium and once dry, I coloured the green pieces of baby wipe further with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink so they looked like blades of grass. I also added some white thread, die cut purple pieces and purple/blue used baby wipe to the top of the page to match the image design. To finish, I added the word “Spring” which is a rub-on transfer from Royal & Langnickel and then splattered the page with black and white DecoArt acrylic paints.

One springtime walk around Glasson Dock we were lucky enough to see hares in the fields; if you look very closely you can just see a hare in profile sitting on the bottom left-hand side of the picture.

The hares were fun to watch although they didn’t really stay still very long to get a good shot of them (grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Art Journal Journey, 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:

As my page captures nature at springtime, I’m joining the Close To Nature challenge over at Moo Mania & More.

I’m also happy to join in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Create A Scene challenge with my Spring Hare scene.

I’m pleased to join in the fun over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog and their theme Anything + optional twist of inked background with my inked background mixed media page.

As I used more than three mediums (inks, paints, paper, baby wipes, string, etc) to create my page, I’m also joining the Creative Artisite Challenge #47 – Anything Mixed Media Goes challenge over at Creative Artiste Challenge Blog.

I’m also pleased to join the Green & Gold challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday as I used these colours on my page.

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

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

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mowed Lawn, Pine Needles, Twisted Citron, Forest Moss, Fozzilized Amber, Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw, Old Paper, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo, Milled Lavender, Seedless Grape)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Elderberry)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black, White)
• Sizzix Thinkets Tim Holtz Alterations (Wildflowers 661190)
• Recycled white paper
• Old magazine
• Recycled used baby wipes
• Brown String
• Embroidery Silk Houline Stranded (0369)
• Recycled cotton thread
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Sentiments (Spring #ROY-506)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Pritt Stick

Time Flies

Our new challenge for the next two weeks over at Try it on Tuesday is Time Flies.

I hope you will join in the fun and for more inspiration please take a look at the amazing creations of my fabulous Design Team teamies over at our blog. A special welcome to Erika who has joined our Design Team too!

For this challenge I had fun creating a steampunk style page using some wonderful chipboard pieces from Boozybear – I hope you like it!

I started by adding Antique Linen, Ground Espresso and Rusty Hinge Distress Ink to the page by applying the ink pads to a blending mat, spritzing with water and then pressing the mat onto the page. To tie into the Time Flies theme, I selected some stamps with months, days and dates on them from a Documented stamp set by Tim Holtz and stamped them over the background using black Versafine Ink. Then I added some numbers and texture using a stencil by Carabelle Studios and Black Soot Distress Ink. To tone the background colours down a bit, I added some Neutral Grey Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic using a palette knife and also stencilled Pébéo white gesso over the page using a sponge through an Abstract Grid stencil by That’s Crafty.

For the winged clock, I used chipboard pieces which included a Wind Up Gear, some cogs and gears, and also two steampunk wings from Boozybear that I won over at Sandee & Ameile’s challenge – thank you! I stuck the wings in place behind the clock face of the Wind Up Gear piece and layered some cogs over the top using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium. When dry, I added some brads to the centre of a couple of the gears and then I painted the whole piece using Iridescent Bright Gold Liquitex Ink. Next I covered it with some VersaMark Watermark Ink and Aged Silver Embossing Enamel which I heated with my heat gun until it turned glossy and dimensional. I then added some Green Patina Perfect Pearls by Ranger, Rusty Hinge Distress Ink and black Versafine Ink to give it an aged look and heated it with my heat gun again so all the elements merged together.

I repeated the layers of the gold Liquitex Ink, Aged Silver Embossing Enamel, Green Patina Perfect Pearls, Rusty Hinge Distress Ink and black Versafine Ink until I achieved the finish that I was after.

I repeated the same process to create the numbers which are also chipboard pieces from Boozybear. Then I attached everything to the page using Ranger Glossy Accents. To finish, I used the glossy accents again to adhere some metal and glass beads so that they look like debris which has come away from the numbers as they fly out from the clock.

Last week after a walk along the green at Lytham with our friends, we stopped by a café called Chell’s of Lytham. As this cafe makes their own ice cream I couldn’t resist having a couple of scoops; the flavours I chose were Sticky Toffee Pudding and Double Chocolate – yummy!

As you can see there was iced water, as well as Earl Grey Tea and Hot Chocolate …

… and as T Stands for Tuesday, I also have a cappuccino to share with the coffee lovers amongst the T Gang – wishing you all a 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 Alison/Craftytrog and her Geometric Shapes challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the Abstract Grid that I included on my page.

With the steampunk vibe created from the amazing Boozybear chipboard pieces, I am very pleased to be able to join Sandee & amilie’s Steampunk Challenge which is Anything Goes – Steampunk/Industrial – thanks so much for the wonderful Boozybear chippies!

I’m happy to join the Put Your Stamp On It challenge over at A Vintage Journey as I used a set of Tim Holtz stamps for my Steampunk Style inspired page.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday the challenge is Try Something NEW! so I’m pleased to join this challenge too as I used two new stencils and the Carabelle Studio one was bought at Simon Says Stamp.

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 (Antique Linen, Ground Espresso, Rusty Hinge, Black Soot)
• Tsukineko Versafine Ink (Onyx Black)
• Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic (Neutral Grey)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tsukineko VersaMark (Watermark Stamp Pad)
• Liquitex Ink! (Iridescent Bright Gold)
• Stampendous! Frantage Embossing Enamel Kit (Aged Silver FREK02)
• Ranger Perfect Pearls (Green Patina)
• Tim Holtz Collection Stamper’s Anonymous (Documented CMS226)
• Carabelle Studio Art Template (Trame Tissus et Chiffres TE60034)
• That’s Crafty! 8x8ins Stencil (Abstract Grid – TC8023)
• Boozybear Chipboard Pieces (Wind Up Gear CP29, assorted gears and cogs, steampunk wings)
• Craft Sensations (Brads CRO550/A)
• The Brighton Bead Shop (Assorted Metal and Glass Beads)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Believe in the Magic of Christmas – Card

Today I’m sharing one of the Christmas card designs that I made for family and friends this year and some treats from the Garstang Victorian Christmas Festival that we went too a couple of weeks ago – Happy Christmas!

This card is designed with an embossing folder and stamp set that came free with a crafting magazine. To start, I embossed some white blank cards using a village scene embossing folder and my Big Shot machine. Then I stamped Santa and his reindeer flying across the sky and the wording “Believe in the Magic of Christmas” using a VersaMark Watermark stamp pad which I then covered with Tinsel Red embossing powder. I shook and tapped off any excess powder and used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder until it became dimensional with a sparkly glossy finish.

Next I used my Big Shot machine to die cut some snowflakes out of some festive design paper; I adhered a single snowflake to the front of each card adding a gem to the centre. Then I stamped some snowflakes around the snowflake and wording using Love Letter Memento Ink.

To finish, I also decorated the inside of the cards using a panel of the design paper that matched the die cut snowflake, another one of the die cut snowflakes and the snowflake stamp using the Love Letter ink again.

The Garstang Victorian Christmas Festival was wonderful! We enjoyed walking around listening to the music, shopping, sampling the food and taking in the joyous atmosphere. We particularly enjoyed these German marshmallow treats called ” Schokokuss” or “Christmas Kisses”.

We bought a box home with us; the flavours we chose were Caramel, Cherry, Rum and Raisin, Cinnamon and Baileys. If you are interested you can tour the factory and see how they are made here.

This is what they look like inside, so light and yummy! They were a lovely treat for our elevensies with our green tea being served in our new mugs (grin!). As T Stands for Tuesday I’m pleased to join the T Gang and wish you all a very Happy T Day and Happy Holidays!

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 my wintry village scene, I’m pleased to join in the fun over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and their Winter challenge.

As the challenge over at Country View Challenges is Christmas, I’m pleased to join them with my Believe in the Magic of Christmas card.

With all the stamping and sparkly Tinsel Red embossing, I’m also joining the Winter Sparkle challenge over at Stamping Sensations.

I’m pleased to be able to join the Christmas Challenge over at The Artistic Stamper with my Believe in the Magic of Christmas card too.

As this is the first time I have used an embossing folder, I’m joining the Try Something NEW! Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the Picture Inspiration challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps too with the red and white colours and snowy village scene that I included on my card.

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:

• Tsukineko VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad
• Papermania Embossing Powder (Tinsel Red)
• Memento Ink (Love Letter)
• Winter Wonderland embossing folder and stamp set- free with magazine
• Dovecraft Cutting Dies (Merry Christmas DCDIE052X16)
• White card stock
• Poundland (Christmas Craft Pack)
• Oaktree UK Eleganza Craft Stickers (3mm 418 Gems Red No. 16)
• Zig Memory System 2-Way Glue (Dual Action Glue Pen)
• Stix2 double-sided tape

Thankful

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Autumn Critters

As it was the Autumn Equinox last weekend it’s now officially autumn – yay! I really enjoyed summer but I love autumn too, so I found myself inspired by some critters depicted on some seasonal gifts that I had seen in our local shops.

I started by covering the page with Aquamarine Spectrum Aqua marker ink that I applied to an acrylic block, spritzed with water and pressed onto the page. I then divided the page into four quadrants and started to create a different background for each of my little critters, which are foam stickers. To create a home for the fox, I stamped lots of ferns from a Royal & Langnickel stamp set using Orange and Terracotta Spectrum Aqua markers and London Fog Memento Ink. The owl is sitting in some silver birch trees that I stamped using the same London Fog Memento Ink and I also outlined and doodled the bark detail onto the trees using a Uni Pin black marker. The golden leaves are stamped using a Gold Spectrum Aqua marker ink and a leaf stamp from Royal & Langnickel, and I outlined them and added more detail using the black Uni Pin marker. I used the same Royal & Langnickel stamp set to stamp the leaves for the hedgehog; this time I used the London Fog Memento Ink and three different colours of Spectrum Aqua markers which were Gold, Sepia and Crimson. Lastly for the squirrel, I used a stamp set by Craft Impressions to stamp lots of pine cones again using London Fog Memento Ink and also a Sepia Spectrum Aqua Marker and Sanguine and Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers. Using the same stamp set I added a few pine branches using London Fog and Pistachio Memento Ink. Next I separated the quadrants using washi tape which I outlined using a Uni Pin marker, and then I added some star gems. The autumnal wording is cut from a magazine and stuck in place using a UHU Stic. To finish, I used some small gems to add a little sparkle choosing a different colour for each quadrant.

I just couldn’t resist creating my autumn critter page especially having seen these lovely glasses with beautiful animal designs on them and …

… these amazing sugar, tea, coffee and biscuit/cookie jars in a local store. I hope like me that you enjoyed your summer days and are looking forward to autumn too!

My drinking glasses and assortment of tea and coffee jars means that I am able to join in the fun over at T Stands for Tuesday – wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

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 be able to join the lovely Yvonne from Meggy’s way, who is hosting A World of Fantasy challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my autumn critter imaginary friends (grin!).

I’m also joining the Forever Autumn challenge over at That’s Crafty! Challenge Blog with my autumnal art journal page.

With my gems adding some bling and sparkle to my art journal page, I’m pleased to join Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Bling It On challenge.

Over at Paperbabe Stamps, their challenge is Stars so I’m pleased to join in the fun with the star gems that I added to my page.

I’m also pleased to join the September Link Party #43 – Anything Goes over at Cropstop Blog with my page as I included some products from companies that they carry in their store.

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’s marker (Aquamarine, Orange, Terracotta, Gold, Crimson, Sepia)
• Tsukineko Memento Dye Ink (London Fog, Pistachio)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush artist pen (Sanguine 188 B, Dark Sepia 175 B)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Royal & Langnickel Clear Choice Stamps (Pressed Leaves)
• Craft Impressions clear stamp set (Winter Wonderland)
• Old magazine
• B&M Hobby World (Woodland Friends Foam Stickers 289338)
• Quality Toys Group (Washi Tape 2544960)
• The Range Adhesive Craft Gems (Assorted Shapes CR0869)
• UHU Stic

Bee Happy

Today I’m sharing my first attempt at painting with my new Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour paint set. I think I’ll be using them again soon as the vibrancy of the colours is amazing and I love how they blend together to create this summery page.

I also used a new bee stamp set and the “Don’t worry bee happy” sentiment which made me smile as it reminds me of the “Don’t worry, be happy” song. Don’t forget that you still have a week to join the Inspired by a Song challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, it would be great to see you there.

I started by die cutting some flowers out of pages from of my old pocket dictionary using my Big Shot machine.  On the page I stuck both the die cuts and the page they were cut from, so as to get a positive and negative flower image, using Liquitex matte gel medium. I also stuck some pieces of leftover decoupage paper and white leftover tissue paper that were sitting on my craft desk, which already had a floral stamp from Docrafts, a Sheet Music stamp from Woodware, a Vintage-Believe stamp and a Script stamp from Kaisercraft stamped on them using black Archival Ink. When the gel medium was dry, I wet the page with water using a paintbrush and then I added Rose Madder, Sap Green Light, Viridian, Ultrmarine, Turquiose Blue and Colbalt Violet watercolour paints over the top using a paintbrush; it was fun as I learnt how to apply the paints. I concentrated the Rose Madder paint over the flower shapes and added Lemon Yellow to their centres. They are outlined using Black watercolour paint and later with some black Uni Pin markers to add more detail. Next I stencilled a honeycomb pattern using modelling paste and stamped a hexagonalGeometric hexagonal stamp using black Archival Ink. I applied some white gesso to the page using my finger to dull the black stamping and some of the watercolour which added more depth and dimension to the page. The heart was a leftover piece of dictionary page which already had a heart shape punched out of it, I coloured it using the Rose Madder and Lemon Yellow watercolour paints and outlined it as I did the flowers. I also used the top of my spritzer bottle to stamp the small round circles using black Archival Ink and they are painted using Rose Madder, Colbalt Violet and Lemon Yellow watercolour paint. Next I stamped the bees onto some white card three times and also onto the page. For the ones that I stamped on the card, I coloured their body using Lemon Yellow watercolour paint and an extremely diluted Ultramarine Pale watercolour on their wings, then fussy cut the body, head and wings out. I then coloured the legs of the ones that I had stamped on the page using a brown Uni Posca paint pen and stuck the body and wings over the top using a UHU Stic, bending the wings upwards so they looked more 3D. As this page is so bright and cheery, I added the sentiment “Don’t worry bee happy” using black Archival Ink which is from the same stamp set as the bees; this finished the page.

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m showing a drink of apple juice and ginger beer again, you may remember it from last week (grin!). Well, following all of the comments from the T Gang I was getting a bit confused until my lovely friend from Drivers and Sundry made me realise that Ginger Beer here in the UK is similar to Ginger Ale in America. They are both non-alcoholic soft drinks although ginger beer is spicier with a more fiery ginger flavour than ginger ale, so as an alternative half apple juice and half ginger ale will work too – Happy T Day!

Also if you look at my glass closely you will see a bee etched upon it, which links back to today’s page (double grin!).

In case you are wondering, this is my box of new Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paint; I’m looking forward to using them some more and trying our new techniques too.

Challenges

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

I’m pleased to join the lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover, who is hosting the Count your blessings challenge over at Art Journal Journey as I feel very blessed to be able to create art and share it with others.

I’m joining in the fun over at Moo Mania & More and their theme is Summertime challenge with my summery watercolour page.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday the challenge is Watercolour! so I’m pleased to join this challenge too.

I’m also happy to join the Anything Goes! challenge over at The Artistic Stamper with my Bee Happy stamped art journal page.

With the bees and stamping, I’m also pleased to be able to join Fashionable Stamping Challenges and their It’s A Bugs Life challenge.

I love my new bee stamp so I’m also joining the Use your ‘current’ favourite stamp challenge over at Stamping Sensations 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:

• Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paint set (Rose Madder, Sap Green Light, Viridian, Ultrmarine, Turquiose Blue, Colbalt Violet, Lemon Yellow, Black)
• Pébéo Modeling Paste
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm & 0.5mm)
• Uni Posca Paint Pen (Brown)
• That’s Crafty Dinky Stencil (Reversed Honeycomb)
• Docrafts Papermania Capsule Clear Stamps (Geometric Mono)
• Dovecraft Premium Clear Stamps (Bee Happy DCSTP129)
• The Oxford Pocket Dictionary
• Leftover decoupage paper
• Leftover stamped white tissue paper
• Cardstock (White)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic