Winter Blues

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Winter Blues, where we are asking you to use the colour blue.

This was the perfect challenge for me as blue happens to be my favourite colour (grin!). I hope you like my wintry blue journal page and are inspired to join us; it would be lovely to see you there!

I started by colouring the background using After Midnight Dylusions Spray Ink and Speckled Egg Distress Ink. When dry, I covered the page with Pébéo clear gesso; this stopped the inks reactivating and bleeding into the next layers of media that I added. Next I splattered the page with white acrylic paint and left it to dry. For the snowflakes, I die cut them using a Paper Snowflakes Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some blue and white mottled paper from Craft Sensations. They were arranged around the edges of the page using Liquitex matte gel medium.

The pretty winter scene of the hares was a recycled Christmas card and the quote was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet. I thought the quote was perfect to combat those winter blues; it’s by Ralph Waldo Emerson and reads “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year”.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the amazing Winter Blues creations from my Design Teamies too (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my new Assam Tea. This is a loose leaf tea and has a delicately rich and malty flavour – Happy T Day!

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.

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

• Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray (After Midnight)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Speckled Egg)
• Pébéo Clear Gesso
• Art Discount Acrylic Paint (White)
• Craft Sensations (Creative Paper Collection CR0458/GE)
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Paper Snowflakes Mini 661599)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Recycled Christmas Card
• X-Press It! double-sided tape
• Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet (Wandering Ivy SS352)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233)

Challenges I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika from BioArtGal over at Art Journal Journey and her Favourite Things challenge this month as I blue is my favourite colour. I’m so pleased to join the Squares Challenge at Country View Challenges with the square Christmas card on my page. I’m happy to join The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog and their Put A Good Word In challenge with the uplifting quote that I used on my page. I’m also joining the Layer It Up challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the snowflakes, image and quote that I layered on my page. I’m pleased to join the LTSCB #141 – Anything Goes challenge over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my blue wintry page too.

Merry Christmoose Card

I can never resist using my favourite Merry Moose Thinlits set at Christmastime; this time he’s on a Christmas card so I can share some “Christmoose” joy with my friends (grin!).

To start, I cut a panel of mixed media paper to fit my greetings card and positioned a circular template from an Inkylicious template and stencil set to mask out the moon. Then I stamped the pretty snowflakes using a Frozen Fractals stamp set from Simon Says Stamp; they were stamped using Versamark Watermark ink and then covered in white Stampendous embossing powder. Next I positioned a hand cut paper template to mask out the foreground. and then I painted the panel using a mixture of Ultramarine Pale, Ultramarine and Turquoise Blue colours Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour paints. When dry, I removed both of the templates and added some colour to the snowflakes in the foreground using the watercolour paints again. I coloured the moon with some Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink and added some texture using a white gel pen and also by stamping some grey dots using Hickory Smoke Distress Ink and an Urban Tapestry stamp from Tim Holtz. Then I splattered the whole panel with white acrylic paint.

The tree and moose were die cut using the Merry Moose Thinlets by Tim Holtz and my Big Shot Machine. The tree was cut from some paper that I had used to mop up brown inks and the snow was cut from some white linen textured cardstock. For the Merry Moose, I used some linen card stock which I coloured using Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso Distress Inks. His antlers were coloured using Antique Linen Distress Ink and I edged all the pieces with a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell maker. His harness was die cut from some blue glitter paper and white cardstock which I had coloured with the Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink. To finish, I added the “Merry Christmas” wording which was from a Christmas sticker book from Tim Holtz; it’s edged using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker before sticking it in place.

I love moose and there are quite a few moose on our Holiday Tree which is decorated with ornaments that we purchased whilst on holiday/vacation. We always enjoy looking at this tree and reminiscing of times gone by; all the decorations hold such happy memories (grin!).

As you can see, these ornaments are from Maine; the wording on this one makes me smile – Merry Christmoose everyone (double grin!).

Stay safe and keep 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 that were used to create this card:

• Simon Says Stamp Clear Stamp Set (Frozen Fractals SSS101694)
• Tsukineko Versamark Watermark Ink Pad
• Stampendous Embossing Powder Basics (Detail White Opaque DP100)
• Inkylicious Stencil and Template Set (Sun & Moons)
• Recycled paper
• Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paint set (Ultramarine Pale, Ultramarine, Turquoise Blue)
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Stamp Set (Urban Tapestry CMS061)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Hickory Smoke, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso, Antique Linen, Chipped Sapphire)
• Art Discount Acrylic Paint (White)
• Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix Thinlets (Merry Moose 663103)
• Recycled paper used to mop up brown inks
• Craft Sensations (Luxury Card Stock with Linen Texture)
• Poundland (Glitter Paper Sheets)
• Zig Memory System Chisel Tip Glue Pen
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Sticker Book (Christmas #TH93999)

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as they provide me with inspiration and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today: I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with my Christmoose card. I’m also pleased to join the Christmas Critters challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Merry Moose Christmas card. I’m happy to join the # 119 Non-Traditional Christmas Colours challenge over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with the colours that I used on this card. With my frosty wintery landscape, I’m also pleased to join the Ice Cold challenge over at Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I’m also joining Paperbabe Stamps and their #134 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmoose card. I’m also pleased to join in the LTSCB #140 – Winter Wonderland challenge over at the Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my Merry Moose walking in his winter wonderland card. I’m so happy to join in the fun over at the Rudolph Days Challenge where Anything Goes, as long as it’s Christmas with my Merry Moose Christmas card too. Don’t forget there is still another week to join our Christmas Sparkle challenge at Try it on Tuesday too, it would be lovely to see you there!

Frosty Snowflakes

I love winter so to wish you a Happy Christmas I created this frosty page, using a variety of techniques to build up layers of snowflakes – I hope you like it (grin!).

I started by stamping snowflakes onto the background using a Versamark Watermark stamp pad and then heating it with a heat gun to fix the Watermark ink onto the page. Then I used some Distress Ink re-inkers to apply drops of Speckled Egg and Peacock Feathers inks, spritzed them with water to disperse and blend the inks over the background and left it to dry.

I stamped my second layer of snowflakes using a Woodland Christmas stamp set and Peacock Feather Distress Ink, Teal Zeal and London Fog Memento Inks. Next I die cut some snowflakes from three different coloured tissue papers using a Paper Snowflakes Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and layered them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium. I love how frosty this page looks with the different layers of snowflakes. Next I added lots of sequins from Simon Says Stamp and some glittery wooden stars; all of which are stuck down using Ranger Glossy Accents.  Then to finish, I added a silver sticker to wish you all “Happy Christmas”.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing some of our beers from our advent calendar – cheers and Happy T Day!

Here are some of the ones we’ve had so far; the Ruby Ale has been my favourite so far, probably because it is a classic British dark beer with a toffee malt and chocolate flavour which I prefer. We have had quite a few Craft Beer IPAs too; they tend to have a distinctive sharp citrus finish due to the big flavour American hops and so far my favourite has to be the Talking Head Extra Pale Ale, which had a lovely tropical mango flavour.

This Buckhorn Stateside IPA was also refreshing and had a smoother hoppy finish.

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.

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

• Tsukineko Versamark (Watermark Stamp Pad)
• The Works Clear Stamps (CRO274/TW1)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Speckled Egg, Peacock Feathers)
• Clear Impressions (Woodland Christmas)
• Tsukineko Memento Ink (Teal Zeal, London Fog)
• Poundworld (Patch Paper DS9454)
• Teal Blue Tissue Paper
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Paper Snowflakes 661599)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Simon Says Stamp (Winter Sequins Mix, Snowflake Sequins)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Wooden Glitter Stars
• The Works (Christmas Embellishments)

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as they provide me with inspiration 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 Tracey over at Art Journal Journey and her Meaning of challenge this month as I created this page to wish you a Happy Christmas. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with my frosty Christmas page. I’m also pleased to join the Let It Snow challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my snowflake design. I’m happy to join the # 119 Non-Traditional Christmas Colours challenge over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with the frosty colours that I used. With my frosty colours and snowflakes, I’m also pleased to join the Ice Cold challenge over at Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I’m also joining Paperbabe Stamps and their #134 – Anything Goes challenge with my Frosty Christmas page. As I used lots of different techniques to create all the frosty texture and snowflakes on this page, I’m also joining the MIUCB #44 – Anything Goes + optional twist of Clean and Simple challenge over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog. Don’t forget there is still another week to join our Christmas Sparkle challenge at Try it on Tuesday too, it would be lovely to see you there!

Let it Snow Polar Bear card

It was fun creating this polar bear Christmas card and I used some of my favourite die cuts and techniques to create this snowy wonderland. It looked so cold that I dressed the polar bear in a red scarf to keep him warm (grin!).

I started by creating a master board for the background by applying a thick layer of Navy, Swedish Blue and white acrylic paints onto a piece of mixed media paper and then placing some scrunched up cling film (plastic food wrap) over the top. I moved the cling film around to disperse the paints and then I left it to dry. When I peeled the cling film off it left some wonderful patterns and texture which formed my snowy winter wonderland background. I used a Snowflake stencil from Ranger to stencil some snowflakes over the master board using Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink too.

Next I cut a panel from the master board to fit the greetings card. Then I cut some snowflakes from white tissue paper using a Tonic Studios die cut set and stuck them onto the card using Liquitex matte gel medium. I love how the tissue paper and gel medium made the snowflakes look transparent.

The polar bear was created using a Theodore Thinlits set from Tim Holtz which is one of my favourites. The pieces were cut from white card stock, white and cream linen textured card stock and black card stock, edged with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker and then layered together. His ears were coloured with a Putty Promarker and I created his scarf using a piece of red felt. To finish, I added some silver glitter stickers which reads “Let it snow”.

This card reminded me of this beautiful little polar bear Christmas decoration which also lights up and changes colour (grin!).

I hope that you’re all stay 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 all the materials used to create this card:

• Daler-Rowney Mixed Media Paper
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Navy, Swedish Blue)
• Art Discount Acrylic (White)
• Cling film
• Ranger Dylusions by Dyan Reaveley Stencil (Snowflake – Large DYS63742)
• Tsukineko Brilliance Ink (Platinum Planet)
• White Tissue Paper
• Tonic Studios Christmas Trio Die Set (Falling Snowflakes 1792e)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Craft Sensations (Luxury Linen Textured Cardstock)
• White Cardstock
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Theodore 664410)
• Winsor & Newton Promarker (Putty 0618)
• Pritt Stick
• Red Felt
• Stix2 glue dots
• Poundland (Christmas Glitter Stickers)

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as they provide me with inspiration 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 LTSCB #140 – Winter Wonderland challenge over at the Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my polar bear walking in his snowy winter wonderland. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with my polar bear Christmas card. I’m also pleased to join the Let It Snow challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Let it Snow Christmas card. I’m happy to join the # 119 Non-Traditional Christmas Colours challenge over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with the blues, white and red colours that I used to create this polar bear card too. As I used a couple of my favourite techniques to create the snowy background for this card, I’m also pleased to join the Favourite Technique challenge over at Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I’m also pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my fun polar bear Christmas card too. I’m also joining Paperbabe Stamps and their #134 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas card.

Dashing through the snow

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

For my page I used some glittery paper pieces that I had die cut snowflakes from; they were leftover from this year’s Christmas cards. I just couldn’t throw them away and with all the sparkle they seemed to fit this challenge perfectly (grin!).

For the background, I painted the page with Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson Liquitex acrylic paint. When dry, I stuck the remnant glitter die cut pieces onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium to form a frame around the edges of the page. Then I splattered the page using white acrylic paint and left it to dry.

The larger snowflakes were cut from the same glitter paper using a Mini Paper Snowflakes Thinlits set from Tim Holtz and the smaller snowflakes using a Christmas metal die.

To finish, I added the “Dashing through the snow” winter scene which was recycled from a Christmas card; it is stuck in place using double-sided tape.

For more inspiration check out the amazing Christmas Sparkle creations from my Design Teamies over at Try it on Tuesday. I hope that you are inspired to join us; it would be lovely to see you there!

To celebrate the festive season, my hubby had the fabulous idea of creating our own beer advent calendar. As T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing our selection of beers; we haven’t tried any of these before and we plan to share one can or bottle of beer each day with our meal to see if we like them. I’ll be sure to share which ones we have tried next week – cheers and Happy T Day!

I hope 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.

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

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic Paint (Cadmium Red Medium Hue)
• Liquitex Basics Acrylic (Alizarin Crimson)
• Die cut off cuts – Glitter wallpaper
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Art Discount Acrylic Paint (White)
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Paper Snowflakes Mini 661599)
• Deer metal die
• Recycled Christmas Card
• X-Press It! double-sided tape

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as they provide me with inspiration 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 Tracey over at Art Journal Journey and her Meaning of challenge this month as I love art journaling and Christmastime. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with my Dashing through the snow art journal page. I’m also happy to join the MIUCB #44 – Anything Goes + Clean and Simple over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the techniques I used to create my snowy page and this is a simple page design for me too (grin!). I’m also pleased to join the Fun With Dies challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the die cut pieces I used to create this page. I’m also pleased to join the Love To Scrap and their LTSCB #140 – Winter Wonderland with my dashing through the snow page.

Noël

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

I hope you’ll join in the fun too; it would be lovely to see you there!

I love Christmas so I created this art journal page to wish you happiness this Christmastime!

Having made my Christmas cards I had a pile of paper which I had used to die cut fir tree branches from using a Tim Holtz Thinlits set, so rather than throw them away I used them to create my background. They had been coloured using Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles Distress Inks and I stuck them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium.

When dry, I added some green highlights to background pieces using an Alpine Green Blend coloured TriBlend alcohol marker from Spectrum Noir. The birds, branches and baubles were fussy cut from some design paper by Docrafts and arranged onto the page with a tag from the same Docrafts paper and die cut set.

I added the “Noël” wording and a snowflake to the tag and then I stuck the tag onto the page using double-sided foam tape. The bow was made from some red and white striped ribbon and stuck onto the tag using Ranger Glossy Accents. To finish, I added lots of green glittery snowflake foam stickers.

I hope that you are inspired to join our Anything Mixed Media Goes Challenge too, you just need to use 3 different mediums to enter so I kept it simple and only used Distress Inks, alcohol markers, design paper, ribbon and stickers this time.

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

I love Christmas and have been enjoying putting up our Christmas decorations this week; here I am in our Christmas robin themed room that I have just finished decorating (grin!).

Merry Christmas and stay safe!

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:

• Die cut off cuts
  • Recycled white paper
  • Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles)
  • Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Holiday Greens 658759)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Spectrum Noir TriBlend (Alpine Green Blend)
• Docrafts Papermania A4 Ultimate Die Cut & Paper Pack (Folk Christmas PMA160933)
• Ribbon
• Poundland (Christmas Craft Pack – snowflake stickers)

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Creative Artiste, as they provide me with inspiration 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 Tracey over at Art Journal Journey and her Meaning of challenge this month as I love Christmas and also the meaning of the French word Noël is Christmas. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with Christmas art journal page. I’m pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my Noël page too. I’m also happy to join the A Time to be Grateful challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as I’m always thankful when Christmas is here – I love it! I’m also pleased to join the Fun With Dies challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the die cut pieces I used to create the background and die cut tag on this page.

Merry Little Christmas Au Revoir at A Vintage Journey

Over at A Vintage Journey our challenge this month is Merry Little Christmas which is sadly our very last challenge. It’s been an honour and a pleasure to be part of such a wonderful team and blog – thank you so much for all your inspiration and support over the years!

We have come together to create small ATC creations to share some Christmas cheer and also to say “au revoir”. So if you would like to participate in our challenge one last time please create an ATC project depicting a Merry Little Christmas and/or Au Revoir theme; we hope to see you there!

Creating ATCs is a first for me, who’d have thought that I’d have so much fun creating these mini artworks (grin!). Here are my Merry Little Christmas ATCs that I created to wish you all happiness this Christmas!

Using some old playing cards as my base, I started by covering them with scraps of Botanicals or Halloween Collage paper from Tim Holtz using Liquitex matte gel medium. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso using a brayer and when dry, I added Vintage Photo Distress Ink with a blending tool.

I applied another layer of white gesso over the top and then added some holly leaves and berries. The holly leaves were die cut using a Holiday Greens Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some white paper which I had coloured using Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles Distress Ink. The berries were also die cut from some white paper which had been coloured with Festive Berries Distress Ink. When they were stuck in place using matte gel medium, I splattered the ATC with some white acrylic paint.

The stars are stencilled using a Sparkle stencil from Tim Holtz and VersaMark Watermark ink which I covered with gold Ranger embossing powder. I also edged the ATC with the embossing powder before heating everything with a heat gun. The glittery snowflakes were cut using a Mini Paper Snowflakes Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some glittery paper. To finish, I added the wording from a Christmas sticker book by Tim Holtz.

Here’s my Au Revior ATC which I created to celebrate A Vintage Journey; including all the amazing participants of our challenges and my fellow Creative Guides. The quote “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” (Dr. Seuss) that I included seemed appropriate as it’s so bittersweet to see A Vintage Journey end.

To create this mixed media ATC, I started by covering an old playing card firstly with white gesso and then with black DecoArt acrylic paint. I used the Sparkles stencil by Tim Holtz, VersaMark Watermark ink and gold Ranger Embossing powder again. Then I added one of the badges from A Vintage Journey, that I had printed and distressed using some Vintage Photo Distress Ink, to top and tail my ATC design. The Dr. Seuss quote was created using a label machine and the red hearts were cut from some cardstock using a Falling Hearts Thinlits set from Tim Holtz. To finish, I added some the white wording which were from a Small Talk Remnant Rubs set by Tim Holtz.

I hope you are inspired to join in the Merry Little Christmas and/or Au Revoir challenge themes and for more inspiration you’ll find some amazing ATCs and beautiful heartfelt words from my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey too.

I have really enjoyed my time at A Vintage Journey, from joining in the challenges to becoming a Creative Guide something that I always wished for. I have made some wonderful friends along the way, thank you for being part of my creative journey – it’s been a blast! x

Of course I seem to have been singing “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” all month too and my favourite version has to be by Judy Garland from the musical Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) – the lyrics seem very pertinent for this year too.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

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

Here is a list of all the materials used to create these ATCs:

• Old playing cards
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Collage Paper (Botanical #TH93705, Halloween #TH93712)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo, Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Festive Berries)
• Recycled white paper
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlets (Holiday Greens 658759, Paper Snowflakes Mini 661599, Falling Hearts 664415)
• The Range (5×5 Dies Holly)
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Layering Stencil (Sparkles THS132)
• Tsukineko VersaMark (Watermark Stamp Pad)
• Ranger Embossing Powder (Gold)
• Glitter wallpaper
• Tim Holtz idea-ology (Christmas Sticker Book #TH93999)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• A Vintage Journey Badge – computer printed
• Dymo LetraTag Label Maker and Labels
• Craft Sensations (Luxury Cardstock with Linen Texture CRO241/GE)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology Remnant Rubs (Tiny Text #TH93695)

Challenges I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with my Christmas ATCs. I’m pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my Merry Little Christmas ATCs. I’m pleased to be able to join the A Time to be Grateful over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as I am thankful to have been part of such a fabulous challenge blog and team. I’m also pleased to join the Fun With Dies challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with all the Tim Holtz Thinlets sets that I used to created my ATCs.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

There is still another week to join our Winter Wonderland challenge at Try it on Tuesday so I thought I’d create this wintry page to join in the fun; it was inspired by our travels to Prague at Christmastime (grin!).

I started by sticking a magazine image of a couple walking in a winter wonderland onto the page and then I covered the remainder of the page with black acrylic paint leaving a frame of white around the image. Next I dragged some of the black paint towards the image using a flat paintbrush to marry the black and white areas together. I stamped some white acrylic paint over the black background using a piece of scrunched up tissue paper and when dry, I added the wording which was created using some white letter stickers. The snowflakes were cut from some recycled white tissue paper, an old magazine page and some white card stock using a Tonic Studios die set. I layered them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium and then to finish I splattered the page using white acrylic paint.

We often visit the Christmas markets in Prague this time of year and as we are staying home this year, I find myself very thankful for all the wonderful memories we have of our time there.

Prague is a magical place especially when it snows and here I am enjoying the snowfall whilst listening to Christmas carols by the tree on the previous photo.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing another of my favourites … Kozel dark beer and don’t you just love this sign; Kozel happens to mean “male goat” in Czech (grin!) – Happy T day!

What could be better than walking in a winter wonderland with Michael Bublé too (double grin!).

Hoping that you all stay 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 all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Old magazine page
• Pritt Stick
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Recycled white tissue page
• Art Discount Acrylic (White)
• Simply Creative Alphabet & Number Stickers (White Glitter SCSTK025)
• White Cardstock
• Tonic Studios Christmas Trio Die Set (Falling Snowflakes 1792e)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as they provide me with inspiration 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 Tracey over at Art Journal Journey and her Meaning of challenge this month as this page reminds me of Christmas and Prague. I’m pleased to join LTSCB #140 – Winter Wonderland challenge over at the Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with the snowy winter wonderland that I created on this page. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything Christmas challenge with winter wonderland page. I’m pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my winter Christmastime page. I’m also joining the # 119 Non-Traditional Christmas Colours challenge over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with my black and white Christmas winter wonderland page. I’m pleased to be able to join the A Time to be Grateful over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as we are always thankful to visit Prague especially when it snows as we love nothing better than walking in a winter wonderland. I’m also pleased to join the Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my winter page too.

Winter Wonderland

At Try it on Tuesday our new challenge for the next two weeks is Winter Wonderland.

My winter wonderland page was created using a fun technique with acrylic paint and cling film which made the perfect background for the pretty deer, snowflakes and trees. I really enjoyed creating this page and I can’t wait to see your winter wonderland creations too!

For the background, I started by painting horizontal lines of Navy, Swedish Blue and Aqua Green Liquitex Acrylic paints onto the page. Then I placed scrunched up cling film (plastic food wrap) over the top, moved it around and left it to dry. When the paint was nearly dry I peeled the plastic wrap off and then applied some white paint to the same piece of cling film and placed it onto the page, over the other paints, scrunching it up and then I left it to dry overnight. When I peeled the cling film off the page it left some fabulous patterns which formed my winter wonderland.

The deer and snowflakes are stickers and I added lots of white dots in the sky using a white Uni Posca paint pen to create more snowfall which took a while (grin!).

I die cut the trees and star from some white cardstock using a couple of Thinlits sets from Tim Holtz and pressed them into a Versamark Watermark stamp pad. Then I covered them with Wow! embossing glitter and heated them using a heat gun until they turned glossy; they are stuck in place using a glue stick. Next I created the “winter wonderland” wording which is cut from white card, which I had covered in the Wow! embossing glitter, using an Alphanumeric Label Thinlits set from Tim Holtz. The letters were mounted onto some recycled navy cardstock which was cut to shape using a Tag Collection Framelits set from Tim Holtz; this finished the page.

I hope that you are inspired to join Winter Wonderland Challenge too! For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Teamies over at Try it on Tuesday too.

As T Stands for Tuesday I’m sharing our mugs of tea; as you may remember I shared my new robin mug a couple of weeks ago so I thought I’d share my hubby’s matching deer mug as my page has deer on it, although they aren’t wearing scarves (grin!) – wishing you a very Happy T day!

Hoping that you all stay 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 all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Navy, Swedish Blue)
• Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic (Bright Aqua Green)
• Cling film
• Art Discount Acrylic (White)
• White Cardstock
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Woodlands 660978, Snowy Stars 663117, Alphanumeric Label 664177)
• Wow! Embossing Glitter (Singing in the rain WS183R)
• Pritt Stick
• Home Bargains (Wall Stickers #16221 – deer & snowflakes)
• Recycled navy cardstock
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Framelits (Tag Collection 658784)
• X-Press It! double-sided tape

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as I always enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today: I’m so happy to join the #132 – Frosty Feels or Cool Tones challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my winter wonderland scene. I’m pleased to join in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything But A Card challenge with my wintery art journal page. I’m pleased to join MIUCB #43 – Anything Goes + Making Your Own Background over at the Mix It UP Challenge Blog with the fun cling film and paint technique that I used to create my background. I’m also pleased to join the Christmas challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my winter wonderland page too.

Love, Peace, Joy

To join in the fun over at the 25 Days of Christmas Tags I made a tag and then decided to create an art journal page using the tag, as its colours matched my brand new Winter Holidays TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker set perfectly – I hope you like it!

I’d also like to say a special thank you to lovely Tracey from Hotchpotchcreations for her insight into alcohol markers which helped me decide on these TriBlend markers that I used for the first time on this page – such fun!

For the tag, I started by cutting a piece of Kraft cardstock using the largest tag design from the Framelits Tag Collection from Tim Holtz. I covered it with white gesso and when dry, I edged the tag using Ground Espresso Distress Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. Then I splattered it with white gesso to give a snowy effect and added grungy dots using a Spritz & Speckles stamp set from Paperbabe Stamps and some Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink. The “love, peace, joy” wording were stickers from Kaisercraft and the large snowflakes were cut out of two green-blue glitter papers and some corrugated silver cardstock using a Tonic Studios die cut set. They are layered together with some pretty pearl snowflake gems from Habico and to finish I tied a piece of recycled brown ribbon to the tag.

I’m pleased to be able to join the 25 Days of Christmas Tags with my tag which was inspired by Tracey McNeely’s snowflake tag posted on Day 11 of the challenge.

For my journal page, I started by stamping the bird onto the page using a Winter Woodland stamp set and some black Archival Ink. Then I coloured the bird and branch image using the TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers; the colours I used were Green Turquoise Blend, Gold Yellow Blend, Earth Brown Blend and Alpine Green Blend. I created a template to cover the bird and branches so I could stamp the background with the “joy” wording using Hickory Smoke and Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink. Then I applied some white gesso to the stamped wording to push it into the background more. I created some 3D snow on the branches using some Fluffy Puffy Stuff from Inkylicious which is always fun to use as you heat it using a heat gun so it became fluffy and puffy (grin!). I stuck the tag in place and then I cut some little snowflakes from the glitter paper using a Thinlits set from Tim Holtz and layered them together with some of the pearl snowflake gems which finished the page.

I treated myself to these TriBlend pens recently after some discussions with Tracey and they are great to use although I still have a lot to master when applying and blending them. As this was new to me I started off small, creating this snowy bird scene which was a great learning experience. I’m looking forward to using them again soon – thanks again Tracey for all your help and insight, you’re a star!

Hoping 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.

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

• Kraft cardstock
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Framelits (Tag Collection 658784)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Ground Espresso)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
• Paperbabe Stamps Stamp Set (Spritz & Speckles)
• Ranger Distress Archival Ink (Ground Espresso, Hickory Smoke)
• Tonic Studios Christmas Trio Die Set (Falling Snowflakes 1792e)
• Poundland (Glitter Paper)
• Wilkos (Corrugated Cardstock – Silver)
• Stix2 glue dots
• Habico Signature Collection (PP1100  – Pearl Snowflakes)
• Recycled brown ribbon
• Creative Stamping Magazine Issue: 62 (Sheena by Sheena Douglass – Winter Wonderland Stamp Set)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Spectrum Noir TriBlend (Green Turquoise Blend, Gold Yellow Blend, Earth Brown Blend, Alpine Green Blend)
• Great Impressions Wood-mounted Stamp (Joy Background J87)
• Inkylicious (Fluffy Puffy Stuff)
• X-Press It! double-sided tape
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Paper Snowflakes 661599)

Challenges I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as I always enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration 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 K over at Art Journal Journey and her Birds challenge this month with the bird that I included on this page. I’m so happy to be able to join the #132 – Frosty Feels or Cool Tones challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with my frosty snowflake scene. I’m pleased to join the Merry Little Christmas Challenge and their MLCCB #28 – November Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas season page. I’m also joining in the fun at Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge and their Happy Holidays challenge with my Love, Peace, Joy tag and page. I’m joining in the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything But A Card challenge with my tag and page. I’m also joining the Challenge # 118 – Gold or Silver or Glitter over at Sparkles Christmas Challenge with the silver and glitter papers that I used. I’m also pleased to join Challenge #83 – Anything Christmas Goes over at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge with my Love, Peace, Joy art journal page. I’m also pleased to join the Christmas challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge too.