So do you wanna build a snowman … well I had fun building mine for this fun seasonal page (smile!).
For the wintery sky, I covered my chipboard page using Villainous Poison Distress Paint which I blended with some white and black acrylic paint using horizontal brush strokes. Next I hand cut some white cardstock to form the foreground and die cut the tree using a Woodlands Sizzix Thinlits by Tim Holtz; they were edged with Seedless Grape and Black Soot Distress Ink before sticking them in place. Then I spattered the page with white acrylic paint. The snowman was die cut using a Mr. Frost Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some white and black linen textured the paper. I coloured the edges of the main body of the snowman with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink using a blending tool, the scarf and hat band using red and green TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers, his carrot nose using Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the twig arms using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The die cut pieces were layered together using Liquitex matte gel medium and I added a holly gemstone embellishment to the hat, then stuck him onto the page. To finish, I added the wording which was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and read “Far across the snow, on the frosty hills”.
Here’s one of my Christmas cupcakes; it’s a chocolate cupcake and the snowman was created using marshmallows, a Rolo chocolate, chocolate sprinkles, buttercream icing and some candied orange – super cute (smile!).
Hoping that you are all staying safe and well and are having a wonderful Christmastime! x
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Wendy K from Wendy’s Craft Journal; she has chosen Above Us Only Sky as her theme so I’m joining with my snowy winter sky.
It’s Creative Artiste’s #100th Challenge! so we are celebrating with a special challenge theme of Anything Mixed Media Goes with the option of Christmas and if you enter, you even have a chance to win this prize (which will go to our winner).
I always love to recycle items on my pages, so this beautiful gift card wallet was perfect for my special mixed media page celebrating 100 challenges at Creative Artiste.
I created a wintery scene to match the gift card wallet by adding some watered-down beige paint over the top three-quarters of the page and then applying some white gesso over the bottom quarter of the page. Next I secondary stamped grey trees and foliage, in the background, using a couple of free stamps and some black Archival Ink. The fir trees were stamped multiple times using different green inks, which included Mowed Lawn, Rustic Wilderness and Pine Needles Distress Ink; I love the way the white gesso acted as a resist, with the ink, to give a snowy effect. The little robins were stamped and coloured with Spectrum Tri-Blend markers, fussy cut out and stuck in place. I added the “joy to the world” wording, which was a Kaisercraft sticker and then to finish, I splattered the whole page with some heavy density white acrylic paint.
Of course, there was a reason why I used the gift card wallet as part of my design and that was to store a card that I created recording that – Once Upon a Christmas Time Creative Artiste reached 100 challenges (smile!).
For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. All you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see you there!
I hope you are staying safe and well!
Thanks so much for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Challenges
As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to join the following challenges:
It’s October so our new challenge for the next two weeks over at Try it on Tuesday, is Halloween.
For the background, I covered my chipboard page with Villainous Poison Distress Paint and white acrylic paint. When dry, I stamped a cobweb design by Molly Blooms and a star stamp by Lavinia using Moonlight White Brilliance Ink by Archival. Next I arranged two black cobweb stickers onto the page and outlined them using a white Uniball gel pen. The pumpkins were die cut from Kraft Cardstock – Basics by Tim Holtz and some other Linen Textured cardstock using a Pumpkin Duo Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz; the pieces were edged with Black Soot Distress Ink before piecing them together using a Crafter’s Companion Glue Tape/Dot Pen. To finish, I added a piece of Happy Halloween washi tape and outlined it using the white gel pen.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and the rest of my Design Teamies (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!
One of my dear family sent me a photo of the new Halloween Post Box topper in their village; isn’t it spooky and amazing (smile!).
I hope that you are staying safe and well!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Challenges
As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to join the following challenges:
Being TSFT 10th Anniversary, we decided to get really creative and swap 10 ATCs. These ATCs were contained in those beautiful folders that she created and look spectacular – thank you so much Lyn for this wonderful swap and to Bluebeard and Elizabeth for organising everything!
Here are the 10 ATCs that I sent Lyn – Happy 10th TSFT everyone! There happens to be 10 of them and also the number 10 on each of them, so I hope this meets Bleubeard & Elizabeth’s request of including the number 10 somewhere on your photos.
If you’re wondering how I created them, see below. All of my ATCs started as playing cards, which I painted with white gesso on the front and black gesso on the back. I added splatter using black DecoArt acrylic paint over some of the white gesso before I applied different designs; all the paper pieces were stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium and Crafter’s Companion glue tape. I used a white Uni Ball gel pen and/or a black Uni Pin marker to outline items and I added the number 10 (for 10th Anniversary) to each; this included stamping using black Archival Ink and a Tim Holtz stamp set. As you can see, my 10 ATC designs are all different, here’s how they came together:
1. I covered the playing card with a piece of Tim Holtz Collage paper and when dry, I coloured it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Next I stamped some hearts using Moonlight White Brilliance Ink by Archival. I coloured the hearts using a Red Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend marker and then, I covered them using Ranger Glossy Accents. To finish, I added the wording which were Kaisercraft Stickers.
2. This Alice design was created using a napkin from last year’s 9th TSFT napkin swap, thanks Lisca (smile!). The wording that I added was a Tim Holtz Small Talk Sticker.
3. I stamped numbers onto the background using black Archival Ink and a Documented stamp set by Tim Holtz, then I added the foliage and flowers which I die cut from used teabags. The words were Tim Holtz Small Talk and Label stickers, and I added some white flower buttons and beads to the centre of the flowers using Glossy Accents.
4. For the background, I added some pretty oriental papers and outlined them using a black Faber-Castell marker, smudging the ink with my finger. The “B” for Bleubeard, “E” for Elizabeth and wording were Tim Holtz stickers, and to finish, I added a green ephemera butterfly and two gold butterfly outline stickers.
5. I randomly applied some Ranger Crackle Paste using a palette knife and when dry, I applied some watered-down black Faber-Castell marker ink with a paintbrush to highlight the cracks. The poppy flower was a washi tape sticker and the teacup was die cut from Tim Holtz Halloween paper. To finish, I added a Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker.
6. This was a fun collage design using a doily, some Kaisercraft Stickers and flower Ephemera.
7. The tea images were fussy cut from some Stamperia papers, which I arranged with some Kaisercraft Stickers.
8. Using a Stamperia stencil, I added some Ranger Texture Paste and left it to dry overnight. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top. When dry, it was painted using black and Aquamarine Kuretake watercolours. The wording was a Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker.
9. The wording was cut from a Stamperia paper pad and arranged it onto the card with some die cut foliage and flowers that were leftover from previous projects.
10. I added strips of washi tape vertically down the card to create the background and I added the names of Elizabeth’s cats using Tim Holtz Label stickers. The two cats were die cut from Tim Holtz Kraft papers using a Mischievous Cats Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. I added some gems for their eyes and a red die cut heart adding “E” for Elizabeth to the centre.
Inspired by CJ, I also created a concertina folder to hold them in, which was fun to make (smile!).
Of course, I just had to send our amazing host a couple of ATCs too; I created another Squiggles and Bleubeard ATC and a Rust one, as I know how much Bleubeard & Elizabeth like rust. The rust one was created using Stamperia papers, Glossy Accents, a chipboard cog painted covered in acrylic and Distress Paints and some stickers. Happy 10th Anniversary and thank you for all your hard work to ensure T Stands For Tuesday is organised and available for everyone to join!
Stay safe and well!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Gnome Home For The Holidays.
I had so much fun creating this colourful Christmas Gnome page, I hope you like it too (smile!).
I started by drawing the top of the toadstool onto to some red and white dot Christmas paper and cutting it out. Then I created the fronds and bottom of the toadstool out of white cardstock, which I coloured in a Brown Grey TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker and a black UniPen fine line marker. I also drew the door, fussy cut it out and coloured it using a Dark Brown Blend TriBlend marker and a black UniPen marker to create the wood effect and a Gold Spectrum Aqua Marker for the door handle. For the snow on the toadstool roof and in the foreground, I cut the shapes from some white cardstock and then I added some detail using a Ice Grey Blend TriBlend marker. I covered the chipboard page using some blue snowflake cardstock before sticking everything in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. The glittery Christmas trees on the right-hand and left-hand side of the page were layered together from a sticker pack. I stamped the cute Gnome using a Woodware Crafts stamp set and I coloured him using Alpine Green Blend, Dark Red Blend, Ice Grey Blend, Brown Grey Blend and Pale Pink Blend TriBlend markers and a also Yellow marker for the pom pom on his hat. To finish, I added the “Merry Christmas” wording which I framed with two gold coloured star gems.
I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing projects from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.
I love Christmas and saw these cute gnomes whilst visiting a garden centre with family last week, they reminded me of my page.
I hope that you are staying safe and well!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Art Journal Journey which I’m having fun hosting this month; I chose the challenge theme Snowy Winter so like me all you need to do is add snowflakes and/or snow on your pages. I hope to see you there!
Paperbabe Stamps and their #182 – Anything Goes challenge with my Gnome page.
It’s a new month so we are launching our December challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
Whilst tidying up, I found this adorable robin image that I had saved from an old calendar and just couldn’t resist creating a page with it straight away; I even abandoned another page that I was creating, oh and also the tidying up (grin!).
I started by covering the background using white acrylic and Speckled Egg Distress Paint. Then I die cut lots of holly and fir branches using a Holiday Greens Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some green coloured cardstock; I added more colour to them using a Dark Green Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker. The cones were die cut using a Funky Festive Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some brown Kraft cardstock – Classic by Tim Holtz. The holly berries were die cut using an old Festive Holly set and the wording using a Sizzix Doodle Alphabet and Letters set; they were all cut from orange paper which I later coloured using Orange and Sunflower Spectrum Aqua markers. I fussy cut the robin and stuck him in place, then I die cut the snowflakes from the remaining calendar paper. All of the foliage and snowflake pieces were arranged onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium and to finish, I splattered the whole page using white acrylic paint.
I love robins and have quite a few beautiful metal robins in my garden; one Christmas my dearest friend in America bought us this pretty red robin sitting in a heart – isn’t it delightful (smile!).
Hope that you’re all staying safe and well, and wishing you a Happy December!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Challenges
As well as Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
Art Journal Journey and the Snowy Winter challenge that I’m hosting this month as their are snowflakes on my wintery scene.
I’m so delighted to be hosting this month’s challenge over at Sparkles Monthly Challenges choosing #158 – Die Cuts and/or Punches as my theme.
I love nothing better than using die cuts for my papercraft projects and I used quite a few die cuts for this page including one of my favourites – the Merry Moose Sizzix Thinlits by Tim Holtz.
It looks like Merry Moose is looking forward to Christmas this year while walking through a winter wonderland; I hope you’ll join in the fun too, it would be lovely to see you there (smile!).
I started by covering the chipboard page with a layer of Speckled Egg Distress Paint and left it to dry. Then I used lots of Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits to create the scene; this included a Branched Birch Thinlits Set which was cut from some white linen cardstock, a Woodlands Thinlits set for the fir trees cut from some green foil corrugated cardstock, a Merry Moose Thinlits set from some cream linen cardstock and a Winter Wardrobe Thinlits set for his bow from white linen cardstock. I layered the trees together using double-sided tape and I cut out the snowy foreground from some of the white linen cardstock. The Merry Moose was coloured using Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso and Antique Linen Distress Ink and his bow using a Dark Red Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker. The two little robins, flying across the page, were stamped using a Picket Fence Studios stamp set and black Archival Ink; they were coloured using a Earth Brown Blend and the Dark Red Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers and then fussy cut out. To finish, I added the “walking in a winter wonderland” wording which was a die cut sticker from a Christmas Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.
I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenges, and for more inspiration please check out the amazing Die Cuts and/or Punches projects from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.
Here are all the Thinlits sets I used to create my Merry Moose Wonderland page.
As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a couple of pints of Dark Side of the Moose beer; it’s from Purple Moose brewery in Porthmadog, Wales and we enjoyed it last week at one of our local pubs – Cheers and Happy T Day everyone!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
My page today was inspired by some beautiful wellies (Wellington rain boots) that were a surprise present from my mum.
My page design includes a napkin that I received as part of the napkin swap over at T Stand for Tuesday, I think this napkin was from Erika as it has busy bees on it.
If you are interested, I’ve also recycled the washi tape that came as part of the napkin swap, see my page Love you to the moon and back.
I started by creating a hexagon template from some card using a compass; I used this template to draw and then cut out hexagons of the napkin and also some blue paper that was recycled from a book cover. I arranged them onto the page using a glue stick and edged them all using some gold border outline stickers. Next I die cut the honeycomb from some leftover gold cardstock using a Bee Hive Sizzix Thinlits set by Olivia Rose. They were arranged onto the page with some white rub-on transfers for the wording and also some white flower stickers which I also added to decorate the napkins. To finish, I added two bees which were stamped and die cut using a Beehive Buzz Pink Ink Designs set, and were coloured using Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend markers.
Here are the pretty wellies that my mum kindly bought me; the colours, bees and honeycomb inspired my page design.
Wellies is a term that we use in the UK for Wellington boots which are also known as rain boots or gumboots in other parts of the world:
Wellington boots, or “Wellies” are named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington who wore and popularised them here in the UK.
Wellington’s boots were made of leather, but in 1856, the Scotland-based North British Rubber Company (now known as Hunter Boots) began manufacturing rubber Wellington rain boots. Being made from rubber enhanced the boots by giving them more flexible movement and making them 100% waterproof.
The nickname “gumboots” is a nod to the natural rubber that rain boots are made from. Natural rubber, which is obtained from trees, is called “gum rubber” hence the name gumboots.
As T Stands for Tuesday and keeping with the bee theme, here’s my apple juice and ginger beer in a glass that we purchased when we visited Maine Mead Works in America which has their bee logo on it – Happy T Day everyone!
Hoping that you all stay safe and well! x
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
The lovely Neet from Hickydorums is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Fur and/or Feathers so I’m joining her with yet more busy fuzzy bees … ha,ha!
LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blogas I created this page using a scraps of book page and gold cardstock as well as a napkin.
Paperbabe Stamps and their #176 – Anything Goes challenge with my bee page.
Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing my second art journal page for this month’s Hearts and Flowers challenge.
I started by covering the chipboard background using Botanicals Collage Paper by Tim Holtz and Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I coloured the flowers using some colourful Spectrum Noir markers and a white gel pen and then I added some shadows and edged the page using a Ground Espresso Distress Ink. Next I stuck the three sparky Gumdrop Hearts by Tim Holtz onto the page and I added the wording “Love with all your heart” which was from a Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker book. To finish, I added some Ranger Glossy Accents to the flowers which highlighted the colours beautifully.
I hope you are inspired to join our Hearts and Flowers challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts.
This glass heart hangs in my dining room and was gifted me by a very dear friend as a house warming present many years ago; it reminds me of my page.
I hope that you are staying safe and well!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
For the sake of brevity I am no longer listing the individual items that I used to create my page, however I’m more than happy to let you know which particular product was used if you contact me via comments below or using the following contact me link. You can also check out the Tim Holtz products that I used over at Country View Crafts too.
It’s time for our new challenge this month over at Country View Challenges which is Hearts and Flowers.
Jane is our host for this month and she would like to see BOTH hearts and flowers on your creations. We look forward to seeing what you make and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!
I started by painting the background with Brushed Sage Distress Ink which I had watered down like watercolour. Then I added Rustic Wilderness and Twisted Citron Distress Ink using a blending tool through a Heart Cluster Mini Stencil by Creative Expressions. I added the stamping using a Fragments stamp set by Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink. Next I die cut the poinsettias and foliage using a Festive Bouquet Thinlits set from Kraft Paper, both by Tim Holtz, and added more colour and detail using Spectrum Noir markers. The tiny red hearts were created using a Falling Hearts Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and arranged vertically so they cascaded down the page. To finish, I added the wording from a Metallic Sticker Book by Tim Holtz which read “Always & Forever” …”In my heart” and “Love you” … “XOXO”.
For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.
Here’s a couple of the products from Country View Crafts that I used to create this page. I love the poinsettia Thinlits from this Festive Bouquet set; they turned out so beautifully.
I often have a cuppa whilst crafting so I included my cup of tea to join the T Gang today over at T Stands For Tuesday too – Happy T Day everyone!
Stay safe and well! x
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Let's Art Journal 