Snowy Winter at Art Journal Journey

I am so delighted to be guest hosting Art Journal Journey this month with my Snowy Winter theme.

As winter is here, we’re looking for snow and snowflakes on your pages; this could be linked to a winter scene or even Christmas as it’s now December.

For my page, I started by using a Stencil Template set by Inkylicious for the moon and a Stencil Mask by Marianne Designs for the trees, and painting Seedless Grape Distress Ink like watercolour onto the page. Then I coloured the moon using the Inkylicious Stencil using the same Seedless Grape Ink and then the trees using Pine Needles Distress Ink. Next I used a Cozy Winter Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz to die cut the snowflakes, adorable bear, branch and woodpecker from some white cardstock and different colours of Tim Holtz Kraft Cardstock – Classic. I die cut some pine needles to add to the branch using a Holiday Greens Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and then I layered everything together and stuck them onto the page. I splattered the page with white acrylic paint and to finish, I added the wording “a white Christmas appeared” which was from a Christmas Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.

I hope that you are inspired to join in the fun this month too! I’m really looking forward to visiting you and seeing all your wonderful Snowy Winter creations; please, don’t forget to take a look at the RULES.

Wishing you a very Happy December and Happy Journaling! Hugs Jo x

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

Challenges

As well as Art Journal Journey, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Challenge #64 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog with my Snowy Winter Christmas page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #181 – Anything Goes challenge with my winter page.

Stencil Fun Challenge and their December Stencil Fun – Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil with the stencils that I used to create the background on my wintery page.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #28 where Anything Christmas Goes with my winter Christmas page.

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Winter Wonderland Robin

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Winter Wonderland.

My page was inspired by a beautiful Christmas card of a pretty robin sitting in a winter wonderland.

Using the Christmas card as reference, I painted the page to recreate the scenery on the card using Kuretake watercolours paints. Then I die cut the berries, grasses and seed heads from different colours of Tim Holtz Kraft Cardstock- Classic; the dies cuts that I used were Garden Greens Thinlits by Tim Holtz for the berries, a Holiday Greens Thinlits set by Tim Holtz for the grasses and a Delicate Autumn Stems Thinlits set by Lisa Jones for the seed heads. I stamped the trees and over-painted them using the Kuretake watercolours and I stamped some tiny snowflakes over the Christmas card and background. I stuck the Christmas card and all the die cuts in place and then I painted and heavily splattered the page with white acrylic paint. Once dry, I added the wording which were from a Christmas sticker book by Tim Holtz; they read “the beauty of a winter sky”, “wonder”, “little winter bird” and “the first snow has fallen”.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my cup of tea with some yummy Scottish shortbread – Happy T Day everyone!

Hope that you’re all staying safe and well!

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

Challenges

As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to join the following challenges:

The lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from https://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/ who is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Collage Fodder, Food & Drink or Both so I’m joining her as I collaged the Christmas card and doe cuts onto my page to create this snowy scene.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #181 – Anything Goes challenge with my winter wonderland page.

LTSCB#158 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my robin page and the recycled Christmas card that I used.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #28 where Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas card inspired winter wonderland page.

Be Thankful

Today I’m sharing a thankful journal page and wishing all of you that are celebrating this week – a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I started by covering the chipboard page with some scraps of neutral coloured papers; I cut the papers into triangles before collaging them onto the page and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using my finger. I added the framed wording “when I count my blessings I count you twice” which was a sticker from Kaisercraft and the “Be thankful” wording which was washi tape. Next I added two flowers from a Tim Holtz Ephemera pack and two die cut autumnal leaves that were coloured using Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. To finish, I added two little chipboard owls.

For our wedding anniversary last month, we went to a new local Chinese restaurant called “Blessings House” and had the most amazing time (smile!).

The beautiful picture on the wall is cross stitch and was sewn by one of the restaurant’s family – it was very detailed and must have taken ages to create!

We had the lunch buffet with starters and soup; our choices were Sweetcorn and Crabmeat soup and one of each of the starters which were Curry Samosas, Spring Rolls, Salt and Pepper Chicken, Spare Ribs, Chicken Satay, Prawn Toast and Seaweed.

We shared our mains of Chicken in Satay Sauce, Sweet and Sour Pork and Chicken with Mushrooms – it was all so yummy and very filling!

I forgot to take photos of our drinks at the restaurant, so as T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a couple of pints that we enjoyed at the pub around the corner on our way home (smile!) – Happy T Day everyone!

I hope 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.

Challenges

I’m pleased to join the following challenges:

The lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from https://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/ who is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Collage Fodder, Food & Drink or Both so I’m joining her with my collage fodder page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #181 – Anything Goes challenge with my thankful page.

LTSCB#158 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my Be Thankful page; I used lots of scraps to create this one.

November Anything Goes Fall Challenge over at The Four Seasons Challenge with my autumnal thankful page.

Merry Moose Wonderland

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.

Challenges

As well as Sparkles Monthly Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #180 – Anything Goes challenge with my Merry Moose page.

MLCCB #47 – Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Merry Moose Wonderland page.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #27 where Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas Merry Moose page.

Mischievous Cats

Today I’m sharing my fourth page using a napkin from the napkin swap over at T Stands for Tuesday. I used a pretty scalloped edge napkin full of autumnal colours and I decided to pair it with some Mischievous cats from Tim Holtz; I hope you like it (smile!).

I started by cutting the round napkin into quarters and tearing some of the napkin to create individual flowers, and then I collaged all the napkin pieces onto the page using a glue stick. The pretty cats were cut from some black Kraft cardstock – Classic by Tim Holtz using my new Mischievous Cats Sizzix Thinlits set, also by Tim Holtz. I layered them together and added them to the page with a sticker by Kaisercraft that reads “being together is the best gift of all”. To finish, I added some green, gold and blue gemstones to the cats for their eyes – aren’t they adorable!

Creating pages using the napkins from the T Day napkin swap is so much fun! If you’re interested you can find them here:

1. Bee Wellington Boots – Bee napkin from Erika
2. Time for Tea – Alice napkin from Lisca
3. Autumn Greetings – Autumnal napkin from Chris
4. Mischievous Cats – Scalloped napkin which I believe was from Elle (I thought you may like the cats, smile!) – this post

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my Bad Kitty beer that I had at our local beer festival which was held in October this year instead of February. Me and my hubby always volunteer at this festival and we had lots of fun meeting people, serving and chatting to customers and of course trying all the beers.

Bad Kitty is from Brass Castle Brewery in Yorkshire; it’s a Vanilla Porter with a 5.5% ABV described as a “chewy chocolate-vanilla dream of a porter” and was very yummy! I thought it was the “purr-fect” accompaniment to my page this T Day as I know Bleubeard and Elizabeth like Porters and the brewery says “Bad Kitty earned its name from the antics of the two original brewhouse cats, who delighted in mischievously supervising proceedings”.

Cheers and Happy T Day! 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 join the following challenges:

The lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from https://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/ who is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Collage Fodder, Food & Drink or Both so I’m joining her with my napkin collaged page (smile!).

Paperbabe Stamps and their #180 – Anything Goes challenge with my fun page.

LTSCB#158 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with my Mischievous Cats page.

November Anything Goes Fall Challenge over at The Four Seasons Challenge with my autumnal coloured page.

Believe in Yourself

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

My mixed media page was inspired by the golden colour of the sunsets that we see this time of year; I hope you like it (smile!).

I started by covering the page with Wild Honey, Fossilized Amber and Vintage Photo Distress Ink by smooshing them onto the page using an acrylic block; I did this by stamping the ink pad onto the acrylic black, spritzing with water and then pressing the block onto the page gradually building up the layers of colour. Next I stamped a Hessian stamp by Kaisercraft over the whole page using a VersaMark Watermark ink pad and covered it with Gold Ranger embossing powder. I cut some lace edged ovals from white cardstock using a Basic Shapes die cut set by Marianne Designs and then I arranged them onto the page with some Weathered Garden Chipboard Die-cuts by Simple Stories, a gold frame, two gold banners and a washi tape flower. To finish, I added some small white acrylic hearts.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. All you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see join you there!

November brings golden sunsets looking over the beach where we live, so I was inspired to use golden autumnal colours on this page.

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x

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

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

MIUCB #62 – Anything Goes + optional Open Technique over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the ink and acrylic block technique that I used to create my smooshed background.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #180 – Anything Goes challenge with my sunset coloured page.

Joyful Tag

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing my second tag for November’s Tags Only challenge, which I’m delighted to be hosting this month.

For this Christmasy festive tag, I used another MDF tag by Creative Expressions covering it with Driftwood acrylic paint by DecoArt. Then I used one of my favourite techniques to create a wood effect background using Distress Inks and matte gel medium. I did this by dragging Frayed Burlap, Crushed Corduroy and Tea Dye Distress Ink pads vertically down the tag and applying matte gel medium over the top keeping the brush strokes vertical; the gel medium dragged the ink down the tag to give a wood grain effect. Next I die cut the flowers from different colours of Tim Holtz Kraft Cardstock – Classic using a Floral Edge Sizzix Thinlits set and pieced them together. I added the “Joyful” wording from a Christmas Sticker book by Tim Holtz and I tied on some white paper twine, red and green ribbons which finished the tag.

I hope you are inspired to join our Tags Only challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have two chances to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts.

Here are some of the materials that I used to create the tag from Country View Crafts.

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 Country View Challenges , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #179 – Anything Goes challenge with my Joyful tag.

MIUCB #61 – Anything Goes + Optional Open Technique over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my favourite wood grain effect technique that I used on this tag.

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #26 where Anything Christmas Goes with my festive Christmas tag.

Sparkle & Shine

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Sparkle & Shine.

For my sparkly page, I mixed some gold metallic Liquitex Acrylic Ink with Ranger Texture Paste and then I used it to stencil the swirls. Next I applied some of the gold acrylic ink onto the page with some Salvaged Patina and Prize Ribbon Distress Paints spritzing them with water to blend them. When the page was dry, I splattered the page with the gold metallic ink and also some white acrylic paint. For the heart, I embossed a piece of silver metallic cardstock using an Engraved Embossing Folder by Tim Holtz and cut out a heart shape. Then I applied some black metallic wax to the embossed pattern on the heart along with some of the gold ink and both Distress Paints. I added the wording from a Metallic Sticker Book by Tim Holtz which read “Shine brightly”, “Light the way” and “Start each day with a grateful heart”.

To finish, I added a sparkly embellishment to the heart; it’s a pearl surrounded by tiny diamante gems which was kindly gifted to me by the lovely Tracey.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

As T Stands for Tuesday and last weekend we officially moved to winter with the clocks going back an hour, I’m sharing our winter mugs. There pictured with a couple of mince pies – I know it’s early to have these but we treated ourselves when we saw them in the shops. As you can see my hubby’s “G” winter mug is very sparkly too – Happy T Day everyone!

Hope that you’re all staying safe and well!

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

Challenges

As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to join the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #179 – Anything Goes challenge with my sparkle and shine page.

Stencil Fun Challenge and their Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil with the stencil that I used to create the metallic swirls on my page.

Can You Handle The Pressure and their Anything Goes Embossing with a Twist of Pumpkins with the embossed heart on my page – thanks for the invite Darlene!

Tags Only at Country View Challenges

I’m so delighted that it’s my turn to host the challenge over at Country View Challenges this month which is Tags Only.

I chose this theme as I don’t create tags very often and who doesn’t love a tag, they are such fun to make! As the Tags Only title suggests we only want to see tags for this challenge, so no including them on cards, pages or other projects please.

I look forward to seeing what you make and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the shop! Before you enter your project though, please read the rules!

For my first tag, I used an MDF tag by Creative Expressions which I covered with Speckled Egg and Salvaged Patina Distress Paint. When dry, I added some letters to the background using a Tim Holtz Mini Layered Stencil Set #16 and some Speckled Egg Distress Ink. Then I stamped some grungy dots using a Urban Tapestry stamp set for Tim Holtz and some Faded Jeans Distress Archival Ink. Next I stamped numbers and circles using black Archival Ink and a #489 AALL & Create stamp set and I splattered the tag with white DecoArt acrylic paint. Gladys the flamingo was die cut using a Sizzix Time Holtz Thinlits set from different colours of Tim Holtz Kraft Cardstock – Classic. Once stuck in place I added the label sticker by Tim Holtz which reads “You Do You”. To finish, I tied some black paper twine and ribbons to the tag.

I had so much fun using the Gladys Flamingo Sizzix Thinlits set from Tim Holtz to create this MDF tag and here’s the crafting goodies from Country View Crafts that I used (grin!).

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

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

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #179 – Anything Goes with my tag.

Stencil Fun Challenge and their Anything Goes as long as you use a stencil as I used a letter stencil by Tim Holtz on my tag.

LTCCB#71 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my Gladys Flamingo tag.

I put a spell on you

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing another Halloween page for this month’s Halloween or Harvest challenge.

This mixed media page was fun to make as I used a mishmash of different products including Distress Paints, a Visible Image stamp set, Tim Holtz Metallic letter stickers and DecoArt acrylic paint.

I started by covering the page with Halloween colours using a couple of layers of Crackling Campfire and Twisted Citron Distress Paints. When dry, I stamped the spell book, raven and border onto the page using black Archival Ink and a Visible Image stamp set. Next I added the wording using letters from an Alpha Silver Metallic Sticker set by Tim Holtz. To finish, I added a few black gemstones and I splattered the page using the two Distress Paints and some white and black DecoArt acrylic paint.

I hope you are inspired to join our Halloween or Harvest 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.

“I put a spell on you” is a song from 1956 and has been covered by many artists; I remember this version by Nina Simone.

It was also performed in the 1993 Disney film Comedy “Hocus Pocus” by the Sanderson Sisters with different lyrics – which seemed more appropriate from Halloween (smile).

I hope that you’re 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 Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Elle from Empire of the Cat is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Fairytales, Folklore & Fables – Tell Me A Story so I’m joining her with my Halloween page as spells are part of folklore and fairy tales.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #179 – Anything Goes challenge with my Halloween page.