This page was inspired by the beautiful flamingos that we saw whilst visiting Blackpool Zoo (smile!).
I started by covering the page with Speckled Egg, Twisted Citron and Rustic Wilderness Distress Paints. When dry, I used the same Speckled Egg paint to stencil and also stamp a Waves mini stencil by Creative Expressions. Then I stencilled some Ranger Texture paste using a Carabelle Studio Art Mask and left it to dry. The flamingos were fussy cut from a topper sheet from Hunkydory and to finish, I added the wording “wild & free” which was a sticker by Little Yellow Bicycle.
Here are the gorgeous brightly coloured flamingos that we saw wading around in their lake. They are Caribbean flamingos and fly in flocks of several thousand in the wild; they fly in formation like migrating geese and make a similar honking sound.
They can live up to 40 years and are omnivorous in the wild, but, in captivity are fed on flamingo pellets which determine their colour and also small insects.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
MIUCB #59 Anything Goes + Optional 3-D over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different techniques that I used to create my flamingo page.
Using stencils on my page reminds me that you still have a few days left to join our Use A Stencil challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too; it would be lovely to see you there!
It’s a new month so we are launching our June 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 outdoors and the spring tulips that are flowering at the moment (grin!).
I started by covering the whole page with some Pébéo white gesso and I added some washes of Scattered Straw and Tattered Rose Distress Ink over the page. Next I added pieces of book pages from a Pears Cyclopaedia using a glue stick and then I stencilled the Reverse Honeycomb design by That’s Crafty using Ranger Texture Paste. I splattered the page with Peeled Paint, Tattered Rose and Vintage Photo Distress Inks and when dry, I coloured the stencilled texture paste using black Archival Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. The flower images and words were cut from a Romantic Garden House paper pad by Stamperia that my sister kindly bought me for my birthday; they were edged using the Vintage Photo Distress Ink before sticking them into place. To finish, I added three wooden button pink flowers which I had laced some cream wax thread through.
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!
As you may remember we plant tulips bulbs every year and these Purple Dream Lily Flower Tulips are new to our garden. They have been flowering for over a month now and the flowers are huge; they are very impactful and look amazing (smile!).
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:
Paperbabe Stamps and their #167 – Anything Goes challenge with my flower page.
Sunday in the Park challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog with my outdoor page as we see tulips flowering in the park near us this time of year too.
MIUCB #59 Anything Goes over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different techniques that I used to create this page.
Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing these very sparkly snowflakes for January’s A Year to Sparkle & Shine challenge, which I’m delighted to be hosting this month.
The chipboard background was covered with white gesso and then some Ranger Texture Paste was applied through a snowflakes mini stencil by Tim Holtz. When dry, I coloured the page using Peacock Feathers and Prize Ribbon Distress Ink. All the other snowflakes were recycled from Christmas present wrapping; the felt snowflakes were coloured using the Distress Inks and when dry, they were arranged onto the page with a large snowflake. I covered them all with lots of Icicles Ranger Stickles Glitter Glue which made them shimmer and shine beautifully. The wording was from a Christmas Sticker book by Tim Holtz and reads “the snowflakes come down, the winds of winter blow”. For some extra sparkle, I added lots of Crystals, from a Twinkle Stars set by Creative Expressions, to the centre of the large and each of the stencilled snowflakes.
I hope you are inspired to join our A Year to Sparkle & Shine 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.
Snowflakes decorate my windows this time of year and these window clings are very sparkly too (grin!)
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 products over at Country View Crafts too.
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. Hugs Jo x
Today I’m over at Country View Challenges for this month’s Christmas Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas Wishes art journal page.
The collage background was created using lots of Christmas Ephemera from Tim Holtz; they were stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. When dry, I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a baby wipe and then I painted a thick layer of gesso around the edge of the page. I applied a layer of Ranger Texture Paste over the edge of the page too, using a palette knife, to make it look like icy snow. The candles and foliage were die cut from Tim Holtz Kraft papers using a Candlelight and also a Festive Bouquet Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. I added more colour and shimmer to the die cut pieces using some Craf-T Lustre waxes and they were edged using Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink. Before sticking the candles in place, I applied some of the Lustre wax to create the candle’s glow and I also splattered the page with white gesso. To finish, I added the “Christmas Wishes” wording which was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book.
I hope you are inspired to join our Christmas Anything Goes 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 (grin!).
I love Christmas and here’s a beautifully embroidered mat, that adorned our festive table whilst visiting family recently – wishing you a Safe and Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year! x
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 find most of the products that I used over at Country View Crafts too.
Challenges
As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #158 – Anything Goes with my Christmas Wishes page.
It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday which for the next 2 weeks is Winter Wonderland.
As some of you will know I can never resist using my Merry Moose Thinlits set this time of year, so today here he is walking through a winter wonderland at sunset (grin!).
I positioned a circular template from an Inkylicious template and stencil set to mask out the sun and then I painted some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to mark out the sky and foreground. For the snowy foreground, I added some Ranger Texture Paste using s palette knife and when dry, I painted some Prize Ribbon Distress Ink and Pébéo white gesso over the top. Then I splattered the whole page using the white gesso, which when dry acted as a resist when I added the next layers of colour, forming the snowfall. To create the sunset, I gradually built up the layers of colour by painting the sky with some Abandoned Coral Distress Stain to form the clouds and I reflected some of this colour onto the snowy foreground too. The sun was painted using Mustard Seed Distress Ink and the same Abandoned Coral Distress Stain, and to add a bit of snowy sparkle I also added some Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink over the sun and clouds. I used a Tall Pines Thinlits set to cut the trees from some white cardstock and then I covered them with some Ranger Texture Paste and coloured them using some of the Distress Inks/Stain and white gesso. The “Winter Wonderland” wording was stamped onto some tissue paper using a free stamp set from a magazine and black Archival Ink; it was stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium.
The moose was die cut using the Merry Moose Thinlets from some Classic Kraft Paper, both by Tim Holtz. He was edged using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker, and I added a piece of ribbon for a scarf before sticking him in place. To finish, I splattered the whole page with white acrylic paint.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful Winter Wonderland creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!).
Over the years, I have created tags, journal pages and even Christmas cards using this Merry Moose Thinlits set, here’s some that have a winter wonderland feel about them; they all hold such happy memories of dear friends and my time on Design Teams! I hope you are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!
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.
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.
Challenges
As well as Try it on Tuesday , I’m pleased to join the following challenges today:
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.
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 was inspired by my good friend Craftyfield to stamp using Colourcraft Brushos, so I used them to create the diamond background. I did this by sprinkling Scarlett, Terracotta, Orange and Yellow Ochre Brushos onto a Vintage Diamond mini stencil by Creative Expressions. Then I spritzed the stencil with water and pressed it onto the page like a stamp; I did this a number of times to build up the background. When dry, I stencilled some texture paste by Tim Holtz which I had coloured using Salvaged Patina Distress Paint through a Moroccan That Special Touch of Mica Mask by Creative Expressions. Then I splattered the page using the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and also some black DecoArt acrylic paint and left to dry. To finish, I added three fussy cut butterflies and the wording which was a Kaisercraft sticker; it reads “Perfect Moments”.
For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.
Perfect moments made me think of this post box that I discovered outside my local post office, isn’t the crochet cover amazing – it made me smile for the rest of the day (grin!). I like the way the colours of the sun and butterfly match my page too (double grin!).
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.
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.
Challenges
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #155 – Anything Goes with my festive tags.
Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing a mini art journal page for this month’s Monochromatic challenge to celebrate summer.
With all the fabulous summer sunshine we’ve been enjoying recently, my monochromatic page features shades of yellow and was created using Tim Holtz products.
I started by preparing the chipboard page with a layer of white gesso and then I coloured the page various shades of yellow using Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, and Scattered Straw Distress Inks. Then I sprayed some White Linen Dylusions Spray Ink over the top and left it to dry. I applied some Ranger texture paste through a stencil from a #16 mini stencil set by Tim Holtz; the wet texture paste reactivated the inks turning it yellow so I sprayed some more of the White Linen Dylusions Spray Ink over the top. When dry, I stencilled some numbers and letters around the texture paste using the two other Tim Holtz stencils from the #16 set and some Fossilized Amber ink. For the flowers, I used a stamping platform to stamp the flower heads and stems onto some mixed media paper using a Flower Garden stamp set and the Fossilized Amber ink. They were coloured using the Mustard Seed and Fossilized Amber inks which I applied like watercolour paint, then I cut them out and stuck them in place using matte gel medium. For the wording, I die cut the letters from some mixed media paper, which I had coloured with the Fossilized Amber ink, using an Alphanumeric Label Thinlits set. The letters were stuck onto two banners which were die cut from white cardstock using a Tag Collection Framelits set. To finish, I splattered some white DecoArt acrylic paint over the page.
I hope you are inspired to join our Monochromatic 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 (grin!).
The colours, flowers and wording on this page were inspired by a visit to the Garden Hub Plant Centre at Lytham Hall whilst out walking.
Where we saw these gorgeous yellow cone shaped flowers called Echinacea.
There were also handwritten chalkboard signs displayed amongst the flowers, including this one which inspired the “Celebrate Summer” wording on my page (grin!).
Hoping that you are 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 from Country View Crafts that I used to create this art journal page:
As well as Country View 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 Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with the typed die cuts that I used on my page.
The Birthday Celebration! challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge who are marking their 11th Birthday with my summer celebration page – thanks for all the challenge fun over the years and wishing you all a very Happy Birthday!
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #149 – Anything Goes with my summer page.
MIUCB #52 – Anything Goes + Mixed Media over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my happy summer page.
It’s a new month which means we have a new challenge at Country View Challenges for August which is Monochromatic.
Please ensure that your projects are monochromatic and as such contain only one colour of varying shades. This month’s challenge is being hosted by the lovely Debs.
I had fun art journaling again and as summer is here I created this lush green monochromatic page using Tim Holtz products.
To start, I covered the background with Distress Inks by stamping Mowed Lawn, Bundled Sage and Twisted Citron ink pads onto a blending mat, spritzing with water and then pressing the mat onto the page; I did this a number of times until I achieved the intensity of colour I wanted.
Then I coloured two lots of Ranger Texture Paste; one using Rustic Wilderness and the other using Twisted Citron Distress Paint. I applied them to the page through a Halftone stencil using a palette knife.
Next I stamped some words and numbers from an Etcetera stamp set using Bundled Sage Distress Ink and then I splattered the page using some Forest Moss Distress Ink. When dry, I added some white Tiny Text Remnant Rubs which read “hold on tight to your dream”, “see the world”, “shine brightly”, “own your story”, “listen to your heart”, “see possibility everywhere”, “she is brave” and “make it count”. Then I splattered the whole page using white DecoArt acrylic paint.
The flowers were die cut from some mixed media paper using a Wildflowers Thinlits set and coloured using the Distress Inks before sticking them in place using matte gel medium.
For the dark green wording, I coloured some mixed media paper using the Rustic Wilderness Distress Paint and when dry, I cut out the letters using an Alphanumeric Label Thinlits set. They were stuck in place using matte gel medium which finished the page.
For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.
I hope you are inspired to join our Monochromatic challenge too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).
The white summer daisies in my garden seem to be enjoying the hot sunny days at the moment. I hope that you are enjoying the sunshine too wherever you are (grin!).
Hoping that you are 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:
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with the typed remnant rubs wording and Alphanumeric wording I used to illustrate my page design.
Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #149 – Anything Goes with my summery art journal page.
It’s a new month which means we have a new challenge at Country View Challenges for July which is Use a Stencil (or two).
Please ensure that the stencils are a main focus of your projects when you join this challenge, which is being hosted this month by the lovely Monica.
For this month’s challenge, I created this mini art journal page using a Stamperia stencil and papers.
I stared by covering the chipboard page with a thin layer of white gesso and then I used a Wallpaper & Compass stencil by Stamperia to add Ranger Texture Paste. The texture paste was coloured using Driftwood DecoArt paint and also using a mixture of some Blue Glamour Dust Acrylic paint from DecoArt and some Mowed Lawn ink from a reinker bottle to create a sparkly patina colour before applying them using a palette knife. When dry edged the page using a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker smudging the ink with my finger. The deer image and wording were cut out of some Forest Stamperia papers and stuck in place over some strands of thread that I had leftover from some sewing. To finish, I added three pretty silver embellishments which were recycled from a necklace; they were stuck in place using Ranger Glossy Accents.
For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.
I hope you are inspired to join our Use a Stencil (or two) challenge too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use at Country View Crafts (grin!).
This page reminded me of these beautiful metal sculptures that we saw when we visited Portland, Maine. They are part of the “Glimpse” installation by Wendy Klemperer who is a New York artist and created these life-like woodland creatures from steel and repurposed nails.
Like on my page, the deer are surrounded by silver birch trees too – perfect (grin!).
Hoping that you are 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 mini art journal page:
It’s a new month which means we have a new challenge at Country View Challenges for March which is We will always have Paris.
This challenge is being hosted this by the lovely Craftyfield; please ensure the main focus of your designs is Paris or anything that says “France” – think fashion, wine, lavender fields of Provence, old adverts etc.
I started by diagonally ripping a piece of design paper featuring Paris from an Around the World Paper Pack by Stamperia and sticking them in place using a glue stick. Then I mixed some Ranger Texture Paste with some Sapphire Blue Glamour Dust paint from DecoArt and some Mowed Lawn Distress Ink so that it matched the blue/green colour on the paper. It was stencilled across the white area of the page using a stencil from Samperia.
Next I coloured some mixed media paper for the wording, hearts and die cut flowers and leaves; I used Abandoned Coral Distress Ink Spray and White Linen Dylusions Ink Spray for the wording, hearts and blossoms, Fossilised Amber Distress Ink for the flower stamens and Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss Distress Ink for the leaves. When the papers were dry I cut them out using two Sizzix Thinlits sets by Sarah Guilar; the wording and hearts using a Doodle Alphabet & Numbers set and the flowers using the Floral Layers set. I layered the flower pieces together and then stuck everything in place using gel medium which finished the page.
For more inspiration please see the amazing We will always have Paris creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.
I hope you are inspired to join us too, if you do, you’ll also have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts (grin!).
Paris is a beautiful place to visit and as this theme brought back memories of when we visited in springtime, I added the spring blossoms to my page. I remember the magical Eiffel Tower with its wonderful iron lattice-work; it looks so spectacular all lit up and twinkling at night too, apparently there are 20,000 light bulbs which are used to make the Eiffel Tower sparkle.
Hoping that you are 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:
I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today:
Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Elle from Empire of the Cat and her Language theme as I used heart symbols from my Alphabet Die Set to mean “love” and the blossoms to represent Spring.
Paperbabe StampsChallenge #143 – Anything Goes with my Paris page.
MIUCB#49 – Anything Goes + Layering over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the layered paper and stencil background and layered die cut blossoms on my art journal page.
Let's Art Journal 