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!

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Welcome to my Garden

Wanting to join in the fun at Art Journal Journey again, I created this page by recycling an arch from a magazine and combining it with some Garden House Stamperia papers.

I started by arranging the arch image from the magazine onto the left-hand side of the page, layering some Stamperia papers behind it so it looked like you’re looking into a garden room. I used a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell marker to darken the floor and I fussy cut the spade and pots, from the same Stamperia pad, arranging them on either side of the archway. Next I created the brickwork by stencilling Ground Espresso and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks and applying some Ranger Texture Paste over the top. I layered more colour over the bricks using Black Soot, Vintage Photo and Crackling Campfire Distress Ink gradually building up the colour until they matched the colours of the arch. The pots of flowers, shelf of flower pots, wreath and welcome sign were fussy cut from the same Stamperia pad and stuck in place, which finished the page.

The brickwork reminded me of the beautiful brick walls in our garden; here you can see some of the pretty flowers that we have flowering currently including Million Bells which have have an abundance of pink flowers with a trailing geranium in the centre. You can just see our Welcome sign on the far right too (smile!).

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 Wendy from wendyscraftjournal is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Doors and/or Arches so I’m joining her with the garden arch on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #172 – Anything Goes challenge with my brightly coloured page.

LTSCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with the scrapped magazine image that I used on my page.

Birds and blossom

This page was inspired by all the bird activity in our garden and the beautiful apple blossom on our apple trees (smile!).

I started by covering the page with some Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and White Linen Dylusions Spray. Next I added some Pébéo texture paste through a Lace Tim Holtz stencil and when dry I removed some of it using a craft knife to create a grungy worn lace look. The dots were added using Hickory Smoke Distress Ink and a Dot Fade stencil by Tim Holtz. I stamped the birds and sentiment onto some recycled white tissue paper using a couple of Stampendous stamps and black Archival Ink.

The stamped images were stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium and I arranged them onto the page with some Dogwood blossom rub-on transfers by Royal & Langnickel.

We’ve had lots of blossom on our apple trees so hopefully we’ll get lots of fruit this year too!

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

I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Matilde from http://craftowanie.blogspot.com/ is hosting this month at Art Journal Journey and her Birds challenge with the birds on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #168 – Anything Goes challenge with my bird and blossom page.

Stamping Sensations and their Anything stamped with option of Floral and Fauna challenge as I included stamped birds and sentiment along with the pretty blossoms on my page.

Not A Card challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my art journal page.

We Love Stamping and their For a Lady (or Girl) challenge with my pink blossom and bird page.

Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my pretty blossom and bird art journal page.

Flamingos

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:

The lovely Matilde from http://craftowanie.blogspot.com/ is hosting this month at Art Journal Journey and her challenge is Birds so my flamingo art journal page is perfect (smile!).

Paperbabe Stamps and their #167 – Anything Goes challenge with my flamingo page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Not A Card theme with my art journal page.

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!

Take time to smell the flowers

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.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Feminine theme with my pretty flower art journal 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.

Sparkly Snowflakes

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

Christmas Wishes

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.

Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog and their MLCCB #41 – December Anything Christmas Goes with my Christmas art journal page.

Challenge #106 – Anything Goes Christmas over at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Blog with my Christmas Wishes page.

Cold As Ice challenges at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog with my snow laden scene.

Winter Wonderland

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:

Art Journal Journey and lovely Chris from http://pearshapedcrafting.blogspot.com/ who is hosting this month with her All Kinds of Weather challenge with all the snow falling on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #156 – Anything Goes with my Merry Moose page.

Make Your Own Background challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the winter wonderland background that I created for this page.

LTSCB #151 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my Winter Wonderland page.

Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog and their MLCCB #40 – November Anything Christmas Goes with my Winter Wonderland Christmasy page.

Perfect Moments

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.

Living Things challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the butterflies I included on my page.

Love to Scrap Challenge Blog and their LTSCB #151 – Anything Goes with my happy page and experimental stamping with Brushos.

Challenge #7 at Mixed Media Lovers with my mixed media journal page.

Celebrate Summer

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:

• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Mustard Seed
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Fossilized Amber
• Ranger Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad – Scattered Straw
• Ranger Dylusions Ink Sprays – White Linen
• Ranger – Texture Paste – 3 Pack
• MTHS016 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil – Mini Stencil Set #16
• CMS215 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Cling Mounted Stamp Set – Flower Garden Stamp Set
• 660200 Sizzix Big Shot Machine Only (White & Gray)
• Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits (Alphanumeric Label)
• 658784 Sizzix Framelits Die Set 8PK – Tag Collection By Tim Holtz
• DecoArt Acrylic (White)

Challenges 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. Shimmering Summer Fun Challenge over at The Funky Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my shimmery and summery yellow shabby chic 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.