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.

Do small things with great love

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Use a Stencil.

I had fun using three different stencils on this page for both the background and main flower images.

I started by covering the page with Colbalt Blue, Cadmium Yellow Dark Hue and Bright Aqua Green Liquitex acrylic paints and left it to dry. I didn’t like the yellow so I covered it with the Colbalt Blue and Aqua Green paints, if you look closely you’ll just see some of the yellow peeking through. Next I used a Fun ISO stencil from Paperbabes Stamps and a Carabelle Studio Mask to stencil and stamp the patterns over the top using the blue and green paints again. When dry I added the white flowers using white acrylic paint and a Jofy PaperArsty Flower Stencil and Mask set. To finish, I added the wording which was cut from a Kaisercraft 12×12 paper sheet.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the wonderful Use a Stencil 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 a yummy beer from Brewdog Brewery called Hazy Jane which is an IPA with a 5% ABV and is described as “This is a full-tilt fruit machine of an IPA packs all the flavour but less of the alcohol. Notes of pineapple, mango, stone-fruit, and a hint of tangerine to mix it up. Brewed with oats and wheat and left unfiltered for a smooth juicy hit” – 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 be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #166 – Anything Goes challenge with my stencilled page.

A Study in Contrasts over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the contrast between the bright white flowers and blue/green background.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes theme with my art journal page.

MIUCB #59 Anything Goes + optional 3-D project over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with the stencilling techniques that I used to create this page.

Bluebells are Bluebells

We have lots of bluebells flowering in our garden this year, so I created this page by recycling some magazine images and sheet music. Bluebells always make me smile as they remind me of my Grandad Westy because he used to sing a song called “Bluebells are bluebells” at family get togethers.

I started by covering the page with Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks and when dry, applying some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer. Next I tore some sheet music paper and added it to the page using a glue stick and I applied some more white gesso over them too. Then I used a Docrafts stamp to add some more music notes using Grape Jelly Memento Ink. The bluebell images and wording were cut from some magazine pages and to finish, I added some purple foam glittery hearts.

Here’s the pretty bluebells flowering in my garden; the fun song that my Grandad Westy used to sing went “Bluebells are bluebells, Bluebells are blue, Bluebells are bluebells when bluebells are blue” (smile!).

I hope that you’re 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 be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Alison the Craftytrog is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Play it again Sam where you’re page need to be inspired by a song or movie; so I’m joining her with my Bluebells Are Bluebells song page.

A Study in Contrast challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the contrasting light background and darker bluebell images on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #166 – Anything Goes challenge with my page.

Wild and Wonderful challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the wild and wonderful bluebell images on my page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my bluebell page.

Painting the Roses Red

To join a few challenges including our I Can Hear Music challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, I created this fun “Painting the Roses Red” page using my new Alice Through The Looking Glass papers from Stamperia – I hope you like it!

I started by covering the background with some grey and silver acrylic paints, smudging them onto the page using a baby wipe. Then I layered some decoupage paper and design papers over the top using a glue stick and Liquitex matte gel medium.

The framed images were cut from the Alice Through The Looking Glass papers by Stamperia, decorated with some washi tape roses and mushroom stickers and then layered together on the page. To finish, I added the wording which were letter stickers by Docrafts.

Do you remember this fun song from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland?

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing this Lancaster Red beer and wishing the T Gang a very Happy T Day and sending E very happy birthday wishes! If you look closely at the bottom of the pump clip, you can see the Red Rose of Lancaster which is a heraldic badge dating back to medieval times and is often see here in Lancashire as it’s our county flower.

Hoping that you’re 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 be joining the following challenges:

The lovely Alison the Craftytrog is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Play it again Sam so I’m joining her with my Painting the Roses Red page.

A Study in Contrast challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my contrasting colours of black and white to the red.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #166 – Anything Goes challenge with my page.

For Men Only at Sparkles Monthly Challenge

I’m thrilled and honoured to be able to join the Design Team at Sparkles Monthly Challenge and as we launch a new challenge theme on 15^th of each month, today our theme is For Men Only.

For those of you who don’t know me, I live by the sea in the North West of England with my hubby and I started Art Journaling just over 6 years ago as a way of expressing my life through words and pictures. I really enjoy paper craft and I often make cards/tags for family and friends and I find myself drawn to papers and die sets more and more; so I’m looking forward to sharing these cards, tags and mini page creations with you at Sparkles.

For today’s page I used some amazing Stamperia Voyages Fantastique papers.

I started by collaging bicycle papers from a Stamperia Voyages Fantastique 8×8 paper pad onto the page using a glue stick and then I added three pieces of green bicycle washi tape. The man on the Penny Farthing and the clocks were cut from the same Stamperia paper, edged using Ground Espresso and Rusty Hinge Distress Ink with a blending tool and then stuck in place using double-sided tape. I also edged the whole page using the Distress Inks too. Next I arranged some chipboard cogs and numbers, which I had covered with copper embossing powder and a sprinkle of Antique Silver embossing enamel, onto the page using Ranger Glossy Accents. Then to finish, I added some copper metallic domed gem stickers.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing For Men Only designs from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too – thanks so much for having me and for the warm welcome! We would love for you to join us but please be sure to check out the rules here.

As T Stands for Tuesday and to compliment the masculine steampunk design of my page, I’m sharing this Steam Brew IPA and saying a big hello and welcome to the T Gang- Happy T Day!

This beer is alcohol 4.9% vol and is described as “The delicate but nevertheless aromatic body of the triple-hopped Session Pale Ale ensures a pleasant drinking experience. The exclusive hop variety “Vic Secret” surprises with exotic and tropical, fruity notes”.

Of course when I noticed the glass I’d used, I took another photo to reveal the lion etched onto the glass as it made me think of Iris in the T Gang – Roar!

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 Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #163 – Anything Goes challenge with my masculine page.

Rather Blustery Day challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as creating masculine pages is for some reason difficult for me – do you find this too?

Bit O’Green challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the green bicycle washi tape and hints of green as part of the paper design on my page.

Mothering Sunday

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing my second page as inspiration for this month’s Mother’s Day challenge.

I started by stamping the chipboard page using an Architecture stamp set by Tim Holtz and Moonlight White Brilliance ink. Then I die cut the flowers from white cardstock using a Brushstroke Flowers #3 Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and I coloured them with Distress Inks; the petals with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink, the stamens with Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge ink and the leaves with Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn ink. I arranged them on the left-hand side of the page and then I applied Ranger Glossy Accents over the centres of the flowers. To finish, I added the white wording which were Tiny Text Rub-ons by Tim Holtz.

I hope you are inspired to join our Mother’s Day 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 love the pretty flowers and stamped arched windows I created as part of the page design, it reminded me of church and Mothering Sunday – if you didn’t know in the UK we celebrate Mother’s Day on the fourth Sunday of Lent which is also known as Mothering Sunday.

Mother’s Day maybe on a different date depending on where you live: this year in UK and Ireland it’s on Sunday 27th March; in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand it’s Sunday 8th May; France it’s Sunday 29th May; Spain it’s Sunday 1st May.

If you are interested here are some interesting facts about Mother’s Day in the UK:

• Mothering Sunday in the UK has a religious origin.
• It does not fall on the same date each year due to its connection to Lent.
• England was the first country to dedicate a day to Mothers.
• It’s often celebrated with Simnel Cake or Mothering Cake which dates back to the 18th Century.

I hope that you are staying safe and well, and for those of you celebrating – Happy Mother’s Day wishes!

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 Valerie of Bastelmania is hosting Art Journal Journey and has chosen Spring with my spring Mothering Sunday page.

Rather Blustery Day challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as keeping things clean and not smudging the stamping is often difficult for me hence why a lot of my pages are grungy in design (grin!); for this page I stamped the image and left it to dry overnight – yay, it worked!

Paperbabe Stamps and their #163 – Anything Goes challenge with my Mother’s Day page.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Add Some Green challenge with the green leaves on my page.

Bit O’Green challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the green foliage on my page.

Snowdrops

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s March already but here we are launching March’s challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog which is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by the snowdrops that are flowering at the moment, especially those on display amongst the woodland leaves at Lytham Hall (grin!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with some old dressmaking pattern tissue paper using Liquitex matte gel medium and then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top. When dry, I added some more pieces of the dressmaking tissue paper and I coloured around the edges of them with Ground Espresso Distress Ink using a baby wipe. The snowdrop image was fussy cut from an old garden book and I arranged it on the page with some leftover die cut pieces which were coloured in autumnal coloured ink. Then I splattered the page with white acrylic paint and left it to dry. Next I added the white text, the smaller wording were Field Notes Rub-ons by Tim Holtz and the larger letters were Metallic Stickers by Tim Holtz.

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!

We always enjoy walking at Lytham Hall and the snowdrops are looking particularly lovely this year; creating a carpet of white amongst the woodland.

There are so many different snowdrop varieties to be found at Lytham Hall and they all look so beautiful (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.

Challenges

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

The lovely Valerie of Bastelmania is hosting Art Journal Journey and has chosen Spring as her theme and snowdrops to me make me think that spring is on its way.

For The Love of Mixed Media challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my mixed media page portraying my love of snowdrops.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #162 – Anything Goes challenge with my freesia page.

Add A Die Cut over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the die cut pieces I added to my page.

Celebrate

It’s time for our new challenge this month over at Country View Challenges which is being hosted by the lovely Evelyn whose theme is Mother’s Day.

Inspired by my mum and her love of freesias, I created this art journal page to celebrate Mother’s Day.

To create my bokeh background, I covered the page with Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink using a blending tool. Then I applied the circles using a Sun & Moon stencil and white gesso, slightly overlapping some of the circles as I went. To finish the background, I splattered the whole page with black DecoArt acrylic paint. For the freesias, I die cut the flower heads using a Fresh Freesia Sizzix Thinlits set by Prima Marketing from some white cardstock that I had coloured using Abandoned Coral, Mustard Seed and Scattered Straw Distress Ink. The stems were die cut using the same Thinlits set from some green Kraft cardstock by Tim Holtz. Once arranged on the page, I added the wording which reads “Celebrate”, “It’s your day” and “XOXOXO” which were Sentiments Label Stickers by Tim Holtz.

It was my first time using these pretty Fresh Freesia Thinlits and I love how they look on my page with these Sentiments Label Stickers by Tim Holtz; both were from Country View Crafts and I’m sure I’ll be using them again soon (grin!).

For more inspiration please see the amazing Mother’s Day creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges. I hope you’ll join us, it would be lovely to see you there and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!

As T Stands for Tuesday, here’s the cute mug that I usually have at my mum’s when I visit (grin!) – 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.

Challenges

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

The lovely Valerie of Bastelmania is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and her theme is Spring; as Mother’s Day is synonymous with Spring here in the UK and the colours are spring-like I’m joining her challenge with my page.

For The Love of Mixed Media challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as my mixed media page was created for my mum and mother’s day.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #162 – Anything Goes challenge with my freesia page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes theme with my celebrate Mother’s Day page.

Use At Least One Stencil challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I used a stencil to create my bokeh background.

You make my heart smile

As it’s February, here’s the art journal page that I created to wish my hubby a Happy Valentine’s Day this year (grin!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with white tissue paper that I had been previously used to mop up some black acrylic paint; it was stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium building up the layers of tissue paper to create texture for my grungy background. Next I stuck some leftover circle outline stickers onto the background and then I applied gold metallic acrylic paint over the whole page. The hearts were die cut from red cardstock using a Sizzix Bigz Heartfelt die by Tim Holtz. Once in place I added more colour to the hearts and edged them using Derwent Inktense pencils. I stamped the hearts using an Etcetera Tim Holtz stamp and gold metallic paint applying it to the stamp using a brayer. Then I used the same stamp set to add more text to hearts and to the background using black Archival Ink. The page was splattered using black acrylic paint and to finish, I added the “You make my heart smile” wording which was from a Metallic Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.

I love this photo of me and my hubby who always makes my heart smile!

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 Bleubeard & Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover is hosting this month over at Art Journal Journey and her challenge is What’s Your Style, so I’m joining in the fun with my grungy styled Valentine’s page.

Art Journal at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my Valentine’s art journal page.

For The Love of Mixed Media challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as my mixed media page was created for my hubby who makes my heart smile and I love very dearly.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #162 – Anything Goes challenge with my heart page.

Something Big-Something Small over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge with the large and small Valentine’s hearts on this page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my Valentine’s page.

Don’t forget that you still have another week to join us at Try it on Tuesday for our Add Some Texture challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!

Love with all your heart

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.

Challenges

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

I’m pleased to join the lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover over at Art Journal Journey and her What’s Your Style challenge this month with my romantic style page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #160 – Anything Goes challenge with my hearts and flowers page.

Love Is In The Air challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with my love inspired page.

Funkie Frilly Valentines over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog with my vintage valentine page of frilly flower petals and glittery hearts.