Believe in yourself

I was so inspired by Astrid’s Tissue Paper challenge over at A Vintage Journey that I created another page; there is still another week to join in the fun, it would be lovely to see you there!

This time I collaged tissue paper to create the background and distressed it, then added a beautiful butterfly and some motivational wording; I hope you like the shabby chic style that resulted.

The background is made of pieces of tissue Patch Paper collaged together using a glue stick and matte gel medium. Once dry I applied some white gesso over the top using a palette knife and then created a worn look by adding: some Coconut and Caramel Faber-Castell Gelatos smudging the colour with my finger; Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker which again I smudged using my finger; and finally some Frayed Burlap Distress Ink which I applied using a blending tool. Then I stamped a Tiny Dot stamp from Kaisercraft using the Frayed Burlap ink and also some black Archival Ink. For the butterfly, I chose a large pre-cut butterfly and heat embossed the edges of its wings and also its body using Versamark ink and black embossing powder. It is attached to the page using double-sided tape in the centre and also double-sided foam tape for the wings. The words are Small Talk stickers from Tim Holtz and read “you are capable of becoming more than you realise”, “believe in yourself” and “with brave wings she flies”. They are all outlined using a black marker and using the same marker I drew two antennae on the butterfly which finished the page.

This page seemed to create itself and I think I was channelling butterflies as our friend that we walk with every week went on a Butterfly Tour last week, around the UK, looking for rare butterflies. When she was telling us about the Large Blue it reminded me of my page and as she is an exceptional photographer she kindly shared her photos with me which I’m pleased to be able to share with you too. This is a Large Blue which became extinct in 1979 and is being reintroduced to some areas of the UK.

Here’s some more of her amazing photos, this one is a Painted Lady …

… this is a Heath Fritillary …

… then there is a Marbled White …

… and finally a Brown Argus – I so enjoyed looking at the photos as I haven’t seen many of these butterflies before, so thanks very much K (grin!).

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 lovely Halle of Halle’s Hobbies and her Words to live by challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my “Believe in yourself” page.

I’m joining in the It’s a Bugs Life challenge over at Country View Challenges with my butterfly art journal page.

I’m happy to join the Spots and/or Stripes challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps with the dots I added to the background of my page.

I’m also joining Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge too.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Poundworld (Patch Paper DS9454)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Faber-Castell Gelato (Coconut, Caramel)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233, Black 199)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Tiny Dot CS360)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.08mm)
• Tsukineko Versafine Ink (Onyx Black)
• Papermania Embossing Powder (Black PMA4021006)
• The Works (Make your own 3D Butterflies)
• Tim Holtz idea-ology stickers (Small Talk #TH93193)
• Pritt SticK
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Stix2 double-sided tape
• The Range double-sided foam tape

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Tissue Paper at A Vintage Journey

Today sees the start of a new challenge over at A Vintage Journey and I had lots of fun art journaling for Astrid’s fabulous Tissue Paper challenge.

Here’s what we would like you to do this month:
“As the title suggests, use tissue paper. There are many different ways you can incorporate tissue paper into your project – create texture by scrunching it up, stain it, paint it, wax it, stamp on it, emboss on it. You could use cheap tissue from the supermarket, recycle gift wrapping tissue, or even use old dressmaking patterns. Just remember to create in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk”.

Inspired by a beautiful display of flowers in my garden, I used a couple of new techniques with tissue paper to create the background as well as all the foliage and flowers on this page – I hope you like it!

For my tissue paper background, I started by stamping Mowed Lawn, Chipped Sapphire, Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks onto a blending mat, spritzing with water.

I pressed the tissue paper onto the blending mat and spritzed with more water to disperse the colour. Then I lifted the tissue paper off the blending mat and dried it with my heat gun.

Next I scrunched the tissue paper into a ball, unravelled it so it still retained most of the creases, stuck it onto my art journal page using a UHU Stic and trimmed off the excess tissue to fit the page. Then I brushed a Watermark stamp pad over the raised creases on the page, applied silver embossing powder and heated it using a heat gun; this was a fun new technique for me.

I love the veins of silver that resulted. I chose the silver as it depicts the backdrop of silver-leafed plants that are in the flower bed in my garden.

Next I selected tissue papers from my craft stash, I was actually surprised by how many different coloured tissue papers I had as they are all recycled from gift wrapping (grin!). I cut the green and beige tissue paper into strips to create some of the foliage and also layered some tissue papers 5 pieces thick and die cut it using Wildflower Stems Tim Holtz thinlets and my Big Shot machine to create more foliage and flowers for my page.

I gradually built up the foliage first by layering the strips of light green, dark green and beige tissue paper and the cream die cut tissue paper pieces onto the page using matte gel medium. When the gel medium was dry I outlined the strips with a black fine line marker and then coloured them using Sea Green, Evergreen and Dessert Spectrum Aqua markers. For the cream pieces I outlined them with a white gel pen and shaded them using a Cold Grey Big Brush marker.

To create my pink flowers, I used a flower die cut and turned it upside down so they were the same shape as the ones in my garden. To create different looking flowers and a 3D effect, I also cut the die cut flower shape into individual petals so that I could build up the layers on each flower.

The yellow centres are created using rolled up tissue paper which I cut into small pieces using scissors and stuck in place like all these tissue elements using matte gel medium, when dry I added more detail using a black fine line marker and white gel pen. I also built up layers of the die cut green tissue paper for their stems and leaves and once the gel medium was dry, I outlined everything using a black fine line marker and added more detail to the leaves with this marker too. As the flowers in my garden are so bold and beautiful, I added the words “Live your life out loud” which is a Kaisercraft sticker edged with the Cold Grey Big Brush marker; this finished the page.

As some of you may be aware we replanted our flower beds last year, so we have lots of new flowers in our garden. These bright pink Tanacetum Coccineum flowers have grown beautifully this year and are definitely a favourite of mine so I wanted to capture their beauty on my art journal page (grin!).

Here’s a view of the flowers with the silver-leafed plants in the background which inspired the silver embossing powder background of my page (double grin!).

There’s lots more inspiration at A Vintage Journey, so please pop over to see the amazing creations made by my fellow Creative Guides.

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 lovely Halle of Halle’s Hobbies and her Words to live by challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the words that I included on my page.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday, their challenge is Summer Vibes! So I’m joining this challenge too my summery flowered art journal page.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mowed Lawn, Chipped Sapphire, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers)
• Recycled tissue paper (White, Light Green, Dark Green, Beige, Cream, Pink, Yellow)
• Tsukineko Versamark (Watermark Stamp Pad)
• Papermania Embossing Powder (Silver)
• Sizzix Thinlets Tim Holtz Alterations (Wildflower Stems #2 661808)
• Uni Pin Fine Line Marker (Black 0.05mm)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Sea Green, Evergreen, Dessert)
• Uniball Signo Gel Pen (White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Cold Grey IV 233)
• Kaiercraft Sticker Sheet (Fly Free SS289)
• UHU Stic
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• Ranger Heat Gun

Hot Air Balloons

I came across these lovely Hot Air Balloon images at my local craft shop, and they inspired my page. You’ll notice there is map detail on the balloon image background, and as this month’s theme over at Art Journal Journey is Maps, I’m so glad to be able to link to that challenge. My husband pointed out to me that the British flags on the balloon designs are all upside down. This is a fairly common mistake to make with the Union Jack.

I started off the background by drawing curves using a plate as a template with a Uni Pin fine line marker, then splattering and smooshing diluted Distress Ink onto the page. I filled in the curves that I had created with an Alphabet stamp from Kaisercraft and Archival Ink, it took a bit of time to complete this as I had to mask the curves out to make sure the stamp stayed between the curve lines. It was great fun though and I love how it turned out. I have wanted to use the star tissue paper for a while now, it came from a birthday present, so I tore off pieces and saw them melt into the page when I used Patty’s top tip of using a glue stick to stick them down – thanks Patty! I fussy cut some of the balloon and compass images and stuck them to the page using the glue stick, then gave them a bold black outline using my Uni Pin marker so they stood out more. To finish I added a couple of sentiments and outlined them.

It’s a funny coincidence that I have just bought this lovely glass balloon while we were exploring a nearby village shop. I saw it and just fell in love with it!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Peeled Paint, Sooty Black, Tea Dye)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artists pen (Black 199)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm and 0.8mm)
• Script metallic pen (Gold)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Alphabet
• Kanban Paper craft toppers (Timeless Moments PCT1882)
• Little Yellow Bicycle card stock stickers (PD-140)
• Star tissue paper
• The Range glue stick