The Call of Spring

It’s time for a new theme at Try it on Tuesday which is The Call of Spring …Mood Board:

I can’t wait to see your creations using this photo inspiration and as usual you have the next two weeks to join us. You can find fabulous inspirational creations from my fellow Design Team Members along with guidelines for joining our challenge over at Try it on Tuesday too, so why not pop over and take a look.

For today’s page, I was inspired by the pretty birds, pink blossoms, green foliage and blue skies from the mood board – I hope that you like it (grin!).

To represent birdsong, I started by stamping a Sheet Music stamp from the Woodware Craft Collection onto white tissue paper using black Archival Ink, which was then stuck onto the background using Liquitex matte gel medium. Once the gel medium had dried, I applied Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean Distress Inks by applying the ink pad to an acrylic block, spritzing with water and pressing the block onto the page. I also splattered droplets of the diluted ink over the page using a paintbrush and then dried the page with my heat gun before I added some white gesso using my finger to mute some of the colours a little. I used the Chipped Sapphire and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks again to stamp some Halftone Circle stamps from Altenew and then I also stamped some feathers from a Steampunk stamp set by Docrafts using black Archival Ink. The white doilies are from Dovecraft and are stuck to the page using a UHU Stic. I distressed their centres a little by rubbing them with a wet finger to remove some of the doily so the background showed through. The bird image of the starling and pretty blossoms is from an old calendar and is stuck in place using a UHU Stic; I ripped and distressed the edges and then coloured them with a mixture of Chipped Sapphire and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink which I diluted with water and applied using a paintbrush. I added the word “Spring” which is a rub-on transfer by Royal & Langnickel and splattered the page with DecoArt black acrylic paint. Then I added some small white dots using a Pentel white gel pen to the starling image so it blended with the background more. I made some pink blossoms using some fabric flowers which I coloured with Blossom Spectrum Aqua marker. I added some yellow pearls gems to the centre of the flowers and melted them using a heat gun to add more texture, curled the petals and then stuck the flowers in place using glue dots. To finish, I added some small green pearls and also some pink and yellow flower rhinestones to the background which added some sparkle.

As T Stands for Tuesday my drink related photo this week is of these pretty cups, the colours reminded me of springtime. I saw them when we visited Gerrards which is our local auction house, for those of you who live in the UK you may have seen this auction house on Flog It! or Dickenson’s Real Deal! It’s such a fun place to visit especially when the live auction is taking place although I need to sit on my hands to stop myself from bidding for anything (grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Rosie from Rosie’s Bastelwelt who is hosting the Spring challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my snowdrop page!

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Colour Effect so I’m pleased to join this challenge too with my background splatters and bursts of Distress Ink colours!

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:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black)
• Pentel Hybrid Gel Grip (White)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Blossom)
• Woodware Craft Collection Clear Magic Singles (Sheet Music JGS111)
• Altenew Stamp Set (Halftone Circles 490220)
• Docrafts Creativity Essentials Clear Stamps (Steampunk DCE907125)
• White Tissue Paper
• RSPB Calendar – old
• Dovecraft Premium Paper Doilies (Painted Blooms DCDLS010)
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Sentiments (Spring Sentiments ~ROY-506)
• Home Bargains (Fabulous Florals 22803)
• The Range (Adhesive Pearls SCDOT056)
• The Works (Flower Rhinestone Stickers)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• Wilko (Sticky Dots)

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Brown Dragonflies

I found myself reminiscing about summer walks with my lovely blog-friends CJ and Erika wishing for warmer weather (grin!) and wanting to join a few blog challenges, I decided to create an art journal page inspired by some huge brown dragonflies that we saw on one of our summer walks last year at Glasson Dock. Although they were numerous we didn’t manage to get a good photo of them as they were so quick in flight, so it was fun creating this page to remember them – I hope you like it!

To match the brown dragonflies that we saw I chose a brown colour palette. I decided to experiment with a new technique using Colourcraft Brusho powders by using them as a spray, which worked really well as long as you are careful not to dilute the colour too much (grin!). I did this by placing some Dark Brown Brusho powder in a spray bottle and diluting with water, then using it to spray the page lightly with colour whilst leaving some white space. Next I stamped lots of dragonflies onto white tissue paper with an Eco Green Crafts stamp using Tea Dye and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and also Rich Cocoa Memento Ink. I layered them onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium, not worrying if the gel medium re-activated the Brusho or Distress Ink again, as I wanted a grungy look. When the gel medium had dried I used a stencil from That Special Touch of Mica Masks by Creative Expressions to add the Distressed Dots using the Dark Brown Brusho spray again and also used the stencil like a stamp to apply the excess spray that was on the stencil onto the page. Using the same stencil I applied: Tea Dye and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks with a blending tool; some Navy Spectrum Aqua marker by scribbling it onto an acrylic block, sprizing with water and applying with a blending tool; some smaller patches of Peacock Feathers and Black Soot Distress Ink using a blending tool to add more contrast; and finally some bronze metallic Lustre paint by applying it with my finger. Next I stamped the wording from the same Eco Green Crafts stamp set using black Archival Ink as it applied to the dragonflies that we saw and I really liked the grungy design. The dragonflies we saw were huge, so I drew and cut out a large dragonfly from some recycled glossy glittery paper and stuck it to the page using a UHU Stic. Once the glue had dried, I edged it with a black Uni Pin marker and white Uniball gel pen. I ripped some hexagonal washi tape and stuck it around the edges of the page with some pretty opaque gem stones and added some glittery bronze embroidered flowers using Glossy Accents which finished the page.

You may remember Glasson Dock from previous posts, such as this one here. This is the estuary at Glasson Dock where we first saw the dragonflies and as we continued our walk they seemed to be everywhere (grin!).

They were more abundant by the canal around the reeds and here’s the best picture we took of them. When we got home I identified them as Brown Hawker dragonflies; we plan to go back this year to see them again and try to get a better photograph of them (grin!). If you are interested here are a few facts about dragonflies:

• The earliest fossil dragonflies date back 300 million years long before dinosaurs ruled the Earth and had wing spans around 70cm (27.6 inch) which is approximately 10 times larger than today; their overall shape has changed little since those early days.
• There are approximately 6,000 named dragonfly species in the world today and new species are still currently being discovered for the first time.
• The Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) is a large dragonfly about 73mm (2.9 inch) long and is easily recognised by its brown body and bronze wings (grin!).

Challenges

My art journal page today has been inspired by some wonderful Challenge Blogs:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Rike from rike’s art, who is hosting the Animals A-Z challenge over at Art Journal Journey as D is for Dragonfly!

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Grunge It Up challenge with my grungy dragonfly art journal page.

I’m also pleased to join the fun over at Country View Challenges and their Anything but Cute challenge.

As I created my own background for my dragonfly art journal page, I’m also happy to join the Make Your Own Background challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

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:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy, Peacock Feathers, Black Soot)
• Tsukeniko Memento Ink (Rich Cocoa)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Navy)
• Craf-T Products (Lustre Rub-ons ASTM D-4236)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Eco Green Crafts Recycled Rubber Art Stamps (Petal Party #04309)
• Creative That Special Touch of Mica Masks (Distressed Dots)
• White tissue paper
• The Works Washi Tape (Enjoy the Ride)
• Poundland (Design Gems)
• The Works M&C Boutique (Embroidered Flowers)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

Hot Chocolate is like …

Hot chocolate is top on my list of warming drinks this time of year and with it getting colder I thought I would create a winter themed page with a warming mug of hot chocolate and a lovely quote I recently found.

I started by covering the page with a piece of tissue paper with circles on it which had been in my craft stash for a while; the circles were stamped using an old cardboard tube with some leftover blue/green acrylic paint from another project. I stuck the tissue paper to the page using a UHU Stic. Next I stamped hearts into the centre of each circle and also a circle and heart design stamp onto the background using black Archival Ink, both stamps are from Sugarloaf Inc. I added Milled Lavender, Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean Distress Inks and left the page to dry. Then I covered the whole page with a thin layer of white gesso using a baby wipe. Next I used four different stencils and blue inks to add layers of patterns; this included a stencil called Moroccan from the That Special Touch of Mica range by Creative Expressions using Salty Ocean Distress Ink, a Heart Cluster mini stencil from Creative Expressions using Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink, a cross stencil from Craft Sensations using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and a Swoosh stencil from Creative Expressions using Summer Sky Memento Ink. The snowflakes are stamps from a Winter Woodland stamp set that was free with a magazine, they are stamped using the same Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire inks. I also used the snowflake stamps again to stamp white acrylic paint which I applied to the stamps using a brayer. With the background completed I added the quote using some black Label Letter stickers by Tim Holtz and edged them using a Poppy Red Derwent Inktense pencil and a black Uni Pin marker. The quote pays homage to how I feel about hot chocolate it reads:

Hot chocolate is like a hug from the inside.

Then I selected some glittery red paper from a Designer Paper Pack and punched out some snowflakes using a Woodware paper punch. I also punched some black paper snowflakes too which I offset under the red snowflakes to provide a shadow. They are stuck to the page using a UHU Stic. Next I drew a mug on the same red paper, cut it out and edged it using the same red Derwent Inktense pencil and a wet paintbrush.  Before I stuck the mug to the page using double-sided tape, I drew around where it was to be placed on the page and used an Ink Black Derwent Inktense pencil to create a shadow under it so it stood out more. I embellished the mug using a black snowflake, a white glitter foam snowflake and three red gemstones. To finish, I added two smaller red foam glitter snowflakes and some red gemstones to the background and then I edged the page with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker.

It’s been sunny here of late but very cold too, so when out walking with our friends we have been going to a local café on the beachfront and having a hot chocolate! As T Stands for Tuesday I’m pleased to join the T Gang and wish you all a Happy T Day!

As you can see we enjoyed a toasted teacake with our hot chocolate too (grin!). For those of you not familiar with toasted teacakes, here are some facts you may find interesting:

• Teacakes are a sweetened yeasted bread type roll which usually have dried fruit in, and it is usually split, toasted, buttered, and served with tea.
• Teacakes originated in the North of England and are very popular in Lancashire where I live.
• Teacakes have regional differences for example in East Lancashire, certain areas of Yorkshire and Cumbria a teacake is plain unless you ask for a “currant teacake” and this plain teacake is a specialty of the area and is still split and served toasted with butter and also sometimes jam (jelly).
• Sometimes the plain teacakes are confused with English Muffins however they are not the same thing. An English Muffin here in the UK is the same as in the US and is usually a breakfast item often served as Eggs Benedict or with smoked salmon.
• We often have toasted teacakes with a cuppa mid morning for elevenses.

Here’s the pretty view from the Waters Edge café over the beach – beautiful!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

Hot chocolate and the quote I used ties in nicely with the  “101 Ways To Keep Warm” challenge over at Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Chris.

I was inspired to use the four different stencils to create this page after seeing the design teams artwork over at Country View Challenges which they had created for their “Stencils” challenge.

As I used stamps and the hot chocolate quote, I’m also pleased to join a new challenge today over at The Artistic Stamper where this month’s creative challenge is “Use a Quote”.

It makes me happy to be able to join the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their “Food and/or Drink” challenge with my hot chocolate inspired page.

With my colourful blue and red page I’m pleased to join the lovely design team over at Try it on Tuesday and their “Colourful” Challenge and I’m also just have enough time to join in the fun over at Moo Mania & More and their “Put A Stencil On It” challenge too.

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:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Milled Lavender, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Tsukeniko Memento Ink (Summer Sky)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
• Derwent Inktense Pencils (Poppy Red 0400, Ink Black 2200)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.3mm)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Sugarloaf Inc. Anita’s wood mounted stamps (Heart Tile 26631, Hearts & Circles 26645)
• Creative Expressions That Special Touch of Mica Masks (Moroccan, Swoosh)
• Craft Expressions Mini Stencils (Heart Clusters CEMSHEART)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Winter Woodland Clear Stamp Set – free with Craft Beautiful Dec 2017 magazine
• White tissue paper – stamped with circles
• Tim Holtz idea-ology (Label Letters #TH93072)
• The Works Designer Paper Pack (The Night Before Christmas HCPAP003X15)
• Leon (X-Large Coloured Paper Pad)
• Woodware Craft Collection Paper Punch (Large Snowflake SL120118)
• Poundland (Christmas Craft Pack)
• Docrafts Papermania Eleganza Adhesive Stones (3mm Red PMA351607)
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Heart of Patina

Having visited Liverpool recently for my hubby’s birthday, I was inspired by the beautiful patina of the bronze statues that can be found around the city. The most famous statues of this sort, and also my favourite, are the Liver Birds which sit atop the Royal Liver Building along the riverfront of the Mersey. I created a patina effect heart as part of my design and also used a quote from one of my favourite poets, I hope you like it!

I started this page by crumpling up a piece of white tissue paper a number of times to create creases in it, then covering my page with glue using a UHU Stic I stuck the tissue paper on top whilst trying to retain the creased texture. When the glue had dried I added Milled Lavender, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feather and Black Soot Distress Inks using a blending tool. Then I applied the same Distress Ink colours to an acrylic block and dragged it across the page which coloured the peaks of the tissue paper creases with intense colour; I love how this highlighted the texture. Next I stencilled Pébéo modelling paste around the outside edge of the page using a patterned stencil from Craft Sensations. I also applied some white gesso with a palette knife around the edges of the page and heated it with a heat gun so it bubbled to add more texture.  Once the modelling paste had dried, I dripped on some diluted Peacock Feather Distress Ink drying it with the heat gun again. Then I applied Midnight Sparkle and Silver Grey metallic lustre around the edge of the page with my finger, which highlighted the beautiful texture from the gesso and modelling paste and darkened the edges of the page. I then added the gold flowers and circles which are peel-off stickers. To create the small hearts I covered white paper with gold leaf using Annie Sloan Gold Size and used a heart paper punch by Tonic Studios to cut them out and coloured them with the Peacock Feather Distress Ink. I then drew around the heart shapes on the background where they were to be positioned with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush maker smudging it with my finger and finally I stuck down the hearts using a UHU Stic.

To make the patina heart, I used a heart-shaped gift tag and covered it with modelling paste using the same Craft Sensations stencil. One dry I applied the same four colours of Distress Inks that I had used on the background and some gold leaf using the Annie Sloan gold size. Then I covered the heart with a thin layer of DecoArt Media crackle glaze and once it was dry I applied some diluted ink from a black Faber-Castell Big Brush maker wiping off the excess with a baby wipe to highlight the crackle. To add more shine, I applied more gold leaf around the edges of the heart. For the quote, I used paper from a Design Pad by Craft Sensations and stamped the words using black Archival Ink and an alphabet stamp set by Dovecraft. I edged the paper with a black Faber-Castell Big Brush maker and some gold online stickers, and then I stuck it to the page using double-sided tape; this finished the page.

Have you heard of Atticus before? He is quite a new phenomenon and is very well known on Instagram for his poetry. He is a young writer from Canada and it’s hard to find out much about him as he is quite mysterious and prefers to stay anonymous. He wrote a book of poetry called “Love her Wild” which is amazing and you can find more of his work on his website, Facebook and/or Instagram sites.

The Royal Liver Building is home to two fabled Liver Birds, one watching over the city and the other out to sea. Legend has it that if these two birds were to fly away then the city would cease to exist. “Liver” in this case is pronounced “live” as in “alive” and “er” – “live-er”.

The Royal Liver Building opened in 1911 and is one of the most recognisable landmarks in the city of Liverpool. It’s located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool Building and collectively these buildings are known as the “Three Graces”.

This building is privately owned, so we popped into the reception area to take a peek and we discovered the most amazing marble entrance hall (grin!).

Here’s my hubby’s birthday treat, at Rococo café which you may remember from a previous post of mine. My hubby had a Malteser (malt ball) slice and I had lemon cake with our green tea and also cucumber or mint/lemon infused water – delicious! We also had a sandwich, but had eaten it before we remembered to take pictures!

As T Stands for Tuesday – I’m saying a big hello and welcome to the T Gang and wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

This black cat was adorning the window at the café – Happy Halloween!

I’m posting my page a little earlier than usual so I can join in the weekend fun with Yvonne from Meggy’s Way. You can enter any project to win some fabulous napkins and Yvonne is very kindly providing us with this wonderful Halloween treat!

Challenges

I’m pleased to join Elke from Meerwolkenleben who is hosting the “Landscape of the Soul” challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the wonderful quote I used.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their “Anything Goes” challenge.

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:

• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Milled Lavender, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Black Soot)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Craf-T Products Lustre Rub-ons Color Kit #4 (Midnight Sparkle, Silver Grey)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line Marker (Black 0.5mm)
• Pébéo Modeling Paste
• DecoArt Media Crackle Paste
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
• Poundland Design Pad (Vintage Chic Creations CR0701/PL4)
• Wilko (Luxury Gift Tag)
• White tissue paper
• White paper
• Gold leaf
• Tonic Studios Paper Punch (Classic Heart 858E)
• Elizabeth Craft Designs Peel-off Stickers (Gold 0442)
• Annie Sloan Water Based Gold Size
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape

True Love

It’s our 29^th Wedding Anniversary next weekend and I feel truly blessed to have met and fell in love my soul mate and to have such a wonderful life together!

So I created this page to celebrate and decided to incorporate a Christmas card that we received last year because every time I look at the beautiful angel on it, I start to sing “True Love” which as you may remember is from the musical “High Society”, and was sung by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly.

The page started as a background which had gone wrong, so I applied a very thick layer of Pébéo white gesso over the top with a palette knife creating an uneven and textured look; I like the way that you can just see some of the postage marks that I had previously stamped showing through. Once the gesso had dried I applied some Craf-T Midnight Sparkle and Copper Metallic Luster rub-on paints to accentuate the texture I had created; these are like a paste which you apply with your finger by working them in a circular motion and then rubbing them onto the page to break down the colours and bring out their metallic sheen. Next I added some gold leaf which I scraped to give a worn look and also stamped a script stamp using black archival Ink onto the page. I then pushed the script and gold leaf into the background by applying more white gesso over the top with my finger. I added the scroll felt border, which I covered with a thin layer of white gesso before I stuck it to the page. The gold flower tiles, hearts, stars and dots are outline stickers; I broke some of the images so they had a worn look like the rest of my design.

For the angel, I cut out the square angel image from the Christmas card and added gold leaf to the edges and some fine black scribbles with a Derwent Graphik marker. Then I cut two square frames that were slightly bigger than my angel image from some white tissue paper and also from a piece of patterned paper. The edges of the patterned paper frame are ripped and edged using a black Sharpie permanent marker. I stamped the lyrics from the song onto the tissue paper frame and then stuck it onto the patterned paper using a UHU Stic. Once the glue had dried I used a craft knife to distress the edges of the tissue paper and outlined them with a black Derwent Graphik marker. I also added some gold hearts and other shaped outline stickers to the frame to tie it into the background. The frame is stuck to the page using a UHU Stic and I placed the angel image on top, but off-centre, using double-sided foam tape. Then to finish, I stamped the word “true” using black Archival Ink and added some “love” outline stickers.

I’m so pleased to be able to join Elke from Meerwolkenleben with her “Landscapes of the Soul” theme over at Art Journal Journey with my love inspired page.

I’m also joining in the fun over at Mixed Media World again with their “Anything Mixed Media Goes” challenge and also Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their “Anything Goes” theme.

This is the scene from the film where Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby sing “True Love”.
I just love the old musicals and if you are interested here are some facts about this song:

• “True Love” was written by Cole Porter and performed by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly in 1956.
• This was the first and only gold record for Grace Kelly and was the 21st gold record for Bing Crosby.
• “High Society” was a musical remake of the classic 1940 award winning movie “The Philadelphia Story”.
• The engagement ring that Grace Kelly wears in “High Society” is the actual engagement ring given to her by Prince Rainier of Monaco and this was Grace Kelly’s final movie before becoming Princess Grace.

Here’s a recent photo of me and hubby, I’m not sure where the 29 years have gone – how time flies when you’re having fun … and we always do (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday, I am sharing my cup of green tea, and to link to the angel on my page I’m having a slice of angel cake with it – Happy T Day! I think I bagsy the big slice at the back (double grin!).

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:

• Pébéo White Gesso
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Craf-T Products (Luster Rub-ons Metallic)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.5mm)
• Sharpie permanent Fine Point Marker (Black)
• Dovecraft upper and lower case alphabet stamp set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
• The Works M&C Boutique (Design Block)
• White tissue paper
• Gold Leaf
• Self-adhesive Felt Border (Scrolls FE196)
• Magenta Style Outline Stickers (Daisy Gold 93326G)
• Gold Outline Stickers (Stars, Love)
• Annie Sloan (Water Based Gold Size)
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape

Chell’s

This journal page is inspired by a new café we discovered over the summer which we now visit regularly, it’s called Chell’s of Lytham. This café is an easy tandem bike ride from our house and sells the most amazing homemade ice-cream and food – yum! It is such an elegant place so I used the gold colour of the signage and also blue which features on their loyalty card, interior and pretty flowers that adorn the tables.

For the background I started with a base coat of grey Windsor & Newton watercolour paint which I applied with a baby wipe. Then I layered some apricot Liquitex Acrylic paint creating horizontal lines of colour. As I found the apricot was a little too bold against the grey, I applied a thin layer of gesso over it using a baby wipe which toned it down nicely, so it just added some warmth to the background. Next I applied a thin wash of Navy Spectrum Aqua marker by scribbling the pen onto an acrylic block, spritzing the block with water and picking up the now diluted ink with a paintbrush. I stamped a Script stamp by Kaisercraft over the background using the same Navy Aqua marker and then I applied some gold shimmer and shine across the horizontal lines of apricot paint and around the edge of the page using a Sunshine lustre rub from Craf-T Products, which I applied with my finger. Next I stamped some tile images from Papermania onto some white tissue paper using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink, cut them out and stuck them to the page using a UHU Stic. I also applied some white gesso over them using my finger, so they blended into the background more and then I stamped some scroll images from Royal & Langnickel onto the page using the same Distress Ink.

The gold and blue flower images are fussy cut from an old birthday card, edged with a Navy Spectrum Aqua marker and stuck to the page using double-sided foam tape. The pretty gold panels are outline stickers and, along with the stamped tile and scroll images, remind me of Victorian architecture, tiling and wrought ironwork that can be found at the café. To finish, I edged the page with the same Navy Spectrum Aqua marker and added some square gold gemstones and the name of the café using alphabet outline stickers which matched the font on the café signage perfectly (grin!).

This café is situated in Lytham and has a pretty facade overlooking the street. It has an Victorian look to it with the outside seating being covered by a canopy which leads up to the big window shop front with the tiled floor entrance and wrought ironwork.

The interior is lovely too, here’s the counter where you order your food, drink and ice-cream.

They make their own ice-cream here in many different flavours, which are often sold out at the end of the day because it’s so delicious! Our favourite flavour combination is Sticky Toffee Pudding, Cherry and Double Chocolate – yum!

We were introduced to this café by our friends after we had all cycled along the front to Lytham and stopped for refreshments – such fun! On that occasion we had a Chocolate Dream Sundae – double yum! Can you see a face in this photo? (grin!)

The drinks and cakes are delicious too, here are the cappuccino, pot of Earl Grey tea and custard tart that our friends ordered. As you can see the water is served in very pretty glasses too (grin!). As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m saying a big hello to the T Gang and wishing you all a very Happy T Day!

As you know I love to join in with the challenges as they help to inspire my design and get creative. So today I’m pleased to join the lovely Yvonne from Meggy’s Way who is hosting the “Colour in my World” challenge over at Art Journal Journey with the blue and gold colours in my page.

I love the gold metallic outline stickers and flowers I used on this page, they add so much shimmer and shine so I’m also pleased to join both the “Metal” Challenge over at Country View Challenge  and  the “Shimmer and Shine” theme over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge again.

Using the double-sided foam tape gives a 3D look to my page so I’m also joining in the fun over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for their “Pop It Up” challenge.

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:

• Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours (Payne’s Gray)
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Apricot)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Navy)
• Craf-T Products Luster Rub-ons (Sunshine ASTM D-4236)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Chipped Sapphire)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Script CS752)
• Papermania Design Objectives wood mounted rubber stamp (PMA10108)
• Royal & Langnickel Clear Choice Stamps (Ornate Scrollwork MIN-CCS123)
• White tissue paper
• Old birthday card
• Elizabeth Craft Designs outline stickers (Gold 0318)
• Docrafts Anita’s Outline Stickers (Modern Alphabet Gold ANT8101000)
• Hobbycraft Self-Adhesive Gems (Assorted Squares 5666141000)
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape

And they swam …

This month’s theme over at Art Journal Journey is “Poetry in Motion” so I was inspired to create this fun page based on a nursery rhyme from my childhood which we used to sing at school, you may know it …

I added turquoise coloured tissue paper to the centre of the page using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium, then sprinkled on Ultramarine Colourcraft Brusho powder. I applied more matte gel medium to activate the powder pulling the Brusho colour across the page, as I did this I also wrinkled the tissue paper to add texture so it looked like the sea. I like the way the Brushos added different depths of blue colour.  Then I painted Pébéo white gesso over parts of the page using my finger to push some of the colour back and splattered the page with a paintbrush dipped in black and white acrylic paint to look like air bubbles. Next I arranged the fun orange fish, which are brads, so they appeared to be swimming in shoals across the page.  I pushed each brad through the page and then covered the back with a piece of masking tape to prevent any damage to the next journal page. To finish, I stamped the speech bubbles onto white tissue paper using black Archival Ink, fussy cut them out and added the wording from the rhyme; they are stuck in place using a UHU stic.

Of course there were only “three little fishies” in the original rhyme so I applied some artistic licence when I created this page (grin!).

  Me and my hubby both enjoy snorkeling and diving whilst on holiday, so we have spent many happy hours swimming with the fishes in the sea.

 These pictures were taken in Cyprus where there are always plenty of fish to see.

It always makes me smile when I imagine the fish swimming along singing this song (grin!) – you can find the full lyrics here.

I’d like to thank everyone for their amazing support and participation in this month’s “Poetry in Motion” challenge over at Art Journal Journey and I’m really pleased that you are enjoying the theme so much!

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:

• Pébéo white gesso
• Colorcraft Brusho Colours (Ultramarine)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Hampton Art Doodlebug Design Inc. cling mounted rubber stamps (Thankful ICO162)
• Dovecraft upper and lower case alphabet stamp set (WDN Alpha Stmp DCVW0050)
• Tissue paper (Blue, White)
• Fish brads (Orange)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic