So do you wanna build a snowman … well I had fun building mine for this fun seasonal page (smile!).
For the wintery sky, I covered my chipboard page using Villainous Poison Distress Paint which I blended with some white and black acrylic paint using horizontal brush strokes. Next I hand cut some white cardstock to form the foreground and die cut the tree using a Woodlands Sizzix Thinlits by Tim Holtz; they were edged with Seedless Grape and Black Soot Distress Ink before sticking them in place. Then I spattered the page with white acrylic paint. The snowman was die cut using a Mr. Frost Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some white and black linen textured the paper. I coloured the edges of the main body of the snowman with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink using a blending tool, the scarf and hat band using red and green TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers, his carrot nose using Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the twig arms using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The die cut pieces were layered together using Liquitex matte gel medium and I added a holly gemstone embellishment to the hat, then stuck him onto the page. To finish, I added the wording which was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and read “Far across the snow, on the frosty hills”.
Here’s one of my Christmas cupcakes; it’s a chocolate cupcake and the snowman was created using marshmallows, a Rolo chocolate, chocolate sprinkles, buttercream icing and some candied orange – super cute (smile!).
Hoping that you are all staying safe and well and are having a wonderful Christmastime! 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 able to join the following challenges today:
Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Wendy K from Wendy’s Craft Journal; she has chosen Above Us Only Sky as her theme so I’m joining with my snowy winter sky.
It’s Creative Artiste’s #100th Challenge! so we are celebrating with a special challenge theme of Anything Mixed Media Goes with the option of Christmas and if you enter, you even have a chance to win this prize (which will go to our winner).
I always love to recycle items on my pages, so this beautiful gift card wallet was perfect for my special mixed media page celebrating 100 challenges at Creative Artiste.
I created a wintery scene to match the gift card wallet by adding some watered-down beige paint over the top three-quarters of the page and then applying some white gesso over the bottom quarter of the page. Next I secondary stamped grey trees and foliage, in the background, using a couple of free stamps and some black Archival Ink. The fir trees were stamped multiple times using different green inks, which included Mowed Lawn, Rustic Wilderness and Pine Needles Distress Ink; I love the way the white gesso acted as a resist, with the ink, to give a snowy effect. The little robins were stamped and coloured with Spectrum Tri-Blend markers, fussy cut out and stuck in place. I added the “joy to the world” wording, which was a Kaisercraft sticker and then to finish, I splattered the whole page with some heavy density white acrylic paint.
Of course, there was a reason why I used the gift card wallet as part of my design and that was to store a card that I created recording that – Once Upon a Christmas Time Creative Artiste reached 100 challenges (smile!).
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!
I hope you are staying safe and well!
Thanks so much 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 join the following challenges:
It’s October so our new challenge for the next two weeks over at Try it on Tuesday, is Halloween.
For the background, I covered my chipboard page with Villainous Poison Distress Paint and white acrylic paint. When dry, I stamped a cobweb design by Molly Blooms and a star stamp by Lavinia using Moonlight White Brilliance Ink by Archival. Next I arranged two black cobweb stickers onto the page and outlined them using a white Uniball gel pen. The pumpkins were die cut from Kraft Cardstock – Basics by Tim Holtz and some other Linen Textured cardstock using a Pumpkin Duo Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz; the pieces were edged with Black Soot Distress Ink before piecing them together using a Crafter’s Companion Glue Tape/Dot Pen. To finish, I added a piece of Happy Halloween washi tape and outlined it using the white gel pen.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and the rest of my Design Teamies (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!
One of my dear family sent me a photo of the new Halloween Post Box topper in their village; isn’t it spooky and amazing (smile!).
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.
Challenges
As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to join the following challenges:
Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Gnome Home For The Holidays.
I had so much fun creating this colourful Christmas Gnome page, I hope you like it too (smile!).
I started by drawing the top of the toadstool onto to some red and white dot Christmas paper and cutting it out. Then I created the fronds and bottom of the toadstool out of white cardstock, which I coloured in a Brown Grey TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker and a black UniPen fine line marker. I also drew the door, fussy cut it out and coloured it using a Dark Brown Blend TriBlend marker and a black UniPen marker to create the wood effect and a Gold Spectrum Aqua Marker for the door handle. For the snow on the toadstool roof and in the foreground, I cut the shapes from some white cardstock and then I added some detail using a Ice Grey Blend TriBlend marker. I covered the chipboard page using some blue snowflake cardstock before sticking everything in place using Liquitex matte gel medium. The glittery Christmas trees on the right-hand and left-hand side of the page were layered together from a sticker pack. I stamped the cute Gnome using a Woodware Crafts stamp set and I coloured him using Alpine Green Blend, Dark Red Blend, Ice Grey Blend, Brown Grey Blend and Pale Pink Blend TriBlend markers and a also Yellow marker for the pom pom on his hat. To finish, I added the “Merry Christmas” wording which I framed with two gold coloured star gems.
I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing projects from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.
I love Christmas and saw these cute gnomes whilst visiting a garden centre with family last week, they reminded 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.
Art Journal Journey which I’m having fun hosting this month; I chose the challenge theme Snowy Winter so like me all you need to do is add snowflakes and/or snow on your pages. I hope to see you there!
Paperbabe Stamps and their #182 – Anything Goes challenge with my Gnome page.
It’s a new month so we are launching our December challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
Whilst tidying up, I found this adorable robin image that I had saved from an old calendar and just couldn’t resist creating a page with it straight away; I even abandoned another page that I was creating, oh and also the tidying up (grin!).
I started by covering the background using white acrylic and Speckled Egg Distress Paint. Then I die cut lots of holly and fir branches using a Holiday Greens Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some green coloured cardstock; I added more colour to them using a Dark Green Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker. The cones were die cut using a Funky Festive Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from some brown Kraft cardstock – Classic by Tim Holtz. The holly berries were die cut using an old Festive Holly set and the wording using a Sizzix Doodle Alphabet and Letters set; they were all cut from orange paper which I later coloured using Orange and Sunflower Spectrum Aqua markers. I fussy cut the robin and stuck him in place, then I die cut the snowflakes from the remaining calendar paper. All of the foliage and snowflake pieces were arranged onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium and to finish, I splattered the whole page using white acrylic paint.
I love robins and have quite a few beautiful metal robins in my garden; one Christmas my dearest friend in America bought us this pretty red robin sitting in a heart – isn’t it delightful (smile!).
Hope that you’re all staying safe and well, and wishing you a Happy December!
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:
Art Journal Journey and the Snowy Winter challenge that I’m hosting this month as their are snowflakes on my wintery scene.
I’m so delighted to be hosting this month’s challenge over at Sparkles Monthly Challenges choosing #158 – Die Cuts and/or Punches as my theme.
I love nothing better than using die cuts for my papercraft projects and I used quite a few die cuts for this page including one of my favourites – the Merry Moose Sizzix Thinlits by Tim Holtz.
It looks like Merry Moose is looking forward to Christmas this year while walking through a winter wonderland; I hope you’ll join in the fun too, it would be lovely to see you there (smile!).
I started by covering the chipboard page with a layer of Speckled Egg Distress Paint and left it to dry. Then I used lots of Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits to create the scene; this included a Branched Birch Thinlits Set which was cut from some white linen cardstock, a Woodlands Thinlits set for the fir trees cut from some green foil corrugated cardstock, a Merry Moose Thinlits set from some cream linen cardstock and a Winter Wardrobe Thinlits set for his bow from white linen cardstock. I layered the trees together using double-sided tape and I cut out the snowy foreground from some of the white linen cardstock. The Merry Moose was coloured using Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso and Antique Linen Distress Ink and his bow using a Dark Red Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir marker. The two little robins, flying across the page, were stamped using a Picket Fence Studios stamp set and black Archival Ink; they were coloured using a Earth Brown Blend and the Dark Red Blend TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers and then fussy cut out. To finish, I added the “walking in a winter wonderland” wording which was a die cut sticker from a Christmas Sticker Book by Tim Holtz.
I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenges, and for more inspiration please check out the amazing Die Cuts and/or Punches projects from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.
Here are all the Thinlits sets I used to create my Merry Moose Wonderland page.
As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a couple of pints of Dark Side of the Moose beer; it’s from Purple Moose brewery in Porthmadog, Wales and we enjoyed it last week at one of our local pubs – Cheers and Happy T Day everyone!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
My page today was inspired by some beautiful wellies (Wellington rain boots) that were a surprise present from my mum.
My page design includes a napkin that I received as part of the napkin swap over at T Stand for Tuesday, I think this napkin was from Erika as it has busy bees on it.
If you are interested, I’ve also recycled the washi tape that came as part of the napkin swap, see my page Love you to the moon and back.
I started by creating a hexagon template from some card using a compass; I used this template to draw and then cut out hexagons of the napkin and also some blue paper that was recycled from a book cover. I arranged them onto the page using a glue stick and edged them all using some gold border outline stickers. Next I die cut the honeycomb from some leftover gold cardstock using a Bee Hive Sizzix Thinlits set by Olivia Rose. They were arranged onto the page with some white rub-on transfers for the wording and also some white flower stickers which I also added to decorate the napkins. To finish, I added two bees which were stamped and die cut using a Beehive Buzz Pink Ink Designs set, and were coloured using Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend markers.
Here are the pretty wellies that my mum kindly bought me; the colours, bees and honeycomb inspired my page design.
Wellies is a term that we use in the UK for Wellington boots which are also known as rain boots or gumboots in other parts of the world:
Wellington boots, or “Wellies” are named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington who wore and popularised them here in the UK.
Wellington’s boots were made of leather, but in 1856, the Scotland-based North British Rubber Company (now known as Hunter Boots) began manufacturing rubber Wellington rain boots. Being made from rubber enhanced the boots by giving them more flexible movement and making them 100% waterproof.
The nickname “gumboots” is a nod to the natural rubber that rain boots are made from. Natural rubber, which is obtained from trees, is called “gum rubber” hence the name gumboots.
As T Stands for Tuesday and keeping with the bee theme, here’s my apple juice and ginger beer in a glass that we purchased when we visited Maine Mead Works in America which has their bee logo on it – Happy T Day everyone!
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 Neet from Hickydorums is hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month and has chosen Fur and/or Feathers so I’m joining her with yet more busy fuzzy bees … ha,ha!
LTSCB#157 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blogas I created this page using a scraps of book page and gold cardstock as well as a napkin.
Paperbabe Stamps and their #176 – Anything Goes challenge with my bee page.
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.
It’s time for our new challenge this month over at Country View Challenges which is Hearts and Flowers.
Jane is our host for this month and she would like to see BOTH hearts and flowers on your creations. We look forward to seeing what you make and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!
I started by painting the background with Brushed Sage Distress Ink which I had watered down like watercolour. Then I added Rustic Wilderness and Twisted Citron Distress Ink using a blending tool through a Heart Cluster Mini Stencil by Creative Expressions. I added the stamping using a Fragments stamp set by Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink. Next I die cut the poinsettias and foliage using a Festive Bouquet Thinlits set from Kraft Paper, both by Tim Holtz, and added more colour and detail using Spectrum Noir markers. The tiny red hearts were created using a Falling Hearts Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and arranged vertically so they cascaded down the page. To finish, I added the wording from a Metallic Sticker Book by Tim Holtz which read “Always & Forever” …”In my heart” and “Love you” … “XOXO”.
For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.
Here’s a couple of the products from Country View Crafts that I used to create this page. I love the poinsettia Thinlits from this Festive Bouquet set; they turned out so beautifully.
I often have a cuppa whilst crafting so I included my cup of tea to join the T Gang today over at T Stands For Tuesday too – 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.
Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Add A Quote; we are not looking for a one or two word greeting.
I created an art journal page inspired by a quote from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice asks “How long is forever?” and the White Rabbit replies “Sometimes just one second”.
For the background, I started by stamping the clocks using a Provincial stamp set by Kaisercraft and Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink and also a Steampunk stamp set from Docrafts and Vintage Photo Distress Archival Ink. Next I added some cogs and wheels through a stencil by Paperbabe Stamps using Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Then I used the corresponding template from the same Paperbabe Stamps Stencil set to apply Scattered Straw Distress Ink. I sprayed some water over the top and used a kitchen towel to mop it up which gave the background more of a blurry/grungy look. I used a Fragments stamp set from Tim Holtz to add the pretty wallpaper detail, over the Scattered Straw Distress Ink, using Hickory Smoke Distress Archival Ink. I then coloured the clock faces by painting them, like watercolour, with some Hickory Smoke Distress Ink.
The little girl was a Maryleedee in Wonderland stamp from Paperbabe Stamps which Kim kindly sent me as one of my prizes for winning her challenge over at the Paperbabe Stamps blog. She was coloured using Spectrum Noir markers, fussy cut and then stuck in place.
For the quote, I used a Bellissima Alphas stamp set by Docrafts which I stamped on some recycled playing cards; I applied Pébéo white gesso to the playing cards and when dry, the words were stamped over the top using black Archival Ink. I cut the words into tiles and edged them with some Ground Espresso Distress Ink and then I coloured the letters using Spectrum Noir markers before arranging them onto the page.
For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday to see all the quotes my Design Teamies used on their wonderful creations too (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!
My page reminded me of Alices, where we used to go for afternoon tea (grin!). Unfortunately this café closed before the lockdown which is such a shame as it was an amazing place.
There was so much thought and detail with regards to design – there were stairs on the ceiling and chairs as lights, upside down electric plug sockets, beautifully decorated furniture and even the door fittings were back to front!
There afternoon tea was served on mismatched china and consisted of a delicious selection of sandwiches, crisps (chips) and salad, scones with jam, cream and strawberries as well as a selection of cakes and a big pot of tea – yum! As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m reminiscing about Alices and our afternoon tea with the T Gang and wishing you all a Happy T Day!
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’m 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:
Art Journal Journey and the lovely Erika from BioArtGal who is hosting this month with her Let’s Face It challenge as Marydeelee in Wonderland is on my page.
Paperbabe Stamps and their #159 – Anything Goes challenge with my Wonderland page – thanks so much for the stamp!
Out with the Old, in with the New over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with the new Marydeelee stamp and old clock stamps and recycled playing cards that I used as part of my design.
Anything Stamping Goes with the option of Wings challenge over at We Love Stamping all the stamping on my art journal page.
Let's Art Journal 