Mr. Finch

I’m really enjoyed creating the masculine page that I posted on Tuesday so I thought I would continue with the masculine theme and create a page with the additional inspiration of the goldfinches that we have seen a number of times this year, both in our garden and on our walks. So here’s my fun steampunk page which showcases the fabulous Mr. Finch (grin!).

I started by covering the page with Peeled Paint and Antique Linen Distress Ink using a blending tool and then spritzing the page with water to give a soft covering of colour. While the background was still wet I used a stamp from BoBunny to add the crackle texture mainly around the edges of the page using Hickory Smoke Distress Ink; the wet page blended the inks so the stamp looks smudged in places which I love. Then I used a stencil from Craft Sensations to add the numbers using Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and a blending tool. The black wheels are also stencilled using a Dina Wakley stencil from Ranger and I varied the depth of the Black Soot Distress Ink that I applied to give more of a distressed look and to add some dimension. I then splattered the page with the Black Soot Distress Ink using a paintbrush. The fountain pen and pocket watch are rub-on transfers by Royal and Langnickel and I also applied some leftover black letters from a Letraset transfer set to use them up. Next I fussy cut the roses from some design paper and stuck them in place, like all of the paper elements, using Liquitex matte gel medium.

For my steampunk Mr. Finch, I used a bird stamp from Stampendous, a Steampunk stamp set by Docrafts and black Archival Ink. I started by stamping the bird onto thick paper and fussy cutting it out, and then I distressed this image by covering it with some watered down white gesso using a baby wipe. Once dry I stamped the cog images over his breast and head and also a feather image over his back and wings to add more texture. I also stamped his steampunk style top hat and his wheels onto another piece of design paper; his wheels are from the Penny Farthing stamp which I stamped twice and then fussy cut out. I added three strips of music washi tape horizontally on the page and then I layered his wheels, body and hat together so Mr. Finch is rolling along one of these strips.

Inspired by seeing the goldfinches, I painted his cog design and added detail to his feathers using Iridescent Gold Liquitex Ink. As goldfinches also have red feathers on their heads that look like a mask, I also thought it would be fun to paint the goggles on his top hat with a Poppy Red Derwent Inktense pencil. I used a black Derwent marker, white gel pen and also the gold Liquitex Ink and red Inktense pencil to add further colour and detail to the design including his mask, hat, wheels and cogs. For his eye I added a black gem and coloured some of it white using a Uniball gel pen. Next I die cut three small labels using my Big Shot machine and stamped “Explore” using black Archival Ink. Once stuck in place, I coloured the edges using the red Inktense pencil and gold Liquitex Ink and then outlined them using a black Derwent marker and a white Uniball gel pen to frame the words, and then I embellished them with some round black brads. To finish, I splattered black and white DecoArt acrylic paint and also gold Liquitex Ink using a paintbrush over the page.

Here is one of the goldfinches that we saw on one of our walks along by the sand dunes, isn’t he magnificent!

If you are interested here are some facts about this bird:

• There are just three species of goldfinches in the world – our European goldfinch, the widespread American goldfinch and Lawrence’s goldfinch which is found in the southwest USA.
• The European goldfinch is a highly coloured finch with a bright red face and yellow wing patch.
• They are very sociable birds, often seen in large groups and have a delightful liquid twittering song and call. The collective name for goldfinches is a charm and is derived from the old English c’irm which describes the birds’ twittering song.
• The shape of their beak allows them to extract seeds from thistles and teasels.

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:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Gill from gibbyfrogettcraftations who is hosting the Inspired by … challenge over at Art Journal Journey I took inspiration from seeing the goldfinches to create steampunk page.

With the focal image of Mr. Finch being created using different stamps, I’m happy to be able to join Stamping Sensations and their Anything Goes challenge.

I’m so pleased to join the lovely Maura who is on the design team and is co-hosting over at SanDee & amelie’s Steampunk Challenges this month for their Anything Goes – Steampunk/Industrial challenge.

Over at A Vintage Journey this month the challenge is Stencil It so I’m pleased to join this challenge with my goldfinch inspired page fits their challenge focus with its Steampunk and Mixed Media Style.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the Written Word (add some text in some form) challenge over at Country View Challenges with stamped wording I added to this page.

I’m joining in the fun at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Anything But A Card challenge with Mr. Finch art journal page.

I’m also joining the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge and their June Challenge: Anything Goes!: (stamping MUST be included) with my unique, one of a kind Mr. Finch.

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 (Peeled Paint, Antique Linen, Hickory Smoke, Frayed Burlap, Black Soot)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Liquitex Inks! (Iridescent Bright Gold)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.2mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Derwent Inktense Pencil (Poppy Red 0400)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (Black, White)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Ranger Dina Wakley Media Stencil (Wheels MDS45588)
• BoBunny Stamp (Rough it up 12105155)
• Stampendous Cling Rubber Stamps (Jumbo Songbird CRS5029)
• Docrafts Creativity Essentials A5 Clear Stamp Set (Steampunk DCE907125)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Card Creator (A-2 Fancy Ribbon Threader S5-135)
• Royal & Langnickel Clear Choice Stamps (Journey MIN- CCS104)
• American Crafts (DIY Shop)
• Craft Sensations Design Pad (Soft Colours CRO730/R, Authentic Vintage CRO730/R)
• Royal & Langnickel Create-A-Collage Rub-on Transfers (Men’s Accessories #ROY-853)
• Letraset Transfers (Helvetica Bold Condensed 5mm DCO251)
• Hobbycraft (Assorted Black & White Decorative Tape 5971481007)
• Poundland (Design Gems 175751)
• Brads (Round Black)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

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Doodled Flowers

This page has been painted on the cardboard cover of my finished art journal book. I wanted to get creative with some new paints and just doodle a little; to be honest it started as a fun experiment as I don’t usually paint or doodle that much (grin!). I liked the way my page turned out so I thought I’d share it with you today.

I started by applying a dark grey acrylic paint onto the thick cardboard cover; I had intended to make a dark purple paint for another project but I added way too much dark blue so rather than waste this paint I covered this page with it. I also had some orange paint left over from the same project which I splattered using a paintbrush over the top. Next I doodled some large flower shapes using a white Uniball gel pen and coloured them using Vivid Lime Green, Neutral Gray and Bright Aqua Green Liquitex acrylic paints. It’s the first time I have used these paints which were a gift and as they are “heavy body” paints the flowers painted have a lovely 3D look which I love! I also added some of the different paint colours along the edges of the flower petals and in centre of the flowers. Then I used up any excess paint on the background of the page to break up the dark grey so that hints of these colours can be seen throughout the background. Next I used my brayer to apply white DecoArt acrylic paint to a diamond background stamp from Art Impressions and stamped it around the flowers. I also used the brayer to add white acrylic paint along the edge of the page too. I then cleaned the brayer and stamp and used them again to apply the Vivid Lime Green Liquitex acrylic paint onto the flower petals. When the paint was dry I doodled on the flowers with a black Derwent Graphik marker, defining the flower petals and stamens and I used the white gel pen to touch up the flower outlines and also a white Uni Posca paint pen to colour the stamens in the centre. To finish, I added three stickers by Kaisercraft which reminded of the happy time I had creating this page, which read “Smile”, “Create happiness” and “Live in the moment”.

Talking of flowers, these pretty Delphinium could be found flowering in our garden this time last year, unfortunately they did not survive our unusually cold snowy winter. Luckily I have some photos to remember how beautiful they were which makes me smile!

Of course you may remember these flowers from a previous post, they are my one of my favourite flowers called Mesembryanthemum which is a really hard one to pronounce, so I just refer to them as “pretties”; you may also know then as Livingston Daisies. I buy them every year and this year we have a big pot of them on our patio, so I’m really looking forward to seeing them flower as I’m sat relaxing in the garden (grin!).

Challenges

I’m pleased to join the lovely Gill from gibbyfrogettcraftations who is hosting the Inspired by … challenge over at Art Journal Journey as my inspiration for this page was to have some fun experimenting with new paints and doodling.

I’m pleased to be able to join Paperbabe Stamps and their Doodles challenge: thanks I had so much fun doodling to join your challenge (grin!).

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their All Things Bright and Beautiful challenge with my colourful flower art journal page, where the lovely Chris is in the Designer Spotlight this month and created an amazing little book of flowers to inspire us for this particular challenge.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the Written Word (add some text in some form) challenge over at Country View Challenges with the happy wording I added to my page.

I’m also joining the Colour it Blue challenge over at The Artistic Stamper with my painted blue flowers.

As I created my Doodled Flowers on my art journal cover, I’m also pleased to join the lovely Lulu over at Stamps and Stencils and their Do judge a book by its cover! 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:

• Leftover acrylic paint from previous project (Dark Grey, Orange)
• Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic (Vivid Lime Green, Neutral Gray 5, Bright Aqua Green)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
• Derwent Graphik Line marker (Black 0.5mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Uni Posca Paint Pen (White)
• Art Impressions wood mounted rubber stamp (Diamond Background T-3335)
• Ranger Brayer
• Kaisercraft Sticker Sheet (Fly Free SS289)

She’s got the Look

It’s time for a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday which is She’s got the Look. It might be in her style, her eyes etc … which give her that special look.

Please check out the amazing Design Team creations over at Try it on Tuesday for more inspiration. I had lots of fun creating my art journal page, I think she definitely has “The Look” (grin!).

I started this page by covering it in squares and rectangles of different grey and white decoupage papers using Liquitex matte gel medium; the decoupage designs included lace, dots and fleur-de-lis. Then I added some clock and circular shapes from Kaisercraft and also a Fiskars stamp set and a scroll stamp by Penny Black using black Archival Ink. The pretty girl’s face is from an old magazine and is mounted onto a piece of wallpaper using a UHU Stic to give it more stability. Once dry I fussy cut and stuck it to the page using Liquitex matte gel medium along with some flowers and leaves which I fussy cut from a wallpaper sample. Once everything was in place I covered it with a layer of Liquitex matte gel medium to seal the images so I could easily apply different mediums over the top to add colour and more detail. Next I stencilled modelling paste onto the background through a fleur-de-lis style stencil and left it to dry.

To create the distressed grungy look, I coloured the background using Iced Rose, Iced Currant, Earl Grey and Coconut Faber-Castell Gelatos smudging the colours with my finger. I then added some water to the page using a paintbrush and applied some Carbon Black Liquitex Ink over the top; the water helped control where the ink seeped and spread on the page. I also tipped the page vertically so the ink dripped and ran down the page. Next I applied some DecoArt white paint with a sponge to the background and also to the fleur-de-lis by using the stencil again which added some highlights making the page lighter. I intensified the colour of the flowers on her headdress using a Chilli Red Inktense pencil and then outlined them using an Ink Black Inktense pencil. To give her headdress more of a grungy look, I covered the leaves in black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker wiping the ink off with a baby wipe so it just dulled the green colour. Then I painted diluted Carbon Black Liquitex Ink to the edges of the flower petals and outlined both the flowers and leaves with this ink so they stood out more from the background. I used a white Uniball gel pen and black Uni Pin marker to doodle lines and dots onto the flowers and leaves to add more detail and interest to the design. I then added some sparkle to the edges of the flowers using silver Stickles by Ranger and coloured the stamens of the flowers using a white Uniball gel pen and outlined them with a black Uni Pin marker. Then I picked out the flower colour and design of the girl’s headdress to embed the girl’s image into the background better by applying some Red Berries Distress Ink using a Floral stencil by Tim Holtz around the edges of the page.

I emphasised the girl’s eyes by doodling on them with a black Uni Pin marker and then colouring them with Baked Earth and Antique White Inktense pencils, a white Uniball gel pen and also silver Stickles to add some sparkle. Her mask is made using some fine silver netting which I cut to shape and placed over her face tucking it under the flowers of her headdress; I arranged some strands of clear and black gemstones over the netting to create her sparkly mask with a teardrop gem in the centre. I applied some more silver stickles to the lower part of her face to define the lines of her neck, chin and cheeks. Next I added some thin feathers which I had curled so they fanned out creating more texture around her face, they are stuck in place using Ranger Glossy Accents. With the mask complete I also stuck the edges of the mask and flowers in place using the Glossy Accents. To tie the mask into the headdress design, I added some of the clear and black gemstones around and behind the edges of the flowers on her headdress and then I painted Chilli Red Intense pencil onto her lips which finished her look.

As T Stands for Tuesday and my lady is going to a Masked Ball, I think she would be enjoying a cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a cosmo – Happy T Day!

This happens to be one of my favourite cocktails and if you are interested it’s made with ½oz Fresh lime juice, 1oz Cranberry juice, ½oz Cointreau, 1½oz Vodka. Place all the ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake well and strain into a large cocktail glass – yum (grin!).

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:

As I included flowers and feathers on my journal page, I’m pleased to join the Flora and Fauna theme which I’m hosting at Art Journal Journey. There is still a few days left to join in the fun and be sure to pop back on Thursday to see my final celebratory journal page for this theme (grin!).

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Even More Flowers so I’m pleased to join the lovely DT with the flowers I created for this page.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the Doodles challenge over at Paperbabe Stamps as I really enjoyed adding all the doodles to the girl’s face and also her headdress flowers and leaves.

I’m joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Use More Than One Stamp challenge as I used the clock, circular and scroll stamps for this art journal page.

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:

• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Pébéo Modeling Paste
• Faber-Castell Gelato (Iced Rose, Iced Currant, Earl Grey, Coconut)
• Liquitex Inks! (Carbon Black)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
• Derwent Inktense Pencils (Chilli Red 0500, Ink Black 2200, Baked Earth 1800, Antique White 2300)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Festive Berries)
• Kaisercraft Clear Stamps (Magnolia Grove CS822, Provincial CS243)
• Penny Black T for Transparent (Clearly in Love 30-009)
• Fiskars Clear Stamps (Rounds & Squares 4657)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Tim Holtz Collection Stamper Anonymous (Floral Layering Stencil THS077)
• Viva Gade Decoupage papers Skagen (25561, 25562, 25564)
• Old Magazine
• Wallpaper sample
• Poundland (Design Jems 175751)
• Graham & Brown (Adhesive Jewels)
• Black Feathers
• Ranger Stickles (Silver)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic

Hummingbird and Orchids

Inspired by the beautiful hummingbirds that have been featured by some of my blog-friends recently, I created this hummingbird and pretty orchid page for the Flora and Fauna challenge that I’m hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month.

I’ve been overwhelmed with the participation and support shown for my theme over at Art Journal Journey, thank you! There is still time to join in the fun this month and I hope to see you there!

I started by painting the page with Liquitex Acrylic paints; the colours I used were Christmas Green, Cadmium Yellow and Parchment. Once the paint had dried, I added some gold acrylic paint and splattered the page with black and white acrylic paints using a paintbrush. Then I covered the page with some Pébéo white gesso using a baby wipe and also my finger to tone down the colours so the images I added next stood out more. The orchids are fussy cut from a napkin and stuck to the page using Liquitex matte gel medium, once the gel medium had dried I outlined and doodled on them using a black UniPin marker and a white Uniball gel pen to add more definition and detail; this took quite a while as there are so many of them (grin!). The hummingbird and pink flower buds are rub-on transfers from Royal & Langnickel which I layered around and onto the orchids. I added a cardstock sticker which says “Fly Free” and I finished the page by adding some pretty green sequin flowers, using Glossy Accents, to add some sparkle.

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Even More Flowers! so I’m pleased to join this challenge too, with the pretty orchids that I included on my page.

We visited a garden centre recently and I was mesmerised by these pretty orchids which are similar to the ones on my page, aren’t they stunning!

We often visit the café at this garden centre and here we are having my favourite – a pot of green tea with a bacon butty/sandwich (grin!). So I’m joining the T Gang over at T Stands for Tuesday and wishing you all a Happy T Day!

We have some lovely garden centres in our area which have the most beautiful displays – I love this majestic looking stag and large turquoise pottery urn surrounded by all the delicate hydrangeas!

I’m glad this huge snail isn’t real as it would swallow up my garden in one bite (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:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Christmas Green, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Parchment)
• Colvin & Co Artist’s Acrylic (White)
• Poundland Metallic Paint (Gold)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• The New York Botanical Gardens Napkin
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Sentiments (TIP1642G)
• Little Yellow Bicycle Cardstock Stickers (Fresh Verse PD-140)
• Poundland (Assorted Sequins)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium

I want to sing …

With the glorious sunny weather we’ve been having of late, nature seems to be blooming with spring happiness, so today my page celebrates the beautiful magnolia trees, birds and birdsong!

I’m linking to the Flora and Fauna theme over at Art Journal Journey which I’m hosting this month too.

I started by scribbling some Metallic Blueberry Faber-Castell Gelato onto the page in horizontal lines and then I spritzed the page with water, and used my finger to smudge and blend the colour across the page. Next I ripped a magnolia design napkin and stuck the flowers onto the page using Liquitex matte gel medium. Once the gel medium was dry, I doodled an outline on the flowers with a black Derwent Graphik marker. Then to depict birdsong, I stamped some music notes and script stamps from the Musicality Docrafts stamp set over the background using black Archival Ink . I applied some Pébéo white gesso with my finger over some of the stamped images and then used the same stamp set and black ink again to add another layer of stamping which gave the page more depth. The bird image is fussy cut from an old calendar, edged with Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and stuck onto one of the magnolia branches using a UHU Stic. I also cut two of the magnolia leaves from the napkin and arranged them in front the bird so he blended into the scene better. To make the bird look like he was singing, I arranged some pieces of musical washi tape to flow upwards from his open beak. I placed three of these musical notes on the page background too and covered them all with Liquitex matte gel medium to hold them firmly in place. When the gel medium was dry, I edged them with a black Derwent Graphik marker so they stood out more. I added the quote using some Docrafts letter stickers  and I edged with white Uniball gel pen to soften the edges. I stamped the author’s name under the quote using an alphabet stamp set and black Archival Ink which finished the page; the quote is by Rumi and reads:

“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think”.

Walking into town we pass many gardens filled with beautiful spring blossoms and these are some pretty magnolias that are flowering not far from our house.

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, Art Journal Journey, 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:

Being inspired by the Words and Music theme over at A Vintage Journey, I’m pleased to join the lovely Astrid and the rest of the Creative Guides with my Mixed Media Style music related art journal page.

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Even More Flowers so I’m pleased to join in the fun with my magnolia inspired page.

I’m also joining the Allsorts Challenge Blog and their In the Pink challenge with the pretty pink magnolias that I included on my page.

I’m also pleased to join Mixed Media World where their theme is Anything Goes…optional Pink.

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:

• Faber-Castell Gelato (Metallic Blueberry)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Pébéo White Gesso
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm, 0.2mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Dark Sepia 175 B)
• Docrafts Creativity Essentials A5 Clear Stamp Set (Musicality DCE907112)
• Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
• Caspari Napkin
• RSPB Calender – old
• The Works (Three Washi Tapes)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic

Tyger

Inspired by some Urban Street Art in Blackpool and a wonderful poem by William Blake, I created this Tiger art journal page (grin!).

I started by mixing some Liquitex acrylic paints to produce an orange and dark purple colour and along with some yellow Liquitex acrylic I stippled them onto the page using a paintbrush; as this is a high density acrylic this produced some lovely texture. They are applied so that purple was at the top of the page, orange in the middle and yellow at the bottom to give an ombré effect that matched some of the street art we had seen. To intensify the colours and give more of a spray effect, I applied purple, orange and yellow Brusho Powders over the top of the acrylics and spritzed with water, watching the colours burst on the page and whilst they were blending I used my heat gun to dry them. Next I drew a border around the page using a black Derwent Graphic marker and stamped some hexagonal shapes so they flowed vertically on the page using black Archival Ink. The tiger is fussy cut from an old book of poems that I purchased from a charity shop (thrift store) and is stuck onto the page using a UHU Stic. I used some recycled black paper and also the leftovers from the tiger image to create leaves using Tim Holtz Garden Greens thinlets and my Big Shot machine. They are held in place with sewing machine stitching along each of the main stems which was fun technique to try considering my page is attached within a book (grin!).

Next I added yellow, orange and black beads using Glossy Accents and then cut the title, first verse and author of the poem from the same book as the tiger image. The poem is called The Tyger and is by William Blake, the verse reads: “Tyger! Tyger! burning bright in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye, dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”. I cut them out in an abstract pattern to match the page design, edged them all with black Faber-Castell marker and stuck them in place using a UHU Stic. To finish, I added more detail with a white Uniball gel pen and black Derwent Graphic marker which included some white dots in the centre of the larger hexagonal shapes and also some faux stitching around the border.

Blackpool has some amazing Urban Street Art and this is the fabulous tiger than inspired my page, you can see the ombre effect and of course the majestic tiger. This was created by Otto Schade when he took part in the 2016 Sand, Sea and Spray Festival in Blackpool.

There are a number of other artworks in the same area .

This mural just around the corner and it was created at the same 2016 festival and is a self-portrait based collaboration of Bane & Pest (also known as the Color Nomads) and Smile1.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the urban street art in Blackpool, there are still others to see which I’ll be sure to share, as I find that they are such wonderful inspiration for my art journal pages (grin!).

Challenges

With the leaves and tiger that I included on this page, I’m joining the Flora and Fauna challenge over at Art Journal Journey that I’m hosting this month. I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see you there!

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Ombré challenge with my brightly coloured ombré background.

I’m pleased to join the lovely Tracey and the rest of the DT over at That’s Crafty! Challenges for their A Stitch in Time challenge as I used both machine and faux stitching on my page.

I’m joining in the fun over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their For the Boys challenge with my William Blake inspired art journal page.

As I used die cuts to create the leaves on my page, I’m also reminding you of our Stencil, Die Cuts or Both theme over at Try it on Tuesday which runs until Monday/tomorrow evening and be sure to check out our fun new challenge on Tuesday!

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:

• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Navy, White)
• Colourcraft Brusho Crystals (Purple, Orange, Yellow)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.1mm, 0.8mm)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Docrafts Papermania Mini Cards & Stamp Sets (Capsule Geometric Krafts PMA105308)
• Sizzix Thinlets by Tim Holtz (Garden Greens 661206)
• 100 Great Poems
• Recycled black paper
• Brighton Bead Shop (Assorted Seed Beads)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• UHU Stic

Say it with Flowers

I’m looking forward to seeing the flowers bloom in my garden over the summer, so I thought I’d celebrate by creating this colourful summery flower page using some of my favourite colours of Distress Ink (grin!).

For the background I used Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks. I used one of my favourite techniques to apply them to the page which is to stamp the ink pad directly into an acrylic block, spritz the block with water and press it into the page. I really like the vibrant colours and blotting paper effect which results. Next I added white and black splatters of acrylic paint using a paintbrush. Using black Archival Ink I stamped flower images by Hampton Art over the page, I then created the stems using a dotty border stamp, masking the flowers as needed so the stems are behind the flower heads. I added a leaf stamp, again by Hampton Art, to the stems too. Then I added the butterflies and four sayings to the page using a stamp set by Crafter’s Companion and the same black ink. They read “All things grow with love”, “Flowers whisper what words cannot say”, “Take time to smell the flowers” and “The earth laughs in flowers”. I doodled some white flowers and added details to the stamped butterflies, flowers and leaves using a white Uniball gel pen and a black Uni Pin marker. To finish, I added some Rhinestone Flower stickers to the centre of some of the white flowers I had doodled.

I’m pleased to join the Flora and Fauna challenge that I’m hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month, it would be great to see you there!

My page reminds me of two types of flower that can be found in my garden, firstly perennial Daisy (Leucanthemum), that this was a new addition to my garden a couple of years ago and last year the plant had doubled in size giving this lovely display of white flowers.

These annuals are called mesembryanthemum and I buy them every year, they can be found in the same flower bed normally growing under my pottery toadstool which is a similar colour to my page (grin!). I like that this flower only opens when the sun is on them and the petals close up for the night – don’t they look spectacular! The official name is a really hard one to pronounce, so I just refer to them as “pretties” (double grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Art Journal Journey, 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:

Over at Moo Mania and More the theme is Flowers so I’m pleased to join this theme with my Say it with Flowers art journal page.

I enjoyed creating the background using my favourite technique to apply colours of Distress Ink and stamping all the flowers, so I’m also pleased to join the Backgrounds challenge over at The Artistic Stamper.

I’m joining Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Time Out challenge with my flowers and “Take time to smell the flowers” sentiment.

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any comments or questions I’d love to hear from you.

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

• Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint, Chipped Sapphire)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Ivory Black)
• Colvin & Co Artists Acrylic (Titanium White)
• Uni Pin Fine Line Marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Hampton Art Bella Blvd cling mounted rubber stamps (Sand & Surf ICO226)
• Hampton Art Doodlebug Design Inc. cling mounted rubber stamps (Thankful! ICO162)
• Crafter’s Companion Signature Collection by Sara Davies stamp set (Just for You – Butterfly Lullaby S-BL-ST-JUS)
• The Works (Rhinestone Flower Stickers)