It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which for the next two weeks is Spring.
My Spring page is full of cherry blossom – I hope you like it!
I started by covering the page with water and then adding Red Madder Kuretake watercolour, so it pooled on the page, and then I left it to dry. Next I stamped the blossoms using a Stampendous stamp and Picked Raspberry Distress Archival Ink. The Cherry Blossom image was recycled from an old calendar and contains a Buddha quote which reads “Learn to let go. That’s the key to happiness”.
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.
Cherry blossom always reminds me of my dear friend who lives in Maine, America. With all the Maine related T Day posts last week, you had me thinking of my dearest friend, so here’s a blast from the past from when she visited us here in the UK, we just couldn’t resist having fun (smile!).
As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m pleased to join the T Gang and share a yummy Belgian Cherry Wheatbeer that we enjoyed recently – cheers and Happy T Day!
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.
It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which for the next two weeks is It’s In The Spotlight.
I used the spotlight technique to create this art journal page, spotlighting the blue skies, birds and blossoms that we saw when we visited Malaga last year.
I started by selecting two identical blossom pages from a colouring book and stuck one onto the page using a glue stick. Then I used a circular die set to die cut three circles out of the second page and I coloured the sky and blossoms using Kuretake watercolours; the colours I used were Ultramarine, Rose Madder, Dark Rose Madder, Lemon Yellow, Sap Green and Dark Sap Green. I stuck the circular images onto the page using a glue stick, making sure the designs matched and were in line. Next I cut two birds from a Kraft Cardstock Pad – Basics by Tim Holtz using a Silhouette Birds Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and stuck them in place. To finish, I added the black and white wording; they read “go where your heart takes you”, “live in the moment” and “the journey is the destination”.
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 (smile!).
When we went on a last minute holiday to Torremolinos, we visited Malaga for the day; we were surprised to see these pretty pink blossoms on the trees as it was November.
Malaga is a very beautiful city and it’s history spans about 2,800 years; the cathedral was constructed between 1528 and 1782.
The cathedral gardens are beautiful too …
… as are the surrounding buildings.
This is the Episcopal Palace that is located next to the cathedral and is an amazing example of baroque architecture.
We stopped for a refreshing beer served in frosty glasses; turns out this is a pub chain, 100 Montaditos, can be found in other areas of Europe too. Cheers and Happy T Day over at T Stands for Tuesday!
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.
Robins are my favourite bird, and are synonymous with winter which is just around the corner. So when my hubby kindly bought me a gift with robins and this wonderful quote, I knew I had to use both on my page – I hope you like it!
I started by creating a masterboard from mixed media paper by first stamping the robin image using black Archival Ink and black Ranger Embossing powder. Next, I stamped the pretty snowflakes using the Simon Says Stamp Frozen Fractals stamp set and Versamark Watermark ink which I covered with white Stampendous embossing powder. For each of the embossing powders, I shook and tapped any excess powder off the page and then I used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder until it became smooth and dimensional with a glossy finish. I positioned a circular template onto the page to depict the sun and then I painted the different elements using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolour paint set: for the sky background, I flooded the page with water first and then applied Ultramarine Pale, Ultramarine and Turquoise Blue colours using my paintbrush, gradually shading and blending the paints; for the robin image, I used Red, Lemon Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Black, Sap Green Light, Sap Green, Hooker’s Green and Viridian paints; and for the sun I removed the sun template and applied some watered-down Lemon Yellow paint. Then I ripped the masterboard into pieces and arranged them onto my chipboard page using a glue stick. To finish, I added the wording which was stamped onto white cardstock using black Archival Ink.
Here’s the pretty plaque that my hubby gifted me, it take pride of place on my dresser so I see it every day (smile!).
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Challenges
Art Journal Journey which I’m pleased to be hosting this month and the challenge theme that I’ve chosen is Nature, with my wintery robin page.
Being TSFT 10th Anniversary, we decided to get really creative and swap 10 ATCs. These ATCs were contained in those beautiful folders that she created and look spectacular – thank you so much Lyn for this wonderful swap and to Bluebeard and Elizabeth for organising everything!
Here are the 10 ATCs that I sent Lyn – Happy 10th TSFT everyone! There happens to be 10 of them and also the number 10 on each of them, so I hope this meets Bleubeard & Elizabeth’s request of including the number 10 somewhere on your photos.
If you’re wondering how I created them, see below. All of my ATCs started as playing cards, which I painted with white gesso on the front and black gesso on the back. I added splatter using black DecoArt acrylic paint over some of the white gesso before I applied different designs; all the paper pieces were stuck in place using Liquitex matte gel medium and Crafter’s Companion glue tape. I used a white Uni Ball gel pen and/or a black Uni Pin marker to outline items and I added the number 10 (for 10th Anniversary) to each; this included stamping using black Archival Ink and a Tim Holtz stamp set. As you can see, my 10 ATC designs are all different, here’s how they came together:
1. I covered the playing card with a piece of Tim Holtz Collage paper and when dry, I coloured it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Next I stamped some hearts using Moonlight White Brilliance Ink by Archival. I coloured the hearts using a Red Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend marker and then, I covered them using Ranger Glossy Accents. To finish, I added the wording which were Kaisercraft Stickers.
2. This Alice design was created using a napkin from last year’s 9th TSFT napkin swap, thanks Lisca (smile!). The wording that I added was a Tim Holtz Small Talk Sticker.
3. I stamped numbers onto the background using black Archival Ink and a Documented stamp set by Tim Holtz, then I added the foliage and flowers which I die cut from used teabags. The words were Tim Holtz Small Talk and Label stickers, and I added some white flower buttons and beads to the centre of the flowers using Glossy Accents.
4. For the background, I added some pretty oriental papers and outlined them using a black Faber-Castell marker, smudging the ink with my finger. The “B” for Bleubeard, “E” for Elizabeth and wording were Tim Holtz stickers, and to finish, I added a green ephemera butterfly and two gold butterfly outline stickers.
5. I randomly applied some Ranger Crackle Paste using a palette knife and when dry, I applied some watered-down black Faber-Castell marker ink with a paintbrush to highlight the cracks. The poppy flower was a washi tape sticker and the teacup was die cut from Tim Holtz Halloween paper. To finish, I added a Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker.
6. This was a fun collage design using a doily, some Kaisercraft Stickers and flower Ephemera.
7. The tea images were fussy cut from some Stamperia papers, which I arranged with some Kaisercraft Stickers.
8. Using a Stamperia stencil, I added some Ranger Texture Paste and left it to dry overnight. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top. When dry, it was painted using black and Aquamarine Kuretake watercolours. The wording was a Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker.
9. The wording was cut from a Stamperia paper pad and arranged it onto the card with some die cut foliage and flowers that were leftover from previous projects.
10. I added strips of washi tape vertically down the card to create the background and I added the names of Elizabeth’s cats using Tim Holtz Label stickers. The two cats were die cut from Tim Holtz Kraft papers using a Mischievous Cats Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz. I added some gems for their eyes and a red die cut heart adding “E” for Elizabeth to the centre.
Inspired by CJ, I also created a concertina folder to hold them in, which was fun to make (smile!).
Of course, I just had to send our amazing host a couple of ATCs too; I created another Squiggles and Bleubeard ATC and a Rust one, as I know how much Bleubeard & Elizabeth like rust. The rust one was created using Stamperia papers, Glossy Accents, a chipboard cog painted covered in acrylic and Distress Paints and some stickers. Happy 10th Anniversary and thank you for all your hard work to ensure T Stands For Tuesday is organised and available for everyone to join!
Stay safe and well!
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
It’s time for a new challenge over at Try it on Tuesday, which is Use 3 Colours, which doesn’t include black stamping or your base colour.
For my page, I chose green, purple and yellow as my 3 colours and created a page which includes some black stamping and the white base colour of my background.
I started by applying a Lime Green Faber-Castell gelato to the background and adding some Peeled Paint Distress Ink over the top, smudging the colours with a baby wipe. Next I stamped the numbers using black Archival Ink and Peeled Paint Distress Archival Ink. Then I stamped the leaves over the top using black Archival Ink and I coloured them using two shades of Sap Green Kuretake Watercolour paint. The flowers were stamped onto mixed media paper and were coloured using Violet Kuretake Watercolour paint and a couple of yellow Spectrum Aqua markers. When dry, I fussy cut the flowers and I stuck them in place using a glue stick. To finish, I added the wording which was a Kaisercraft sticker and reads “I’ve got nothing to do today but smile”.
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!
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.
Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing this Steam Locomotive journal page for this month’s Vehicles challenge.
I created this page using a steam locomotive image from a Voyages Fantastiques pad by Stamperia; as the image didn’t quite fit the page, I added some paper remnants to the edges and then extended the horizontal lines using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker. Next, I had lots of fun colouring the steam train, (like watercolour), using Peeled Patina, Vintage Photo, Weathered Wood and Hickory Smoke Distress Inks and to finish, a gold and a white Uni Ball gel pen. As I was colouring the steam at the top of the page, I extended the design onto the additional paper, using the Distress Inks and a black Faber-Castell fine line marker. I also coloured the sleepers and the foreground using Ground Espresso Distress Ink. To finish, I fussy cut the clock and the wording from the same Voyages Fantastiques pad by Stamperia, added them to the page and edged them using a black marker; the wording reads “There is nothing like a dream to create the future”.
I hope you are inspired to join our Vehicles 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.
Today I have a special treat courtesy of my dear friend, K, who is an exceptional photographer. She kindly sent me photos of probably the most famous steam locomotive, The Flying Scotsman, which she captured here appearing through the steam; isn’t it a stunning photo!
The Flying Scotsman still makes an appearance throughout the UK, and happens to be 100 years old this year – how amazing (smile!).
I hope that 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.
It’s the first Friday of May, so it’s time for a new challenge over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, which as always is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
My mixed media page was inspired by birthday cards and goodies from my dearest friends; the dotty paper was a recycled envelope from one of my birthday cards and the gorgeous butterfly was a napkin that was sent to me by my good friend, Tracey.
I started by ripping the dotty envelope into pieces and arranging them onto the page using a glue stick and some matte gel medium. Then I ripped the edges of napkin from around the beautiful butterfly image and applied the butterfly to the page. I arranged the ripped pieces of leftover napkin in-between the dotty paper and stuck them in place using matte gel medium. When dry, I used various colours of Kuretake watercolour paint to match and colour around the napkin pieces. Then I edged the papers and butterfly using a Uni Pin fine line marker smudging the ink with my finger. To finish, I added a Tim Holtz label sticker which reads “Thank You Friend”.
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 received some beautiful cards and gifts last month for my birthday; this homemade card and crafting goodies were sent to me by my dear friend Tracey from New Beginnings …Creating in my Corner – thank you so much!
Stay 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 Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Aimeslee this month, who has chosen Flowers as her theme; so I’m joining in the fun with the flowers of the butterfly imageon my page.
Triple B Challenge where everything is about Birds, Blooms and Butterflies so as their May Challenge; I’m joining them with all the bloomsand butterflies that my main butterfly image is made up from.
It’s the first Friday of April, so it’s time for a new challenge over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, which as always is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
My mixed media page was inspired by a recent trip with my hubby to Venice, Italy (smile!).
I started by using a large 12×12″ stencil (KSTDG02) by Stamperia to add Ranger Texture Paste using a palette knife and then I left it to dry overnight. Next I added washes of Sap Green, Ultramarine and Yellow Ochre Kuretake watercolour paint; I did this by applying water to the page, then adding the watercolour and letting the colours blend. Once dry, I added the Venice image which was recycled from an old calendar and the “The best thing about memories, is making them with you” wording which was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet.
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!
My page was inspired by the canals and bridges in Venice, so I thought I’d share some of them with you as well as some interesting facts. Following my last post, we are still exploring the Cannaregio district; I love this beautiful view of one of the canals with it’s wrought iron bridge, and aren’t those reflections amazing (smile!).
We were amazed to find canals and bridges around every corner; this bridge in Cannaregio is quite similar to the image on my journal page.
Me and hubby definitely made some lovely memories together in Venice; here we are having walked to the nearby San Polo dictrict.
Venice is such a beautiful place and is well known for its canals and bridges.
There are supposedly 177 canals and 417 bridges in Venice; although we haven’t counted them all ourselves (grin!).
Probably the most famous bridge is the Rialto which connects San Polo to San Marco district (which we will explore in my next post). The Rialto Bridge is over a 1000 years old and you can see it in the background of this selfie that we took one evening.
The Rialto Bridge spans the S-shaped Grand Canal, which you can see here taken from the bridge itself. This is the biggest canal in Venice and splits the city in two. Not surprisingly, the main form of transport in Venice is by boat. As you can see there are lots of different boats on the canal, including gondolas. I was surprised to find out that there are about 350 gondolas in Venice, which on average are 11 meters long and weigh around 600 kilos, and there are about 400 gondolieri.
I hope you enjoyed visiting Venice and looking around Cannaregio and San Polo, join me next time as we explore San Marco (smile!).
Stay 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 Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Bleubeard & Elizabeth from blog Altered Book Lover and her Recycle, reuse, repurpose challenge with my recycled image from an old calendar.
MIUCB #64 – Anything Goes + optional Distressing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my distressed watercolour technique background.
Stencil Fun Challenge and their April Stencil Fun – Anything Goeswith optional Pattern challenge the patterned Stamperia stencil that I used for my page.
It’s the first Friday of a new month, so it’s time for a new challenge over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, which as always is Anything Mixed Media Goes.
I would also like to send a warm welcome to the lovely Fiona from http://www.craftystamping.blogspot.com/ who has joined our Design Team; please be sure to visit her blog and show her some love!
My mixed media page is saying “Hello March” and celebrating the pretty crocus that flower this time of year!
I started by covering the background with a couple of cyclopaedia book pages and then covered them with some Villainous Potion Distress Paint applying it like watercolour. When dry, I applied some Yellow Ochre Kuretake Watercolour and I stamped some foliage and a circular filigree stamp using a Magnolia Grove stamp set by Kaisercraft, black Archival Ink and Dusty Concord Distress Archival Ink. Next I added some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and layered some more of the stamping over the top, to create a distressed grungy look. Then I splattered the page using black DecoArt acrylic paint. The crocus were fussy cut from an old garden flower book, edged with a black Faber-Castell marker and stuck in place using a glue stick. I stamped the “Hello March” wording using a Sophisticated Script stamp set by Concord & 9th and black Archival Ink, then to finish I highlighted the letters with a white Uniball gel pen.
For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. All you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; I hope you are inspired to join us, it would be lovely to see join you there!
Every year, there is a beautiful display of crocus’ at the church in Poulton-de-Fylde; which is a small town near to where we live.
These little crocus flowers look so amazing and it’s always such a beautiful sight as they cover the church yard in so much colour!
Hope that you’re all staying safe and well.
Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
Challenges
As well as Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:
Art Journal Journey which is being hosted by the lovely Valerie of Bastelmaniaand her Anything Goes challenge with my Hello March page.
MIUCB #64 – Anything Goes + optional Distressing over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with my distressed background crocus page.
Triple B Challenge where everything is about Birds, Blooms and Butterflies so as their March challenge blog was launched this month, I’m joining them with my spring blooms.
I had fun creating this page inspired by some beautiful summer roses in my friend’s garden (smile!).
I started by applying a piece of neutral paper over the background detailing lots of flowers. Then I added a flowery border sticker, along the left-hand side and right-hand side of the page, from a Floral Shoppe Graphic 45 Sticker Sheet. I stamped two flower heads onto some mixed media paper using a Flower Garden stamp set from Tim Holtz and black Archival Ink. Then I painted the flowers to match those on the Graphic 45 stickers using Lemon Yellow and Rose Madder Kuretake watercolours. I fussy cut the large flower head and die cut some buds using a Bloom Colourize Sizzix Thinlits set along with some leaves from some green Kraft Cardstock – Classic by Tim Holtz. I arranged them onto the page with a pretty tag, that was from the same Graphic 45 Sticker Sheet, adding a green satin ribbon; the tag reads “Friends are the flowers in the garden of life”.
I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing Friendship designs 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.
My dear friend loves gardening and here is one of the beautiful roses that she grows in her garden (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.
Let's Art Journal 