All the cake

It’s time for a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge which Shaker Card/Project.

I’ve never created anything Shaker designed before so this was a first for me, so I decided to create this fun mini art journal page – see what you think (smile!).

I started by covering the chipboard page with a couple of layers of Bronze Distress Paint. When dry, I stamped the circles and starbursts using Fossilized Amber Distress Archival Ink and a Sparkles stamp set from AALL & Create. The “All the Cake” frame was from Simple Stories and I cut it to size, layering all the cakes together, to fit the page.

I added some prettily decorated film to the inside of the frame and filled it with lots of colourful sequins. The frame was layered onto the page with some balloons which were die cut from coloured paper using a Sizzix die set. To finish I added some tiny red stars to the background, which were from the same sequin pack, sticking them into place using Ranger Glossy Accents.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing Shaker designs from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.

When asked I often make Birthday cakes for people and this year I made this cake for one of my dearest friends.

It was fun to make and you may recognise the little dog on the top that I created as the likeness was based my friend’s dog, Ellie (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 Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #171 – Anything Goes challenge with my shaker page.

LTCCB#69- Anything Goes over at Love to Craft Challenge Blog with my fun “All the Cake” page.

Take time to smell the flowers

It’s a new month so we are launching our June challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by the outdoors and the spring tulips that are flowering at the moment (grin!).

I started by covering the whole page with some Pébéo white gesso and I added some washes of Scattered Straw and Tattered Rose Distress Ink over the page. Next I added pieces of book pages from a Pears Cyclopaedia using a glue stick and then I stencilled the Reverse Honeycomb design by That’s Crafty using Ranger Texture Paste. I splattered the page with Peeled Paint, Tattered Rose and Vintage Photo Distress Inks and when dry, I coloured the stencilled texture paste using black Archival Ink and a Dark Sepia Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. The flower images and words were cut from a Romantic Garden House paper pad by Stamperia that my sister kindly bought me for my birthday; they were edged using the Vintage Photo Distress Ink before sticking them into place. To finish, I added three wooden button pink flowers which I had laced some cream wax thread through.

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!

As you may remember we plant tulips bulbs every year and these Purple Dream Lily Flower Tulips are new to our garden. They have been flowering for over a month now and the flowers are huge; they are very impactful and look amazing (smile!).

I 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.

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #167 – Anything Goes challenge with my flower page.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Feminine theme with my pretty flower art journal page.

Sunday in the Park challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog with my outdoor page as we see tulips flowering in the park near us this time of year too.

MIUCB #59 Anything Goes over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different techniques that I used to create this page.

For Men Only at Sparkles Monthly Challenge

I’m thrilled and honoured to be able to join the Design Team at Sparkles Monthly Challenge and as we launch a new challenge theme on 15^th of each month, today our theme is For Men Only.

For those of you who don’t know me, I live by the sea in the North West of England with my hubby and I started Art Journaling just over 6 years ago as a way of expressing my life through words and pictures. I really enjoy paper craft and I often make cards/tags for family and friends and I find myself drawn to papers and die sets more and more; so I’m looking forward to sharing these cards, tags and mini page creations with you at Sparkles.

For today’s page I used some amazing Stamperia Voyages Fantastique papers.

I started by collaging bicycle papers from a Stamperia Voyages Fantastique 8×8 paper pad onto the page using a glue stick and then I added three pieces of green bicycle washi tape. The man on the Penny Farthing and the clocks were cut from the same Stamperia paper, edged using Ground Espresso and Rusty Hinge Distress Ink with a blending tool and then stuck in place using double-sided tape. I also edged the whole page using the Distress Inks too. Next I arranged some chipboard cogs and numbers, which I had covered with copper embossing powder and a sprinkle of Antique Silver embossing enamel, onto the page using Ranger Glossy Accents. Then to finish, I added some copper metallic domed gem stickers.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing For Men Only designs from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too – thanks so much for having me and for the warm welcome! We would love for you to join us but please be sure to check out the rules here.

As T Stands for Tuesday and to compliment the masculine steampunk design of my page, I’m sharing this Steam Brew IPA and saying a big hello and welcome to the T Gang- Happy T Day!

This beer is alcohol 4.9% vol and is described as “The delicate but nevertheless aromatic body of the triple-hopped Session Pale Ale ensures a pleasant drinking experience. The exclusive hop variety “Vic Secret” surprises with exotic and tropical, fruity notes”.

Of course when I noticed the glass I’d used, I took another photo to reveal the lion etched onto the glass as it made me think of Iris in the T Gang – Roar!

I hope that you’re 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 Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #163 – Anything Goes challenge with my masculine page.

Rather Blustery Day challenge over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog as creating masculine pages is for some reason difficult for me – do you find this too?

Bit O’Green challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the green bicycle washi tape and hints of green as part of the paper design on my page.

The importance of a moment

Inspired by a new paper pad and Ric Rac ribbon, I created this Shabby Chic styled page with a beautiful quote that reads “Sometimes you don’t realise the importance of a moment until it becomes a memory”.

I started by covering the chipboard page with some pretty hummingbird and flower designed paper using a glue stick. Then I added three pieces of cream Ric Rac ribbon vertically down the left-hand side of the page, sticking them in place using double-sided tape. I placed a flower and leaves by Little Birdie over the bottom of the ribbon. Next I added the wording which was from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet and to finish, I edged it using a Uniball white gel pen.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a bottle of Cherry Wheat Beer that my hubby got me for Christmas. It was so delicious and reminded me of our trips to Belgium; I thought that it tied in nicely with the colour of my page (grin) – Happy T Day!

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 Bleubeard & Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover is hosting this month over at Art Journal Journey and her challenge is What’s Your Style, so I’m joining in the fun with my Shabby Chic styled page.

#148 – Use Ribbon, Raffia or Twine over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge with the new Ric Rac ribbon that I used on my page.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #161 – Anything Goes challenge with my art journal page.

My wish for you

I can’t believe that it’s December already but here we are launching our December challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

All you need to do is to use three or more different mediums on your projects to join our mixed media challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

With it being Christmas, I recycled an old Christmas card for this page and had fun experimenting, this time with acrylic paints, to try and match the design and colours of the card’s background. To do this, I painted Deep Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Hooker’s Green Hue Permanent and Mars Black Liquitex Basics paints onto the page and left them to dry. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and rubbed some of it off using a wet wipe to create the mottled effect. Then I splattered the whole page with white acrylic paint. Next I stuck the Christmas card image of the angel in place and added some rose gold star and dot outline stickers. The wording was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Sticker Book and reads “My wish for you…The blessed angels sing…Peace on earth, good-will to men…Words of hope and tender thought…Filled with joy and gladness” and “A Merry Christmas to all”.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too.

Here’s another pretty angel that we light this time of year, she’s made from glass and is from Prague; a place we would normally visit at Christmastime (grin!).

I hope that you’re all staying safe and well! x
Wishing you a very Happy December and Festive Season!

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.

Challenges

As well as Creative Artiste , I’m pleased to join the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #157 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas angel page.

Happy Holidays/Christmas challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my Christmas page.

Challenge #106 – Anything Christmas Goes over at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge with my Christmas art journal page.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Sparkle Mode challenge with the sparkling sky and stars that I created for this page.

Yuletide Delights over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my pretty Christmas angel page.

Sparkles Christmas Monthly and their #131 Non-Traditional Colours challenge with my purple, green and black page.

It’s all about time

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is It’s all about time.

For this challenge I was inspired by the time I have spent this month celebrating my hubby’s birthday and also our wedding anniversary. I hope are inspired to join our challenge too; it would be lovely to see you there!

The background was a wallpaper sample detailing a large clock face, roses and the words “Take time to love the little things”; it was stuck in place using a glue stick and then cut to size, and I collaged the remnants together to create the panel on the left-hand side of the page. I also added more detail to the rose images using a white Uniball gel pen so they stood out more. Next I stamped the two clock faces onto some design paper by American Crafts using black Archival Ink and a couple of stamp sets by Kaisercraft. I cut them out and arranged them onto the page with some silver roses and circles which were outline stickers and a quote from a Kaisercraft sticker sheet which reads “Love the time we spend together”. To finish, I fussy cut the two butterflies from the wallpaper sample and stuck them onto the page.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and take a look you at the wonderful It’s all about time creations from our Guest Designer and my Design Teamies too (grin!).

As T Stands for Tuesday and we’ve been out celebrating, I’m sharing our drinks and meal that we enjoyed for our wedding anniversary (time sure does fly, we celebrated 33 years of marriage this year!). My hubby had chicken with black pudding in a mustard sauce and I had a warm bacon and chicken salad; I couldn’t eat all mine so we had some for lunch the next day (grin!).

Cheers and Happy T Day!

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.

Challenges

As well as Try it on Tuesday, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today with my page:

Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #154 – Anything Goes with my page.

Thinking of you over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

MIUCB#54 – Anything Goes + Paper Piecing challenge over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog.

Love to Craft Challenge Blog and their LTCCB#63 – October Anything Goes challenge.

Be still and listen

It’s a new month so we are launching our October challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

My mixed media page was inspired by the sunny Indian Summer we’ve been having of late, so I’ve transported us back to a summer walk along the Lancashire canal and the lovely yellow Iris that we saw flowering there (grin!).

I started by ripping and collaging some sheet music and design papers from Kaisercraft and American Crafts onto the page using a glue stick. Then I applied some Pébéo white gesso and Salvaged Patina Distress Paint over the top. When dry, I added lots of small pieces of design paper, which I had leftover in my craft stash, using Liquitex matte gel medium to stick them in place. The fern foliage and yellow Iris flowers were washi tape stickers and I cut the pretty butterfly image from some Kaisercraft design paper. To finish, I added the wording which were Finnabair stickers that I edged with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker; they read “Be still. Listen.”, “Just breathe” and “Be led by your dreams”.

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!

We always enjoy this walk along the canal and seeing the different boats, plants and wildlife along the way.

Here’s a view of one of the bridges where we saw the pretty yellow Iris flowering along the waters edge; it’s such a beautiful and peaceful place to walk (grin!).

I 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 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.

Challenges As well as Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Touchy Feely challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the texture I created using the leftover paper pieces which I layered together on this page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #153 – Anything Goes with my summer walk art journal page. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and their Anything Goes challenge with my Indian Summer inspired page.

Be forever happy

It’s a new month so we are launching our September challenge today over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog, this is a monthly challenge and as always the theme is Anything Mixed Media Goes.

I created a mixed media page using lots of leftovers from previous art journal pages; I hope you like it!

I started by covering the background of the page with the letters using one of stencils from a #16 mini stencil set by Tim Holtz and some leftover Iced Coffee Faber-Castell Gelato which was applied with a baby wipe.

Next I edged 4 Poster Cards from Tim Holtz, like I did all the paper elements on this page, using a black Faber-Castell marker and arranged them onto the page using double-sided tape. Then I added lots of leftover bits and pieces; this included a piece of mixed media paper which had been coloured using green Distress Inks, some flowers and foliage that had been die cut using Tim Holtz Thinlits and coloured using Distress Inks, some ribbon, some torn paper, some tissue paper and note paper that had been stamped using Finnabair stamps and black Archival Ink, a ruler from a Kaisercraft Journal Card and some die cut pieces of trellis that had been covered with Aged Silver Stampendous Embossing Enamel.

They were arranged onto the page using a glue stick or double-sided tape, and I layered together a doily, a recycled butterfly gift tag and some leftover die cut letters and wording to read “Be forever happy”. I added some sparkly gems to the centre of the yellow flowers and a green wooden bird and then to finish, I coloured the “Aug” and “Sept” wording on the Poster Card using Tri-Blend Spectrum Noir markers.

As you can see I used lots of different mediums to create this page but all you need to do is to use three different mediums on your projects to join our Anything Mixed Media Goes Challenge.

For more inspiration please check out the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Creative Artiste too. I hope you are inspired to join us; it would be lovely to see you there!

This page was inspired by our walks at Lytham Hall that we enjoyed over the summer (grin!).

There are lots of woodland walks so we were able to stay cool in the shade and out of the summer heat. I’m now looking forward to seeing the leaves change to their colours over the coming months with the autumn on its way.

Our walks also take us by these flower borders in the walled gardens which always look so beautiful (grin!).

I 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 Creative Artiste, I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #151 – Anything Goes with my nature art journal page. De-stress with distressing over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my distressed grungy stencilled background, Distress Inks, and also the torn papers, trellis and ribbon. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Glimmer and Sparkle challenge with the glimmer and sparkle of the yellow flowers with their glittery gem centres. LTSCB #149 – Anything Goes over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my leftovers page. Mixed Media Lovers and their Challenge #5 Mixed Media Lovers as I used lots of mixed media to create this nature page; this is a new challenge blog so why not join in the fun too!

Book pages

Over at Try it on Tuesday our challenge for the next 2 weeks is Use Book Pages.

I have some old books in my craft stash that I use for my art journaling and I used quite a few different books to create this page, in fact the only items that aren’t book pages are the sparkly butterflies (grin!).

I started by collaging the background with lots of different torn book pages from an old dictionary from my school days, a Pears Cyclopaedia, an old David Copperfield novel and an old novel with Kraft paper pages. They are stuck down using a glue stick and some Liquitex matte gel medium, and I applied some Pébéo white gesso over the top using a brayer and left it to dry.

Next I fussy cut the gladioli image from an old garden flower book and stuck it in place using a glue stick.

Then I die cut some pages of an old poetry book to create the red border (using a Spellbinders set) and the “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? …” sonnet by William Shakespeare; I layered them together and stuck them onto the page using double-sided tape.

To finish, I added some pretty butterflies to add some sparkle.

For more inspiration please pop over to Try it on Tuesday and see how our Guest Designer and Design Teamies used book pages on their wonderful creations too (grin!). I hope you are inspired to join our challenge; it would be lovely to see you there!

I always look for books for my art journaling in charity shops and here are two books that I bought back in 2013 with every intention of using them on my pages, but they are so beautiful and precious that instead they remain on my bookshelf and I find myself reading them often. As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my “With a cup of tea” book with the T Gang today and wishing you all a Happy T Day!

My page was also inspired by these beautiful gladioli that are flowering in our garden too (grin!).

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.

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 I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with my type on the book pages I used on this page. Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my typewriter art journal page. De-stress with distressing over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge Blog with my distressed book pages which I achieved by tearing them and covering them with white gesso. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their Glimmer and Sparkle challenge with the glimmer and sparkle of the butterflies on my page. Anything Goes challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my art journal page.

Own your story

I really enjoy creating these mini pages in my chipboard art journal, and I had so much fun making these typewriter keys using some new Distress products and the Typewriter 3D Texture Fades from Tim Holtz (grin!).

For the background, I covered the page with my new Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and a tiny amount of black DecoArt acrylic paint to dull the colour. When dry, I dragged a Black Soot Distressl Ink pad vertically down the page and then applied some Liquitex matte gel medium over the top using a paint brush to create a woodgrain effect.

For the typewriter letters, I started by covering a piece of mixed media paper with the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and my new Crackling Campfire Distress Ink and left it to dry. Then I dry embossed the paper using the Typewriter 3D Texture Fades by Tim Holtz. To highlight the texture, I dragged a black archival ink pad over the top of the letters to colour them and applied some Iced Coffee metallic Faber-Castell gelato smudging the colour with my finger. Then I splattered some Tarnished Brass Distress Paint over the top which finished the worn grungy look. They were cut out, edged with a black Faber-Castell big brush marker and then stuck into place using either double-sided or double-sided foam tape.

To finish, I added the typewriter which was stamped using a stamping platform, a stamp set from Craft Sensations and some black Archival Ink; it was stamped onto some of the mixed media paper that I had coloured with the Salvaged Patina Distress Paint and Crackling Campfire Distress Ink. I fussy cut it out and added the wording “own your story” which was a rub-on transfer from a Tiny Text Remnant Rubs set by Tim Holtz.

As T Stands for Tuesday and to link the the story theme of my page, I’m sharing these fabulous teapots that we saw whilst out walking; they were in a charity store window and feature Robin Hood, Dick Turpin and Shakespeare – Happy T Day everyone!

Hoping that you are 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 I’m pleased to be able to join the following challenges today: Art Journal Journey which is being hosted this month by the lovely Neet from Hickydorums; she has chosen Type as her theme so I’m joining with my typewriter page (this mini art journal page measures 15x15cm). Dry Emboss challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge as I used Tim Holtz 3D Texture Fades to dry emboss the typewriter letters for my page. LTSCB #148 – Old School over at Love to Scrap Challenge Blog with my old school typewriter as they are generally not used nowadays with computers etc (grin!). Paperbabe Stamps and their Challenge #150 – Anything Goes with my typewriter art journal page. Mixed Media Lovers Challenge Blog and their Challenge #4 Mixed Media Lovers with my mixed media page; this is a new blog so why not join in the fun too! MIUCB #52 – Anything Goes + Mixed Media over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different materials and techniques that I used to create the background and typewriter letters for this fun mixed media page.