Monday, May 12, 2014

Sweet Month of May Art Journaling

Hi and welcome!! We have another fun Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for you today, 'M is for'. It is based on the month of May, and on our fabulous Design Team leader May Flaum. Lots of options for this challenge, be inspired by a products starting with 'M', a theme, a place, a colour or maybe a word starting with 'M'.

I made an art journal page devoted to the beautiful month of May, which also happens to be my birthday month. May was always one of my favourite months of the year with its beautiful spring weather, the apple trees flower, birds tweeting and summer almost being there. I had a look for quotes about the month of May and picked one of my favourites for this page.

To create this, I used different Hero Arts stamps and stencils, together with my trusted Distress Inks. I wanted to use the beautiful Cherish Yesterday set and got the idea of using the flower and tree shadow stamps to fill my entire background. I inked them with Antique Linen, misted a few times with water for a watercolour effect and stamped. I really liked the result and almost didn't want to cover any of it up.

What works better for a page devoted to a month, than a date stencil. When the background was dry, Frayed Burlap and Gathered Twigs inks were sponged through the stencil. I used stamped arrows and a circle stamp to highlight the month of May. The banner was die cut with Tim Holtz new Tattered Curvy Banners, which I'll be using a lot. I stamped the title three times on it.

At the edge of the page there is more stencilling and a stamped sentiment from Cherish Yesterday.

The birds were die cut with another new favourite, Tim Holtz Birds in Flight. I coloured a piece of watercolour paper with pink and purple Distress Inks and when dry, stamped an Astronomy Background stamp on top with Dusty Concord. The birds were die cut from this piece. 

The tree was stamped with Fern Green and Tree Branch Archival Ink. This tree stamp is called the Tree For Life. You probably know I like tree stamps, and birds too, and this cute bird has featured once before in my art journal. Here I stamped it on white paper and coloured with Inktense pencils.

Join us this week and it might be you who wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp, drawn randomly.  

http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great week!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Stencil: Hero Arts: Weeks and Months
Pencils: Derwent Inktense

18 comments:

  1. Beautiful art journal page Anna-Karin! Love the pretty May scene that you created! Love the sweet bird!

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  2. It Awesome...loved every bit of it !

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  3. What beautiful pages, Anna-Karin. The colors and stamping are wonderful! Love your great sentiment, too. :)

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  4. What a gorgeous page, Anna-Karin! Love the beautiful neutral background and what a happy feel this page brings! Hugs, Sandra

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  5. Totally fabulous, Anna-Karin! I love the way you do backgrounds :)


    *mwah*
    Steph
    Simon Says Stamp!

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  6. So pretty! I love the gentle pops of pink. And the banner was a brilliant idea. Love it!

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  7. Gorgeous art page! i love especially the little bird and your background is fantastic! BArbarayaya

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  8. Your art journal page is sooo pretty! I love the colours, the sweet birds and lovely quote.
    Thank you for the inspiration! :)

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  9. Pretty page, especially the background feature--you know it's good when you don't want to cover it (and I can see why)!

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  10. As always, I love visiting your blog because I know it's going to be another wonderful piece with lots of gorgeous detail, and once again...this is just a fabulous piece of art! I absolutely adore every single detail and love that great sentiment! :)

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  11. beautiful! the colours and all the things that you have used to make a beautiful piece! fanastic done.

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  12. Anna-Karin...your art is so distinctive...I knew immediately that this was your work! :) I love your journal page. It has such a sweetness to it. Those sentiments are so pretty. Your stenciled and stamped background is lovely and the way you have finished it out is, as always, beautifully done. <3 Candy

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  13. Beautiful and with a feeling of tranquillity. You've really captured the wonder of this time of year here Anna-Karin. Love it. Jenny x

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  14. Fabulous page! Happy birth month! I always love your quotes! This is a wonderful page. Love it!

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  15. How beautiful, Anna-Karin - gentle, delicate and so, so full of springtime sunshine. I love the quote too.
    Alison xx

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  16. This is so lovely and happy birthday month to you! I always look forward to seeing how you combine different elements. In this piece, I love how you used different kinds of birds and made it flow perfectly. You're so talented at creating "scenes" and landscapes.

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment! Happy Crafting!