Nature Art Journal Page

Hello friends! I hope your weekend was a good one. In Sweden, we celebrated the coming of spring yesterday, in a celebration called Walpurgis Night. We went to a traditional bonfire nearby. Anton managed to win a great prize at a raffle. He has a history of winning good raffle prizes.

It is a new month, and one of my favourite months of the year, May. I love to see how everything comes to life. It is almost as if you can see changes in nature every single morning. Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the design team at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, showcase a particular designer/company and this week it is Paper Artsy, which carries a great range of products. Our theme is The Great Outdoors. A real favorite of mine! 

During May, our guest designer is Dr Sonia, aka Cards, Crafts, Kids Projects, and you simply have to see the fantastic project she made this week.

As you probably know, I love to be outdoors and the long walks I take with Leo on weekend days, are one of the high-points of my week. I like this quote by John Muir: 'I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.' This Saturday, for example, we first stopped in a forest groove where the floor is covered by White Anemone flowers, then we walked past some horses we often say hi to on our walks, through another forest and into a field, and then I decided to try a new path and we ended up in a forest where Blue Anemones grow (they are rare and protected and I hadn't seen one for years). As soon as Anton gets more used to his new bike, I will take him on bike rides. 

For this week, I made an art journal page in my Dina Wakley Media Journal. This journal as an organic feel to it, making it perfect for nature themed pages. I worked on one of the watercolor sheets, and used Paper Artsy Infusions Colored Stains for the background, and ELB22 by Lin Brown stamp set for the flowers.

The background was done by first misting it with water and then sprinkling Infusions into the water. I misted them with even more water until they blended and I got the look I wanted. I also removed some of the color with a paper towel to get a softer look. I used Slime, Olive Tree, Emerald Isle and a little Golden Sands. Infusions are water-soluble particles with two components: dye color pigment mixed with walnut stain.The title was die cut with Tim Holtz's Deco Alpha die, from burlap. The opposite page in the journal is a burlap one, so I wanted them to coordinate a bit.

'Breathe' comes from the Simon Says Stamp One With Nature set and was stamped three times on My Favorite Things Off the Grid paper.

I white embossed the flowers from the ELB22 set on watercolor paper. Infusions work great for watercoloring, and gives fun and sometimes unexpected results. Put a tiny amount of powder on a craft sheet or in a palette and mist with water. Since the Infusions is a mix of different pigment powders, the shade you get depends on which crystals that happened to dissolve on your paint brush. It adds to the organic look of this page.

I used the same stains to color the flowers as I did on the background, with the addition of A Bit Jaded.

The flowers were cut out and arranged on the background.

Another faovurite sentiment of mine, and I have used it before. It comes from the SSS One With Nature set. I also stamped a little border, with a grass stamp and for the soil I used the blocked stamp from the ELB22 set. I also used a piece of butterfly Design Tape.

This sentiment also comes from the ELB22 stamp set, and I only used the first line, since it fitted best on my page.

I really hope you will join us in our The Great Outdoors challenge. As every week, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Paper Artsy ECLECTICA3 LIN BROWN 22	Paper Artsy EMERALD ISLE Infusions	Paper Artsy OLIVE TREE Infusions	Paper Artsy SLIME Infusions	Paper Artsy GOLDEN SANDS Infusions Colored Stain
Paper Artsy A BIT JADED Infusions Colored Stain	Simon Says ONE WITH NATURE	Dina Wakley Ranger MEDIA JOURNAL	Tim Holtz Sizzix DECO ALPHA DIE Bigz XL	Canson MONTVAL SPIRAL WATERCOLOR 9x12
My Favorite Things OFF THE GRID	Kaisercraft Lucky Dip BURLAP STACK	Tim Holtz ARISTOCRAT Design Tape	Tim Holtz BUTTERFLY Design Tape	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD GATHERED TWIGS
Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival FERN GREEN	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival POTTING SOIL	Simon Says Stamp EMBOSSING POWDER WHITE	Ranger Inkssentials US HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL
Ranger Inkssentials EUROPEAN HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL	Tim Holtz Tonic MINI SNIPS	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger	Hero Arts CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK 4 x 4.5	Hero Arts SMALL BLOCK TRIO CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCKS
Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Sizzix CUTTING PAD XL Pair	Simon Says Stamp White FLOUR SACK TOWEL	Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET

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