Bumblebees and Butterflies: September 2026

Thursday, 17 September 2026

Layer by Layer #2

A project for Country View Crafts

September Challenge Layer by Layer Part 2

Green Lady

A second project for my theme this month and I enjoyed keeping it simple using Katie Pertiet rub-ons and stamps with Tim Holtz ephemera.

1. Dip page into puddle of shabby shutters and peeled paint DIs and dry.

2. Use small jelly plate, smoosh on rustic wilderness Doxide, spritz with water and dab onto green background and around edges. - Dry.

3. Take small stamps and watering can ink, stamp 3 lightly in three ares.

4. Play with where small collage will be added.

5. Add some transfers.

6. Adhere collage pieces including the photo as the focal point.

7. One last stamp in black to fill a gap or help create cohesion.

Supplies

Green Lady

DIs - Shabby shutters, peeled paint

DOxides - Rustic Wilderness, Walnut Stain

Transfers - Arden Katie P - Garden Chronicles

Stamps - Katie P - Garden Chronicles

Tim Holtz - Collage Strips

Tim Holtz - Photobooth

Ranger - Watering Can Archival Ink, Black Archival Ink

Friday, 11 September 2026

Field Notes

Creating new projects A5 size

Over the weekend, I spent some quality time with friends just chilling, chatting, and crafting. During our catch-up, I managed to visit the Country View Crafts shop and added a few more stamps to my Katie Pertiet collection. I don't normally buy clear stamps, but I absolutely love her sketchy images and rub-ons!

This week, I pulled a new design project together. I've called it "Field Notes" because I mixed in some Tim Holtz stamps of the same name, blending their ephemera and stamps to complete the look. To bring it all together, I even started a brand new A5 sketchbook to play in.

Process Steps

Use small gelli plate and watery Ground Espresso ink to daub light splodges onto page or card for the background.

Make puddle of watery brown ink more deeper in colour and splatter over the page.

Put together the panels, I have used card distressed with blue and brown layers of distress inks for one.

I took some vellum, dipped into the same brown ink and dried it for the back layer. For the third panel I tore some handmade paper I have bought and stamped one of Katie's flowers, dipped in the lightly coloured puddles of distress ink and edged with the same brown DI.

Next I stamped and made ephemera to add and fussy cut the stamped butterfly then painted using the watercolor pencils.

Sew the blue and stamped panels together and create your collage.

The little brown button is just punched card and holes made with a Japanese punch.

Create the border at the bottom with some jute trim, a word anda jute bow.

Splatter lightly with Ground Espresso.

Stamp lightly random text/ledger on flower panel.

Splatter with white paint, ink or gesso.

Supplies

Katie Pertiet - Stamps - Chartered Adventures, Field Notes Meadow, Chronicle Remnants

Tim Holtz - Stamps - Classics #17, Field Notes CMS396

Miscellaneous stamp fillers - Wendy Vecchi,

Distress Inks - Ground Espresso, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire

Permanent ink - Versa Fine Claire - Pinecone

Tim Holtz Watercolor Pencils - Blueprint Sketch, Unchartered Mariner, Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans. Left to right on watercolour swatches.

Wednesday, 9 September 2026

Identification Check - Mixed Media panel

Mixed media art panel.

There is something incredibly liberating about working in a smaller format. Recently, I’ve found myself drawn more and more to smaller scales, which led me to pick up a brand-new A5 mixed media paper pad. I am absolutely loving it so far!

For me, the beauty of the A5 and A6 sizes lies in their versatility. It gives me the perfect playground to explore stamping in two distinct ways:

Creating Mini Panels: I love stamping and layering on a separate sheet, cutting out small focus panels, and then adding them to the sketchbook or card bases. It feels like creating miniature, curated pieces of art.
Straight in the Pad: There is a unique comfort in working directly onto the pages of a sketchbook. It removes the pressure of creating a "perfect" finished piece and turns the process into pure, unfiltered experimentation.

Because I want to throw a variety of mediums at these pages—from crisp stamping inks and watercolours to distress oxides and acrylic washes — having dedicated mixed media paper is a game-changer. The heavier weight means the pages can handle wet techniques without instantly warping, giving me the freedom to layer to my heart's content.

Going smaller has completely jump-started my creativity, and I can't wait to share the first few completed pages and panels with you all very soon. I'm so enjoying getting smaller projects made more quickly. It is very gratifying.

Here is my first.

The background for the panel was made during a crafty few days away last weekend using Katie Pertiet stamps then dipped and dried and also hand painted. (See colours below). I used a mixture of Katie Pertiet stamps and Tim Holtz stamps and ephemera to create the collage. The three tiny swatches were from a left overs box.

To build the background for this A5 page, I decided to play with the distress inks using a small Gelli plate. I started by dipping the plate directly into some watery inks — sticking to the same colour palette as above for consistency. Once that initial layer was completely dry, I lightly sponged a thin layer of gesso across the page to soften the colours and add some chalky texture. After another quick dry, I took a classic text stamp and used the leftover watery ink pool to stamp random script across the background. The result is a beautifully muted base that is perfectly primed for a focal image.

The focal image is a rub-on from one of Katie's sets. These are so versatile and great to work with.

The snippets were stamped onto card that had been dipped, dripped and dried using green distress inks. They were already in a box ready to be used.

To finish off the panel, I added it to a couple of shabby paper layers to frame the entire piece, bringing the small-scale composition together perfectly. It has green and white twine tied round it and is now safely in my sketchbook where it will be joined with other designs and layouts.

Supplies

Katie Pertiet stamps - My Flowers

Katie Pertiet rub-on transfer - Garden Chronicles

Tim Holt stamps - snippets - Curator CMS493, Tidbits CMS488, Field Notes CMS396

Distress Inks - Peeled Paint, Ground Espresso, Unchartered Mariner.

D'Oxides Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint

Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Layer by Layer #1

A project for Country View Crafts

September Challenge Layer by Layer Part 1

I have chosen the theme for September and I am challenging everyone to share projects that have been put together Layer by Layer. I asked for those entering to show how they add depth, texture, and complexity to their cards or projects by stacking elements like stamps, paint, paper, inks, pastes, rub-ons and ephemera etc. to add depth, texture and visual interest to their work.

I chose to start it off by using my mini sketchbook where I have been creating small and quick projects to highlight layers and products

Calm Lavender

1. Scrape some gesso thinly over the page.

2. When dry puddle some PaperArtsy paint (Sugar Plum and Blueberry)with water, puddle it around in one place and dry. Repeat with greens (Magic Moss and Granny Smith).

3. Stamp the stamps with embossing ink, cover with the embossing powder and heat set it.

4. When the card is cool squeeze over a little white chalk paint (Snowflake) and again spritz with water and rub it around, take heat gun and gently waft it over the surface not getting too close. Let it cool and repeat heating until it is almost dry, then take a wet wipe and gently rub over the surface to reveal a gorgeous muted background.

5. Stamp the drawn Lavender and leaves onto watercolour paper using Watering Can. Then puddle some of the leftover mauve and green paints over them. Dry.