Last days in May

Another month is nearly at an end. May is always gorgeous month, the flowers are blooming and the days start to really warm up and the sunshine spreads joy until late in the evenings. We have enjoyed our first meals in the garden and I have sat on my backdoor step sipping a cup of tea on many sunny mornings.

I have been very busy this month both in the garden and in my studio. I have also spent some precious family time too.

I thought I would sum up May with a few more photos from my garden

 and from a day out at the farm with my darling granddaughter Daisy, I will share a post on this soon as we had such fun.

I also was sent the new Nicecrane release from Ignacio,there are some gorgeous new digital images. I decided to work with his In the sweet summer set as they are just perfect. There are 6 images in this set. (Yes I know that this preview shows 5)

Now typically I chose the one which does not appear in the preview photo there but it is in the set.

I wanted to join in with some challenges...Finnabair over on Facebook is challenging us to use a technique shown by one of her talented DT. I chose that of Linda's showing Tim Holtz's blending inks together and adding flicks of water. I also used stencils and flicks of ink to add to the texture of my background.

I opened my art journal and these were my colours I blended.

 I added splashes of water and then more inks through 2 different stencils and I also used one stencil as a mask.

Below is my background with my flicks of ink too

I decided to tear my image and as I looked at it I was reminded of the illustrations of Kate Greenaway. She often added floral "doodles" to her work. I wanted a piece of verse to add so I found a poem of hers on the Internet called Little Girls and Little Lambs,

IN the May-time flowers grow;
Little girls in meadows go;
Little lambs frisk with delight,
And in the green grass sleep at night.
Little birds sing all the day,
Oh, in such a happy way!
All the day the sun is bright,
Little stars shine all the night.
The Cowslip says to the Primrose,
'How soft the little Spring wind blows!'
The Daisy and the Buttercup
Sing every time that they look up.
For beneath the sweet blue sky
They see a pretty Butterfly;
The Butterfly, when he looks down,
Says, 'What a pretty Flower Town!' 

Kate Greenaway

 I loved that it had the mention of Daisy in it so it seemed perfect to use. I also decided that I would try my hand at not only doodling but some lettering too.

(By the way thank you all so much for your supportive comments of my recent additions of doodling to my work...I am still learning but having such a lot of fun). 

I spent all last night finishing off and here are my journal pages.

 and a few close ups

These pages were great fun but I did spend hours adding all the doodles!

As well as the fab Finnabair first spread your wings challenge on Facebook I would also like to enter my pages into the following challenges;

Anything but cute  vintage garden This is a newbie on the block, do check it out!
A sprinkle of imagination anything goes The products are a black Sakura Micron pen and Tim Holtz honeycomb stencil.
The Artistic Stamper Journaling your heart out
Mixed media monthly May flowers
A vintage journey spring colours
Country view scenic
Noor! UK May flowers
Art with heart mixed media mahem
Frilly and Funkie Happy, Happy , Happy
Simon Says stamp Wednesdays anything goes

Thanks for visiting me today and for the sweet comments you take the time to leave. Enjoy the last few days of May. We are off to see Daisy and Co tomorrow so we may well find ourselves outside skipping in the meadow...or finding a slide which is Daisy's passion at the moment.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x