Hot July brings cooling rain...

At last we had some welcome rain yesterday which my garden lapped up, especially my lawn which was starting to look more like hay than grass. I have some new summer bedding I have tried this year and some very different colours too. I have never liked begonia...until I saw some new varieties at the nursery. What is there not to love about this variety..

 so unlike the old ones I remember from my childhood. The flowers are more like flouncy roses.

 I also bought a dahlia in  a gorgeous "Fruit salad" colour (does anyone else remember those retro sweets?)

and how vibrant my gazania are this year. These are such sweet flowers as they close up at night. 

As I water them I often say "night night" to them 😅

I had a free day on Monday and I used the inspiration of

 my flowers to create a new "month poem" page  for my art journal. The July lines read;

"Hot July brings cooling showers,

apricots and gillyflowers"

 I needed to include a gillyflower, which I looked up, and is either stock or carnations (dianthus) and eventually I found a lovely Nicecrane image on my computer (sadly long ceased trading) which had roses and carnations included.

I chose my "fruit salad" distress oxides and blended on the colour. I tore out my image to distress the edges.

 I wanted it to  rain on my page so first of all I dripped down some water...I loved this effect.

 I added some butterfly stencilling using my STAMPlorations stencil

 I also found a carnation in my Tim Holtz flower stamp set and added some stamping using my Oxides.

 I then really made it rain by adding stamped raindrops using my favourite Ryn stamp.

Here is the background completed.

So then it was time to add my image and words.

Here is my completed art journal page.

and a few close ups of the background

I would like to enter my art journal page into the following challenges;

The Craft Barn months challenge July there are 2 gilliflowers (dianthus/carnation) in my vintage image

Frilly and Funkie In the good old summertime

That's Crafty 3/3 anything goes

Artistic Inspirations 1/3 anything goes/summer colours

Simon says stamp Mondays distress it

We love to create 1/2 anything creative/mixed media

Designs by Ryn July

The sunshine is forecast to return tomorrow, this has been a great summer so far. Long may this weather continue. Thanks for stopping by today and for your kind comments.  I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to my newest followers. Thanks so much for joining me on my creative journey.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x