White Lace and Promises

A really quick post from me here with my last minute entry for Gingersnap Creations GC73 Chestnut Theme Challenge - Gothic which closes very shortly.
My entry was inspired by a favourite character of mine, Miss Havisham from David Copperfield as you'll probably realise when you see this.

The rather gothic lady here is an image from June at Dezinaworld who was originally red cloaked but I altered her in photoshop to make her look gothic and grey.
The background paper uses a B Line Designs stamp SE125K and was stamped in VersaFine Smokey Grey. I then sponged on Pumice Stone Distress ink and embossed the panel with the Cuttlebug textile folder.
I added dark grey pearls. a white flower with a pearl centre and computer generated text to finish.
I hope you think she looks gothic enough.

Polka Doodles - Autumn

Hello everyone, it's Friday again and this week over at Polka Doodles it's the turn of yours truly to choose the theme. As I'm an Autumn girl by birth and have a birthday coming up soon, I decided it's the perfect opportunity to celebrate the glorious shades of fallen leaves. I've always loved the gorgeous rich golds and browns although being blonde means I can't wear them!
Here's my golden creation:

As I'm having printer problems again at the moment in the form of colour balance, I had to hunt through my PD stash to find something to use. Fortunately I had some bits left over from the Autumn section of Sundae of Seasons after making my samples for Nikky.
For the focal point, I printed out the black and white digi tree and a sheet of leaves. I cut the tree out with a circular Nestabilities die and coloured the white surrounding areas with Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold Distress inks. I then coloured the tree bark with Promarkers. I set this on a double mat of scalloped circles cut from deep reddish brown and golden card.
I then coloured some of the leaves with Promarkers and cut them out. I assembled the card as you see using some of the beautiful papers from the CD carrying on the scallop theme. I added some tiny jewels and a sentiment from the CD to finish.

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with and you have until 12 noon on Sunday 7 November to upload your creations on the challenge blog.

I will also have some exciting news soon about candy and things so keep an eye out for this!

I'd also like to enter my card in the Crafty Creations challenge with a theme of Halloween or perhaps Autumn. I think mine qualifies as a perhaps Autumn! 

Star Quilt

Hello again, here's my second post which is my entry for Gingersnap Creations Blue Moon Challenge GCSP5 - Quilt Patterns.
This is one I absolutely had to do as I've done cards in the past based on quilt patterns and thought it time to do some more.
Here's my creation which is based on a star pattern:

I've used papers from the latest Polka Doodles CD, Sunday of Seasons, as there are lots of vintage/retro papers on there which are very like fabric patterns. I chose a striking colour combination of burgundy and teal with yellow as a contrast as I wanted a bold look to my card.
I scanned a pattern from my book, resized it in Photoshop and printed it out to make my pattern pieces. I then cut these out from the patterned papers.
I assembled the pieces on a pale blue hammered card blank and added a tarnished brass ornate button in the centre.
I shall be saving this for my sister in law's birthday in December as she loves sewing and I know she'll like these colours.
Thanks so much to the Gingersnap team too as I found out earlier today that my card for CG72, Neutrals Plus One colour challenge has been made a Ginger Gem.

Sunset Floral

Hello everyone, the first of 2 posts here from me as I've managed to finish off a couple of challenge cards.
The first is for The Play Date Cafe's PDCC52, can you believe it's their first anniversary this week - it only seems a very short time since the challenges started! It's Julie Ranae's turn this week and her inspiration is just gorgeous - it made me think of a rose bed in my last house where we had to do the garden from scratch and my roses were in sunset shades of pink, orange and yellow.

Here's my creation:

The pretty papers I've used here are from the Polka Doodles Sugar Birdies CD and are my favourite as I love the fleur de lys design.
I used a digital flower stamp specially for layering from the Polka Doodles Love and Cherish CD. I coloured the flowers with Promarkers and then inked them up with clear embossing ink and heat embossed them with crystal powder for some sparkle (this doesn't show up that well in the photo here and is better if you click on it for a closer view)
I put my layered flower on a mat cut using a Nestabilities scallop circle, embossed with the Cuttlebug Textile folder. I added a stamped greeting (Hero Arts C4633) coloured with Promarkers to finish.
Thanks for looking.
Fliss x

Polka Doodles - Welcome New Baby

Morning everyone, I can't believe it's Friday again and this last week has just flown by! It's time for another new challenge over at Polka Doodles and this week it's the turn of Enfys to choose the theme. She would like to see a project to welcome a new baby.
I've taken this opportunity to share with you one of the samples I made for Nikky when the Sundae of Seasons CD was launched and managed to spot this one on display when the show aired on Create and Craft. Something that always maked me very excited!

I'm sure you can see why I love this particular CD so much as the papers on there are the most gorgeous yet, being in my most favourite vintage style colours. Quite a few of the papers are like retro fabric patterns too and look fabulous printed out on to linen embossed card or paper.
I made an easel style card and cut squares of some of the papers to make a patchwork quilt pattern on the card front and on the base.
I chose to use the cute teddy and decided the baby would look rather cute in the pretty basket so I cut out the central piece and slotted the gorgeous little baby through so that she's laying on the basket.
I finished off with a greeting from the Baby Collection and some cut out hearts for embellishment.
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 31 October (yikes! Halloween!) to get your entries in and please don't forget the 10 challenge rule!
You might also be interested to know that Nikky is now stocking East of India products which you can only buy otherwise in posh gift shops. It's well worth a look as there are some really unusual and stunning ribbons, labels, string and so on available.

Vintage Style

Good afternoon everyone, it's a gorgeous sunny day down south although somewhat chilly as we started this morning off with a frosty temperature of 1 degree - very unusual for mid October. I had to dig out my winter woollies!
I'm here today (in the middle of some very difficult work which came about from a VAT inspection at one of my book-keeping clients where the lady inspector made us feel like naughty school children!!!) with a finally finished entry for Linda Ledbetter's Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities Week 18 Challenge which is Sir Tim's fabulous  Dabber Resist Technique on page 37 of the book. I can see I will be doing more of this as it fits very well with my favourite vintage style.

As you can see, the technique made a very vintage style background paper with my choice of colours, these being a Paint Dabber in Lemonade and Vintage Photo Distress ink. The flourish stamp is from a set by Viva Decor available from The Craft Barn.
I stamped the same flourish on a manila tag with Vintage Photo ink and added a pretty vintage image from Dezinaworld on a mat of dusky pink velvet paper trimmed with scallop scissors. I also added a small piece of Gisela Graham ribbon and a brass stamping from Empire Beads.
I assembled the card with a border of the pink velvet paper with a lace doily border of cream velvet paper made with a Martha Stewart punch. Pink pearls were used to decorate the flower centres on the border. The final finishing touch was a flower from the Prima Essentials range, coloured with Promarkers with a pearl centre.
My card also fits the current Charisma Cardz challenge theme of Vintage so I'm entering it in that one too.
Thanks for looking.
Fliss x

Polka Doodles - Something Spooky!

Good morning all and welcome to Spooky Friday. Over at Polka Doodles this week, Ruth would like to see your creations with a spooky element.  As Halloween is fast looming up on us, a perfect way to get some of those trick or treat things done.

I decided to make a spooky card as I now have a new printer - yay! - and couldn't wait to try out the haunted house from the Sundae of Seasons CD which I couldn't print before as the black head had gone.
I sponged Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade Distress inks round the house for a grungy look. I then used some of the gorgeous spooky paper from the Halloween Download Bundle in which I cut an aperture with a circle cutter. I inked the inner edges with Black Soot Distress ink. I stuck the haunted house panel to a large card blank and added the purple paper over the top with foam tape. This is a very quick and easy way to add dimension to your cards.
I finished off with some spooky pumpkins from the Sundae of Seasons CD and the greeting is from the Download Bundle.
The rest of the DT have made some fabulous spooky creations so don't forget to check them out - one in particular really gave me the creeps as I'm not keen on those black hairy things with lots of legs!!!

Angel Face

Good afternoon everyone, hope you're having a good week.
I'm here today with a creation that fits 2 challenges, the first of these being Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge GC72 Neutrals Plus One and the second being this week's Dezinaworld Challenge with a theme of Angels.
My good wishes go to June of Dezinaworld too as she's not been able to do much blogging or crafting due to a very painful shoulder and arm. Hoping you get better soon.
Here's my creation:

As you'll see by the photo, my plus one is blue. The background paper is a scrap of vintage music score which has been sponged with Pumice Stone Distress ink. I attached this to a pale blue card blank.
I trimmed a strip of blue card with a Martha Stewart deep edge punch to make a border and also added a strip of brown textured hand made paper. A piece of vintage French bias binding which was a flea market bargain a while back was added across the join.
I finished off with a beautiful angel image from Art Freebies blog, on a mat of cream card and some flowers layered up with a pearl centre.
As those meerkats would say - simples!
Fliss x

Autumn Inchies

Good morning everyone, it's bright and sunny down here on the South Coast although a bit cold at the moment.
I'm here today with my entry for Gingersnap Creations Random Redhead challenge GC71 Inchies and decided to go for more gorgeous Autumn colours for my card.

My inchies use Sir Tim's wrinkle free distress technique again as I'm really enjoying this very quick way to make a gorgeous grungy inky background. I used Rusty Hinge and Crushed Olive this time and cut my inchies from the resulting paper.
I did some simple stamping in black on the inchies mainly using the perfect sized images on Hobby Art's CS017D Anna's Collection Floral Sketches with a couple of leaf sprigs from CS013D Floral Greetings. The text comes from Penny Black's Enjoy Life set and from the Papermania Chatsworth Furnishings set.
I added a border of the same paper, punched with the Martha Stewart wrought iron border punch and stamped with a border from an Artemio set. A Hero Arts printed flower and a vintage metal button from my collection finish off the card.
Fliss x

Christmas Baubles

Happy Monday everyone and hope you have a great week.
I have another Christmas offering here which is for this week's Play Date Cafe which is to use these colours:

I took one look at these and decided the colours are perfect for some simple Christmas cards. If you haven't seen the challenge yet, it's worth your while to pop over for a look as this week the sponsor is Glenda Waterworth of Elusive Images and the gorgeous prizes on offer are just to die for.

Please excuse the photo as the colour that looks red here is actually Adirondack Watermelon which is a deep pinky colour but my camera obviously couldn't cope and the real colour is much more like the inspiration photo. Technology - bah humbug!!!
The card came about because I went to the monthly stamp club run by Helen Jones that I belong too and managed to pick up the gorgeous Crafts Too Christmas baubles embossing folder. I embossed this twice on white card and sponged the baubles on the second one with Adirondack Watermelon and VersaColor Fresh Green. I cut the baubles out and glued them over the top of the white embossed panel.
I then made a background panel by stamping with the same colours and Hero Arts A3076 Sketch Spiral. I added the panels to a matching green card blank and finished off with a greeting panel stamped with a Hero Arts stamp in Watermelon.
Thanks for looking.
Fliss x

Meadow Tag

Morning all on a very bright Sunday. Hope you're all having a good weekend. I'm on my tod at the moment as my hubby has had to go to a church service at one of the many churches where he's the church architect as he has to discuss colour schemes with the vicar.
I have another of my experimental pieces from yesterday to show you and as it's a tag, I'm also going to enter this in the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, Wrinkle Free Distress for week 16.

This one's a bit different as when I was experimenting with card yesterday, I used a bit too much water and dropped on an embossed pattern kitchen towel to mop up the excess. The resulting colours looked so lovely on the textured surface that I dried it off and glued it to the tag to make a background.
I stamped on images from the Penny Black Enjoy Life clear set in black and added a Japanese coin (kindly donated by my elder daughter) to the top.
I also think that sometimes the simplest thing is the best so I hope you like it.
Fliss xx

Creativity and Art

Well I'm winging it a bit here as I finally have my entry for this week's challenge at Sunday Stampers and only just managed to get online as my OH has been trying to get the new printer working with my computer which didn't want to play ball!
Without further ado, here it is:

The card consists of more of my bits and pieces from experimenting with Sir Tim's Wrinkle Free Distress technique and the text of this one is very appropriate as my tag was the victim of too much water spray and went a little blotchy. As I love the colours it came in use here.
The textured background was made with the same technique on glossy card which is still quite effective although the card stuck to the sheet a bit. I embossed it with the Alterations Texture Fade Damask and Regal Flourishes set.
The butterfly is the same as the previous post, stamped in VersaFine Vintage Sepia and coloured with Spiced Marmalade Distress ink. I added some hemp string to finish.

Enjoy

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a good weekend. I have yet another card to share with you as I've been doing lots of crafting this week to keep me occupied and sane as I'm missing my 2 girls loads at the moment. As I work mostly from home it's very strange being by myself from 8am to 7pm a lot of the time.
This card is my entry for Linda Ledbetter of Studio L3's Compendium of Curiosities week 16 challenge - Wrinkle Free Distress from page 33 of Sir Tim's book. Click HERE if you'd like to see all the other gorgeous entries.

I made the background paper with the wrinkle free distress technique and Distress inks in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Crushed Olive. I then stamped on Hero Arts G3664 Leaf with Stitching in Rusty Hinge DI.
I then had somewhat of a dilemma as I like the background so much that it seemed a crime to cover it up! After a lot of thought, I decided the simple approach was best and simply added a stamped butterfly (from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight set) in VersaFine Spanish Moss ink sponged with Wild Honey Distress ink.
I finished off with some Gisela Graham ribbon and text from the Penny Black Enjoy Life clear stamp set.

Merry, Merry Christmas

A bit early I know but I had to call this post something! Another Christmas card to share with you that fits a few challenges which are listed underneath the card details.
Very hard to think of Christmas on such a gorgeous sunny day and I've been out this morning as I had to do a search for a posh frock to wear to a ball next month and finally managed to find one I liked that wasn't black (this makes me look like death warmed up if you know what I mean!!!).
I also have some good news to share as yesterday I found out that my bird cage card for the Play Date Cafe challenge 49 has gained a Cream In Our Coffee award which is a lovely surprise so thank you ladies.
So on to my card:

I've again used my cute Penny Black reindeer stamp (2803K Let's Play) and stamped them on ecru card with VersaFine Toffee ink. I cut the image out with a circle cutter and sponged Umber and Topaz VersaColor ink around the edges.
I added 2 circle mats of plaid paper from the Polka Doodles Sundae of Seasons CD and made a circle shaped easel card from red mottled card.
I then added a further piece of the blue plaid paper on the base and a Penny Black greeting (3885H so very merry). A red bow finished off the card.
I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Don't Be Square
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Shaped Card
Alphabet Challenge - X for Xmas

Polka Doodles Challenge - Make Your Own Embellishments

Good morning everyone, it's Polka Doodles time again and this week we would like to see hand made embellishments on your creation.
Being stamping mad as you know, I decided to make some stamped flowers for my embellishments.

 My card features Fairy Flutterby Bevvieboo stamped with Memento black ink and coloured with various shades of Promarker. I added glitter to some parts of her wings for a little sparkle.
I stamped the flower from the Babsie set in the black ink and coloured again with Promarkers. I then glittered the flower centres. I rounded the flowers out with a large embossing ball tool for some dimension.
I assembled the card as you see, using papers from the new Sundae of Seasons CD (my favourite papers yet are on here), one of the pretty sentiments and a white panel made using a Nestabilities die.
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 17 October to get your entries in and don't forget to visit the rest of the DT for some great inspiration.

Christmas Already

Good afternoon all, I've another card to share with you today which I've made for my first ever entry to Papercraft Star which is challenge 16 and a sketch by Beth Moore as below:

As I'm trying to get ahead on my Christmas cards this year rather than as usual start panicking at the beginning of December, I decided to make one to add to my collection.

I couldn't resist using this really cute Penny Black stamp called Let's Play and stamped it on ecru card with VersaFine Toffee ink. I added a mat of gold textured card.
I then followed the sketch design with some coordinating papers from the Papermania Classic Christmas collection and inked all the edges with VersaColor Evergreen ink before sticking them to the card blank.
I assembled the card with some homespun wired cross stitch border fabric and some gorgeous reindeer ribbon. The greeting is by Stamp-It and was stamped Memento Bamboo Leaves.
Thanks for looking.

The Witching Hour

Good morning everyone and we actually have some sunshine today. Hope you have too.
I'm in spooky mode again with another Halloween card which I'm getting rather addicted to making at the moment.

This time I decided to make the card in a Gothic arch shape as I think it fits the spooky theme perfectly. The card front is made from some gorgeous grungy spiderweb paper from the Polka Doodles Halloween download bundle and I've used another of the papers to mat the witch image panel.
The beautiful witch, together with her black cat and the pumpkin are from June at Dezinaworld's Halloween collage set. The text is computer generated and I then coloured the words with a Promarker very appropriately called Pumpkin.
I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Crafty Cardmakers - Step Away From The Square
One Stitch At A Time - Spooky Halloween Anything Goes
Simon Says - Halloween
The Shabby Tea Room - Vintage Halloween + Photo Inspiration

Forever Autumn

Morning everyone on a wet and blustery day. Definitely weather for ducks at the moment!
I have a very warm Autumn shaded card to share with you as the colours are a real favourite of mine being an Autumn girl by birth.

The leafy background paper was made using my slight variation on Sir Tim's Blended Batique technique which you can find in his fabulous Compendium of Curiosities and the only thing I added is some colour to the leaves before the final step. I used Distress inks (what else!) in Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door and Fired Brick for those glorious Autumn shades.
I then stamped the same leaf (Personal impressions) several times on parchment paper and embossed them with Ranger Antiquities Rust powder. I sponged on Adirondack inks in Terracotta, Cranberry and Red Pepper. I cut them out and because I used parchment paper (Southfield Stationers) they curled up nicely like fallen leaves.
To make the card, I used one of the beautiful images from the Dezinaworld Autumn collection which has lots of gorgeous autumn shaded images and backgrounds.
I'm entering this in the following challenges:
Dezinaworld Spot Challenge for the week - Autumn or Fall
Stampin' For The Weekend - Autumn Inspiration
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

Simply Sweet

Good afternoon all and hope you're having a good day. As it's been raining I decided to do some crafting and finally managed to decide what to do for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge after several days thinking about it.
Here is the inspiration from Sarah Anderson:

This is not a combination that I would normally have thought of and in the end I went for simple as I've used Distress inks and I think the colours speak for themselves.

The birdcage, bird and flowers are from a set by Kanban (9016) and the text from the Papermania Chatsworth Furnishings stamp set. They are all stamped with chocolate brown dye ink on a piece of Basic Grey paper.
I then sponged on Distress inks in Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Tumbled Glass. The panel was added to a square cream card with part of the front embossed with the Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls folder.
As you see, it really is simple to make.

Jack O Lantern

Hello everyone, don't like Mondays that much but we do at least have some sunshine today which is a surprise after a somewhat rainy weather forecast-glad it was wrong!
I have an entry here for the Macabre Monday HDH059 Dastardly Delicious Digis Challenge (really love the title) having already got out my spooky stuff this morning for another project when this popped up on my reading list on Crafty Chaos Susan's blog so I couldn't resist doing it.

Unusually for me there is no stamping involved here at all as the only spooky stamp I own at the moment is an image one so my digital collage sheets from Dezinaworld came to the rescue. I decided on the witch collage and then added legs and a hat to the pumpkin to make him look a liitle like Jack O Lantern who really gives me the creeps. I used background papers from the Polka Doodles Halloween Download Bundle which has some really great eclectic style papers which I'll be using on my next spooky creation.

Green Goddess

Good morning everyone on this breezy Sunday. We actually have sunshine at the moment so I'll be off out for a walk soon to make the most of it before the rain comes again.
I'm finally back doing some challenges after a busy week and have my first creation here to show you. My arch has been made for the Gingersnap Creations Chestnut Theme GC69 Ancient Ages, today being the last day (as usual for me at the moment!) and I really enjoyed making this as I've gone back to my preferred vintage style here.

I stamped the woman in the arch (I think this is by Lost Coast Designs) on 2 shades of my own background paper in buff and grey wash effect and cut the central arch out of the grey one to mount over the top of the buff one. I added a little colour with Copic pens.
I then stamped some leaves with green inks on pale green card and added more colour with green and brown Distress inks. I also did a little embossing with Ranger Tarnished Gold whilst the ink was still wet.
I  stamped the arch background with some of the images from the Chapel Road Art Stamps Italy set with toffee ink and added colour with Distress inks.
I'll be back with more creations tomorrow.
Have a good Sunday!

Polka Doodles Challenge - Fancy Folding

Hello everyone, it's Friday yet again and I've spent the week starting to sort out my craft stuff which is why I haven't been blogging.
I went to Ally Pally on Sunday and spent a lovely day catching up with people (Hels, Jennie, Lin and Mark Brown, Wendy of Stamps & Memories amongst others), watching some great demos and meeting up with blogging buddie Cheryl and her daughter Lisa. It was really lovely to see you Cheryl and thank you once again for the gorgeous little suitcase and atcs, I am thrilled to bits with these.

It's now time for me to tell you about this week's challenge over at Polka Doodles which has been set by Dee. Dee would like to see some fancy or interesting folding on your creation and in common with several other DT members (great minds think alike!) I decided to try making a side stair step card. After searching the internet for a while, I found a template for making one out of almost a whole sheet of A4 card so thanks to Julie of Julie's Crafty Creations for this and you can find the template and instructions HERE

This is not a very good photo so you might want to click on the image to see it better.
I made the base card from pale blue hammered card and then added paper and elements from the new Sundae of Seasons CD which has just launched on Create and Craft TV. I used gingham paper from the Baby collection and all the other pretty butterflies and dotty flowers come from the Summer collection. There are so many elements on this CD that the number of cards you can make is likely to be endless - definitely a must have!
I do have one tip for you if you don't have one of the cutters that most of the crafters making side step cards seem to have. I cut my line with a craft knife, having first pierced a hole at each end. This helps to make the cut more accurate and don't forget that if you do get a slightly fluffy bit at the end, you can always cover it up by adding an element that goes over the edge.