Vintage Rosette Flower

Hello again everyone, I hope you're managing to keep warm in the big chill.
I've got a card to share with you which is my finally finished entry for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge and I apologise in advance for a rather bad photo, the light was against me and I hope to get a better one tomorrow.

I've used papers here from the Polka Doodles All Around & Everywhere CD, combined with some vintage music score from my stash which has been altered with Vintage Photo Distress ink.
I made a crepe paper rosette by stitching along the length of a piece and gathering up the stitches to form the rosette. I then trimmed the outer edge with pinking shears. I rubbed on embossing ink and embossed with sparkly silver powder.
I made a centre for the flower with a scalloped inked music score circle and a grunge board harlequin patterned circle which I embossed with silver powder. I made 2 holes in the centre to turn it into a button and added a tie of embroidery thread altered with the Distress ink.
I made up the card as you see with various mats and a border made on the inked music score with the Martha Stewart Arch Lattice border punch. I finished off with a sentiment from the Butterfly Kisses Clear 2 Collage clear stamp set, stamped on decorated paper with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and coloured with Promarkers.

Polka Doodles Blog Hop Winner

Hello everyone, today's the day!
Before I tell you who the lucky winner is, I would like to thank everyone who took part in our first hop and left such lovely comments. My thanks too to those of you that decided to join as followers - I'll be trying to catch up with you all soon.
I picked my winner by random number generator although I have no idea how to show the table on here. The number it gave me was 19 and this comment was made by

Debbie Johns of Debs Crafty Time

Many congratulations Debbie and if you would email me (this is on my profile) your postal address, I'll pop your candy in the post.

For those of you not lucky here, please check the main challenge blog as there's a complete list of all the winners there.

Fairy Garden

Hello everyone, it's an absolutely freezing day down in the south although no snow as yet apart from a tiny sprinkle yesterday that didn't stay. Hope you're all managing to keep warm.
I'm here today with my finally finished entry for June of Dezinaworld's incredible challenge where everyone that takes part is a winner so click HERE for all the details, but hurry as it ends on 4 December.

You'll probably need sunglasses to look at my artwork as I've gone a bit over the top for a real riot of colour - well we all need cheering up in this cold weather. So sunglasses at the ready (tee hee!) here it is:

Just teasing as to break you in gently, here's the piece of artwork before additions. It started off as a piece of packaging from the inside of a box and I painted it with various shades of blue and green acrylic paint. I then stamped on it with black ink various flower and leafy sprig images mostly from Inkadinkado's Garden Delight clear stamp set.

You'll probably realise why I mentioned sunglasses now! To make my fairy garden, I've used 2 of Dezinaworld's brand new png sets, Flowers and Butterflies, and each one contains 30 bright and beautiful images perfect for all types of artwork including digital.
I've also used some of the gorgeous fairies from June's beautiful fairy themed collage sheets.
I printed out the various images, some on matt card and some on pearl photo paper, cut them all out and gently rounded out all elements by rubbing on the back with a large ball embossing tool.
I assembled all the pieces using a mix of tape and foam tape (sometimes in 2 layers for more definition.
I finished off with some floral trinket pins by Maya Road for a little added texture.
Thanks for looking and I hope this has brightened your day a little.
Fliss x

Polka Doodles Give Thanks Challenge & BLOG HOP!!!!

The Blog Hop has now finished so please be aware that any further comments cannot be counted.

Good morning everyone, it's Friday again and today is the big day as Polka Doodles is having a BLOG HOP to say thank you to all the lovely followers and challenge entrants. There are loads of prizes on offer as we've all got CANDY from Nikky and some of us (me included!) have added some more.

To be in with a chance of winning some of this fabulous candy, you need to visit each of the design teams blogs and leave a comment. We each have a letter for you to collect along the way which you will need to unscramble to make a word and then leave the answer in the COMMENTS section of this weeks challenge post (there won't be any visible comments!)

The hop starts now and will end at 12 noon on Sunday 28 November. And now I'm sure you'd like to see the prizes you might win just by taking part and leaving me a comment.

This is Nikky's fabulous candy - a Paper Boutique CD, some seasonal stamps, green festive Fru Fru ribbons and red Dew Drops. Those ribbons and dew drops look even better in the flesh so to speak.

I've added these embellishments as a thank you for all the lovely comments that you leave me which is also the subject of my card for this week's challenge.

I chose to make a step card with my favourite Flutterby Fairy stamp, Gracie, and stamped her and 2 butterflies with black pigment ink and then embossed them with clear powder. With my eyesight it makes them easier to colour!
I coloured her and the butterflies (one for her wings) with various Promarkers and then embossed the wings with Jewelled Gold embossing powder and the butterfly with Crystal embossing powder.
I made up the step card and decorated it with papers from the Sundae of Seasons CD which I think is my favourite so far.  I finished off with some pearls and a computer generated sentiment.

Now, back to the blog hop and if you haven't come here from Tracie's Blog then you need to go to the START which is at Tracy's, Country Mouse, Blog.
You don't have to do this but it will save you getting lost on the way and missing out on those prizes!

There's also another surprise as Nikky has generously decided to give anyone making a purchase from the Polka Doodles online shop between now and 12 noon on 28 November a fantastic 10% discount. To take advantage of this, you need to enter the code HOPPITYHOP10 at the checkout.

Now I'm sure you want to know what my letter is and it's O and your next stop on the hop is

Nikky

This is Nikky's new blog so make sure you follow her too to catch up on all the Polka Doodles news and gossip.

The next show is on 26 November so don't forget to watch as there are some fabulous new goodies of my favourite sort (big clue!) about to launch so you don't want to miss it!

Blue Geisha Twisted Pyramid Card

Good evening everyone, hope you're all managing to keep warm on what has been the coldest day so far and it's apparently going to get worse so the winter layers are definitely out.
Not only is this my post number 300 (!) but I also have some great news to share. I've been asked by Ignacio of Nicecrane Designs to join the Creative Team which I'm sooooo pleased and surprised by and I get to work with some gorgeous collage sheets, background papers and digital stamps - fabulous news or what!
Ignacio has kindly sent me one of his new creations to play with - a twisted pyramid design called Blue Geisha. I'm sure you know how much I like all things Japanese with a daughter who has just returned from a year spent in Japan.
Here's what I made:

The pyramid itself was a challenge as this is the first time I've ever made one of these but it's easy to get the hang of and made a beautiful scene in no time. I used foam pads on the first 2 layers of assembly only as I didn't want to lose all the delicate detail on the upper layers. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out too.
I left a white border round the base layer and put the finished panel on a mat of red, then blue paper. I set this on a larger mat of Japanese paper from my collection and layered up the background panels as you see. The larger blue mat was embossed with the Cuttlebug Floral Screen folder and the bottom edge trimmed with scallop scissors.
I finished off with some ribbon through a Japanese coin given to me by my daughter.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
2 Sketches 4 You - Laura's sketch
Alphabet Challenge - E for Embossing
Paper Cutz - Anything Goes
For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles - 'Twas The Night Before Christmas

Hello everyone, I hope you managed to catch Nikky's show this morning as it's now just finished and she had some fabulous new goodies on offer, my favourite kind too so I'm sure you can guess that they're some new stamps. I can't wait to get some of these as I have loads of ideas I want to try out.
It's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles and this week was actually chosen by Brenda before her departure and the theme is to make a project inspired by that famous poem by Clement Moore.
I've taken this literally, following the title as the cute stamp I've used for my card always makes me think of my younger daughter Sarah who has an angel Christmas stocking which is hung up every year on Christmas Eve (even though she's really a bit big for one now!!!).

The stamp I've used is called Prim Christmas Stocking and can be found HERE and don't forget that not only are the Christmas stamps on special offer at the moment but you can also get some discount while the blog hop is running (see the hop post for details) and don't leave it too long as it finishes at 12 noon on Sunday 28 November. Shipping is also free at the moment.
I stamped the stocking in black and embossed the image with clear powder as I find it makes it easier to colour. I then coloured the image with various Promarkers and cut it out.
I mounted the image on a white panel cut with a Nestabilities die. I covered my card blank with panels of the lovely plaid papers from the Sundae of Seasons CD (I really love all these papers as they remind me of vintage fabrics). I added a central border of sparkly cross stitch fabric for some texture.
I finished off with some stamped, embossed, coloured and cut out holly from the Christmas Doodles stamp set and a greeting from the same set.
If you haven't done our Blog Hop yet don't miss out as there's lots of fabulous prizes on offer and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is leave a comment on each of the DT members blog hop posts.

Nikky's On Create & Craft Tomorrow

Just a quick post to let you all know that Nikky will be on Create and Craft at 8am tomorrow morning with CDs and some new goodies - you don't want to miss them as they're fabulous and I can't wait to get my hands on some!!!

1950s Style

Hello everyone on this cold and frosty day. I woke up this morning to the coldest day so far this winter with a temperature of 0 degrees and a wind chill of -1 - brrrrrr!
I'm here with a card to show you which fits a couple of challenges and involves some of my favourite things - fashion, the 1950s for its wonderful elegance and vintage collage but sadly no stamping (very unusual for me!!!)
The first challenge is Gingersnap Creations GC77 Chestnut Theme Challenge - Haute Couture  and I shall be doing all these challenges as they all involve sewing themes, a real favourite of mine.
My creation also fits this weeks Dezinaworld Challenge which is to create something based on your favourite era.

I've used various images and ephemera that I found on the internet combined with some of the gorgeous vintage style papers from the Polka Doodles Sundae of Seasons CD.
The main image has been outlined with a Letraset Fineliner to make the edges stand out and various areas were coloured with Promarkers to give the image a bit more life.
Some text printed with a Dymo machine finish it off.
Thanks for looking.
Fliss xx

Madonna and Child

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a better day than we have down South as it's still windy and raining.  At least I'm not in Cornwall though as it sounds awful down there and my good wishes go out to anyone affected by the flooding.
I have a card to show you that I designed with a particular friend in mind as she loves vintage images and olive and red shades. I think it fits the just announced colours for this week's Play Date Cafe as shown below and I could do with something going right as I've had a right old week with things going wrong on the craft side!
It also fits the challenge over at Dezinaworld which this week is Mother and Child and June is worth a visit as she has a second challenge running with prizes for all on offer.

The gorgeous vintage image is one I downloaded a while back from Art Freebies which is worth a look for lots of beautiful images. I mounted the image on turquoise card and red velvet paper.
I've used a piece of decorated paper from my stash which was made using my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (see Tutorial links on my sidebar if you're interested) using Distress inks in Crushed Olive and Fired Brick. The flourish stamp is from the Serenity plate by Artistic Outpost.
I added a red velvet paper border punched with the Martha Stewart dot scallop punch, a text panel inked and stamped with Crushed Olive Distress ink and a layered floral embellishment to finish.

Christmas Collage Cards

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK on a rather chilly Monday although at least it's not raining again.
I taught a card making class this morning with you've guessed I'm sure, a Christmas theme to some deceptively quick to make cards.
Here's one which fits this week's Sunday Stampers Challenge with a theme of Santa Claus is Coming to Town and I'm fairly sure Hels will be astounded how quickly this has appeared when I normally get it done right at the last minute.

A real mixture of stamps here. Santa is by Crafty Individuals CI-163, the text from the Papermania Classic Christmas set, the holly is by Art Impressions and the trees are Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous.
The inks used are Adirondack Lettuce and Red Pepper. Distress Barn Door and VersaFine Smokey Gray. Some of the Santa panel was coloured with Promarkers to add detail after inking.

This next one fits several challenges:

Again a mixture of stamps. The deer are from the same Papermania set, the snowflakes from the Tim Holtz Reindeer Flight set and the jingle bells text is by Hero Arts.
Inks used are Adirondack Red Pepper, Denim, Lettuce and Aqua, Distress ink Barn Door, Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky. I also used VersaFine Onyx Black.
Embossing powders Crystal Sparkle and White.
The lovely tree die is by Marianne Designs and was used on paper made the same way as for the bear card in my previous post.

Challenges for this one:
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Snow/Snowflakes
ABC Christmas Challenge - Winter Wonderland
Craft Your Days Away - Christmas Trees
CRAFTS and Me Challenges - Glitter ( my panel with the deer is glittery)

Winter Wonderland

Hello again, a really quick last minute post here for this week's Sunday Stampers challenge, Winter Wonderland.

Stamps here are by Hobby Art and the tree is my new toy which was a birthday present from my dear hubby. It's by Marianne Designs and was used on some paper I made by smooshing Lettuce Adirondack ink in a swirly pattern which came out a bit like fir branches. I added some Brilliance Galaxy Gold over the top for sparkle.
I embossed the blue card with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder and added card cut with a craft knife to form the hills. I inked these on the curved edge to make them stand out more.

Floral Tributes

Hell everyone and hope you're all having a good weekend so far. I managed to get some crafting done due to yesterday's rather nasty weather and have a couple of cards here for some challenges.
The first one is inspired by the lovely photo of this week's Papercraft Star challenge:

I've used one of my favourite digital stamps, this gorgeous hydrangea by Teri of Delicious Doodles and coloured it with Prisma pencils which I then blended a little.
I've used the beautiful Linen Closet papers by DCWV which I couldn't resist because of the gorgeous blues and beiges. I embossed the mat for the flower with the Cuttlebug textile folder and die cut a further mat using a scallop Nestabilities die. I finished off with cream crochet lace, pearls and a touch of glitter. The greeting is by Butterfly Kisses and part coloured with Promarkers.

Challenge - Stamp Something - Something Digital for November Digi Day

My next card was inspired by Remembrance Day and the photo inspiration from Stampin' Royalty:

The poppy stamp I've used here is from the Papermania Build A Poppy set and was stamped in black Mamento ink and coloured with Barn Door, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo Distress inks. It was assembled with a copper brad to fix the sections.
I made a circle easel card and added papers from the Papermania Sunshine Capsule collection as I wanted a warm effect for my card mostly inspired by my dear late Aunt who wore a beautiful bright red coat to my Grandmother's funeral as my Gran didn't like black and my Aunt said that her mother loved her in that coat. This has always stayed in my memories and I think it's much nicer to remember loved ones with sunshine and colour.
To finish my card, I added a butterfly sticker, a flower shaped brad and some pearl trim.

Challenges - Stampin' Royalty - Lest We Forget
                   - Daring Cardmakers - A Time to Remember

Hoping that you all enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Polka Doodles - Make A Gift Box

Hello everyone and yes, it's Friday again (where did the week go?) so it's time for another challenge over at Polka Doodles which this week has been set by Ruth and she would like to see a Gift Box from you all.
Before I show you my contribution, I'd like to remind you about our DT call which has come about due to us losing a couple of doodlers, Kris due to family commitments and Brenda as she has loads of things to cope with at the moment. Good luck for the future ladies and see you around.
We also have exciting things happening starting with next week's challenge as we have a blog hop to say thank you to all the lovely followers and competition entrants at the Challenge blog. If you hop over, there's a little teaser about it.
And now to this week's project which I decided to use to get a little ahead on my Christmas gift wrapping and made a couple of boxes to get me started.

I used the template from the Paper Boutique 2 Creative Christmas CD which I printed out on to the back of some Festive Swirls paper from the Jingle Jangles CD.
I made the boxes up and then added embellishments. The pink box has punched snowflakes from the same pink paper and silver card and a border punched with the Martha Stewart dot scallop punch.
The green box has some embellishments from the Creative Christmas CD and were left over from making cards, a really good way to use up leftovers.

This will be the last post from me for a bit as I had a contact lens problem when in the middle of this and went to sort it out but have managed to mislay the right lens. As I'm blind as a bat without them, if I can't find it, I will have to order a new one which will take several days. I can't do much with just one lens in so will be really stuck!
UPDATE
Due to my very kind and helpful optician who I phoned in desperation earlier, I have found my lens - yippee! Her fabulous and inventive suggestion of putting a pop sock or similar over the hoover tube and then going over the floor with it worked as the lens was on the carpet of my elder dauighter's room - goodness knows how it got there but it was a lovely surprise to find it during my frequent checking of the tube. Panic now over!!!!!!!!!

Polka Doodles Design Team Call

Good evening everyone. Just to let you know that Nikky, the head doodler of Polka Doodles, is looking for some new talent to join the Design Team.

All of the details are over at the Challenge Blog and please click HERE to see them. The call is open until 6pm on Sunday 14 November and if you decide to apply for this great opportunity, good luck!

Polka Doodles will also be hosting a blog hop with £400 of stash available as prizes so please keep your eyes open for all the details as you really wouldn't want to miss out on this gorgeous stash.

Autumn Patchwork

Good afternoon all and hope you're having a good weekend so far. Mine has been OK despite having to return a breadmaker that I bought 3 weeks ago after the kneading blade which lost a rivet and found it's way into the bread thereby causing my hubby a shock when he bit it (!!!) was replaced and then yesterday the same thing happened to me!!!
I have a card to show you which I've made for Gingersnap Creations GC74 Spicy Supply Challenge - Versamark which also fits this week's Lots To Do Challenge of Autumnal Colours.
The card has caused me a bit of a dilemma as I couldn't decide whether to add anything more to it and in the end kept it simple as nothing I added looked right. I hope you agree with me here!

The card features 2 techniques with Versamark, the first being Resist on Glossy Card. I stamped some leaves and flowers from Hero Arts CL426 Real Flowers and CL427 Antique Engravings in Versamark ink on the card and when dry, brayered on Distress inks in Aged Mahogany, Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Worn Lipstick. Some of the inks were layered on for depth of colour.
I then made some contrasting squares by stamping flowers on golden card in the Versamark ink and brushing with Perfect Pearls in Rust and Plum from the Naturals set.
I simply mounted the squares on a textured cream card blank to make them stand out well.
Hoping you think I made the right decision although any suggestions will be welcomed!

Song Bird Sing

Good afternoon all, hope you've had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend.
I have some artwork here to show you that was actually started over a week ago but a couple of silly accidents whilst I was making it (says she blaming tiredness after 2 VAT inspections in 8 days - eek!!!)  meant that it took a while to finish and ended up looking a bit different to my original plan - you know that saying about mice and men lol.
Any way here is the finished piece:

Apologies for the slightly blurry photo, it decided to go rather dark here at only 3pm!
I was very pleased with something I found to make the base for my little wall hanger having admired the gorgeous chipboard shapes of other crafters artwork. I was browsing in The Range and the blank board books by Papermania caught my eye. As they come in lots of shapes with several board pages and holes already punched they're ideal to make little wall hangings and also really good value as you get 6 pages for £2.99!
I painted mine with several coats of sage green acrylic paint and stamped on a flourish by Viva Decor in Palette Landscape ink. I then inked a separate piece of cream card with Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold and Rusty Hinge Distress inks and stamped the flourish in the same green ink. I then stamped on the text from the Artistic Outpost Serenity set in black ink.
Having finally got my hands on Sir Tim's fabulous bird cage die, I cut the set out from vintage music score and card and stuck the 2 together for strength. I inked the bird cage with Pine Needles Distress ink and then partially embossed with Antiquities Rust embossing powder for a tarnished look. I inked the bird with Fired Brick and Crushed Olive and the branch section with Vintage Photo.
I inked the edges of my chipboard panel in places and embossed with the Rust powder. I used some left over die cut flowers using the Alterations Tattered Florals die and did some inking and distressing with Black Soot and Jet Black StazOn. I fixed the flowers together with a metal flower from the Foliage idea-ology set.
To finish the piece, I added some stamped and inked maple leaves using Autumn shades of Distress inks and a Sissix die cut leaf sprig from my bits box which I inked with Crushed Olive and Rusty Hinge.
I'd like to enter my artwork into the following challenges:
Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers - Autumn
The Alphabet Challenge - B for Birds
Raise The Bar - Curves (my chipboard base shape)
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Something Shabby
My thanks go to June of Dezinaworld for pointing out my little hanger also fits this week's challenge Song, Dance and Music so I'm entering in that too.

Polka Doodles - Quick and Easy Christmas Cards

Morning everyone, it's Friday again so we have another Polka Doodles challenge for you which this week has been set by teamie Jenny. Jenny wants to help us all out with the Christmas card marathon so she would like to see your Quick and Easy Christmas Cards.
I decided to do a favourite trick of mine to make cards in bulk without getting too many repeats as I always like to have different cards to give to family and the neighbours - as they're all in each others homes over the festive season, it's nice for them to have a card from me that isn't the same as everyone else's if you know what I mean!
My trick is to use the same basic layout for the cards and then vary the focal point to make the cards look more individual. I've made 4 here so that you can see what I mean:

I've used 2 of the pretty papers on the Sundae of Seasons CD to make the simple background. I then chose some of the images from the Winter collection and cut them out (there are lots more to choose from)
I made a background panel for each image from white card, cutting some with a circle and oval cutter and embossing them with the Cuttlebug snowflakes folder. If you want to be really quick, you could stop here but I decided to add some sparkle by swiping with ink and embossing with crystal powder. I used Brilliance inks in some cases which gives a gorgeous pearly effect when embossed.
I added simple greetings matted on red card to finish.
Don't forget to visit the Design Team for some more great ideas.
I'm also entering my cards into the following challenges:
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Dry Embossing
Craft Your Passion Challenges - Anything Goes

A Pink Christmas

Hello everyone on a very dark and windy evening. I'm here today with a very pink card which is for this week's challenge at Dezinaworld and June's theme is Hot Pink and Silver.  If you haven't yet had a go at this challenge, it's worth it as the prize is one of June's gorgeous collage sheets or sets.

I made the background paper by stamping a snowflake (Art Impressions H-2753) randomly on white card and embossing with silver powder. I then sponged on Worn Lipstick Distress ink.
I added an image from the Dezinaworld White Christmas set, a strip of silver corrugated card, various pink and silver layered flowers and a computer generated sentiment.

Fliss x

Winter Wishes

Hello everyone, hoping you're off on a good start to the week. We've had sunshine today although it's fast disappearing now due to the clocks going back yesterday.
I have here my entry for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge set by Sarah Anderson which this time is black and white with a splash of colour.

I've made a rather wintery card which was inspired by the main stamp I wanted to use which is a favourite of mine.

I stamped Paper Artsy's Winter Wonderland Plate 6 in black ink on white card and coloured some areas with a burgundy Promarker.
I made a background paper by stamping the snowflake (Art Impressions H-2753) in black 3 times before re-inking to give a faded effect. I then stamped on a tiny snowflake from a Papermania set in burgundy ink. I addded the paper panel to a square card and stuck some stripy ribbon on.
I added my image panel and computer generated text on a mat coloured with the same Promarker. This is a really good way of making everything match.