Time For Tea

Hello everyone, hope you've been having a good weekend. It's been cold here but it is at least sunny! Before I tell you about the card I have here to show you, I'd just like to say a quick hello to some lovely new followers Sharon, Suzanne, Sue and Marianne. It's lovely to see you all.
I've had a very busy weekend catching up on all sorts of things I should have done but didn't after a nightmare couple of weeks of work so my entry for this challenge is only just finished in time. It's for Gingersnap Creations GC85 Chestnut Theme Challenge - Hot Beverages and what else could I choose but my favourite tipple, tea.
I've made a mixed media collage style card to celebrate my love of this particular beverage which was inspired by the gorgeous Willow pattern china often used in England to serve the tea.

I chose a favourite colour combination of beige and sepia to go with the blue shades. The vintage style background paper is from Polka Doodles All Around & Everywhere CD. I stamped a strip of blue card with the teapot and cup and saucer from a See Ds vintage cling set with Majestic Blue VersaFine ink.
I made a cup shaped template and cut out a cup from white card which I stamped with part of the design from Magenta's CSET15 Musical in the same blue ink. I inked a little round the edges with brown ink.
The image of the woman is from Art Freebies blog run by June  and I cut her out then inked the edges with brown. I found a vintage clock face on the internet too and some clock hands which I altered by embossing with Ranger Ancient Gold.
The finishing touch is the text which I stamped with Hero Arts letters and Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink on a scrap of the background paper.
I'm also entering the card into Stamptacular Sunday's new challenge 96 - Whateva

Thanks for looking,
Fliss x
I'm now off to prepare our Sunday tea, a family tradition not to be missed with scones, muffins, crumpets, cake and so on.

Polka Doodles Challenge - Party Time!

Good morning everyone, it's nearly the weekend again and would someone please tell me where the last week went! It's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles which this week has a theme of Party Time and we would like to see your projects with partying and celebration in mind.

As my 2 daughters are now 20 and 21, the only sort of parties we seem to have these days are the tea party kind so I decided to make a celebration themed card suitable for any age from 3 to 103 - not that we have any family members at that great age!

All of the papers and elements on my card for which I chose zingy pink and zesty lime are from Nikky's Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition CD which launched a short time ago. I just love the cute little owls on there and had a lot of trouble deciding which of the colour combinations to choose - there are owls in colours suitable for male cards too.
I used lots of layers to add depth without bulk and finished off with a layered flower with a brad centre - really easy peasy.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 6 February to get your entries in and good luck!
Fliss x

Dreamer

Good morning everyone, hope you're having a good week so far. I'm still in the middle of a pile of accounts work as the UK tax deadline is next Monday but I managed to get a couple of hours to myself yesterday afternoon so decided to do some crafting to relax my brain.
I also have several pieces of good news to share on the crafting front, the first of which was an email on Tuesday from the lovely Jill of The Stamp Man to say that I'm the very lucky winner of 2 sheets of unmounted Non-Sequitur stamps - yippee, how fantastic is that!!!
The second was when I popped over to The Craft Barn blog yesterday for a peek at a tutorial on using paper scraps (as my last card involved this) and found that not only is the tutorial fabulous, but that Michelle has used one of the flower stamps I designed - yay! You can see the tutorial if you click HERE and it's well worth a look as Michelle's use of her scraps is so creative.
The third piece of news is that this morning I discovered that my scraps card of the last post has been given a Ginger Gem Award so I really am on cloud 9 at the moment!. Thanks so much gingers, this means such a lot to me.

Now on to the piece of artwork I made yesterday which is actually in response to June of Dezinaworld's Spot Prize Challenge Beneath The Waves. Sadly, my glue took ages to dry and daylight went yesterday so I couldn't take photos until this morning so my entry is too late.
I have it here to show you anyway and happily this week's Wednesday Stamper is Inky Backgrounds, so I think this qualifies for that - you should see my inky fingers!!!

I decided to make a canvas and the background for the gorgeous vintage mermaid picture is made from a textured paper towel. I swiped it with Impress dye inks in shades of blue and green which were originally not as blended but when I glued the towel to the canvas with gel medium this caused the colours to mix with each other a lot more (and took a while to dry!)
I then stamped on the background with a flourish stamp to imitate seaweed. The stamp is from a clear set by My Paper World - Viva Decor which is available from The Craft Barn. I stamped it with acrylic paints in green, brown and bronze.
I tore the edges of the mermaid picture and then embossed them with copper and rust. I made the flowers to echo those in her hair by die cutting crepe paper (you can cut several layers at once) with a Nestabilities Blossom die. I layered up several flowers inked in pale yellow and green, scrunched them and secured with a brad then swiped them over Distress ink pads in Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey.
I made the "seaweed" fronds by die cutting more crepe paper with a Sissix flourish die, inking with Vintage Photo Distress ink and embossing with a little clear powder. The flourishes curled a little and went translucent in places which give (I think) quite a realistic effect.
I'm really sorry to have missed your deadline June and will hopefully have more time next week.

Thanks for looking
Fliss x

Butterfly Wishes

Hello everyone, hope you're having a reasonable start to the week. I'm taking a short break from my pile of accounts work to show you a card I've made from my ever growing heap of paper scraps. I've taken a photo so you can see what I still have to use up (a bit scary as there's rather a lot!) Note to self - must use more up!!!

Some of the pieces are just strips 1 or 2 cms wide but they do come in handy as border strips or a decorative edge for a tag. As yesterday was rather dull down here in the South of England, I decided to carry on with the warm colour scheme of my last card and even managed to use a very tiny strip of leftover background paper from it on this one.
I've been inspired to make this by Petra Berendsen as she made a gorgeous creation with her paper scraps as part of the DT inspiration for Gingersnap Creations Once In A Blue Moon GCSP6 Ginspiration Challenge which I've made the card for.
 

The paper scraps I've used are a variety of techniques including my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique, White StazOn Resist, Watercolour Crayon Background Technique etc. I've mostly used strips, although I die cut a couple of the scraps with a Nestabilities die.
I've used stamps by Magenta (the white resist flower), Hero Arts (the orange scribble daisy), Inkadinkado (the sprig and small daisy with leaves). The butterfly is Hampton Arts and the greeting Papermania.
The inks are mostly shades of Distress inks apart from the golden diagonal stripe paper which was made with VersaColor inks and Direct to Paper technique.

I'm also entering the card in the January Challenge of The Artistic Stamper which has a theme of Things With Wings.

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

A Single Rose

Hello everyone and I hope your weekend has been good so far. I've unfortunately had to catch up on the dreaded housework (should be banned!!!) as I've had a lot of accounts work to do this week. I did manage to sneak in a little bit of me time for some crafting though and have managed to finish a card that happily fits several challenges.
I've used Sarah Anderson's colours from this week's Play Date Cafe:

Aren't those birds too cute!

My card features a background paper made using my Watercolour Crayon Technique (there's a link on my sidebar to the tutorial on how to make this) which I love as it produces a textured, distressed looking paper which is easy to stamp on. I used orange and green Neocolor 11 crayons and stamped on a flourish from a My Paper World Viva Decor clear stamp set (available from The Craft Barn) using Spiced Marmalade and Crushed Olive Distress inks.
I made a flower using textured card die cut with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die Set. I drew round the edges with an olive marker to make them stand out and then scrunched the flowers and added some Stickles in Orange Peel. I used a large button for the centre.
The greeting is a lovely saying from Paper Artsy's Hot Picks HPXT04 and this one struck a chord with me as I love my garden and particularly the roses but would be lost without my friends. I finished off with some Nestabilities shapes and punching with a Martha Stewart border edge punch.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
The Play Date Cafe PDCC65 Colour Challenge - Grey, Green and Orange
Sunday Stamper - Push The Button
The Stamp Man - All Distressed
Daring Cardmakers - It's All About Me

Thanks for looking
Fliss

Let's Ink It Up DT Call

Well, this is one I couldn't resist as anyone that knows me knows that I'm never happier than when I'm all covered in ink!  I get some very strange looks sometimes when I'm shopping due to the technicolour fingers! When I saw that Let's Ink It Up Challenge Blog are having a DT call, I felt that I should give it a go.
To take part I have to choose 3 favourite projects and I found this bit really hard as all my projects are a bit like my babies as they've been nurtured to their finished state so I do feel something for them all! In the end I picked a vintage style card, a fun set of skinnies and an elegant card using one of my favourite background techniques. Hope you like them!

 
A vintage style collage card. The background paper is made by sponging glossy card with several shades of Distress Ink and was then stamped. The vintage lady and car were stamped, coloured with Promarkers and cut out. The film strip was stamped and acetate applied to the trimmed panel to show the map underneath. The flower was hand made with stamped paper.

These fun skinnies were made by brayering the background card with Kaleidacolor rainbow inks, stamping on script and then adding hand done doodling (I really love to doodle!). The fun cats were stamped and coloured with various shades of Promarkers - I was really pleased with the results as I wanted them to look as realistic as possible and hope I succeeded.

This card uses my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (tutorial link on my sidebar if you're interested). The metal flower was punched, embossed to give it shape and altered with StazOn inks to enhance the colour. I was very pleased with the elegant look of this card.

Thank you for taking the time to look ladies and I hope you like my contribution.

Fliss

Polka Doodles Challenge - There's No Place Like Home

Happy Friday everyone, the weekend is nearly here and we have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles.
This week's theme is Colette's and she would like to see a project for a New Home.
I chose to make a pretty shaped card and I made my own template by drawing round a chipboard book scalloped shape. I find these quite handy as I don't yet own any of those Grand Nestabilities.

All of the elements to make my card came from the Sundae of Seasons CD Summer collection. I printed out all of the stampies and the paper on to cream card which gives a soft, muted look to everything which I rather like as it's a little retro.
I traced the scallop shape on to the back of the paper and cut it out. I then attached the scallop to a circle card blank I made with the fold at the top (this makes it much easier for the card to stand up!)
I then cut out the pretty cottage and the flowery fences and coloured around the edges with a Cool Grey 2 Promarker to help the images stand out more on the card. I also added some Pastel Blue to the areas between the flowers.
I finished off with a computer generated sentiment cut out with nesties and a gorgeous butterfly from the same collection on the CD.
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 30 January to enter and good luck!

Walkies Card

Hello everyone, hope you're having a good weekend so far and the weather isn't too bad. It's just windy here at the moment after yesterday's horrible rain and I got totally soaked when I popped out to do a bit of food shopping - so wet I had to change clothes when I got home as my jeans were dripping wet half way up the legs!
I've managed to finish a card for a few challenges using a sweet image as bought last year and had yet to use. Partly as it's more cute than I normally go for but something about it appealed to me. I've used the colours from this week's Play Date Cafe challenge:

I've combined the colours with the lovely sketch from Papercraft Star:

 

I've moved the sketch around just a little so that my image is facing onto the card:

The stamp I've used is by Penny Johnson for Stamp A Vie and I stamped the girl and her little dog in VersaFine Smokey Gray ink. I then coloured the image with Prisma pencils, blending with Zest It and I found a great tutorial by Chris Dark for The Craft Barn on colouring with pigment pencils really helpful. I need a lot more practice before my colouring is as good as Chris's and you can find the downloadable PDF here.
I made the card up using papers from the Die Cuts With A View Linen Closet collection which I really love as the colours are so soft and pretty. The blue scalloped border was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and I added a further scallop punched with a Martha Stewart deep edge punch.
I finished off with some lace and a flower made from some vintage French bias binding that I found in a flea market in Brighton a while back - the centre is an altered Prima flower with a vintage button.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
The Play Date Cafe Challenge 64 colours
Papercraft Star Sketch Challenge 28
Lets Ink It Up Challenge 8 - Anything Goes
The Craft Barn Colouring Challenge
Thanks for looking!

Polka Doodles Sketch and Colour Challenge

Happy Friday everyone and I'm hoping here that this post pops up whilst I'm at the hairdressers as I have the first appointment so I can park without any trouble.
This week's challenge, week 2, has been set by Nikky our head doodler in honour of our lovely teamie Enfys who spends half a year in the US and half in the UK.  Enfys is celebrating at the moment so be sure to pop over to the Challenge Blog for the full story.
Nikky's challenge is to use Red, White and Blue for your entry and also to use one of her much loved sketches - I'm sure you know how much she likes these!

For my birthday card, I chose a gorgeous image from the Autumn Collection of the Sundae of Seasons CD and printed out the black and white digital stamp - this is mostly as I'm rapidly becoming addicted to colouring, something I never thought I'd say! I coloured her with my Prisma pencils, blending the colours with Zest It (like Sansador but with a lovely citrus smell). Don't you just love her stripy socks, I was so pleased with the way they turned out. I also like the way the pencils make her beret look realistically woolly.
I've used the lovely plaid paper from the same CD together with one of the pretty ribbon style borders and a blue paper from the Not So Plain Plains of the Not For Girls CD which has a linen like texture.
The greeting uses some of the stamps from the new Sensational Sentiments Stamps set which was launched with the gorgeous Houses sets and all three were a complete sell out. I finished off with some flowers and a leaf punched from the leftover paper scraps.
I hope you can have a go at the challenge and you have until 12 noon on Sunday 23 January to get your entries in. Please also don't forget the 10 challenge rule as we have to discount any entries which break this rule.

The Stamp Man Award Event

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK at the moment. I won't be online much for a while as I'm up to my eyes in accounts work as the dreaded tax return deadline is looming and on top of this a very demanding VAT Inspector is hounding one of my clients which is in turn rebounding on me!
I did decide to take part in the Stamp Man Award Event though as I did this last year and this time there are loads of prizes up for grabs with the blog hop too so don't delay if you decide to have a go as the deadline is 9pm on Thursday 13 January.

It was very hard to choose a favourite project but in the end, I picked a canvas I made which I was very pleased with:

The stamps used on the stampbord blocks are all by Crafty Individuals as are the butterfly embellishments. The canvas background has been stamped with my favourite Inkadinkado Garden Delight set. Full details of how I made the canvas can be found HERE.

Polka Doodles First 2011 Challenge - A Wish For You

Hello everyone, Happy New Year and I'm back at last on my temporary computer after my laptop gave up the ghost just before Christmas and it's taking me a while to get used to this one as it's static which means I'm stuck in our small spare room typing this post.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are ready for some crafting as it's time for the first Polka Doodles challenge of the year. The theme of A Wish For You has been chosen by Emma, better known as Vintage Milly and she'd like to see your projects with wishes for the new year.
I've chosen to make a card with wishes for those going on to new things this year and I've used some of the elements from Nikky's brand new CD, Paper Boutique Volume 3 which is being launched on Create and Craft tomorrow - full details are on the Polka Doodles shop website HERE.

I've made the card using the Ditsy Daisy template which also has all the elements to make a shaped card in A4, A5 or A6 size. I decided to turn her into an angel and printed out the A5 black and white options on cream card.
I then coloured one under dress with a blue Promarker plus the sleeves. I stamped on the overdress and the bottom of a further under dress with a stamp from the Daisy Doodles stamp set using Versamark ink and embossed with clear powder. I then sponged on Scattered Straw Distress ink. I coloured a spare heart with the blue Promarker and added faux stitching to this and the overdress with a Letraset Fine Liner.
I coloured her face with Promarkers and then coloured her hair with Prisma pencils in several shades of brown and blended with a paper stump and Zest It. I added pre coloured wings from the Winter collection on the Sundae of Seasons CD.
I coloured some daisies from the Ditsy Daisy collection on the new CD with Promarkers and cut them out. The daisy paper is also from the new CD and I printed this out on to cream paper then trimmed the edges of the panel with pinking shears. The blue papers are from the Sundae of Seasons CD and the sentiment is computer generated.
Don't forget to catch Nikky if you can and she's actually on TV twice too so hopefully you'll be able to see one of the shows.
I'll try and catch up with everyone over the next few days as there's been no spare time lately with family stuff and making the samples for Nikky on top of getting used to my "new" computer.