Anything Goes At Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Hello everyone, I'm really excited that it's now time for the first challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and it's sure to be a favourite as the first ever theme is Anything Goes so it's time to break out the stamps.
As mentioned in my previous post, this is a challenge blog just for stamping with rubber or clear stamps and no digis are allowed so please remember this when you make your creations. The rest of the DT and myself can't wait to see all the entries. Do pop over to see what the rest of the team has made too as there are some really stunning creations not to be missed.
I'd also like to thank Shirley and her hubby Andrew here for all the hard work they've both put in setting up the blog and all the logos. I think you'll agree they've done a fabulous job.
My first creation is in keeping with the name of the challenge blog as you'll now see.

I've used a favourite stamp by Crafty Individuals as I just love the vintage look. I stamped the image with VersaFine Imperial Purple and coloured the ladies with Zig Art & Graphic twin markers. I then inked the panel for a sort look. I added some kraft paper photo corners (Paperchase) and set this on a dark red mat. I glued a metal text panel (Darico) at the base.
I made the main background paper by stamping a Crafty Individuals flourish all over with Crushed Olive Distress ink and then sponged on Shabby Shutters. I next made 2 embossed panels using the Cuttlebug Victoria and Roses folders then sponged these with Wild Honey, Crushed Olive and Victorian Velvet DIs then swiped Brilliance Galaxy Gold and Pearlescent Poppy over the raised areas,
I made the roses with a Marianne die, sponging them with Victorian Velvet, Spiced Marmalade and Dried Marigold DIs before gluing them together and then painted on some toning Stickles glitter glues. I punched the leaves with a Papermania rose leaf cut and emboss punch then sponged these with Crushed Olive.
I assembled the card with a kraft background mat, some metal corners, cream crochet lace and some pretty buttons by Craftime.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Bloggers Challenge - Embossing
Ruby's Rainbow - Vintage
One Stop Craft Challenge - Vintage
Sugar Creek Hollow - Make Your Own Designer Paper

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Hi everyone and hope you're enjoying the weekend so far. We've got sunshine here so hoping you have too.
Just a very quick post to let you know about a fabulous new challenge blog for stampers set up by Shirley Chillman of Shirls Cards as Lets Ink It Up closed a little while ago due to owner Suzanne's ill health. I'm really lucky to have been asked to be part of the Design Team of the challenge which is called Fashionable Stamping Challenges and will be fortnightly.
The first challenge goes live tomorrow and it's one everyone will love. The only thing to remember is that digital images are not allowed as the challenge is all about getting inky fingers!

Hope to see you there and you really should pop over tomorrow as the DT has some absolutely stunning inspiration for you which is a real feast for the eyes.

In An English Country Garden At Polka Doodles

Good morning everyone, the weekend is nearly here thank goodness and, being Friday, we have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles. Emma is our hostess this week and she's chosen a really lovely theme - In An English Country Garden. A really good one as there are so many things in a garden and I decided on butterflies as we get quite a lot in ours.

It's quite a quick card from me this week as I'm still suffering from my sinus troubles brought on by last week's cold.
I've used some pretty papers and the lovely garden element from the Sundae Of Seasons CD. I've then added some lovely stamped butterflies (Hobby Art) stamped with brown ink and coloured with Aquamarkers for a watercoloured look. I finished off with a central border of cream crochet lace, a glittery punched strip and some pearls then a stamped sentiment from the Sensational Sentiments stamp set. Really easy!

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 7 August to enter and hope to see you there. Don't forget to see what the rest of the Design Team has made and to check out the rules too.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Inspiration from nature
Paper Play - In the garden
Divas By Design - Summer
Digital Tuesday - Gardens with things with wings
Everybody Art - Garden

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Vintage With Lace And Pearls At Make My Monday

Hello all, it's a beautiful sunny Monday and we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday. It's the last one of my Vintage theme for July, this week with the twist of Lace and Pearls on your creation.

I've decided to use a screen shape card for my creation and stamped this with an old favourite set of stamps I have from Clearly Inspired bought ages ago from L B Crafts. It's called Stencilled Flowers and I just love the roses in the set. I stamped them with Vintage Photo and Tattered Rose Distress inks then sponged Old Paper over the top.
I added a strip of cream crochet lace across the bottom as I love the texture this brings. I then added a pretty lady from a Dezinaworld collage sheet which I cut out and put on with foam tape. I added pink pearls across the bottom.
I then stamped the Penny Black text with VersaFine Vintage Sepia and over stamped this with a B Line Designs lace duo stamp with the Tattered Rose ink. I then cut this into a heart shape using my own template and sponged Victorian Velvet Distress ink round the edges. I added some pink pearls and stuck on the card with foam tape.
As a finishing touch, I added a butterfly cut from my vintage book of butterfly illustrations. I then inked the feet with the Victorian Velvet ink.

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind thoughts about my cold which actually took a turn for the worse at the weekend as it went to my sinuses and has given me a nasty chesty cough too. I'm feeling a little better this morning so hope it will be gone soon.

Hugs, Fliss xx

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Sparkles Forum - Elegance and Lace
2 Sisters - Anything Goes
Paper Cutz - Anything Goes
Crafts4Eternity - Shaped Cards

Polka Doodles Challenge - Christmas in July

Hello everyone, it's a sunny day again at last but I'm not feeling sunny myself - I'm feeling very sorry for myself as I have a streaming cold. As I don't get them very often, I always forget how grotty they make you feel. As it appeared very suddenly, I'm hoping it won't last long.
This week's challenge over at Polka Doodles is Christmas in July, although it was actually Christmas In June for most of the DT as we were making samples for Nikky a few weeks back for the new CDs. My inspiration for this challenge is one of my samples and is a favourite of mine.

All of the elements on my card are from the new Magical Winter CD set which I really love for the gorgeous kraft and gingham papers. If you're interested in seeing what else is on the CD set, if you click on the Polka Doodles stash button on my side bar and then look in the gallery, there are masses of samples we've all made which give some idea of the amazing amount of stuff on the CDs.
I've used one of the cute snowman toppers and have combined this with gingham and spotty papers, inking edges and adding faux stitching. The stitched blue heart is from the CD and I made the others using some of the papers and my own templates, adding more stitching to the gingham one. I finished off with some twisted raffia to add texture.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 31 July to enter and good luck!

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Delightful Challenges - Christmas In July
Digistamps 4 Joy - Christmas
Crazy Challenge - Christmas in July

Thanks for looking, I'm off for a hot lemon now.
Fliss xx

Shabby Chic/Distressing At Make My Monday

Good morning everyone, it's Monday again and the weather is still wet and windy - where did the summer go?!
Also a big welcome to Mina - it's lovely to see you here.
It's time for another new challenge over at Make My Monday and this week continues with the July theme of Vintage with the added twist of some Distressing on your creation. We had some absolutely fantastic creations for last week's embossing challenge and you made it so hard to choose a top 3 so I can't wait to see what you come up with for this one.
I've gone for nature for my collage style card as I wanted to use my vintage book of butterfly illustrations which I got in a fabulous bookshop in Eastbourne. I'll be going again next week with my in laws and my father in law will yet again be puzzled as to why I want to buy things to cut up!

I really enjoyed making this as I decided to use my Watercolour Crayon Background Technique which involves scribbling, scrunching and spraying - a bit messy but very satisfying. I used the technique to make the pink and green background panels. The pink one has shades of pink and yellow, was then sprayed with Vintage Pink and Emperor Gold Glimmer Mist and stamped with the flourish from Paper Artsy Hot Pick HP1005 and VersaFine Toffee ink.
The green one has shades of olive and yellow, was sprayed with Olive Vine and the same gold Glimmer Mist and stamped with the flourish and VersaFine Spanish Moss ink.
The floral panel uses the flower from the stamp set, stamped with Crushed Olive and Vintage Photo Distress ink then sponged with Scattered Straw.
To assemble the collage, I inked my textured card blank with Tattered Rose and Frayed Burlap inks then added torn vintage music score (another bargain from Eastbourne as I got the entire score of The Mikado for £2!!!). I added my decorated panels and some butterfly illustrations together with some of the titles - the 2 butterflies really are a Clouded Yellow and a Painted Lady.

You have until 12 midnight GMT on Saturday 23 July to enter and good luck.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Butterflies
Paper Play - Things With Wings
By The Cute & Girly - Things With Wings
Sugar Creek Hollow - Vintage, Shabby Chic or Primitive Wing Things

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Long Hot Summer

Happy Friday everyone and this week's challenge at Polka Doodles is about something we all wish for but rarely see in the UK - a Long Hot Summer!!!
This challenge has been chosen by fellow DT member Lis  and she would like to see projects with anything that summer means to you.
I'm lucky enough to live just one road back from the sea on the South Coast so summer to me is all about the beach with ice creams and deck chair stripes plus the row of beach huts we have here. My card is another attempt at pointillism (see my previous post for the first) and I have to say I was particularly pleased with my ice cream cone where I tried to make it look like my favourite type of cone - those crispy, biscuity waffle ones.

All elements on my card are from the Sundae Of Seasons CD and I chose the bright stripy paper as it made me think of deck chairs. I used the black and white stampies of the beach huts and the ice cream cone and milkshake etc.
I coloured the images using the pointillism technique (for those of you who didn't see my last post, Kim Dellow did an article on this in the August Craft Stamper and the detail really appealed to me) and a large variety of toning Promarkers. The aim is to use 2 or 3 toning shades to make depth of colour and if you look at my ice cream cone, I think you might see why I'm so pleased with this one.
You may also notice the fruit in my photo which didn't last very long after I took it because it looked so yummy that I ate it!

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 24 July to enter and good luck.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
CCEE Stampers - Ice Cream Image or Sentiment
Crafty Purple Frog - Summer Fun
Stamp Insanity - Summer Colours
Crafts and Me - Summertime

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Congratulations Claire!

Hello everyone, I'm here today with some fabulous news as my elder daughter Claire has gained her degree in Japanese Studies and we're all so proud of her. We'll be off to Sheffield next week for the graduation and will get to see her in robes and a mortar board - a very strange feeling as sometimes it only seems like yesterday that she was a toddler. We'll be taking lots of photos so I should be able to share some with you soon.
In the meantime, I have the card I made for her to show you which is my first attempt at pointillism. Kim Costello did a lovely article about this for Craft Stamper in the latest issue. I was very taken with the effect and decided to have a go. I don't think it's as good as Kim's but I do like the effect and you'll have to let me know what you think.

I chose to use this lovely dragon which is called Tamed Dragon and is by the very clever Teri of Delicious Doodles. Claire has always loved dragons and has some posters of them in her bedroom so this is an ideal image to use on a card for her. I've kept the card very simple as I feel the clean and simple look shows off the image better.
I printed it out and then used the pointillism technique with lots of toning shades of Promarkers. I did deviate slightly from the shading technique of sections of the wings as I wanted a very scaly effect. I think it adds loads of texture to the colouring even though it does take quite a while to do if your image is quite large. I do think the time it takes is worth it though.

Hope you like it and thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Vintage With Embossing Theme At Make My Monday

Good morning everyone, it's Monday again so it's time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday. We're continuing with the July theme of Vintage and this week would like to see some Embossing on your vintage project. This could be heat embossing with powder, die cut machine embossing or good old fashioned embossing with a light box - the choice is yours.
I've chosen to use both heat and dry embossing on my card because I absolutely love texture.

I've used stamps from B Line Designs for both the background and the image as I just love the vintage look of these.
To make the main background paper, I stamped the large ribbon floral background stamp on beige parchment paper and embossed it with ancient gold powder. I then sponged on Victorian Velvet and Stormy Sky Distress inks.
I made a further piece of background paper by embossing a strip of parchment card (Southfield Stationers) with a design from the Cuttlebug Fancy Corners set. I really love these as you can emboss a whole row so that the design covers a 15cm square card, my shape of preference. I sponged the embossed card with Milled Lavender and Stormy Sky DIs then swiped first Stormy Sky then Brilliance Galaxy Gold over the raised areas.
I stamped the lovely lady (she's called Le Brun) with VersaFine Imperial Purple on cream card and added some subtle colour with Promarkers.
I assembled the card as you see with some altered lace and pearls together with a bouquet tied with altered ribbon (the colour was a liitle too bright so I coloured it with an Apricot Promarker) and an antique metal sentiment plaque from my stash.

You have until 12 midnight GMT on Saturday 16 July to enter and good luck.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
The Crafty Pad - Lots Of Texture
Pile It On - Your Favourite Technique (working with Distress inks)
Alphabet Challenge - J for Just One Word
Crafty Catz - A Vintage Look

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Bunny Hugs

Hi all and hope you've all had a lovely weekend. The weather down South has been really sunny and we spent time in the garden with our little bunnies. For those of you who have kindly asked about Dill, our poorly one, he's recovering very slowly and is still very picky about eating so it's as bad as a small child!

I've also had lots of blogger problems over the weekend so I haven't been able to leave that many comments. Hopefully this is now sorted and I'll try and visit you all over the next couple of days to catch up.
I have a card to show you that I managed to finish earlier and have now sneaked on here:

As we're on the subject of bunnies, this one was made with one of the gorgeous and cute Warren stamps by Craftwork Cards that I was lucky enough to get my mitts on when they came out as a limited edition.
I stamped him with sepia ink, coloured with a mix of pencils and Zig Art & Graphic twin markers and cut the image out with a round Nestie die. I then added a mat using a scalloped die.
My background paper uses a slight variation on Sir Tim's colour blocking technique which you can find HERE. I made my own stamps with fun foam rectangles attached to Kling On and these worked really well. I used Tattered Rose, Milled Lavender, Bundled Sage and Frayed Burlap Distress inks then stamped flourishes from my favourite Viva Decor My Paper World stamp set in the corners with the Frayed Burlap. I then trimmed the corners with a corner rounder.
I made up the card with some plaid ribbon, a layered paper flower with a threaded button centre, a Hobby Art stamped butterfly coloured with markers, some pearls and the hugs sentiment (Anitas) stamped with sepia set on a Nestie mat and decorated with pearls.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Stampin' - Cute and Cuddly
Alphabet Challenge - J is for Just One Word
Fabulous Friday - Recipe Use 2 of 3 - Ribbon/Trim, Charm, Rhinestones/Pearls (Ribbon and Pearls)
Fuzzy Wuzzy - Get Punchy with an animal
Divas By Design - Die Cuts/Punches
Quirky Crafts - No patterned papers, make your own

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Creative Expressions Challenge - Calling Card

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a lovely weekend and have some sunshine to enjoy as we have down South.
I'm here today with my entry for the Creative Expressions current Design Team call which involves a little challenge as well to create an ATC calling card and I couldn't resist this one as I love stamping so much. You can find all the details of the call HERE if you're a stampaholic like me.
For the challenge, I've made a sewing themed ATC using the gorgeous Vintage Sewing stamp set by Sam Poole and also made a little box style card to go with it as the calling card fits perfectly inside.
I think that this reflects my attention to detail and my love of creating my own decorated papers using stamps as well as I can. My love of vintage style is also shown together with my absolute favourite inks which I could never be without.

ATC
1. I made the ATC by stamping the textured fabric image on a piece of 3.5 x 2.5 inch beige parchment card with Victorian Velvet, Crushed Olive and Milled Lavender Distress inks randomly to form a textured look background.
2. I then stamped on stitches and cotton reels with Frayed Burlap Distress ink.
3. I stamped the dress form, some cotton reels and the tape measure with VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink on the parchment card, colouring with Distress inks in Victorian Velvet, Mustard Seed and Pumice Stone DIs.
4. I cut the images out and rounded out the dress form and cotton reels with a large ball embossing tool and wound thread around the reels. I added the pieces to the ATC with foam tape and double sided tape and finished off with buttons with thread tied through them.

BOX CARD
1. I stamped both sides of an A4 sheet of beige parchment card for this. I stamped the textured fabric image at random all over using Victorian Velvet, Crushed Olive and Frayed Burlap Distress inks and then stamped on cotton reels with Vintage Photo.
2. I made up the box card using the video tutorial which you will find HERE. It's not in English but the instructions are quite easy to follow although I do recommend trying it out with photocopy paper first.
3. I stamped a further dress form and cotton reel and coloured these with Promarkers before cutting out.
4. I then inked a circle cut with a Nestabilities die with Victorian Velvet ink and stamped on reels and scissors with Vintage Photo. I added this to a mat of kraft card trimmed with a Nestabilities lacy circle die. I stamped the text with Vintage Sepia, cut this out and sponged on Spun Sugar Distress ink before attaching to the circle.
5. I added the elements to the box with foam tape and double sided tape and finished off with some trim of kraft card punched with a Martha Stewart border punch and a threaded button.

Hoping you like my creation as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Stickers And Transfers

Hello everyone on a very blustery and rather wet Friday. Let's hope we'll have better weather over the weekend as this is not nice!
It's Friday so it's Polka Doodles day and this time our head doodler, Nikky, has come up with a rather different challenge. This came about because Letraset kindly sent all the Design Team samples of Safmat and Letratac to play with,
For those of you that haven't come across these amazing products before, Safmat is a self adhesive, printable film so that you can print out elements from CDs, digital elements or your own artwork and apply this to lots of media types such as glass and metal. Letratac is sheets of tiny glue dots for attaching all sorts of shapes to your projects really easily. I found it especially useful for my project as you will see.

I've turned a simple clear acrylic storage jar which I bought in Tescos into a stylish container for my collection of silk flowers which were previously stored in a biscuit tin, This one certainly looks much smarter on my shelf!
I printed out the text and some of the faux ribbon borders from the Sundae Of Seasons CD on to Safmat, together with some of the lovely gingham design paper from the brand new Magical Winter CD Set (I'll have a load of samples I made for Nikky to share with you soon).
I attached the gingham design and the ribbon borders to 3 sides of the jar and then attached the text to some blue polka dot paper. As you can see it gives a very different look to the text which would normally have a white background. I then cut this out with a Nestabilities die and added a mat of dark red polka dot paper. I repeated the shapes on the top of the jar. Both of the elements were attached using Letratac which gave a perfect finish when burnished with each element securely fixed in place.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 17 July to enter and don't forget to look at the DT inspiration as there are some gorgeous and varied projects there. You can find Safmat and Letratac at the Letraset website HERE.

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Vintage And Colour Theme With Make My Monday

Good morning everyone on a glorious sunny day and hope you all had a lovely weekend. Happy 4th July to all our American friends too.
It's time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday and I'm rather excited as I got to choose the theme for July and I'm sure it will come as no surprise that I chose Vintage and the first challenge under that theme is a colour one. I'd like to see your creations using Brown and Cream with Pink Or Blue.

 
Here's my creation:

As you can see I chose blue as my contrast and I picked this lovely lady from Crafty Individuals as my main image. I stamped her with VersaFine Sepia ink on cream card and coloured her with pencils then added a little inking. I set her on a mat stamped with a flourish design and Vintage Photo Distress ink then sponged the same ink over the top.
I made my background panels using Viva Decor My Paper World stamps, stamping with Stormy Sky DI and sponging Tumbled Glass on the flourish one. I then added some central borders. The cream one uses the same stamp as the top paper, stamped with Frayed Burlap DI. The brown on was a strip of cream card punched with the Martha Stewart arch lattice border punch, then inked with Vintage Photo DI and stamped as the cream border with the same ink.
I set the image panel on a piece of corrugated packaging painted with blue acrylic paint then added a strip of faux ribbon (a scrap of stamped card) threaded threw a ribbon buckle. I finished off with some cream crochet lace, pearls and a stamped butterfly (B Line Designs).

You have until 12 midnight on Saturday 9 July to enter and good luck.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Craft Your Days Away - Vintage
Crafty Purple Frog - Swirls & Pearls
Sweet Stampin - Something Not Normally Used On A Card (corrugated packaging)

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Peacock Birthday Wishes

Good afternoon everyone and hope you're enjoying the weekend so far. We've had a lovely, warm and sunny day and have been spending a lot of it in the garden with the bunnies. Our poorly Dill is a little better although it's still a struggle getting him to eat as he's picking at his food at the moment.
I managed to make a card yesterday evening from pieces in my bits box which I'm really pleased about as it's so good to be able to use things up.

I followed the lovely sketch from the first challenge over at Fetch A Sketch, just tweeking it a little as you'll see.

The handsome peacock is from a Kanban stamp set and was stamped with VersaFine Majestic Blue and coloured with Promarkers. I then set the panel on 2 layers, trimming the larger edge of the outer one on one side with a Martha Stewart border punch.
For the main background, I took a square of green parchment card, trimmed the corners with the Martha Stewart loopy punch (I felt this echoes the peacock's tail feathers really well) and then inked all the edges with a turquoise ink pad.
I then followed the sketch layout with a rectangle of card from my bits box which was decorated with my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (link to tutorial on side bar) using Broken China, Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters DIs and a floral image from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight stamp set. I trimmed the corners with a corner rounder punch.
I cut an oval of green card with my trusty Creative Memories oval cutting set, dry embossed this with the Quickutz retro diamonds folder and inked the edges.
I punched some flowers from a leftover scrap of the floral paper, rounded them out with an embossing ball tool and added them to the card with foam pads. I then set green pearls in the flower centres.
The central border strip is a piece of turquoise grosgrain ribbon and a piece of altered crochet lace which I inked with Shabby Shutters DI and then added green glitter to cover the sticky areas in the holes in the lace.
I finished off with a sentiment from the Polka Doodles Sensational Sentiments stamp set, cut out with a Nestabilities scalloped die, coloured with Promarkers and added to a mat of the teal card used on the main panel.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Fetch A Sketch - Challenge 1 Sketch as above
Card & Scrap - Punches/Dies
Sir Stampalot July Challenge - Anything Goes
The Craft Garden - Use A Bird In Your Creation
Totally Papercrafts - Bingo (My line is 2 down - lace, flowers, dry embossing)

Thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of the weekend,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Home Sweet Home

Good morning everyone, it's Friday again and the week seems to have disappeared very quickly for various reasons, not the least of which being that we currently have a very poorly bunny with what the vet described as being like motion sickness in humans. Poor Dill can't balance properly so lurches about sometimes rolling his eyes because he's feeling very dizzy. He's getting better really slowly as we have to feed him because he's been reluctant to eat.

We have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles and this week's theme is Home Sweet Home, chosen by Saskia. She would like to see a project involving a house, new home etc. Some friends of ours have just moved house and are now living just a few streets away so this is the card I made for them.

All the elements on my easel card are from the A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft CD which you might have guessed is a favourite of mine. I printed out the cute birdhouse image and coloured it with Promarkers. I then inked around the edges and set it on a soft gold mat.
I made up the card as you see with some of the pretty papers then added a layered border, a greeting panel from the sheet of DIY sentiments where you can create your own and a layered flower with a button from my collection.
I finished off with some pearls and some pretty butterflies which I added for a 3D effect.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 10 July to enter and good luck! Don't forget to pop over and see the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.
 I'm entering my card in the following challenge:
Truly Scrumptious - Things With Wings

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx