Ribbon And Lace

Hello everyone, I'm excited to say it's time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and I'd like to say a huge thanks to everyone who took part in the last one as there are some stunning creations there which will make the Design Team's task really difficult.
We also have some new Design Team members so pop on over to the challenge blog to be introduced to the lovely ladies who will be wowing you with their creations now.
The new challenge theme is Ribbon And/Or Lace so you can include just one or go for both. I've actually used ribbon and braid on my card as I love texture so much.

As you can see, I decided on glorious Autumn colours for my card as I'm an Autumn girl at heart and always love seeing the trees wearing their gorgeous Autumn coats.
I made 3 layers of background papers for the card but the only one that is fully stamped is the first because I just inked and stamped the edges of the 2 lower layers - there's no point spending time on something that will be covered up!
The first paper uses embossing resist technique. I stamped the flourish (B Line Designs) with crimson ink and embossed the images with pearl plum powder. I then sponged on Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Victorian Velvet and Barn Door Distress inks. I added this to a mat of deep red hammered card, trimmed along one edge with the Martha Stewart scallop dot edge punch.
The next paper was made by sponging Mustard Seed Distress ink round the edges of the card and stamping on a flower spray design (Great Impressions) with Dried Marigold DI.
The base paper uses a B Line Designs detailed flourish stamped with Aged Mahogany DI just around the edges and then Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany was sponged on top. Both this and the golden paper were trimmed with deckle edged scissors.
I stamped the gorgeous Audrey image (B Line Designs and a real favourite of mine) with black ink on white card and a little subtle colour added with Promarkers. I cut this out with a circular Nestie die and added it to a deep red mat cut with a Nestie scalloped die.
I assembled the card as you see with velvet ribbon and braid, adding a layered flower coloured with Promarkers, some punched leaves and pins and a sentiment by Penny Black.

We're all looking forward to seeing this fortnight's entries and don't forget to hop over to the challenge blog for some fabulous inspiration and a peek at this challenge's lovely prizes.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Lily Pad Cards - Any Resist Technique (heat embossing in my case)
Sew Many Cards - Use An Edge Punch
Paper Pretties - Make Your Own Background (I have 3)

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Spots And Dots

Good morning everyone, it's Friday again and the week disappeared really quickly - I can't believe it's almost the weekend!
As it's Friday, we have a new challenge over at Polka Doodles which has been chosen by team mate Miria. She would like to see your creations with Spots & Dots. It's also our stashbox stamps week so my card has quite a few stamps from my stash as I decided on a collage style effect. As you'll see, if you stamp directly on the background paper, you'll get lots of interest without adding too much weight to the card.

I've chosen a very chic paper to go with the lovely image of 2 ladies relaxing with a drink and the scene always seems to have a French flavour so where better to put them than Paris.
The lovely dotty paper is from the Paper Boutique Vol 3 CD and I stamped this with the Eiffel Tower and Paris text by B Line Designs and a dotty stamp by Great Impressions. I used VersaFine Smokey Gray ink which is softer then black and inked the edges with a brown ink pad.
I stamped the ladies (Art Impressions) with the same grey ink and added them to a mat of kraft card. I finished off with pretty border with stripes and dots from the A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft CD.

Don't forget to pop over and look at the Design Team inspiration as our new team members have joined in this week and there are loads of lovely creations on show.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Delightful Challenges - Use Digital Paper
More Than Favors - Travel
My Time To Craft - Here Come The Girls
The Stamping Boutique - Stripes & Dots
The Paper Variety - Travel

Have a lovely weekend,
Fliss xx

Fairy Bunting

Hello again everyone, I'm back with another post today as I've finally finished what has definitely been a labour of love as my creation has been in the making for nearly 2 weeks and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed making it.
It's another piece of wall art and this time it's in the form of bunting. I had to take the photos on the table as I haven't yet decided where it will hang.

All of the stamps I've used are Crafty individuals as I have quite a collection of them and those used are as follows:
Fairies - CI-137 and CI-132
Birds - CI-248
Flowers - CI-206
Butterflies - CI-231
Backgrounds - CI-173, CI-253 and CI-258

The bunting is made with recycled grey board which I painted with bright shades of acrylic paint. I then stamped on the flourish background with toning shades of Palette ink.
I stamped all of the images, flowers and butterflies together with a lovely leaf which was free with an order (thanks to Jean and Malcolm for their generosity) in black on white card and coloured them with Prisma pencils with the exception of the leaves which were sponged with Peeled Paint Distress ink. I then cut everything out.
I stamped the floral and the text backgrounds on more white card and inked with various shades of Distress inks. I then cut them into heart shapes with a template I made.
I assembled everything as you see with foam tape for added dimension having first rounded out various pieces with a large embossing ball tool.
Some very pretty braid finished off the top edges.

I'm entering my creation in the following challenges:
Crafty Individuals August Challenge - Bright and Beautiful
Sir Stampalot August Challenge - Whatever You Fancy
Scrappin' Chics Challenge - Pennants/Banners
The Stamp Man Challenge - Anything Goes with Summer Colours

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Acetate And Things With Wings

It's Monday again folks so we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday. We're continuing with the August theme of Things With Wings and this week the challenge is to include Acetate on your creation.
This is something that doesn't get used nearly enough and for my inspiration, I decided to revisit a technique I learnt years ago involving tissue paper, clear glue and re-inkers with the acetate. I made an easel style card because it was the only way to fit all the elements on!

I cut a square of acetate and stamped the leaf spray and dragonfly from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight stamp set on with black Stazon ink. I turned the acetate over when the ink was dry and squeezed on some small pools of Diamond Glaze and then added drops of Crushed Olive, Broken China, Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade Distress re-inkers to the glue. I spread the coloured glue about roughly with a brush and found the Distress inks really great for this as they blend a lot better than any other re-inkers I've used for this technique.

I then crumpled up some white tissue paper with added blingy bits (Paperchase), settled this on top of the glue and gently brayered the tissue on to the acetate. I did this on a piece of kitchen foil as the glue tends to spread out a bit and if you use paper underneath it can be tricky to remove. I left it to dry completely and then trimmed off the excess tissue paper round the edges. I then glued the panel to a piece of silver mirri card - you can use white card but the mirri card gives the piece a lovely glow.

I attached the panel to the easel front and added a copper peel off line frame. I finished off the card with a scrap of leftover card made using my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (tutorial link on side bar) which happily used the same Distress inks and stamp set. I added a butterfly (B Line Designs) stamped on acetate then glittered on the reverse and layered up, some blingy ribbon, skeleton leaves and blingy flowers.

Do pop over to the challenge blog and look at the other DT creations are there are some absolute stunners this time - I think everyone has really excelled themselves for this one!

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Crafty Calendar Challenge - August Hot Colours
Dream Valley Challenges - Colour (Lemon, Lime, Orange)
One Stop Craft - Bold & Bright
Scrappy Frogs - Bling

Have a good week,
Fliss xx

Single Layer Card

Morning everyone, hope you've all go the sunny Friday morning we have here. I can't believe it's Friday already - where did the week go!
We have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles and this week's theme of a Single Layer has been chosen by Ruth.
I have to own up to having struggled like mad with this as I really love layers on my creations as I'm sure you know so this was a real challenge for me. Here's what I finally came up with:

I decided to make a little scene with my favourite Fairy Flutterby, Gracie and the elements in the set which cleverly, I think, has the wings separate so that Gracie doesn't have to be a fairy,
I stamped Gracie on a scalloped card blank and then masked her and stamped the wings on so that they appear to be behind her. I then stamped on a few flowers at random and the greeting near the top.
I coloured Gracie and the flowers with a mix of Flexmarkers (I just love these) and Prisma pencils. I painted the wings with glitter glue and here serendipity struck as the wings were originally blue and the brush I used still had some Dried Marigold Distress ink on it (that'll teach me to wash my brushes more thoroughly!) and the wings ended up a rather interesting mottled colour which I actually like.
I finished off by adding some grass with Zig Art & Graphic twin markers in 2 shades of green.
I had to take the photo against a coloured background with all the white space on the card - a first for me I think!
Do pop over and look at all the other DT creations as there are some fabulous creations there and it might just inspire you to have a go.

My card is for the following challenges:
Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes
Lawnscaping Challenge - One Layer

Have a great weekend,
Fliss xx

Fairies and Angels

Good morning everyone from a currently sunny South Coast. It's the start of another week and time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday. We're continuing with Suzanne's August theme of Things With Wings and this week the challenge is to include Fairies or Angels on your creation - this will be popular I think.
Before I show you my creation, I'd like to say hello and thanks to Gayle and Babs for joining my blog. Big thanks also go to Top Tip Tuesday who picked my embossed butterfly card from the Friday before last for their Top 3 - ladies, I'm thrilled to bits! Also, huge thanks go to Jean Hardy of Crafty Individuals as she's included my little triple bird wall hanging on the Crafty Individuals blog as inspiration for the current challenge, Bright and Beautiful - yippee!
My inspiration for you for this week's challenge is a collage style card for which I made my own background paper with a difference which I'm hoping you'll like as much as I liked making it.

The image I've used is a really sweet little fairy stamp by Faerie Poppets which was generously given to me by a crafty friend after I admired it on a card she made - how lovely is that! I stamped her with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink which I like as it's softer than black. I then coloured her using my Aqua Markers (I wanted a soft effect so scribbled on a plate and picked up colour with a wet brush). I then inked around the edges a little.
The background paper started off with Sir Tim's wrinkle free distress technique (if you haven't yet got his Compendium of Curiosities it's a must have!) with Crushed Olive, Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass Distress inks. I then stamped on the flowers (Stampendous) and coloured these with Promarkers.
I finished the paper off by stamping on a very old Hero Arts manuscript stamp and a large corner flourish design by Viva Decor My Paper World. I added this to my card blank and glued on the image panel. The final finishing touch is a favourite Hero Arts sentiment stamped directly on the background paper.
As you can see, this technique gives the effect of lots of layers and plenty of texture all on one background paper.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Delightful Challenges - Things With Wings
Moving Along With The Times - Fantasy
Paper Play - Make Your Own Designer Paper
Clearly Inspired - Things With Wings
The Crafty Pad - Cute 'n' Girly

Thanks for looking and have a good week,
Fliss xx

Handmade Flowers

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a great weekend. It's time for the second fortnight's challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this time we'd like to see your creations with Handmade Flowers and of course, some stamping with rubber or clear stamps but no digis please as the challenges are all about getting inky fingers.
We had some incredible entries for the first challenge and it's going to be really hard to choose the top entries with such a high standard. Thanks so much to everyone who entered and made that first challenge such a success.
Now for my inspiration which this time is not a card but a little box that I altered which will make a lovely gift for someone soon.

The little box I used is wooden and perfect for the shabby chic look I wanted. I brushed on a coat of antique white acrylic paint on both the outside and inside first.
Next I stamped on a spray of roses from the Clearly Inspired Stencil Flowers set with Palette Cognac ink. I stamped this everywhere it was possible to stamp and the only place left out was the inside edge of the lid as the block simply would not fit!
For my shabby, distressed look, I then dry brushed everywhere with lilac and blue acrylic paints and wiped some paint off with a baby wipe until I was happy with the result.
I made panels for the inside top and base with squares of parchment paper embossed with the Papermania Vine folder and then sponged on Milled Lavender, Stormy Sky and Vintage Photo Distress inks for a shabby effect.
I made the flowers for the top with a Woodware cut and emboss punch and punched them out from lilac, light blue and light brown scraps of decorated papers. I enhanced the embossing with a ball tool and then sponged the corresponding flowers with the same inks used for the inside panels. I then pierced holes in the centres and added the silk flower stamens. I rounded out the petals with a large ball tool and then brushed them with glitter glues. I glued these on with some Prima leaves.
I finished off with some ribbon and braid around the base.

After all the gorgeous entries last time, I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for this one. Don't forget to check out the creations made by the rest of the DT as there are some stunning creations on view.

I'm entering my box in the following challenges:
Fussy and Fancy - Use 3 or More of Your Favourite Embellishments (Handmade flowers, Prima leaves, ribbon, braid)
Phindy's Place - Vintage Look
Simply Create - Distress
Crafty Catz - Emboss It
CRAFT - Gifts
Do You Stack Up - Emboss It
Allsorts - Anything  But A Card

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Good Luck Wishes

Good morning everyone and hope you're all keeping safe with the terrible stuff that has been going on in the UK.
Before I go on to this week's challenge over at Polka Doodles, I just want to mention one of our teamies who because of her job, has been right in the thick of all the troubles. She's been really brave trying to keep people safe in the area she works in and I want to say a huge thanks to her and her colleagues who have been working very long shifts with little sleep to help calm the situation. All of this too when her department doesn't usually work in this area of policing.
Our challenge this week has been chosen by Claire as the children in Scotland where she lives are about to return to school so she would like to see a Good Luck themed project.

I've made a very simple card this week that uses elements from the ever versatile Sundae Of Seasons CD. I chose a pale green polka dot paper which I added to a cream scalloped card blank.
I printed out some pretty flowers, cut them out and then added some chunky glitter around the edges. I assembled the card with the flowers, some Prima leaves and one of the clever sentiment panels where you can add your own sentiment. How easy is that!

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Sweet Stamps - Bling It Up
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Petals
Gingerloft - Make It Sparkle
Sentimental Sundays - Flowers + A Sentiment

Thanks for looking and wishing you all a safe and quiet weekend.
Fliss xx

Birds Or Bugs With Make My Monday

Good morning everyone and hope you've all had a lovely weekend. As it's Monday again, we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday. We're continuing Suzanne's theme for the month of Things With Wings and this week this challenge is to include Birds Or Bugs on your creation.
I went for birds which I really love as I'm not a fan of bugs so don't have much in the way of those. I've used a little triple hanging frame that I bought at The Craft Barn to alter and here's the result:

I painted all the frames with some antique white acrylic paint and then stamped on a flourish design from Crafty Individuals which was one of the generous bag of freebies that you get when you order stamps online. The flourish was stamped on the front of the frames with Palette Cognac ink and round the sides with Palette Boudoir Blush (fab name!).
I then dry brushed the frame fronts with pale blue and lilac acrylic paints to soften the effect for a shabby chic look. I rubbed a little Brilliance Galaxy Gold ink round the edges.
Next, I stamped 3 of the birds from Crafty Individuals CI-190  with black ink and painted them with Aqua Markers by scribbling on a plate and picking up the colour with a wet brush. I cut the images out and added them to black velvet paper mats and set them in the frames.
I punched out some flowers from beige parchment card with a Woodware multi flower punch together with a few from plain green Bazzill card. I stamped the flourish design on the beige flowers with Milled Lavender, Crushed Olive and Victorian Velvet Distress inks. I rounded them out with a large embossing ball tool and glued some together in a variety of colour combinations.
I finished off with some leaf sprays punched with a Woodware punch, some metal text plates (Darico) and some butterfly buttons (Dress It Up).

I'm entering my altered frames in the following challenges:
Clearly Inspired - Things With Wings
Fabulous Friday - Colour In An Image (my bird panels)
Raise The Bar - Anything Goes
Crafty Purple Frog - Anything But A Card

Hoping you have a good week and thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

CASE It At Polka Doodles

Good morning everyone and happy Friday. Don't know about you but we have sunshine after all that rain yesterday so I'm hoping it will decide to stay nice for the weekend.
Before I go on to this weeks challenge over at Polka Doodles, there are a couple of things.
Firstly, I'd like to say hello and thank you to some new followers - Babs, Daniele, Diane, Nikky and Dot - lovely to see you all.
Secondly, we have 3 new DT members over at Polka Doodles and I'd like to say well done ladies and welcome to the team:

Daniele

Diane

Louise

Now for the challenge which has been set this week by Lou and she's asked us to CASE a member of the Design Team and of course tell us who it is. I decided to CASE a gorgeous card Lou did a few weeks ago as it's full of the lovely texture that I like so much and the soft colours are beautiful. It also features a butterfly which I as you know, I love too.

Here's my card first:

And here is Lou's:

As you can see, I've rearranged mine a little as the butterfly I wanted to use is quite a bit larger. I used 2 Cuttlebug embossing folders to create my background panels. The green leafy one was embossed on green parchment card then sponged with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and then swiped over the raised areas.

The second one is diamonds embossed on more green parchment card and then swiped with a blue ink pad on the raised areas. I stamped the butterfly from the Gracie Fairy Flutterby set with brown ink and then coloured the image with blue and green Promarkers, cut it out and added pearls.

I assembled the card with a brown kraft background panel, a strip of striped paper trimmed with a Martha Stewart border punch and a scalloped dotty border. Both of these are from the A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft CD.

I added a layered flower with punched rose leaves (Papermania) and a greeting from the Sensational Sentiments stamp set cut out with a Nestabilities die on a scalloped mat.

Tip - If like me you're slightly shocked by the price of kraft card, you might like to know that the brown kraft card on my creation is actually from a set of natural brown file dividers that I found in my local stationers for an incredible £1.49!  All you have to do is trim off the alphabet panel and the side with the holes in comes in really handy for a little ribbon or raffia threading  for decoration. Sneak peak of one of my Christmas cards here to illustrate this:

A little edit from me here as a couple of peops have mentioned recycling which I obviously do as much as I can, but the reason that I bought the file dividers was that all the thinner packaging such as cereal boxes that I get has a grey reverse which I do paint and ink to make backgrounds. All those that are brown are generally much thicker and not what I always want to put on a card.
I'll get off my soapbox now!

I'm entering my butterfly card in the following challenges:

Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes in August

Crafts and Me - Anything Goes

I Love Promarkers - Things With Wings

Cards and More - Dots and Pearls

Top Tip Tuesday - Blue, Green and Brown

Thanks for looking and hoping you have a lovely weekend,

Fliss xx

Butterflies and Dragonflies

Good morning everyone, I can't believe it's August already - where did the year go! As it's the start of a new month, there's a new theme over at Make My Monday and it's been chosen by Suzanne. The August theme is Things With Wings and this week we would like to see your creations with Butterflies and Dragonflies.
I was so pleased to see this as I love butterflies and as I'm sure you know already, they quite often pop up in my creations. My project this time is a collage which started life as a piece of recycled packaging.

I painted the edges of the packaging with a couple of shades of blue acrylic paint and then added some vintage music score which I coloured by adding a Tim Holtz large flourish mask and then sponged with Dried Marmalade Distress ink.
I next added a couple of torn pieces of pages from my vintage butterfly illustrations book sponged with Spiced Marmalade Distress ink.
I then made the remaining elements using a gorgeous set of butterfly stamps by Non Sequitur which I won from The Stamp Man back in January. I used the clever text stamp on parchment card, stamped with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and added a few tiny butterflies and dragonflies. I sponged this with Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass DIs and then added a little colour to the butterflies with a blue marker. I tore the edges and then added somewhat wonky white stitching with my sewing machine - practice needed I think as I haven't sewed paper before!
I stamped the butterflies on parchment card and acetate and then coloured them all with Promarkers (on the back of the acetate images or the ink would come off!). I cut these out and layered them up with Diamond Glaze clear glue.
Finally, I stamped the postage stamps from the set, colured them with Promarkers and Distress inks and cut them out with postage edge scissors. I added these to the collage and then stamped on a faux post mark from the stamp set to finish.

I'm entering my collage in the following challenges:
The Stamp Man - Stitching
Crafts4Eternity - Anything But A Card
Fashionista Friday - Summer (the butterflies I see in my garden at the moment)

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx