Frosty The Snowman

Hello folks, hope you're all having a good week so far. I'm finally catching up after my enforced crafting break (very hard to do when you can't see!) and have some Christmas cards to show you. It's the same design but I made a dozen and coloured half with Promarkers and half with Aquamarkers for a bit of variety.

 

As you can see, the top one with the Aquamarkers gives a much softer effect which I have to say I rather like.

The snowman is from the Polka Doodles Christmas Fun clear stamp set and was stamped with Memento black ink. I then coloured with either Promarkers or with Aquamarkers (which I did by scribbling colour on a ceramic plate and picking up colour with a water brush). I then cut them out.

I printed out the gorgeous snowflake paper from the Polka Doodles Magical Winter CD set and added panels of this to some 5 x 7 kraft cards (Papermania) which were embossed on one side with the Cuttlebug snowflake folder. 

I added a circular white panel embossed with the same folder and topped with the snowman. I stamped a greeting from the clear stamp set included in the Polka Doodles Christmas crafting kit from Practical Publishing and stamped on snowflakes from the same set with the Brilliance Peacock ink pad. I set this on a turquoise circular mat.

Challenges for my cards:

I Love Promarkers - Snowmen/Snowflakes

Cards und More - Snowflakes

Karen's Doodles - Non Traditional Christmas Colours

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking,

Fliss xx

Christmas Box

Good morning everyone, that day is here again so we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday. We're still with the Christmas theme and this week would like you to

Make Or Alter A Box

Thanks to all who entered last week's challenge which proved really popular and made it so hard to do the top picks as there were so many gorgeous creations.
I'd also like to give a very warm welcome and congratulations to our 2 new Design Team members, Mynnette and Val who will be showing us their gorgeous creations from next week.

For this week's inspiration I decided to alter a box as I wanted something a little more permanent. I found a lovely heart shaped wooden box in The Range and this is what the finished box looks like:

I painted my box by sponging on layers of antique white and antique gold acrylic paints, sanding down a little after each coat.
I then stamped on the largest flourish from the Viva Decor My Paper World clear stamp set with Palette Cognac ink.
I made the Christmas rose decoration with tissue paper die cut with the Nestabilities blossom set and embossed with the Cuttlebug textile folder. I then stacked these up and added a paper rose in the centre. I scrunched up the petals to make the rose shape and glittered the edges with Frosted Lace Stickles.
I then punched out some small leaf sprigs and die cut some larger leaves with the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die set using dark green card and embossed them with the textile folder. I glued the embellishments to the top of the box.

Challenges for my altered box:
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything But A Card
Fussy and Fancy - Make A Gift/Anything But A Card
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking and have a great week.
Fliss xx

Snow Is Falling

Hello folks, hope you've all had a lovely weekend.
Before I share some cards with you, apologies are necessary for my lack of blogging and commenting this week which is because I've been a bit under the weather. First I had a headache and puffy eyed thing which meant not being able to wear my contact lenses all day. Then when that got better I went down with a mild stomach bug which nevertheless made me feel rather rotten.
I'm recovered now so will try and catch up with you all over the next few days. The cards here are the samples from a class I taught last week using a rather lovely clear stamp set by Papermania called Christmas Time.

This is the stamp set that I used for my oval easel card for the FSC challenge last Sunday and you can see how versatile it is.
The first 2 cards use the gorgeous snowy village and were coloured with Promarkers using pink skin tones and accents for the first on and ivory to golden shades for the second. These are really easy to colour if you assemble 5 or 6 similar shades and arrange in colour order, starting with the lightest first. You then use the lightest colour all over first using the broad chisel end. You then add detail to the houses and so on using the rest of the colours in order from lightest to darkest. As a finishing touch, you go all over the top again with the lightest colour - this was Satin on the pink version and Ivory on the golden version. When dry, add glitter highlights or snow effects with Fluffy Stuff (Woodware).
The pink card uses a snowflake from the set stamped in Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Pearlescent Beige and Coral together with a Hero Arts sentiment stamped with the beige. A die cut gold mat was added to the village panel.
The golden version has a snowflake embossed panel, a deckle trimmed kraft card mat, punched leaf sprays, pearls and ribbon and a die cut sentiment panel.
The remaining cards show how different the seasonal door image can look. The first one took a while to colour with Promarkers and has an embossed side, a Hero Arts sentiment panel and a cut out wreath also coloured with Promarkers.
The second one was coloured in a similar way to the village cards, using Ivory first then adding pink shades and pastel blue for the door for a completely different look. The card has a kraft background panel embossed at the base and stamped with an Art Impressions snowflake which was white embossed and a snowflake from the set stamped with Brilliance Ice Blue. The greeting panel is Penny Black.

Challenges for my cards:
Paper Sundaes - Winter Wonderland
Gingerloft - Winter or Christmas
Stamptacular Sunday - Anything Christmas
Totally Papercrafts - Christmas
4 Crafty Chicks - Snowflakes
Fun With Shapes & More - Cold As Ice (the first 2 cards only)

Thanks for looking and have a good next week.
Fliss xx

Christmas Foliage, Flowers and Snowflakes

Morning everyone, a bit of a long title I know but this is the theme of the new challenge over at Make My Monday which you give you plenty of scope for your entries and help with those Christmas cards still needing to be made. Rather a lot in my case but I'm slowly getting there.
I chose snowflakes for mine as I couldn't find my lovely poinsettia stamp (until I finished this card of course!) and I've gone for a blue and brown colour scheme as I really like that combination of colours.

I started off with a kraft card blank and stamped an Art Impressions snowflake all over with Stormy Sky and Frayed Burlap Distress inks. I added a blue border embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflakes folder and some silver ric rac braid.
I stamped the snowman (Art Impressions) on white card, coloured his hat with a brown Promarker and ink and cut out a panel with a Nestabilities label die then inked the edges. I then inked it up with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with crystal embossing powder. I set this on a larger silver mat cut with the same die set.
I stamped the sentiment (Crafty Individuals) with brown and blue inks, cut this out and set it on a kraft tag embossed with the snowflakes folder. I added this to a blue tag shaped mat and finished off with more silver braid.

The Design Team have made some gorgeous creations to inspire you so don't forget to pop over for a look. Hoping to see you enter too.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Moving Along With The Times - Let It Snow
I Did It Creations - Snowmen
Scrappy Frogs - Kraft Cardstock

Have a great week,
Fliss xx

Quirky Crafts Guest Designer

Hello again folks, 2 posts in one day from me here as a couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be asked by the lovely Design Team at Quirky Crafts challenges to be the guest designer for today's new challenge.
This fortnight the challenge is to make a Clean and Simple Card and as you all know I do tend to struggle with that a little but having done this last week for Make My Monday, I've at least had a bit more practice!
The challenge is being sponsored by the lovely Wendy of Digital Delights by Louby Loo and there's a great prize on offer so do pop over for all the details.

My card features the cute Booboo Bear image and the Sending You Smiles sentiment.

I printed out the image and sentiment and added initial colouring with inks. I then added detail with a mix of Promarkers and Prisma pencils, adding highlights with glitter gel pens. I then cut them out.
I made a simple background for the little bear by masking off the base card leaving a circular aperture. I then stamped a tiny Rubber Stamp Tapestry flower in the circle with pink. yellow and green inks. I added the image in the centre with foam tape.
I made a flowery border with a punched strip (a Martha Stewart double edge punch which I stamped with the same flowers. I added the sentiment to finish.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Clearly Inspired - Flowers
One Stitch At A Time - Anything Goes

Thanks so much to Cazzy and the team for the honour of being guest designer which I really enjoyed.
Fliss xx

Dreaming Of A White Christmas

Are you all singing now as I have to say that the theme of our new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges certainly made me start singing (in my head though or I think my family would be throwing things at me!).
So there you have it, you can interpret Dreaming Of A White Christmas in any way you like and in my case it had to be a snowy scene as even at my age it still makes me excited to open the curtains in the morning to find a world turned white and pretty. It would be really lovely to have the view below from my window.
Also, a big welcome to our new fashionette Paula who does amazing and beautiful artwork and now on to my card.

There are 2 photos so that you can see some of the detail close up as I always find easel shaped cards quite hard to take a decent photo of. You may need to click on the pics to get the full glittery effect on the snow  and the big snowflake on the base.
The snowy village and the lovely sentiment come from a Papermania clear stamp set called Christmas Time and were both stamped with Memento black ink. I coloured the village scene with Promarkers and Prisma pencils and then inked the sky in very carefully with a sponge and Stormy Sky Distress ink. I added snow using Woodware Fluffy Stuff and glittered it after heating it to puff it up.
I made the paper for the base by stamping the smaller snowflake from the Artemio Art Impressions clear stamp set (it's the one used by Trish Latimer in the latest Craft Stamper and doesn't have a name on) on white card with Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue and Beige and Platinum Planet.
I made a border strip for the base with kraft card and silver card embossed with the Cuttlebug snowflakes folder. I cut out the sentiment with a Papermania die and inked the edges with the Stormy Sky.
I assembled the card as an oval easel shape as you see (cut with a Creative memories oval cutting set) and finished off with snowflakes (die cut with the Cuttlebug cut and emboss snowflake set and punched with a Woodware punch).

Do hop over to the challenge blog as the Design Team have made some fabulous and varied projects to inspire you and hopefully get you entering the challenge. You'll also find details of the lovely prize that our wonderful sponsor Marina of Cottage Crafts has generously provided.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Paper Pretties - Christmas with non traditional colours
Stampavie and More - Anything But Square
Paper Crafting Journey - Embossing
Crafty Catz - Snowflakes
Crafty Emma's Challenge - Snowflakes

Have a lovely Sunday,
Fliss xx

The Craft Barn's Amazing Blog Candy

This is for anyone who hasn't yet seen the amazing blog candy being offered by The Craft Barn to celebrate reaching 600 followers (I just peeked and they've now got over 850) and you can see all the details of what you need to do to be in with a chance of winning by clicking HERE. It's well worth a look anyway for all the fabulous tutorials on there.

Good luck to everyone who enters,
Fliss xx

Shaped Christmas Card

Morning everyone, I was off to an early start today as I had to take my daughter to the station for the 8 o'clock train to work so there was a bit of a queue for the bathroom today!
I can't believe that it's Friday again - don't know where the week went although I have been busy with making samples for Nikky who's appearing on Create and Craft on 23 November with the new Pretty Tuff CD.
This week's challenge at Polka Doodles has been chosen by Ruth so you can maybe guess that the theme is Christmas but this has a twist as she would like to see a Shaped Christmas Card.
I've chosen a favourite shape of mine at the moment which gives some dimension to the card but still fits easily in an envelope.

All elements on my card come from the Magical Winter CD Collection, apart from the green glitter card which you may need to click on the pic to see properly.
I covered my main card base with the pretty dotty paper then made the central stand up panel with the gorgeous stitched look kraft paper and a cute eskimo topper.
I simply added a glittery border strip, some of the cut out embellishments and a lovely sentiment from the CD - simples!
If you haven't yet checked out this fabulous 2 CD collection, it's worth your while to hop over and take a look at the gallery to see all the wonderful creations that can be made, some in a matter of minutes which we all need when trying to get all the Christmas cards done!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Paper Play - Shaped Cards
Creatalicious - Christmas with Sparkle (you may need to click on the pic to see mine)
Digital Tuesday - Christmas Time

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

CAS At Make My Monday

Good morning everyone, Monday is here again! Being the start of the week, we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday, continuing with our theme for November which is Christmas.
This week the challenge is to make a Clean and Simple Christmas Card Focusing On The Sentiment.
I have to admit that I really struggled with this one as I find less is more cards a real challenge as I keep wanting to add more!
I managed to restrain myself though and here's the result.

I started off with a really lovely sentiment from the Polka Doodles Christmas Fun clear stamp set, stamping with black and heat embossing with clear powder. I coloured in the holly leaves and berries with glaze pens.
I then stamped on the holly sprigs (Papermania) with VersaFine Spanish Moss ink, adding colour to the berries with Crimson Red before stamping. I painted a little Crushed Olive Distress ink on the leaves to add colour. And that's it - done!
This has to be the quickest card I've ever made (although it took a while to think it up!) and also the one with the shortest instructions - which I'm sure you'll appreciate!

The Design Team have made some fabulous inspiration for you to feast your eyes on so do pop over for a peek.
I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Christmas Card Challenges - Deck The Halls - Holly or Wreaths
Less Is More - One Layer Leaves
Wags 'n' Whiskers - Christmas

Have a good week.
Fliss xx

Vintage Gift Bag

I'm back with a second post to show you a quick make with supplies that are almost all recycled and the thinking about what to do took more than the actual making up so I think I'll be doing a few more of these for Christmas and all the December birthdays I have coming up.
There's a pic of the recycled items first and then you'll see the finished article.

As you can see I made use of one of those lovely paper bags that various clothing stores use for packing purchases and also of quite a few paper bags from craft shop purchases in the past that were much too pretty to throw away.
The main bag has a nature theme with Autumn shades and leaves so the design followed on from that. I tore off the bag front and added this to the paper carrier bag. I then stamped Hero Arts Old French Writing and a butterfly and postmark from the On Gossamer Wings stamp set by Non-Sequitur that I won from The Stamp Man back in January. I used VersaFine Vintage Sepia and stamped on the plain cream bag twice.
I tore out the little collages and added one to the bag and the other to a recycled clothing label. I also added corrugated card from a coffee cup holder to the tag.
I made a flower using various paper bag and the Nestabilities blossom die, fixing the layers together with an ornate metal brad and scrunching the layers. I finished off with some crochet lace.

I'm entering this in this week's Sugar Creek Hollow Trash to Vintage Treasure challenge and if you haven't yet entered you might want to pop over and check out the fabulous prize that some lucky entrant will be winning next month - it will be a fantastic Christmas present that's for sure! There's a pic on my side bar too.

Bye for now,
Fliss xx

Swirls and Pearls

Good morning everyone, Friday is here again so there's a new challenge over at Polka Doodles. This week your hostess is Daniele and she's chosen the theme of Swirls and Pearls with Pretty Pastels.
I really enjoyed this challenge as I love flourishes (bet you didn't know that!!!) and loved combining this with some textures on my card so without further ado, here it is.

All of the papers on my card as well as the cute image are from the Pretty Sweet CD which all the Design Team really love so I'm guessing you will see quite a lot of cards using this one.
I used the pretty papers for matting and layering, having printed out the pretty lilac one on to linen card for a lovely textured look.
I printed out the cute digital stamp and coloured her with Promarkers. I then cut her out and added her to the oval layered mat with foam tape. I used my favourite trick of doubling the tape behind her head to give added dimension.
I embossed 2 panels of white linen card with the Craft Concepts Gem Flourishes folder and swiped them with Brilliance Pearlescent Purple ink. I also sponged the ink round the edges of these and the larger base panel.
I finished off with some flourishes die cut with a Sissix design from mauve card then embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and some flowers punched with a Papermania emboss punch with pearl centres.
The Design Team have made some gorgeous samples to inspire you so do hop over for a peek.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
I Love Promarkers - Follow That Sketch
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Cute
Paper Crafting Journey - Embossing
Charisma Cardz - Cutesy
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Punch Time
Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge - Embossing

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

The Key To Her Heart

Good morning everyone on a very dark, dull and cold day in the South of England. It's so dark that it feels like evening is on the way at 10.30 in the morning!
I'm here to share a project I've been working on for the last week in bits and pieces whenever I could find a spare few minutes. It's another collage as I really enjoy making those at the moment, largely because I can have a good rummage in my recycling box to find interesting bits to use.
Here's the finished artwork and underneath you'll find how it came about.

Here's what I used for the base

This is my favourite thing to use for a base as you can see from the second photo that it cut down into several interesting pieces. I just used a rectangle for my collage but the other pieces will be in use very soon.
I covered the base with a piece of torn edged vintage music score lightly inked with Spun Sugar Distress ink. I then added pieces of wide scalloped edge lace at the top and bottom to soften the effect. I punched holes at the top with my Cropodile and knotted ribbon through (the ribbon was from packaging on my pressies last week).
I stamped the large background (B Line Designs) on beige parchment paper and embossed with Ranger Tarnished Gold. I then sponged on Victorian Velvet and Crushed Olive Distress inks. I tore the edges and attached across the centre.
I made a further panel by stamping a Chocolate Baroque background stamp (recently won as part of lovely Claire C's blog candy - lucky me!), embossed with pale gold and sponged with Shabby Shutters and Tattered Rose Distress inks. This was then torn around the edges.
I stamped the lovely Maude by The Stampsmith with VersaFine Onyx Black ink on Judikins KromeKote card and tinted lightly with various Distress inks when it was dry. I then set this on the embossed panel, adding a silver key at the top attached with wire, a piece of chestnut velvet ribbon and a vintage jewellery piece.
I finished off with more lace at the bottom together with a jewelled butterfly and computer generated text. The final touch was the heart, hand cut from leftover music score, partially embossed and wiped with Brilliance Galaxy Gold ink.
The wide lace, silver key, vintage jewellery piece and the butterfly all came from one of June of Dezinaworld's fabulous treasure bags and I have tons of things still to use.

I'd like to enter my collage in the following challenges:
The Stamp Man - Collage
The Stampsmith - Ribbons and Lace
Sugar Creek Hollow - Trash to Vintage Treasure
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Upcycling/Recycling

Thanks for looking.
Fliss xx

Vintage/Traditional Christmas

Good morning everyone, it's the start of another week and before I give you details of the new challenge over a Make My Monday, I have some good news to share about my Autumn Leaves card from last week's challenge.
I would like to say a really big thanks firstly to Creative Inspirations Paint challenge blog as my card gained a Top 3 award and secondly to Quirky Crafts challenge blog as the card was the public vote winner.
I'd also like to say a HUGE thanks to lovely Cindy Adkins as she made the most wonderful collage for me as a birthday surprise and I was so touched to see it. If you'd like to see what she made, you can see it HERE - warning though, it has my ugly mug on lol.

Now for this week's challenge and being November it's the start of a new theme which this month has been chosen by Suzi B who would like to help everyone with those seasonal cards with the theme of CHRISTMAS. This week's challenge is to make a Vintage/Traditional card and mine can be taken as both so there's loads of options with this one.

The lovely robin came from a useful and much used Artistic Outpost stamp set and was stamped with VersaFine Vintage Sepia and coloured with pencils. The edges of the panel were inked with blue.
I then embossed a piece of green card with the Cuttlebug holly spray folder and swiped VersaColor Green Tea ink over the raised area. I coloured the berries with an American Crafts ultimate glitter pen and inked the edges of the panel with Split Pea and Umber VersaColor inks.
I stamped a Papermania holly spray on buff card with VersaFine Spanish Moss ink and stamped again on one side of a 7x5 kraft card blank.
I assembled the card as you see, adding a stamped greeting (again from the Polka Doodles Christmas kit for Practical Publishing) which will be appearing a lot on my cards this year as I love it. I coloured it with Promarkers and inked the edges.
This is the second of my card designs for this year as it's easy to make the panels in repeat and simple to assemble them all.

The Design Team have made some fabulous cards to inspire you so don't forget to take a look. Please also don't forget that we have a DT Call running at the moment so if you'd like to join a friendly and supportive team all the details are on the challenge blog. No previous experience is necessary and all levels of crafting are welcome.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Paper Sundaes - Rectangle
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes
I Did It Creations - Christmas/Winter

Have a good week.
Fliss xx

Times Gone By

Hello folks, hope you're all having a good weekend although here in the UK it certainly won't be a peaceful one. As I write this post there are bangs and flashes of fireworks as it's bonfire night here.

It's time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and the theme for this fortnight is Times Gone By. This theme really got me thinking about what that means to me in particular and I decided in the end that it means the past but in terms of me. I don't know about you but in my case time seems to have flown by since my children were born and sometimes it only seems like yesterday that they were knee high so my project has the theme of time.

The project originated from a trawl through my stamp collection and the text stamp I used caught my eye - the rest of the project followed on from there. Some of the DT have said that it got them singing too and it had that effect on me as I still remember the song and the words as if it were yesterday.

Ingredients Used:
Stamps:
  Girl and Clocks Collage - Paper Artsy Kids Plate 1
  Text Stamp - Paper Artsy Gentlemen Plate 4
  Pocket Watch - A free stamp from the short lived and still missed Simply Stamping mag
  Roman Numerals - Stamp-It 1716E
Embossing Folders - Cuttlebug Clockworks, Numbers Collage
Distress Inks - Tattered Rose, Scattered Straw, Victorian Velvet, Pumice Stone, Mustard Seed
VersaFine Ink - Smokey Gray
Manila Tag
Grey Textured Card Blank
Clear Embossing Powder and Embossing Ink
Silver Clip

The background paper was embossed with the Cuttlebug folder, sponged with the pumice Stone and then swiped with Victorian Velvet and Mustard Seed. The edges were torn and it was added at an angle to the card blank stamped with the numerals in the Pumice Stone ink and embossed on one side with the numbers folder.
The image panel was stamped with the Smokey Gray ink and sponged with pink and yellow Distress inks when dry. This was also torn around the edges. It was added to the tag which was stamped with the numerals in Pumice Stone and Tattered Rose DIs. The text was stamped with the grey ink on a scrap of card, torn out, inked and clipped to the top of the tag.
The card was finished with a scrap of grey card embossed with the numbers folder and swiped with Pumice DI and the pocket watch stamped in grey, embossed with clear powder and then swiped with embossing ink and embossed a second time with clear so the watch face had a "glass" front.

The Fashionettes have made some gorgeous creations with which to inspire you so do head on over to take a look.
Please also remember that as a stamping challenge, no digital images are allowed and we must be able to see some stamping on your entries so it will really help our job if you say which stamps you used.
Thanks for looking and hoping to see you there.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
The Play Date Cafe PDCC106

Fliss xx

I'm So Excited!!!

Back again already as I just found out that I won the Sir Stampalot October Challenge, Food Glorious Food with my Autumn Fruits Collage which you can see HERE. Yippee!!!!
Thank you so much to the Design Team for this fabulous honour and to Andy and Janice for providing such a fabulous prize.
It was my birthday yesterday and this has to be the icing on the cake! I had a lovely day as I went shopping in Brighton with my younger daughter Sarah in the morning and we all went out for a meal in the evening at a local Italian restaurant. I had some lovely presents and cards too as both my daughters always make cards (crafting runs in the family).

Hugs, Fliss, doing a happy dance xxx

Shaped Card Challenge

Good morning folks, it's another blustery day down here on the UK South coast and hopefully the wind is strong enough to blow the clouds away - I can see from my window that they're moving very fast.
Today being Friday (yippee!), we have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles and I've chosen the theme this week. My challenge to you all is to make a Shaped Card, so no plain squares or rectangles, something a bit more unusual is what I'd like to see. The Polka Doodles dollies and guy have risen to the challenge really well with some fabulous creations to inspire you so do hop over for a look.
Also if you're going to the big craft show at the NEC, Nikky will be there demonstrating and will have lots of goodies on sale including the brand new Pretty Tuff CD perfect for those ever difficult masculine cards.
I've made a circular easel card to share with you:

I really like this shape and cut my card blank out with my Creative Memories circle cutter - something I've had for many years and would never be without.
All of the elements on my card come from the Pretty Sweet CD. I covered the card with circles of the pretty leaf paper. I then printed out the black and white digital image of the very cute Piper sitting down (there are several poses) and coloured her with various Promarkers. I then cut her out leaving a narrow white border all round.
I used the largest Nestabilities Blossom die to cut a mat from beige dotty paper and set this on a circular mat of red rose paper. I made a flower using the same rose paper and blossom die, shaping the petals and adding pink Doodle Dewdrops to the centre.
I added lace to the card front as as it was the self stick type, I used glitter on the portions where the glue showed through. This stops the lace being sticky. I added Piper on the mat and glued on the flower.
I finished off by adding a floral border cut from the red rose paper with a Martha Stewart double edge punch, a sentiment from the CD and a pearl row for the stopper.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - Die Cuts
Little Darlings Challenges - Not Square
Craft Your Passion - Bingo (Use A Punch/Sentiment/Bling)
Paper Pretties - Use A Sentiment

Have a great day and a lovely weekend,
Fliss xx

Vintage Christmas

Hello everyone on a very wet and dark Wednesday afternoon. It feels like Winter is nearly here as it's really cold too.
I have a Christmas card to share with you today as I went to a crafting group for our occasional meet up on Saturday and now happily have most of the elements needed to make a good start on my seasonal cards. I don't know about you but I normally work out around 10 designs and then make 10-12 of each so that I'll hopefully have enough to cover my ever growing list.
I'll be sharing more when I can but here's the first.

The photo here is not great as I was about to take it when the heavens opened and the light went so my camera used the flash and made the muted gold border much blingier (is that a word???) on one side.
I made the red and green background paper by repeatedly stamping Crafty Individuals CI-237 on cream card with Crimson Red and Spanish Moss VersaFine inks. I then sprayed the stamped card with Glimmer Mists in Emperor Gold, Olive Vine and Vintage Pink. This gives a lovely shimmery paper perfect for Christmas. I covered an A4 sheet to make enough for several cards.
The music panel is a piece of striped vellum which I embossed with the Cuttlebug music folder then swiped with Palette Landscape ink. I placed a piece of cream card cut to size behind this and attached it at the corners with Paperchase kraft paper photo corners.
The lovely bird panel is part of Magenta Cling Set CSET15 which is not actually a Christmas stamp but works well as one. I inked the panel and then added detail with Prisma pencils and Promarkers.
The central border is antique gold textured card and was cut with an X Cut embossing and cutting border die plate. I added a button tied with recycled yarn.
I finished off with a greeting which is from the Practical Publishing Polka Doodles Christmas Kit clear stamp set and was stamped with Archival Olive ink and coloured with pencils.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Sugar Creek Hollow - Vellum (mine is embossed and inked)
Stamp-n-Doodle - Embossing (mine is dry embossing on the vellum)
Top Tip Tuesday - Make Your Own Background (my favourite sort of challenge!)
Simon Says Stamp - Buttons
ABC Christmas Challenge - V For Vintage

Hope you're having a good week.
Fliss xx

Blog Candy Winner Announcement!

My third post for today which must be a first but I didn't want to make you all wait after promising to post the winner today.
So without further ado the lucky person to have her name pulled out of the hat by my daughter Sarah is, drumroll please..........

Marie of Dollys Daydreams

Many congratulations to you Marie and if you'd like to email me your address, I'll pop your candy in the post.

Commiserations to everyone else and thank you so much for your interest but unfortunately there could only be one winner.

Bye for now,

Fliss xx

Design Team Call At Make My Monday

Another quick post from me to tell you about our Design Team Call now running over at Make My Monday.

Jacqueline would like to add another 2 crafters to our creative team and is running a little challenge to help the selection process.
I cannot tell you just how much I enjoy being part of the MMM team. It's a fabulous way to increase your creativity as we each choose a monthly theme in turn and then choose the weekly challenges to fit the theme. As a result of this, I've used techniques, colours and themes that I wouldn't have otherwise even thought of let alone tried and I've really loved the challenge.

All details can be found by clicking HERE and we look forward to seeing your entries. Good luck and hoping to see you there.

Fliss xx

Pretty Tuff

Good morning folks, I'm here with a very quick post to show you the card I made for my nephew's birthday yesterday for which the brand new Polka Doodles CD, Pretty Tuff, came to the rescue. I don't know about you but I really struggle with cards for teenage boys.
If you're going to the huge craft show at the NEC, Nikky will be there with the CD but don't delay as I'm sure it will sell out really fast.

The image and the football come from the new CD and I've coloured the image with Promarkers. I was quite pleased with the T shirt as I discovered that Pear Green layered over Sandstone gives a great light khaki colour perfect for boys' clothing.
I've used a kraft card blank and added simple panels. The paper is from the Not For Girls CD and I'm really pleased with my new brick wall embossing folder. It's new from Papermania and I sponged on Pumice Stone Distress ink and then swiped Frayed Burlap over the top for a really distressed and grungy wall.
I finished off with a sentiment from the Polka Doodles Sensational Sentiments stamp set, coloured with Promarkers on a mat of kraft paper from the Magical Winter CD.
Although you can't see it that well in the photo, the boy is slouching against the wall. This effect was achieved by stacking foam tape double on the body and legs so that his head is lower down as it only has one layer. Give it a try and you'll be surprised how effective it is.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Stamps R Us - Masculine
Birthday Sundaes - Birthday Card
Come And Get It Challenges - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenges - Anything Goes

I'll be back this evening with my blog candy winner when I have someone to pull a name out of the hat for me.
Have a lovely day.
Fliss xx

Candy Giveaway Time!

 THE BLOG CANDY IS NOW CLOSED SO NO MORE COMMENTS PLEASE. RESULTS WILL BE POSTED LATER TODAY. THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED.

Yes folks, you're not seeing things here. I'm lucky enough thanks to all you lovely people out there to have reached a double century of followers in the last week or so and this is my promised candy.

Sorry! Couldn't resist a little tease but I did want to say thank you so much for choosing to follow my blog and leave such lovely comments on my creative outpourings so here's the giveaway:

Some of you may remember that a while back I was lucky enough to have some stamp designs made up by Hobby Art and I have the full set to give away to one lucky someone that leaves me a comment between now and midnight GMT on 31 October. I will also add the Klingon foam mount needed to use the stamps as they are unmounted rubber.

Here's another card made using them to make the background paper with lots of Distress inks and the flower has been embossed and sponged with more DIs. Just to show you can do bling too!

Thank you once again for all your support which means so much to me and I'd also like to welcome my newest follower, Liz, to my blog - lovely to see you here and I think you might have joined at the right time lol.
If you'd like to add a giveaway button to your blog it's now on my side bar - not a brilliant one as I'm not very good at technical graphic things so you'll need to save the image and then click on the post title and save the link to add with the picture.

Hugs and thanks,
Fliss xxx