A New Nest

Good morning folks, hoping you've all had a great weekend as Monday is here again. It's time for the last of our March Spring theme challenges over at Make My Monday and this week we'd like to see a creation with the theme of New Beginnings.
For my inspiration I've gone all cute as I couldn't resist the gorgeous little bird stamp set by Hels Cuppleditch for Trimcraft which you will see can fit quite a few types of new beginning.

Aren't they just so sweet! I chose a lovely Spring colour palette again and made a background panel using Shabby Shutters Distress ink sponged on plain card and I then stamped the floral sprig from the stamp set all around the edges with VersaFine Spanish Moss and coloured the flowers and leaves with Prisma pencils.
I stamped the nest with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and coloured with Distress inks and blended Prisma pencils for a watercolour effect. I cut the panel out with a circle cutter and inked the edges with Worn Lipstick Distress ink.
I made a border for the top and bottom using a Martha Stewart punch and inked these with Crushed Olive. I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set with Archival Coffee ink and cut this into individual words.
I finished off with a stamped and coloured flower from a Scrappy Cat set I've had for years.

The Design Team have made some wonderfully varied creations for your inspiration so do pop over for a peek.

Challenges for my card:
2 Sisters - Spring Is In The Air
Paper Sundaes - Spring Blossoms
Sentimental Sundays - Easter or Spring
Stamping With The Dragon - Things With Wings

Thanks for looking and have a great week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Spring Is In The Air

Good morning folks and Spring really is in the air today as we not only have the most gorgeous sunny day here, but it's also time for a new fortnight's challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and the theme this time is Spring Is In The Air - how's that for perfect timing!
The Design Team have some absolutely stunning projects lined up on the catwalk this time and we are as ever sponsored by the lovely Marina of Cottage Crafts who will be giving a voucher worth 7 euros to spend in her online shop.
My card this time is quite a simple one as it includes my current favourite bird stamp and I didn't want to overload the card with too many embellishments.

The lovely bird is by Stampendous and was stamped with Archival Coffee ink then coloured with Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet and Pumice Stone Distress inks with a little detail added with Promarkers. I cut the image out with the Papermania square parenthesis die set and inked the edges with Crushed Olive.
I made the background panels using my Easy Inking Background Technique (link to the tutorial is on my side bar) using Shabby Shutters, Milled Lavender, Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet Distress inks with a lovely sprig stamp from a B Line Designs cube. The pink border was made with a long block and then trimmed with a Papermania scallop lace border die.
I assembled the card as you see, adding a touch of detail with stitched ribbon together with a layered flower coloured with Promarkers (with a Card Candi centre), rose leaves punched with an X Cut punch and emboss punch then inked with Forest Moss DI and text from the Artistic Outpost Birds of a Feather stamp set.

Challenges for my card:
Crafty Ann's - Spring/Easter
Fairy Fun Fridays - Spring Fling
Simply Create Too - It's Spring
Paper Play - Spring Colours

That's all for now and hoping you have a great Sunday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A Spring Spring Card!

Hello folks, I'm somewhat late with my card for the new challenge over at Make My Monday after several very busy days which has made me a bit behind with my blogging.
Apologies to Jacqueline for the tardiness and to everyone else for my lack of visiting lately. I'm now catching up so should be round very soon.
For now, here are the challenge details which are the reason for my slightly tongue in cheek title as this week we're continuing with the March Spring theme with the twist that we'd like to see a Spring Fold Card. If you're unsure how to make one, there's a link on the challenge blog and it's easier to make than you might think.
My card was inspired by some trees with blossoms on that I spotted when driving home last week.

Not a very good pic here as my camera didn't like the shape of the card and struggled to focus.
I've used a tree stamp by Hobby Art which I stamped with VersaFine Toffee ink on a diamond shaped piece of pale decorated paper. I stamped round the edges with a tiny flower and leaf from the Polka Doodles Daisy Doodles stamp set . I added green dots to the tree and some flowers punched from pink hand decorated paper to resemble blossom.
I added a piece of embossed card to the base, embossed with the Tim Holtz Spring Alterations folder and swiped with yellow ink. I added a border made from more of the pink stamped paper and the Martha Stewart floral double edge punch. The card itself was made from green parchment card.

Hoping that you have a good week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Animal Or Bird With Polka Doodles

It's Friday folks! Can't wait for the weekend which is thankfully almost here and my younger daughter is coming home for the weekend as it's Mothers Day on Sunday.
We have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles with loads of fabulous giveaways up for grabs as Nikky will be at GNPE at Harrogate over the weekend with the brand new CD (we've been drooling over this one as it's gorgeous with masses of stash on) so if you're going do go and say hello. She will also have the lovely Leonie Pujol with her.
Nikky will also be on Create & Craft on Wednesday 21 March to launch the new CD and she's also doing pick of the day so do tune in for some fabulous goodies and don't forget to retune your TV as that's when all the channels go digital. If all else fails you can watch on your computer.
Now for the challenge which this week to to make a creation with an Animal or a Bird on so there's plenty of scope with this one as you'll see if you hop over to look at the Design Team inspiration.

I decided to make a little bird house using the template on the Candy Doodles Collectors Edition CD which makes it really easy for you to create a really pretty little gift. I printed mine out on the back of some of the textured look papers from the Not For Girls CD, cut the sections out, assembled them and inked the edges with brown ink. I added some punched lace tape round the base.
I made a stand for the little house by printing out a kraft paper from the A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft CD on to 300gsm card and printing the roof template on the back. I cut this out to make a matching scalloped base.
I then made some roses using the text pattern spira blossoms from the All Around & Everywhere CD, bending the edges back and inking them to make them look like real roses. I added these to the base with silicone glue together with some pansies from my stash.
I stamped the robin from the Artistic Outpost Birds of a Feather stamp set with coffee Archival ink and coloured him with Prisma pencils. I added him at the front.
We have a pair of little robins in our garden at the moment building their nest in the thick ivy on one of the posts on our pergola and they're really good at keeping the greenfly on the climbing roses down. We have the Iceberg type which seems to flower all year, even in the snow!

Challenges for my bird house:
Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday - Things With Wings
Crafty Sentiments - Things With Wings

Have a great Friday!
Hugs, Fliss xx

Thank You Mum!

Good morning everyone, hoping that you all had a lovely weekend and Monday is here again. The weeks this year seem to be flying by.
We have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday continuing with Jacqueline's Spring theme for the month and this week she would like to see your creations for Mothers Day or Thank You if you prefer.
My card is for my mother in law as I sadly lost my own dear Mum back in 2004 but was thinking of her too as I made the card which has her favourite Spring flowers, pansies. She always had pots of them in the garden at this time of year.

Quite a simple card from me as I wanted the heart shaped garland of pansies to stand out so a clean and simple background resulted.
The pansies are from Crafty Individuals CI-206 Elements set which has lots of gorgeous flowers in different sizes (I used the daisies on my last post) and I stamped 2 sizes of pansy lots of times with VersaFine Imperial Purple ink. I then painted the larger ones with lots of Distress ink colours and the small ones were coloured with blended Prisma pencil as I was trying to make them look like violas.
I then cut them all out and made the heart shape you see using a Papermania die in 2 sizes and a computer generated sentiment. The shaped card blank is by Craftwork Cards and I added a die cut background paper which was a leftover piece from a Chocolate Baroque  Artylicious CD.

So there you have it. The Design Team have made some lovely samples to inspire you and we'd love you to enter. Please just remember that the overall theme is Spring as last week amongst the gorgeous entries were quite a few flowers that don't flower in the Spring!

Challenges for my card:
Dream Valley Challenges - Mothers Day
Allsorts - Say It With Flowers
Craft Your Days Away - Mothers Day
Creations By Gill M - Shaped Cards
Crafty Catz - Mothers Day or A Special Lady

Have a lovely day.
Hugs. Fliss xx

Let's Play Bingo At FSC

Good morning folks and hope you're all having a lovely weekend with the Spring weather we have here - it actually is sunny Sussex today.
It's now time to play Bingo over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges as this fortnight the lovely Sue has challenged us with a card to pick from:

I've gone with a diagonal line for my card which uses Metal, Distressing and Vintage.

My image is by La Blanche and I love the vintage style of the sweet girl in a field of daisies. She's stamped with VersaFine Olympia Green and coloured with Prisma pencils. I added the image panel to a dark green mat.
I made a background paper using 2 sizes of the daisies from the Crafty Individuals CI-206 Elements set. I first inked some cartridge paper with Shabby Shutters Distress ink then layer stamped the 2 sizes of daisy with Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Bundled Sage and Crushed Olive inks. I tore the edges for a distressed effect.
I made a further paper using a large floral foam stamp with the orange and yellow inks and again tore the edges. I added this to an A5 buff card blank and added the daisy paper on top.
I then added a piece of cream crochet lace across the centre and then the image panel, attached with foam tape. I glued on a brass stamping and some gold pearls. I finished off with a little stamped butterfly (B Line Designs) coloured with Prisma pencils and cut out.

There's a stunning array of creations on the catwalk from the girls this time so do pop over for a real treat. Can't wait to see the entries this time either as those for the last challenge are amazing and it's going to be so hard to choose a top 3 from so much gorgeousness.

Challenges for my card:
2 Sisters Challenge - Spring Colours
Crazy 4 Challenges - Use Spring As Your Inspiration
Glitter Geeks - Spring Is In The Air

Thanks for looking and have a lovely day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

How To Follow Non Blogger Blogs Without Linky Tool

Hello folks, no card from me on this post as I'm here to share a way to follow those non Blogger blogs that have now lost Google Friend Connect but without going to the bother and hassle of this new Linky Tool follower thingy.
This came about by accident yesterday when a fellow DT member said a Wordpress blog had gone from her reading list. I checked mine and it was gone too. I was scrolling through and noticed I still had some other non Blogger blogs on my reading list and then the light bulb went on as to why.

Earlier yesterday, I wanted to follow a Blogger blog but the Google Friend Connect gadget wasn't there so I set the following up another way which also works for Wordpress, Typepad and other shop type blogs not using Blogger.
Here's what you do:

1.  Copy the blog address of the blog you want to follow (just as if you were adding a link in a blog post).
2. Go to your dashboard and scroll down until you reach the blue boxes with ADD and MANAGE in them and click on ADD.
3. On the next stage you will see that you can either follow by url or Google Friend Connect. Simply paste the blog address into the url box and click to continue.
4. Just carry on the next step to follow publicly and it's done! 

It really is that simple! So if you've lost those all important inspirational bloggers such as Tim Holtz, you can get him back with just a few clicks.

Hoping you find this helpful. It seems that most things really are simple to sort out in the end and I wish I'd thought of this earlier!
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Spring Flowers

Good morning everyone, hope you all had a good weekend and are ready to face another week. Being Monday, we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and being the first one of the month, it's also the start of a new theme - Spring and this weeks challenge is a creation with Spring Flowers.
For my card, there was one stamp that I just had to use, my much loved Hero Arts tulip and here's what I did with it. You might need your sunglasses too as it's quite bright lol

The card gave me the chance to use up some of the handmade paper from my stash as I have rather a lot and it's a case of use it or lose it! This particular one is a beautiful shade of spring green and is embossed with roses so is perfect for a spring card.
I also used up some of the scraps from my experimental box, trimming them with a Martha Stewart border punch and layering them up. The striped one was made by repeat stamping a Hero Arts stripe stamp with several shades of Distress ink. The floral and the leaf papers were simply lightly inked with Distress inks and stamped with Hero Arts images in the same colours.
I stamped the tulip 3 times with Olympia Green VersaFine ink and coloured first by lightly sponging with Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed and Barn Door Distress inks. I then added detail with Prisma pencils. I cut them out and added them to a die cut mat with inked edges. I added a further mat of yellow handmade paper die cut with a further Papermania die and embossed at the top and base with the gorgeous flourish border from Tim Holtz Texture Fades spring set.
I assembled the card as you see, adding a bow to finish. There's no sentiment yet as I like to have a few cards I can fit for several occasions which I think this one does.

I'd also like to say a big thanks here to Sugar Creek Hollow as I've just found out that I won last weeks challenge and also the same to C.R.A.F.T. as I won a prize in their challenge too!

Challenges for my card:
Gingerloft - Spring
The Paper Players - Spring Has Sprung
Paper Creations Ink - Spring Is In The Air
Crafty Catz - Punches and Dies

Thanks for looking and have a good week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Spots and Stripes

Good morning folks, can't believe it's Friday again but glad the weekend is almost here. Hopefully you'll have some time for crafting as we have a new challenge for you today over at Polka Doodles with a theme of Spots and Stripes or both if you like and I did like!
This gave me a chance to use my much loved Wonderland stamps as the matching papers have some wonderfully grungy spots and stripes amongst them. Here's my card:

I stamped Alice twice with Memento black ink and coloured her with a mix of Promarkers and Copics, colouring just the image on the second one and then cut this out and decoupaged it for a 3D effect.
I covered my card blank with a mix of papers from the Wonderland CD, inking the edges with black ink for emphasis. You can get a really good deal if you buy the CD and stamps together (they're both absolutely gorgeous) and will find the details HERE.
I added a mat at an angle then the Alice panel which I added a frame to, made with square dies and cut from a scrap of paper from the Pretty Tuff CD, embossed with a polka dot folder. I stamped the text directly on the card and finished off with the bottle coloured with Promarkers and the cute toadstools stamped on a scrap of the black and white striped paper.

The Design Team have some gorgeous samples for you to feast your eyes on including some gorgeously girly creations. Hoping to see you there!

Challenges for my card:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Made With Paper
Paper Pretties - Use Your Favourite Stamp Set

Have a lovely day and a great weekend.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Love And Life

Hello everyone, hope you're having a lovely week and have the gorgeous sunshine we have today, it really does feel like Spring is on the way at last.
My thoughts at the moment are with my lucky daughter Sarah who's currently in Cape Town with her friend Lucinda as they won a short internship with South African clothing company Woolworths with the fabulous designs they both did for a prospective fashion collection. It's apparently really hot over there so I'm wishing I could be there too!
I have a card to share today that I've made for the current challenge over at Sugar Creek Hollow which is to use the photo of your choice and make a vintage, prim or shabby chic style project. My card came about when trawling through my photo collection and finding one my daughter took last year at a friend's wedding. As 2 more of her friends are getting hitched this year, I decided on a wedding one.

There's actually only one bit of stamping on here unusually for me as most of the detail comes from embossing as I didn't want to distract the eye from the gorgeous vintage postcard I found in my Graphics Fairy collection. It had a space on just perfect for the Penny Black sentiment which I stamped with Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink. I inked the edges with brown after trimming the postcard with rounded edges.
I covered the card with a piece of ivory card embossed on one side with a Papermania rose pattern folder. I added a cream panel embossed with a Papermania floral folder and swiped with Galaxy Gold Brilliance ink.
I added a little cream crochet lace just below the centre then added a hyacinth blue mat trimmed with a corner rounder and a rose corner punch. I added some Laura Ashley ribbon across the centre and then stuck the postcard on top. A butterfly finishes off the card.

Here's my inspiration photo which is some flowers from one of the reception tables.

I'll be back tomorrow with details of the new challenge over at Polka Doodles and I think you'll like this particular one!
Hugs, Fliss xx