Pretty In Pink (And Green)

Good morning everyone and hope you've all had a lovely weekend to set you up for the week. Thanks for all the commiserations with my hay fever which has sadly come back today so I'm sneezing again!
Being Monday we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and today sees the last of Suzi's Floral Theme for the month and this week we would like to see your floral creations with Pink, Green and White.

My card is another of my gate fold surprises which I really like doing for that added extra special touch.
The base card is a Papermania 5x7 gate fold card blank and I cut 2 panels of white card to fit the front sections, embossed them with a Papermania floral folder then inked with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and swiped with Tattered Rose.
I stamped the chrysanthemums  by Circa Design with Archival Olive ink on white card, coloured by sponging with the same Distress inks and then die cut with an oval die. I inked the edges with the pink ink and attached the panel to the left side of the card.
I then cut a panel of white card slightly smaller than the inside of the card, stamped the flowers again on the right side and sponged with slightly lighter colour. I then stamped on the Hobby Art sentiment at the top left side to finish.

The Design Team have come up with an amazingly different array of cards in the colours for your inspiration so do hop over for a look.

Challenges for my card:
Sentimental Sundays - Pocket Full Of Posies (slightly appropriate here with the atishoo bit lol)
Cute Card Thursday - Pink & Green

Have a great day.
Fliss xx

Little Bird

Hello folks, hope you've all had a lovely weekend in the sunshine. My only problem was really bad hay fever yesterday as we had wind blowing off the South Downs and the pollen count must have been exceedingly high as I was sneezing all day.
I have a card to share with you today that I actually made a couple of months ago but accidentally left it with a crafting friend and have only just retrieved it! It's another recess window card using the tutorial kindly shared by Jacqueline, our head deeziner over at Make My Monday and you can find it HERE if you'd like to know how to make it.

I made the card shape following the tutorial and then inked all over the front with Tumbled Glass Distress ink. I stamped my favourite Viva Decor flourish on with Crushed Olive Distress ink. I then inked around the recess edges with the olive ink.
I stamped the cute Stampendous little bird with Archival Coffee ink and added colour with Distress inks and Promarkers.
I then made my floral decoration by die cutting varying flower shapes with a Marianne flower die set and inked these with various pink inks. I scrunched them and layered them up then added Polka Doodles pink Dewdrops to the centre. I punched some leaves with a Papermania punch and emboss rose leaf punch then inked these with Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint.

Challenges for my card:
Oldie But A Goodie - Things With Wings (the oldie but goodie being my Viva Decor flourish set which I've had for almost 2 years)
 Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT - Something With Wings
Deep Ocean Challenge - Swirls
Crazy Amigo Challenge - Birds
Divas By Design - Flourishes
Do You Stack Up - Birds
Alphabet Challenge - H for Handmade Flowers
Card Makin' Mamas - Feeling Punchy!
Crafty Calendar - Things With Wings

I'd also like to say hello and welcome to Lindsay who has kindly become a new follower - it's lovely to see you here and look forward to getting to know you.
Have a good week everyone and bye for now.
Fliss xx

Just Doodling!

Morning folks, Friday is here again and so it's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles (please don't forget our extra special birthday challenge of earlier in the week either as the first prize is an amazing 10 CDs!!!).
This week's challenge has been chosen by Claire who loves doodling and in fact doodles her own digital stamps so she would like to see a Birthday creation with a Doodled Edge or Border. I'm sure you realise that I was thrilled to bits when I saw this having doodled my own blog background and also some stamp designs so here's the card I made.

I used images from the Sugarplum Daisy CD picking the pre-coloured ones as I've been a bit short on time this week. I cut out the cute fairy and ladybird and a panel with the toadstools which I really love.
I used papers from the Sugarplum Daisy CD and also from Pretty Sweet as I wanted a mix of spots and stripes in strong as well as pastel shades. I covered my 8x8 kraft card blank with the deep pink dotty paper then added a border of the yellow trimmed with a Papermania border die. I then punched the leafy border with a Martha Stewart double edge punch from a scrap of the remaining pink paper and added this.
I then cut 3 panels of stripe and dot papers and doodled a twining leafy border round the edges with a fine black pen, taking inspiration from the punched border.
I finished off with the image panel and cut out images together with a sentiment added to a paper flower.

Challenges for my card:
Aud Sentiments Challenge - Any Sentiment
Southern Girls - Dying To Die Cut Or Punch
Ruby's Rainbow - Things With Wings

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

London Town

Hello everyone, hoping you all have the amazing sunshine and warmth we've had since yesterday and I'm hoping it stays too as Winter seems to have gone on forever this time and it's great not to be wrapped up in layers of woollies.
Just a quick post here to share a card from the workshop I taught on Monday which fits a couple of challenges as it uses my new Penny Black London stamp.

I stamped the scene on off white paper in black and added colour with red and blue pencils. I cut the panel out and added blue pencil to all the edges. I stamped on the tiny swallow from a free Papermania set with blue ink and added a touch of blue pencil.
I then stamped on the card blank with my favourite Hampton Art distressed stripes stamp with red and black ink on 2 corners and added some further stripes with the blue pencil.
I finished off with a sentiment from the free set, stamped with blue and colour added with a pencil then added a crown from a Viva Decor set stamped in red, cut out and a touch of blue added. Simples!

Challenges for my card:
Papertake Weekly - True Colours
Desmet Designs Challenge Blog - Let's Celebrate In Red, White & Blue 

Hope the rest of the week is great for you and thanks for looking. Also a quick hello to Donna M my new follower and it's lovely to have you on board so to speak!
Hugs, Fliss xx

Coming Up Roses

Good morning folks, I'm back again with some extra special news of a special challenge over at Polka Doodles which starts today because it's the challenge blog's 3rd birthday - Happy Birthday Polka Doodles!
I also want to say thank you to Nikky here as I've now been part of the Design Team for over 2 years and it's been a real pleasure working with Nikky's fab designs and seeing how much the business has grown in that time too. Thanks also to my lovely doodle team-mates as it's an inspiration working with you all.
Gushing over now and on to details of the special challenge which has the most fabulous prizes that you just won't believe! As Polka Doodles is now 3, we'd like to see your birthday cards with 3 of something on them. You'll see that my card has 3 roses, 3 punched corners and 3 stamped flourishes.

The gorgeous roses are from the Sugarplum Daisy CD and I printed them out on watercolour paper then coloured them with Aquamarkers and cut them out.
The papers are also from Sugarplum Daisy and I covered my card blank with green dotty paper having first stamped and embossed with white powder my favourite flourish which is from the Daisy Doodles stamp set on 3 of the corners.
I made a pretty mat for the roses by embossing off white card with the Cuttlebug roses folder and then punched 3 of the corners with a Woodware rose corner punch. I added the roses with foam tape arranged in a bunch and glued on a bow.
I assembled the card with torn panels of various papers and doilies die cut with a Marianne circle die set. I finished off with a sentiment circle from the CD, adding a touch of colour with a pink Aquamarker.

All the details of the challenge and those amazing prizes are over on the Polka Doodles blog and you don't want to miss this one believe me! The first prize for one lucky person is just jaw dropping!!!
Hoping to see you there.


A challenge for my card - Hooked On Crafts Challenge - Flowers
Thanks for looking.
 Hugs, Fliss xx

A Walk On The Wild Side

Morning folks and hope you all had a lovely weekend. It's Monday again and we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday. Carrying on with the monthly theme of Floral, this week the challenge is to make a creation featuring Wild Flowers Or Grasses which is the reason for my title (I can also blame Countryfile as their photographic competition this year has this title lol)
Most of the Design Team decided to go the scenic route, but you'll see that I didn't! Mine is a little more vintage style which I know you know that I love (eek! what a mouthful!)

My trusty Paper Artsy Hotpick HP1005 came out for this as I really love those wild flowers which I stamped with Versamark and embossed with Wow Vanilla White powder on kraft card. I then stamped the scallop stitching from a Habico set around the edges with Archival coffee ink and trimmed the panel a little.
I made the background paper by sponging a square of beige parchment card (Southfield Stationers) with Tattered Rose Distress ink and then rubbing the ink pad over the top for a mottled look. I stamped on the flourish from the Paper Artsy set with Pumice Stone Distress ink, trimmed the edges with pinking shears and added brown faux stitching round the edges.
I stamped the letter (Crafty Individuals CI-214) with the coffee ink, trimmed the edges and inked with Old Paper and Tattered Rose.
I die cut some flourishes with a Sissix die from the parchment card then inked them with Brushed Corduroy and Pumice Stone.
I assembled the card as you see, adding a mat for the floral panel die cut with a Papermania die, some ribbon trimmed with the pinking shears and a sentiment by Polka Doodles.

We had some absolutely gorgeous entries for last week's flowers and music challenge so the top 3 will be a very difficult decision and hope to see you entering this one too.

Challenges for my card:
Delightful Challenges - Add Ribbon
Sassy Studio Designs - Use 3 Of Something (ribbons, stamped flowers)
The Paper Shelter - Birthday Card With A Sentiment

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Windmills Of Your Mind

Hello all, if you're wondering about my title, it came about because I saw a quilt at last week's Stitches craft show at The Brighton Centre which had a circular type of design and quoted words from the song which immediately started playing in my head. This in turn inspired my creation for the new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges with the theme of Steampunk which I chose because I really love that sort of thing at the moment (I'm sure you can guess this too!).
Here's what I created:

My circles are all made of grey board packing and were cut by hand in the case of the largest one and with a circle cutter for the smaller circles. I embossed the smaller ones with the Cuttlebug clockworks folder and then inked with Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Aged Mahogany and Rusty Hinge Distress inks. I added clear embossing to the larger of the 2.
I covered the large circle with paper inked with Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge and stamped with a variety of cogs and wheels from the Oxford Impressions 2 steampunk elements sets using sepia ink.
I then stamped the balloons, building, hat and text from the stamp sets with sepia ink, together with the Gibson lady and coloured, cut them out and clear embossed various elements.
I finished off with some Maya Road chipboard cogs embossed with Ranger Antiquities Tarnished Gold.

Apologies here to any of the Design Team who struggled with the theme but I have to say you would never guess from the amazing creations they've all come up with. Do hop over to the challenge blog and look as they're sure to inspire you. Hoping to see you enter too.

Challenges for my creation:
So Artful Challenge - Steampunk
Pixie Dust Studio - Steampunk
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Let's Get Inky (you should see my fingers!!!)
Crafting When We Can - Steampunk

Hope you're enjoying the weekend and have a lovely Sunday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A Song In My Heart

Good morning folks, we've had a glorious sunny weekend at last and yesterday was actually warm enough to have coffee in the garden whilst our 2 little grey bunnies were running about - more of this weather please!
It's Monday again so we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday, this weeks theme being Flowers and Music. Lots of scope here as you could have music score or notes, musical instruments and so on. I couldn't resist my title although it actually refers to another project I'm working on which will be on here next weekend! It sort of applies here though.
Here's today's card:

The background here is a piece of vintage music score with torn edges. I inked it with Shabby Shutters Distress ink for a soft look and added a little Vintage Photo round the edges.
I then stamped the poppies on thick cartridge paper with Archival Coffee ink - the stamps are Fleur de Pavot by Inkylicious and come with flower heads, leaves and stalks to build up your own scene. I coloured the poppies to resemble the Californian variety with Aquamarkers then cut the panel out with a Nestabilities die and inked the edges.
I then embossed a piece of white card with my new Crafts Too Vintage Flowers folder and inked this with a mix of Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold and Crushed Olive Distress inks. I stamped the text from the stamp set and the tag from a Viva Decor set with the coffee ink on the cartridge paper and inked with Distress inks. I cut the text out with a Papermania label die.
To finish, I added a metal charm to the tag and then die cut and inked a butterfly from my new set of 3 by Cheery Lynn dies - they're amazing value and have a huge amount of detail though you may need to click on the pic to see this.

The Design Team have some wonderful creations to inspire so hope to see you there!

Challenges for my card:
ATCs & Cards With Attitude - Anything Goes/Butterflies & Blooms
Do You Stack Up - Use A Flower
 Fat Pages & Cards With Attitude - Anything Goes/Butterflies & Blooms

Have a great week,
Hugs, Fliss xx

Little Girl Blue

Good morning everyone! I'm writing this post bright and early as I'm off to a craft show today taking a well earned day off and really looking forward to it as it's ages since I last went to a show.
Also as it's Friday, we have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles with the theme of Monochromatic Shades and my inspiration is a creation in shades of blue as I wanted to use a colour which doesn't get an airing very often.

I chose this sweet image from the Pretty Sweet CD and printed her out on thick cartridge paper. I coloured her with Aquamarkers and then printed out just the head portion again, colouring the hair and adding a little detail with a Prisma pencil before cutting out just the hair and adding with foam tape for a 3D effect. I cut the image out with a Nestabilities die and inked the edges.
I covered my scallop edged card blank with stripy paper from the Pretty Tuff CD and added a mat of dotty paper from the same CD for the image panel. I edged this with some navy card trimmed with a Martha Stewart border punch.
I then did a little editing with the flowers from the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition CD, making the plain blue one smaller to add at the top of the swing and then made a chain of the dotty blue flowers for the central border.
I finished off with a butterfly and a sentiment die cut with the same die set and inked a little.

The Design Team have a wonderful array of projects for you to feast your eyes on so don't forget to hop over for a look.

Challenges for my card:
Crafts & Me - Die Cuts & Punches
The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes
Stampavie & More - Monochrome

Have a great day,
Fliss xx

Daisy Daisy

Good morning folks, hope you're enjoying the long weekend and welcome to our new month of challenges at Make My Monday which have been chosen by Suzi B with the theme of Floral and this week we would like to see your creations with White Flowers as a feature.
I chose daisies as we have these in the garden at the moment peeping up in the lawn and I love seeing them there as they brighten it up so much.

I decided to make a bright background as we definitely need something cheery with the horrible cold weather we have at the moment - my winter woollies are back on!
I made my background paper by applying yellow shades of VersaColor cube inks direct to paper on white linen card and then stamped on the lovely daisy by B Line Designs with VersaFine Spanish Moss ink, stamping once on scrap paper first for a muted effect. I then added more yellow ink around the edges and added the paper to a kraft card blank.
I stamped the daisies on white card and embossed them with gold powder then cut them out. I made a border of kraft card trimmed with a Martha Stewart deep edge punch and added this with some crochet lace.
I die cut a circle of kraft card and embossed this with the Cuttlebug polka dots folder and added to the card with a doily and woodcut butterfly. I finished off with an Anitas sentiment die cut to a circle.

The Design Team have made some fabulous inspiration for you so do hop on over for a peep.

Challenges for my card:
Amusing Challenges - Fussy Cut
Hybrid Chick Card Caravan - Nature
Joanna Sheen Challenge - Flower Power
Do You Stack Up - Circles
Little Miss Muffet Challenge - May Flowers
Pixie Dust Studio - Flowers

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

London Calling

Good morning folks, hoping you're all having a good weekend despite the weather which does at least leave some time for crafting.
It's now time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this fortnight the theme is Cities of the World. In my case with this being the Queen's Jubilee year and the UK hosting the Olympics I felt I had to be patriotic so London was definitely calling (and The Clash are singing in my head so guess who's showing her age lol).

I'm hoping that you think my card has a 3D look which is my intention although if you could touch it you would find that it's completely flat (very handy with the new extortionate postal rates I think!)

As you know, I love to make my own backgrounds and yesterday morning woke up with inspiration on how to make mine. All I did was to print out 2 union jacks I got from the internet, having first adjusted the size to fit my card. I then cut the red sections out of one and the blue from the other with a craft knife. I stuck these, one at a time over a piece of white card attaching the corners with masking tape and sponged Distress inks in the cut out sections - Victorian Velvet and Barn Door in the red and Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky in the blue. I stamped a tiny flourish using the Victorian Velvet and Stormy Sky.
I then stamped the images on tissue paper with Memento black ink, the details are below:
Big Ben - Papermania
Buildings - Crafty Individuals
Tower Bridge and Crown - Artemio
Lion - Viva Decor (Flourish from the same set)
Man - Oxford Impressions
Letters - Technique Tuesday
I added colour to the images with various Distress inks and then cut them out and adhered them with a glue stick. I inked the edges with Vintage Photo to finish.

The Design Team have some stunning inspirational creations on the catwalk this time and as always our lovely sponsor Marina of Cottage Crafts has a fabulous prize for our winner. So what are you waiting for, hop on over for all the details and don't forget we are a stamping challenge so no digis please!

Challenges for my card:
Crafty Cardmakers - For The Boys
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Best of British
Ooh La La - Make It Manly
Totally Stampalicious - Masculine
Penny Black and More - London Celebrates

Have a great Sunday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Tiptoe Among The Flowers

Hello folks on another rather cold and wet day and it feels like March rather than May here so hope the sun reappears soon.
Just a quick post here to share one of my card samples from the last workshop I taught where we made gatefold cards with a surprise inside. This one has my newest La Blanche stamp which is a cute little mouse looking like he's tiptoeing through the clover.

This is a very simple design using my favourite green and pink colour combination which I love as it always makes me think of Spring even on a miserable day like today lol.

The panels on the front are simply embossing with a Papermania Triboss folder, inked with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and then swiped with Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint on the raised areas. It ended up quite grungy in places where the raised areas were not as pronounced.
I then stamped the mouse design on white card with Archival coffee ink (my fave brown), coloured it with pencils and Promarkers then die cut it into an oval and sponged Shabby Shutters round the edges. The panel was then attached to the left front side.
For the surprise inside, I cut a square of white card slightly smaller than the back panel and then masked off the mouse part of the image with masking tape, inked up the stamp and removed the tape to stamp just the clover on the right side of the card near the base. I then inked again and stamped the whole image next to the flowers. I inked up the stamped portion by sponging with Shabby Shutters and Crushed Olive then added colour to the images with pencils and Promarkers as before.
To finish off, I stamped the Penny Black sentiment above the image.

Challenges for my card:
Crafts & Me - Favourite Colour Combo
My Mum's Craft Shop - Embossing
The Craft Room Challenge - Emboss It
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Hoping you enjoy the rest of your day whatever the weather.
Hugs, Fliss xx