A Bit Of Ooh La La!

Good morning folks, I'm here today to show you the card I made as the midweek motivation for this week's challenge over at Make My Monday with the theme of French Feminine/Romance.

I wanted to use this very elegant showgirl by Kanban as she looks rather French to me with a definite hint of ooh la la! I stamped her with Memories artprint brown then coloured the image with Promarkers and watercolour pencils and die cut the panel.
The background paper which came from my experiment box uses Vintage photo Distress ink with the vaseline resist technique and gives a lovely shabby chic effect.
I made a border using corrugated card recycled from a takeaway coffee cup holder which I painted with acrylics and then sprinkled with tarnished gold embossing powder and heated to melt.
The fleur de lys embellishment was made by stamping the image and embossing with Frantage aged green embossing enamel then cut it out.
I finished off with some text from the Kanban set stamped with the brown ink.

Have a good day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Fashionista Challenge - Anything Goes
Totally Stampalicious - Anything Goes
Twisted Tuesday - Anything Goes

Dreamer

Hello all, hope you're having a reasonable week and I'm thinking of everyone currently suffering in the USA due to hurricane Sandy. I'm hoping that you all stay safe and don't have too much damage to deal with when the hurricane has passed.
I have a card to share with you today that made use of the leftover section you get when you're die cutting a shape and this one is such a pretty shape that I decided to use it as a frame on my card.

My card uses stamps from Crafty Individuals and I first stamped all round the edges of the frame with CI - 253 with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink. The stamp is actually square and made up of lots of tiny flowers - it's really easy to stamp small sections of it all round as any overlapping areas just seem to disappear. I inked it with Distress inks in Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet and Stormy Sky then added Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo on the outer edges.
I stamped the vintage fairy (CI - 137) with the grey ink, coloured her with Promarkers and watercolour pencils and cut the panel out, following the scroll line on the left side.
I made a background by embossing white card with the Cuttlebug daisies folder and added a trellis cut with the Cheery Lynn lattice die from white card and inked with pale green.
I assembled the card in layers as you see, adding a green flourish die cut with a Marianne die and some tiny green pearls.

Bye for now,
Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Cheery Lynn Challenge - Vintage
Love To Create - Lots of Layers
The Pink Elephant - Vintage/Shabby Chic
Addicted To Stamps - Things With Wings
Die Cuttin' Divas - Anything Goes

La Belle Femme

Hello folks, and especially my new followers, hoping you all had a good weekend despite the very chilly weather. In my case it was a good excuse to stay warm and do some crafting so I now have exceedingly inky fingers!
This brings me neatly to my inky creation for the last of the October French theme challenges over at Make My Monday and this week the challenge is to make something Feminine or Romantic, or both if you like. It must still have a French flavour to it though so please don't forget that bit of ooh la la!
My card as you will see is mostly pink again as I always think it's such a feminine colour.

The background paper is stamped with the gorgeous Prickley Pear Eiffel flourish image together with Hero Arts old French writing using Memories Artprint Brown ink. I then got very inky fingers sponging on Victorian Velvet Distress ink (not as bad as the usual blue, green or purple fingers I've had recently lol). I then added a smidgeon of colour with various Promarkers.
I stamped my favourite B Line Designs stamp, Le Brun, with the same brown ink then added a little colour with Promarkers (Saffron, Vanilla, Antique Pink and Tea Green) and cut out to leave a fairly wide contrasting border round the image.
I stamped the lace (also B Line Designs) with the brown ink and added colour again with Promarkers. I cut this out too and used deckle scissors on the shaped edge as these give a very good effect on a fluffy type edge.
I assembled the card as you see, adding text from a Kanban clear stamp set stamped in brown and coloured with the Dusky Pink Promarker.

Hope you have a good week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my inky creation:
Vintage Stamping Challenges - Anything Goes
It's All About Vintage - Make Your Own Background

Wings Of A Dove

Hello folks, it's a very chilly and frosty 1 degree here on the South coast this morning but the sun is shining so it's lovely and bright at least. The extra hour in bed was lovely too although it was still difficult to get out of the snuggly, warm covers.
I'm here today with my card which is part of the inspiration for the new giveaway at Studio 12 Creative Team which will be drawn at the end of November. This month the giveaway is really extra special too as it's some fabulous stash to the value of an amazing £50!

I made a shaped card blank with a Go Kreate XXL scalloped circle die and inked the edges with VersaMagic Magnolia Bud chalk ink. I added a panel of the gorgeous holly paper from the CD cut out with the same die set.
I printed out the beautiful dove on to very smooth white card and then sprinkled on detail gold embossing powder before the ink dried (you need to stand by the printer and add the powder immediately it comes out) and heated it to melt the powder.
I coloured the panel using various shades of VersaMagic inks after die cutting it to a circle. I made a mat for the panel by doodling text all around the edge with a brown fine pen then inking just the edge with Topaz and Split Pea VersaColor inks then sprinkled with crystal embossing powder to heat emboss for some sparkle.

All the details of how you can be in with a chance to win the fantastic November candy are over at the Creative Team blog so don't forget to pop over - there's some fabulous inspiration to feast your eyes on too.

Also, for those of you that hail from Europe and the rest of the world, Nikky has a Design Team call out over at Polka Doodles, so if you'd like to be part of our friendly team, pop over to the Challenge Blog for all the details. You have until 5 November to apply so don't be shy!

Have a great Sunday.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Some Challenges for my card:
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - Circle
Crafty Ann's Challenge - Christmas in October
Stampin' For The Weekend - Anything Goes

Joie De Vivre

Hello folks, hoping you all had a good weekend and a reasonable start to the week. I'm a bit late with my post for the new challenge over at Make My Monday today due to a very busy weekend with family stuff and workshop preparations for today as my mojo decided to go walkabout.
This week the challenge continues with the French theme for October with a colour twist this time of Tricoleur, the colours of the flag, otherwise known as blue, white and red so your entry should have these colours with a French flavour.

A fairly simple card from me this time using brayered stripes of Stormy Sky and Barn Door Distress inks as the background for my stamping.
I then stamped on some of the images from the Artistic Outpost Paris Exposition set with black ink and stamped the patriotic looking lady separately on white card. I added some fleur de lis across the base with Fired Brick Distress ink and the All Night Media fleur de lys stamp.
I cut out the lady and added her with double sided tape on the outer edge and foam tape on the other. This trick helps to make the image stand out but hide the tape at the side.

Hopefully we'll get a few more entries this time as the challenge last week seems to have scared most of you off!

Have a good afternoon and evening.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations Paint Challenge - Anything Goes
Stamptacular Sunday -  No Rules!

Hocus Pocus

Good morning folks, hope you're all having a lovely weekend. It rained here most of the day yesterday so I got on with some necessary crafting for a workshop I'm teaching on Monday so will be able to share some cards from that with you soon.
Today sees the start of a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and our last one was certainly popular with a very large number of entries. We hope you like this theme as much as it's Halloween or Halloween Colours for those of you who don't do Halloween.
My card features a stamp set I've had my eye on for ages and finally succumbed to as it's not hugely Halloween themed and can be used for other occasions too.

I absolutely love this owl image which is from the Hocus Pocus stamp set by Indigo Blu as is the spider web complete with spider. I think the owl is so cute and cuddly looking although the castle in the background is quite Gothic.
I stamped the owl with Memories black ink and coloured both him and the castle with Promarkers. I then sponged on Spiced Marmalade and Barn Door Distress inks for a brooding sunset.
I then made a frame using the Tim Holtz cabinet card die and stamped on the spider and web on one side and just the web by masking off the spider on the other side. I added some doodling to the webs to make them fit the space. I sponged on a mix of Milled Lavender, Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord Distress inks. I stamped the text on one side with Hero Arts alphabet stamps and doodled some brickwork round the edges of the arch shape.
I then cut a panel of white card slightly larger than the purple panel and sponged Mowed Lawn Distress ink down the sides, stamping the spider web on with the black ink.
I added the panels to a black card blank and finished off with a black card border punched with the Martha Stewart wrought iron punch.

The Fashionettes have made some fabulous inspiration for you to see HERE and please don't forget if you enter that we must see some stamping on your project to qualify for the prize from Marina of Cottage Crafts or the Top 3.

Have a great Sunday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
2 Sisters - Cute and Creepy
Craftymess Challenge - Halloween
Di's Digi Designs Challenge - Too Cute To Spook
My Sheri Crafts - Halloween

Autumn Leaves

Hello folks, it's Friday yet again and I don't know where the weeks are flying off to at the moment. We have a new challenge for you today over at Polka Doodles and this week the theme chosen by Nikky is Autumn with some of those lovely warm colours and lots of leaves.
I'm a little printer challenged at the moment as it struggles with colour and only seems to like doing black and white so it gave me the chance to get some stamps out to make my background paper and you know how much I like doing that!
The result was a rather quirky card which I hope you'll like.

I made the background paper using stamps from the Daisy Doodles stamp set which has loads of really useful stamps. I arranged some flowers, leaves and swirls on an acrylic block in a cluster as it saves a lot of time to stamp them like this rather than individually. I used Archival coffee ink on a piece of A5 white card and then added colour to some of the leaves with Promarkers. I then inked the panel with Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks.
I stamped Flutterby Fairy Gracie and her wings, together with the frame and sentiment from the daisy doodles set and coloured everything with Promarkers. I printed out some leaves and toadstools from the Sundae of Seasons CD and coloured  them with a mix of Distress Inks and Promarkers. I then cut all the images out.
I embossed an oval panel and a wide border strip of white card with the Darice fall leaves folder, inked them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and trimmed one end of the border strip round the shape of the leaves.
I assembled the card as you see adding a wooden flower embellishment to finish.

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

Some challenges for my card:
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday - Things With Wings
Try It On Tuesday - Autumn Colours

Toujours La France

Good morning folks, we have very strange weather here today as it's sunny but also raining and can't seem to make its' mind up! There was a rainbow too of the blink and you miss it type and I just managed to snap it before it disappeared completely.

Now for the actual reason for this post which is to share with you the card I made as my mid week motivation over at the Make My Monday challenge blog where this week the theme is French Fleur De Lys. Not many entries yet so I'm hoping I haven't scared everyone off - it is quite an easy theme as you don't need stamps or die cuts if you don't have them as there are loads of graphics about you could use.
My card here uses an embossing folder although I've given it quite a makeover as you'll see so please do take a look.

My background paper is a torn piece of vintage music score (my bargain buy from Camilla's Bookshop in Eastbourne - just £2.50 for the entire Mikado score!!!) which I've inked up with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink.
I then stamped the gorgeous Stampendous image with Archival coffee ink and coloured the panel with pencils and inks in Spring like colours (rather refreshing in Autumn!).
I next embossed a panel of white card with the Cuttlebug fleur de lys folder and inked it with Spun Sugar and Crushed Olive Distress Inks. I then trimmed the panel to the shape you see and swiped on a little green and blue ink to add to the Spring like feel.

Hope you have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
A and T Emerald Faeries - Anything Goes
Deep Ocean Challenge - Anything Goes
House of Gilli Challenge - Anything Goes

Vintage Style Inking Tutorial

Hello folks, I'm back today with my promised tutorial for the inking technique I used on my easel card for the Make My Monday challenge last week. It gives a really lovely mottled effect with a definite vintage flavour and is really easy and quick to do.
You might want to get a cuppa before you start reading as it's quite photo heavy to show all the different stages and there's a card at the end which I made with the paper.
Here we go!

You'll need some baby wipes and some toning shades of Distress inks - here I've used Wild Honey, Dried Marigold and Crushed Olive. You'll also need some fairly textured card as it works best on rough textures so you could also use cold pressed watercolour paper.

Step 1 - Using a baby wipe, apply a layer of the lightest ink to your piece of card and allow to dry for a couple of minutes.

Step 2 - Shape the baby wipe into a ball and pick up some of the next ink shade and tap this onto the inked card. If your ink pad is very wet, you'll need to tap gently as you're aiming for a "fluffy" look to the applied ink. Repeat until the card is covered as shown.

Step 3 -  Repeat the second step with the first ink shade. You'll see the mottling start to build up now.

Step 4 - Repeat the second step again with the third ink shade until the card is well covered with the mottled effect.

 Step 5 - Your final result should look something like this.

Step 6 - Your decorated paper is now ready to use as it is, or stamped on like mine. I've used the jumbo cling rosehip design by Stampendous with VersaFine Toffee ink.

Here's the card I made with the paper, adding the woman image (Rubber Stampede) a little inking on the roses with Topaz and Paprika VersaColor inks, some computer generated text (I saw this lovely quote in a craft magazine) and some stamped, cut out leaves adding a slightly more textured look to the design.

Hoping you like this as it really is easy and you can achieve loads of different effects depending on the colours and inks you use. You could also try the technique with paint.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Postcard From Paris

Good morning everyone, hoping you all had a lovely weekend. Welcome to my new followers too and thanks for all your recent comments everyone. I'm still trying to catch up with all my comments after a very busy couple of weeks so will hopefully get there soon.
Today sees a new challenge for this month's French theme over at Make My Monday chosen by yours truly and this week it's to add a Fleur De Lys to your creation by stamping, die cuts, embossing etc, the choice is yours.
My creation has stamping and some die cuts from a now rather old Cuttlebug die set that I got just after I got the little green bug for my birthday a few years ago. I have no idea how I'd manage without it now either!

I made a background paper to start with by rubbing Tattered Rose Distress ink on card and then stamped on the fleur de lys design from an All Night Media clear stamp set with Bundled Sage DI.
I then made a border using my favourite scratch stamp by Hampton Arts with shades of pink and green DIs.
I stamped the rather sultry lady (Tip Your Hat by Rubber Stampede) with Smokey Gray VersaFine ink and coloured her with Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and Bundled Sage DIs then inked around the edges with pink and cut the panel out.
I stamped the carte postale (Paper Artsy) and the Eiffel Tower (B Line Designs) with the grey ink then coloured them softly with a pale pink Promarker and cut them out.
I assembled the card as you see, adding fleur de lys die cuts of deep green card.

Hoping you have a lovely day and I'll be back tomorrow with the promised inking tutorial from my easel card for last Monday's challenge.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
2 Sisters - Anything Goes
In The Pink - Lots of Pink Plus One (green in my case)
Crafts and Me - Anything Goes
Fab 'n' Funky - Vintage
Simon Says Stamp - Dies/Punches

Halloween Time

Good morning folks, thank you all for your kind wishes regarding my software test on Wednesday. It went OK although I was a little slow doing it as I didn't want to mess it up so we'll have to wait and see what they thought.
Also, hello to some new followers, firstly the lovely Tracy from Cardmakers Delights which came about as I won the Vintage challenge over at Crimbo Crackers last week (run by fellow DT mate for Polka Doodles, Ruth) and I'm totally thrilled to bits as the prize is some of the absolutely gorgeous card toppers which to my delight include some stunning vintage designs. Thanks Tracy!
Then there's a lady with the same name as me! Please get in touch if you see this as it's not often I "meet" someone with my name!!!
Anyway, enough waffle and on to the reason for my post which is to tell you about this week's challenge at Polka Doodles and with a certain date now looming you can probably guess it's Halloween.

Thoughts of the witching hour were the inspiration for my scenic card. I used elements mostly from the Halloween Download Bundle, the haunted house and pumpkins being from the Sundae of Seasons CD.
I printed out the haunted house and made a frame using the gorgeous grungy green (try saying that quickly!) text paper with a Go Kreate die and inked the edges with black.
I then printed out little Polly with her wand and the cute spider together with the pumpkins and cut them all out.
I added all the images to the frame with foam tape. Simples!

Hoping that you all have a lovely weekend and I'll be back soon with the promised inking tutorial.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Paper Pretties - Halloween
Stampavie & More - Halloween
Hooked on Craft - Halloween

Feeling A Little Bit Retro

Hello everyone, I'm hoping this post pops up as scheduled as I'm on my way to do a Sage book-keeping test for some more work which I have to confess I'm dreading as it's like being back at school lol
Anyhow, enough of my troubles and on to the mixed media project I'm sharing today at the Studio 12 Creative Team blog which is a rather retro style canvas board.
This came about as I was thinking back to my childhood recently and one memory jumped out at me. It concerned my Mum who was quite a dressmaker and she used to make clothes for me and my sister. I have a very clear memory of being really annoyed once because she made us each a frock in the same fabric but different colours. Mine had orange, pink and brown flowers and with my blonde hair, I knew even at the age of 10 that it didn't suit me!!! I have a feeling I made quite a fuss too!

I painted the canvas board with a mix of turquoise and light blue acrylic paint and then used a rather funky retro flower stencil (Crafters Workshop) and some light orange paint to add the flowers at the top of the canvas.
I printed out the mannequin from the All Sewn Up collection on the Studio 12 Picknix Collection 1 CD onto kraft card and cut it out. I then turned it over to the reverse as I didn't want the black lines and inked it with brown. I dry embossed some lines and rounded it out to make it look more 3D using a large ball tool.
I then printed a further mannequin on white card and using the outline as a pattern, drew a sixties style shift dress. I turned it over to the reverse and stamped on flowers from the Polka Doodles Daisy Doodles stamp set with pink, yellow, orange and brown.
I added a light orange die cut and embossed mat to the canvas and stuck on the mannequin and frock. I then added the die cut sentiment from the same CD and finished off with a variety of toning flowers, layered up and decorated with metal, pearl and jewel brads and some pearls.

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my canvas
The Craft Room Challenge - Alter It

Vacances En France

Good morning folks, I've gone all French today as it's the second of my challenge themes over at Make My Monday and this week, the theme is French Vintage. As you see, I've managed to combine 2 of my favourite things this week!
My inspiration for you is a rather different shaped easel card which I made with a Papermania large die set with gorgeous elegant, frilly edges. It also uses a different inking technique which I'll be adding a tutorial for later on this week - it's really easy to do and gives a very effective vintage style grungy look.

I've added 3 photos as it was quite difficult to show it all properly with just one and the other pics show more of the detail.
I first made the card blank up using some cream textured card, quite a thick one as it's more sturdy. I added ink round the edges using my vintage inking technique (tutorial to follow) using Victorian Velvet, Tattered Rose, Crushed Olive and Frayed Burlap Distress inks.
I stamped the Hampton Arts Fusion passport image on cream card with Archival coffee ink and die cut the shape with the next size down in the die set. I coloured the panel with a mix of Promarkers and VersaColor inks in Split Pea, Khaki, Cinnamon and Old Rose. I stamped just the larger butterfly section twice more on cream card, coloured the butterflies with Promarkers and cut them out.
I die cut a panel of cream card for the base with the smaller die and inked this with Sand Beige, Cinnamon, Old Rose and Umber VersaColor inks then stamped on Hero Arts old French writing several times with Dovecraft Natural ink.
I made a floral embellishment with a Magenta flower stamp (I 0354) which I've had for many years but you can still buy it from The Stamp Man. I stamped the flower with yellow, pink and rust inks then embossed with iridescent Blonde Moments embossing powders. I cut them out and layered them up with a dew drop in the centre.
I assembled the card as you see, adding the 2 cut out butterflies with foam tape.

Hoping that you all had a good weekend and better than mine as it ended up being really expensive because my Dyson washing machine decided to give up the ghost on Saturday and was too expensive to repair so we've had to buy a new machine which is arriving tomorrow.

Have a good week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Crafty Mess Challenge - Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy - Easel Card
Totally Papercrafts - Let's See Those Shapes

Autumn's Mellow Fruitfulness

Hello folks, hope you're all having a good weekend with some time for crafting. I'm wading through a pile of DT creations to get ahead and I'm here today with news of the latest challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges which is something dear to my heart - Shades of Autumn.
I absolutely love these colours which you can probably tell as I've made several things in those lovely warm shades lately. It's a bit strange actually as I love looking at them but can't wear them with my blonde hair as they make me look ill lol.
Here's my creation for your inspiration which is all about the fruits of Autumn.

I stamped the beautiful bird and berries image (Joanna Sheen Giordano) with Archival coffee ink on cream card and coloured it with watercolour pencils. I die cut it into an oval panel and then inked round the edges with beige, pale pink and cinnamon. I made an offset mat for the panel by stamping a larger oval on one side with a Rubber Stampede maple leaf and Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Aged Mahogany Distress inks.
I then made a background paper by sponging a square of parchment card with Mustard Seed DI and stamping on the maple leaf with Dried Marigold. I added faux stitching around the edges with a fine brown pen.
I made 2 embossed panels for contrast. The first is embossed with the Papermania Triboss gingko leaf folder and inked with Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge DIs. The second was embossed with the Craft Concepts stitches folder and inked with Rusty Hinge and Aged Mahogany DIs.
I then made the leaf embellishment by stamping the maple leaf several times, inked up with Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Aged Mahogany DIs. When dry, I cut them out and sponged on various Distress inks to give variation in hue, dipped each one in clear embossing powder and heat embossed.
I assembled the card as you see, adding pearls to the leaf spray to look like berries and the text was stamped with Hero Arts Pixie Letters upper and lower case with the coffee ink, inked with Mustard Seed DI and cut out.

We all look forward to seeing your beautiful creations and if you need some inspiration, the DT has some gorgeous artwork which you'll find HERE. Please also don't forget that we're a stamping challenge and no digis are allowed. To be eligible for the prize from Marina of Cottage Crafts or the top 3, we must see stamping on your project.

Have a lovely Sunday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Card Crafters Circle - Autumn Colours
Card Makin' Mamas - Fall
Crafts 4 Eternity - Lots of Leaves
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Autumn
Stempelsonne Challenge - Autumn

Wings and Things

Morning all, it's Friday again and another case of where did the week go! It's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles today and the theme chosen by Jan is Wings and Things. You only have to look at the DT samples to see just how many variations this theme can have plus each of the top 3 for the challenge will be receiving a copy of the Here Comes Christmas CD which gives you tons of images, papers and toppers with a vintage flavour.
I'm still making Christmas cards as you'll see and have made a card in sepia tones with a splash of copper and loads of texture.

The elements on my card are all from the Studio 12 Picknix Collection 2 CD - Gingerbread Twist and I first covered my card blank with the gorgeous grungy holly paper in soft blue and beige.
I then changed the colour of the dove image to brown with a lot of help from my daughter as I'm a bit new to fiddling about on PSE and she's really good at it! I die cut the shape and coloured the image with Promarkers in soft shades. I added it to a mat of glittery copper card.
I made an embossed panel from textured kraft card with the Cuttlebug music score folder, sanded the raised areas and rubbed them with brown ink and then heat embossed it with clear powder before the ink dried.
I made a ruffle from the ginger polka dot paper, piercing holes along the centre and adding a running stitch to gather it up. After adding this to the card, I added Stickles tarnished bronze glitter glue over the stitching.
I made a branch border (doesn't it go well with the sprig the dove is carrying) using the Martha Stewart double edge punch, inked it with Vintage Photo Distress ink then embossed with clear powder.
The finishing touch is the sentiment which I die cut and inked.

Hope to see you enter.
Have a lovely day and a great weekend.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Divas by Design - Use Some Texture
The Paper Shelter Challenge - Distressing
Penny's Paper Crafty - Die Cuts/Punches

Life, Love, Music

Hello folks, I'm back today with my second post which is the finally finished card for the current challenge over at Magenta Style which is my favourite theme - you've guessed it - vintage! How could I resist when I have a treasured collection of the wonderful stamps as when I started stamping some 15 years ago, I was caught by the stamping bug and well and truly bitten by the Magenta ladies direct to paper inking technique and the rest is now history, as they say.
I didn't realise there was a challenge over at Magenta until fellow team mate at FSC, Ellie got chosen for the DT, lucky thing!
I've made a card using one of the cling sets and challenged myself to try and make it work in a different way. Happily, my new Marianne Design die set arrived the other day and inspiration struck!

I was desperate to use the large oval die in the set (isn't it just stunning!) and the main image stamp of CSET 15 Musical is square. Here's what I did to solve the problem.

I die cut the shape first from some cream parchment card and then masked off the areas of the stamp which wouldn't fit in the central oval, inked up with Archival coffee then removed the masking tape and stamped the image at an angle on the die cut shape.
I coloured the image with watercolour pencils, pencils and inks and then inked the embossed edges of the frame with pink, lilac and brown ink.
I then made a background paper by rubbing Antique Linen, Old Paper, Tattered Rose and a touch of Shabby Shutters Distress ink on card cut to the size of my card blank, then stamped the square floral design from the set round the edges with Memories creamy coffee chalk ink. When dry, I rubbed more Tattered Rose DI over the floral section.
I then stamped more floral squares and the main image panel with the Archival coffee ink and coloured the flowers and some of the leaf sprigs on the main image with watercolour pencils. I cut these out.
I assembled my card as you see, adding some vintage torn music score inked with Antique linen and vintage Photo DIs, the cut out flowers with pearl centres and the cut out leaf sprigs on the oval panel to make some areas pop.
I finished off with some of the text from the sentiment in the set cut out and inking before adding.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed thinking outside the box a little here and hope you like the result.
Fliss xx

Parisian Tag

Good morning folks and a big welcome to my new follower Trish as it's so lovely to see you there. I hope everyone is having a good week and managing to stay warm in our very iffy weather.
I'm here today with a tag to show you that's my mid week motivation over at Make My Monday as it's my turn to inspire you this week.
Here's the finished tag which uses my never put away Distress inks in some warm Autumnal shades.

I've inked the tag using cosmetic sponges with Distress inks in the following shades - Crushed Olive, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Rusty Hinge and Aged Mahogany. I then stamped on an Artistic Outpost flowery flourish from the Serenity set with the Crushed Olive.

I've then added an inked panel embossed with the Cuttlebug fleur de lys folder together with the flourished Eiffel Tower (Prickley Pear), an inked Marianne Design flourish and some text stamped with a Hero Arts alphabet I've had for many years. Everything was stamped with Archival Coffee (but you probably already guessed that lol)

Hope you have a great day.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Some challenges for my tag:
Creative Stamp Friends - Autumn Colours
House Of Gilli - Use 2 Favourite Things (Distress Inking and Inked Dry Embossing)
 Kaboodle Doodles Challenge - Colours Of Autumn
Totally Stampalicious - Anything Goes
There's Magic In The Air - Anything Fall (My Colours)

A Little Serendipity

Hello folks, I'm back posting earlier than expected as I jumped online earlier today for a quick trawl and then got a HUGE surprise when I saw my MMM team mate Mynnette's Technique Tuesday October challenge pop up which is the reason for this post and the title.
You may remember I made an altered shadow box recently for Fashionable Stamping with a sewing theme where I revisited a technique I learnt many years ago from the lovely ladies at Magenta. I called my variation Florentine as the background I made resembles the type of Bargello they do in Florence which simply involves slightly thinner strips and starting the pattern in the middle then moving out to each side, dropping down once each time.
I made a tutorial for blogging friend Buttons and this card was made with some of the resulting pieces so all I had to do to finish off was add a sentiment and the little butterfly.

For my card I used inked and stamped strips made with a variety of leaf and floral stamps in pinks, greens and browns. I trimmed the edges of the finished bargello piece with pinking shears.
I stamped the lovely bird cage collage by Crafty Individuals with Archival coffee ink and coloured it with a mix of Promarkers, pencils and inks. I stamped the B Line Designs butterfly with the same ink and coloured this with a watercolour pencil. The sentiment by Papermania was stamped in brown, die cut and inked.
I assembled the card as you see with a panel of textured kraft card and a scrap of cream crochet lace.

I thought you might also like to see a photo of a piece of framed artwork from my lounge which I made quite some time ago before I had a blog. I call it Joseph's Coat and you'll see why I think!

You might need to click on the photo see see it properly as it's quite large and it wasn't possible to get a larger pic on here.

Hope you like these Mynnette and I'm linking them to Technique Tuesday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Cafe de Paris

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend and managed to stay warm. We actually had to put the heating on for a while which has to be the first time we've done that in September in quite a long while.
I'm excited to tell you today that we have the start of a new monthly theme over at Make My Monday and this time it's my turn to choose. I've picked France so the challenges for the month concern everything FRENCH with the theme for this week being PARIS. This is mostly because this wonderful city is on my wish list as we still haven't managed to get there - a big hint to my OH I think!

I decided to create a Parisian cafe scene for my card and started by making a background paper. I inked the square of paper with Crushed Olive, Victorian Velvet, Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold and Mustard Seed Distress inks and then stamped on the fleur de lys and squares design from an All Night Media French clear stamp set (ref 91416) with Archival coffee ink and my trusty Hero Arts manuscript stamp with the Spiced Marmalade.
I then stamped the Eiffel Tower (B Line Designs), the cafe ladies (Art Impressions) and the cafe sign and text (All Night Media) with the coffee ink, coloured the ladies with Promarkers and cut them all out.
I then assembled the card as you see, adding a border punched with the Martha Stewart wrought iron punch which I inked with Vintage Photo DI and embossed with clear powder.

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for this challenge and if you'd like some more inspiration, do pop over to the challenge blog as my teamies have risen to this chosen beautifully.
Have a great week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
That Craft Place Challenge - Make Your Own Backgrounds
Card Crafters Circle - Vintage
Frilly and Funkie - Fall Into Fall (Autumn Colours)
Vintage Stamping Challenge - Anything Goes