A Secret Garden Canvas

Hello folks, hoping that you all had a lovely weekend with some sunshine as we did - it really was sunny Sussex for once!
The only slight down point was that I had to take advantage of the weather to get my washing out of the way after months of having to stick it in the dryer.
Today we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and the theme this week is Anything But A Card so there are loads of things you could create - just take a look at the Design Team line up for some inspiration.
I decided to finish off a box canvas which I started a few weeks back but couldn't finish at the time as I couldn't make anything work. I hope you like the finally finished version and here it is.

I painted the canvas with aqua acrylic paint and then used a Prima stencil with red and gold paints to add a pattern round the outside. I then swiped gold paint around the edges.
I stamped the bird (Paper Artsy Hot Pick HP1005) with Black Soot Distress ink and embossed with clear powder and cut him out.
I added him to the canvas with a variety of paper flowers with pearls added to the centres. I then stamped the flourish from the set with Fired Brick Distress ink, stamping several times without re-inking and stamped the text on with Memories black ink. I trimmed this to a panel and added it to the canvas to finish off.

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my canvas:
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenges - Things With Wings
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes

Birthday Bling

Hello again, I'm back as promised with the details of the new challenge over at Polka Doodles today which was chosen by doodler, Alethea, as today is her birthday.

Happy Birthday Alethea - hope it's a good one!

Alethea would like to see birthday projects with some added bling which in my case is quite subtle as it comes from some glitter card.

 

My image is the lovely Libby the gypsy girl from the new mini CD, Fredericka, recently launched by Nikky and she's my favourite on the CD. I think she looks so sweet with her basket of mushrooms although I hope she's not going to eat them as some of them appear to be toadstools!

I printed her out on to thick smooth cartridge paper and then coloured her with my new obsession, Distress Stains as they're so wonderfully easy to paint with and you can mix the colours to make even more shades. I usually dab them on to a ceramic plate and pick the colour up with a paintbrush. I die cut the image with a Papermania frilly die and added it to a mat of pink glitter card die cut with the next size up die in the set.

I covered the 8x8 card blank with some pretty ditsy patterned blue paper from the same CD and added a central border of mushroom paper, trimmed along the scalloped edge in the pattern and added to a glitter card mat. Before sticking the border in place, I tied some pink chiffon ribbon round and finished with a bow.

I added a cream doily, matted the sentiment from the CD on more glitter card and finished off my design with a lacy design metal butterfly (these were a bargain from The Range - only £1 for 4!).

I hope you have a lovely day and a great weekend.

Hugs,

Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes With Ribbon
Crafting By Designs - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Sisterhood Of Crafters - Free For All

Soar Canvas For That's Crafty

Hello folks and a special welcome to my new followers, so lovely to see you here and that you've chosen to follow my art journey.
This is my first post today to tell you about the project I have over at That's Crafty which this week is a butterfly canvas and you'll find all the details over at the blog with a complete materials list and instructions on how I made my creation which I hope you like.

As you'll see, a lot of fluttering going on here and I hope you'll pop over to see how I made it.

Back later with my second post about today's Polka Doodles challenge.
See you soon.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Some challenges for my canvas:
Happy Campers - Use A Mask or Stencil (I used a Dylusions leaf stencil with Paper Artsy Grunge Paste)
Through The Craftroom Door - Anything Goes
Country View Crafts Challenge - Butterflies

Fancy Folding

Hello folks, another gorgeous sunny day but guess who'll be stuck indoors working - sigh! As it's Monday, we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and this week the theme is Fancy Folds, so you can make whatever you like as long as it has more than one fold on it.
I actually started something else for this one but due to a busy weekend, couldn't quite get it finished in time. After a lot of head scratching, I decided to share one of my samples made for Nikky from the Cherryblossom Lane CD as it's an easel card and fits the theme. It's also very springlike, perfect for the current weather which has finally decided to be Spring!

I printed out the cute bunny cyclist and die cut the image with a Nestabilities scalloped circle die then added this to a circular mat of spring green paper from the CD.
I made an easel shape card blank from a square scalloped 8x8 size white card and covered the base and front with papers from the CD having trimmed both bottom edges with a Papermania emboss and cut scallop border die.
I added a central border to the base of toning floral paper and finished off with a die cut and matted sentiment cut out with a Nestabilities scalloped oval die. I used some flower shaped buttons to make the stand. 

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Scrappy Frogs - Think Spring
One Stop Craft - Not Square

Sentimental

Hello everyone, hope you're all having the fabulous sunshine that we have on the South Coast this weekend, it really does feel like Spring has arrived and I actually only have 2 layers of clothes on instead of 4!
Today sees the start of a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges chosen by fellow fashionette, Esther, and it's Sentimental so there must be a sentiment on your creation. We are sponsored as always by the lovely Leo of Flonzcraft who will be giving a $20 voucher to his online shop for the randomly drawn winner - so what are you waiting for - you have to be in it to win it!
I've made a fairly clean and simple card (well, for me anyway lol) as I wanted to show the gorgeous sentiment by Lindsay Mason to its best advantage.

I made the background paper with some tiny flowers from the Prima mini Meadowlark stamp set, layer stamping 2 of the flowers with Tattered Rose, Wild Honey, Stormy Sky and Shaded Lilac Distress inks on cream card and covered my card blank with this.
I stamped the bird (Kaisercraft Bonjour stamp set) with Archival Coffee ink on the right side of a strip of thick cartridge paper and stamped the sentiment (Lindsay Mason Messages 1 by Personal Impressions) with the same ink. I then painted the bird with Distress Stains (Spun Sugar, Dried Marigold, Picked Raspberry, Tea Dye, Rusty Hinge, Pumice Stone and Crushed Olive) - I can't get enough of these at the moment as they're so easy to paint with.
I added the painted panel to the card and then added scalloped borders on either side, die cut from hyacinth blue card with a Sizzix die (658954 Borders). Done!

My fellow fashionettes have an amazing array of creations lined up for you on the catwalk so dop pop on over for a look and hope you can enter as we'd love to see you there.
We also have a fabulous guest designer with us this time and it's none other than my former fellow Make My Monday design team mate, Suzanne of Suzanne's Papercrafting. She's made a really gorgeous project for us too.

Have a great Sunday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Elizabeth's Hope For That's Crafty

Good morning everyone and thank you all so much for your kind comments about my rather difficult couple of weeks which I really appreciate. I'm slowly catching up and will hopefully will catch up with you soon if I haven't got to you yet.
Today is my turn for the tutorial over at That's Crafty and I've been playing with those Distress Stains, rather a lot this time, to do some very relaxing colouring. I've also inked up the new stamp Laura sent me which was a must have as soon as I saw it as I love Jane Austen and was thrilled to see the new collection by Indigo Blu which features my absolute favourite, Pride and Prejudice.

Isn't she pretty? I just love all the flowers which I think go so well with the anemone corner stamp. You can find all the details of what I used over at the blog and hope to see you there.

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

A Gift Set For Studio 12

Hello folks, I hope you're all having a good week so far and when this post pops up, I'll be rushing around doing the final preparations for a workshop I'm teaching this morning (I'm hoping to show you my samples soon too).
I'm here today to tell you about the project I have over at Polka Doodles and Studio 12 which is an idea for gift giving with a matching card perfect for a dear friend.

You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to see how I made it, together with the rest of the pics. It's one of those creations that's really easy when you know how!

Just the thing to make for a special friend whether for a birthday or just to say thanks for being a friend.

Hugs, Fliss xx

A challenge for my gift set - Crafty Cardmakers - Tag/Card + Gift Wrap/Bag/Box

Nature Walk

Hello everyone, welcome especially to my lovely new followers, so glad to see you and will be over to visit as soon as I can.
My bad news saga is continuing unfortunately as my hubby has been borrowing my car because his is in the garage for a second day (dreading the bill!) and went outside this morning to find that some very nasty vandals had decided to pull out my poor car's wing mirrors in the night and they were dangling on each side by the wire connections. As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of blue air here for a while lol.
He did manage to fix them back in eventually after searching the internet for instructions and also had to postpone his scheduled appointment with a local vicar where he's church architect. He finally got there around an hour late! I'm just thankful he's handy with fixing things as I'm totally useless with stuff like that.
Anyway, enough drama and on to the cards I have to show you today which are from the last workshop I taught and I decided to post them as I saw the latest challenge at Top Tip Tuesday concerns stitching, Say It Isn't Sew! - Not Machine Stitching. My 2 cards both feature faux stitching which I have a tendency to make a bit wonky as my machine sewing would most definitely not be straight!

When we made these cards, the weather was rather dull so I decided on bright and cheery which I thought would work well with the silhouette images stamped in black.
Most of the papers I used are from a Basic Grey Ambrosia pack that's been in my stash for ages so I thought I should use it up. The first card has strips of coordinating papers attached to a piece of thin card and trimmed. I then stamped the trees (Kanban) with black ink giving them depth by stamping the centre image slightly lower. I then made holes round the panel edge with a pokey tool (Tim Holtz) and drew on the faux stitches with a fine black pen. I find if you let the pen run from one hole to the next, it looks much more realistic (one of my class ladies actually thought we were going to use a sewing machine much to her horror!).
I covered the card blank with some toning paper (Polka Doodles) having added faux stitching as before. I added a panel of grey card and a die cut sentiment decorated with pearls to finish.
The second card involved cutting the paper strips attached to the thin card in the opposite direction and then sticking them to further card using a variation of a bargello technique (my pattern only uses one side of the traditional design). I then stamped on the silhouette wildflower (The Stamp Fairy) and a butterfly free with a magazine with black ink. I added the panel to a blue mat.
I covered the card blank with paper I added rows of faux stitching too and added a further border with more faux stitching matted on blue (both papers are Polka Doodles). I finished off with a sentiment from the Kanban set.

Hope to see you all soon.
Fliss xx

Blue and Brown at Make My Monday

Good morning folks, hope you've all been good whilst I've been away lol. Thank you for all the lovely comments you left for me too.
My break turned out to be a bit of a disaster as my poor hubby was taken out of action for 2 days in the middle with a sick bug which fortunately he kept to himself and then my father in law went down with a nasty cold which as he's diabetic was a bit of a nightmare! I've now come back for a rest lol.

We have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday today, chosen by Caz, with the theme of Blue and Brown as she loves colour challenges. I have to say that I love this one as it's one of my favourite combinations and I hope you like what I made.

As you can see, quite a lot of shades of brown here with just a bit of blue as I was aiming for a vintage effect.
To make the background, I wrapped a strip of Tim Holtz Sketchbook tissue tape coloured with Stormy Sky Distress ink round a piece of Paper Cellar paper and stuck this to the card blank. I added a piece of brown crochet lace at the top of the tape.
I die cut a doily with a Papermania die and inked this with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I then added strips of blue and brown Paper Cellar paper to a piece of thin white card, die cut a circle from it and added faux stitching with a pokey tool (Tim Holtz) and a fine brown pen.
I stamped the butterfly (B Line Designs) with Memories Art Print Brown ink and coloured this with various brown Distress inks and cut the image out.
I assembled the card as you see, adding some gem circles and a layered flower with a brown glittery die cut centre to finish.

I'll be round to visit as soon as I can, once I've caught up with all the chores I have to do and will hopefully see you soon.
Thanks to everyone who entered my challenge theme of last week - a stunning array of entries and fab to see so many!
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Crafts 4 Eternity - Wonderful Wings
Sugar Creek Hollow - Stamp It
My Time To Craft - Up In The Sky
Glitter 'n' Sparkle - Stitching - Real or Not
Country View Crafts Challenges - Butterflies

April Showers

Here I am again with details of the new challenge over at Polka Doodles which is to create something inspired by April Showers.
I immediately thought of the sweet image by Emma Canning called Rainy Days which you can buy on her own or as part of the new Digi Stamp Heaven CD which has loads of Emma's images and sentiments.
Here's my card:

I printed the image out on to thick, smooth cartridge paper and coloured her with a mix of Aquamarkers and pencils. I die cut the image to an oval, added faux stitching round the outside with a pokey tool and brown fine liner then inked round with a brown ink pad.
I covered the card with brown pinstripe paper and then added panels of blue paper with faux stitching added. I finished off with a die cut sentiment treated in the same way as the image panel and a paper flower with a faux button centre (Studio 12 Picknix Collection 1 CD).

This is the last of my posts scheduled to pop up whilst I'm away and I'll see you all tomorrow.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Tres Chic For That's Crafty

Hello again everyone, today's my turn to post over at That's Crafty and I've been playing with my Prima doll stamp again, this time to make a tag. I've used Promarkers, as frankly I need the practice and colours that are quite muted and eerily similar to those in my wardrobe at the moment!
Here's what I created:

If you'd like to see what I used and how I made it, then please hop on over to the blog and you'll find everything you need there.

Have a great day and back shortly with another post - I know, busy, busy!
Hugs, Fliss xx

Mid Week Motivation For Make My Monday

Hello folks, another scheduled post here which I hope has popped up as it should. It's to tell you about my Mid Week Motivation post over at Make My Monday for the current challenge with my theme of Create Your Own Background.
Here's the card I made and if you'd like to see how I made the background for it, please hop over to the challenge blog and you'll find a tutorial with all the details. It's really easy to make when you know how, I promise!

Hope to see you there!

Hugs, Fliss xx

Springtime In Paris

Good morning folks, hope you all had a lovely weekend and with the sunshine we had here. Still very chilly but lovely and bright so I can't complain.
This post is popping up as we're on our way to Bournemouth for a few days with our in laws, something that has been a family tradition around Easter time for a while now, although this is the first without our girls so it will be a bit strange!
Today sees the start of a new challenge at Make My Monday and as I chose the theme it's to do my favourite thing (well, you know me!) Create Your Own Background so no patterned papers, just something you did yourself.
Here's my rather floral creation (still dreaming of Spring):

The floral background paper here was made by simply spraying cream card with gold Glimmer Mist and then stamping on the flower (Time To Stamp) with Victorian Velvet and Crushed Olive Distess inks.
I made a panel with green pastel paper embossing with a Darice long folder with butterflies and swirls.
I stamped the Stampendous image on cream card and inked with Crushed Olive, Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo Distress inks and then added colour to the flowers with Promarkers and pencils. I trimmed the image panel and added to a deep pink mat.
I assembled the card as you see, adding some Spring flowers to embellish.

I hope you enter the challenge and if you're stuck for background ideas, if you click on the Tutorial page at the top of my blog, you might find a technique to inspire you.

Hugs, Fliss xx 

Art Journaling At FSC

Hello folks, hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far. We actually have some sunshine for the second day in a row and it's not quite so chilly today. I'm hoping this keeps up as today is the last day before a short family break. We're all off to Bournemouth for a few days with the in laws so the next few days will be scheduled posts which I hope will pop up as planned.
Today sees the start of a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and it's been quite a challenge for me as Ellie picked something I've never done before, Art Journaling, and it took me a while to pluck up the courage to start something.
In the end, I decided to start a journal to show what inspires me as the ladies on my classes and my crafty friends often ask me where my inspiration comes from and it's very difficult to explain the way my brain works lol. My first page includes some of the elements that set my creative juices flowing and you'll have to let me know what you think.

I've created my page on an A4 sheet of watercolour paper because I couldn't find a journal with strong enough pages so will be binding my pages together when I have enough.
I made the background with Distress Stains - Crushed Olive, Shabby Shutters, Mustard Seed, Squeezed Lemonade, Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet. I then stamped on the wild flowers (Artifacts by The Stamp Bug) with Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint and Wild Honey Distress inks.
I added a border round the edge with Vintage Photo (Andy Skinner Batik Garden). I then stamped the butterfly from the set with Archival Coffee ink together with some of the butterflies from the Crafty Individuals Elements set CI - 231. I coloured the large butterfly with Spiced Marmalade DI and then cut them all out.
I stamped the background stamp from the Batik set with Worn Lipstick and Vintage Photo DIs then coloured it with Victorian Velvet. I trimmed the image, distressed the edges and inked them with the Vintage Photo.
I stamped the text from the set with the coffee ink, tore this out and distressed the edges further. I die cut a doily (Papermania) from some Craftwork Cards kraft printed paper and assembled everything as you see, distressing the edges of the page.
As you can see, I couldn't resist some layering on the page, although it isn't heavy so should hopefully be Ok when I finally assemble the pages (when I've done them, that is!)

We have a fantastic guest designer with us for this challenge, the amazing Kate Crane, whose journaling I'm sure you're familiar with. The Fashionettes have also risen to the challenge with some gorgeous creations so do hop over for a look.
As always, our sponsor, the lovely Leo of Flonzcraft, is offering a fabulous $20 voucher to his online shop so do enter if you can.

A hello from me here to my lovely new followers and thanks for deciding to be here.
I'll be back next Saturday hopefully renewed from the break and I know I'll be raring to create again!

Before I go, I would like to say a huge thanks to the team at Stamping Sensations as I found out on Friday that I won the March challenge with a prize of rather a lot of fantastic Crafty Individuals stamps and did a happy dance when I saw this. Thanks ladies!
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Infinite Possibility For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a good week and are not suffering too much from the current chill and snow which we've even had here on the South Coast.
I'm here today to tell you about my project today over at That's Crafty which is a steampunk style card which came about because about a week ago I joined Pinterest  and a bit of surfing turned up some very inspiring steampunk creations.
Here's what I made:

If you'd like to see the materials list and all the instructions, you'll find them over at the blog and it would be great to see you there.

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

Stormy Skies

At least on my card that is! Hello everyone, hope you're having a lovely Easter long weekend so far and managing to fit some crafting in.
I have a card to share that is my inspiration for the new challenge today over at Make My Monday which is to make a Clean and Simple One Layer Card and mine is for my brother in law's birthday tomorrow. Perfect as he doesn't like fussy and in common with the men in my hubby's family likes the sea so here's what I came up with.

I had to scan my card as I was a bit late finishing it yesterday and had to put a sheet of blue paper round it as my scanner made it look like the fishing village and greeting were floating in the middle of nowhere!
I used a 7x5 card blank and stamped the Michael Powell image on with Memories black ink. I watercoloured the image with a mix of Distress Stains and Aquamarkers and then stamped on the Dovecraft sentiment. This was originally meant to be stamped in black but I picked up the Archival olive green by mistake and serendipity struck again as I think it looks better then black probably would have!

I hope you all got lots of nice chocs and that you didn't finish them all off at once lol

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx