One For The Boys

Good morning all, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and managed to get outside if you had glorious sunshine as we did. We went up to Balham to help my younger daughter move to her new accommodation and I kid you not, it felt almost like summer it was so warm!
We have a new challenge for you today over at Make My Monday with a theme chosen by yours truly which because I have quite a few male cards to make is:

One For The Boys

My card today is for my brother in law's birthday and in common with most of the men in my husband's family he likes the sea so my new lighthouse scene was ideal.

I decided to make my background paper using a method that came about by accident as it makes perfect watery effect paper. I'll be doing a tutorial on this soon to show exactly what to do but I can tell you it involves Distress inks, re-inkers and my Cuttlebug. If you click on the pic, you'll get the full effect.

The image I used is by Just Inklined and I printed it out on to thick, smooth cartridge paper and coloured it with Aquamarkers then trimmed it to a panel.

I glued the background paper to my card blank then added the lighthouse panel and a computer generated sentiment.

The Design Team have made some fabulous inspiration so I hope you'll pop on over to see and hoefully too join us this week.

Have a great day.

Hugs,

Fliss xx

Dream, Hope, Create

Good morning folks and an especial welcome to my new followers and visitors today. I hope you're all having a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am as I'll be off to the London outskirts to help my younger daughter move to her new accommodation tomorrow.
She works for the fashion company Mother of Pearl as a print designer and if you click HERE you can see one of the prints she designed for the latest collection with had its debut at the recent London Fashion Week. I'm a very proud Mum as I'm sure you'll know!
Now on to the actual reason for the post which is to tell you about the project I have today over at That's Crafty which I hope you'll pop over and view properly.

You'll find all the details over at the blog and it would be lovely to see you over there as there are some fabulous projects from the very wonderful Design Team to feast your eyes on.

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

Mum's The Word

Good morning folks, I hope you all had lovely weekend. Mine was rather busy but sadly it involved an awful lot of washing! I have no idea how we managed to produce such a lot in just one week but it's all done now!
We have a new challenge for you today over at Make My Monday and with a certain day looming fast, the theme is For Mums. So it could be quite a few things such as a gift, a card etc. etc.
Sadly, my own dear Mum is no longer with us and I've made something foe my mother in law who is like a second mother to me and my card features something I know she loves.

I fell in love with this cute bunny from Just Inklined and as my mother in law loves rabbits, he's just perfect for her card.
I printed the image out on to smooth cartridge paper and then coloured it with Aquamarkers which you probably know are my favourite colouring medium at the moment.
I made a background paper by inking a square of watercolour paper with Distress inks (Shabby Shutters, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive and Dried Marigold). I then stamped a daisy from the Crafty Individuals Flower Heads Elements Set with VersaFine Spanish Moss ink all over. I then added a little more colour to some of the flowers with Tombow markers.

Have a great Day.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Crafty Calendar - Animal Antics
Paper Creators Crafts - Spring Is In The Air
Come and Get It Challenges - Easter/Spring
Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafts 4 Eternity - Anything Goes

Inky Antics

Hello again and welcome to my inspirational piece for the new challenge over at That's Crafty which has the theme this time of Inky Antics and boy, did I get inky mitts making it!
I've used ink for absolutely everything on my card including the background and for colouring the flower. Read on to find out how I made it.

I used my Stampendous Creative Palette again to make the background with Distress inks in various shades and misted the plate with water before pressing down the watercolour paper. The piece I used was A5 size and as my intended card blank was 7x5, I had some pieces left over to make other things with.
I stencilled the mono printed paper using a Prima 12x12 stencil and used parts of the stencil with stronger shades of Distress ink to make the pattern. You'll see the the final layer (the green flourishes) is quite transparent so that the background looks layered.
I stamped the flower and leaf stalk with black ink then cut them out and coloured them by sponging with inks. It's easier to do this when they're cut out as you can control where the ink goes a lttle better.
I trimmed the background paper to fit the kraft card blank then inked the edges deep pink. I cut 3 squares from the trimmimgs and inked the edges pink then stamped the text on a further piece with black ink and again inked the edges pink.
I assembled the card as you see, adding pearls between the diamond shapes and to the dot on the text panel.

I used:
Polka Doodles Studio 12 Clear Stamp Set - Shabby Chic Roses
Artistic Outpost Unmounted Stamp Set - Typography
Prima 12x12 Stencil - Tulips
Archival Jet Black Ink
Stampendous Creative Palette
Distress Inks - Squeezed Lemonade, Iced Spruce, Spun Sugar (all on the background), Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Crushed Olive, Wild Honey, Mowed Lawn
Watercolour Paper 
Pearls

Hope you can enter although please do make sure you read the rules first as I'd hate for you to be disappointed.
Good luck!
Fliss xx

Imagine

Hello there folks and a special welcome to my new followers. A real pleasure to have you on board and I really appreciate you choosing to join me on my art journey.
This is my first post of the day to let you know I have a project today over at That's Crafty which is a vintage style creation made with the help of my treasured Stampendous Creative Palette.

You'll find all the details over at the blog with a tutorial and materials list and I'd love it if you'd pop over especially if you haven't yet done so as we have loads of fab tutorials for you so it really is worth a visit.

We had an absolutely astounding number of entries for our first challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog and if you hop over later today, you'll find all the details of the second challenge along with lots of gorgeous inspiration for the theme which is one I love and I'm sure you will too.

See you a bit later on.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Fluttering By

Hello everyone and welcome to my post for today which I've done on my brand new laptop yippee! I can't tell you how glad I am to to back up and running again and can now come round and visit really soon.
We have a new challenge for you today over at Make My Monday and the theme is one I love as it's Beautiful Butterflies so thanks go to Jan for picking this.
I have a very simple card for you as my inspiration as I wanted my favourite butterfly stamp to be the star of my creation.

I made the background strip by inking the card with Scattered Straw and Wild Honey Distress inks and then stamped on my old favourite Hero Arts Old French Writing background with black ink.
I then stamped the B Line Designs butterfly on a scrap of my background paper made by stamping Distress inks with a cork.
I cut the butterfly out and assembled the card as you see - simples!

Have a great day.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Send A Little Happiness For That's Crafty

Hello everyone and many apologies for not visiting at the moment which is because I have very limited computer access after my laptop gave up the ghost last weekend. My new one has arrived but it will take a while to be set up so I'll be round once we've managed to do that.
Today's post is to let you know about the project I have today over at That's Crafty and is a sneak peek to hopefully tempt you to pop over to see the whole creation.

If you haven't yet seen that we have a new challenge blog, the first theme is Anything Goes and you still have a week to enter but please do read the rules before entering to avoid disappointment.

Have a good weekend and see you soon.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Spring At Make My Monday

Hello everyone, a rather late post today to tell you about the new challenge we have for you today over at Make My Monday which is because over the weekend my laptop decided to die so I had to have all my stuff transferred to my younger one's iMac which is a right pain as it's in her room so I can't do as much as I need to at the moment.
Rosie has picked the theme this week which is Spring and a great one as it looks like it's finally appeared here at the moment.
Here's my inspiration which I hope you like.

The background paper here was made by inking the card using an acrylic block and Victorian Velvet Distress ink. I then stamped on a leafy sprig from a B Line Designs cube using Victorian Velvet and Crushed Olive just around the edges.
I stamped the Stampendous bird on smooth cartridge paper inking it with VersaFine Vintage Sepia on the bird portion and VersaFine Spanish Moss on the leaves. I coloured the bird with a touch of brown and pink Aquamarker then die cut the image to an oval and inked the edges with green.
I attached the background paper to a card blank and after checking the placement with the image panel, stamped the Flonzcraft sentiment with the sepia ink before attaching the panel to the card.

Have a great week.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Glitter 'n' Sparkle - Anything Goes
Craftitude Challenge - Anything Goes/Add A Little Green
STAMPlorations March Challenge - Stamps and Spring

Anything Goes At The First That's Crafty Challenge!

Hello again folks and I'm back with my second post of the day which is to let you know about the first challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog which has just gone live.
The first theme is a really easy one as Anything Goes so we're hoping for loads of entries. There's a fab prize of a £20 voucher to spend in the online shop and I can tell you you'll be spoilt for choice with all the gorgeous goodies available.
Here's my inspiration which I hope you like - it's a rather bold card which came about because I've just got my inky mitts on one of the new Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stencils which I have loads of plans for so you'll be seeing more of it over the next few weeks.

I used the rose stencil over another of my painty background papers that I made a few weeks back with the fabulous Stampendous Creative Palette which is a mono printing plate. In my first session with it, I was able to pull around half a dozen prints in blue green shades which is why they keep popping up in my artwork at the moment.
I created the stencilled roses with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink and then added stamped faux stitching round the edges.
The Stampendous image was stamped on smooth thick cartridge paper and painted with Aquamarkers. I then trimmed round the image and added to the side of the background, trimming off the excess paper.
I made her rather a snazzy retro hat by stencilling another rose on to a scrap of mono printed paper, cutting it out and adding to the background paper with double sided and foam tape for dimension.
I finished off with a sentiment panel edged with pink ink.

Materials Used:
Stampendous Cling Stamp - Glance
Kaisercraft Clear Stamp - Smile
Prima Cling Stamp Set - Stitch Stamps - Lines
Balzer Bits Stencil - Rose
Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink
Archival Jet Black Ink
Aquamarkers

I hope you can join us as we'd love to see you there.
Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Style Is Always In Fashion

Hi there and welcome to my first of 2 posts today which is to tell you about the project I have for you over at That's Crafty which features a gorgeous background stamp which I've used to make not only the background paper but decorative panels and matting layers as well - you can really get your money's worth from this one!

To find out how I made made all the layers, please do hop on over for all the details.

I'll be back a bit later on with my inspiration piece for our first challenge at the brand new That's Crafty Challenge Blog and don't miss this because there's a fab prize up for grabs if you enter.

See you later!
Fliss xx

Hello Baby!

Morning all, hope you all had a lovely weekend and managed to fit in some crafting as I did.

 I also loved watching the semi final of the last ever series of Dancing On Ice (sob!) which I really love and I don't know if you saw it but I can tell you that it wasn't just the judges with tears in their eyes after watching Hayley and Dan with their amazing flying sequence - so romantic and beautiful.

Today sees the start of a new challenge over at Make My Monday and our hostess Jacqueline has chosen the theme of Babies.
My inspiration is a little different from the usual style of baby cards as I couldn't resist using another of my recently acquired Aurora Wings images as this particular baby elf is so cute.

I printed the image on to smooth cartridge paper and no surprise here, coloured him with Aquamarkers which are my current favourite colouring medium.
I made the background paper with a heart peg stamp by Judith which I bought from Stamp Addicts a while back. I stamped it with pink, yellow, blue and lilac inks and then when it was dry sponged Colorbox parchment ink over the top to soften the colours.
I added the image panel to mats of yellow, blue and pink then embossed a pink die cut heart with a Cuttlebug heart folder. I finished off with some wording cut from a Stamp It! alphabet stamp which I stamped on blue card.

Have a great day.
Hugs,
Fliss xx