Butterflies Galore

Hello there and welcome to my second post today as having had rain most of the day, I've managed to fit in a bit more crafting with some images I've been colouring up whilst listening to the TV in the evening.
This is the first of those using a beautiful Aurora Wings digital image with my favourite Spring flowers, pansies.

Isn't she adorable? I printed her out on to thick, smooth cartridge paper which is my choice for colouring with my favourite medium, Aquamarkers. After I painted the image, I then added detail with Prismacolor pencils. I trimmed the image to a panel and added it to a mauve mat with a strip of lilac pearls on one side.
Next I made the background paper by sponging lilac paint on a square of medium surface cartridge paper and stamped on lots of butterflies with a Stamp-It Australia image and lilac VersaColor ink. This is what it looked like before I covered rather a lot of it up!

I then die cut some flourishes (Cheery Lynn) and a corner (Marianne Design) from silver embossed card and some butterflies from teal card. I assembled the card as you see, finishing off with a silver metal filigree butterfly.

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Aurora Wings Challenge - Butterflies
Brown Sugar Challenge- Anything Goes
Craftitude Challenge - That's Die-Licious - Use A Die
Glitter & Sparkle Challenge - Add Some Metal

Thanks for looking.
Fliss xx

Make Us Laugh!

Hello there on a rather wet and typical Bank Holiday Monday for the UK. It was lovely yesterday but not so today!
I'm here with my rather late creation for the new challenge at Make My Monday with a theme chosen by Jacqueline who would like to see:

A Card To Make Us Laugh

I have to admit to a bit of a struggle with this one as it's not something I do very often (the once in 5 years something - tee hee!) so what I've come up with may make you smile but I'm not sure about the laughter. My DT sisters have done much better than me with this so do hop over for a peek.

I made the background panel with a homemade splatter style stamp and stamped this all over white card using Distress inks - Mustard Seed, Ripe Persimmon and Picked Raspberry. I started with the yellow and layer stamped over the top with the darker shades, stamping 2 or 3 times before re-inking. I then stamped in black with the squares, a Roman numeral and flourish stamp in a very random manner.

I stamped the cute and quirky bird (Viva LasVegastamps) - who's clearly not keen on the usual bird breakfast :) - with black ink on smooth card, trimmed to a panel and added to a red and black mat.

I die cut the pocket watch (Britannia Dies) from black and white card, assembled it and added to the card, finishing off with a computer generated sentiment which I then die cut and added to a red mat, fixing on with brads.

I think my card fits in quite nicely with the new challenge at Quirky Crafts Challenges which helped me to get inspiration as the theme is It's About Quirky Time and the card features that as well as the rather quirky bird. Thanks ladies!

Have a good week.

Hugs, Fliss xx

True Colours

Good morning everyone, I hope you're all having a better week than me as I currently have a rather red left eye having got grit in it on Wednesday when walking up to the local shops in rather windy weather. It goes quite well with my colourful creation over at That's Crafty this week which is the altered cover of my new journal for colour experimentation :)

Here' s a sneak peek and you'll find the whole thing over at the blog with all the details.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Hugs, Fliss xx

Nature

Good morning folks, hope you all had a lovely and hopefully sunny weekend. It was so warm here it almost felt like Summer and it really was sunny Sussex by the sea.
Today we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and this week the theme was chosen by yours truly as it's a big favourite of mine:

NATURE

I've made a Spring card for my inspiration with a gorgeous new stamp I recently acquired by Stacy Stamps which you can find at Joanna Sheen's online shop in the UK. It stamps amazingly well too with all the intricate detail.

I stamped the bird collage on to smooth cartridge paper with Memories Creamy Coffee ink and coloured it with Aquamarkers then added detail with Prisma pencils. I trimmed the image to a rectangular panel and added mats of pink and green.

I then made my background paper with the same stamp, just inking up the flowers in the lower part of the image with Dovecraft Natural ink and stamping round the edges. I then did some Distress inking with Spun Sugar, Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive and Mowed Lawn.  There's a pic below so you can see the whole piece before I stuck the main panel on.

I added this to a card blank, stuck on the main image panel and finished off with a stamped sentiment which I inked and coloured a little to tone in.

Here are a couple of nature photos I took in our garden too as we've had 4 little fox cubs playing in the garden and seagulls on our neighbours roof so hope you like these. I also think the baby seagull might make you smile too :)

 

I hope you can join in as we'd love to see you there.

Have a great week.

Fliss xx

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Dream Valley Challenges - Things With Wings

Sister Act Challenge - Anything Goes

That's Krafty!

Hello again and welcome to my second post today which is to tell you about the new challenge today over at the That's Crafty challenge blog which is - wait for it! - THAT'S KRAFTY.

That's right, we want to see your creations using kraft card which I have to say is a favourite of mine and here's my inspiration which is a fairly clean and simple creation ( well for me anyway :) ).

I've used a kraft card blank and stamped directly on the card (I was feeling quite brave at the time). On the right hand side I stamped the largest butterfly and the moth from the Kaisercraft Butterflies Set using Archival Watering Can ink.
On the left side, I stamped the Kaisercraft Script several times with Archival Olive ink.
I stamped the sentiment from the Stamp-It Australia Time To Dream Unmounted Stamp Set on a scrap of kraft card with the Watering Can ink, cut it to a square panel and added a black mat before adding to the card.
And that's it - done!

Hope you can enter as the prize for our randomly drawn winner is a £20 voucher for the online shop. Good luck!

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Feeling Blue

Hello folks from a very tired Fliss as I've had a very busy time with work and stuff over the last couple of weeks practically falling asleep whilst watching TV yesterday. I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend and hopefully a bit of a rest..
Anyhow, enough waffle and on to the first post today which is to tell you about the project I have today over at That's Crafty which I was rather late in sending to poor Laura yesterday so apologies here for that!

You can probably see the reason for my title now as I decided to go monochrome with shades of blue for a vintage style card. All the deets are over at the blog as usual.

Back in a bit to let you know about the new challenge we have for you today over at the That's Crafty challenge blog and I think you'll love it too.

Fliss xx

It's A Hoot At Make My Monday

Hello all and sorry about my post title which I couldn't resist because our theme this week at Make My Monday chosen by Laura is OWLS :)
We also have 3 very creative new Design Team members showing off their first makes today so it's a big welcome from me to Joan, Marina and Sue. Great to have you with us ladies and looking forward to getting to know you.
Here's my challenge inspiration which is a little wall hanging featuring my favourite owl stamp which I've had for many years and could never part with as he's so cute.

I made the wall hanging from some recycled grey board which I covered with some tan coloured paper after punching holes at the top and adding natural twine to form the hanger.
I then made a background paper using an elderly and much treasured PSX ivy stamp which I repeat stamped in various shades of green VersaMagic chalk inks. I distressed the edges with a craft knife and emery board before attaching to the wall panel.
I then made a textured panel with recycled corrugated packaging painted with shades of blue and green acrylic paints and then sprinkled on some Ranger Tarnished Gold embossing powder whilst the paint was still damp and heated it to melt the powder. I sanded the edges lightly with the emery board.
I stamped the owl (Tattered Angels) with Memories Creamy Coffee chalk ink on smooth cartridge paper and when dry, coloured him with Aquamarkers. I trimmed the image to a panel, distressed the edges and inked them lightly then added tan and brown mats, also with distressed edges. I attached the panel to the corrugated background with square antique copper brads to make sure it stayed put as it had buckled slightly after the paint was applied.
I then die cut some ivy leaves from an X Cut leaf set (really fabulous as it produces beautiful embossed leaves of many types) and coloured these with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss Distress inks.

Have a great week.
Hugs,
Fliss xx
PS: It's turned really cold again so the heating has gone back on as we had hail this morning!

Smarter Than You Think

Hello folks, I hope you've all had a good week and are ready for the weekend as I most definitely am although I have to do some work tomorrow to finish something off - no rest for the wicked you might say!
Today's post is to tell you about the project that I have for you over at That's Crafty which this week is something rather different as I've been experimenting with ways to get the look of parchment work without spending ages on it - I'm too impatient you see!
 Here's a peek and you'll find all the details over at the blog as usual.

A slightly later post than this should be too as try as I might (at least 5 times!) I couldn't get the pic to upload last night!

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

Seasonal Flower Colours At Make My Monday

Hello there folks and hope you're all enjoying the long weekend or at least those of you in the UK. It's been quite sunny here too although colder but so lovely to see the sunshine.
Lots of nature to see as well as our garden is full of birds and their babies and yesterday afternoon we saw some fox cubs playing in our next door neighbour's garden but sadly too far away to take any photos. You will see a pic at the end of the post of our own 2 little dears though so do read on for this.

We have a new challenge for you today over at Make My Monday with a theme chosen by Suzi B of Seasonal Flower Colours with a lovely photo inspiration which you can see over at the blog.

Not much stamping this week as I couldn't find any stamps that quite fit the colour theme so the lovely pot of lavender from the Polka Doodles Sundae Of Seasons CD, although not exactly seasonal :), came to the rescue.
I went for a simple layered background with some trellis patterned papers and embossed some toning card panels with a Creative Expressions lattice folder. The sentiment is a Catslife Press stamp which I stamped with Memento Grape Jelly, die cut with a Nestabilities circle die and inked up with lilac and purple.

Now for the pic of our 2 little cuties which I hope you like:

The one stuffing her face is Rosie and the little fella keeping watch while his sister eats is Dill. They both love the patch where you can see them as it's close to the house so they can make a bolt for it if anything scares them - this happens quite a lot as they're Netherland Dwarfs and rather nervy!

Have a great day.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Spring Is In The Air

Back again folks and it's time to tell you about the new challenge we have for you today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and the theme is a fab one - Spring.
I absolutely love this theme as Spring is a favourite time of year to me with all the new leaves and blossom appearing.
I've taken inspiration from my memories of the pots of pansies my dear Mum always had in her garden in Spring and Summer.

As you can see, there are pansies galore on my little wall hanging panel and I've chosen my Mum's favourite colours for them too.
I used a thick chipboard book page to make the hanging and covered it with some paper from my stash which was ready coloured with Gelatos. Before I attached it, I embossed the left side with an Anna Griffin embossing folder.
I stamped the pansy border and the gorgeous lady with Archival coffee ink and coloured them with Aquamarkers. I then cut the border out completely and partially cut the lady out, leaving the right hand edge straight.
I embossed a further scrap of Gelato coloured card with a trellis folder and added the lady image to it. I assembled the wall hanging as you see, adding the text which I stamped with alphabet stamps using the brown ink.

I used:
Stamps:
Stampendous Spring Gal
Deep Red Cling Set - Pansy Borders
Alphabet Stamps
Gelato Design Color Kit
Smooth Stamping Card
Aquamarkers
Creative Expressions Lattice Embossing Folder
Cuttlebug Anna Griffin Floral Bouquet Embossing Folder

Hope you can enter although you must read the rules first to be in with a chance of winning a £20 voucher to the shop.

Good luck!
Fliss xx 

Fairy Happy Birthday For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, hope you're all well and have had a good week. Mine has been really busy at work so you can guess who's looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend.
My first post of today is to tell you that I have a project and tutorial on how I created it over at That's Crafty which I hope you like. There's also a little tip for making your own background paper which will save on time and ink so do hop on over if you'd like to see what it is.

Quite a girly card as you see as I'm trying to get ahead with the birthday cards I need in the next few weeks.

I'll be back a bit later with details of our new challenge over at the That's Crafty challenge blog and I just loved the theme and think you will too when you see what it is.

See you later!
Hugs,
Fliss xx