Learning To Dance In The Rain

Hello everyone, I'm here today with a heavy heart because I'm having to do what my post title says at the moment and my mixed media collage was what caught my eye.
I got home from work on Friday and when I shut the front door, heard a very odd tinkling sound like falling glass and then notice a smashed patio door with a hole near the base in our dining room. To cut a long story short, some nasty person had entered via the hole and helped himself to most of our portable electronics.
The most gut wrenching thing for me being not that he took my beloved Mac laptop but my backup drive too so I've lost several months worth of my accounting stuff which will have to be done all over again - sigh!
I've also lost my camera and my hubby's was taken too so I won't be able to take photos of anything I create even when I do feel like doing any which is definitely not now!
As you can probably image, I feel really sort of wired and unable to settle to anything so I'm doing the dreaded h word as scrubbing seems to be therapeutic! At least I'll have a very clean house afterwards!

I'm writing this on a borrowed computer which luckily had some of my artwork stored on it so at least I haven't lost everything.

I'll see you all when I can so bye for now.
Fliss x

My Blue Heart

Hello everyone and welcome to my post for today, especially my new followers, so lovely have have you here ladies.
Today's post is to let you know about the project I have over at That's Crafty which is to hopefully inspire anyone who hasn't yet entered our challenge for the fortnight over at the Challenge Blog as you still have a week to enter for a fabulous prize.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as always and I'd really love you to pop on over as the Design Team have some fabulous tutorials to share.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
See you again soon,
Fliss xx

A Season Of Mists

Hello everyone and welcome to my slightly late post for the new challenge over at Make My Monday today which has the theme of Autumn or Fall Colours. Very appropriate now because I woke up this morning to a chilly 8 degrees!
I hope you're all well and feeling better than me as I'm currently a bit under the weather with the first cold type thing I've had since January last year when my dear hubby gave me an unwanted New Year present!
My inspiration is very Autumnal as it's a favourite season of mine being an Autumn girl by birth. The photo doesn't quite do it justice as there are more colours in there than really show as I chose a palette of warm Autumn shades.

I made the background paper first with a piece of textured cartridge paper, applying Sticky Fingers Autumn spray inks in Blackberry, Olive, Autumn Gold and Maple to a craft sheet and pressing the paper in to pick up the colour. I find it a bit less messy than spraying directly on the paper and of course, this way you get more from the colours as you can colour more paper with the leftover inks.

I embossed one side of the dry paper with a Darice Autumn leaf flourish folder and swiped over the top with Brilliance Pearlescent Purple, Rust and Olive. I stamped the remaining paper with a Prima Engravers clear stamp and coffee brown ink. I then distressed the edges with an emery board and added splatters of Rusty Hinge Distress ink.

I painted a kraft clothing tag (it already had distressed edges!) with some brown and bronze acrylics to cover up the logo and text then stamped over the top with the same Prima stamp and the coffee brown ink. I also swiped the edges with Rusty Hinge ink for definition.

I made the leaves with an extra scrap of card coloured with the leftover spray inks and die cut them with a Marianne die before adding extra colour with Distress inks (Rusty Hinge, Frayed Burlap, Forest Moss and Mowed Lawn).

I added scraps of corrugated kraft card to the tag and then glued on the leaves and some kraft paper flowers with music score print. I tied a piece of twine through the top, then added the background paper to a kraft card blank with the tag and some cut up computer generated text.

See you soon and take care,

Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Lexi's Creations Challenge - Autumn Colours
Lunagirl Moonbeams Challenge - Autumn
Dies R Us Challenge - Fall Festival
The East Wind Challenge - Feel The Fall
Rubber Dance Challenge - Colour

All You Need Is Love

Hello, I'm back again, this time with details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which this time has the theme of All You Need Is Love.
I decided on a fairly clean and simple look for my card which I felt would suit my planned sentiment better as it's quite bold and graphic in style. So here it is and hope you like it.

I created the heart shape by die cutting the shape in a piece of thin card with the X Cut Homespun Heart nesting die and using the aperture to make a stencil. I then sponged Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold and Worn Lipstick into the heart shape.

 

I then stamped Kaisercraft's Flutter image with Archival Watering Can ink diagonally across the inked heart and added portions of the image only at the top and bottom to extend it across the paper. 

I stamped the butterfly portion of the image again along with the largest butterfly from the Kaisercraft Butterflies set.

I then painted the images with Distress inks - I used Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers.

I assembled the card as you see to finish, stamping the sentiment from the Kaisercraft You! set with the same grey ink.

Hope you can enter (although you need to be a UK resident to be eligible for the prize) and it's a fab prize too as it's a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

To Die For

Hello folks and welcome to my first post of the day which is to point you in the direction of my project today over at That's Crafty which is all about making use of those dies you might have lurking in your collection like me.
I set myself a challenge to include as many as I could on my project without going totally overboard. I hope you think I've succeeded.

You'll find all the details over at the blog.

Thanks for looking and see you a bit later with my next post.

Fliss xx

Welsh Holiday Pics

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a good week and this is a very quick post from me to share some of my pics from last week when we had our trip to Wales. Absolutely no fiddling with the pics either as the weather was fabulous and the light produced very good photos.

First up is a pic of our hotel taken from the side of Lake Vyrnwy which is actually a reservoir and is surrounded by hills and lots of fir trees as you'll see below.

Next I have a pic of the tower in the lake which is Victorian and is actually what my hubby calls the plughole!

Now here's a pic of another lake we visited, Tal y Lynn (lynn is the Welsh for lake) and in common with our lake was like a mirror.

Next is a photo of my favourite Welsh town, Llangollen, pronounced Clan-gothlan, which has the River Dee running through the centre as well as a canal. It also has fabulous art and craft shops and a vintage clothing shop where I was lucky enough to pick up a beautiful green and plum check wool and cashmere jacket (the shoulder pads have to come out though as I don't want to resemble Hilary Devey!!!)

Finally, I have a couple of photos of Port Meirion (does anyone else remember The Prisoner?) and they don't really do it justice. It's a rather strange place but fascinating even so.

See you again soon and hope you enjoy the rest of the week.

Fliss xx

A Thoroughly British Tradition

Hello everyone and welcome (or should I say "croeso") to my post today. If you've been wondering why I've been mia lately, it's because I've been on holiday to Wales which is where the greeting comes from - it being the word most seen on my hols apart from "araf" which I saw a great deal on the roads as it means "slow" and anyone who has visited Wales will know why! I had no idea that Wales consisted mostly of hills and mountains with valleys in between until last week and I've never seen so many sheep in my life!!!
There will be some pics when I've had the chance to sort through them as I have quite a few very picturesque views to share. Now, however, I need to let you know about our new challenge today over at Make My Monday which has the theme chosen by Marina of Tea And/Or Cake which is the reason for my title.
My card is a little on the quirky side as I went with the British theme, the first thing springing to my mind when I saw the theme this week, being my set of Artemio stamps. Hope you like my inspiration.

I stamped all the elements for the card on smooth, thick cartridge paper with Memories Creamy Coffee ink and then painted them with Aquamarkers. The only exception being the union jack which is 2 very clever stamps, one stamped with VersaFine Satin Red and the other over the top with VersaFine Majestic Blue and resulting in our union flag though what will happen after Thursday is anybody's guess!
I covered my card blank with 2 scraps of Polka Doodles patterned paper in brown and blue and added all my elements to the card with a blue doily to finish.

Now here's a taster of my holiday snaps with the view from our hotel room and yes - it is Wales although you could be forgiven for thinking it's Switzerland as it really did feel like it at times.

 

The water in the lakes we saw had an amazing quality which made it just like a mirror as you'll see from this and some of my other pics which I'll be sharing soon.

Have a great week.

Hugs,

Fliss xx

Girl Power!

Hello again and welcome to today's second post which is to tell you about our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge blog which has the theme of GIRL POWER!
For my inspiration I decided on an British heroine who, to me, is the epitome of girl power - Boadicea and I couldn't resist the stamp set by IndigoBlu when it came out. I hope you like what I've created.

For my background paper, I've used my mini 3x5 gelli plate as although it's fab for smaller projects, as you see from my card above, you can make larger pieces of decorated paper too!
I used paint in 3 shades of pink from light to dark and after applying the paint, laid on the sequin waste style stencil that came with an NK Studio stamp set by Stampendous. I repeated this until my card was covered, pressing areas into the paint left on the plate for a very grungy look. I then used the stencil to add some darker detail with VersaMagic pink grapefruit ink. I distressed the edges with an emery board before adding it to my card blank.
I stamped the Boadicea image with Archival Watering Can ink on smooth cartridge paper and painted her with Aquamarkers. I then trimmed the image to a panel, cutting round the celtic element at the top. I stamped some of the flowers from the border design in the stamp set with the same ink and painted those with Aquamarkers before cutting them out.
I stamped the circular text and my favourite Kaisercraft butterfly with the grey ink and painted those as well before cutting out the butterfly and die cutting the text. I then assembled the rest of the card as you see.

I used:
Gelli Art Printing Plate - 3x5
IndigoBlu Unmounted Stamp Set - Boadicea
Stampendous NK Studio Cling Mount Set -Wired
Kaisercraft Single Clear Stamp - Butterflies
Archival Wendy Vecchi Ink - Watering Can
Aquamarkers
Paint Brushes - such as this Ranger Set

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

Simply Pretty

Hello there, I hope you've all had a good week and I'm here with my first post of the day which is to tell you about my project for this week over at That's Crafty which this time is a really simple creation as I needed a card in a big hurry!

As you can see, unusually for me, it really is clean and simple and probably the most uncluttered card you'll ever see here! All the details are over at the blog as usual.

I'll be back later with my second post as we have a new challenge starting today over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

See you in a bit!
Fliss xx

Indian Summer

Hello folks, I hope you all had a good weekend as I did. We went to visit Charleston House at Firle which was where some of the famous Bloomsbury set lived. The house is just a farmhouse but it was covered in artwork done by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant who both painted on the doors, walls and so on and also designed fabrics and ceramics. It was very inspirational and I can recommend it if you haven't been there.
Now to the reason for today's post which is to tell you about our new challenge over at Make My Monday and this week it's my chosen theme which because I'm rather longing for some warmer weather, the last couple of weeks having felt like Autumn has already arrived. This is why I picked

Indian Summer

You might need your sunglasses now because my inspiration is rather eye poppingly bright!

I made the background paper by sponging a square of card with Ripe Persimmon and Picked Raspberry Distress inks and then stamped on a Paper Artsy flourish image with the same deep pink ink.

I stamped the Stampendous sweet pea image on smooth cartridge paper with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and coloured it with the same Distress inks together with Mowed Lawn. I trimmed the image to a panel and added an orange then a kraft mat (this is to make the orange pop against the background).

I found the embossed paper in my bits box and as it's orange, it was a perfect textured addition for my card. The embossing folder is a Cuttlebug one and I'm fairly sure I used Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon Distress inks to colour it.

I stamped my favourite Kaisercraft butterfly with the grey ink and coloured it with yellow and orange Distress inks. The sentiment is by Flonzcraft and was stamped with the Picked Raspberry ink and cut out by hand. I then assembled the card as you see.

Have a great day and a good week.

Hugs, Fliss xx

I'd like to link my card to this weeks' Sunday Stamper which happily is Mr Brightside (love that song!) and apologies to Hels for not entering for ages - no time to make anything but DT creations!!!