Some Like It Hot!

Hello again, I'm back with details of the new challenge today at That's Crafty which has the theme of Hot and Spicy which I interpreted as colours so I have a rather bright creation to share with you this time.

As you can see, I'm still on a bird theme here too having finally inked up some Carabelle Studio stamps which have been in my craft stash for a good couple of months.
My background paper is the result of quite a lot of layering and started out with the aplication of some Brusho Crystals to a piece of wet watercolour paper. This produced a splattered look but as the paper was very wet the powders disolved and spread about. I helped the process a little with a wide paint brush.
The next layer was some spritzing with some Cosmic Shimmer mica spray which added a little sparkle. I then stamped on a Deep Red background stamp with Barn Door Distress ink to add texture followed by random stamping with the triangular background stamp from the Carabelle set with Fired Brick.
I then stamped on the circular design from the Stampendous NK Studio Wired set with white and yellow acrylic paints. I stamped on the flowers, masking as I went until happy with the effect and then used a Dylusions stencils to add the leaves with Black Soot Distress ink, doodling with a fine black pen to join everything up.
I stamped the bird and sentiment together with some smaller flowers of the same design on some scraps from my gelli plate leftovers as the slightly lighter orange shade made a contrast with the chilli red background. I cut these out and glued them to the background paper after distressing the edges with an emery board. I then glued the paper to a card blank to finish.

I used:
Carabelle Studio Stamp Set - Femme et Oiseau
Stampendous NK Studio Stamp Set - Wired
Crafty Individuals Elements Stamp Set - Flower Heads
Dylusions Stencil - Lucious Leaves -
Brusho Crystals - Brilliant Red and Orange from the Starter Set
Archival Jet Black Ink
Distress Inks - Barn Door, Fired Brick, Black Soot
Cosmic Shimmer Mica Mist - Golden Fish
Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paints - Haystack, Nougat

If you're UK based it's great to enter for a fab prize of a £20 voucher to the online shop. Good luck!

Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Minuet Bird For That's Crafty

Hello folks, Happy Halloween and I hope you've all had a good week. Mine has been exceedingly busy so I'm looking forward to the weekend.

This post is to point you in the direction of my project today over at That's Crafty which is another Christmas card for my slowly growing heap of festive creations.

This goes to show what you can do with a stamp that's not actually meant to be a Christmas image but he looks rather cute as a robin don't you think?

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and hope to see you there.

I'll be back a bit later on as we have a new challenge for you today over at the Challenge Blog and all will be revealed at 8am.

Bye for now,
Fliss xx

Shabby Chic at Make My Monday

Hello folks, a very late post for the challenge this week at Make My Monday chosen by Suzi with the theme of Shabby Chic.

I'm sure you know how much I love that and I managed to get it made in time but due to lack of camera and computer couldn't get it posted in time - sigh! The good news is my replacement laptop is being delivered today so hopefully it will be up and running some time at the weekend when my dear and clever hubby can sort it all for me. The insurance company is sending a voucher for my camera too so I should have one again soon and not have to keep borrowing!

Enough of my troubles anyhow and here's my shabby chic creation with a pic underneath to show how I made the background with just one Crafty Individuals stamp.

My image is the gorgeous Spring Gal by Stampendous but as you can get Winter pansies, you'll have to imagine she's a Winter Gal instead! I stamped her with Archival Plum ink and coloured her with Prisma pencils then trimmed her to a panel and distressed the edges with an emery board.

The background paper started off as a leftover piece of inked paper made with my Stampendous Mono Printing plate (available at That's Crafty) and Distress inks - Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose, Bundled Sage and Pumice Stone which I applied to the plate and misted with water.
I decorated the square I cut to fit my card blank with Crafty Individuals CI-173 flourish stamp without using an acrylic block - this gives fabulous shabby effects. I used VersaColor Atlantic Blue ink and first stamped the whole design in opposite corners. I then inked up parts of the image and stamped round the remaining edges. I finished off by stamping small parts of the image all over until I was happy with the effect.
Very shabby chic don't you think?

To make my card, I distressed the edges of the paper with the emery board and attached to the card. I added my image together with a flourish cut from smokey blue card with a Cheery Lynn die and finished off with a Flonzcraft sentiment stamped with Archival Cobalt Blue ink.

My DT mates have made some beautiful inspiration for you so do pop on over for a look.

See you soon.
Fliss xx

Simply Bright For That's Crafty

Hello there, sorry for my lack of visits lately everyone which is because I still haven't got very much in the way of computer time at the moment and am really missing my laptop.
A very quick post to let you know I have a project today over at That's Crafty which is a rather bright and simply designed card made with my trusty Inkadinkado stamping gear which is fabulous when you need something in a hurry.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and thanks if you decide to go and visit.

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

More Spookiness!

Hello, guess who's late again with her post for the new challenge this week at Make My Monday. Teamie Joan has chosen the theme of Halloween as the spooky date is drawing near.
I had to go mostly digital for my inspiration due to the lack of actual Halloween stamps and I hope you like what I created.

I've used some Halloween images from the lovely June of Dezinaworld before she had to close down her online shop due to various difficulties and it's a real shame as you can see from the beautiful main collage image which is a favourite of mine.
I used background papers from a Polkadoodles Halloween download pack and used one for the background and 2 more to make panels as you see. I then assembled everything adding the cut out pumpkin and cat from June together with the bird (in black to resemble a raven) and cage die cuts by Sit Tim and cut from black paper.

I hope you can join us as we'd love to see you entering.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Quoth The Raven!

Hello there, I'm a day late with my post for the new challenge over at That's Crafty due to lack of time and this fortnight we'd like to see your SPOOKY creations with a certain creepy date fast looming.
I actually don't have that much in the way of spooky stuff so my trusty IndigoBlu Hocus Pocus stamp set came to the rescue.

A rather eye poppingly bright creation here as you see.

I started by making a piece of background paper applying Ripe Persimmon Distress ink to some smooth card and then stamped on the Kaisercraft Diamonds pattern with the same ink.

I then wanted to cut a window to add the main raven collage image underneath so I used an X Cut nesting die to work out the placement. Having done this, I stamped the collage image on a piece of smooth cartridge paper with Archival Jet Black ink and coloured it with Aquamarkers. I then used stencil to extend the image slightly to fit in the size of aperture I wanted. I used the Mini Specimens stencil by The Crafters Workshop which is fab for this sort of thing and made the arch shape at the top and grunge dot pattern at the bottom using Black Soot Distress ink.

I cut the aperture in the orange paper and then stamped on the spider and web image with the black ink in the top corners. I used a fine black pen to extend the cobwebs in places. I then stuck the raven panel to my card blank, checking placement and trimming a little and added the orange frame over the top. I finished off with the text stamped with the black ink using alphabet stamps.

If you're a UK resident, we'd love to see you enter as the randomly drawn winner will receive a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Hopefully see you soon.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Smile For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I'm finally back with my project for today at That's Crafty which is something to encourage me to do what my post title says, something I've actually found quite difficult to do lately with all the problems we've had lately.
I'm really sorry I haven't been able to come and visit but I've only had short bursts of computer time on a borrowed machine lasting around 20 minutes or so and it's very hard to do all I need to in that space of time.
I should hopefully have a new laptop to replace my stolen one in a couple of weeks so please bear with me until then.
In the meantime, here is today's project and as usual, you'll find all the details over at the blog.

See you again soon.

Fliss xx

Children or Babies At Make My Monday

Hello everyone and many thanks to those who left a comment on my last post about our shock just over a week ago. I much appreciate your kind thoughts which cheered me up a little.
Still not much in the way of good news although the police have linked 5 other cases to ours and have a person of interest as they call it so fingers crossed they manage to get somewhere.
I'm here today slightly late with my creation for today's new challenge at Make My Monday with Jacqueline's theme of Children or Babies. I chose children as I love the image I used by Paperbag Studios which reminds me of my younger daughter who had plaits between the ages of 7 and 10.

I made the background paper with a daisy stamp from Crafty Individuals Elements Flower Heads sstamp set, stamping in Memories Creamy Coffee to mafe a sort of frame round the edges. I then applied Squeezed Lemonade, Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick Distress inks with a sponge applicator. I distressed the edges with an emery board and added the panel to a chocolate brown mat to leave a small contrasting border.
I made a card blank with some dusky pink hammered card and stamped daisies round the edges with the brown ink. I then added the background panel.
I stamped the image (called Little Lu Lu) with the brown ink on smooth cartridge paper and coloured her with Aquamarkers. I trimmed her to a panel and added mats of bright blu, dusky pink and chocolate brown to tone in, leaving a slightly wider border at the bottom to add some pink pearls to.
I stamped a butterly (B Line Designs with blue ink and coloured with Aquamarkers before cutting out. I checked the placement and then stamped the Flonzcraft sentiment directly on the background paper before adding the image panel and butterfly to finish.

Have a great week everyone and stay warm.
Hugs,
Fliss xx