2014 In Review

Hello and welcome to my last post of the year as I've decided to join in with Debby of A Scrap Journey's sharing your favourite 5 projects of the year.
Thanks too go to Mynn for pointing me in the direction of her Blog Highlights of 2014 Link Party which I'm also joining in with :) 
Before we get to my selections I hope you all had a really lovely Christmas and managed to grab a few sale bargains as I did. We had 15 for Christmas evening which went very well as we acquired a roulette wheel a couple of years ago and a good time was had by all!
Now for my choices of my 2014 favourites which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, although restricting it to 5 was a bit tricky I have to say :)

My first choice is actually the one I made the most recently and is a mixed media wall hanging which I made as a DT contribution for That's Crafty. I love the pink and green colour combination as it's so Springlike and it has loads of texture and of course, butterflies which I'm sure you know how much I love.

Next up is a little mixed media arch on a favourite theme of mine - steampunk. It also has lots of texture and I love the arch shape.

Now I have some cards to share. The first I love because of the bright red and yellow combined with the black and white. I particularly like the layout of this one and the the washi tape which is stamped using a fab Kaisercraft set.

This card uses my favourite means of making background paper - Distress inks and of course, stamping! For this one I created a sort of frame effect with the Crafty Individuals flower stamp. I've used a favourite Paperbag Studios image too as she reminds me of my younger daughter at the same age.

Last up is a clean and simple design which is my favourite of the Christmas cards I made this year. It also uses my newest favourite stamps which are Dina Wakely's scribbly birds.

I hope you like my choices and here's to a very creative 2015!

Happy New Year everyone.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hello everyone, just popping on to wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year too.
I've been a bit of a bad visitor in the last few months due to being very busy at work and then having very traumatic things happen as well which have turned 2014 into the worst year for ages. I'm hoping that 2015 will be kinder.
In the meantime, I have a card to share to wish you a great festive season and I hope you all have a lovely time.

Another outing for my favourite Christmas set from Mr Holtz and the trees were stamped several times without re-inking with Memories Creamy Coffee chalk ink on a die cut oval.
The deer was stamped with VersaFine Majestic blue and cut out. I covered the card blank with some Bo Bunny paper free in a magazine and addd the elements you can see together with a stamped sentiment also free in a mag.

See you next year!
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Cards Und More - All About Christmas
Deep Ocean Challenge - Christmas Is All Around
Holly Jolly Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
Just Inspirational Challenges - Christmas

Longing For Spring

Hello everyone, I hope you're all nearly ready for the big day. I still have some things to do and am hoping to get it done over the weekend so fingers crossed!
I'm sharing a mixed media piece over at That's Crafty today which I hope will bring a breath of Spring to the current dismal and chilly weather. Hope you like it.

You'll find a detailed tutorial over at the blog with lots of step by step pics if you'd like to see how my creation came about.

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

A Child Is Born

Hello all, I'm a day late with my inspiration for the current challenge at Make My Monday with a theme chosen by Jacqueline this week which is NATIVITY.
It had me a tad stumped I confess as I don't really have anything that would fit the theme so a Google search finally turned up a vintage postcard which I used for my card. Here's the result and hope you like it as this time there's no inking involved - very unusual for me as you know!

I've used papers from a Bo Bunny set which was a magazine freebie as I like the rich red as a contrast to the colours on the image. The only other addition was the embossed gold card I found lurking in my craft stash and I punched out a star to embellish as it made me think of the 3 wise men.

Hope you can join us and have a great week whatever you're doing.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Anything Goes At That's Crafty!

I'm back again with the details and my inspiration for our new challenge at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and this time the theme is Anything Goes!

As you can see, it's butterflies all the way today! I've made my card with my newest Carabelle Studio stamp which is perfect for a bit of decoupage.
Ingredients:
Carabelle Studio - Libellules et Papillons
Carabelle Studio - Texture Etoiles
Distress Inks - Barn Door, Mustard Seed, Ripe Persimmon, Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn
Archival Jet Black Ink
Dymo Machine & Tape
Ink Applicators

Recipe:
Colour a piece of paper with ink applicators and the red and yellow Distress inks. Stamp with the star background and the red ink.
Stamp the collage image roughly in the centre with the black ink and stamp again on plain paper, first re-inking.
Paint the butterflies on the plain paper stamped image with the red, orange, blue and green inks and cut out the images. In the case of the dragonflies, you only need the wings.
Attach the background paper to a card blank then add the cut out images over the top of those on the paper.
I made the text panel with the Dymo machine and added it to the card.

Hope you can enter and this time you have 3 weeks to join in as That's Crafty is on the move!

Have a great weekend,
Fliss xx

Some Sparkle

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a good week and are surviving the now rather chilly weather we now have.
I'm really looking forward to the weekend as my hubby and I are off out tomorrow. We're having dinner at a lovely house owned by one of his clients followed by a show involving 2 opera singers. We went to Glyndbourne a couple of years ago with one of his other clients and really loved it.
I have a project to share today over at That's Crafty as I've got my creative mitts on one of Sir Tim's fabulous layered dies. Hope you like this.

As you can see the die is amazing as it comes with its own texture fade folder which gives it a very realistic look. You'll find all the details over at the blog with the recipe and ingredients for my creation.
I'll be back a bit later on with details of our new That's Crafty Challenge too which goes live at 8am and I know you'll love the theme this time.

Fliss x

A Little Angel

Hello everyone, I hope you had a better weekend than me as I had to work to finish something off so I'm not a happy bunny at the moment!
I did manage to finish off my card for our new challenge today over at Make My Monday so it wasn't all bad news :)
This week our theme is ANGELS so I decided to ink up for the first time a lovely vintage style stamp by Crafty Individuals. Hope you like my inspiration.

I stamped the angel collage with Memories Creamy Coffee chalk ink and coloured her with pastel shades of Aquamarkers. I then trimmed the image to a panel by hand and added it to a mat I created by swiping silver Encore Metallic ink round the edges and heat embossing with Winter Wonderland embossing powder.
I made the blue background paper by dry embossing paper with a Darice snowflake flourish folder round the corners and then inked it with Tumbled Glass Distress ink. I added this to a mat made in the same way as that for the collage panel.
I assembled the elements onto a card blank and stamped the Christmas greeting directly on the paper with the coffee ink.

Hope you can join us.
See you again soon,
Fliss xx

Christmas In Blueprint

Hello everyone, hope you've had a good week and better then mine as I've been extremely busy with work all week even though I've supposed to have had a couple of days off too! No rest for the wicked it seems :)
I have a project to share over at That's Crafty today featuring a creation made with one of Sir Tim's beautiful blueprint images. It's the first set I've got my inky mitts on and I love it so much I may have to indulge myself with more!

It actually looks much better in real life as i struggled to get a good photo with the light being so bad at the moment - nasty dull and cloudy weather which my camera doesn't like.
You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and I'd love you to visit if you can.

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

A Season Of Mists And Sprays

Hello folks, sorry about my title but I couldn't resist because today sees the start of a new challenge at Make My Monday and Laura's choice of theme is Sprays and Mists :)
My inspiration is a little late because after I made my background paper a few days ago. Mr Mojo decided to go on a long walk and I've only just managed to get something put together.

The background paper didn't come about in the usual way that using mists would as being a rather messy crafter (you should see my lovely blue fingers!), I tend to get it everywhere!
What I did was to spray on to a craft sheet rather than a piece of paper. I used Sticky Fingers Aqua and Delphinium Summer inks. Once I had sprayed on the inks, I then pressed an A5 piece of cartridge paper into the ink to pick up the colour. Because I did it this way, I was able to colour a couple of pieces of paper with the one spraying session. I simply misted the leftover ink with water and ended up with the paler version I used here.
I stamped on some snowflakes from the Tim Holtz reindeer flight set and heat embossed them with white detail powder. I then cut a piece to fit my card blank and sprayed on some Dylusions White Linen to make the paper look even more snowy.
I then die cut an oval panel of cartridge paper with an X Cut nesting die and stamped on the trees from the set with VersaFine Deep Lagoon ink - I only inked the stamp once and then repeatedly stamped to add depth. I then inked around the edge with VersaColor Lapis Lazuli.
I stamped the deer from the set with Memories Creamy Coffee chalk ink and cut the image out. I stamped the sentiment with the same ink and hand cut this to a panel.
I distressed the edges of the background paper before adding it to the card blank and assembled the remaining elements as you see.

Have a great week and stay warm!
Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Incy Wincy - Christmas - No Red or Green
Challenge Up Your Life - Turquoise and Brown
Stamping Sensations - Simply Christmas
Opus Gluei - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Glitter & Sparkle - Use Some Snow