Purple Passion

Hello again, it's time for the new challenge at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and I'm here to share my Purple Passion inspiration which I hope you like.

You'll have to excuse the slightly dodgy pic as I had to scan the card having managed to mess up my camera settings when I dropped it when I went to take the photo - what am I like!

I made the background paper by using my Gelli Plate with Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paints (Lilac and Moonlight) with white card.

I then stamped on the Carabelle Studio Femme et Oiseaux image with VersaFine Imperial Purple ink directly on the painted paper. It didn't quite stamp properly (I think due to the painted surface) but I managed to sort out her hair with a soft brush which gave it a slightly misty look that I rather like> I added a little colour to the lips, eyes and birds with coloured pencils.

I used the Distressed Harlequin Dinky Stencil with Paper Artsy Fesco Finish Paint in Pansy to add a pattern to the paper and finished off with the text from the Carabelle Studio Every Bird stamp set.

I distressed the edges and then added the paper to a card blank to finish.

Have a great weekend.

Fliss xx

All You Need Is Love (And Stencils)

Hello everyone and welcome to today's first post which is to let you know I have a project to share over at That's Crafty.
This week it's a fairly simple graphic type card in bright colours which is really quite easy to make. You'll find all the details over at the blog.

I'll be round to visit over the weekend if I haven't yet got to you - sorry, but things are still busy and tomorrow I have yet another trip to the opticians to look forward to - not!

See you in a bit with news of the new challenge at That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

Fliss xx

Flower Garden

Hello all, hoping you had a lovely weekend despite any adverse weather as yesterday here was a total deluge for most of the day! Also so cold I had to resort to a scarf to keep out the draughts!
It was good for crafting though and this week we're going floral at Make My Monday as the theme Suzi chose is Flowers and I'm sure you all know how much I love those.
My Flower Garden stamps came out again for this one and hope you like my inspiration.

I made the background paper with some DecoArt Spring Green paint which I applied to an acrylic block, spritzed with water then smooshed on some cartridge paper.
I dried off with a heat gun (I'm impatient you see!) and then stamped on the flower text from the Carabelle Studio Pretty Like A Flower set with Archival Fern Green ink. I then stamped on part of the Kaisercraft Honeycombe image with the same ink in the gaps.
I stamped the flower head on some paper from my bits box which was coloured with Picked Raspberry Distress Stain. I used Archival Watering Can ink for this. I then cut the image out.
I stamped the leafy stalk on the background paper with the Fern Green ink and coloured it with Inktense pencils.
I distressed the edges of the paper with an emery board and glued it to a card blank. I added the flower head with foam pads and finished off with the Carabelle text stamped on cartridge paper.

This is our last challenge until September as we're all taking a well earned rest for August to recharge our creative juices. Hope you can join us.

Have a great day and a lovely week.
Fliss xx

Illusions For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. Mine has been so busy I can't wait for the weekend!
My post today is to let you know I have a project to share today over at That's Crafty Blog. This week it's an art panel with a nature theme which I hope you like.

I've used one of the fab new white/grey board panels for my project and I've been playing with the brand new and exclusive Dinky Stencils again and one of them has been used in a slightly unusual way. Please visit the blog to find out how!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Steampunk at Make My Monday

Hello all, hoping you had a lovely weekend with some sunshine as we did. Mine was also very busy with family stuff as we had my younger one home for the weekend after the lucky thing had been to the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A so I'm sure you can guess I'm a tad green with envy!

We also had my parents in law over for lunch yesterday as my father in law had a minor op on Friday so we thought it would cheer him up and also today is his 90th birthday although you'd never guess if you saw him.

I've been a bit of a cheat with my inspiration for the Steampunk challenge at Make My Monday this week yet again due to lack of time so hope you like it even if you have seen it before. It's the favourite of the steampunk cards I've made over the last few years which is partly why I am sharing it.

This was made with the Creative Expressions Sam Poole steampunk image which I coloured with Aquamarkers. I then inked the edges of the panel with blue Distress ink.
I inked up a panel dry embossed with the X Cut clock folder with Wild Honey, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress inks.
I then dry embossed a kraft panel with the Cuttlebug gears folder. I painted some chipboard cogs with blue paint and assembled the card adding a metal cog and stamped text to finish.

Hope you have a ood week.
Fliss xx

Stencils and Masks At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and yes, you guessed right as our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog, in honour of the launch week of the Dinky Stencils is Stencils and Masks.

Here's my inspiration and I'll be adding the details later today as my eyelids started drooping when I started writing this last night!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Beautiful Moments For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, sorry I haven't been around to comment this week, time has been very short due to various commitments so i should hopefully catch up at the weekend.
It's my turn to post over at That's Crafty today and it's the launch week of our new and fabulous Dinky Stencils range so that's what I've used for my project this week.

As you can see, some dinky creations made with some of the brand new atc blanks, these being grey/white board.

All the details are over at the blog as usual if you want to see how they came about.

Back in a while with details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

Fliss xx

Brand New and Exclusive Goodies At That's Crafty!!!

Hello again, I'm back and so excited to be able to finally tell you about the fabulous new That's Crafty goodies developed by Laura and Graham which I know will just fly out of the shop as they're so useful and such good value, not to mention a first of type as well!

The most exciting part of the new range is the collection of ATC size stencils which are available in tons of designs as you'll see below and although they've been designed with atcs in mind, they come in just as handy for larger projects and being small, are so easy to handle. They also have a little hole at the top corner so you can keep them all together on a book ring or similar - how clever is that!

As you can see, there are quite a lot in the collection and there are more in the pipeline too. There are also some fab atc blanks as well made from chipboard, kraft chipboard, white/grey board and acrylic plus some large A4 sized white/grey board perfect for making art panels using all sorts of mixed media techniques as they're so sturdy.

Here's a little sneak peek of one of my creations that you'll be able to see all of very soon.
Aren't I a tease!

Have a good week and see you later!
Fliss xx

A Tag For Make My Monday

Hello all you crafters, hope you had a lovely weekend and managed to get some crafting done. I did a little although the weekend was busy with a reading glasses hunt as my close vision isn't great due to the transition from gas permeable to soft lenses, the Optician saying it will take a while to get the prescription right as my eyes adjust.
We also went to see the latest Terminator film, Genesys, which I was a little apprehensive about as I loved the first 2, but not the third (cheesy ending!) and the Christian Bale one was quite good. I needn't have worried though as it was very well done making good use of Mr Schwarzenegger's age and had lots of wit along with the action. I can tell I enjoyed it as I can judge how good the film is from the point I notice discomfort in the dodgy cinema seats, which in this case was when I got up to leave - ouch!

Now to the reason for this post which is the new challenge today over at Make My Monday with a challenge theme chosen by yours truly, Anything But A Card, so my inspiration is a tag.

I made the tag with kraft card which I smeared with green and yellow acrylic paints using my fingers for a smudged effect. I then stamped on the daisies from the Tim Holtz Flower Garden set with Archival Watering Can ink and coloured them with paints and pencils. Slight artistic license with the colours as I wanted a good contrast.
I then stencilled on a chequerboard design with pink paint (see my next post for details on the stencil I used) and finished off with the sentiment from the Carabelle Studio Pretty Like A Flower set stamped with the darl grey ink. I tied some wired green ribbon at the top.

I'll be back (sounding like Arnie - tee hee!) a bit later with the promised news from last week which I can't wait to share!
Fliss xx

Wish Upon A Star Inspiration For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, hoping you've all had a good week. Mine has been quite creative due to a couple of days off work but I can't share anything yet as it's mostly for a rather exciting event happening next Monday onwards so you'll have to wait and see :D
My post today is to let you know about my project over at That's Crafty which is my rather belated inspiration (of the midway sort!) for our current challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which has the theme of Wish Upon A Star.

Here's a sneak peek and you'll need to pop over to the blog to see the whole thing. Hope you will!

 

Have a great weekend and see you next week.

Fliss xx

All At Sea at Make My Monday

Hello everyone and apologies for my absence lately which is because work and life have been very hectic over the last couple of weeks and I've had no time for crafting. On top of that I still have eyesight issues as my Optician recommended changing my gas permeable lenses that I've had for over 20 years to soft lenses. These arrived on Saturday and I can get them in very quickly but taking them out is a nightmare. I couldn't get the right one out last night until gone midnight and ended up with a rather red eye so today I'm having to resort to the glasses that didn't quite work in order to be able to see at all!
As you can imagine, I'm feeling somewhat miserable but I'm just about managing to craft and was able to finish what I started for our challenge this week at Make My Monday which has the theme of

The Sea

 
This is for my father in law's birthday in a couple of weeks but as he doesn't see my blog, he won't know it's here :D

All the men in my hubby's family love the sea and my Stampscapes stamps came out to play. I hope you like my background which is one of a Gelli print session on Sunday when I made a small batch with my new 6x6 plate which, if you like making square cards as I do, is fabulous!

Here's a pic of the print I took showing the 3 left. The darker versions were the originals from applying 2 shades of teal and 2 shades of blue with white Gesso using my figures. I then misted on water to make the paler prints, one of which I used for the card.

As you can see, you can get a good effect of sky, sea and waves if you apply roughly horizontal stripes across and I know I'm going to struggle with adding anything to the darker versions as I can't bear to cover any of them up!

To make the card, I stamped on the sea and wave stamp, followed by rocks and the lighthouse. I then added the ship which is from Crafty Individuals CI-294. I added coloured to the images with a chalk pastel for the grey and Inktense pencils in greens, blues, browns and white to make the images pop. The most useful was actually the white as I found applying it quite strongly covered up any unwanted lines which was the price I had to pay for not stamping first and masking.

I think it worked quite well though and hope you think so too.

I simply added the panel to a kraft card to finish - it's a bit wonky due to my eyesight issues but it will have to do!

Sorry if I haven't been to visit lately but hope to remedy that soon.

Fliss xx