Just Because

Hello everyone, hope you're have a good start to the Bank Holiday weekend. I've managed to fit in a bit of crafting after the supermarket trip and a trip to town with my Sarah who's home for the weekend.
It's something that was a bit of an experiment and I'm not quite sure about it! I wanted to do something for the Rubber Dance second April challenge which is to use Black and White with One Colour and I picked green with my beloved Crushed Olive Distress ink which is one of my favourite shades.

I made the paper, which is actually foreground rather than background due to my experiment, by pressing the Distress inkpad repeatedly on a square of white card to make a sort of grungy criss cross design.
I glued this onto a mat of black card leaving a narrow border all round. Then came my experiment as I tried stamping the asters from the Antique Botanicals stamp set on white card and die cutting into a shape before adding to the card. It didn't quite work as I wanted so instead I die cut a shape out of the inked paper attached to the mat.
I placed this on my white card blank and marked the top and sides of the cut out with a pencil dot, then stamped the asters directly on the card blank.
I added a little more green using a Crushed Olive Distress marker on the leaves and flowers then finished off the card with a Tim Holtz sticker (as an aside, my hubby came in when I was adding the sticker, looked and the book and said it must have been very time consuming cutting out all the stickers - he thought I did it!!!).

You'll have to let me know what you think as I'm still rather iffy about it.

 

I want to say thank you so much here to Bibi for my prize from the recent blog hop which arrived a couple of days ago and I've only just had time to say this. I'm thrilled with the stamps and Bibi has generously included some more stamps as well - thank you sooo much and I hope to play with them very soon xx

I'm linking this up to the current Rubber Dance Challenge in the nick of time I think as the challenge ends tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,
Fliss xx

That's Crafty! Bright! Challenge

Hello again and welcome to my rather late inspiration for the new challenge today at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog. Our theme for the new fortnight is Bright! and I'm sure you know how much I liked this one as most of my artwork comes under that category!

My make is a bright art journal page which I made for the Hochanda shows and haven't yet shared. As you can see, it is rather bright.

The base for this was one of the fab white/greyboard 8x8 journal pages which you can throw all sorts of things at without fear of buckling.
I scraped on the paint with an old store card, using Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylics in shades of yellow, orange and pink until I was happy with the effect.
I then used the Dream Word art stencil to add the large text with white gesso. the end result was not quite as strong as I wanted so I went over the top with a white paint pen. I outlined the letters with a black fine Sharpie marker.
I stamped the bubbly image from That's Crafty! Texture Stamp Set 1 all over with Archival jet black ink and stamped the quote from That's Crafty! Inspirational Quotes Set 1 with the same ink.
I used the bubble border from the dream stencil with white gesso to add some random bubbles. I added a little detail round the edges by stamping the bubble design with black ink.
I finished off by stamping on a few more bubbles with Archival Cactus Flower.

There's a fab prize for the randomly drawn winner and all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter.
Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

That's Crafty! and Sandra Everton Relics & Artifacts - My Day!

Hello everyone, I'm so excited to tell you that it's my day over at That's Crafty! Blog to show you my project for our collaboration with Sandra Evertson's Relics and Artifacts Ambassadors with the aim of showing you how well That's Crafty! substrates work with the beautiful line of Relics and Artifacts.

Hopefully you've been following our journey throughout the week and don't forget to look if you haven't because as well as some stunning artwork starting off on Monday, there are prizes on offer if you leave comments, one on That's Crafty! Blog and one on Sandra Evertson's Muse Blog.

Here's a sneak peek of mine and you'll have to pop over to the blog to see the whole project and don't forget to leave a comment to be in with the chance to win a great prize.

Whilst you're over there don't forget to hop over to the Muse Blog where R&A Ambassador Sherry Westfall Matthews has a stunning project to share.

Hope you enjoy hopping!

Have a great weekend too.

Fliss xx

That's Crafty! Collaborate with Sandra Evertson Relics & Artifacts!

Hello everyone, if you saw my post of Friday, you may have noticed that I gave a hint of some exciting news for us here at That's Crafty! this week and now is the time for the big reveal.

A little while back we got together with Sandra Evertson and her team of Relics & Artifacts Ambassadors (our lovely Lynne is one of these) with the idea of collaborating with them to use That's Crafty surfaces with Sandra's beautiful relics and artifacts line for Prima. I was really excited about this although I have to admit to a little trepidation as the undecorated items are so very beautiful it's very hard to actually do something to decorate them!

I'll be sharing my project on my usual That's Crafty! day on Friday along with R&A Ambassador Sherry Westfall Matthews but today is the turn of our Moira and Chrissy Colon so you'll need to check out That's Crafty! Blog and the Relics & Artifacts Blog to over the coming week to see all the amazing creations (definitely not to be missed!).

We hope you will join in the collaboration each day, as there will be two very special prizes! One lucky winner will receive a Gift Certificate for £25 from That’s Crafty! and the other lucky winner will receive 3 sets of Relics and Artifacts Matte Resin Craft Blanks of their choice, from Relics and Artifacts!

Here’s what you have to do for a chance to win:

1. Visit both blogs each day and leave a comment.

2. Become a follower of both the Relics and Artifacts and That’s Crafty! blogs.

It’s that easy! The winners will be picked at random on Tuesday 2^nd May 2017.

Here's a very small sneak peek of my ingredients before the decoration and you'll have to wait until Friday to see the whole thing.

Do check out the blog post for today as you are in for a real treat!

See you soon.
Fliss xx

Sunshiny Day for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week and like me, are looking forward to the weekend which will hopefully have some good weather.
Which brings me to my post over at That's Crafty! Blog today where I'm sharing a card that was inspired by a certain song which popped into my head the other day. Can you guess which one?

You'll find all the details of how I made my card over at the blog if you'd like to hop over and see.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you next week which is an exciting one for us at That's Crafty! and I'll be sharing the news on Monday.

Fliss xx

Outnumbered at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where for the next fortnight our theme is Outnumbered so numbers are the order of the day.
I've made another tag although this one is very different to the one on my last post as it's more vintage in style and came about from my experiments with the fab new 8x8 clock stencil.

When I saw the challenge theme, time jumped into my head from the point of view of the numbers on a clock so I decided to try something completely different with the clock stencil.
I taped the stencil to a piece of mixed media paper, positioning it so that just under half was over the paper. I then used DecoArt Media white modelling paste to make a raised pattern on the paper. When the paste was dry, I painted the clock segment with a mix of Paper Arsty Fresco Finish Chocolate Pudding acrylic paint and DecoArt Media Burnt Sienna Fluid acrylic paint.
I used a mix of DecoArt Media Metallic Gold and Quinacridone Gold over the raised areas and when it was dry, trimmed around the rounded edge leaving a tiny dark brown border.
I painted the tag with a mix of DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Cobalt Teal Hue, Green Gold, Ultramarine, Raw Sienna and Transparent Yellow Oxide. I then stamped on the script image from That's Crafty! Texture Stamp Set 1 with Archival Potting Soil ink and stencilled on the Dinky Stencil numbers with Cobalt Teal Hue DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic paint.
I glued the clock face on to the tag and finished off with some Chit Chat stickers which I edged with the Archival ink.

There's a fab prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter!
Good luck!
Have a great long weekend.
Fliss xx

Head in the Sky for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and wishing you all a very Happy Easter. I'm feeling a little better than I did yesterday so am hopefully on the mend now so thanks to anyone who left me good wishes for a speedy recovery.
I have my usual weekly post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week I'm sharing a very bright tag featuring my favourite crazy bird.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to hop on over and see how this came about.

I'll be back soon as we have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and I have my inspiration to share - it's another tag but is very different to this one.

See you in a while.
Fliss xx

Come Fly With Me

Also know as the unpredictability of Brushos!
Hello everyone from a rather sorry for herself Fliss who currently could give Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer a run for his money appearance wise only I'm not half as cute! I have my second lot of sinus troubles in less than 2 months since I started working in the new office - in case you missed it, my ex boss sold his client list to another firm where I now work. Before this, all I've had in nearly 5 years is a 1 day sick bug which is why I'm feeling so sorry for myself.
Anyhow, enough of my woes and on to the card I have to share which I began before I got sick and just got up the energy to assemble today. It's for the current Rubber Dance challenge which is a colour one and there's a bit of artistic license here as you'd never believe I used Dark Brown Brusho Crystals on the paper I coloured.

I took a piece of mixed media paper torn from the pad - I really love the torn edge for a bit of shabby chic texture. I misted it with water and sprinkled on Dark Brown and Turquoise Brush Crystals and misted with water again. This is where the unpredictable nature of Brushos came out because as you can see, there are some orangy red bits that came out. I did like the result though so decided to go with the flow!
I then added some stencilling, using That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils - Clock Background and Star Shower - with Gathered Twigs DI for the clock and Stormy Sky DI for the stars. I glued the paper to a kraft card blank.
I stamped the butterfly girl from Rubber Dance Fly With Me stamp set (couldn't find the set in the shop but single images are available so linking to that, or you can buy the set at That's Crafty!)) with Archival Potting Soil ink and added a touch of colour before cutting her out.
I stamped the Fly text from the set on a couple of times with the same ink then stamped the Come Fly With Me text on mixed media paper and cut the words out. It was then that serendipity struck as I realised I could position the word tiles to tie up with those stamped directly on the background paper - yay!
I bent the wings of the butterfly girl and added her with dimensional tape to finish.

I'm linking my card up to the Rubber Dance colour challenge and hope the slightly unpredictable Brusho episode is OK.

Have a great day everyone.
Fliss xx

Craft Stamper and Other News

Hello again and welcome to my second post of the day which is to tell you that I'm absolutely thrilled to be featured in the May issue of Craft Stamper which hits the shops today.

Here's a sneak peek of my project and if you want to see the whole thing I'm afraid you'll have to get the mag!

I also had some other amazing news yesterday as well as my 2 entries in the last 2 Rubber Dance challenges were chosen as an Honorable Mention - how fab is that! In addition to that I also won second prize in the blog hop! Even more amazing!!!

In case you missed my challenge entries, here they are again:

Have a great day and a really lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Feeling Groovy for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all enjoying the Spring weather now that it's finally made an appearance along with loads of trees in full blossom - I do love the sight of so many beautiful flowers and talking of which, I have a journal page to share at That's Crafty! Blog today featuring rather a lot of flowers this week.
There's only a sneak peek this time to give you a flavour of the multitude of flowers you can see on my page if you hop over to the blog where you'll find the whole creation.

I'll be back in a while as I have some news to share too.

See you soon.
Fliss xx

Spring Postcard

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a lovely weekend with some sunshine as we had here. It's been really warm too and it seems as if Spring has finally arrived.
I have a postcard to share that I created with the cute little bird stamp that arrived by mistake with my subscriber's copy of Craft Stamper magazine. There was apparently a bit of a backlash about this which was suffered by Trish, the editor, when it was actually the printers error!

I covered the postcard (a That's Crafty! Surfaces white/grey board substrate) with some paper from my bits box that had been coloured with blue and yellow Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylic paints.
I stamped the little bird on with Archival Jet Black ink and then with a bit of masking stamped some branch extensions around the bird and also around the top left corner and down the side.
I painted the images with Martha Stewart Satin acrylic paints and glued on some little Hobbycraft flowers.
I stamped on some soaring birds and the text from That's Crafty! Lynne's Affirmations Set 2 to finish. I tried to make it look as if the little bird wanted to soar as well.

Have a good week and see you soon.
Fliss xx