A Fishy Tale at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello again, a quick post to let you know that I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a bright mixed media tag inspired by a photo I saw of a shoal of fish. Hope you like it!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Feline Fine at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello all, I hope you're all surviving the current heatwave which I have to say is great in some ways and not so in others especially when I have to go to work!
It's time for a new challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and our theme for the next fortnight is Feline Fine so we'd like to see your creations with cats on.
I, of course, made something with my favourite feline, Bentley. Hope you like my tag.

I used the largest white/greyboard tag from That's Crafty! range of surfaces to alter and covered it with a mix of blue, green and yellow acrylic paints. I then used the paw prints Dinky stencil to add a pattern with a mix of 2 shades of grey paint.
I then stamped Bentley on mixed media paper with Archival black ink and coloured him with paints and pencils, aiming for a ginger tom look. I cut him out and glued him to the tag, not cutting out his whiskers but extending them out with a black Sharpie pen.
I stamped some text in the spaces left with Archival watering can ink and then decided it was a bit too strong so I dry brushed white gesso over everything to tone it down a little.
I finished off with some Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers and a scrap of ribbon tied at the top.

There's a great prize if you enter and it's randomly drawn to so everyone is in for a chance.
See you later.
Fliss xx

Marina's Treasure Trove for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, sorry to have been a bit of a bad visitor this week. This is because I'm back at work and now have to rest my eyes a bit after my cataract op last week as I spend all day on the computer at work looking at figures on spreadsheets. It takes the eye around a month to properly recover so you'll have to forgive me if I don't visit as often for a while.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with the first of a series of makes with Donna's new and fabulous Deep Sea Divas stamps which I was totally thrilled to be able to work with before their official launch this week. If you didn't see it before, I also created a couple of makes for the Stamping Contrasts feature in the June issue of Craft Stamper which was such a thrill too.

I have to say that these stamps are incredibly versatile and I can't seem to stop making things with them so there will be a lot more show and tell moments over the coming weeks.

This is just a sneaky peek of part of my mixed media creation so you'll need to hop over to the blog if you're intrigued to see the whole thing, which I hope you are of course!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Oxide Ink Play at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello again, back to let you know I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week it's all about my experimenting with those addictive Oxide inks. If you haven't tried them do check it out to see just one of the effects you can achieve with the inks and water - they're totally amazing and I'm completely hooked!

As you can see, I made a whole batch of cards in one go - just think of the possibilities for Christmas!

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Back to Black at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, thanks so much to everyone who took the time to leave me comments. I really appreciate your kindness. I'm pleased to say that I can see better than before the op although not quite as well as I hoped because I still seem to need glasses for some things and more than I really wanted as I didn't have to wear them until all the cataract stuff kicked off. I won't know what the prescription is until my check up in 2 weeks.
Anyhow, enough of my troubles and on to the actual reason for this post which is to let you know there's a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Back to Black like the Amy Winehouse song. We want to see lots of black on your creation and my inspiration is a tag with more black than I've ever used I think! Hope you like it.

I used the largest size white/greyboard tag by That's Crafty! and painted it with DecoArt Fluid Acrylic in Carbon Black. I then added circles on top for a pop of colour using a homemade circle stencil and DecoArt Americana Acrylics in Daffodil Yellow, Wild Violet and Lush Foliage.
I next stamped on the circles with Archival Jet Black ink using images from That's Crafty! Textures Collection Sets 1 and 2 clear stamp sets. I found that by layering up some of the images you get a rather interesting effect - see the yellow circles.

I then splattered on some very pale pink paint (Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylic in Vintage Lace) to add more interest.
I stamped the cute crazy bird on mixed media paper with the black ink and die cut him with the matching die set (handy if you're struggling to cut things out!).
I assembled the tag with some rather nifty black and white spotty feathers from my stash - do you like the bird's cute fan tail? and finished off with text from my bits box which is a Visible Image stamp on black card embossed with white and I thought this fit rather well. A bit of stripey ribbon at the top and I was done!

There's a prize of a voucher for the online shop for the winner so do enter if you can - there are tons of fab new goodies in the shop now!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Be Seeing You Soon!

Hi everyone, just a quick post to say that I won't be around for a couple of days as I have my long overdue left eye cataract op tomorrow.
I don't know what the end result will be but hopefully I won't need glasses as much as I do at the moment.
A little re-share of my most appropriate journal page which really sets out my hopes for tomorrow.

Some of my reality has been a bit cloudy lately, especially on the colour front as I didn't realise until I had my right eye sorted out how much the cataracts had been affecting my colour perception. Hopefully with both eyes sorted out I'll be seeing everything in true colour!

See you soon.
Fliss xx

Discovering Wonder at That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, still suffering somewhat from the nasty thingy I managed to catch that turned into Pharyngitis which makes me cough a lot when I first get up and stops me sleeping sometimes - sigh! I'm somewhat fed up as this is the third time in less than 3 months I've had something when before now I haven't been ill for years!
Anyhow, enough whingeing and on to the reason for this post which is to let you know I have a very bright tag to share over at That's Crafty! Blog today which is a little extra inspiration for our Bright Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.

Lots of stencilling and stamping and all details over at the blog as usual.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx