Dreaming of a White Christmas for That's Crafty!

Hello again, this is a very quick post in the middle of some rather frantic crafting to let you know that I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and I'm sorry to say (or not lol) that it's another Christmas card!
Here's a sneak peek and you'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to see what I made with one of Donna's gorgeous new Christmas designs for That's Crafty! I love this set and I know it's going to get tons of use this year.

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

Autumn at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello on a rather murky day, it's rather dull and drizzly today down here in the South but for once, I really don't mind!
Today is the first day of a new chapter in my life as after several months of soul searching, yesterday was my final day at the job I found increasingly stressful so I made the decision to quit.
I now have an increased role at my hubby's business where I've been doing the bookkeeping for over 20 years and I'm taking on more of the financial side to help out as they can't find a replacement for their former office manager who retired that can do the job as well as she did.
I'm also (much more exciting!), going to be setting my creative spirit free to see where it wants to go. There are lots of possibilities to explore and it's a case of watch this space as I'm not sure at this stage where it will lead!

Now for the other stuff! We have a great new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where the theme for the next fortnight is Forever Autumn and I LOVE this one as it's my favourite time of year.
My inspiration in a simple tag as I was short on time this week - as to why, all will be revealed soon.

My base was a Ranger kraft tag which I stencilled with leaves (That's Crafty! 6.5x7.5 Skeleton Leaves Stencil) using That's Crafty! paints (Chestnut Brown and Metallic Bronze Multi Surface and Copper Shimmer) and I so love the Metallic Bronze which is my new favourite.
I then wrapped around a piece of homespun ribbon to which I tied one of my dipped leaves (see my post of 15 September to see how I did this) and finished off with a Tim Holtz clippings sticker. Done!

Have a great day and I'll be back in a bit as it's my day to post at That's Crafty! Blog.
Fliss xx

A Colourful Life for That's Crafty!

Hello all, hoping you've had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am. Autumn seems to be here already but at least it's bright and sunny at the moment after a cold and dewy start.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week it's a colourful journal page to reflect my hopes for the future when I'm intending to have a lot more colour in my life. Stay tuned for the why as all will be revealed soon.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to see the whole page and of course, I hope you will.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend
Fliss xx

ITAC17 Challenge 2 - Asia (Oriental Girl)

Hello, I'm finally here to share my creation for ITAC17 and Challenge 2 which is Asia. I have to admit to a bit of a struggle with this one as I don't have very much that fit the brief which is why it took me so long to get this one done!
I did have some origami papers and some Japanese handmade paper along with an oriental newspaper picked up years ago (no idea which country it is either so I had to pick text ftom the ads as I thought that would be safer lol)
I've made a collage with the things I did have which I'm a bit iffy about but I hope you like it.

The starting point for my collage was the mandala shape which I created by using the That's Crafty! Big Floral stencil (one of my favourites) with Christmas Red Multi Surface paint on a piece of gold and yellow origami paper. When it was dry, I trimmed out the mandala shape.
I next took a scrap of the Japanese handmade paper and added some gold embossing to this. I painted my MDF panel with black and charcoal shimmer paints and when it was dry, glued on the gold embossed paper, a couple more origami paper, some scraps of newsprint oriental text and finally the mandala.
I found the oriental girl after an internet search, printed out the photo and trimmed her from it, adding her to my collage. The final touch was to add some gold heat embossed stamping using images from the AALL and Create stamp set 10 by Autour de Mwa.

If you click on the link above, you'll find all the challenge details as at the moment there's still time to enter and I need to get a move on with the next one!
Fliss xx

Field Notes Journal Cover for That's Crafty!

Hello again and a very quick post to let you know have have my usual Friday offering over at That's Crafty! Blog today.
This week, I'm sharing how I made the mixed media cover for my new small art journal, it has to be sturdy for travel in my rucksack and is intended for nature walks I'm hoping to take more often very soon.

 

This is a bit of the detail and you can see the cover over at the blog with instructions on how it was created as it's easier than you think (I took a walk in my garden to give you a clue :D)

Have a great weekend and see you soon.

Fliss xx

Fly Away at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone on a rather Autumnal day as it's quite chilly down here but is bright so hopefully will warm up soon.
It's time for a new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and this time it's projects with wings/birds we'd like to see as the theme is Fly Away.
I've created an Autumn wreath as I love this time of year being an Autumn girl by birth and never cope well with heat so give me a cold and frosty morning with bright sunshine and I'm so happy!

The wreath is one of the inclusions in the That's Crafty! MDF wreaths and baubles set and I've used the smallest one.
The wreath surface is coloured with Distress oxide inks, spritzed then dried and stamped, then some heat embossing with gold powder for a bit of glimmer.
Here are some process pics:

 

I then used my leaf dipping technique to colour some of the new That's Crafty! Surfaces Greyboard Bits and Pieces leaves perfect for Autumn projects.

 

The paint is actually on a clear plastic plate not the cross stitch fabric underneath! Messy to do but great fun and the leaves look fab when dried off.
I scored them to make veins and added colour with a Promarker. I then painted up one of the greyboard birds to resemble a robin. I die cut some Autumn greenery from bits of paper in my scraps box using the Tim Holtz Sissix Garden Greens set and coloured some berries on some of the sprigs. I assembled it all as you see.

Hope you can join in as the prize is a voucher for the online shop and there are tons of new Autumn and Winter goodies flowing in right now so it's not to be missed!

Have a great day.
Fliss xx

Antique Baubles Card at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello everyone, sorry for the lack of commenting lately, work and family stuff have taken a lot of my free time so I haven't been able to do as much online as I would like.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and it's the C word again as I'm sharing another of my Hochanda samples for the last shows as I was so short on time.

Hope you like it and you'll find all the details over at the blog as usual.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

ITAC17 Challenge 1 - Europe (Positive Spirit)

Hi everyone, I have a creation to share today that is finally a because I wanted to project which I actually started before we went on holiday but have only now managed to finish off.
I'm probably last past the post with an entry for Challenge 1 of ITAC17 Europe - which was the brainchild of Aall and Create and I really hope that I can get the others done too. This is my entry which is a mixed media canvas panel which I think has most of the required elements, if you click on the link above, you can check out the challenge and look at the others too as we're off around the globe for these.
Here are the elements of which you had to include at least one:

A face
Papers (newspaper, printed paper, rice paper .....etc
Letters, numbers
Blue for the colour of the European Union, Union Jack
Ribbon, twine, string or lace
Textures - take inspiration from history, from ancient civilisation to the fall of the Berlin wall
Something both vintage and modern

I brushed my natural coloured canvas with a mix of white gesso, titan buff and flesh tint, choosing not to cover up all of the background as I love the colour and the distressed look this gives.
I then glued on a torn piece of paper from a vintage and very tatty book of Shakespeare's plays from my stash - if you look closely, you can see the text is from Hamlet. I always think Shakespeare's plays have as much meaning today as they did when they were written so this could be my vintage and modern.
I then used texture paste with a couple of That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils (Hole in the Wall and Chequerboard Bacground) to add some patterned areas. When these were dry, I rubbed then with a mix of That's Crafty! Shimmer and Metallic Paints, adding highlights with DecoArt Glamour Dust Glitter Paint and Prima Art Alchemy Opal Magic paints.

I glued on a piece of chiffon rose ribbon which started out white and altered this with various of the paints to tone it in with my background.
I next stamped on the good vibes and positive mind images from the Aall and Create stamp set 7 by Bipasha BK and the numbers and rectangles texture stamps from stamp set 10 by Autour de Mwa using black VersaFine ink and heat embossed them with clear powder.
I stamped the free spirit image from the Bipasha BK set on mixed media paper with black ink, coloured it with paints and watercolour pencils, then trimmed it and glued it on.

The final touch was to add a wing (That's Crafty! Bits and Pieces Greyboard Large Wings Sheet) which I altered with shimmer, metallic and glitter paints and some Stampendous Frantage Shabby Pink Embossing Enamel.

I hope you like what I made as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Fliss xx

Country Style Christmas Wreath for That's Crafty!

Hello again, just realised I forgot to say that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with another Christmas creation, this week one of my Hochanda wreaths made from the set of 3 amazing MDF wreaths which will take any media you care to throw at them - in my case rather a lot of texture paste!

Just a sneaky peek here and you'll need to hop over to the blog to see the full effect. Really loved making this I have to say as it's so enjoyable making the plain greyboard elements come to life. Hope you'd like to see how I did that too.

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

Rustica Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and the theme for the next fortnight is Rustica, meaning we want to see rust effects on your creations and I sure did love this challenge.
My creation is a mixed media art panel inspired by a rusty factory building we saw on the side of one of the lochs we visited on our holiday in Scotland. We climbed through a broken panel to get to the area which was very sad to see but there were lots of amazing textures to take photos of. Nature had started to take the land back too and flowers and greenery peeked out between broken bricks.

 

I covered the MDF art panel with texture paste and then chose one of the Bits and Pieces greyboard cogs and pressed it into the paste randomly to add texture. Can you see the outlines on the background?

I then brushed a mix of Charcoal Shimmer paint and Antique Silver Metallic paint over the textured background. When the paint was fully dry, I used the Plaid Folk Art Painted Finishes Rust Kit which contains a light and dark rust paint to add rusty drips and patches over the top. Once this had dried off, I used the Ranger Embossing Dabber to add patches of ink and heat embossed the areas with Ranger Antiquities Rust embossing powder.

I coloured a number of the greyboard cogs with That's Crafty! paints (Antique Gold and Silver Metallic, Charcoal Shimmer and Multi Surface Black). I glued these on with silicone glue and finished off with a Tim Holtz word chip which I distressed by rubbing with charcoal and silver. My hubby says it looks like distressed metal which you can't really see in the pic.

I'll be round to visit as soon as I can and hope to share some holiday pics too.

Fliss xx