Fred's Fishy Christmas

Hello! Hope you're all ready for the big day. I'm nearly there at last with just the wrapping left and a couple of stocking fillers to buy - yippee!
I didn't say here but last Friday we had yet more drama as my poor father in law suffered a mild stroke late in the evening and ended up back in hospital. Luckily he has recovered quickly and we'll be collecting him late this afternoon to bring him home. A great relief as we were not sure he would be home for Christmas.
I have my last post of this year over at That's Crafty! Blog today and Donna's cute Fred has come out to play with 2 rather cheeky looking mice. From the expression on his face, he looks as if he's been up to no good.

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

Fliss xx

Anything Goes Challenge Reminder

Hello! Sorry again for being mia but I've had big issues with Blogger over the last few days and couldn't leave comments on anyone's blogs for some unknown (to me anyway!) reason. The problem was solved a bit earlier by my techno helper and it related to cookies being blocked which Blogger didn't like so if you have the same thing happen, all you need to do is go to your Google profile and make Blogger an exception from cookie blocking.
We're now midway through our December challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where Anything Goes this month.
I've a bit of festive home decor to share involving no stamping at all, very unusual for me.

My substrate is my favourite topped torn notebook MDF upright, very handy with its' own stand and I first gave it a coat of white gesso.
I then used the lovely poinsettia tree stencil with texture paste to make my focal point. Once this was dry, I added some snowflakes which come handily on the same stencil, again using texture paste.
I brushed gold and silver metallic multi surface paints roughly over the panel and when the paint was dry, painted the tree with red and green multi surface paints and the snowflakes white.
I diluted some gold paint with water to make a glaze and brushed this over the surface of the tree. This gives a lovely shimmer to catch the light.
I added a row of Tim Holtz seasonal stickers across the base, choosing the black and gold for a strong contrast.
I painted the base with the gold and silver mix, then glued the top panel in place with That's Crafty! multi purpose craft adhesive to finish.
Here are a few close-ups for a better view:

I hope you can enter as this has to be the easiest theme ever and there are some great prizes to be won too, plus you can enter wherever in the world you are.

Hope your Christmas preparations are going well and better than mine!

Fliss xx

A Christmas Tree Wreath for That's Crafty!

Hello! I'm still playing catch up as I have very little time for blogging at the moment and hope you'll bear with me until life gets back to normal (or near normal) hopefully very soon.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week I have the follow on from last week to share as I've created something else from the papers I made, this time a mixed media Christmas wreath.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as always and I'd love it if you hopped over for a visit.

Have a great weekend and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Merry & Bright at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello! A slightly late post to let you know that I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today where I'm sharing a bright and cheery card created with papers that were made with non festive stamps.
I've still not yet caught up with my blogging and stuff and hope to be round very soon (family stuff still getting in the way with a very demanding father in law!).

Have a great weekend and hope you're all well.

Fliss xx

Anything Goes For December

Hello! Welcome to my inspiration for the December Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and our theme this month is Anything Goes so hopefully you'll join in as you can enter anything you like, nothing easier than that!
I'm still in Christmas mode so I have more cards to share made with another masterboard that I've used to make a varied collection of festive cards with a tree theme. Read on to find out what I did.

My favourite Christmas set has come out to play again as I love all the elements in Donna's lovely set which has something for everyone.

I used ink sprays to create my masterboard, using Aqua and Rose Flat Matte Sprays with Aqua, Lilac, Lime and Silver Lustre Sprays. The silver was a bit stronger than I thought it would be so I used a brayer whilst it was still wet to spread the colour further and the end result was the sheet above which is an A3 size piece of cartidge paper.

I found a piece of spray overflow paper in my stash of these types of paper, this being A4 size and green and gold so perfect for my trees. I managed to get 9 stamped on the sheet with black VersaFine ink which I heat embossed with fine clear embossing powder.

I cut the masterboard into 8 pieces and decorated it in a variety of ways with stencils and metallic paint, stencils and heat embossed embossing ink and stamped, heat embossed images. I cut all the trees out and then stamped just the top star on yellow/orange spray overflow paper using black ink and clear heat embossing as before, then cut these out.

I added a little colouring to the trees with Zig Clean Color brush pens then assembled my cards using glitter cards as mats in most cases and finishing off with either a Tim Holtz seasonal sticker or a stamped sentiment.

I used:

That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Christmas Collection Set 2 by Donna Gray
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Scribbled Shrooms by Melina Dahl
That's Crafty! Flat Matte Sprays - Aqua, Basil, Rose
That's Crafty! Lustre Sprays - Aqua, Aubergine, Frost, Lilac, Lime, Red, Silver
Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens
VersaFine Onyx Black Ink
Fine Clear Embossing Powder

I hope you can join in for some great prizes - all details on the challenge blog.

Have a great rest of the week.
Fliss xx

Flowers Are A Must For Me at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello! I hope you're all well and surviving the current chilly weather. This is a scheduled post as today we have my mother in law Jean's funeral at last and we finally have the chance to get together and say goodbye to her properly. We miss her such a lot as before she became ill with dementia she was always so lively and great fun. I know she wouldn't like being as she was over the last year or so when things became really difficult so I hope she's now at peace.

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today where I'm sharing an art journal page that was quick to make as I've been short on time.

My page is all about my love for flowers and if you'd like to see the whole page you'll need to hop over to the blog.

I hope to be back to more blogging soon as it's taken very much a back seat lately and especially over the last few weeks as I got landed unexpectedly with hosting the after service lunch. The result has been a huge declutter and clean at home as my craft stuff is all over the downstairs of our house! It's all done and the only up side is that there'll be less to do for Christmas!

Fliss xx

Winter Wonderland Part 2

Hello! A slightly late post with my midway inspiration for our November challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Winter Wonderland.
I've been really busy with the prepping for my father in law's return home which took place yesterday afternoon and for the after service lunch for my mother in law's funeral which is at the end of next week. The result has been very little free time so my blogging, Facebook and Instagram has had to take a back seat.
We've had dramas galore to deal with (including a ton of them today!) which I won't go into but suffice to say I shall be glad when we get to December!

I created a large tag as my inspiration piece using one of the shaped 7.5 inch greyboard tags as my starting point.

The background features a painted surface treated with crackle glaze and stamping around the edges with a crackle stamp which I heat embossed with silver embossing powder. It was then speckled with diluted white gesso for a snowy effect.

I heat embossed some greyboard snowflakes with weathered white embossing powder and painted a couple of greyboard deer with metallic multi surface paints. I glued these on with dimensional adhesive and finished off with stamped text (Tim Holtz Scribbled Trees set) stamped with Archival cobalt ink and cut up then edged with silver.

I hope you're all having a much better time than me and will be back as soon as I'm able to and have more time to spare.
Fliss xx

My New Obsession at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello! I hope you're all well and sorry yet again for not being around much lately. I'm still dealing with my in laws' stuff and there's still a little way to go. My father in law is definitely on the mend and will be coming out of the rehabilitation centre soon so there's a mad scramble to get the house ready for his return. He's got to live downstairs so there's loads to do to make everything as easy as possible for him.
We've finally been able to arrange my mother in law's funeral too which is at the end of this month. Life will never be the same afterwards as we will have to help my father in law quite a lot which is such a shame when he's a very independent person. I'm sure we'll all cope and at the moment it's really a case of going with the flow.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with the very textured trio of artist trading coins, one of which was on my last post. If you'd like to see them all and how I created them, I'd be so pleased if you hopped over.

Have a great weekend.

Fliss xx

Winter Wonderland at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello! It's a really horrible day today down here in the South as we have really strong winds and intermittent rain, really not nice!

On the crafty side, we have the November challenge beginning today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and to go with the now chilly weather, our new theme is Winter Wonderland.

My inspiration is rather 2 birds, 1 stone as I've made a start on some festive cards with my favourite snowman and made a masterboard so that I could create 6 cards at once.

I began with making the masterboard from an A3 sheet of smooth cartridge paper. I sprayed it with a mix of flat matte and lustre sprays using Aqua and Bluebell Flat Matte Sprays and Aqua and Lilac Lustre Sprays. You'll notice there are a couple of areas that are green and pink, this being the accidental result of leaving the paper to dry rather too near some later ink misting so it ended up with a bit of lime and rose flat matte spray on but, hey, what does it matter! It just adds to the effect.

I then cut the sheet into 6 pieces as these fit 6x6 card blanks rather well. I used the snowflake background Dinky stencil with white multi surface paint to add a pattern just around the edges of the paper panels.

I next stamped the snowmen from Donna's Christmas Collection Set 2, 6 times on an A4 sheet of smooth thick cartridge paper with black ink. I cut these out with a stitched square die from my stash and coloured them up with Zig Clean Color markers (now in stock at That's Crafty! - yay!).

I distressed the edges of my background paper panels and glued these to some 6x6 kraft card blanks. I added the snowman panels, tucking a white die cut snowflake behind each in the top right corner and finished off with some Tim Holtz Holiday Talk stickers.

There are some great prizes if you enter so don't forget that you have to be in it to win it!

Have a great day and see you soon and it's a rather exciting Thursday tomorrow as That's Crafty! have 2 shows on Hochanda TV at 11am and 3pm with lots of new gorgeous goodies. Here's a sneak peek of what is on the shows.

See you soon!
Fliss xx

Dream Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello! A rather late post today after another exceedingly busy week to let you know that I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog where I'm sharing a mixed media tag with a large blooming flower embellishment.

You'll find all the details over the blog as usual if you'd like to see how I created it.

I'm still involved in doing a lot of stuff on behalf of my in laws which is why I still don't have much time for blogging. Hopefully the end is soon in sight as my father in law is now at the rehabilitation centre and is being helped with his walking.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Joy and Serendipity at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello everyone, apologies yet again for my lack of visiting. My whole week has been spent down at my in laws house moving my father in law's clothes downstairs to the bedroom he will use when he gets home (some washing needed doing too!) and dealing with taking my mother in law's clothing to charity shops plus a dress agency which will be selling some of the more high value items to raise more money for charity. I still have to sort out her flower arranging stuff as my father in law has asked me to do that so I'll be down there again next week to get it done. It seems never ending at the moment!
My father in law is now much better and can walk at last and get out of bed by himself. We're now waiting for him to be transferred to a rehabilitation centre to get him ready to return home.

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today too and it's another tag using lots of the new products from the last Hochanda show.

You'll find all the details of how it came about over at the blog.

Have a great weekend and will be round as soon as I can find a spare hour or two!
Fliss xx

Imagine - A Mixed Media Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello all, I'm really glad it's Friday as I've had quite a week with sorting out my mother in law's clothing, shoes etc. I'm almost there now and just have her knitwear to deal with plus her coats of which she has a lot! The end is finally in sight and all I have left are some very expensive items that I want to take to a dress agency that my mother in law loved to see if they can be sold and raise more for charity.

I have my usual Friday tutorial over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a mixed media tag on one of the new substrates with one of Lynne's beautiful new Word Flower stamps.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Spookalicious Part 2

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a good week so far. Mine has been very busy as I'm in the middle of the rather daunting task of sorting through my mother in law's closets full of clothes and it's taking ages as she has an awful lot of stuff! There will be some very happy charity shops once I've got everything together.
As we're now half way through our October challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog with our topical theme of Spookalicious, I have a little more inspiration to share.

Hope you like my tombstone which I created using one of the fab dinky MDF uprights.

I gave the front and base a coat of black multi surface paint, then scraped texture sand paste down the front, leaving a slightly thicker layer on the top half temporarily. I inked up some alphabet stamps with black ink and pushed them into the wet texture paste to create the debossed R.I.P. as shown above. I then scraped off some of the excess texture paste to create a worn stone effect.
Once the paste was completely dry, I painted it with diluted grey and green multi surface paints, allowing them to run down the surface.
I added diluted paint to the base section and glued the tombstone into it. I die cut some ivy using the Tim Holtz Garden Greens die set and some green painted paper then dabbed it with some black paint before gluing it on.
I used black paint with the Scaredy Cat Dinky stencil to create my cat on some white card and cut the cat out. I made him some eyes with a scrap of green card and added the pupils with a black Sharpie pen. I glued him on to finish my spooky make.

There are some great prizes if you enter so don't forget to check out the challenge blog and see what you'd be missing if you didn't.

Have a great rest of the week.
Fliss xx

Going Floral at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello everyone on a rather blustery day, it seems like Autumn has arrived at last as it's definitely that sort of weather today.
Apologies for not visiting much lately, I'm in the middle of the rather daunting task of sorting out my mother in law's clothes on behalf of my father in law and it's taking ages as she has a lot of very lovely and classy items which I'm reluctant to just give to the local charity shops as they're worth quite a lot. I'm trying to find second hand clothing shops that would be interested at the moment so we could get more for them and donate it to a charity we choose.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a floral mixed media chunkie which I hope you'll like if you hop over to see how it came about.

I've been playing with the texture pastes again as I love these for mixed media.

Have a great weekend and will visit as soon as I can find some spare time.
Fliss xx

Dragonfly Collage and Hochanda News

Hello! I hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am. I have one of my samples for today's Hochanda show which if you're reading this before 12 noon you can watch!

Here's a sneak peek of my dragonfly collage which I hope you'll hop over to That's Crafty! Blog to see the whole photo of and of course, how I created it.

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

Fliss xx

Quoth The Raven

Hello! Welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge this month over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where, being October, we have the theme of Spookalicious and would like to see your creepy or Halloween artwork.
My mixed media panel was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and came about because when rummaging through my stencils, I came across my as yet unused raven stencil.

I chose a square MDF panel and covered this roughly with texture sand paste, leaving a few bits of the panel uncovered - mainly around the edges.
I sprayed the panel with Walnut, Blueberry and Blackberry flat matte sprays, giving it several coats and drying between each one.
Once the background was completely dry, I used the raven stencil with texture paste to create my main image. I let this dry well and then painted it with Black multi surface paint by placing the stencil back on top and applying the paint with a sponge.
I then removed the stencil and painted in between the sections as well to form a complete image. I then added some highlights to the bird with Metallic Blue and Silver multi surface paints. I went around the edges with Red shimmer paint and also painted his eye.
I trimmed a greyboard tree so that it would fit on the side and covered it with texture paste, scraping in a knarled bark pattern with a cocktail stick. When it was dry, I painted it with black multi surface paint and charcoal shimmer paint, treating several greyboard leaves in the same way. I glued these on the left hand side of my collage.
I stamped the skulls (actually the skull and crossbones image from Donna's Claire stamp set) on mixed media paper with black pigment ink and clear embossed them. I coloured them a little with my Zig pens and then heat embossed them further with Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture embossing powder. I also used this on a Tim Holtz quote chip.
I created a spooky moon in the top right hand corner with texture paste using a circle stencil and coloured this with a mix of multi surface and shimmer paints.

I hope you can join us for some great prizes.

Thank you to everyone who left kind comments on my last post. My father in law is now recovering well and is awaiting transfer to an NHS centre for physiotherapy care.

See you soon.
Fliss xx

Rhapsody in Blue

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a better week than me as since I did my last post, as some of you that are friends on Facebook will know, we lost my lovely mother in law Jean last Sunday.

She seemed to be recovering but on Saturday we had a call to say she'd taken a turn for the worse and later on they called again to say that they couldn't do any more to help. Andy spent several hours with her and we were called at 5am on Sunday morning to say that she had passed away. Poor Andy had to go straight down to the hospital to sign forms and collect all her belongings as they wanted to clean her room. Rather heartless in my opinion but I suppose they see death all the time there.

My father in law is still in Brighton hospital recovering slowly from his hip replacement and a chest infection he picked up there. He has now been told about Jean and is coping as we all are so hopefully he will continue to recover as we want him back over in Worthing where it will be much easier to see him. Poor Andy has been visting every day after work in Lewes and doesn't get home before 8pm so it's a very long day for him.

I do have my usual post up over at That's Crafty! Blog today which is a card as I needed something quick and simple due to lack of time.

You'll find the whole photo over at the blog if you hop over as this is just a sneak peek. As you can see, I'm feeling rather blue this week.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Midnight in the Fairy Garden

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a good week. Mine has been a bit hit and miss as the in laws saga continues!
My mother in law is still not better so they're doing tests to try and find out why the antibiotics haven't worked. I suspect that she has an ongoing stomach issue as I can vaguely remember her trying a gluten free diet a few years back due to problems with her digestion. I have told my hubby and my brother in law to mention this to the hospital but of course, being men, they haven't! Looks like I'll have to do this myself.
My father in law had another op on Wednesday and has now had a hip replacement so hopefully this will sort out his problem although I suspect the recovery from the op will be quite lengthy.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with the second of my Hochanda samples from the show last week having been lucky enough to play with Melina's new and gorgeous stamps. This one is a fairy garden and hope you like it.

You'll have to pop over to the blog to see the whole project and obviously I hope you will!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Forever Autumn Part 2

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a good week with some sunshine as we've had (at least until yesterday when the remains of hurricane whatever made it rather windy!).
My parents in law are slowly recovering and my mother in law has been eating since late Friday much to our relief. We don't know when either of them will be able to leave hospital, we just have to wait and see what happens.
I have my midway inspiration for our Forever Autumn challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog to share today and unusually for me, no stamping is involved!!!

My substrate for this creation is a pair of the new circular greyboard shapes from the last Hochanda show which I've layered up.
I first covered them with texture sand paste applied with a palette knife rather roughly I admit. Once it was dry, I used the gorgeous leaf stencil (TC7002) with texture paste to add leaves around the outside of the larger circle and all over the smaller one - it's necessary to wait for some of the leaves to dry before adding more.
When everything was dry I got to work with some of the flat matte sprays using saffron, orange and tomato followed by a touch of basil and some gold lustre spray. As you'll see, the spray behaves differently on the texture paste where it is absorbed more to the sand texture paste where it dries almost gone.

This is before the sprays had dried completely and the end result is much softer as the ink is fully absorbed.
I added some dabbing with antique gold metallic paint on the larger circle and copper on the smaller one and made the edges pop with black multi surface paint.
I glued the circles together and finished off with the stencilled nature text (TC7036) which I did with potting soil Archival ink on a scrap of spray overflow paper.

If you haven't yet entered, do give it a go as there are some great prizes up for grabs.

Have a great day.
Fliss xx

Friday Post at That's Crafty! Blog and News

Hello everyone, many apologies for not being around much lately which is because we have chaos down here at the moment with both my parents in law still being in hospital.

My father in law has multiple fractures in his right hip and it's taken the doctors ages to work out what to do. He's been taken over to Brighton for a "major op" today but no-one has been told what they're actually going to do!!! It's very stressful for us all not knowing what's going on so with luck we'll know later on today what they've done.

My mother in law is sadly not well at all as she's not eating or drinking and it's uncertain whether this is because she's got a stomach bug, she's refusing to eat or has forgotten how to swallow as she's suffering from dementia. This is even more worrying but we should know more today when the doctor has seen her.

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today where I'm sharing one of my Hochanda samples (lucky I had that as I haven't felt much like crafting lately!).

If you caught my last post you'll have seen a bit more of this one but to see the whole creation, you'll have to hop over to the blog.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Hochanda News

Hello! A post from me today just to give you a little sneak peek for the upcoming That's Crafty! show on Hochanda on Tuesday 11 September at 10am.

Our Jo will be doing some fab demos with lots of new goodies including some absolutely gorgeous new stamps from Melina, 4 sets in all some shroom based and some sketchy houses too.

I've been lucky enough to work with one of the shroom sets and here's the promised sneak peek of one of my makes.

There are also some fab new substrates and some new stencils too so do watch if you can for some amazing inspiration as my teamies have made some totally awesome and stunning samples which you really do need to see.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Fliss xx

Blossoming Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're all enjoying the current sunny weather if you have that as we have down here. Not that I've seen that much of it as I've had a lot of stuff to do, some rather exciting and some not! Lots of family stuff going on here due to my in laws both still being in hospital which has resulted in us all pulling together to deal with their house etc etc.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post which this week is a layered up mixed media tag (I ended up with very blue fingers making this too) which I hope you like. Here's a sneak peek to tempt you.

I hope you have a lovely day and a great weekend and will see you soon with some rather exciting news about happenings at That's Crafty! towers.

Fliss xx

Forever Autumn Challenge

Hello! Hope you're all well at the moment and thanks so much for the kind comments on my last post. I'm still not quite 100% but I feel a lot better and just have to be careful what I eat so hopefully that will help.
My parents in law are both still in hospital for different reasons and we're still waiting on news of what is actually wrong with my father in law as they still haven't told us about the severity or not of his hip fracture.
Anyhow, enough of all that and on to my inspiration for our new challenge for September over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where our seasonal theme is Forever Autumn and I don't know about you but I have Justin Hayward singing that amazing song in my head!

I used one of the gorgeous shaped greyboard tags for my creation (they come in a pack of 30 in 5 different shapes with 6 of each and are incredible value) as you can throw all sorts of mixed media things at them and I did!

I first used the fern mini stencil with texture paste to add some detail to the background. Once it was dry, I went to town with some Flat Matte Sprays, using Basil, Orange and Saffron. I aimed for some complete cover and a splatter effect over the top and happily it worked!

I then spritzed on some Gold Lustre Spray for some shine and was quite surprised as it came out quite dark on the raised texture paste areas, looking almost black. Once it was dry, the amazing lustre was apparent. It doesn't show up very well in the photo but in real life it looks gorgeous.

As the background is quite strong, I had a bit of a dilemma with my leaf as I first stamped it on paper I coloured with copper, bronze and orange multi surface paints. Sadly it didn't have enough of a contrast to the background.

I solved my problem by stamping my leaf on some of the spray overflow paper as there were areas with quite a bit of orange. I brushed the leaf with 3D Gloss Gel when it was dry and glued it to the tag with silicone adhesive.

A Tim Holtz Clippings sticker coloured with a marker and some twine tied through the top finished off my tag.

There are some great prizes just for entering with a voucher for the online shop (with a stunning array of gorgeous goodies) and stencils for the Top 3 chosen by the Design Team.

It would be fab to see your lovely Autumn creations there.
Have a great day.
Fliss xx

News and That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, this is my first post in a couple of weeks as the beginning of last week I was struck down out of the blue by a very nasty stomach bug which took quite a few days to clear and managed to completely upset my digestive system making it sensitive to caffeine, dairy etc etc so I couldn't eat what I would call properly until yesterday. I was so relieved to finally be able to drink tea as I really missed having a cuppa plus for nearly 2 weeks I was completely exhausted and lacking energy.

Today is the first day I got out of bed not wanting to crawl in again so I think I'm finally on the mend thank goodness.

On top of this we've had family drama as I got an emergency summons from my in laws on Wednesday afternoon and arrived to find my father in law on the floor with my mother in law who is now sadly suffering from dementia, crying and hovering around him. My father in law tried to get up but couldn't and didn't want me to call for help but I called an ambulance very against his wishes and both he and my mother in law were eventually taken into hospital (some 4 hours later!). The paramedics were really lovely and said he had to be x rayed as when they got him up he couldn't stand. It turns out he has a fractured hip and has to have a scan today to find out how bad it is. We're hoping it isn't bad as he's now 93 years old and surgery at that age is tricky.

Anyway, enough of my woes and I need to let you know I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today having missed last week due to being ill.

I'm sharing a trio of artist trading coins - the latest trend - with a fishy theme and if you'd like to see them all which are created with Magda's cute sea critters, please hop on over.

It will take me a while to catch up so I will see you as soon as I can.
Fliss xx

Bentley's Midnight Garden

Hello! I hope you've all had a good week and better than mine which has been rather busy with accounts stuff but thankfully that's nearly all finished for the moment.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and I've been using up some of my spray overflow scraps from last week's make to create another upright. This week the lovely Bentley has come out to play as it's a while since he made an appearance and I thought I should ink him up again.

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

I've got a busy weekend as tomorrow we're off up to London to help my daughter Sarah move from her lodgings with a family to a flat she'll be sharing with 2 other girls and I know she can't wait as it's what she's wanted for ages but found that finding a flat share was worse than a job interview!!!

See you soon and have a great weekend.

Fliss xx

Animal Magic Part 2

Hello! I'm taking a sneaky break in the middle of some accountancy work to share my midway inspiration for the August challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which this month has the theme of Animal Magic.
I've created an underwater themed upright with some of Magda's cute water world critters and gone rather mixed media for this one as I wanted a very textured seaweed look. Hope you like it!

My first step was to apply texture paste all over the top panel and once it was try, I used matte gel to glue on some ripped and snipped crochet lace lurking in my stash - I knew it would come in handy some day! I then glued on some tiny 3D balls - mine are Powertex from my great class with Leonie Pujol back in April, but Prima do these too.
I next sprayed the surface with Aqua and Basil Flat Matte Sprays, allowing the colours to drip and run. As you can see, the crochet lace picked up more colour and popped out a lot more. I then used a stiff paintbrush to dab on green and turquoise shimmer paints for a bit of bling - sadly it doesn't show very well in the photo.
I die cut some "seaweed" from gelli papers in my bits box using Tim Holtz Garden Greens die set which is handy for more than gardens!
I stamped on the little fish from the stamp set several times using Ripe Persimmon Distress Oxide as it's a lovely strong colour. I gave the fish eyes with a black Posca pen.
I then stamped all the other critters on smooth cartridge paper and coloured them with my Zig Clean Color markers, adding doodling with white and balack Posca pens, then cut the images out and glued them on with dimensional glue.
I finished off by spraying the base with the same blue and green matte sprays, adding some glass pebbles to it, then glued some glittery gems to the top section for a bit of bubbly bling.

Supplies:
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Water World by Magda Polakow
That's Crafty! Surfaces - MDF Jagged Edge Upright
That's Crafty! White Texture Paste
That's Crafty! Flat Matte Sprays - Aqua and Basil
That's Crafty! Shimmer Paints - Green and Turquoise
Posca Pens - Fine Black and White
Distress Oxide Ink - Ripe Persimmon
Extras - 3D Balls, Ripped Crochet Lace, Tim Holtz Garden Greens Die Set, Glittery Gems, Glass Pebbles

There are some fab prizes if you enter so don't forget you have to be in it to win it!

Have a great day and hope the rest of the week is all you could wish for.
Fliss xx

Textured Blooms

Hello everyone from a rather wet and rainy South Coast. We've finally had rain here which went on most of yesterday and has certainly cooled the weather down as I've had to put a cardi on for the first time in about 6 weeks. I also slept very well last night thank goodness so hopefully that will continue as I've not had a good night for ages as I struggle to cope with the heat. I hope you're all OK and hopefully have cooler weather too.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! blog today and this week I've got an MDF upright mixed media style to share which uses something slightly unusual for the textured blooms on it. I hope you'll be intrigued to see how it came about.

You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to hop over.

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

Moments of Magic Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello! It's still very hot and sunny and although we had quite a bit of rain last weekend, the ground was so parched I think only a week of rain will sort it out!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! today and this week I have a collaged tag to share with a summery feel to it. Hope you like my sneak peek.

Have a great day and hope you can keep cool.

Fliss xx

Animal Magic at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello! I don't know about you but I can't believe it's August already! Don't know where the time goes these days and it seems like it goes faster the older you get!
As it's August, we have a new challenge starting today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and the theme for this month is Animal Magic so you can make anything you like as long as you have at least one animal of some sort on there.
My inspiration has 3 from one of Magda Polakow's cute stamp sets for That's Crafty! which I've used in a somewhat outside the box project. Hope you like it.

I've taken one of the quirky shrines for my base, using the tree stump one as I'm sure you all know how much I love nature themed artwork.
I assembled the shrine back, painting the inside with orange multi surface paint for a lovely warm glow.
I then used the larger tree bark stencil with texture paste to add a bark pattern on the front. The twiggy bits at the top being done by dabbing on paste and scratching a bark pattern with a cocktail stick as I found this easier.
When it was dry, I painted the bark with a mix of multi surface paints, using chestnut brown, red, green, orange and metallic bronze. I misted on water and allowed the colours to run a little. When the paint was dry, I glued the front to the shrine base.
I then wanted to add some interest to the tree stump and was inspired by a tree I saw on a visit to Petworth Park in June - here's the photo which is quite weird!

As you can see, it looks like there's a creature's eye peeping out of the knot in the tree so I decided to try and create a knot around the oval aperture in the shrine.
I drew around the oval removed from the front on a piece of mixed media paper. I then used this to construct my knot, drawing the shape and cutting it out then piling on texture paste which I added a pattern to with the cocktail stick. Once it was dry, I painted it with multi surface paints and glued it in place.
I took a tiny MDF heart which I painted red and glued this inside the shrine using a stack of leftover greyboard waste (from the clocks set). I added the text over the top which I stamped with black ink on mixed media paper.

I stamped some leaves using the leaf from Magda's set, stamping on paper painted green. I added more detail before cutting the leaves out and glued these in place.
I then took 3 of the new MDF ATCoin 2.5 inch rounds and painted these with green and teal multi surface paints to roughly approximate sky and grass, then added some pattern with the new Clouds & Hearts stencil designed by Magda using white multi surface paint.
I stamped the cute critters from the stamp set on mixed media paper, coloured them with Zig clean color markers and cut them out, gluing them to my painted rounds which I added to the top of the tree stump.

Aren't they cute!

The last thing I did was to brush 3D gloss gel over the tree surface for some added oomph.

Supplies Used:
That's Crafty! ATC Art Shrines Set - contains the 4 new shapes including this one and the 2.5ins rounds
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Baby Bear and Friends by Magda Polakow
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - The House Collection by Melina Dahl
That's Crafty! 8 x 8 Stencil - Clouds & Hearts
That's Crafty! Texture Paste
That's Crafty! 3D Gloss Gel
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - White, Chestnut Brown, Red, Orange, Green, Metallic Bronze, Teal
Black Archival Ink
Mixed Media Paper
Zig Clean Color Marker Pens

I hope you can join us for some lovely prizes as you have to be in it to win it!
Have a great day,
Fliss xx

Mixed Media Tag at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello! I hope you're managing to keep cool in the never ending heatwave we seem to have at the moment and I have to say the last few days have been the worst - thought I was going to melt a couple of times! Rain is due but I suspect we won't get it here as the sky has no clouds although that could change and this would be an occasion that I wouldn't complain about it!

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post which this week is a nature themed mixed media tag which I hope you like. Here's a sneak peek and you'll find all the details over at the blog with the full tag and the how to's.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Mixed Media Artwork for That's Crafty!

Hello, I've been rather busy this week for various reasons so hopefully will do more visiting over the weekend.
One of the reasons is because yesterday morning we woke to find carnage in our back garden as a nasty fox had destroyed the nest of a hedgehog family in the shrubbery on the edge of our small patio. He unfortunately killed one of the babies and yesterday afternoon we found 2 more babies out in full sunshine and very wobbly. Their mother appears to have abandoned them so we put them back in shade until Andy came home and they've spent the night in a box in the shed with puppy milk and actual hedgehog food (didn't know you could get this!) after an emergency dash to Pets 'r' Us. We'll be ringing up the local animal rescue today for advice as the babies seem tobe about a month old and not old enough to fend for themselves. Nature can be so cruel sometimes.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a mixed media circular panel which is the result of a rescue of something that went wrong last month. All is now fixed and you can find out how over on the blog.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Midway Inspiration for Close to Nature Challenge

Hello! I hope everyone is well and coping with the current long heatwave we seem to be having. A month now and no sign of rain down here on the south coast of the UK which is really unusual.

We're now midway through the July challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog with the theme of Close To Nature and I have some more inspiration to share in the form of a tag (yes, another one as I can't seem to get enough of these at the moment!) and Lynne's gorgeous new wildflower stamps have come out to play again as I love these.

I made the background for the tag by swiping teal, light blue and white multi surface paints on the surface then misting with water and allowing the colour to spread.

I then took an evergreen sprig from my garden and pressed broken china and twisted citron oxide inks on the leaves and pressed it onto the tag. I repeated this step until I was happy with the effect. I next used one of the texture stamps with faded jeans oxide ink to add some texture round the edges (I did this without an acrylic block for a grungy effect).

I prepared my focal point panel using a scrap of mixed media paper torn from the pad as I like using the ripped edge to add texture. I coloured the paper with twisted citron oxide ink misted with water and repeated applied for texture. Whilst still damp, I stamped on my chosen wild flower with VersaFine Majestic Blue ink, following up with shadow stamping using the twisted citron ink which as you see ran a little due to the wet paper.

I added more stamping from the textures sets using a postmark and script for further detail. I masked off part of one of Lynne's Affirmations to give the nature text.

I  knotted some yarn around the panel then glued it to my tag and tied some toning yarns through the top to finish.

Supplies:

That's Crafty! Surfaces Size 10 White/Greyboard Tag
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Lynne's Wildflowers Set 2, Textures Collection Sets 3 and 4
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - Light Blue, Teal, White
Distress Oxide Inks - Broken China, Faded Jeans, Twisted Citron
VersaFine Majestic Blue Ink
 Extras - Evergreen leaf sprig or similar, toning yarns

My DT sisters have some gorgeous inspiration to hopefully encourage you to enter if you haven't yet done so over at the challenge blog where you can read about the prizes on offer which are fabulous!

Have a great day,
Fliss xx