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

Flutter Your Feathers for That's Crafty!

Hello! I hope you've all had a lovely week with some sunny weather and time for crafting too. I'm really looking forward to the weekend as I've had some accounts work to do this week and need a rest from figures!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and I have another tag to share - I seem to be addicted to making these at the moment. My tag this time is in coll chilled shades of blue with a touch of yellow and purple hues for contrast.

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

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

In The Walled Garden Mixed Media for That's Crafty!

Hello! It's hot and sunny again today although thankfully my puffy feet and ankles have gone down now. Hope everyone is coping with the heat if you have it.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a mixed media piece of artwork created on one of the fab MDF uprights as it's quite a while since I altered one. There's a sneak peek below and you'll find the whole thing over at the blog if you hop over as I hope you will to see how it came about.

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

Fliss xx

Close To Nature at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello! Hope you're all surviving the current very hot weather we have here in the UK although thankfully it is slightly cooler today as I felt I was going to melt over the weekend as I can't cope with heat that well and actually got puffy feet and ankles which is a first in this country! Something I normally only get if in somewhere like Italy in August!!!
We have a new challenge up today for July over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and this month our theme is Close To Nature so we'd like to see what nature means to you.
I've been lucky enough to get my inky (and painty) mitts on Lynne's gorgeous new wildflower stamp sets so this was the perfect excuse (not that I really need one!) to ink some up for my inspiration which is a tag with a meadow theme.

I don't actually have process photos here as it was a go with the flow piece and the first thing I did was to colour my tag. I used slightly diluted multi surface paints, starting at the top right with mustard yellow and orange, then drawing in bright magenta. I then added more yellow, graduating to lime and teal on the lower half of the tag. To draw the areas together, I used a baby wipe to pick up excess paint in turn and dabbed this on contrasting areas. This really does help to bring it all together.

Here are a couple of close-ups so that you can hopefully see what I mean:

I then used the distressed harlequin stencil with white gesso to add a pattern in a couple of areas. I next began to add some stamping, using jet black Archival ink and 2 of the silhouette style images. I stamped the blossom image twice, using only part of the image the second time.

I then stamped the blossoms image twice with black ink on a scrap of orange Gelli paper from my bits box and cut the just the floral images out. I glued these over the top of the flowers stamped on the tag and trimmed off any excess.

I added a little more silhouette stamping using cactus flower Archival ink, masking off parts of the image as necessary to bring the elements together. I stamped one of the lovely affirmations from the sets on a further scrap of orange Gelli paper and cut the text into tiles, running black ink around the edges before gluing on.

As a finishing touch, I painted some small greyboard Bits and Pieces butterflies with multi surface paints, adding detail with pencils and scoring them with an embossing ball tool to bend the wings slightly before adding to the tag with 3D glue. A piece of torn, recycled sari ribbon was tied through the top.

Hope you can enter for some great prizes - a voucher for £30 for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils of choice for the Top 3 (see the challenge rules for details).
Have a great day and a lovely rest of the week too.

Fliss xx