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