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