The Sea At That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.
For the next fortnight our theme is The Sea so you could create something above or under water - the choice is yours!

For my inspiration I've broken out my Artistic Oupost Beyond The Sea stamps to decorate one of That's Crafty! surfaces, a square white/greyboard coaster.
I found a scrap of Gelli print paper which bore a striking resemblance to sea with a Summer sky above. I cut a piece to fit the coaster and glued it on.
I stamped the boating couple with Archival Jet Black ink in the right hand lower corner then masked off everything but the sea and stamped this to continue the water across the base.
I then stamped the text and the birds on at the top. I coloured the main image with pencils - I used a mix of Inktense and Prismacolor as they're highly pigmented which was necessary to cover the painted surface.

There's a fab prize for the randomly drawn winner of a voucher for the online shop so do enter if you can.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Moonlight For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week and better than mine as my contact lens issues have cropped up again due I think to an error by the opticians (who are trying to wriggle out of having given me the wrong prescription!). I have to go and see them yet again so hope you'll wish me luck!
It's my day to post at That's Crafty and this week I've another Christmas card to share to add to my slowly growing heap. Hope you like it.

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

Back in a bit as we have a new challenge for you today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

See you soon,
Fliss x

A Little Happiness

Hello folks, hope you're having a lovely weekend with some sunshine wherever you are. It's lovely and sunny here but rather cold due to very strong winds so at least my washing will dry!
I'm here today to share the first creation in an age which isn't DT stuff as when I saw the current challenge theme at Allsorts, Quick and Easy Does It, I challenged myself to try and do something I find rather difficult so although there was more thinking than the time it took to actually make the card, the stamping from start to finish took only 10 minutes including stamp cleaning - very unusual for me I can tell you!
Here it is and hope you like it:

All of the stamping was done directly on the card blank and I first used the sequin waste stamp (Carabelle Studio Etoiles, Taches et Background) to stamp the dotty design on each side with Mustard Seed Distress ink.
I next stamped on the main image (Artistic Outpost Happiness) with Archival black ink, then followed with the text in the same ink together with the tiny butterfly.
As a finishing touch, I stamped the splats from the Carabelle set with Worn Lipstick Distress ink.

Tada! Done!

Have a lovely Sunday.
Fliss xx

Tick Tock

Hello again! Today's the day for a new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge and for the next fortnight our theme is Tick Tock! 
I have to admit to being a bit challenged myself with this one as I didn't have that much to fit the theme so I decided to think outside the box. Hope you like what i came up with.

Do you see what I mean about thinking outside the box :D

I made the background by first spraying with Sherbert and Bookworm Mister Huey mists. I then ironed on some Bondaweb painted with gold metallic paint and then ironed on some snips of green checked chiffon ribbon.
I stamped the text from the Artistic Outpost Happiness set with Archival Fern Green Ink and stamped on part of the butterfly collage image in the corners. I stamped the butterfly part of the same image on cream card with the green ink and cut it out.
I distressed the edges of the background paper with an emery board and attached it to a card blank then added the butterfly to finish.

The challenge is open for the next 2 weeks and the prize for the randomly drawn winner is a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss x

Parisian Melange For That's Crafty

Hello there everyone and hope you've all had a good week. Mine has been very busy but sadly most of it work so I'm looking forward to the weekend.
I have a project today over at That's Crafty which might need sunglasses as it's rather bright but if it's a dull day where you are it will at least add some warmth to the day.
Here it is and hope you like it.

All the details are over at the blog if you want to take a look to see how it came about.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A big thanks to Alison aka butterfly for heading me in the direction of Our Creative Corner's current challenge which is Flaming June so hope it's OK if I enter ladies!

The Birds

Evening all, guess who was so tired yesterday she totally forgot to schedule her post for the new challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog - oops!
The theme for this fortnight is The Birds so you can make anything you like as long as there's some stamping and a bird somewhere.
Here's my inspiration using a favourite IndigoBlu bird stamp along with the details on how I made the background.

I wanted a fairly vintage style creation so I made a fairly shabby style background using an ink applicator to apply a patchwork effect of subtle shades of Distress inks in a repeating fashion. I used Wild Honey, Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive and Tattered Rose starting with the lightest shade and building up.
I then used second generation stamping with the IndigoBlu Dinkie Vintage Flourish and Forest Moss Distress ink to make a frame around the edge of the inked paper. It's very forgiving as you can just carry on overstamping until you create an effect you like. If you do as I did, you'll end up with 2 decorated papers for the price of one as if you look below you'll see my stamp off paper and I know I'll be using it soon as I think it turned out looking rather good.

I stamped the IndigoBlu bird image on smooth stamping card with Archival Coffee ink and added colour with pencils (Spectrum Noir pencils are rather good). I then stamped around the edges of the panel with the flourish stamp and Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink for a subtle textured effect.
I distressed the edges of the panel with scissors and glued it to a piece of corrugated packaging (liberated from the office recycling) left au naturel as it goes so well with my kraft card blank.
I then distressed the edges of the background paper and added it to the card, gluing the bird panel on the left side.
I stamped the text from the Artistic Outpost Typography set with Archival Olive ink on a scrap of card, stamped on the flourish with the lemon ink, distressed the edges and added to a distressed mat of recycled brown paper before gluing to the card.

I hope you can join in with the challenge if you live in the UK as the prize is a £20 voucher for the online shop which has tons of fabulous crafty goodies to see.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

The Writing's On The Wall

Good morning everyone and welcome to my first post today which is to tell you about the project I have over at That's Crafty which is a rather bold and graphic creation in bright colours.
Here's a sneak peek and you'll find the whole project over at the blog as usual if you'd like to pop over to see it.

Have a great day and see you later on.

Hugs,
Fliss xx

Smarter Than You Think

Hello folks, I hope you've all had a good week and are ready for the weekend as I most definitely am although I have to do some work tomorrow to finish something off - no rest for the wicked you might say!
Today's post is to tell you about the project that I have for you over at That's Crafty which this week is something rather different as I've been experimenting with ways to get the look of parchment work without spending ages on it - I'm too impatient you see!
 Here's a peek and you'll find all the details over at the blog as usual.

A slightly later post than this should be too as try as I might (at least 5 times!) I couldn't get the pic to upload last night!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Harmony

Hello peops, hope you've all had a good week and haven't got too covered in the Sahara dust cloud. In my case, it's mostly my car that suffered and on the way home from work yesterday we had a rather smoggy cloud in the distance.
This is my first post of the two today to let you know that I have a project at That's Crafty today that you might need sunglasses for as as you see, it's quite bright!

All of the details of how I made my little canvas are over at the blog if you would like to pop over for a peek.

I'll be back in a bit with news of our new challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog so in the meantime, be good!

Hugs,
Fliss xx

Inky Antics

Hello again and welcome to my inspirational piece for the new challenge over at That's Crafty which has the theme this time of Inky Antics and boy, did I get inky mitts making it!
I've used ink for absolutely everything on my card including the background and for colouring the flower. Read on to find out how I made it.

I used my Stampendous Creative Palette again to make the background with Distress inks in various shades and misted the plate with water before pressing down the watercolour paper. The piece I used was A5 size and as my intended card blank was 7x5, I had some pieces left over to make other things with.
I stencilled the mono printed paper using a Prima 12x12 stencil and used parts of the stencil with stronger shades of Distress ink to make the pattern. You'll see the the final layer (the green flourishes) is quite transparent so that the background looks layered.
I stamped the flower and leaf stalk with black ink then cut them out and coloured them by sponging with inks. It's easier to do this when they're cut out as you can control where the ink goes a lttle better.
I trimmed the background paper to fit the kraft card blank then inked the edges deep pink. I cut 3 squares from the trimmimgs and inked the edges pink then stamped the text on a further piece with black ink and again inked the edges pink.
I assembled the card as you see, adding pearls between the diamond shapes and to the dot on the text panel.

I used:
Polka Doodles Studio 12 Clear Stamp Set - Shabby Chic Roses
Artistic Outpost Unmounted Stamp Set - Typography
Prima 12x12 Stencil - Tulips
Archival Jet Black Ink
Stampendous Creative Palette
Distress Inks - Squeezed Lemonade, Iced Spruce, Spun Sugar (all on the background), Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Crushed Olive, Wild Honey, Mowed Lawn
Watercolour Paper 
Pearls

Hope you can enter although please do make sure you read the rules first as I'd hate for you to be disappointed.
Good luck!
Fliss xx

Send A Little Happiness For That's Crafty

Hello everyone and many apologies for not visiting at the moment which is because I have very limited computer access after my laptop gave up the ghost last weekend. My new one has arrived but it will take a while to be set up so I'll be round once we've managed to do that.
Today's post is to let you know about the project I have today over at That's Crafty and is a sneak peek to hopefully tempt you to pop over to see the whole creation.

If you haven't yet seen that we have a new challenge blog, the first theme is Anything Goes and you still have a week to enter but please do read the rules before entering to avoid disappointment.

Have a good weekend and see you soon.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

A Cold And Frosty Morning

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine had some great things (seeing Catching Fire at the cinema with totally amazing costumes and talking to my daughter on Skype) and the not so great (8 yes I did say 8 wash loads!).
I did manage a small bit of crafting though which is my DT inspiration for today's new challenge at Make My Monday chosen by Rosie which is FROSTY so you could do anything that brings frosty to mind and in my case this was snow and ice.

I've again used the gorgeous Midwinter plate by Artistic Outpost which I'll be using to make quite a few cards as it's so versatile.

I decided to make a frame for the woodland scene so I picked out a die by Papermania which is slightly frilly so would suit the embossing folder I planned on using. I die cut the shape from a piece of smooth, thick cartridge paper and added colour by applying Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress Stains to a large square acrylic block then sprayed on some Dylusions White Linen and spritzed with a little water.  I pressed the paper into it to pick up the colour and you'll see the result below.

I then dry embossed the frame with the Darice snowflake flourish corner, twisting it around to emboss right around the frame. I then swiped Versamark ink over the raised areas and heat embossed it with my favourite Winter embossing powder which is Wow! Puff White. If you look at the pics below you'll see the fabulous snowy effect it gives.

I stamped the woodland scene on a further panel of cartridge paper with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and added colour with Aquamarkers. I chose colours to make me think of a soft Winter sunset which I always think gives a lovely rosy blush to a snowy landscape. I added touches of Frosted Lace Stickles although you may not be able to see it very well in the pic.
I stamped the cute bunny with the grey ink and coloured him with Aquamarkers and cut him out. I assembled the card as you see adding the bunny and a sentiment from the stamp set stamped with the grey and a little colour added with Aquamarker.

Have a great day and a lovely week.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

I'd like to link this to the Artistic Outpost December Referral Programme which has an open theme though as you can see, I'm still on with the Christmas preparations!

Midwinter For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I hope you're all managing to survive the current rather nasty and cold weather and my sympathies to anyone affected. Just very cold and wet down here although we have flood warnings along my route to work so fingers are crossed it's OK.
I have another Christmas card to share today over at That's Crafty which was made with the lovely Artistic Outpost Midwinter stamp plate and has quite subtle frosty sparkle. All the details are over on the blog so do please hop on over if you're interested.

Hoping to see you there and that you have a great weekend and stay safe.


Hugs, Fliss xx

I'm also linking this one to the Artistic Outpost December Referral Programme which has an Anything Goes with Artistic Outpost theme.

Time To Fly

Hello everyone on a very soggy and windy day. I hope it's better where you are although it is rather good crafting weather!
I'm here today with a little wall hanging I've made for my younger daughter and sent it off to her today along with some fabulous chunky hand carved wooden toggles that her friend's husband made for one of her creations. You may not know that she's currently making her final collection for the end of her fashion degree and only has just over a week to go. She's under the most terrible pressure at the moment and has a bad cold to cope with as well due to working too hard.
It makes us feel very helpless as we can't do much to help her out (apart from sending out now alarming handouts of money!). I made the little piece of artwork to hopefully cheer her up using  one of my favourite dies, the Tim Holtz dress form.
There are several pics so that you can see the detail on my stamped background.

I made the base with a piece of recycled greyboard which I painted with 2 coats of Golden Titan Buff fluid acrylic and I then stamped the floral flourish from the Artistic Outpost Serenity plate with Palette Lavender Sachet permanent ink (necessary to dry on the acrylic paint which has a slight sheen).
I die cut the dress form from kraft card and embossed it with the Cuttlebug textile folder. I made the lace skirt by dyeing some frilled lace trim with Seedless Preserves Distress Stain and added 2 layers to the dress form with tape at the back.
I made the wings with the B Line Designs large butterfly, stamped with Memories Art Print brown and painted with the Seedless Preserves stain. I cut this out, cut it in half and added to the dress form.
I trimmed the base of the wall hanging with pinking sheers and added a couple of layers of lace and ribbon (the pinkish trim is linen ribbon from The Range and is a steal at £1 for a roll - they have lots of styles and colours too!).
I added a die cut lace corners (Anja by Marianne Design) cut from beige parchment card and stamped the text with Hero Arts alphabet stamps and Memento Sweet Plum ink. I cut the words out and inked the edges. I attached the dress form with foam tape and glue.
I added some of the linen trim at the top to create a hanger, taping it to the back and covering it with lilac felt trimmed to size.

Enjoy the rest of your day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my wall hanging:
The Craft Room Challenge - Stamp Your Own Background
Fashionista Challenge - Shabby or Vintage - mine is vintage
Get Inky - Die Cuts
Pretty Little Ribbon - Lace

Paper Piecing At FSC

Hello folks on a very gloomy Tuesday afternoon. I'm back today with my rather late inspirational creations for the current Fashionable Stamping Challenges theme which is Paper Piecing.
I had a bit of a struggle with this one as I found it impossible to combine the paper piecing with one of my usual hand made backgrounds and finally gave up today after trying several things with my second card (yes, 2 for the price of 1 this time!) and being very unhappy with all of them.

I then made the first card using one of the pieces from left over my workshop demo yesterday which was about using patterned paper in various ways to stamp on. This one is vintage style and having finished it, I then found the inspiration to finish the original card I tried to make so here they both are!

This one uses mostly Paper Cellar papers and I made the central panel with a bargello technique, trimming to size then stamping the Artistic Outpost serenity sentiment on with Memories Artprint Brown.
I stamped the butterfly (B Line Designs) with the same ink on to some polka dot paper and cut it out. I then distressed the edges of a piece of contrasting background paper and stuck this to a kraft card blank. I cut the floral border from a piece of patterned paper and trimmed round the floral section before adding to the card over the stamped panel.
I added the paper pieced butterfly to finish.

Now for something completely different!

A rather funky modern design using some Basic Grey papers that have been floating around in my paper box for quite a while!
I stamped the bird (a Papermania Urban stamp) on to white card with black ink then stamped various portions on to contrasting papers (Basic Grey Ambrosia). I cut out the sections and added them to the image on white card then trimmed to a rectangular panel. I added this to a red mat.
I covered a white card blank with one of the papers from the pad and added a sentiment (Inkadinkado) which I die cut with an X Cut label die and added this to the card with 2 tiny red heart shaped buttons.

The Fashionettes have done rather better than me with their backgrounds so do hop on over for a peek. We're also now sponsored by the lovely Leo of Flonzcraft who is offering a $20 voucher to his online shop for the randomly drawn winner. If you haven't yet visited his shop, please do as you're totally spoilt for choice with a huge array of images.

Back soon,
Hugs, Fliss xx

Heat It Up!

Morning folks, we certainly need a bit of heating up this morning as Spring has decided to hide away and I woke up this morning to thick frost, -5 and it's now snowing! Eek! I shall be staying in the warm today I think.
I hope you all had a great weekend. I'm a big fan of Dancing On Ice and was thrilled to bits when Beth won as I've been so fed up with Jason's negative comments about her and I thought her version of Bolero with the lovely Dan so full of emotion (I have to confess it brought tears to my eyes).
Anyway, enough waffle and on to the reason for my post which is to tell you about the new challenge today at Make My Monday which has the theme of Heat Embossing. I have to say I struggled a bit with this one as I couldn't make up my mind what to do and have half done bits all over the place. In the end, I created something quite simple which I hope you like.
We also some some lovely new Design Team members and would like to welcome Jan, Laura and Rosie. You'll need to hop over to the challenge blog to see their gorgeous first creations.

I made the butterfly first by stamping the Hero Arts image on deep red crinkle card with black ink and heat embossing it with clear powder. I then cut it out leaving a narrow border of deep red.
I made the background by stamping the Artistic Outpost text on the top right corner of a square of beige card with VersaFine Crimson Red ink and then stamped the Hero Arts script all around with Brilliance Pearlescent Beige ink. I inked the edges with brown ink.
I die cut a circle and embossed it with a butterfly folder free with Papercraft Essentials magazine and inked this with Antique Linen Distress ink and sand pigment ink. I added this to a scalloped mat of deep red paper and assembled my card as you see.

I hope you have a great day.
Stay warm!
Fliss xx

All Of A Swirl!

Hello folks, sorry about the title but I was a bit stumped for something to call it! I hope you're all having a great weekend and also Happy Mothers Day to everyone in the UK.
Today's post is all about Fashionable Stamping Challenges as we've had a bit of a change around and we have a fab new sponsor, the lovely Leo of Flonzcraft.  He is awarding a $20 voucher to his online shop for the lucky winner and you should take a look as he has a fabulous array of stamps in there, some of which I have and will be showing you very soon once I've had a chance to make something up with them.
The theme for this fortnight is Swirls and I'm continuing with my nature inspiration and have created a canvas.

I painted my canvas with spring green acrylic paint and then applied olive green paint through a stencil to make the swirly pattern.
I stamped the butterflies and daisies (both B Line Designs) with Memories Artprint Brown and coloured then with watercolour pencils. I then added touches of Distress inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade) to make the images pop.
I finished off with a sentiment stamp (Artistic Outpost) stamped with the brown ink, die cut with a Papermania die and inked with the lemon Distress ink.

Hope you have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my canvas:
Hotshot Craft Challenge - Anything But A Card
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything But A Card

Not Just For Christmas!

Good morning everyone, hope you're all having a lovely weekend. If you're wondering about my post title it's because it's time for a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and the theme for the fortnight is a colour one - Red, Black and Brown.
My first thought when I saw this was robins and this is how my card came about as I decided that robins and holly aren't just for Christmas lol. You'll have to let me know what you think!

My card is quite a simple one as my first effort went rather wrong and ended up in the bin so I then decided that a simpler style would suit the image and paper scrap I wanted to use much better.
The stripy paper which came from my bits box was made using Barn Door and Frayed Burlap Distress inks repeatedly for a grungy look.
I stamped the robin (Artistic Outpost - Birds Of A Feather) with Memories Artprint Brown on thick cartridge paper and coloured the image with watercolour pencils. I trimmed it down and added a red and a black mat.
I added the stripy paper to the kraft card blank after matting it on black card. I then embossed kraft card with the Cuttlebug holly spray folder and cut it out. I swiped the raised areas with Vintage Photo Distress ink.
I assembled the card as you see, twisting the holly round the image panel.

The Design Team have made a very inspiring array of creations to show just how many things you can create with the colours.
Have fun!

Hugs, Fliss xx

Thanks to Terry, I'm also linking this up to the Artistic Outpost February Referral Challenge

Joie De Vivre

Hello folks, hoping you all had a good weekend and a reasonable start to the week. I'm a bit late with my post for the new challenge over at Make My Monday today due to a very busy weekend with family stuff and workshop preparations for today as my mojo decided to go walkabout.
This week the challenge continues with the French theme for October with a colour twist this time of Tricoleur, the colours of the flag, otherwise known as blue, white and red so your entry should have these colours with a French flavour.

A fairly simple card from me this time using brayered stripes of Stormy Sky and Barn Door Distress inks as the background for my stamping.
I then stamped on some of the images from the Artistic Outpost Paris Exposition set with black ink and stamped the patriotic looking lady separately on white card. I added some fleur de lis across the base with Fired Brick Distress ink and the All Night Media fleur de lys stamp.
I cut out the lady and added her with double sided tape on the outer edge and foam tape on the other. This trick helps to make the image stand out but hide the tape at the side.

Hopefully we'll get a few more entries this time as the challenge last week seems to have scared most of you off!

Have a good afternoon and evening.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations Paint Challenge - Anything Goes
Stamptacular Sunday -  No Rules!

Autumn Hedgerow

Hello folks, you might have been wondering where I've been the last few days and I've had a very frustrating time as our internet crashed on Friday and my hubby discovered that the router had lost all its' settings. It's played up since he restored them as our provider also had problems - technology is great until it stops working!!!
I'm here rather late with my project of this fortnights challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges with the theme chosen this time by Claire, being Good Things Come In Small Packages which gives lots of scope for interpretation.
I decided to make a small canvas (10cm square) with an Autumn theme as the weather is definitely starting to head that way and I do love that time of year being an Autumn girl by birth.

I painted the canvas with olive green acrylic paint and then stamped on a design from the Artistic Outpost Serenity stamp plate with Archival Coffee ink.
I then stamped the blackberries and leaves from the Joanna Sheen Gordiano Bird and Berries stamp set several times with the coffee ink. I stamped the La Blanche bird with the same ink and coloured everything with Prismacolor pencils and blended the colours. I cut them all out and assembled them on the canvas with double sided tape and foam tape to make a hedgerow scene.

I'd like to say a quick thanks here to everyone who entered the last challenge with my chosen theme of Floral and/or Handmade Flowers which had a staggering amount of gorgeous entries.

Our sponsor as always is Marina of Cottage Crafts and please do remember that it is a stamping challenge so no digital images are allowed. Hope to see you there!

I shall be back tomorrow with my also late DT post for the Make My Monday challenge (on a Tuesday - oops!)
Hugs, Fliss xx

Challenges for my mini canvas:
Anything But A Card Challenge - Anything But A Card
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes
Gingerloft Challenge - Birds of a Feather
Stamptacular Sunday - Anything But A Card
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes