Hello for That's Crafty!

Guess who completely forgot to schedule her post for today's make over at That's Crafty! Blog! Oops!
I have a very simple CAS make this week as I was very short on time so hope you like what I made with a beautiful stamp that has been sitting in my stash uninked until now.

Here's just a little peek and you'll need to hop over to the blog to see the whole thing.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and will be round to visit soon.

Fliss xx

Some Bunny Love for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK. I'm rather tired after a difficult week at work wrestling with foreign currencies and bad bookkeeping by a client so I have to admit my brain hurts!

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with the card I made for my dear hubby Andrew as this week we're celebrating 35 years of marriage - it's a bit yikes as it doesn't seem that long!

As he doesn't like fussy cards, I've made quite a simple one with my dear friend Donna's gorgeous bunny for Rubber Dance who's just like our Dill (a Netherland Dwarf). She very kindly sent me the set a little while back when I was struggling with my eyesight issues.

There's only a sneak peek of the card here and you'll find the whole thing over at the blog as always. There is a pic of the lovely Dill below though so do scroll down for that as he's soooo cute!

And here's our cute little man:

Isn't he just adorable?

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss x

Foliage & Flowers at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for the new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of Foliage & Flowers so trees, leaves and flowers are the order of the day.
I've made a simple card with a stencil and some stamps on a kraft card blank.

I really love this pretty snowdrop stencil and used a layering technique in order to make it really pop on the kraft card. I first used DecoArt Americana Lush Foliage paint and white Gesso but as this wasn't quite a strong enough contrast, I layered Distress marker and pencil crayon over the top. I then drew round the outside of the sections with a Crushed Olive Distress marker.
I stamped the butterfly wings from That's Crafty! Lynne's Affirmations stamp set 1 on a scrap of yellow and orange Gelli print paper using Fern Green Archival ink and cut the image out, trimmimg to give the impression of a body in between the wings.
I stamped the text from Lynne's Affirmations stamp set 2 on the card with Archival Potting Soil ink and then added the butterfly to finish off.

There's a great prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner so all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Clean and Simple at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of Clean and Simple and as I said earlier, with my lack of time this week, that was a very good theme!

Having said that, I actually had 2 non starters before I came up with this card which I hope you like.

My new Tim Holtz Leaf Prints stamp set came out to play here and is perfect for a card in my favourite Autumn colours.

I used a brayer to apply Mustard Seed and Rusty Hinge Distress inks lightly across the card front. I then stamped on one of the leaf prints with Rusty Hinge and Fired Brick DIs. I finished off with a sentiment from Tim's Crazy Talk stamp set. So that's it - done!

If you enter there's a fab prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and there's a huge array of fabulous goodies to choose from at the moment.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Christmas in September at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog for the next fortnight even though it's chucking down the rain at the moment!
Here's my inspiration which I hope you like as it's a 2 for the price of one type creation. My hubby liked them and asked how easy they were to make and could he order 50 for the office!

They weren't that difficult to make, the only tricky bit being sticking on the die cut trees.

I made a sheet of decorated paper with an A4 piece of white card. I added dots of DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Green Gold, Yellow Green Light, Titan Buff, Metallic Gold - to my 8x10 Gelli Plate, spread the colour with a brayer and misted with water, pressing on the card to pick up the paint and smooshing on the white bits left with the brayer to cover the card roughly. I then misted on more water and picked up a second print which meant enough paper for quite a few cards - yippee!

I then stamped on the dry papers with text from the Tim Holtz Scribbly Christmas stamp set using Fern Green Archival ink and Galaxy Gold Brilliance ink. I was hoping to cut each A4 sheet in 4 but the dies are a bit big for that so I cut squares instead which left me with 4 narrow bits to use on more cards.

I die cut 2 trees from the square which left me with a negative to use on a second card - good huh!I dry embossed the centre of a white card blank front with a snowflake folder and then glued the negative panel on top.

For the second card, I dry embossed the card front with a snowflake border folder then glued on the 2 die cut trees. I stamped on the winter wonderland text with the gold Brilliance ink to finish.

It's great to have finally made a start on my Christmas cards and if you do the same you could win a fab prize of a voucher for the online shop.

That's Crafty! are also at Ally Pally at the weekend so do visit the stand if you're lucky enough to attend as there will be lots of demos and make and takes with Lauren Hatwell, Alison Hall, Helen Chilton, Carol Fox and Kerry Roberts - not to be missed! Have a great time if you do go!

Fliss xx

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. It's gone very cold down here in the South with a rather strong northerly breeze so I'm wondering where the Spring has gone!
Today's post is to let you know that we have a new challenge over at Make My Monday and this week I chose the theme which is April Showers Bring May Flowers and in the case of my garden that's actually tulips which are really late flowering this year!
My inspiration, however, has a hydrangea which I suspect will be a long time coming!

I stamped the gorgeous hydrangea, leaves and butterfly from the Stampendous Hydrangea Garden stamp set on some Gelli printed paper from my stash and added some detail with Prisma pencils. I then cut them out with the matching die set.
I assembled the elements on a white card blank, using foam tape for added dimension.

Very quick and easy, huh!

Have a great day and a good week.
Fliss xx

The Love Word at Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was somewhat busy yet again so apologies for the lack of visiting which is all I seem to be doing lately!
We have a new challenge for you today at Make My Monday and we'd like to see your creations with the word Love on. Easy, huh!
My inspiration is the Valentine card I gave to my hubby which is very simple as he doesn't like fussy and unusually for me took only 10 minutes to make! Hope you like it.

As you can see there's only one layer. I started by stamping the 2 bunnies (Crafty Individuals) on my card blank with Archival Watering Can ink and coloured them with pencils. As the bunnies are a bit scribbly I scribbled the colour on and I think I quite like the effect!
I then stamped the love and heart text above with VersaFine Satin Red ink, the stamp being the lovely free cover stamp from Jennie of The Artist Stamper given by Craft Stamper magazine. I added a little colour with pencils to finish.
Ta da! Done!

Some challenges I'd like to enter:

CAS on Sunday - Valentine
Come and Get It Challenges - Love Is In The Air
A Gem of a Challenge - Love Is In The Air

White Christmas At Make My Monday

Hello everyone and hope those of you in the UK are surviving the current nasty weather. Hoping too that none of you are flooded out as the pics on the news last night made me feel so sad for all those poor people affected especially at this time of year too.
I'm here today with my post for our new challenge this week at Make My Monday which has the theme of White Christmas. I have to admit to having stretched the theme a little but snowflakes are white - right!
I have to say this is also the quickest card I ever made in my life involving stamping which took less than 10 minutes from start to finish so hope you like it!

Here's how to make it:

• Take one square kraft card blank.
• Using Versamark ink, stamp on snowflakes in the top half, varying as shown.
• Heat emboss the snowflakes with white detail powder.
• Stamp the Tim Holtz text (Scribbly Christmas) with Versamark and heat emboss as before.
• Use a Sharpie fine white paint pen to add dots as shown.

How easy is that! I used some snowflake stamps I've had for many years too by Denami and Art Impressions - I still think they're the best!

The Design Team have made some fabulous inspiration for you if you'd like to see. Hope you can join us too.

Have a great week.
Fliss x

Some challenges I'd like to enter:
Inkspirational Word Prompt - Flake
Crafty Calendar - Let It Snow
Crafty Catz - Let It Snow

Lovely Bubbly For That's Crafty

Hello everyone and apologies in advance for my project title but I couldn't resist a bit of a pun because of the effect achieved on my clean and simple card which is today's tutorial over at That's Crafty.
Hope you like it and you'll find all the details over at the blog. Here's a sneak peek.

I'll be back in a while with news of the new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which goes live at 8am today.

See you later!

Fliss xx

Black And White With A Hint Of One Colour And An Oops!

Hello everyone from a rather tired Fliss. I've had a very busy weekend with family stuff and very little time for crafting which is part of the reason for my oops! I managed to miss the fact that the theme of this week's challenge at Make My Monday is actually Black and White With A Hint Of One Colour and a teeny teeny bit of yellow has crept into my inspiration - oops!
Here's what I made and I hope you like it.

I decided to ink up one of my new Santoro stamps which I couldn't resist when I saw them as they're so different to the last release and much more my style.
I stamped the main image and some of the flowers directly on my card blank together with the little bird from the set. I added colour to the flowers with a red pencil and then noticed a tiny black smudge above the flowers on the right side. This was when my oops happened as I drew a butterfly over the smudge and coloured it wtth a yellow pencil for contrast. It wasn't until I went to add it to the challenge post that I saw the one colour bit so you'll have to forgive my mistake.
I finished off with a Tim Holtz small talk sticker.

Have a great week.
Fliss xx

Something Beginning With An F

Hello everyone, I'm back from my holiday to Lake Garda with a slightly late post for our new challenge today over at Make My Monday mostly due to a dodgy internet connection over the last day or so.
I'd like to say welcome here to our new DT members Amy, Martina and Shawna and a big welcome back to Caz who has returned after a long break. Lovely to have you with us ladies and you certainly rocked Marina's chosen theme of Something With An F which if you hop on over to the blog will show you there are loads of options for this one.
My inspiration is the card for my mother in law's birthday tomorrow and is floral in her favourite shades of pink and green.

As you can see, a fairly simple creation for me as I wanted to showcase the gorgeous gerbera daisy flower die by Susan Tierney Cockburn for Sissix. I die cut the flower section from 2 shades of pink card and sponged and stippled the petals with Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry Distress inks. I then used several embossing ball tools to score, bend and shape the inked petals.
I die cut the stamens and flower centres from deep red and grey card and shaped these with the embossing tools before gluing all the flower sections together. I then used Cosmic Shimmer Twinkles by Phill Oliver in Decadent Oak to add dots to the flower centre.
I die cut 2 large and 2 small leaves fron 2 shades of green card, stippling these with Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn Distress inks, scoring and shaping as before with the embossing tools.
I added a strip of pink and green K and Co paper to my white card blank then glued on the flower and leaves.
I finished off with a Flonzcraft sentiment stamped on pale pink card with Archival Olive ink, matted on deep red paper, corner trimmed and added to the patterned paper panel.

Ciao for now and will be round to visit as soon as I can.
Fliss xx

The Only Way Is Up!

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. It's been freezing down here in the South and I can't believe today is June! Hope Summer makes an appearance very soon!
Today we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and this week Marina has given us a picture as inspiration and you can make whatever it inspires such as the colours, the sea, the balloons etc etc.

 

As you see I've made a very simple card for my inspiration using a very sweet image from Mo's Digital Pencil which I printed out on to smooth cartridge paper which has to be my go to paper for most things. I coloured the image with my few Copic pens and confess I managed to mess up the colouring of the balloon as I really struggle with larger areas. This is why the balloon is now paper pieced! I printed it on to a piece of Polka Doodles dotty paper from the Sugarplum Daisy CD.
I then simply added mats of purple and lilac before attaching to the card blank and finished off with a text sticker from the Tim Holtz Small Talk book.

Thanks for looking and see you later on this week.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Kraft Card At Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely long weekend, at least those of you here in the UK that it!
My post today is to share my inspiration for our new challenge over at Make My Monday and this week the lovely Suzi B would like to see us using KRAFT CARD on our creation.
I really enjoyed this challenge as I love kraft card and my creation is a very simple card as you'll see as I didn't want to cover up the kraft card blank I used.

I began by stamping the Carabelle Studio Texture Chevrons image directly on the card blank with white Gesso. I did this by spreading some Gesso on my craft mat and pressing in the stamp, repeating this 3 times. I then immediately washed the stamp to remove any leftover paint.
When the paint was dry, I stamped on the butterfly image (Carabelle Studio Papillon Grunge) over the painted area with Archival Jet Black ink. Some of the image didn't stamp as well as I wanted so I stamped it again on smooth cartridge paper and coloured it with Inktense pencils and cut it out.
I glued the butterfly over the top of the image on the card and added the number text from the butterfly stamp set and some stickers from the Tim Holtz Big Chat sticker book.

Have a great day and see you again soon.
Fliss xx

Flowers at Make My Monday

Hello there, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ours was a bit noisy as my hubby has now fitted a house alarm so there was a lot of beeping involved in setting it up! The test run was deafening so I think any burglar would run a mile if he set it off!!!
We have a great new challenge for you today over at Make My Monday with the theme of Flowers in celebration of Spring and all the lovely trees in blossom at the moment.
My inspiration is a clean and simple card as I wanted to show off the beautiful image I used for my creation.

I've used a gorgeous pansy corner image which is part of a set of 3 by Aurora Wings. I always think of pansies in the Spring and in fact saw rather a lot on Friday as I visited a client who owns a garden centre and there were tons in one of the greenhouses. They have the most amazing farm shop I've ever seen too!
I printed the image on to smooth cartridge paper and painted it with Aquamarkers before trimmimg it to a square. I stamped the birthday sentiment (Flonzcraft) on with Archival Jet Black ink directly on the paper and then added the panel to a blue mat before sticking it to a cream card blank.

Have a great day and a lovely week.
Fliss xx

Going To Town At Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely weekend and certainly better than mine as I've come down with a sinus infection which I think I must have picked up at a seminar I went to last week where it was very hot and stuffy - sigh!
We have a new challenge for you today over at Make My Monday and the theme chosen by Marina is Building, Town or City which gives a lot of scope for interpretation.
Here's my inspiration which I hope you like.

As you can see, a very simple card as I decided to showcase the lovely row of buildings by Crafty Individuals. I stamped the image with Archival Watering Can ink on smooth card and cut it into a panel.
I then coloured the buildings with various pencils and then inked the sky area with Tumbled Glass and Spun Sugar Distress inks. I added it to a kraft card blank and stamped the Dovecraft sentiment with the Archival ink.
As I said, simples!

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

New Beginnings At Make My Monday

Hello there, I hope you all had a good weekend and managed to be a bit creative as I did. By the time this pops up I shall be back at work, not something I'm looking forward to having being off since Christmas Eve - groan!
Today sees the first challenge of 2015 over at Make My Monday and Jacqueline has chosen New Beginnings as the theme. I've gone a bit outside the box here inspired by some quotes I saw on Pinterest and I hope you like what I came up with.

I've done a little trick you might find useful here as I didn't have a stamp with the text I wanted to use so I had to get a bit creative.
What I did was to ink up part of an A4 sheet of card using Distress inks applied to a 15cm square acrylic block. I used Crushed Olive, Squeezed Lemonade, Spun Sugar and Stormy Sky with a tiny swipe on the pink area with Picked Raspberry. I was thinking of the soft glow you sometimes get at the sun starts to rise. I dried it well with a heat gun and then ironed it flat with a dry iron.
I then typed the text in a Word document, checking the placement by first printing out on to plain paper. When I was happy with the positioning, I put my inked card in the manual feeder and printed the text onto it.
I trimmed the card to a panel to fit my square card blank and then stamped the meadow silhouette from a free Indigo Blu set which came with a magazine using Archival Jet Black ink. I stamped a tiny butterfly from the Crafty Individuals Elements Butterflies set with the same ink and coloured it with A Tombow marker.
I added the panel to a cream card blank and there it was - a clean and simple card! I didn't feel it needed anything else and hope you agree.

Have a great day and a good week.
Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Quirky Crafts Challenge - Clean and Simple (hope it's CAS enough ladies)
Natalie and Amy  All Things New
Crafter's Cafe  New
Pink Gem  Something New
Crafty Calendar  What's New

Scribbly Red Robin For That's Crafty

Hi all, just a quick post today to let you know that it's my day for a project at That's Crafty and this week I have a clean and simple Christmas card to share that could easily be made in bulk, something essential for the festive season.
Here it is and hope you like it:

He's a really cute fellow don't you think?

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Hugs,

Fliss xx

Simply Bright For That's Crafty

Hello there, sorry for my lack of visits lately everyone which is because I still haven't got very much in the way of computer time at the moment and am really missing my laptop.
A very quick post to let you know I have a project today over at That's Crafty which is a rather bright and simply designed card made with my trusty Inkadinkado stamping gear which is fabulous when you need something in a hurry.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and thanks if you decide to go and visit.

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

All You Need Is Love

Hello, I'm back again, this time with details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which this time has the theme of All You Need Is Love.
I decided on a fairly clean and simple look for my card which I felt would suit my planned sentiment better as it's quite bold and graphic in style. So here it is and hope you like it.

I created the heart shape by die cutting the shape in a piece of thin card with the X Cut Homespun Heart nesting die and using the aperture to make a stencil. I then sponged Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold and Worn Lipstick into the heart shape.

 

I then stamped Kaisercraft's Flutter image with Archival Watering Can ink diagonally across the inked heart and added portions of the image only at the top and bottom to extend it across the paper. 

I stamped the butterfly portion of the image again along with the largest butterfly from the Kaisercraft Butterflies set.

I then painted the images with Distress inks - I used Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers.

I assembled the card as you see to finish, stamping the sentiment from the Kaisercraft You! set with the same grey ink.

Hope you can enter (although you need to be a UK resident to be eligible for the prize) and it's a fab prize too as it's a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Simply Pretty

Hello there, I hope you've all had a good week and I'm here with my first post of the day which is to tell you about my project for this week over at That's Crafty which this time is a really simple creation as I needed a card in a big hurry!

As you can see, unusually for me, it really is clean and simple and probably the most uncluttered card you'll ever see here! All the details are over at the blog as usual.

I'll be back later with my second post as we have a new challenge starting today over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

See you in a bit!
Fliss xx