Curious Friends for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all OK and have had a good week, definitely better than mine anyway. I've been very busy helping out at the office with mega payroll problems which resulted in complete loss of some data and we've had to rerun a lot of them from the start of the tax year, on a back to back basis so I'm totally payrolled out!

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty Blog and this week I'm sharing the reverse of my jagged edge upright. It also has a nature theme although this time bunnies have crept in. Hope you like it.

You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to see how I created it.

Here's a little reminder of the other side too:

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Summer Meadow Triptych For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone from a rather sweltering South Coast of England, I feel as if I've been melting over the last few days as it's been so hot and I don't cope that well with heat, especially if I have to go to work in it as has happened of course! Hope you're all coping with it if you're affected.

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! today and I'm sharing the first part of my triptych which is double sided with this week's offering being the chilled out side as I've created a meadow scene, imagining it to be a balmy summer evening and I hope it chills you out too.

This is one of the side panels and you'll find the complete triptych over at the blog if you'd like to see it and how it came about.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and hopefully see you soon (very busy couple of weeks!)
Fliss xx

Fun In The Sun At Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm here today with my inspiration for our new challenge at Make My Monday which for the next fortnight has the theme of Fun in the Sun.

I have to admit to a bit of a struggle with this one as I don't really have anything that fits and in the end had to do a bit of recycling which I hope you like. The theme brought holidays to mind which is the reason for this card.

The background was made with Distress inks and then stamped on the weathered wood background by Kaisercraft which I stamped repeatedly.
I stamped the Crafty Individuals collage image on smooth card and coloured with Distress inks and Promarkers.
I tore out a piece of corrugated card and distressed it with Frantage Aged Bronze Embossing Enamel.
I then stamped the tickets from a Crafty Individuals set on card and coloured them with pink Distress ink then cut them out.
I made the bunting by colouring some card with bright shades of Distress inks and cut out triangles. I stamped the text with alphabet stamps and then assembled all the elements on a kraft card blank.

Have a good week and see you soon.
Fliss xx

You're My Number One For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. I started my new job on Tuesday and it's really great to get to work in 15 minutes as my journey before was sometimes 45 minutes or more! I'm also finishing work earlier which is lovely too.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with the card I made for my hubby as we celebrated our wedding anniversary last week and it's clean and simple in style as he's not keen on fussy cards.

Here's a sneak peek and you'll find all of the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to hop over.

I'll be back in a while with the details of the new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog so see you in a bit!

Fliss xx

In The Pink 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 In The Pink so you can probably guess what we would like to see!

Here's my inspiration which I hope you like.

I just adore these cute Alice Palace bunnies from Crafty Individuals!

The background on my ATC was made in layers as I started something which went a bit wrong so I partially covered it up with Paper Artsy Fresco Finiah acrylic paint in Sherbert and then used the hearts Dinky Stencil with Orchid paint to add the pattern.
I stamped the bunny on stamping card and scribbled on colour with a grey and pink pencil, colouring the crown blue for contrast. I cut the image out a stuck this on.
The finishing touch was to use the Enchanted Dinky Stencil with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Medium Grey Value 6 to apply the text at the top.

There's a great prize if you enter of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
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

All At Sea at Make My Monday

Hello everyone and apologies for my absence lately which is because work and life have been very hectic over the last couple of weeks and I've had no time for crafting. On top of that I still have eyesight issues as my Optician recommended changing my gas permeable lenses that I've had for over 20 years to soft lenses. These arrived on Saturday and I can get them in very quickly but taking them out is a nightmare. I couldn't get the right one out last night until gone midnight and ended up with a rather red eye so today I'm having to resort to the glasses that didn't quite work in order to be able to see at all!
As you can imagine, I'm feeling somewhat miserable but I'm just about managing to craft and was able to finish what I started for our challenge this week at Make My Monday which has the theme of

The Sea

 
This is for my father in law's birthday in a couple of weeks but as he doesn't see my blog, he won't know it's here :D

All the men in my hubby's family love the sea and my Stampscapes stamps came out to play. I hope you like my background which is one of a Gelli print session on Sunday when I made a small batch with my new 6x6 plate which, if you like making square cards as I do, is fabulous!

Here's a pic of the print I took showing the 3 left. The darker versions were the originals from applying 2 shades of teal and 2 shades of blue with white Gesso using my figures. I then misted on water to make the paler prints, one of which I used for the card.

As you can see, you can get a good effect of sky, sea and waves if you apply roughly horizontal stripes across and I know I'm going to struggle with adding anything to the darker versions as I can't bear to cover any of them up!

To make the card, I stamped on the sea and wave stamp, followed by rocks and the lighthouse. I then added the ship which is from Crafty Individuals CI-294. I added coloured to the images with a chalk pastel for the grey and Inktense pencils in greens, blues, browns and white to make the images pop. The most useful was actually the white as I found applying it quite strongly covered up any unwanted lines which was the price I had to pay for not stamping first and masking.

I think it worked quite well though and hope you think so too.

I simply added the panel to a kraft card to finish - it's a bit wonky due to my eyesight issues but it will have to do!

Sorry if I haven't been to visit lately but hope to remedy that soon.

Fliss xx

On The Beach or Wish You Were Here!

Hello everyone, I'm a tad late with some inspiration for today's new challenge at Make My Monday after an exceedingly busy weekend and have had to cheat a bit as I haven't got the energy to make anything at the moment so I hope you'll all forgive me if you remember this one!

The main image is Crafty Individuals and the background paper was made by applying ink to an acrylic block, misting with water and then stamping onto a square of white card.
I then over stamped it with a Kaisercraft stamp called vintage fence which repeat stamps really well.
I heat embossed part of a torn piece of corrugated card with Frantage Aged Bronze embossing enamel and knotted some twine round it. I then coloured the seagull panel with Promarkers and ink before trimming down. I attached the panel to the corrugated card.
I stamped the tickets (also Crafty Individuals) with Archival cobalt ink and coloured them with Distress ink before cutting them out. I stamped the words with Hero Arts alphabet stamps and the blue ink and cut these out separately.
I made the bunting by drawing it on card, colouring it with Promarkers and then cut it out and assembled the card as you see.

Sorry it's a repeat and hoping for time to play soon!

We also have a DT call for several new team members as we have plans for the future. Please enter a challenge and let us know if you're interested.

Fliss xx

Spring Picture Inspiration At Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope you've had a lovely Easter and haven't eaten too much chocolate! I've managed to restrain myself so far as we only just finished all the choccies we got at Christmas which I can tell you were rather a lot!
Today we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and the theme this week chosen by Suzi B is a picture to inspire you and you must include a bird or birds in your entry.

A lovely picture I think you'll agree and here's my inspiration:

My background paper was made by applying patches of Distress inks in shades of pink, green and yellow with a Ranger ink applicator tool. I then stamped on the Crafty Individuals flourish with Archival Fern Green ink.
I stamped the Stampendous bird on smooth cartridge paper with brown and green inks and then coloured the image with pencils before trimming to a circle with a Spellbinders die. I added a scalloped, die cut green mat.
The flowers by Crafty Individuals were stamped with brown ink and coloured with pencils and cut out. I stamped the Flonzcraft sentiment with the brown ink and cut it out as the image is a little large as a panel. I inked it pink.

Have a great day and I'll see you next weekend as we're off to Kent for a few days tomorrow so my Friday posts will be scheduled and will hopefully publish when they should!
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

Animals at That's Crafty Challenges

Hello again, I'm back with my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenges and our theme for the next fortnight is Animals (as you probably guessed from the title!).
I've chosen to use my favourite animal stamps which are Crafty Individuals gorgeous Alice Palace quirky bunnies.

I made the background paper first by applying splats of Distress Stains to watercolour paper - I used Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive and Bundled Sage. I spread some of the colour with a finger for a shabby look. I then stamped a flourish design from Crafty Individuals CI-351 all around the edges with Bundled Sage Distress Ink and right on the edge with Pumice Stone. I think it looks a bit like leafy fronds.
I stamped the bunnies with Archival Watering Can ink on a scrap of card I made a while back which was coloured with Spun Sugar Distress Stain and a splash of Pumice Stone. I added colour to the crowns and a little to the bodies with Distress Markers. I then cut them out.
I added the background paper to a kraft card blank and stamped the text from the Stamp-It Australia Time To Dream stamp set with the grey ink  and fixed the bunnies in place with foam tape.

It's good to enter if you can as the prize is a £20 voucher to the online shop where there are oodles of fabulous goodies.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Bright and Cheery

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and managed to stay warm in the rather chilly weather we're having at the moment.
It's my turn to pick the theme at Make My Monday this week and I picked Bright and Cheery Colours because I felt we could all do with a bit of cheering up in the middle of Winter!
My card is rather eye poppingly bright so you might need your sunglasses - you have been warned!

I started off with a piece of paper from my Gelli plate box which being a lovely warm shade of orange was just what I needed. I stamped it with a flourish design from CI-351 and Ripe Persimmon ink as I wanted quite a subtle effect.
I then stamped the main image together with the butterfly and flowers from Innovative Stamp Creations set on smooth watercolour paper with Archival black ink. I painted the butterfly with Peacock Feathers Distress ink and the flowers with Picked Raspberry then cut them out.
I stamped the sentiment (Flonzcraft) directly on the background paper and then added it to a white square card blank together with the remaining elements.

The Design Team have come up with some fabulous inspiration and I hope can join us.
Have a great week.
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

A Little Angel

Hello everyone, I hope you had a better weekend than me as I had to work to finish something off so I'm not a happy bunny at the moment!
I did manage to finish off my card for our new challenge today over at Make My Monday so it wasn't all bad news :)
This week our theme is ANGELS so I decided to ink up for the first time a lovely vintage style stamp by Crafty Individuals. Hope you like my inspiration.

I stamped the angel collage with Memories Creamy Coffee chalk ink and coloured her with pastel shades of Aquamarkers. I then trimmed the image to a panel by hand and added it to a mat I created by swiping silver Encore Metallic ink round the edges and heat embossing with Winter Wonderland embossing powder.
I made the blue background paper by dry embossing paper with a Darice snowflake flourish folder round the corners and then inked it with Tumbled Glass Distress ink. I added this to a mat made in the same way as that for the collage panel.
I assembled the elements onto a card blank and stamped the Christmas greeting directly on the paper with the coffee ink.

Hope you can join us.
See you again soon,
Fliss xx

Peek A Boo!

Hello again, I'm back as promised with the details of the new challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog which has the theme this time of Face which I took to mean that you can make anything you like which has a face on it.
Here's my inspiration and hope you like it:

Ingredients:
Stampendous Cling Stamp - Blossom Beauty
Crafty Individuals Elements Stamp Set - Flower Heads
Kaisercraft Single Clear Stamp - Vintage Fence and Butterflies
Brusho Crystals
Distress Inks
Archival Ink - Watering Can and Fern Green
Stamping Paper
Circle die or cutter
Grey board

I used the vintage fence stamp to make what I think looks very like a shabby brick wall and stamped it with the grey Archival ink. I die cut a circle in the upper half.

I coloured this with a mix of Distress inks and Brusho crystals which I made into paints. I then stamped quite a lot of flowers with the fern green ink and painted them with Brusho crystals. The crystals are fab as you can mix them to make even more colours.
I then cut them out - I recommend doing this whist listening to the radio or TV as it takes a while!
I stamped the face on a scrap of stamping paper and coloured her.
I then checked the placement and glued the face panel to a square of grey board and glued the brick wall panel over the top.
I then arranged the cut out flowers around the face to make her look as if she's peeping through a hole in the wall.
I finished off with the secret garden text and a painted butterfly (my favourite by Kaisercraft).

I hope you can join in as there's a fab prize of a £20 voucher for the online shop for UK residents.
Have a great day and a lovely weekend,

Fliss xx

Vintage Style

Hello again, I'm back as promised with the details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has a theme close to my heart, VINTAGE.
Here's my inspiration which I hope you like.

Ingredients
Carabelle Studio Cling Stamp - Un Ange a Aimer
Crafty Individuals Flourish Stamp - CI-173
Cuttlebug Anna Griffin Embossing Folder -Floribunda
Stampendous Frantage Embossing Enamel - Aged Bronze
Archival Coffee Ink
Distress Inks - Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Fired Brick
Embossing Ink
Aquamarkers
Smooth Stamping Card
Kraft Card
X Cut Nesting Dies - Ovals - Large, Doorplate - Large
Doily

Recipe
1. Make the background paper. Cut a piece of stamping card to fit your card blank - mine is 8x8 because the angel is quite a tall stamp (almost 15cm including the wings). Ink up with Antique Linen and Tattered Rose DIs.
2. Use the flourish stamp and embossing ink to stamp a design in each corner of the inked paper and heat emboss with the Frantage enamel. Add the brown inks around the edges and on the embossed corners.
3. Stamp the flourish design over the paper with Tattered Rose and VIntage Photio without using an acrylic block. Do this repeatedly until you're happy with the effect which will be shabby chic like vintage wallpaper.
4. Stamp the angel and wings on stamping card with the Archival ink and colour with the Distress inks and Aquamarkers as desired. Cut the images out.
5. Dry emboss a panel of stamping card and one of kraft card with the embossing folder. Ink the stamping card panel with the pink and brown DIs. Inks a doily with the Vintage Photo.
6. Stamp the sentiment with the coffee ink and die cut with the smallest oval die. Die cut the second smallest doorplate from a scrap of card and stamp and heat emboss the flourish design with the aged bronze Frantage. Ink with the pink and brown DIs and glue on the sentiment oval.
7. Distress the edges of the background paper before gluing to the card and then glue on the remaining elements as shown.

Don't forget that the prize for entering is a £20 voucher for the online shop though please chack the rules first. Good luck!

Have a great weekend,
Fliss xx

Some Like It Hot!

Hello again, I'm back with details of the new challenge today at That's Crafty which has the theme of Hot and Spicy which I interpreted as colours so I have a rather bright creation to share with you this time.

As you can see, I'm still on a bird theme here too having finally inked up some Carabelle Studio stamps which have been in my craft stash for a good couple of months.
My background paper is the result of quite a lot of layering and started out with the aplication of some Brusho Crystals to a piece of wet watercolour paper. This produced a splattered look but as the paper was very wet the powders disolved and spread about. I helped the process a little with a wide paint brush.
The next layer was some spritzing with some Cosmic Shimmer mica spray which added a little sparkle. I then stamped on a Deep Red background stamp with Barn Door Distress ink to add texture followed by random stamping with the triangular background stamp from the Carabelle set with Fired Brick.
I then stamped on the circular design from the Stampendous NK Studio Wired set with white and yellow acrylic paints. I stamped on the flowers, masking as I went until happy with the effect and then used a Dylusions stencils to add the leaves with Black Soot Distress ink, doodling with a fine black pen to join everything up.
I stamped the bird and sentiment together with some smaller flowers of the same design on some scraps from my gelli plate leftovers as the slightly lighter orange shade made a contrast with the chilli red background. I cut these out and glued them to the background paper after distressing the edges with an emery board. I then glued the paper to a card blank to finish.

I used:
Carabelle Studio Stamp Set - Femme et Oiseau
Stampendous NK Studio Stamp Set - Wired
Crafty Individuals Elements Stamp Set - Flower Heads
Dylusions Stencil - Lucious Leaves -
Brusho Crystals - Brilliant Red and Orange from the Starter Set
Archival Jet Black Ink
Distress Inks - Barn Door, Fired Brick, Black Soot
Cosmic Shimmer Mica Mist - Golden Fish
Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paints - Haystack, Nougat

If you're UK based it's great to enter for a fab prize of a £20 voucher to the online shop. Good luck!

Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Children or Babies At Make My Monday

Hello everyone and many thanks to those who left a comment on my last post about our shock just over a week ago. I much appreciate your kind thoughts which cheered me up a little.
Still not much in the way of good news although the police have linked 5 other cases to ours and have a person of interest as they call it so fingers crossed they manage to get somewhere.
I'm here today slightly late with my creation for today's new challenge at Make My Monday with Jacqueline's theme of Children or Babies. I chose children as I love the image I used by Paperbag Studios which reminds me of my younger daughter who had plaits between the ages of 7 and 10.

I made the background paper with a daisy stamp from Crafty Individuals Elements Flower Heads sstamp set, stamping in Memories Creamy Coffee to mafe a sort of frame round the edges. I then applied Squeezed Lemonade, Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick Distress inks with a sponge applicator. I distressed the edges with an emery board and added the panel to a chocolate brown mat to leave a small contrasting border.
I made a card blank with some dusky pink hammered card and stamped daisies round the edges with the brown ink. I then added the background panel.
I stamped the image (called Little Lu Lu) with the brown ink on smooth cartridge paper and coloured her with Aquamarkers. I trimmed her to a panel and added mats of bright blu, dusky pink and chocolate brown to tone in, leaving a slightly wider border at the bottom to add some pink pearls to.
I stamped a butterly (B Line Designs with blue ink and coloured with Aquamarkers before cutting out. I checked the placement and then stamped the Flonzcraft sentiment directly on the background paper before adding the image panel and butterfly to finish.

Have a great week everyone and stay warm.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Going Steampunk For That's Crafty

Good morning all, hoping you've all had a lovely sunny week which has been so warm here and it's fabulous to be able to walk about in short sleeves at last.
As it's a certain date I'd also like to wish a very Happy Fourth of July to all of you in the United States - have a great day!
It's my That's Crafty day today and this week I'm sharing an altered arch frame by those lovely peops over at Tando Creative who make such wonderful and amazing value items crying out for ink or paint so this time I got very messy indeed and had purple fingers for a while!
I hope you like my tranformation and you'll find all the details of how I created it over at the blog.

If you haven't yet entered our latest challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog, you still have a week to enter your creations with a seaside flavour as the theme is All At Sea - why not give it a try as the winner is randomly chosen to be fair to all entrants.

Have a lovely weekend,
Fliss xx

Some challenges I'd like to enter:
Crafty Creations Challenges - Things With Wings
Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes - mine is an altered chipboard arch frame
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes Altered Art

Moon Gazing

Good morning folks and hope you all has a lovely weekend. It was very sunny here which was great as one of my nieces got married on Saturday and the day was beautiful so a lovely time was had by both families and all the friends.
There's a new challenge today over at Make My Monday which I chose the theme for (it's Anniversaries) as my hubby and I will be celebrating our 32nd Wedding Anniversary this week and I've made a rather different card for him inspired by our 2 little fur babies - Rosie and Dill, the grey Netherland Dwarf bunnies who are really my hubby's babies :)

I stamped the Alice Palace bunnies by Crafty Individuals with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and coloured them with Aquamarkers then cut them out.
I made the background paper by using second generation stamping with VersaFine Spanish Moss and Crafty Individuals CI - 367 across the base. I made a moon stencil with a circle die and sponged Squeezed Lemonade and Faded Jeans Distress inks. I then coloured the remaining areas with Pan Pastel tints in blue, pink and lavender.
I die cut a heart from cream card with an X Cut nesting die anf stamped the meadow silhouette image with the green ink across it.
I stamped the Kaisercraft sentiment in the corner using second generations stamping and VersaFine Deep Lagoon ink for a softer effect then added the heart and bunnies to the card.

I hope my hubby likes it but I think he will!

Have a great day.
Hugs,
Fliss xx