Autumn Woodland Mixed Media Art Panel for That's Crafty!

Hello again! I'm really delighted to tell you that today I'm sharing my favourite of my Hochanda samples over at That's Crafty! Blog. In fact, the second show is just starting if you read this at 11am but if you aren't, fear not, as there's slways rewind!
Here's a sneak peek and you'll find the whole creation over at the blog. I really hope you'll hop on over as this is the one I didn't want to part with! Think I'm going to have to create it again!

Hope you like my toadstools as much as I liked painting them.

Have a great weekend and see you next week.

I'm off on my holidays for a week tomorrow and we're heading to Scotland and beautiful Loch Lomond - can't wait!

Fliss x

Stencils and Masks at That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog where for the next fortnight we'd like to see your creations featuring Stencils and Masks.
I decided on a journal page for this challenge which I hope you like.

I prepared the background using my Gelli plate which I misted with some Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays, there is some shimmer but you can't really see it in my pic.
When the page was dry, I used the That's Crafty butterfly stencil to add a pattern in opposite corners with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Carbon Black as I wanted a strong contrast.
I then added a circular pattern with the black paint and an old lid. I stamped on some text and butterflies from the Finnabair Don't Forget to Fly stamp set to finish.

I used:
Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays - Autumn Maple Crimson, Tibetan Poppy Teal, Glory of the Seas Gold
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic - Carbon Black
That's Crafty Dinky Stencil - Flight of Butterflies
Prima Finnabair Cling Stamp Set - Don't Forget To Fly

Hope you can enter as that's all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Have a great weekend,
Fliss xx

Circle It! At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again, I'm back with the details of our new challenge at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of Circle It!

I've made a journal style art panel for my inspiration and as you'll see it's got circles everywhere!

Do you think I've gone over the top!

It came about because when I was colouring the background, which I did by applying red, yellow and blue acrylic paints to my Gelli plate, smooshing it over with my fingers and pressing the white/grey board panel on to pick up the colour.

The colour came out a bit muddy so I gave the panel a sort of bokeh look by applying the same paints over the top with a home made circle stencil. I then used a That's Crafty Dinky Stencil to make a random dot pattern with black paint. This actually came out stronger than I wanted so I toned it down with some grey paint.

I dipped some die cut circles into some red, yellow and blue paint on my craft mat and glued some of these on when the paint was dry.

I stamped my new Carabelle butterfly on white card with black ink, cut this out and added it to the panel with foam tape. I finished off with some Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers.

I used:
Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints - Haystack, London Bus
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Carbon Black, Cobalt Blue Hue, Medium Grey Value 6
That's Crafty Surfaces - White/Grey Board Panel
Carabelle Studio Mini Stamp - Butterfly
Archival Jet Black Ink
That's Crafty Dinky Stencil - Punchinella Background
Gelli Plate - 8x10
Circle Dies
Tim Holtz Small Talk Stickers

Hope you can enter - good luck!

Have a great weekend,
Fliss xx 

First Love At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for the new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of First Love.
I have to admit to have been a bit stumped by this theme until I woke up the other morning thinking about the pop posters I had on my bedroom wall when I was a teenager - I bet you all had those too though maybe not of David Cassidy as I did!
This is what inspired my card although it has turned out a bit more pink than I anticipated - can you see her looking at her pop idol?

I made the background paper first using my 6x6 Gelli Plate. I added dots of pink and green acrylic paints (Paper Artsy Fresco Finish) to the plate and spread the colour with a brayer. I then tried my hand at mark making which I did with a wooden skewer which I pressed gently in the paint to make a rough pattern.
I then used the That's Crafty Long Hearts Background Dinky Stencil with the deep pink paint to add a pattern in the bottom right hand corner.

I stamped some tiny flowers from the Tim Holtz Crazy Things stamp set on the top portion with Ranger Wild Orchid Dye Ink.
I stamped my 2 birds, the hearts, flowery hat and bouquet from the Crazy Things set onto stamping card and painted them with Martha Stewart and DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics. I then die cut everything with the matching dies.
I die cut the heart frame from green textured card using the X Cut Nesting Dies Homespun Heart set.

I assembled the card as you see, adding the quirky bird to the frame and trimming off the excess. I finished off with a Small Talk sticker which I cut into pieces.

I hope you can enter for the chance at a fab prize of a voucher for the online shop.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Butterfly, Butterfly Brusho Stackable Storage Box

Hello everyone and welcome to the first of 2 posts today and I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be able to share a project that has been under wraps for a while.
Laura and Graham at That's Crafty have developed a range of stackable storage boxes designed to hold some of your favourite art supplies such as paint, spray inks, glitter glue and so on.
As I'm such a fan of Brusho Crystals, you can probably guess who was given that particular storage box to decorate!
If you hop on over to the blog you'll find all the details of how I made the box with step by step decorating pics.
It's rather eye poppingly bright as I wanted something eye catching.

This one has winged it's way (pun intended!) to Laura as That's Crafty will be doing something special later in the month but I do have another one to decorate for myself and I'll share that as soon as I'm able to find some spare time to get it done - I can't wait!

Do hop on over to the blog where you'll find the details of the other fab storage boxes, all beautifully decorated by my DT mates!

I'll be back in a while as we have a new challenge starting today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and I have some rather quirky inspiration to share.

Fliss xx

Flower Garden For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and welcome to my only post this week which is because due to work I've had virtually no spare time so no blogging was possible. Really sorry about this and things will be back to normality next week!
I have a tutorial over at That's Crafty today which is a nature themed art panel - you know how much I love creating anything involving that!

This was inspired by a photo I found on the internet which featured a large number of gaily coloured Echinacea (cone flowers) so I couldn't resist creating something with one of my favourite Flower Garden stamps.
You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to hop over to see how my panel was made.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you soon.

Fliss xx

Artist Trading Cards At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which has the theme this time of ATCs.
Who doesn't love those little creations which can be created so quickly and I really enjoyed making mine as it gave me the excuse to let my crazy birds out to play again!

Aren't they just adorable!

I've used 2 of the fab That's Crafty Surfaces MDF ATC blanks for my creations. I coloured the background by applying yellow and green fluid acrylic paints to my 3x5 Gelli plate and then pressed the atcs on to pick up the colour. For this technique, I didn't even have to use Gesso!

I then used 3 different That's Crafty Dinky stencils with red, magenta and black fluid acrylics to apply a pattern on the painted backgrounds. I knocked the colour back a little with white Gesso as it was rather bright! I stamped a butterfly pattern on one of the atcs in the spaces remaining.

I stamped my 2 favourite crazy birds on smooth card with black Archival ink and coloured them with watercolour pencils. I then used the matching dies to cut the images out. I glued them onto backgrounds and used a grey pencil to add definition round the outside of the birds.

I added black around the edges of one and finished off with some Chit Chat stickers.

I used:
Deco Art Fluid Acrylics - Carbon Black, Yellow Green Light, Hansa Yellow Medium, Pyrrole Red, Quinacridone Magenta.
Thats's Crafty Dinky Stencils -Circles Background, Chequerboard Background, Diamond Circles Background
Tim Holtz Bird Crazy Stamp Set and matching Sizzix Die Set
Watercolour Pencils

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

Hello Flower For That's Crafty

Happy New Year everyone and wishing you all the very best for 2016.

Today's post is to let you know that I have the honour of starting off a brand new year of tutorials over at That's Crafty blog which is a wooden tag, one of the fab new substrata blanks now available in the online shop.

Here's a sneak peek and you can see the whole thing over at the blog.

As you can see, my favourite crazy bird has come out to play and to find out what he's peeking up at you'll need to hop on over.

Have a great day and I hope you can fit in some crafting as I'm aiming on doing just that - a very good start to the new year I think!

Bye for now,

Fliss x   

Tag - You're It!

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of Tag - You're It!
My tag is mixed media this time as I've finally cracked open my tube of Maimeri Iridescent Paste.

I made the tag by die cutting some flowers from white card with the Creative Expressions Perfect Peony Die Set by Sue Wilson. I glued these on to a Ranger Size 8 manila tag.
I then took some DecoArt Fuid Acrylics in Yellow Green Light, Blue Green Light and Yellow Oxide which I mixed one at a time with the Maimeri Paste and applied to the tag over the top of the glued on flowers.
When the paint paste had dried I rubbed some Carbon Black and and Patina Green DecoArt Antiquing Cream which I rubbed around the flower shapes to make them stand out. I glued some bronze sequins over the top.
I stamped the Carabelle Studio butterfly on a scrap of orange Gelli print paper with black ink, cut this out and glued it to the tag.
I finished it off with some wired ribbon.

There's a fab prize of a £20 voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner so do enter if you can,

Have a great weekend and see you soon.

Fliss xx

Ho Ho Ho Tag For That's Crafty

Hello everyone and sorry yet again for my lack of visiting and blogging as I've been immersed in Auto Enrolment (aka the Workplace Pension) at work, wrestling with all the things that have to be done which seem never ending plus quite a few software problems, technology being wonderful until it doesn't work!!!
I have a post today over at That's Crafty and this week I'm sharing a Christmas tag featuring one of those cute crazy birds. Hope you like it.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and hope you'll pop on over too!

Have a great weekend and see you next week.

Fliss xx

Scribbly Christmas For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a great week and I'm here with a very quick post to let you know that I've got my Friday post over at That's Crafty and this week it's Christmas- eek!
I thought I should make a start or I'll never get them all made so I created a masterboard which is great for making a background for several cards at once.
Pop on over to the blog to see how I made it.

Have a great day and a fab weekend and see you next week!

Fliss xx

Embossing At Make My Monday Plus A DT Call

Hello everyone, hoping you all had a better weekend than me as I've had to wear my glasses all the time and I'm somewhat cross with the optician who didn't tell me that I'd have horrendous problems due to the fact that I wear gas permeable contact lenses. These don't seem to be compatible with glasses which considering I said I wanted to take out the lenses and put glasses on when I get home from work has turned out not to be an as well, but rather an either/or situation. I can't tell you what a miserable time I've had not being able to see properly (I feel sorry for my DH too as he's had to put up with my whingeing)
Anyhow, enough of that and on to the reason for my post which is to let you know that we have a new challenge today over at Make My Monday which has a theme chosen by yours truly:

EMBOSSING - HEAT OR DRY OR BOTH

Here's my inspiration and it's 2 for the price of 1 this week as I got carried away!

These came about because I was messing about with sprays on Saturday and made a few backgrounds in varying shades of blue, pink and purple and as I wanted to use white embossing the stronger colours were ideal.

I used Decoart Media Misters in Primary Magenta and Shimmer Turquoise, some of the backgrounds paler as I misted them with water to use up all the ink spray.

The first card uses a Stampinback Forget Me Not image which I stamped on with Archival Plum and Cobalt before stamping with Versamark ink and heat embossing with white detail powder.I stamped on the Penny Black text with the deep blue ink and attached the panel to a white card blank.

The second card uses a wild flower from the Tim Holtz Nature's Moments stamp set which I stamped with Memento Lilac Posies and Grape Jelly dye inks. I then stamped with Versamark as before and heat embossed with white. I stamped the text from the stamp set with the Archival Plum ink and attached to a white card to finish.

We also want to add some new talent to our Design Team and will have more exciting things coming up in the future so check out the challenge blog if you'd like to join.

Thanks for looking and have a great week.

Fliss xx

In The Tropics ( Otherwise Known as Wishful Thinking!)

Hi there, welcome to my first post of the day which is to let you know that as it's Friday (yippee!) I have a project to share over at That's Crafty blog which is of a tropical nature and quite bright and flowery as it's still very chilly and I needed some warm colour.

You'll find all the details as always over at the blog and I hope you'll come visit for a fabulous array of inspirational projects with full tutorials.

I'll see you a bit later on today as we have a new challenge for you over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

Fliss xx