Country Style Christmas Wreath for That's Crafty!

Hello again, just realised I forgot to say that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with another Christmas creation, this week one of my Hochanda wreaths made from the set of 3 amazing MDF wreaths which will take any media you care to throw at them - in my case rather a lot of texture paste!

Just a sneaky peek here and you'll need to hop over to the blog to see the full effect. Really loved making this I have to say as it's so enjoyable making the plain greyboard elements come to life. Hope you'd like to see how I did that too.

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

Motivational Art Journal Page for That's Crafty!

Hello again and welcome to a very quick post to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with what was actually a very quick to make art journal page though happily I don't think it looks as if it was quick!
Here's a sneak peek and all details can be found at the blog as usual along with lots of amazing posts from my very talented DT sisters so do hop over for a look if you can as you won't be disappointed.

Have a great weekend and hopefully will see you soon.

Fliss xx

Anything But Cards at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, I've been a bit of a bad visitor again I'm afraid as I'm working on something behind the scenes which I can't reveal just yet and it's eating up my spare time so apologies for that and normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!
We have a new challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog today and for the next fortnight our theme is Anything But Cards and that suited me down to the ground as I haven't made many cards lately.
My inspiration is a mixed media tag made with one of That's Crafty! white/greyboard tags which can stand up to all sorts of media.

My tag was decorated by scraping yellow, orange and pink acrylic paints on to the surface using an old store card. I worked in several directions, adding thin swiped lines as a top coat.
When the paint was dry, I used the floral background and hearts Dinky Stencils to add a pattern in places with DecoArt Media Carbon Black fluid acrylic paint.
I stamped the lovely Serena (Donna's gorgeous clear stamp by That's Crafty!) on mixed media paper and coloured her with paints, adding a coat of DecoArt Glamour Dust pink paint over the top on her hair and the heart.
I stamped her again directly on the tag, off-setting her slightly over the side for interest. I then cut out the painted image and the heart shape and glued these on top of the image stamped on the tag.
I stencilled on the enchanted text from the Dinky Stencil of the same name with black paint and added gingham ribbon at the top to finish.

Have a great day and see you later.
Fliss xx

Meadow Bright at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello again, a slightly late post to let you know I have a new creation today over at That's Crafty! Blog and late as I've been to the optometrist to collect my long awaited glasses which I hope will sort out the closer vision issues that I've had since my second cataract op in May.
Vision is currently a little weird as they said it will take a little while to get used to them but I can read very tiny fonts so hopefully all will be well.

Here's a sneak peek of my mixed media project and hope you like it as in contrast to my last one, it's very bright!

Hope you have a lovely rest of the day and a great weekend.

Fliss xx

Nature Tiles for That's Crafty!

Hello again, a slightly late post to let you know it's my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week it's the art panel I created with the gorgeous sell out wildflower greyboard embellishments that debuted on Hochanda last week.
Here's a sneak peek and just click on the link HERE to be transported over to see the whole art panel. Hope to see you there.

Have a great weekend everyone.
Fliss xx

Catch a Dream for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I'm so excited to be able to finally share one of my samples for today's Hochanda shows and if you didn't see the first one at 8am, never fear as there's another at 2pm so you can watch our lovely Neil then. I've had to tape them as I had to work today due to having last weekend away in Devon which is why it's hot and sunny now when it wasn't when I would have liked it to be!

I can't tell you how much fun I had making this but you'll have to hop over to That's Crafty! Blog to see the whole thing which is one of the amazing new GiganTAGS which are a huge 19x38 cm!

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

Fliss xx

A Fishy Tale at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello again, a quick post to let you know that I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a bright mixed media tag inspired by a photo I saw of a shoal of fish. Hope you like it!

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

Back to Black at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, thanks so much to everyone who took the time to leave me comments. I really appreciate your kindness. I'm pleased to say that I can see better than before the op although not quite as well as I hoped because I still seem to need glasses for some things and more than I really wanted as I didn't have to wear them until all the cataract stuff kicked off. I won't know what the prescription is until my check up in 2 weeks.
Anyhow, enough of my troubles and on to the actual reason for this post which is to let you know there's a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Back to Black like the Amy Winehouse song. We want to see lots of black on your creation and my inspiration is a tag with more black than I've ever used I think! Hope you like it.

I used the largest size white/greyboard tag by That's Crafty! and painted it with DecoArt Fluid Acrylic in Carbon Black. I then added circles on top for a pop of colour using a homemade circle stencil and DecoArt Americana Acrylics in Daffodil Yellow, Wild Violet and Lush Foliage.
I next stamped on the circles with Archival Jet Black ink using images from That's Crafty! Textures Collection Sets 1 and 2 clear stamp sets. I found that by layering up some of the images you get a rather interesting effect - see the yellow circles.

I then splattered on some very pale pink paint (Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylic in Vintage Lace) to add more interest.
I stamped the cute crazy bird on mixed media paper with the black ink and die cut him with the matching die set (handy if you're struggling to cut things out!).
I assembled the tag with some rather nifty black and white spotty feathers from my stash - do you like the bird's cute fan tail? and finished off with text from my bits box which is a Visible Image stamp on black card embossed with white and I thought this fit rather well. A bit of stripey ribbon at the top and I was done!

There's a prize of a voucher for the online shop for the winner so do enter if you can - there are tons of fab new goodies in the shop now!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Discovering Wonder at That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, still suffering somewhat from the nasty thingy I managed to catch that turned into Pharyngitis which makes me cough a lot when I first get up and stops me sleeping sometimes - sigh! I'm somewhat fed up as this is the third time in less than 3 months I've had something when before now I haven't been ill for years!
Anyhow, enough whingeing and on to the reason for this post which is to let you know I have a very bright tag to share over at That's Crafty! Blog today which is a little extra inspiration for our Bright Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.

Lots of stencilling and stamping and all details over at the blog as usual.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

That's Crafty! and Sandra Everton Relics & Artifacts - My Day!

Hello everyone, I'm so excited to tell you that it's my day over at That's Crafty! Blog to show you my project for our collaboration with Sandra Evertson's Relics and Artifacts Ambassadors with the aim of showing you how well That's Crafty! substrates work with the beautiful line of Relics and Artifacts.

Hopefully you've been following our journey throughout the week and don't forget to look if you haven't because as well as some stunning artwork starting off on Monday, there are prizes on offer if you leave comments, one on That's Crafty! Blog and one on Sandra Evertson's Muse Blog.

Here's a sneak peek of mine and you'll have to pop over to the blog to see the whole project and don't forget to leave a comment to be in with the chance to win a great prize.

Whilst you're over there don't forget to hop over to the Muse Blog where R&A Ambassador Sherry Westfall Matthews has a stunning project to share.

Hope you enjoy hopping!

Have a great weekend too.

Fliss xx

Sunshiny Day for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week and like me, are looking forward to the weekend which will hopefully have some good weather.
Which brings me to my post over at That's Crafty! Blog today where I'm sharing a card that was inspired by a certain song which popped into my head the other day. Can you guess which one?

You'll find all the details of how I made my card over at the blog if you'd like to hop over and see.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you next week which is an exciting one for us at That's Crafty! and I'll be sharing the news on Monday.

Fliss xx

Outnumbered 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 our theme is Outnumbered so numbers are the order of the day.
I've made another tag although this one is very different to the one on my last post as it's more vintage in style and came about from my experiments with the fab new 8x8 clock stencil.

When I saw the challenge theme, time jumped into my head from the point of view of the numbers on a clock so I decided to try something completely different with the clock stencil.
I taped the stencil to a piece of mixed media paper, positioning it so that just under half was over the paper. I then used DecoArt Media white modelling paste to make a raised pattern on the paper. When the paste was dry, I painted the clock segment with a mix of Paper Arsty Fresco Finish Chocolate Pudding acrylic paint and DecoArt Media Burnt Sienna Fluid acrylic paint.
I used a mix of DecoArt Media Metallic Gold and Quinacridone Gold over the raised areas and when it was dry, trimmed around the rounded edge leaving a tiny dark brown border.
I painted the tag with a mix of DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Cobalt Teal Hue, Green Gold, Ultramarine, Raw Sienna and Transparent Yellow Oxide. I then stamped on the script image from That's Crafty! Texture Stamp Set 1 with Archival Potting Soil ink and stencilled on the Dinky Stencil numbers with Cobalt Teal Hue DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic paint.
I glued the clock face on to the tag and finished off with some Chit Chat stickers which I edged with the Archival ink.

There's a fab prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter!
Good luck!
Have a great long weekend.
Fliss xx

Dream Time for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week despite the rather unsettled weather we've been having lately. I'm looking forward to the weekend as my girls are coming home for a day or so as it's Mothers' Day here in the UK on Sunday.
It's my day over at That's Crafty! Blog and I'm sharing another journal page also in rather a bold style which I hope you like. You'll find all the details on how I made it over there too.

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

Fliss xx

Psychedelic Journal Page

Hello everyone, I'm back sooner than expected as I managed to find a little spare time to rustle up a new journal page which you might need sunglasses for as it's very bright.
It was inspired by the current colour challenge over at Rubber Dance Challenge Blog and I decided to ink up my Rubber Dance Round in Circles stamp set for this as I'm sure those of you that regularly follow my artwork will know how much I love circles.
This rather psychedelic page was the result and I hope you like it.

I used my trusty Paper Artsy splodger to apply the paint (all DecoArt) to the page having happily just acquired almost the exact turquoise shade shown on the colour inspiration (see below) and just scraped the colours on to cover my page.
I then stamped on various circle images from the set using Ranger dye ink in Caribbean Coast and Wild Orchid plus a little stamping with Archival Watering Can.
I finished off with the the text from the Rubber Dance Something Wonderful stamp set using Archival Jet Black ink.

Hope you have a good week and see you again soon.
Fliss xx

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

Design Your Life Art Journal Page

Hello again and welcome to my third post for today which I think is a first for me as I've never done that many in one day before!
This is because I am able to share the first creation I've made since my first cataract op on Tuesday having finally felt like doing some crafting as you can only watch so much TV!!!
It was very therapeutic getting all painty and my Seth Apter stamps for Paper Artsy have come out for their first inking too.

It's actually been very strange in some ways as I didn't realise how much the cataracts had affected my vision. Having just the one done has made things a lot brighter and if I cover up that eye and look through the one yet to be done, the difference in colour is staggering! The cataract seems to have caused me to see everything in what I can only describe as vintage colour as it has a sort of sepia to olive tone which I really like. Looking through the corrected eye, everything is bright but has more of a bluish tone to it which is going to take some getting used to. It makes me wonder what my artwork is going to look like when both eyes are done as I suspect I've been subconsciously going for bright colours as I couldn't see properly - eek!

Anyhow, enough of my rambling and on to my art journal page. I coloured the page with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic Paints, adding dots of colour to a plate and scraping them on to the page with an old credit card. I used Hansa Yellow Light, Titan Buff, Transparent White, Yellow Green Light and Primary Cyan. I carried on until the page was roughly covered.

I next stamped on the diamond design from Seth Apter's Paper Artsy ESA02 with Archival Cactus Flower ink. I followed this with the dots image from the same set with Ranger Carribean Coast Dye ink. I added a bit more stamping to layer it up a little, using the same stamps but reversing the colours.

I coloured a scrap of mixed media paper with more DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Primary Cyan, Cobalt Teal Hue, Ultramarine Blue, Primary Magenta - and then used Seth's Robo Rings for Spellbinders to cut out some shapes from the painted paper. Imagine my delight when I found there was a negative space left which I could also use. I cut this out with one of my trusty Spellbinders circle nesting dies, leaving the left hand edge straight.

I glued the negative shape and the largest ring to the page across the centre. I then stamped the star design from the ESA03 set together with the text from That's Crafty! Motivational Words Set 2 clear stamp set on leftover painted paper, using Versamark ink and heat embossed both images with white detail powder. I cut these out and added them to the page.

To pull my page together, I stamped the star design from ESA02 on the page 3 times with Versamark ink and again heat embossed with white detail powder.

I hope you like this as much as I enjoyed creating it and will be round soon.

I'm also sneakily linking this up to the current Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge as the February theme is an Anything Goes Stamping Challenge and I have quite a lot of stamping on here, all layered up. Hope you like it everyone.

Have a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

The Impasto Effect for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK. I've now had my first cataract op and all seems to have gone alright, the only fly in the ointment being that the consultant now wants to wait and check the prescription for my left eye before ordering the lens which means I have to wait until April so I'm currently feeling very frustrated.
It's going to be rather difficult at work with all this going on and at the moment I'm not sure how well I'll be able to see my computer screens when I go back to the office next week.

I have my Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week I'm sharing  very textured mixed media panel which I hope you like. It's actually the top panel of the rectangles hanger kit which has 3 small panels included - I used these for my MixedUp magazine project which features in Issue 5 (you can subscribe to this via Pocket Mags and it's digital so it doesn't matter where in the world you are)

Does this make you long for Summer - it does me!

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

Fliss xx

Remembering Moments Journal Page for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, sorry to be around so little at the moment, This is partly because of my eyesight issues and also because my job has taken a dramatic change as the practice I work for has merged with another larger firm of Accountants and we now work in their office which is in Littlehampton and further away although not too bad from the travelling side. It's quite different on the actual work side though and will take a while to get used to.

On top of this, I have my first eye op next week so my stress levels are currently rather high!

I have my usual friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog which is another of my Hochanda samples which are good to have as my eyesight is not great at the moment. Hope you like this one.

Can you tell I'm longing for Spring!

Have a great weekend and will be back when the first op is done and I should be able to see properly from one eye at least!

Fliss xx

Stay Curious for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I'm happily back in my contact lenses for a bit until my cataracts get sorted out having survived laser surgery on a tear in my retina yesterday. It's really great to be able to see what I'm doing!
I have my first post of 2017 over at That's Crafty! today and I'm sharing a rather whimsical mixed media piece made using one of the fab dinky uprights.

Hope you like my sneak peek and you'll find all the details and a pic of the whole thing over at the blog as usual.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Choosing Happiness as That's Crafty!

Hello all, sorry not to have been around much lately everyone, this is because I still have issues with my eyesight, particularly the close sight which makes blogging and commenting more difficult.

I saw the consultant on Tuesday and the visit has thrown a spanner in the works as I have a small tear in the retina in my right eye which has to be fixed with laser surgery prior to the cataract procedures and as well as that, I can't wear my contact lenses for 10 days prior to the measuring for my replacement lenses and although I do have glasses the prescription is not strong enough so I'll be having a rather misty Christmas!

Anyway, enough whinging and on to the reason for my post which is to let you know that I have a project today over at That's Crafty! Blog where this week I'm sharing the second side of my splat upright which appeared on Hochanda. Hope you like it!

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and I'd love it if you hopped over to see how this came about.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx