Congratulations Claire!

Hello everyone, I'm here today with some fabulous news as my elder daughter Claire has gained her degree in Japanese Studies and we're all so proud of her. We'll be off to Sheffield next week for the graduation and will get to see her in robes and a mortar board - a very strange feeling as sometimes it only seems like yesterday that she was a toddler. We'll be taking lots of photos so I should be able to share some with you soon.
In the meantime, I have the card I made for her to show you which is my first attempt at pointillism. Kim Costello did a lovely article about this for Craft Stamper in the latest issue. I was very taken with the effect and decided to have a go. I don't think it's as good as Kim's but I do like the effect and you'll have to let me know what you think.

I chose to use this lovely dragon which is called Tamed Dragon and is by the very clever Teri of Delicious Doodles. Claire has always loved dragons and has some posters of them in her bedroom so this is an ideal image to use on a card for her. I've kept the card very simple as I feel the clean and simple look shows off the image better.
I printed it out and then used the pointillism technique with lots of toning shades of Promarkers. I did deviate slightly from the shading technique of sections of the wings as I wanted a very scaly effect. I think it adds loads of texture to the colouring even though it does take quite a while to do if your image is quite large. I do think the time it takes is worth it though.

Hope you like it and thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Floral Tributes

Hell everyone and hope you're all having a good weekend so far. I managed to get some crafting done due to yesterday's rather nasty weather and have a couple of cards here for some challenges.
The first one is inspired by the lovely photo of this week's Papercraft Star challenge:

I've used one of my favourite digital stamps, this gorgeous hydrangea by Teri of Delicious Doodles and coloured it with Prisma pencils which I then blended a little.
I've used the beautiful Linen Closet papers by DCWV which I couldn't resist because of the gorgeous blues and beiges. I embossed the mat for the flower with the Cuttlebug textile folder and die cut a further mat using a scallop Nestabilities die. I finished off with cream crochet lace, pearls and a touch of glitter. The greeting is by Butterfly Kisses and part coloured with Promarkers.

Challenge - Stamp Something - Something Digital for November Digi Day

My next card was inspired by Remembrance Day and the photo inspiration from Stampin' Royalty:

The poppy stamp I've used here is from the Papermania Build A Poppy set and was stamped in black Mamento ink and coloured with Barn Door, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo Distress inks. It was assembled with a copper brad to fix the sections.
I made a circle easel card and added papers from the Papermania Sunshine Capsule collection as I wanted a warm effect for my card mostly inspired by my dear late Aunt who wore a beautiful bright red coat to my Grandmother's funeral as my Gran didn't like black and my Aunt said that her mother loved her in that coat. This has always stayed in my memories and I think it's much nicer to remember loved ones with sunshine and colour.
To finish my card, I added a butterfly sticker, a flower shaped brad and some pearl trim.

Challenges - Stampin' Royalty - Lest We Forget
                   - Daring Cardmakers - A Time to Remember

Hoping that you all enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Creative Frenzy!

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK and have good weather at the moment. I'm here today with a mega post to show you all the card samples for a class I taught yesterday in making quick and easy vintage style cards.
I made the pale backing paper myself by washing buff acrylic paint over a piece of watercolour paper and scanning it into my computer using Photoshop. I then adjusted the colour to make it a little paler and printed it out on to thin card. I adjusted the colour again until it was pink and printed out more copies.

The images on these 4 cards are all by June at Dezinaworld from the Spring Ladies collage sheet in the case of the first 3 and the Dance collage sheet the last.

The images of the rose, hydrangea, poppies and delphinium are all digital stamps by Teri of Delicious Doodles and her shop is well worth a visit for lots more gorgeous stamps.
The lace stamp is by B Line Designs and available from LB Crafts.
The corner and border stamps are by Viva Decor from a clear set of stamps available from the Craft Barn and incredible value.
The butterfly stamps, large and small, are by Hobby Art.
The script stamp is by Hero Arts.
The images on the last 3 cards are from June's Art Freebies blog.
The stamps used on the square patterned background papers are some I've had for many years and I have no idea what make they or or whether they are still available.
Hope you like looking at these as much as I liked making them as once I started, it was very hard to stop!