Winter Wonderland at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello! It's a really horrible day today down here in the South as we have really strong winds and intermittent rain, really not nice!

On the crafty side, we have the November challenge beginning today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and to go with the now chilly weather, our new theme is Winter Wonderland.

My inspiration is rather 2 birds, 1 stone as I've made a start on some festive cards with my favourite snowman and made a masterboard so that I could create 6 cards at once.

I began with making the masterboard from an A3 sheet of smooth cartridge paper. I sprayed it with a mix of flat matte and lustre sprays using Aqua and Bluebell Flat Matte Sprays and Aqua and Lilac Lustre Sprays. You'll notice there are a couple of areas that are green and pink, this being the accidental result of leaving the paper to dry rather too near some later ink misting so it ended up with a bit of lime and rose flat matte spray on but, hey, what does it matter! It just adds to the effect.

I then cut the sheet into 6 pieces as these fit 6x6 card blanks rather well. I used the snowflake background Dinky stencil with white multi surface paint to add a pattern just around the edges of the paper panels.

I next stamped the snowmen from Donna's Christmas Collection Set 2, 6 times on an A4 sheet of smooth thick cartridge paper with black ink. I cut these out with a stitched square die from my stash and coloured them up with Zig Clean Color markers (now in stock at That's Crafty! - yay!).

I distressed the edges of my background paper panels and glued these to some 6x6 kraft card blanks. I added the snowman panels, tucking a white die cut snowflake behind each in the top right corner and finished off with some Tim Holtz Holiday Talk stickers.

There are some great prizes if you enter so don't forget that you have to be in it to win it!

Have a great day and see you soon and it's a rather exciting Thursday tomorrow as That's Crafty! have 2 shows on Hochanda TV at 11am and 3pm with lots of new gorgeous goodies. Here's a sneak peek of what is on the shows.

See you soon!
Fliss xx

Spookalicious Part 2

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a good week so far. Mine has been very busy as I'm in the middle of the rather daunting task of sorting through my mother in law's closets full of clothes and it's taking ages as she has an awful lot of stuff! There will be some very happy charity shops once I've got everything together.
As we're now half way through our October challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog with our topical theme of Spookalicious, I have a little more inspiration to share.

Hope you like my tombstone which I created using one of the fab dinky MDF uprights.

I gave the front and base a coat of black multi surface paint, then scraped texture sand paste down the front, leaving a slightly thicker layer on the top half temporarily. I inked up some alphabet stamps with black ink and pushed them into the wet texture paste to create the debossed R.I.P. as shown above. I then scraped off some of the excess texture paste to create a worn stone effect.
Once the paste was completely dry, I painted it with diluted grey and green multi surface paints, allowing them to run down the surface.
I added diluted paint to the base section and glued the tombstone into it. I die cut some ivy using the Tim Holtz Garden Greens die set and some green painted paper then dabbed it with some black paint before gluing it on.
I used black paint with the Scaredy Cat Dinky stencil to create my cat on some white card and cut the cat out. I made him some eyes with a scrap of green card and added the pupils with a black Sharpie pen. I glued him on to finish my spooky make.

There are some great prizes if you enter so don't forget to check out the challenge blog and see what you'd be missing if you didn't.

Have a great rest of the week.
Fliss xx

Friday Post at That's Crafty! Blog and News

Hello everyone, many apologies for not being around much lately which is because we have chaos down here at the moment with both my parents in law still being in hospital.

My father in law has multiple fractures in his right hip and it's taken the doctors ages to work out what to do. He's been taken over to Brighton for a "major op" today but no-one has been told what they're actually going to do!!! It's very stressful for us all not knowing what's going on so with luck we'll know later on today what they've done.

My mother in law is sadly not well at all as she's not eating or drinking and it's uncertain whether this is because she's got a stomach bug, she's refusing to eat or has forgotten how to swallow as she's suffering from dementia. This is even more worrying but we should know more today when the doctor has seen her.

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today where I'm sharing one of my Hochanda samples (lucky I had that as I haven't felt much like crafting lately!).

If you caught my last post you'll have seen a bit more of this one but to see the whole creation, you'll have to hop over to the blog.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Hochanda News

Hello! A post from me today just to give you a little sneak peek for the upcoming That's Crafty! show on Hochanda on Tuesday 11 September at 10am.

Our Jo will be doing some fab demos with lots of new goodies including some absolutely gorgeous new stamps from Melina, 4 sets in all some shroom based and some sketchy houses too.

I've been lucky enough to work with one of the shroom sets and here's the promised sneak peek of one of my makes.

There are also some fab new substrates and some new stencils too so do watch if you can for some amazing inspiration as my teamies have made some totally awesome and stunning samples which you really do need to see.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Fliss xx

News and That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, this is my first post in a couple of weeks as the beginning of last week I was struck down out of the blue by a very nasty stomach bug which took quite a few days to clear and managed to completely upset my digestive system making it sensitive to caffeine, dairy etc etc so I couldn't eat what I would call properly until yesterday. I was so relieved to finally be able to drink tea as I really missed having a cuppa plus for nearly 2 weeks I was completely exhausted and lacking energy.

Today is the first day I got out of bed not wanting to crawl in again so I think I'm finally on the mend thank goodness.

On top of this we've had family drama as I got an emergency summons from my in laws on Wednesday afternoon and arrived to find my father in law on the floor with my mother in law who is now sadly suffering from dementia, crying and hovering around him. My father in law tried to get up but couldn't and didn't want me to call for help but I called an ambulance very against his wishes and both he and my mother in law were eventually taken into hospital (some 4 hours later!). The paramedics were really lovely and said he had to be x rayed as when they got him up he couldn't stand. It turns out he has a fractured hip and has to have a scan today to find out how bad it is. We're hoping it isn't bad as he's now 93 years old and surgery at that age is tricky.

Anyway, enough of my woes and I need to let you know I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today having missed last week due to being ill.

I'm sharing a trio of artist trading coins - the latest trend - with a fishy theme and if you'd like to see them all which are created with Magda's cute sea critters, please hop on over.

It will take me a while to catch up so I will see you as soon as I can.
Fliss xx

Flutter Your Feathers for That's Crafty!

Hello! I hope you've all had a lovely week with some sunny weather and time for crafting too. I'm really looking forward to the weekend as I've had some accounts work to do this week and need a rest from figures!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and I have another tag to share - I seem to be addicted to making these at the moment. My tag this time is in coll chilled shades of blue with a touch of yellow and purple hues for contrast.

You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to see how this came about and hope you'll hop over.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Sea Life for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a lovely week and hopefully less busy than mine so I'm really looking forward to the weekend.
Just a quick post to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with one of the samples that I created for Tuesday's Hochanda shows which I hope you managed to watch but if not, there's always rewind.
Here's a sneak peek of my rather fishy make which I hope will intrigue you enough to hop over to the blog.

Have a lovely day and a really great weekend.

Fliss xx

Spring Into Action at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, sorry for my lack of visiting lately, just very busy with life and work stuff at the moment which has cut down my blogging time.
A quick post to let you know that a new challenge is up for March today at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where our new theme for the month is Spring Into Action which we could certainly do with after last week's arctic temperatures and snow. A bit warmer now and sunny with showers so maybe Spring is around the corner.
My inspiration is a mixed media panel featuring the most springlike of my new stamp designs which was inspired by a parrot tulip. Hope you like it.

What I did was to start with the backing panel which is an 8 x 8 rounded corner white/greyboard panel which I painted with green multi surface paint. I then added the detail with texture paste through the floral frame stencil and when dry, painted with yellow and orange multi surface paints.
I then took 3 MDF atcs and used the new bark dinky stencil (coming soon to the shop and Hochanda) with texture paste to make a tree bark look - much quicker than my previous method with a skewer!
Once the paste was dry, I painted the bark with a mix of chestnut brown, black, green and grey to look as realistic as possible.
I stamped the flowers on to some mixed media paper painted with multi surface paints and stamped with a sequin waste texture stamp. I cut out the flower heads only from my red and yellow paper, stamping again on green and trimming closely round the head area then glued the red and yellow heads over the top.
I glued the tree bark panel to my background panel, following up with the flowers, adding just part of the text from one of Melina's stamp sets, stamped on a scrap of orange paper, to the middle flower, tucking it under the leaves.
To finish off, I stamped around the edges of the panel with the sequin waste image and Spiced Marmalade oxide ink.

Supplies Used:
That's Crafty! White/Greyboard 8 x 8 Panel with rounded corners
That's Crafty! MDF Atcs
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Fanciful Flowers Set 2, Nature's Faces Set 2, Textures Collection Set 4
That's Crafty! 8 x 8 Stencil - Daisy Frame
That's Crafty! Dinky Stencil - Tree Bark
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints
That's Crafty! White Texture Paste
Tim Holtz Oxide Ink - Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Fossilised Amber
Archival Jet Black Ink
Silicone Glue
White Mixed Media Paper

You have a whole month to enter the challenge which is now open to entrants all over the world and there are great prizes up for grabs too.

Have a great day.
Fliss xx

Midway Inspiration for I Heart You Challenge

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a good week and managing to get some crafting done as I am. I'm also doing meals on wheels as my father in law finally had his first cataract op on Monday so I'm cooking their lunch for a few days until his eyesight has settled down.
I have my midway inspiration to share today as we're now half way through our I Heart You Challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.
I've made a tag with a bit of a story as believe it or not, it started out purple and pink! This step went totally wrong so I added layers and it ended up red and golden yellow.

As you can see, it seems to have a rather flaming heart look which was totally accidental. After my attempt with the purple and pink overlayer (this didn't work as the magenta was rather too translucent and went a really odd colour), I glued pieces of crinkled tissue paper stamped with script in red over the top on the top right and bottom left sides.
I used the Dinky hearts stencil with texture paste to add a pattern in opposite corners and when the paste was dry, glued crinkled tissue paper over the top.
I painted over the top of the entire tag with mustard yellow multi surface paint which is translucent enough to allow the under layer of red stamped script to show through. I then replaced the hearts stencil over the raised areas again and sponged Fired Brick oxide ink on the hearts. I let this dry a little and added another coat, giving a lovely soft look to the pattern.
I covered an mdf heart with crinkled tissue paper and when it was dry, painted over the top with bright red and magenta multi surface paints. I then stamped on the lovely rose with Versafine Crimson Red ink.
I stamped the stitching with the same red ink, sort of following the edges of the glued on tissue paper and then glued some felting wool in shades of red, pink and pale grey, adding the heart over the top with silicone glue. This was where the serendipity struck as I moved back after gluing the heart in place and realised the fibres at the top look a bit like flames!
I rubbed a little red oxide ink around the edges to soften the look and finished off with the Tim Holtz Clippings sticker.

Materials:
That's Crafty! Surfaces White/Greyboard Panel, 4.5 x 9
That's Crafty! Surfaces MDF Heart Size 5
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Textures Collection Set 3, Donna's Girls Collection Claire
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paint - Bright Red, Magenta, Mustard Yellow
That's Crafty! Texture Paste
That's Crafty! Dinky Stencil TC038 Hearts
Ranger Tim Holtz Oxide Ink - Fired Brick
Versafine Crimson Red Ink
Tim Holtz Clippings Stickers
White Tissue Paper

Have a great rest of week and see you soon - very exciting happenings next week that I can't wait to share with you!
Fliss xx

Feeling Blue Challenge Midway Inspiration

Hello everyone, a very quick post in the middle of a crafting run to share my midway inspiration for our Feeling Blue Challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has another 2 weeks to run as we've now gone monthly.
The challenge is now open to crafters all over the world and the randomly drawn winner will receive a £30 voucher for the online shop. In addition to this, our chosen top 3 will receive a That's Crafty! stencil (own choice) and there are tons to choose from with more on the way soon.

I have a fairly bright and breezy tag as my inspiration with lots of stencilling and a bit of stamping.

I coloured my tag with multi surface paints which were applied with a brayer. I then used the spiral flower stencil to add the flowers using Distress Oxides and used the butterfly background stencil at the top with the same inks.
I stamped the butterfly wings and text from some of the Lynne's Affirmations stamp set 1 with cobalt ink. I painted the butterfly with Distress markers, having drawn a body between the wings with a fine dark blue pen.

Supplies:
That's Crafty! Surfaces - Size 5 White/Greyboard Tag
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Lynne's Affirmations Set 1
That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils - Flight of Butterflies, Spiral Flower
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - Bright Blue, Ocean, Teal, White
Tim Holtz Oxide Inks - Broken China, Faded Jeans, Peeled Paint, Twisted Citron, Wilted Violet

Have a great day and rest of week and hope you can enter the challenge.
Fliss xx

Tangled for That's Crafty!

Hello all on a lovely sunny but chilly day. Just a very quick post to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today sharing a panel that was inspired to take a sort of fairytale turn as I created a wood nymph out of the gorgeous Lana stencil that premiered on the One Day Special That's Crafty! did (a sell out!) last December.

You can see the shimmer on this sneak peek that doesn't really show that much on my That's Crafty! post although I used quite a bit of gold and bronze metallic paints on there along with gorgeous gold shimmer paint.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

The Only Way Is Art For That's Crafty!

Hello again, a very quick post to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today for my usual weekly post with a tutorial on how I made a mixed media layered art panel starting off with a black paint background that didn't quite fit an earlier project.

You'll find all the details and the whole pic over at the blog if you'd like to hop over and see it. It's very bright and grungy in my most usual style.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Sprinkling Starlight at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am. We're off out for a meal tomorrow evening to a favourite Mexican restaurant and I can't wait as my 2 daughters are home for the weekend as today is my birthday!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a mixed media tag featuring some of the beautiful Lynne's Affirmations stamps.

You'll find the whole tag over at the blog of course and I'd love it if you did hop over to see how it came about.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss x

Get Your Spook On at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Well, I'm late, late, late getting my spook on for our new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog. It really has seemed like Friday the 13th today!
This is because I've had to deal with a rather tricky accounting problem which began when someone who shall remain nameless plonked a print out on the table when I was eating my breakfast at 7.30 this morning and said I needed to look at it! The joys of working for someone you're married to - NOT!
Anyway, better late than never, here is my inspiration for our challenge which is a spooky card which involved the first use of my now much loved toy - the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform - which is awesome!

I used mixed media paper for my background as I wanted to use paint and this will take water without buckling.
I stamped the Stampendous image (Owl Tombstone) using the stamp platform. It's really easy to use and the best thing about it is that if you don't get a strong enough print the first time (I didn't as the paper is a bit rough) then you just repeat until you're happy with the colour. I also used some further colours, layering red, purple and brown over black and it does give a rather unique look to the image. I also used a bit of silver meant to look like monnlight and I'm not sure it was entirely successful but it will do!
I then coloured the paper with diluted That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - purple, red and yellow, repeating applications until I was happy. I then used leftover wash to add stronger colour to the main stamped image.
I used the That's Crafty! Flight of the Bats Dinky Stencil with Archival Jet Black ink to add the bats. I next used the Scaredy Cat Dinky Stencil to draw the cat shape on the back of a piece of white backed black card and cut the image out. It wasn't quite black enough so I sponged on Multi Surface Black Paint to strengthen the colour.
I glued the background paper to a black card blank and added the cat to finish.

I hope you can join us as there's a great prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner.

See you again soon.
Fliss x

That's Crafty! Next Hochanda Shows

Hello there, just a quick post for anyone out there who doesn't do Facebook or Instagram to let you know that there will be some fabulous new goodies from That's Crafty! on Hochanda on Friday with the lovely Neil doing some great demos.
The shows are at 8am and 11am and not to be missed as the new stamps, stencils and greyboard on the show are just amazing!
Some fantastic samples from my DT sisters too and here's some sneak peeks of some of mine (in fact, my Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog will feature one of my samples but you'll have to wait until then to find out which lol)

These are just 3 of my samples and I'll be sharing some more tomorrow so watch this space!

Fliss xx

I Must Always Have Flowers

Hello everyone, Happy Sunday to you all!

I want to share the first bit of hand painting that I've done in an absolute age which is a page in my A5 art journal as I need to practice before putting paint to canvas. I decided on flowers inspired by one of the beautiful quotes on Alison's (of Words and Pictures) first issue of stamps for Paper Artsy which I've only just had the time to ink up.

The colour is a bit off as you can't see the shimmer on my page which I painted by swiping with buttermilk and gold paint applied with an old store card.
I then painted on rough flower shapes (circles surrounded by circles with white gesso. When this was dry, I went a bit mad, free painting with several shades of pink and purple, adding in some orange for the centres and a touch of lime green.
Once everything was dry, I used charcoal shimmer paint to add some detail and make the flowers pop. They're a bit wonky and I think I need more practice!
I finished off by stencilling on a pattern with bronze paint and stamping on my chosen quote with Archival watering can ink.

I used:
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Metallic Bronze Paint (my absolute favourite!)
That's Crafty! Metallic Gold Paint
That's Crafty! Charcoal Shimmer Paint
That's Crafty Dinky Stencil - TC068 Decorative Background
Paper Artsy Eclectica EAB01 by Alison Bomber

Have a lovely Sunday and see you again soon.
Fliss xx

A Bentley Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you have sunshine today as we do down here in the South after a week or so of rather Autumnal weather more like October than August!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a tag featuring my favourite feline, Bentley, on a rather girly creation as the under used pinks and purples have come out to play for a change. Bentley looks rather dreamy and here's a sneak peek to hopefully send you over to see the tag.

Hope you have a great day and a lovely weekend too.
Hugs,
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

All Things Grunge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. I've been spending some of my spare time getting to grips with Instagram with a bit of help from my Sarah who was home last weekend and explained how to do it all as I'm rather a technical dunce! It did mean my blog has been a bit neglected so hope to be visiting again over the weekend.
We have a great new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and we're getting all grunged up as for the next fortnight, the theme is All Things Grunge.

My inspiration is an art panel made with one of the fab That's Crafty! Surfaces MDF panels as you can throw anything mixed media at it which isjust what I wanted to do.

 

Here's the finished panel and I don't actually have the steps photographed as it was rather a go with the flow creation but you'll see below all the materials and I'll explain all the layers beneath it.

So the first thing I did was to spread a thin layer of texture paste roughly on the panel. When it was dry, I added torn pieces of vintage book page and rose patterned tissue paper in several places gluing on with matt medium.
I then added a wash of pink and orange acrylic paint over the top, mixing in plenty of water so that you could still see the papers underneath. When happy with that, I used a harlequin and flower stencil with pink and green paint to add a bit of detail.
I sprinkled on Paper Artsy Infusions in purple and green, misting these with water and allowing them to run down the panel. The effect is quite subtle but you can see it if you look closely.
I took a piece of mixed media paper and die cut the chevron element which I coloured with Distress Oxides in pink, orange and green. I glued this on the panel on the top left side.
I stamped on some script rather randomly with fern green ink.
I next coloured the wild flower greyboard embellishments with shimmer paint, starting with green and adding antique gold over the top to create a lovely shimmery olive green.
The greyboard butterfly is, I think, my piece de resistance as I really enjoyed grunging this up! I started off by coating it with texture sand paste then gluing on a scrap of the flower pattern tissue paper. I then dabbed on yellow oxide ink and misted it with water to make the colour run. This gives a lovely aged effect. I used the flower stencil to add a pink floral pattern and glued on some tiny paper flowers for added interest.
I glued the embellishments to my panel, finishing off with some tiny butterfly buttons and the stamped text which I cut up and dipped in diluted oxide ink to tone the text to fit the panel. The final touch was to rub some antique gold paint around the edges.

Materials:
That's Crafty! Surfaces - MDF Panel 4.5x9
That's Crafty! Bits and Pieces Greyboard Embellishments - Small Wildflowers, Large Butterflies & Dragonflies
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Textures Collection Set 1, Lynne's Affirmations Set 2
That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils - Distressed Harlequin, Floral Background
That's Crafty! Shimmer Paint - Green
That's Crafty! Metallic Paint - Antique Gold
Tim Holtz Frameworks Border Die - Chevron
Mixed Media Paper
Extras - Vintage Book Paper, Rose Patterned Tissue Paper, Butterfly Shaped Buttons, Tiny Paper Flowers

I hope you can enter as the prize is a voucher for the online shop where you'll be totally spoilt for choice!
Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx