Where Flowers Bloom for That's Crafty!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a really lovely Christmas and maybe got some lovely crafty goodies as presents - in my case this was some rather fab stitching and embroidery books as one of my resolutions is to go back to my sewing roots which have taken a back seat over the last few years.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my first post of the year which is a simple art journal page as I've been rather short on time due to a lot of family stuff going on over the festive season.

Have a great weekend and see you soon.

Fliss xx

Serendipity Strikes - I Think!

Hello all, I have another art journal page to share today which has the background that was actually intended for my Autumn journal page yesterday but things did not go quite as planned due to the unpredictability of oxide inks.
I decided to have a go today to make the background work for another page and again things didn't quite go to plan as the grey in the mix took on a slightly greenish cast but with the addition of more dark blue and some Rusty Hinge Distress ink I think it just about fits the colour challenge at Rubber Dance. I really love these colours which is why I wanted to make the page fit!

The oxide inks I used were Faded Jeans and Fired Brick with Hickory Smoke Distress ink. I added them to my craft mat, misted them with water and dipped the page in. This is when the grey Distress ink went a little green in places but I knocked it back with Faded Jeans and Rusty Hinge Distress inks.
I then stamped on some of the circular images from the Rubber Dance Round in Circles stamp set using the same inks. This was a bit bolder than I wanted so I misted the page with water and blotted it with a paper towel.
I next stamped on the Phone Home girl with Archival Watering Can ink and added some of the text phrases from the Something Wonderful set which I love for the positive thoughts on it. The final touch was a little stencilling with the Brick Background Dinky Stencil using the Rusty Hinge ink.

I hope you like my happy accident (I think serendipity might be my middle name lol)

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Autumn Art Journaling

Hello all, hope you've had a good start to the week. Mine started off with a walk first thing as the new chapter in my life has now begun and one of my resolutions is to get fitter so I went out, first walking along the seafront and then making my way back a bit inland. Along the route, I managed to collect some fallen leaves which inspired and indeed helped with my journal page for today.
I'm entering this in the Rubber Dance October colour challenge as I love these particular colours and challenged myself to create my journal page with them.

I decided on Autumn as it's my favourite time of year and created the background with a wash of grey and cobalt paints which I applied in rough stripes.
I then used a very unusual stamp - one of the leaves I collected - to add a pattern to my page. I used Chipped Sapphire and Rusty Hinge Distress inks which I pressed on the leaf, using both sides and then placed the inked leaf on the page, running the brayer over the top to transfer the ink. I repeated this until I was happy with the effect.

As you can see, the leaf has left a very good impression and I love the way nature can be brought into art like this.
I finished off my page very simply (I felt the leaves didn't need much else) by stamping on the Art text which is part of the Rubber Dance Kiwi Postoid stamp using the Chipped Sapphire ink.

Have a great week.
Fliss xx

Keeping It Simple at That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, I hope you've been surviving the heat wave we've had here this last week. I have to admit I've really struggled to cope as I don't do well in such heat and have ended up with puffy feet and ankles, something I've never had in this country! The office I work in was so unbearably hot that I had to wear my linen holiday frocks to work in an effort to keep cool - not that it worked but they were much more comfy :)
We have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog where for the next fortnight the theme is Keep It Simple so we want to see clean and simple creations.
This is a theme that really is a challenge for me as I don't do simple that often so the creative thinking cap went on! I was inspired in the end by one of my favourite quotes from Lynne's Affirmations stamp sets and this journal page was the result. Hope you like it.

I used a bubble texture stamp with some bright Distress inks to stamp a design repeatedly, starting in the bottom left corner, going up diagonally towards the top right in a flowing shape which spoke to me of soaring upwards.
I stamped the butterfly wings on scrap paper with black ink and drew bodies in between with a black marker then painted them with Distress ink. I cut them out and added them to fly up my soaring bubby design then stamped on the quote with black ink to finish. Tada, done!

I used:
That's Crafty! Texture Stamp Set 2
That's Crafty! Lynne's Affirmations Stamp Set 1 - for the butterfly wings
That's Crafty! Lynne's Affirmations Stamp Set 2 - for the quote
Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink
Distress Inks - Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon, Fossilised Amber, Salty Ocean

Have a great day,
Fliss xx

A Dog Eared Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello all, hope you're all well and this time surviving not the hot and sunny weather last week but the gales we seem to have at the moment! I really don't like windy weather and end up wearing sunglasses even if it's raining (yes, you did read that right!) as my newly visioned eyes are still sensitive to not only sunlight but also wind. They don't hurt as such, just feel uncomfortable.
There's a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and having gone the feline route last time what else could we do but let the dogs out!
I have a rather iffy dog eared creation to share which I admit I'm really not sure about and struggled like mad with but it will have to do!

Sir Tim's crazy dogs are the only dog stamps I actually own so I decided to ink up this rather cute quirky eyed pooch. I stamped him on a piece of torn edged mixed media paper (the dog eared bit :D) with Archival Jet Black ink and coloured him with DecoArt acrylic in medium grey value 3 and added a little pencil detail when the paint was dry.
I then got to work with a couple of That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils (Grid and Chevron) with Barn Door, Stormy Sky and Peeled Paint Distress inks, smudging the colours a little.
I stamped the dog lead (I think he has a walkies or maybe not walkies look on his face) and finished off with a Small Talk Occasions sticker then added the panel to a grey card blank.

Do enter if you can as you'll have the chance to win a voucher for the online shop and there are loads of new and amazing new goodies about to appear too so don't forget you have to be in it to win it!

I'm now off for a long weekend away with my other half for a much needed rest down in Devon so I hope the weather improves.
Fliss xx

Just Because

Hello everyone, hope you're have a good start to the Bank Holiday weekend. I've managed to fit in a bit of crafting after the supermarket trip and a trip to town with my Sarah who's home for the weekend.
It's something that was a bit of an experiment and I'm not quite sure about it! I wanted to do something for the Rubber Dance second April challenge which is to use Black and White with One Colour and I picked green with my beloved Crushed Olive Distress ink which is one of my favourite shades.

I made the paper, which is actually foreground rather than background due to my experiment, by pressing the Distress inkpad repeatedly on a square of white card to make a sort of grungy criss cross design.
I glued this onto a mat of black card leaving a narrow border all round. Then came my experiment as I tried stamping the asters from the Antique Botanicals stamp set on white card and die cutting into a shape before adding to the card. It didn't quite work as I wanted so instead I die cut a shape out of the inked paper attached to the mat.
I placed this on my white card blank and marked the top and sides of the cut out with a pencil dot, then stamped the asters directly on the card blank.
I added a little more green using a Crushed Olive Distress marker on the leaves and flowers then finished off the card with a Tim Holtz sticker (as an aside, my hubby came in when I was adding the sticker, looked and the book and said it must have been very time consuming cutting out all the stickers - he thought I did it!!!).

You'll have to let me know what you think as I'm still rather iffy about it.

 

I want to say thank you so much here to Bibi for my prize from the recent blog hop which arrived a couple of days ago and I've only just had time to say this. I'm thrilled with the stamps and Bibi has generously included some more stamps as well - thank you sooo much and I hope to play with them very soon xx

I'm linking this up to the current Rubber Dance Challenge in the nick of time I think as the challenge ends tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,
Fliss xx

Come Fly With Me

Also know as the unpredictability of Brushos!
Hello everyone from a rather sorry for herself Fliss who currently could give Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer a run for his money appearance wise only I'm not half as cute! I have my second lot of sinus troubles in less than 2 months since I started working in the new office - in case you missed it, my ex boss sold his client list to another firm where I now work. Before this, all I've had in nearly 5 years is a 1 day sick bug which is why I'm feeling so sorry for myself.
Anyhow, enough of my woes and on to the card I have to share which I began before I got sick and just got up the energy to assemble today. It's for the current Rubber Dance challenge which is a colour one and there's a bit of artistic license here as you'd never believe I used Dark Brown Brusho Crystals on the paper I coloured.

I took a piece of mixed media paper torn from the pad - I really love the torn edge for a bit of shabby chic texture. I misted it with water and sprinkled on Dark Brown and Turquoise Brush Crystals and misted with water again. This is where the unpredictable nature of Brushos came out because as you can see, there are some orangy red bits that came out. I did like the result though so decided to go with the flow!
I then added some stencilling, using That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils - Clock Background and Star Shower - with Gathered Twigs DI for the clock and Stormy Sky DI for the stars. I glued the paper to a kraft card blank.
I stamped the butterfly girl from Rubber Dance Fly With Me stamp set (couldn't find the set in the shop but single images are available so linking to that, or you can buy the set at That's Crafty!)) with Archival Potting Soil ink and added a touch of colour before cutting her out.
I stamped the Fly text from the set on a couple of times with the same ink then stamped the Come Fly With Me text on mixed media paper and cut the words out. It was then that serendipity struck as I realised I could position the word tiles to tie up with those stamped directly on the background paper - yay!
I bent the wings of the butterfly girl and added her with dimensional tape to finish.

I'm linking my card up to the Rubber Dance colour challenge and hope the slightly unpredictable Brusho episode is OK.

Have a great day everyone.
Fliss xx

Be Great Journal Page For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. Mine has been extremely busy with work and crafting stuff which I can't share yet.
Last weekend was rather difficult too as my other half went with me to the optometrist, with me having to go to get a new left contact lens to last me until my cataract op early next month, he wanting to look at glasses frames to replace his. The optometrist insisted on checking his prescription as she hadn't done the one he took and he came out after nearly an hour with the news that he had suspected Glaucoma in his left eye!!! He now has to go and see my consultant!

I have my usual Friday post today over at That's Crafty! and this week I'm sharing a journal page that was actually easier to make than it might look. Hope you like it and you'll find all the details over at the blog.

It's actually very good inspiration for the current challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Just Words and if you enter there's a voucher for the online shop up for grabs!

Have a really fab weekend and see you next week.
Fliss xx

Just Words at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

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 Just Words so we would like to see your creations with words as the main focus.
I've created a journal page which was actually quite simple to make as my main tool was an old credit card!

I coloured the page with Distress inks, starting with Squeezed Lemonade, adding Twisted Citron mostly around the edges (this was because my page had green in places over-run from a previous page). I then used an old credit card to swipe Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry and Salty Ocean inks around the edges.
I stamped the circles image (Carabelle Studio) with Picked Raspberry ink and the text from That's Crafty! Motivational Words Set 2 with Versafine Deep Lagoon ink.
I then added a few more swipes with the credit card and inks to pull my page together.

There's a great prize for the randomly drawn winner so do enter if you can.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

I Heart You! Challenge 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 for the next fortnight has the seasonably romantic theme of I Heart You! and we would like to see your creations with hearts on.
I've made a Valentine card which I hope you like.

I made a background paper with several shades of Distress inks - Antique Linen, Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass, Old Paper, Worn Lipstick - which I applied straight from the inkpad, pressing lightly to transfer the inks to a piece of mixed media paper.
I then stamped on the heart from the Carabelle Studio Le Coeur et l'oiseau stamp set with Weathered Wood Distress ink. I inked the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink and glued the paper to a kraft card blank.
I stamped the heart on mixed media paper with VersaFine Satin Red ink and the wings with Archival Cobalt ink. I cut the images out and gave the heart shape a double mat of dark red and blue card to make it pop. I added this to the card with the wings using foam tape for added dimension.
I finished off with some Tim Holtz stickers from the Small Talk Occasions sticker book.

Do enter if you can as the prize for the randomly drawn winner is a voucher for the online shop and we have lots of CHA goodies due in!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Going Round In Circles at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where for the next fortnight our theme is Round and Round and I'm so pleased as I love this one.

I've created an art journal page in my A5 journal where Seth Apter meets Carabelle Studio! Hope you like it.

I made the background for the page with some Distress ink pads which have gone a little dry. Because of this, they're perfect if you press them randomly on card or paper and if you do it enough times, you get a grungy style inky pattern. I used Old Paper, Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky.

I then stencilled a pattern down the side of the page with Gathered Twigs ink and smooshed it before it was dry largely because I realised I'd used a squares stencil - oops!

I stamped the circles from the Seth Apter circle stamp using Gathered Twigs Distress ink. I used some Carabelle Studio stamps to stamp the eye, ladybirds and Azoline flowers into the circles with Archival Potted Soil ink. I then added a little colour with pencils.

I stamped the quote (the one that means so much to me at the moment) with the Archival ink on mixed media paper, cutting the words out separately and gluing them to the page. I then went round the edges with a brown pencil to make the words pop.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you next week.

Fliss xx

Silver and Gold Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

A slightly late post to share my inspiration for our new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which I should have scheduled last night but I was so tired, I fell asleep in the middle of one of my favourite TV programmes (Death in Paradise) and had to go to bed. The first time that's happened in ages as I normally don't do it!
The theme is Silver and Gold for the next 2 weeks and there must be both on your entry. I do have both on mine but the metallic shimmer doesn't show as much as it should so you'll have to imagine it's got gold and silver on there where it looks a bit brown and grey!

Lots of inking, stamping, painting and gold embossing went on here although it is fairly obvious so the materials are listed below:

Carabelle Studio A6 Stamp Sets by Zorrotte - Le coeur et l'oiseau, Dans l'univers des feuilles
Distress Ink Pads - Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass
Mixed Media Paper
DecoArt Metallic Fluid Acrylics - Gold, Silver
Gold Embossing Powder
Orange Pencil
Tim Holz Sticker Book - Chit Chat
Silver Metallic Card
Kraft Card Blank

There's a fab prize for the randomly drawn winner of a voucher for the online shop and all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter!

Have a great weekend and see you next week.
Fliss xx

Anything Goes 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 3 weeks the theme is Anything Goes!

I decided on an art journal page for my project and you won't believe it but most of the page is just 1 amazing stamp!

I coloured the page with Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilised Amber and Picked Raspberry Distress inks and then stamped on the amazing image from Carabelle Studio - called Collage Nature it's A5 size and covered most of the page! I stamped it with Archival Jet Black ink and then added a little colour with pencils.
I decided to fill in some of the gaps, using Carabelle's Texture Avec Des Chiffres which I stamped with the black ink and also with Wild Orchid Dye Ink.
The finishing touch was some inspirational Tim Holtz Big Chat Stickers.

Have a really fab Christmas and a great 2017 (I can't wait for my eyes to be fixed as Christmas will be a bit on the misty side!)
Fliss xx

Note to self

Hello everyone, today I have an art journal page to share that is the first thing in an absolute age that I've been able to create just because I wanted to - yippee! Or not yippee as in fact the reason I did this particular page is that as some of you already know via Facebook is that last Saturday I was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes so I'm feeling rather miserable at the moment, even though everyone says it's easy to fix the problem (it doesn't stop me worrying about the actual "procedure" as it's called).

I decided to try and cheer myself up a little by creating some art and what better place to do that than my art journal!

This is a very inky layered page and I'll show a couple of the steps so that you can see how the page came together.

I began by sponging the page with Squeezed Lemonade and Fossilised Amber Distress inks and then used the Visible Image Universal clear stamp set with Fossilised Amber, Picked Raspberry and Iced Spruce Distress inks to add a circular pattern all over the inked surface.
When this was dry, i dry brushed some white gesso over the top to tone it down a little and blur the pattern a bit.

I then took a couple of Carabelle Studio mini stamps - Chevrons and Abc, stamping the chevron pattern with Ranger Wild Orchid Dye ink and the paperclip image with Watering Can Archival ink. These went all over, stamping some images twice before re-inking until I was happy with the effect.

I then stamped 3 butterflies (Carabelle Studio) on cartridge paper with Jet Black Archival ink and painted them with Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon Distress inks. I cut these out and added them on the left side of the page.

To finish, I stamped the Kaisercraft text (Way of Life) on black card with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with white detail powder. I then cut the words up and glued them to the page.

Hope you like my page and I'll be back soon with some rather exciting That's Crafty! news.
Fliss xx

There Must Be An Angel 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 would like to see creations featuring an angel.

I know a lot of people would think of Christmas in connection with angels but I've done a journal page with my favourite Carabelle Studio angel.

I made the background by sponging the page with Tumbled Glass DI then used the same inkpad and an Antique Linen inkpad to lightly apply ink prints to the page in a random fashion. I then added some more with Weathered Wood, smudging the outlines for a softer effect.
I next stamped on the broken line image from the Visible Image Scratch the Surface stamp set using Old Paper DI.
I stamped the angel and the wings from the Carabelle set on stamping card with Archival Watering Can ink and coloured the images with pencils. I then cut them out and added them to the page with foam tape.
I then stamped the text from the Visible Image Learn to Fly Again stamp set at the top of the page with the grey ink and to finish my page stamped the feather from the set on with Weathered Wood DI to resemble feathers fluttering down from broken wings.

There's a great prize for the randomly drawn winner simply for entering the challenge so why not give it a go!

Have a great weekend and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Don't Worry, Be Happy for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a good week. This is a very quick post to let you know that I have a post today over at That's Crafty! Blog where this week I'm sharing a bright and cheery journal page having finally got my inky mitts on the lovely Bentley designed by our very own Donna.

I hope you like it and you'll find all the details over at the blog.

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

Fliss xx

Clean and Simple at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of Clean and Simple and as I said earlier, with my lack of time this week, that was a very good theme!

Having said that, I actually had 2 non starters before I came up with this card which I hope you like.

My new Tim Holtz Leaf Prints stamp set came out to play here and is perfect for a card in my favourite Autumn colours.

I used a brayer to apply Mustard Seed and Rusty Hinge Distress inks lightly across the card front. I then stamped on one of the leaf prints with Rusty Hinge and Fired Brick DIs. I finished off with a sentiment from Tim's Crazy Talk stamp set. So that's it - done!

If you enter there's a fab prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and there's a huge array of fabulous goodies to choose from at the moment.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Autumn Colour Challenge at Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you all OK and I'm just back from my hols in lovely Austria which was mostly very hot even at 1300 metres up a mountain believe it or not!
I will share some of the pics I took in the next couple of days when I've gone through them all as I took quite a lot this time and it will take a while to find the best ones.
We have a new challenge today over at Make My Monday, chosen by Caz with the theme of Autumn or Fall Colours and as usual the first thing that popped into my head was Autumn leaves as being an Autumn girl by birth, I just love the turning leaves as the colours are so glorious.

Here's my inspiration and unusually for me, there's no stamping! I hope you like it as I'm a bit iffy about this one - it's very simple to make the leaves speak for themselves.

I made the leaves by colouring a sheet of copy paper, pressing on Distress inks - Fossilized Amber, Crushed Olive and Rusty Hinge - in a rather haphazard way. I then scrunched the paper up a little.

I then used an X Cut maple leaf die to die cut the leaves and I have a tip for you here as the paper being thin was not so easy to die cut. I solved the problem by placing some greaseproof paper underneath to stop the leaf sticking to the plate. I then peeled the coloured leaf off the greaseproof. This gave me a second leaf which I will colour and use on something else - the greaseproof looks a lot like vellum.

I dry embossed part of my square kraft card blank with a Darice embossing folder and added a strip of paper from my mixed media pad which had picked up Brusho colour, the golden shades happily toning well with my Autumn colour scheme.

I added the leaves with foam tape and a sticker from the Tim Holtz Small Talk Occasions book which I cut in half as I felt it fit better like that.

I'll be round to catch up as soon as I can after I've dealt with the million and one things I have to do!
Fliss x

All Square At That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello and welcome to my inspiration gor the new challenge today at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog. This will be my last post for a bit apart from scheduled posts which I hope will pop up as planned as I'm off on my hols to Austria tomorrow and will be incommunicado as my phone doesn't have FB and the screen is not big enough for me to be able to see anything blog wise clearly enough!

When I found out what the challenge was the first thing that sprang to mind with the theme of All Square was patchwork quilt squares. Here's what I made and I hope you like it!

Do you like my patchwork squares? My hubby thought they were fabric when he saw the background paper I made. My treasured Tim Holtz Lady Rose has come out to play again, this time in rather vintage style.

The roses in the stamp set are gorgeous and lend themselves very well to repeat stamping which is what I did here using Archival inks in Fern Green and Plum, roughly inking up the flowers with the plum and the leaves with the green. I stamped on as many of the large images as I could fit then took the stamp off the acrylic block. I inked up just portions of the images with same same inks and filled in the gaps, holding the stamp in my hands and pressing down gently to transfer the ink.

Once I finished stamping, I coloured the images with a Spun Sugar and Crushed Olive Distress Markers. I then sponged Antique Linen Distress ink over the top and serendipity struck again! The sponge seemed to pick up some of the Distress marker colour and the result looked just like vintage stained fabric - how's that for luck!

I cut 4 squares from the paper and pierced holes around the edges with the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ruler, creating the effect of stitching with the Aged Mahogany Distress Marker. I then stuck them on a square of double sided adhesive sheet (floating around in my stash for an age!). I left gaps between the squares and pressed Finnabair Art Ingredients Bronze Micro Beads on to the adhesive.

I added the panel to a square kraft card blank. I stamped Lady Rose on mixed media paper with the plum ink, colouring her with Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylics. I trimmed the image to a square panel and inked around the image with Spun Sugar Distress ink. I then stamped around the edges with an image from the Tim Holtz Damask stamp set using the Spun Sugar Distress Marker to ink the stamp.

I distressed the edges of the panel with an emery board and inked them up with plum before attaching to the background panel. I finished off with some inked Big Chat stickers.

Have a great weekend and a lovely week and see you in a while.
Fliss xx

Birds of a Feather

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where for the next fortnight, our theme is Birds of a Feather and I'm sure you can guess how much I love this one!

I chose to fill another page in my A5 size journal as I've been itching to ink up my new Carabelle Studio image - it's called Un Oiseau sur mon Journal so how could I resist!

My bacground is made with Distress inks - Squeezed Lemonade and Salty Ocean - which I swiped on the page having first brushed on water so that I could achieve slightly softer colours. I then used several Dinky Stencils - Distressed Harlequin, Chevron Background and Punchinella with Squeezed Lemonade, Spun Sugar and Cracked Pistachio DIs to add a random pattern.

I stamped the bird image on my page with Archival Watering Can ink and added some colour with watercolour pencils. I then added further stamping with the same ink with some more Carabelle Studio stamps - my absolute favourite Journal du Jour, the star border from Taches et Background and the lovely text from Every Bird. I carried on until I was happy with the layered effect.

I hope you can enter as there's a prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and the array of goodies in the shop is just amazing!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx