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

No Cute Allowed!

Hello there, a slightly late post today to let you know about the new challenge that started today over at Make My Monday which has the theme of A Grown Up Card with absolutely no cute images allowed.
Here's my inspiration for the challenge and I hope you can join us this week as the theme is quite an easy one.

For my card I've used another of my recently acquired Aurora Wings images and this one is called Autumn Rose although as you'll see, she makes a lovely Springtime rose too.
I printed her out on to thick, smooth cartridge paper and used my favourite colouring medium of Aquamarkers to give her a wash of colour. I trimmed the image to a rectangular panel and added mats of mauve and green.
My background paper is from the vintage style Madame Payraud collection by Docrafts as I thought this particular design toned well with my coloured image. I embossed one side of the paper with my favourite Cuttlebug textile folder and trimmed it to fit my square card blank.
I stamped the Kaisercraft butterfly with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink on a scrap of leftover paper from my bits box which was a similar green to the matting. I cut the image out and inked the edges lilac to tone in.
I stamped my favourite birthday sentiment by Flonzcraft with the grey ink and then inked the panel with green and lilac to match. I finished off with some lilac gems in the corner and on the butterfly's body.

Hope you have a great week.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
2 Sisters - Embossing
Card Makin' Mamas - Stack It Up! - 3 or more layers (I have 5 I think!)

Belissima

Hello there and hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was a bit of a mixed bag weather wise as Saturday was lovely and my hubby and I went to the warehouse sale where I picked up a couple of bargains (not as many as I hoped as most of the things I liked were the wrong size of course!) and we had coffee at Arundel before returning home.
Sunday was very wet and nasty so the perfect day for crafting although I didn't do as much as I wanted as I had quite a pile of washing to get through!
Today sees a new challenge over at Make My Monday and the theme this week chosen by Rosie is Texture, something you know I love and here's my inspiration.

My lilac backing paper is parchment card which I embossed with the Couture Creations Breeze folder and inked the edges with heliotrope and purple ink.
I made the frame with pale green card and a totally gorgeous Tattered Lace die. I stamped the image (Scrollswork) with Imperial Purple VersaFine ink then coloured her with Spectrum Noir and Copic pens and cut her out.
I added the backing paper and frame to the card blank and then tucked the image inside the frame, embellishing simply with tiny pearls.
As a finishing touch I stamped the belissima text from a Flonzcraft sentiments set.

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A Little Elegance

Hello there everyone and hope that you all had a good weekend. I'm here today with my inspiration for the new challenge over at Make My Monday with the theme chosen by hostess Suzi B being Elegant Ladies

My card has a little of the ooh la la about it as it features my favourite B Line Designs stamps of a rather elegant French mademoiselle.

Sorry about the pic, it's a bit blurry as my camera didn't like the light. I covered my card blank with some rather pretty paper from a Debbi Moore Shabby Chic CD.

I stamped the Le Brun image with Memories Artprint Brown ink on cream card and coloured her with Copics and Promarkers. I then cut her out and added her to a kraft card mat made with a Papermania die and place a dusky pink mat behind.

I finished off with a butterfly that I found via the ever wonderful Pinterest (if you'd like to see the whole sheet just click on the link on my sidebar and go to my printables board where you'll find the link).

Have a great day and a good week.

Hugs, Fliss xx

Pretty In Pink, Sepia and Cream

Hello there folks, a slightly belated midweek motivation post here for my Vintage Style challenge over at Make My Monday this week as I forgot to take a photo yesterday and the light today went from dull and drizzly to brilliant sunshine (neither of which are liked by my camera) in a short space of time!
For this card I've gone for pink with my sepia and cream to make a very feminine creation. Without further ado, here it is!

I've used an old favourite Rubber Stampede image stamped with sepia ink on cream card and trimmed with deckle edged scissors. I added this to a mat of dusky pink card.
I covered my card blank with some pretty paper by Melissa Frances that came free with a magazine a while back, having inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink and adding Paperchase kraft paper photo corners before sticking on.
I made the floral decoration by stamping a Papermania layered decoupage wild rose image on pink paper and cut out the pieces, layereing up with a copper brad and inking a little with Victorian Velvet Distress ink.
I added some cream crochet lace to the card, then sticking on the image panel and flower, finishing off with a heart stick pink with some butterflies added.

See you again soon and hope this will encourage some more entries.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

La Belle Femme

Hello folks, hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far. I'm here today as I finally manged to finish off another wall hanging started a while back and just found the necessary time to assemble all the pieces.
It's a very feminine creation showcasing my love of all things French and one of my favourite B Line Designs stamps, Le Brun, that I've had for many years and could never part with.
Without further ado, here's what I made and I hope you like it.

My wall hanging started life as one of those ever useful shaped chipboard book pages by Papermania and I covered it with a piece of paper from my serendipity box which was made by sponging parchment paper with VersaMagic inks in Persimmon and Mango Madness and I then stamped on my beloved Tim Holtz flourish stamp with Pink Grapefruit.
Next, I stamped the Le Brun image on to white card with Memories Artprint Brown ink and coloured her with various Distress Stains. I cut her out around the top. left side and base of the images and added her to the side before trimming round the shaped edge of the chipboard shape.
I die cut my new Marianne Design Eiffel Tower die from cartridge paper, painted with Tea Dye Distress Stain and then swiped the raised portions with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I attached this to the panel with Ranger Glue 'n' Seal (I can recommend this as you can brush it of the back and then brush a little over the top after sticking on to make sure it's secure).
I stamped some of the flowers from Crafty Individuals CI - 206 Flower Heads Elements set with the brown ink and painted these with Distress Stains before cutting them out.
I added some lace and pearls to the panel and then attached the flowers with foam tape. I finished off with the stamped text (Kanban) and a gold foil butterfly. I then added some twisted pink ribbon through the holes at the top.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my wall hanging:
Crafty Creations - Something Old, Something New (My image stamp is the old and Eiffel Tower the new)
Happy Campers - Use Lace (Thanks so much for picking my butterfly canvas for the Crafty Camper award - mwah!)
Our Creative Corner - Anything Goes
Try It On Tuesday - Feminine and Fancy

Pretty In Pink, Blue and Green

Hello folks, hope you're all keeping warm and surviving the current snowy weather. We still have it here as it snowed all day yesterday and most of today, finally stopping in the afternoon when the sun came out!
My poor hubby took over 3 hours to get home yesterday evening having finally had to abandon the car in Brighton and trudge to the station to wait for a train. He went back when the snow stopped earlier and luckily the car was undamaged and started without any trouble. He's been quite lucky compared to some people who ended up spending the night in their cars!
I do have some pics to share of the front and back views from our upstairs windows first thing this morning which are under the details of the card I want to share with you today which will hopefully make you think of Spring despite the weather!

This is another of the cards from the workshop I taught last month where we used the gorgeous Stampendous Garden Gal stamp. The image here was stamped with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and then coloured with Promarkers and a little detail added with pencils. I trimmed the image to a rectangle and added a blue mat.
I made the background with various strips, the blue being dry embossed with a Crafts Too folder, the green is marbled card stamped with a floral flourish with Adirondack Aqua and the pink is flourish stamped with Aqua and Pink Sherbert Adirondack inks. I layered up the strips on a thin piece of card before attaching it to the card blank as if you do this, you can trim off any edges which are not quite straight.
I finished off with a Memory Box bouquet die cut from pink card and a corner in the same card die cut with the Marianne Design Anja corner.

Here are my snowy pics which I snapped because we don't usually get much of the white stuff here as I live about 200 metres from the sea as the crow flies.

Definitely brrrrrrrr here!
Back soon.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Bunny Zoes's Crafts - Girly
Vintage Stamping Challenges - Spring Is In The Air