Sad News From Let's Ink It Up

Good evening everyone and hope you're enjoying the Bank Holiday despite the rather iffy weather which is fairly typical I suppose!

I have some very sad news to share as Suzanne, owner of the Let's Ink It Up challenge blog, is currently suffering from ill health both personally and in her family and as a result has made the difficult decision to close the challenge blog after the winners of the current challenge have been announced.

I want to say a huge thanks to Suzanne for asking me to join the team and to all the other team members who are so friendly, helpful and inspirational. I have really enjoyed my time as part of the Design Team and making the projects for the challenges. I will, of course, be keeping up with everyone via their blogs.

Suzanne, you will be in my thoughts and I'm hoping that there is good news for you in the future.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Lets Ink It Up Challenge 15 - Sentiment Only + 3D Flower

Good afternoon all on a lovely sunny day and a great start to the weekend. It's great to be blogging again after being deprived on Friday 13th which it really was from a crafter's point of view.
We have a new challenge for you over at Let's Ink It Up and this time we would like to see your projects with the sentiment as the focus and a 3D flower which you can create however you like.
You might need your sunglasses for my card as it's very bright and sunny:

I decided on an easel style card as the sentiment I chose is quite large and I felt my usual favoured square card would be too small when I added my planned flower.
I made the background papers using my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (there's a tutorial link on my side bar if you'd like to see how to make this really quick paper). The yellow one uses Distress inks with Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw and Crushed Olive. I stamped the grasses from the Inkadinkado Garden Delight set wih Crushed Olive and one of the flowers with Barn Door.
The red paper uses Barn Door and Spiced Marmalade with the same grasses stamped with Barn Door. I used a linen card for these papers for extra textured effect.
I stuck the papers to an easel style card blank I made (using corded card which makes the folding really easy) and then added strips of deep green card and some olive green floral strips made with a Martha Stewart double edge punch.
I stamped my sentiment (from Paper Artsy Hot Pick Extra 04 - Sentiments) on white card and cut it out with a Go Kreate die. I stamped on the grasses using Whispers Mossy Stone ink for some texture.
I added 2 mats, one linen card inked with Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door and Fired Brick Distress inks and one olive green card.
Finally, I made my 3D poppy using one of the Nestabilities Blossom dies to cut out several layers of red crepe paper. I fastened the layers together with a tiny brad and scrunched them up, pulling the layers into a frilly poppy shape. The centre is made from a circle of card with black pearls glued to it.

We have a great sponsor for the challenge in Kreativ Hobby. Here's a little about the company:

We are a Norwegian rubber stamp producer – with more than 1000 different designs. In our webshop you will find all our rubber stamps under the category "STEMPLER". All prices are in Norwegian Kroner. We ship worldwide and all information regarding international shipping is on our website

The prize is 4 unmounted stamped to the value of $35 or NOK200
You have until 31 May to enter and good luck!

My card is for the following challenges:
Everybody Art Challenge - Flowers
Oldie But A Goodie - Say It With Flowers
Simon Says Stamp And Show - Anything Goes
The Stampman - Poppies
Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking.
Fliss xx

Show Us Your Stitching With Let's Ink It Up

Hello folks and hope you're all having a good start to the weekend. It's time for a new challenge over at Let's Ink It Up and the theme this time is Stitching which can be Faux or Real, the choice is yours.
I've taken the opportunity to make a piece of artwork showing my maternal grandparents on their wedding day way back in 1916. I always think that the vintage sepia photos are so beautiful and I hope you like what I did with mine.

I started off with a piece of recycling packaging, trimming the side edges with scallop scissors and then painting with chocolate brown acrylic paint. I then stamped on some flowers from the Clearly Inspired Stencil Flowers clear stamp set in Vintage Photo Distress ink. This dried a little lighter than I was expecting but does give a subtle textured effect.
I then tore the edges of a piece of vintage music score, inked it with Old Paper Distress ink, added a flourish design with a stencil free with Simply Homemade magazine and Tattered Rose Distress ink then added faux stitching round the edges using a paper pricker and a brown fine pen.
I then made some fabric look decorated papers using the same stamp set and some Zig markers applied direct to the stamp on green, pink and ecru card. As you see, the colour changes slightly depending on the base card colour. I trimmed the edges with pinking scissors.
Next, I made some flowers with lace, satin and velvet ribbon by running a line of stitches along one long edge and drawing the stitches up to make a circle. I added vintage buttons and altered paper flowers to the centres.
I finished off as you see with altered metal photo corners (alcohol inked to match the other embellishments), lace, braid and pearls, plus some Prima leaves and a gold scrap butterfly. I made a frame for my photo using a tag shape hand cut and stamped and rows of pearls. An altered button was added to the top.

We have a great sponsor for the challenge in Stamping Scrapping who are very kindly offering a set of the stamps for their custom Spellbinders dies to the winner.

You can check out the fabulous online store HERE

The challenge runs until 30 April and with the Easter holiday coming up you might have a bit of spare time to get an entry done. The only thing you need to remember is that no digis are allowed, only rubber and clear stamps as Let's Ink It Up is all about getting inky.

Good luck!
Fliss xx

I'm entering my project in the following challenges:
Fabulous Friday - Handmade/Homemade Embellishment
Truly Scrumptious - Vintage
Delicious Doodles - All Stitched Up
There's Magic In The Air - Fabric & Stitching

Let's Ink It Up - New Feature!

Good morning everyone, I'm here with some great news about a brand new feature over at Let's Ink It Up as Suzanne has had the fabulous idea of having a Featured Stamper every fortnight and this could be YOU!

For full details on the new feature and how to take part, hop on over to the Challenge Blog and whilst you're there, if you haven't yet entered the current challenge, you might want to take a look as it's an easy one this time - DIE CUTS AND/OR PUNCHES - and of course, some stamping.

Hoping to see you there!
Fliss xx

Lets Ink It Up Challenge 11 - Die Cuts/Punches

Hello everyone and hope you have the glorious sunny day that we have here today. I'm really excited to at last be able to share with you the first project I've made as part of Team B for the Lets Ink It Up challenge blog which I was thrilled to bits to be asked to join. The new challenge is to use Die Cuts and/or Punches.

The challenge is being sponsored by Taylor Van Bruggen of Taylored Expressions

Taylored Expressions is an online store full of whimsical rubber stamps, coordinating kits and fresh ideas. You'll find everything you need to satisfy your creative sweet tooth!
Tune in to Taylored Expressions blog for inspiring ideas and how-to videos!
The fabulous prize so generously provided by Taylor is the gorgeous Tweet Hearts stamp set (valued at $21.95) - click HERE to take a look.

Here's the project I made for the challenge and I have to say that making altered artwork is starting to become an obsession with me!

I started off with a blank papier mache frame which I painted with 2 shades of olive green acrylic paint.
I made a central panel with thick white card which I sponged with Shabby Shutters and Crushed Olive Distress inks. The stamps I used are all from Paper Artsy Hot Pick 1005. The grass was stamped with Stazon Olive Green and the flowers with Cactus Green. Fuchsia Pink and Pumpkin Stazon. I stamped a couple of extra flowers, cut these out and layered them on top for some dimension.
I stamped the flourish design on the open areas with Shabby Shutters ink for some texture, added the bird stamped in black and cut out then the text.
For the finishing touch, I punched out a border of flowers using the Martha Stewart double edge punch from old music score (rather appropriately titled The Woodpecker Song), inked it with Victorian Velvet and Crushed Olive Distress inks and glued it on. It's really easy to turn this particular punched border into a frame as it trims well to fit all sorts of shapes.

The challenge runs until 31 March and please remember that digital stamps are not allowed as Lets Ink It Up is all about getting inky with rubber and clear stamps.
Don't forget to head over to the challenge blog for some amazing inspiration from the other Team B inkers.

Finally, I'm entering my artwork in the following challenges:
Delightful Challenges - Green
Fairytale Challenge - Green and Pink
Fab 'n' Funky - Green
Pixie Dust - Go Green
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Up In The Air with Green
By The Cute And Girly - Springtime

Good luck and thanks for looking.
Fliss xx

Some Fabulous News!!!

 
Hello everyone, I have some totally fantastic news which I've been absolutely bursting to share (says she jumping up and down with excitement!) and am now able to. I've received an invitation from Suzanne and her right hand Claire of Lets Ink It Up challenge blog inviting me to join the Design Team and of course I had to say yes!!!

The challenge was previously run on a monthly basis but will soon be changing to twice a month with lots of fab challenges and fantastic prizes so it's worth joining as a follower if you haven't yet to keep up with all the news.

If you pop over to the blog - click HERE - you'll be able to see all the new teamies listed. I'm so looking forward to working with them all.

I shall be back tomorrow with something new as I'm playing with coffee filter papers at the moment and getting really inky.

Fliss x

Let's Ink It Up DT Call

Well, this is one I couldn't resist as anyone that knows me knows that I'm never happier than when I'm all covered in ink!  I get some very strange looks sometimes when I'm shopping due to the technicolour fingers! When I saw that Let's Ink It Up Challenge Blog are having a DT call, I felt that I should give it a go.
To take part I have to choose 3 favourite projects and I found this bit really hard as all my projects are a bit like my babies as they've been nurtured to their finished state so I do feel something for them all! In the end I picked a vintage style card, a fun set of skinnies and an elegant card using one of my favourite background techniques. Hope you like them!

 
A vintage style collage card. The background paper is made by sponging glossy card with several shades of Distress Ink and was then stamped. The vintage lady and car were stamped, coloured with Promarkers and cut out. The film strip was stamped and acetate applied to the trimmed panel to show the map underneath. The flower was hand made with stamped paper.

These fun skinnies were made by brayering the background card with Kaleidacolor rainbow inks, stamping on script and then adding hand done doodling (I really love to doodle!). The fun cats were stamped and coloured with various shades of Promarkers - I was really pleased with the results as I wanted them to look as realistic as possible and hope I succeeded.

This card uses my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (tutorial link on my sidebar if you're interested). The metal flower was punched, embossed to give it shape and altered with StazOn inks to enhance the colour. I was very pleased with the elegant look of this card.

Thank you for taking the time to look ladies and I hope you like my contribution.

Fliss

Walkies Card

Hello everyone, hope you're having a good weekend so far and the weather isn't too bad. It's just windy here at the moment after yesterday's horrible rain and I got totally soaked when I popped out to do a bit of food shopping - so wet I had to change clothes when I got home as my jeans were dripping wet half way up the legs!
I've managed to finish a card for a few challenges using a sweet image as bought last year and had yet to use. Partly as it's more cute than I normally go for but something about it appealed to me. I've used the colours from this week's Play Date Cafe challenge:

I've combined the colours with the lovely sketch from Papercraft Star:

 

I've moved the sketch around just a little so that my image is facing onto the card:

The stamp I've used is by Penny Johnson for Stamp A Vie and I stamped the girl and her little dog in VersaFine Smokey Gray ink. I then coloured the image with Prisma pencils, blending with Zest It and I found a great tutorial by Chris Dark for The Craft Barn on colouring with pigment pencils really helpful. I need a lot more practice before my colouring is as good as Chris's and you can find the downloadable PDF here.
I made the card up using papers from the Die Cuts With A View Linen Closet collection which I really love as the colours are so soft and pretty. The blue scalloped border was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and I added a further scallop punched with a Martha Stewart deep edge punch.
I finished off with some lace and a flower made from some vintage French bias binding that I found in a flea market in Brighton a while back - the centre is an altered Prima flower with a vintage button.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
The Play Date Cafe Challenge 64 colours
Papercraft Star Sketch Challenge 28
Lets Ink It Up Challenge 8 - Anything Goes
The Craft Barn Colouring Challenge
Thanks for looking!