Sunflowers For Ukraine

 Hello all, it's been an age since I last posted largely for family reasons and my time on social media has been rather limited but with luck I might be back more often this year - or at least, I hope so!

I have a sunflower piece of artwork to share which I made in support of the people of Ukraine as I've been so shocked and saddened by the wilful destruction going on in their country. The people are so brave and resilient under terrible pressure from Putin's army who should not be invading Ukraine at all!

It makes you feel so helpless when you see all the refugees and the people still in the country living in the underground stations to try and avoid being bombed. I so wish something could be done to stop all this happening.......

I made the background with Distress Oxides and a stencil from That's Crafty! and the gorgeous sunflower image is a stamp design from Melina Dahl which I coloured with Kuretake Zig markers.

I hope you're all well and will try and pop over to see anyone that visits.

Fliss xx

A Trio of Spring Artist Trading Cards

 Hello! I'm here today to share a trio of atcs in Spring colours that I created the other day using things from my bits and pieces box as I haven't been able to craft properly due to my hubby (who caught a cold from his father) passing his cold to me last weekend but unfortunately for me it went to my sinuses then on Monday went down on my chest so I've been feeling somewhat poorly.

The backgrounds on these are my ever useful ink spray overflow or inky stencil presses on the spare paper I always have on one side when spraying ink through masks or stencils.

The flowers were stamped on inky paper too and as you can see, you don't need a smaller stamp than the atc as you can use just part of the image as I've done here.

The text comes from one of Lynne's wildflower stamp sets and one of Melina's new DL key stamp sets and fit my chosen theme perfectly.

I hope you're all having a good week and will be back soon.

Fliss xx

Back After A Long Blogging Break

 Hello! I'm finally back after rather a long break from blogging as due to family and work commitments there haven't been enough hours in the day to cope with all the social media stuff I should be doing so I'm hoping to gently get back into the swing of things.

I'm over at That's Crafty! blog today with a mixed media piece of artwork that was inspired by the photos I took last summer of the patches of wildflowers along our local coast. It was so lovely to see them with beach huts in the background and I'm eagerly awaiting this year's crop in a couple of months, not to mention the warmer weather too as it's been cold for so long.

You'll find all the details of how I created this by clicking HERE

Here are a couple of pics so that you can see where my inspiration came from 😀

I hope you're all well and managing to cope with the lockdown and will be round to visit as soon as I get a few spare moments.

Fliss xx

Always Look For Rainbows!

Hello on a rather dull and blustery day. Hope you're all staying safe and well in our troubled times at the moment.
I have a project to share over at That's Crafty! Blog today which came about as I wanted to create something to show my appreciation for our brave and amazing care workers and this is the least I could do.
If you watched the Hochanda shows yesterday That's Crafty! had, you may have spotted this on the counter next to the gorgeous new stamp designs from the ever talented Melina Dahl. There's rewind if you missed them and they're well worth a look for some amazing demos from the lovely Jo Channon, back in the studio for the first time since lockdown started and her nasty brush with the dreaded Covid-19 virus.

If you'd like to see how I created my rainbow, please click HERE to be transported to the blog.

Have a lovely weekend and see you soon,
Fliss x

Back Again!

Hello everyone, apologies for being missing over the last few weeks. I've been having a very stressful time dealing with the furloughing of some of Andy's staff who ran out of work and no more had come in to give them due to the ongoing pandemic.
I've had to do webinars with our payroll software provider and do a lot of reading up via the HMRC website and various other sources on how to deal with the Job Retention Scheme and calculate what can be paid to the staff and reclaim.
It's lucky I checked the calculations on the HMRC calculator before finishing the payroll as I discovered the payroll software was not using the right calculation method so I had to try and find out if they were going to sort it out. There were lots of complaints from other users but no explanation forthcoming so in the end I amended the figures to agree to HMRC's before making the claim. I was glad I did as they paid the grant in 3 days!
Our payroll provider said today that we would have to amend the figures to make them agree to HMRC's which is what I suspected as I couldn't see any other way of getting them correct due to the way the payroll usually calculates pay. I don't want to change providers as their accounting software is very good so I guess we're stuck with it!

Anyway enough whinging and on to much happier things as I've been crafting to keep me sane so here are some of my recent creations:

A tutorial for the following 4 floral note cards can be found on That's Crafty! blog by clicking HERE

Hope you like these and I should be round to catch up over the weekend as I have mostly finished with my payroll and accounting duties for the moment - luckily doing what I do, I'm the only one that won't get furloughed as someone has to work out what to pay everyone else!!!

Stay safe and well,
Fliss xx

Art Journaling Day

Hello, I hope you're all coping in the current very difficult circumstances and surviving isolation if you have to do that. We're now on lockdown here in the UK and it's been difficult already as I've been doing financial things over the last couple of weeks as I'm the accounts and financial manager for my hubby's partnership which if you didn't know is an architectural business.

It's not just the shops suffering from lack of income as the business has lots of fees outstanding and no-one is paying them! This makes it so hard as we obviously can't pay our bills so we're scrambling around trying to find out what to do!

I have a couple of art journal spreads to share, one of which was my That's Crafty! post for last Friday and is very topical as is the other which shows how nature is so important to me although at the moment, the nearest I'll get is my garden! I think by the time the virus issue is over it might look a lot better than it does now.

This second is my nature refuge one.

This one has an ink spray beackground which I misted first using a stencil with walnut flat matte spray, flipping the stencil over and pressing the inky side on the other page. I followed this with the same stencil and aqua flat matte spray, flipping the stencil over again and repeating the previous step.

I stamped Alexa's gorgeous face on the right hand page with black ink, colouring her hair, eyes and lips with the amazing new satin inks from That's Crafty! I coloured her face with Prima watercolour pencils.

I stamped the trees (by Lynne Moncrieff) and mushrooms (by Melina Dahl) on the left hand page with dark brown ink, colouring the mushrooms with pencils and adding blossom to the trees by dotting with white, light pink and magenta multi surface paints until I was happy with the effect.

I then stamped the flower from the Alexa's face set directly on the pages with the same ink and coloured them with orange satin ink. I finished off with one of Lynne's fabulous affirmations from the trees set I used which I stamped on a scrap of ink spray overflow paper.

Have a great rest of the week and stay safe and well.

Fliss x

Graphic Birthday Card

Hello on a very chilly but sunny day here on the south coast of the UK. 

A quick share of the birthday card I created for my eldest nephew who was 27 on Monday and I always struggle to create cards for young men other than those involving sport, but as I don't actually own anything for that type of card, my creative thinking hat went on.

A search through my papers file unearthed some gelli prints made a while back featuring just stripes of red, white and blue (That's Crafty! multi surface paints in bright red, light blue and white) that I had created for a project with a marine theme.

I decided on a simple graphic style and cut strips of the paper, some with vertical and some horizontal stripes for extra interest. I trimmed one end to an inverted triangle and added them to a mat of black card to make them pop.

I felt they needed an extra something so I took one of the mark making stamp sets designed by Lynne Moncrieff and stamped on alternate strips with black ink. I glued the pieces in place on a white square card blank and finished off with the birthday text stamped on a further scrap of my chosen papers (the text is from one of the grunge flower stamp sets by Melina Dahl).

Have a great rest of the week and see you again soon.

Fliss xx

Attitude is Everything

Hello! Slightly late to let you know that my usual Friday post is up over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a double page spread from my A4 journal which was one of the samples I created for the recent Hochanda shows. This journal is all about using printed papers and how you can make them your own.

You'll find all the details on how I created these pages by hopping over to the blog.

Thanks so much to everyone who left such kind comments on my last post about the scam attempt I suffered last week. It will take a while to get over it but I definitely won't be caught like that again!

Have a lovely weekend.
Fliss x

Floral Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, a slightly late post today to let you know that I have my usual Friday tutorial up over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a mixed media tag that I created for the January Hochanda shows.
It features some of the gorgeous new doodle stamps designed by Melina and topped off with one of her lovely floral images.
Here's a sneak peek to hopefully tempt you to hop over.

As you can see, I seem to be in the bright image on a darker background phase although I know I'll revert to my usual bright and cheery style very soon.

Hope you've had a good week and that you have a lovely weekend.
See you soon.
Fliss xx

A Bit of Bling for That's Crafty!

Hello on a somewhat dull and dreary Friday. A quick post to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a mixed media piece of artwork with a bit of bling from the amazing That's Crafty! 3D holographic gel medium and some bright and cheery flowers.
Here's a sneak peek to tempt you to hop over if you'd like to see the whole project.

You can just see the bling in the background and hope you like the bright flowers as I wanted a strong contrast to the darker background which was an experiment on MDF with the flat matte ink sprays.

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

Fliss xx

A Bit of Mixed Media for That's Crafty!

Hello! Hope you've all had a good week and managed to fit in some crafting as I did (in between accounts and VAT!). I'll have some more things to share over the weekend I'm hoping as I have several things in progress at the moment.
In the meantime, I have a post today over at That's Crafty! blog which is another of the samples I created for the last Hochanda shows which featured some new and gorgeous background stamps and masks designed by the ever talented Melina.

Here's just a sneak peek and you'll have to pop over to the blog if you'd like to see the whole thing which has a bit of bling in the form of the gorgeous That's Crafty! holographic texture paste which I really love.

Have a great weekend and see you soon.

Fliss xx

Creating Grungy Background Papers

Hello! It's been ages since I've done some creating just for me so over the last week or so I've snatched a bit of time and managed to make some rather grungy mixed media backing papers so that I had some to put some cards together for those occasions when time is short - most of the time in my case!

I took some photos of the process as it was kind of one layer a day so thought I would share here how I created them as if you do several at once it's much quicker.

 The first step was to cut an A3 sheet of smooth cartridge paper into 6 pieces as these happily fit card blanks 15cm square, my size of choice.

I took some pastel shades of That's Crafty! multi surface paints - Apricot, Lavender, Light Blue and Teal and put a small amount of each on my glass craft mat. I misted them with a little water to dilute them a bit, then used an old store card to scrape the colours on to the paper squares. You can see the results above, sort of rough stripes.

Once they were dry, I got out the Distress Oxide inks and Melina's new Just Doodlin' background stamps which I know will get inked up an awful lot as they're so versatile. 

You can see below the shades I used and I've put a link to the stamps at the end of each photo.

That's Crafty! Just Doodlin' Clear Stamp Set 2 by Melina Dahl

That's Crafty! Just Doodlin' Clear Stamp Set 2 by Melina Dahl

That's Crafty! Just Doodlin' Clear Stamp Set 3 by Melina Dahl

As you can see from the photos, quite a bit of overstamping and second generation stamping came into play here as I was aiming for a grungy textured look rather than an obvious pattern.

I then made a few cards so that you can see what you can do with the papers once you've made them. The colours were kept fairly quiet so that the images on top could be much stronger shades and stand out well.

That's Crafty! Grunge Flowers Set 1 Clear Stamp Set by Melina Dahl

That's Crafty! Grunge Flowers Set 2 Clear Stamp Set by Melina Dahl

That's Crafty! Flowers Collection Set 6 Clear Stamp Set by Melina Dahl
That's Crafty! Grunge Flowers Set 4 Clear Stamp Set by Melina Dahl (for the text)
That's Crafty! 6 x 6ins Mask - Leaf Circle by Melina Dahl


Hopefully I'll have some cards to share soon using the remaining papers and hope you like what I've done so far.
Enjoy the rest of the week!

Fliss xx

Dreaming Artist Trading Block

Hello all, trying to get back into blogging again is one of this year's resolutions along with trying to fit in a lot more crafting.
I will also try and visit more than last year which was mainly because of having to do quite a lot for my father in law after his terrible fall and slight stroke which have left him struggling to do everything so he's needed help. As I only work part time, a lot landed on me.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today sharing the artist trading block I created for the Hochanda shows on Monday with Melina's gorgeous new stamp and mask designs. If you haven't tried making one of these, I can recommend it as it's so much easier than you might think.

All the details can be found over at the BLOG

Have a great weekend and see you soon.

Fliss xx

PS: Just a little quickie to say that I've had to activate comment moderation as I got deluged with a ton of spam comments on some of my posts (had to delete a couple as there were so many to deal with)

Christmas Carded Out!

Hello, managed to get my Christmas cards finished today and posted off where necessary slightly later than planned as we've had yet more drama here concerning my father in law! Won't deal with it here but he's at least on the mend now.
Here are some of my cards which were created with the gorgeous Christmas Time stamp set designed by Melina Dahl for That's Crafty! and I love this set so much.

The card you can see 3 of has a masterboard background which I created by misting Christmas Red and Green, together with a touch of Lemon Lustre sprays through the poinsettia mask on a sheet of A4 cartridge paper.

I then stamped on the fir branch using Shady Lane VersaFine Clair ink. I cut this in 4 and added the panels to square kraft card blanks, trimming if necessary.

I stamped the bird several times on another sheet of cartridge paper using VersaFine Clair Fallen Leaves ink, such a dark brown it's almost black. I coloured the birds with flat matte sprays using ochre, tomato and walnut. I die cut the images into circles in most cases although one is rectangular as I slightly misjudged the spaces when I stamped this one.

I added the images to deep green mats and glued them on the cards, finishing off with text from the Winter Berries stamp set also added to a green mat.

The other card is simply a misted background with ochre, saffron and walnut flat matte sprays with a touch of frost lustre spray. I stamped on the fir branches with the same Shady Lane ink and stamped the sentiment at the top with this ink.

The bird was coloured as before and cut out this time. I glued him in place on the card and brushed his wing with 3D holographic gel medium for some sparkle.

Hope you like these and will be back soon.

Fliss x

Blue Tulips!

Hello on a rather blustery Friday! It seems more like October than September and the poor trees are shedding leaves when they're still green.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a mixed media plaque on a floral theme with a bit of artistic license as my tulips are blue!
Here's a sneak peek and you'll find the whole project over at the blog on this link

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and will be over for a long overdue visit this weekend.

Fliss xx

Dragonfly Dreams

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you all well and sorry it's been so long since I've been here. Things have been very busy firstly with work then family stuff and then I got struck down on Bank Holiday Monday with a nasty sinus infection which has only fully cleared up in the last few days.

I've done some creative therapy as I had to take my car to the garage on Friday after a warning light came on and they phoned me later in the day to say that the cost of the repair is going to be over £1,600 due to having to take the engine apart to do it. It's really upset me as you can imagine so crafting has helped a bit to take my mind off it.

Hope you like what I've created with Melina's beautiful dragonfly stamp and her gorgeous lily design as I wanted to create a calming nature scene.

I used one of Melina's gorgeous masks with texture paste on one of That's Crafty! substrates, a large white/greyboard circle with 2 little holes to add a hanger.

Once it was dry, I misted the surface with Aqua and Basil flat matte sprays to colour it. As you can see, the white surface underneath picks up more colour to bring out the pattern made by the stencil.

I stamped the dragonfly on spray overflow paper in shades of blue and green, adding more detail with a mauve Zig brush pen. I cut the image out and painted on a coat of the new and gorgeous 3D holographic gel which if you haven't tried it is just amazing!

The lilies were stamped on white cartridge paper and coloured with flat matte sprays and Zig brush pens then cut out. The leaves were stamped on spray overflow papers as was the text. Everything was then cut out.

I assembled my panel as you see using silicone glue for a 3D effect and added thread made from recycled sari silk at the top.

Here are a few more of my creations from the last few weeks which I haven't shared here yet:

I'm hoping to try and be a better blogger from now on so fingers crossed that I can keep this promise!

Fliss xx