Objet Trouve with Baked Textures by Seth Apter

Hello! A post on a Sunday is rather unusual for me but I received some very happy post yesterday as I've finally got my inky mitts on the fab baked textures (aka chunky embossing powders) by Seth Apter for Emerald Creek and I just had to play!
I've made a steampunk type mixed media art panel with unusually for me again, no stamping involved although there is ink.

Here's how it started as the background has a lot of layered paint scraping.

I used Seth Apter's limited edition paints for Paper Artsy, starting off with the most opaque, Midnight and Buff. I followed that up with Mahogany then Key Lime, finishing off with the translucent Terracotta and as you'll see some of the terracotta appears quite a bright orange, serendipity strikes again!

Once I was happy with the background which was made on a That's Crafty! 4.5 x 9 inch white/greyboard panel, I selected some greyboard cogs and gears from my stash of That's Crafty! Bits and Pieces Greyboard Sheets and using VersaMark embossing ink, decorated them up with the baked texture embossing powders. The only 2 not used were Ancient Amber and Vintage Beeswax.

I added the cogs and gears to my background with dimensional glue and then took a Tim Holtz Quote Chip and coloured this by heat embossing with the Vintage Beeswax baked texture which is translucent and really gave the chip a vintage look (I love this one the most I think!).

I finished off with some rusty tin wire through holes at the top, curling one side around a pencil to form a spring shape.

Nothing like a bit of crafting when it's rained nearly all day!
See you soon,
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 Colourful Life for That's Crafty!

Hello all, hoping you've had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am. Autumn seems to be here already but at least it's bright and sunny at the moment after a cold and dewy start.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week it's a colourful journal page to reflect my hopes for the future when I'm intending to have a lot more colour in my life. Stay tuned for the why as all will be revealed soon.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to see the whole page and of course, I hope you will.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend
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

Meadow Bright at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello again, a slightly late post to let you know I have a new creation today over at That's Crafty! Blog and late as I've been to the optometrist to collect my long awaited glasses which I hope will sort out the closer vision issues that I've had since my second cataract op in May.
Vision is currently a little weird as they said it will take a little while to get used to them but I can read very tiny fonts so hopefully all will be well.

Here's a sneak peek of my mixed media project and hope you like it as in contrast to my last one, it's very bright!

Hope you have a lovely rest of the day and a great weekend.

Fliss xx

Catch a Dream for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I'm so excited to be able to finally share one of my samples for today's Hochanda shows and if you didn't see the first one at 8am, never fear as there's another at 2pm so you can watch our lovely Neil then. I've had to tape them as I had to work today due to having last weekend away in Devon which is why it's hot and sunny now when it wasn't when I would have liked it to be!

I can't tell you how much fun I had making this but you'll have to hop over to That's Crafty! Blog to see the whole thing which is one of the amazing new GiganTAGS which are a huge 19x38 cm!

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

Fliss xx

Back to Black at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, thanks so much to everyone who took the time to leave me comments. I really appreciate your kindness. I'm pleased to say that I can see better than before the op although not quite as well as I hoped because I still seem to need glasses for some things and more than I really wanted as I didn't have to wear them until all the cataract stuff kicked off. I won't know what the prescription is until my check up in 2 weeks.
Anyhow, enough of my troubles and on to the actual reason for this post which is to let you know there's a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Back to Black like the Amy Winehouse song. We want to see lots of black on your creation and my inspiration is a tag with more black than I've ever used I think! Hope you like it.

I used the largest size white/greyboard tag by That's Crafty! and painted it with DecoArt Fluid Acrylic in Carbon Black. I then added circles on top for a pop of colour using a homemade circle stencil and DecoArt Americana Acrylics in Daffodil Yellow, Wild Violet and Lush Foliage.
I next stamped on the circles with Archival Jet Black ink using images from That's Crafty! Textures Collection Sets 1 and 2 clear stamp sets. I found that by layering up some of the images you get a rather interesting effect - see the yellow circles.

I then splattered on some very pale pink paint (Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylic in Vintage Lace) to add more interest.
I stamped the cute crazy bird on mixed media paper with the black ink and die cut him with the matching die set (handy if you're struggling to cut things out!).
I assembled the tag with some rather nifty black and white spotty feathers from my stash - do you like the bird's cute fan tail? and finished off with text from my bits box which is a Visible Image stamp on black card embossed with white and I thought this fit rather well. A bit of stripey ribbon at the top and I was done!

There's a prize of a voucher for the online shop for the winner so do enter if you can - there are tons of fab new goodies in the shop now!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Discovering Wonder at That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, still suffering somewhat from the nasty thingy I managed to catch that turned into Pharyngitis which makes me cough a lot when I first get up and stops me sleeping sometimes - sigh! I'm somewhat fed up as this is the third time in less than 3 months I've had something when before now I haven't been ill for years!
Anyhow, enough whingeing and on to the reason for this post which is to let you know I have a very bright tag to share over at That's Crafty! Blog today which is a little extra inspiration for our Bright Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.

Lots of stencilling and stamping and all details over at the blog as usual.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

That's Crafty! Bright! Challenge

Hello again and welcome to my rather late inspiration for the new challenge today at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog. Our theme for the new fortnight is Bright! and I'm sure you know how much I liked this one as most of my artwork comes under that category!

My make is a bright art journal page which I made for the Hochanda shows and haven't yet shared. As you can see, it is rather bright.

The base for this was one of the fab white/greyboard 8x8 journal pages which you can throw all sorts of things at without fear of buckling.
I scraped on the paint with an old store card, using Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylics in shades of yellow, orange and pink until I was happy with the effect.
I then used the Dream Word art stencil to add the large text with white gesso. the end result was not quite as strong as I wanted so I went over the top with a white paint pen. I outlined the letters with a black fine Sharpie marker.
I stamped the bubbly image from That's Crafty! Texture Stamp Set 1 all over with Archival jet black ink and stamped the quote from That's Crafty! Inspirational Quotes Set 1 with the same ink.
I used the bubble border from the dream stencil with white gesso to add some random bubbles. I added a little detail round the edges by stamping the bubble design with black ink.
I finished off by stamping on a few more bubbles with Archival Cactus Flower.

There's a fab prize for the randomly drawn winner and all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter.
Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

That's Crafty! and Sandra Everton Relics & Artifacts - My Day!

Hello everyone, I'm so excited to tell you that it's my day over at That's Crafty! Blog to show you my project for our collaboration with Sandra Evertson's Relics and Artifacts Ambassadors with the aim of showing you how well That's Crafty! substrates work with the beautiful line of Relics and Artifacts.

Hopefully you've been following our journey throughout the week and don't forget to look if you haven't because as well as some stunning artwork starting off on Monday, there are prizes on offer if you leave comments, one on That's Crafty! Blog and one on Sandra Evertson's Muse Blog.

Here's a sneak peek of mine and you'll have to pop over to the blog to see the whole project and don't forget to leave a comment to be in with the chance to win a great prize.

Whilst you're over there don't forget to hop over to the Muse Blog where R&A Ambassador Sherry Westfall Matthews has a stunning project to share.

Hope you enjoy hopping!

Have a great weekend too.

Fliss xx

Spring Postcard

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a lovely weekend with some sunshine as we had here. It's been really warm too and it seems as if Spring has finally arrived.
I have a postcard to share that I created with the cute little bird stamp that arrived by mistake with my subscriber's copy of Craft Stamper magazine. There was apparently a bit of a backlash about this which was suffered by Trish, the editor, when it was actually the printers error!

I covered the postcard (a That's Crafty! Surfaces white/grey board substrate) with some paper from my bits box that had been coloured with blue and yellow Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylic paints.
I stamped the little bird on with Archival Jet Black ink and then with a bit of masking stamped some branch extensions around the bird and also around the top left corner and down the side.
I painted the images with Martha Stewart Satin acrylic paints and glued on some little Hobbycraft flowers.
I stamped on some soaring birds and the text from That's Crafty! Lynne's Affirmations Set 2 to finish. I tried to make it look as if the little bird wanted to soar as well.

Have a good week and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Quirky Spring Flower Tag

Hello again, I'm back with a rather quick post to share a tag I finally managed to finish off this evening as it's been in the making all week!
I wanted to enter the Rubber Dance challenge with the theme of Everything Spring and as I haven't yet got my inky mitts on any more of the lovely stamps I ended up having to improvise and make my own flowers with paper I stamped on with the stamps I actually have.

As you can see it's very bright and rather quirky in style!

I coloured some card with pink, orange, yellow and green paints and then stamped on circles from the Round in Circles stamp set in toning shades of Distress inks. I then die cut a variety of circle shapes from the paper to use for making my flowers. I hand cut some leaves and stalks from the green variation.
I then coloured a manila tag with green paint, which I then stencilled and stamped (again using the Round in Circles stamp set).
I created the flowers from the various circle shapes and glued these on my tag with the leaves and stalks. I added some orange chiffon ribbon to finish.

I'm linking this up to the Rubber Dance challenge in the nick of time as I didn't think I was going to make it!

See you again soon.
Fliss xx

Running Away With Art For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and sorry to be a rather bad vistor at the moment, I've been really busy with work and various issues as my hubby's business is in the process of changing into what's called an LLP and I've had a few things to deal with concerning HMRC which although it's technically under one banner still consists of different departments which need totally different action!
I'm also working behind the scenes on some crafty stuff I can't yet share although I can't wait to do that as I really love what I'm creating with.
Today is my day over at That's Crafty! Blog and I'm sharing another of my Hochanda samples, this week a rather grungy style one although it's still in my signature bright colours. Hope you like it.

I'll be back in a while as we have a new challenge for you today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.
See you later,
Fliss xx

Bling It Up! 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 has the theme of Bling It Up! so you can probably guess what we'd like to see for this one!
I've gone rather girly with my inspiration which is a postcard as I'm quite liking this particular surface at the moment (can't tell you why either!).

I covered the postcard (one of That's Crafty! white/greyboard substrates) with Paper Artsy Sherbet acrylic paint. I then used the hearts background and quatrefoil background That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils with Paper Artsy Orchid and Lavender paints to apply a pattern.
The result was a bit stronger than I wanted so I knocked it back with dry brushed gesso and added a few streaks of blue for interest.
I stamped the lovely Serena (one of Donna Gray's beautiful stamps for That's Crafty!) on mixed media paper with Archival Jet Black ink. I coloured her with paints using Paper Artsy Blush for her face and neck and her hair with DecoArt Glamour Dust paint in Celebration Pink (it's really blingy!).
I stamped her again directly on the postcard and then cut out the image on mixed media paper except for the curly element on her hair. I added gems to her hair and the heart and finished off with some Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers.

Hope you can enter as the prize is randomly drawn so all you have to do is enter!
Have a great weekend and see you next week.
Fliss xx

Making Room For Growth At That's Crafty!

Hello all, I hope you're all OK and have had a good week. I've been very busy again with work both my job and also on the crafting side so I'm glad it's nearly the weekend. My job is rather stressful at the moment as I'm working in the new office and I've been doing the most difficult job with records that are in rather a mess - I know it's my job but sometimes I wish it wasn't!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! today and this week I'm sharing a very quick to make card which I hope you like.

As you can see, one of those lovely Dina Wakley ladies has come out to play as I love the positive message they send and this one is my favourite. You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual.

I'll be back in a while as we have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and as usual there's a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner.

See you in a bit.
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

Design Your Life Art Journal Page

Hello again and welcome to my third post for today which I think is a first for me as I've never done that many in one day before!
This is because I am able to share the first creation I've made since my first cataract op on Tuesday having finally felt like doing some crafting as you can only watch so much TV!!!
It was very therapeutic getting all painty and my Seth Apter stamps for Paper Artsy have come out for their first inking too.

It's actually been very strange in some ways as I didn't realise how much the cataracts had affected my vision. Having just the one done has made things a lot brighter and if I cover up that eye and look through the one yet to be done, the difference in colour is staggering! The cataract seems to have caused me to see everything in what I can only describe as vintage colour as it has a sort of sepia to olive tone which I really like. Looking through the corrected eye, everything is bright but has more of a bluish tone to it which is going to take some getting used to. It makes me wonder what my artwork is going to look like when both eyes are done as I suspect I've been subconsciously going for bright colours as I couldn't see properly - eek!

Anyhow, enough of my rambling and on to my art journal page. I coloured the page with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic Paints, adding dots of colour to a plate and scraping them on to the page with an old credit card. I used Hansa Yellow Light, Titan Buff, Transparent White, Yellow Green Light and Primary Cyan. I carried on until the page was roughly covered.

I next stamped on the diamond design from Seth Apter's Paper Artsy ESA02 with Archival Cactus Flower ink. I followed this with the dots image from the same set with Ranger Carribean Coast Dye ink. I added a bit more stamping to layer it up a little, using the same stamps but reversing the colours.

I coloured a scrap of mixed media paper with more DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Primary Cyan, Cobalt Teal Hue, Ultramarine Blue, Primary Magenta - and then used Seth's Robo Rings for Spellbinders to cut out some shapes from the painted paper. Imagine my delight when I found there was a negative space left which I could also use. I cut this out with one of my trusty Spellbinders circle nesting dies, leaving the left hand edge straight.

I glued the negative shape and the largest ring to the page across the centre. I then stamped the star design from the ESA03 set together with the text from That's Crafty! Motivational Words Set 2 clear stamp set on leftover painted paper, using Versamark ink and heat embossed both images with white detail powder. I cut these out and added them to the page.

To pull my page together, I stamped the star design from ESA02 on the page 3 times with Versamark ink and again heat embossed with white detail powder.

I hope you like this as much as I enjoyed creating it and will be round soon.

I'm also sneakily linking this up to the current Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge as the February theme is an Anything Goes Stamping Challenge and I have quite a lot of stamping on here, all layered up. Hope you like it everyone.

Have a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Remembering Moments Journal Page for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, sorry to be around so little at the moment, This is partly because of my eyesight issues and also because my job has taken a dramatic change as the practice I work for has merged with another larger firm of Accountants and we now work in their office which is in Littlehampton and further away although not too bad from the travelling side. It's quite different on the actual work side though and will take a while to get used to.

On top of this, I have my first eye op next week so my stress levels are currently rather high!

I have my usual friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog which is another of my Hochanda samples which are good to have as my eyesight is not great at the moment. Hope you like this one.

Can you tell I'm longing for Spring!

Have a great weekend and will be back when the first op is done and I should be able to see properly from one eye at least!

Fliss xx

Dreaming of Sunny Days for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all surviving the nasty cold and sleety weather we have at the moment, winter seems to have arrived rather suddenly! The perfect time to stay home and do some crafting I think.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and the lovely Bentley has come out to play again this week.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to see the whole creation as this is just a sneak peek.

I'll be back in a while with the details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.

Fliss xx

Flower Power 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 have the theme of Flower Power.

I've made a tag with one of the lovely new Prima princesses and this one is Maia - I love the flowers she has in her hair.

I used my fingers to apply 2 shades of pink paint to the MDF tag (Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylics Orchid and Sherbert). Once the paint was dry I drew the triangles on the tag with a graphite pencil, adding dots top and bottom. I painted them with orange and yellow Paper Artsy acrylics.
I then added stencilling using the honeycomb and diamond dot Dinky stencils with Archival Watering Can ink.
I stamped Maia on stamping card with Archival Jet Black ink and coloured her with a mix of coloured and pastel pencils, adding detail with markers. I then cut her out (not well as my dodgy eyesight doesn't help with this!) and covered up my rather bad cutting by using the graphite pencil round the edges - it really does cover up any cutting issues!

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

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx