Happy for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a better week from me as I've been struck down with a virus that turned into sinusitis and I've felt under the weather all week.
The only good news was my follow up visit to the consultant on Wednesday and he's very pleased with my eye which is healing well and I'm so happy that the resulting eyesight went as planned and I can see better than I've been able to for most of my life - yippee! Can't wait for the left eye to be done now.
I have a post today over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week for the first time in quite a while, I have a card to share. This is mostly as I wanted to try out some colouring now my eyesight is somewhat improved. Hope you like it!

I'll be back in a bit as we have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and I have some inspiration to share.

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

Follow Your Dreams for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. I'm currently madly packing as we're off to Bath for a long weekend and a much needed break especially in my case as I've been so busy lately.

I have had to sadly say farewell to Make My Monday as I couldn't keep up with my DT duties and was much in need of some me time which has been lacking over the last few months. Thanks so much to Caz and the team for being so understanding and will keep up with you when I can.

Anyhow, enough of my troubles and on to the reason for this post which is to let you know that I have a project today over at That's Crafty! It's the reverse of my dreamcatcher from last week as I made it double sided so that it could be hung up like a traditional dreamcatcher.

You'll find the whole thing over at the blog if you'd like to see it.

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

Fliss xx

Graduation At Make My Monday

Hello everyone, hope those of you in the UK are having a lovely long weekend and hopefully better weather than down here as it's extremely windy and the blue skies have disappeared too!
We have a new challenge today at Make My Monday chosen by Amy from the USA where I think lots of the students are graduating soon not like here where it happens later on it the year and she wants to see creations concerning GRADUATION.
I was a bit stumped by this one until I saw my Crazy Things stamp set had a mortar board and scroll so one of my fave Crazy Birds has come out to graduate for my card which I hope you like.

Doesn't he look cute in his graduation hat!

I made the background paper with the Finnabair Don't Foget to Fly stamp set using various different sized circles which I stamped all over a piece of cartridge paper cut to fir my blue card blank. I used Archival Watering Can ink for the stamping. I then scribbled on some colour with Prisma pencils and attached the paper to my card.

I stamped the bird twice on smooth white stamping card with Archival Jet Black ink and also stamped the mortar board and scroll with the same ink. I coloured one bird image with the Prisma pencils, using Zest-it to blend the colours. I coloured part of the second bird plus the hat and scroll in the same way. I then die cut all the images with the matching dies.

I die cut a circle of white card and added this to the covered card blank then used various foam pads and tape to attach the bird and give dimension. I finished off with text made with a Dymo and black tape.

Enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday and see you soon.
Fliss xx

What If......? For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. Things are still hectic down here as I've got a huge amount of work to get through by the end of the month so I've got very little time for blogging.

It's my turn to post over at That's Crafty! Blog todayand I'm sharing a quick and easy journal page which I hope you like. It's very bright and cheery - here's a sneak peek and hope you'll visit to see the whole thing.

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

Fliss xx

Butterfly, Butterfly Brusho Stackable Storage Box

Hello everyone and welcome to the first of 2 posts today and I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be able to share a project that has been under wraps for a while.
Laura and Graham at That's Crafty have developed a range of stackable storage boxes designed to hold some of your favourite art supplies such as paint, spray inks, glitter glue and so on.
As I'm such a fan of Brusho Crystals, you can probably guess who was given that particular storage box to decorate!
If you hop on over to the blog you'll find all the details of how I made the box with step by step decorating pics.
It's rather eye poppingly bright as I wanted something eye catching.

This one has winged it's way (pun intended!) to Laura as That's Crafty will be doing something special later in the month but I do have another one to decorate for myself and I'll share that as soon as I'm able to find some spare time to get it done - I can't wait!

Do hop on over to the blog where you'll find the details of the other fab storage boxes, all beautifully decorated by my DT mates!

I'll be back in a while as we have a new challenge starting today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and I have some rather quirky inspiration to share.

Fliss xx

Flower Garden For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and welcome to my only post this week which is because due to work I've had virtually no spare time so no blogging was possible. Really sorry about this and things will be back to normality next week!
I have a tutorial over at That's Crafty today which is a nature themed art panel - you know how much I love creating anything involving that!

This was inspired by a photo I found on the internet which featured a large number of gaily coloured Echinacea (cone flowers) so I couldn't resist creating something with one of my favourite Flower Garden stamps.
You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to hop over to see how my panel was made.

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

Fliss xx

Lovely Bubbly For That's Crafty

Hello everyone and apologies in advance for my project title but I couldn't resist a bit of a pun because of the effect achieved on my clean and simple card which is today's tutorial over at That's Crafty.
Hope you like it and you'll find all the details over at the blog. Here's a sneak peek.

I'll be back in a while with news of the new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which goes live at 8am today.

See you later!

Fliss xx

Freedom For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I'm here today after a very difficult week with my post for That's Crafty as it's my turn today to share a tutorial which this time is a much needed bright and cheerful mixed media art panel.

I'm not feeling that cheerful myself as you may not know that I live just down the coast from where the tragic accident happened at the Shoreham air show last Saturday and in common with everyone round here I'm still rather stunned by it.
It's affected my whole week as with the A27 being closed on the Shoreham flyover, the alternative route is a huge loop which is unfortunately my current route to work in Steyning which is just above Shoreham. I'm not actually complaining as the reason for the diversion is so very sad, it's just very tiring queuing every day to get to work.

The good news is we're off on our hols tomorrow which are much needed in my case and we're headed for Lake Garda in Italy which is hopefully warmer than here as yesterday felt like Autumn had already arrived!

Here's a sneak peek of my art panel which I hope you like and all the details are over at the blog as usual.

I'll be back a bit later with details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which goes live at 8am.

Fliss x

Positivity For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, hoping you've all had a good week. Mine has been very busy as I've been doing studying at work in the form of rather tiring webinars and a lot of reading up online in order to get ready for my Xero accounting software accreditation test which I managed to flunk on Tuesday (I had to get 80% and only managed 76% - darn it!). Happily yesterday I took it again and this time got 92% - yippee! I now have Xero certification (yes, I know I should be certified!) for a year and then it all starts again.
This is my first post of the day which is to let you know that I have my Friday project over at That's Crafty Blog which this week is another page in my A5 size journal using my new Dina Wakley stamps which are fabulous for journals. Here's a sneak peek to tempt you.

You'll find all the details over at the blog and I'd really love it if you'd pop over.

I'll be back a bit later as we have a new challenge for you today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and I think the Design Team have really rocked this fortnight's theme!

See you in a while,

Fliss xx

French Fashion

Hello folks and welcome to my first post of today which is to let you know I have my Friday tutorial over at That's Crafty Blog and this week I have a card to share which was inspired by my daughter's job in fashion together with my love for Paris (an as yet unfulfilled dream - sigh!)
I've got my inky mitts on the Tim Holtz Runway stamp set which was a definite must have as it brings back happy memories of the graduate fashion show a couple of years ago when my daughter's degree collection strutted down the catwalk on some rather superior looking models.

As you see, a little bit of ooh la la! You'll find the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to hop over to see.
I'll be back in a while with my second post which will be my inspiration for the new challenge at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and I can't tell you how much I loved this one - it's one of my favourites!

See you later!
Fliss xx

Grunge, Grunge, Grunge!

Hello again, as you can see now from my post title I just loved this challenge theme as I'm a big fan of grunge which is what we'd like to see at That's Crafty Challenge Blog for the next fortnight.
I've made a wall hanging creation as my inspiration and my Julie Nutting Prima doll has come out to play again.

I made the background first by applying vintage music score to a piece of mixed media paper with matte gel and adding torn pieces of book text over the top. I then lightly brushed on some white gesso to bring all the pieces together, following up with Vintage Lace and Lavender Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylic paint applied with baby wipes. This gives a soft mottled look which is very grungy in style.

I next stamped on Carabelle Studios Texture Chevrons with Bundled Sage Distress Ink followed by the star border from the Etoiles, Tache et Background Stamp Set with Picked Raspberry Distress ink, stamping once on scra paper to soften the colour a little.

I stamped the Prima doll on smooth stamping card and on book text with Archival Watering Can ink then coloured just the dress on the plain surface with pencils and Picked Raspberry DI. I just coloured the flesh and hair on the book text image then cut out the doll, gluing the coloured dress on top.

I added lace in places (very useful if you have any bubbles in the background as I did despite a good application of gel and using a brayer for smoothing!)

I stamped some Kaisercraft butterflies with the grey ink onto a scrap of gelli plate paper from my bits box (I always save them as you never know when they'll come in useful) and cut them out. I stamped the Dylusions text with the same ink on a scrap of stamping card and coloured it with Picked Raspberry DI after trimming it to a panel.

I finished off by applying some embossing ink to the top corners and the base of the panel and heat embossed it with Stampendous Frantage Shabby Pink Embossing Enamel. I swiped on a little Creative Expressions Gold Gilding Wax and a little more blue paint to pull everything together.

The challenge is open for the next fortnight and the prize for the randomly drawn winner is a £20 voucher for the online shop where you'll be truly spoilt for choice.

Good luck!

Fliss xx

A Season Of Mists

Hello everyone and welcome to my slightly late post for the new challenge over at Make My Monday today which has the theme of Autumn or Fall Colours. Very appropriate now because I woke up this morning to a chilly 8 degrees!
I hope you're all well and feeling better than me as I'm currently a bit under the weather with the first cold type thing I've had since January last year when my dear hubby gave me an unwanted New Year present!
My inspiration is very Autumnal as it's a favourite season of mine being an Autumn girl by birth. The photo doesn't quite do it justice as there are more colours in there than really show as I chose a palette of warm Autumn shades.

I made the background paper first with a piece of textured cartridge paper, applying Sticky Fingers Autumn spray inks in Blackberry, Olive, Autumn Gold and Maple to a craft sheet and pressing the paper in to pick up the colour. I find it a bit less messy than spraying directly on the paper and of course, this way you get more from the colours as you can colour more paper with the leftover inks.

I embossed one side of the dry paper with a Darice Autumn leaf flourish folder and swiped over the top with Brilliance Pearlescent Purple, Rust and Olive. I stamped the remaining paper with a Prima Engravers clear stamp and coffee brown ink. I then distressed the edges with an emery board and added splatters of Rusty Hinge Distress ink.

I painted a kraft clothing tag (it already had distressed edges!) with some brown and bronze acrylics to cover up the logo and text then stamped over the top with the same Prima stamp and the coffee brown ink. I also swiped the edges with Rusty Hinge ink for definition.

I made the leaves with an extra scrap of card coloured with the leftover spray inks and die cut them with a Marianne die before adding extra colour with Distress inks (Rusty Hinge, Frayed Burlap, Forest Moss and Mowed Lawn).

I added scraps of corrugated kraft card to the tag and then glued on the leaves and some kraft paper flowers with music score print. I tied a piece of twine through the top, then added the background paper to a kraft card blank with the tag and some cut up computer generated text.

See you soon and take care,

Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Lexi's Creations Challenge - Autumn Colours
Lunagirl Moonbeams Challenge - Autumn
Dies R Us Challenge - Fall Festival
The East Wind Challenge - Feel The Fall
Rubber Dance Challenge - Colour

Hello Dolly For That's Crafty

Hello folks and first up is a huge thank you to everyone who left such kind messages after my sad post on Monday. I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate you taking the time to do that. It still hasn't quite sunk in as it was so sudden I'm sort of floating around in a bit of a daze. I don't think it will seem real until the funeral next week.
I have a project today over at That's Crafty which is another rather girly creation although in complete contrast to last week I've gone all bright and zingy as I needed cheering up.
Hope you like it!

You'll find all the details over at the blog including how I made the background paper and also how I made the paper her dress in stamped on - you'll get a surprise if you pop over to see what I stamped with!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Stencils, Masks or Templates

Hello again and welcome to my second post for the day with my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and this time I've been getting creative in my journal.
As you can see from the title, we're playing with Stencils, Masks and Templates this time and we're challenging you to do the same.
Here's my page and hope you like it:

I coloured my page with Distress inks - Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade. I then added a pattern with a Prima stencil using Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade and Crushed Olive Distress inks.
I then stamped on the stalks from the Carabelle Studio Ombreline Aux Pistils stamp set which I planned to add flower heads to. I stamped some flower heads from the set on to white stamping card as I wanted them to really pop. I then cut them out and added them to the page.
I then used the stalk stamp to add a funky border round the edges and stamped the text from the Andy Skinner Batik Garden set on stamping card and cut them out by hand.
I finished off with some doodling down the sides and the sprigs at the bottom - really handy for covering up stray ink marks caused by stamping when extremely tired!

I hope you can join us as the random winner will bag a £20 voucher to the online shop.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Hugs, Fliss xx

The Gift Of Life

Hello peops, I'm hoping that Mr Blogger has played nice and published this post for I'm currently in Kent on a few days much needed break.
I have a project today over at That's Crafty which is another rather bright creation which I hope you like although you might need sunglasses!

You'll find all the details over at the blog as always and I hope you decide to pop over as my team mates have been sharing some amazing creativity which is well worth the trip.

Be good and see you next week!
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Inky Antics

Hello again and welcome to my inspirational piece for the new challenge over at That's Crafty which has the theme this time of Inky Antics and boy, did I get inky mitts making it!
I've used ink for absolutely everything on my card including the background and for colouring the flower. Read on to find out how I made it.

I used my Stampendous Creative Palette again to make the background with Distress inks in various shades and misted the plate with water before pressing down the watercolour paper. The piece I used was A5 size and as my intended card blank was 7x5, I had some pieces left over to make other things with.
I stencilled the mono printed paper using a Prima 12x12 stencil and used parts of the stencil with stronger shades of Distress ink to make the pattern. You'll see the the final layer (the green flourishes) is quite transparent so that the background looks layered.
I stamped the flower and leaf stalk with black ink then cut them out and coloured them by sponging with inks. It's easier to do this when they're cut out as you can control where the ink goes a lttle better.
I trimmed the background paper to fit the kraft card blank then inked the edges deep pink. I cut 3 squares from the trimmimgs and inked the edges pink then stamped the text on a further piece with black ink and again inked the edges pink.
I assembled the card as you see, adding pearls between the diamond shapes and to the dot on the text panel.

I used:
Polka Doodles Studio 12 Clear Stamp Set - Shabby Chic Roses
Artistic Outpost Unmounted Stamp Set - Typography
Prima 12x12 Stencil - Tulips
Archival Jet Black Ink
Stampendous Creative Palette
Distress Inks - Squeezed Lemonade, Iced Spruce, Spun Sugar (all on the background), Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Crushed Olive, Wild Honey, Mowed Lawn
Watercolour Paper 
Pearls

Hope you can enter although please do make sure you read the rules first as I'd hate for you to be disappointed.
Good luck!
Fliss xx

Anything Goes At The First That's Crafty Challenge!

Hello again folks and I'm back with my second post of the day which is to let you know about the first challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog which has just gone live.
The first theme is a really easy one as Anything Goes so we're hoping for loads of entries. There's a fab prize of a £20 voucher to spend in the online shop and I can tell you you'll be spoilt for choice with all the gorgeous goodies available.
Here's my inspiration which I hope you like - it's a rather bold card which came about because I've just got my inky mitts on one of the new Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stencils which I have loads of plans for so you'll be seeing more of it over the next few weeks.

I used the rose stencil over another of my painty background papers that I made a few weeks back with the fabulous Stampendous Creative Palette which is a mono printing plate. In my first session with it, I was able to pull around half a dozen prints in blue green shades which is why they keep popping up in my artwork at the moment.
I created the stencilled roses with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink and then added stamped faux stitching round the edges.
The Stampendous image was stamped on smooth thick cartridge paper and painted with Aquamarkers. I then trimmed round the image and added to the side of the background, trimming off the excess paper.
I made her rather a snazzy retro hat by stencilling another rose on to a scrap of mono printed paper, cutting it out and adding to the background paper with double sided and foam tape for dimension.
I finished off with a sentiment panel edged with pink ink.

Materials Used:
Stampendous Cling Stamp - Glance
Kaisercraft Clear Stamp - Smile
Prima Cling Stamp Set - Stitch Stamps - Lines
Balzer Bits Stencil - Rose
Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink
Archival Jet Black Ink
Aquamarkers

I hope you can join us as we'd love to see you there.
Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Style Is Always In Fashion

Hi there and welcome to my first of 2 posts today which is to tell you about the project I have for you over at That's Crafty which features a gorgeous background stamp which I've used to make not only the background paper but decorative panels and matting layers as well - you can really get your money's worth from this one!

To find out how I made made all the layers, please do hop on over for all the details.

I'll be back a bit later on with my inspiration piece for our first challenge at the brand new That's Crafty Challenge Blog and don't miss this because there's a fab prize up for grabs if you enter.

See you later!
Fliss xx

Time For A Recipe

Hello there and hope you all had a lovely weekend. Rather mixed weather but I managed to fit in a bit of crafting, one of which is my inspiration for the new challenge today over at Make My Monday which has been chosen by Jacqueline and is a recipe:

5 Gems

4 Colours

3 Stamped Images

2 Layers

1 Word

My 4 colours are pink, lilac, green and brown.  The 3 stamped images are the lovely Le Brun by B Line Designs (my favourite stamp) and the 2 flowers which are from the Crafty Individuals flower heads set.

I found the 2 layers a bit of a challenge as I usually have more than that and I managed to get a more layered look by using square panels of background paper in a patchwork design, adding faux stitching made with the Tim Holtz ruler and a fine brown Copic Multiliner pen. I stamped my 1 word using a stamp from a Prima set on the bottom right corner panel after adding my squares to a kraft card blank.

I stamped Le Brun with Archival Coffee ink on smooth cartridge paper and coloured her with Prisma pencils. I cut out round part of the image and added her in the centre right side.

I stamped a couple of flowers with the coffee ink, coloured them with pencils and cut them out then added them to the card with some Elizabeth Craft leaf sprigs die cut from kraft card.

I finished off with a resin heart and 5 lilac gems.

I hope you can join us and do pop over to see the Design Team inspiration as I promise it's not as hard as you might think!

Have a great day.

Fliss xx