Grunge Flower Birthday Card for That's Crafty!

Hello on a rather dull Friday! It's still rather hot and sticky although we had a very loud thunderstorm in the early hours which woke us up and then there was quite a lot of rain. It's cleared now but is very grey and cloudy. I'm rather glad we don't get temperatures like they do in London as my daughter Sarah said it was an unbearable 37 degrees there yesterday and the design studio where she works was really awful. It was only just below 30 here but I still got puffy ankles!

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a rather colourful and quick to make card on a floral theme. Hope you like it.

Hoping for cooler weather over the weekend and that you're coping wherever you are.

Have a great weekend whatever you're doing.
Fliss xx

Rhapsody in Blue

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a better week than me as since I did my last post, as some of you that are friends on Facebook will know, we lost my lovely mother in law Jean last Sunday.

She seemed to be recovering but on Saturday we had a call to say she'd taken a turn for the worse and later on they called again to say that they couldn't do any more to help. Andy spent several hours with her and we were called at 5am on Sunday morning to say that she had passed away. Poor Andy had to go straight down to the hospital to sign forms and collect all her belongings as they wanted to clean her room. Rather heartless in my opinion but I suppose they see death all the time there.

My father in law is still in Brighton hospital recovering slowly from his hip replacement and a chest infection he picked up there. He has now been told about Jean and is coping as we all are so hopefully he will continue to recover as we want him back over in Worthing where it will be much easier to see him. Poor Andy has been visting every day after work in Lewes and doesn't get home before 8pm so it's a very long day for him.

I do have my usual post up over at That's Crafty! Blog today which is a card as I needed something quick and simple due to lack of time.

You'll find the whole photo over at the blog if you hop over as this is just a sneak peek. As you can see, I'm feeling rather blue this week.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Hello for That's Crafty!

Guess who completely forgot to schedule her post for today's make over at That's Crafty! Blog! Oops!
I have a very simple CAS make this week as I was very short on time so hope you like what I made with a beautiful stamp that has been sitting in my stash uninked until now.

Here's just a little peek and you'll need to hop over to the blog to see the whole thing.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and will be round to visit soon.

Fliss xx

Oxide Ink Play at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello again, back to let you know I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week it's all about my experimenting with those addictive Oxide inks. If you haven't tried them do check it out to see just one of the effects you can achieve with the inks and water - they're totally amazing and I'm completely hooked!

As you can see, I made a whole batch of cards in one go - just think of the possibilities for Christmas!

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Autumn Colour Challenge at Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you all OK and I'm just back from my hols in lovely Austria which was mostly very hot even at 1300 metres up a mountain believe it or not!
I will share some of the pics I took in the next couple of days when I've gone through them all as I took quite a lot this time and it will take a while to find the best ones.
We have a new challenge today over at Make My Monday, chosen by Caz with the theme of Autumn or Fall Colours and as usual the first thing that popped into my head was Autumn leaves as being an Autumn girl by birth, I just love the turning leaves as the colours are so glorious.

Here's my inspiration and unusually for me, there's no stamping! I hope you like it as I'm a bit iffy about this one - it's very simple to make the leaves speak for themselves.

I made the leaves by colouring a sheet of copy paper, pressing on Distress inks - Fossilized Amber, Crushed Olive and Rusty Hinge - in a rather haphazard way. I then scrunched the paper up a little.

I then used an X Cut maple leaf die to die cut the leaves and I have a tip for you here as the paper being thin was not so easy to die cut. I solved the problem by placing some greaseproof paper underneath to stop the leaf sticking to the plate. I then peeled the coloured leaf off the greaseproof. This gave me a second leaf which I will colour and use on something else - the greaseproof looks a lot like vellum.

I dry embossed part of my square kraft card blank with a Darice embossing folder and added a strip of paper from my mixed media pad which had picked up Brusho colour, the golden shades happily toning well with my Autumn colour scheme.

I added the leaves with foam tape and a sticker from the Tim Holtz Small Talk Occasions book which I cut in half as I felt it fit better like that.

I'll be round to catch up as soon as I can after I've dealt with the million and one things I have to do!
Fliss x

Little Bird For That's Crafty

Good morning one and all to my followers old and new, hoping that you're all having a good week and I don't know about the rest of you but I'm really glad we have a long weekend here in the UK as I sure need it.
This week has been so busy with work and stuff I've had very little crafting time so my creation for That's Crafty today had to be a quick one. I'm hoping that you won't be able to tell though!

Isn't this little chap so sweet - I just love his fluffy feathers. This has to be the easiest card I've made in a long time and if you'd like to see just how easy, pop on over for a look as I promise you it really is easier than it looks!

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

How To Make 50 Cards In One Day

Hello everyone and yes, that title is right as this is what I did just over a week ago having got rather behind on my cards to go in the post. As I didn't want it to cost a fortune posting them, they had to be fairly flat so here's what I came up with using the "kiss" principle - my hubby calls this keep it simple stupid but I think keep it simple and stylish fits better here!
First of all, you need a pack of 50 12.5cm square cards with envelopes which I bought at Tescos for £5 and then you need a variety of papers, stamps, scraps and flat embellishments plus any other things you need to use up.
Here are some of the card designs:

Papers by Polka Doodles, stamp by Hero Arts, greeting stamp by Papermania.

Bird stamp by Funstamps, holly by Art Impressions, paper by Basic Grey.

Deer stamp by Penny Black, papers by Polka Doodles, scallop border by Craftime.

Deer stamp by Little Claire Designs, colouring Promarkers, papers by Polka Doodles.

Paper by Polka Doodles, felt dove and ribbon by Papermania.

Deer stamp as before, paper by Polka Doodles.

Paper and angel digital image by Polka doodles.

Paper by Polka Doodles, felt dove as before.

Deer stamp as before, paper by Polka Doodles.

Deer stamp as before, paper by Polka Doodles.

 Paper by Polka Doodles, felt dove as before.

As you can see it's quite simple to make cards in bulk with a variety of designs as long as you keep it simple in design.
It wasn't simple to do this post though as my computer threw a wobbly in the middle and I'm finishing this off half way up the stairs as it's the only place I can get an internet connection - technology!!!!!!

Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and the hope that 2011 will bring you all that you hope for.

Fliss xx