Monochromatic With Stampalot

Hello there, I'm back again a little later than intended as I managed to sleep rather late this morning and had a bit of a struggle getting out of bed (don't suppose I'm the only one though!). Hoping you all had a lovely time last night whatever you chose to do.
My post is about the January challenge for Stampalot, so generously sponsored by the lovely Janice and Andy of Sir Stampalot. You may remember that I was lucky enough to win the October challenge and received an awesome amount of food themed goodies as the prize so I have to say that you really should enter if you haven't as I never expected to win but as they say, you have to be in it to win it!
The challenge theme is Monochromatic and I've been lucky enough to be invited to be the Guest Designer for the challenge. I chose shades of purple and in fact used to use the colour so much that I was known as the Queen of Purple at stamp club.

I made my own background paper as usual using a flower stamp from Hero Arts Real Flowers clear stamp set, stamped in layers first with Milled Lavender Distress ink, then VersaColor Lilac and finally Sweet Plum Memento ink. I trimmed the right long edge with a Papermania border die.
I stamped the dress form from the Inkylicious Corsetiere clear stamp set with VersaFine Imperial Purple ink on lilac parchment card and cut this out. I die cut a shaped panel from the same card using the Tim Holtz Baroque die, inked the edges with lilac and purple inks then embossed with The Tim Holtz Textures Fades damask folder.
I stamped the corset, price, tape measure and advertising from the stamp set with the Imperial Purple ink, stamped small flowers from a Rubber Stamp Tapestry set on the corset and cut this out. The remaining items were cut out with the Papermania Doorplate die set and the new Papermania tags and labels die set.
I assembled the card as you see, adding stitching down one side of the backing paper with purple floss and finishing with velvet ribbon, floral lace altered in colour with lilac ink, a silk flower and button.

Challenges for my card:
I Brake For Challenges - Vintage
Everybody Art - Anything Goes
Stampin' For The Weekend - Anything Goes
The Artistic Stamper January Challenge - Vintage

Thanks for looking and thanks so much to the Stampalot Design Team for the great honour of being this month's Guest Designer.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Spring Green

Hello everyone, hope you're having a good weekend. Spring actually felt like it was here this morning but the weather has now started to turn grey again.
Before I show you my creation I'd just like to say that my very best wishes go out to those suffering from the earthquake after effects in Japan as I've been so horrified with all the devastation caused by the tsunami. Those of you that know me will be aware that my elder daughter Claire is studying Japanese at Sheffield uni and returned a few months ago from spending a year over there at Tsukuba university. Whilst there, she made a number of Japanese friends and has been very upset by the disaster. As far as she can tell her friends are all OK as Tsukuba is quite a distance from the area hit by the tidal wave and only suffered a loss of power due to the power station shut down. I can only hope that the power station causing problems can be made safe.

After the doom and gloom, I have a piece of artwork that I finished today which was made with Spring in mind, inspired by the sunny weather of the last couple of days.

My wall hanging is made out of squares from my bits and pieces box and was inspired by the current and sadly last Compendium of Curiosities challenge - Design Details, on page 67 of Sir Tim's awesome book. I can't tell you the techniques as these are in the book and hopefully you have a copy. The pieces I decided to display use most of the techniques that I really enjoy doing to make my background papers and all except the diamond stamped paper (left over from a very long time ago) were made using Distress inks in various ways. They mostly involve my 2 favourite colours, Crushed Olive and Victorian Velvet which I also used to colour the stamped flowers and the butterfly which are all by Hobby Art.

I'm entering my creation in the following challenges:
Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities - Design Details
Sir Stampalot March Challenge - Spring Is In The Air
The Artistic Stamper March Challenge - Spring Has Sprung
Meljen's Designs - Green

I've also got a little reminder that there's still time to enter the current Lets Ink It Up challenge - Show Us Your Embossing which has another week left for you to make your creations. It's really easy as all you need to do is break out those embossing folders or embossing powder and combine them with some stamping - please remember that no digital images are allowed as the LIIU challenges are all about getting inky.

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Very Vintage

Hello everyone, hope you've got better weather than the South of England as it's raining cats and dogs here at the moment. I'm taking the opportunity (as we all would!) to catch up on some crafting although with a slight glitch as I currently have no printer.
Happily the creation I have to show you involves lots of stamping, painting, embossing and glittering so the lack of printer didn't come into it.

You can probably see why my card is very vintage. The background paper is made using my Distress Ink Grunge Background technique (link to tutorial on side bar) and because the card I used was quite absorbent, it came out even more grungy than usual. I used Crushed Olive and Victorian Velvet DIs with Inkadinkado's Garden Delight clear stamp set.
The decorative bar is a scrap of card embossed with the Cuttlebug Ornamental Iron set folder. I rubbed Pearlescent Olive Brillance ink over the raised areas and then sponged Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet in the recesses. I added a small further border of pink paper trimmed with the Martha Stewart Arch Lattice border punch and embossed with the Cuttlebug Textile folder.
I painted a scrap of corrugated packaging with Olive acrylic paint, tore the base and then smudged on embossing ink and embossed with copper powder. I added a lovely image from Art Freebies blog and then smudged on some Tarnished Brass Distress Stickles.
I finished off with a fabric flower from a bargain bag at a local haberdashery shop, some Prima leaves, some wire and bead sprays that I made and some haberdashery flower stamens. You might not be able to see the sparkle that well in the photo but the heart beads are glittered and the round beads are irridescent.
I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Sir Stampalot September Challenge - All Distressed
Delightful Sketches - Make It Sparkle
Charisma Cardz - Anything Goes
and Tuesday Taggers - It Takes All Sorts ( this is being sponsored by Ribbon Oasis - http://www.ribbonoasis.co.uk/ worth a look for some gorgeous ribbons)

Thanks for looking
Fliss x

Art and Nature

Hello everyone on this rather breezy Monday. We have quite strong winds here but at least it's not raining at the moment.
I'm finally starting to get back into challenges and have a card to show you that I've managed to fit into 3 different challenges.

The background paper is made using my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (link on side bar) with Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick Distress inks. The stamp set is my favourite Inkadinkado Garden Delight 97623.
The butterfly is also from the set and was stamped in Memento black ink (essential to avoid colour bleeding when working with alcohol based pens) and coloured with Promarkers. I then sponged on embossing ink and embossed with crystal powder for some glitz.
I finished off with a quote from the Butterfly Kisses stamp set Clear 2 Collage stamped in the Memento black and coloured with a Meadow Green Promarker. I added some pearls and gems from the Prima E range as the final touch.
I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Sir Stampalot August Challenge - Bring On The Bling (this is about as blingy as I get lol)
Alphabet Challenge Blog - Q For Quotes
Craft Your Days Away Challenges - With Wings

Butterfly Plaque

Well here's my second post today with my finally finished entry for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge set by Sarah with these colours below to use on your creation:

It's such a lovely photo and gorgeous natural colours even though it's actually peeled paint that I decided to go with nature and have made a round plaque to be hung on the wall or displayed on an easel.

The plaque is made from part of a box which I wanted to recycle as the card is quite thick and ideal for this sort of thing.
I inked all around the edges with VersaColor Lime and then stamped on a small Anna Griffin rose in VersaFine Olympia Green to make a textured looking edge. I then cut a circle of pale blue card and stamped a large Rubber Stampede flower all over in lime and green tea inks. I stuck this to the plaque.
I then stamped the smaller butterfly from Stamp Scapes 14B Butterflies on pale blue card with the VersaFine ink and embossed it with Crystal powder. I cut it out and embossed on the reverse with a large ball tool to make the wings curve.
I stamped one more flower and cut it out, embossed on the back as for the butterfly and stuck over the central flower on the plaque with foam tape. I then stuck the butterfly on with foam tape.
Many thanks due to my dear friend Brenda for pointing out that this fits the May challenge over at Sir Stampalot so I'm entering it in that too.

Fairy Queen

Back with another post at last after several busy days sorting out family things and my younger daughter with her ongoing back problem.
I've finally finished my Ready Steady Stamp challenge artwork after starting it and having to stop due to the above problems and found that it also fits the theme of the very first Sir Stampalot challenge which is Fantasy. Here's the Ready Steady Stamp recipe:

I've made a piece of wall art using a set of stamps which I've had for a couple of months and have been itching to use.

The stamp set is by The Queen's Ink and from the Paper Relics range. It's called Flight Ref PR-012 and is available from The Stamp Attic.
I stamped all the elements with black Memento ink and coloured them with various Promarkers. I then cut them all out.
I covered a frame mount with pink and brown paper by Papermania (the Red Hot capsule collection) and covered a piece of mountboard with paper from the Green capsule collection. I painted a piece of corrugated packaging with dusty rose acrylic paint and assembled the panel with this behind the frame.
I added the fairy as shown and decorated her with pearls and gems. I punched a border with a Martha Stewart punch and another piece of pink paper then punched out some green paper hearts and stuck these elements on the left hand side with buttons for embellishments.
I finished off with some Prima leaves and flowers and generated the Queen of Hearts text on the computer and coloured with a Promarker.
I've been a bit cunning with the numbers on this piece and if you look closely you'll see they're on the Fly text panel.
Thanks for looking.
Fliss x

Cottage Charm

Morning All. Finally managed to finish the card for the challenge combined with a blog hop which has been organised by my friend Brenda on behalf of Sir Stampalot to celebrate their recent move to new premises. The challenge theme is of course MOVING and if you haven't yet had a go at the fab blog hop do pop over to Brenda's blog Floral Fantasies to get all the details and see all the fantastic prizes on offer. If you do a card for the related challenge there's a really big prize up for grabs.
Here's what I made for the challenge which has a country theme inspired by some gorgeous new stamps I recently acquired.

The absolutely gorgeous cottages are from Crafty Individuals CI-263 and are one of their brand new releases. I stamped them and coloured them with several shades of my favourite Distress inks for a soft look.
The paper came free with Crafts Beautiful magazine and is perfect with the cottages as some of it looked like a cottage garden. I copied mine on to linen paper and altered it with Distress inks a little to keep the soft look and added 2 of the pretty borders at the base of the card. I cut out 2 of the butterflies and rounded them with an embossing ball tool before sticking on with foam mount.
I made the inside of the card match by using the remaining piece of cottage garden paper and a sentiment mounted on pansy border paper.