Winter Wonderland Part 2

Hello! A slightly late post with my midway inspiration for our November challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Winter Wonderland.
I've been really busy with the prepping for my father in law's return home which took place yesterday afternoon and for the after service lunch for my mother in law's funeral which is at the end of next week. The result has been very little free time so my blogging, Facebook and Instagram has had to take a back seat.
We've had dramas galore to deal with (including a ton of them today!) which I won't go into but suffice to say I shall be glad when we get to December!

I created a large tag as my inspiration piece using one of the shaped 7.5 inch greyboard tags as my starting point.

The background features a painted surface treated with crackle glaze and stamping around the edges with a crackle stamp which I heat embossed with silver embossing powder. It was then speckled with diluted white gesso for a snowy effect.

I heat embossed some greyboard snowflakes with weathered white embossing powder and painted a couple of greyboard deer with metallic multi surface paints. I glued these on with dimensional adhesive and finished off with stamped text (Tim Holtz Scribbled Trees set) stamped with Archival cobalt ink and cut up then edged with silver.

I hope you're all having a much better time than me and will be back as soon as I'm able to and have more time to spare.
Fliss xx

Close To Nature at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello! Hope you're all surviving the current very hot weather we have here in the UK although thankfully it is slightly cooler today as I felt I was going to melt over the weekend as I can't cope with heat that well and actually got puffy feet and ankles which is a first in this country! Something I normally only get if in somewhere like Italy in August!!!
We have a new challenge up today for July over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and this month our theme is Close To Nature so we'd like to see what nature means to you.
I've been lucky enough to get my inky (and painty) mitts on Lynne's gorgeous new wildflower stamp sets so this was the perfect excuse (not that I really need one!) to ink some up for my inspiration which is a tag with a meadow theme.

I don't actually have process photos here as it was a go with the flow piece and the first thing I did was to colour my tag. I used slightly diluted multi surface paints, starting at the top right with mustard yellow and orange, then drawing in bright magenta. I then added more yellow, graduating to lime and teal on the lower half of the tag. To draw the areas together, I used a baby wipe to pick up excess paint in turn and dabbed this on contrasting areas. This really does help to bring it all together.

Here are a couple of close-ups so that you can hopefully see what I mean:

I then used the distressed harlequin stencil with white gesso to add a pattern in a couple of areas. I next began to add some stamping, using jet black Archival ink and 2 of the silhouette style images. I stamped the blossom image twice, using only part of the image the second time.

I then stamped the blossoms image twice with black ink on a scrap of orange Gelli paper from my bits box and cut the just the floral images out. I glued these over the top of the flowers stamped on the tag and trimmed off any excess.

I added a little more silhouette stamping using cactus flower Archival ink, masking off parts of the image as necessary to bring the elements together. I stamped one of the lovely affirmations from the sets on a further scrap of orange Gelli paper and cut the text into tiles, running black ink around the edges before gluing on.

As a finishing touch, I painted some small greyboard Bits and Pieces butterflies with multi surface paints, adding detail with pencils and scoring them with an embossing ball tool to bend the wings slightly before adding to the tag with 3D glue. A piece of torn, recycled sari ribbon was tied through the top.

Hope you can enter for some great prizes - a voucher for £30 for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils of choice for the Top 3 (see the challenge rules for details).
Have a great day and a lovely rest of the week too.

Fliss xx

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

Challenge The World for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're managing to stay warm in the current rather chilly weather as we have easterly winds here at the moment and we keep getting alternate very rainy days too!
I'm still in the middle of lots of crafting and will be able to reveal all in a couple of weeks and can't wait as it's very exciting!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I have my steampunk hat on again as I've got my very painty mitts on Donna's new Ella set of stamps and couldn't resist giving her a very steampunk themed setting.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as always and hope to see you over there where you'll find tons of inspirational creations with tutorials.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Times Flies for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a good week and have managed some crafting time. I'm up to my eyes in craft stuff at the moment and also had to do some work for my hubby's business (just those things like paying the staff!!!).
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post and this week I'm wearing my steampunk hat, you know - the one with the cogs on :D, for a mixed media art panel.

You'll find all details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to hop over to see the whole thing.

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

Fliss xx

Nature Dreams for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a great week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am. We had a bit of great news this week as our eldest nephew and his wife had a little baby girl late Tuesday evening and they've called her Lily Grace which I really love. This means my in laws are now great grandparents and we all can't wait to see Lily.
On another note entirely, I have my first post of 2018 over at That's Crafty! today on our brand new looking blog. It's one of my Hochanda samples and I hope you like it.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and I hope you'll hop over as there are loads of other projects to see, not just mine!

Have a great weekend and see you soon.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Tis The Season Christmas Challenge at That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're keeping warm in the current freeze. I've been staying warm as I've been running about with all I've had to do over the last couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to Christmas and especially just after when I might finally have some time to slow down!
My new cooker is being delivered tomorrow so it's only a couple of days with fish and chips etc. It's been so long since I last had those and although they were yummy, I ate far too many chips!

We have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and this one is the Christmas one where we'd like to see everything seasonal.
My inspiration is a rather traditional style mixed media Christmas wreath but there are some elements that have a vintage vibe so the post is a bit picture heavy and you may need a cuppa before you read it!

I'll show you first how the tree was made as I had such fun creating with this and it's proof the That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints really do what they say!

I covered the greyboard tree with strips of broderie anglaise trim, gluing it on with DecoArt Matte Medium. The base was covered in texture paste which I drew a pattern in with a cocktail stick to resemble bark.

I then trimmed off the overhanging bits to reveal a rather pretty tree.

Now came the fun part which was to paint my tree. I first gave it a couple of coats of multi surface green and then added highlights with Antique Gold. I painted the tree trunk with chestnut brown and charcoal shimmer paint. I was rather pleased with the pretty effect the gold gave.

I painted the MDF wreath (the medium sized one from the set) with Christmas Red and then used the Poinsettia Tree stencil to add a pattern with the antique gold paint.

I painted some of the greyboard elements that you see below with various multi surface plain and metallic paints and some shimmer paints, adding in some textured buttons which I painted and threaded with baker's twine tied in a bow.

My final embellishments were some little MDF hearts which had the same treatment as the tree and were painted green, gold and purple to tone in with my other items.

I tied some gold ribbon through the top to finish.

I hope you can join us as there are lots more new goodies of That's Crafty! brand going in the shop as we're doing the One Day Special on Hochanda TV today with a bundle of amazing goodies including the most gorgeous stamps and stencils and I can't tell you enough how much I enjoyed working with them. The challenge prize is, as always, a voucher for the online shop and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to enter!

I'll be back in a while as I'm sharing the first of my Hochanda samples over at That's Crafty! Blog today and I can't wait to show you!
See you soon,
Fliss xx

Fly Free Hummingbird ATC for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone on a rather brrrrh freezing cold day. Can't believe the chill as in the last few years we haven't got this until February! Hope you're all managing to keep warm.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog where this week I'm sharing another of the ATCs made for the last Hochanda shows back in October - doesn't seem that long and time has really flown! Plus of course, it's now December - yikes!

 

This is a peek only so I hope it will tempt you to hop over and see the whole creation and of course, the details on how I made it.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

The Only Way Is Art For That's Crafty!

Hello again, a very quick post to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today for my usual weekly post with a tutorial on how I made a mixed media layered art panel starting off with a black paint background that didn't quite fit an earlier project.

You'll find all the details and the whole pic over at the blog if you'd like to hop over and see it. It's very bright and grungy in my most usual style.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Green With Envy Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, really sorry for my lack of visiting over the last week or so. I've been really busy creating for something I can't yet share and as well as that, I managed to do something to my back last week and for the first few days couldn't sit or stand too long. The only thing that seemed to help and still does is my daily early morning walk which I've been doing since I left my accounting job. I've got quite fast and can walk further in my allotted time than when I started so it must be doing some good!
Now to the reason for this post which is to share my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has a Green theme. I decided on nature as it was either that or Christmas!

I covered a 4.5 x 9 white/greyboard panel with torn pieces of vintage book page which I glued on with matt medium. I glued on some scraps of green lace and then brushed green and yellow multi surface paints over the top.
I painted one of the larger wildflower greyboard embellishments with the green and yellow paints then added some pencil detail. I'm currently having a bit of a sort out of my stash and came across some pressed flowers, the orange ones being perfect for for my creation. I added one in the centre of my wildflower and then glued some on the panel with the large flower.
I stamped a couple of butterflies from Lynne's Affirmations Set 1 on stamping card with Fern Green Archival ink and added a little colour with the leftover yellow paint watered down. I cut them out and glued them to the panel.
I finished off with a Tim Holtz sticker which I brushed with a little of the watered down paint.

I hope you can enter as there's a great prize of a voucher for the online shop up for grabs.

I'll be back in a while as I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today.
Fliss xx

Fairy Dancer for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a lovely and hopefully crafty week. I'm creating like mad at the moment and making things I can't yet share and can't wait to show you as I so love what I'm working with!
A very quick post as I have some bookkeeping stuff to do today to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog with my usual Friday post where I'm sharing a mixed media art panel featuring one of the gorgeous Tim Holtz paper dolls turned into a little fairy.

You'll find all the details over at the blog and would love it if you paid a visit as there's tons of amazing inspiration including links to Youtube videos made by design team member Melina which are not to be missed.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Hoping to see you soon.
Fliss xx

Forever Floral at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, I'm now back from my trip to stay with my daughter in London. We had a lovely if rather tiring time as we did a whistlestop tour of quite a few of the attractions that despite living in the UK our whole lives, we'd never managed to see.
There are some pics on my next post for those of you who didn't see them on Facebook but first the actual reason for this post which is to show you my inspiration for our new challenge today at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Forever Floral so flowers are the order of the day.

I've created a mixed media postcard for the challenge, starting off with a rounded corner white/greyboard postcard which I spread with a thin layer of texture paste then drew on a rough stripe pattern with an old store card.
When the paste was dry, I roughly brushed on several shades of That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paint - Teal, White, Green and Yellow. I used more teal at the top and more green at the bottom. When the paint was dry, I swiped on some Fern Green Archival ink on the raised areas to resemble grass.
I next used the script stamp (from Textures Collection Set 1 by That's Crafty!) without a mount to add a pattern across the bottom half. I brushed some diluted green roughly on the grass area and some diluted Metallic Antique Gold in various places.
I painted the poppy and butterfly Bits and Pieces Greyboard Embellishments with Multi Surface Paints after scoring with a fine embossing tool to add detail. Once the paint was dry, I added more detail with pigment pencils.
I brushed a little diluted gold over the painted greyboard elements to add a glazed finish then glued them on the postcard with silicone glue.
I finished off with part of the text from one of the gorgeous quotes on Lynne's Affirmations Set 6 which I stamped with Archival Fern Green on a scrap of mixed media paper washed with leftover green paint.

There's a great prize for the randomly drawn winner of a voucher for the online shop and all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter.
Hope to see you there!
Fliss xx

Winter Moon for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. Mine has been rather busy with work at my hubby's office (and a 2 hour train journey home due to Southern Rail issues!) and something hush hush that I can't share for a while yet.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I have a frosty offering in the form of a card which was one of my Hochanda samples.

You'll need to hop over to the blog to see the whole thing as always and hope to see you there.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and I'll see you maybe next week as we're off to stay with my Sarah on Sunday for a few days.

Fliss xx

Tropical Rainforest Shrine at That's Crafty! Blog

I'm back again just to let you know that I have my usual Friday project over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week it's the rather bright and jazzy ATC shrine that I made for last week's Hochanda shows.

This is just a sneak peek so you'll need to head on over to the blog to see the whole thing and how it came about.

Hope to see you there!
Have a great weekend and see you soon.
Fliss xx

My Wings

Hello all, hope you've had a lovely weekend. Mine has been quite busy mostly on the craft type front and yesterday evening we went to see the new Blade Runner film as the original one is my favourite film of all time (which might surprise you but I admit to a lifelong love of sci fi and fantasy both in films and in books too)
I was rather apprehensive about the new one as quite often I wonder why they bother with a sequel. This was, although not quite up to the standard of the original classic, very well done. It was extremely atmospheric and there were things that mirrored the past film that were good. It left quite a few loose ends though so I don't know if they're planning on a further sequel - though if they want to include Harrison Ford they need to be quick as he's not getting any younger!

I gave myself a bit of a challenge today to create something in just half an hour which is always difficult as I am NOT a fast crafter. There is something rather satifying though in just slapping the paint on and not thinking too hard about what you're doing which is why my tag ended up quite grungy!

So, my base was a Ranger Size 8 black tag and the first step was to brayer on a layer of purple paint. I then added dots of lilac and lavender paints and roughly spread it with the brayer.
I then slapped some turquoise paint on a piece of bubble wrap and pressed this here and there on the tag. As you'll see, some ended up on the black areas too.
I then applied a bit of pattern, using Herringbone Background Dinky stencil with yellow and turquoise paints and the Distressed Harlequin Dinky stencil with orange paint.
I added a That's Crafty! Bits and Pieces Greyboard butterfly painted orange, stamped with a butterfly from Lynne's Affirmations Set 1 stamp set, stamped with black Archival ink and painted yellow.
I finished off with one of the new Lynne's Affirmations quotes from Set 3 which I stamped with black and painted with a wash of turquoise before cutting into tiles. I ran the black ink round the edges and glued them on to finish.

Hope you like it
Fliss xx

Autumn Fairy for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, Neil's second show is just starting on Hochanda (Freeview Channel 85) but if you missed it there's always rewind.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog sharing one of my samples which is a card featuring one of the gorgeous new fairy greyboard sheets. She's Autumnal as I thought her wings looked like leaves. All details over at the blog.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and if you watched the shows, hope you enjoyed them as I did.

Fliss xx

That's Crafty! Next Hochanda Shows

Hello there, just a quick post for anyone out there who doesn't do Facebook or Instagram to let you know that there will be some fabulous new goodies from That's Crafty! on Hochanda on Friday with the lovely Neil doing some great demos.
The shows are at 8am and 11am and not to be missed as the new stamps, stencils and greyboard on the show are just amazing!
Some fantastic samples from my DT sisters too and here's some sneak peeks of some of mine (in fact, my Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog will feature one of my samples but you'll have to wait until then to find out which lol)

These are just 3 of my samples and I'll be sharing some more tomorrow so watch this space!

Fliss xx

Fly Away at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone on a rather Autumnal day as it's quite chilly down here but is bright so hopefully will warm up soon.
It's time for a new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and this time it's projects with wings/birds we'd like to see as the theme is Fly Away.
I've created an Autumn wreath as I love this time of year being an Autumn girl by birth and never cope well with heat so give me a cold and frosty morning with bright sunshine and I'm so happy!

The wreath is one of the inclusions in the That's Crafty! MDF wreaths and baubles set and I've used the smallest one.
The wreath surface is coloured with Distress oxide inks, spritzed then dried and stamped, then some heat embossing with gold powder for a bit of glimmer.
Here are some process pics:

 

I then used my leaf dipping technique to colour some of the new That's Crafty! Surfaces Greyboard Bits and Pieces leaves perfect for Autumn projects.

 

The paint is actually on a clear plastic plate not the cross stitch fabric underneath! Messy to do but great fun and the leaves look fab when dried off.
I scored them to make veins and added colour with a Promarker. I then painted up one of the greyboard birds to resemble a robin. I die cut some Autumn greenery from bits of paper in my scraps box using the Tim Holtz Sissix Garden Greens set and coloured some berries on some of the sprigs. I assembled it all as you see.

Hope you can join in as the prize is a voucher for the online shop and there are tons of new Autumn and Winter goodies flowing in right now so it's not to be missed!

Have a great day.
Fliss xx

ITAC17 Challenge 1 - Europe (Positive Spirit)

Hi everyone, I have a creation to share today that is finally a because I wanted to project which I actually started before we went on holiday but have only now managed to finish off.
I'm probably last past the post with an entry for Challenge 1 of ITAC17 Europe - which was the brainchild of Aall and Create and I really hope that I can get the others done too. This is my entry which is a mixed media canvas panel which I think has most of the required elements, if you click on the link above, you can check out the challenge and look at the others too as we're off around the globe for these.
Here are the elements of which you had to include at least one:

A face
Papers (newspaper, printed paper, rice paper .....etc
Letters, numbers
Blue for the colour of the European Union, Union Jack
Ribbon, twine, string or lace
Textures - take inspiration from history, from ancient civilisation to the fall of the Berlin wall
Something both vintage and modern

I brushed my natural coloured canvas with a mix of white gesso, titan buff and flesh tint, choosing not to cover up all of the background as I love the colour and the distressed look this gives.
I then glued on a torn piece of paper from a vintage and very tatty book of Shakespeare's plays from my stash - if you look closely, you can see the text is from Hamlet. I always think Shakespeare's plays have as much meaning today as they did when they were written so this could be my vintage and modern.
I then used texture paste with a couple of That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils (Hole in the Wall and Chequerboard Bacground) to add some patterned areas. When these were dry, I rubbed then with a mix of That's Crafty! Shimmer and Metallic Paints, adding highlights with DecoArt Glamour Dust Glitter Paint and Prima Art Alchemy Opal Magic paints.

I glued on a piece of chiffon rose ribbon which started out white and altered this with various of the paints to tone it in with my background.
I next stamped on the good vibes and positive mind images from the Aall and Create stamp set 7 by Bipasha BK and the numbers and rectangles texture stamps from stamp set 10 by Autour de Mwa using black VersaFine ink and heat embossed them with clear powder.
I stamped the free spirit image from the Bipasha BK set on mixed media paper with black ink, coloured it with paints and watercolour pencils, then trimmed it and glued it on.

The final touch was to add a wing (That's Crafty! Bits and Pieces Greyboard Large Wings Sheet) which I altered with shimmer, metallic and glitter paints and some Stampendous Frantage Shabby Pink Embossing Enamel.

I hope you like what I made as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Fliss xx

Country Style Christmas Wreath for That's Crafty!

Hello again, just realised I forgot to say that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with another Christmas creation, this week one of my Hochanda wreaths made from the set of 3 amazing MDF wreaths which will take any media you care to throw at them - in my case rather a lot of texture paste!

Just a sneaky peek here and you'll need to hop over to the blog to see the full effect. Really loved making this I have to say as it's so enjoyable making the plain greyboard elements come to life. Hope you'd like to see how I did that too.

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