Joy and Serendipity at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello everyone, apologies yet again for my lack of visiting. My whole week has been spent down at my in laws house moving my father in law's clothes downstairs to the bedroom he will use when he gets home (some washing needed doing too!) and dealing with taking my mother in law's clothing to charity shops plus a dress agency which will be selling some of the more high value items to raise more money for charity. I still have to sort out her flower arranging stuff as my father in law has asked me to do that so I'll be down there again next week to get it done. It seems never ending at the moment!
My father in law is now much better and can walk at last and get out of bed by himself. We're now waiting for him to be transferred to a rehabilitation centre to get him ready to return home.

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today too and it's another tag using lots of the new products from the last Hochanda show.

You'll find all the details of how it came about over at the blog.

Have a great weekend and will be round as soon as I can find a spare hour or two!
Fliss xx

Moments of Magic Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello! It's still very hot and sunny and although we had quite a bit of rain last weekend, the ground was so parched I think only a week of rain will sort it out!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! today and this week I have a collaged tag to share with a summery feel to it. Hope you like my sneak peek.

Have a great day and hope you can keep cool.

Fliss xx

In The Walled Garden Mixed Media for That's Crafty!

Hello! It's hot and sunny again today although thankfully my puffy feet and ankles have gone down now. Hope everyone is coping with the heat if you have it.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a mixed media piece of artwork created on one of the fab MDF uprights as it's quite a while since I altered one. There's a sneak peek below and you'll find the whole thing over at the blog if you hop over as I hope you will to see how it came about.

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

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

My Dilemma at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello everyone, still sneezing unfortunately and thanks for the well wishes on my last post. Just a quickie today as I'm having to do the dreaded h.......k as my younger daughter is home for the weekend and as her bedroom is currently where I have some of my work stuff a tidy up is necessary!

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a post about my dilemma as I created something that it was really hard to cover up so if you'd like to see what came about, please do hop on over.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you soon as I have a lot of catching up to do over the weekend.

Fliss xx

Mixed Media Floral Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and sorry for the lack of visiting this week, I've been up to my eyes in my accounting type work and haven't had as much free time as usual so hopefully will be round over the long weekend although if sunny, gardening will be done!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog with my usual Friday post and this week have a many layered mixed media tag to share with a floral theme (no surprise there!) and pretty pastel shades including my favourite purple hues.

This is just a sneak peek and you'll find all the details over at the blog as usual with a photo of the whole tag.

Have a really lovely weekend and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Shabby Chic Blossoms for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, the weekend is nearly here thank goodness as I've had a very busy week with work and stuff and I'm looking forward to some creative time although I might just take a peek at certain celebrations going on over the weekend and I, for one, will be rather glad to get all the media hype about the Royal Wedding out of the way!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday tutorial and this week I have another mixed media project to share created on one of the newest MDF surfaces to share - this is one of the set of rounds and you get an amazing 15 in the set in 3 different diameters and I've used the 6 inch one here.

As you can see, I've gone pastel this week as I'm trying out the new shades of multi surface paints and I really love this pretty light blue.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

A Stitch In Time Challenge Midway Inspiration

Hello everyone with an oops from me as guess who forgot to schedule her post for the midway inspiration for the May Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog!
I hope you're all having a good week and enjoying some warmer weather at last. It's not been sunny here today and is rather windy but it's not cold really.
We have 2 new members of our family now having picked up our little furry babies on Sunday and they're right little devils, zipping around like greased lightning! Pics are at the end of the post for some awwws.

 

My chosen substrate is the largest size of MDF tag by That's Crafty! Surfaces and I started off my background by using the Triangle Lines 8 x 8 Stencil with texture paste to add a pattern. Once it was dry, I gave it a coat of Evergreen Multi Surface Paint.

The next layer was crackle glaze and once this had set, I brushed Green Multi Surface Paint over the top and hey presto! lots of crackle appeared as you can see on the second photo.

I stamped my flowers and leaves from my Fanciful Flowers stamp set 1 on Gelli printed papers from my stash, made with multi surface paints and Distress Oxide inks and stencilling. I cut out the whole flower from one and just the centre from another, then layered these up to make my floral element.

I brushed Lime Multi Surface Paint over a scrap of mixed media paper, stamping the lines of stitching from Donna's Girls Claire set of stamps using VersaFine Olympia Green ink and distressed the edges with an emery board.

I glued on the stitched panel and my floral embellishment, finishing off with the quote from Fanciful Flowers set 2 stamps on a scrap of lime painted mixed media paper.

There's a great prize of a £30 voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils for the Top 3 so what are you waiting for!

Now for some cute pics of Hazel and Sage our new furry babies.

Hazel is an Agouti colour which is a soft brown like a wild rabbit and Sage, her brother, is a Black Otter colour being mostly black with a reddish cream underside and they are both Netherland Dwarfs like our Dill who it must be said isn't too impressed with the babies at the moment! He's the grand age of 8 years and they're only 8 weeks old!!!

Have a great rest of week and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Bright Blossoms for That's Crafty!

Morning all, I hope you're all having a good week with hopefully some sunny weather as we have here on the South Coast. It really does make you fee a lot more perky and I've been out for morning walks on most days to enjoy the sunshine. I'm really lucky to live right on the coast within a 5 minute walk of the seafront so that's where I tend to head for a walk. The only thing marring the coastline is the huge wind farm out in the bay but it's ecologically sound so I guess we have to put up with the sight!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with another of those fabulous chunkies which are a really fantastic surface for mixed media which is what I've created, this time bright and zingy as I felt a bit summery when I did the post.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Flowers Always Mixed Media Chunkie for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're enjoying some better weather today with some sunshine and a bit more warmth.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post which this week is a mixed media creation with a ton of products thrown at it to make a shabby chic style floral piece of artwork.

The above is just a sneak peek and all details can be found over at the blog.

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

Fliss xx

Going Round In Circles Challenge Midway Inspiration

Hello, hope you're all having a good week and hopefully have Spring weather as we do as it's a glorious sunny day down here on the South Coast and much warmer too.
Slightly dodgy start to the day though as I had to make yet another trip to the tyre repair shop as I had another puncture in the same tyre as last time! Pesky builders and their screws which shouldn't be in the road!!! Thankfully it was fixed very quickly.
I have some midway inspiration for our April Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog with the theme of Going Round In Circles and I couldn't resist this floral wreath which I created for last week's Hochanda shows and if you watched, you might have seen this one (screen shot below)

This started off with the largest of the new MDF circles, the 8 inch one which I painted with white gesso and then used just the centre of the new dot mandala stencil (a sellout on the shows) to add detail in the centre of the circle (no point stencilling on an area to be covered up!) with texture sand paste. I then painted the whole circle with slightly watered down lime multi surface paint which gives a lovely fresh Spring green. I then spritzed on some diluted lime and mustard, allowing the paints to run down the panel.

Once the background was dry, I took a selection of flowers in shades of pink and purple from my large supply of flowers stamped and cut out from gelli prints in a recent mammoth crafting session and laid these out around the circle to decide on placement. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I glued them together with 3D glue gel and added them to the background with the same glue. I glued leaves in between, making sure they popped out a little to give a realistic wreath effect.
I finished off with some green gingham ribbon tied through the holes in the top (I can recommend threading through with a needle if necessary as it helps pull thicker ribbons through) and the quote stamped on a scrap of gelli print paper and shaped to form a plaque.

I hope you can join in the challenge which is now open to entrants all over the world and has a prize of a £30 voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils of choice from the ever expanding That's Crafty! own range for the Top 3 chosen by the Design Team.

Have a great day and a lovely week.
Fliss xx

Vintage Floral Card for That's Crafty! and Hochanda News

Hello everyone on what for me is a very exciting day as today is the day my stamps will be on Hochanda - yippee!
I also have a post over at That's Crafty! Blog where I'm sharing a vintage style card make with some mixed media background paper that I created.
Here's a sneak peek which I hope you like.

The shows are on at 12pm and 4pm SKY 663, FREEVIEW 85, FREESAT 817 and hope you'll be watching!

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

Exciting Times!

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a good week. Mine is getting very exciting as tomorrow is a very big day for me - I'm very proud (and a bit nervous) to say that my stamps for That's Crafty! will be making a debut on Hochanda with our lovely new demo lady, Jo Channon - how fantastic is that!

I'd like to say a HUGE thanks here to Laura for giving me the chance to make my dreams come true as I still have to pinch myself when I ink up the stamps that were once just ideas in my head.

You can watch live on the TV or online at Hochanda Tv or record if you can't watch at the time or on the Hochanda rewind.
The show times are 12.00pm and 4.00pm - SKY 663, FREEVIEW 85, FREESAT 817.

Here are rather a lot of sneak peeks of some of my makes in case you missed them earlier (plus there are some never before seen on here)

Hope you enjoyed these and if you watch the shows you'll see lots more creations with the stamps shown below from my very talented DT sisters.

See you soon.
Hugs,
Fliss xxx

A Taste of the Orient at That's Crafty!

Hello folks, hope you've all had a good week and had some sunny warmer weather as we now have here although apparently the big chill is about to reappear!
I've been very busy this week with family and work so hopefully I'll be able to come and visit over the weekend.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a mixed media piece of artwork with an Eastern flavour and a rather bold red, black and gold colour scheme. You'll find all the details over at the blog and here's a sneak peek of what I have in store for you.

Have a great day and a lovely, hopefully crafty weekend and see you soon.

Fliss xx

Flutter Your Feathers for That's Crafty! and other news

Hello everyone, I hope you're all well as it's been ages since I've been able to come and visit, the reason for which will be revealed very soon although there is a sneak peek on here for anyone who hasn't seen my sneak peeks on Facebook and Instagram.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post that this week is one of the mixed media creations made for the Hochanda One Day Special back in December which was a total sellout.

All details of my little fluttering hummingbird can be found over at the blog as usual.

Now for the promised sneak peeks of some new mixed media stamps coming very soon to That's Crafty! and hope you like them.

I shall have some free time very soon and will be popping by as soon as I can.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Craft Stamper March Issue

Hello all on a rather windy and dreary day down here in the South of England. I'm taking a short break in the midst of a crafting session as I'm really excited to say that I have a project in the March issue of Craft Stamper magazine which will hit the shops on Friday this week although if you subscribe, you'll already have your inky mitts on it!

Here's a sneak peek of what I made which is in my bright and zingy style.

Have a great week 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

Feeling Blue at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello and welcome to my inspiration for our January challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog as this year we've gone monthly. Our first challenge of the year has the theme of Feeling Blue so we'd like to see entries which are mainly blue.
I've created an art panel with my favourite feline, Bentley, and surrounded him with flowers. Hope you like it.

I covered my white/greyboard panel with paint in shades of blue with white which I brayered on. Once the paint was dry, I used the Daisy Background stencil with shades of Oxide inks to add a floral pattern in the top right corner. I also sponged a little of the pink Oxide ink around the edges and stamped the script from Textures Set 3 down the left hand edge with Archival Cobalt ink without using an acrylic block.
I stamped Bentley twice and several of the large flower from Donna's Fleur set on mixed media paper with Archival Jet Black ink and painted the images with several shades of blue Multi Surface paints. I then cut the images out, just the head on the second Bentley image.
I glued on the first flower about half way down on the left side and then stamped Bentley again on the background and over the top of the flower - this is to save cutting out his whiskers. I glued the whole cat image over the stamped image and added his head using foam pads for some dimension.
I added the remaining flowers with a mix of glue and foam pads for interest. The finishing touch was to stamp the smile next in the lower right hand corner.

Have a great day.
Fliss xx

Nature Blooms for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and apologies once again for being awol. I've had a bit of a week as my new cooker went wrong 10 minutes after the fitters left, blowing the electrics after which the main gas oven wouldn't work! We're still waiting on it being fixed but they're messing us about and keep changing the date so I could be in trouble if they don't come next week as I have 6 for Christmas dinner and 12 on Christmas evening!
On top of that, I got a flat tyre on my car caused by a screw (we have 3 lots of builders working down our road at the moment so I wonder where it came from) That was repaired yesterday thank goodness as it's really difficult without wheels at this time of year.
I'm over at That's Crafty! blog today with one of my samples from last week's Hochanda One Day Special which has a nature theme.

I hope you'll be intrigued enough to hop over and see the whole thing with the how to and some more detail pics.

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

Fliss xx

Crazy Quilt Art Panel for That's Crafty! and Hochanda

Hello again, just had to let you know that I have one of the samples I created for today's upcoming  That's Crafty! One Day Special on Hochanda, starting today at 6pm and 8pm and then continuing tomorrow at 9am, 1pm and the final call at 5pm, over at That's Crafty! Blog.
The shows are not to be missed for some fantastic demos by our Neil Burley and lots of amazing samples from the Design Team. As well as the mega bundle of new stamps, stencils and substrates that is the One Day Special, there are even more brand new stencils and paints and the new That's Crafty! mediums too.

You'll find all the details over at the blog and I do hope you'll catch some of the shows if you can as you're in for a real treat.

In the meantime, have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx