Strawberries and Cream

Hello folks, I'm a bit late with my post today as I taught a workshop this morning and got behind on my preparations so had no time to do this earlier today. Many apologies to Jacqueline and the team for that.
It's time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday and continuing with the monthly theme of June and Associated Events what else could it be this week but Strawberries and Cream with the colours Red, Green and White/Cream as the theme.
I decided to take the challenge quite literally as you'll see from my card below:

I've used a jar stamp by The Artistic Stamper and a strawberry stamp free a while back with Craft Stamper Magazine. I stamped several of each image with Archival Coffee ink and then coloured them with Distress inks (Barn Door, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed and Vintage Photo) as I wanted a fairly realistic look.
I used gingham backing paper from the Polka Doodles All Around & Everywhere CD and a strawberry themed journalling card from the Studio 12 Picknix Collection 1 CD. I also used some heart shaped doilies for a tea time look.

So there you have it and the Design Team have made a widely varying selection of samples this week so do pop over for some great inspiration and you'll see how easy this challenge really is.

Challenges for my card:
Clearly Inspired - Red, Green and White
Craft Punked - Strawberries & Cream
Daring Cardmakers - You're So Sweet
Phindy's Place - Gingham or Plaid

Thanks for looking and have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A Bit Of Alice

Good morning folks, hope you're all having a great weekend so far. Mine has been quite crafty as we have a new challenge for you today over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this fortnight the theme is Make It For A Child.
This one was a bit tricky for me as most of the children in the family are now grown and I don't have much stuff that isn't digital. Then I remembered my Alice stamps and this is the result!

Lots of pics here as my wall hanging is around 30cm square in size and as you can see it's quite bright!

Ingredients used:
Stamps - Polka Doodles Wonderland rubber stamp set
               The Artistic Stamper  steampunk butterfly and snail
               Anita's distressed stripe stamp
Inks - Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Worn Lipstick and Ripe Persimmon.
          VersaColor Lilac
          Memento Tuxedo Black
Papers from Polka Doodles Wonderland CD
Fuchsia  Pink Acrylic Paint
Matte Clear Embossing Powder
Promarkers
Embossing Folders - Cuttlebug polka dots and textile , Papermania floral and triboss squares
Die Cutting Sets -  Papermania hearts, squares and flowers, Nestabilities circles and scalloped circles

I used the black and white option papers from the CD and coloured them with Distress inks and the lilac. I then embossed the squares for texture.
I stamped the images and coloured with Promarkers then cut them out and assembled them using selected die cut shapes, also cut from black and white papers then inked and embossed.
I made embellishments by stamping white card with the checks and stripes stamps and black ink and die cut flower shapes from this. The butterflies were stamped on striped paper and the cute snail on white and then cut out.
The frame is painted with the pink paint and embossed in places with the checks stamp and clear matte powder for added texture.

The Design Team have again excelled themselves with an amazing array of very different projects so do pop over for a stroll down the catwalk, you will be so inspired!

A few challenges I found for my wall hanging:
2 Sisters - Anything Goes
Dies To Die For - Anything Goes (with a die cut)
Our Creative Corner - Over The Edge
Crafty Ann's - Bold and Bright

Have a great day and thanks for looking.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A Decorative Mood

Morning everyone, I won't say it's a good one today as it's dark, miserable and grey - not to mention rather cold! I have something quite bright to show you that might cheer up a dull day though.
It's my turn to do the Mid Week Motivation for the Steampunk with Metal Challenge over at Make My Monday this week and I've done a tutorial on how to get a fabulous metal look on your creations without breaking the bank! So of you pop on over, you'll see how I made the dress form on my tag below:

The details of the dress form are on the tutorial and the rest of the supplies used to make the tag and the wings are as follows:
Wings - The Artistic Stamper Steampunk Butterflies
Background Stamps - Grungy Numbers from Paper Artsy Gentlemen Plate 4
Text from Paper Artsy Wrought Iron 3 USW13
Embossing Folder - Mini Steampunk from Tim Holtz Texture Trades Artful Muse set
Additional Inks - Stormy Sky and Dusty Concord Distress Inks, Black VersaFine Ink
Clear Embossing Powder
Drill Ribbon (altered with the StazOn inks)

I'm entering my tag in the Simon Says Stamp challenge - Dies To Die For (Tim Holtz Sewing Room)

No crafting for me today as when this pops up I shall be in the middle of preparing a VAT return!
I would like to say hello and welcome to Jane before I go - thanks so much for joining my followers.
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

Butterfly Wishes

Hello everyone, hope you're having a reasonable start to the week. I'm taking a short break from my pile of accounts work to show you a card I've made from my ever growing heap of paper scraps. I've taken a photo so you can see what I still have to use up (a bit scary as there's rather a lot!) Note to self - must use more up!!!

Some of the pieces are just strips 1 or 2 cms wide but they do come in handy as border strips or a decorative edge for a tag. As yesterday was rather dull down here in the South of England, I decided to carry on with the warm colour scheme of my last card and even managed to use a very tiny strip of leftover background paper from it on this one.
I've been inspired to make this by Petra Berendsen as she made a gorgeous creation with her paper scraps as part of the DT inspiration for Gingersnap Creations Once In A Blue Moon GCSP6 Ginspiration Challenge which I've made the card for.
 

The paper scraps I've used are a variety of techniques including my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique, White StazOn Resist, Watercolour Crayon Background Technique etc. I've mostly used strips, although I die cut a couple of the scraps with a Nestabilities die.
I've used stamps by Magenta (the white resist flower), Hero Arts (the orange scribble daisy), Inkadinkado (the sprig and small daisy with leaves). The butterfly is Hampton Arts and the greeting Papermania.
The inks are mostly shades of Distress inks apart from the golden diagonal stripe paper which was made with VersaColor inks and Direct to Paper technique.

I'm also entering the card in the January Challenge of The Artistic Stamper which has a theme of Things With Wings.

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx