Steampunk at Make My Monday

Hello all, hoping you had a lovely weekend with some sunshine as we did. Mine was also very busy with family stuff as we had my younger one home for the weekend after the lucky thing had been to the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A so I'm sure you can guess I'm a tad green with envy!

We also had my parents in law over for lunch yesterday as my father in law had a minor op on Friday so we thought it would cheer him up and also today is his 90th birthday although you'd never guess if you saw him.

I've been a bit of a cheat with my inspiration for the Steampunk challenge at Make My Monday this week yet again due to lack of time so hope you like it even if you have seen it before. It's the favourite of the steampunk cards I've made over the last few years which is partly why I am sharing it.

This was made with the Creative Expressions Sam Poole steampunk image which I coloured with Aquamarkers. I then inked the edges of the panel with blue Distress ink.
I inked up a panel dry embossed with the X Cut clock folder with Wild Honey, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress inks.
I then dry embossed a kraft panel with the Cuttlebug gears folder. I painted some chipboard cogs with blue paint and assembled the card adding a metal cog and stamped text to finish.

Hope you have a ood week.
Fliss xx

Vintage Style

Hello again, I'm back as promised with the details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has a theme close to my heart, VINTAGE.
Here's my inspiration which I hope you like.

Ingredients
Carabelle Studio Cling Stamp - Un Ange a Aimer
Crafty Individuals Flourish Stamp - CI-173
Cuttlebug Anna Griffin Embossing Folder -Floribunda
Stampendous Frantage Embossing Enamel - Aged Bronze
Archival Coffee Ink
Distress Inks - Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Fired Brick
Embossing Ink
Aquamarkers
Smooth Stamping Card
Kraft Card
X Cut Nesting Dies - Ovals - Large, Doorplate - Large
Doily

Recipe
1. Make the background paper. Cut a piece of stamping card to fit your card blank - mine is 8x8 because the angel is quite a tall stamp (almost 15cm including the wings). Ink up with Antique Linen and Tattered Rose DIs.
2. Use the flourish stamp and embossing ink to stamp a design in each corner of the inked paper and heat emboss with the Frantage enamel. Add the brown inks around the edges and on the embossed corners.
3. Stamp the flourish design over the paper with Tattered Rose and VIntage Photio without using an acrylic block. Do this repeatedly until you're happy with the effect which will be shabby chic like vintage wallpaper.
4. Stamp the angel and wings on stamping card with the Archival ink and colour with the Distress inks and Aquamarkers as desired. Cut the images out.
5. Dry emboss a panel of stamping card and one of kraft card with the embossing folder. Ink the stamping card panel with the pink and brown DIs. Inks a doily with the Vintage Photo.
6. Stamp the sentiment with the coffee ink and die cut with the smallest oval die. Die cut the second smallest doorplate from a scrap of card and stamp and heat emboss the flourish design with the aged bronze Frantage. Ink with the pink and brown DIs and glue on the sentiment oval.
7. Distress the edges of the background paper before gluing to the card and then glue on the remaining elements as shown.

Don't forget that the prize for entering is a £20 voucher for the online shop though please chack the rules first. Good luck!

Have a great weekend,
Fliss xx

Vintage Style

Hello there, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed some sunny weather as we had a really warm Saturday with 22 degrees on the 1st November! Apparently cold weather is on the way though but I actually don't mind as long as it's not wet!
Over at Make My Monday we have a new challenge today with a theme chosen by yours truly and one which is close to my heart too, you've guessed it - VINTAGE

 I've inked up what I think must be my favourite image, the lovely Le Brun by B Line Designs which I found out a few months ago is based on a self portrait by a French lady artist of the same name. Her art is truly beautiful and so inspirational. I stamped the image on smooth cartridge paper with Memories Creamy Coffee chalk ink and coloured her with Prisma pencils then trimmed around the image on 2 sides. I added her to a shaped kraft card panel.
I then made a background paper by inking smooth card with Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo Distress inks applied with an ink applicator. I stamped on a Stacy Stamps lace background design with the coffee ink, not using an acrylic block for a vintage shabby effect. I then cut an aperture in the paper with an X Cut die and will be saving the panel to use on another project.

I then die cut a trellis from kraft card with a Cheery Lynn die and made a background panel to sit behind it with antique cream card embossed with an X Cut rose folder.
I assembled the card with the embossed panel and die cut trellis sitting behind the aperture and added the image panel on the side, decorating with pearls. The finishing touch is a German gold scrap butterfly that has been in my craft stash for quite a while.
I left off a sentiment for the moment as I like to have a few cards that can be made suitable for several occasions.

Have a great day and a lovely week.
Fliss xx

PS: There will be candy soon as today is my birthday and I want to thank everyone who has been so kind in my recent difficult times.

Quoth The Raven!

Hello there, I'm a day late with my post for the new challenge over at That's Crafty due to lack of time and this fortnight we'd like to see your SPOOKY creations with a certain creepy date fast looming.
I actually don't have that much in the way of spooky stuff so my trusty IndigoBlu Hocus Pocus stamp set came to the rescue.

A rather eye poppingly bright creation here as you see.

I started by making a piece of background paper applying Ripe Persimmon Distress ink to some smooth card and then stamped on the Kaisercraft Diamonds pattern with the same ink.

I then wanted to cut a window to add the main raven collage image underneath so I used an X Cut nesting die to work out the placement. Having done this, I stamped the collage image on a piece of smooth cartridge paper with Archival Jet Black ink and coloured it with Aquamarkers. I then used stencil to extend the image slightly to fit in the size of aperture I wanted. I used the Mini Specimens stencil by The Crafters Workshop which is fab for this sort of thing and made the arch shape at the top and grunge dot pattern at the bottom using Black Soot Distress ink.

I cut the aperture in the orange paper and then stamped on the spider and web image with the black ink in the top corners. I used a fine black pen to extend the cobwebs in places. I then stuck the raven panel to my card blank, checking placement and trimming a little and added the orange frame over the top. I finished off with the text stamped with the black ink using alphabet stamps.

If you're a UK resident, we'd love to see you enter as the randomly drawn winner will receive a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Hopefully see you soon.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

To Die For

Hello folks and welcome to my first post of the day which is to point you in the direction of my project today over at That's Crafty which is all about making use of those dies you might have lurking in your collection like me.
I set myself a challenge to include as many as I could on my project without going totally overboard. I hope you think I've succeeded.

You'll find all the details over at the blog.

Thanks for looking and see you a bit later with my next post.

Fliss xx

Pretty In Pink

Morning folks, a bit of a pink alert here as I think my creation for today has the most of that colour that I've ever put on one of my creations - I think I went a bit overboard!
The reason for the pink is today's new challenge over at Make My Monday which was chosen by our former team member, Jan, and is Pretty In Pink.
I've used my favourite fairy stamp for my card which is a Faerie Poppet image by Christine Haworth and I think she's rather adorable.

I'm sure you can see what I mean by all the pink now!

I stamped the little fairy on to smooth cartridge paper with Archival coffee ink and then coloured her with Aquamarkers adding detail with Prismacolor pencils. I then trimmed the image to a square panel and added mats of pink and pale green.
I made the background paper by painting a square of watercolour paper pink then embossing it with a Crafters Companion trellis folder. I then swiped it with Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid and Galaxy Gold inks for some shimmer. I stamped some tiny peg flowers and hearts in some of the trellis debossed areas.
I then die cut a doily (X Cut) and a butterfly (Cheery Lynn) from fuchsia pink card and made a double layer for the butterfly by tracing round the die on lighter pink card and cutting it out.
I stamped the birthday sentiment (Flonzcraft) with Memento Lilac Posies ink and hand cut it out, adding a pale green mat also hand cut.
I assembled the card and finished off with some pink gems.

Have a great day and a good week.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:
Come and Get It Challenges - Fairy Fantasy
Dragonfly Dreams - Things With Wings
Feeling Crafty Challenge - One For The Girls/Ladies
Quirky Crafts Challenges - Fairy Ring (Sparkle and Sentiment in my case - thanks Cazzy!!!)

It's A Hoot At Make My Monday

Hello all and sorry about my post title which I couldn't resist because our theme this week at Make My Monday chosen by Laura is OWLS :)
We also have 3 very creative new Design Team members showing off their first makes today so it's a big welcome from me to Joan, Marina and Sue. Great to have you with us ladies and looking forward to getting to know you.
Here's my challenge inspiration which is a little wall hanging featuring my favourite owl stamp which I've had for many years and could never part with as he's so cute.

I made the wall hanging from some recycled grey board which I covered with some tan coloured paper after punching holes at the top and adding natural twine to form the hanger.
I then made a background paper using an elderly and much treasured PSX ivy stamp which I repeat stamped in various shades of green VersaMagic chalk inks. I distressed the edges with a craft knife and emery board before attaching to the wall panel.
I then made a textured panel with recycled corrugated packaging painted with shades of blue and green acrylic paints and then sprinkled on some Ranger Tarnished Gold embossing powder whilst the paint was still damp and heated it to melt the powder. I sanded the edges lightly with the emery board.
I stamped the owl (Tattered Angels) with Memories Creamy Coffee chalk ink on smooth cartridge paper and when dry, coloured him with Aquamarkers. I trimmed the image to a panel, distressed the edges and inked them lightly then added tan and brown mats, also with distressed edges. I attached the panel to the corrugated background with square antique copper brads to make sure it stayed put as it had buckled slightly after the paint was applied.
I then die cut some ivy leaves from an X Cut leaf set (really fabulous as it produces beautiful embossed leaves of many types) and coloured these with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss Distress inks.

Have a great week.
Hugs,
Fliss xx
PS: It's turned really cold again so the heating has gone back on as we had hail this morning!

Black and White with a Splash

Hello again and welcome to my second post of the day which is about our new challenge over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog which this time has the theme of Black and White with a Splash (in my case a splash of red) of whichever colour takes your fancy.

Here's my inspiration which I hope you'll like.

As you can see it's hearts all the way! I made the background first by stamping the honeycomb design in opposite corners with red ink and then use the checkered stamp to add the black border.
I then die cut some hearts from black and white card and stamped one white heart with black checks and the larger with red.
I added these to my card and finished off with text stamped in black.

I used:
Kaisercraft Clear Stamps - Honeycomb, Arty, You!
Archival Jet Black Ink
VersaFine Satin Red Ink
White Stamping Card
Black Card
X Cut Nesting Dies - Homespun Heart

Good kuck to all who enter and hoping those eligible do for a prize of a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx