Cherish

Hello folks on yet another wet and dismal day and at this rate I think I'll soon have webbed feet as I'm sure it's only the ducks who would like this much rain!
I have a card to share with you made with one of the gorgeous and cute Emma Canning digital images that Nikky now has available for downloading at Polka Doodles.
Two of my younger daughter's friends are getting married very soon so I have some wedding cards to make and decided to get a head start.

The image is called Paige Wedding Day and I printed her out then coloured her with Promarkers adding detail to her hair with Prismacolor pencils to give some texture (largely because I'm not that great at doing this with the markers lol). I then cut her out.
I covered my card blank with some of the elegant rose paper from the Love & Cherish CD and added crochet lace and some subtle glittery Laura Ashley ribbon.
I embossed the gorgeous frame from the Sissix Roses & Frame set on to some pearly silver card and then cut it out. I added a central white panel cut to size and embossed with a Cuttlebug hearts folder. I added the image with foam tape and embellished her frock with a silver dotty bow.
I die cut a sentiment with a round Nestabilities die to finish off my card.

I also have a bit of great news to share as my Strawberries card from a week or so back won the Craft Punked Strawberries & Cream challenge - I was thrilled to bits with this and would like to thank Steph and the team for picking my creation. Here's the fab badge I just received.

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Challenges for my card:
Paper Pretties - Any Occasion Card
Ruby's Rainbow - Emboss It!
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl's - Anything Goes

Rose Cottage at Studio 12

Morning folks on a rather dismal day yet again and with no let up on the horizon at the moment apparently.
Just a quickie from me to let you know that I have another project today over at Studio 12 as my inspiration from the Picknix Collection 1 CD.

All the instructions on how I made the card are over at Studio 12 and you can see how easy it is by clicking HERE.
It's definitely worth your while to pop over as we have CANDY up for grabs at the moment and it's as easy as leaving a comment and giving us a shout to spread the word. There will also be more candy when we reach 200 followers so if you're not yet following, now would be a good time to join!

I'd also like to wish our American cousins a very Happy 4th July and hope you have a great day of celebrations.
Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Papercraft Inspirations

Evening everyone, hoping you're all having a good week so far despite the rather wet weather at the moment.
Before I tell you my news, I'd like to say a very warm welcome to my lovely new followers - it's great to have you all on board and I look forward to getting to know you.
Now I have some rather exciting news to share (for me at least that is lol) as I have a card featured in the August issue of Papercraft Inspirations magazine which came out today. This is because of Enfys of Going Buggy who is a regular contributor to the mag and I'd like to say a huge thanks to her for thinking of me.
Here's the card for you to see and if you'd like to see how I made it, if you click HERE you'll be transported over.

That's all for now folks but I'll be back tomorrow with another project for the Studio 12 creative team to share with you all.

Thanks for looking.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Primary Colours

Good morning folks, hope you all had a good weekend. I had a fabulous day yesterday dodging showers to watch all the wonderful demonstrators at The Craft Barn Extravaganza and particularly enjoyed watching Jean Hardy (and having a chat with the lovely Malcolm about Brighton), Lindsay Mason, Leandra Franich and Andy Skinner. I also met up with Claire (Happy Days) from the Polka Doodles DT and Alison (craftytrog) which was really lovely. Apologies to Helen Chilton too as I was going back to watch her demo when she was less busy but ran out of time!
As it's Monday and also July, we have a new monthly theme for the challenges over at Make My Monday and chosen by Mynnette the overall theme is the Colour Wheel. This week the challenge is to use Primary Colours, Red, Yellow and Blue. Here's what I made:

The flower is from a Hero Arts set and I stamped it repeatedly on white card to build up a floral scene - I was thinking meadow here in case you're wondering. I then coloured them with various yellow Promarkers and sponged on Stormy Sky Distress ink.
I stamped the B Line Designs butterfly with black and coloured this with red Promarkers then cut it out.
I assembled the simple card as you see adding a sentiment on a red card mat.

Here's Mynnette's first colour wheel interpretation above.

 
We are lucky enough to be sponsored this month by Priyanka of My Heart Pieces who is offering a prize of 3 digis of choice to the monthly winner. She has generously given the Design Team some gorgeous images to work with and my creation for next week will feature one of these.

Challenges for my card:
Dream Valley Challenges - Things With Wings
Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Flutterby Butterfly

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Oriental Delights

Hello folks, the last fortnight over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges seems to have grown wings and flown away as today we have a new challenge for you. The entries for the Nature challenge are awesome so the Design team will be having a very hard time choosing the winners.
Our new theme for the next fortnight is Oriental and I had a bit of trouble with my offering for this one as I started my project 3 times before I was able to make something I'm reasonably happy with. You'll be a bit surprised as I've gone for a very bold colour scheme partly because of the image I used and partly because of the scrap of Japanese paper I found when looking for something else.
Here's the result:

The main image is a stamp I've owned for many years and I can remember buying it the year before 9/11 as there were lots of American companies at the London stamp show and after the attack many of them were too afraid to fly. I think I bought the stamp from Stamp Francisco as they always had masses of unmounted stamps - quite unusual in those days. I stamped the rather psychedelic image with black ink, coloured her with Promarkers, die cut her into a circle and sponged Squeezed Lemonade and Mustard Seed Distress inks round the outside.
I made the red background paper by inking card first with Mustard Seed and then Barn Door Distress ink and stamped on a flower from the Papermania oriental set with the red ink. I then stamped the Japanese serenity prayer by Oakhouse Studios in black in opposite corners.
I made the deep blue background paper by sponging first Stormy Sky then Chipped Sapphire Distress inks around just the edges of a piece of white card cut to size then stamped on another flower from the oriental set with the darker blue ink.
I stamped the large fan from the set with black ink and coloured with Tumbled Glass Distress ink and Promarkers then cut it out.
I assembled the card as you see, adding the square of found Japanese paper and a gold card mat to contrast with the deep blue paper.

The Design Team have made some absolutely stunning projects for this challenge so do pop over and prepare to be inspired.

Challenges for my card:
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Anything Goes
Try It On Tuesday - Anything Goes
Incy Wincy Design - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking and have a great day. I'm off to The Craft Barn Extravaganza so will see you later!
Hugs, Fliss xx

Fairies and Fantasy

Good morning folks, Friday is here again and we have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles which you're going to love as the theme for this week chosen by the lovely Emma is Fairies, Fantasy and Flitter. If you're wondering about the flitter bit, Emma is a big fan of glitter and wants to see a sprinkling of sparkle on your project.
I decided to turn a non fairy image into a fairy by giving her wings and here's what I made:

As you can see, I've made an easel style card which I covered with a mix of stripe and dot design papers in red, pink and green from the Pretty Sweet CD as I love their slightly shabby look. I mixed the stripe direction around too to make the most of the paper. I also sneaked in a couple of red glitter card strips for a subtle sparkly look.
I printed out the sweet little girl from Pretty Sweet together with the toadstools and a butterfly from the Sugarplum Daisy CD on to thick cartridge paper and coloured everything with Aquamarkers (a little artistic license with the toadstools and can you tell I was in need of a chocolate fix lol), adding grass with a fine brush as I wanted to make a little scene.
I cut out the little girl and the butterfly, sponging the butterfly with embossing ink and then heat embossing with crystal sparkly powder. I die cut a Marianne Design butterfly and coloured this with a blue Promarker before heat embossing with the sparkly powder. I cut the toadstool scene into a square and rounded the corners then inked with Tumbled Glass Distress ink and set on a dark red mat before adding to the card front panel. I added my little fairy and the butterfly with foam tape to complete the scene.
I finished off with some metal embellishments and pearls and a die cut sentiment from the Sugarplum Daisy CD.

Challenges for my card:
Totally Papercrafts - Use A Digital Image On Your Creation
Charisma Cardz - Anything Goes
Little Miss Muffet Challenge - Sparkle
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes

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

The Sweetest Thing at Studio 12

Good morning folks, here's hoping you're not all suffering today like I am as I've got really bad hay fever for some reason with itchy eyes, nose etc etc. I'm also sneezing rather a lot!
I thought I'd tell you that I have another project over at the Studio 12 blog which is all about a few things I'm rather fond of - can you guess what they are from the sneak peek below lol

If you'd like to see the whole card and details of how I made it, all is revealed over at Studio 12 so please do pop over for a look.
If you're not yet following to see all the daily inspiration, you should as we've got almost 100 followers now and Nikky has promised some fabulous candy when we reach 200. We've also got a special post on Sunday so you won't miss that either.

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

Fetch A Sketch First Birthday Blog Hop

Good morning folks and welcome to the Fetch A Sketch blog hop to celebrate the first birthday of Jenny and Ruth's fabulous challenge blog which as I'm sure you've guessed is all about sketches! Happy Birthday Fetch A Sketch and my very best wishes to Jenny and Ruth for a second year of great challenges.
I'm thrilled to bits to have been asked to take part in the hop and have made some inspiration for you using a totally gorgeous image by one of the lovely sponsors, Christy of Tiddly Inks, together with papers from Polka Doodles also generously sponsoring the birthday hop.

I'm sure you can see now why I love the image being a little Alice fixated lol. I printed her out on to cartridge paper, colouring her with Aquamarkers and adding a little detail with Promarkers and Prismacolor pencils. I used the sketch from Week 15 as my inspiration and followed this using papers from the Polka Doodles Wonderland CD.
I made the faux buttons for the card using die cut flowers coloured with Distress inks and embossed with sparkly embossing powder. I pierced 2 holes in each and tied some brown linen thread through the holes. I made a computer generated sentiment cut out with the same die set and coloured with a blue Promarker.

If you're taking part in the hop (which you should as there are some fab prizes!) then you should have arrived here from Debbie's blog and now you need to hop on over to

Maria's blog

Don't forget to leave a comment too so that I know you've popped by.

If, however, you've only just seen this then please click on the Fetch A Sketch link at the top for all the details.

Good luck!

Fliss xx

Our Pearl Anniversary

Hello folks, I'm here today to show you the card I've made for my hubby as it's our Pearl Anniversary today and I can't believe how fast the years have flown by - time does go fast when you're having fun lol

A fairly simple card as my hubby doesn't really like fussy and I didn't want to take attention away from the heart I made. It's a bit of greyboard painted with several coats of latte acrylic paint after being die cut with a Papermania heart.
I then added several coats of clear UTEE and adhered pearls, vintage buttons, US Art Quest Essence of Pearls Mica Flakes and some paper flowers. I quite like the effect although you can't really see the full sheen of the pearl flakes in the photo.
I made a background paper by tearing the edges of a piece of cream card and then stamped on a B Line Designs flourish with VersaMagic Magnolia Bud ink. The second heart is die cut with the same die from pearl shimmer card and embossed with the c-Art-us roses folder. I used a kraft card blank.

Now I thought you might like a bit of a giggle with a roll back of 30 years as I've scanned one of our wedding photos where you'll see I'm sporting a very 80s style curly perm - eek!

As you can see my hair is full of confetti and my tiara has slipped! Not the most flattering pic but at least we look happy!

That's all for now folks and will see you tomorrow.
Hugs, Fliss xx

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 Riot of Colour

Morning folks, summer has disappeared again and we have a wild, wet and windy day here again so those woollies have had to come out again! Don't know about you but I'm really fed up with the weather not being able to make its mind up - changeable is not the word!
Anyhow, enough whinging as I'm here with details of our new challenge over at Polka Doodles today chosen by Miria, our Italian teamie. The theme is Trooping The Colour by which Miria means that she would like to see lots of colour on your creations - as many as you can manage.
I scratched my head over this one and then inspiration struck as I can't think of anywhere that you would find more colour than a garden and here's what I have to show you.

As you can see there are loads of elements on my card which is why I chickened out of doing any colouring which would have taken me at least a week! Instead I used lots of the pretty precoloured elements from the Sugarplum Daisy CD as they're so bright and summery.
I used the cute mushroom house topper as my background and then did a lot of nifty snipping to add the cute fairy image and some of her little friends together with some pretty floral borders. I used several of the pretty papers from the CD, layered up and punched for a pretty effect and finished off with some contrast stitched ribbon and a sentiment from the CD which I die cut and coloured with Promarkers then added pearls to.

Challenges for my card:
Crafts & Me - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments - Bright Colours
Charisma Cardz Challenge - Summer
Cute Card Thursday - Here Comes Summer

Thanks for looking and have a great day. I now have to finish off some VAT workings - ugh!
Fliss xx

Shabby Chic at Studio 12

Hello folks, hope you're all enjoying some of the lovely warm and sunny weather we have at the moment.
Just a quick post from me now to tell you that I'm really excited to be doing my first post on the brand new Studio 12 Design Team blog which will be bringing you inspiration on a daily basis along with occasional candy so if you're not yet following the blog, now would be a good time so you don't miss anything!
My post today is about using up those paper scraps that we all have lurking about somewhere (in an overflowing box in my case lol) and I've used them to make a shabby chic type background for my card. Here's a sneaky peek:

I'm hoping you're intrigued enough to pop over and see what the tutorial is all about so if you are, then click HERE to be transported over to the Studio 12 blog.

Have a great day everyone.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hello folks, hoping you all had a lovely weekend and as it's Monday again we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday. Continuing with June and Associated Events our theme for this week is A Midsummer Night's Dream so we would like to see your creations featuring dreams or fairies or both.
In my case I seem to have fairies at the bottom of my garden and have made a little scene with my Graphic 45 fairy set of stamps which I bought because I love the toadstools (and have gone a little ott with them here lol)

I made a background paper by stamping repeatedly with a large floral foam stamp and Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass and a little Crushed Olive ink. I then stamped the toadstools across the bottom with Archival coffee ink and coloured them with Promarkers. I stamped the dragonfly in the top left corner with the same ink and coloured the image with Aquamarkers.
I stamped the fairy on thick cartridge paper with the coffee ink and watercoloured her with Aquamarkers.  I die cut the image into a circle and then inked the edges with Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress inks.
I stamped a couple of butterflies with the coffee ink and coloured them with Aquamarkers then cut them out and assembled all the elements as you see.

Here's hoping that we get a lot of entries this time as I think our theme last week had a record number of entries which will make it rather hard to pick the top entries.

Challenges for my card:
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - In The Garden
Pan Pastel UK Challenge - Summertime
Stampavie and More - Something With Wings

Thanks for looking and have a great day. I'm off to Brighton with my daughter and will pop over to see you all later.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Nature Walk

Hello everyone, hoping that you're all having a lovely weekend. I can't believe how fast the last fortnight has flown by as it's time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this time the theme picked by Yvonne is Nature. Please don't forget that we're a stamping challenge so there must be some stamping on your entry.
I've made a tag as my inspiration this time and if you're wondering about the colours on there, it's mostly because the weather at the moment seems more like Autumn rather than the Summer it's meant to be (we have very wild and windy weather at the moment)

My tag came about because I wanted to use this gorgeous kingfisher image from a set of bird clear stamps by Artemio and for some reason I couldn't make him into a card!
I stamped him with Memories black ink on thick cartridge paper and coloured him with Aquamarkers then cut him out.
The tag came from my bits box as I'd inked it up for something else and didn't use it. It was inked with Crushed Olive Distress ink using a large acrylic block as a stamp. I embossed it with the Cuttlebug leaf spray folder and managed to get it the wrong way up so it ended up debossed! I then swiped on more Crushed Olive and some Rusty Hinge.
I made a panel for the base by stamping a Hero Arts leaf with Dried Marigold and Crushed Olive then added colour with an acrylic block and Tumbled Glass. I then embossed this with the leafy folder (the right way up this time!) and swiped on Rusty Hinge ink. I added this to a mat inked on just the edges with Barn Door and Rusty Hinge.
I die cut an oval panel for the image to sit on and debossed tis with the Cuttlebug bamboo folder. I then inked it with a mix of Tumbled Glass, Crushed Olive, Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge and Aged Mahogany until I was happy with the colour.
The leaf embellishments were made using the Cuttlebug leaf spray to emboss card and I then cut out some of the sprays and inked then with various Distress inks before adding to my tag as you see. This came about as I don't have any leaf spray die cuts that looked right.

Challenges for my tag:
Crafty Catz - Embossing
Hotshot Crafts - Distress Ink
Paper Crafting Journey - Colour It Up!
Southern Girls - Things With Wings
Ruby's Rainbow - Tags
Stamp n Doodle - Tag It

Have a great Sunday.
Fliss xx

DT Call for the New Studio 12 Blog

Hello everyone, I have a bit of exciting news for you about Nikky's brand new venture, Studio 12, the first collection having sold out in 30 minutes on the first weekend show on Create and Craft.

Nikky has set up a new blog specially for this and she's having a DT call and here's a little of what she says:

"Studio 12 is a brand new blog which will bring you aspiring and creative work from our fabulously talented Design Team. Join us from 18th June when we will bring you a regular stream of amazing projects which you will adore and grab opportunities to win blog candy along the way with us too.

We are currently looking for some additional team members to join us!  If you love making "stuff" from paper and 'heart' combining paper, digital elements, rubber stamps, doodling, stitching and mixed media we would love to hear from you! We're looking for the best of the best creative minds to join us so if you think this will float your boat then please apply."

Hope you're interested and who wouldn't be, all the details can be found HERE and please do make sure you read all the requirements before applying. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed working with this collection and if you'd like to see some of the samples I made for the TV show, you can find them a couple of posts back.

Good luck!
Fliss xx

Harbour View

Good morning all on a rather wet Monday continuing on with last night's very heavy rain - not a good start to the week!
Hope you all had a lovely weekend and I'm here today with this week's challenge over at Make My Monday which continues the month's theme of June and Associated Events with Fathers Day/Masculine. An ideal way to get started on something for Sunday if you're needing a Fathers Day card.

My card is for my father in law as he loves the seaside and I couldn't resist this gorgeous Michael Powell stamp when I saw it as it will be so useful for all sorts of cards.
I stamped the image with Memento black ink on thick cartridge paper and I have a tip for you here if you buy one of the beautiful Papermania Michael Powell stamps as some of them are quite large - this one is on a 5x7 card and the image practically fills it. In order to make the image come out properly (I don't know about you but sometimes it's quite hard to get the middle section to stamp) and my solution is very simple - you just put the inked stamp on the paper on a craft mat, lift it down to the floor and stand on it! This works a treat so if you have trouble do try it.
I then coloured the image with my current favourite medium, Aquamarkers. I cut the panel out and inked the edges.
I then made a background paper using watercolour paper and an Anita's stripe stamp I've had for many years. I used VersaColour Sky Blue and because the paper is quite rough, I dragged the inked stamp across and was very pleased with the result which is quite distressed and made me think of driftwood.
I then made some bunting using the smaller bunting triangle from the Artistic Outpost Whimsical Melange set and coloured this with Aquamarkers. I cut this out and added as you see.
I then made a panel for the inside of the card, stamping just part of the harbour scene in the right lower corner with Memento London Fog and added a little colour with a red pencil.
The sentiment is computer generated and was die cut and the edges inked.

Challenges for my card:
Dream Valley Challenges - For That Special Guy
Pan Pastels UK Challenge - Boys/Fathers Day
One Stop Craft Challenge - Fathers Day
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Happy Fathers Day
Delicious Doodles Challenge - For The Fellas
Simply Create Too - Fathers Day/Male

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

Studio 12

Hello all, hoping you're having a good start to the weekend. Mine has unfortunately been spent catching up on my washing and although it's still very windy we at least had sunshine which meant good drying weather and I managed to get 4 loads washed and dried.
I also caught Nikky and Rosemary on Create & Craft and 80% of the stock sold out in the first 15 minutes and the whole lot went by the end of the show so I think Nikky must have had to go for Plan B for the 4pm show!
I just popped on here to show you my samples which I've been itching to show you as I think you'll realise why the collection sold out (not from my actual makes but what's on them lol)
So here we go and it's rather photo heavy so you might want a cuppa!

All of the above photos are my creation from the fabulous All Sewn Up collection and I'm sure you can see why I love this one as all the vintage elements are just stunning.

The two above were created with the Welcome Home collection which has loads of elements concerning baking and as you can see, some of the papers have the most amazing texture that make you want to reach out and touch (bet you didn't know I'm a secret paper stroker lol)

This last one is made with elements from the Heavenly Garden collection and I went for a really shabby chic effect with this one and will share the cheats torn paper effect very soon as it's much easier than you might think.

So there you have it and there will be a lot more creations using this CD as I've got loads of ideas and just need the time to make them. The shabby chic effect of all the elements of the full collection is just gorgeous with a lovely mix of hand drawn, vintage and photo. The papers are 8x8 so can be used for scrapbooking, either digital, hand or hybrid. All the embellishments are in png form and there are brushes and cutting files.
If you're tempted, you can find the CD here along with all the information and details.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and I'll be round really soon now that panicking is over!
Hugs, Fliss xx

Flowers Galore

Good morning folks, the weekend is nearly here and hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. I'm hoping this scheduled post pops up as I'm at the hairdressers having my hilights done (it has to be early or I can't park!).
Firstly I must tell you that Nikky will be on Create & Craft tomorrow at 12 noon and 4pm with the lovely Rosemary Merry and the brand new collection that we've all been working on and I know you're going to love it as much as we do.

Now for details of this week's challenge over at Polka Doodles with the theme chosen by me - Lots Of Flowers. This could be backing papers, stamped floral images, handmade or paper flowers and so on - I'm sure you get the gist!

As I was short on time this week (I'm sure you can guess why!), I used a coloured image from the Sugarplum Daisy CD which I matted on pink.
I then made a tall card blank and turned it round to horizontal rather than vertical and covered this with pretty paper from the CD. I added a floral border across the centre and then glued on the image panel as shown in the photo.
I made a layered flower using a Marianne Design die set from scraps of pink paper fixed together with a pearl brad. I added a green leafy flourish die cut using another Marianne die and finished off with a circular sentiment and a butterfly.

Challenges for my card:
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - Rainbows, Clouds or Wings
Fashionista Challenge - Simply Summer

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a great weekend.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Pearls

Good morning folks on a rather chilly Monday. Hoping you managed to see part of the Royal pageant yesterday and I was certainly glad to see it on the TV as the weather in London looked atrocious. My younger daughter and her friends went to watch and managed to stand under a bridge so at least kept dry for a while.
Also, apologies here for being a bad commenter lately which is because I'm doing a top secret project which you can find out about later on in the week and it's taking up quite a lot of time so I'll be round as soon as I can - I just love what I'm working with and can't wait to show you!
We have a new month of challenges for you over at Make My Monday and the theme's have been chosen by Jacqueline and are all the things associated with the month of June.
This week, she would like to see a Birthday Card With Pearls and this is what I made - simpler than I would normally do but I wanted the gorgeous stamp to really stand out.

The stamp is by The Artful Stamper and I bought this on Saturday at a coffee morning my friend Gina held on behalf of The Alzheimer's Society (as you may know my dear Mum had this as did Gina's husband) and this stamp definitely had my name on it!
I stamped the image twice with VersaFine Imperial Purple ink and then inked one with Shabby Shutters Distress ink. I coloured just the butterfly on the second image with Promarkers and cut it out.
I die cut the image with a Papermania die and stamped the Hobby Art sentiment on with the purple ink. I then added the butterfly with foam tape.
I added a simple background of green parchment card embossed with a Papermania embossing folder and finished off with green pearls in the flower centres and dotted about the edges of the design to echo the dots in it.

Challenges for my card:
Hotshot Craft - Die Cuts
Crop Stop Challenge - Pretty Pearls
Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Pearls & Swirls

Hoping that you have a lovely day whatever the weather (very chilly here - 9 degrees in June!)
Fliss xx

Mystical and Very Magical

Good morning folks, don't know about you but we had tons of rain last night being torrential at times and my hubby said we had 10mm which is more than we usually get in over a week! Just as well I'm crafting today as I think staying in is the only option.
We have a new challenge for you today over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and the theme for this fortnight is Mystical and Very Magical.
This gave me the chance to use the sweet little fairy stamp given to me a while back by a friend after I admired it and she insisted I have it as she didn't use it enough - thanks Gina as I love it!
As you'll see my card is very girly this time:

I stamped the little fairy on thick cartridge paper with Archival Coffee ink and then coloured her with various Aquamarkers - I can't get enough of these at the moment as you've probably noticed! I then added glamour dust to her wings for some sparkle and you may need to click on the main pic to see this as it doesn't show up very well. I then die cut the image into a circle and inked the edges with olive ink.
I made a mat for the circle by cutting out a larger circle of white card, inking the edge with Crushed Olive Distress ink and then gluing on some pressed daisies which have been in my stash for rather a long time!
I made a background paper by inking a small rose stamp from a Clearly Inspired set called Stencil Flowers that I've had for around 4 years with pink and green inks and stamping all over cream card. I then added a little Tattered Rose Distress ink and sprayed with Emperor Gold and Vintage Pink Glimmer Mists. I tore the edges into a square to fit my card.
I rounded the corners of the card blank then inked all around the edges with Victorian Velvet Distress ink in a wide border.
I then glued lace all around the edges of my background paper and added the elements to the card as you see, finishing off with a Hobby Art butterfly stamped with the coffee ink, coloured with Aquamarkers and cut out.

The Fashionettes have made a widely varying array of inspiration for you to feast your eyes on and as always our lovely sponsor Marina of Cottage Crafts has a great prize for the winner so hope to see you there!

Challenges for my card:
Crazy 4 Challenges - Add Some Butterflies To Your Creation
Divas By Design - Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter - Vintage/Shabby Chic
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash - May Flowers
Top Tip Tuesday - Dig Out The Old And Name It (the daisies, the fairy stamp, the rose stamp)
Crafty Cardmakers - Distress It
Ooh La La Creations - Make It Girly

Have a great Sunday.
Fliss xx

Pretty In Pink (And Green)

Good morning everyone and hope you've all had a lovely weekend to set you up for the week. Thanks for all the commiserations with my hay fever which has sadly come back today so I'm sneezing again!
Being Monday we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and today sees the last of Suzi's Floral Theme for the month and this week we would like to see your floral creations with Pink, Green and White.

My card is another of my gate fold surprises which I really like doing for that added extra special touch.
The base card is a Papermania 5x7 gate fold card blank and I cut 2 panels of white card to fit the front sections, embossed them with a Papermania floral folder then inked with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and swiped with Tattered Rose.
I stamped the chrysanthemums  by Circa Design with Archival Olive ink on white card, coloured by sponging with the same Distress inks and then die cut with an oval die. I inked the edges with the pink ink and attached the panel to the left side of the card.
I then cut a panel of white card slightly smaller than the inside of the card, stamped the flowers again on the right side and sponged with slightly lighter colour. I then stamped on the Hobby Art sentiment at the top left side to finish.

The Design Team have come up with an amazingly different array of cards in the colours for your inspiration so do hop over for a look.

Challenges for my card:
Sentimental Sundays - Pocket Full Of Posies (slightly appropriate here with the atishoo bit lol)
Cute Card Thursday - Pink & Green

Have a great day.
Fliss xx

Little Bird

Hello folks, hope you've all had a lovely weekend in the sunshine. My only problem was really bad hay fever yesterday as we had wind blowing off the South Downs and the pollen count must have been exceedingly high as I was sneezing all day.
I have a card to share with you today that I actually made a couple of months ago but accidentally left it with a crafting friend and have only just retrieved it! It's another recess window card using the tutorial kindly shared by Jacqueline, our head deeziner over at Make My Monday and you can find it HERE if you'd like to know how to make it.

I made the card shape following the tutorial and then inked all over the front with Tumbled Glass Distress ink. I stamped my favourite Viva Decor flourish on with Crushed Olive Distress ink. I then inked around the recess edges with the olive ink.
I stamped the cute Stampendous little bird with Archival Coffee ink and added colour with Distress inks and Promarkers.
I then made my floral decoration by die cutting varying flower shapes with a Marianne flower die set and inked these with various pink inks. I scrunched them and layered them up then added Polka Doodles pink Dewdrops to the centre. I punched some leaves with a Papermania punch and emboss rose leaf punch then inked these with Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint.

Challenges for my card:
Oldie But A Goodie - Things With Wings (the oldie but goodie being my Viva Decor flourish set which I've had for almost 2 years)
 Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT - Something With Wings
Deep Ocean Challenge - Swirls
Crazy Amigo Challenge - Birds
Divas By Design - Flourishes
Do You Stack Up - Birds
Alphabet Challenge - H for Handmade Flowers
Card Makin' Mamas - Feeling Punchy!
Crafty Calendar - Things With Wings

I'd also like to say hello and welcome to Lindsay who has kindly become a new follower - it's lovely to see you here and look forward to getting to know you.
Have a good week everyone and bye for now.
Fliss xx

Just Doodling!

Morning folks, Friday is here again and so it's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles (please don't forget our extra special birthday challenge of earlier in the week either as the first prize is an amazing 10 CDs!!!).
This week's challenge has been chosen by Claire who loves doodling and in fact doodles her own digital stamps so she would like to see a Birthday creation with a Doodled Edge or Border. I'm sure you realise that I was thrilled to bits when I saw this having doodled my own blog background and also some stamp designs so here's the card I made.

I used images from the Sugarplum Daisy CD picking the pre-coloured ones as I've been a bit short on time this week. I cut out the cute fairy and ladybird and a panel with the toadstools which I really love.
I used papers from the Sugarplum Daisy CD and also from Pretty Sweet as I wanted a mix of spots and stripes in strong as well as pastel shades. I covered my 8x8 kraft card blank with the deep pink dotty paper then added a border of the yellow trimmed with a Papermania border die. I then punched the leafy border with a Martha Stewart double edge punch from a scrap of the remaining pink paper and added this.
I then cut 3 panels of stripe and dot papers and doodled a twining leafy border round the edges with a fine black pen, taking inspiration from the punched border.
I finished off with the image panel and cut out images together with a sentiment added to a paper flower.

Challenges for my card:
Aud Sentiments Challenge - Any Sentiment
Southern Girls - Dying To Die Cut Or Punch
Ruby's Rainbow - Things With Wings

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

London Town

Hello everyone, hoping you all have the amazing sunshine and warmth we've had since yesterday and I'm hoping it stays too as Winter seems to have gone on forever this time and it's great not to be wrapped up in layers of woollies.
Just a quick post here to share a card from the workshop I taught on Monday which fits a couple of challenges as it uses my new Penny Black London stamp.

I stamped the scene on off white paper in black and added colour with red and blue pencils. I cut the panel out and added blue pencil to all the edges. I stamped on the tiny swallow from a free Papermania set with blue ink and added a touch of blue pencil.
I then stamped on the card blank with my favourite Hampton Art distressed stripes stamp with red and black ink on 2 corners and added some further stripes with the blue pencil.
I finished off with a sentiment from the free set, stamped with blue and colour added with a pencil then added a crown from a Viva Decor set stamped in red, cut out and a touch of blue added. Simples!

Challenges for my card:
Papertake Weekly - True Colours
Desmet Designs Challenge Blog - Let's Celebrate In Red, White & Blue 

Hope the rest of the week is great for you and thanks for looking. Also a quick hello to Donna M my new follower and it's lovely to have you on board so to speak!
Hugs, Fliss xx

Coming Up Roses

Good morning folks, I'm back again with some extra special news of a special challenge over at Polka Doodles which starts today because it's the challenge blog's 3rd birthday - Happy Birthday Polka Doodles!
I also want to say thank you to Nikky here as I've now been part of the Design Team for over 2 years and it's been a real pleasure working with Nikky's fab designs and seeing how much the business has grown in that time too. Thanks also to my lovely doodle team-mates as it's an inspiration working with you all.
Gushing over now and on to details of the special challenge which has the most fabulous prizes that you just won't believe! As Polka Doodles is now 3, we'd like to see your birthday cards with 3 of something on them. You'll see that my card has 3 roses, 3 punched corners and 3 stamped flourishes.

The gorgeous roses are from the Sugarplum Daisy CD and I printed them out on watercolour paper then coloured them with Aquamarkers and cut them out.
The papers are also from Sugarplum Daisy and I covered my card blank with green dotty paper having first stamped and embossed with white powder my favourite flourish which is from the Daisy Doodles stamp set on 3 of the corners.
I made a pretty mat for the roses by embossing off white card with the Cuttlebug roses folder and then punched 3 of the corners with a Woodware rose corner punch. I added the roses with foam tape arranged in a bunch and glued on a bow.
I assembled the card with torn panels of various papers and doilies die cut with a Marianne circle die set. I finished off with a sentiment circle from the CD, adding a touch of colour with a pink Aquamarker.

All the details of the challenge and those amazing prizes are over on the Polka Doodles blog and you don't want to miss this one believe me! The first prize for one lucky person is just jaw dropping!!!
Hoping to see you there.


A challenge for my card - Hooked On Crafts Challenge - Flowers
Thanks for looking.
 Hugs, Fliss xx

A Walk On The Wild Side

Morning folks and hope you all had a lovely weekend. It's Monday again and we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday. Carrying on with the monthly theme of Floral, this week the challenge is to make a creation featuring Wild Flowers Or Grasses which is the reason for my title (I can also blame Countryfile as their photographic competition this year has this title lol)
Most of the Design Team decided to go the scenic route, but you'll see that I didn't! Mine is a little more vintage style which I know you know that I love (eek! what a mouthful!)

My trusty Paper Artsy Hotpick HP1005 came out for this as I really love those wild flowers which I stamped with Versamark and embossed with Wow Vanilla White powder on kraft card. I then stamped the scallop stitching from a Habico set around the edges with Archival coffee ink and trimmed the panel a little.
I made the background paper by sponging a square of beige parchment card (Southfield Stationers) with Tattered Rose Distress ink and then rubbing the ink pad over the top for a mottled look. I stamped on the flourish from the Paper Artsy set with Pumice Stone Distress ink, trimmed the edges with pinking shears and added brown faux stitching round the edges.
I stamped the letter (Crafty Individuals CI-214) with the coffee ink, trimmed the edges and inked with Old Paper and Tattered Rose.
I die cut some flourishes with a Sissix die from the parchment card then inked them with Brushed Corduroy and Pumice Stone.
I assembled the card as you see, adding a mat for the floral panel die cut with a Papermania die, some ribbon trimmed with the pinking shears and a sentiment by Polka Doodles.

We had some absolutely gorgeous entries for last week's flowers and music challenge so the top 3 will be a very difficult decision and hope to see you entering this one too.

Challenges for my card:
Delightful Challenges - Add Ribbon
Sassy Studio Designs - Use 3 Of Something (ribbons, stamped flowers)
The Paper Shelter - Birthday Card With A Sentiment

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Windmills Of Your Mind

Hello all, if you're wondering about my title, it came about because I saw a quilt at last week's Stitches craft show at The Brighton Centre which had a circular type of design and quoted words from the song which immediately started playing in my head. This in turn inspired my creation for the new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges with the theme of Steampunk which I chose because I really love that sort of thing at the moment (I'm sure you can guess this too!).
Here's what I created:

My circles are all made of grey board packing and were cut by hand in the case of the largest one and with a circle cutter for the smaller circles. I embossed the smaller ones with the Cuttlebug clockworks folder and then inked with Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Aged Mahogany and Rusty Hinge Distress inks. I added clear embossing to the larger of the 2.
I covered the large circle with paper inked with Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge and stamped with a variety of cogs and wheels from the Oxford Impressions 2 steampunk elements sets using sepia ink.
I then stamped the balloons, building, hat and text from the stamp sets with sepia ink, together with the Gibson lady and coloured, cut them out and clear embossed various elements.
I finished off with some Maya Road chipboard cogs embossed with Ranger Antiquities Tarnished Gold.

Apologies here to any of the Design Team who struggled with the theme but I have to say you would never guess from the amazing creations they've all come up with. Do hop over to the challenge blog and look as they're sure to inspire you. Hoping to see you enter too.

Challenges for my creation:
So Artful Challenge - Steampunk
Pixie Dust Studio - Steampunk
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Let's Get Inky (you should see my fingers!!!)
Crafting When We Can - Steampunk

Hope you're enjoying the weekend and have a lovely Sunday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A Song In My Heart

Good morning folks, we've had a glorious sunny weekend at last and yesterday was actually warm enough to have coffee in the garden whilst our 2 little grey bunnies were running about - more of this weather please!
It's Monday again so we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday, this weeks theme being Flowers and Music. Lots of scope here as you could have music score or notes, musical instruments and so on. I couldn't resist my title although it actually refers to another project I'm working on which will be on here next weekend! It sort of applies here though.
Here's today's card:

The background here is a piece of vintage music score with torn edges. I inked it with Shabby Shutters Distress ink for a soft look and added a little Vintage Photo round the edges.
I then stamped the poppies on thick cartridge paper with Archival Coffee ink - the stamps are Fleur de Pavot by Inkylicious and come with flower heads, leaves and stalks to build up your own scene. I coloured the poppies to resemble the Californian variety with Aquamarkers then cut the panel out with a Nestabilities die and inked the edges.
I then embossed a piece of white card with my new Crafts Too Vintage Flowers folder and inked this with a mix of Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold and Crushed Olive Distress inks. I stamped the text from the stamp set and the tag from a Viva Decor set with the coffee ink on the cartridge paper and inked with Distress inks. I cut the text out with a Papermania label die.
To finish, I added a metal charm to the tag and then die cut and inked a butterfly from my new set of 3 by Cheery Lynn dies - they're amazing value and have a huge amount of detail though you may need to click on the pic to see this.

The Design Team have some wonderful creations to inspire so hope to see you there!

Challenges for my card:
ATCs & Cards With Attitude - Anything Goes/Butterflies & Blooms
Do You Stack Up - Use A Flower
 Fat Pages & Cards With Attitude - Anything Goes/Butterflies & Blooms

Have a great week,
Hugs, Fliss xx

Little Girl Blue

Good morning everyone! I'm writing this post bright and early as I'm off to a craft show today taking a well earned day off and really looking forward to it as it's ages since I last went to a show.
Also as it's Friday, we have a new challenge for you over at Polka Doodles with the theme of Monochromatic Shades and my inspiration is a creation in shades of blue as I wanted to use a colour which doesn't get an airing very often.

I chose this sweet image from the Pretty Sweet CD and printed her out on thick cartridge paper. I coloured her with Aquamarkers and then printed out just the head portion again, colouring the hair and adding a little detail with a Prisma pencil before cutting out just the hair and adding with foam tape for a 3D effect. I cut the image out with a Nestabilities die and inked the edges.
I covered my scallop edged card blank with stripy paper from the Pretty Tuff CD and added a mat of dotty paper from the same CD for the image panel. I edged this with some navy card trimmed with a Martha Stewart border punch.
I then did a little editing with the flowers from the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition CD, making the plain blue one smaller to add at the top of the swing and then made a chain of the dotty blue flowers for the central border.
I finished off with a butterfly and a sentiment die cut with the same die set and inked a little.

The Design Team have a wonderful array of projects for you to feast your eyes on so don't forget to hop over for a look.

Challenges for my card:
Crafts & Me - Die Cuts & Punches
The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes
Stampavie & More - Monochrome

Have a great day,
Fliss xx

Daisy Daisy

Good morning folks, hope you're enjoying the long weekend and welcome to our new month of challenges at Make My Monday which have been chosen by Suzi B with the theme of Floral and this week we would like to see your creations with White Flowers as a feature.
I chose daisies as we have these in the garden at the moment peeping up in the lawn and I love seeing them there as they brighten it up so much.

I decided to make a bright background as we definitely need something cheery with the horrible cold weather we have at the moment - my winter woollies are back on!
I made my background paper by applying yellow shades of VersaColor cube inks direct to paper on white linen card and then stamped on the lovely daisy by B Line Designs with VersaFine Spanish Moss ink, stamping once on scrap paper first for a muted effect. I then added more yellow ink around the edges and added the paper to a kraft card blank.
I stamped the daisies on white card and embossed them with gold powder then cut them out. I made a border of kraft card trimmed with a Martha Stewart deep edge punch and added this with some crochet lace.
I die cut a circle of kraft card and embossed this with the Cuttlebug polka dots folder and added to the card with a doily and woodcut butterfly. I finished off with an Anitas sentiment die cut to a circle.

The Design Team have made some fabulous inspiration for you so do hop on over for a peep.

Challenges for my card:
Amusing Challenges - Fussy Cut
Hybrid Chick Card Caravan - Nature
Joanna Sheen Challenge - Flower Power
Do You Stack Up - Circles
Little Miss Muffet Challenge - May Flowers
Pixie Dust Studio - Flowers

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

London Calling

Good morning folks, hoping you're all having a good weekend despite the weather which does at least leave some time for crafting.
It's now time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this fortnight the theme is Cities of the World. In my case with this being the Queen's Jubilee year and the UK hosting the Olympics I felt I had to be patriotic so London was definitely calling (and The Clash are singing in my head so guess who's showing her age lol).

I'm hoping that you think my card has a 3D look which is my intention although if you could touch it you would find that it's completely flat (very handy with the new extortionate postal rates I think!)

As you know, I love to make my own backgrounds and yesterday morning woke up with inspiration on how to make mine. All I did was to print out 2 union jacks I got from the internet, having first adjusted the size to fit my card. I then cut the red sections out of one and the blue from the other with a craft knife. I stuck these, one at a time over a piece of white card attaching the corners with masking tape and sponged Distress inks in the cut out sections - Victorian Velvet and Barn Door in the red and Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky in the blue. I stamped a tiny flourish using the Victorian Velvet and Stormy Sky.
I then stamped the images on tissue paper with Memento black ink, the details are below:
Big Ben - Papermania
Buildings - Crafty Individuals
Tower Bridge and Crown - Artemio
Lion - Viva Decor (Flourish from the same set)
Man - Oxford Impressions
Letters - Technique Tuesday
I added colour to the images with various Distress inks and then cut them out and adhered them with a glue stick. I inked the edges with Vintage Photo to finish.

The Design Team have some stunning inspirational creations on the catwalk this time and as always our lovely sponsor Marina of Cottage Crafts has a fabulous prize for our winner. So what are you waiting for, hop on over for all the details and don't forget we are a stamping challenge so no digis please!

Challenges for my card:
Crafty Cardmakers - For The Boys
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Best of British
Ooh La La - Make It Manly
Totally Stampalicious - Masculine
Penny Black and More - London Celebrates

Have a great Sunday.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Tiptoe Among The Flowers

Hello folks on another rather cold and wet day and it feels like March rather than May here so hope the sun reappears soon.
Just a quick post here to share one of my card samples from the last workshop I taught where we made gatefold cards with a surprise inside. This one has my newest La Blanche stamp which is a cute little mouse looking like he's tiptoeing through the clover.

This is a very simple design using my favourite green and pink colour combination which I love as it always makes me think of Spring even on a miserable day like today lol.

The panels on the front are simply embossing with a Papermania Triboss folder, inked with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and then swiped with Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint on the raised areas. It ended up quite grungy in places where the raised areas were not as pronounced.
I then stamped the mouse design on white card with Archival coffee ink (my fave brown), coloured it with pencils and Promarkers then die cut it into an oval and sponged Shabby Shutters round the edges. The panel was then attached to the left front side.
For the surprise inside, I cut a square of white card slightly smaller than the back panel and then masked off the mouse part of the image with masking tape, inked up the stamp and removed the tape to stamp just the clover on the right side of the card near the base. I then inked again and stamped the whole image next to the flowers. I inked up the stamped portion by sponging with Shabby Shutters and Crushed Olive then added colour to the images with pencils and Promarkers as before.
To finish off, I stamped the Penny Black sentiment above the image.

Challenges for my card:
Crafts & Me - Favourite Colour Combo
My Mum's Craft Shop - Embossing
The Craft Room Challenge - Emboss It
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Hoping you enjoy the rest of your day whatever the weather.
Hugs, Fliss xx