The White Space Challenge For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and hope you're enjoying the sunshine wherever you are. I'm really sorry for the lack of visiting which is because I've been extremely busy working on things which I can't tell you about until next week and I can hardly wait!
In the meantime, I have a project to share today over at That's Crafty! Blog where this week I've challenged myself to leave some white space on my creation, something which is a real challenge to me as I normally have a tendency to cover everything in sight with ink or paint!

As you can see, I have white space on my sneaky peek and you'll have to pop over to the blog to see the whole thing. Unusually for me, no stamping is involved or at least, not with actual stamps!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Go Figure At That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Go Figure so we'd like to see entries with numbers on - how easy is that!

I came across the tag that I used as the base for this creation in my unfinished bits box. It was a mop up tag from a play session with my Gelli plate and some DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics in shades of green and yellow.
I stamped the umbrella man image from the Tim Holtz Sideshow cling stamp set on to the tag with Archival Jet Black ink . I then stamped on the numbers from the set using Archival Fern Green ink using first and second generation stamping.
I finished off by hand writing on the text with a fine black Sharpie pen and tied some cord through the top.

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

One For The Boys At That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're keeping warm in this somewhat unseasonable weather. I'm definitely wishing for the Spring to come back!

I'm over at That's Crafty! today with a card for the boys in your life which I hope you'll like. It features my treasured Brusho Crystals and my new set of Tim Holtz stamps.

You'll find all the details over at the blog and i'd love it if you hopped over to take a look.

I'll be back in a bit as we have a great new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and I have some inspiration to share.

Fliss xx

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. It's gone very cold down here in the South with a rather strong northerly breeze so I'm wondering where the Spring has gone!
Today's post is to let you know that we have a new challenge over at Make My Monday and this week I chose the theme which is April Showers Bring May Flowers and in the case of my garden that's actually tulips which are really late flowering this year!
My inspiration, however, has a hydrangea which I suspect will be a long time coming!

I stamped the gorgeous hydrangea, leaves and butterfly from the Stampendous Hydrangea Garden stamp set on some Gelli printed paper from my stash and added some detail with Prisma pencils. I then cut them out with the matching die set.
I assembled the elements on a white card blank, using foam tape for added dimension.

Very quick and easy, huh!

Have a great day and a good week.
Fliss xx

What If......? For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. Things are still hectic down here as I've got a huge amount of work to get through by the end of the month so I've got very little time for blogging.

It's my turn to post over at That's Crafty! Blog todayand I'm sharing a quick and easy journal page which I hope you like. It's very bright and cheery - here's a sneak peek and hope you'll visit to see the whole thing.

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

Fliss xx

About Face! at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for today's new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog with the theme of About Face!
I interpreted the theme literally to mean creating something with a face on as it gave me the chance to ink up one of my favourite Stampendous images and this mixed media panel was the result - warning, it's rather girly!

 
My substrate was a white/grey board 8x10 panel which is one of the fab That's Crafty! surfaces.
I first stamped the Stampendous Glance image on the right hand side just below the centre using Archival Olive ink. I made a mask for the image and secured this over the stamping.
I coloured the panel by brayering on Paper Artsy Frsco Finish Acrylic paints in Blush and Haystack. Once I had done this I removed the mask from the image.
I then used the Hole In The Wall Repeat Dinky Stencil with Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Rose paint to create the brick wall pattern and toned it down a little by sponging on some Blush paint.
I stamped the remaining space on the panel with a script stamp and a trellis type image (mine are Kaisercraft but there are similar designs in the online shop) using the olive Archival ink.
I stamped the Stampendous hydrangeas on some papers from my Gelli stash which were made with various Paper Artsy acrylics. I used the Archival Olive ink for stamping. I then used the matching die set to cut the images out.
I painted the main image with the Blush and Rose paints then used a grey pencil round the edges to emphasise the face. I then added the flowers and leaves with foam pads for dimension to finish.

If you haven't yet entered one of the challenges, the prize is a voucher for the online shop where you'll be spoilt for choice.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Happiness In Bloom At That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, really sorry to be awol again and will try to do better but I'm running to keep up with everything going on at the moment and hoping to slow down soon!
This is to point you in the direction of my post today at That's Crafty! where I'm sharing a quick to make tag with one of Sir Tim's lovely Flower Garden stamps and a stencilled background.
Here's a sneak peek and I'd love it if you hopped over for all the details.

Hope you like what I created and it was really fun to make too.

I'll be back in a bit with news of the new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog so watch this space!

Fliss xx

Colour My World At That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. I'm still in Swanage at the moment on my few days break which has been lovely despite the rather mixed weather but we've still managed to get out and about most days and there has been sunshine although it is still very windy and rather cold.
This post is to let you know I have a prject to share over at That's Crafty! today which is an art panel using one of the surfaces, in this case an MDF panel, with my newly acquired Paper Artsy stamps by Darcy.
It's one of my favourite colour combinations too so I hope you like it.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to hop on over to see how I created it.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Watercolour At Make My Monday

Hello everyone, by the time this post pops up I'll be on my way to exotic Swanage for a few days break which I'm sorely in need of as things have been really hectic lately and I could do with a rest! I'm hoping a change of scene will help and of course, no cooking or washing up!!!
We have a new challenge for you today at Make My Monday and Shawna would like to see your creations involving the use of Watercolour.
Here's my inspiration which is my brother in law's birthday card.

 

The image I've used is by Just Inklined and I printed it out on to mixed madia paper. I then coloured it with a mix of atercolour pencils and Prisma pencils, painting the sky with watercolour paint.

I added the painted panel to a navy blue mat and stuck it to my card blank. 

That's it - done! 

I'll be back at the weekend and until then, have a great week.

Fliss xx

All Things Bright And Beautiful

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for That's Crafty! new challenge today with the theme of All Things Bright and Beautiful.
I've gone down the route of bright plus creatures small for my journal page.

I coloured my page with DecoArt Media Fluid acrylics using Hansa Yellow Light and Medium, Pyrrole Orange and Grren Gold.
I then stencilled on the dragonflies which are a That's Crafty! Dinky Stencil using Yellow Green Light.
I stamped on the border image from Craters Companion Splats & Accessories Set 2 with Archival Cactus Flower ink. I stamped on the text from Tim Holtz Handwritten Thoughts with the same ink.
The butterfly (Carabelle Studio) was stamped on with Archival Olive ink and added a little colour with Green Gold.
I stencilled on some bubbles with the Bubbly All Over Dinky Stencil with the orange and yellow green light paints to finish.

I hope you decide to enter as theres a fab prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Enchantment For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, apologies if I haven't been round this week but I'm in the wars yet again with a scratched left eye this time so the glasses have had to come out again until it recovers so I'm squinting at the screen! Any spelling errors are cause I can't see properly, she says, tongue in cheek :D

I'm over at That's Crafty! blog today with a mixed media art panel which I hope you'll like. Here's a sneak peek and you'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to hop over and see how it came about.

I'll be back in a while as we have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.

See ya later!

Fliss xx

Going Round In Circles At Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely Easter break with hopefully not too much in the way of bad weather. It's been very windy, wet and cold here since yesterday which was such a change after Friday which was sunny and much warmer!
Today's the day for a new challenge at Make My Monday and this week I chose the theme which is Going Round In Circles as I'm sure you all know how much I love those!

For my inspiration my Inkadinkado stamping gear has come out to play again and I used the round cog with one of the lovely flower petal stamps to make 2 circles of petals with Memento Cottage Ivy ink.
I then coloured the petals with Brusho Crystals used as paint by sprinkling them in a paint dish and misting them with water. I used lemon, gamboge and lime green. When the paint was dry I cut the floral circles out.
I assembled my little plaque using a round chipboard shape by Papermania and added an embossed circle and some ribbon to finish.

Have a great day and a good week.
Fliss xx

I'd like to enter my little plaque in the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations March Challenge - Flower Power (as you see I have a rather big flower here :D)
Creative Corner - Anything But A Card

Birds of a Feather For That's Crafty!

Happy Easter everyone and hoping everyone who celebrates has a lovely long weekend too.

My post is also to let you know I have a tag to share at That's Crafty this week which is one of the fabulous substrate surfaces great for mixed media which is what my creation turned out to be.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to visit and I'd be so pleased if you did too.

See you again soon.
Fliss xx

Something Fluffy For Make My Monday

Hello all, I hope you had a lovely weekend and managed to fit in some crafting time as I did, although only a little in my case as I had quite a lot of other things to do!
Our new challenge today at Make My Monday is rather a fun one as we would like to see your creations with Something Fluffy on and yes - you did read that right!
When it comes to something fluffy, what else could I pick for my card but this cute Just Inklined bunny - isn't he just adorable?

OK, so my card actually became mixed media as I had the background floating around just waiting for the right image and as it has a meadow look to it I thought it perfect for this cute Meadow Rabbit.
The paper was made by sprinkling lemon, yellow and gamboge Brusho Crystals on a piece of mixed media paper and misting it with water. I then allowed the paint to run and it formed streaks down the paper. When it was dry, I turned it upside down (can you see the streaks at the bottom).
I then put some lime green and olive crystals on a plate, misted them with water and picked up colour with an old store card, using it to form the blades of grass on my paper.
I printed the bunny out on to mixed media paper and coloured the image with a mix of Prismacolor pencils and Distress markers, trimmed it to a panel and added a blue mat.
I assembled the card as you see, adding a Tim Holtz Chit Chat sticker also on a blue mat to finish.

Have a great week and see you again soon. Sorry if I haven't been round lately, I've been really busy with little time for blogging.
Fliss xx

Some Challenges I'd like to enter:
Try It On Tuesday - Nature
Dragonfly Journeys - Hippity Hoppity
Challenge Up Your Life - Bunnies

A New Challenge At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog.
For the next fortnight we're going Red and Green although you nearly didn't get my inspiration as I misunderstood the theme! Happily for once I actually made something that came together really quickly which has to be a first from me as it's not clean and simple!

I used my Gelli plate to colour the MDF tag by swiping on Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylics and pressing the tag on to pick up the paint.
I then used an old credit card to swipe on more paint to make blades of grass. I stamped some stalks from the Tim Holtz Flower Garden stamp set with Archival ink and painted them the same green.
I stamped the poppy heads and painted them with Martha Stewart Satin Acrylics then cut them out and glued them to the tag.
I finished off by addding stencilled dots which I did with my current favourite Dinky Stencil. I tied some green crochet ribbon through the top.

I used:
Tim Holtz Flower Garden Cling Stamp Set
That's Crafty Dinky Stencil - Bubbly All Over
That's Crafty Surfaces - MDF Tag
Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints - London Bus, Zucchini, Tinned Peas
Martha Stewart Satin Acrylic Paints - Geranium, Green Olive

There's a fab prize for the randomly drawn winner so do enter if you can.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss x

A Chaotic Life Journal Page

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. This is my first post to day which is to let you know I'm over at That's Crafty today sharing a page in my journal.

Maybe you can see what I mean by chaotic now! If you'd like to see how it came about, please hop on over to the blog and I'd love it if you did.

I'll be back in a while with news of our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and I have my inspiration to share.

See you soon.
Fliss x

Lucky - A State Of Mind

Hello there, I hope you all had a lovely weekend with some sunshine as we did down here in the South - it was really lovely although I didn't see that much of it as we had loads of family stuff going on.
I did manage a bit of crafting though for my inspiration for the new challenge at Make My Monday which has the theme of Lucky this week. I struggled with this a bit until I realised that one of the Handwritten Thoughts by Tim Holtz was about lucky being a state of mind and my journal page below is the result. Hope you like it.

This was a really quick page to make and I began by sponging on Twisted Citron and Squeezed Lemonade Distress inks on the blank page. As the edges had a bit of grey on them already fom a previous page, I stamped on my new favourite edge stamp (Crafters Companion Textures Splats & Accessories Set 2) with Watering Can Archival ink.
I stamped the flowers (Penny Black) and the text with the same ink to finish - ta dah!

Have a great week and see you again soon.
Fliss xx

Be Unique For That's Crafty

Hello everyone and welcome to my post for today which is to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty blog to share an art panel I've made using one of the fab substrate surfaces, an MDF panel.

Here's a peek and all the details are over at the blog if you'd like to hop over for the whole pic and the instructions on how to make it, although it's one of those creations that kind of went with the flow this time.

Hope to see you there!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Imagine

Hello everyone, a really quick post from me to share a piece of artwork that I thought was never going to happen! I'm still not quite sure about it but I really wanted to join in with Andy Skinner's DecoArt Bright Colours Challenge (you know how I love those!) so this will have to do!

As you can see, it's definitely bright! It involves using my fingers to apply lots of DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics to a natural coloured canvas board.
I then used the end of a wooden doewl to add the tiny circular shapes to the panel. I stamped on the text from Andy's Batik Garden stamp set with Archival Jet Black ink and stencilled on imagine from the Serendipity stencil with Carbon Black.
The butterfly was die cur from paper coloured with Pyrrole Orange and I swiped on Hicory Smoke Distress ink to colour the raised areas.

I used:
 

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics – Hansa Yellow Light, Hansa Yellow Medium, Green Gold, Yellow Green Light, Cobalt Teal Hue, Cobalt Blue Hue, Pyrrole Red, Pyrrole Orange, Primary Magenta, Carbon Black

White Gesso

Serendipity Stencil

Batik Garden Stamp Set

Have a great day and see you again soon!

Fliss x

Stencils and Masks at That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog where for the next fortnight we'd like to see your creations featuring Stencils and Masks.
I decided on a journal page for this challenge which I hope you like.

I prepared the background using my Gelli plate which I misted with some Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays, there is some shimmer but you can't really see it in my pic.
When the page was dry, I used the That's Crafty butterfly stencil to add a pattern in opposite corners with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Carbon Black as I wanted a strong contrast.
I then added a circular pattern with the black paint and an old lid. I stamped on some text and butterflies from the Finnabair Don't Forget to Fly stamp set to finish.

I used:
Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays - Autumn Maple Crimson, Tibetan Poppy Teal, Glory of the Seas Gold
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic - Carbon Black
That's Crafty Dinky Stencil - Flight of Butterflies
Prima Finnabair Cling Stamp Set - Don't Forget To Fly

Hope you can enter as that's all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Have a great weekend,
Fliss xx

A Grumpy Card For That's Crafty

Hello all, I've been a bad blogger again as I've had a rather nasty sick bug that completely knocked me off my feet and although I'm getting better it's completely ruined my appetite. Not an ideal way to lose weight I have to say!
I have a project to share today over at That's Crafty which is the CAS card that I made for my eldest nephew's birthday - he's the ripe old age of 23!

It has the shortest set of instructions I think I've ever done and you'll find all the details over at the blog as usual.

I'll be back in a bit with my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

Fliss x

The Tale of the Party Hat That Became a Kite

Hello everyone and welcome to my first post of the week which is a bit late as I had a bit of a struggle with our challenge this time at Make My Monday where Marina would like to see something with a KITE on.
I don't have anything kite related at all so spent some time pondering on it and then late yesterday after have made a birthday card for my eldest nephew, I was putting the stamps away and inspiration struck!
Here's my card which took a bit of time actually coming together and is the tale of how a party hat became a kite - and yes, you did read that right! If you look below, you might see what I mean.

This is a one layer card as in it doesn't have anything stuck on, I just did a lot of layering until I was happy with the effect.
I first stamped on the bird, following that with the party hat from the Crazy Things stamp set which I stamped upside down near the top corner of my 5x7 card as the crazy bird is looking up.
I stamped the text from a Dylusions set in 2 parts for balance.

I then got out a fine black pigment pen (one of my zentangle ones) and started doodling. As you can see, I added a top section on the party hat to make it more kite shaped and then repeated the pattern on the hat, drawing crossed lines to form the string. I drew a wiggly line coming down from the kite and added bows as well. I then doodled some grass and flowers to ground the bird.

I then coloured the bird, kite and text with coloured pencils, adding shadows round the text boxes to make them pop more. I added Distress inks to the bakground (Spun Sugar, Squeezed Lemonade) and deciding this was a bit flat, sprinkled on Lemon And Lime Green Brusho Crystals to add some texture. This still wasn't quite there so I stamped on my favourite Carabelle Studio Journal du Jour background stamp with Worn Lipstick Distress ink using first and second generation stamping.

Have a great week and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Don't Forget To Fly For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, sorry I've been awol the last week which is because I managed to scratch my right eye last Friday night whilst trying to extract a contact lens which seemed to have gotten glued to my eye! I'm currently wearing glasses that don't quite work so my computer time in the evening is limited as I have to work on one all day.
My post today is to let you know I have my usual Friday tutorial over at That's Crafty and this week I'm sharing a little rainbow coloured art panel which I hope you like.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to see how it was created.

Hopefully I'll be able to put my contact lenses back in over the weekend and once I can do that, I'll be round to visit.

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

Circle It! At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again, I'm back with the details of our new challenge at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of Circle It!

I've made a journal style art panel for my inspiration and as you'll see it's got circles everywhere!

Do you think I've gone over the top!

It came about because when I was colouring the background, which I did by applying red, yellow and blue acrylic paints to my Gelli plate, smooshing it over with my fingers and pressing the white/grey board panel on to pick up the colour.

The colour came out a bit muddy so I gave the panel a sort of bokeh look by applying the same paints over the top with a home made circle stencil. I then used a That's Crafty Dinky Stencil to make a random dot pattern with black paint. This actually came out stronger than I wanted so I toned it down with some grey paint.

I dipped some die cut circles into some red, yellow and blue paint on my craft mat and glued some of these on when the paint was dry.

I stamped my new Carabelle butterfly on white card with black ink, cut this out and added it to the panel with foam tape. I finished off with some Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers.

I used:
Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints - Haystack, London Bus
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Carbon Black, Cobalt Blue Hue, Medium Grey Value 6
That's Crafty Surfaces - White/Grey Board Panel
Carabelle Studio Mini Stamp - Butterfly
Archival Jet Black Ink
That's Crafty Dinky Stencil - Punchinella Background
Gelli Plate - 8x10
Circle Dies
Tim Holtz Small Talk Stickers

Hope you can enter - good luck!

Have a great weekend,
Fliss xx 

Life's Great Adventure

Hello and welcome to my first post of the day which is to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty today and this week I'm sharing a journal page featuring my new NK Studio stamps by Stampendous.

It's a quick page in my new kraft paper journal which is quite large and I got it because I wanted to be able to make pages fairly quickly which can be done when you don't cover all of the background - I definitely wanted to leave some of the kraft paper on show as I love it too much to cover it all up!

This is just a sneak peek so if you'd like to see the whole page, you'll have to hop over to the blog.

I'll be back later with details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which goes live at 8am today.

Fliss xx

The Love Word at Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was somewhat busy yet again so apologies for the lack of visiting which is all I seem to be doing lately!
We have a new challenge for you today at Make My Monday and we'd like to see your creations with the word Love on. Easy, huh!
My inspiration is the Valentine card I gave to my hubby which is very simple as he doesn't like fussy and unusually for me took only 10 minutes to make! Hope you like it.

As you can see there's only one layer. I started by stamping the 2 bunnies (Crafty Individuals) on my card blank with Archival Watering Can ink and coloured them with pencils. As the bunnies are a bit scribbly I scribbled the colour on and I think I quite like the effect!
I then stamped the love and heart text above with VersaFine Satin Red ink, the stamp being the lovely free cover stamp from Jennie of The Artist Stamper given by Craft Stamper magazine. I added a little colour with pencils to finish.
Ta da! Done!

Some challenges I'd like to enter:

CAS on Sunday - Valentine
Come and Get It Challenges - Love Is In The Air
A Gem of a Challenge - Love Is In The Air

Love Me Do Art Panel At That's Crafty

Hello there, I'm still here in case you were wondering, I've just been extremely busy with no time for much in the way of blogging this week!
I have a post today over at That's Crafty and I've gone rather romantic due to it being a certain day at the weekend.
This week I've made an art panel on a hearts theme which I hope you like. Here's a sneak peek and you'll find the whole thing over at the blog.

I'd love it if you hopped over so thank you so much if you do!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

First Love At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for the new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of First Love.
I have to admit to have been a bit stumped by this theme until I woke up the other morning thinking about the pop posters I had on my bedroom wall when I was a teenager - I bet you all had those too though maybe not of David Cassidy as I did!
This is what inspired my card although it has turned out a bit more pink than I anticipated - can you see her looking at her pop idol?

I made the background paper first using my 6x6 Gelli Plate. I added dots of pink and green acrylic paints (Paper Artsy Fresco Finish) to the plate and spread the colour with a brayer. I then tried my hand at mark making which I did with a wooden skewer which I pressed gently in the paint to make a rough pattern.
I then used the That's Crafty Long Hearts Background Dinky Stencil with the deep pink paint to add a pattern in the bottom right hand corner.

I stamped some tiny flowers from the Tim Holtz Crazy Things stamp set on the top portion with Ranger Wild Orchid Dye Ink.
I stamped my 2 birds, the hearts, flowery hat and bouquet from the Crazy Things set onto stamping card and painted them with Martha Stewart and DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics. I then die cut everything with the matching dies.
I die cut the heart frame from green textured card using the X Cut Nesting Dies Homespun Heart set.

I assembled the card as you see, adding the quirky bird to the frame and trimming off the excess. I finished off with a Small Talk sticker which I cut into pieces.

I hope you can enter for the chance at a fab prize of a voucher for the online shop.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Butterfly, Butterfly Brusho Stackable Storage Box

Hello everyone and welcome to the first of 2 posts today and I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be able to share a project that has been under wraps for a while.
Laura and Graham at That's Crafty have developed a range of stackable storage boxes designed to hold some of your favourite art supplies such as paint, spray inks, glitter glue and so on.
As I'm such a fan of Brusho Crystals, you can probably guess who was given that particular storage box to decorate!
If you hop on over to the blog you'll find all the details of how I made the box with step by step decorating pics.
It's rather eye poppingly bright as I wanted something eye catching.

This one has winged it's way (pun intended!) to Laura as That's Crafty will be doing something special later in the month but I do have another one to decorate for myself and I'll share that as soon as I'm able to find some spare time to get it done - I can't wait!

Do hop on over to the blog where you'll find the details of the other fab storage boxes, all beautifully decorated by my DT mates!

I'll be back in a while as we have a new challenge starting today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog and I have some rather quirky inspiration to share.

Fliss xx

A Colour Challenge At Make My Monday

A slightly late post from me for my inspiration for the new challenge today at Make My Monday as I was a bit naughty having been desparate to get my tag done for Tim's 2016 Remix Tags and I couldn't manage to fit both in due to family stuff over the weekend.
The challenge is a colour one Pink, Red and White which although perfect for Valentine cards is not what I actually did!

This was very simple to make and I began by applying dots of Sherbert and Vintage Lace Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylics to my 6x6 Gelli Plate and scraped the paint over with an old store card. I then pressed on a panel of smooth cartridge paper and picked up the colour.
I next stamped the taxt from Tim Holtz Handwritten Thoughts stamp set with VersaFine Crimson Red ink and heat embossed it with Chinese Red which has a sparkle you can't see that well here.
I then used a That's Crafty hearts Dinky Stencil with a slightly deeper pink paint to make a pattern on the painted panel.
I stamped the Tim Holtz Runway lady with Archival Watering Can ink on cartridge paper and painted her with a mix of Paper Artsy and Martha Stewart paints.
I distressed the edges of the painted panel and added it to a white card blank then finished off with the lady, cut out and added with foam pads for dimension.

Have a great week.
Fliss xx

Tim's January 2016 Tag

Hello everyone, a very quick post from me today as I'm quite determined to join in with Tim's Tags of 2016 having not managed the last couple of years as I've been so busy with work and things. I'll probably be last past the post too!

I didn't have quite a lot of the materials that Tim used so have had to improvise somewhat, although I do think this is one of the best things about the tags as it's such a creative jump start to come up with an alternative.

Here's what I made and it's not quite as good as Tim's of course which you can see HERE

For mine, the alternatives are an X Cut Tri Boss Clocks Embossing Folder, DecoArt Carbon Black Antiquing Cream, Kaisercraft and Kanban clock stamps.

See you again soon.
Fliss xx

Flower Garden For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and welcome to my only post this week which is because due to work I've had virtually no spare time so no blogging was possible. Really sorry about this and things will be back to normality next week!
I have a tutorial over at That's Crafty today which is a nature themed art panel - you know how much I love creating anything involving that!

This was inspired by a photo I found on the internet which featured a large number of gaily coloured Echinacea (cone flowers) so I couldn't resist creating something with one of my favourite Flower Garden stamps.
You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to hop over to see how my panel was made.

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

Fliss xx

Artist Trading Cards At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which has the theme this time of ATCs.
Who doesn't love those little creations which can be created so quickly and I really enjoyed making mine as it gave me the excuse to let my crazy birds out to play again!

Aren't they just adorable!

I've used 2 of the fab That's Crafty Surfaces MDF ATC blanks for my creations. I coloured the background by applying yellow and green fluid acrylic paints to my 3x5 Gelli plate and then pressed the atcs on to pick up the colour. For this technique, I didn't even have to use Gesso!

I then used 3 different That's Crafty Dinky stencils with red, magenta and black fluid acrylics to apply a pattern on the painted backgrounds. I knocked the colour back a little with white Gesso as it was rather bright! I stamped a butterfly pattern on one of the atcs in the spaces remaining.

I stamped my 2 favourite crazy birds on smooth card with black Archival ink and coloured them with watercolour pencils. I then used the matching dies to cut the images out. I glued them onto backgrounds and used a grey pencil to add definition round the outside of the birds.

I added black around the edges of one and finished off with some Chit Chat stickers.

I used:
Deco Art Fluid Acrylics - Carbon Black, Yellow Green Light, Hansa Yellow Medium, Pyrrole Red, Quinacridone Magenta.
Thats's Crafty Dinky Stencils -Circles Background, Chequerboard Background, Diamond Circles Background
Tim Holtz Bird Crazy Stamp Set and matching Sizzix Die Set
Watercolour Pencils

There's a fab prize if you enter with a voucher for the online shop up for grabs for the randomly drawn winner so do enter if you can.

I Heart Steampunk For That's Crafty

Hello everyone and apologies for my lack of visiting this week which is because I'm working full time due to the fast looming tax deadline and I'm so pooped in the evenings I haven't felt like doing any more than collapse in front of the TV!
Only a week to go now and hopefully normal service will then resume!

I have a post today over at That's Crafty which this week is a mixed media art panel on one of my favourite themes - steampunk if you haven't already guessed :D

I hope this will intrigue you enough to pop over to see the whole thing and I'd be so pleased if you did as I so enjoyed making this.

I'll be back in a bit as we have a new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog today and I can hardly wait to show you my inspiration!

Fliss xx

Stitching at Make My Monday

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend and stayed warm if you had snow which I have to say we did not! Snow only makes a very rare appearance this far south and all we had was grey skies and rain!
We have a new challenge for you today at Make My Monday with a theme which I chose as today is my younger daughter's birthday and as she's a print designer in fashion, I picked Stitching - Real or Faux.
Here's my inspiration which is a fairly simple card to show off my beautiful new Penny Black poppy stamp. Hope you like it!

 
I inked up the stamp with several shades of Memento ink - Bamboo Leaves, Pear Tart, Lilac Posies, Sweet Plum, Grape Jelly. I then stamped the image on smooth stamping card. I trimmed this to a panel and stamped on the sentiment with the bamboo ink.
I trimmed a panel of green textured card to form a mat just on either side as the stamp image is very large (around 14cm high). I used the Tim Holtz ruler to make rows of holes and then used a Sharpie fine white marker to make the faux stitching. It actually came out looking rather like my real stitching - somewhat wonky!
I glued the panels to a pearl card blank to finish.

Have a great day and a lovely week.
Fliss xx

Tongue In Cheek At That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week and not as busy as mine as I have so much work on at the moment I practically fall asleep in the middle of dinner!
I have a post at That's Crafty today to share a rather cheeky card I made with some bits from my experimental box.

You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to see how it came about and there are quite a few progress pics to show how the background paper came about.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Winter But Not Christmas!

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog where we would like to see your creations on the theme of Winter but definitely not Christmas! So it's time to get frosty!

I've taken this opportunity to ink up my newest cute stamp which is the adorable Katzelcraft grumpy penguins.

I've used a white/greyboard postcard as my starting point as these are really fab if you haven't got much crafting time available.

I applied some Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylic paint in Lavender and Vintage Lace, using my fingers which is rather messy but gives a soft grungy effect.

I then used the That's Crafty snowflake dinky stencil with the Ranger Emboss-It Dabber to make a pattern around the edges of the painted panel and heat embossed it with Ranger Weathered White Embossing Powder. I added some more embossing round the edges for an extra snowy look.

I stamped the penguins on stamping card with Archival Jet Black ink and added colour to the images with watercolour pencils. I then cut them out and rounded them out with a large embossing tool before adding to the panel with foam tape.

I finished off with a stamped sentiment, adding the exclamation mark with a fine black pen as I was trying for a little sarcasm to go with the general grumpiness!

Hope you can enter and the prize for the randomly drawn winner is a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you next week.

Fliss xx

Dreaming Big At That's Crafty

Hello everyone from a rather tired Fliss! I'm back at work after the Christmas break and it's now official - I really don't like January!!! Being in accountancy it's our busiest time of year so all I can say is roll on February :D
I have a post today over at That's Crafty where I'm sharing a journal style art panel on one of the fab substrata surfaces, this time a white/greyboard panel.

Here's a sneak peek and hope you like it.

My round Gelli plate has come out to play along with one of my fave Dina Wakley positive ladies and you'll find the details and the whole project over at the blog. I'd be so pleased if you popped over for a visit.

I'll be back in a while with the details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

Fliss xx

Brusho Play

Hello and welcome to today's post which has happened because I wanted to share a card I made with one of the bits from a demonstration I did last week for my sister in law who is a teaching assistant and runs an art club for the children.

We got talking on Boxing Day and I mentioned Brusho Crystals in connection with something I'm working on at the moment (can't tell you what as it's a secret at the moment :D) and she said they had those at school but what could she do with them!

I'm sure you know how much I love them so I did a demo with various ways using things I thought the children would like to use such as bubble wrap, jar lids, straws etc and I'll show you all the things I did another time.

I saw a couple of challenges that would fit the little meadow scene I made with my new Hunkydory Poppy Meadow clear stamp set which I couldn't resist as I love poppies. Hope you like it!

I started off with a piece of mixed media paper torn from an A5 size pad and decided to incorporate the torn section as it gives a rather rustic look which I thought fit what I wanted to do very well.

I sprinkled on some Lemon Brusho Crystals at the base of the paper then misted with water. I then used a straw to blow the paint about the paper and gained some streaks on the top half.

I then turned the paper up the other way and stamped the poppies on with Archival Watering Can ink. I stamped a butterfly from the set with the same ink. I painted the images with Brusho Crystals, sprinkling a little in a paint palette and adding water. I used Brilliant Red, Lime Green and Turquoise.

I made the grass by sprinkling lime green crystals on a ceramic plate and misting with water. I then used an old store card to pick up paint which I applied in streaks to resemble grass, pulling some paint sideways whilst the paint was wet.

I then sprinkled on a little Gamboge Brusho Crystals, concentrating on the torn edge and the bottom of the panel. I misted this with water and let the colour run a little. You can see where the water made the colours on the poppies and butterflies run a little and I think this gives a lovely free flowing effect.

I glued the panel to a white card blank and stamped on the Hobby Art text with the grey ink to finish.

Have a great day and see you again soon although not sure quite when as I have to go back to work tomorrow - eek!

Fliss xx

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
Allsorts Challenge - What's New (my stamp set and blowing the Brusho Crystals around with a straw!)
Inkspirational Challenges - Thank You With Something New (shown above)
Just Us Girls Challenge - Thank You

Hello Flower For That's Crafty

Happy New Year everyone and wishing you all the very best for 2016.

Today's post is to let you know that I have the honour of starting off a brand new year of tutorials over at That's Crafty blog which is a wooden tag, one of the fab new substrata blanks now available in the online shop.

Here's a sneak peek and you can see the whole thing over at the blog.

As you can see, my favourite crazy bird has come out to play and to find out what he's peeking up at you'll need to hop on over.

Have a great day and I hope you can fit in some crafting as I'm aiming on doing just that - a very good start to the new year I think!

Bye for now,

Fliss x   

New Year

Hello everyone, hoping you all had a very lovely Christmas and that Santa brought you some lovely pressies too. Apologies for my lack of visiting which is because I've been really busy with family stuff and had to work right up to Christmas so didn't have much time for blogging.
I also hope that none of you have been flooded out in the North but my sympathies are with anyone affected as I felt so sorry for all those poor folk whose Christmas was completely ruined this year.

We have a new challenge for you today over at Make My Monday which with the new year fast approaching has the theme of New Year or Calendar.

I've made a simple one layer card which started off with the clock from the Kaisercraft Time Machine set being stamped with Archival Watering Can Ink.
I then stamped the Carabelle Studio Journal du Jour image twice with Mustard Seed Distress ink followed by the star background stamp also by Carabelle Studio with Cracked Pistachio Distress ink.
I finished off with some orange and blue letters and numbers die cut with the Tim Holtz Vintage Market alphabet strip set.

I'll be back on Friday if not before as this week I have the honour of starting off a whole new year of tutorials at That's Crafty and if you haven't yet signed up to follow I can recommend it as 2016 has some very exciting things happening!

Fliss xx

Anything Goes At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge today over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which has the theme of Anything Goes!
I've made another art panel with my favourite nature inspired theme.

I started off by painting my A4 size white/greyboard panel with yellow and green acrylic paints which I applied with sponges. Being white there's no need for gesso!
I then used 2 That's Crafty Dinky Stencils with a darker grren and orange paint to apply the pattern for my background. A little in your face, but I like it!

 Next I painted 3 of the white/greyboard atcs with a mix of orange, yellow and green paints and stencilled these with contrasting colour and the same 2 stencils.

I then stamped the bird (Carabelle Studio Every Bird) with Archival Jet Black ink on white stamping card, added a little colour to the beak and branch and cut the image out.

I next stamped some of the daisy heads from the Tim Holtz Flower Garden stamp set on white card and added colour with pencils before cutting them out. I stamped the leafy stalks on green painted paper and cut these out.

I added the atc panels to mats of a darker green card to make them stand out and glued them to my panel. I added all my cut out images and finished off with text from the Carabelle set stamped on white card with black ink and trimmed to a panel.

I may not have time to post again before the big day so I'd like to wish everyone a very Haapy Christmas and all the best for 2016.

See you soon!
Fliss xx

Runway For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, I hope you're all getting ready for the big day and I have to admit to being still nowhere near ready!
I'm really busy at the moment as I have to get all my payrolls done by Christmas Eve and I've got loads to go still!
It's my day to post at That's Crafty and this week I'm sharing a liitle art panel made with one of the fab That's Crafty surfaces, a white/greyboard postcard.

I'll be back in a while with details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog so watch this space!

Fliss xx

Wings At Christmas

Hello everyone, hoping you had a lovely weekend. Mine was rather busy as it was my hubby's birthday so we had our two down from London for the weekend and although we didn't go out for a meal having had my hubby's office Christmas dinner on Thursday, we had a great time with family. I can't believe it's Christmas next week - eek! Where did the time go and why haven't I finished my Christmas shopping!!!

We have a new challenge for you today over at Make My Monday and this time it's Wings At Christmas so for my inspiration my favourite Dina Wakley scribbly bird is a robin again and I've used up a piece of my Christmas masterboard too for a very simple design that I hope you like.

The masterboard was made with Brusho crystals and stamped with trees and text from the Tim Holtz Scribbly Christmas stamp set with Mowed Lawn Distess ink and Olive Archival ink.
The bird was stamped on smooth cartridge paper with Watercan Can Archival ink and then painted with Brusho Crystals and cut out when dry.
I stamped the Christmas text across the base of the card blank with Fern Green Archival ink and then glued the paper panel and the painted bird on the card.

Have a great week and see you soon.
Fliss xx