Craft Stamper and Other News

Hello again and welcome to my second post of the day which is to tell you that I'm absolutely thrilled to be featured in the May issue of Craft Stamper which hits the shops today.

Here's a sneak peek of my project and if you want to see the whole thing I'm afraid you'll have to get the mag!

I also had some other amazing news yesterday as well as my 2 entries in the last 2 Rubber Dance challenges were chosen as an Honorable Mention - how fab is that! In addition to that I also won second prize in the blog hop! Even more amazing!!!

In case you missed my challenge entries, here they are again:

Have a great day and a really lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Feeling Groovy for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all enjoying the Spring weather now that it's finally made an appearance along with loads of trees in full blossom - I do love the sight of so many beautiful flowers and talking of which, I have a journal page to share at That's Crafty! Blog today featuring rather a lot of flowers this week.
There's only a sneak peek this time to give you a flavour of the multitude of flowers you can see on my page if you hop over to the blog where you'll find the whole creation.

I'll be back in a while as I have some news to share too.

See you soon.
Fliss xx

Spring Postcard

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a lovely weekend with some sunshine as we had here. It's been really warm too and it seems as if Spring has finally arrived.
I have a postcard to share that I created with the cute little bird stamp that arrived by mistake with my subscriber's copy of Craft Stamper magazine. There was apparently a bit of a backlash about this which was suffered by Trish, the editor, when it was actually the printers error!

I covered the postcard (a That's Crafty! Surfaces white/grey board substrate) with some paper from my bits box that had been coloured with blue and yellow Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylic paints.
I stamped the little bird on with Archival Jet Black ink and then with a bit of masking stamped some branch extensions around the bird and also around the top left corner and down the side.
I painted the images with Martha Stewart Satin acrylic paints and glued on some little Hobbycraft flowers.
I stamped on some soaring birds and the text from That's Crafty! Lynne's Affirmations Set 2 to finish. I tried to make it look as if the little bird wanted to soar as well.

Have a good week and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Quirky Spring Flower Tag

Hello again, I'm back with a rather quick post to share a tag I finally managed to finish off this evening as it's been in the making all week!
I wanted to enter the Rubber Dance challenge with the theme of Everything Spring and as I haven't yet got my inky mitts on any more of the lovely stamps I ended up having to improvise and make my own flowers with paper I stamped on with the stamps I actually have.

As you can see it's very bright and rather quirky in style!

I coloured some card with pink, orange, yellow and green paints and then stamped on circles from the Round in Circles stamp set in toning shades of Distress inks. I then die cut a variety of circle shapes from the paper to use for making my flowers. I hand cut some leaves and stalks from the green variation.
I then coloured a manila tag with green paint, which I then stencilled and stamped (again using the Round in Circles stamp set).
I created the flowers from the various circle shapes and glued these on my tag with the leaves and stalks. I added some orange chiffon ribbon to finish.

I'm linking this up to the Rubber Dance challenge in the nick of time as I didn't think I was going to make it!

See you again soon.
Fliss xx

Foliage & Flowers at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for the new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of Foliage & Flowers so trees, leaves and flowers are the order of the day.
I've made a simple card with a stencil and some stamps on a kraft card blank.

I really love this pretty snowdrop stencil and used a layering technique in order to make it really pop on the kraft card. I first used DecoArt Americana Lush Foliage paint and white Gesso but as this wasn't quite a strong enough contrast, I layered Distress marker and pencil crayon over the top. I then drew round the outside of the sections with a Crushed Olive Distress marker.
I stamped the butterfly wings from That's Crafty! Lynne's Affirmations stamp set 1 on a scrap of yellow and orange Gelli print paper using Fern Green Archival ink and cut the image out, trimmimg to give the impression of a body in between the wings.
I stamped the text from Lynne's Affirmations stamp set 2 on the card with Archival Potting Soil ink and then added the butterfly to finish off.

There's a great prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner so all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Running Away With Art For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and sorry to be a rather bad vistor at the moment, I've been really busy with work and various issues as my hubby's business is in the process of changing into what's called an LLP and I've had a few things to deal with concerning HMRC which although it's technically under one banner still consists of different departments which need totally different action!
I'm also working behind the scenes on some crafty stuff I can't yet share although I can't wait to do that as I really love what I'm creating with.
Today is my day over at That's Crafty! Blog and I'm sharing another of my Hochanda samples, this week a rather grungy style one although it's still in my signature bright colours. Hope you like it.

I'll be back in a while as we have a new challenge for you today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.
See you later,
Fliss xx

Mothers' Day

Hello everyone and Happy Mothers' Day to everyone too.

I'm thinking of my own dear Mum today as we lost her back in 2004 after a very difficult 4 year battle with Alzheimers Disease which I think is one of the most cruel things out there as it takes away what makes a person who they are.

In the case of my mother, the early signs were so slight they went un-noticed as eccentricities on her part - such as us wondering how she managed to kill off so many houseplants as she was constantly buying new ones. When it was noticed her condition deteriorated very rapidly until she no longer knew who she was and couldn't recognise family members.

I want to remember her now with the best photo I have of her which was taken when she must have been around 21 years old with her post World War Two hair and clothes.

Love you Mum and you're always with me.
Fliss xxx

Dream Time for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week despite the rather unsettled weather we've been having lately. I'm looking forward to the weekend as my girls are coming home for a day or so as it's Mothers' Day here in the UK on Sunday.
It's my day over at That's Crafty! Blog and I'm sharing another journal page also in rather a bold style which I hope you like. You'll find all the details on how I made it over there too.

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

Fliss xx

Imagine for That's Crafty! and Hochanda

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK and have had a good week. Don't know about you but I'm really looking forward to the weekend.
If there are any early birds up and about, our lovely Neil is demoing some fabulous new goodies for That's Crafty! on Hochanda today at 7am and 11am so do try and catch a show if you can. It's on Freeview Channel 85, Sky 663 and Freesat 822.
I'm sharing one of the journal pages I made for the shows over at That's Crafty! Blog today and I think it's my favourite of the pages I made too as it's very bold and punchy in style. Hope you like it too!

You'll find all the details of how I created this over at the blog and you can see all of the amazing new stamps, stencils (including some 8x8) and journals over at the shop and on the Hochanda shows of course!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Psychedelic Journal Page

Hello everyone, I'm back sooner than expected as I managed to find a little spare time to rustle up a new journal page which you might need sunglasses for as it's very bright.
It was inspired by the current colour challenge over at Rubber Dance Challenge Blog and I decided to ink up my Rubber Dance Round in Circles stamp set for this as I'm sure those of you that regularly follow my artwork will know how much I love circles.
This rather psychedelic page was the result and I hope you like it.

I used my trusty Paper Artsy splodger to apply the paint (all DecoArt) to the page having happily just acquired almost the exact turquoise shade shown on the colour inspiration (see below) and just scraped the colours on to cover my page.
I then stamped on various circle images from the set using Ranger dye ink in Caribbean Coast and Wild Orchid plus a little stamping with Archival Watering Can.
I finished off with the the text from the Rubber Dance Something Wonderful stamp set using Archival Jet Black ink.

Hope you have a good week and see you again soon.
Fliss xx

Bling It Up! At That's Crafty Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which has the theme of Bling It Up! so you can probably guess what we'd like to see for this one!
I've gone rather girly with my inspiration which is a postcard as I'm quite liking this particular surface at the moment (can't tell you why either!).

I covered the postcard (one of That's Crafty! white/greyboard substrates) with Paper Artsy Sherbet acrylic paint. I then used the hearts background and quatrefoil background That's Crafty! Dinky Stencils with Paper Artsy Orchid and Lavender paints to apply a pattern.
The result was a bit stronger than I wanted so I knocked it back with dry brushed gesso and added a few streaks of blue for interest.
I stamped the lovely Serena (one of Donna Gray's beautiful stamps for That's Crafty!) on mixed media paper with Archival Jet Black ink. I coloured her with paints using Paper Artsy Blush for her face and neck and her hair with DecoArt Glamour Dust paint in Celebration Pink (it's really blingy!).
I stamped her again directly on the postcard and then cut out the image on mixed media paper except for the curly element on her hair. I added gems to her hair and the heart and finished off with some Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers.

Hope you can enter as the prize is randomly drawn so all you have to do is enter!
Have a great weekend and see you next week.
Fliss xx

Making Room For Growth At That's Crafty!

Hello all, I hope you're all OK and have had a good week. I've been very busy again with work both my job and also on the crafting side so I'm glad it's nearly the weekend. My job is rather stressful at the moment as I'm working in the new office and I've been doing the most difficult job with records that are in rather a mess - I know it's my job but sometimes I wish it wasn't!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! today and this week I'm sharing a very quick to make card which I hope you like.

As you can see, one of those lovely Dina Wakley ladies has come out to play as I love the positive message they send and this one is my favourite. You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual.

I'll be back in a while as we have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and as usual there's a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner.

See you in a bit.
Fliss xx

Be Great Journal Page For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week. Mine has been extremely busy with work and crafting stuff which I can't share yet.
Last weekend was rather difficult too as my other half went with me to the optometrist, with me having to go to get a new left contact lens to last me until my cataract op early next month, he wanting to look at glasses frames to replace his. The optometrist insisted on checking his prescription as she hadn't done the one he took and he came out after nearly an hour with the news that he had suspected Glaucoma in his left eye!!! He now has to go and see my consultant!

I have my usual Friday post today over at That's Crafty! and this week I'm sharing a journal page that was actually easier to make than it might look. Hope you like it and you'll find all the details over at the blog.

It's actually very good inspiration for the current challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has the theme of Just Words and if you enter there's a voucher for the online shop up for grabs!

Have a really fab weekend and see you next week.
Fliss xx

Just Words at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which for the next fortnight has the theme of Just Words so we would like to see your creations with words as the main focus.
I've created a journal page which was actually quite simple to make as my main tool was an old credit card!

I coloured the page with Distress inks, starting with Squeezed Lemonade, adding Twisted Citron mostly around the edges (this was because my page had green in places over-run from a previous page). I then used an old credit card to swipe Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry and Salty Ocean inks around the edges.
I stamped the circles image (Carabelle Studio) with Picked Raspberry ink and the text from That's Crafty! Motivational Words Set 2 with Versafine Deep Lagoon ink.
I then added a few more swipes with the credit card and inks to pull my page together.

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

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Happy for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a better week from me as I've been struck down with a virus that turned into sinusitis and I've felt under the weather all week.
The only good news was my follow up visit to the consultant on Wednesday and he's very pleased with my eye which is healing well and I'm so happy that the resulting eyesight went as planned and I can see better than I've been able to for most of my life - yippee! Can't wait for the left eye to be done now.
I have a post today over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week for the first time in quite a while, I have a card to share. This is mostly as I wanted to try out some colouring now my eyesight is somewhat improved. Hope you like it!

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

Fliss xx

Curious Friends for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all OK and have had a good week, definitely better than mine anyway. I've been very busy helping out at the office with mega payroll problems which resulted in complete loss of some data and we've had to rerun a lot of them from the start of the tax year, on a back to back basis so I'm totally payrolled out!

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty Blog and this week I'm sharing the reverse of my jagged edge upright. It also has a nature theme although this time bunnies have crept in. Hope you like it.

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

Here's a little reminder of the other side too:

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Design Your Life Art Journal Page

Hello again and welcome to my third post for today which I think is a first for me as I've never done that many in one day before!
This is because I am able to share the first creation I've made since my first cataract op on Tuesday having finally felt like doing some crafting as you can only watch so much TV!!!
It was very therapeutic getting all painty and my Seth Apter stamps for Paper Artsy have come out for their first inking too.

It's actually been very strange in some ways as I didn't realise how much the cataracts had affected my vision. Having just the one done has made things a lot brighter and if I cover up that eye and look through the one yet to be done, the difference in colour is staggering! The cataract seems to have caused me to see everything in what I can only describe as vintage colour as it has a sort of sepia to olive tone which I really like. Looking through the corrected eye, everything is bright but has more of a bluish tone to it which is going to take some getting used to. It makes me wonder what my artwork is going to look like when both eyes are done as I suspect I've been subconsciously going for bright colours as I couldn't see properly - eek!

Anyhow, enough of my rambling and on to my art journal page. I coloured the page with DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic Paints, adding dots of colour to a plate and scraping them on to the page with an old credit card. I used Hansa Yellow Light, Titan Buff, Transparent White, Yellow Green Light and Primary Cyan. I carried on until the page was roughly covered.

I next stamped on the diamond design from Seth Apter's Paper Artsy ESA02 with Archival Cactus Flower ink. I followed this with the dots image from the same set with Ranger Carribean Coast Dye ink. I added a bit more stamping to layer it up a little, using the same stamps but reversing the colours.

I coloured a scrap of mixed media paper with more DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Primary Cyan, Cobalt Teal Hue, Ultramarine Blue, Primary Magenta - and then used Seth's Robo Rings for Spellbinders to cut out some shapes from the painted paper. Imagine my delight when I found there was a negative space left which I could also use. I cut this out with one of my trusty Spellbinders circle nesting dies, leaving the left hand edge straight.

I glued the negative shape and the largest ring to the page across the centre. I then stamped the star design from the ESA03 set together with the text from That's Crafty! Motivational Words Set 2 clear stamp set on leftover painted paper, using Versamark ink and heat embossed both images with white detail powder. I cut these out and added them to the page.

To pull my page together, I stamped the star design from ESA02 on the page 3 times with Versamark ink and again heat embossed with white detail powder.

I hope you like this as much as I enjoyed creating it and will be round soon.

I'm also sneakily linking this up to the current Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge as the February theme is an Anything Goes Stamping Challenge and I have quite a lot of stamping on here, all layered up. Hope you like it everyone.

Have a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

I Heart You! 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 which for the next fortnight has the seasonably romantic theme of I Heart You! and we would like to see your creations with hearts on.
I've made a Valentine card which I hope you like.

I made a background paper with several shades of Distress inks - Antique Linen, Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass, Old Paper, Worn Lipstick - which I applied straight from the inkpad, pressing lightly to transfer the inks to a piece of mixed media paper.
I then stamped on the heart from the Carabelle Studio Le Coeur et l'oiseau stamp set with Weathered Wood Distress ink. I inked the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink and glued the paper to a kraft card blank.
I stamped the heart on mixed media paper with VersaFine Satin Red ink and the wings with Archival Cobalt ink. I cut the images out and gave the heart shape a double mat of dark red and blue card to make it pop. I added this to the card with the wings using foam tape for added dimension.
I finished off with some Tim Holtz stickers from the Small Talk Occasions sticker book.

Do enter if you can as the prize for the randomly drawn winner is a voucher for the online shop and we have lots of CHA goodies due in!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

The Impasto Effect for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK. I've now had my first cataract op and all seems to have gone alright, the only fly in the ointment being that the consultant now wants to wait and check the prescription for my left eye before ordering the lens which means I have to wait until April so I'm currently feeling very frustrated.
It's going to be rather difficult at work with all this going on and at the moment I'm not sure how well I'll be able to see my computer screens when I go back to the office next week.

I have my Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week I'm sharing  very textured mixed media panel which I hope you like. It's actually the top panel of the rectangles hanger kit which has 3 small panels included - I used these for my MixedUp magazine project which features in Issue 5 (you can subscribe to this via Pocket Mags and it's digital so it doesn't matter where in the world you are)

Does this make you long for Summer - it does me!

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

Fliss xx

Remembering Moments Journal Page for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, sorry to be around so little at the moment, This is partly because of my eyesight issues and also because my job has taken a dramatic change as the practice I work for has merged with another larger firm of Accountants and we now work in their office which is in Littlehampton and further away although not too bad from the travelling side. It's quite different on the actual work side though and will take a while to get used to.

On top of this, I have my first eye op next week so my stress levels are currently rather high!

I have my usual friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog which is another of my Hochanda samples which are good to have as my eyesight is not great at the moment. Hope you like this one.

Can you tell I'm longing for Spring!

Have a great weekend and will be back when the first op is done and I should be able to see properly from one eye at least!

Fliss xx

Going Round In Circles at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello again and welcome to my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where for the next fortnight our theme is Round and Round and I'm so pleased as I love this one.

I've created an art journal page in my A5 journal where Seth Apter meets Carabelle Studio! Hope you like it.

I made the background for the page with some Distress ink pads which have gone a little dry. Because of this, they're perfect if you press them randomly on card or paper and if you do it enough times, you get a grungy style inky pattern. I used Old Paper, Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky.

I then stencilled a pattern down the side of the page with Gathered Twigs ink and smooshed it before it was dry largely because I realised I'd used a squares stencil - oops!

I stamped the circles from the Seth Apter circle stamp using Gathered Twigs Distress ink. I used some Carabelle Studio stamps to stamp the eye, ladybirds and Azoline flowers into the circles with Archival Potted Soil ink. I then added a little colour with pencils.

I stamped the quote (the one that means so much to me at the moment) with the Archival ink on mixed media paper, cutting the words out separately and gluing them to the page. I then went round the edges with a brown pencil to make the words pop.

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

Fliss xx

Creating Progress Art Journal Page for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all managing to stay warm in the big chill! It's absolutely freezing down here at the moment with bitterly cold winds being the cause and it makes my face ache just to go out in it! Roll on Spring and Summer!

I have my usual post today over at That's Crafty! Blog and I'm sharing another of my Hochanda samples which have come in handy as I'm still rather optically challenged at the moment! Hope you like this one.

You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to see how it came about.

I'll be back in a bit as we have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and this one is a favourite theme of mine too.

Fliss xx

Seeing Reality Journal Page for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone from a rather miserable Fliss. I have new contact lenses the consultant dealing with my eyesight issues insisted on and I hate them with a passion as they've made my long sighted which when I've been shortsighted most of my life is really hard to deal with. I have to wear glasses most of the time as anything closer than about 3-4 feet away gets increasingly more fuzzy. The only place I can see properly is way in the distance and that's why I'm so upset!

Anyway, now I've got that off my chest, I have a post today over at That's Crafty! Blog where I'm sharing one of the art journal pages I created for Monday's Hochanda shows with the brand new white/greyboard journal pages and the new clear quote stamps chosen by my team mate Moira.

You can probably guess why I chose this one as the quote is rather dear to my heart at the moment with reality being somewhat misty!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Silver and Gold Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

A slightly late post to share my inspiration for our new challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which I should have scheduled last night but I was so tired, I fell asleep in the middle of one of my favourite TV programmes (Death in Paradise) and had to go to bed. The first time that's happened in ages as I normally don't do it!
The theme is Silver and Gold for the next 2 weeks and there must be both on your entry. I do have both on mine but the metallic shimmer doesn't show as much as it should so you'll have to imagine it's got gold and silver on there where it looks a bit brown and grey!

Lots of inking, stamping, painting and gold embossing went on here although it is fairly obvious so the materials are listed below:

Carabelle Studio A6 Stamp Sets by Zorrotte - Le coeur et l'oiseau, Dans l'univers des feuilles
Distress Ink Pads - Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass
Mixed Media Paper
DecoArt Metallic Fluid Acrylics - Gold, Silver
Gold Embossing Powder
Orange Pencil
Tim Holz Sticker Book - Chit Chat
Silver Metallic Card
Kraft Card Blank

There's a fab prize for the randomly drawn winner of a voucher for the online shop and all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter!

Have a great weekend and see you next week.
Fliss xx

Dreaming of Sunny Days for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all surviving the nasty cold and sleety weather we have at the moment, winter seems to have arrived rather suddenly! The perfect time to stay home and do some crafting I think.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and the lovely Bentley has come out to play again this week.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual if you'd like to see the whole creation as this is just a sneak peek.

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

Fliss xx

Stay Curious for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I'm happily back in my contact lenses for a bit until my cataracts get sorted out having survived laser surgery on a tear in my retina yesterday. It's really great to be able to see what I'm doing!
I have my first post of 2017 over at That's Crafty! today and I'm sharing a rather whimsical mixed media piece made using one of the fab dinky uprights.

Hope you like my sneak peek and you'll find all the details and a pic of the whole thing over at the blog as usual.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Happy New Year!

Just to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and hope that 2017 brings you all that you wish for plus health and happiness.
I won't be able to do as much blogging for the next month whilst my eyesight issues are being hopefully resolved so I want to share my favourite creations of 2016 with you (other than this there will just be my DT posts) as I'm currently typing with my face 6 inches from the screen so I can see what I'm doing! Time is limited as it gives me neckache after a while - sigh!

Hope you enjoy these even if you did see them the first time and the top one was the one that started off an exciting year with That's Crafty! and excitingly for me had the very great honour (squeal!) of being pinned by Sir Tim Holtz himself - a fabulous start to 2016!

There are more great things coming up on the craft side for 2017 and I can hardly wait to share all the news but have to keep it all under wraps for a while!

Have a great year!
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 where for the next 3 weeks the theme is Anything Goes!

I decided on an art journal page for my project and you won't believe it but most of the page is just 1 amazing stamp!

I coloured the page with Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilised Amber and Picked Raspberry Distress inks and then stamped on the amazing image from Carabelle Studio - called Collage Nature it's A5 size and covered most of the page! I stamped it with Archival Jet Black ink and then added a little colour with pencils.
I decided to fill in some of the gaps, using Carabelle's Texture Avec Des Chiffres which I stamped with the black ink and also with Wild Orchid Dye Ink.
The finishing touch was some inspirational Tim Holtz Big Chat Stickers.

Have a really fab Christmas and a great 2017 (I can't wait for my eyes to be fixed as Christmas will be a bit on the misty side!)
Fliss xx

A Christmas Wish at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello everyone, I hope you're all ready for the big day! I've thankfully done my shopping, just have rather a lot of wrapping to do and prepping veg and stuff tomorrow.
I have my final offering for this year over at That's Crafty! Blog today and I'm sharing a Christmas card which you'll find below featuring the lovely Bentley - hope you like it!

You'll find all the details on how I made this over at the blog as usual if you'd like to hop on over which I would love.

I'll be back in a bit with the details of our final challenge for the year over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which is running for 3 weeks this time so you have more chances to get something entered.

Fliss xx

Choosing Happiness as That's Crafty!

Hello all, sorry not to have been around much lately everyone, this is because I still have issues with my eyesight, particularly the close sight which makes blogging and commenting more difficult.

I saw the consultant on Tuesday and the visit has thrown a spanner in the works as I have a small tear in the retina in my right eye which has to be fixed with laser surgery prior to the cataract procedures and as well as that, I can't wear my contact lenses for 10 days prior to the measuring for my replacement lenses and although I do have glasses the prescription is not strong enough so I'll be having a rather misty Christmas!

Anyway, enough whinging and on to the reason for my post which is to let you know that I have a project today over at That's Crafty! Blog where this week I'm sharing the second side of my splat upright which appeared on Hochanda. Hope you like it!

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and I'd love it if you hopped over to see how this came about.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Flower Power 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 have the theme of Flower Power.

I've made a tag with one of the lovely new Prima princesses and this one is Maia - I love the flowers she has in her hair.

I used my fingers to apply 2 shades of pink paint to the MDF tag (Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Acrylics Orchid and Sherbert). Once the paint was dry I drew the triangles on the tag with a graphite pencil, adding dots top and bottom. I painted them with orange and yellow Paper Artsy acrylics.
I then added stencilling using the honeycomb and diamond dot Dinky stencils with Archival Watering Can ink.
I stamped Maia on stamping card with Archival Jet Black ink and coloured her with a mix of coloured and pastel pencils, adding detail with markers. I then cut her out (not well as my dodgy eyesight doesn't help with this!) and covered up my rather bad cutting by using the graphite pencil round the edges - it really does cover up any cutting issues!

There's a great prize of a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and all you have to do to be in with a chance is enter - how easy is that!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

The Two Of Us For That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all more ready for a certain date than I am! I still have quite a lot of shopping to do for the big day, not to mention birthdays first as well!
I have a project to share today over at That's Crafty! Blog which is the first side of my double sided splat upright. Hope you like it.

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

Fliss xx

Among the Flowers at That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you're all keeping warm wherever you are and I have to say, down here it's absolutely freezing! It was -2 when I got up yesterday which is the coldest I can remember in ages - brrrrrr!
I have a project today over at That's Crafty! Blog which is the reverse of my top hat MDF upright which last week was inspired by the cat in a hat. If you missed it you can see it HERE.
This is the girly side as I imagined that Bentley might have a lady friend and hope you like her.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as usual and I hope you decide to hop over as there are some fab tutorials to see.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

All Grunged Up at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Oops! Guess who forgot to schedule their challenge post for the new one today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog!
The new one for the next 2 weeks is to get All Grungy which I loved as it's a favourite thing of mine to do. I decided on a tag this time on one of the fab MDF tags from That's Crafty! surfaces range and hope you like what I did.

I first brayered white gesso on the tag and when dry, used the That's Crafty! Bubble Wrap Dinky Stencil with texture paste to add rough detail in opposite corners. I didn't do it carefully in keeping with the grunge theme.
I then roughly applied turquoise, green and yellows acrylic paints in sort of smeared verticaal stripes over the surface, repeating until I was happy with the effect. I next dabbed yellow and orange paint over the raised texture paste patter.
When the paint was completely dry, I stamped the Visible Image text on with Archival Watering Can ink and also added a little stencilling with the same ink using the Diamond Circles Dinky Stencil.
I stamped the Carabelle Studio butterflies on thick cartridge paper with Archival Jet Black ink and painted them with Fossilised Amber Distress ink. I added the cut out images to the tag to finish.

There's a great prize just for entering so do give it a go if you can - there's some amazing new goodies in the online shop so you'll be spoilt for choice.

Have a lovely weekend,
Fliss xx

The Cat On The Hat for That's Crafty!

Hello all, I hope you've had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am. I also hope you managed to catch one or both of the shows That's Crafty! did on Hochanda yesterday with the lovely Neil doing some fab demos.
I'm sharing the first side of one of my creations for the show at That's Crafty! blog today and I think this is my favourite one too - you'll probably see straight away what inspired this particular make too!

Hope you like this and you'll find all the details over at the blog so that you can see how I made it if you'd like to hop on over.

Doesn't Bentley look adorable in his snazzy hat?

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Note to self

Hello everyone, today I have an art journal page to share that is the first thing in an absolute age that I've been able to create just because I wanted to - yippee! Or not yippee as in fact the reason I did this particular page is that as some of you already know via Facebook is that last Saturday I was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes so I'm feeling rather miserable at the moment, even though everyone says it's easy to fix the problem (it doesn't stop me worrying about the actual "procedure" as it's called).

I decided to try and cheer myself up a little by creating some art and what better place to do that than my art journal!

This is a very inky layered page and I'll show a couple of the steps so that you can see how the page came together.

I began by sponging the page with Squeezed Lemonade and Fossilised Amber Distress inks and then used the Visible Image Universal clear stamp set with Fossilised Amber, Picked Raspberry and Iced Spruce Distress inks to add a circular pattern all over the inked surface.
When this was dry, i dry brushed some white gesso over the top to tone it down a little and blur the pattern a bit.

I then took a couple of Carabelle Studio mini stamps - Chevrons and Abc, stamping the chevron pattern with Ranger Wild Orchid Dye ink and the paperclip image with Watering Can Archival ink. These went all over, stamping some images twice before re-inking until I was happy with the effect.

I then stamped 3 butterflies (Carabelle Studio) on cartridge paper with Jet Black Archival ink and painted them with Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon Distress inks. I cut these out and added them on the left side of the page.

To finish, I stamped the Kaisercraft text (Way of Life) on black card with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with white detail powder. I then cut the words up and glued them to the page.

Hope you like my page and I'll be back soon with some rather exciting That's Crafty! news.
Fliss xx

Sparkle in the Rain for That's Crafty!

Hello and welcome to my post today which is to let you know that I have my usual Friday tutorial over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I have a journal page to share with an extremely quick background - necessary as I've had another really busy week.

You may not be able to see but the silhouette figure has loads of sparkle. You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to hop on over.

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

Fliss xx

There Must Be An Angel 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 would like to see creations featuring an angel.

I know a lot of people would think of Christmas in connection with angels but I've done a journal page with my favourite Carabelle Studio angel.

I made the background by sponging the page with Tumbled Glass DI then used the same inkpad and an Antique Linen inkpad to lightly apply ink prints to the page in a random fashion. I then added some more with Weathered Wood, smudging the outlines for a softer effect.
I next stamped on the broken line image from the Visible Image Scratch the Surface stamp set using Old Paper DI.
I stamped the angel and the wings from the Carabelle set on stamping card with Archival Watering Can ink and coloured the images with pencils. I then cut them out and added them to the page with foam tape.
I then stamped the text from the Visible Image Learn to Fly Again stamp set at the top of the page with the grey ink and to finish my page stamped the feather from the set on with Weathered Wood DI to resemble feathers fluttering down from broken wings.

There's a great prize for the randomly drawn winner simply for entering the challenge so why not give it a go!

Have a great weekend and see you soon.
Fliss xx

My Favourite Monster for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am. My week has been rather busy as we had my eldest nephew's wedding last Saturday which all went off very well and everyone had a really lovely time. This was followed by Sunday lunch in Arundel at our favourite restaurant there as a belated birthday celebration for yours truly.
After that I did manage a little crafting and first up is to let you know I have my usual Friday project over at That's Crafty! Blog which this week is a rather bright and zingy door hanger.

I just couldn't resist this adorably cute and quirky set of monsters from Elenazinski Art for Paper Artsy so I think you'll be seeing some of the others very soon!

I'll be back in a bit as we have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog which has a great theme that would come in handy for Christmas makes although that's not actually what I've done as my inspiration - you'll have to waite and see!

Fliss xx

Don't Worry, Be Happy for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a good week. This is a very quick post to let you know that I have a post today over at That's Crafty! Blog where this week I'm sharing a bright and cheery journal page having finally got my inky mitts on the lovely Bentley designed by our very own Donna.

I hope you like it and you'll find all the details over at the blog.

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

Fliss xx