One For The Birds

I'm back from the hairdressers and my hair is somewhat shorter but as it grows as if it had fertiliser put on it, I'm sure it it won't be long before I recognise myself again!
I have a little piece of artwork to show you that you might have seen on Create and Craft on Monday if you caught the 3pm show that Nikky did. I actually managed to get some free time to watch and was glad I did as it gave me quite a buzz to see this.

I made this little bird house with Easter in mind as I put some little eggs inside. I used the bird house pattern from the Polka Doodles Candy Doodles CD and printed this out on the back of some of the gorgeous textured kraft papers from the A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft CD.
I made the house up from the easy to follow instructions and added a border round the bottom using one of the border strips punched with the Martha Stewart Hydrangea border punch. I added a bid and some butterflies to embellish the little house and finished off with a garden twine hanger and one of the pretty Winnie labels.
I added the eggs inside tied up in yellow cellophane.

My bird house is for the following challenges:
Charisma Cardz Challenges - No Cards Allowed
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
The Stamping Boutique - Winged Things

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Easel Card

Good morning everyone on a glorious sunny day after the grey skies we had most of yesterday. I'm hoping this post pops up too as I have an early hairdressing appointment and will be there at 9am when this is due to go live.
This week at Polka Doodles we have quite an easy challenge for you as D'Anne who's hosting her first challenge would like to see an easel style card. The theme is up to you.
I've chosen the new A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft for mine as I really love the CD and all those gorgeous kraft papers Nikky designed. If you caught Nikky on TV earlier this week, you will have seen the fabulous textures on the papers which look just stunning.

I've used one of the lovely Winnie images designed by Sharon Armstrong, in this case pre-coloured as I was short of time. I made the frame for the image using some leftover strips of one of the kraft papers which I trimmed by hand to a slightly curved shape and assembled on the background paper before sticking the image on. It just goes to show how useful some of those leftover bits can be as I used the final piece to make a mat for the sentiment.
I assembled the card as you see, adding one of the gorgeous sentiments, a butterfly and a layered flower. I used some toning rosebuds to make the easel stand.
You have until 12 noon on Sunday 15 May to enter and good luck!

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Vintage Fashion

Hello everyone, hope you've got better weather than we have as today is definitely not the sunny south! It's cold and grey again after the gorgeous weather of last week.
I have a card to show you that is another from the class I taught a couple of weeks ago as my mojo has temporarily (I hope!!!) gone walkabout due to work and stuff. The technique is the same as my bird cage card a couple of posts back which I'm really excited to say made the Top 3 of Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Birds & Butterflies challenge so thanks to Barb and the girls for this.
Here's my card:

I've used the gorgeous Crafty Individuals CI-285 vintage millinery stamp that I bought recently combined with the sewing images from Creative Expressions Vintage Sewing set by Sam Poole. The reels of thread and stitching were stamped with VersaFine Imperial Purple and the button with Spanish Moss. The millinery image was also stamped with the Imperial Purple.
I inked over the sewing borders with VersaColor Bisque, Split Pea and Topaz. The millinery image was inked with Bisque and Old Rose and the ladies and part of the text coloured with Zig Art & Graphic twin markers (these are the only colours I have but more are on my wish list as they're fabulous!).
I trimmed the inside border with pinking scissors and added an inner piece of burgundy card to accent the trimmed front edge of the card.

Challenges for my card:
Fab 'n' Funky - Put Those Papers Away
Paper Play - Show Us Your Style (vintage and getting inky!)
Sweet Stamps - Olden Days Or Vintage
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes
Try It On Tuesday - Something Older Than 6 Months + Something New (my new is the millinery stamp and my old the sewing stamp set)

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Colour Theme

Hello everyone on the day of the Royal Wedding and I'm hoping this post pops up on time as I'll still be in bed having returned from our break in Jersey around 3am.
It's Friday and time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles. Your hostess this week is Enfys and she's chosen a colour theme of Blue, Aqua and Purple.
I had a bit of a struggle with this as our printer has thrown a wobbly and keeps printing things out the wrong colour. I had to rummage in my stash of Polka Doodles bits and managed to find a few pieces in the right colours but had to improvise as you'll see.

As I only had bits and pieces, I decided on a striped background using papers from the Sundae of Seasons CD apart from the purple floral one which is from All Around & Everywhere.
I arranged the strips in a repeat pattern on an 8 x 8 card blank.
The background is quite busy so I opted for simple additions. These being a central border of pale blue with a sentiment border from the Not For Girls CD. I added a butterfly from the Inkadinkado Garden Delights clear stamp set, stamped with VersaFine Imperial Purple ink and coloured with an Amethyst Promarker. I cut the image out and set it on a circular mat of pale blue card embossed with the Quickutz Retro Diamonds folder on a further scalloped mat of purple card.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 8 May to enter and good luck!

I'm also entering my card in the following challenges:
CCEE Stampers - Add A Butterfly
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Moving Along With The Times - Anything Goes
The Stamping Boutique - Winged Things

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Blossom Time

Well, I'm back again with my second post for the day which is still very sunny and warm so I thought I'd show you this before setting off for a walk along the seafront.
The card is one of the samples from a class I taught on Monday and I decided to put it on here as it fits several challenges.

The class involved making cards with a cut away front around a stamped images with a further piece of the decorated paper added to the inside of the card.
For this one I stamped the bird cage from the new Papermania set in VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink a third of the way in from the right hand edge of a white 14.5cm square card blank.
I stamped the flowers from the Kanban Peacock set in Memento Lilac Posies and Bamboo Leaves around the card and on a strip of leftover white card. I sponged on Split Pea and Orchid VersaColor inks.
I then stamped a bird from the Papermania set in the sepia ink, coloured it with various Promarkers and cut it out. Serendipity then struck as whilst I was making the card, my younger daughter who was doing some baking interrupted me and I dropped the card blank on top of an open ink pad! Disaster was averted by cutting off the front part of the card, trimming down the side of the cage as intended and sticking the piece on a pink card blank. The other decorated strip was punched with a Martha Stewart border and stuck to the inside of the card blank.
I finished off with some tiny butterflies punched from inked paper and stamped a sentiment from the Papermania set on the cage.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday - Birds/Butterflies
Paper Pretties - Pink, Green and Neutral
Paper Shelter - Nature Inspired
Paper Play - Easter or Spring

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - 3 Patterned Papers

Good morning everyone on a gorgeous bright and sunny Good Friday and wishing you all a very Happy Easter.
It's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles and your hostess this week is Tracie. She would like to see your creations using 3 different patterned papers.
I've taken this opportunity to show you my favourite of the samples I made for Nikky with the new A Double Sprinkle of Kraft CD. In fact, I liked this one so much, it was really hard to part with it!

I made another unusual shaped easel card for this one simply by adding an oval shape instead of the usual square which was the shape of the base.
I covered the base of the card with some of the very pretty kraft floral paper and then the easel section, trimming the top edge with scallop scissors.
I cut out an oval shape from green floral paper and fixed this in the centre of the easel. I added one of the cute girls from the CD and sat her on a log as the CD has quite a lot of elements that are made for scene setting. All images were coloured with Promarkers. I added a touch of glitter pen for some sparkle.
I added a strip of the green floral paper matted on kraft brown and pink spotted paper to the base (this is my third pattern in case you were wondering where it was!).
I finished off with a greeting on a mat of the same kraft paper, some pretty butterflies and a vintage button from my stash as the stopper.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 1 May to enter and good luck!

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Show Us Your Stitching With Let's Ink It Up

Hello folks and hope you're all having a good start to the weekend. It's time for a new challenge over at Let's Ink It Up and the theme this time is Stitching which can be Faux or Real, the choice is yours.
I've taken the opportunity to make a piece of artwork showing my maternal grandparents on their wedding day way back in 1916. I always think that the vintage sepia photos are so beautiful and I hope you like what I did with mine.

I started off with a piece of recycling packaging, trimming the side edges with scallop scissors and then painting with chocolate brown acrylic paint. I then stamped on some flowers from the Clearly Inspired Stencil Flowers clear stamp set in Vintage Photo Distress ink. This dried a little lighter than I was expecting but does give a subtle textured effect.
I then tore the edges of a piece of vintage music score, inked it with Old Paper Distress ink, added a flourish design with a stencil free with Simply Homemade magazine and Tattered Rose Distress ink then added faux stitching round the edges using a paper pricker and a brown fine pen.
I then made some fabric look decorated papers using the same stamp set and some Zig markers applied direct to the stamp on green, pink and ecru card. As you see, the colour changes slightly depending on the base card colour. I trimmed the edges with pinking scissors.
Next, I made some flowers with lace, satin and velvet ribbon by running a line of stitches along one long edge and drawing the stitches up to make a circle. I added vintage buttons and altered paper flowers to the centres.
I finished off as you see with altered metal photo corners (alcohol inked to match the other embellishments), lace, braid and pearls, plus some Prima leaves and a gold scrap butterfly. I made a frame for my photo using a tag shape hand cut and stamped and rows of pearls. An altered button was added to the top.

We have a great sponsor for the challenge in Stamping Scrapping who are very kindly offering a set of the stamps for their custom Spellbinders dies to the winner.

You can check out the fabulous online store HERE

The challenge runs until 30 April and with the Easter holiday coming up you might have a bit of spare time to get an entry done. The only thing you need to remember is that no digis are allowed, only rubber and clear stamps as Let's Ink It Up is all about getting inky.

Good luck!
Fliss xx

I'm entering my project in the following challenges:
Fabulous Friday - Handmade/Homemade Embellishment
Truly Scrumptious - Vintage
Delicious Doodles - All Stitched Up
There's Magic In The Air - Fabric & Stitching

Polka Doodles Challenge - Tie The Knot

Morning folks on a rather grey and somewhat cold day. Where did the Spring go? It's Friday yet again so it's time for another challenge over at Polka Doodles. The theme this week has been chosen by teamie Emma and she would like to see a card or project to celebrate a marriage.
For my card, I decided on a neutral colour scheme combined with a slightly unusual shaped easel which I think is really classy.

I chose to base the card on the gorgeous rose collection from the Love and Cherish CD as it comes in several lovely colours and I love the classic cream and beige combination. I added some of the lovely shabby vintage paper from the All Around and Everywhere CD which co-ordinates perfectly with the rose paper I chose.
I started off with a traditional square shape easel and rounded off all the corners. I covered this with papers also rounded on the corners. I then added a circle instead of the usual square and as I don't yet own the large scalloped circle die that is on my wish list, I trimmed my circle with scallop scissors (a fair amount of cursing resulted but I managed to make the scallops meet in the end!)
I added a sentiment from the new A Double Sprinkle Of Kraft CD and finished off with some punched flowers made from paper leftovers and edged with a bronze glitter gel pen (an Ultimate Glitter pen by American Crafts and really blingy) and some glittered flourishes (Sissix die) Some pearls add to the look.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Creative Craft World - Love and Marriage
Scrapbook Sisters - Wedding or Anniversary
Pixie Dust Studio - Say It Out Loud (include a sentiment)


You have until 12 noon on Easter Sunday to enter and good luck.
Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Easter Bunnies

Good afternoon everyone on another lovely, sunny day which makes a great start to the week. I'm very pleased to say that the internet is now working properly again so I will be catching up with everyone over the next few days (it will take a little longer than usual as my girls are home for Easter and I'm sure you all know what that means!).

Before I show you my card, can I give a little reminder that the current Let's Ink It Up challenge is Easter projects and you still have a few days left to get your entries in. As always, no digis are allowed as the challenge blog is all about getting inky. So if you've made any Easter creations using rubber or clear stamps, we'd love to see them and you would be in with a chance of winning a fabulous prize from our sponsor, Scrappit. If you hop over to the challenge blog , click HERE to be transported, all the details are available.

Now for my card which is an Easter one, of course!

I couldn't resist these cute vintage bunnies when they popped up over at the Vintage Feedsacks site as my mother in law adores rabbits in common with our whole family and I knew they would be perfect for an Easter card.
I've used the sketch from Moving Along With The Times:

The background papers are stamped using the Inkadinkado Garden Delight set using Memento Grape Jelly and Bamboo Leaves dye inks. The effect was achieved by stamping once then stamping again before re-inking to create a misty shadow look which gives a very pretty patterned paper.
I added 2 pieces to my card blank and then added some checked knotted ribbon to follow the sketch. I added the bunnies on a mat made from a scrap of flourish stamped paper from my bits box.
I made the greeting panel using a copper plant label (very cheap for a pack of 20 at Wilkinsons), punching on a second hole and adding knotted ribbon. The greeting was stamped on lemon card using the grape ink and my Hero Arts Pixie alphabet letters. I then over stamped with some flowers using Memento Pear Tart ink. Some Prima flowers with pearl centres finish off the card.

My card is for these challenges:
Creative Craft World - Easter
Creative Inspirations - Easter
Craft Your Passion - 2 By 2
Moving Along With The Times - Sketch
Paper Cutz - Bunny, Lamb, Chicks or Easter Eggs

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Sketch Theme

Good morning folks, don't know where the last week went as it's Friday again and my girls will both be home from uni for the Easter holidays this weekend.
It's time for another challenge at Polka Doodles and your hostess is Dee who's provided a lovely sketch to follow.

This isn't as hard as you might think as it can be twisted about a bit and if you need some inspiration, just pop over to the challenge blog to see quite a few takes on it.
Here's mine:

I've chosen to use an image together with papers and a border from the brand new CD, A Double Sprinkle of Kraft, which is the result of a collaboration between Nikky and Sharon Armstrong whose name you may recognise as a magazine contributor amongst other things.
I printed out the sweet image and coloured the little girl and butterfly with various Promarkers. I cut out a rectangular shape and added the image to a mat of plain pink paper.
I followed the sketch as you can see using one of the gorgeous kraft papers (I love this particular one for its vintage, chintzy look) and a striped paper for contrast. I used one of the pretty scalloped borders as well and then added a sentiment from the Sugar Birdies Collectors Edition CD to finish.

Challenges for my card:
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes + Something New
Paper Playtime - Anything Goes

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 17 April to enter and good luck!
Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

April Showers

Hello everyone, no showers here on an absolutely beautiful day that really does feel like Spring at last.

First of all, many apologies for not visiting you all and leaving comments over the past week or so. This will unfortunately continue for a little while as we have mega problems with our internet at the moment. Our service provider recently upgraded their system to what should be a much faster broadband speed but it's had the opposite effect on ours and we've been told we have to buy a new router to correct the problem.
As it takes around 10 minutes for a blog to load up and nearly the same to get to the comments, I haven't been able to do very much (without wanting to throw the computer out of the window anyway!!!). Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
Strangely enough, it hasn't affected the ability to post on here or upload photos so with that in mind, I have a couple of cards to share for various challenges.

The above card uses the photo inspiration from the current challenge over at The Paper Variety and happily fits another couple as well.
The stamp is by Papermania and was stamped with VersaFine Sepia ink and coloured with pencils. I cut the image out with a Go Kreate die and added a couple of toning mats.
The background paper and the border were stamped with a flourish from the Viva Decor My Paper World Floral clear stamp set using Scattered Straw and Wild Honey Distress inks.
I added a border punched with a Martha Stewart punch and a layered flower to finish with a computer generated sentiment.
Challenges for this card:
Crafty Creations - Rain Showers
Creative Card Crew - April Showers
The Paper Variety - Photo inspiration

The next card features Toby Tumble by Cuddly Buddly which I succumbed to at the Brighton Stitches show as the whole family loves bunnies. It uses the colour inspiration from Stampin' Royalty.

I stamped the image with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and coloured with a mix of pencils, Promarkers and Zig pens. I cut it out with a Nestabilities die.
The background papers and border were made as for the showers card using Scattered Straw, Shabby Shutters and Victorian Velvet Distress inks on toning card. The border was punched with a Martha Stewart punch.  Paper roses add the finishing touch.
Challenges for this card:
For Fun Challenges - Bunny
Simon Says Stamp - Spring Colours/Easter
Stampin' Royalty - Colour Challenge

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - No Printed Backing Papers

Good morning all, it's Friday so it's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles. Your hostess this week is teamie Ruth and she's chosen the theme - No Printed Backing Papers. You can either make your own or go clean and simple. Pop over to the challenge blog for some inspiration from the Design Team as everyone has done something different and there are some really inventive creations on show.

You can probably guess that I decided to make my own using -what a surprise- stamps! I wanted a slightly vintage feel to my card and here's the end result:

I've again used my current favourite stamp set, the brand new Polka Doodles Wonderland set, as I'm so enjoying finding more ways to use it.
I made my backing paper with the checkered stamp, stamping in Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass, Victorian Velvet and Milled Lavender Distress inks. I stamped again without re-inking in some places for a shabby, grungy look.
I stamped Alice with VersaFine Imperial Purple ink and coloured her with various shades of Promarkers. I then stamped a row of toadstools with VersaFine Olympia Green ink and coloured with a mix of Promarkers and Zig markers. I then cut along the top of the strip around the mushroom heads for added effect.
I added mats to the Alice image and cut round the green one with pinking scissors. I did the same to a strip under the toadstool border.
I finished off with the curiouser sentiment stamped in the purple ink on white card, coloured with a toning Promarker and cut out with a Nestabilities scallop die. I added a plain green circle behind.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 10 April to enter and good luck!
Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Curiouser and Curiouser

Hello everyone, you can probably guess what's coming from the title. I hope you have better weather than me as it's a rather grey, rainy and miserable day here - looks like the Spring was last week!
I have a piece of altered artwork to share with you that came about because the frame I've used fell down when I was actually looking for something else and when I saw it, I thought it looked about the right size for the Alice stamp I've been playing with and happily it's a perfect fit!

The frame was a different colour originally and I painted it with buff, pink and white acrylic paints. I stamped on the checkered design from the Wonderland stamp set by Polka Doodles with black Stazon ink and then sponged on a little of the white to distress it a little.
I stamped Alice twice and coloured just the background on one and Alice on the other. I used Promarkers in various shades to colour with and added shadows for definition with Warm Grey 3. I cut the Alice image out and rounded out the figure with a large embossing ball tool. I attached her to the background with foam tape, layering 2 pieces at the top to add to the illusion. I added a bottle to the frame to finish.

I'm entering my frame in this week's challenge over at Try It On Tuesday with a theme of Alter It - Revamp A Frame which happily popped up at just the right moment.

Thanks for looking and also hello and thank you to my new followers - it's lovely to see you.
Fliss xx 

Challenges

Happy weekend everyone and hope you're having a lovely one. We started off with grey skies here but it fortunately turned very quickly to the sunshine we've had every day this week so far.
I've got a couple of very different cards to show you for 2 different challenges.
First up is another card made with the brand new Polka Doodles Wonderland stamp set which I can't get enough of at the moment and have a few more things in progress too.

The card blank is made from some of the lovely checkered paper from the CD of papers which match the stamps (and will be popping up again as there are some gorgeous to die for grungy flourish papers which I adore - says she, drooling -lol)
The patchwork squares were all coloured with Promarkers, including the checked ones as the white variation of this paper design is fabulous for inking/painting/colouring with markers etc. etc. The purple ones were embossed with the Cuttlebug Diamonds in the Rough folder as was the central orange one which was first wet embossed with clear powder.
The gorgeous rabbit was cut out after colouring.

I'm entering this one in the current challenge over at Daring Cardmakers, the theme being The Book Club, and having got into Alice again with these stamps, I'm about to read the book again for the first time in many years!

And now for the second one:

This one features the lovely new Chrysanthemum stamp which I bought having seen Rachel Jackson's gorgeous project in the April issue of Craft Stamper. It's by Circa Design. I stamped it with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink nd coloured it with pencils. I added it to an olive green mat.
The lighter background paper was made by stamping a flourish from a My Paper World clear stamp set by Viva Decor in Victorian Velvet Distress ink on dark cream card. The dusky pink panel was embossed with the Craft Concepts Gem Flourish folder. I finished off with a flourish cut with a Sissix die and a floral border in the same green punched with a Martha Stewart double edge punch.
The greeting panel from from Polka Doodles Sensational Sentiments unmounted stamp set.

I'm entering this one in the Sunday Stamper challenge - Die Cuts

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - Spring Has Sprung

Hello everyone and hello Spring! Don't know about you but we've had the most beautiful Spring weather all week and I'm hoping it lasts for the weekend.
As it's Friday, we have a new challenge over at Polka Doodles and this week your hostess is Claire. She would like to see projects with the theme Spring Has Sprung and what Spring means to you.

Before I show you my card, I'd also like to tell you that our Nikky will be on Create and Craft tomorrow at 12 noon.  She will be demonstrating the brand new Wonderland set of unmounted rubber stamps and the matching CD of papers so don't forget to have a look (another of my samples is at the end of this post),

And now for my card, as it's Stashbox Stamp week, I've chosen a stamp of the flower which most means Spring to me:

 

I have quite a few tulips in my garden in these shades although they're not actually out yet, just the daffodils and bluebells. I really look forward to seeing them as the bright colours against the deep blue of the bluebells look gorgeous and mean that Spring has finally arrived.
The stamp I've used is by Hero Arts and I stamped the tulips in VersaFine Olympia Green ink. I coloured them with pencils and then cut them out. I layered them on a mat of textured white card with some red card underneath which I hand cut to make the slightly curved edges.
I added some of the gorgeous papers from the Sundae of Seasons CD to my card blank and finished off with a border punched with the Martha Stewart double edge flower punch, a sentiment from the Candy Doodles CD and a gingham bow.

You have until 12 noon on Sunday 3 April to enter the challenge and good luck!

I'm also entering my card in the Sew Many Challenges new challenge 48 - Spring Fling

As promised earlier, here's another of my Wonderland samples:

I have so enjoyed working with these stamps and am in the middle of some altered artwork which will soon be ready to show you.

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Let's Ink It Up - New Feature!

Good morning everyone, I'm here with some great news about a brand new feature over at Let's Ink It Up as Suzanne has had the fabulous idea of having a Featured Stamper every fortnight and this could be YOU!

For full details on the new feature and how to take part, hop on over to the Challenge Blog and whilst you're there, if you haven't yet entered the current challenge, you might want to take a look as it's an easy one this time - DIE CUTS AND/OR PUNCHES - and of course, some stamping.

Hoping to see you there!
Fliss xx

Just Because

Hello everyone on an absolutely gorgeous sunny Spring day on which I managed to go out without my coat for the first time this year. I actually saw people in shorts and vest tops - totally mad as it wasn't quite that warm!
I have a card here that I made with bits and pieces of the decorated paper from a class I taught on Monday when we made very easy to do stamped mix and match papers with pastel cardstock and Distress inks.
The card uses the inspirational sketch for this week's Papercraft Star which I had to have a go at as it's so lovely.

The background papers I made use a flourish stamp from the Viva Decor My Paper World Floral Embellishments clear stamp set which is never put away at the moment as I'm forever using it. The papers mix and match really well because I used the same stamp and then stamped on the card in an ink only a shade or two darker then the card.
I used Scattered Straw Distress ink on the cream card, Shabby Shutters on the green, Victorian Velvet on the pink and Scattered Straw also on the lemon card. As you can see, the same ink looks quite different on the cream and lemon card.
I stamped the chrysanthemum by Circa Design with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink, coloured it with pencils and cut it out. I added it to a heart shape I hand cut out then embossed with the Craft Concepts Gem Flourish folder and then added a few pink pearls.
I assembled the card as you see with a sentiment from the Polka Doodles Sensational Sentiments stamp set, a pale green panel embossed with the gem folder and white card punched with a Martha Stewart double edge punch.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:
Papercraft Star Challenge 38  - Sketch
Crafts and Me - Anything Goes
For Fun Challenges - Flowers and a Sentiment

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

Lets Ink It Up Challenge 11 - Die Cuts/Punches

Hello everyone and hope you have the glorious sunny day that we have here today. I'm really excited to at last be able to share with you the first project I've made as part of Team B for the Lets Ink It Up challenge blog which I was thrilled to bits to be asked to join. The new challenge is to use Die Cuts and/or Punches.

The challenge is being sponsored by Taylor Van Bruggen of Taylored Expressions

Taylored Expressions is an online store full of whimsical rubber stamps, coordinating kits and fresh ideas. You'll find everything you need to satisfy your creative sweet tooth!
Tune in to Taylored Expressions blog for inspiring ideas and how-to videos!
The fabulous prize so generously provided by Taylor is the gorgeous Tweet Hearts stamp set (valued at $21.95) - click HERE to take a look.

Here's the project I made for the challenge and I have to say that making altered artwork is starting to become an obsession with me!

I started off with a blank papier mache frame which I painted with 2 shades of olive green acrylic paint.
I made a central panel with thick white card which I sponged with Shabby Shutters and Crushed Olive Distress inks. The stamps I used are all from Paper Artsy Hot Pick 1005. The grass was stamped with Stazon Olive Green and the flowers with Cactus Green. Fuchsia Pink and Pumpkin Stazon. I stamped a couple of extra flowers, cut these out and layered them on top for some dimension.
I stamped the flourish design on the open areas with Shabby Shutters ink for some texture, added the bird stamped in black and cut out then the text.
For the finishing touch, I punched out a border of flowers using the Martha Stewart double edge punch from old music score (rather appropriately titled The Woodpecker Song), inked it with Victorian Velvet and Crushed Olive Distress inks and glued it on. It's really easy to turn this particular punched border into a frame as it trims well to fit all sorts of shapes.

The challenge runs until 31 March and please remember that digital stamps are not allowed as Lets Ink It Up is all about getting inky with rubber and clear stamps.
Don't forget to head over to the challenge blog for some amazing inspiration from the other Team B inkers.

Finally, I'm entering my artwork in the following challenges:
Delightful Challenges - Green
Fairytale Challenge - Green and Pink
Fab 'n' Funky - Green
Pixie Dust - Go Green
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Up In The Air with Green
By The Cute And Girly - Springtime

Good luck and thanks for looking.
Fliss xx

Polka Doodles Challenge - All About Books

Good morning everyone, it's nearly the weekend so it's time for a new challenge over at Polka Doodles and this week your hostess is Tracie and she has set a theme of All About Books.
There is a reason for this as those of you going to the Great Northern Papercraft Extravaganza over the weekend will be able to see. Details are on the Polka Doodles shop website.
Our Nikky has designed a gorgeous new set of stamps with a mini CD of matching papers (stunners!) that are right up my street - they're based on the favourite book of the moment for quite a lot of crafters - Alice in Wonderland.
The Design Team have made loads of samples for Nikky to take to the show and I've been itching to show you some of mine for weeks! Nikky also has a brand new CD which she will have at the show, along with Sharon Armstrong (whose name you may recognise as a frequent magazine contributor) as they have collaborated to make this CD.
Here are a couple of my samples (more to follow next week):

The naughty, sheepish Knave card uses some of the papers from the CD and the main piece was inked around the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink.
The bunny Knave and the plate of tarts were stamped in black, coloured with Promarkers and cut out. I then made a heart template, cut out a heart shape from white card, stamped the checkered design and inked it up with Fired Brick Distress ink.
I assembled the card as shown with some playing cards to add to the effect.

My Alice card was made by cutting an aperture in a piece of the checked paper from the CD with a Nestabilities die and running a dark grey Promarker round the edges for emphasis.
I stamped Alice twice on white card and coloured her with various Promarkers on one and just the background on the other. I cut Alice out and stuck her on top of the background with foam pads. I stuck the white panel to the card and then added the frame on top with foam tape.
I finished off with more stamped images coloured with Promarkers and cut out. The key was cut out to form a heart shape and make it stand out more.

So it's your turn to make a project inspired by your favourite book. You have until 12 noon on Sunday 27 March to enter and good luck.

Thanks for looking,
Fliss xx

A Secret Garden

Hello everyone on a rather blustery day down South, although the sun is trying to peep out from behind the grey clouds. I hope you're all having a good week so far.
You may want to get a cuppa and a biscuit before you start reading as this post is rather long!
I have a little piece of art to show you which was the creative result of thinking about this week's Take A Word Challenge - Green - and what green actually means to me. I've decided on 3 things, the first being Spring when everything begins to green up after Winter, the second one is the ecological green and in particular recycling and the third thing is green in the sense of inexperienced which in this case I took to be a child.
I challenged myself to include all of these things and here is the finished piece:

The base of the piece is made from a piece of packaging and I painted it with green gold and olive acrylic paints and then stamped on a flourish design (My Paper World from The Craft Barn) with Olive Green Stazon ink. I then painted a strip of corrugated card saved from a file I bought with the same paints only I painted the olive first on this one for a different effect. The strip had 2 holes already punched in it so I tied on some ribbons recycled from clothing (the sort the shops put on to stop things falling off hangers).
The circular piece is made from a piece of circular packaging and had a hole in the middle but I covered this up. I made a circular piece of decorated paper using my Distress Ink Grunge Background Technique (link to tutorial on side bar) using Crushed Olive Distress ink and the same flourish stamp. I then cut out a further circle, embossed it with the Tim Holtz Texture Fade Damask folder and then sponged on Shabby Shutters Distress ink. I swiped the ink pad over the top of the raised areas to add a little contrast.
I stamped the Sleeping Boy image by La Blanche (now available from Sir Stampalot) with VersaFine Olympia Green ink, coloured just the roses and leaves with pencils and cut him out. I added the image to the circular panel with foam tape.
I finished off with some leaf sprays rescued from an old flower arrangement and a butterfly from my stash - not recycled but I think the pink on the wings nicely picks out the pink of the roses.

My piece of artwork is for the following challenges:
Take A Word - Green
Stampin' Royalty - Texturize

I've now got some not very good photos to show you of the visitor we had in our garden early this morning, eating the spilt bird food under the tree where the bird feeder is hanging. Not that unusual you might think, but we live one road back from the seafront!

The photos are not brilliant as I had to hang out of the bedroom window so as not to frighten the pheasant off before I could take some pics.

Thanks for looking and hope you enjoyed the photos.
Fliss xx