Objet Trouve with Baked Textures by Seth Apter

Hello! A post on a Sunday is rather unusual for me but I received some very happy post yesterday as I've finally got my inky mitts on the fab baked textures (aka chunky embossing powders) by Seth Apter for Emerald Creek and I just had to play!
I've made a steampunk type mixed media art panel with unusually for me again, no stamping involved although there is ink.

Here's how it started as the background has a lot of layered paint scraping.

I used Seth Apter's limited edition paints for Paper Artsy, starting off with the most opaque, Midnight and Buff. I followed that up with Mahogany then Key Lime, finishing off with the translucent Terracotta and as you'll see some of the terracotta appears quite a bright orange, serendipity strikes again!

Once I was happy with the background which was made on a That's Crafty! 4.5 x 9 inch white/greyboard panel, I selected some greyboard cogs and gears from my stash of That's Crafty! Bits and Pieces Greyboard Sheets and using VersaMark embossing ink, decorated them up with the baked texture embossing powders. The only 2 not used were Ancient Amber and Vintage Beeswax.

I added the cogs and gears to my background with dimensional glue and then took a Tim Holtz Quote Chip and coloured this by heat embossing with the Vintage Beeswax baked texture which is translucent and really gave the chip a vintage look (I love this one the most I think!).

I finished off with some rusty tin wire through holes at the top, curling one side around a pencil to form a spring shape.

Nothing like a bit of crafting when it's rained nearly all day!
See you soon,
Fliss xx

Floral Bag for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone on what seems to be finally a lovely Spring day. We have sunshine and the happy birds are singing as I type this. Hoping it lasts as it's much needed after the bank holiday washout!

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today sharing a rather different project this week as I've been painting and stamping on fabric and I think I might become a little addicted so watch this space!

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

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

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a lovely Easter break and better weather than here as it was mostly cold, wet and windy with tons of rain on Sunday which actually caused puddles on our back lawn as there was too much water to drain away as usual. Something we hadn't had happen for years!
We have a new challenge today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and for April, we're Going Round In Circles, a favourite theme of mine as I love circle shapes so my inspiration is a journal page with layer upon layer of circles.

You can probably see that my inspiration for this was the sun which on it's current rare appearances, makes me happy, happy, happy!

This is actually the first page in my new black journal which I thought would be a good challenge to see how paints and inks would go on that background.

I first swiped on multi surface paints with an old store card, using first yellow, then lime and lastly teal until the surface was roughly covered leaving bits of the black underneath on show.

I then took That's Crafty! Textures Collection Sets 1 and 2 and used the various circle stamps to make my background, starting with the lined circle image and Ranger Carribean Coast dye ink, following with the double circle image and Archival Cobalt ink. I then used the 2 circle background images with Archival Cactus Flower and Fern Green inks to add texture, stamping without an acrylic block.

I stamped the rather jolly sun from Melina's Nature's Faces Set 1 with black ink, adding the happy text underneath, stamping 3 times. I coloured in the sun image with alcohol markers, followed by some pastel pencil to make the image pop more.

I finished off with some doodling in and around the circles with a white and yellow pastel pencil. I sprayed the page with fixative to ensure the pastel stayed put too.

Hopefully you can enter and there are fab prizes on offer with a voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils for the top 3 which the design team choose. How can you resist?!

Have a great week.
Fliss xx

Ode to Nature for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, wishing you a very Happy Easter. Typically for a bank holiday, it's raining down here in the South, however, perfect for staying in and crafting!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week, I have a mixed media tag inspired by nature to share.

If you'd like to see what I did with this rather Autumnal leaf, you'll need to hop over to the blog, which of course, I hope you will.

Have a great weekend.
Fliss xx

Art in Monochrome for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I think Spring might finally be here as the last couple of days have been much warmer so fingers crossed it stays that way as it's nearly April!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a rather striking monochrome mixed media creation to share. Hope you'll hop over to see the whole thing and how I made it.

As you'll see, it has quite a lot of texture going on and features quite a lot of stamping in different ways too.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Midway Inspiration for That's Crafty! March Challenge

Hello, I'm back again to share my midway inspiration for our March challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog, our theme this month being Spring Into Action and boy, has it taken a long time to appear! Snow in March is definitely not my idea of Spring!
I've created a mixed media art panel as my offering featuring, of course, some of my new stamps as how could I not!

If it's still freezing cold where you are, hopefully this will bring you a little warmth.

You might be surprised to learn that my artwork above actually has another piece of artwork underneath. I created it a couple of years ago and it had faded a lot so I decided to use it as the base for this. I glued crinkled tissue paper over the top with DecoArt Matte Medium and once it was dry, used the spirals stencil with texture paste to add a pattern on the left side.
If you look closely, you can just see the original artwork underneath!

The next step was to add some lime and mustard multi surface paints to a couple of spritzer bottles, diluting them with water and then spritzing them on, with lime on the patterned side and mustard on the other, allowing the colours to run down and re-applying in between blasting with my heat gun to give a distressed look.

I then chose one of my floral images and stamped this on the right side together with the flourish image using Versamark ink and heat embossing with fine white embossing powder. I painted the images with diluted multi surface paints in shades of orange, yellow and green.

I stamped more floral images and leaf sprigs on gelli print and brayer paint wipe papers from my bits box, stamping enough to layer up the flowers. Once they were glued together, I scrunched the flowers a little for a shabby chic effect.

I glued the flowers and leaves in a spray and finished off with a painted white/greyboard plaque from the matches sets for my stamps, stamped with one of the quotes.

TIP: I quite often use my Tim Holtz stamping platform to stamp my flowers due to the amount of detail and although they stamp very well using an acrylic block, I find that if I'm stamping on painted paper with a slightly uneven surface, the platform really helps to achieve a clean image first time.

If you haven't yet entered, the challenge is now open to everyone, wherever you live and there are prizes for the top 3 too so what are you waiting for!

Have a great week.
Fliss xx

Bloom Doodled Art Journaling

Hello everyone, it's finally starting to warm up a bit as we've had some sunshine today and this has inspired me to do some doodling in my art journal. Most of it is done with Sharpie markers in various widths after I made a painty background so read on to hear what I did.

My background was made with watered down That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints in shades of blue, teal and purple which I applied with sponges to cover my page. I then spritzed on some That's Crafty! Sparkler Spray using blue and lilac for some added shimmer.
Once the background was completely dry, I doodled on my floral design with Sharpies in various widths, adding dots and lines shooting out towards the edges and then scribbling on my chosen words as you see.
My finishing touch was to use the design element on the That's Crafty! Time Word Art stencil with white multi surface paint to add streams of dots.

Have a great week whatever you're doing and see you soon.
Fliss xx

A Taste of the Orient at That's Crafty!

Hello folks, hope you've all had a good week and had some sunny warmer weather as we now have here although apparently the big chill is about to reappear!
I've been very busy this week with family and work so hopefully I'll be able to come and visit over the weekend.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a mixed media piece of artwork with an Eastern flavour and a rather bold red, black and gold colour scheme. You'll find all the details over at the blog and here's a sneak peek of what I have in store for you.

Have a great day and a lovely, hopefully crafty weekend and see you soon.

Fliss xx

Birthday Card

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a good week. This is just a quick post to share the card I made for my elder daughter whose birthday was on Monday.
It's a very quick and simple card featuring my new bird stamp again this time on a bright and bold style creation.

All I did was to stamp the scribbled lines using bright shades of Distress Oxide inks across a piece of white card.
I then stamped my bird with black ink (VersaFine) on smooth white card and heat embossed the image with clear powder. I then coloured the image with Zig clean colour markers and there's a note to self here to wipe the excess ink off the embossing which is of course a resist and would stop me getting a red blob near the bottom of my white card when I stuck the bird on! I had to chop it off which is why the blue border is wider than intended.
I stamped my current favourite birthday text (Dovecraft) on as you see and added the blue mat before gluing to a white card blank.

Supplies:
My Fanciful Flowers Clear Stamp Set 2 for That's Crafty!
That's Crafty! Textures Collection Set 1 Clear Stamp Set
Tim Holtz Oxide Inks - Broken China, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron
Versafine Onyx Black Ink
Zig Clean Colour Markers

Have a great rest of week and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Bring Me Sunshine for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a lovely week and that Spring is almost on the way as it is here as it's much warmer and we've had some sunshine too.
If you don't have sunshine, do hop over to That's Crafty! Blog where I'm sharing a mixed media project which might just brighten your day.

This is just a sneak peek so you'll need to pop over to see the whole thing!

This is just a quick post as I'm watching Neil on Hochanda with some awesome new goodies including stamps, stencils and our brand new and fabulous chunkies - not to be missed!

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Spring Into Action at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone, sorry for my lack of visiting lately, just very busy with life and work stuff at the moment which has cut down my blogging time.
A quick post to let you know that a new challenge is up for March today at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where our new theme for the month is Spring Into Action which we could certainly do with after last week's arctic temperatures and snow. A bit warmer now and sunny with showers so maybe Spring is around the corner.
My inspiration is a mixed media panel featuring the most springlike of my new stamp designs which was inspired by a parrot tulip. Hope you like it.

What I did was to start with the backing panel which is an 8 x 8 rounded corner white/greyboard panel which I painted with green multi surface paint. I then added the detail with texture paste through the floral frame stencil and when dry, painted with yellow and orange multi surface paints.
I then took 3 MDF atcs and used the new bark dinky stencil (coming soon to the shop and Hochanda) with texture paste to make a tree bark look - much quicker than my previous method with a skewer!
Once the paste was dry, I painted the bark with a mix of chestnut brown, black, green and grey to look as realistic as possible.
I stamped the flowers on to some mixed media paper painted with multi surface paints and stamped with a sequin waste texture stamp. I cut out the flower heads only from my red and yellow paper, stamping again on green and trimming closely round the head area then glued the red and yellow heads over the top.
I glued the tree bark panel to my background panel, following up with the flowers, adding just part of the text from one of Melina's stamp sets, stamped on a scrap of orange paper, to the middle flower, tucking it under the leaves.
To finish off, I stamped around the edges of the panel with the sequin waste image and Spiced Marmalade oxide ink.

Supplies Used:
That's Crafty! White/Greyboard 8 x 8 Panel with rounded corners
That's Crafty! MDF Atcs
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Fanciful Flowers Set 2, Nature's Faces Set 2, Textures Collection Set 4
That's Crafty! 8 x 8 Stencil - Daisy Frame
That's Crafty! Dinky Stencil - Tree Bark
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints
That's Crafty! White Texture Paste
Tim Holtz Oxide Ink - Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Fossilised Amber
Archival Jet Black Ink
Silicone Glue
White Mixed Media Paper

You have a whole month to enter the challenge which is now open to entrants all over the world and there are great prizes up for grabs too.

Have a great day.
Fliss xx

Yesterday's Workshop with Leonie Pujol

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely weekend as I did, as I was lucky enough to attend a workshop yesterday run by the lovely Leonie Pujol and we got to play with Powertex, very messy but great fun and also created a very textured journal page.

I managed to finish off my journal page as when I left, the texture gel on the star wasn't quite dry as it starts out white then goes clear when dry. I also added a little detail to the stencilled white fibre paste, outlining the areas in black and decorating with dots to make them pop more.

The page involved rice paper, Distress stains and crayons, stamping, stencilling and fibre paste all topped off with some metallic wax which doesn't quite show here but gave a lovely glow to the page in places.

We decorated the front of a Pink Pig book with Powertex dipped mixed media elements, in my case using the black and you should have seen my hands when I finished adding the elements, I looked as if I'd dipped them in a tar bucket! Happily it comes off with water and a bit of scrubbing. Once the front was dry, we used shimmery paints on top. here's the main detail on mine although it will change as I want to make the colours stronger so will post this again once I've finished playing with it.

You can see all the ladies' creations over on Leonie's website if you click HERE

It's amazing how different everyone's makes are when we all started off with the same thing.

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

Joyful Flowers Mixed Media Art for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I don't know about you but I've had a really awful week starting off on Wednesday morning when we woke up to find the boiler had stopped working in the middle of the night and the usual pressure adjustment didn't work so we had to call a man out. Apparently the boiler condenser outlet was frozen solid (no surprise there due to the arctic temperatures at the moment!) so he's done a temporary repair, rerouting the pipe to a bucket! It won't get fixed until the big freeze has ended.

On the same day, cold fingers became butter fingers and I dropped my laptop on the kitchen floor whilst trying to move to the dining room. So yesterday morning I made an emergency trip to the Brighton Apple store and luckily due to the weather people who had actually managed to book an appointment (not me as all they seemed to have was the middle of next week!!!), I only waited a few minutes before someone came to look at my computer. All he did was take it out the back and hoover it then ran the diagnostics in front of me and everything worked - no charge!

Yesterday afternoon was really awful as we lost our little Rosie, our Netherland Dwarf bunny, after several weeks of ill health, the result of a misdiagnosis of a problem with one of her back legs which unfortunately got beyond fixing.

On a happier note, I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today sharing a mixed media make using some of my new stamp designs. Here's a sneak peek and hope you like it.

Have a great weekend and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Some Very Exciting News!

Hello everyone, hope you're staying warm in the big chill! I think Siberia should have kept this freezing weather to itself!
I'm posting because I'm finally able to share the most exciting news that I've been longing to share and it's been really hard keeping this to myself.
Today sees the launch of some brand new stamps at That's Crafty and  I'm delighted to be able to say that 2 of the sets have been designed by yours truly! How fantastic is that! I'm over the moon as it's such a dream come true for me to see something in my head brought into being and I hope you like what I've designed. You can find the sets HERE

The stamps have been designed with mixed media in mind as they can be stamped on a variety of materials (paper, canvas, wood, fabric, acrylic, glass etc etc) and can also be used for decoupage as a few of the designs lend themselves to that.
Laura and Graham have cleverly produced matching white/greyboard shapes so that very textural and durable artwork can be created.
Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing some of the samples that I created for the NEC Trade Show last weekend so that you can get an idea of just some of the things you can make with them. Some of the Design Team will also be sharing makes too.

Hugs,
Fliss xx

Seeking Stillness for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope that you've all had a good week. This is a scheduled post as I'm currently visiting my nephew and his wife whose daughter Lily is now 6 weeks old. I'm really looking forward to it as so far I've only seen photos as they live quite a distance away, Justyn being in the RAF.

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a mixed media card that I made for the December One Day Special.

This is just a sneak peek so if you'd like to see it all, you'll need to head on over to the blog.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you next week when I shall finally be able to share some rather exciting news and I can hardly wait!

Hugs, Fliss xx

Midway Inspiration for I Heart You Challenge

Hello everyone, I hope you're all having a good week and managing to get some crafting done as I am. I'm also doing meals on wheels as my father in law finally had his first cataract op on Monday so I'm cooking their lunch for a few days until his eyesight has settled down.
I have my midway inspiration to share today as we're now half way through our I Heart You Challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog.
I've made a tag with a bit of a story as believe it or not, it started out purple and pink! This step went totally wrong so I added layers and it ended up red and golden yellow.

As you can see, it seems to have a rather flaming heart look which was totally accidental. After my attempt with the purple and pink overlayer (this didn't work as the magenta was rather too translucent and went a really odd colour), I glued pieces of crinkled tissue paper stamped with script in red over the top on the top right and bottom left sides.
I used the Dinky hearts stencil with texture paste to add a pattern in opposite corners and when the paste was dry, glued crinkled tissue paper over the top.
I painted over the top of the entire tag with mustard yellow multi surface paint which is translucent enough to allow the under layer of red stamped script to show through. I then replaced the hearts stencil over the raised areas again and sponged Fired Brick oxide ink on the hearts. I let this dry a little and added another coat, giving a lovely soft look to the pattern.
I covered an mdf heart with crinkled tissue paper and when it was dry, painted over the top with bright red and magenta multi surface paints. I then stamped on the lovely rose with Versafine Crimson Red ink.
I stamped the stitching with the same red ink, sort of following the edges of the glued on tissue paper and then glued some felting wool in shades of red, pink and pale grey, adding the heart over the top with silicone glue. This was where the serendipity struck as I moved back after gluing the heart in place and realised the fibres at the top look a bit like flames!
I rubbed a little red oxide ink around the edges to soften the look and finished off with the Tim Holtz Clippings sticker.

Materials:
That's Crafty! Surfaces White/Greyboard Panel, 4.5 x 9
That's Crafty! Surfaces MDF Heart Size 5
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Textures Collection Set 3, Donna's Girls Collection Claire
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paint - Bright Red, Magenta, Mustard Yellow
That's Crafty! Texture Paste
That's Crafty! Dinky Stencil TC038 Hearts
Ranger Tim Holtz Oxide Ink - Fired Brick
Versafine Crimson Red Ink
Tim Holtz Clippings Stickers
White Tissue Paper

Have a great rest of week and see you soon - very exciting happenings next week that I can't wait to share with you!
Fliss xx

Challenge The World for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're managing to stay warm in the current rather chilly weather as we have easterly winds here at the moment and we keep getting alternate very rainy days too!
I'm still in the middle of lots of crafting and will be able to reveal all in a couple of weeks and can't wait as it's very exciting!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I have my steampunk hat on again as I've got my very painty mitts on Donna's new Ella set of stamps and couldn't resist giving her a very steampunk themed setting.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as always and hope to see you over there where you'll find tons of inspirational creations with tutorials.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Flutter Your Feathers for That's Crafty! and other news

Hello everyone, I hope you're all well as it's been ages since I've been able to come and visit, the reason for which will be revealed very soon although there is a sneak peek on here for anyone who hasn't seen my sneak peeks on Facebook and Instagram.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post that this week is one of the mixed media creations made for the Hochanda One Day Special back in December which was a total sellout.

All details of my little fluttering hummingbird can be found over at the blog as usual.

Now for the promised sneak peeks of some new mixed media stamps coming very soon to That's Crafty! and hope you like them.

I shall have some free time very soon and will be popping by as soon as I can.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

I Heart You at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone on a very chilly but bright day and last night we actually had a sprinkle of the white stuff although it will soon be gone with the sun shining as it is now!
We have a seasonal new challenge for you today over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and this month being February we've come over all romantic with the theme of I Heart You.
I was really short on time this week so I have as my inspiration the quickest card I think I've ever made and hope you like it (hope the other half does too as - whisper - he might just get this as a you know what!)

This came about as I was searching for some text for something else I'm creating and came across Lynne's Affirmations Set 4 which has the cute heart on to go with some of Lynne's lovely quotes and ping! inspiration struck.

I stamped a row of the hearts using Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick Distress Oxide Inks on white card and then glued the strip to a kraft card blank. This is where things went a bit wrong as I stamped my chosen quote underneath but the design didn't look right so I trimmed it off the card leaving a kraft border and glued it to a white card blank.

I then had the text dilemma but my trusty Tim Holtz Occasions stickers came to the rescue and I finished off the card with a row of romantic stickers which fitted the space under the hearts perfectly. Serendipity strikes again!

I hope you can join us this time as you have a whole month to enter now and it doesn't matter where in the world you live as the challenge is open to everyone. There's a £30 shop voucher for the randomly drawn winner and the Top 3 chosen by the Design Team will receive the stencil of their choice from the That's Crafty! own range which psst is about to get much bigger!

Have a great day and see you as soon as I can - time still short at the moment.
Fliss xx

Spring Card for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're all OK and sorry for the lack of visits which are because time has been short due to family stuff and something I'm working on behind the scenes. All will be sorted in the week or so I hope when I might just have some rather exciting news!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a Spring inspired card which I decided to share to warm things up on a very chilly day. Hope you like it.

Have a great weekend and see you when I can.
Fliss xx