Infinite Possibilty

Hello there folks and first up is a very big apology for being such a bad blogger lately and for my lack of visiting. This is because life has been really hectic the last few weeks with work full time and family stuff taking up the spare time leaving me very little time for anything but much needed sleep!
We have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday today chosen by Suzi B and it's a theme dear to my heart:

Steampunk

I really enjoyed making my card and I hope you like it.

I decided on rich browns and teal for the card inspired by the rather sassy lady from Creative Expressions Steampunk Sirens stamp set. I stamped her with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink on thick, smooth cartridge paper which is my paper of choice for painting with Aquamarkers or Distress Stains. In this case I used Aquamarkers and then trimmed the image to a panel and inked the edges with blue and green.

I then embossed a card panel with the Papermania Tri-boss Chronology folder and inked it with Wild Honey, Brushed Corduroy and Walnut Stain Distress inks. I embossed a kraft card panel with the Cuttlebug cogs folder and cut this down to fit my card blank.

I inked some Maya Road chipboard cogs with VersaColor inks and added a metal Papermania cog to the centre of the larger one.

I added all the elements to the card and finished off with some text from the stamp set which I cut up because I couldn't bear to cover up the background!

I hope you all have a great week and aren't suffering to much in the extreme winds we're having at the moment.

Hugs, Fliss xx

Vintage Beauty

Hello folks, I hope you've had a good week despite the rather iffy weather. I've been really busy with work again so roll on the weekend!
I'm here today to tell you about the project I have over at That's Crafty which was actually meant to be last week's but things went rather pear shaped and I didn't get it finished in time - oops!

I can't tell you how much I loved making this card - don't you just love that absolutely gorgeous pansy border! I couldn't resist the set when I saw it as I adore pansies.

If you'd like to see how I made and a list of the materials and stamps, do hop on over to the blog.

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

Time To Get Spooky!

Hello there and hope you had a better weekend than mine, well some of it was good (lunch out with friends on Saturday) but yesterday was not as I spent most of the day doing laundry and trawling the internet for information on ovens and hobs as the main oven part of my cooker has decided to stop working and as it's around 20 years old will be difficult and expensive to fix so I'm having to decide what I want which is not as easy as it might sound!
And now to the reason for the post which is to tell you about the new challenge today over at Make My Monday which has the theme of Halloween as the spooky day is fast approaching.
Here's my inspiration which unusually for me has no stamping!

I don't have much in the way of Halloween stamps and found the lovely vintage collage pic on the internet. I simply re-sized it and then inked the edges with Black Soot Distress ink.
I covered my card blank with some Polka Doodles Halloween paper having first inked the edges of the card and the paper with the black Distress ink. I printed out some mushrooms from the Polka Doodles Bonbon Belles CD in different sizes and cut these out then inked the edges a little.
I then die cut the Tim Holtz bird cage and bird from black card and assembled my collage card as you see, adding some elements with foam tape for dimension.

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Sitting Pretty

Hello there, I'm here today with my rather late inspiration for the current challenge theme over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges which is to use a Stencil or Mask and I didn't want to miss this as I love using stencils at the moment.
A bit of serendipity struck here too so read on to find out how.

The background paper for my card was made by sponging a piece of thick, smooth cartridge paper with Tattered Rose Distress ink and if you're wondering why it looks orange, this is where the serendipity came in because the sponge I used had some Spiced Marmalade left on it and adding the Tattered Rose ink re-activated it causing an orange tinge which was a big surprise but I decided I like it!
I then used my favourite Prima flourish stencil to add the pattern with Spiced Marmalade and Victorian Velvet Distress inks.
I die cut the frame from the cartridge paper and stamped on the lovely Flonzcraft seated Gibson Lady with Archival Coffee ink and coloured her with markers. I then inked around the frame edges and image to soften the look.
I stamped the Flonzcraft rose with the coffee ink and coloured with markers then cut it out. I added this to the card with the frame and stamped the Flonzcraft text on with the coffee ink.

Have a great day and see you again soon.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Belissima

Hello there and hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was a bit of a mixed bag weather wise as Saturday was lovely and my hubby and I went to the warehouse sale where I picked up a couple of bargains (not as many as I hoped as most of the things I liked were the wrong size of course!) and we had coffee at Arundel before returning home.
Sunday was very wet and nasty so the perfect day for crafting although I didn't do as much as I wanted as I had quite a pile of washing to get through!
Today sees a new challenge over at Make My Monday and the theme this week chosen by Rosie is Texture, something you know I love and here's my inspiration.

My lilac backing paper is parchment card which I embossed with the Couture Creations Breeze folder and inked the edges with heliotrope and purple ink.
I made the frame with pale green card and a totally gorgeous Tattered Lace die. I stamped the image (Scrollswork) with Imperial Purple VersaFine ink then coloured her with Spectrum Noir and Copic pens and cut her out.
I added the backing paper and frame to the card blank and then tucked the image inside the frame, embellishing simply with tiny pearls.
As a finishing touch I stamped the belissima text from a Flonzcraft sentiments set.

Have a great day.
Hugs, Fliss xx

All You Need Is Love

Hello there folks and hope you've all had a good week. Mine has been extremely busy again with work and family stuff so hardly any blogging and crafting apart from DT stuff at the moment. I do have things coming up at the weekend though as tomorrow I'm off to a Crew clothing warehouse sale with my hubby as he loves their stuff and I do although I cringe at the prices so I hope they have some bargains.
Today's post is to let you know about my project over at That's Crafty which is a CAS card as I decided to challenge myself to do one again.

As you can see, unusually for me there's a lot of white space! If you'd like to see the how I made it and what I used, please head on over to the blog.

Have a great day whatever you're doing and a lovely weekend too.
Hugs, Fliss xx

A Little Elegance

Hello there everyone and hope that you all had a good weekend. I'm here today with my inspiration for the new challenge over at Make My Monday with the theme chosen by hostess Suzi B being Elegant Ladies

My card has a little of the ooh la la about it as it features my favourite B Line Designs stamps of a rather elegant French mademoiselle.

Sorry about the pic, it's a bit blurry as my camera didn't like the light. I covered my card blank with some rather pretty paper from a Debbi Moore Shabby Chic CD.

I stamped the Le Brun image with Memories Artprint Brown ink on cream card and coloured her with Copics and Promarkers. I then cut her out and added her to a kraft card mat made with a Papermania die and place a dusky pink mat behind.

I finished off with a butterfly that I found via the ever wonderful Pinterest (if you'd like to see the whole sheet just click on the link on my sidebar and go to my printables board where you'll find the link).

Have a great day and a good week.

Hugs, Fliss xx

Tangerine Dream

Hello there everyone and first up is an apology for my lack of commenting recently which is partly because my younger daughter who's been interning in London phoned me excitedly last Tuesday to say that she's now been offered a job there starting on 1st November so the accommodation hunting is now in full swing.
I'm also really busy on the work front at the moment which means a distinct lack of me time and has cut down on my blogging too apart from my DT duties so I'm so sorry and hoping for more free time soon.
Today's post is to let you know about the project I have today over at That's Crafty which is one where you might need your sunglasses as I decided on something bright and cheery due to the current rather dreary weather.

You'll find the details as always over at the blog and I hope you'll pop on over to see how it came about as it's quite simple to make.
Have a great day and a fab weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Pretty In Pink, Sepia and Cream

Hello there folks, a slightly belated midweek motivation post here for my Vintage Style challenge over at Make My Monday this week as I forgot to take a photo yesterday and the light today went from dull and drizzly to brilliant sunshine (neither of which are liked by my camera) in a short space of time!
For this card I've gone for pink with my sepia and cream to make a very feminine creation. Without further ado, here it is!

I've used an old favourite Rubber Stampede image stamped with sepia ink on cream card and trimmed with deckle edged scissors. I added this to a mat of dusky pink card.
I covered my card blank with some pretty paper by Melissa Frances that came free with a magazine a while back, having inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink and adding Paperchase kraft paper photo corners before sticking on.
I made the floral decoration by stamping a Papermania layered decoupage wild rose image on pink paper and cut out the pieces, layereing up with a copper brad and inking a little with Victorian Velvet Distress ink.
I added some cream crochet lace to the card, then sticking on the image panel and flower, finishing off with a heart stick pink with some butterflies added.

See you again soon and hope this will encourage some more entries.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Autumn Glory

Hello there, I'm back again today with a short post and my belated inspiration for the latest Fashionable Stamping Challenges theme chosen by Avril which is my absolute favourite colours being an Autumn born girl so I couldn't miss out on doing something with Autumn Colours.

Here's my card and I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed creating it:

It came about after a little trawl through my bits and pieces box where I came across a piece of watercolour paper stamped with a Hero Arts flower using Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Aged Mahogany Distress inks. As it was cream, I sponged on Mustard Seed and Wild Honey DIs for a lovely warm glow.
I then embossed a panel of kraft card with a Darice Autumn leaves folder and swiped Versacolor Paprika over the raised areas. I added this to the paper panel then tied round some rusty gingham ribbon before sticking to the card.
I added some leaves which had been stamped by adding Distress re-inkers to a paper towel to make an ink pad. I cut these out to leave a narrow border and added them with foam tape for dimension.
I finished off with some text in a metal frame I've had for rather a long time! A Junkitz Tim Holtz set in antique copper.

See you again soon.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Come And Get It Challenges - Fall Colour Challenge
Dream Valley Challenges - Autumn
Pile It On - Leaves
Rogue Redhead Challenges - Autumn Colours

Vintage At Make My Monday

Good morning folks and welcome to my post for this week's challenge over at Make My Monday with a theme chosen by yours truly:

Vintage With Sepia And Cream Plus Optional Pink And /Or Blue

Here's my inspiration which I hope you like:

I've chosen to use one of my favourite Crafty Individuals vintage images which I stamped with Coffee Archival ink and coloured with Promarkers then trimmed to leave a narrow cream border.

I stamped a Viva Decor flourish on a scrap of cream card with the same ink and added this to a kraft card blank along with a blue panel embossed with a Crafts Too folder.

I inked a doily with Versacolor Smoke Blue ink and added this to the card with the image panel together with the B Line Designs text stamped on cream with the coffee ink and some cream and brown lace.

I look forward to seeing all your entries and for some more inspiration hop on over to the blog where the Design Team have some fabulous creations for you.

Have a great day.

Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
2 Sisters - Anything Goes
A Creative Romance - Fairytale or Winged Creations
Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - Anything Goes
Stampin' For The Weekend - Fairies and Fantasy

Little Bird Book Tags For That's Crafty

Hello everyone, sorry it's taken me so long to get back to blogging and many thanks go to those who left me good wishes for my recent holiday which I really do appreciate.
We had a lovely if rather wet time away (not really a surprise in the Lake District!) and had to buy some waterproof trousers on the second day to avoid soaking wet jeans. I'm also now the proud owner of a very pricy Barbour waxed hat as I got fed up with my hood falling in my eyes!
Apologies here for my lack of commenting and also for my non contributing to this week's Polka Doodles challenge for the first time in ages as I had the most terrible headache which took ages to clear and I didn't feel much like crafting. I'll try and make up for it next week.

This is rather a late post with my project for this week for That's Crafty which is a duo of tag style bookmarks and I hope you'll pop on over for the details on how I made them.

I'll be round soon to visit over the weekend and in the meantime, have a great one!

Hugs, Fliss xx

Swirls and Pearls

Hi there, I'm hoping this post will pop up as scheduled as I'm currently on my hols in the Lake District and I'm also hoping for some fine weather!
This week at Make My Monday, the challenge theme is Swirls and Pearls and I opted to ink up one of my favourite stamps, my Audrey Hepburn image by B Line Designs.

I made the background paper by lightly inking card with Shabby Shutters Distress ink and then stamping on a Viva Decor flourish image with Crushed Olive Distress ink.
I stamped the Audrey image with Memories Artprint Brown ink on cream card and added a little colour with pencils then die cut into a circle and added to an olive green scalloped mat.
I then added a pink die cut doily (Papermania die) and pearls.
I finished off with a stamped sentiment.

See you next week!
Hugs,
Fliss xx

One For The Boys

Hello again, my second post of the day is to tell you about the new challenge we have for you today over at Polka Doodles and it will be my last post for a bit, apart from a scheduled one next week as we're off to the Lake District tomorrow for a well earned break.
The challenge over at Polka Doodles is to make something for the men and boys in your life and I decided on a Christmas card as we have several male family members on their own so I need to make some cards to appeal to them and what else could I choose but my favourite snowman! The image and all the other elements are from the Here Comes Christmas CD.

I printed out the snowman on to cartridge paper and coloured him with Aquamarkers. The woolly look to his scarf is made by adding wiggly lines of colour in a stripe pattern and it results in a quite fluffy look.
I added the image panel to a red mat and partially covered the card blank with some of the gorgeous snowflake paper from the CD.
I printed my sentiment sheet out on to another piece of snowflake paper in a different colour and cut out the one I wanted, adding it to a mat of red card.

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

Who's Watching You Now?

Good morning folks, I hope you've all had a good week and aren't suffering from too much bad weather. It has rained here some of the time but the weather can't seem to make its mind up if it's going to be chilly or warm as we've had a mix of both.
This is my first post of the day to tell you about the project I have today over at That's Crafty which is rather bright and graphic in design as I've been playing with misting inks and a fab stencil. Hope you want to find out what I did and if so, please do head on over to the blog.

I'll see you again in a while as I have another post coming up a bit later on today, I know - busy, busy!

Hugs, Fliss xx

Whispering Grass

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was rather busy as I went to an open house rather posh do on Saturday with my hubby which was held by one of his clients for whom he's dealt with the renovation of a manor house. There have been huge problems and it's taken ages but the end result is really stunning and I was in raptures over some of the plaster mouldings which were amazing circular flourishes.
Yesterday we celebrated with my mother in law as it was her birthday so we had a family afternoon with tea and cake.
Today we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday and this week the theme has been chosen by Rosie who has challenged us to:

Create A Scene

It will be no surprise to hear that I've gone for a nature themed card again as I wanted to ink up my Inkylicious grasses stamp. I hope you like it.

As you can see it's quite a simple design and the grasses panel was made with a scrap of watercolour paper which was the exact size for the kraft card blank.

I sponged the paper with Crushed Olive Distress ink on the bottom half and Milled Lavender on the top.

I stamped the grasses on with VersaFine Spanish Moss ink and Seedless Preserves Distress ink,  Some of the stamping was second generation as I was aiming for a misty look in the background. I also added some stamping with the stamp upside down to add a bit more detail at the base.

The butterflies are from the ever useful Crafty Individuals Elements set CI-231 and were stamped with Memento Sweet Plum, VersaFine Spanish Moss and Olympia Green. I then coloured them with Aquamarkers, cut them out and added them with foam pads.

Have a great day.

Hugs, Fliss xx

Can U Resist?

Well, can you folks lol. I hope you're enjoying the weekend so far and I'm here today with news of the new challenge today over at Fashionable Stamping Challenges with the theme chosen by yours truly with is

Can U Resist?

So it's time to try out those resist techniques and the one I have to share for my inspiration is a little bit different. It gives a very grungy result which I hope you like so please do tell me what you think.

You might need to click on the pic to see the effect properly as it's quite hard to see in the smaller photo here.

The background paper was made by stamping one of my favourite Viva Decor flourish stamps with embossing ink on thick linen textured card and heat embossing the images with clear powder.

I then rubbed green, brown and orange wax crayons over the embossed areas which picked up some but not all of the colour. I next sponged on Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade Distress inks and you can see the resist effect in the photo. I rubbed a paper towel gently over the top to remove any excess ink.

I stamped the image from Paperbag Studios on watercolour paper with Archival coffee ink and coloured it lightly with Aquamarkers then trimmed close to the edge, leaving a narrow border.

I added the resist panel to a kraft card blank which was embossed on the right side with a Cuttlebug border embossing folder, wrapping a piece of coffee coloured lace round. I then added the image panel and some flowers, mesh leaves and ribbon to embellish the card.

The Fashionettes have some fabulous inspiration waiting for you on the catwalk and I hope you'll pop over for a look. I hope we'll see you entering the challenge too and please remember that we are a stamping challenge and that there must be stamping on your project to be eligible for the prize.

Our sponsor as always as the lovely Leo of Flonzcraft whose online store has lots of fabulous vintage images.

Have a great day.

Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Simply Create Too - Vintage
Stempelsonnen Challenge - Orange, Green, Brown
4 Krafty Girlz - Anything Goes
Happy Campers - Use A Stamp

Butterfly Watching For That's Crafty

Good morning everyone and hope you've all had a good week so far. Mine as usual has been busy with work but I have a card to share today which is my DT project for That's Crafty this week and is for my mother in law's birthday on Sunday.
Jean loves rabbits as they had them when my hubby and his brother were growing up and she often pops round to see our own 2 little grey Netherland Dwarf bunnies, Rosie and Dill, so what else could I put on her card but the 2 cute and quirky Alice Palace Designs bunnies for Crafty Individuals.

You'll find all the instructions over at the blog together with the materials list and hope you'll pay a visit as there are loads of fab tutorials to feast your eyes on.

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

Childhood Memories

Good morning folks, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and it's Monday again so we have a new challenge for you over at Make My Monday which this week has the theme of Childhood Memories.
In my case I thought of my treasured teddies and it gave me the chance to ink up again a stamp I must have had for around 10 years and can't bear (no pun intended!) to part with. I hope you like what I made.

I think you can probably see why I love this cute ted as he looks so cuddly. I stamped him on kraft card with coffee Archival ink and added just a little colour with Luminance pencils. I find that because they're highly pigmented, they show up really well on kraft card. I trimmed the card to a panel and inked round the edges a little.
I made the background paper by using ink daubers to apply Distress inks to hammer card. I used Stormy Sky, Victorian Velvet, Wild Honey, Frayed Burlap and Milled Lavender. I inked the edges with the blue ink and added the paper to a kraft card blank.
I then die cut the pink panel using a Marianne die and as the card was quite thick I found that it didn't quite cut out all the sections but I do quite like the effect.
I finished off with braid, flowers, pearls and a button.

Have a great day.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Fairy Time

I'm back with my second post of the day which is to tell you about the new challenge we have for you today over at Polka Doodles which has the theme of Fairy Time and we had an extra challenge between ourselves to include 2 fairies or angels on our inspiration piece.
Nikky also has a big surprise for everyone as she's offering a free Angelberry digi to anyone who emails in up until 5 September - don't miss out!
We also have 2 lovely new Design Team members with us this week so I'd like to say welcome to Rebekah and Zoe (known as Zo) here. They've both made a totally gorgeous inspiration piece for your delight.
For my challenge project I decided to make a mobile suitable for a little girl's room as it's double sided and has a different fairy on each side. All the elements came from the Bonbon Belles CD.

I chose 2 of the beautiful floral wreaths from the CD on to hammer card and cut them out. I added them to some circles of lilac pearl card which I made by cutting round a plate as my dies were too small!
I then printed out my 2 favourite fairies and had to use the pre-coloured images as I'm really short on time at the moment. Due to Nikky's fab digital colouring they look like I coloured them myself (or would if I could actually colour that well!) so sssh - don't tell Nikky!
I cut the fairies out and added them to the circles with foam tape, bending and shaping the images first.
I then glued the circles together with some chiffon ribbon between to form the hanger and added some paper roses at the top. I finished off with a scattering of bling and pearls.

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