Learning To Dance In The Rain

Hello everyone, I'm here today with a heavy heart because I'm having to do what my post title says at the moment and my mixed media collage was what caught my eye.
I got home from work on Friday and when I shut the front door, heard a very odd tinkling sound like falling glass and then notice a smashed patio door with a hole near the base in our dining room. To cut a long story short, some nasty person had entered via the hole and helped himself to most of our portable electronics.
The most gut wrenching thing for me being not that he took my beloved Mac laptop but my backup drive too so I've lost several months worth of my accounting stuff which will have to be done all over again - sigh!
I've also lost my camera and my hubby's was taken too so I won't be able to take photos of anything I create even when I do feel like doing any which is definitely not now!
As you can probably image, I feel really sort of wired and unable to settle to anything so I'm doing the dreaded h word as scrubbing seems to be therapeutic! At least I'll have a very clean house afterwards!

I'm writing this on a borrowed computer which luckily had some of my artwork stored on it so at least I haven't lost everything.

I'll see you all when I can so bye for now.
Fliss x

My Blue Heart

Hello everyone and welcome to my post for today, especially my new followers, so lovely have have you here ladies.
Today's post is to let you know about the project I have over at That's Crafty which is to hopefully inspire anyone who hasn't yet entered our challenge for the fortnight over at the Challenge Blog as you still have a week to enter for a fabulous prize.

You'll find all the details over at the blog as always and I'd really love you to pop on over as the Design Team have some fabulous tutorials to share.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
See you again soon,
Fliss xx

A Season Of Mists

Hello everyone and welcome to my slightly late post for the new challenge over at Make My Monday today which has the theme of Autumn or Fall Colours. Very appropriate now because I woke up this morning to a chilly 8 degrees!
I hope you're all well and feeling better than me as I'm currently a bit under the weather with the first cold type thing I've had since January last year when my dear hubby gave me an unwanted New Year present!
My inspiration is very Autumnal as it's a favourite season of mine being an Autumn girl by birth. The photo doesn't quite do it justice as there are more colours in there than really show as I chose a palette of warm Autumn shades.

I made the background paper first with a piece of textured cartridge paper, applying Sticky Fingers Autumn spray inks in Blackberry, Olive, Autumn Gold and Maple to a craft sheet and pressing the paper in to pick up the colour. I find it a bit less messy than spraying directly on the paper and of course, this way you get more from the colours as you can colour more paper with the leftover inks.

I embossed one side of the dry paper with a Darice Autumn leaf flourish folder and swiped over the top with Brilliance Pearlescent Purple, Rust and Olive. I stamped the remaining paper with a Prima Engravers clear stamp and coffee brown ink. I then distressed the edges with an emery board and added splatters of Rusty Hinge Distress ink.

I painted a kraft clothing tag (it already had distressed edges!) with some brown and bronze acrylics to cover up the logo and text then stamped over the top with the same Prima stamp and the coffee brown ink. I also swiped the edges with Rusty Hinge ink for definition.

I made the leaves with an extra scrap of card coloured with the leftover spray inks and die cut them with a Marianne die before adding extra colour with Distress inks (Rusty Hinge, Frayed Burlap, Forest Moss and Mowed Lawn).

I added scraps of corrugated kraft card to the tag and then glued on the leaves and some kraft paper flowers with music score print. I tied a piece of twine through the top, then added the background paper to a kraft card blank with the tag and some cut up computer generated text.

See you soon and take care,

Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:
Lexi's Creations Challenge - Autumn Colours
Lunagirl Moonbeams Challenge - Autumn
Dies R Us Challenge - Fall Festival
The East Wind Challenge - Feel The Fall
Rubber Dance Challenge - Colour

All You Need Is Love

Hello, I'm back again, this time with details of our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge Blog which this time has the theme of All You Need Is Love.
I decided on a fairly clean and simple look for my card which I felt would suit my planned sentiment better as it's quite bold and graphic in style. So here it is and hope you like it.

I created the heart shape by die cutting the shape in a piece of thin card with the X Cut Homespun Heart nesting die and using the aperture to make a stencil. I then sponged Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold and Worn Lipstick into the heart shape.

 

I then stamped Kaisercraft's Flutter image with Archival Watering Can ink diagonally across the inked heart and added portions of the image only at the top and bottom to extend it across the paper. 

I stamped the butterfly portion of the image again along with the largest butterfly from the Kaisercraft Butterflies set.

I then painted the images with Distress inks - I used Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers.

I assembled the card as you see to finish, stamping the sentiment from the Kaisercraft You! set with the same grey ink.

Hope you can enter (although you need to be a UK resident to be eligible for the prize) and it's a fab prize too as it's a £20 voucher for the online shop.

Have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

To Die For

Hello folks and welcome to my first post of the day which is to point you in the direction of my project today over at That's Crafty which is all about making use of those dies you might have lurking in your collection like me.
I set myself a challenge to include as many as I could on my project without going totally overboard. I hope you think I've succeeded.

You'll find all the details over at the blog.

Thanks for looking and see you a bit later with my next post.

Fliss xx

Welsh Holiday Pics

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a good week and this is a very quick post from me to share some of my pics from last week when we had our trip to Wales. Absolutely no fiddling with the pics either as the weather was fabulous and the light produced very good photos.

First up is a pic of our hotel taken from the side of Lake Vyrnwy which is actually a reservoir and is surrounded by hills and lots of fir trees as you'll see below.

Next I have a pic of the tower in the lake which is Victorian and is actually what my hubby calls the plughole!

Now here's a pic of another lake we visited, Tal y Lynn (lynn is the Welsh for lake) and in common with our lake was like a mirror.

Next is a photo of my favourite Welsh town, Llangollen, pronounced Clan-gothlan, which has the River Dee running through the centre as well as a canal. It also has fabulous art and craft shops and a vintage clothing shop where I was lucky enough to pick up a beautiful green and plum check wool and cashmere jacket (the shoulder pads have to come out though as I don't want to resemble Hilary Devey!!!)

Finally, I have a couple of photos of Port Meirion (does anyone else remember The Prisoner?) and they don't really do it justice. It's a rather strange place but fascinating even so.

See you again soon and hope you enjoy the rest of the week.

Fliss xx

A Thoroughly British Tradition

Hello everyone and welcome (or should I say "croeso") to my post today. If you've been wondering why I've been mia lately, it's because I've been on holiday to Wales which is where the greeting comes from - it being the word most seen on my hols apart from "araf" which I saw a great deal on the roads as it means "slow" and anyone who has visited Wales will know why! I had no idea that Wales consisted mostly of hills and mountains with valleys in between until last week and I've never seen so many sheep in my life!!!
There will be some pics when I've had the chance to sort through them as I have quite a few very picturesque views to share. Now, however, I need to let you know about our new challenge today over at Make My Monday which has the theme chosen by Marina of Tea And/Or Cake which is the reason for my title.
My card is a little on the quirky side as I went with the British theme, the first thing springing to my mind when I saw the theme this week, being my set of Artemio stamps. Hope you like my inspiration.

I stamped all the elements for the card on smooth, thick cartridge paper with Memories Creamy Coffee ink and then painted them with Aquamarkers. The only exception being the union jack which is 2 very clever stamps, one stamped with VersaFine Satin Red and the other over the top with VersaFine Majestic Blue and resulting in our union flag though what will happen after Thursday is anybody's guess!
I covered my card blank with 2 scraps of Polka Doodles patterned paper in brown and blue and added all my elements to the card with a blue doily to finish.

Now here's a taster of my holiday snaps with the view from our hotel room and yes - it is Wales although you could be forgiven for thinking it's Switzerland as it really did feel like it at times.

 

The water in the lakes we saw had an amazing quality which made it just like a mirror as you'll see from this and some of my other pics which I'll be sharing soon.

Have a great week.

Hugs,

Fliss xx

Girl Power!

Hello again and welcome to today's second post which is to tell you about our new challenge over at That's Crafty Challenge blog which has the theme of GIRL POWER!
For my inspiration I decided on an British heroine who, to me, is the epitome of girl power - Boadicea and I couldn't resist the stamp set by IndigoBlu when it came out. I hope you like what I've created.

For my background paper, I've used my mini 3x5 gelli plate as although it's fab for smaller projects, as you see from my card above, you can make larger pieces of decorated paper too!
I used paint in 3 shades of pink from light to dark and after applying the paint, laid on the sequin waste style stencil that came with an NK Studio stamp set by Stampendous. I repeated this until my card was covered, pressing areas into the paint left on the plate for a very grungy look. I then used the stencil to add some darker detail with VersaMagic pink grapefruit ink. I distressed the edges with an emery board before adding it to my card blank.
I stamped the Boadicea image with Archival Watering Can ink on smooth cartridge paper and painted her with Aquamarkers. I then trimmed the image to a panel, cutting round the celtic element at the top. I stamped some of the flowers from the border design in the stamp set with the same ink and painted those with Aquamarkers before cutting them out.
I stamped the circular text and my favourite Kaisercraft butterfly with the grey ink and painted those as well before cutting out the butterfly and die cutting the text. I then assembled the rest of the card as you see.

I used:
Gelli Art Printing Plate - 3x5
IndigoBlu Unmounted Stamp Set - Boadicea
Stampendous NK Studio Cling Mount Set -Wired
Kaisercraft Single Clear Stamp - Butterflies
Archival Wendy Vecchi Ink - Watering Can
Aquamarkers
Paint Brushes - such as this Ranger Set

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

Simply Pretty

Hello there, I hope you've all had a good week and I'm here with my first post of the day which is to tell you about my project for this week over at That's Crafty which this time is a really simple creation as I needed a card in a big hurry!

As you can see, unusually for me, it really is clean and simple and probably the most uncluttered card you'll ever see here! All the details are over at the blog as usual.

I'll be back later with my second post as we have a new challenge starting today over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog.

See you in a bit!
Fliss xx

Indian Summer

Hello folks, I hope you all had a good weekend as I did. We went to visit Charleston House at Firle which was where some of the famous Bloomsbury set lived. The house is just a farmhouse but it was covered in artwork done by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant who both painted on the doors, walls and so on and also designed fabrics and ceramics. It was very inspirational and I can recommend it if you haven't been there.
Now to the reason for today's post which is to tell you about our new challenge over at Make My Monday and this week it's my chosen theme which because I'm rather longing for some warmer weather, the last couple of weeks having felt like Autumn has already arrived. This is why I picked

Indian Summer

You might need your sunglasses now because my inspiration is rather eye poppingly bright!

I made the background paper by sponging a square of card with Ripe Persimmon and Picked Raspberry Distress inks and then stamped on a Paper Artsy flourish image with the same deep pink ink.

I stamped the Stampendous sweet pea image on smooth cartridge paper with VersaFine Smokey Gray ink and coloured it with the same Distress inks together with Mowed Lawn. I trimmed the image to a panel and added an orange then a kraft mat (this is to make the orange pop against the background).

I found the embossed paper in my bits box and as it's orange, it was a perfect textured addition for my card. The embossing folder is a Cuttlebug one and I'm fairly sure I used Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon Distress inks to colour it.

I stamped my favourite Kaisercraft butterfly with the grey ink and coloured it with yellow and orange Distress inks. The sentiment is by Flonzcraft and was stamped with the Picked Raspberry ink and cut out by hand. I then assembled the card as you see.

Have a great day and a good week.

Hugs, Fliss xx

I'd like to link my card to this weeks' Sunday Stamper which happily is Mr Brightside (love that song!) and apologies to Hels for not entering for ages - no time to make anything but DT creations!!!

Trust Your Strength For That's Crafty

Hello there, hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as I am (I've had a really busy week!)
I have a project to share today over at That's Crafty which I hope you'll like as I've broken out my newest IndigoBlu stamps.

You'll find all the details over the blog as usual so I hope you'll find the time to pop over.

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

Live In The Moment

Hello everyone from a very wet, windy and dull Sussex with typical Bank Holiday weather! Perfect you might say for crafting and I'm here at last with my inspiration for the new challenge today over at Make My Monday with hostess Jacqueline's theme choice of TAGS AND TOPPERS.

I had a bit of mojo lacking the last few days and must have started this one about 5 times before finally managing to come up with something which I hope you like. It's a nature inspired creation made with some bargain Tim Holtz stamps I picked up when we went on our family holiday to Kent just before Easter (the weather was warmer and better then than it is now too!!!)

I made the background paper by inking up a piece of card with Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress inks using an ink applicator. I then stamped on the wild flowers from CMS001 Nature's Moments with VersaFine Spanish Moss and Majestic Blue. I then stamped on the quote with the blue ink on the side.
I coloured my manila tag using Tim's Distress easy inking technique with Dried Marigold, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey Distress inks. I stamped on the wild flowers using the green ink and some second generation stamping for an ethereal look in the background. I tied a scrap of chiffon ribbon through the hole at the top.
I stamped my favourite Kaisercraft butterfly with black ink and the painted it with Ripe Persimmon and Barn Door Distress inks using a damp brush. I cut the image out and added it to the card with my tag.

Have a great day whatever the weather wherever you are and see you again soon.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Some challenges for my card:

Come and Get It Challenges - Anything Goes With A Sentiment
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes

The Scientist

Hello again, here's my second post today with my inspiration for our new challenge over at That's Crafty today which has the theme of It's A Man's World.
My project was inspired by my favourite Coldplay song which is called The Scientist and my Oxford Impressions steampunk stamps are perfect for this as you'll see.

I brushed gesso roughly over a piece of card and then when it dried, sponged on Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress inks. I then stamped on the chemist's rack, cogs and gears and light bulbs with coffee ink.
I stamped the man, steam engine, text and plaque with black ink on smooth cartridge paper and cut them out. The man was in a frame but I cut him out as I planned to place him in the lower right corner and I think he looks better without it.

I used:
Oxford Impressions - Steampunk Works and Steampunk Elements
Archival Ink - Jet Black and Coffee
Distress Inks - Antique Linen and Vintage Photo
Stamping Card
Claudine Hellmuth Gesso

Hope to see you there!
Fliss xx

Butterfly, Butterfly

Hello there folks, my post title came about as I was thinking of the ladybird, lady bird rhyme when I made this weeks' project for That's Crafty which involves rather a lot of fluttery winged beauties.

I've also picked a lovely warm colour scheme because I woke up yesterday morning feeling really cold to find it was 6 degrees outside - in August!!! Don't know what the weather is doing this days as it felt more like October!

You'll find all the details of how I made my creation over at the blog as usual so I hope you'll pop on over to see how it came about.

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

See you in a bit.
Fliss xx

The Cyclist

Hello everyone, a rather sheepish Fliss here with a somewhat late contribution for the challenge this week over at Make My Monday (in my case known as late Tuesday hee hee) which has the theme of Sports chosen by Sue.
I had a bit of a struggle with this as I couldn't think what to do due to not having much in my stash that would fit the theme. I chose the vintage lady cyclist from Lost Coast Designs as I think she fits in rather well with all the cycling events which have been going on lately. Hope you like her too.

I stamped her on Inkylicious silk art card with Archival Coffee ink and coloured her with Promarkers before trimming her to a rectangular panel. I added a red mat made from a file divider (Tesco have a big pack in lovely muted colours at a bargain price and perfect for cardmaking).
I made the background paper with a piece of watercolour paper torn from a pad which I trimmed to fit my 5x7 kraft card blank. I coloured it with Pan Pastels - red, yellow and blue tints, magenta and orange shade. I then stamped on Kaisercraft Arty and Wood Panel with Adirondack Aqua ink.
I assembled the card as you see, adding computer generated text which I coloured lightly with the Pan Pastel colours remaining on the applicators.

Hope you're all having a good week and will see you again soon.
Hugs, Fliss xx

Ring Out The Bells

Hello there crafty peops, a slightly late post today with news of my project over at That's Crafty today which is another creation of the C sort as I'm trying to add to my collection to avoid the December panic of last year!

Hope you like it and it's made with the amazingly versatile Inkadinkado stamping gear which has to be one of the best stamping tools ever. All details can be found over at the blog as usual and i hope you'd like to visit as the DT has fabulous creations to show you on a daily basis.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Bye for now,

Fliss xx

Send In The Clowns

Hello there, a very quick and somewhat late post from me after a very busy weekend with the details of our new challenge this week at Make My Monday with the theme chosn by Joan which is Circus.

I had a bit of a struggle with this as I have no stamps to fit the theme and then fortunately remembered I had a lovely vintage pierrot girl from the Graphics Fairy so she came to the rescue with a rather electic card which I hope you like.

I printed her out and added her to a cream mat then covered my card blank with some paper from the Polka Doodles Bonbon Belles CD which I scored with a bone folder to add texture before attaching to the card.
I then added a red card border trimmed with pinking sheers to add interest before sticking the image on. I finished off with some bunting from the Polka Doodles Cherryblossom Lane CD and added a stamped sentiment by Flonzcraft.
As you see, simples!

Hope you have a great week and see you again soon, hopefully with news of my promised CANDY which has been delayed as I've been so busy.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Stamping Ground

Hello again and here's my promised post for our new challenge today over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog that for the next fortnight has the theme of Stamping Ground which means that there must be stamping on your project this time.

I have a tag as my inspiration which was the result of a bit of serendipity (did you know that's my middle name!) as I was playing around with my Stampendous Creative Palette and came up completely by accident with a piece of paper that had a really watery feel to it. As my Graphic 45 By The Sea stamp set was still out, it seemed like a match made in heaven and below is the result.

 

I made the paper using shades of blue and green acrylic paints which I added patches of to the creative palette then spread with my fingers rather than a brayer. Very messy but it gives a less mixed effect with obvious colour difference. I managed to pull 3 patterned pieces, the first being quite heavily patterned. I then misted on a little water and pulled the second print which I used for the tag background - do you see the waves and water spray effects? 

The final pattern was pulled from a piece of copy paper after again misting with water and as there wasn't much paint left, the resulting paper was perfect for stamping the main image on. She does have a bit of a blue tinge in places but I call that artistic license!

 

I covered a size 10 Inkssentials Manila tag with the watery effect paper, punching a hole through after sticking it on.

I stamped the woman image on the lightest paper with Archival coffee ink, trimmed it to a panel and added to a kraft mat.

I then tore some strips of corrugated card and then swiped with embossing ink and heat embossed with Frantage Aged Bronze embossing enamel.

I stamped some of the shells from the set with the coffee ink and cut these out. I stamped the sentiment and trimmed it to a panel.

I assembled the tag as you see and finished off with some Tim Holtz Idea-ology linen ribbon at the top.

You have a fortnight to enter the challenge with a fabulous prize of a £20 voucher to the online shop for the randomly drawn winner although please check out the rules first to make sure you're eligible.

Hope to see you there.

Hugs,

Fliss xx

Snowflakes and Reindeer

Hello folks, I hope you've all had a good week and I'm here with a rather quick post to let you know about my tutorial over at That's Crafty today which I'm afraid involves that C word again as having done it for the challenge about to finish, it gave me the inspiration to do more.

Here's one of the end results and more will follow next week but you'll find a complete tutorial on how I made the snowflake paper which has given me enough to make several cards, over at the blog.

The paper is really easy when you know how so do hop over where all will be revealed!

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

Fliss xx

Some challenges I'd like to enter:

Southern Girls - Christmas is a-coming
Stampin Royalty - Stamped Background
Crafting For All Seasons - Feature A Creature

Bluebird

Hello there folks and hope you all had a good weekend and of course, managed to fit in a bit of crafting as I did. I was actually meant to be doing the h word but decided to play hooky for some creating.
Today's post is about the new challenge over at Make My Monday but is also rather a special one as this is post number 899 so keep your eyes open for my next post as there will be CANDY to celebrate 900!
The challenge theme at Make My Monday is my choice this time and I picked a favourite of mine, BIRDS.
Here's my inspiration which I hope you like.

My card just has the one layer attached as I stamped everything on there.
I used the Kaisercraft Porcelain Rose stamp set, first stamping the music score fragment several times around the edges. I then stamped on the bird and flower collage and added the Flonzcraft sentiment in the remaining space. All stamping was done with VersaFine Smokey Gray.
I then inked the stamped paper using a Ranger sponge applicator and Distress inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Spun Sugar and Tumbled Glass.
I coloured the bird and flower image with Distress inks by applying them to a ceramic plate and then painting them on with a damp brush. I used Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, Stormy Sky, Mowed Lawn and Frayed Burlap.
I inked around the edges with Weathered Wood Distress ink and them distressed them with an emery board before attaching the panel to a card blank.

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