Sharing Joy Mixed Media Artwork for That's Crafty!

Hello! Hope you're all OK at the moment and apologies for being a bit of a bad blogger lately, I've just been rather busy with family stuff, work and other behind the scenes stuff that can't yet be shared. Hopefully normal service will be resumed very soon.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog today and this week my softer side is on show as I decided (a bit reluctantly) to break into my treasured stash of vintage doilies to create a mixed media panel which is the reason for the soft colours that I hardly ever use.

This is just a sneak peek and if you'd like to see the whole thing you'll need to hop on over to the blog where all will be revealed.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and hope to catch up soon.

Fliss xx

Sea Life for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a lovely week and hopefully less busy than mine so I'm really looking forward to the weekend.
Just a quick post to let you know that I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with one of the samples that I created for Tuesday's Hochanda shows which I hope you managed to watch but if not, there's always rewind.
Here's a sneak peek of my rather fishy make which I hope will intrigue you enough to hop over to the blog.

Have a lovely day and a really great weekend.

Fliss xx

Midway Inspiration for That's Crafty! June Challenge

Hello and welcome to my second inspiration for our June challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog with the theme of A Summer's Day.
I've made a tag on my favourite floral theme featuring some brightly coloured flowers which are part of what Summer means to me.

I created a simple background on a size 10 white/greyboard tag by swiping on slightly diluted multi surface paints in Buttercup, Lavender and Teal to make a soft wash of colour for my bright flowers.
I took some stamped flowers from my stash as I have a ready supply of my fanciful flowers stamped up on Gelli prints created with more diluted multi surface paints - these were Bright Magenta, Mustard, Orange, Green and Lime, some stamped and some stencilled but fairly plain as I find these so useful to stamp flowers and leaves on.
I created some stems for my smaller flowers (made from the central areas of my flower stamp) by cutting curved strips of green Gelli print scraps and drew a simple running stitch line down the centre.
I glued the flowers in place after layering them up with dimensional adhesive and added Melina's text from her Nature's Faces Set 2 stamps using Archival Fern Green and cutting up the words into tiles.
I finished off with some torn recycled sari ribbon.

If you haven't yet entered, there's a great prize of a £30 voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils of choice for the Top 3 chosen by the Design Team. You have to be in it to win it so hope to see you there!
Fliss xx

Steampunk Floral Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello! I hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend and hopefully some sunny weather as it's looking more promising today after yesterday's rain and wind.

I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I challenged myself to try and go steampunk with one of my flower stamps. You can see if you think I rose to the challenge by hopping over to the blog and if you do, do let me know.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Hopefully I'll be over to visit soon as I've been very busy with work and family stuff over the last week or so and haven't had as much free time as I'd like. I've also been crafting behind the scenes and will soon be able to share what I've been up to.

Fliss xx

My Dilemma at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello everyone, still sneezing unfortunately and thanks for the well wishes on my last post. Just a quickie today as I'm having to do the dreaded h.......k as my younger daughter is home for the weekend and as her bedroom is currently where I have some of my work stuff a tidy up is necessary!

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a post about my dilemma as I created something that it was really hard to cover up so if you'd like to see what came about, please do hop on over.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend and see you soon as I have a lot of catching up to do over the weekend.

Fliss xx

A Summer's Day at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello everyone from a very sneezy Fliss as I've had the most terrible hayfever over the last few days and not quite sure where this came from as I hardly ever get it these days! Hopefully whatever is causing it will soon be blown away as it's really windy here today.
Anyway, enough of my woes and I need to let you know there's a new challenge up today at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and our theme for June is A Summer's Day so we'd like to see artwork with whatever Summer means to you.
In my case, it's all the lovely bright flowers that come into bloom and I have a tag to share with just that featured on it.

My many layered background features both stencilling and stamping after swiping on some yellow, lime and teal paints. I first added stencilling with the random triangles dinky stencil and teal multi surface paint. I then stamped on the script and postmark from That's Crafty! Textures Collection Stamp Set 3 with Archival Watering Can ink.
I next stamped on the sequin waste image from Textures Collection Set 4 with Archival Cactus Flower ink. I added the live life text from Melina's Nature's Faces Set 2 stamp set with the same ink.
I stamped my flowers from the Fanciful Flowers Set 2 stamp set on mixed media paper with Archival Jet Black ink and then painted the images with bright red, mustard yellow and bright orange multi surface paints. I cut the images out, swiped on embossing ink and heat embossed them with clear powder for some shine.
I glued the flowers on with dimensional glue and finished off with some toning sari ribbon.

Don't forget there's now a whole month to enter and entries are welcome from all over the world. The randomly drawn winner receives a £30 voucher for the online shop and the Top 3 a choice of That's Crafty! stencil. Hope to see you there!

Have a great rest of the week.
Fliss xx

Shabby Chic Floral Card for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, I can't believe that today is the first of June as we've been having rather a weird week on the weather side as it's been extremely hot on some days and we've had torrential rain and thunder and lightning and flooded roads!
We had a lovely visit on Sunday to Petworth House Park and I'll be sharing some of my photos a bit later on. It was very hot here on Sunday so although we didn't walk that far, around 2 miles, in my case, it felt like I'd run a marathon as I don't cope very well with heat.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post and this week I have a vintage style shabby chic card to share.

You'll find all the details of how I created this over at the blog as usual and I hope that you'll hop on over to see.

Now for my Petworth photos - if you haven't been, it's a really lovely place and well worth a visit.

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

Mixed Media Floral Tag for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone and sorry for the lack of visiting this week, I've been up to my eyes in my accounting type work and haven't had as much free time as usual so hopefully will be round over the long weekend although if sunny, gardening will be done!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog with my usual Friday post and this week have a many layered mixed media tag to share with a floral theme (no surprise there!) and pretty pastel shades including my favourite purple hues.

This is just a sneak peek and you'll find all the details over at the blog as usual with a photo of the whole tag.

Have a really lovely weekend and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Shabby Chic Blossoms for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, the weekend is nearly here thank goodness as I've had a very busy week with work and stuff and I'm looking forward to some creative time although I might just take a peek at certain celebrations going on over the weekend and I, for one, will be rather glad to get all the media hype about the Royal Wedding out of the way!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday tutorial and this week I have another mixed media project to share created on one of the newest MDF surfaces to share - this is one of the set of rounds and you get an amazing 15 in the set in 3 different diameters and I've used the 6 inch one here.

As you can see, I've gone pastel this week as I'm trying out the new shades of multi surface paints and I really love this pretty light blue.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

A Stitch In Time Challenge Midway Inspiration

Hello everyone with an oops from me as guess who forgot to schedule her post for the midway inspiration for the May Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog!
I hope you're all having a good week and enjoying some warmer weather at last. It's not been sunny here today and is rather windy but it's not cold really.
We have 2 new members of our family now having picked up our little furry babies on Sunday and they're right little devils, zipping around like greased lightning! Pics are at the end of the post for some awwws.

 

My chosen substrate is the largest size of MDF tag by That's Crafty! Surfaces and I started off my background by using the Triangle Lines 8 x 8 Stencil with texture paste to add a pattern. Once it was dry, I gave it a coat of Evergreen Multi Surface Paint.

The next layer was crackle glaze and once this had set, I brushed Green Multi Surface Paint over the top and hey presto! lots of crackle appeared as you can see on the second photo.

I stamped my flowers and leaves from my Fanciful Flowers stamp set 1 on Gelli printed papers from my stash, made with multi surface paints and Distress Oxide inks and stencilling. I cut out the whole flower from one and just the centre from another, then layered these up to make my floral element.

I brushed Lime Multi Surface Paint over a scrap of mixed media paper, stamping the lines of stitching from Donna's Girls Claire set of stamps using VersaFine Olympia Green ink and distressed the edges with an emery board.

I glued on the stitched panel and my floral embellishment, finishing off with the quote from Fanciful Flowers set 2 stamps on a scrap of lime painted mixed media paper.

There's a great prize of a £30 voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils for the Top 3 so what are you waiting for!

Now for some cute pics of Hazel and Sage our new furry babies.

Hazel is an Agouti colour which is a soft brown like a wild rabbit and Sage, her brother, is a Black Otter colour being mostly black with a reddish cream underside and they are both Netherland Dwarfs like our Dill who it must be said isn't too impressed with the babies at the moment! He's the grand age of 8 years and they're only 8 weeks old!!!

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

Bright Blossoms for That's Crafty!

Morning all, I hope you're all having a good week with hopefully some sunny weather as we have here on the South Coast. It really does make you fee a lot more perky and I've been out for morning walks on most days to enjoy the sunshine. I'm really lucky to live right on the coast within a 5 minute walk of the seafront so that's where I tend to head for a walk. The only thing marring the coastline is the huge wind farm out in the bay but it's ecologically sound so I guess we have to put up with the sight!
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with another of those fabulous chunkies which are a really fantastic surface for mixed media which is what I've created, this time bright and zingy as I felt a bit summery when I did the post.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 466

Hello everyone, I hope you're all enjoying some sunshine as we've had the last few days including (hurrah!) the Bank Holiday weekend! Back to the grindstone now though and I decided to join in with Julia's WOYWW466 in an effort to focus myself on what I have to do at the moment as inspiration has been a bit lacking over the last week or so.
As I don't actually have a crafting space, just the dining room table or the kitchen worktop, I've just gathered the contents of the dining table at the end in one place as they were scattered everywhere (showing my disorganised state of mind I think!)
There are some bits of WIP and a few of the doodles and sketches I've been doing lately which are due to practising my drawing skills which have become rusty over the last few years due to lack of time to do crafting things. Although I do now have more time in theory, I seem to be struggling with focusing on what I need to do.

Hopefully this heap of things will soon be turned into something meaningful so watch this space!

In the mean time, have a great week.
Fliss xx

Flowers Always Mixed Media Chunkie for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, hope you're enjoying some better weather today with some sunshine and a bit more warmth.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post which this week is a mixed media creation with a ton of products thrown at it to make a shabby chic style floral piece of artwork.

The above is just a sneak peek and all details can be found over at the blog.

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

Fliss xx

A Stitch In Time at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello and welcome to my inspiration for our May Challenge over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog where our theme for this month is A Stitch In Time which could be real or faux, the choice is yours.
Actually can't believe it's May already and the weather today is anything but as it's cold and blowing a gale!
Hope you like my inspiration which is the mixed media sampler style creation that I made for the last Hochanda shows so you might have spotted this if you watched them.

The base for my sampler is one of the new MDF circles which come in 3 sizes (this being the 6 inch diameter) and have holes at the top to add a hanger if you like.
I painted the substrate with white gesso and then a coat of ivory multi surface paint. Once the paint was dry, I stamped the woven texture stamp randomly over with Vintage Photo oxide ink without using an acrylic block to achieve a worn, shabby look.
I then used the new and gorgeous stitches stencil with texture paste to add faux stitching to the background. I have a tip for you here as there are 9 rows of different stitches and I found that the easiest way to work with them is to cut the stencil up into individual strips as this means you can use them in any order you like and don't have to wait for texture paste to dry before adding more rows - result!

I left the stencilling to dry and when I returned a short time later found that the texture paste had leached up some of the colour from the oxide ink stamping underneath giving a worn, vintage look - serendipity strikes again!

I then made my floral embellishment by stamping the flower with black VersaFine ink on 2 complimentary shades of fabric backed with Bondaweb. I ironed the fabric to thick interlining to add strength and then cut my flower out, the whole one from the amber shade and just the centre from the aged ivory one.

I assembled my panel, adding lace in between some rows of faux stitching. I glued the flower together and then to the panel with 3D glue and added some small toning flower beads for texture. Some lace was tied through the top to make a pretty hanger. I can recommend using a needle pushed through lace or ribbon to pull it through the holes as they're quite small and the needle really helps your chosen trim to go through with ease.

There's a great prize of a £30 voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and the Top 3 chosen by the DT will receive stencils of their choice so do enter if you can.

Have a great day whatever you're doing and see you soon.
Hugs,
Fliss xx

Floral Hello Card

Hello all, I've a card to share today as it was rather wet yesterday after a good start and today has been dull and cold so what better tonic than a bit of crafting (and sketching though can't yet show you).
This one is a little different and the colours are slightly off too as my camera seems to struggle with plummy tones and the doily is actually a shade of rose and not quite as strong as it appears here.

As you can see, I've included the background before embellishing and it was actually the leftover result from making my floral wishes card as the stencil was covered in the Distress oxides that I used and it was a shame to waste it so I misted on some water and pressed on a sheet of card. The above background was the end result and it's so pretty I just had to use it.

I stamped my fanciful flower twice on mixed media paper with VersaFine Spanish Moss ink. I then coloured it with Distress markers, using Spun Sugar, Crushed Olive and Wild Honey. I then cut out the whole flower once and just the petal part on the second. I shaped them with a large embossing ball tool and layered them up with 3D glue.

I assembled my card using a couple of pretty doilies, adding a gold pearl to the flower and stamping on the hello text (a free stamp from Making Cards magazine) with Archival Plum ink.

I'd like to enter the following challenges with my card:

Everybody Art Challenge - Flower
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Flowers

Hope the weather is better where you are and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Fliss xx

Heart Blooms for That's Crafty!

Hello everyone, well it's now rather a wet day after a good start earlier on and I'm hoping things improve for the weekend too.
A very quick post before I start on some work I have to do today to let you know that I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I have a very bright creation to share which came about because I saw the colour of the year is ultraviolet and I love purple!

I love purple so much that I've actually managed to acquire a purple coat - my Andy won't lose me in a crowd lol. I'm hoping there will be more purple in the Autumn as the current clothing colours (yellow, orange!!!) do nothing for me with my blonde hair!!!

Have a great day whatever the weather and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Floral Wishes Card

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a lovely weekend with sunshine as we did and it actually felt like summer down here on the South Coast as it was so warm. Not quite so warm today but we still had a sunny start so hopefully the week will be good.
I have another card to share today made from my stack of flowers from my recent marathon stamping and cutting out session. This one is for a friend who's going through a bit of a tough time at the moment with health issues and I wanted to send her something to let her know I'm thinking of her.
Happily the colours fit the April colour challenge at Rubber Dance so although I haven't used their stamps this time, I hope that's OK (between you and me, I have to work out where I put them as I had a tidy up and now can't find things!)

I made my background paper by swiping card through some Distress Oxides (Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron and Worn Lipstick) spritzed with water on my craft mat. I then used the That's Crafty! TC8024 Flourish stencil with the same inks used neat to add a shabby chic pattern as I wasn't too bothered about getting the pattern perfect.
I cut a piece to fit my square kraft card blank and glued it on. I stamped the sentiment (a stamp free with Making Cards magazine) with black ink and then added some layered up flowers assembled with dimensional glue.
I finished off with an offcut of my stencilled paper which I die cut with an old scallop lace border die and inked with Worn Lipstick, tucking a couple of pieces under the flowers for added interest.

I'd like to enter this in the current Rubber Dance Challenge having used the colours although not the altered bit this time:

Have a great week and see you soon.
Fliss xx

Blossoming Flower for That's Crafty!

Hello on an exceedingly warm and sunny Friday feeling a lot like summer in April! Hope you're enjoying it too wherever you are.
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and this week I'm sharing a vibrant and zingy make on one of the That's Crafty! Chunkies, just fabulous for mixed media.

You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to hop over (of course, I hope you will).

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.
Fliss xx

Going Round In Circles Challenge Midway Inspiration

Hello, hope you're all having a good week and hopefully have Spring weather as we do as it's a glorious sunny day down here on the South Coast and much warmer too.
Slightly dodgy start to the day though as I had to make yet another trip to the tyre repair shop as I had another puncture in the same tyre as last time! Pesky builders and their screws which shouldn't be in the road!!! Thankfully it was fixed very quickly.
I have some midway inspiration for our April Challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog with the theme of Going Round In Circles and I couldn't resist this floral wreath which I created for last week's Hochanda shows and if you watched, you might have seen this one (screen shot below)

This started off with the largest of the new MDF circles, the 8 inch one which I painted with white gesso and then used just the centre of the new dot mandala stencil (a sellout on the shows) to add detail in the centre of the circle (no point stencilling on an area to be covered up!) with texture sand paste. I then painted the whole circle with slightly watered down lime multi surface paint which gives a lovely fresh Spring green. I then spritzed on some diluted lime and mustard, allowing the paints to run down the panel.

Once the background was dry, I took a selection of flowers in shades of pink and purple from my large supply of flowers stamped and cut out from gelli prints in a recent mammoth crafting session and laid these out around the circle to decide on placement. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I glued them together with 3D glue gel and added them to the background with the same glue. I glued leaves in between, making sure they popped out a little to give a realistic wreath effect.
I finished off with some green gingham ribbon tied through the holes in the top (I can recommend threading through with a needle if necessary as it helps pull thicker ribbons through) and the quote stamped on a scrap of gelli print paper and shaped to form a plaque.

I hope you can join in the challenge which is now open to entrants all over the world and has a prize of a £30 voucher for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils of choice from the ever expanding That's Crafty! own range for the Top 3 chosen by the Design Team.

Have a great day and a lovely week.
Fliss xx

Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge April 2018

It's been an absolute age since I've created anything for a challenge due to various issues which have taken up a lot of my time. A New Year resolution was to try and remedy that so as I had a large number of flowers in my stash to be used box (pic below if you didn't see them when I first did them), I made another card following on from yesterday's offering for That's Crafty! Blog as I'm still on rather a high after the Hochanda shows and if you caught them, you might just have seen my floral wreath which was made from some of the big heap of flowers below.
Spring is finally in the air so I made this card to celebrate in pretty blossom shades as the trees are at last starting to bloom.

My flowers were stamped on gelli prints after I had a long session making quite a few with muted prints which I love for stamping flowers and leaves on as it saves on having to colour them! Here's my finished haul below!

I shaped a couple of whole flowers made from my stamps for That's Crafty! (link in my side bar if you're interested) plus a couple of centre parts and the rounded centre in green. I layered these up with dimensional glue and shaped some leaves to go with them in a fresh green shade.
My background paper was a ghost gelli print, made from cleaning the plate after making a green and a pink print where I used a jar lid to make a circular pattern. It turned out a pretty soft green, perfect for my card. I cut a piece to fit my 5 x 7 kraft card blank and distressed the edges with an emery board. I then stamped on the stitching from Donna's Claire stamp set from her Donna's Girls Collection for That's Crafty! (she gave it to me as a gift too, thanks Donna!) using Fern Green Archival ink, adding the quote from my Fanciful Flowers Set 2 stamps with the same ink.
I glued on the background paper and added the layered flower and leaves with more dimensional glue to finish.

I'd like to enter the Craft Stamper Challenge for April with my card and hopefully will enter more from now on.

Hope you're all having a great weekend and enjoying the sunshine if you have it.
Fliss xx