Mixed Media Tag at That's Crafty! Blog

Hello! I hope you're managing to keep cool in the never ending heatwave we seem to have at the moment and I have to say the last few days have been the worst - thought I was going to melt a couple of times! Rain is due but I suspect we won't get it here as the sky has no clouds although that could change and this would be an occasion that I wouldn't complain about it!

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with my usual Friday post which this week is a nature themed mixed media tag which I hope you like. Here's a sneak peek and you'll find all the details over at the blog with the full tag and the how to's.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Mixed Media Artwork for That's Crafty!

Hello, I've been rather busy this week for various reasons so hopefully will do more visiting over the weekend.
One of the reasons is because yesterday morning we woke to find carnage in our back garden as a nasty fox had destroyed the nest of a hedgehog family in the shrubbery on the edge of our small patio. He unfortunately killed one of the babies and yesterday afternoon we found 2 more babies out in full sunshine and very wobbly. Their mother appears to have abandoned them so we put them back in shade until Andy came home and they've spent the night in a box in the shed with puppy milk and actual hedgehog food (didn't know you could get this!) after an emergency dash to Pets 'r' Us. We'll be ringing up the local animal rescue today for advice as the babies seem tobe about a month old and not old enough to fend for themselves. Nature can be so cruel sometimes.

I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a mixed media circular panel which is the result of a rescue of something that went wrong last month. All is now fixed and you can find out how over on the blog.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

Midway Inspiration for Close to Nature Challenge

Hello! I hope everyone is well and coping with the current long heatwave we seem to be having. A month now and no sign of rain down here on the south coast of the UK which is really unusual.

We're now midway through the July challenge at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog with the theme of Close To Nature and I have some more inspiration to share in the form of a tag (yes, another one as I can't seem to get enough of these at the moment!) and Lynne's gorgeous new wildflower stamps have come out to play again as I love these.

I made the background for the tag by swiping teal, light blue and white multi surface paints on the surface then misting with water and allowing the colour to spread.

I then took an evergreen sprig from my garden and pressed broken china and twisted citron oxide inks on the leaves and pressed it onto the tag. I repeated this step until I was happy with the effect. I next used one of the texture stamps with faded jeans oxide ink to add some texture round the edges (I did this without an acrylic block for a grungy effect).

I prepared my focal point panel using a scrap of mixed media paper torn from the pad as I like using the ripped edge to add texture. I coloured the paper with twisted citron oxide ink misted with water and repeated applied for texture. Whilst still damp, I stamped on my chosen wild flower with VersaFine Majestic Blue ink, following up with shadow stamping using the twisted citron ink which as you see ran a little due to the wet paper.

I added more stamping from the textures sets using a postmark and script for further detail. I masked off part of one of Lynne's Affirmations to give the nature text.

I  knotted some yarn around the panel then glued it to my tag and tied some toning yarns through the top to finish.

Supplies:

That's Crafty! Surfaces Size 10 White/Greyboard Tag
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Lynne's Wildflowers Set 2, Textures Collection Sets 3 and 4
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - Light Blue, Teal, White
Distress Oxide Inks - Broken China, Faded Jeans, Twisted Citron
VersaFine Majestic Blue Ink
 Extras - Evergreen leaf sprig or similar, toning yarns

My DT sisters have some gorgeous inspiration to hopefully encourage you to enter if you haven't yet done so over at the challenge blog where you can read about the prizes on offer which are fabulous!

Have a great day,
Fliss xx

Flutter Your Feathers for That's Crafty!

Hello! I hope you've all had a lovely week with some sunny weather and time for crafting too. I'm really looking forward to the weekend as I've had some accounts work to do this week and need a rest from figures!
I have my usual Friday post over at That's Crafty! Blog and I have another tag to share - I seem to be addicted to making these at the moment. My tag this time is in coll chilled shades of blue with a touch of yellow and purple hues for contrast.

You'll find all the details over at the blog if you'd like to see how this came about and hope you'll hop over.

Have a great day and a lovely weekend.

Fliss xx

In The Walled Garden Mixed Media for That's Crafty!

Hello! It's hot and sunny again today although thankfully my puffy feet and ankles have gone down now. Hope everyone is coping with the heat if you have it.
I'm over at That's Crafty! Blog today with a mixed media piece of artwork created on one of the fab MDF uprights as it's quite a while since I altered one. There's a sneak peek below and you'll find the whole thing over at the blog if you hop over as I hope you will to see how it came about.

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

Fliss xx

Close To Nature at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog

Hello! Hope you're all surviving the current very hot weather we have here in the UK although thankfully it is slightly cooler today as I felt I was going to melt over the weekend as I can't cope with heat that well and actually got puffy feet and ankles which is a first in this country! Something I normally only get if in somewhere like Italy in August!!!
We have a new challenge up today for July over at That's Crafty! Challenge Blog and this month our theme is Close To Nature so we'd like to see what nature means to you.
I've been lucky enough to get my inky (and painty) mitts on Lynne's gorgeous new wildflower stamp sets so this was the perfect excuse (not that I really need one!) to ink some up for my inspiration which is a tag with a meadow theme.

I don't actually have process photos here as it was a go with the flow piece and the first thing I did was to colour my tag. I used slightly diluted multi surface paints, starting at the top right with mustard yellow and orange, then drawing in bright magenta. I then added more yellow, graduating to lime and teal on the lower half of the tag. To draw the areas together, I used a baby wipe to pick up excess paint in turn and dabbed this on contrasting areas. This really does help to bring it all together.

Here are a couple of close-ups so that you can hopefully see what I mean:

I then used the distressed harlequin stencil with white gesso to add a pattern in a couple of areas. I next began to add some stamping, using jet black Archival ink and 2 of the silhouette style images. I stamped the blossom image twice, using only part of the image the second time.

I then stamped the blossoms image twice with black ink on a scrap of orange Gelli paper from my bits box and cut the just the floral images out. I glued these over the top of the flowers stamped on the tag and trimmed off any excess.

I added a little more silhouette stamping using cactus flower Archival ink, masking off parts of the image as necessary to bring the elements together. I stamped one of the lovely affirmations from the sets on a further scrap of orange Gelli paper and cut the text into tiles, running black ink around the edges before gluing on.

As a finishing touch, I painted some small greyboard Bits and Pieces butterflies with multi surface paints, adding detail with pencils and scoring them with an embossing ball tool to bend the wings slightly before adding to the tag with 3D glue. A piece of torn, recycled sari ribbon was tied through the top.

Hope you can enter for some great prizes - a voucher for £30 for the online shop for the randomly drawn winner and stencils of choice for the Top 3 (see the challenge rules for details).
Have a great day and a lovely rest of the week too.

Fliss xx

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