Less is More #365

Hi there friends, it's time to announce our second BIRTHDAY challenge over at Less is More to celebrate our 7th Birthay and we've got more delightful designs from some of our past Design Team members. 

We're also delighted to have Seven Hills Crafts kindly sponsoring the challenge and Tara (owner) is joining us as a Guest Designer too.
So let's get down to the latest Clean and Simple challenge for the next fortnight and here's the cue card  
There's often lots of debate in Blogland around the use of dry-embossing and how it can be used as a Clean and Simple element of a card so I can't wait to see what you come up with and I've 3 ideas to share with you today.
You'll find our guidelines and requirements for this technique over on the main Less is More blog HERE along with some superb ideas and inspiration from my talented teamies.

First up I've used a faux letterpress technique, as featured in an older video by Jennifer McGuire HERE which uses a detailed Tilda Flower die from Memory Box with a little ink to the edges then run through my Big Shot to 'emboss' the image onto watercolour card. 

Other Supplies Used:

Dies: Lil'Inkers: HI word die / Stamps: Avery Elle: Sentimental / Ink: Altenew

There's 2 challenges I'd like to pop this one into ... Addicted to Stamps and More, where they are looking for Clean and Simple Cards and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where the requirement is to add a die-cut.

This card features a very subtle linear embossing technique where regular score lines have been marked using a folding board. I started out by inking up a beautiful stencil, which I received as a gift from my buddy and ex-DT member at Less is More, Sarah G of Funky Fossil Designs. Since stepping down from our challenge blog she's certainly not been sitting around but has set to work making various stencils, laser-cut MDF shapes and home decor/gifts. The stencil here, called Beautiful Mandala is available to purchase in Sarah's Folksy store HERE and she's also kindly offered 2 stencils as a gift to one of our birthday winners at Less is More this month. Why not head over HERE and look at what else is in store!

Other Supplies Used:

Dies: The Works: Stitched Square & Waffle Flower: Sentiment Strips

Stamps: Avery Elle: Sentimental / Ink: Distress Inks in Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio 

 

Last but not least an underwater little scene using a circular die-cut piece of brusho-coloured card, which I then ran through a 'wave-effect' embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers. I've also used my 3 circular dies to create a de-bossed element to frame my focal image.

Other Supplies Used:

Dies: The Works: Stitched Squares & Sizzix Framelit Circles

Stamps: Paper Smooches: Briny Blue plus coordinating die & Create a Smile: Underwater Love

I'd like to pop this card in at Timeout Challenges where the theme is 'Hobbies' - Fishing is a popular hobby I believe although not one of mine!!! Hope it counts - sadly it's not twisted with a one layer.

I hope you've enjoyed my inspiration for this challenge and don't forget we've extra prizes this month with it being our Birthday. Our sponsor for the challenge is Seven Hills Crafts as well as a random mystery prize and Sarah's kind stencil for this month only so do play along for a chance, and we'll announce our winners at the start of next month. 


I hope you'll play along in our birthday challenges this month and have some fun with us.


Thanks for calling by today!

Honey I Shrunk The Kit #14

Hey there friends, I'm so excited to be sharing another day out with my fellow Honey Babes for another HISTK post! BUT I'm absolutely dreading it at the same time as it's my turn to host! What I thought might be a fun kit to work with turned into a bit of a nightmare as my mojo went AWOL in the last few weeks so I'm relying on the Babes to showcase it to the MAX!

The name of my kit is 'Sugar Fix' and here's a little piccy of the contents: 

... and here's the list of contents:

Stamps: Reverse Confetti: Donut You Know (plus donut die), Neat & Tangled: Say Yes to Donuts, Avery Elle: Pick N Mix (plus dies) and Mama Elephant: Carnival Cupcakes (plus dies)

Other Dies: L’il Inker: Smile, Mama Elephant: Columbus Circle and Neat & Tangled: Hooray word dies

Other Items: Hobbycraft Basics: patterned paper, Action Wobbler, Doodlebug: bakers twine & Anita’s: half cut pearls

Somehow I managed 5 cards, some I like a lot more than others and this first one has to be my favourite. I made it for my niece and nephew for Halloween using the action wobbler behind the bag of sweeties. I used a couple of extra images from a CBS dis-continued set called In the Spirit.

No additional items were used for this one other than the kit and the images are coloured with Promarkers.

My colouring medium for the next one was the Kuretake Zig Clear Brush Pens but my doughnut looks a little burnt, don't you think? I used a wonky stitched die-cut panel (thanks to fellow Honey / LIM teamie, Anita ... quite convenient that she came to stay at my house recently and brought some of her treasured stash with her)!!!

Ooooh! What's this ... another wonky stitched panel (thanks again Anita)! Images and die-cut sentiment once again coloured with Promarkers, with the 'it's a boy' sentiment by CBS.

I'm really not sure about this one but had a few bits and pieces to use up so a framed display of sugary, jelly sweeties, all coloured with Promarkers and coated with wink of stella and glossy accents.

I hope you like my cards but I'm sure you'll love my teamies cards even more! Don't delay, check out these lovelies as I'm off to do now! Thanks for calling by and I hope to be back with more Honey I Shrunk the Kit kits next year! 

Hazel Hodgkins: Hazel's Paper Designs Sarah Gray: Funky Fossil Designs Shona Chambers: Twine Around Anita Bowden: Neet & Crafty Sarah Platt: Sazzle Dazzle Crafts ... that's ME!

Less is More #342

Woah! I don't know where that week went but it certainly doesn't seem like seven days since my last blog post for Less is More! This summer needs to SLOW down a little!
Anyway it's the turn of our Theme week and our theme should certainly fit in well with the time of year so have a little fun and I hope you'll join us in creating a CLEAN and SIMPLE card depicting 'your perfect holiday'

I've just the one card today and as Susan beat me to the 'caravan' image for last week's Vehicle challenge I was determined to use this cute little holiday home in my card this week. 

the images are from Avery Elle: Home Sweet Home, Lawn Fawn: Life is Good and Paper Smooches: Get Outta Town. I've used Promarkers to colour the images and the caravan is fuzzy cut and remounted in the little scene on 3d foam for added interest. 
There's some stunning ideas over on the main blog HERE - as always the Design Team have worked their magic and we are also joined by Pauline from Crafting with Cotnob (our winner for June) and she's created a super cute and clever holiday card for her Guest Designer spot. 
Once again our sponsor is Seven Hills Crafts and if you play along throughout this month you could be our lucky winner of a gift certificate to spend in the online store. 

Thanks for calling by and catch up soon

Less Is More #340

Morning friends, oh I have missed blogging and crafting! This is the first post I've 'written' since my 2 week holiday in France - anything that has appeared here was thanks for Mr Blogger and his scheduling expertise! So it's a pleasure to be back and introducing our latest challenge at Less is More
Being the first one of the month it's the turn of Colour week and here's our Cue Card

Hopefully that won't cause too many issues; there's no need to use actual fruit images - just whatever takes your fancy. I started imagining all those exotic fruits ... mango, pineapple, kiwi, watermelon, to name a few and took it from there.
I recently treated myself to the stunning 'Spring Blooms' set from WPlus9 so this is a first for inking up this beauty with some vivid ink colours from Altenew. I also added some extra detail to the images with coloured pencils before die-cutting the 'Friend' word die from Paper Smooches, mounting it on several layers of card before popping it back into it's negative space. The 'Good Luck' sentiment is from Uniko: Simply Said range.

The Muse Challenge blog is having an 'Anything Goes' week so I'd like to pop this card in over there. I used to play along there almost every week but the time just seems to fly these days so I couldn't pass up this opportunity!

Next up one of my friends is celebrating a BIG and special birthday plus she's addicted to sweeties, particularly wine gums although I didn't have a stamp with those so gummy bears will have to suffice! These are from the Avery Elle Pick n Mix set.

The bears are coloured with Promarkers, die-cut and arranged along a stitched curved border die from MFT with a 'celebrate' sentiment from Uniko: All Occasion Sentiments #6 and the smaller sentiment is Clearly Besotted: Laugh Out Loud! There's a teeny little pale blue inky blending behind the bears too and I've coated them with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents.

I'd like to pop this one in over at CASology where the theme is 'Juicy'

Being the beginning of a new month we are also welcoming back Seven Hills Crafts as our Sponsor for August and I hope you'll play along this month to be in with a chance of winning a prize.

 

Don't forget to check out the fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and have some fun! 
Thanks for calling by today!

Less is More #333

Hi there crafty friends, are you ready for this week's challenge at Less is More and it's another fun one so hope you feel inspired to join us and play along. I've 3 cards for you today, with a couple of family birthdays coming up soon and several friends also it seemed the perfect opportunity to get ahead of myself.

I'm on a bit of a shaker roll at the moment and loving this curly 'friend' die-cut sentiment from Paper Smooches, which certainly works a treat in glitter cardstock and adhered directly on to the acetate window. Having tried brushos with cling wrap I was fascinated to see a video by the fabulous Jennifer McGuire HERE using watercolours with cling wrap. I need to get a little more practice in to make them as vibrant as JM's but for a first attempt I was pretty impressed and I've used a piece as the background to my shaker window. I used a stitched circle die from Simon Says Stamp for the window and the sprinkles from Little Things by Lucy.

It's an 'Anything Goes' week over at Addicted to Stamps and More so I'd like to head across there with this one.

... here's the family ones!

First up for my niece followed by her mum's below. Their birthdays fall on consecutive days next month. The images are from Clearly Besotted: Time to Party and Laugh Out Loud, plus the Basic Alphabet also by CBS. For a change I used my Memento dew drop inks, that have been neglected of late but I'm loving the colours and they were easy to blend for the 3 matching stripes behind the balloon panel.

Another example using Jennifer McGuire's Watercolour 'cling wrap' technique inside a die-cut heart shaped aperture from WPlus9. The inlaid 'sister' word die is from Clearly Besotted and 'Happy Birthday' by Avery Elle.

Ooooh! before I forget ... here's our Cue Card for the Less is More challenge and there's still time to be in with a chance of a prize from our generous sponsor for this month, STAMPlorations.

Don't forget to check out the fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE 
Hope you'll play along and have some fun and thanks for calling by and I'll be back soon!

Less is More #331

Morning friends, are you ready for this week's challenge at Less is More and can you believe that's another month ticked off! Summer is almost here! So the first week of the month signals our COLOUR challenge, new sponsor and guest designer.
We're delighted to welcome Shery of STAMPlorations as our Sponsor and Guest Designer and to get you into that summer mood we've chosen some popular ice-cream colours; Strawberry, Chocolate and Vanilla (otherwise known as Neapolitan) as our challenge.
Here's the Cue Card


Hopefully that won't cause too many issues and here's my cards. Going with the ice-cream theme I've stamped an ice-cream cone from a discontinued Clearly Besotted set called, So Sweet. The blobs of ice-cream are stencilled using a STAMPlorations 'splatters' stencil, with a strip of washi tape to the right and a sentiment from Avery Elle: Pick and Mix running along the tape. 

This next one uses the Neat & Tangled Every Day Circles set and teamed with a border stamp from Uniko: Background Builders Triangulate. 

Don't forget to check out the fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE 
Hope you'll play along and have some fun and thanks for calling by and I'll be back soon!

Less is More #319

Morning friends, are you ready for this week's challenge at
Less is More
This week it's our dreaded ONE LAYER week and here's our cue card showing the theme we've chosen


It's usually an Autumn theme but as it's quite spring-like here in the UK right now I decided to go with some lighter tones of orange and green on my first one. Plus I was experimenting with my new Altenew Inks. The leaf set I've used is by Uniko: Paradise Leaves and I've teamed it with a brushed sentiment by Clearly Besotted


Using another couple of sets from Uniko here and just to show that it doesn't have to be Christmas to use a holly leaf! Again I've used Altenew inks in various green tones along with Delicata Gold ink for some mini flowers plus a gold gel pen for added dotty detail and the  hand-drawn lines along the top and bottom of my stamped areas.


Last but not least ... who says leaves have to be traditional colours! Here I just wanted to go mad with those Altenew inks again because I just love all the different tones in each pack. I've used the leaf stamp from another Clearly Besotted set: English Rose plus a bold sentiment by My Favourite Things with the 'Your Day' from Avery Elle

 Three is pretty good for me these days so I'm hoping to see lots of
dynamic leafy inspiration from you crafty folk on the LIM blog this week.


There's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE with links to their own blogs. Do check them out and pay them a visit if you've time - they'd love it!

Hope you'll play along and have some fun. Thanks for calling by and I'll be back soon!

Less is More Challenge #310

Morning friends, are you ready for this week's challenge at
Less is More
It's the first one of the month which means we're also announcing our sponsor for the month which is Happy Little Stampers and what's more the super-talented and wonderful owner, Kylie is also our Guest designer too so I hope you'll visit her blog and leave lots of love!
This week it's COLOUR week and we've chosen  OMBRE You can use any colour but with an ombre / graduated effect.
Here's mine and there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE with links to their own blogs. Do check them out and pay them a visit if you've time - they'd love it!

I couldn't resist using one of the newly released sets from Happy Little Stampers and this one is called 'Wish you were Here' with a sentiment from 'Fun Birthday Sentiments'. I've created the ombre effect using Zig Clear brush pens, blending with a water brush then a little flicking and spritzing of a water and perfect pearl mist. The card base is dry-embossed using an embossing folder by We R Memory Keepers (2 pk set - pressie from Santa aka. my kids!) and the ombre panel is die-cut with  a pierced square die by MFT Die-namics and mounted on 3d foam.
I'd like to enter this one over at Anything Goes Using - Happy Little Stampers ... rude not to don't you think!

This time I've used Distress inks to create the ombre effect using

Broken China, Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch.

The card base had a heavy spritz of perfect pearls and water and I've

die-cut the 'smile' from Lil'inker Designs from an off-cut of the card base

before adding dimension with several layers of die-cut cardstock.

The stamped sentiments are from Avery Elle 'Sentimental' and I've

added a few coordinating sequins just for the 'bling' of it!

Although I've not gone with the 'Stencil' optional twist I would like

to link up at the Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour challenge

Last one and again using the zig clear brush pens to create an ombre

panel before dry-embossing the panel with the 2nd embossing folder from 

the We R Memory Keepers set mentioned above. The 'celebrate' word die

is by Sugar Pea Designs and is die-cut on some glitter tape from Heidi Swapp

plus several layers of white card stock to add dimension. The '70' numbers are

die-cut from the 'count on us' set by Avery elle from the same glitter tape

and adhered flat to the card base. A couple of sequins and stars finishes the design.

I'd like to link this card up at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge

where it's 'Something New' and both my embossing folder and celebrate die

were goodies from Santa under my Christmas tree!

I hope you feel inspired to play along and I can't wait to see your ombre techniques and ideas! Thanks for calling by and I'll be back soon!

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #76

Morning friends, it's time to announce a new challenge for the next 2 weeks over at AAA Cards and our theme for this one is MASCULINE.
I've two cards to share with you today and first up it's one for  my Dad's birthday! He loves watercolouring so I decided this cute Easel die from Paper Smooches would work a treat here.

Other items used are:

Neat & Tangled Punchinella Die, Paper Smooches daddy yo

and 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from Avery Elle.

Next up ... it's always handy to have a couple of baby cards in the box!  

This one uses the Petite Baby Shower set from Clearly Besotted with a 

heat-embossed sentiment from Mama Elephant: Just Hatched.

So here's a little photo inspiration for you and don't forget to pop along and

 visit my fellow teamies who have created some spectacular masculine makes!

The links to their blogs are on the main AAA Cards blog HERE plus we have 

one of our previous winners joining us as a Guest Designer for this challenge.

I do hope you'll pop along to visit Joyce's blog (Cards by The Sea) and leave her some love and friendly comments!

Our lucky winner for this challenge will receive a prize from our generous sponsors; Stampendous so I hope you'll join us. Thanks as always for calling by and I'll catch up with you again soon.