Less is More #373

Well hello my crafty friends, I cannot believe that it's almost a month since I posted something on my blog and I feel totally 'out of it'. 
May was a really crazy-hectic month for me work-wise but compensated with a very much deserved treat at the end of the month - a week in Portugal. I'm still trying to re-adjust to life back home, having been spoilt rotten in the sun. 
Fellow team buddy, Sharon, may beg to differ on the 'sun' as she lives out there and seemed to think the weather was a disgrace!!!  It was an absolute delight to meet up with her and her hubby for an afternoon of chit-chat over drinks and ice-cream! 
Anyway enough reminiscing and back to the reality of announcing our latest challenge at Less is More which is all about friends! Why not? They are so special and particularly those who share this beautiful hobby and keep boosting our confidence whenever the mojo has gone AWOL!  
All the challenge details are on the main challenge blog HERE but here's the Cue Card followed by my cards.


Our sponsor for this month is Uniko and my first card feature some of their products and Bev (owner/designer) is joining us as a Guest Designer for this challenge too.
... using the new Chrysanthemum stencil, inked with Distress Oxides in Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon, followed by a camouflage die-cut 'friend' sentiment from Paper Smooches, which is  mounted on 3 layers of teal cardstock to add a little definition and dimension. The sentiment is from the Pure Florals Cosmos set.

next up ... and a little 'note to self' here - DO NOT try to be inspired by Jennifer McGuire after a month away from the craft room!!!! LOL! Did anyone else watch THIS? 

Well it took me much longer to create my card than dear JM and still I couldn't get the die to partially cut!!! It's a rose die-cut from Memory Box, mounted on 4 layers of white cardstock with a (previously prepared) brusho panel behind and a strip of glitter tape to 'hide' the mess of the failed partial die-cut! 

I'm not sure what company the 'friend' die-cut is from and to be honest I was just grabbing anything from my 'scraps' box to get this card finished at that point! The 'You are Awesome' is an Altenew sentiment from the Painted Butterfly set. 

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the Less is More blog HERE and please do visit them as they have definitely worked magic with the challenge! 
As mentioned above our sponsor for this challenge is Uniko so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. 





Thanks for calling by today!

Guest Designer Post - Inkspirational

Hi Friends,

I'm thrilled to be joining the ladies over at Inkspirational Challenges as Guest Designer for the latest challenge, Cue Card below!

I have to admit I racked my brains for ages trying to come up with something unique to use from my stash. I couldn't find any play-related stamp sets although, following some online research / window shopping, there's now plenty on my wish list! 

In the end I decided to go with a musical theme and some rather inky and not in my usual 'Clean and Simple' style backgrounds. Uniko recently released some music related stamps and I'd also purchased a few Visible Image sets at Christmas, which I was keen to ink up again so here goes:

Both cards use the 'Music Speaks' set by Visible Image with a 'You Rock' sentiment and musical notes from Uniko. The background on the first card is created by 'smooshing' Distress Inks, whereas the second one is a Brusho based creation! 

I hope you like what I've created for the challenge and you'll feel inspired to play along too. I don't doubt that there'll be some spectacular ideas from the regular design team HERE and I'd like to thank them for inviting me to join them today! 

Happy Crafting and thanks for your visit today!

Less is More #364

Hello my crafty friends, it's birthday time over at Less is More as we celebrate our 7th Birthday! 
We've a whole bunch of Guest Designers, 2 sponsors this month and a couple of extra prizes thrown in too - all the details are on the main challenge blog HERE
So onto the challenge it's self and here's our cue card followed my cards. 

First up sharing a teeny sneaky peek of some new sentiments from the 'yet-to-be released Uniko birthday sets' let's have some music. Life is so much better with it and a rainbow of course! 

Fellow Less is More teamie, Sharon has recently joined the Visible Image Design Team and I couldn't resist buying a couple of their music inspired sets with some Christmas pennies so first up using 'Music Speaks' on a panel of brusho coloured card. 

Next up, Sharon had this stunning 'Sing' set, when we met at the Happy Little Stampers retreat in Manchester back in November - so I had to have this one too. I've a couple of special birthdays coming up where this collection of cards will be so appropriate! I've stamped and masked the images then used the MFT Concentric Circle grid stencil with Distress inks in different colours.

I'd like to drop this little trio in at Simon Says Stamp: Wednesday Challenge where it's Anything Goes

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies plus our returning ex Design Team Members over on the main blog HERE and our sponsor for this challenge is Uniko so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. Bev (Uniko) is also guest designing for this challenge and hopefully she'll be sneaking a little peek of the new sets too.

I hope you'll play along in our birthday challenges this month and have some fun with us.
Thanks for calling by today!