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!

A Trio of Cards - just for fun!

Hi Friends, I don't often get time to create just for creating sake but today I made a little time to finish off some cards that had been sat in pieces on my desk for a while and what's more I'm hoping they'll fit into  a couple of challenges too!
First up it's my fellow Less is More Teamie, Anita, who is playing MUSE this week at the Muse Card Challenge so couldn't resist 'casing' her gorgeous card. The colours are so neutral, calming and subtle ... quite the opposite to my usual style but I've had a go!

In addition to the colours I was inspired by the shiny leaf die-cuts and design paper

peeping through the negative space. Here I've used a flourish die by Sizzix and instead

of using the design paper behind I've water-coloured a panel in Autumnal browns and 

greens using Distress Inks. I've splattered some gold and bronze paints too using the 

Gansai Tambi water colour set. The leafy die-cut is from my stash (sorry not sure of

the manufacturer) and it's coated in Versamark ink before heat embossing with Ranger

Liquid Platinum embossing powder. The sentiment is by Happy Little Stampers, which

is embossed using the same powder before popping up on 3d foam.

Here's Anita's card

I'd also like to enter this one at 

Addicted to CAS - Watercolour

The next two cards use two floral sets from Altenew that are my

favourites at the minute! Beautiful Day which I bought a couple of 

weeks ago having admired it for months (it seems) and Remember This

which I purchased last weekend at the Happy Stampers Festival.

I've also kept to a similar design as I'm loving the effect of a coloured

bloom or two with the remainder of the images in black outline.

So here's Beautiful Day inked with Altenew Inks also with the panel

cut from a WPlus9 die in the Sunshine Layers die set then popped up

on green fun foam for added dimension. I've added a black gem to the

centre of the flower and some glossy accents for added detail.

I'd like to pop this one in at Addicted to Stamps and More where it's

their CAS week of challenges plus

CASology where the cue card is Support

EDIT: Thanks to Anita for suggesting I enter my floral card in the 

latest challenge over at Virgina's View - Focus Point

 Last but not least - here's 'Remember This' by Altenew

  again inked up using Altenew inks with the smaller blooms coloured with Promarkers, in what I hope are almost identical shades! I couldn't resist adding a few sequins to the design but looking at the photo I'm kind of wishing I hadn't!  So there's a brand new challenge in blogland simply called The Flower Challenge
What a perfect idea and a perfect name as who can resist all those wonderful bloom sets out there and now there's a challenge just to showcase those very things! Bliss! So I'm heading over there with this one and it's their first challenge titled "Anything Goes With Florals" and there's a whole month to enter so why not have a look and enter too!
Ok that's all for me today and thanks for calling by my blog. Catch up soon!

Less is More #295

Hello there friends can you believe we are back to Saturday? I certainly can't believe that  one week has passed now since our daughter got all grown up as we left her at University.  I have to say I was much more upset than she was - she just couldn't wait to start on a whole new chapter in her life. I'm pleased to report she's coping brilliantly, making new friends,  getting stuck in and having fun with this exciting adventure! Our house is super quiet  and there's a whole lot more food in the fridge too! Hmmmm!  Guess that's who's been eating it all!
So back to this week and time for our RECIPE challenge over at Less is More and this week we'd like to see some THREAD on your cards.
Here's mine and first up - I've gone all festive and Christmassy!

I started out by die-cutting a frame using the MFT Die-Namics pierced

rectangle dies. I made a criss-cross pattern of gold embroidery thread along the

back of the frame, added some acetate, foam tape and sequins to create a shaker!

The die-cut Christmas is by Clearly Besotted and the 'happy' from Winnie & Walter.

To finish a couple of sparkly gold sticky dots from my stash.

I'd like to enter this one over at CASology this week where the cue word is

This one's all cutsie and Autumal!

This time using some green embroidery threads from my stash which

I've wrapped around a panel of cardstock to create an ombre background.

Then using the Clearly Besotted 'Let's Roll' set and some leaf dies by

MFT die-namics 'Lily' I put together a little Autumn scene.

That's all I've had chance to make for this one but please head over to

the Less is More blog HERE where you'll find the links to my teamies'

 blogs and as always they've created some awesome examples for you.

I hope you'll feel inspired and play along with us this week and

thanks for stopping by today!

Guest Designer for CASology

Hello crafty buddies, I'm so excited today as I've been invited to be the

Whoopie! 

That's what I thought until I realised what the cue word was for the week!

So having scratched my head and tipped my stamps upside down

I came up with a card using 2 'bark' images which I hope fits in at CASology!

I started out by dry-embossing a panel of watercolour card with a

'bark' effect texture before inking over the top in various brown distress inks.

A little spritz and flick of my favourite water and perfect pearl mix before 

die-cutting the top edge with a stitched curve border die. The little puppy

(not barking here) is from the Mama Elephant Playful Pups set along

with the cute sentiment. 

Don't forget to check out the fantastic talent from the CASology DT HERE

I certainly can't wait to see how they've interpreted the Cue word.

I've loosely followed the sketch from this week's challenge at 

CAS colours & Sketches so will pop my card in there too as well

as another entry for the HLS CAS challenge - Water Colour Spritz!

As always thanks for paying me a visit today and I'll catch up with you again soon!

Head to the Beach!

Hi Friends, a quick post here today!
Before the summer sun completely disappears I decided to  have a go at making a little beach scene to fit nicely into the challenge over at CASology this week where the cue word is Beach!

So a little bit of masking here using stamps from Paper Smooches: Get Outta Town and Lawn Fawn: Life is Good; coloured with ziggies!  I've created a little beach and sea/sky backdrop for my suitcase 'surprise' using distress inks. To finish a little glossy accents here and there to the fruity cocktail and buckles on the suitcases.

The challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday this week is Stamp it in line with there STAMPtember event and although I've not used specific 'Simon' stamps the 2 sets here are sold at the shop so hope I can 'get away' with that!

Thanks as always for calling by and I'll catch up with you again soon!

Less is More #291

Morning crafty friends it's that time again on a Saturday!  Yep time to announce our latest challenge over at 
Less is More
It's recipe week and we'd like you to use a sticky label, sticker or peel-off on your creations. I'm not sure about you but I have tonnes of those  silver and gold peel-offs; in fact it makes me want to cry thinking how much I've spent on them over the years and they sit in a drawer ...  until TODAY that is!
But first up I created by own sticker using an Avery mailing label!

Using the Lawn Fawn: Flying By set I stamped the paper aeroplanes

onto my label then coloured with Promarkers before 'sticking them to the 

the card base. Then with a stitched cloud border die from Mama Elephant

I created a 'cloudy' sky for them to fly above! The sentiment is from the

same set and I added a strip of washi tape with a sliver of black card stock

at the base of the card.

Over at Time Out Challenges this week they are casing an awesome card

by Julia Altermann (Just One More Card) and her idea inspired my card

so I'd like to head over there with this one! The aeroplane theme got me 

thinking, I stuck to the same sentiment as Julia and added the striped

washi tape to the base of my card to 'match' Julia's background!

Next up I went for the peel-offs and decided to go with a Christmassy 

theme ... I could really do with using a few more of these as this is one

of the first Christmas cards I've made this year so I'm going to have to get

myself organised pretty quickly otherwise it'll be shop-bought all the way!

I've dry-embossed my card base with a snowfall embossing folder before

creating a mini snow scene using Zig Clear Brush pens for the sky and glitter

card for the snow. The snowman and 'flakes' are peel-offs along with the sentiment.

The cue word over at CASology this week is 'Fun' and I can't think of

much that beats Christmas-time, building snowmen with the kids and

 snowball fights for fun! Or how about translucent snowmen where you can 

see the sky through their fat round tummies or blue snow perhaps!!! 

So I'd like to pop this card into their challenge plus it's 

back around to the 'holiday' theme at Addicted to Stamps & More 

and I'd like to stop by that challenge with my card too!

As always my teamies have worked their sticker magic talents with 

this challenge so please head over to the LIM blog HERE where there's

links to their personal blogs too. 

I hope you feel inspired to play along with us this week and as always

thanks for stopping by - it's always a pleasure to read your comments too.

Uniko Challenge #35

Hello friends, I'm here to announce our latest challenge over at 
Uniko
and our theme for this one is To use a Song Title as your inspiration
Here's mine and it's pretty obvious I think ... 99 Red Balloons by Nena. Please don't try to count the balloons as I lost track at 79 and some are hidden behind the cloud of course!!!

This uses Big and Bold Wish plus the Balloon Bash set.

The theme at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge this week is "Make for the Border" so as I've used one of my Mama Elephant border trio dies I think I'll head to SSS with this one.

The cue word at CASology this week is 'Dream' so I'm tentatively  heading over there too - is making a wish like having a dream???

There's more fabulous ideas on the main Uniko blog HERE by my  fellow teamies so please head over for links and details of prizes!
I hope you feel inspired to play along and rack those brains for some songs! Have fun and I'll be back tomorrow with the latest challenge from Less is More so hope to catch up then!

Less is More #280

Morning LIMettes are you ready for the Less is More challenge? It's that dreaded one ... ONE LAYER CARD!
Hopefully you won't find this one too bad though ... the theme is Splatters

Once again using goodies from STAMPlorations and this time it's a

specially designed stencil featuring 'splatters' specifically for our challenge.

I decided to go spooky and grungy and although it's nowhere near

Halloween I decided the splatters work perfectly in gory black with spiders!

I started out by creating a watercolour wash with my Gansai Tambi watercolours 

in a slimey green colour! Followed by the stencils inked in Distress ink Black Soot.

The spiders and webs are from Clearly Besotted: Halloween Spirit with the 

sentiments also from Clearly Besotted: Boo To You. To finish I added glossy

accents to the spiders just to make them more scary for my nephews when they 

receive this one later in the year.

It's a Father's Day / For a Guy challenge at Simon Says Stamp: Wednesday Challenge

this week so as this card is for my 2 nephews and it's a pretty grungy masculine

card with not a pretty feature in sight I'm going to try my chances at SSS.

I'd also like to link up at the STAMPlorations: Anything Goes challenge.

This one is a little more cheery and bright and uses the same stencil

but in rainbow colours as a border. It's still one layer but I've followed 

the sketch from this week's CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge so I'd like to 

enter it there plus it's a 'sunshine' week at CASology so I'll pop over there too.

The sentiments and sun are from the WPlus9 set called Sending Sunshine.

I've added wink of stella plus glossy accents to the centre of my sun which

IRL glistens and sparkles but it's not obvious in the photo.

  

Hopefully you'll have visited the main Less is More blog and checked out

the fantastic splatter creations from my fellow teamies!

Thanks for calling in and go have fun with your splatters and make some mess!

I'll be back very soon with posts featuring the latest release from Uniko

and this fortnights challenge at Addicted To CAS so hope you'll pop back then!

Late Night Challenges

Hi there friends I'm literally flying in with a couple of cards as I'm off to bed ASAP! Back to work tomorrow after a superb week off with fantastic weather (for the UK)
So CASology are celebrating a whopping 200 challenges so here's a CAS Birthday card to enter using a brand new set (to me) Altenew Daisy along with a sentiment also from Altenew Brushstroke Sentiments.


I've also used masking on both of these cards so heading over to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where it's Mask IT

and I'd like to pop my second one in at Addicted to Stamps & More  where they are having an Anything Goes week.

This one is for another of my cousins who's partner has just given birth

to their second child ... a little girl. A quick make here as my mum told 

me in the week it was going to be a boy!!! Using stamps from Mama Elephant:

Just hatched to make a cute shaker card with distress inks for the background 

spritzed with Perfect Pearls, a stitched circle frame using dies from Simon Says Stamp 

and the chick is coloured with Promarkers.

Right short and sweet and thanks as always for calling by

Catch up with you all soon