Sunday Challenges January 2019

Hi Friends,

Unbelievably I've found some crafty mojo today with the help of the latest challenge at Less is More and a fabulous sketch the girls have created, so here's 2 cards I've created - both baby ones as I'd run out in my 'handy to have in' box!

They use the Uniko: Sweet Baby set along with a sentiment from a Clearly Besotted baby set (sorry can't remember the name of the set) and the background stencil is by Funky Fossil; shooting stars

Here's the sketch / Cue Card for Less is More

I'd also like to enter over at AAA Cards; here's their cue card. and the 'blue' card features masking!

Thanks for calling by my blog and have a fun week!

Yet More Stencils

Hi Friends, I've a couple more stencil-themed cards to share today that I've completely forgotten about! Once again I'm showcasing some brand new ones by Funky Fossil Designs and you can find them in Sarah's Folksy Shop HERE

I tend to forget about stencils when crafting but they really are so versatile - just wish I could get a little more adventurous with them but perhaps when I've a spell off work I'll play with some new techniques.

Here goes

First up I'm thrilled with how this one turned out using the Beautiful Mandala Stencil and inked in Distress Oxides: Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted and die-cut with the coordinating die although it may be a retired one - I've lots of their older sets in my stash!

It's 'Anything Goes' at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday so I'd like to pop this one in there.

Next up a smeared inky background of Distress Oxide in Mermaid Lagoon, spritzed with a shimmery mix of water and perfect pearls. Once dry I inked through the Indian Flower stencil with Versafine Onyx Black ink (made quite a mess of the stencil) then quickly covered with Clear Embossing powder to add some shine and texture to the image. The sentiment is by Happy Little Stampers.

Last but not least an elegant Peacock, this time inked with Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers (of course) and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxides. Once the ink was dry I used a Versafine pen to 'paint over' the gold sections then sprinkled gold embossing powder on the top. The same powder was used for the sentiment by Clearly Besotted. 

I'd like to add this card to the 'Clean and Simple' themed challenge at Addicted to Stamps & More.

That's all for me for today but hope you are enjoying some crafty fun today.

Mad about Distress Oxides

Hello Friends,

It's amazing what a little time away from work can do for my mojo! Although back at work this week I've thoroughly enjoyed playing with inky blending and Distress Oxides and only just getting round to posting my cards here. In fact I'm only just experimenting with these inks having bought 4 of them about 18 months ago. Unfortunately the colours I picked didn't really blend nicely together so I simply had to buy a few more!!!

I only have 13 colours in total ... my favourites, which I know I'll use and blend nicely. I love bright colours and particularly rainbow tones so you can no doubt guess which inks I've gone for!

So a bundle of 'same but different' resist technique cards using the Marvellous Mendhi set by Uniko and various stamp company sentiments.

I think this has to be my favourite colour combo ... using Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio. I've a feeling this has an Altenew sentiment.

The sentiment on this one is Clearly Besotted and I've used Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade and Worn Lipstick for my colour combo. 

I think this is another Altenew sentiment (apologies I just grabbed a load of stamp sets and pulled off sentiments I liked to heat emboss en masse! I've used the same colour combo as the previous card with a little Picked Raspberry too and inked more randomly than the previous one. 

This sentiment is by Mama Elephant and the distress ink colours are Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade.

I'm still experimenting with different blends but hope you like these ones so far. Thanks for calling by.

In Love with Stencils

Hi Friends, I can't remember the last time I got round to posting on my blog just for the fun of it BUT today I have some cards to share featuring STENCILS! 

These little beauties seem to have slipped into the back of my stash for far too long but with the stunning inspiration from my super duper blog buddy Sarah of Funky Fossils Designs and her new stencil creation venture (sold HERE) I just can't get enough of them! I just wish there were more hours in the day to play! 

So teamed with a bundle of Distress Oxide inks here's my creations and if you follow my blog regularly you'll notice I get fixated with colour combos and just can't stop myself when I find a combo I love! 

This one uses the Totally Triangular Stencil and I've been fascinated with the 'turn-around' stamps and stencils by other companies so decided to give it a go with this stencil although it's not necessarily designed to work that way. The die-cut sentiment is from Neat and Tangled with a 'birthday' greeting from Clearly Besotted

 

Using the same colour combo and Triangular stencil but this time with a cropped section of the stencilled panel a 'Smile' die-cut by Lil'inker Designs with a 'You Passed' sentiment by Clearly Besotted. 

The die-cut sentiments and strips of coloured card on all of these cards are coloured using coordinating promarkers. 

 

Ok a tad early for Father's Day but there's nothing like getting organised and I just love geometric designs for the guys so this one worked a treat. Remarkably the stencil is called 'geometric' too! The die-cut Happy is from CUT-plorations with the 'Father's Day' from Happy Little Stampers.

Next up a male / female 2-Fer of sorts! I masked off part of the stencil (called Triangle Grid) and inked through it with blues and teal colours and the other half adding some purple tones too. Can you tell I just love the 'Hooray' die-cut by Neat and Tangled? Coloured again with Promarkers to coordinate with the stencilling and a Clearly Besotted mini 'so to speak' sentiment on the first one and 'It's your day' on the second card is by Neat and Tangled.

I'm heading over to Addicted to Stamps and More for their Make your Mark week. I hope stencils are accepted along with Promarker painted sentiments!

As always thanks for calling by and if you feel inspired by these stencil designs and fancy purchasing a few, very reasonably priced ones then pop across to Sarah's Folksy shop HERE. Super efficient service and beautifully packaged too.

Less is More #367

Hello my crafty friends, I think I've missed a fortnight somewhere as it certainly only seems a minute since announcing our previous challenge over at Less is More but my diary says it's right so here goes with that ONE layer one that we love to terrorise you with!!!
All the details are on the main challenge blog HERE but here's the cue card to get you started and I've 2 cards to share with you today.

First up using one of my all-time favourite stencils from our sponsor STAMPlorations called Bold Florals. I've only used part of the stencil to leave a reasonable area of 'white' space and using Distress Oxides in Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Twisted Citron I've inked through the stencil adding some pencil detail too for extra shading. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted, Brushed Greetings.

My next card uses another stunning stencil from ex Less is More teamie and super buddy Sarah of Funky Fossils and if you fancy this stencil too you can purchase it from her Folksy store HERE 

For this one I used standard Distress Inks in rainbow colours with sentiments from Neat & Tangled; Everyday Circles

I'd like to link this one up over at Timeout Challenges where they are celebrating their 4th birthday - Congratulations ladies and here's to many more. I hope my cheery rainbow colours make for a sunshine fun birthday feeling!

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies  over on the main blog HERE and as I mentioned earlier our sponsor for this challenge is STAMPlorations so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. 


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

Less is More #363

Hello my crafty friends, 
Another fortnight has zipped by and I'm here to announce our latest challenge over at Less is More - and it's that dreaded one! Although we've moved to fortnightly challenges we are still using the same rotation of 'themes' so it's our ONE layer week!
Here's the cue card, which is self-explanatory, I hope, followed by my cards and I've 2 to share today.

First up, using a James Bear image from LOTV is the card I made for Kylie of Happy Little Stampers when she became a Nana for the first time at the end of last year. Having seen the photos of her adorable grandson I couldn't resist stamping this little cutie on the card. The 'Hey' sentiment is from Uniko with the 'Nanny' from Clearly Besotted Stamps.

Loads of masking and stamping on this second one using a mixture of pandas, as they're super cute ... yes? The sets are by Mama Elephant and it's Incoming Mail and Pandamonium. I've added a couple of score lines at the bottom for some extra interest and a little bit of shading and colour with Promarkers

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and if you missed the first challenge this month, we introduced a brand new sponsor for January; Skull and Cross Buns! Why not head on over and check out their gorgeous range of stamps and do make sure you play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month.



I hope you'll join us and have some fun and thanks for calling by today!

Less is More #362

Happy New Year Crafty Pals, I hope you are all well and enjoying 2018 so far.
I can't believe this is my first post since 23rd December ... here's me thinking I'd have been crafting and blogging non-stop over the festive period but other fun stuff got in the way!!!
Anyway I'm here to announce our latest challenge at Less is More and we are moving to a 2-weekly format from today, in the hope that it'll free up some extra time for the LIMettes and DT alike. All the details can be found on the main blog so I'll get straight down to sharing the Cue Card for our first challenge of the year! 

Surprisingly I've managed cards for you today, despite the festive fun!!! Each one featuring purples, of course and using the delicious Altenew range of inks.

This one uses the Painted Butterfly set from Altenew with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted; Brushed Greetings.

Next up another Altenew set, this time it's Beautiful Day combined with an inlaid die-cut 'happy' sentiment from STAMPlorations and the 'New Year' sentiment from Happy Little Stampers.

I'd like to link this one up at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where's it's 'Something New' so I'm going with the new Year!

... and last but not least here's the card featured over at Less is More and it uses the Bold Blooms set by My Favorite Things and a sentiment also by MFT. 

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and we've a brand new sponsor for 2018, it's Skull and Cross Buns for this month so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we announce at the start of next month.

I hope you'll play along and have some fun - you might even like to join us more than once this fortnight! Thanks for calling by and catch up with you soon. 

Less is More #356

Morning friends! It's time to announce our latest challenge at Less is More and it's our Recipe week with the requirement to 'Let it Shine'

Now you may have heard that Kylie of Happy Little Stampers & Kylie's Addicted to Stamps held a little Craft Retreat in Manchester earlier this month and I was delighted to attend and meet up with fellow LIM teamies, Anita and Sharon along with a bunch of other crafty buddies.
Kylie decided it was time to introduce 'light up' cards and basically I'm hooked! To begin with all that circuit building with batteries and positives/negatives was a little mind-blowing but now back at home I just can't get enough of them. 

This Eiffel Tower card is one of my Retreat cards, although I rehashed it a little when I got home as I could see a channel of light behind the tower. The image is from Happy Little Stampers and initially it was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black then heat embossed using Clear Sparkle embossing powder on a 'Distressed' Background. The mini picture shows the 'light-up' effect when the sentiment is pressed. 

 

This one was very simple to make and positively oozes CAS! Firstly I debossed a stitched circle die by Simon Says Stamp, then added the reindeer thumb print image from the Clearly Besotted 'In Print' set. The sentiment is from the MFT set 'Jingle All the Way' - I have to say the light-up effect on this one is the best (so far!) and my reindeer (Rudolph) has a shiny red nose from Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents too. 

While I had the MFT 'Jingle All The Way' set on my desk I couldn't resist inking up these mini Reindeer and adding another 'Rudolph' into the mix. The images are coloured using Promarkers andn you can see the 'light-up' effect in the mini picture at the top.

If you get the chance to have a go with light-up cards you'll have a whole load of fun and why not try it this week and link up to our challenge!

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and our sponsor for this month is Dies to Die For so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we announce at the start of next month.



I hope you'll play along and thanks for calling by!

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!