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!

Uniko - Reveal, Release & GIVEAWAY May 2017

Hi there and thanks for visiting me again today!
So you've had the Sneaky Peeks and Introductions and now we have the BIG Reveal, Release and GIVEAWAY of this month's new stamp sets from Uniko
Here's my cards showcasing these fabulous sets and they are now available in the shop HERE and waiting for you to buy!

This one is similar to my previous card using Happy Succulent in rainbow colours but here I've used the Kuretake Gansai water colours to create a deeper and more dramatic colour way! 

... and another one featuring the Happy Succulent set, this time watercoloured using Distress Inks

Here the Doodle Flower block background is watercoloured with Kuretake Zig Clear Brush markers. A popped up, fuzzy cut, embossed sentiment from the All Occasion Sentiments #1 set finishes this one.

I hope you've enjoyed the inspiration this week and are full of ideas of how to use these new goodies. 

All that's left for me to do is set you off on the traditional Design Team Blog Hop and wish you luck. 
The details are on the Uniko blog HERE so if you get lost along the way just head back there.

Bev

Deborah

Jane

Lindsey

Rahmat

Sarah G

Sarah P - that's me!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like what you've seen these last few days and here's the FULL images of the sets we've been showcasing!
   
   

AAA Cards Challenge #67

Hello there friends, are you ready for another new challenge from AAA Cards CAS Challenge This one's a really fun idea especially if like me you go overboard on cute little critters! I just can't resist those sets even if I've few people to send them to these days!!! So we'd like to see you use Googlie Eyes! Here's my card which has already gone to my daughter's boyfriend to  wish him luck with the A'Levels that they've been sitting this month!

I've used the Little Fella set from Paper Smooches along with a Frame die also 

from Paper Smooches. The 'Good Luck' is from Uniko: Simply Said and the 

'gritty spray' is from Stampin' Up: Need for Speed. The image is coloured with 

Promarkers and the grid stencil is My Favourite Things - Oh and Googlie Eyes 

from my stash of them!!!

I'd like to link this card up at Timeout Challenges where it's

'Masculine with optional twist of mixed media'

Not being a specialist in mixed media I'm not sure whether my

stencilling, googlie eyes and foam mounted frame qualify for the 

optional twist but it's certainly a masculine card!

I was having so much fun with this set from Paper Smooches that I couldn't

resist making another card too ...

this time with a watercolour background using Zig Clear Brush pens

and a splattering of white paint using the Gansai Tambi watercolours.

The sentiment 'Hey Dude' is from the Paper Smooches set and the 

'Happy Birthday' is from Uniko: Simply Said

I'd like to add this one to the CASology challenge where it's 

a masculine theme for this week and here in the UK it's Father's day 

so very best wishes to any Dad's out there who may be reading my blog!

As always we've got plenty more inspiration over on the main AAA Cards

blog HERE plus a super guest designer and one of our previous winners;

Patti of Stationery Styles. She's got some fantastic designs on her blog so

 I hope you'll pop along and leave her some love.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stampendous

I hope you'll play along with this one and have some fun! Thanks as always for calling by and I'll be back soon.

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!

AAA Cards Challenge #66

Hello there crafty friends I'm here with the latest challenge details for AAA Cards For the next 2 weeks our theme is 'Watercolour' so go with whatever technique you like here as long as it's of a watercolour variety!
I've got 2 cards for you this time and both use water colour as a  background statement rather than watercolouring an image

This card was inspired by a Make it Monday You Tube video HERE

using Zig Clear Brush pens and water to create a striped background.

Once the water colours dried I added a heat embossed sentiment

from Mama Elephant: Make a Wish and some sequins from Doodlebug

 I've gone super grungy and messy today using my Gansai Tambi watercolours  which contain such rich pigment and even have shine when dried.  Having merged the colours along the top of my panel I allowed them to dribble down  the watercolour card with a little assistance to keep them 'neatish'! The sentiment is from  Clearly Besotted: Say it in Style and I've added the watercolour panel on fun foam  for added dimension with a few sequins from Doodlebug for some bling.

Here's a little photo inspiration for you 
and there's plenty more superb designs with watercolour from my fellow teamies over on the AAA Cards blog HERE
... plus - drum roll please as we are joined by a super talented guest designer for this challenge: Tracey McNeely of In My Creative Opinion I'm sure you'll all have come across Tracey in blogland and please  pop across to her blog to leave her some love. 

Our sponsor for this challenge is   with our lucky winner in line for a $20 Gift certificate to spend in the store http://happylittlestampers.weebly.com/

Ok that's all from me but I'm excited to see what you come up with for this one. I love watercolour techniques and I'm looking forward to gaining some  new ideas from you talented folks. Have fun and catch up again soon.

Thanks for calling by!