Saturday 31 December 2016

Less is More Challenge #309


Good morning, welcome back and a Happy New Year 
(almost) to my wonderful followers and crafty buddies!

I hope you've enjoyed some fun and festive delights and maybe a few crafty gifts 
have been received too! Looking forward to seeing those in the coming weeks eh! 

So this morning, it's time to announce the last challenge of 2016 over at

Less is More

It's RECIPE week ... and we've chosen DIMENSION
what's more we are thrilled to be joined by Sandie of London Days
our winner from November, who will be guest designing this week.
I hope you'll stop by her blog and leave some love and cheer!

Here's what I've got for you today and it's a bit of a Two-fer as I've used
the same products and colours for the first two.


To make these first two I started with the Hexastar stencil from Neat & Tangled.
Inked with Veramark before embossing with WOW gold metallic sparkle EP.


For the one above I've die-cut some of the hexagons with an MFT stitched hexagon
stax and arranged them at various heights with and without foam tape. 
The sentiments are by Uniko: Classic Numbers and All Occasion Sentiments #1
The dashed lines are by Happy Little Stampers: Mixed Media Fun (newly released)
To finish a few sparkly sequins from my stash.

It's Anything Goes over at Simon Says Stamp: Wednesday Challenge
so I'd like to head over there with this one

Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog Logo


Next up this one uses a die-cut rectangle of the stencilled / embossed panel, 
popped up on 3d foam for dimension. The butterflies are by Uniko: English Country
Garden set with a sentiment from Simply Said I, both heat embossed in the same
WOW Gold metallic sparkle embossing powder. I also added glue dots to the centre
of the butterflies to allow the wings to sit away from the card for more dimension.


Last but not least ... more butterflies, this time Butterfly duo dies by
Clearly Besotted, inlaid with foiled cardstock and again popped up 
on glue dots to give the wings more dimension. The sentiment is by 
Happy Little Stampers: Fun Birthday sentiments; all mounted on a pierced
rectangle die-cut from an MFT stax and a few sequins plus a strip of 
sparkly washi tape for a little bit of bling!


Ok that's all from me for today but I do hope you'll stop by the 
Less is More blog where there's links to all the fantastic designs by
my fellow teamies plus Sandie, our Guest Designer. 


So all that's left for me to say (maybe a little early in the day, here in the UK)
Wishing you all the very best for a happy and prosperous 
New Year! Cheers ... let's CELEBRATE!
Have a fantastic day, evening, whatever you do and a perfect 2017!

Thanks for visiting and catch up soon!
Sarah

Saturday 24 December 2016

Happy Christmas 2016


Hello crafty friends!
I couldn't let the Christmas festivities start 'proper' without
a Merry Christmas wish to you all. I really appreciate the time 
and energy you take in visiting my blog and leaving such fantastic
comments along the way. I love reading every single one and I'm 
thrilled if my cards inspire you in any way.

So here's one of the very last cards I made this year and I hope you all 
have a wonderful time with your friends and family, hopefully sipping
a few coffees (and fizz of course) along the way!


This uses Uniko Stamps: I LOVE Coffee, decorated with the Stunning Snowflakes set
with a greeting from the new Christmas sentiment set called 'Most Wonderful' 
The striped BG is hand-painted using Zig Clear Brush pens. 

There's sparkly strips and gems on this one so thought I might as well
hop across to Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge
'Make it Sparkle' with this one!


Cheers and Seasons Greetings and I'll be back on New Years Eve
with our last challenge of the year for Less is More so 
hope you'll pop back then.


Sarah

Sunday 18 December 2016

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #80


Hello there friends, it's time for another challenge over at AAA CAS Cards
and yet again we are being incredibly kind by offering another winter
challenge theme ... perfect for dashing off a few last minute
Christmas cards! As it happens my cousin is getting married 
this month so mine's a wedding theme!

So we are looking for cards featuring 'Silver' and you have until 
Saturday, 7th January to play along!


This one uses:

Marianne Creatables: Lord & Lady silhouette dies
WPlus9: Heart Stax dies
Uniko: Essentially Christmas 'mistletoe'
STAMPlorations: 'On your wedding day' sentiment
MFT Die-Namics: Stitched Rectangle Dies
plus sequins by Pretty Pink Posh


As always there's plenty more super CAS creations by my fellow teamies, 
with links to their blogs on the AAA Cards blog HERE

We are also joined by Deborah of Debs Gems, please hop along
to her blog and leave her a friendly word and some love - I'm 
sure she'll appreciate it.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stampendous and they are
offering a $20 Gift Certificate for our lucky winner.


As always thanks for calling by and I'd like to wish you all a 
Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as we'll
be taking a little break over the Christmas period.

Catch up with you next year!
Sarah

Saturday 17 December 2016

Less is More #307 & #308

Well good morning LIMettes and can you believe we are almost THERE!
Are you ready for the festivities to begin?

It's a 2 WEEK challenge for you at Less is More, starting today, so plenty
of time to play along and maybe with some new Christmas goodies!

It's Theme week and we've chosen Children so anything featuring
or with Children in mind would work here - just keep it clean and simple.
Like we all say ... Christmas is for the kids eh! 

Here's my cards and there's plenty more stunning creations by my fellow teamies 
over on the LIM blog HERE so I do hope you'll pop along and visit them!



This one was pretty quick to make and I found the inspiration on Pinterest
but apologies I don't know who posted this. I love making silly cards for kids, 
especially boys and as I've a couple of young nephews they always like monster 
stuff! I've used the Clearly Besotted Sets: Out of this world and Eye on You plus
a picket fence die for the 'teeth' and MFT basic border edge dies for the 'mouth'
To finish a couple of 'lashed' googlie eyes from my stash.



This one uses the MFT Christmas stamp set 'Jingle All the Way'
My daughter is older than the image in this card but just last, 
week whilst helping her rather drunken friend into a taxi, she fell flat on
her face and managed to break her 2 front teeth. I'd like to think this 
little girl is wondering if her 2 front teeth might be in these parcels!

Ok that's all I've had chance to make to inspire you for this one
but can't wait to see what you come up with.

As always thanks for all your visits to my blog and I hope you all
have a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your families.


Sarah

Sunday 11 December 2016

12 Days of Christmas Cards with Kylie


Hello Friends, are we starting to feel that festive cheer?

Today I was invited to join the lovely Kylie Purtell by sharing a 
Christmas card for her 12 Days of Christmas Card Challenge.
I'm Day 9 and I couldn't wait to play along with some stamps
from Happy Little Stampers and ended up making 2 cards!


For this one I've used the Mix Mash and Everyday Sentiments sets.
Having stamped the sentiment I masked the area off then stamped various
circles and star burst from Mix Mash. To finish I added some hand drawn
lines above and below the sentiment, a couple of sparkling sprinkles by
Doodlebug, die-cut the panel with and MFT pierced rectangle and mounted
it on my card base with bright red fun foam (sorry you can't see that bit)!



This one uses one of the newly released sets ... Wish You Were Here
and although it's not specifically Christmas I thought those birds in
cages could work as 'tree ornaments' or my 3 French Hens! Yes?
The sentiment is from the Mixed Christmas Sentiments set and I've
finished my stamped panel with a few gems and a stitched border die.

I hope you'll feel inspired to play along as there's prizes up for grabs
so why not head over to Kylie's blog HERE for all the details, linky

 and more of her stunning Christmas designs.


There are 3 sponsors for the challenge who are each offering a prize
of a $20 gift certificate to their online stores






As always thanks for calling by and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas

Sarah

Uniko Revisit: Stunning Snowflakes

Hello friends, have we got an icy, crisp, and wonderfully Christmas
revisit in store for you over at Uniko this month. Bev has asked us to 
'dig out', dust down and bring the Stunning Snowflakes sets back into the
limelight! I can't think of a better time to showcase these beauties in the
run up to the holiday period ... so here goes!


I recently bought some of the new sets of Altenew inks and I wanted to play 
around with some different colour combos that I wouldn't normally put together 
at Christmas or ever! Looking at them now though it's as if I've just dipped in 
for the Uniko trademark colour scheme when that never crossed my mind! LOL! 

I started out by creating a BG of Stunning Snowflakes with a few extras to
 accessorise from other Christmas sets. The sentiment is from  'Labelled Christmas' 
set (released last year) mounted on fun foam against a die-cut snowflake also by Uniko. 

I'd like to link this one up at a couple of Holiday challenges ...
Kylie's 12 days of Christmas Card challenge

I'll be joining Kylie tomorrow so hope you'll pop back then and pay us a visit


and Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge 
ICE INSPIRATION

ice-inspo

Having recently joined in with Tracey McNeely's 

Image result for 25 tags of christmas

and with all the bits and bobs on my desk I decided to make some
extra gift tags to match this card!



... and one more - slightly 'less busy' example using the same flakes!



For this one I heat embossed the the Stunning Snowflakes with silver pearl
EP onto vellum. There's a torn edge on one side and a turquoise piece of vellum 
to trim the panel on the left. The sentiment from the Stunning Snowflakes set is also 
heat embossed onto turquoise vellum before mounting on card and 3d foam.
To finish a few gems from my stash.

I hope you like how I've showcased this beautiful set and there's plenty 
more fun designs by my fellow teamies with links on the Uniko blog HERE

As is the tradition there's a blog hop giveaway; the prize being the featured set
or a gift card to the same value. You have until Sunday, 18th December to leave 
your comments and be in with a chance of winning a prize.

Here's the order and if you get lost along the way just head back to Uniko


Sarah P (that's me)


Before I leave you to hop here's the image of the set and as always thanks
for visiting my blog today and I wish you lots of luck on the hop!




Sarah

Saturday 10 December 2016

Less is More Challenge #306

Morning friends, are you ready for another challenge from Less is More?
Are you all Christmassed out with festive challenges? 

This week it's our 'dreaded' ONE LAYER CARD week and the theme for this one
is Outlines so you can go festive or not - however you please so long as it's
clean and simple and on the one layer! 

Here's mine and it's a two-fer using the same image on both from the recently released
 Marvellous Mehndi set by Uniko but heat embossed on different cardstocks.
 I can't decide which I prefer ... what about you?

The sentiments are from the very newly released Most Wonderful and Simply Said II




It's the 'holiday' challenge over at Addicted to Stamps & More
so I'd like to head over there with this one 


Also Kylie's 12 Days of Christmas Cards HERE
I'm delighted to be sharing a card with Kylie on Monday so 
hope you'll pop back and pay us a visit then!


Don't forget to head over to the main Less is More blog HERE
where you'll find all the links to my fellow teamies blogs and catch 
up on their wonderful outline cards too.

Hope you'll play along and have some fun.

Sarah

Sunday 4 December 2016

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #79


Hello friends, are you ready for our latest challenge over at AAA CAS Cards?
It's getting to THAT time of year and we like to help you out so our
theme for the next 2 weeks is Christmas!

Here's mine and I've gone all traditional in colour and using 
a new to me Christmas ornament die by Simon Says Stamp.


Using a combination of green Distress inks I've inky blended the base of my card 
having masked off the top portion. Added my obligatory spritz of water with perfect pearls, 
die-cut the Christmas ornament from the inked panel and some gold glitter card before 
resetting it back it's space. It's mounted on 3d foam for added interest and dimension.
A strip of glitter card to divide the 2 halves, a delicate string of embroidery cotton, sentiment
 by Mama elephant and a glittery gem by Happy Little Stampers finishes the job!

I'd like to pop my card in at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge
where it's an Anything Goes week and 

Time Out Challenges where it's a Christmas theme with an optional twist 
of glitter / shimmer



As always my teamies have created some wonderful Christmas treats so 
please pop over to the main blog HERE to find the links to their blogs - 
I'm sure they'd love a visit from you.

We're also joined by one of our previous winners; Marianne of
Marianne Cards & Stuff for this challenge. Please pop along to visit her 
blog I'm sure she'd appreciate some love and a friendly word or two.

Our sponsor is Happy Little Stampers with a $20 gift certificate on 
offer for our winner.

Picture

I hope you feel inspired to play along and as always thanks for calling by today.

Sarah

Saturday 3 December 2016

Less is More #305


Happy December friends - that's quite scary don't you think?
Not much time left to cram some Christmas makes in the bag!

It's the start of a new month over at Less is More too and we have 
the return of Uniko as our sponsor for this month plus 2 guest designers
so read on for more details!

The first challenge of the month signals our COLOUR challenge
and we'd like to see you use ONE or MORE Primary Colours
on your cards and here's mine to start you off.


As Uniko are our sponsor for the month I simply had to showcase their stamps.

I love geometrics on cards and these colours work perfectly with them
and great for guy cards too which are sometimes a struggle.


For both cards I've used the Background Builders: Round in Circles set
along with sentiments from Simply Said Birthday and All Occasion Sentiments #1
(all from Uniko). So the top one is rather bold and bright featuring all the 3 
primary shades. In contrast I stuck to just blues on the second one so it's 
much more subtle.


It's an Anything Goes Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge
this week so I'm heading over there with my first card.

Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog Logo


and just for good measure I couldn't resist adding a Christmas card into the mix 
... using just red with a touch of white, black and silver as my neutral colours. 


This one uses Mixed Media Fun from the latest release from
Happy Little Stampers plus a sentiment from their Mixed Christmas Sentiments.
The baubles are created using circle dies and a Christmas ornament top piece,
stitched details to the red panel from MFT die-namics Homespun Stitched Line dies.

I hope you feel inspired to play along with us this week and don't forget to check 
out the main Less is More blog HERE where you'll see the magic creations by
my fellow teamies and links to their blogs.


Not only that we are joined by Bev (owner of Uniko) and our October Winner'
KathyK of Purple Princess Diaries who are both guest designing for us this week.
I hope you'll visit their blogs and leave some love along the way.

As always thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a lot of fun!


Sarah

Sunday 27 November 2016

Uniko Reveal, Release and Blog Hop - November 2016

It's here! Time to announce the full reveal, release and traditional blog hop
for the November 2016 release of Christmas stamp sets from

Uniko

I'm sure you'll agree these are all stunning and work perfectly 
either stand-alone or combined with previously releases sets.

They're full of stylish Christmas images and the most gorgeous
swirly sentiments to mix and match with standard text too.

I love creating backgrounds for cards using all those mini stamp images 
that get forgotten about so on these first 3 I've teamed the new sets 
with images from previously released sets too: 


BG Builders Vines - Winter Addition and Label Love: Christmas 
in traditional and non-traditional colours!




and another one for the Rustic Wreath gallery ... loving this 
colourway for Christmas this year!


I'd like to add this one to the TimeOut Challenge this week 
where it's a Christmas theme with the option of shimmer, glitter.
I've used some sparkling sequins so hope they count!


Here's the order for the hop

Sarah P (that's me)

... and here's all the images of the sets.
Good luck with the hope and I've got everything crossed that
you'll be a winner of these sets - they are simply perfect for
quick Christmas makes!

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the HOP!





Sarah