Saturday 23 June 2018

Less is More #374

Hello my crafty friends, it's time to announce our latest challenge at Less is More but before that I have some news to share: this will be my last post for the Less is More design team; for a while anyway. 

I've decided it's time to take a break from the challenge - it's been 4 brilliant years and I've met lots of wonderful like-minded folk during that time, many of whom will remain life-long friends (I hope!). Unfortunately it's got to the point where I'm finding creating for the challenges more of a chore and less of the fun, hence my decision. 

I've been overwhelmed by the support from my fellow teamies and I'm delighted to hand the Less is More reins to Sharon, who has kindly agreed to stand in for as long as it takes. 


So let's get down to announcing this latest challenge, sponsored by Uniko and I'm using some their products in my cards below. It's our recipe challenge week and all the details you need are on the main challenge blog HERE

It's called 'Item from your 'bits' box and don't we all hoard loads of things in our bits boxes!!! Here's the cue card, which we'd love to see in your post, followed by my cards.


This was a great opportunity to have a good old sort out in my bits boxes. Yes I've more than one - they're little but some have sentiments, some have die-cut shapes, some have off-cuts of patterned paper and part made cards. Every now and again I like to go through them and chuck out some of it as I'll never use everything.

The other bonus in doing this was I found stuff I'd completely forgotten about so I hope you enjoy your adventure into your boxes of bits n pieces and I can't wait to see the results! 


The only thing NOT in my bits box on this card is the sentiment strip, only because I didn't have one already in a coordinating colour. I must have created this background some time ago when I was featuring this background block of doodle flowers from Uniko. It's heat embossed with a pearl embossing powder then blended over the top with Distress Inks. I found the balloons already coloured and miraculously they match the background, the pieces of twine were also in a bits box as well as the strip of purple patterned paper. I rather like this card and think I may have to play more often with items from my bits box!



Other than the sentiment and pearls everything else was in the bits box for this card. Uniko products again with a trio of rose buds, watercoloured with Distress Inks from the Pure Florals Rose set (left overs from release week), a doily which I'd completely forgotten about and was left over from a previous goody bag from the HISTK girls, a strip of design paper and the negative inner space of a die-cut scalloped circle, which is sitting on top of the doily! 


As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies  over on the Less is More blog HERE and do play along for a chance to win our sponsor prize this month, from Uniko


Uniko


I hope you'll feel inspired to play along with us and have some crafty fun along the way.



Thanks for all your visits and although I'll be missing from the Less is More line-up from now on, I'll hopefully catch you around blogland in the weeks ahead.



Sarah

Monday 11 June 2018

Uniko Revist - Beautiful Blooms I, II & III



Hi there friends, we're having a REVIST month over at Uniko where Bev asks us to 'dig out', dust down and bring a previously released set back into the spotlight! 

This month she's decided that all of the Beautiful Blooms range needs a little love and showcasing so she's asked if we'll select one of the sets to feature in our posts.

I pulled all three sets out onto my desk but realised I have used the Beautiful Blooms I a lot in it's time, as it's one of my favourite Uniko Bloom sets, especially as it has matching dies! So I went to work with the other 2 using the same colour combos.

First up it's BB III with sentiment from Organic Wishes, followed by BB II using a mix of sentiments from Birthday sentiments and the Simply Said range. Both cards use some brand new Altenew inks called 'Sweet Dreams' - (well new to me anyway from the Port Sunlight Happy Stampers show in early May) but this is the first time I've used them. As you'd expect it's delicious mix of colours too! 





As is the tradition there's a blog hop giveaway; the prize being a choice of one of the 3 sets featured.

You'll find all the details over at Uniko HERE and here's the list of blogs you need to visit on the hop! I wish you lots of luck!


Before I leave you to hop here's the images of the sets and as always thanks for visiting my blog today.

  

  

Sarah

Sunday 10 June 2018

A Little Weekend Fun!

Hi friends, I'm just nipping in with 2 cards that I've created this morning with no real purpose or direction .... just to have some fun!

First up I received this stunning butterfly stamp and cutting die combo set, by Crafters Companion from my good friend Sarah of Funky Fossil Designs - unfortunately for Sarah, she received it as a freebie but already owned the set but I was more than happy to take it off her hands and I have been desperately waiting for a moment to ink it up and create ... so this morning that moment came. I've used Promarkers to colour it and a sentiment from Uniko Organics Additions.



This one is to add to the Muse Card Challenge this week - be it a little late in the day to enter but another of my super duper Craft Buddies, Anita, is the Muse this week so I simply had to join in. I also caught a You Tube video by Ardyth HERE which inspired me without actually realising she'd created her card for Muse too. 

The card uses an inlaid die by Paper Smooches, coloured with Promarkers, an inky background using Distress Oxides in Blueprint Sketch and Mermaid Lagoon then smothered in a mix of perfect pearls and water, then an 'One the Line' happy birthday word sentiment from Impression Obsessions. 


Here's Anita's CASE card - I think I'm a little more 'heavy handed' with my blending! 



Thanks for calling by today and I hope you're having a little crafty fun too. 



Sarah

Saturday 9 June 2018

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!

Sarah