Less is More #351

Hi there, where did that week go? I seriously need some time to jump off this treadmill ... so I've gone off piste and 'out of this world' today for this week's theme challenge from Less is More and here's the cue card 

It's almost Halloween so feel free to combine it with something of a spooky nature but here's my example and just the one this week but I'm sure my fellow teamies will have plenty more offerings of inspiration over on the main blog HERE

Supplies:

We R Memory Keepers: Next Level embossing folder

Neat & Tangled: Hooray word die and sentiment stamp

Clearly Besotted: Out of this World set

Stampendous: Hanging around (just for the party hats)

Promarkers

I hope you'll join in the fun with this one and don't forget if you want to be in with a chance of a prize from this month's sponsor Uniko you need to play and we'll announce our winner at the start of next month!

Thanks for calling by today and have a good weekend!

Less is More #344

Hi There friends another week has flown by and I'm back with the details for his week's challenge at Less is More. It's the start of a new month which means we're back round to our COLOUR challenge and here's this week's Cue Card so nice and easy ...



We are delighted to welcome back Happy Little Stampers, our generous sponsor for challenges in September so do play along each week to be in with a shout of a prize! What's more Kylie, owner of HLS is our Guest Designer for this one and I'm sure she'd love a visit if you have the time. She's got a never-ending repertoire of stunning techniques to try so why not grab a brew and spend some time swooning!

I've two cards for you today and the first one uses one of my favourite stamp sets from HLS: Mix Mash with a large 'Happy' sentiment from the Everyday greetings set. The inks are Altenew and I masked the bottom section of my card base before stamping then added the 'birthday' greeting once the tape was removed. For a little added interest I stamped the happy on a stitched circle die cut and sliced the bottom off then popped it up on fun foam. 

I rarely make square cards but this greeting from Mama Elephant was just too big when die-cut from a circle to add on my normal rectangular card base. I used Zig Clear Brush pens to colour my sentiment and repeat stamped a few times. While the sentiment and card were still in place in my Misti I used Versamark ink then heat embossed the sentiment with clear embossing powder to add some extra shine. I couldn't resist matting my cardbase with lime green and royal blue papers and I think it sets off the circular greeting quite well. To finish a few coordinating enamel dots. 

That's all of my examples but do pop along to the main blog HERE where my teamies, as always, have worked their magic to provide even more inspiration. 

I hope you'll play along with us, have some fun and thanks for stopping by today.

Less is More #343

Hi there friends it's time to announce our latest challenge at Less is More and it's the turn of our recipe week. Here's the cue card and I can't wait to see what ideas you come up with for this one!

I've 2 cards for you this week but there's loads more inspiring and interesting creations by my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE - We're also joined by our July winner; Viv of Daizy Mae's Crafty Blog as our guest designer so I hope you'll pop along and leave her some lovely comments this week. 

First up a little silly scene using 'Hang in There' by Stampendous. I bought this in a destash sale ages ago from Michelle Short and this is the first time it's been used! Just needed the right opportunity and my Brother in Law is celebrating a BIG birthday next month so I've got my mind set on sending him this one! The little rings are my 'real item' and they are recycled from some clothing. The images are coloured with Promarkers and there's a little wink of stella / glossy accents used for extra interest. 

It's an 'Anything Goes' week over at Addicted to Stamps and More this week so I'm heading over there with this Monkey card! 

So simple with this one and I never even knew I possessed a 'Sheep' shaped button until I went searching through that 'Must Keep for a Rainy Day' box. I cut the loop off the back that you'd sew through and added a 'thank' sentiment from Winnie & Walter (another destash item from the lovely Michelle). The kraft panel was die-cut with an inside out diagonal stitched rectangle die from MFT Die-Namics and to finish a little piece of hemp cord. 

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

Happy Little Stampers July 2017 - CAS Challenge

Hi there, it's time for this month's challenge over at Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge and it's a really easy one for this month so no excuses for not joining us! Here's the cue card followed by my 'masculine' style card.

I've used several HLS stamp sets to create this card; Big Bold Numbers, which I've heat embossed in clear having used the darkest of the 'blue' set of Altenew Inks for the Number 3, with the other images in the toning colours. The other sets are Mix Mash and Mixed Media Fun for the splatters. 
Our challenge is sponsored by HLS and one lucky person will win a prize so why not join in - there's a whole month to do so!

You might even like to link up to some of the other Happy Little Stampers challenges and all the details are on the blog HERE

Ok I hope you feel inspired to play along with us and don't forget to pop along to the CAS Challenge blog HERE where you'll find all the links and designs by fellow teamies ... you're in for a treat!

Thanks as always for visiting my blog today and catch up soon!

Uniko Challenge #41 - Reminder

Hi there, I'm back with a little reminder about our current challenge over at Uniko. It's an easy one and as we're fast approaching Father's Day here in the UK it's a perfect opportunity to create a masculine card for that very occasion. It's Masculine with a twist on Father's Day and I've created 2 cards using some of the Background Builders sets by Uniko which I think always come in handy for those guys!

This one uses the Round in Circles BG Builder, with the second one using BG Builder - Triangulate. I've inked all the images with Altenew Inks and added a 'Father's Day' sentiment from the Simply Said II set. The die-cut Celebrate above is by Waffle Flower and the 'Cheers' one, below is by Lawn Fawn. Both of these are mounted on 3 pieces of cardstock to create some added dimension.

I hope you feel inspired to play along and as always there's plenty of fantastic creations by my fellow teamies, so why not head over to the Uniko blog HERE to check out the links and pay them a visit! I'm sure they'd appreciate it!

Once again we are joined by the wonderful Hannelie AKA Desert Diva, one of our previous Uniko Challenge winners and guest designing for us this month. Do pop along and visit her blog and leave a friendly word and some love.

You have until Friday, 23rd June to link up to the challenge and all the details you need about prizes and how to play can be found over at Uniko HERE

As always thanks for calling by my blog today and I hope you feel inspired and will play along with us!

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.

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!

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #76

Morning friends, it's time to announce a new challenge for the next 2 weeks over at AAA Cards and our theme for this one is MASCULINE.
I've two cards to share with you today and first up it's one for  my Dad's birthday! He loves watercolouring so I decided this cute Easel die from Paper Smooches would work a treat here.

Other items used are:

Neat & Tangled Punchinella Die, Paper Smooches daddy yo

and 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from Avery Elle.

Next up ... it's always handy to have a couple of baby cards in the box!  

This one uses the Petite Baby Shower set from Clearly Besotted with a 

heat-embossed sentiment from Mama Elephant: Just Hatched.

So here's a little photo inspiration for you and don't forget to pop along and

 visit my fellow teamies who have created some spectacular masculine makes!

The links to their blogs are on the main AAA Cards blog HERE plus we have 

one of our previous winners joining us as a Guest Designer for this challenge.

I do hope you'll pop along to visit Joyce's blog (Cards by The Sea) and leave her some love and friendly comments!

Our lucky winner for this challenge will receive a prize from our generous sponsors; Stampendous so I hope you'll join us. Thanks as always for calling by and I'll catch up with you again soon.

AAA Cards CAS Challenge #73

Hi there, it's time to announce our latest challenge over at  AAA Cards CAS Challenge Our theme for this one is 'Upcycling' so you've got 2 weeks to root around in all those boxes of 'schtuff' that you daren't throw away ('cos it might be useful sometime within the next 50 years!) I hope you have some fun with this one and I'm excited to see how you play it! Ok so my 'upcycled' item is my background panel which was originally a tissue box! How easy is that! I love geometrics on cards, especially for the guys and couldn't resist hanging on to this for just the right occasion! It's teamed with a circular sentiment from Neat and Tangled with a 'birthday' greeting by Winnie & Walter. Sorry it's so faint in the photo. To finish a  couple of matching Doodlebug sprinkles. Please remember to keep your design Clean and Simple and if you need more inspiration then please check out my fellow teamies creations HERE We've also got a Guest Designer and one of our previous winners Angie of Cimbacreativefun I'm sure she'd love a friendly visit or two! Our sponsor for this one is Happy Little Stampers and if you'd like to be in with a shout of $20 gift certificate to spend in their online store then please link up your entries by 24th September

Less is More #246

Morning friends, it's time for a new challenge over at  Less is More  and it's Theme Week! Our theme is Masculine!
I can hear you groan ... me too! These are always tough to do as I automatically go for  my florals, girlie and butterfly sets which don't sit too well with the guys! But it's good to get out of our comfort zones now and again plus boost those masculine makes in the card box so hope you'll play along.

Here's my cards and first out I couldn't resist inking up this  fairly recent set, for the first time, from Clearly Besotted - Out of This World.

Using Distress inks in Ripe Persimmon & Wild Honey 

I inked a sun / planet. Then with Blueprint Sketch, Faded Jeans and Black Soot. 

I've added a few stars with a white gel pen, coloured the images with Stabilo markers

and mounted them on 3d foam, accented with wink of stella and glossy accents.

I'd like to head over to Inkspirational Challenges with this one and hope 

the glow from my spaceship and sun will pass the requirements!

It's always hard to make sympathy cards but particularly for a guy

so I thought I'd use this new set I picked up from my recent visit

to the Harrogate Showground Craft Fair. It's from Inkylicious and

I've used Dusty concord, Faded Jeans, Tumbled Glass and Black Soot

to create what I hope looks like a watery / misty background before

stamping the images and adding a few highlights here and there with

my white gel pen.

It's a colour theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge

this week along the Halloween tones but I'm hoping my 

eerie Halloween purple tones will work ok there!

It's a new look cue card at CASology too this week and 

cue word 'You' so I'm dropping in there too with my

Thinking of YOU card!

 ... and last be not least it's silly season!

Well that was last week's theme at CASology and these

silly Face-it stamps from The Alley Way Stamps were still

on my desk so I decided to use them. Laura Bassen did a fabulous

video this week of a shaker card using mason jars and that gave me

the inspiration to go with the jars - they are from the Clearly Besotted

Spring blooms set and I've coloured them with Distress Inks. To accentuate

those silly eyes I've added glossy accents and the sentiments are from

Uniko: All Occasion Sentiments #6 and Simply Said - Birthday

I'd like to link this one up at ColourQ - quite ashamed as I used 

to play along almost every week and haven't joined in for ages.

Ok time for you to jump to it and see what you can come up with.

I'm sure you'll WOW us like you do every week but if you need more 

inspiration there's some fab designs by my fellow teamies HERE

Thanks for visiting today and if I get chance I may have a few

extra cards over the weekend otherwise same time next week!!!

Uniko Challenge #26

Morning friends it's time for a new challenge for this month over at Uniko and the theme for this one is 
Geometric with the optional twist of circles or squares
I decided to 'twist' using the Background Builders Square set which is new to me so I've been having a little play with it! I wanted to make a retro-type background and I'm sure one of my grandmas used to have some crockery similar which is where the inspiration came from ... well from memory anyway!

I've teamed it with white heat embossed sentiments from

All Occasion Sentiments # 6 and Simply Said Birthday

which are adhered to an off-set stitched square die by 

MFT Die-namics. To finish a few sequins and gems from my stash.

I hope you find some time to play along and you have until

Friday, 30th October to enter the challenge.

For more inspiration, don't forget to head across to the main

Uniko Studio blog HERE where my fellow teamies have

created some stunning cards.

What's more we have 2 super cool and talented Guest Designers helping us out 

this month: Rahmat from Cards and Cooking Corner and the super awesome 

Julia Altermann of Just One More Card If you haven't already visited 

these blogs you definitely need to do so as these designers create the

most inspirational work with loads of tips and tricks along the way. 

I hope you'll pop along and leave them some love!

Thanks as always for visiting my blog and I'll be back tomorrow

with the latest challenge details for Less is More

Addicted To CAS #68

Morning blog buddies,  I'm here with the latest challenge details from 
Addicted to CAS
and our host this week is the super-talented Deepti using the Code Word: Chevron 

Card Recipe:

Papermania: Textured cardstock

MFT Die-Namics: Basic Stitched Edge border dies

Hero Arts: Stamp & Cut Birthday set

Doodlebug Sprinkles to accent

Our sponsor this week is 

http://www.sweetpeastamps.com/

with a prize of 4 digi stamps from the store

Once again we are delighted to have 

Kathy K of The Purple Princess Diaries as our guest designer

and I'm sure she'd love a friendly comment if you could stop by her blog!

Don't forget to head over to the main ATCAS blog too

for more inspiration from the amazing design team.

Thanks as always for stopping by and I'll be back tomorrow

with the latest challenge details for AAA Cards