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!

Less is More #365

Hi there friends, it's time to announce our second BIRTHDAY challenge over at Less is More to celebrate our 7th Birthay and we've got more delightful designs from some of our past Design Team members. 

We're also delighted to have Seven Hills Crafts kindly sponsoring the challenge and Tara (owner) is joining us as a Guest Designer too.
So let's get down to the latest Clean and Simple challenge for the next fortnight and here's the cue card  
There's often lots of debate in Blogland around the use of dry-embossing and how it can be used as a Clean and Simple element of a card so I can't wait to see what you come up with and I've 3 ideas to share with you today.
You'll find our guidelines and requirements for this technique over on the main Less is More blog HERE along with some superb ideas and inspiration from my talented teamies.

First up I've used a faux letterpress technique, as featured in an older video by Jennifer McGuire HERE which uses a detailed Tilda Flower die from Memory Box with a little ink to the edges then run through my Big Shot to 'emboss' the image onto watercolour card. 

Other Supplies Used:

Dies: Lil'Inkers: HI word die / Stamps: Avery Elle: Sentimental / Ink: Altenew

There's 2 challenges I'd like to pop this one into ... Addicted to Stamps and More, where they are looking for Clean and Simple Cards and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where the requirement is to add a die-cut.

This card features a very subtle linear embossing technique where regular score lines have been marked using a folding board. I started out by inking up a beautiful stencil, which I received as a gift from my buddy and ex-DT member at Less is More, Sarah G of Funky Fossil Designs. Since stepping down from our challenge blog she's certainly not been sitting around but has set to work making various stencils, laser-cut MDF shapes and home decor/gifts. The stencil here, called Beautiful Mandala is available to purchase in Sarah's Folksy store HERE and she's also kindly offered 2 stencils as a gift to one of our birthday winners at Less is More this month. Why not head over HERE and look at what else is in store!

Other Supplies Used:

Dies: The Works: Stitched Square & Waffle Flower: Sentiment Strips

Stamps: Avery Elle: Sentimental / Ink: Distress Inks in Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio 

 

Last but not least an underwater little scene using a circular die-cut piece of brusho-coloured card, which I then ran through a 'wave-effect' embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers. I've also used my 3 circular dies to create a de-bossed element to frame my focal image.

Other Supplies Used:

Dies: The Works: Stitched Squares & Sizzix Framelit Circles

Stamps: Paper Smooches: Briny Blue plus coordinating die & Create a Smile: Underwater Love

I'd like to pop this card in at Timeout Challenges where the theme is 'Hobbies' - Fishing is a popular hobby I believe although not one of mine!!! Hope it counts - sadly it's not twisted with a one layer.

I hope you've enjoyed my inspiration for this challenge and don't forget we've extra prizes this month with it being our Birthday. Our sponsor for the challenge is Seven Hills Crafts as well as a random mystery prize and Sarah's kind stencil for this month only so do play along for a chance, and we'll announce our winners at the start of next month. 


I hope you'll play along in our birthday challenges this month and have some fun with us.


Thanks for calling by today!

AAA CAS Cards Challenge #89

Hello there friends, it's time for another challenge over at AAA CAS Cards
The theme for this one is 'Bright & Beautiful' and here's my card; to be honest I wasn't quite sure which way to go with this one but roses are always a beautiful flower in my opinion so I've teamed them with a strip of glittery washi tape to add some brightness and coloured the die-cut from Memory Box with my Zig Clear Brush pens before adhering to my card base with glossy accents. The sentiment is Clearly Besotted and I hope my card will make someone feel well again!

Challenges I'd like to link to are:

Addicted to Stamps & More: Clean & Simple

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes 

Time Out Challenges: Flowers

Here's our photo inspiration for you and 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 Carol, a previous winner of our challenges, who is Guest Designing for this one. Do pop along and visit her blog and leave a friendly word and some love - I'm sure she'll appreciate it.
Our sponsor for this challenge is So Suzy Stamps and one lucky winner will receive $25 Gift Certificate.
As always thanks for calling by my blog today and I hope you feel inspired and will play along with us!

Less is More #301

Hi there crafty buddies it's time to introduce our latest challenge over at  Less is More and if you haven't come from the main blog then please  head over as there's loads of news and gossip as well as it being the  start of a new month with the return of one of our superb sponsors!
Being the first challenge of the month it's 'Colour' time and we've chosen a duo of lucious Purple & Gold
I've got 3 examples for you today but one's a 'twofer' - if that makes sense  so here goes with 'twofer number 1' ...

I was so inspired by all the incredible makes with acetate and vellum a few  weeks ago that I simply had to have a go at a floating sentiment! That's  definitely a new one on me and I love the effect. I started out by die-cutting the Tilda Flower by Memory Box in both purple and gold cardstock then  replaced the positive bits in the opposite colours, Both the die-cut 'Christmas' and the 'it's' sentiments are by Clearly Besotted!
It's a Holiday theme at Addicted to Stamps and More  so I'm heading there with this one!
Which leads me onto 'twofer number 2' ...

The opposite colour-way with a heat embossed sentiment by Uniko from the Simply Said Christmas set and a couple of sequins from my stash.
... over at STAMPlorations CAS challenge it's, by coincidence, Purple so I'm zipping this one in there!

Last but not least I've gone all geometric with this superb multi-facetted stamp by 

Winnie & Walter, heat embossed with WOW pale gold EP, inlaid die-cut 'Smile' 

sentiment by Lil' inker and a heat embossed 'it's your birthday' sentiment by Clearly 

Besotted. A couple more sequins and stars for that added glitz and glam.

The theme over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge 

this week is Thinking of You so I'd like to pop this one in there.

As always my super talented and awesome bunch of teamies have worked

their magic to inspire you with more cards so please pay them a visit, you'll

find all the links on the main blog HERE

Our sponsor for this month is Seven Hills Crafts 

so do please play along each week to be in with a chance of a prize.

Thanks as always for calling by. I hope you have a fun weekend

and I'll be back tomorrow with the latest challenge details for

AAA CAS Cards.

Less is More #300

Well hello LIMettes! Can you believe we hit our 300th challenge today at Less is More! That's one mahoosive achievement and heck of a lot of clean and simple challenge ideas to come up with in that time! 
So it's a 5 week month and it's lucky dip time! What's more we have a class-act super talented Guest Designer; it's Julie B of Crafted by Jules and if you've never visited her blog then you are most certainly missing a trick! Her cards are so full of unique  inspiration and I do hope you'll drop by her blog and leave some love.
To commemorate our 300th challenge post we chosen the theme
Celebrations or Festivals
No problem can I hear you shout - loads of ideas out there and no doubt we can expect a bumper turn out. 
Here's mine ...
Baby celebrations first and I have to admit that my mojo has taken  a vacation recently without permission I might add so I've been watching some You Tube videos and checking pinterest for ideas!

For this one I'd watched a tutorial by Julia Altermann of Just One More Card and you can see it HERE! I decided to go with a heart die by Wplus9 and I can't think of a more worthy celebration than a new baby. 
This uses: Mama Elephant: Carnival Cupcakes stamps & dies Clearly Besotted: Baby Love stamps & dies Create a Smile: Underwater Love (for the sentiment) Promarkers for colouring and some sparkling clear sequins by PPP.

... and another slight 'CASE' card - this time by Laura Bassen, shown HERE

This uses: 

MFT Die-Namics: High Rise number dies

Altenew: Painted Greetings

Memory Box: Cosmic Star dies

Distress inks in Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon, Wilted Violet

I also made a very similar card in a different colour way 

As usual the design team have worked their magic with some fabulous creations and the links to their blogs can be found on the main  Less is More blog HERE. 
As always thanks for calling by my blog today and I'll catch up  with you again soon!

Muse Challenge #180

Hi friends, I'm zipping in with a card I made today to enter in the current challenge over at Muse. I was on a roll at the end of last year, and tried to enter every week but I seem to have lost the plot or not had time to create as much since then!
 Today, as luck would have it I already had a panel of blended Distress Inks  in just the colours of Marilyn's card, sitting on my desk, so I decided to  have a little play and here's my CASE of her card.

Having inked my panel using: Wild Honey, Abandoned Coral, Carved Pumpkin

and Picked Raspberry I did my favourite little trick of spritzing with a water

and perfect pearl mix which adds a stunning shimmer to the inky panel. I'm not 

sure it's obvious on the photo however. Using the MFT Blueprints 15 I 

die-cut a 'wonky-angled' rectangle then inlaid a poppy die-cut by Memory Box 

using some white glitter card. The poppy silhouettes are by Inkylicious 

and the sentiment is by Clearly Besotted from the Sweet Little Sentiments set.

Here's Marilyn's card

Edit: I knew there was a Silhouette challenge about but could I find it when I posted this an hour ago!!! Thanks to Sandie- spotted it as soon as I visited on a comment trail!!!
So I'd also like to link this one up at Addicted To CAS - Silhouette!

I hope you like how I was inspired by the card and thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!
Catch up again soon!

Happy Little Stampers Challenges August

Hi there crafty friends I'm here with a couple of 'Brusho' styled cards! Having spent a brilliant weekend in Swindon at the Happy Little Stampers retreat with a bunch of fun and talented ladies, oh and Kylie of course!!! I've come away addicted to Brushos and think I've now got enough backgrounds to see me well into next year at least! 
I have to admit that I was pretty scared of these messy 'pigments' having had a timid  play with them a while ago BUT Kylie was a fantastic teacher and shared some fun and  fabulous techniques so here's the first one that I made at the retreat using a beautiful  Memory Box die (Gardenia) - thanks to the lovely Julie Beech for suggesting it and  loaning it to me, which started quite a craze with it! In fact I don't think you can  purchase this die anywhere in the UK at the moment!!!

I've also used my 'Smile' word die by Lil'Inker which is winked with Stella

and glossied to the max! I can't remember where the 'it's your day' comes from

as there was so much borrowing of each others stash that I've forgotten!

I'd like to pop this one in at the Happy Little Stampers - Anything with Dies

... it would be rude not to don't you think? I'm a little tardy in adding this

but my husband was away with work this week and disappeared with the

memory card for the camera with all my card photos on! Only just retrieved it

this evening and note to self: copy them to the PC ASAP in future!!!

 I hope you aren't bored of Brushos as here's another!

This time I heat-embossed a mass of butterflies from the Butterfly Birthday set by 

Happy Little Stampers before sprinkling 3 colours of Brusho over my watercolour card 

then spritzed with a mixture of water and perfect pearls! I luuurve the colour combo

it's created but sadly you can't see the wonderful shimmer in the photograph.

I've added a couple of gems also by Happy Little Stampers, the 'friend' die-cut is by

Paper Smooches and the 'you are awesome' is by Winnie and Walter.

I'd like to pop this one in at the Anything Goes with Happy Little Stampers challenge.

Oooh I've just found another Brusho pieced card so I'll be back in a mo with that one!

Less is More #282

Can you believe we are back at Saturday again? For some reason I think the calendar is on fast-forward these days! 
Anyway it's time to share our latest challenge over at  Less is More Lucky for you crafty folks it's an easy one too ... no excuses
We'd like you to use a  Stencil
Before I show you my examples though I'd like to welcome our  newest Design Team member and I'm sure you'll all know Esther from The Carnelian Wood
and we are all thrilled and excited to welcome her to the team. I do hope you'll visit her blog to wish her well as no doubt she's visited your blogs many times in the last few months.
Ok so here's my cards and if you've not already visited the main Less is More Blog HERE then please do as Esther is making her debut plus my other fabulous teamies have some brilliant cards to share too.

All 3 cards use the same stencil from Memory Box called Texture Ornate. Here I created a panel of cardstock using distress inks in rainbow colours through the  stencil and after removing it I did my favourite spritz and flick of perfect pearls with water  as it creates a wonderful shimmer as well as adding additional interest  to the panel.  I sliced the stencilled card into sections to create the first 2 cards. 
The first one uses a homespun stitched border die from MFT Die-namics plus a white heat embossed sentiment from Clearly Besotted: Brushed Greetings II and some coordinating Sprinkles from Doodlebug ...

... and with this one still Doodlebug Sprinkles but of the glittery variety with a sentiment from Happy Little Stampers: Everyday sentiments. The stencil panel is adhered to cardstock then mounted on fun foam for  added dimension and interest.
I'd like to pop this one in at Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge where they are looking for CAS cards this week.

Last up but slightly less CAS and using the same stencil but in a different way! 

Here I've ink blended some of my favourite distress inks onto a piece of water colour 

cardstock first, spritzed and flicked with the  Perfect Pearl mix before placing

 the stencil over the top. Using a sponge dauber with Versamark ink through 

the stencil followed by clear embossing powder to create an ultra glossy outline 

(see close-up photo below)

The butterfly and sentiment are both from Happy Little Stampers sets;

Butterfly Birthday and Everyday sentiments. Both are heat embossed using

WOW Gold sparkle EP. The butterfly is then coloured using the same 

distress inks and coated generously with Glossy Accents. You know I can't

resist some bling so I've added gems and sequins from my stash

This week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday 

is to 'Add some Shimmer' so this card is shimmering to the max

with the flickers of water and perfect pearls to the distress inked panel,

followed by sparkly embossing powder and plus shimer and shine 

from the glossy accents too. 

I hope you enjoy this one and I can't wait to see what clever

techniques and ideas you introduce me to with your stencils this week.

Thanks as always for playing along and I'll be back shortly with my challenge post 

for Addicted to CAS plus it's the traditional Design Team Reveal, Release and Blog Hop 

over at Uniko following the release of the latest Paradise stamp sets.

Why not head over and you could be in with a chance of a prize!

Less is More #237

Yeah! Saturday morning ... 8am which means only one thing - well on the craft blog-vine! A new challenge over at 
Less is More
and we are talking 'Congratulations' this week so a whole array of occasions for celebrations!
There's cause for celebrations in our house this week as not only is our kitchen almost complete after 4 weeks but our daughter collected her AS results on Thursday and we are so proud of her - 4 A-grades! So one more year of school before she hopes to study medicine at university! She's so bright ... just like me LOL!
Anyway her boyfriend also did superb in his exams and here's the card I made for him! It's a shaker one but still maintaining lots of white space!

I started out by inking the whale and sentiment from Paper Smooches

Briny Blue and 'You Did It' from Clearly Besotted - Let's Roll using

Versafine Black ink before heat embossing with clear embossing powder.

Using Distress Inks in Chipped Sapphire, Mermaid Lagoon and Tumbled Glass

I've watercoloured the background allowing the colours to merge slightly before

spritzing water splashes on it. The shaker frame is made with an MFT Die-namics

Stitched Square Die and filled with beads and sequins from my stash.

The theme over at CASology this week is Aquatic so I'm heading

over there with this card too.

I was quite late pulling these cards together this week due to 

being unwell with a stinking cold and loads of cleaning and clearing from

the numerous workmen around the house who have been finishing up this week

so I'm not too sure about the next two which I made for our daughter.

One's a bit conservative and the other a bit of a joke!

For this one I started out by heat embossing the 'Congratulations' sentiment 

from Uniko: All Occasion Sentiments and 'You're a Super' from Clearly Besotted

Superstar stamp sets in Hero Arts white embossing powder before masking off the 

area beneath the sentiments. Using 'hot' coloured distress inks in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey

and Barn Door I've inked over the sentiment then used some glitter card stock to cut

several stars using a Memory Box die set and some mini pearls to accent.

... and last but not least this one uses another Uniko set - Explosion

and I used some fun and jokey sentiments from the same set plus the

'You Did It' from Clearly Besotted Let's Roll.

The images and sentiments are all heat embossed using either Hero Arts Clear,

WOW Metallic Silver Sparkle or WOW Metallic Brass Sparkle.

To add some extra details I've gone a bit mad with a white gelly roll pen!

The black panel is die-cut using MFT Die-Namics Inside-Out Diagonal

Stitched Rectangle STAX

Ok I'm sure you super talented bunch will come up with some 

AMAZING celebratory cards and I hope you have something good

to celebrate too this week! Don't forget to check out the Less is More blog

HERE for more incredible inspiration from my teamies!

Thanks for stopping by, have a good week and I'll be back in an hour 

with the latest challenge details for Addicted to CAS.

Sunday Catch Up

Morning All I'm on catch up today as I've spent the last 2 days visiting universities with our daughter. We've had some pretty long and full on days so not been in my usual commenting and creating routine!
Here in the UK it's Father's Day today so we have the  in-laws visiting shortly but I wanted to post these cards to enter a few challenges first.
First up is my entry for this week's Muse Card Challenge. I love the balloon style Marion has used and I've kept quite close to her card style and colour this week. It's Marion's last week at Muse so I simply had to play along. She's been an awesome source of inspiration to me with her cards since I started playing along. I love her use of colours and brilliant designs.

Card Recipe: Paper Smooches: Balloon Dies Clearly Besotted: Mini Basic Banner sentiments & matching die Glossy Accents and Embroidery thread for added detail

I'd also like to link this card up at Freshly Made Sketches and CASology: Kids - I mean kids always love balloons don't they!
  
    



Next up is to enter at Addicted to CAS where the codeword is 'SPLASH' along with Happy Little Stampers where it's 'sprays and mists' this month.

I started out by using a Memory Box butterfly Stencil, inking through it with blue/green shades of distress inks then removing the stencil and 'spritzing/misting' using a home-made spray of water and perfect pearls to add some shimmer. Once dry I've added splashes of water to the butterflies to re-activate the inks and form splashes and sprays of colour. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted: it's your birthday and I've added a strip of DP from Doodlebug in a coordinating colour.

   

Thanks as always for stopping by and hope you have a good day