Less is More #312

Morning friends, are you ready for this week's challenge at
Less is More
It's our THEME week and we've chosen
New Beginnings
I have to admit I was struggling with ideas and mojo this week and everything I tried didn't quite work and ended up in the 'you know where'! So pretty basic examples here but I'm sure if you skip across to the main blog HERE  my fellow teamies haven't let you down and as ever their cards are simply oozing with classy and elegant designs.


I fancied making a distressed sky using purples and pinks and I  quite like how it turned our with a little spritz of perfect pearls for added interest and sparkle. I've used a border die by Clearly Besotted along with sentiments from their 'Home Sweet Home' set too.
Next up a couple of Baby congrats cards for my 'good to have in' box! These use the Just Hatched set from Mama Elephant and design paperby Lawn Fawn.

Hope you'll play along and have some fun. Thanks for calling by and I'll be back soon!

Less is More #255 & #256

Hello LIMettes!
We've reached our final challenge of 2015 as this one runs for 2 weeks to  give us all time to enjoy the festivities and still sneak a little bit of crafting in!!!
So I would like to wish you all  a Wonderful Christmas & Festive Holiday Season!
 I can't wait to see what you make of this challenge ... it's theme week 
Homespun
This one completely floored me and I'm still not sure I've 'hit the nail on the head'  so to speak but Chrissie has kindly offered up the dictionary definition on the main Less is More blog site HERE
I've gone with a few ideas so hope you feel inspired to play along - my first one  is quite literally 'spun' having tipped up all my boxes of bits and bobs to find my  flower 'spinning' loom and using Hemp twine I've fashioned this  flower with a button threaded to the centre. 

It's not exactly postage-friendly hence the circular aperture and mounting on funky  foam to allow the flower to be stitched to the card base. The striped design paper  matches pretty well and adds a little more interest to the card. To finish a birthday  sentiment from Happy Little Stampers - a refreshing change from all the  Christmas sentiments I've been using these last few weeks!

BUT back to those old 'winter' wishes here with a random stamping of 

'knitted' hats and scarves from the Clearly Besotted: Let it Snow set.

The sentiment is from Uniko: Pure Florals - Poinsettia which is heat

embossed in Hero Arts White EP and to finish a wrap around of bakers twine!

Last but not least and it seams that Anita, Chrissie and I were sharing

the same 'homespun' book this week as we've gone with a similar theme!

If I'm honest this one didn't turn out how I anticipated and I almost scrapped it!

Using the WPlus9 stacking hearts dies I've die-cut several layers of cardstock in

both sizes, topped with some 'old English country garden - style' design paper.

 The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted: Home Sweet Home and stamped in grey to 

give that dull / rustic / primitive look (I hope) along with the grey textured panel! 

BUT ... I just couldn't resist the pop of colour from the ribbon scrap I found in my stash 

which picks out the centre of the bloom brilliantly. 

It's Die Crazy over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge

this week and having used 5 layers of each size of the Wplus9 heart dies

and a pierced rectangle from MFT Die-Namics I'm hoping this will work there!

Ok I'll hand over to you talented crafters and please pop over to see what 

my teamies have been up to too - I'm sure you'll love their takes on this theme.

Thanks as always for stopping by and catch up with you again soon!

Less is More #228

Morning all I'm back with the new challenge details for 
Less is More  and this week it's a One Layer Card with a Home theme
So let your imagination take you away ... unlike me sticking with 2 Good Luck in Your New Home ones! 
We are having a mini and I guess a short-lived heatwave in  the UK so it's hard to craft when the sun is beating down because we get so little we really need to make the most of it! Hence my first card features digi images which I rarely use

I found this one in my stash from Pollycraft and I love all the  colours and wonky style. My sentiment is from the super talented  Hannelie - Desert Diva who kindly allowed me to use her perfect  image ... as soon as I saw the font and style on her card from last week HERE I thought it would work brilliantly with this image.



Next up I was blown away by all your fabulous creations for out Sunset challenge last week and I couldn't resist getting those  colours in my card again - especially with this sunny weather here.

Card Recipe:

Distress Inks: Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilised Amber, Spiced Marmalade & Festive Berries

Clearly Besotted Stamps: Naughty or Nice - I've used the reverse of the stamp from this Christmas set

and the sentiment is from the Everything Changes butterfly set that was released recently.

Uniko Studio: Natures Treasures for the grasses

My last one is for a bit of a giggle really but I did NEED

a New home card for my sister and brother-in-law

So their surname is 'Tudor' very regal, hence the Castle image and my niece is a 4 year old Disney princess so I hope she'll love this.
Card Recipe: Lawn Fawn: Life is Good (sand-castle image) coloured with stabilo markers Clearly Besotted: Home Sweet Home sentiments and Design a Tree set Distress Inks: Cracked Pistachio and Tumbled Glass for a delicate water-colour wash above and below the castle.

Ok I'm handing over to you talented bunch and excited to see your creations this week. Thanks for stopping by and hope you get to enjoy some sunshine as well as crafting.

Less is More #214

These week's are flying ... don't you think?

It'll be summer before we know it - but first up it's March

and the first challenge of the Month at Less is More

... and it's a colour one!

We'd like to see green and yellow

To be honest these aren't my favourite colour combos ...

may not be apparent though as I've gone a bit mad producing a few!

Obviously there's lots of shades of these colours so here's 

what I came up with:

These first 2 were made at the same time and by cropping

my flower panel slightly it was easy to make the second one so

a 2 for 1 deal I guess!

Card Recipe:

Uniko Studio: Simply Said Birthday

Uniko Studio: Flower Power #5 & #6

Mama Elephant: Index Card dies

Doodlebug Sprinkles

I don't often get chance to to join my teamies at Addicted to Stamps & More

but as it's a CAS challenge I think my card should fit in ok!

Well we said green and yellow so I've gone BOLD with this one!

Card Recipe:

Clearly Besotted: On The Line Die & Home Sweet Home stamp set

Lil'inkers: Stitched Sun Die

Uniko Studio: Background Builders - Vines 

(super delicate tone on tone images to the green panel)

Doodlebug sprinkles

Next up ... for St Patrick's day which is coming up this month

Card Recipe:

Crafts Too: Lattice Embossing Folder

Doodlebug: Design paper 

Clearly Besotted: Sentiment

WPlus9: Heart Die

Uniko Studio: Stem Die (Beautiful Blooms I)

MFT Die-Namics: Mini Banners, Fishtail Flags & Pierced Rectangles

I'd like to enter this card over at CAS(E) this Sketch

I'm off to a family wedding in Harrogate this weekend so I'll have

to miss out on commenting until I'm back during the week.

Can't wait to see your super sunny creations though so no slacking!

Thanks as always for stopping by and have a superb weekend.

Less is More Challenge #206

Hello friends ... it's Saturday morning and  time for a new challenge at 
Less is More
You certainly had fun with last week's colour challenge and it was great to see you all back and crafting after the Christmas break.
Ok for today it's the return of the  One Layer Card and the theme is - New Beginnings
As luck would have it this week I have 2 real-life new beginning occasions  where cards were needed ... love it when that happens!
The first one being one of my cousins and his wife  had a new addition to the family just before New Year and this card will be winging it's way over to them in Hawaii.

I seem to have an addiction to Distress Inking at the moment

and I wanted a graduated look from left to right.

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Uniko Studio - Sweet Baby

Dies: Paper Smooches - Dots and Dashes (NBUS)

To finish I've added some Doodlebug sequins which I've reduced in size using a 

Provo Craft Silent Setter - it was pretty tough going 

so I wasn't particularly silent during this process!

Worth it though as I find some sequins too big for some of my cards.

This week's theme at Simon Says Stamp is also 'Something New' 

so I simply have to enter this card over there.

Next up you may remember from last week's post that 

our fabulous design team member, Anne was moving house this week.

This card is for her and it's ended up taking on a somewhat

child-type interpretation of a house and garden in the summertime.

Card Recipe:

Clearly Besotted: Diagonal Stripe Stamps (NBUS)

Clearly Besotted: Home Sweet Home, Sweet Little Sentiments,

Happy Birthday (NBUS) & Baby Shower stamps (hearts from the chimney) (NBUS)

Lil Inkers: Stitched Sunshine Die (NBUS)

Doodlebug Sprinkles and a sponging of memento ink

Now you'll notice my post is awash with new santa goodies (NBUS)

so I'll be heading over to Darnell's blog to enter this card.

There's another new challenge, for me too, that I'd like to try this week

Virginia's View Challenge #11 - Clean Slate

this card seems appropriate: it's a 'clean slate' and a one layer card.

Having created two fairly 'obvious' new beginning cards I wanted

to do something a bit 'off the wall' but was struggling if I'm honest.

So who better to ask ... the family!

My son decided a new leaf could be a new beginning so 

here's a card showing 'turning over a new leaf'

Now this is a bit too CAS even for me so couldn't resist adding a little bling!

Card Recipe:

Paper Smooches: Botanical Stamp set

Uniko Studio: All Occasion Sentiments #1 (NBUS)

Twine & gems from my stash

Oh and what another stroke of luck as the current prompt word at 

Inkspirational Challenges is 'Note' so guess where else I'm heading!

Ok last but not least a little bit more distressed inking ...

I wanted my little scene to appear as if the recipient was

leaving for a sunnier and brighter climate with the graduated sky colour

and clouds of course!

Card Recipe:

Paper Smooches: Metropolitan Stamp Set

Clearly Besotted: Say it In Style Sentiment stamps 

Derwent Coloursoft pencils and glossy accents

Now I'm handing the baton to you crafty pals as I'm all out of ideas

but I'm confident you'll shine with some super fun creations.

Thanks as always for stopping by it's much appreciated 

and have a superb and crafty time.