Less is More #341

Hi there crafty friends another week has slipped by and here we go again with our weekly challenge for you at Less is More. AND ... it's that 'dreaded' ONE layer week! Don't you just love it but it's an easy enough theme ... I think, so here's the Cue Card and let's hope you have fun too.

Hopefully that won't cause too many issues and here's my cards. I've 2 for you this week and I was having a play about with some pencils on the first one but I've not really mastered the art of colouring with them! The images are from Create a Smile 'Underwater Love' and I thought they'd be rather cute - hoping that a submarine is classed as a vehicle though! I've also distressed the edges and added some splatters of Distress ink in Mermaid Lagoon.

My second one uses a brand new birthday goodie, sentiment set from Neat & Tangled, which is part of their 5 year birthday release. I just love that swirly 'Hooray' and I've teamed it with a little cute train, coloured with Promarkers, from Clearly Besotted 'Going Places' with the 'Birthday Boy' sentiment from that same set. The 'track / road' stamp is by Stampin' Up - Rev up the Fun. I did intend to make a card using either the car or motorbike in that set but it just didn't happen for me! 
I've spotted 3 challenges in blogland, where my card should fit in so I'll be dropping by at Addicted to Stamps and More where it's a Clean and Simple Challenge, Addicted to CAS is ONE layer week too and at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday it's 'For a Child' so I simply couldn't resist popping this one over there too.
I hope you'll feel inspired to play along and don't forget to check out the fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE 
Thanks for stopping by 

Honey I Shrunk The Kit #9

Hey there friends, guess what ... it's time for another day out with the honeys! For this outing it was Hazel's turn to host and she chose a  Vintage Theme
 I was and still am swooning over her bundle of yumminess!  So many elegant elements that work perfectly together.  I simply can't wait to zip around the other blogs to see what's been created! Here's the line up Hazel Hodgkins: Hazel's Paper Designs Sarah Gray: Funky Fossil Designs Shona Chambers: Twine Around Sandie Munroe: London Days Sarah Platt: Sazzle Dazzle Crafts ... that's ME! ... and here's a picture of Hazel's goody bag and the list of contents   

Supplies:
Stampin' Up: Jars of Love stampset and corresponding Everyday Jars framelits;  Beau Chateau patterned paper; Tea for Two patterned paper
Paper Smooches: Free Spirits and corresponding Free Spirits Icons
Clearly Besotted: Time for Tea; Feel Better
Other: large gold rhinestones; cork label and gold doily - my stash
and here's my cards but I have to admit they are pretty NON-CAS ... my excuse there were too many gorgeous bits and pieces to use!

This was a huge risk ... slicing the golden doily in two! 

Did it work out? I'm happy with it against the gorgeous vintage

blue florals and I couldn't bear to risk colouring the teapot and cup

for fear of spoiling them so I added a little floral stamp by Uniko!

 This jar simply shouted 'shake me' so that's what I did!

Using a shaker mix from Lucy's Little things. I know pink wasps and bees 

don't appear in nature but I just couldn't resist colouring them this way!

Oh two more yummy jars and they were crying out for some blooms!

These are the Freehand florals by WPlus9, trimmed with some strips of DSP

from the kit that I think looks like washi tape!

It's Thanks / Thanksgiving over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge

so I'd like to pop this one in over there!

Crumbs I ran out of DSP! So grabbed a neutral pack of my own!

Told you I skipped the CAS element for these. Managed to use up the little 

slither of gold doily too. Another shaker, this time with mini hearts behind some 

vellum in the taller jar. The mini jar was coloured then winked with stella 

and drizzled generously with glossy accents! I'm hoping it looks like some 

luscious cream or bubble bath! I even found some paper flowers to coordinate!

I was struggling here but there was still the wine glasses and wine related

sentiments to use along with the gorgeous cork label. I've coloured some 

rather 'pink' wine into the glasses, with wink of stella and Glossy Accents.

Then die-cut the 'wine O'clock' sentiment with a heart die from MFT Die-Namics, 

added a die-cut glittery 'Cheers' sentiment by Lawn Fawn and a couple of sequins.

This one is probably the most CAS card so I'm heading over to 

Addicted to Stamps & More with this one where they are looking for

Clean and Simple this week!

As always thanks for calling by and I'm off to check out what the 

rest of my teamies have made with this fantastic bundle. 

Thanks for the kit Hazel ... I've had a brilliant time making these.

AAA Cards Challenge #67

Hello there friends, are you ready for another new challenge from AAA Cards CAS Challenge This one's a really fun idea especially if like me you go overboard on cute little critters! I just can't resist those sets even if I've few people to send them to these days!!! So we'd like to see you use Googlie Eyes! Here's my card which has already gone to my daughter's boyfriend to  wish him luck with the A'Levels that they've been sitting this month!

I've used the Little Fella set from Paper Smooches along with a Frame die also 

from Paper Smooches. The 'Good Luck' is from Uniko: Simply Said and the 

'gritty spray' is from Stampin' Up: Need for Speed. The image is coloured with 

Promarkers and the grid stencil is My Favourite Things - Oh and Googlie Eyes 

from my stash of them!!!

I'd like to link this card up at Timeout Challenges where it's

'Masculine with optional twist of mixed media'

Not being a specialist in mixed media I'm not sure whether my

stencilling, googlie eyes and foam mounted frame qualify for the 

optional twist but it's certainly a masculine card!

I was having so much fun with this set from Paper Smooches that I couldn't

resist making another card too ...

this time with a watercolour background using Zig Clear Brush pens

and a splattering of white paint using the Gansai Tambi watercolours.

The sentiment 'Hey Dude' is from the Paper Smooches set and the 

'Happy Birthday' is from Uniko: Simply Said

I'd like to add this one to the CASology challenge where it's 

a masculine theme for this week and here in the UK it's Father's day 

so very best wishes to any Dad's out there who may be reading my blog!

As always we've got plenty more inspiration over on the main AAA Cards

blog HERE plus a super guest designer and one of our previous winners;

Patti of Stationery Styles. She's got some fantastic designs on her blog so

 I hope you'll pop along and leave her some love.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stampendous

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

Less is More #219

Hello, it's Saturday ... yippee and if you are in the UK seems Spring has arrived in the last few days although Mr Weatherman doesn't think it's going to hang around for long!
So make the most of it ... that is after you've entered the latest  challenge at Less is More!
This week is One Layer Week and we'd like to see 'Splatters' however you want to interpret it.
 I know many of you have some yummy splatter / splash stamps;  sadly I don't so here's my 'manual' splatter examples ....

First up I'm using a stamp set which is one of 3 sets being revisited this month over at Uniko Studio and I'd be thrilled if you'd pop back at 9am when there'll be more details and examples of  the other sets being revisited.

Card Recipe

Uniko Studio: BRIGHT Butterflies & Simply Said - Birthday

Having hap-hazardly masked off an area of my card I've spritzed, flicked and splattered 

the rest with a mix of perfect pearls, water and peacock feathers distress ink

before stamping my images and adding a touch of glossy accents

to some of my circle splatters.

 

I don't seem to make many masculine style cards so here's one for a change

Card Recipe:

Stampin' Up: Rev it Up The Fun

My Favourite Things: Grid stencil

Distress inks for the sun, through a circular stencil 

and distressed edge and splatters around the car

I'd like to link this card up at Happy Little Stampers

April Challenge where they'd like us to use a stencil

Last but not least ... this one has an almighty HUGE splatter!

Created using 3 drops of Picked Raspberry Distress re-inker

which was dropped directly on to the card then spritzed with water, 

blown around with a straw, dried with a heat gun, spritzed with

perfect pearls and water, dried again before dropping

water blobs and splatters to the the card.

The stamped images and sentiment are from 

Clearly Besotted: Dandelion Dreams

Ok I'm handing over to you and I can't wait to see

what inky fun you get up to over the week.

My hands, desk, equipment, clothes have never been so 

inked up with splatters, dots and dribbles of the stuff!

BUT ... it's so much fun! Go on .... get messy!

Thanks as always for stopping by and I do hope you'll

pop back to see my Uniko Studio post later.

SNOWFLAKES AND FEATHERS

Yes a strange combination but couldn't resist

referencing both cards in the title.

So hopefully Mr Blogger is working and this post

has been scheduled by him on time!

So first up here is my card to enter the CAS(E) This Sketch challenge 

and as soon as I saw Hannelie's creation (Desert Diva) I couldn't wait

to have a go. I tried to CASE her divine colour scheme too but mine

perhaps isn't so striking.

Card Recipe:

Uniko Studio: Snowflake Dies

Clearly Besotted: Sentiment

Doodlebug: Design paper - mounted on 3d foam for dimension 

but not sure it's obvious from the photograph.

MFT Die-Namics - Sentiment strips

The mini stars in the centre of the snowflakes are covered

in wink of stella then glossy accents with a silver pearl to the middle.

To finish some gold metallic twine from my stash.

And next up a second entry to The Timeout Challenge: 

'Birds of a feather flock together'

Card Recipe: 

Backing paper from Doodlebug

WPlus9: Fanciful Feathers & Dies embossed in silver, gold & copper

Clearly Besotted: In the Frame Die set with DCWV Glitter card

Sweet little sentiments - 'thinking of you'

embossed in WOW silver sparkle although not that clear

as all the metallics are fighting against each other in the picture

MFT Die-namics: Sentiment Strip

and to finish some twine and gems from Stampin' Up.

Thanks once again for stopping by and hope to catch up again soon.

                                                         
                                                            

EARTH COLOUR SCHEME

Thanks for all the fabulous recycling ideas from last week ... just knew I could rely on you all

This week the brief at Less is More is to use Earth Colours and
yet again this proved tricky for me 

as they are not my 'go to colours' so here's what I've got:

First of all I must apologise for the photography ... hubby (my photographer) took these then shot out to work so the second one particularly is a bit iffy! Think a few stern words might be in order!!!

Not too stern though as he may refuse to do them and I'd be left to fathom out his hi-tech camera.

I've coloured this James teddy bear stamp from Lili of the Valley with my new Inktense pencils.

More practise required I think! He's mounted on 3d foam along two strips of textured cardstock.

The sentiment is from Uniko Studio and to finish I've added a couple of candy dots from Stampin' Up

The theme at Addicted to Stamps this week is

'Make Your Mark'

So I'm going to drop in there with James the Teddy Bear.

One of my blog buddies, Anita from Neet and Crafty has just joined as a DT so 

here's a little support for her in particular

Next up I've used the sketch from this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge.

The patterned papers are from Doodlebug, sentiment is Clearly Besotted and leaf dies are

 from Marianne Creatables. To add a bit of interest I've adhered some pearls from my stash to the leaves.

Over to you now and once again I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs in the week 

for some stunning 'earthy' inspiration.

                                                             

SWIFT MASCULINE CARDS

Hey there and a happy bank holiday Monday.

I've managed to squeeze a quick hour of crafty time in as the shifting, packing and moving from the main bedroom to my daughters ready for renovations is just about complete and there were a few challenges I was hoping to get around to.

                                    

So this one is to enter the CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge and as I've hunted down a few snippety bits I'm heading over to Pixies Playground too.  The papers are Doodlebug cut using various Sizzix framelit circle dies. Lastly, I die cut the CBS 'Happy' word die 3 times for added dimension then stamped 'Birthday' from CBS Happy days.




Next up is to enter CAS Colours and Sketches using the colour combo from ColourQ which hopefully hasn't closed the doors yet!

Materials Used:
CBS: Geometric Style I dies and sentiment
MFT Die-Namics: Sentiment Strips
Darice: Honeycomb embossing folder
Stampin' Up: glittered brad
Sparkly sticky gems from my Crafty Auntie


   

Right off to catch up on Britain's Got Talent so hope to post something tomorrow and pop around your blogs. Thanks for stopping by.

CRAZY FLORAL ADDICTION 3

Last one for today and you can check my other 2 Crazy Floral Posts here and here

As soon as I saw the photo inspiration at Muse this week I wanted to join in but have been struggling for time to get down to it and I'm now really cutting it fine to enter too!

I started by spreading distress inks straight from the ink pad to a scrap of cardstock in different colours then added water splashes and droplets to allow the colours to merge slightly.  I've used a chevron / zigzag die to cut strips of the inked card and also used it to make the leaves.

Card Recipe:
Image: Layered Prima flowers from my stash with a glittered brad from Stampin Up
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted
Dies: MFT Die-Namics - Chevrons & Marianne Creatables - Leaves

Challenges:
Muse: Photo inspiration
Addicted to CAS: Texture
Addited to Stamps: Anything Goes
Pixies Snippet Playground
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Botanical


    


Ok that's it for me today and hope you all enjoy the weekend and thanks for calling in.

LAYERED BUTTERFLIES

Happy Saturday and Bank Holiday Weekend! Yippee! Hope you are having some crafty time.

I've 2 very quick cards to share and apologies I've been missing all week ... work got in the way and I was trying yesterday but not getting very far! Except this card which is at a love / hate sort of stage with me. I don't normally use so many layers but I do like this mix of turquoise and yellows with greys but on this one I went for a touch of Orange too!

Challenges for this one:
Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Colour Me Card Challenge - Anything Goes but use 5 colours of your own choice

So if I had to match these colours with the Stampin Up range there'd be:

Pumpkin Pie
Pool Party
Crushed Curry
Basic Grey
White

My ancient and tatty heat gun seems to have come back out to play quite a bit in the last few months and on this card I've stamped the grey cardstock with one of the circle border strips from Uniko (Background - Circles) then clear embossed it and I quite like that added bit of texture.

Other Materials Used:
Clearly Besotted: Elegant Butterfly Dies, Scalloped Border Die, It's Your Birthday stamp set
Sizzix Nestabilities Scalloped Circles & Framelits Circles, Dotty Embossing folder
MFT Die-namics - Pierced Rectangle (new purchase and love it BUT now want all the pierced stax sets!)
Papers from my stash
Enamel Dots: Stampin Up, Doodlebug & My Minds Eye


   

Back in a mo with another quick post.

PLAYING WITH NEW STUFF

Happy start of Bank Holiday Weekend! Whoopie!

I've been playing with some of my new crafty bits this afternoon to enter a few challenges so here's what I've come up with.

First up I've had another go at sponge daubing to make a very dull and cloudy sky BUT it's to fit in with the CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge and when you check out the colour palate below you'll understand why.  I've combined it with the sketch from Sketch Saturday and the CAS on Sunday Challenge where it's 'A birthday to die for' (using a die cut).

          

Card Recipe:

Die Cuts: Sizzix Framelits & X-cut circles
Memory Box - Cloud dies as a template for the sky & Clearly Besotted - Going Places stamp & die set
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted - Brand new set 'Design a Tree'
Dotted Road: Uniko Studio - Background Circles
Candy dots: Stampin Up with black pearls from my stash
X-cut - corner punch


Next up is to enter the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge with the colour palate from Paper Players. Although I've used the sentiment from Clearly Besotted - Design a Tree set on other cards this is the first time I've used the other stamps and I thought the colours and stamps made for a good anniversary card. The sentiment is from another Clearly Besotted set - Paired up.

I've used my X-cut corner punch again - it was on my desk from the other card, MFT Die-namics Fish tail stax, a Darice woodgrain embossing folder and scalloped border die from Clearly Besotted. Finally the backing paper is from a new pack I recently purchased by Doodlebug (Kraft in Colour) from Craft Mojo.

   

Ok I'm off to catch up with some TV and I hope I'll get down to some crafting over the weekend although I've had my parents staying this week and my Dad has been passing on tips from his hobby (watercolour painting) so I've had to get myself fixed up with some materials and now I'm torn between what to do first!!! My aim is to combine the two and colour images on my cards with watercolour paint but will see how it goes!

Enjoy the bank holiday.