Crazy for MORE Stencils

Hi Friends, I'm zipping in with another 'just for the fun of it post' featuring a bunch of stencil inspired cards. If you visited my blog a few days ago HERE you'll see I was showcasing stencils by fellow blogger and friend Sarah G of Funky Fossil Designs and I've still got more of those to share once they are made up into cards BUT I was loving the colour combo I used on the previous post and decided to root out some older stencils in my stash and bring them back to life ... here goes:

This one uses a 'handmade' stencil - I die-cut several circles in some acetate then randomly inked through the shapes in my favoured colour combo using Distress Oxides (Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron and Blueprint Sketch). The die-cut 'happy' is by CUT-plorations and it's mounted on a stitched circle die by Simon Says Stamp with a 'birthday' sentiment from Uniko.

Next up using a trio of Bokeh stencils by Simon Says Stamp and using the same colour combo, I rotated each stencil 4 times to achieve the clusters in each corner. The Sentiment is heat embossed with clear embossing powder and is by Mama Elephant, mounted on a stitched square by MFT Die-namics

I think this has to be my all-time favourite stencil and one I frequently go back to. It's the Concentric Circles by My Favorite Things, with a sentiment strip featuring 'Fabulous' by Uniko: Explosion Additions and 'Friend' die-cut by Paper Smooches

If you follow the Uniko blog HERE you'll have seen a balloon stencil released with the last bundle of new goodies. I didn't buy it because I new I had this similar one from Neat & Tangled but I was inspired by the stencilled balloon creations from the DT and decided to give it a whirl with this one. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is by Impression Obsessions.

Thanks for calling by today and I hope you're having some crafty fun!

In Love with Stencils

Hi Friends, I can't remember the last time I got round to posting on my blog just for the fun of it BUT today I have some cards to share featuring STENCILS! 

These little beauties seem to have slipped into the back of my stash for far too long but with the stunning inspiration from my super duper blog buddy Sarah of Funky Fossils Designs and her new stencil creation venture (sold HERE) I just can't get enough of them! I just wish there were more hours in the day to play! 

So teamed with a bundle of Distress Oxide inks here's my creations and if you follow my blog regularly you'll notice I get fixated with colour combos and just can't stop myself when I find a combo I love! 

This one uses the Totally Triangular Stencil and I've been fascinated with the 'turn-around' stamps and stencils by other companies so decided to give it a go with this stencil although it's not necessarily designed to work that way. The die-cut sentiment is from Neat and Tangled with a 'birthday' greeting from Clearly Besotted

 

Using the same colour combo and Triangular stencil but this time with a cropped section of the stencilled panel a 'Smile' die-cut by Lil'inker Designs with a 'You Passed' sentiment by Clearly Besotted. 

The die-cut sentiments and strips of coloured card on all of these cards are coloured using coordinating promarkers. 

 

Ok a tad early for Father's Day but there's nothing like getting organised and I just love geometric designs for the guys so this one worked a treat. Remarkably the stencil is called 'geometric' too! The die-cut Happy is from CUT-plorations with the 'Father's Day' from Happy Little Stampers.

Next up a male / female 2-Fer of sorts! I masked off part of the stencil (called Triangle Grid) and inked through it with blues and teal colours and the other half adding some purple tones too. Can you tell I just love the 'Hooray' die-cut by Neat and Tangled? Coloured again with Promarkers to coordinate with the stencilling and a Clearly Besotted mini 'so to speak' sentiment on the first one and 'It's your day' on the second card is by Neat and Tangled.

I'm heading over to Addicted to Stamps and More for their Make your Mark week. I hope stencils are accepted along with Promarker painted sentiments!

As always thanks for calling by and if you feel inspired by these stencil designs and fancy purchasing a few, very reasonably priced ones then pop across to Sarah's Folksy shop HERE. Super efficient service and beautifully packaged too.

Less is More #368

Hello my crafty friends, wishing you all a very Happy Easter Weekend and hope the Easter bunny delivers!

I can't believe yet another fortnight has skipped by and I'm here with our latest challenge    over at Less is More. It's a Lucky Dip month as there are 5 Saturdays in the month so to spice things up a little we decided to ask Aileen of Colour & Sparkle, winner of the January challenges if she'd like to provide a CASE card for us! Thankfully she agreed!
Here's our Cue Card for this fortnight's challenge, followed by Aileen's elegant floral beauty then my interpretation!

Aileen's Card
For my card I used my favourite stamp set EVER from Happy Little Stampers 'Butterfly Birthday' along with a die-cut 'Happy' word die from STAMPlorations. I flipped the layout to portrait for this one, stamped and heat-embossed my Butterflies in Sterling Silver embossing powder before colouring with Promarkers.

I'd like to pop this card in a couple of challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with their products

I'm also sharing a little DT Inspiration over on the Uniko blog HERE so here's a sneaky peak of my card, again using Aileen's card as my CASE study with stamps from Uniko. 

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and we're delighted to welcome back Happy Little Stampers which has kindly agreed to sponsor our challenges through April.  Do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month and have a fun and crafty time.




Thanks for calling by today!

Less is More #367

Hello my crafty friends, I think I've missed a fortnight somewhere as it certainly only seems a minute since announcing our previous challenge over at Less is More but my diary says it's right so here goes with that ONE layer one that we love to terrorise you with!!!
All the details are on the main challenge blog HERE but here's the cue card to get you started and I've 2 cards to share with you today.

First up using one of my all-time favourite stencils from our sponsor STAMPlorations called Bold Florals. I've only used part of the stencil to leave a reasonable area of 'white' space and using Distress Oxides in Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Twisted Citron I've inked through the stencil adding some pencil detail too for extra shading. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted, Brushed Greetings.

My next card uses another stunning stencil from ex Less is More teamie and super buddy Sarah of Funky Fossils and if you fancy this stencil too you can purchase it from her Folksy store HERE 

For this one I used standard Distress Inks in rainbow colours with sentiments from Neat & Tangled; Everyday Circles

I'd like to link this one up over at Timeout Challenges where they are celebrating their 4th birthday - Congratulations ladies and here's to many more. I hope my cheery rainbow colours make for a sunshine fun birthday feeling!

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies  over on the main blog HERE and as I mentioned earlier our sponsor for this challenge is STAMPlorations so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. 


I hope you'll play along in our and have some fun with us.
Thanks for calling by today

Less is More #366

Hello my crafty friends, I've been hit with the dreaded flu bug this week so it's a teeny post from me to announce this fortnight's challenge over at Less is More. We've a new sponsor for the month and 2 guest designers but all the details are on the main challenge blog HERE - hope you understand!
So onto the challenge and it's colour week - hope the cue card is self explanatory and sorry just the one from me today. 

I've gone ultra simple and basic stamping using a stamp from our wonderful sponsor STAMPlorations. I bought it especially for this challenge and hoped to do something a little more exciting with it but energy and mojo are lacking. Naturally I'd like to add my card to the 'Anything Goes with Stamplorations' challenge HERE

Although I've flipped it ... I'm using a sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches so will add this card over there as well as Simon Says Stamp: Wednesday Challenge and Addicted to Stamps and More where they've both got their 'Anything Goes' weeks!

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies  over on the main blog HERE and our sponsor for this challenge is STAMPlorations so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month. 


I hope you'll join us and have some fun! 

Thanks for calling by today!

Uniko - 6th Birthday Treasure Hunt!

Hi there, we're having a Treasure Hunt Hop over at Uniko to celebrate the 6th birthday of this wonderful, UK-based little stamp company. Over the 6 years Uniko has produced 104 clear stamp sets between 2012-2017. 
As well as providing some exciting inspiration using some of those 104 sets the aim of our Treasure Hunt Hop is to add a little extra fun to your day by asking you to hunt out the NAMES and YEARS of RELEASE of the 12 featured stamp sets in the blog hop. 
Joining Bev and the Design Team in the HOP are some awesome Special Guests, with each person having been assigned a particular stamp set to feature in their post. Easy-peasy eh ... just jot down the stamps and year of release for all 12 sets and email the list to Bev! You could be one of our lucky winners.
So let's get started as I've 6 cards to share (1 for each birthday year ... and because I got carried away with the birthday fun!) I'm showcasing a set from May last year called: Background Blocks: Doodle Flower
     These first 2 were heat-embossed in white onto coloured cardstock, with the flower centres coloured using coloured pencils. I've also added some little dots on all my cards for some extra detail. 

Next up the Background Block was heat-embossed in gold before colouring the flowers with Promarkers, with a couple of flower heads fuzzy-cut to use as embellishments around the frame.

The next 2 have the Background Block heat-embossed in white onto vellum then adhered onto water-coloured panels. The vellum softens the colour of the watercolours and adds a little elegance I think!

This time I've added some colour-coordinated pearls, from my stash, to the flower heads

Last but not least ... let's get this party going with a nice and easy panel created by stamping the Background Block twice then colouring some of the detail in brightly coloured Promarkers with a

wide sentiment flag popped up on 3d foam for dimension and to hide the join between the 2 blocks.

Additional items used on my cards are: 

Waffle Flower: 'celebrate' word die

STAMPlorations: 'Happy' word die 

MFT Die-Namics: Insta-Frame Die & Fishtail Flags Stax

Uniko Sentiments: 'Let's Party' / 'Your Day' / 'Birthday' - from a soon to be released set of birthday sentiments 

I hope you've enjoyed my inspiration with this set and here's the Blog Hop list to follow. Details of prizes can be found on the main Uniko blog HERE so head on over there for the information.  

Bev
Carol 

Deborah 
Izzy 

Jane 
Julie
Lindsey

Rahmat
Sarah G

Sarah P - That's Me!
Wiebke

Enjoy the party and have some fun!

Catch up again soon.

 

Less is More #362

Happy New Year Crafty Pals, I hope you are all well and enjoying 2018 so far.
I can't believe this is my first post since 23rd December ... here's me thinking I'd have been crafting and blogging non-stop over the festive period but other fun stuff got in the way!!!
Anyway I'm here to announce our latest challenge at Less is More and we are moving to a 2-weekly format from today, in the hope that it'll free up some extra time for the LIMettes and DT alike. All the details can be found on the main blog so I'll get straight down to sharing the Cue Card for our first challenge of the year! 

Surprisingly I've managed cards for you today, despite the festive fun!!! Each one featuring purples, of course and using the delicious Altenew range of inks.

This one uses the Painted Butterfly set from Altenew with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted; Brushed Greetings.

Next up another Altenew set, this time it's Beautiful Day combined with an inlaid die-cut 'happy' sentiment from STAMPlorations and the 'New Year' sentiment from Happy Little Stampers.

I'd like to link this one up at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where's it's 'Something New' so I'm going with the new Year!

... and last but not least here's the card featured over at Less is More and it uses the Bold Blooms set by My Favorite Things and a sentiment also by MFT. 

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and we've a brand new sponsor for 2018, it's Skull and Cross Buns for this month so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we announce at the start of next month.

I hope you'll play along and have some fun - you might even like to join us more than once this fortnight! Thanks for calling by and catch up with you soon. 

Less is More #360 & #361

Morning friends, I'd like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. This is our final challenge of the year at Less is More and it'll be a 2-week challenge. We'd hate to have you rushing with cards over Christmas so this should give you a little longer to play - who knows you may even receive some new goodies from Santa that you'd like to use!

Anyway we have a delightful sketch for you, designed by fellow Less is More teamie Anita and I hope you enjoy! 

Here's my examples using my all time favourite set from our December sponsor, Happy Little Stampers so do play along for a chance of a prize, which we'll announce at the start of next month.

Both cards use the Butterfly Birthday set and for the first one I've stamped, masked, rotated my card panel in the misti to create a 'mirror' image (I hope) both top and bottom. The images are coloured with Promarkers and I die-cut the shape of the top panel before popping up on 3d foam. The sentiment is from the Mix Mash set also by Happy Little Stampers.

This time I did a heat-resist technique using the same Butterfly Birthday image, using Ranger Liquid Platinum EP. Once the image had cooled I inked over layers of Distress Inks in my favourite colours: Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed. The die-cut 'Happy' is from STAMPlorations and I used a scrap of card heat embossed in the same colour to create it. The 'birthday' is from the HLS Mix Mash set.

As always there's loads of fabulous designs from my fellow teamies over on the main blog HERE and I do hope you'll pay them a quick visit. 
Thanks for calling by and have a fantastic festive period!

STAMPlorations Giving Thanks Blog Hop 2017

Hi there friends, I'm delighted to be representing Less is More, as a Guest Designer, once again in the STAMPlorations Giving Thanks Blog Hop following a lovely invite from Shery, owner and talented designer over at STAMPlorations!

Why not visit her blog HERE for some fabulous inspiration! AND why not head to the Less is More blog HERE where there's links and details about how you too can join in the blog hop and win some prizes along the way

I've used some lovely Fall themed stamps which Shery sent me and I've stamped the images using some masking here and there, coloured with promarkers. The panel was die-cut using a WPlus9 Scalloped rectangle die before mounting on fun foam then a kraft cardbase where I've stamped some of the leafy images in a tone on tone effect.

Today marks the 3rd time Shery has teamed up with her own wonderful team of designers at STAMPlorations as well as a selection of Guest Designers, like me, from various Challenge blogs, where Shery generously sponsors with prizes throughout the year. 

Shery is also releasing a whole new bundle of stamps to coincide with the Blog Hop and there's a Thanksgiving sale too. I'd say there's plenty to get you tempted to play along and I hope you feel inspired to do so.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and don't forget to head over to the STAMPlorations site HERE for all the info as well as the Less is More blog