Less is More Week #343

Good morning

Another week of August has rushed by and this morning over at Less is More we're back with a new challenge, and this time it's Recipe week.  We have an interesting one for you this time, here are the details...

I was at work the other day and with this challenge in mind began looking for ideas around the office.  I saw staples, paper clips, elastic bands, then my colleague shouted 'tissue'.  I took this idea and knew exactly which stamp set to use to go with it...

This was pretty quick to make.  I started by stamping the tissue box on some white cardstock then die cut around it with a stitched oval die.  I then stamped it again on some patterned paper and paper pieced the image  I then took a craft knife and cut a slit along the top of the box and tucked a real tissue inside, using just a little adhesive to hold it in place.  I cut another piece of the patterned paper using another slightly larger stitched oval die and adhered this flat to the card base.  I then popped the image oval up on 3D foam before stamping the sentiment below.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Lawn Fawn - On the Mend
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye - Quite Contrary (free with a publication a few years ago)
• Dies: Lil' Inkers - Stitched Ovals

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stampers and More - Challenge #256 - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations - August Challenge - Anything Goes

Now, for my second card I must give credit as this idea isn't mine.  There's a gift shop in the town where I work that also sells fabulous cards.  I got this idea from some card designs by Ruth Jackson who creates super simple designs and adds pencil shavings to parts of her images.  So I had a rummage through my stamps to find something that could work...

I started by stamping the stems and sentiment in black (I tried in green first but I wasn't happy with how it looked).  Once dry I ran the panel through my Big Shot in a wave effect embossing folder to add a little texture to the background.  I popped the panel onto the card base using fun foam and then to finish I adhered the pencil shavings in three colours as the flower buds, using Glossy Accents to ensure they stayed in place.  I think the effect would have been better had my coloured pencils been hexagonal but unfortunately, all of mine are round so gave a smooth edge to the shavings.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Pretty Petals
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Folder: We R Memory Keepers - Next Level Wave
• Accents: Coloured pencil shavings

Challenge entries:

CASology - Challenge #263 - Bud

Addicted to CAS - Challenge #118 - Friends

STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge

Please do pop over to the main LIM challenge blog to find more inspiration from my teamies.  I'm looking forward to the gallery this week, it's going to be interesting to see what objects you come up with.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Less is More Week #342

Good morning

It's Saturday morning and therefore time for a new challenge over at Less is More.  Week three of the month means we're back with a Theme challenge and here is our theme for this week...

To be honest, it's been so long since I had a proper holiday, anything would be perfect right now.  My last trip abroad was in 2010! But in a nutshell, anything that involves being able to wear my flip-flops, drink yummy cocktails and enjoy a lovely warm sunset would be perfect.  So I've included all three on my first card...

I started by stamping the flip-flops then masked these to stamp the cocktail.  I coloured the cocktail with coloured pencils and then masked this also.  I then used Distress Inks to blend the sunset over the images before die cutting with a square pierced die.  The panel was popped up on 3D foam and I finished by heat embossing the sentiment in white onto a strip of textured black cardstock.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Life's a Beach; Hero Arts - Let's Chill; Sentiment: Joanna Sheen - Garden Retreat (free with publication)
• Ink: Memento - Bahama Blue, Rose Bud; Verafine - Onyx Black; VersaMark; Distress Ink - Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin, Abandoned Coral, Picked Raspberry
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax
• Cocktail coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos

Challenge entries:

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #52 - Things Beginning with the letter 'B' (blend / birthday / bright)

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations - August Challenge - Anything Goes

AAA Cards - CAS Game #96 - Summer Fun

And I think anyone's perfect holiday would involve a tropical paradise.  We do have palm trees in the seaside town where I live but I certainly wouldn't call it tropical or paradise! lol  I wanted to keep this card fairly simply but didn't like it at all when I first made it, but I thought I'd share it anyway as it's growing on me!

I simply die cut three palm trees from the same cardstock as the card base and adhered these flat.  I heat embossed the sentiment in white onto some black cardstock and popped it up on 3D foam.  And hopefully you can just about see in the photo, I finished by adding some clear Wink of Stella to the trees.  Why can't our cameras see the sparkle like our eyes can?!

Materials used:

• Die: Echo Park - Flamingo Palm die set
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Hung Up On You
• Ink: Versamark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Accents: Wink of Stella - Clear

Challenge entry:

STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge

A couple of the LIM Design Team are taking a break this week but there's still plenty of inspiration, and we also have the lovely Pauline of Crafting with Cotnob joining us as a guestie following her June win.  So please do pop over and visit their personal blogs, you won't be disappointed.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Less is More Week #341

Good morning

It's time for a new challenge over at Less is More and this week it's the turn of our One Layer challenge.  Ok, so it's not everyone's favourite but why not give it a go.  I think this week's theme will give you quite a few options...

We have our winner of the AAA Collaboration challenge, Marge, joining us today so please do pop over to her blog if you have time.


Just one card from me this week and I used a couple of recent purchases for this one, as well as having a go with my Polychromos which I haven't had much chance to use yet...

I recently purchased this mini stamp set from Clearly Besotted as I thought it would be great for little boys' cards.  I stamped the images first, the sentiment being from a different retired CBS set, then stamped again on post-its to use as masks.  I then blended some clouds using the MFT cloud edges stencil with some Distress Ink.  This is the mini cloud edges stencil as I still haven't managed to get my hands on the regular one, it keeps selling out at breakneck speed in the UK!  All that was left to do was colour the images. My shading with the Polychromos needs some work but I did love using them, they are lovely pencils.  Definitely more practice needed!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Take Flight, Going Places
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass
• Stencil: MFT - Mini Cloud Edges 
• Coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils

Challenge entries:

Stamping Sensations - August Challenge - Anything Goes

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #51 - Things that Fly

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #254 - Clean and Simple

Addicted to CAS - Challenge #117 - One Layer Card
CAS on Friday - Challenge #114 - Birthday
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - For a Child
STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge

A couple of my LIM teamies are taking a break this week but there is still lots of inspiration to be found, and possibly more on their personal blogs too.

Happy Saturday everyone, have a lovely weekend

Muse Challenge #228 - Rainbow Stem

Hi there

I'm back today as your designer for this week's challenge over at Muse.

I hope my card will give you some inspiration to play along.  So, without further ado, I'll get straight to it.

This was pretty easy to make.  I die cut the flower stem from some white cardstock then blended the rainbow with Distress inks.  I adhered this to some textured cardstock, die cut with a stitched rectangle, which was popped up on 3D foam.  The sentiment was stamped below and then I coated the flower with Glossy Accents.

Materials used:

• Dies: Creative Expressions - Scribble Flowers; MFT Die-namics - Stitched Rectangle Stax
• Ink: Distress Ink - Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch, Lucky Clover; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Scrumptious Script
• Black Cardstock: Papermania - Premium Textured Cardstock
• Accents: Ranger - Glossy Accents

Challenge entries:

Simply Create Too - Challenge #130 - Use Flowers
Uniko - Challenge #42 - Flowers
STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge




Thanks so much for popping by today and I would love for you to play along at Muse this week.

Less is More Week #340

Good morning

And welcome back to another Saturday morning where I'm introducing this week's challenge over at Less is More.  And week one of the month means we have a Colour challenge for you.

This is a colour challenge so you don't need to use fruit images.

I Googled tropical fruit images and the array of colours are gorgeous.

So, for my first card I chose the red, orange/yellow and green shades of a mango.

I chose to blend Distress Inks through a balloon stencil and what I actually seem to have created is an actual mango on a string! :D This was super simple, I just built up the ink very gradually and then stamped the curly sentiment as the string, hand drawing in the little knot with a black fineliner pen.

Materials used:

• Stencil: MFT - Big Balloons
• Ink: Distress Ink - Candied Apple, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Lawn Fawn - Scripty Sayings

Challenge entries:

CASology - Week 260 - Juicy (a mango is certainly juicy!)

CAS on Friday - Challenge #113 - Exotic (mango)
STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge

For my second card I just had to ink up some of my new stamps from the August release at Clearly Besotted...

I chose lots of tropical fruit colours for this one, e.g. lychee, kiwi, banana, pineapple, and various greens such as guava, papaya, etc. I stamped the main image in VersaMark and heat embossed in white.  I then watercoloured with my Zig markers.  The panel was die cut with a diagonal stitched rectangle and adhered directly to the card base.  The sentiment is embossed in white on a strip of purple cardstock...a little nod to passion fruit!  I would have liked the colours to be a little more vibrant but I didn't want to overwork the watercolour (as I always tend to do!) so I left it as is.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - One in a Million, Tiny Type
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Altenew - Pure White
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Inside and Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangles
• Watercoloured with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Challenge entries:

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes (I'm not adding the topping this time)

Happy Little Stampers - August Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (optional twist: bloom)

House of Cards - August Challenge - Floral and/or colours

Uniko - Challenge #42 - Flowers
Simply Create Too - Challenge #130 - Use Flowers

Thanks so much for your visit.  A couple of my teamies at LIM are taking a break this week but there's still lots of inspiration over at the main challenge blog and please do follow their personal links as there may be more to inspire you.

Have a lovely weekend!

Happy Little Stampers August 2017 CAS Challenge

Good evening, crafters

Where on earth did July go?  Time just seems to be flying by this year.  So, as we are now into a fresh new month, the new challenges at Happy Little Stampers are launching, and will continue to do so over the next few days so please do keep checking back at the main HLS page for details of each challenge.

Today it's the turn of the August CAS (clean and simple) challenge and we have a super easy one for you this month...

You don't have to use HLS products to enter but we do love to see them if you have any.

And please do check out the challenge guidelines.

The winner of this challenge will win a $20 coupon to spend at the HLS shop.

Ok, onto my DT card, and I used stamps from two HLS stamp sets here...

I started by stamping the sentiment from the Simply Said set which became the stem of my flower.  I then took a leaf stamp from the Doodled Flowers set to create the five petals of my flower and stamped these in raspberry pigment ink.  I then used the other leaf from the set to stamp the leaves either side of my 'stem' in green pigment ink.  Next I took two co-ordinating colour pencils to add some shading.  I finished by stamping the 'thanks', popping the panel up on 3D foam and adding a glitter enamel dot to create the flower centre.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Doodled Flowers, Simply Said
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Versa Color - Raspberry, Olive
• Coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos
• Accent: Happy Little Stampers - Enamel Glitter Dots

Challenge entries:

Uniko - Challenge #42 - Flowers

STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge
House of Cards - August Challenge - Floral and/or Colours

Thanks so much for visiting today.  This challenge, as well as all the other HLS challenges, are running until the end of the month so there's plenty of time to play along and link up.