Less is More Week #348

Good morning, crafters

Hopefully this post makes sense, I've been coming down with a bug all week and am writing this whilst very tired and constantly sneezing and blowing my nose.  Anyway, back to the reason for the post, and that's a Lucky Dip challenge over at Less is More, due to there being an extra Saturday this month.  And our cue word is...

And as we're still in September, the fabulous Happy Little Stampers continues to be our sponsor this month.

And we have our monthly winner for August, the lovely Jane Taylor joining us as a Guestie this week, so please do pop over and show her some love.


I have two cards for you this week, and both are very different.  Here's my first to add another Christmas card to my pitiful 2017 collection so far...

I actually only bought this stamp last weekend at a hobbycraft show but I love the quirky sketchy design so couldn't wait to use it.  On some watercolour card I stamped the baubles image with VersaMark before heat embossing in silver.  I then watercoloured the images with Distress Inks, using the wet on wet technique, and the embossed outlines create a great barrier for this.  I then also heat embossed the sentiment in silver before cutting down the panel and mounting onto a deep purple card base.  You can't see it in the photo but as a finishing touch I added some clear Wink of Stella to all the little circles of the image to add some Christmas sparkle.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Woodware - Sketchy Baubles; Clearly Besotted - Little Pudding (sentiment)
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver
• Coloured Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Premium Cardstock
• Accents: Wink of Stella - clear

Challenge entries

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #12 - brand sparkly new stamp

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #261 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

And for my second card, I went for a completely different feel...

On some watercolour card I stamped the lattice design which was heat embossed in white.  I then watercoloured by dropping in two shades of Distress Inks.  Once dry I die cut a section using a stitched circle die and adhered this to a white card base.  I then die cut a leaf, once from white cardstock, and another from some peach/pink vellum, and layered these up over the watercoloured piece.  I finished by layering up a 'you' die cut and the sentiment, heat embossed in white on some pink cardstock.

Materials used:

• Stamps: MFT - Moroccan Latice Background; Personal Impressions - Mix and Match
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Spun Sugar, Dried Marigold
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Dies: Creative Expressions - Laurel Leaves; MFT Die-namics - Double Stitched Circles, Twice the Thanks
• Vellum from stash

Challenge entries:

CAS on Friday - Challenge #117 - Dies

Creative with Stamps - Challenge #18 - Leaves

Thanks so much for dropping by.  I've not done any watercolouring for a while so I enjoyed making these this week.  My teamies have some great examples for you this week which you can find over at the main challenge blog, and by following the links for more details.

I'm looking forward to seeing your watercolour projects this week, keeping them clean and simple of course.

Less is More Week #347

Hi there

Saturday morning of course means a fresh new challenge at Less is More.  And, since we haven't had one for a while, we have a Sketch challenge for you.  Here it is...

Our fab sponsor for September is Happy Little Stampers so why not play along for a chance to win the monthly prize!

My fellow teamies have had some great ideas for this sketch and you can find their card samples over on the main challenge blog, and follow the links for full details.

And as I'm seriously behind with my festive creations (I have a grand total of 3 so far this year! haha), I used the sketch as inspiration to make a Christmas card.  Here it is...

I did a bit of stamping and masking to create my hanging baubles.  This was my second attempt as with my first attempt I had a problem with the dye inks soaking through my masks and leaving some blotchy marks so I scrapped it and started again, using pigment ink instead.  I used the bow die from the set that co-ordinates with the stamps and instead of stamping and die cutting, I used the die cuts covered with VersaMark to heat emboss in sparkly silver.  I used a fineliner pen to draw the strings and adhered the bows on glue dots.  The sentiment was stamped in black, die cut with a stitched sentiment strip and popped up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Ornamental Style, Message Me
• Ink: Versa Color - Mint, Turquoise, Mountain Lake; VersaMark; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Ornamental Style; MFT Die-namics - Stitched Sentiment Strips
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver Sparkle

Challenge entries:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Shimmer and Shine

Happy Little Stampers - September Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (optional twist - Sparkle)

Penny Black and More - September Challenge - Get Ready for Christmas

I was really hoping to make more than one for you this week but busy work and tiredness happened!  Hopefully more crafty time will be found soon.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Being Featured!

Hi guys

I'm a few days late with this post but just wanted to pop in and say how excited I was to once again be contacted by Dotcomgiftshop as they wanted to feature Neet & Crafty and one of my card designs on their own blog.

Their post, '16 ways to say it with a greetings card' can be found here if you want to take a look.  A few wonderful familiar faces from blogland have also been featured, as well as some which are new to me.

It's always lovely to know that my designs are appreciated and that people want to share them elsewhere :)

Less is More Week #346

Good morning!

Another Saturday is back with us which brings around another new challenge over at Less is More.  We're back with another Theme challenge this week, and here's our cue card...

Happy Little Stampers continues to be our sponsor for this month so please do play along as it will put you in the running for our monthly prize!

Only one card from me again this week.  I was hoping to find more crafting time this past week but I've had my mum staying with me so my routine has been a bit all over the place and I wanted to spend some time with her in the evenings.

So, here's my DT card and my interpretation of the 'Take Flight' theme...

I chose dandelion spores flying in the wind as my theme idea.  I started by stamping my images in VersaMark on a piece of white cardstock and heat embossed the dandelion, spores and sentiment in white.  I then did some emboss resist and blended with blue and purple Distress Inks to create an ombre background.  To continue the curve theme of the dandelion stem I used some stitched curve dies to cut my panel down and then adhered flat to the card base.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Dandelion Dreams, Flutterby Dreams
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Salty Ocean, Dusty Concord
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Dies: Mama Elephant - Landscape Trio

Challenge entries:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Clean and Simple

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #259 - Clean and Simple

The Flower Challenge - Challenge #12 - Tic Tac Toe (I chose the top line - Embossing/Distress Inks/Sentiment) - I wasn't sure if a dandelion was a flower but according to Google it is so hopefully my card will qualify! :)

My LIM teamies had some great ideas this week so please do pop over the the main blog if you have time, and follow the links for more info.

That's all from me today, hopefully I can find more crafty time this week and share more with you.  Have a lovely weekend.

Less is More Week #345

Good morning

Welcome to a fresh new Saturday and another new challenge over at Less is More.  We're back with One Layer Week again and have a fun one for you this time, with hopefully lots of options...

Happy Little Stampers are our sponsor for September so do play along for a chance to win the monthly prize!

I've had a busy week this week with one thing and another so just the one card for you today.  This challenge was another opportunity for me to practice with my Faber Castell Polychromos.  They are still very new to me and I have a lot to learn but I'm pretty happy with this little project...

I originally bought this unicorn stamp to use on another card, here, but the card needed to be A5 and the image was a little small, so I used it for this card instead.  I stamped the unicorn directly onto my card base and then left it in position in my MISTI so I could restamp later.  I then coloured the image with my Polychromos, and just added a small amount of grey to the unicorn's body.  I placed the card back into the MISTI and restamped to sharpen up the image.  I then stamped the sentiment in black, and the shooting star image in silver.  A little clear Wink of Stella was added to the horn.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Azeeda - Proud Unicorn (purchased from eBay); Woodware - Unicorn
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Versa Color - Silver
• Coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos
• Accents: Wink of Stella - Clear

Challenge entries:

CAS on Friday - Challenge #116 - Colour Me Pretty - Use Pencils/Markers
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It

AAA Cards - CAS Game #98 - Creatures Great or Small

Thank you so much for popping by today.  My teamies over at LIM are sharing some lovely coloured projects today so please do pop over and follow their links for more inspiration.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kit - September 2017

Good morning

My fellow honeys and I have got together again recently and been creating cards from an identical kit of crafty goodies.

One of the gang puts together an envelope of the same secret crafty bits and sends the happy mail to each of us, and we then get creative with it.  It was my turn to supply the kit this time so I'm excited to see what my talented teamies have done with it.  The fabulous honeys are:

Hazel Hodgkins - Hazel's Paper Designs

Sarah Platt - Sazzle Dazzle Crafts

Sarah Gray - Funky Fossil Designs

Shona Chambers - Twine Around

I named my kit 'Symbols of Summer'. 

Here is a pic of the kit and details of what I included

(I went a bit bonkers and included rather a lot, and from many brands too!)

Stamps:
Your Next Stamp - Flippin' Fabulous (crab/sentiments)
Clearly Besotted - Life's a Beach (flip flops/sentiments), So Sweet II (ice cream), Hung Up on You (mini cocktail/sentiments), Good Times II (sentiments), Petite Plushies (lolly/pinwheel)
Hero Arts - Let's Chill (palm/hibiscus/cocktail/beachball/sentiment)
Avery Elle - Sip Sip Hooray (sentiments)
The Greeting Farm - Rain Snow Shine (girl)
Little Claire (beach huts
Clear Impressions - Sea Breeze (deck chair)

Dies:
Paper Smooches - Warm Wishes, Birthday Words (cheers)
Echo Park - Flamingo Palm die set
Newton's Nook - Hibiscus
Clearly Besotted - Scalloped Edges die collection

Patterned Paper:
First Edition - Paradise Crush (floral)
Decotime - no name (ice creams)

Ribbon - Dovecraft
Gems - Papermania Glazed Gems Iridescent
Reversible coloured card from stash

Here are my makes (and still plenty left to make more!)

Card 1

I used the coloured cardstock, image and sentiment from the kit for this one.  I die cut a white piece of card using an MFT Die-namics double stitched circle die and stencilled some clouds using MFT mini cloud edges stencil with Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass (apologies, it's very pale in the pic).  I then layered up the sand and sea and die cut these with the same circle die to create the scene.  I added a mix of embossing powder by Wow! by dotting with an embossing pen, to create the break of the waves on the sand. The crab was coloured with ProMarkers and fussy cut, and the sentiment was cut out and mounted on some leftover blue cardstock. I finished by adding the sun which is in fact part of a chrysanthemum layering die set by Creative Expressions, cut from yellow card, and blended this with Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade.  Oh, and of course some googly eyes!

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - CAS Game #98 - Creatures Great or Small (a few layers but hopefully still CAS enough!)

Alphabet Challenge - M for Make Your Mark
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies September Challenge

Card 2

This one uses three of the die cuts from the kit.  I used Distress Inks to colour the flamingo (Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Hickory Smoke, Pumice Stone) and the palm tree (Ground Espresso, Forest Moss, Pine Needles).  The 'warm wishes' I coloured with a black ProMarker.  I used the brush stroke image from Stampin' Up's Work of Art set to create the sand, sea and sky using Versa Color ink in Bisque, Lagoon Blue and Sky Blue.  I used a black fineliner pen for the flamingo's eye and finished by adding my coconuts, Doodlebug Sprinkles in Bon Bon.

Challenge entry:

Just Add Ink - Challenge #376 - Just Add 'D' (Die cuts / Distress Ink)

Card 3

Everything here was from the kit, other than ProMarkers and Wink of Stella to colour and a couple of stitched dies.  I adhered the lolly/ice cream paper to the entire card base, then split a piece of white cardstock on the diagonal and adhered this over the top. The beach huts were coloured with ProMarkers and die cut with an MFT Die-namics stitched rectangle die, and the sentiment was cut from a smaller one in the same set.  I coloured the three elements of the ice cream, fussy cut them out, cut a slit in the ice cream to tuck in the flake, covered with clear Wink of Stella then adhered to the card with adhesive and glue dots.

Challenge entry:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stamp It

Card 4

This one was predominantly all bits from the kit too.  The image I coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos before mounting onto some of the floral patterned paper.  I wrapped the ribbon around a piece of white cardstock and adhered the image panels on top.  I die cut the sentiment and a piece of the orange cardstock using the Tiny Tags Die by Clearly Besotted and offset these before adhering.  I finished by adding some of the gems to the ribbon and tag, and finally added some Glossy Accents to her sunglasses.

Challenge entry:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It

Card 5

I wasn't really sure where I was going with this one and it's my least favourite but thought I would share it anyway.  I die cut the pink cardstock and the cocktail image using rectangle dies.  The cocktail was coloured with ProMarkers and some Wink of Stella.  The hibiscus die cuts were colour blended with Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss.  I layered up all the elements, added the 'cheers' sentiment which I kept white and finished with some of the smooth gems.

If you've made it to the end of this post, thank you so much for sticking with it.  I'm now off to see what my honey buddies have made with the kit!

I'll be back very soon with the details of the upcoming challenge at Less is More.

Muse Challenge #232 - Swirly Colour Lifting

Hi guys

These months are flying by far too fast this year and it's my turn to be your designer again over at Muse this week.  I love it, of course, but it only seems like last week I was writing my last Muse post!

Hopefully you can grab some inspiration from my card this week.  I've included masking, ink blending, stencilling (water spritz colour lift), a glossy die cut and embossed sentiment strip.  Or perhaps you can take the colours or layout as your starting point.

Here it is...

I seem to be drawn to the purple/blue/green combo quite a lot but I haven't used these particular shades of ink together before.  I masked a diagonal strip of a white cardstock panel and blended the three Distress Ink colours.  With the masks still in place I laid a swirly stencil over the ink blending, spritzed with water, removed the stencil and waited a few moments before blotting with a paper towel to remove some of the colour.  I still love the moment the masks are removed and reveal those lovely clean lines of blending against the white!  I popped the panel up on fun foam before adding a black die cut sentiment and the remainder of the sentiment heat embossed in white on a strip of black.  I finished by adding some Glossy Accents to the die cut to give it some shine.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans, Pine Needles; VersaMark
• Stencil: Neat & Tangled - Swirly Twirly
• Die: Wplus9 - Sending Hoping Wishing
• Stamp: Altenew - Beautiful Lady
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Accents: Ranger - Glossy Accents

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you can play along this week, it will be great to see your interpretations of this one.

Happy Little Stampers September 2017 CAS Challenge

Hello crafters

As it's the beginning of the month it's time for lots of new challenges at Happy Little Stampers, and today is the turn of the September CAS challenge.  Here are the details...

And please don't forget to keep you creations clean and simple:

And, one lucky winner will win a $20 coupon to the HLS store.

So, here's my DT inspiration card for you for this month and I've used the HLS Thinking of You stamp set which is discontinuing and can be purchased right now at a reduced price, here.

On a panel of white cardstock slightly smaller than the card base I began by blending some Distress Ink up from the bottom corner, fading it out.  I then flicked some water droplets over the ink and blotted away with a paper towel.  I gave it a quick blast with my heat tool to ensure it was dry before stamping the script detail.  I then stamped the poppy silhouette in black, using my MISTI so I could re-stamp to ensure it was nice and dark, then stamped the main sentiment in charcoal ink.  I finished by adhering the panel onto the card base using fun foam.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Scattered Straw; Hero Arts - Soft Granite, Charcoal; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Thinking of You; MFT - Grand Peaceful Wild Flowers

Challenge entries:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations - Challenge #349 - Anything Goes
House of Cards - September Challenge - Add Text and/or Colours

Thanks so much for popping by.  Please do pop over to the main HLS challenge blog for more inspiration from my teamies.  And why not join in, you have until the end of September to play along with this challenge, as well as the many other challenges which will be launching over the next week or so.

Less is More Week #344

Good morning

And welcome to Saturday morning and another fresh challenge over at Less is More.  As we're now into September our first challenge of the month, as always, is a Colour challenge.  Here are the details...

Our fabulous sponsor for September is Happy Little Stampers so please do play along throughout the month for a chance to win a prize!

The lovely Kylie from HLS is also joining us today as our guestie so please do pay her a visit and make her feel welcome :)

Just the one card from me this week, and I've used all Happy Little Stampers stamps on this one...

On some white cardstock, I prepped with an anti-static powder tool and then I stamped the images, a few at a time and embossed them in white.  I then blended the two colours of Distress Ink on the diagonal to reveal all the white party images.  I die cut a section using a pierced square die before popping the square up on some 3D foam onto my card base, for which I chose some white linen cardstock for a change.  The sentiment was embossed in white on a black cardstock strip.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Birthday Friends, Bold Birthday Sentiments, Mix Mash
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Twisted Citron, Blueprint Sketch
• Embossing Powder: Altenew - Pure White
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax

Challenge entries:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #257 - Make Your Mark (sponge blending)

Crafty Creations - Challenge #349 - Anything Goes

For more inspiration, please do pop over to the main LIM challenge blog as my teamies have some lovely examples for you this week using this colour combo.

Wishing you a happy Saturday and I'll be back later this evening with details of this month's Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge.

Take care