Less is More Challenge #385

Good morning, folks

It's time for another new challenge over at Less is More.


Before I share the challenge details I just want to take a moment to say farewell to our fabulous teamie and leader, my lovely friend, Sarah who has decided to step down from the team.  Sarah, you've been amazing since taking over the running of the challenge, working so hard behind the scenes, and I, as well as the rest of the DT are going to miss you enormously.  I know you'll stay in touch and may also join us from time to time at Less is More, but if you don't, just remember, I know where you live!!! :)  Missing you already, buddy xx


The challenge starting today will also be the last one of 2018 (booo!) but on a cheery note, along with this challenge we are also holding a Design Team call (yay!).  You can find full details over on the main challenge blog, here.


Ok, on to the challenge details and, yes, it's the 'Marmite' challenge, you either love or hate it.  It's One Layer time but to take the pain away we've made the theme really easy for you...

Continuing as our November sponsor is Happy Little Stampers, so please do play along to be in with a chance of winning the monthly prize

We have a Guest Designer joining us for this challenge too, Katrina Bufton, who was our Lucky Dip winner back in September.  If you have time, please do stop by her blog to say hi and take a look at her fabulous holiday card.


I have two cards for you this time, here's the first...

I began by debossing the card base using a bauble die, then die cut a post-it note with the same die to create a mask before colour blending with Distress Inks.  Once dry I stamped the snowflake onto the bauble with VersaMark ink and heat embossed in white.  I then stamped the sentiment above it in black ink and hand drew the string and bow with a silver pen.  The debossed detail can be seen more clearly in the photo below...

Materials used:

• Die: Clearly Besotted - Signature Christmas Die Collection
• Ink: Distress Ink - Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet; VersaMark; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Let It Snow and Merry Kissmas
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Accents: Signo Uniball pen - Silver

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #319 - Clean and Simple

Fab 'n' Funky - Challenge #417 - Christmas

Stamping Sensations - November Challenge - Get Ready for Christmas

Happy Little Stampers - November Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (CAS)

I wasn't going to share this card as I wasn't happy with the ink blending, I think an odd piece of rogue cardstock found it's way into my stash and the blend was really grainy!  But I do like the card overall so here it is...

I masked around the edges of the card base with post-it notes, leaving a rectangle in the centre.  I then used a landscape die to die cut a mask from some spare cardstock and then blended the sky with Distress Inks.  I removed the landscape mask so I could add some blue to the snow at the base to highlight the rectangle.  I stamped the sentiment before placing the mask back in position. To finish I spread some embossing paste through a splatter stencil to create the snow.

Materials used:

• Die: Clearly Besotted - Tree Landscape Die
• Ink: Distress Ink - Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stencil: Tim Holtz - Speckles
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver

Challenge entries:

Just Add Ink - Challenge #435 - Photo Inspiration

I do hope you'll play along in our last challenge of the year, and it's a great reason to get some more Christmas/Holiday cards done, if like me you're way behind with them!  And I hope some of you will also apply to be on the DT, our participants are so talented.

Bye for now.

For Remembrance Day

Good morning

Just a simple and appropriate card for today...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Pure Poppies, Brushed Greetings II
• Ink: Memento - Cottage Ivy; Altenew - Crimson, Velvet; Versafine - Onyx Black

Challenge entry:

Allsorts - Challenge #493 - Poppies/Colour Red

Thanks for visiting, have a lovely Sunday x

Less is More Challenge #384

Good morning

Starting over at Less is More today we have a Colour challenge for you.  I'll get straight to it and show you the cue card...

As always, please ensure your entries are clean and simple.

Our generous Sponsor for this month is Happy Little Stampers so please do play along in our November challenges to be in with a chance of winning a prize.

Joining us as a Guest Designer this week we have the wonderful Angie of Cimba Creative Fun.  She was our September winner and is a regular participant at Less is More.  Please do pop over and take a look at her gorgeous card for our colour challenge theme.

Right, onto my cards, and I have two for you this time.  Here's the first, using copper, gold and silver and stamps by our fabulous sponsor...

For this card I chose a teal coloured base and used that for my stamped panel too.  I used metallics for the rest of the design.  I began by first stamping the holly and heat embossing with copper embossing powder, then stamped the berries, added the embossing powder and brushed away any parts of the image which crossed over onto the holly before also heat embossing in copper.  I then painted the images using a mix of mica powder and water in silver and gold.  I then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in silver before die cutting with a pierced square die.  Something else was needed so I die cut the same square from some gold cardstock and offset the panels before popping up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Merry Kissmas
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Copper, Metallic Silver
• Mica Powder: Honey Doo Crafts - Silver Sparkle; Ranger Perfect Pearls - Heirloom Gold
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Squares Stax
• Cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #317 - Make Your Mark (painted with mica powders)

Stamping Sensations - November Challenge - Get Ready for Christmas

Happy Little Stampers - November Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (CAS)

My second card is one I recently made for my boyfriend's parents who were celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary...

For the main panel I ran this through my Big Shot using a great little embossing folder.  It creates a horizontal banner towards the top and an embossed heart and a border along the bottom.  I heat embossed the sentiment in gold and attached the panel to a slightly larger piece of textured gold cardstock flat on the card base.  I mixed some transparent texture paste with gold glitter and spread this through a heart stencil and left it to dry before die cutting with a stitched heart.  I cut the same heart from the same gold cardstock I adhered to the base.  All that was left to do was adhere the hearts, one popped up on 3D foam, and a little bow made from gold organza ribbon.

Materials used:

• Embossing Folder:  Xcut - Banner
• Stamps: Uniko - Flower Power #7
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Heart Stax
• Stencil: Skull and Cross Buns - Brush Hearts
• Texture Paste: Ranger - Translucent Matte
• Accents: Nuvo Glitter - Light Gold
• Ribbon and cardstock from stash 

Thanks so much for visiting today.  My teamies have some great examples which you can find over on the main Less is More challenge page, here.  So, unless you're super organised (unlike me!) why not use this challenge to add some Christmas cards to your stash using metallics?  I really must get a wriggle on with mine, time seems to be passing so fast, Santa will be on his sleigh before I know it!

Guest Designer for Honey Doo Crafts - Bonus Card!

Hi guys

I have one more card to share which I made at the same time as my Guest Designer cards for Honey Doo Crafts, and using one of the stamps from the Brush Strokes set.

My inspiration for this card came from a beautiful photograph that my brother took last month, of the Hunters Moon rising over Torbay, taken from our home town of Torquay in South Devon.  I've included his photograph below my card photos.

I decided to use one of the brush stroke images to mimic the coast, but had to flip the photograph left to right because of the orientation of the stamp. 

Here's my card...

I began by die cutting a small circle from a post-it note and used the negative mask to blend the moon first with Distress Inks.  I then used the circle die cut mask to cover the moon and blended the background, then added another post-it horizontally to blend the line of the horizon with a darker shade.  I then used black ink to stamp the brush stroke 'coastline'. 

All that was left to do was die cut the inked panel and mat it popped up on another die cut frame and adhere to the card base.  I decided to leave this one sentiment free.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Ripe Persimmon, Squeezed Lemonade, Blueprint Sketch, Faded Jeans; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Honey Doo - Brush Strokes
• Dies: Hero Arts - Circle Infinity Dies; Spellbinders - Classic Rectangles

And here is my inspiration, my brother's beautiful capture of the Hunters Moon...

If you are interested in photography you can find his Facebook page, here.

Thanks for your visit, I'll be back tomorrow morning with details of the next Less is More challenge.  Bye for now :) x

Guest Designer for Honey Doo Crafts - Selection Three

Hello again

I was going to leave this post until a little later in the day but decided to just hit Publish right away, why not eh?!

I had great fun creating with the wonderful Honey Doo Crafts stamps for my Guest Designer spot.  They will be featuring these stamp sets on the craft channel, Hochanda, tomorrow 10 November 2018.

Here are more of my makes to whet your appetite.

First up, I've used the absolutely gorgeous set called Flower Arrangement.  It's a large stamp set and the detail on these florals is stunning.  I've kept this first card super simple, and it's my favourite from all of my Guest Designer makes...

I wanted to create a vintage feel for this card so chose a cream card base and panel.  The image I've created is actually made up of three of the smaller stamps from this set, the flower, leaves and berry sprig.  A little masking was required for this.  I simply stamped with Distress Ink and then used a small amount of water and a paint brush to draw the colour in from the edges.  I love this technique with Distress Inks, it's so easy.  I used a pierced square die to cut out my image and used a slightly larger die from the same set to emboss my card base then popped the image up on 3D foam.  I then simply stamped the sentiment below in a co-ordinating ink.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Flower Arrangement, Birthday Sentiments
• Ink: Distress Ink - Pumice Stone; Versafine - Smokey Gray
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax

Next up, I've used the Flower Arrangement set together with another of the large sets called Paint Splodges...

This is one of my favourite layouts for CAS cards.  I started by masking a horizontal panel and then stamped above and below it, first with various paint splodges in bright colours, and then with the floral images just in black.  I just love the detail of these flowers and leaves.  I removed the masks and then stamped the sentiment in between.  I felt something was missing so I added some embossed silver lines.  I did this by adding masks, leaving just a thin line visible, then pushing through the gap with VersaMark ink.  The masks were then removed and the embossing powder added and heated.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Flower Arrangement, Paint Splodges, Birthday Sentiments
• Ink: Altenew - Tide Blue, Coral Berry, Deep Iris; Versafine - Onyx Black; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver

For this next make I used the beautiful Spring Flowers set along with the co-ordinating dies...

These images were just shouting to be inked in pastels, they're so pretty.  So I took some white cardstock, stamped and heat embossed the flowers in white and then coloured them by blending with Distress Inks before die cutting them out.  Using a panel of white cardstock slightly smaller than the card base, I stamped the sentiment off to the left, positioned the flowers where I wanted them and stamped the leaves in a pale green/grey ink.  The panel was then popped up on fun foam and the flowers permanently adhered in place, the top one on glue dots.  I love these flowers, aren't they pretty...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Spring Flowers, Birthday Sentiments
• Dies: Honey Doo - Spring Flowers
• Ink: Distress Ink - Squeezed Lemonade, Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar, Shaded Lilac; Versafine - Onyx Black; Versa Color - Laurel Leaf; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White

Last up, I've used Spring Flowers again and Paint Splodges, although very difficult to see the effect on camera...

I die cut a white panel with a stitched rectangle and stamped the flower with two shades of Distress Ink by dabbing one in the centre, and one around the petals.  I used the same technique as with the first card, using a small amount of water to draw the colour in from the edges.  I then stamped the sentiment with an ombre effect using two shades of pigment ink, and my MISTI to enable multiple stamping.  Although I love CAS it did look a little plain so I stamped one of the large paint splodges and embossed with a clear embossing powder which has an iridescent sparkle.  The gloss of the EP is picked up in the photo below, but not the sparkle unfortunately...

The panel was then adhered to the card base using a piece of fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Spring Flowers, Birthday Sentiments, Paint Splodges
• Ink: Distress Ink - Carved Pumpkin, Candied Apple; Versa Color - Marigold, Camelia; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: All Night Media - Crystal Sparkle

Don't forget, Honey Doo Crafts have two upcoming shows on the craft shopping channel, Hochanda (Freeview 85 / Sky 673) tomorrow, 10 November 2018, a 10am and 2pm GMT.  And I hope you will be able to tune in tomorrow to see these fabulous products in their full glory, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks once again for visiting, I really appreciate each and every one of you that stops by :)

Guest Designer for Honey Doo Crafts - Selection Two

Good morning

I'm back today to share more makes using the wonderful products from Honey Doo Crafts which will be showcased on Hochanda tomorrow.

Honey Doo Crafts have some absolutely stunning floral stamps, some simple outlines which are great for colouring, and others which are super detailed.

My first card today features a flower and leaves from the Cherry Blossom set, together with co-ordinating dies, and a background using the super cool Brush Strokes set...

This is one of my favourites using these products.  Directly on the card base I stamped the same brush stroke image in two different shades of dye ink to create a kind of plaid effect.  The flower and leaves were stamped and embossed in white and I used co-ordinating Distress Inks to blend the colour.  These were then die-cut with their co-ordinating dies.  The leaves were adhered flat, the flower was popped up on 3D foam and I stamped the sentiment in black, positioned to balance the design.  I finished with a single glittered enamel dot for the flower centre.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Brush Strokes, Cherry Blossom, Birthday Sentiments
• Dies: Honey Doo - Cherry Blossom
• Ink: Altenew - Lagoon, Sea Breeze; Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Ink - Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio
• Enamel dot from stash

Next up I've used another of the gorgeous floral sets called Fleur, which I've also paired with Brush Strokes for background detail...

I love grey and blush together so chose that colour palette for this one.  I started on the card base and stamped one of the brush stroke images three times to add interest to the background.  The flowers and leaves were stamped and heat embossed in white onto grey and blush cardstock and fussy cut.  These were really easy to cut out just by following the embossed edges.  Before adhering these I used the handle of a paint brush to add a slight curl to the leaves and petals, then popped some up on glue dots.  The dimension can be seen more clearly below...

The sentiment was stamped in a co-ordinating grey ink and to add some interest to the card base I created some double score lines around the edge.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Brush Strokes, Fleur, Birthday Sentiments
• Ink: Altenew - Blush; Hero Arts - Soft Granite; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Coloured Cardstock: Papermania - Midnight Blush

On this next card I used Fleur again for an autumnal theme...

I began with some kraft cardstock and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in white.  I then used the different leaves from the set and also heat embossed these in white.  I then used coloured pencils to add the shading to the leaves.  The panel was then trimmed down with a stitched rectangle die. 

Before adhering the panel flat, I stamped the flowers in a soft neutral shade to add interest to the border of the card base.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Fleur, Birthday Sentiments
• Ink: VersaMark; Altenew - Morning Frost
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Wonky Stitched Rectangles
• Coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos
• Kraft Cardstock - Neenah - Desert Storm

For this card I used the gorgeous Carnation set...

On a panel of watercolour cardstock I stamped the stems and the flower heads, with a little masking to place one behind the other.  Once the ink was dry I covered the majority of the card, just leaving the area of the flower heads visible, and very lightly sprinkled some Brusho crystals in two shades before spritzing with water.  I used a paint brush to manipulate some of the colour then left to dry. I then die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle and stamped the sentiment in the same black ink.

To finish, I mixed some silver mica powder with water and gently splattered my panel to add some shimmer and sparkle.  The panel was then adhered to a co-ordinating coloured card base.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Carnation, Birthday Sentiments
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Brushos - Purple, Ultramarine
• Die: Create a Smile - Double Stitched Rectangles
• Mica Powder: Honey Doo - Silver Sparkle
• Cardstock from stash

Don't forget, Honey Doo Crafts have two upcoming shows on the craft shopping channel, Hochanda (Freeview 85 / Sky 673) this coming Saturday, 10 November 2018, a 10am and 2pm GMT.

Thanks so much for popping by.  I'll be sharing more of my makes shortly.

Guest Designer for Honey Doo Crafts - Selection One

Hi guys

I'm super excited to announce that I've been invited to be a Guest Designer for Honey Doo Crafts!

They have two upcoming shows on the craft shopping channel, Hochanda (Freeview 85 / Sky 673) this coming Saturday, 10 November 2018, a 10am and 2pm GMT.

I've been lucky enough to have a play and create some samples with the wonderful products which will be showcased on the shows and will be sharing these makes in my next few post.


So, without further ado, here are my first few samples, these using some of the great Honey Doo stencils.

First up, Floral Display...

I absolutely adore how this card turned out, using the shifted stencilling technique.  When trying this technique previously, I added white ink first and then colour, but on this one I switched it around and LOVE this effect.  So I placed the stencil onto some kraft cardstock and blended through with two shades of Distress Oxide ink.  I then cleaned off the stencil, shifted it slightly and then used a dauber to add the white pigment ink.  Next I die cut the kraft panel with a stitched die.  I masked off part of a sentiment, stamped and embossed it in white onto a strip of vellum and wrapped it around the panel.  The panel was then popped up on fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Honey Doo - Floral Display
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Wilted Violet, Mermaid Lagoon; Hero Arts - Unicorn; VersaMark
• Die: Create a Smile - Double Stitched Rectangles
• Stamp: Honey Doo - Birthday Sentiments
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Vellum and Cardstock from stash

For this next card I've done some layered emboss resist using the Cogs stencil, great for the guys...

This technique is quite time consuming as you need to ensure your panel is dry between each layer, otherwise the embossing powder will stick where you don't want it.  I started with a kraft panel and used VersaMark ink through a few areas of the stencil and heat embossed in clear gloss.  I then inked over the whole panel with Distress Ink, let it dry, used anti-static powder and then repeated the process with a few more cogs.  I then blended over with a slightly darker shade, and so on with three colours.  You need to start with the lightest shade and work your way to the darkest shade for this technique.

The sentiment was heat embossed onto vellum which I die cut with a decorative mat die and then affixed to the panel with tiny silver brads.  The panel was then adhered to the base with 3D foam strips.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Honey Doo - Cogs
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Pumice Stone, Brushed Corduroy, Ground Espresso
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss, Platinum
• Stamp: Honey Doo - Birthday Sentiments
• Die: Clearly Besotted - Frame Mat Die
• Brads and Cardstock and Vellum from stash

For the following card I used the ghosting technique with the Floral Display stencil...

On a white cardstock panel I blended Distress Oxide inks, placed the stencil over the top, spritzed with water and then blotted away the colour.  I die cut the panel, first with a stitched square and then with an angled border die.  I adhered a vellum die cut butterfly and added some white Nuvo drops.  The sentiment was stamped in the corner of the card base to finish.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Honey Doo - Floral Display
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Honey Doo - Birthday Sentiments
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Butterfly Duo Die Collection; MFT Die-namics - Stitched Basic Edges; Create a Smile - Double Stitched Rectangles
• Accents: Nuvo Drops - Simply White

Last card for this post, this one using the Mosaic stencil and one of the stamp sets being featured, Cherry Blossom...

I began by stamping and masking the flowers and leaves, then with the masks still in place I inked through the stencil with two shades of Distress Ink.  I removed the stencil and spritzed the panel to create some water splatters then removed the masks from the flowers.  Ensuring that the panel was dry I then stamped the sentiment in black and added some subtle colour to the centres of the flowers.  I really like leaving images mainly uncoloured and adding colour to the background.  I have previously used this technique on some cards which you can find here and here.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Honey Doo - Cherry Blossom and Birthday Sentiments
• Stencil: Honey Doo - Mosaic
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Ink - Victorian Velvet, Worn Lipstick

I hope you like my samples so far.  If you have time, please do pop back tomorrow when I'll be sharing more of the stamps being featured on Saturday's shows.