Less is More Challenge #431

Good morning

And just like that it's the start of another new challenge over at Less is More!  I honestly don't know where the time is going this year.  Here in the UK we'll be putting our clocks back tomorrow, I can't get my head around it at all!

Anyhoooo, back to the challenge, and this time it's a Recipe challenge...

And continuing as our super generous sponsor for the month of October is

My crafty mojo has been a bit absent lately but I enjoyed making this one and I'm really pleased with the result, and I put some some of my Uniko products to use here too...

I began by stamping the pinstripes and then stencilled the largest leaves image in two shades of green ink.  I then stamped two more leaf images, in dark green and dark purple shades.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in white on a sentiment flag die cut from green cardstock.  This was then popped up on 3D foam, securing two leaf die cuts, one cut from dark green cardstock and the other from vellum.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Background Blocks: Pinstripe II, Nature's Treasures I, Flower Power #1
• Stencil: Uniko - Nature's Treasures II
• Ink: Altenew - Limestone, Evergreen, Andromeda; Distress Ink - Shabby Shutters, Iced Spruce; VersaMark
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Blueprints 26; Creative Expressions - Olive Branch; Britannia Dies - Leaf Strip
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White

Challenge entries:

NBUS Challenge #19 - This is the first use of the pinstripe background stamp and the sentiment strip die

STAMPlorations - October CAS Challenge - Anything CAS Goes

Thanks so much for taking a look today.  I hope you'll be inspired to play along over at Less is More, and you can find lots more inspiration on the main challenge blog, where my teamies are also sharing their projects for this foliage challenge.  As always, the link will remain open for two weeks.

Autumn Botanicals

Hi there

Just a quick post tonight to share the birthday card I made for my lovely my,

I've only used this Altenew stamp set once before and wanted to ink up the leaves in autumnal shades this time.

I love the co-ordinating dot layers in this stamp set and wanted to emboss them.  So on a die cut panel I stamped the leaves in orange and brown around a central sentiment.  I blasted the images with my heat gun and used some anti-static powder before then inking up the dot layers with VersaMark and heat embossing in gold.  I adhered the panel onto the card base on fun foam.  I was going to add some sequins and gems but it looked too busy with the metallic dots so I decided to call this one finished.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Altenew - Dot Botanicals; Woodware - Big Birthday Words
• Ink: Altenew - Autumn Blaze, Mocha; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles

Challenge entries:

STAMPlorations - October Theme - Stamps and Autumn Colours

My Time to Craft - Challenge #442 - Autumnal Colours

Stamping Sensations - October Challenge - Autumn Glory

Sunday Stamps - Challenge #241 - Earthy Tones (brown/orange/gold)

Thanks so much for taking a look, your visits are always appreciated.

Less is More Challenge #430

Hi there

We have a different type of challenge for you over at Less is More starting this morning.  It is a Theme challenge but with a twist.  Our lovely leading LIM lady, Sharon, has a birthday today so our challenge is to CASe one of her lovely creations!

Happy Birthday, and wishing you a lovely day, Sharon xx

And here is her fantastic design...

There are so many elements to Sharon's creation: stars, flowers, warm shades, gold, foliage, die cutting, repeat stamping, banner sentiment strip, the layout...and lots more!  Just take any of these elements as inspiration for your own make.

And as we've whizzed into a new month, we also have the fabulous Uniko as our sponsor for the whole of October. 

Ok, onto my card.  I focussed on the colours, stars, flowers, gold die cuts, heat embossing, faux stitched edging, focal point trio and the banner sentiment.  I also used stamps from our sponsor...

I began by stamping some repeats of the flower stamps on a scrap of white cardstock and heat embossing these in gold before ink blending over them with the three different shades.  I then used some star dies to cut these out.  I die cut the balloon strings and bow from gold mirri card and adhered these to a die cut panel together with the stars.  I used one of the same inks to colour a sentiment strip and stamped and embossed the sentiment in gold.  This was popped up on glue dots before adhering the panel to the card base on fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Background Builders: Flower Power, Flower Power #2
• Ink: Distress Ink - Abandoned Coral, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed; VersaMark
• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Wplus9 - Whole Lotta Happy; MFT Die-namics - Blueprints 26, Stitched Sentiment Strips
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich
• Mirri card from stash

The teamies have provided lots more inspiration which you can find over at the main challenge page.  Why not play along?  I'd love to see your twists on Sharon's design, and as always, the linky will be open for two weeks :)

Clouds and Rainbows Bookmarks

Hi there

I've been busy making more bookmarks this weekend.  This little collection I started yesterday and the first few took me a little time to make while I figured out the best way to put them together.  I then continued with a few more today and those came together a little quicker.

They all follow the same basic design, but all differ slightly in the placement of the stencilling and die cuts, have different designs on the reverse and I've added a selection of ribbons and twine.

For each I began by inking up the cloudy backgrounds using a stencil.  I then die cut the rainbow from six different pastel shades of textured paper, and put these all together in different sequences of rainbow order. I adhered the rainbow strips in different positions on the backgrounds and die cut the tall tag to create the base of each bookmark.  I then partially die cut more tags, just using the bottom half and used cloud dies to cut different variations which were then layered up on the base of each bookmark.  I die cut more tall tags from different patterned papers and adhered these to the back.  Each was finished with grosgrain ribbon and some twine.

The next three were the ones which I made today and I changed up the backgrounds by stencilling the clouds in different pastel shades, and placing the rainbows lower down to show more of the background.

Materials used:

• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Tall Tags Duo, Stitched Rainbow; Lawn Fawn - Puffy Cloud Borders
• Stencil: MFT - Cloud
• Ink: Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar
• Coloured Cardstock: Papermania
• Patterned Paper: DoCrafts - Designstax: Boofle
• Accents: Grosgrain Ribbon - American Crafts; Twine - Doodlebug

Thanks so much for looking.  I'm having great fun making these bookmarks, I hope you like them.