Less is More Challenge #446

Hi there

It's Saturday and time for a new challenge at Less is More, but I'm sure some of you won't be excited to hear that we're back to the dreaded One Layer week! lol

And this time we want to see your one layer creations combined with...

Oooh, this one's a toughy!

Monogram isn't an easy theme and then combined with only being able to use the card base makes it much more tricky.  I was scratching my head for quite a while thinking about what to do and how to produce what I wanted to do for my DT card but, with a little forward planning I managed to create the vision I had in my mind.  Here it is...

I knew I wanted to use this sentiment stamp saying 'friends forever' which has been in my stash, well, forever!  I just had to figure out a way of creating the 'FF' behind it and I certainly don't have any alphabet stamps this large!  So I printed the 'FF' onto some fairly thin paper then drew around the letters on the reverse with a pencil.  Then I scribbled over the front to trace it onto a sheet of masking paper.  I tried to cut the letters out with a craft knife but the masking paper dragged a little so I used some tiny decoupage scissors to cut away the negative space.  The rest was pretty straightforward.  With the masking paper over my card front I ink blended through the letters with light pink ink then stamped the ditsy flowers and leaves, keeping the colours fairly pale.  All that was left to do was remove the mask and stamp the sentiment.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Stampin' Up - Stacks of Wishes (sentiment); Wplus9 - Happy Wishes (tiny images)
• Ink: Distress Ink - Spun Sugar; Altenew - Sea Breeze, Soft Lilac, Minty Mint; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Other: Inkadinkado - Stamping Mask Paper

Please give this challenge a go, with a little forward planning it's not as difficult as you first think.

Ombre Birthday Balloons

Hi there

Another recent make from me today and this time it's a birthday card I made for a male colleague.

When I first started selecting the patterned papers for this I thought the colours would be a little too feminine but combined with the dark grey I think it makes it very gender neutral.

I began by die cutting the grey panel with a stitched rectangle die.  I adhered the panel to the card base, making sure there was plenty of adhesive within the negative space of the letters.  I then die cut the sentiment again from some ombre patterned paper and paper pieced the letters back in, including the grey centres.  To finish I die cut two balloons from some polka dot ombre papers, layered and adhered these off the edge of the card and trimmed away the edges.

Materials used:

• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Happy Birthday To You, Blueprints 26; Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Stitched Rectangles
• Patterned Papers: Craft Sensations - Ombre Designs

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - June Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Uniko - Challenge #65 - Anything Goes (Optional twist: use die cuts)

It's not often I make a card which involves no stamping whatsoever, and it's a simple design I could replicate using more of my patterned papers which I don't reach for nearly enough.

Thanks for taking the time to visit.

Baby Shower Elephant

Hi there

Following on from my last post, I'm now sharing the second baby shower card I made which was requested by a friend.

Clearly Besotted really do create the cutest images so I've used more of their sets here.  And as the sex of the baby had not been revealed, I chose to use lemon and mint to keep it gender neutral...

I stamped all the images first, from various stamp sets, and die cut them with their co-ordinating dies.  'Mummy to be' was the requested sentiment so I printed this on white paper then adhered it to some cardstock.  Before die cutting the heart I used a polka dot background stamp inked up in yellow to co-ordinate with the elephant's ear, and stamped this over the sentiment.  I die cut a panel using a scalloped rectangle die and I was then faffing around with the placement of all the elements for ages.  The heart was causing me a problem but in the end I settled with tucking it under the banner. 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted (most are retired sets) - Baby Shower, April Showers, April Showers Additions, Mini Basic Banners (all with co-ordinating dies), Building Blocks II 
• Ink: Altenew - Silver Stone, Silver Lake, Mountain Mist, Buttercream
• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Scalloped Rectangles; MFT Die-namics - Stitched Heart Stax

Thanks again for taking a look, your visits are always so appreciated :)

Baby Shower Safari

Hi there

Today I'm sharing the first of two baby shower cards I was commissioned to make for a friend recently.

I was told that one of the recipients was decorating the nursery with a safari theme so that was my inspiration for this one...

I started by stamping and the colouring the animals with Copics, no fancy shading, and then die cut them with their co-ordinating dies.  The request was to have 'mummy to be' rather than a baby shower sentiment so I printed the sentiment on white paper, adhered it to cardstock and then die cut with a stitched sentiment die.  Next I die cut a panel using a scalloped rectangle die and added some Distress Ink shading to the background with a few water splatters, just to add a little interest to the background.  I adhered the animals and sentiment strip, popping the giraffe up on 3D foam squares, then finished with a congrats sentiment above.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Petite Plushies, Modern Calligraphy
• Coloured with Copic markers
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress Ink - Speckled Egg; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Petite Plushies co-ordinating dies; Create a Smile - Scalloped Rectangles; MFT Die-namics - Stitched Sentiment Strips

Challenge entries:

STAMPlorations - June CAS Challenge - Anything CAS Goes

Thanks for looking.  I'll be back later to share the second baby shower card I made at the same time.  Enjoy your day :)

Perfectly CAS June 2021 Challenge

Good evening

It's Perfectly CAS new challenge day, here is the cue card for this June challenge...

A simple one, just remember to keep your design to one third or less.  Here's my Design Team card...

Not much to say about this one really.  I stamped the sentiment first in Versafine ink which is my preferred ink for crisp clean sentiments.  Then I stamped the image using Memento ink and coloured it with Copics.  I could do with a few cards like this in my stash, this last year I keep missing birthdays as I have no reason to check my diary because there's just nothing in it!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Heffy Doodle - Everyday Sentiment Duos; Clearly Besotted - Undercover Plushies
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Coloured with Copics

Challenge entries:

NBUS - Challenge #27 - First use of both these stamp steps

STAMPlorations - June CAS Challenge - Anything CAS Goes

AAA Cards - CAS Game #192 - One Corner

Thank you for taking a look, I'll be back again soon to share more.

Bears and Balloons

Hi there

Today I'm sharing a card I was commissioned to make for a friend for her daughter's wedding.  The special day was yesterday so I'm safe to share it online now!

The request was for it to be A5 (UK sizing) as it was a special card so this is twice the size of the normal A6 size I usually make.  As a CAS cardmaker I do struggle to fill an A5 space but I think I made it work here.

She asked for something cute and with balloons and the wedding colours were subtle pink and purple so this is what I came up with...

I've had this cute stamp in my stash for about ten years!  I've only used it once before but it's perfect for a cute wedding card.  I stamped the bears first, coloured them with Copics then masked them off before stencilling the layered balloons behind using Distress Inks.  Once dry I then stamped the heart clusters and heat embossed in silver.  I printed the sentiment onto white paper (my printer struggles to take cardstock), so to solve this I then adhered it to some white cardstock before die cutting with a curvy rectangle die.  A wrapped some lilac ribbon across the panel, securing on the reverse before topping with the sentiment die cut.  The whole panel was then adhered to the card base on fun foam and to finish I added some shimmer to the champagne glasses using a sparkle pen, you can just about see it in the photo below.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Stampavie - Bubbly Bears; Uniko - Balloon Bash
• Stencil: MFT - Big Balloons
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress Ink - Kitsch Flamingo, Spun Sugar, Dusty Concord, Shaded Lilac; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver
• Die: Spellbinders - Reverse Wonky Rectangles
• Coloured with Copics
• Accents: Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen - Clear

Challenge entries:

STAMPlorations - June Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers - June Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking, enjoy the rest of your weekend whatever you're up to.

Favourite Gay

Hi there

Just popping by to share a card I made which was a request from a friend.

I can't take credit for this design as I was given a picture of the kind of card she wanted, which was an image of one she found online by You Said It Cards (pic at bottom of post).

So this is just my version of it using what I had in my stash...

I'm not able to use my printer to print on thicker card used for card bases so luckily I had all the wording required within three different stamp sets, and I think the mixed fonts work well here.  The 'happy' and 'birthday' were from one set, the 'to my' from another set and the 'favourite' from a third set.  For the coloured lettering I adhered thin strips of cardstock to create a rainbow, trimmed to specific widths to fit within the letter dies, onto some paper and die cut the letters.  I then die cut the letters once more from white cardstock and adhered them together to give a little more structure and dimension.  So, all in all, an easy card, the part that took the longest was making sure the stamps were all central.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - All Occasion Sentiments #2, You Are...Sentiments Outlined; Clearly Besotted - Modern Calligraphy Additions
• Dies: Lil' Inker Designs - Mixed and Stitched Alphabet
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Cardstock from stash

And here is the picture of the design I was asked to recreate....

...a pretty good result!

Thanks for taking a look.  I've more to share in the next few days so please do check back :)

Less is More Challenge #445

Hi guys

I'm back after taking a break from the last challenge at Less is More.  I've not had a break since challenge #416 so felt like I needed a little time out!

But I'm back to it today with the new challenge which this time is a Colour challenge...

Now that the weather has finally turned around in the UK after May being an absolute washout, I decided to duplicate the lovely blue sky and sunshine onto my card for this one...

This was was pretty easy to put together.  On some white cardstock I stencilled the clouds using Distress Oxide ink and then used a circle die to cut out a section of my background.  I die cut the sun from some yellow cardstock and then used some hammered white cardstock for the cloud die cuts, to give them a fluffy appearance.  You can just about make out the hammered detail in the photo below.  I then arranged and adhered all the die cuts onto my card base, some popped up on 3D foam.  To finish I stamped the sentiment in black ink and added some shimmer to the sun.

Materials used:

• Stencil: MFT - Mini Cloud Edges
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Shine Bright
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Tumbled Glass; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Double Stitched Circle Stax; Xcut - Dinky Dies: Sun; Clearly Besotted - Cloudy Day Dies
• Accents: Spectrum Noir - Shimmer Pen: Clear

Challenge entries:

My Time to Craft - Challenge #459 - Things in the Sky

Happy Little Stampers - June Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

STAMPlorations - June Theme & Photo Prompt Challenge - Stamps and 2 Colours

STAMPlorations - June CAS Challenge - Anything CAS goes

Uniko - Challenge #65 - Anything Goes (optional twist: use die cuts)

As usual, the challenge link will remain open for two weeks.  And if you need some inspiration please do pop over to the main challenge post to check out the great projects the Design Team are sharing using these colours.

I've been a bit quiet on here lately but have been making a few cards for orders so I'll be sharing those in the comings days.  Thanks so much for popping by, I really appreciate you taking the time to take a look.

Happy Little Stampers June 2021 CAS Challenge

Hi there

The CAS Challenge for June is now live over at Happy Little Stampers and we have a fun theme for you this time...

For my Design Team card I chose a stamp I've had in my stash for a long time.  I've only used it once before, many years ago, so it was about time I inked it up again...

Pretty simple execution for this one.  The upper panel was die cut with a scalloped rectangle.  I then stamped the main image and coloured it with Copics.  I found a co-ordinating sentiment stamp from another set and stamped this in black, adhered the panel to the card base and then there was just one thing left to do....add sparkle to the shoes of course!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Stamping Bella - Uptown Girl Reilly Loves to Relax; Reverse Confetti - Clink
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Scalloped Rectangles
• Coloured with Copics
• Accents: Spectrum Noir Shimmer Pen - Clear 

Thanks so much for taking a look.  The challenge link will remain open until the end of the month so there's plenty of time to join in.