Less is More Challenge #434

Hi there

After the challenge took a break throughout December, it's now time for the first Less is More challenge of 2021.  Our Theme challenge for the next fortnight is...

We have the super talented Heather joining us as Guest Designer for this challenge, who was our October challenge winner.  Please do pop over to her blog to take a look at her project for this challenge and to say hi.

Upon searching through my stash I realised I have very little to fit this theme, so perhaps I need to treat myself to some new goodies!  I had nothing crafty for Christmas so that makes it ok, right?

So, I decided to go with the accessories part of the theme, and something that is very appropriate for the freezing cold weather we are having in the UK at the moment:

As with most of my cards these days, I began with a stitched die cut rectangle.  I used the stamps from the set to build the focal image and then re-stamped on post-its before cutting out to use as masks.  I then blended through a stencil to create the knitted pattern to surround it.  Next I coloured the image with Copics before stamping the sentiment and adhering the panel onto the card base using fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Concord & 9th - Winter Wear
• Stencil: Skull and Cross Buns - Knitting Pattern
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress Ink - Cracked Pistachio; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Coloured with Copic markers
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #396 - Make Your Mark

STAMPlorations - January CAS Challenge - Anything CAS goes

Just Us Girls - Trend Week #566 - Use a Stencil

It's great to have lots of challenges up and running again for the new year so I'm hoping you'll join me and the LIM Design Team for this one.

Christmas Card Multiples - Angled Patterned Papers

Hi guys

The one thing I seem to disregard more than anything else in my stash is my patterned paper pads.  So I decided to make an effort to use some of them in my Christmas card designs this year.

I recently came across a great video by Lisa Beard where she shares a tutorial on how to cut four angled pieces from one piece of 6x6 paper.  You can find the video, here.

So I got to work with three festive sheets of paper and created twelve cards.

I chose paper designs, all from the same paper pad, with patterns that could be used in any orientation and therefore made all the cards with the same layout, matting and layering onto mirri cardstock and adhering onto some linen card bases, stamping an angled sentiment and cutting a word die cut, also from mirri cardstock.  The panels were all adhered in the same position and I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiments one after the other.  The die cuts words were then adhered in position.

Here's a closer look at each variation...

Festive Sweets

The festive sweets paper was matted onto a layer of green mirri card and I used gold mirri card for the Merry sentiment.

Ditsy Holly

The ditsy holly paper was matted onto a layer of gold mirri card and I used red mirri card for the Merry sentiment.

Colourful Gifts

The colourful gifts paper was matted onto a layer of red mirri card and I used green mirri card for the Merry sentiment.

Materials used:

• Patterned Paper: Doodlebug - Santa Express
• Stamps: Concord & 9th - Cozy Christmas
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: Clearly Besotted - Merry Christmas Die Collection
• Mirri cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - CAS Game #180 - Made in Minutes (Christmas)

STAMPlorations - December CAS Challenge - Anything Goes

Allsorts Challenge - Challenge #602 - Got to be Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Challenge #520 - AG (Use the word Merry)

Uniko - Challenge #62 - 'Tis the Season

I still have lots more to share so please do stop by again between now and Christmas if you have time :)

Christmas Card Multiples - Cosy Knits

Happy Sunday!

I'm back today with more of my Christmas card multiples.  Yes, I was very far behind this year so had to do a lot of mass production!

For these I used up some old coloured card blanks from my stash and reproduced the same design in different colourways.  I made about 18 of these in total.

For each of these I began by stamping and embossing the sentiment in the centre.  The red and green were embossed in gold, and the blue was embossed in silver.  I then stamped the stitched images in co-ordinating ink for a tone on tone effect.

I then topped the trees with accents.  On the blue design I added some glazed silver gems, and on the red and green versions I added a dab of glue and some gold glitter.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Concord & 9th - Cozy Christmas; Clearly Besotted - Christmas Calligraphy
• Ink: VersaMark; Altenew - Velvet, Evergreen, Desert Night
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich, Metallic Silver
• Accents: Silver gems from stash; Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter - Light Gold

Thanks so much for popping by, I'll be back with more later!

Cosy Christmas for my Bestie

Hi guys

Today I'm sharing the Christmas card I made for my best friend.

I absolutely loved this 'Winter Wear' stamp set from Concord & 9th when it was released and managed to get my hands on it.  The sentiment I used was taken from a different set, as the Winter Wear set had 'cosy' spelt the American way of 'cozy'. 

I die cut a white cardstock panel with a stitched rectangle die and used the stamps in the set to build up the two characters...that's me on the right with the 'up do' and specs, and my bestie on the left with the longer hair :D  I coloured the images with ProMarkers and stamped the sentiment below in the same black ink.  I added shimmer to the hat and Glossy Accents to the glasses which the camera has picked up in the photo below...

The panel was then adhered using fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Concord & 9th - Winter Wear; Clearly Besotted - Cosy Christmas
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Accents: Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen - Clear; Ranger - Glossy Accents

Challenge entry:

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas/Last Minute Christmas cards

I'll be back tomorrow sharing more of this year's Christmas makes.

Less is More Challenge #367

Good morning!

At Less is More it's new challenge day and we're back with a One Layer challenge for the next fortnight.  I'll get straight to it with the details...

Our March sponsor is STAMPlorations and the fabulous Shery is joining in the fun as our Guest Designer for this challenge, so please do pop over and say hi!

I have two sample cards for you, here is the first...

For this one I used watercolour card as my card base.  I laid the stencil over it and very gently sprinkled some Brusho pigment crystals over the apertures of the stencil.  I then spritzed with a mist of water and immediately removed the stencil to stop the water running underneath.  Once dry I stamped the sentiment alongside in black ink.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Hydrangea - free with Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Brushed Greetings II
• Ink: Brusho - Purple, Leaf Green; Versafine - Onyx Black

Challenge entries:

Color Throwdown - Challenge #484 - Green, Eggplant and White

I chose a coloured card base for my second card...

I placed a daisy stencil along the base of the card base and inked through with white pigment ink.  Then just on the flower centres I inked over with an orange/yellow ink.  After removing the stencil the sentiment was then overstamped in black.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Imagination Crafts - Butterfy and Daisy
• Ink: Hero Arts - Unicorn; Versa Color - Marigold; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Concord & 9th - Hello Lovely

Challenge entries:

Cards in Envy - Green Things Card Challenge
CAS-ual Fridays - Challenge #195 - Going Green

The Flower Challenge - Challenge #18 - Anything Goes

Over on the main challenge blog my teamies are sharing some great projects and there may also be more inspiration if you follow the links to their blogs too.  I hope you play along with us.