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.

Wonderful Mum

Hi there

Today I'm sharing the card I recently made to send to my wonderful mum for her birthday.

After making this card recently, I still had the pot of texture paste on my desk so thought I'd make another using texture paste, ink and a stencil.

Here it is...

I placed the mandala stencil onto a white cardstock panel and then squished three shades of Distress Ink onto my blending matt and mixed each, one by one, with matte texture paste and spread it through the stencil.  I absolutely love how the white paste completely changes the colours of Distress Inks.  The pink in the centre is in fact Wilted Violet, the lavender shade is Blueprint Sketch and the minty green in Lucky Clover!

Once dry I die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die.  I was worried the paste would flatten going through the Big Shot but the die must have taken the majority of the pressure so there is plenty of texture left on the surface.

I embossed the sentiment in white onto a vellum panel which I wrapped around the panel and secured on the reverse.  The 'wonderful' was die cut three times and stacked up, the top layer being white fine glitter cardstock.  I then finished by popping up the panel on fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Studio Katia - Mandala
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver
• Ink: Distress Ink - Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch, Lucky Clover; VersaMark
• Stamp: Papermania - Relations (serif)
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Dies: Reverse Confetti - You're So; Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Vellum and cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Time Out - Challenge #120 - Colourful (pastels can still be colourful, right?)

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting, I may be back later today with another make.  And hopefully I'll be sharing more soon as I really need to get a wriggle on and make some Christmas cards!

Muse Challenge #285 - Forest Foliage Thanks

Good afternoon, crafters

It's the first Monday of the month and therefore it's my turn to be your designer over at Muse. 

It's certainly very autumnal here in the UK, it's chilly in the mornings and evenings now and the leaves are starting to turn so I chose an autumn theme for my inspiration card for this week's challenge.

I'm really loving stencils right now, and it's been a while since I've used texture paste on a card so I paired that with a gorgeous new to me stencil and came up with this design...

I temporarily adhered the stencil to a panel of white cardstock by using masking tape on the reverse, so as not to cover up any areas of the card.  I then squished three shades of Distress Ink onto a blending mat and mixed these, one at a time, with some embossing paste using a palette knife and then spread it randomly over the stencil until all of the cardstock was covered.  I then cleaned off my stencil and left the panel to dry.

I just love how much more muted these shades are when blended with white paste, completely different to their usual shades.  The following photo shows the embossing paste much more clearly...

Once dry I cut the panel down and adhered it to the card base popped up on fun foam.  I then die cut the 'thanks' four times, three times from white cardstock and once from green, stacked these up and adhered to the panel.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Funky Fossil Designs - Forest Foliage
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver
• Ink: Distress Ink - Forest Moss, Brushed Corduroy, Spiced Marmalade
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Twice the Thanks

Challenge entries:

Uniko - Challenge #49 - Wonderful World with optional twist Thanks (the natural colours of autumn)

Allsorts - Challenge #487 - Autumn Glory

Alphabet Challenge - N for Nature

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

I hope my card will inspire you to play along this week, I'd love to see where it will take you creatively.  

Happy Little Stampers August 2018 CAS Challenge

Hi guys

It's time for a batch of new monthly challenges over at Happy Little Stampers and today it's the new CAS Challenge for August.  I'll get straight to it, we want to see...

The winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE THE RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

For my DT card this time I didn't have a clue where I was going with it, I just wanted to use some new dies from my stash.  It just evolved as I went along.  I used the Happy Little Stampers Wish You Were Here stamp set on this one...

I started by masking off a border around the edge of my card base and then spread some Nuvo Glimmer paste through a stencil to add some subtle interest to my background and left it to dry.  I recently treated myself to the fab Tag Along die collection from Clearly Besotted so I wanted to play along with that set here.  I cut the hearts die, also new to my stash, from black glitter cardstock and again from some card I'd blended with Distress Inks.  So I then adhered the black outline part of the hearts die to the tag and inlaid the coloured inner heart pieces.  I stamped the sentiment in black below this and then finished off by die cutting the bow from the same black glitter cardstock and the circle surround from the same piece of card I had ink blended.  The tag was then popped up on 3D foam.  I think the 'wish you were here' sentiment fits perfectly with a hearts theme.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Memory Box - Scraped Paint
• Embossing Paste: Nuvo Glimmer Paste - Moonstone
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Tag Along Die Collection; STAMPlorations - Clustered Hearts Die
• Ink: Distress Ink - Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Happy Little Stampers - Wish You Were Here
• Glitter cardstock from stash

Challenge entries

CAS on Friday - Challenge #138 - Tag It

STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge
Allsorts - Week 278/9 - Tags

Don't forget, the challenge linky is open until the end of the month, and do keep an eye out for the remainder of the August HLS challenges, all due to start shortly.

Cheery Robins

Hi there

Another Christmas card for you!  This one was made for a friend to give to my brother and sister-in-law.  They love nature, particularly birds, so I chose to create these cute little robins, together with winter hats!

I started by stamping the hats and then masked them to stamp the birds which are from a builder stamp set.  I coloured the hats with ProMarkers.  The birds were then fussy cut.  On a panel of pale blue cardstock I stamped the branch and the sentiment, and then masked these before spreading some Nuvo glimmer paste through a snowflake stencil.  The robins were then popped up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Wplus9 - All Year Cheer; Clearly Besotted - Arctic Animals (hats)
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Versafine - Onyx Black; Altenew - Rocky Shore, Mocha, Espresso, Coral Berry, Rouge
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Blue cardstock from stash
• Stencil: Memory Box - Tiny Snowflakes
• Accents: Nuvo Glimmer Paste - Moonstone

Challenge entries:

Creative Inspirations - Challenge #284 - Winter/Christmas

Happy Little Stampers - December Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

Uniko - Challenge #44 - Christmas

I'm nearly done, just a couple more to share very soon :)

Less is More Week #338

Hi there

It's time for a fresh new challenge over at Less is More and we're back this week with a Recipe challenge.  I hope you all enjoyed our two week collaboration with AAA Cards, and we had a fantastic number of entries so thank you very much if you've played along over the last fortnight.

Right, back to this week, here are the details...

We want to see dies/stencils/CAS embellishments, etc, but NO stamps

Considering that when I first started cardmaking I didn't do much stamping at all, I actually found this one really tricky!  But I do have two cards for you today.

Ok, so here's my first sample for you...

I chose a linen cardstock for my base and blended three shades of Distress Ink down the right hand side.  I then splattered with some water drops and blotted away some colour.  Next I used a swirl design stencil and, after masking off a section of it which covered the blended area I spread some texture paste over it, removed the stencil and set aside to dry.  I then used a 'celebrate' word die to cut some turquoise glitter card and adhered this to the bottom right corner.  Hopefully I've captured the glitter and paste detail better in the next pic...

Materials used:

• Linen and glitter cardstock from stash
• Ink: Distress Ink - Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon
• Stencil: Stamposauras (no name)
• Die: Paper Smooches - Birthday Words
• Texture Paste: Ranger - Opaque Matte

Challenge entries:

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Surf's Up
STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge

I went with a shaker for my second card this week...

I used the shaker shapes die to cut the hello aperture from a panel of white cardstock.  I adhered some acetate behind, then used some Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels inside the shaker, trapped between the acetate and some patterned paper.  This was then mounted onto the card base using 3D foam strips.

Materials used:

• Die: Clearly Besotted - Shaker Shapes Square Hello Die
• Acetate from stash
• Accents: Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels - Iced Snow
• Patterned Paper: Free with a publication

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #251 - Anything Goes

Why not join in the challenge this week?  If you're looking for some inspiration please do pop over to the main LIM challenge blog where you will find links to my teamies' personal blogs.  They've created some great projects this week....and all without stamping :)

Thanks so much for popping by today, I appreciate every one of your visits.  

Less is More Week #309

Hi there

Today marks the last Less is More challenge of 2016 and we're here with a Recipe challenge.  Today we would like to see you...

Use Dimension

Today, we also have a Guest Designer joining us, our November winner, Sandie of London Days.  If you have time please pop by Sandie's blog, I'm sure she would really appreciate a visit from you.


So, on to my card, and I've saved my final Christmas card of 2016 for today as I thought it fitted this challenge really well.  This is the card I made for my bestie this year...

I started with a panel of white cardstock slightly smaller than the card base and stencilled the first parts of the two-step tree stencils in various green Distress Inks.  I then used the second part of the tree stencils to spread over some embossing paste to create the snowy layers.  While still wet I sprinkled over some fine glitter.  The photo below shows the glitter much better although in real life this is more silvery in colour, for some reason it looks a little more gold in these pics.

From a panel the same width I die cut a curve to create the snow bank for the trees to sit behind and stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment.  I then stamped the rest of the sentiment on the main panel and finished off with a glossy pink star.

Both panels were popped up on 3D foam to add dimension, and I think the embossing paste as well as one tree appearing to be behind the other also gives a dimensional effect.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Tim Holtz - Mini Stencils Set 21
• Ink: Distress Ink - Pine Needles, Forest Moss; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Paste: Ranger Texture Paste - Opaque Matte
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Christmas Sparkle, The Best
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Snow Drifts
• Accents: Cosmic Shimmer Diamond Frost - Frosty Dawn; Papermania - Sparkly Stars Assorted Brights

Challenge entries:

STAMPlorations - December Challenge - Theme and Sketch

A Gem of a Challenge - Challenge #184 - Anything Christmas Goes

Thanks so much for popping by today and now that the festivities are over I hope you may find some crafty time to play along this week.

And, however you are celebrating tonight to bring in 2017, I wish you a fantastic night.  So all that's left to say is...

Upcycling - Old Card Reinvented

Hi there

So, I'm back with another card made earlier today where I recycled something not purposely bought for crafting.

This time I used a card I'd received previously for my birthday.  It had a really delicate die cut image of an evening gown on the front so I knew one day I could do something with it.

Here's the card I made using it, but completely reinvented, with the detail reversed...

Here is the original card showing the beautifully intricate die cut...

I originally planned to use the die cut as a stencil and create an ombre effect with ink using ink daubers.  But some of the cut areas were tiny and the daubers just wouldn't reach through effectively so I decided to mix the inks with some pearlescent embossing paste and create an ombre effect that way instead, and the paste picked up all the detail brilliantly.  I used the paste un-inked for the hanger.  Here's a better photo of the pearlescent effect...

As the gown on the original card was quite large I needed to make this into a tall card.  I stamped the sentiment at the top.  I then matted the panel onto some teal cardstock and then adhered to the card base.

Special thanks go out to Michelle at The Card Grotto for this sentiment stamp set which was part of my fabulous prize for her 10k YouTube Subscribers Giveaway, I feel so lucky right now!  :)

Materials used:

• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver - Pearlescent
• Ink: Distress Ink - Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Message Me
• Cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - Game #73 - Upcycling

Just Add Ink - Challenge #328 - Just add 'P' (Pearlescent Paste!)

I've kept hold the gown die cut just in case it can survive another pasting! lol

Thanks so much for visiting today, I appreciate each and every one of you.  Bye for now.

Less is More Weeks 286 & 287

Hi there

It's new challenge time over at Less is More.  Due to a few of the Design Team being away at the Happy Little Stampers craft retreat next weekend, this challenge will run for two weeks, so plenty of time for you lovely LIMettes to get your entries in!

So, what do we have for you this time?  Well, we're back with a Recipe challenge and we would like to see you use something...

Tactile

I have two samples for you, here's the first...

I took a panel of white cardstock and used an embossing folder to create the wavy background.  For more texture I used white embossing paste blended with some green and blue Distress Ink which is spread through a daisy stencil.  I then dotted on some Liquid Pearls on the flower centres and stamped the sentiment in black.  The panel was then popped up onto the card base using 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Embossing Folder: We R Memory Keepers - Next Level Wave
• Stencil: Imagination Crafts - Butterfly and Daisy
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver
• Ink: Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass, Mowed Lawn; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: MFT - Beary Special Birthday
• Accents: Liquid Pearls - Lemon Yellow

Challenge entries:

Ooh La La Creations - Challenge #209 - Add Some Texture

CASology - Week #207 - Rough

My next card is fairly simple but has tactile interest from the score lines, embossing and glossy enamel dots...

I started by stamping the flower in VersaMark before heat embossing with a lilac powder.  I then created some interest from the corner by adding some score lines.  The sentiment was heat embossed in silver, the panel popped up on 3D foam and a couple of enamel dots were added to finish.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Beautiful Blooms I; Clearly Besotted - Fancy Sayings
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver; Personal Impressions - Pastel Lilac
• Ink: VersaMark
• Accents: Doodlebug Sprinkles - Lilac Assortment
• Tools: Martha Stewart - Mini Score Board

Challenge entries:

Fantasy Stampers - Challenge #67 - Clean and Simple

The Crafter's Cafe - Challenge #153 - CAS

Uniko - Challenge #34 - Flowers

My teamies, as always, have some great inspiration for your over at LIM and on their personal blogs so, if you have time, please do take a look.

Thanks so much for visiting today.