Less is More Challenge #399

Good morning

It's new challenge day over at Less is More.  For the next fortnight we have a Theme challenge for you with lots of scope, here is the cue card...

As it's a new month we also have a new sponsor for you which is the awesome Skull and Cross Buns, so by playing along in our challenges will put you in the running for our monthly prize for July!

We also have a fabulous Guestie joining us this week and I'm sure you'll know her as one of our regular participants at Less is More, the super talented Viv, who was our May winner.  She has a stunning card to share for this challenge so please do pop over to her blog to take a look and say hi.

I've had this last week off work and the weather has been glorious which is pretty rare when I book a week as holiday, so I've been out and about making the most of it, so much so that I've only had chance to make one card for you this time I'm afraid.  I'm on the Design Team for Skull and Cross Buns so when a little package of new goodies arrived from the lovely Emily I wanted to use one of the new stencils on my card project.  

So here it is...

I've not seen any other animal print stencils before so just couldn't wait to have a play with this one!  I began by using the large balloon edge die to cut a corner from some kraft cardstock. I then blended some Distress Ink in from the edge to give it some depth and then blended through the stencil with black ink.  I tied some twine around the balloon and then adhered the die cut using fun foam onto the upper corner of my card base, cut from linen cardstock.  I then used three shades of pigment ink and, using my MISTI, repeatedly stamped 'celebrate' to create an ombre effect.  The remaining part of the sentiment was stamped below in black ink.

Materials used:

• Die: MFT - Blueprints 26
• Stencil: Skull and Cross Buns - Leopard Animal Print Stencil
• Cardstock: Neenah - Dessert Storm; linen cardstock from stash
• Ink: Distress Ink - Tea Dye, Black Soot; Versa Color - Sand Beige, Pinecone, Charcoal; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Paper Smooches - Sentiment Sampler; Avery Elle - Party Animal
• Twine: Hemptique - Earthy set

Challenge entries:

STAMPlorations - Summer Theme & Sketch Challenge - Stamp and Anything Goes

STAMPlorations - Summer CAS Card Challenge - AG CAS

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.  I hope you can join in our Celebrations challenge, the linky is open until 19 July, so plenty of time for you to pop your entries into our gallery :)

Happy Little Stampers July 2019 CAS Challenge

Good evening, crafters

We're back with a new batch of challenges for July over at Happy Little Stampers and today it's all about the CAS challenge.  Here's what we want to see from you this month...

I've used just dies to create my DT card for you, and I've made a shaker card, a great way to fill a negative space..

I wanted to go super CAS for this one so to add a little 'something' I chose linen cardstock for my base and panel.  I cut the wine glass from the panel and adhered some acetate behind it.  I then went searching through my sprinkles and shaker fillings and found the perfect glass filler...bubbles!!!

As my panel is smaller than my base I wanted to be able to see where I was lining up the panel so instead of adding the sprinkles to the back of the acetate, before I started the shaker process I drew through the aperture with a pencil onto the base and then put the sprinkles on there before adhering the panel over the top, trapping the sprinkles inside.  To finish I die cut the 'cheers' once from white cardstock and a second time from white glitter cardstock and stacked them up before adhering to my card.

I love this card, I didn't even remember that I bought the bubbles and they were just perfect for this shaker, and lots of occasions I can use it for too.

Materials used:

• Dies: Reverse Confetti - Clink Confetti Cuts
• Little Things From Lucy's Cards - Sprinkles: Iridescent Bubbles
• White glitter cardstock and linen cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #237 - Dies or Punches

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #100 - CAS

Thanks so much for popping by and don't forget that this challenge, as with all the monthly HLS challenges, will remain open to link up until the end of the month.  Happy CAS crafting!

 

Less is More Challenge #398

Good morning, crafters

It's new challenge day over at Less is More and it's time for the one you either love or hate...yep, it's One Layer challenge time.  Here's the cue...

Our sponsor for June is Uniko so remember, by playing along you'll be in with a chance of winning our monthly prize!

Our April winner, the lovely Maria Rodriguez is joining us as guest designer, so please do pop over to her blog to say hi and to see what she's created.


Ok, on to my sample cards, and this time I have two for you, here's the first...

I wanted to use spots to have a go at the bokeh technique and I'm really pleased with how this turned out.  I've tried it before using white pigment ink for the spots but wasn't so happy with it.  This time I die cut some circles from a post-it note to use as masks and ink blended in layers moving them around.  They do lose their tackiness a little when trying to reposition them over blended ink that's still damp, but luckily the blurred effect is ok for this technique!  So this was simply blended in layers using the same colour ink.  The sentiment was then stamped in crisp black ink for a lovely contrast.

Materials used:

• Die: Hero Arts - Infinity Circles Dies (for masks)
• Ink: Distress Ink - Bundled Sage; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: MFT - Bokeh Builder

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #346 - Anything Goes

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #100 - CAS

STAMPlorations - June CAS Card Challenge - Anything CAS Goes

My second card was very simply, just stamped...

The stem/leaves were stamped first, then the petals, then the centre of the flower, and finished with the sentiment below.  That was it, I chose to add nothing more.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Flower Power #5 (flower), Flower Power #6 (sentiment)
• Ink: Altenew - Just Green, Pinkalicious, Warm Sunshine; Versafine - Onyx Black

Thanks so much for popping by, even if you're wary of one layer cards please do have a go and play along.  Some of my favourite cards are the super simple one layers, so you never know, you might just love OLCs more than you think! 

Enjoy your weekend :)

Beer Cheers

Hi guys

It's been a while since I shared anything so I'm popping by tonight to share a card I made for my boss for his birthday.

I find masculine cards especially difficult but I'm pleased with how this one turned out.

I began by embossing a panel of white cardstock using a streamers and confetti embossing folder.  Next I stamped the beer glasses from a set which was free with a magazine, and also had co-ordinating dies.  I coloured the image with ProMarkers.  I die cut the 'cheers' from some gold glitter cardstock and once again from some fun foam, and stacked the two together for some dimension.  The panel was adhered to the base on fun foam, the glasses on 3D foam pads and the cheers adhered below.

Materials used:

• Embossing Folder: Hobbycraft - Streamers
• Stamp: Bubbles & Fizz - Free with Papercraft Essentials magazine (and co-ordinating die)
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Die: Paper Smooches - Birthday Words

Challenge entries:

STAMPlorations - June Challenge - Stamps and Birthdays

STAMPlorations - June CAS Card Challege - Anything CAS Goes

Seize the Birthday - Challenge #167 - Anything Goes

Uniko - Challenge #53 - Anything Goes + Optional Twist Masculine

Thanks so much for visiting, I hope to share more very soon.

Happy Little Stampers June 2019 CAS Challenge

Hi guys

It's time for another CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  As usual, the other HLS challenges will all be going live over the next few days.

Here's what we want to see for the June CAS Challenge...

I'll get straight to my card, and I used some stamps I've had for a while which were a freebie with a magazine last year...

This was super simple to make.  The image and sentiment were stamped in Memento ink and the image coloured with ProMarkers.  I cut it out with a pierced square die and then die cut another square using the same die but from blue cardstock.  I adhered these together slightly offset and then mounted them to the card base using 3D foam.  That was it :)

Materials used:

• Stamps: Bright & Breezy - Free set with Creative Stamping magazine
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax

Thanks so much for popping by, I hope you'll find time to play along and enter your funny cards over at the main challenge blog.

Less is More Challenge #396

Good morning, crafters!

New challenge day is upon us once again over at Less is More, and today we're back with a Recipe challenge.  Here's the cue card with details of what we want to see you creating and sharing with us...

We're specifying less than one third to be true to our challenge guidelines and our love of unpatterned/untextured white space.

Continuing as our sponsor for this month is the fabulous and generous CAS-ual Fridays Stamps

and don't forget, as well as our monthly prize, they are also offering the discount code below

So, without further ado, I'll move on to my sample cards.  And it appears my mojo has returned, I have four cards for you!!!

Here's the first, and my favourite of this batch of makes...

I began with the dragonfly die cut, cut from white cardstock.  I squidged my VersaMark pad over it, held it with tweezers and poured two different embossing powders over it.  I heated it to melt the powders then repeated the process twice more to create the glossy effect.  On the card base I blended through a leaf stencil with Distress Ink and stamped the sentiment in metallic pigment ink.  To finish I adhered the body of the dragonfly only, and manipulated the wings upwards for some dimension.

Materials used:

• Die: Clearly Besotted - Dragonfly Die Collection
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Peppermint Tea, Metallic Copper
• Stencil: Funky Fossil - Forest Foliage
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Make a Wish
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Ink - Lucky Clover; Versa Color - Bronze

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - CAS Game #140 - Up to One Third (not twisting this time)

Onto my second card, and some simple stamping and heat embossing...

I chose a teal card base and panel for this one.  Before stamping the images with VersaMark I treated the surface with an anti-static powder tool to avoid the embossing powder clinging to unstamped areas of the panel.  I used parts of the same floral image at the top and base of my panel, and heat embossed these along with the sentiment in white embossing powder.  Once cooled I used a soft cloth to ensure no anti-static powder remained on the panel.  It was then adhered using fun foam.

Materials used:

• Cardstock from stash
• Stamps: Honey Doo Crafts - Roses and Lilies; MFT - Grand Peaceful Wildflowers (sentiment)
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White

Challenge entries:

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #98 - Monochrome Colour

I'm not loving this next one but thought I'd share it anyway..

I used a floral corner embossing folder on a white cardstock panel here and stamped the sentiment in pigment ink.  I adhered the panel flat to the card base then added some Nuvo drops to the centre of the flowers.  My drops weren't behaving and weren't coming out evenly so the look isn't really what I was going for but it's still quite a cute card.  I thought the embossing alone wasn't enough but perhaps it needed embellishing in a different way.  I might revisit this one :)

Materials used:

• Embossing Folder: Craft Concepts - Florette
• Stamp: Wplus9 - Strictly Sentiments
• Ink: Versa Color - Lagoon Blue
• Accents: Nuvo Crystal Drops - Carnation Pink

Challenge entries:

Alphabet Challenge - E is for Embossing Folder

For my final card I embossed a panel using a die set...

I used a set of dies, a tulip square and pierced frame, to emboss a panel using an embossing mat in my Big Shot.  I trimmed around the edge of the frame then die cut a slightly larger pierced square from purple mirri card.  I adhered the mirri square flat to the base then popped up the tulip square on 3D foam strips.  I used a bold sentiment below the focal point to finish the card.

Materials used:

• Dies: Creative Expressions - Tulip Flower Square; MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax
• White and mirri card from stash
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Brushed Greetings II
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black

Challenge entries:

Allsorts Challenge - Week 520/1 - Happy Birthday 

The Flower Challenge - Challenge #32 - Embossing

There are so many ways to add embossed details to your cards.  If you need some inspiration please do visit the main Less is More challenge blog, here, to see what my teamies have been creating.  I'm looking forward to seeing your creations in our gallery, and don't forget, the linky is open for a fortnight so plenty of time to play along.

Cute Wedding

Hi there

Apologies for the radio silence.  I've completely lost my creative mojo lately, I'm hoping to sit down and have a proper look for it later!

In the meantime, I thought I'd pop on and share a card I made last month.  I was commissioned to create a card for a friend for her son's wedding, I was waiting until after the day to share it here then it completely slipped my mind.

Here it is, the brief was an A5 wedding card with a cute theme featuring owls...

As a CAS cardmaker I really struggle with larger sizes such as A5, as I find it difficult to fill such a large area whilst maintaining my usual style.  As I opted for the textured frame I was really happy with how this turned out.

I began by cutting the upper panel, from a sheet of embossed stripe cardstock, and die cutting the stitched aperture.  This way I could be sure that the focal point was positioned correctly on the card base behind.  I roughly marked the focal area with a pencil and then stamped the branch, owls, leaves, hearts, top hat and flower, before then roughly masking and creating the clouds with a stencil and Distress Ink.  Before adhering the panel, I wrapped some decorative ribbon around the panel and topped with a bow.  The panel was then adhered on 3D foam strips.

I printed the wording onto some white cardstock (using a font called dearJoe 5 CASUAL) and cut the two hearts out with a stitched heart die to tie in with the stitched aperture.  I adhered these, popping some 3D foam squares behind the parts that overlapped the aperture, and to finish added some Glossy Accents to the owls' eyes...

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Paired Up (branch/hearts/leaves), Woodland Pals (owls); Mama Elephant - Three Amigos (hat); Penny Black - Salutations (flower)
• Ink: Altenew - Lava Rock, Mocha, Morning Frost; Versa Color - Olive, Pink, Rose Red; Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stencil: MFT - Cloud
• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; MFT Die-namics - Stitched Heart Stax
• Accents: Glossy Accents

Challenge entries:

Fab 'n' Funky - Challenge #440 - Wedding

Thanks so much for visiting, hopefully I'll find some crafty inspiration soon and be able to share more with you.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)