Less is More Week #316

Hi there

It's hard to believe it's Saturday again, but as another week has whizzed by it's time for a new challenge over at Less is More.  And this week it's the turn of our Theme challenge which is...

As Less is More are having a month long celebration for our 6th birthdaty, we have another sponsor and Guest Designer this week which is the lovely Shery Russ of STAMPlorations!

So be sure to play along again this week for a chance to win a prize, as with all our challenges throughout February.


So, on to my cards this week.  My first is a New Baby card as I thought these building blocks were ideal for our challenge this week...

I started by stamping the giraffe, before masking it and then stamping the blocks.  I watercoloured the images with my Zig markers before die cutting with a pierced square.  I stamped Welcome onto the panel and then popped this up onto the card base with 3D foam.  I then stamped Baby in pigment ink before heat embossing in clear and die cutting with the co-ordinating word die.  I die cut it again with fun foam and adhered alongside the panel.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Child's Play, Petite Plushies and New Baby
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Versa Color - Polar Blue and Charcoal#
• Coloured with Zig Clean Color markers
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax; Clearly Besotted - New Baby
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - February Watercolour Challenge - Anything Goes (optional dies)
Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #229 - Clean and Simple







For my next card I used text speak for my alphabet...

I started by stamping the mobile phone in a pale blue/grey and added the text and emojis.  I then die cut the phone with its co-ordinating die before covering with VersaMark ink and heat embossing twice with clear embossing powder to give it a glossy finish.  I stamped and die cut the earphones with its co-ordinating die.  Before adhering these to the base I added some grey splatters just to add some subtle interest to the white space and then stamped the chevrons in co-ordinating colours.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Text Me; Happy Little Stampers - Mix Mash
• Ink: Altenew - Arctic; Versa Color - Camelia, Polar Blue, Canary; Memento - Tuxedo Black; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss

Challenge entries:

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #39 - For a Man

CASology - Week 236 - Romance
Happy Little Stampers - February Challenge - Anything Goes with Dies





And my third card took me ages to make and I'm not very happy with it but I thought I'd share it with you anyway...

I started by embossing a panel of white cardstock with an alphabet embossing folder.  I then picked out some letters to make a word and went with 'BIG'.  This was my second panel as I used my first one to try colouring the letters.  After trying with markers and ink, neither were working so I started again and went with glue and glitter!  I used some turquoise glitter and mounted the embossed panel onto some glitter cardstock in almost the same colour (I forgot how difficult it is to capture glitter in a photograph!).  These were adhered to the card base and I finished by heat embossing the 'wish' in white onto some black cardstock.

Materials used:

• Stamp: MFT - Brushstroke Birthday
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Embossing Folder: Darice - ABCs
• Accents: Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter - Turquoise
• Glitter cardstock from stash

Thanks so much for visiting today.  My teamies have worked wonders with their projects for this challenge so, if you have time, please do pop over to their personal blogs as there is often more inspiration to be found. 

Have a lovely weekend folks, today I'm off out with my mum for the day to the Crafts 4 Crafters show in Exeter.  It's not all papercrafts but I'm sure we'll manage to spend some pennies, I know I always do!

Coffee Valentine

Hi guys

Just popping by this evening to share the Valentine's Day card I made for my boyfriend.  We both love coffee so that was my chosen theme this year.

I started with a piece of kraft cardstock die cut with a stitched rectangle die.  I started by stamping the heart shaped coffee splash in pigment ink and heat embossed with clear powder.  The coffee beans were stamped in dark brown and the sentiment in black.  I then die cut some little hearts from a piece of cardstock I'd previously blended with red Distress Ink and splattered with water.  The panel was popped up on 3D foam.

The coffee themed sentiment continued on the inside of the card...

and I adhered a couple more hearts to the inside.

Materials used:

• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Rectangles and tiny hearts from Stitched Strip set; Lawn Fawn - Hearts
• Cardstock: Neenah - Dessert Storm
• Stamps: Altenew - Coffee Talk; Sugar Pea Designs - Espresso Yourself
• Ink: Versa Color - Pinecone, Cocoa; Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss

Challenge entries:

Just Us Girls - Challenge #380 - Trend Week - Hearts
CASology - Challenge #236 - Romance
Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #229 - Clean and Simple

Thanks so much for popping by :)

Less is More Week #315

Good morning, crafters!

Over at Less is More we're continuing with our month long 6th birthday celebrations.  And this week we're back with our regular challenge, the one that you all love (*wink).....yes, you've guessed it, it's One Layer week!  So here's our theme for you...

And as I mentioned last weekend, we have lots of sponsors this month, and this week's it's the turn of Seven Hills Crafts, and the lovely Tara is also joining in this week's fun as our Guest Designer.

Wow, did I find this challenge tricky this week!  I had lots of ideas but trying to transfer those ideas onto a one layer card was proving tough.  In the end I did manage to create two cards for you this week.

For my first card I chose 'Night and Day' as my opposites...

And although our themes are different, I think Sarah G and myself were in the same creative zone this week, our cards are so similar!

I started by drawing a central pencil line down my card so I could work on each side separately.  I covered one side and gently blended some yellow ink before then inking though a stencil to create my sun rays.  I then swapped sides, added a small circle mask cut from a post-it note and blended a night sky (I've had my usual problem with my purple tone turning blue here in the photo!), to which I then added some small white dots with a white pigment pen to create some stars.  I then erased the pencil line and finished by stamping the sentiment centrally.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stencil: MFT - Sun Ray
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Time to Celebrate Additions
• Accents: White Signo Uniball pen

At the last minute I had a further idea and managed to combine a few opposites on my second card - wide and narrow stripes, opposite colours, uppercase and lowercase, and large and small fonts...

I wasn't sure if this was going to work well but I'm really pleased with the end result.  I masked off the diagonal top section of the card and stamped the wide and narrow stripes to create the plaid design.  The sentiments were then simply stamped before adding some enamel dots to finish the card.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Basic Stripes, A Little Sentimental; Uniko - All Occasion Sentiments #2
• Ink: Versa Color - Orange, Cyan; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Accents: Doodlebug Sprinkles - Tangerine, Blue Jean

Challenge entry:

Color Throwdown - Challenge #429

And don't forget, by playing along with us this month you'll have a chance of winning some great prizes from our sponsors so why not join us.

Have a lovely weekend!

Muse #202 - Camouflaged Hello

Hi there

I'm thrilled to be your designer over at Muse for this week's challenge.

I didn't really know where I was going with this card, I just knew I wanted to do some colourful background stamping so that was my starting point.

I'll get straight to it...

I picked out some bright cheery pigment inks from my stash and a great little leafy stamp set and started stamping on a panel of white cardstock to create a fun background.  I then die cut with a rectangular stitched die.  I die cut the hello from the stamped panel (keeping hold of the little bits from inside the letter loops) and die cut it again three times from black cardstock.  I used my glue runner to cover a small piece of scrap paper with adhesive and placed this behind the negative space.  I inlaid one of the black die cuts first, along with the 'bits', then all that was left to do was glue together and stack up the remaining die cuts, using the stamped one as the top layer.  You can see the dimension in the pic below.  The main whole panel was then popped up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Paper Smooches - Leafy Greens
• Ink: Versa Color - Orchid, Marigold, Turquoise, Lime and Cyan
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Rectangles; Lawn Fawn - Scripty Hello

I hope there are some elements you can take from my card as your inspiration this week, and look forward to seeing your creations in the Muse gallery :)

Hot Chick

Hi there

It was my beautiful bestie's birthday yesterday and tonight I'm sharing the card I made for her.

She's definitely a hot chick and loves her fitness and yoga classes so when I saw this stamp set a while ago I just had to get it!

This was pretty easy to put together.  I stamped the image and sentiment and then watercoloured it with my Zigs before die cutting the panel with a stitched rectangle die.  The card base was covered with some stripey patterned paper and the panel popped up on 3D foam.  For a finishing touch I added some Glossy Accents to the water droplets.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Avery Elle - Hot Chick
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Coloured with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Rectangles
• Patterned Paper: Lawn Fawn - Let's Polka
• Accents: Ranger - Glossy Accents

Challenge entries:

Stamping Sensations - February Challenge - Animal Magic (I wouldn't class a bird as an animal but cute critters and birds are allowed...yay!)

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #227 - Make Your Mark

Time Out - Challenge #76 - Inspired by Words (made for my best friend - hope this qualifies)

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes (not playing along with the optional topping this time)

Thanks so much for stopping by, I'll be back tomorrow as your designer for the next Muse challenge.

Less is More is 6!!!

Good morning, crafters!

Over at Less is More today we've got a big celebration going on....it's our 6th Birthday!  Wow, and it's thanks to you, our wonderful participants that have kept this fabulous challenge going from strength to strength for all these years!  So thank you!

Please pop over to the main challenge blog, here, for lots of information and you might notice something a little different about us today too!

Throughout February we will be having four different sponsors and prizes will be up for grabs for some lucky participants.

Our first Feburary sponsor is Happy Little Stampers and the lovely Kylie is joining us this week as our Guest Designer so please do pop over and show your appreciation.

So on to this week's challenge which, as usual for week one of the month, is a Colour challenge...

And we would like to see you using three adjacent hues on the colour wheel.

I thought a thank you card would be appropriate today and Spring is my favourite season.  So, as the daffodil shoots are starting to emerge I thought I'd include one on my card today.

I used some Strathmore Bristol cardstock for my card base and panel here.  I first stamped the daffodil and then masked it before blending over it with some light blue Distress Ink.  I then removed the mask and watercoloured the daffodil with my Zig markers.  The sentiment was stamped alongside in black before popping the panel up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Strathmore - Bristol Smooth
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Just Darling and Merci Beaucoup
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass
• Coloured with Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Markers

Challenge entry:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #227 - Make Your Mark

So why not play along.  We'll be celebrating our birthday throughout the whole of February so please do pop back and join us as and when you can.  For more inspiration please do pop over to our new look challenge blog to see my talented teamies' wonderful creations.

Happy Little Stampers February 2017 CAS Challenge

Hi guys

Today I'm here to introduce the next CAS challenge over at Happy Little Stampers.  This month we have a colour challenge for you which is...

As with all the HLS challenges there's a prize up for grabs so why not play along with us.

I'll get straight to my card and for this one I've used three sets by Happy Little Stampers...

I created an emboss resist panel by stamping the images and heat embossing in white before ink blending with shades of blue in an ombre effect.  I then used the watercolour lift technique by painting the images with clean water and blotting away the colour.  I then used a stitched border die to cut my panel and adhered it to the card base.  The Thanks sentiment was once again heat embossed in white onto some black cardstock, cut with a die and popped up on 3D foam with the remainder of the sentiment stamped in black below.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Doodled Flowers, Simply Said, Thinking of You
• Ink: VersaMark; Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress Ink - Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean and Broken China
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Rectangles; Mama Elephant - Landscape Trio

Thanks so much for stopping by.  My teamies have made some lovely blue creations so please do follow the link above and visit the main challenge blog.

This challenge, along with the rest of the HLS challenges, some of which will be starting in the next few days, will run until the end of the month so plenty of time for you to play along :)