Less is More Challenge #454

Hi there, Happy Saturday

At Less is More today we have a new challenge and we're back with the dreaded One Layer!  But the theme is an easy one, here's the cue card...

For my card base and white space I chose some very lightly textured tan cardstock...

I aligned a metal stencil off the edge of my card front, held it in place with some stencil tape and then blended through it with four shades of Distress Ink.  I then finished it with a simple sentiment stamped in black.  And that was all.  I did think about adding some gems but I don't think it needs anything else.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Sweet Poppy Stencils - Foliage
• Ink: Distress Ink - Peeled Paint, Brushed Corduroy, Fossilized Amber, Aged Mahogany; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
• Stamp: Altenew - Leaf Canopy 
• Cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

CAS on Friday - Challenge #216 - Autumn or Halloween

My Time to Craft - Challenge #468 - Halloween or Fall Colours

Happy Little Stampers - October Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

STAMPlorations - October Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting today, have a wonderful weekend.

Perfectly CAS October 2021 Challenge

Good evening

We're well into October now so it's time for a new challenge over at Perfectly CAS.  This challenge is all about keeping your cards truly clean and simple and limiting your design to one third or less of the overall surface.  Here's this month's cue card...

I decided to step away from flowers for this one and used a feather from a set that's been around for a long time but one that I haven't yet inked up...

It's been a while since I used the emboss resist technique and that's pretty much all that is involved here.  I used some anti-static powder before stamping the feather and sentiment in VersaMark and then heat embossed them in white.  I then used some large post-it notes to mask off the top and side of the card and ink blended, first in Salvaged Patina, fading it out just far enough to cover the sentiment, and then I added some Peacock Feathers to darken up the top corner.  

Despite using anti-static powder to avoid stray bits of embossing powder, a few stray bits did blow off the feather when using my heat gun.  It's advisable to use your heat gun on the underside when doing emboss resist to avoid this...shame I didn't remember that on this occasion!  No worries though, I'm still happy with it.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Tickle My Fancy; Altenew - Wildflower Garden (sentiment)
• Ink: VersaMark; Distress Oxide - Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White

Challenge entries:

NBUS - Challenge #31 - First use of the feather stamp set

STAMPlorations - October CAS Challenge - Anything Goes (Optional: Ombre)

Thanks for taking a look.  Sympathy cards are never easy to make when needed, so why not use this challenge as a chance to make one to keep on hand.

To My Wonderful Mum

Hi guys

Popping by today to share the card that I made for my mum who is celebrating her birthday today.

I wanted to use more of my new dies from Simply Graphic on this one.

I began with a die cut stitched rectangular panel which I adhered flat onto my card base.  I then ink blended and splattered with Distress Ink and water onto some white cardstock and die cut the flowers and leaves from this.  The stems were adhered to the panel and I then stamped the sentiment onto a die cut strip using the same ink shade as the leaves but in Distress Oxide.  The strip was adhered on glue dots and I then added some decorative drops to finish.

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Simply Graphic - various flowers and leaves; Clearly Besotted - Stripped Die Collection
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Happy Birthday All
• Ink: Distress Ink - Worn Lipstick, Iced Spruce; Distress Oxide - Iced Spruce
• Accents: Little Things from Lucy's Cards - Raindrops, Bubbles

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #415 - Die Cuts and/or Stencils

Thanks so much for looking.

Happy Little Stampers October 2021 CAS Challenge

Good evening!

For the October CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers we want to see your One Layer cards...

I revisited a favourite layout for my DT card and, due to the change in the season I chose an autumnal theme...

I positioned a strip of low tack stencil tape across the top third of the card and added a gentle ink blend fading it out.  With the mask still in place I then stamped the various leaf images in autumnal colours.  To finish, the tape was removed and the sentiment stamped in brown.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Autumn Flowers, Scrumptious Sentiments
• Ink: Distress Ink - Aged Mahogany, Peeled Paint; Altenew - Sea Forest, Moss, Caramel Toffee, Mangrove Root, Espresso

As always, the HLS challenge links remain open until the end of the month so there's plenty of time to enter, and also lots of inspiration from my teamies over on the challenge blog

Less is More Challenge #453

Hi guys

My goodness, where did September go?  Autumn is well and truly here in the UK, there's definitely a nip in the air.  I'm back working at the office now so I've certainly noticed a change in temperature now that I'm having to jump in the car early on the chilly mornings!

So, we've rolled around to another Saturday and it's time for a new challenge over at Less is More.  It's a colour challenge this time and we want to see you using...

I originally had a floral stamp in mind that I wanted to use but it had a lot of leaves and I was stumped about how I could avoid using green (the guidelines are to use the challenge colours and neutrals only), so I had a rummage in my stash and found these daisies from a retired Clearly Besotted set from years ago...

Although not a true layering set, this set does have the solid stamps which allow you to colour the image by stamping.  So, on a die cut panel I stamped the linear image in black, the solid areas of the daisies in purple and the flower centres using the striped stamps from the set, in yellow.  The bow/string is from the co-ordinating die set which I cut from a scrap of yellow cardstock.  I then finished with a heat embossed sentiment on a die cut purple strip.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Celebrating You; Altenew - Flower Vine (sentiment)
• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Altenew - Featured Sentiments Die Set; Clearly Besotted - Celebrating You Die Collection
• Ink: Versafine Clair - Nocturne; Altenew - Hydrangea, Warm Sunshine; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster

Thanks for visiting today, if you need more inspiration using the challenge colours please do take a look at the main challenge blog where my teamies are sharing their great projects.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Less is More Challenge #452

Good morning

It's Saturday and another new challenge day over at Less is More.  Today it's the turn of our Recipe challenge and here's the cue card...

For my sample card I almost went for a honeycomb theme, then contemplated going for a geometric design, but then I remembered I have a stencil called Chicken Wire, so that was my starting point for this fun card...

I absolutely love a stamp set I have by Gerda Steiner called Chicken Scratch so wanted to combine that with the stencil.  I die cut a panel with a scalloped rectangle die and then added as post-it note to the left side as I wanted to mask off the edge.  I stamped the chicken and coloured her with Copics then, with the mask still in place, I treated the area with anti-static powder before then inking through part of the stencil with VersaMark ink.  I removed the stencil and the mask and then heat embossed with silver embossing powder, brushing away any stray areas of powder which clung to where the mask had been.  To finish I heat embossed the sentiment on a black die cut strip and mounted the panel on fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Gerda Steiner - Chicken Scratch
• Stencil: The Crafters Workshop - Chicken Wire
• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Scalloped Rectangles; MFT Die-namics - Wonky Stitched Rectangle Stax
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; VersaMark
• Coloured with Copics
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver; Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - September Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

AAA Cards - Game #198 - Up to One Third

My Time to Craft - Challenge #466 - Embossing

CAS on Friday - Challenge #214 - Sketch (I've flipped it right to left)

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll join in with this challenge.  There's plenty of inspiration over at the main LIM challenge blog from my teamies, go take a look :)

Perfectly CAS September 2021 Challenge

Good evening!

The September Challenge over at Perfectly CAS is now live.  Here's the cue card showing this month's theme...

So, quite a lot of options for this one as geometrics are very popular in the crafting world.  My sample card for this one is almost one layer, it just has the addition of a die cut sentiment...

I masked off a stencil, just leaving a few of the geometric circles and then ink blended through using three shades of Distress Oxides.  I die cut the 'happy' from black cardstock, adhered in place and then stamped 'birthday' above.  To finish, I added some Glossy Accents to the die cut for some dimension and shine.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Funky Fossil - Fractional
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Salty Ocean, Salvaged Patina, Cracked Pistachio; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Happy 
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Modern Calligraphy Additions
• Accents: Glossy Accents

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - September Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

NBUS - Challenge #30 - First use of stencil, die and stamp!

Thanks for taking a look.  My teamies and I would love to see you in the gallery and, as always, the challenge link will remain open for the next four weeks :)