Less is More Challenge #455

Good morning

Apologies that it's been two whole weeks since I last posted here, life just becomes busy sometimes and I haven't found time to craft and share.

As we have five Saturdays's in October, Less is More have an extra Lucky Dip challenge for you starting today.  So, I'll get straight to the cue card for this one...

I thought I'd make a card using just dies for this one, it's been a while since I didn't reach for my stamps but I enjoyed making this one...

I began by raiding my stash and fishing out some different white cardstocks.  For some background interest I chose a linen cardstock for my main die cut panel.  I then die cut the poinsettia ribbon from some off-white pearlescent cardstock, i thought that would showcase the detail on the flower, and the Merry Christmas frame was die cut from some white glitter cardstock.  After adhering the panel to the card base I adhered the poinsettia ribbon, leaving the flower without any adhesive at this point.  I then adhered the frame, gently lifting the flower petals through, which I then finally adhered using some glue dots for a little dimension.  To finish, I added some glitter jewels to the centre of the flower.

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Poppy Stamps - Poinsettia Ribbon; MFT Die-namics - Merry Christmas Circle Frame
• Cardstock: a selection from my stash
• Accents: Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels - Iced Snow

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - October Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Happy Little Stampers - October Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks so much for taking a look today.  I'm hoping to get some cards made this weekend, I really need to make a start on my Christmas cards or it will be the usual mad panic at the end of November when I realise I still need about 70 more!

Enjoy your weekend, folks x

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.