Uniko October/November Stencil Release - Introducing...Flower Power #6

Good morning

It's day two of the stencil introductions for the latest mini release coming up from Uniko.

Bev is introducing another fab stencil to join the Flower Power series, this time it's #6, featuring the familiar rose design.  This one features the background solid images and the detailed roses, as well leaves, and also comes with masks of the solid images.

I kept my first card really simple but used something I've not used for a long time...texture paste...

I die cut a stitched rectangle from some linen cardstock and then mixed a little Distress Ink with white texture paste, before spreading it through the largest rose.  While still wet I sprinkled on some super fine glitter.  Before completely dry I gently pressed the glitter into the paste to ensure it was adhered.  When dry I inked through the leaves with Distress Oxide ink.  It would have been easier to do those first! I finished with a sentiment in black ink, from the Simply Said stamp set.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Uniko - Flower Power #6
• Stamps: Uniko - Simply Said
• Ink: Distress Ink - Scattered Straw; Distress Oxide - Cracked Pistachio; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver
• Accents: Sweet Poppy - Super Fine Satin Glitter - Crystalina Rainbow

And for my second I layered up the solid and detailed images...

I inked up the solid rose image first, then used a darker ink to add the detailed rose.  I also did the same with the leaves before die cutting with a pierced square die.  This was then mounted onto a larger square, die cut from deep pink cardstock.  I then finished with a stamped sentiment from the Pure Florals Rose stamp set.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Uniko - Flower Power #6
• Stamp: Uniko - Pure Florals Rose
• Ink: Distress Ink - Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries, Bundled Sage, Rustic Wilderness; Versafine Clair - Nocturne
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax

Please do pop over to the main Uniko blog, here, to see this new stencil in action, with some awesome projects from Bev and the Brand Ambassadors.

The new stencils will be available to purchase from the Uniko website from 3 November at 9.00am GMT.  Bev is also doing a Giveaway so pop along to the blogs of each member of the team and leave a comment for a chance to win the stencils.

I'll be back with more tomorrow, using the final two stencils from this release.

Less is More Challenge #411

Good morning, everyone

Hopefully Blogger has scheduled this post for me on time this morning as I'm currently away.  I travelled up to Kent yesterday for our annual Christmas party last night (our company party is always in January) so I'll be travelling back down to Devon today.

I'm here to share the new challenge just starting over at Less is More and yes, shudder if you will, it's One Layer challenge time!  Here is the cue card, which you can interpret however you like...

Continuing as our sponsor for January is the generous Skull and Cross Buns, so please do play along as you'll automatically be in the running for the monthly prize.

I've used Skull and Cross Buns products on both of my sample cards this time.  And most of my makes usually have off centre designs anyway so this was a pretty easy challenge for me.

Here's the first, and I used the off centre rule for one of my techniques on this one...

I used a stencil to create the hearts, blending first in the pink shade, then placing the stencil 'off centre' and re-blending with the red shade.  Although this area of the stencil is fairly small, the design is continuous, allowing you to shift the stencil and continue inking with no break in the pattern.  Once the stencilling was complete I stamped the sentiment in black ink.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Skull and Cross Buns - Brush Heart Pattern
• Ink: Distress Ink - Worn Lipstick, Candied Apple; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Skull and Cross Buns - Brush Hearts

Challenge entries:

Always Fun Challenges - Challenge #145 - One Layer

STAMPlorations - January Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

For this card I used one of the newer stamp sets to the Skull and Cross Buns range, Christmas Foxes...

This set isn't just for Christmas, it's great for sending winter wishes too.  I stamped the fox and the sentiments in black ink and then coloured the fox using coloured pencils.  To finish I used a dotted stencil to create the snow, using embossing paste, just masking off to avoid the stamped areas.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Skull and Cross Buns - Christmas Foxes
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos
• Stencil: Skull and Cross Buns - Dots and Spots Large
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver

Challenge entries:

CAS on Friday - Challenge #171 - Winter
Inkspirational - Challenge #204 - Fauna
Creative with Stamps - Challenge #46 - Scarf





As usual, this challenge will remain open for the next fortnight, so plenty of time to play along and link up.  I hope you can join us.

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!

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 Week 282

Hi there

We have some wonderful news along with the new challenge at Less is More this week.  First the challenge details, and for our Recipe challenge and we would like you to...

Use a Stencil

Now for the news...

We have a fabulous new LIMette joining the Design Team.  And who better than Esther?!  Esther plays along every week and the support she gives to her fellow participants is amazing.  I think you'll agree that she will fit in just perfectly with our great little team. Welcome, Esther! x


Now onto my cards for this week...

I recently purchased a stencil featuring different sizes of stars so decided to do a little layered blending with Distress Inks to create this one layer card.  A bit of masking off areas of the stencil and shifting it around was all that was required before stamping the sentiment in black and adding some starry bling.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Efco - Stars
• Ink: Distress Ink - Milled Lavender, Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Twinkle Toes
• Accents: Papermania - Sparkling Stars Assorted Pastels

Just a little stencilling to accent the background on this one...

On some teal green cardstock I used an oval aperture cut from a scrap of cardstock as a mask and stencilled some translucent embossing paste through a striped stencil.  Next I stamped the flowers onto some clear vellum and heat embossed in white before adding some accents with a white pencil on the reverse.  The sentiment was also heat embossed in white and the flowers adhered over the oval detail before adhering the panel to the card base on 3D foam.  I'm a little disappointed that I've lost some of the pencil detail on the bloom, I couldn't find my thick vellum so this was very thin and the glue was much more visible.  Oh well, you get the idea!

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
• Stencil: MFT - Diagonal Stripes
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver - Translucent
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - To Have & To Hold, Pretty Petals
• Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Ovals; Clearly Besotted - To Have & To Hold
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Vellum from stash

Challenge entries:

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

Penny Black and More - June Challenge - Flower Power

My teamies have worked wonders with their stencils this week, we have a really diverse selection so why not take a look, and on their personal blogs too.  We would love for you to join us this week.

Thanks so much for visiting today.

Less is More Week 278

Good morning

I'm here today to tell you about the new challenge at Less is More, and this week we've got a Sketch challenge for you.  I struggle with sketch challenges more than any other but this one is fab and after seeing my teamies' samples this week, it's proving to be a really versatile design.  Here it is...

I made two very different cards this week, the first is super bright and fun...

On a panel of white cardstock I positioned a stencil and masked off the diagonal edge before blending through some red, orange and yellow Distress Inks.  I was originally going to stencil directly onto the card base but the stencil was slightly too small.  Next I die cut some balloons, these also blended with Distress Inks.  On a strip of black cardstock I stamped the sentiment (made up from a multiple word stamp set) in VersaMark and heat embossed in white before adhering to the panel with the balloons.  The panel was then adhered on 3D foam and some accents were added to the balloons with a white pen.

Materials used:

• Stencil: The Crafters Workshop - Mini Webbing
• Ink: Distress Ink - Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Festive Berries, Seedless Preserves, Broken China, Mowed Lawn; VersaMark
• Stamps: Winnie & Walter - Big, Bold & Party
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Dies: Wplus9 - Whole Lotta Happy
• Accent: Uni-ball Signo pen - White

Challenge entries:

Just Add Ink - Challenge #313 - 'B' (bright/balloons)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
AAA Cards - Game #65 - The 2nd Big Birthday Bash




And a more subtle design for my second card...

I blended some embossing paste with two neutral shades of Distress Ink before spreading through a brick effect stencil.  I then die cut the leaves from a scrap of cardstock blended with two shades of green Distress Ink.  This was simply adhered over the paste when dry, the die-cut 'Happy Wishes' then adhered and some smooth silver gems finished off the card.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Tim Holtz - Bricked
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver
• Ink: Distress Ink: Pumice Stone, Tea Dye, Iced Spruce, Evergreen Bough
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Leafy Accents; Wplus9 - Happy Wishes
• Accents: Gems from stash

Challenge entry:

Seize the Birthday - Adding Dimension

If you have the time please pop over to my teamies' blogs for more inspiration, they won't disappoint.  Thanks so much for visiting today and I hope to see your creations in the LIM gallery!

Paste in Pastels

Hi there

Where is this year going?  Can you believe we are into May already?  And so, as it's the first Saturday of the month it means that Less is More has a Colour challenge for your this week.  And we've got a pretty one for you...

Pastels

And for the month of May we have a fab new Sponsor which is Happy Little Stampers.

I've only managed one card for you this week.  It's my birthday today (yikes...getting far too old!) and I've had the week off work and have been out and about each day so not really had much time at home for crafting.

And as I've only created one for you I tried to make it an interesting one and had a play with some embossing paste and a new stencil...

I started by squidging a small amount of three shades of Distress Ink onto my craft mat before mixing these with the white embossing paste to create three pastel shades.  On a white cardstock panel I laid down the rose stencil and applied the paste just through a selected area.  This is a small stencil but I didn't want a hard edge as I wanted the design to be soft to match the colours.  I white heat embossed the sentiment onto an aqua fishtail flag die cut (cutting off the fishtail part!) and also die cut the 'you' from a scrap of pale blue/grey cardstock.  Once the paste was dry I adhered the die cuts across the base and then mounted the whole panel to the card base on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Tim Holtz - Mini Stencil Set 14
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver
• Ink: Distress Ink - Picked Raspberry, Cracked Pistachio and Shaded Lilac; VersaMark
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Thank You
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Fishtail Flag Stax; Avery Elle - Simply Said You

Challenge entries:

Freshly Made Sketches - Challenge #235

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stencil It

Seven Hills Crafts - May Challenge - Embossing

The Crafter's Cafe - Challenge #148 - Feminine

That's all from me today, thanks so much as always for visiting.  I'm off to have a lazy day ahead of a Tex-Mex meal out with friends tonight.  Enjoy your day!

Less is More - 5th Birthday Celebrations!

Hi guys

We're having a party at Less is More this week as we have reached our 5th Birthday!  Thanks so much for your continued participation, it's because of the fabulous entries we receive each week that we are still going strong with our CAS challenges.

We are continuing with our usual sequence of challenge themes and as we are at the start of a new month we have our regular Colour challenge for you which is...

White on White

We have some fabulous sponsors joining us this week and we have some great prizes up for grabs too.

For my card this week I decided to say thank you to YOU, our lovely participants...I hope you like it :)

Apart from the embossed background, everything here is by Clearly Besotted.  I stamped the flower, the 'you' and 'thank' in Versamark and heat embossed in silver and cut these out with their co-ordinating dies, and the 'thank' onto a strip of white cardstock.  The leaves were stamped and heat embossed in white and also cut with the co-ordinating dies, and the smaller leaves were die cut from white vellum.  For the main panel I used some white embossing paste through a stencil.  I then layered these up, adhered to the panel and then popped it up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Thank You and Love Quotes II
• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Thank You, Love Quotes II and Leafy Accents
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver and Opaque Bright White
• Stencil: Tim Holtz - Dot Fade
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver
• Vellum from stash

Challenge entries:

The Crafter's Cafe - Challenge #142 - Monochromatic

613 Avenue Create - Challenge #161 - Anything Goes (use something from your stash)

Creative Card Crew - Challenge #105 - Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #156 - Punches and/or Dies

We can't wait to see your white on white creations.  And there's lots of inspiration over at the Less is More page too as our sponsors have been creating with us this week too.  So, if you have the time please pop by and show your appreciation, we all love some feedback :)

Bye for now

Christmas Card Multiples - Same Design / Five Ways

Hi there

**WARNING**

Picture heavy post - you might want to make yourself a cosy brew!

Well, a week into December I counted up all the Christmas cards I'd made throughout the year and realised I was 60+ short of what I needed!  After panicking (!!!) I sat down and came up with a design I thought would be fairly easy to reproduce whilst also incorporating a few techniques.

Once the rough design was in my head I thought I'd make a few versions of the same design, and settled on ten of each, changing the sentiment and colours for each version.  So this gave me 50 cards to add to my stash.

Here's the complete set of five variations, I was really pleased with the finished results...

I die cut a circle from a spare piece of cardstock and blended Distress Inks through the aperture onto the card base, using a new template for each colour.  I tried to vary the intensity of the ink to make the circle look like a sphere, some came out better than others.  I then stamped the bauble hangers in silver together with the dotty script part of each sentiment, and the rest of the sentiments were stamped in black.  To finish I used a few more circle templates and a snowflake stencil through which I applied pearlescent embossing paste onto the baubles.  These were nice and flat to send through the mail although at one point I did have lots of cards around the room waiting for the embossing paste to dry.  Lots of patience was required!

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Inks (colours detailed below); Versa Color - Silver; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Ornamental Style (bauble hanger), Be Merry and Joyeux Noel (sentiments)
• Stencil: Memory Box - Winter Tiny Snowflakes
• Embossing Paste: Dreamweaver - Pearlescent

For the following set I used Distress Ink in Cracked Pistachio:

For this next set I used Distress Ink in Salty Ocean:

For the next set I used Distress Ink in Shaded Lilac:

For the following set I used Distress Ink in Abandoned Coral:

And for the final set I used Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry:

I like how all these turned out and find it really hard to choose a favourite.  I'd love to know which version(s) you like best.


I'm going to link up at the following challenge blogs:

CASology - Week 178 - Merry (I am entering the Picked Raspberry version here)

My Time to Craft - Challenge #311 - Last Minute Christmas Makes
Dream Valley - Challenge #122 - Christmas
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Fave Challenge/Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Challenge #261 - Anything Goes Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for December - Anything Goes Christmas
The Male Room - Challenge #25 - Theme (I am entering the Salty Ocean version here)

Phew!

If you've made it to the end, thanks so much for sticking with me.  Thanks so much for your visit and I would love to hear your comments.

I have a few more cards to share but I might have a little break and grab a brew myself now!