Less is More Challenge #457 ... and some news

Good morning

It's Saturday and time for a new challenge over at Less is More.  The Design Team will be taking a short break throughout December so this will be the last challenge of 2021.

...and it is with a heavy heart that after six and a half years (how is it that long?!!!) I have decided to step down from this fabulous challenge Design Team.

After a few weeks as a Guest Designer, I joined the team in May 2015 (Challenge #225!), creating alongside the wonderful Chrissie, Sarah and Anne.  I had the pleasure of meeting these gorgeous ladies at a Craft Retreat a few years ago organised by our amazing Kylie, and later met the lovely Sharon, who has been running the challenge brilliantly in the most recent years.  They are all such great friends and will continue to be beyond Less is More.  And, of course, not forgetting my other LIM teamies past and present, I've learned so much from a fantastic bunch of CAS designers so I'm sending a huge thank you to all of you.

I won't be disappearing, I just feel like I need to have some time without the commitments and deadlines of a Design Team.  I would like to find more time to use my stash and just play!  

Ok, enough of the sadness, here's the info for the new challenge...

Image by monicore from Pixabay

Here's my card, I think you can see how I was inspired by the photo!

I began with a die cut panel of kraft cardstock.  I then grabbed some paper that has been in my stash for many many years, I think it was part of a bigger kit.  The red paper is shimmery and has a kind of jacquard pattern/print on it.  I used a stitched die to add the dash lines and then cut into a couple of strips.  I then used a bow die set and cut this from the same paper.  I die cut some pine needles from white glitter cardstock and a little tag from white card and stamped the sentiment.  It was then just a case of positioning and adhering.  I originally wasn't going to add the tag as the 'ribbon' already displays the sentiment but I think the tag finishes it off nicely.

You can see the design of the paper a lot clearer in this photo...

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Paper Smooches - Dots and Dashes; Frantic Stamper - Small Solid Bow; Marianne Design Creatables - Petra's Larix Larch; MFT Die-namics - Blueprints 26 (tag)
• Stamps: The Greetery - Budding Beauties Winter
• Cardstock from stash

Thank you so much, LIMettes, for all your support and encouraging comments on my designs for Less is More.  Clean and simple is the style I love and I also love how this challenge has taken so many of you out of your comfort zones to try CAS designs.  

So this isn't goodbye, I'm sure I'll be a participant of LIM as I always have been since I began this blog xx

Less is More - Challenge #441

Hi there

At Less is More today it's the start of another fortnightly challenge and we're back with the One Layer challenge and here's the cue word...

This card was so quick to make and I love this shifted stencil technique, you really can create some great effects...

On a blue card base I used low tack tape to position the stencil and masked off a section before inking through it with blue Distress Ink.  I cleaned off the stencil and then repositioned it, but this time slightly offset, and then inked through it once again but this time with white pigment ink.  I find this works best by 'pouncing' the inking tool, rather than swirling through.  All that was left to do was stamp the sentiment...simple!

Materials used:

• Stencil: Skull and Cross Buns - Diamond Harlequin Large
• Ink: Distress Ink - Faded Jeans; Hero Arts - Unicorn; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Paper Smooches - Sentiment Sampler
• Coloured cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - April Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

STAMPlorations - April Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

If you need some inspiration for one layer creations, please do take a look at the main LIM challenge post as my fellow teamies are sharing some great projects for this theme.  Thanks as always for visiting today, I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Perfectly CAS March 2021 Challenge

Good evening

My goodness, where does the time go?  It only seems like a week ago I was sharing my last DT card for Perfectly CAS and here we are a month on and starting another challenge!

This one is super easy, just remember the challenge rule to only use one third of the card or less for your design...

Here's my sample card for this one and all I used was cardstock, dies and adhesive...

On a scrap of paper I used my glue runner to lay down some adhesive and then adhered various strips of coloured cardstock in rainbow order.  I die cut the word birthday from this and then die cut four of the word happy from white cardstock.  These were simply adhered to the cardbase and the overhanging edges trimmed away.  Simple!

Materials used:

• Dies: Paper Smooches - Happy Birthday Word Die; Wplus9 - Happy Wishes Words Die
• Cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - March Anything Goes with Dies Challenges

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #400 - Die Cuts and/or Stencils

This challenge will close a couple of days before the April challenge begins, so plenty of time to play along and link up.  Who doesn't need a stock of birthday cards?!

Less is More Challenge #420

Good morning!

I honestly can't believe how fast these days are passing by during lockdown.  It's new challenge day again at Less is More!  And I can hear you all groaning as we tell you it's....One Layer Card week.  Here's the cue card...

And before I get to sharing my cards I'd like to welcome Jen Mitchell as our Guest Designer for this challenge.  I love Jen's CAS makes and she's one of our regulars at Less is More so please do pop over to her blog to see her card and say hi.

Ok, I have two samples for you this time, here's the first...

I've tried this shifted stencil technique a few times before and I think I love it most on kraft cardstock.  You begin by stencilling with coloured inks, I used Distress Oxides here in three graduating shades.  You then shift the stencil slightly and use white pigment ink.  Oxides can stay wet for a while so it's best to let the first layer dry before adding the white ink, and I find the best coverage of white is achieved by pouncing the ink with a sponge blender.  I finished with a simple sentiment in a fun font.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Clearly Besotted - Round & Round
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers; Hero Arts - Unicorn; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamp: Paper Smooches - Sentiment Sampler

Challenge entries

Crafty Catz - Challenge #507 - Anything Goes (Spots and/or Stripes)
AAA Cards - CAS Game #165 - Up to One Third (Repeating Image)
CAS Stencil Challenge - May 2020 - Layered Stenciling
STAMPlorations - May Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes





And I used some stamps that are new to my stash for this second card, and it was our Guest Designer, Jen, that inspired me to buy this botanicals set after seeing some of her lovely clean and simple designs.  And she's used the same set for this challenge too...

I revisited one of my favourite layouts here.  I used low tack tape to mask off a horizontal section then firstly blended away from the tape using Distress Ink, fading it out.  With the tape still in place I then stamped the solid and dotted leaves.  To finish I removed the tape and stamped the sentiment.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Altenew - Dot Botanicals, Leaf Canopy (sentiment)
• Ink: Distress Ink - Scattered Straw; Altenew - Mountain Mist, Lagoon; Versafine - Onyx Black

As always, the challenge link will remain open for two weeks.  And you can find lots more inspiration from my teamies over at the main challenge blog, and links to their personal blogs where they may be sharing more projects.

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 :)

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.

Hidden Sentiment Splats

Hi guys

Apologies for the silence here for almost two weeks.  I've been creating lots behind the scenes but haven't been able to share those yet, but they'll be up on here very soon.

On top of that I was unwell for a while, after finally fighting off my cold I then had chronic sinusitis so for about ten days I felt like I'd been kicked in the face.  But it's finally subsided and I'm feeling much better now.  I kind of lost almost the whole of March!

So, until I can share my DT makes, in the meantime I thought I'd pop in to share a card I made last week for my godson's 13th birthday, it only seems like a couple of years since I was at his Christening and now he's a teenager!  Where does the time go?

I really struggle with masculine cards and even more so when they are for teenagers, so I went with bright colours and splats!  Who knows why?! :D

On a panel of white cardstock the same size as the card base I blended ink through a splats stencil with Distress Inks.  I then die cut the happy birthday from the panel, being sure to save all the little in-betweeny bits.  I then die cut it twice more from some black cardstock.  I added adhesive all over the card base and adhered the panel.  I then adhered one of the black die cuts into the negative space, filling in the spaces with the bits saved from the first cut.  The second black die cut and the original layer were then stacked and adhered on top.  You can see the dimension in the next photo...

To finish I die cut two balloons from black cardstock, and also stamped and die cut the numbers.  These were adhered together and affixed to the card, and I hand drew the balloon strings.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Imagination Crafts - Splats
• Ink: Distress Ink - Blueprint Sketch, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: Paper Smooches - Happy Birthday Words; Clearly Besotted - Got Your Number
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Got Your Number

Thanks so much for stopping by, I'll try not to leave it so long next time!

Smooches

Hi there

Just a quick post to share another of my Valentine's Day makes.

Super simple, here it is...

I made a heart mask by die cutting from a scrap of cardstock and blended directly onto the card base with Distress Oxide inks.  I stamped and die cut the kitty with it's co-ordinating die and coloured with ProMarkers before popping him up on 3D foam.  The sentiment from the same set was stamped below.  To add a little interest I finished with a trio of score lines in opposite corners.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Oxide - Abandoned Coral, Picked Raspberry; Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Stamps: Paper Smooches - Chubby Chums
• Coloured with ProMarkers

Challenge entries:

CASology - Week #332 - Furbaby

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #329 - Clean and Simple

Thanks as always for visiting :)

Honey, I Shrunk the Kit - September 2017

Good morning

My fellow honeys and I have got together again recently and been creating cards from an identical kit of crafty goodies.

One of the gang puts together an envelope of the same secret crafty bits and sends the happy mail to each of us, and we then get creative with it.  It was my turn to supply the kit this time so I'm excited to see what my talented teamies have done with it.  The fabulous honeys are:

Hazel Hodgkins - Hazel's Paper Designs

Sarah Platt - Sazzle Dazzle Crafts

Sarah Gray - Funky Fossil Designs

Shona Chambers - Twine Around

I named my kit 'Symbols of Summer'. 

Here is a pic of the kit and details of what I included

(I went a bit bonkers and included rather a lot, and from many brands too!)

Stamps:
Your Next Stamp - Flippin' Fabulous (crab/sentiments)
Clearly Besotted - Life's a Beach (flip flops/sentiments), So Sweet II (ice cream), Hung Up on You (mini cocktail/sentiments), Good Times II (sentiments), Petite Plushies (lolly/pinwheel)
Hero Arts - Let's Chill (palm/hibiscus/cocktail/beachball/sentiment)
Avery Elle - Sip Sip Hooray (sentiments)
The Greeting Farm - Rain Snow Shine (girl)
Little Claire (beach huts
Clear Impressions - Sea Breeze (deck chair)

Dies:
Paper Smooches - Warm Wishes, Birthday Words (cheers)
Echo Park - Flamingo Palm die set
Newton's Nook - Hibiscus
Clearly Besotted - Scalloped Edges die collection

Patterned Paper:
First Edition - Paradise Crush (floral)
Decotime - no name (ice creams)

Ribbon - Dovecraft
Gems - Papermania Glazed Gems Iridescent
Reversible coloured card from stash

Here are my makes (and still plenty left to make more!)

Card 1

I used the coloured cardstock, image and sentiment from the kit for this one.  I die cut a white piece of card using an MFT Die-namics double stitched circle die and stencilled some clouds using MFT mini cloud edges stencil with Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass (apologies, it's very pale in the pic).  I then layered up the sand and sea and die cut these with the same circle die to create the scene.  I added a mix of embossing powder by Wow! by dotting with an embossing pen, to create the break of the waves on the sand. The crab was coloured with ProMarkers and fussy cut, and the sentiment was cut out and mounted on some leftover blue cardstock. I finished by adding the sun which is in fact part of a chrysanthemum layering die set by Creative Expressions, cut from yellow card, and blended this with Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade.  Oh, and of course some googly eyes!

Challenge entries:

AAA Cards - CAS Game #98 - Creatures Great or Small (a few layers but hopefully still CAS enough!)

Alphabet Challenge - M for Make Your Mark
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies September Challenge

Card 2

This one uses three of the die cuts from the kit.  I used Distress Inks to colour the flamingo (Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Hickory Smoke, Pumice Stone) and the palm tree (Ground Espresso, Forest Moss, Pine Needles).  The 'warm wishes' I coloured with a black ProMarker.  I used the brush stroke image from Stampin' Up's Work of Art set to create the sand, sea and sky using Versa Color ink in Bisque, Lagoon Blue and Sky Blue.  I used a black fineliner pen for the flamingo's eye and finished by adding my coconuts, Doodlebug Sprinkles in Bon Bon.

Challenge entry:

Just Add Ink - Challenge #376 - Just Add 'D' (Die cuts / Distress Ink)

Card 3

Everything here was from the kit, other than ProMarkers and Wink of Stella to colour and a couple of stitched dies.  I adhered the lolly/ice cream paper to the entire card base, then split a piece of white cardstock on the diagonal and adhered this over the top. The beach huts were coloured with ProMarkers and die cut with an MFT Die-namics stitched rectangle die, and the sentiment was cut from a smaller one in the same set.  I coloured the three elements of the ice cream, fussy cut them out, cut a slit in the ice cream to tuck in the flake, covered with clear Wink of Stella then adhered to the card with adhesive and glue dots.

Challenge entry:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stamp It

Card 4

This one was predominantly all bits from the kit too.  The image I coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos before mounting onto some of the floral patterned paper.  I wrapped the ribbon around a piece of white cardstock and adhered the image panels on top.  I die cut the sentiment and a piece of the orange cardstock using the Tiny Tags Die by Clearly Besotted and offset these before adhering.  I finished by adding some of the gems to the ribbon and tag, and finally added some Glossy Accents to her sunglasses.

Challenge entry:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It

Card 5

I wasn't really sure where I was going with this one and it's my least favourite but thought I would share it anyway.  I die cut the pink cardstock and the cocktail image using rectangle dies.  The cocktail was coloured with ProMarkers and some Wink of Stella.  The hibiscus die cuts were colour blended with Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss.  I layered up all the elements, added the 'cheers' sentiment which I kept white and finished with some of the smooth gems.

If you've made it to the end of this post, thank you so much for sticking with it.  I'm now off to see what my honey buddies have made with the kit!

I'll be back very soon with the details of the upcoming challenge at Less is More.