Same But Different

Good morning

Just popping by to share a couple of cards I made recently.

I needed to make two cards at short notice so I chose the same design idea, just changing up the products on each.

For both of these I masked the borders on the bottom right with tape and then stencilled a background, gently fading it out.  Both floral images were simply stamped in black and left as outline images.  And to finished I added black sentiment strips with the sentiments heat embossed in white.

For super quick last minute makes I love how these turned out.

Materials used:

• Stencil: Funky Fossil - Basketweave
• Stamps: Dina Wakley Media - Scribbly Flowers; S P & Co - Just a Note
• Ink: Distress Ink - Picked Raspberry; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Altenew - Pure White

Challenge entries:

Addicted to CAS - Challenge #177 - Ombre

Materials used:

• Stencil: MFT - Fishnet
• Stamps: Altenew - Extra Special, Leaf Canopy (sentiment)
• Ink: Distress Ink - Shaded Lilac; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Altenew - Pure White

Challenge entries:

Stamping Sensations - February Challenge - Feminine
Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #374 - CAS




Thanks so much for visiting.  I'll be back this evening with details of the next CAS Challenge over at Happy Little Stampers.  Happy Sunday, everyone x

Less is More is 7!

Good morning!

At Less is More this month we're celebrating...it's our 7th Birthday!  Over on the main challenge blog there's a bumper post telling you all about it, so for all the details please do pop over there.

In a nutshell, as it's our birthday month we are celebrating with two challenges, two sponsors, we have prizes and also have some familiar faces back with us to celebrate, as well as our sponsor Guest Designers so please do check it out and follow all the links to see more details of all their fabulous creations.

The first challenge for this month is a theme and here are the details...

Our sponsor for this first challenge of February is the awesome Uniko so don't forgot you have to play along for a chance to win the monthly prize.

I did have a bit of a panic when I saw this challenge as I have almost nothing to fit this theme in my stash but I luckily found a free stamp set with a magazine only last week which was perfect for the challenge...and then also DID find a few bits within my stash that could work too.  And amazingly, I've made six cards for you, I just couldn't stop!


Card One

I die cut a circle off the edge of a white cardstock panel and then ink blended the card base in the area to show through the aperture.  I placed the panel over the base and stamped the musical image through the aperture onto the blended area.  The sentiment was then stamped onto the panel which was adhered flat.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: Hero Arts - Infinity Circle Dies
• Stamps: Sheena Douglass - The Music and Dance Collection (free with magazine)

Challenge entries:

Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #204 - Get Inky/Messy



Card Two

This has got to be one of the quickest cards I've ever made!  I embossed the card base with a square die and then used another die from the same set to cut out the pierced square.  The sentiment and note were stamped and the small panel popped up on 3D foam.  The embossed card base can be seen more clearly below...

Materials used:

• Die: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Scrumptious Sentiments; Sheena Douglass - The Music and Dance Collection (free with magazine)
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Versa Color - Camelia

Challenge entries:

Freshly Make Sketches - Challenge #322





Card Three

A panel of white cardtock was blended at the top with blue ink and a cloud stencil.  Then the branch, bird, music notes and sentiment were simply stamped to create the scene.  The panel was popped up on fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stencil: MFT - Mini Cloud Edges
• Ink: Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass; Altenew - Espresso, Sand Dunes, Rocky Shore, Industrial Diamond; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - So Tweet, Love Blossoms; Lawn Fawn - Happy Wedding (notes)

Challenge entries:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes



Card Four

This was super easy.  On a panel of white cardstock I masked a horizontal strip and blended the four colours of Distress Ink.  The images were simply stamped in black before mounting the panel on fun foam.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Sheena Douglass - The Music and Dance Collection (free with magazine)

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #277 - Make Your Mark (ink blending/sponging)




Card Five

I stamped the music score image onto a panel and then the sentiment above.  The holly was stamped in green pigment ink and I added some enamel dots for the berries.  The panel was foam mounted.  Yay, another Christmas 2018 card in the bag!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Background Builder; Christmas Sparkle (free with a magazine)
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Versa Color - Evergreen
• Accents: Doodlebug Sprinkles - Ladybug

Card Six

This is my least favourite of my six cards but I thought I'd share it with you anyway.  The music score, another stamp from the free set, was stamped on a panel of white cardstock which I then die cut with a landscape die.  I manipulated the sentiment to follow the curve before stamping it above.  I adhered some stripey paper to the card base and the panel flat over the top before colouring the flowers with Zig markers.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Sheena Douglass - The Music and Dance Collection (free with magazine); SP & Co - Just a Note
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Patterned Paper: Pebbles - Sunny Side
• Coloured with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Thank you SO much if you made it to the end.  I hope you'll feel inspired to play along, and don't forget that our challenges now run for two weeks so there's more time for you to link up.

My teamies have some great projects being shared over at LIM and to see more, and from our guests, just follow each of their links.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Muse #173 - Just a Note...

Hi there

There's a new challenge just starting over at Muse and, following the recent departure of our wonderful teamie, Michele, we've had a bit of a reshuffle so I'll now be your designer for the first challenge of each month.

The challenge at Muse is to draw any kind of inspiration from the designer's creation each week, so this could be the layout, technique, colours...whatever you like really.  So without further ado, here's my card to hopefully inspire you this week.  I think this is a little different for me, ink blending and stencilling and not much white space.  It's always good to try different styles.

On a white cardstock panel slightly smaller than my card base I began by blending three Distress Inks to create the appearance of a sunset.  I then laid a stencil of stems over the top and blended with a purple, blue and black to create the silhouettes.  I stamped the simple sentiment in the top corner and mounted it onto a dark purple panel before adhering flat to my card base.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stencil: STAMPlorations - ARTplorations Bloom Silhouettes
• Stamp: S P & Company - Just a Note
• Coloured Cardstock: Papermania 

Challenge entries:

Just Add Ink - Challenge #318 - Just add 'S' (stencil / silhouettes / sunset)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Virginia's View Challenge #22 - All About Colours

I'd love for you to play along this week and to see your interpretations.

Thanks for visiting, bye for now.

Berry Nice!

Good morning crafters

It's 8.00am on a Saturday which means it's time for a brand new challenge at Less is More.  This week we're back with a colour challenge and we would like you to use...

Berry Shades

Please remember to follow our guidelines and keep your creations clean and simple, remembering to leave some white space.

Here are my cards to hopefully give you some inspiration...

I die cut a panel from a diagonal stitched rectangle die then stamped the sketchy heart three times in different berry colours.  This was pigment ink so I then heat embossed the hearts using clear embossing powder.  The panel was popped up on 3D foam and the sentiment stamped beneath. Easy peasy!

Materials used:

• Die: MFT Die-namics - In and Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangles
• Stamps: Stampin' Up - Work of Art, Clearly Besotted - Sentimental Type
• Ink: Versa Color - Cardinal, Raspberry, Grape
• Embossing Powder: Rubber Stampede - Clear

Challenge entry:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

I decided to do some Distress Ink blending for my second card...

I masked off a rectangular panel with post-it notes and blended the background in two colours of Distress Ink.  I then used the used the ghosting technique by spritzing through a stencil with water and then blotting, to create the subtle chicken wire pattern.  Once dry I stamped the fern and then stamped it again without re-inking to create the shadow.  I then removed the masks and stamped the sentiment.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves; Versa Color - Grape
• Stamps: Inkylicious - Fern Leaves; SP & Company - Just a Note
• Stencil: The Crafters Workshop - Mini Chicken Wire reversed

Challenge entry:

Simply Create Too - Challenge #91 - Anything Goes

And my third card...

On a panel of white cardstock I stamped the balloon in three different colours and then masked off one of them before stamping the strings.  I stamped the sentiment on a strip of white cardstock and heat embossed this with clear powder.  The white strip was matted on a strip of dark purple cardstock before adhering to the panel, and the panel was then adhered to the base on 3D foam strips.  I love this perfectly round balloon stamp and in these colours they really remind me of little cranberries and blueberries!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Wplus9 - Whole Lotta Happy; Clearly Besotted - Make a Wish
• Ink: Versa Color - Cardinal, Raspberry, Boysenberry and Grape
• Embossing Powder: Rubber Stampede - Clear

I love these gorgeous juicy colours and would love for you to join us this week.  I think the gallery is going to look stunning!

Happy Saturday lovelies!

Just a Ladybird Note

Hi there

This is a really quick post to share a card I've made this evening for the current Less is More challenge where the theme is 'Little Creatures'.

I thought I would have lots to choose from in my stash but it was actually quite limited...apart from butterflies!  I ended up inking up a stamp from a set I've not used before...

This is a teeny card, only 10cm x 10cm.  The little row of ladybirds is from a Country Companions set which was part of a bundle I bought from eBay a while ago.  I hadn't really noticed them until I was specifically looking for some 'little creatures'.  I found a scrap of white cardstock and stamped the ladybirds in black ink and then coloured them with my Inktense pencils, just using a wet brush to pick up the colour from the pencil tip.  I then manipulated the sentiment stamp slightly to follow the curve of the bugs and also stamped this in black.  I used a square die to cut out the design and then matted this onto a scrap of black card, creating a narrow border.  I then popped this up onto the card base using 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Country Companions - Sunshine Meadows; SP & Company - Just a Note
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils
• Die: Xcut - Nested Squares
• Cardstock from stash

I would also like to enter this card at the following challenge blogs:

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Black and White and...

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 147 (the white and black mats were cut from cardstock in my scraps as it's such a tiny card)

I hope you're all having a fab week...not long now until the weekend :)

Take care

Less is More Week 131 & CAS(E) this Sketch #40

Hi guys

Firstly I'd like to give a warm welcome to my new followers, Jo, Deepti and Christina.  Thank you so much for taking an interest in my blog, its always great to know that people appreciate my creations :)

Apologies for being a bit quiet this week, I've been spending a few evenings trying to organise my stash into some sort of order.  My cupboard still needs some more planning as I seem to have bought too much recently and have no room for it! Oops!  I've also started to make a set of swatches for my inks so I can see the true colours.  Its very difficult to imagine the exact colour just by looking at the pad.  Its a work in progress but should get it all sorted how I want it soon.

Tonight I'm here to share a card I've made for a couple of challenges.

 

 

 

Less is More - Colour challenge / inspiration photo

 

 

 

CAS(E) this Sketch #40 

 

 

It took a while to pull together some materials from my stash to fit the colour challenge but I think I did ok.  I love the sketch this week and its one I've used a few times over the years, I love the simplicity and the vertical sentiment.

 

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Textured card base from stash; Papermania Premium Textured Cardstock
• Stamps: Marion Emberson Designs - On your special day; SP & Company - Just a Note
• Ink: Versa Color - Charcoal and Umber
• Ribbon and dew drops from stash

 

I hope to be back at the weekend with more to share with you, thanks as always for visiting and for your kind comments :)

 

 



Muse Challenge #14

Morning crafters

Woke up really early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep so decided to get up and put my papercraft head on.

Its the last day to get entries in for this week's Muse challenge and this week's muse is Virginia Lu who has created a gem of a card. 

I had a rummage through my stamps and just couldn't find anything I wanted to use....need to shop!  So, instead I decided to trawl through my very neglected patterned papers and found an unopened pack so got stuck in. 

This is what I came up with, I think its pretty clear where my inspiration came from, pretty much every element of Virginia's card!

 

 

The patterned paper has an off-white background so I started with a cream card base for a change, I think white may have made the paper look a bit grubby.  This design took a while to plan out as a fair amount of measuring was needed to get the four strips the same size and to ensure they fitted correctly.  Once the strips were adhered to the pink background card I ran the whole thing through my Big Shot using a circular die.  Once stuck to the card base I then stamped the sentiment through the window and also stamped a flourish to mirror the design in the paper.  A few gems were added to finish.

 

Materials used:

• Cardstock: Cream card base from stash; Bazzill Basics Premium Cardstock (pink)
• Design Paper: Dovecraft - Garden Party 6 x 6 Designer Paper Pack
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Happy Everything (sentiment); Marion Emberson - Just Because (flourish)
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: XCut - Nested Circles
• Gems from stash

 



This is the beautiful card by this week's Muse, Virginia Lu...

After making my challenge card I was left with the cute little circular die cut so in true crafting 'I'm not throwing anything away' fashion, I made this card using the same materials.  The sentiment is from SP & Company 'Just a Note' stamp set.

That's all from me today.  Got a busy day, not doing anything exciting just mega busy, off here and there.  Thanks for visiting and I always appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  If you get chance follow the link to the Muse challenge, there are some really stunning designs this week, its going to be a tough choice when it comes to voting!

Have a lovely Saturday :)

Less is More Week 106 OLC Music

Hiya

I want to start by saying a huge thank you to my first 10 followers, it means so much to me so thank you *little claps* :)

Well despite being sat in front of the laptop for what seems like two whole days on eBay I managed to find some time to enter this week's challenge at Less is More.  This challenge is to create a One Layer Card with a reference to Music.

My heart sank when I read what this new challenge was as I knew I had no stock whatsoever that referred to music...or so I thought.  I then had a brainwave and as it turns out...some peel-offs came to my rescue!  Yes, REALLY!  I raided a pack of partly-used peel-offs I'd listed on eBay yesterday, one of which had musical instruments on it.  Yay!

This is what I came up with...

 

I ripped some paper and masked off an area of the card, then stuck the musical note peel-offs in this area before carefully chalking in three colours applied with cotton wool.  I then removed the paper and carefully uplifted the peel-offs with a pokey tool.

And a closer view...

 

 

I then curved a clear sentiment stamp to match the contour of the chalked edge but to my horror I made a bit of a boob when stamping it.  Panic set it as I had no more peel-offs.  I tried to rescue my card by re-stamping to correct my mistake (why, I'll never know as this never works!) but I was delighted when this happened! 

 

 

As I hadn't lined up the image properly it created a faded shadow behind the original impression and I actually love it.   I think it makes a lovely soft effect alongside the chalk.

 

Now that I look at the completed card I think I should have made the chalked area smaller as I don't think I've left enough white space for this challenge.

 

Materials used:

• Chalks: Decorating Chalks by Craf-T Products
• Peel-offs: Musical notes - unknown brand
• Stamp: SP & Company - Just a Note stamp set
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black

 

So there you have it, learning from my mistakes all the time! :)  Thanks for visiting as always.

 

Neet x