Less is More Challenge #365

Good morning, crafters!

At Less is More we're continuing with our 7th Birthday celebrations this month and I'm back to tell you about the challenge for the next two weeks.

Once again we have Chrissie, Jen, Esther and Sarah joining in the birthday fun so please do visit their blogs following the links over on the main challenge blog, I'm sure they would love for you to say hi.

We have a technique for this next challenge which is...

As always, our challenges are looking for CAS (clean and simple) projects so please ensure you check out the challenge guidelines over on the main post.

We are also offering up a few prizes this month and these details can also be found over at Less is More.

For this two week challenge our wonderful sponsor is Seven Hills Crafts and we also have the lovely Tara joining in as Guest Designer.

Ok, onto my cards, and I have two for you this week.  Here's the first...

I had my first go at partial embossing for this one.  I had a few failed attempts that hit the bin, as I couldn't get my Big Shot sandwich right, and although this one isn't perfect I don't think with this design it needs to be.  You can find a link to a video I found from a few years ago by Kristina Werner, here, where she uses DIY embossing diffusers to emboss just part of a panel.  That's what I did here using a stack of die cut circles, although not very circular is it!  The photo below is a little clearer...

I adhered the panel to the card base on fun foam and die cut the flower from some cardstock I'd blended with Distress Inks and added a sentiment embossed in white onto a black strip.

Materials used:

• Embossing Folder: Sizzix - Basket Weave
• Die: Wild Rose Studio - Dancing Poppies
• Ink: Distress Ink - Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet; VersaMark
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Message Me
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White

Challenge entries:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Challenge #279 - CAS

CAS on Friday - Challenge #126 - Dies
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Add a Die Cut

I knew which embossing folder I wanted to use for my second card as it creates a scene whilst also leaving an area of white space, and this also created another Christmas card for my 2018 box!

This embossing folder was free with a magazine a while ago.  I decided to pair it up with a Christmas stamp set I didn't get around to using last Christmas.  I embossed a panel of cardstock slightly smaller than the card base using the woodland folder and stamped the musical notes on it before adhering to the base on 3D foam.  I then stamped, coloured and die cut the birds before adhering them on the tree branches.  A white embossed sentiment on a red strip finished the card.

Materials used:

• Embossing Folder: Unknown brand - free with magazine
• Stamps: Lawn Fawn - Winter Sparrows (and co-ordinating dies)
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black; VersaMark
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White

Challenge entries:

Happy Little Stampers - February Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (not using optional twist)

Thanks so much for stopping by.  There is lots to see over at LIM, my teamies have created some beauties for you.  And don't forget you have two weeks to play along, so plenty of time to link up.

Less is More Week #288

Hi there

I hope you had fun being spoilt by having two weeks for the last Less is More challenge!  While you had your thinking caps on I had a great time at the Happy Little Stampers Craft Retreat last weekend where I finally got to meet some of my wonderful teamies - the lovely Chrissie, Sarah and former designer, Anne.  It was fantastic to spend the weekend with a wonderful group of ladies who share the same hobby.

So, now that you're finished with creating with tactile elements we have a fresh new challenge for you this week and as it's the first challenge of the month we are back with a Colour theme which is...

Brown and Blue

We also have a new sponsor for the month of August...

This is a great little online store that stocks those crafty brands that are hard to get hold of here in the UK.  So why not play along throughout this month for a chance to win a prize :)

Now onto my cards.  For much of the craft retreat we were experimenting with Brushos.  The die cuts on my first card were cut from a piece of cardstock that I had smooshed into some Brusho colour crystals spritzed with water...

I masked a circle on a panel of white cardstock and blended within it with some blue Distress Inks.  I then flicked on some clean water and blotted with a paper towel to remove some of the colour.  The sentiment was stamped in dark brown, the panel popped up on 3D foam and the die cuts adhered overhanging the edge.

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky; Versa Color - Pinecone; Brusho - Dark Brown
• Stamp: Altenew - Beautiful Lady
• Dies: Tim Holtz Sizzix - Wildflowers

Challenge entries:

Freshly Made Sketches - Challenge #248
Color Throwdown - Challenge #404

I'm also going to link up for fun at Happy Little Stampers August CAS Challenge where our theme is 'masking'.

For my second card I made a card using this cute stamp set by MFT...

I used watercolour cardstock for my image and card base.  I stamped the bear image in waterproof black ink and then watercoloured with some Distress Inks.  This was then die cut with a pierced square die.  On some brown cardstock I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark, heat embossed in white and then die cut using a fishtail flag die.  The sentiment strip was adhered flat and the image panel popped up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: MFT - Beary Special Birthday
• Ink: Archival - Jet Black; Distress Ink - Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, Vintage Photo and Tea Dye; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White
• Dies: MFT - Pierced Square Stax, Fishtail Flag Stax
• Cardstock: Daler Rowney - Aquafine Watercolour

My teamies have some wonderful inspiration for you this week, and no doubt more super creations on their personal blogs too so if you have the time please do pop by.

That's all for now.

Addicted to Stamps and More #112

Hi there

Well, quick as a flash we're back to Wednesday and that means a new challenge is now up and running at Addicted to Stamps and More.  And this week we're back with a challenge with the theme...

Make Your Mark

We'd like you to 'make your mark' on your projects using markers, pencils, paints, etc.

Here is my DT card...

This week our Sponsor is the fabulous Stitchy Bear Stamps who are offering 3 images up to the value of $10 to one lucky winner.

I printed off the digi image onto white cardstock and coloured it in with ProMarkers and FlexMarkers.  This was then cut out with a rectangular die.  I stamped the sentiment on the same white cardstock before die cutting with a tag die.  I than ran my base card through my Big Shot embossing the front in an embossing folder.  The folder is called 'basket weave' but I think it resembles a cottage wall so thought this would tie in nicely for this new home card.

Materials used:

• Digi: Stitchy Bear Stamps - Window by My Heart Pieces
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Sweet Little Sentiments
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Rectangles Large; Clearly Besotted - Tag Along
• Embossing Folder: Sizzix - Basket Weave

I would like to enter this card at the following challenges:

Let's Craft and Create - Challenge #96 - Anything Goes

Simply Create Too - Challenge #69 - Show Us Something New (new digi image)

A Gem of a Challenge - Challenge #127 - It's Summertime (nothing more summery than having the windows open, listening to the birds singing and seeing the flowers in bloom!)

Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #122 - Make an Impressions (Dry Embossing)

Craft Room Challenge - Something Old, Something New (old - embossing folder, new - digi image)

STAMPlorations - September Challenge - Stamps and Markers

If you're in the mood for making your mark why not pop over to the ATSM challenge blog and get some inspiration from the rest of the Design Team, they are sharing some real beauties this week :)

Thanks for visiting me today, and I hope you can join in the challenge fun this week.  See you soon.

Pretty Garden Butterflies

Hi there

Here is a card I've made this afternoon.  No challenge this time but I wanted to use one of my new embossing folders.

This embossing folder is part of a set of two by Sizzix and is named 'Basket Weave'.  My initial thought was that if embossing on white cardstock it would look like a white washed brick garden wall.  So that's the direction I went in when creating this card.

I cut down some white cardstock slightly smaller than the card base.  I stamped the climbing leaves and the sentiment first, before embossing the panel.  I stamped three butterflies and cut these out with their matching dies.  I adhered these to the panel on some thin 3D foam, bending slightly to add dimension.  These were trimmed with some bling to finish.

Materials used:

• Embossing folder: Sizzix - Basket Weave
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted Stamps: - Leafy Accents, Butterfly Wishes and A Little Sentimental
• Dies: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Butterfly Wishes
• Ink: Versa Color - Sage, Petal Pink, Opera Pink and Heliotrope; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Cardstock and gems from stash

Thanks so much for visiting, I've had a fun day of crafting while the weather outside is awful down here today.  Hope to see you again soon.

Take care

Clearly Besotted Stamps - September Release Teaser Time - Day 2

Good morning

Welcome to Day 2 of the sneaky peeks for the September release of stamps and dies from Clearly Besotted Stamps.

Today I am showcasing a stamp set and matching die collection called 'A Basket Full'.  I've decided to share two cards at once as I wanted to show how two very different looks can be achieved when using almost the same stamp, but when one is a linear image and one is solid. 

For this card I used the linear image of the daisies...

and for this card I used the same daisies image but this time I used the solid image stamp, for a very different look...

 

 

Card 1

I stamped the images using grey ink for a softer effect and coloured with pastel ProMarkers.  I stamped the bow in a matching pastel ink and die cut all three images and then mounted them on a pink circular die cut.  The same soft grey ink was used to stamp the sentiments which I curved slightly to follow the curve of the circle.

 

Materials used:

• Stamps and Dies: Clearly Besotted Stamps - A Basket Full; Xcut - Nested Circles
• Ink: Memento - London Fog; Versa Color - Hyacinth
• ProMarkers: Pink Carnation, Orchid, Bluebell, Buttercup, Leaf Green, Satin and Tan
• Cardstock: Papermania Premium Textured Cardstock; white base card from stash

 

Card 2

I stamped the basket in black on a white mat, framed with black card and them mounted on some teal cardstock embossed with dots.  The solid daisy image was stamped in black on some white cardstock and die cut.  I then stamped the bow in black ink onto the same teal card as the embossed background and also used the matching die to cut this out.  After mounting the die cuts on 3D foam I added some turquoise glitter glue to the flower centres and finished off with the sentiment.

 

Materials used:

• Stamps and Dies: Clearly Besotted Stamps - A Basket Full
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Glitter Glue: Stickles - Turquoise
• EF: Sizzix
• Cardstock from stash

 

Please pop by Steph's blog here for more sneaky peeks and information about the releases, and more creations from the Design Team.

 

And I'd really love it if you would drop by again tomorrow to see a teaser from another of this month's releases coming up, which will be available from the online store from 6 September 2013.

 

Bye for now

 

 

Fusion Card Challenge #3

Hi there

Today I've made a card for the challenge over at Fusion Card Challenge.  Unfortunately, I missed the first two weeks on this new challenge blog but when I saw the inspiration photo I really wanted to enter this one.  I love the colour combo, my bedroom used to be almost identical!

The idea of this challenge is to use the sketch or the photo as inspiration, or a Fusion of the two.  You can see the inspiration photo further down in this post.

Here is my card, I chose to combine the two inspirations to create a Fusion...

 

I used dies to cut out the leaves and flowers.  I have scored the black panel at the base to mirror the stripes in the inspiration photo.  Here is a closer view to show the detail...

 

 

 

Materials used:

• Dies: Clearly Besotted Stamps - Leafy Accents; Sizzix - Flower Layers #6
• Cardstock: Papermania Premium Textured Cardstock (pink); Black cardstock from stash
• Stamp: Marion Emberson Designs - On your special day
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Ribbon and dewdrop from stash

 

 

Here are the inspiration photos for the challenge...

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting and please leave a comment, your views are always greatly appreciated :)

 

Right, I'm off to bed!