Less is More Challenge #445

Hi guys

I'm back after taking a break from the last challenge at Less is More.  I've not had a break since challenge #416 so felt like I needed a little time out!

But I'm back to it today with the new challenge which this time is a Colour challenge...

Now that the weather has finally turned around in the UK after May being an absolute washout, I decided to duplicate the lovely blue sky and sunshine onto my card for this one...

This was was pretty easy to put together.  On some white cardstock I stencilled the clouds using Distress Oxide ink and then used a circle die to cut out a section of my background.  I die cut the sun from some yellow cardstock and then used some hammered white cardstock for the cloud die cuts, to give them a fluffy appearance.  You can just about make out the hammered detail in the photo below.  I then arranged and adhered all the die cuts onto my card base, some popped up on 3D foam.  To finish I stamped the sentiment in black ink and added some shimmer to the sun.

Materials used:

• Stencil: MFT - Mini Cloud Edges
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Shine Bright
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Tumbled Glass; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Double Stitched Circle Stax; Xcut - Dinky Dies: Sun; Clearly Besotted - Cloudy Day Dies
• Accents: Spectrum Noir - Shimmer Pen: Clear

Challenge entries:

My Time to Craft - Challenge #459 - Things in the Sky

Happy Little Stampers - June Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

STAMPlorations - June Theme & Photo Prompt Challenge - Stamps and 2 Colours

STAMPlorations - June CAS Challenge - Anything CAS goes

Uniko - Challenge #65 - Anything Goes (optional twist: use die cuts)

As usual, the challenge link will remain open for two weeks.  And if you need some inspiration please do pop over to the main challenge post to check out the great projects the Design Team are sharing using these colours.

I've been a bit quiet on here lately but have been making a few cards for orders so I'll be sharing those in the comings days.  Thanks so much for popping by, I really appreciate you taking the time to take a look.

Cocktail Shaker

Hi there

I don't usually write blog posts on a Saturday night but, quite frankly, what else is there to do?!  This pandemic has changed our lives so much hasn't it?  I might open a bottle of wine shortly (actually, there's no 'might' about it) but I'm certainly not going anywhere, just for a change!

Anyway, I thought I'd share a card I made earlier this month for a friend's birthday, so here it is, a fun little shaker card...

In my die cut upper panel I die cut an aperture with a cocktail glass die.  I then stamped the sentiment.  Sentiments are usually the last thing I add but once the foam is added on the reverse of a shaker panel it's more difficult to stamp cleanly.  The die has an inner section too so I cut it again from some silver glitter cardstock.  I then adhered this glitter die cut on the uppermost side, over the acetate.  I made the shaker window in the usual way: acetate, double sided foam barrier surround, filled with fun confetti and then sealed on the reverse before adhering to the card base.

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Xcut - Cocktail Glass
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Floral Spray
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Glitter cardstock from stash
• Accents: Little Things from Lucy's Cards - Sprinkles: Let's Polka

Thanks so much for visiting, I'll be back very soon with more to share.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay safe.

Happy Little Stampers February 2021 CAS Challenge

Hi there

It's a fresh new month and therefore we have a a bunch of fresh new challenges over at Happy Little Stampers.  Here is the cue card for the CAS challenge which is kicking off right now...

I decided to go super CAS for this card, just a simple 'love you'...

I began by die cutting the 'love' from a piece of cardstock which I had already ink blended with a gradient of pink and red Distress Ink.  I then die cut a heart from some black textured card stock and stamped and heat embossed the 'you' in white.  I adhered the die cut to the heart and placed it on my card base.  Now, I love simple cards more than any other kind but this one did look like it needed a little something else.  So I just added some ink splatters mainly towards the bottom right corner using a mix of Distress Ink and water flicked off a small brush.  To finish I popped the heart up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Dies: Lil' Inker Designs - Doodled Love Word Die; Xcut - Nesting Hearts
• Stamp: Uniko - You Are...Sentiments Outlined
• Ink: Distress Ink - Picked Raspberry, Candied Apple;VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White

Challenge entries:

Moving Along with the Times - Challenge #127 - Valentines/Love

NBUS - Challenge #23 - first use of the 'love' die purchased in Lil' Inker Designs closing down sale last year

As with all the HLS challenges, the linky will remain open until the end of the month.  I hope you can join us.

Uniko - Super Sunday Guest Designer Spot

Good morning, everyone

Today I'm super excited as I'm being featured in Uniko's Super Sunday Guest Designer Spot.  I was so honoured when I received the invitation from the lovely Bev and I've had great fun creating with lots of my Uniko stamps.

This post is a bit photo heavy as I got a bit carried away and created quite a few cards, once I started I couldn't stop!  I've centred all these cards around Uniko's current themes of love, kindness and friendship, I hope you like them.

Card #1

For this first sweet card I combined stamps from Uniko's Background Builders Classics and Simply Said sets...

I die cut a heart window first in my upper panel and then marked the area on the card base that would show through the aperture, masked it off then stamped the various border designs in varying shades of pink.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white to show through the raised panel.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Background Builders Classics, Simply Said
• Dies: Xcut - Heart Nesting Dies; Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Ink: Altenew - Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red, Grapevine; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White

Cards #2 and #3

For these two love themed cards I used the Scattered Polka Hearts background stamp and sentiments from the You Are…Sentiments Outlined set...

For this first one I heat embossed the background hearts in white and used emboss resist to blend over the top with Distress Oxides in a diagonal gradient.  I then used a vellum wrap with the sentiment heat embossed in white.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Scattered Polka Hearts, You Are...Sentiments Outlined
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries; VersaMark
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White
• Vellum from stash

And an alternative using the same stamp sets...

This one is a similar design but in reverse.  I used my MISTI to stamp the polka hearts multiple times, creating a gradient of pale to deep pink.  Here I heat embossed the sentiment on a die cut heart from black cardstock and popped it up on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Scattered Polka Hearts, You Are...Sentiments Outlined
• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Xcut - Heart Nesting Dies
• Ink: Altenew - Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White

Card #4

My next make used the gorgeous Bee Happy stamp set...

I adhered some honeycomb/hexagon patterned paper to the lower half of my card base and then die cut an angled stitched edge from my upper panel.  This was then stamped in black, grey and honey shades using various stamps all from the same set, with a little Copic colouring on the bee.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Bee Happy
• Ink: Altenew - Sunkissed; Hero Arts - Soft Granite; Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Stitched Basic Edges
• Patterned Paper - Doodlebug - Kraft in Color (kraft)

Card #5

This selection of Uniko creations wouldn’t be complete without using one of the Flower Power sets, and here I’ve combined blooms from Flower Power #2 with leaves from Natures Treasures II and the sentiment from Hello Lovely...

I used really bright summer colours here, started with the leaves and then stamped and die cut the flowers, using their co-ordinating dies, before adhering them in a cluster on glue dots.  The stamped sentiment and some vertical score lines finished off this one layer card.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Flower Power #2 (and companion dies), Natures Treasures II, Hello Lovely
• Ink: Altenew - Pinkalicious, Orange Cream, Maple Yellow, Parrot; Versafine - Onyx Black

Card #6

I chose stamps from Just Because, Beautiful and Hello Lovely for this friend card...

On a pale green panel I stamped the same image in different orientations both in green and also heat embossed in white.  The sentiment was heat embossed on a green strip and a further smaller strip adhered on 3D foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - Just Because, Beautiful, Hello Lovely
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Ink: Altenew - Frayed Leaf; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White

Card #7

It wasn’t until I was making these that I realised how much the flower stem from the You Are, Yes You set resembled the flower in my blog logo!  I combined it here with the Background Builders Pinstripe II stamp and the sentiment from Originally Organic Additions.  I also thought I'd work with my blog colours too...

I stamped the flower in a pale ink before colouring with Copics and then masking it to stamp the pinstripes.  With the stem stamp still in my MISTI, I then restamped it over the original image before heat embossing in white. 

Materials used:

• Stamps: Uniko - You Are Yes You, Background Blocks Pinstripe II, Originally Organic Additions
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Ink: Memento - London Fog; Altenew - Mountain Mist; VersaMark; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe - Alabaster White
• Coloured with Copic markers

I'm linking up with the following challenges:

Card #1

Sweet Stampin' - Love

NBUS - Challenge #22 - both stamp sets are new to my stash for this GD spot

Card #2

Alphabet Challenge - V is for Vellum

Card #7

Just Us Girls - Challenge #569 - Masking

Fusion - Flowers (using the inspiration photo)

Thanks so much for taking a look at my cards today and I hope they have given you some crafty inspiration.

And many thanks to Bev for thinking of me and for providing this Guest Designer spot.  I thoroughly enjoyed making all of these.

Christmas Card Multiples - Watercolour and Glittered Die Cuts

Hi there

More multiple makes for you today.  I made four each of four different versions of a similar design.  I just changed up the colours and die cuts for each.

I started with some white card bases and stitched die cut rectangles.  I mixed Distress Inks with water and roughly watercoloured some brush strokes onto the panels and left to dry.  I then die cut poinsettias, holly leaves, bells and snowflakes from some white glitter cardstock and adhered these over the panels onto the bases.  To finish I stamped and heat embossed some sentiments in gold and silver and cut down the sentiment strips and adhered on glue dots rather than foam to make the finished cards more mail friendly.

Red Poinsettia

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Poppy Stamps - Small Posh Outline
• Ink: Distress Ink - Candied Apple; VersaMark
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Brushed Sentiments
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich

Green Holly Leaf

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Tonic - Holly Leaf
• Ink: Distress Ink - Pine Needles; VersaMark
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Brushed Sentiments
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich

Blue Snowflakes

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Lawn Fawn - Mini Snowflakes
• Ink: Distress Ink - Salty Ocean; VersaMark
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Brushed Sentiments
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver

Lilac Bells

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Xcut - Filigree Bell
• Ink: Distress Ink - Dusty Concord; VersaMark
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Brushed Sentiments
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver

Challenge entries:

Dream Valley - Challenge #238 - Christmas

Try It On Tuesday - Christmas Sparkle

STAMPlorations - December CAS Challenge - Anything CAS Goes

STAMPlorations - December Theme & Photo Challenge - Stamps and Shimmer

I'll be back again soon with more festive makes, thanks for taking the time to visit :)

Christmas Card Multiples - Pastel Snowflakes

Good morning

Back with more of my multiple mini cards.  These were fairly quick to make, perfect when I realised I had nowhere near enough cards and time was running out!

This mini snowflake stencil is a circular design so no masking was required here.  I just blended straight through it with two shades of Distress Oxides.  All that was left was to die cut the sentiments from silver glitter cardstock and adhere straight over the design.  Simple!

Materials used:

• Stencil: Creative Expressions - Circular Snowflake Mini
• Ink: Distress Oxide - Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass
• Die: Xcut - Let It Snow
• Silver glitter cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Daring Cardmakers - Pretty Pastels: Anything Crafty

Inkspirational - Challenge #202 - No Stamping

STAMPlorations - December Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking :)