Less is More - Week 174 - use more than one stamp

 We've a fun challenge this week at Less is More:  use more than one stamp.  You can probably see from my cards that I had a lot of fun with this one!  There's a bit of a theme going on here, two similar style cards...

 
  My card uses the Artemio Picata stamp set, which I've just acquired.  I'm rather copying Chrissie here, who uses this set a lot.  My Light Sussex hen has chicks at the moment and it seemed a good idea to come up with this!   Five different chicken stamps, bit of simple masking, coloured with Copics.  Whiff of Joy sentiment, background created with two Inky Doodles stamps, then Distress Inked.  That makes eight stamps!  
 
  These groovy chicks are made with Technique Tuesday stamps, their down is stamped using a Visible Image flower stamp, or a tiny egg shape from Elusive Images for the chicks.  The sentiments are Hero Arts and Technique Tuesday, with Stamp Addicts Dotty stamp for the grass.  Five bird stamps used, so this uses ten stamps!   With hindsight I wish I'd only put one sentiment on, the white space is at a bit of a premium here:)
 

Wetlands

I love using this stamp set from Stampin' Up, makes me get my inks and Pan Pastels out again.  Here I've used Distress Inks on a linen textured card and added a Hero Arts sentiment.  I live about as far from the sea as it's possible to get in England, this is a days out and away card for me:).  I added some thick kitchen string to keep the nautical feel.
I'm entering my card for:
Simon Says - vacation/ travel
Keep it Simple - maritime
Addicted to CAS - texture
Artistic Inspirations - anything goes with wings
Allsorts - Happy Birthday

Ooh La La Challenge #157 - Bear it All

Thank goodness for a Bank Holiday!  I spent most of yesterday wrestling with a printer and as a consequence this is being posted late for Ooh La La's Challenge, which this week is to use a bear in your creation.  I've used an image from the extremely useful Boys to Men CD, which covers cute, cartoon humour and scenic.  Today I've opted for cute with a fun image called Seasonal Fallout, surrounded by diecuts.  The bears are from a die belonging to my blogging friend Chrissie, leaves are Joanna Sheen and tree is Memory Box, cut the sentiment on my Portrait.  Background plaid and green leaves cut from papers from the CD.
I'm entering a few challenges with my card:
CD Sunday - tots to teens
Come and Get It - lots of layers
Dragonfly Dreams - how does your garden grow?
Lacy Sunshine - dies and/or punches
Craftitude that's die-licious
One for the Guys - big or small

Less is More - week 173 - use a die cut

 This week our Clean & Simple theme at Less is More is to use a diecut, which was a great excuse to get out two dies I bought at Ally Pally and had yet to use.  I love this Memory Box butterfly heart and have been after it for a while.  Here I used it over some rainbow printed glossy card, with a few extra butterflies added.  Sentiment is Stampin' Up.

 I also bought some teeny birds from All Occasions dies and cut several sets out from Coredinations card.  I gave them telephone wires to perch on with stitching and added Whiff of Joy sentiments.  While I don't tend to use the images they go with, they are still fab sentiments for cards using birds!

Less is More Week 172 - Flowers

 This week has a simple and fun theme of flowers and I'm sure we'll see lots of super entries.  First card is paper pieced from Basic Grey Wisteria, I have just a few sheets left.   The doodled border is Distress Ink pen, sentiment is Waltzing Mouse.  I made a version of this earlier this week, which ended up rather more than less!

 This is very simple, there is no sentiment as that way I can add one when I need it.  The petals are made with the Stampin' Up Build a Bird punch.  I used embossing lines to give it a "handkerchief" corner.

Final card is coloured with Distress Inks, having seen some wonderful watercolour creations around Blogdom this week.  This is not in the same league painting-wise but I enjoyed making it.  Elusive Images flower stamp, sentiment and dots from Visible Image.

Cats and Dogs

 The Memory Box Happy Birthday must be one my my most used dies, it's so useful!  I was playing with it last night and combined it with the All Occasion Dies of dogs and cats to make a couple of very simple cards, which I think are really sweet.  Annoyingly the far right dog appears to be levitating, but sometimes this happens when your dog really, really, doesn't want to obey "Stay!" lol!

I'm entering my cards for a few challenges:
Simon Says - die crazy
Animal Friends - Happy Birthday
Flat Friends - dies and/or punches
Ruby's Rainbow - animals
Whimsy Stamps - two or more dies
Melonheadz Friendz - all about animals

Doodling

This card is for an online crafting friend who has just been admitted to a hospice, a Get Well sentiment is not appropriate and I think this sentiment from Waltzing Mouse is a good one.  The flowers are made from a Basic Grey 6x6 pad called Wisteria.  I bought 2 pads because I loved this one so much and just have a few stray sheets left to use up.  The flower stamp is Hero Arts and I've doodled a border and some stems, as well as adding some silver Stickles.

I'm entering my card for:
Simon Says - spring flowers
Tuesday Throwdown - spring blossoms
A Little Bit Crafty  - flower power
Bearly Mine - flowers
Suzy Bees - flowers
STAMPlorations - stamps and flowers

Ooh La La Challenge #156 - quotations - and a sneak peek!

It is time for a new challenge at the Ooh La La Challenge Blog and I have been naughty and have a sneak peek to show you from a CD that is not yet out.  The challenge is to use a quotation and the new CD, called Say it With Words, is just amazing and perfect for the challenge.  The artwork is fabulous and there are also digis to use on it - wow!  I've used a digi and coloured it with sepia tones, with my Copics.  The pennants and paper are bonus papers from the CD.  Gorgeous isn't it - wait till you see the other images on this CD...!

Less is More Week 171 - One Layer Thanks

 Exciting news at Less is More as we welcome the talented Sarah to the Designer team, we now number four Designers with, of course, Chrissie as the Head Honcho :).  I also have exciting news as one of my Light Sussex ladies has hatched out a brood, when I took this photo last night she had three chicks, but she now has a brood of six... 

On to the cards and we are at One Layer week, with the theme of Thank You.  My first card was made using my Portrait,  I cut the words from coffee coloured card and again from a gold shimmer card and embedded them into the cardfront.  I added a couple of embossed lines and then some golden gems.  I love this card, couldn't be more CAS...

Second card is stamped using Visible Image stamps that I bought at Ally Pally, I stamped in Shaded Lilac Distress ink and then overstamped with a dark blue Versafine, looks rather like cornflowers.  The background is shaded with Squeezed Lemonade DI, the sentiment is Stampin' Up. 

 

I look forward to seeing lots of one layer inspiration this week, don't forget to keep it CAS!

Less is More - Week 170 - any three colours or shades

 

This week the challenge at Less is More is to use any three colours or shades.  Things in threes always seem to work well for me and I really enjoyed making my cards.  First up are balloons cut using my Portrait from three dotty shades of pink papers.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up and I've used a Pigma permanent pen to give the balloons strings and to extend the sentiment off the page.
 
My second card uses three colours of Inktense watercolour pencil, scribbled onto cream hammered card and then spritzed with water.   I treated myself to a set of Stampin' Up Wetlands stamps recently, having fallen for them in a big way when I played with Chrissie's set and I have then stamped these onto my background panel.  There's lots of texture from the cardstock, what do you think?

Sparkle and shimmer

A quick posting of a card I made earlier this week for CAS on Sunday's sparkle and shimmer challenge.  The background is embossed and then sprayed with sparkle and shine spray.  The frame was cut with my Portrait and Glossy Accents added to the stamens, I also dotted some blobs of Glossy Accents across the background.  It is very very sparkly in real life!  I think it needs a sentiment but not sure what...

I'm also entering
Simon Says - anything goes
Moving along with the Times - pretty pastels