A bit of Less is More

Edited:  better photo added Sun am :)
First of all:  apologies for such a poor photo, the card is bright white in real life!  I'm just home from a fab day at the NEC with the Lady Limette Chrissie herself.  We've had a great time and I wanted to blog my Less Is More card before she arrived home :).  This week we are challenged to combine at least 3 of the earlier challenges.  I missed the Aqua Challenge (53), so I bought some lovely aqua embossing powder from the WOW stand today, which of course added in Embossing (15).  The leaf and the sentiment stamps also came from the WOW stand, which added in (41) leaves and (58) script.  Finally I added a bit of bling (43) either side of the sentiment and I began by inking in a square (28).  I see that most of my challenges were one layers and I've chosen to stick to a one layer card.  I'll hop around and admire everyone elses Recipe entries tomorrow, tonight calls for a bit of vegetating by the telly with Mum:).
I'm also entering my card for One Stop Craft's Clean & Simple Challenge.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #63 - Susie's Sketch

 
Here's my Design Team card for this week's Crafty Cardmaker's Challenge.  This week Susie has set a lovely sketch to follow.  We have two generous sponsors for prizes this week:  One Stop Card Craft offers a £10 gift voucher and Digi Doodle Shop a $10 gift voucher. 

My card uses an adorable  Digi Doodle Shop image called The Horse Kiss.  I coloured with Copics, inking the background with SU Bashful Blue.  The DP is Basic Grey Out of Print, some raffia, tiny buttons and a sentiment from Craftwork Cards complete the card.
I'm also entering my card for:
Crafting When We Can - animals
Sketchy Colours - pink, blue beige
The Crafty Pad - share the good news (newsprint on my DP)
One Stop Craft Challenge - button it
Catch the Bug - March anything goes

Red roses in winter

I've another card from that gorgeous Engraved Flowers set to share with you today.  I've kept to a restricted palette of red, white and black.  The flowers are stamped at random with Versamark and red embossed for the background.  I've added the sentiment from the same set, a bit of matting and layering, some lace, spotty flower and stripy ribbon.  This was a very quick card, I do like this flower as a background.  Keep warm everyone, it's bitterly cold here today:(.
My card is for:
Simon Says - spots and/or stripes
Incy Wincy - bold and bright
One Stop Crafts - on the spot and ribbon
Sentimental Sundays - ribbon
Totally Papercrafts - spots and stripes

Something different

Here's a second post from me today as I've tried something a little different and wanted to share it:  stamping onto fabric.  I used the Stamp Addicts Engraved Flowers set again and wondered how well all the intricate detail would show up.  It worked perfectly and all the detail is there if you click on the picture.  I left it uncoloured and like the vintage look of brown ink, frayed edges and stitching.  It's stitched on to Kraft, matted onto brown and a couple of rows of scallops added as well as the ribbon.  What do you think?
I'm entering my card for:
CAS-ual Fridays - scallops
Sir Stampalot - monochrome
Simon Says - spots and/or stripes
Moving Along with the Times - spots and/or stripes
One Stop Craft - on the spot and ribbon
Cupcake Craft - something new (stamping on fabric)

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #59 - No floral embellishments

Good Morning, I am excited to be able to tell you that I have been picked as part of the Design Team for Crafty Cardmakers and here is my card for this week's challenge, which is sponsored by both One Stop Crafts AND  Digi Doodle Shop.   The challenge is to use no floral embellishments on your card or project; I have still made a very flowery card but with no floral embellies.   I used a stamp and sentiment from a new set I've got called Engraved Flowers by Stamp Addicts, the lily is coloured with Copics and Glossy Accents.  I've embossed the border with Swiss Dots after I punched it, the DP is Basic Grey Sweet Threads and there are little pink pearls accenting the card.  Oh, the ribbon is recycled from a box of chocolates:)  I do hope you'll join us and play along with the challenge.
I'm also entering:
Basic Grey - something new (new stamp set)
One Stop Craft - Bingo (embossing, diecuts, flowers diagonal)
Cute Card Thursday - what's new (stamp set)
Crafty Emma - anything goes

Phindy's Place Challenge #85 - clean and simple

Welcome to this week's challenge, a great one for those of us who are struggling to get last minute cards made for Christmas!  I have made an almost one-layer card;  I embossed the card with a Nestie and then die cut my image and placed it inside the embossed lines.  The image is called Winter Bird and it is really quick to colour, so effective too.  There's some Glamour Dust on the snow and some Glossy Accents on the robin.  I added a sentiment from Butterfly Kisses in red and some red twine to accent the red in the image.
My card is also for the following challenges:
Shopping our Stash - lights, whites or Meljen - I chose white
Simon Says - Christmas photomontage inspiration
Stamp, scrap & doodle - holiday card

Kraftin' Kimmie - embossing
Designed2Delight - snow
Crafty Calender - cold and frosty
Dream Valley - sparkle
Truly Madly Crafty - Christmas images & colours
Hooked on Craft - winter wonderland
Crafty Bloggers Network - shades of winter
Craft your Passion - anything goes + glitter
Top Tip Tuesday - let it snow
Celebrate the Occasion - Christmas no green
My Mum's Craft Shop - traditional Christmas
Crafts & Me - winter snow
Creative Belli - winter & Christmas
Pixie Dust Studio - glitter and bling
Papercrafting Journey - Christmas
Crafty Purple Frog - it's cold outside
Aud Sentiments - winter holiday sentiments

Nautical Knots

Here's one of my cards using the new Stamp Addicts set On the Water, which also uses the dotties for the clouds.  Image was coloured with watercolours, the red sail was coloured directly to make it as bright as possible, I also reflected the red in the water.  I tied what I hoped look like nautical knots on my cardstock on the front panel of this stepper card.  This set was really fun to use, though DH says the perspective is all wrong on my scene, never mind I like it!
My card is for:
Papertake - anything goes
Shopping our Stash - sports
Try it on Tuesday - unusual card shapes
Card Cupids - more than one fold
One Stop Craft - no sentiment
My Sheri Crafts - sports
Our Creative Corner - fancy folds
Sweet Stampin' - anything goes
Poodle Parlour - let's hear it for the boys
Crafty Sentiments - more than one fold
Craft Room Challenge - for a man
Stamps R Us  -masculine theme

Black & Gold

Here's one more card using those fabulous Tree stamps from Stamp Addicts; today I posted all the sample cards of to Sarah and Vicki to hopefully appear on this Friday's TV programmes at 10am and 1pm on Create & Craft.  This is extremely simple, I think I spent longer trying to take a decent photo of this than I did making it!

The trees are gold embossed onto mountboard, the edges of the tiles embossed too.  They were then sponged with Soot Black Distress Ink.  The gold mirri card has an EK Success border and some ribbon with knots in it.  I think this could be a Christmas card or something else again, whichever I like it:).

My card is for the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes - sundae bar I used black, distressing (ink) and sparkle

One Stop Craft - no designer paper

Fussy & Fancy - black, border punch and bling

Charisma Cardz - embossing

Paper Play - use black

Prairie Fairy - wet embossing

Simply Create - shades of black

Less is More - eye colour

 

 Happy World Cardmaking Day!  This week's Less is More theme caused some consternation; I never can decided what colour my eyes were.  In the end, OH and I agreed on greeny-blue - or was it bluey green?  The red tinge is only temporary after a late night, I've left that one out:).  This card is not particularly original, I have partly CASED a card by Chrissie like this before, but it is such a useful one to have that I've done it again. The text background makes it a bit different from when I made it before.  I've masked and inked a 4" card with Bundled Sage and Chipped Sapphire DI, overstamping it with my Impression Obsession big text stamp, using the Sage ink again.  Then Artemio trees, in Pine Needle and Olympia Green  Versafine were added after removing the Post-it notes.  The Craftwork Card sentiment, added to a Nestie scalloped circle in green, hides a sentiment that did not stamp clearly.

My card is for:

Less is More - colour of your eyes

Simon Says - anything goes

One Stop Card Challenge - just for men - I think this is a great masculine card

Oldie but Goodies - one for the boys - tree stamp is at least a year old if not two!

Partytime Tuesdays - anything goes

Birthday bike

Yesterday was DH's birthday, we had a quiet supper at home as we went out to celebrate last week while older son was still here.  He loves his old motorbikes, not sure how many we have in the garage (I don't want to know!) so this image of a Norton looked like a good choice for him, it came from Stitchybear.  It's a detailed image and I gave it minimal colouring, mostly greys. The sentiments are Joanna Sheen and the clock cogs around the base of the easel are from Stampin' Up.  MS bubble punch got an airing as it's not too feminine, DP is Basic Grey.

My card is for the following challenges:

One Stop Craft - easels

Cards for Men - sports

Incy Wincy - fancy folds

Pile it On - fancy folds

Ooh la la - punches or dies

Victorine Originals - easel cards

Come and Get It - easels

One Stitch at a Time - favourites (Copics, Distress Inks, punches, Basic Grey DP)

Tulip Bouquet - FSS Digi of the Week

 Fred She Said has a regular digi of the week offer, and this week it is the turn of Tulip Bouquet which is available as a digi and pre-coloured.  Both versions are 40% off, you can buy them here. 
I've coloured up an image with the jug popped and layered, and added K&K DP, lace, pearls and MS borders to give a vintage look.
My card is for the following challenges:
Top Tip Tuesday - make it girlie
Paper Creators - say it with flowers
One Stop Craft - vintage

 

Ooh La La - Guest Designer - Challenge #82 - Father's Day/ someone special

Welcome to this week's Ooh La La Challenge, which is to make a card for Father's Day or for someone special.  This card is for my father-in-law who has had several holidays to the Yorkshire Coast, so when I saw this scene on the Ooh La La Watercolour Memories CD I had to make it for him.  I printed it onto heavyweight watercolour paper which makes it look even better.  My printer doesn't like such heavy card so I printed the scene out a little way down a sheet of thin copy paper, then I used spray glue to attach cardstock cut to size.  Somehow this kids the printer into co-operating:).  I extended the picture using my Hobby Art Scene-It stamps, computer generated a sentiment and used a backing sheet from the same CD that goes with a different scene, Aldborough I think.
My card is for the following challenges:
Mark's Finest Papers - Father's Day
Delicious Doodles - Father's Day
One Stop Craft- Father's Day
Secret Crafter - masculine card
Stamp Scrap & Doodle - Father's Day
Polkadoodles - something for Dad
Simply Create - all about you Dad
Fussy & Fancy - man cards
Crazy 4 Challenges - masculine cards
Stamptacular Sunday - Dads or Grads

Steppin' into Summer - June Tiffany Doodles Challenge

Good morning and welcome to summer - I hope!  Yesterday it felt like the return of winter but at least the sun is shining today.   We have a new challenges for you at Tiffany Doodles and some new DT members to introduce to you.  They are Anette, Sally and Judy and I'll link them here because I've just removed my sidebar list of Tiff's Team by mistake and will have to put it back later - ack!  All three ladies are awesomely talented, please do check out their blogs and welcome them:).

OK now onto the challenge, which is Steppin' into Summer.  There's a great prize of a $10 shopping spree in the store and if you don't know which image to pick there is a cute crab design as the current Thursday freebie if you check out the shop.   Fishing is the sign that summer really has arrived in this household, as DH heads off to the Windrush and the Leach and other Cotswold rivers, so I decided to use the Gone Fishing set which its stunning realistic drawings.

I've coloured with Copics, my Bass has a load of Glossy Accents which have given him a very lifelike shine and DH kindly let me have some feathers from his flytying stash.  I asked for teeny tiny feathers and that is what I got at first, I'm not sure I could see them without my glasses!  In the end he handed over some more visible feathers lol and I glued them to the fly.  The sentiment is from Create with TLC, the background in Dsitress Inked with Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans and overstamped in the Sage with an Elusive Images flower stem to look like weed.  The "line" is a striped rayon embroidery thread.  If you click on the picture you can see it better:)

My card is for the following challenges:
Moving along with the times - no designer paper
Digital Tuesday - outdoors
Paper Sundaes - let's get sentimental
One Stop Craft Challenge - texture
Stamp Something - June digi day
Cute Card Thursday - embellish it
Do it with digis - all about the boys
Fussy & Fancy - card for a man
Creative Inspirations Paint - card for a male
Pile it on - summer heaven

Phindy's Place Challenge #50 - Easter Time

Good Morning and welcome to this week's Phindy's Place Challenge, this week we'd like to see your Easter projects, if you don't celebrate Easter it's fine to make a spring card.   You don't have to use one of Phindy's images, but we love it when you do - and you get a second entry into the prize draw!

I've used the fun image "Just Saying Hi" from Phindy's Place, I've also used some Scene-It stamps to create a bit of a background.   Image is coloured with Copics and scene with Distress Inks.  I think giraffes look great with spots and stripes, so I've added in a dotty paper from Bearly Mine as well as a My MInd's Eye stripe.  Frame is a Nestie, text is computer generated.

My card is also for the following challenges:

Bearly Mine - sketch

One Stop Craft - spots and dots

Little Claire's - spring celebrations

Craft Your Days Away - spots and stripes

Creative Cowgirls - spring or Easter

Card Cupids - dots and/or stripes

Stamps R Us - Easter

Stamp with Fun - Easter

Pink Elephant - Easter

Ooh la la - Easter

Lenten Lily

This is a bit of a sneak peek as this stunning hellebore isn't yet in the store at Fred She Said - but it will be soon!  It's a design I was asking for and Tracey has exceeded my wildest expectations with her drawing. If you think I've not blended the petal edges very well, there are quite a few types that have very strong colour at the edge and fade quickly into the centre...  The ones that are out in my garden at the moment are the browny-red ones with speckles, not the same but so very welcome, they mean spring is really on the way.  I think these are also going to be available as pre-coloured digis and I'm really looking forward to these.

My card is based on what I thought was quite a challenging Sketch Saturday layout, I spent a while playing with bits of paper and I'm pleased with the way it's ended up.  DP is Basic Grey Kioshi with lots of stitching on it, the centre oval has script dry embossed then it's been heavily inked with Peeled Paint and Dusty Concord.  Sentiment stamp is Hobby Art, flowers coloured with Copics and Stickles.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Copic Creations - complementary colours (purple and gold)
Woodware USA - anything goes
Bunny Zoe - Spring flowers everywhere
One Stop Craft - Spring flowers everywhere
Sundays with Chrissie - stitching
For Fun Challenges - purple, green and yellow
The Rubber Cafe - stitching
Cute Card Thursday - signs of spring
Stamp Insanity - texture (embossing, stitching, cut and decoupaged image, layers)
Fussy & Fancy - embossing and/or paper piecing (dry embossing used)

Smooth sea never made a skilled mariner...

This is one of my favourite sentiments, it's from Elusive Images (sadly now defunct) and sums up life, doesn't it!  This is a fairly c&s masculine card, using my Hobby Art Scene-It stamps and coloured with Aquamarkers.  The blue map DP is from Joanna Sheen's Thomas Kincade CD and the others are My Minds Eye.  There are no embellies at all, I have some boat charms but they make it less of a masculine card to me.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sunday Sketch & Stamp - sketch
Creative Card Crew - for men
Let's Ink it Up - anything goes (no digi)
C.R.A.F.T. - martial arts/sport (yachting)
One Stop Craft - card for a male
Paper Sundaes - birthday celebration favourite theme - I always love Make A Scene challenges

I missed your birthday...

 Here's another card I made using Fred She Said's Empty Pocket Shrugger Set, this card uses the girl image, you can buy the set here.  They colour like a dream and I do love the sentiments that come with them :).  I followed the Friday Sketchers layout, used Basic Grey Sugar Rush DP and stickers and added stitching to my card.  The embossing is good old Swiss Dots folder.  This is for a friend's little girl, we never did get to meet up to exchange gifts (she has a Christmas Eve birthday) due to all the bugs and sickness that we had and they had!

My card is for the following challenges: 

Friday Sketchers - sketch

Basic Grey  - spots and dots

Incy Wincy - go dotty

One Stop Crafts - card for a child

The Crafty Pad - happy birthday

Pile it On - cute children

Kaboodle Doodles - do it with digis

Charisma Cardz - birthdays and celebrations

House Mouse Card - new beginnings

There are several "New beginnings" challenges around, as well as "new" and what could be more appropriate than a Spring card with baby birds - or at least House Meeces maquerading as baby birds LOL!  My DH bought me some lovely crafty goodies for Christmas, including a Joanna Sheen decoupage set - my "something new". Once I completed the decoupage I based my card on this week's Midnight Madness sketch.
The background card has random stampings of music on it, using Distress Ink.  I used a clear Prima stamp and didn't mount it onto a block, I just held it and inked a bit of it, which is something Sarah Anderson showed us on a workshop at Stamp Attic.  The white panel behind the decoupage is embossed with a Paisley CB folder, another present from DH.  The flower border at the top is MS and the flowers are a Woodware punch, some have button centres and some Liquid pearls.
My card is for the following challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Simon Says - new beginnings
Creative Card Crew -  new beginnings
Secret Crafter - buttons and bows
House Mouse & Friends - new beginnings
Paper Sundaes - something new
One Stop Craft Challenge - something new
Dutch Dare Cards - new beginnings
Pile it on - brand spanking new
Craft Your Days Away - punch it out

Top Tip Tuesday open challenge AND Fred, She Said Digi of the Week

I've made one card to fit two postings this week:  first of all we have an open challenge on Top Tip Tuesday and we'd love you to join in.  Check out the blog for the details and the rules, my card fits the open challenge ;).

Secondly, Tracey at Fred, She Said, has an offer of 30% off the digi of the week.  This week I got to choose - hooray - and I picked the Christmas Robins which are available in both digi and precoloured version.  Tracey has gone one better though - the offer is on all the Christmas bird series - if you don't already have them then this is a great time to get them! You can buy them in the Fred Shop, here , if you look through my blog you will see more cards made using the robins as well as the other Christmas birds in the collection:  chickadees and cardinals.

 I used traditional colours for my card, printing the digi onto heavyweight watercolour card and using Aquamarkers to colour it in.  The DP is Papermania, the sentiment is Craftwork Cards and I've used two Martha Stewart punches together.

My card is for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch

One Stop Craft Challenges - Christmas Cuties - I think the robins are cute:)

Sew Many Challenges - red & green

Stampin' B's - holiday card

Pile it On - feathers 'n' fur

I'm Nearly All White!

This started out when I saw the challenge at Simon Says Challenge, which this week is to make a card which is all white, with the exception of colour on any image that is used.  Gulp!  I found this really tricky and I will admit that I have cheated a little and my card may not be eligible.  I have two white dry-embossed pieces of card on here and it was just impossible to tell one from t'other, so I edged the snowflake embossed piece with Weathered Wood grey Distress Ink and ever-so-gently sponged some onto the diagonal grid that I'd put onto the larger piece.  In my defence, it took ages to make the grid with my Scor-pal and I couldn't bear it if all that hard work was invisible LOL!
The stamp is by Sheena Douglass and is one I bought at the NEC, stamped in Distress Ink.  I've used a brush and a little water to shade with the ink.  The snow on the rooftops and in the sky is Liquid Pearls and I've sprayed the whole image with iridiscent Spray & Sparkle by Crafter's Companion.  I suspect this is one of the aerosols one is not supposed to inhale, it smells just like Pear Drops - mmm! LOL.  It gives a lovely soft shimmer, hard to show it in the photo.  The gems are from stash, the sentiment is Craftwork Cards and the snowflakes were from a Woodware punch and a Spellbinder, both have clear Stickles on them.
I'm entering the following challenges with my card:
Simon Says Challenge - are you all white ?
Sketch Saturday - sketch
Paper Sundaes - let it snow
Pile it On - Christmas with animals (reindeer in sky!)
One Stitch at a Time - winter wonderland
Allsorts Challenge - the night before Christmas
One Stop Crafts - embossing
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - dry embossing
The Creative Cottage - embossing
Winter Wonderland - sing a Christmas carol (Silent Night)

Craft Your Days Away - all white
CCEE Stampers - create a winter scene
Patty's Creations - Christmas card