Less is More Week 179 - Earthtones

Saturday has come around again and it is time for a colour challenge from Less is More this week - Earthtones.  My first card uses a Memory Box die with some twine and a Little Claire stamp, I love this die, one of my favourites.

I bought some stencils and embossing paste at Portsmouth last week and have really enjoyed playing with it.  Second card uses a Sweet Poppy cat stencil.  I've embossed it, then replaced the stencil over it when the image was dry and brushed Pan Pastels on top, to give tabby cat markings.  The silk ribbon is from my stash.

Third card is also stencilled, this time in glossy black paste.  I used the same Pan Pastels colours to make the background and added a Stampin' Up sentiment.
 

Bad Hare Day

Woodware stamp bought at the Portsmouth show, coloured with Copics and framed with kraft card, garden twine added.  Fairly clean & simple.  I love this stamp!
My card is entered for:
Cards Galore - use a stamp or digi
Copic Spain - anything goes
Lia Stampz - no patterned paper
CMD - animals
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown - anything goes
Come and Get it - animals

Dotty

I had a super time at Portsmouth papercrafts show yesterday with my partner in crafting crime (purchasing over and above the call of duty I mean!!) Chrissie.  For a long time I have looked at the Julie Nutting 'doll' stamps and yesterday I decided to stop looking and get one - so here she is - Dotty for obvious reasons when you look at the papers she is pieced from!  The soft, summery papers are by Pink Paislee and the sentiment is from Kaiserkraft.
I'm entering Dotty for the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps - polka dots
Allsorts Challenge - summer girls (I wish lol!)
Stampin' with the Dragon - clean and simple
As You Like It - favourite die and why - second entry with the very useful Die-lusions bow
Hanna and Friends - paper piecing
Simon Says - anything goes

Less is More - Week 178 - recycle an item

 This week our Less is More Challenge is to recycle an item on a CAS card.  I found this quite a challenge, how is this going to reduce my stash mountain lol?!  My first card uses beads from a cheap and cheerful, broken necklace.  I've made the beads into flowers on stems from an Artemio set and added a Clearly Besotted sentiment.  My first idea was to use the oval beads to make fish with fins and tail added but that didn't work...

I get dried dog food delivered by Amazon, which is much cheaper than buying it anywhere else.  Time was, the plastic sack it is sold in had an address label on and it arrived just fine.  These days it is delivered in a huge cardboard box, padded around with yards and yards of brown paper, how wasteful!  I scrunched up some of the paper and used a Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die to make a flower.  An old shirt button with gold thread finishes off the centre and I've added a gold embossed Kaiserkraft sentiment and some textured gold card to make a Christmas card, I do like the contrast of kraft and gold.

Looking forward to getting some ideas and inspiration from the LIMettes!  I will be at the Papercrafts @ Portsmouth Show on Sunday with Chrissie, would love to say Hello to any other LIMettes who are going along...

Wood you Believe?

I've a really hectic weekend coming up, all sorts of fun going on.  I escaped for a little while tonight to make this serene card for CAS-ology's Wood Challenge.  I used the de-bossed side of a woodgrain embossing folder for the background, framed two Memory Box silver birches and added a tiny Memory Box bird.  The sentiment is Technique Tuesday. 
I'm also entering Southern Girl's diecut challenge and Stampin' with the Dragon's CAS challenge.

Blue Butterfly

This CAS card was cut with my Portrait and given a blue insert.  The Clearly Besotted sentiment and the gems are a good match IRL!
I'm entering my card for:
Crafty Creations - things with wings
Simon Says - anything goes
Sisterhood of Crafters - for love of monochromatic
Incy Wincy - things with wings
Dragonfly Dreams - things with wings

Let them eat cake! - Ooh La La Challenge #159

 This week's theme at the Ooh La La Challenge Blog is such fun that I had to make two cards for it - can you tell I like cake?!  First card is from an old favourite, the Shawn Jenkins Collection CD.  I've gone very stripy here, with DP from the CD, baker's twine and even stripes on the image.  If you click on the photo you can see I've added lots of pink Stickles to the image, it shows up well in real life.  The card was edged with a Memory Box die.  Silly really, I've only ever thought to use it horizontally before until I saw an entry in LIM that used it this way.

Second card is from the new release CD, which combines Marie Rayner's artwork with fab quotes and sayings, called, appropriately enough, Say it with Words.  I've used Stickles on the flame, that lovely tonal check and the dotty paper are both from the CD and this time I've used a Die-namics bow die.

I'm entering my cards in:
 CD Sundays' Dies with Jenny challenge.
Crafts4Eternity - fabulous food
Brown Sugar - dots and/or stripes (got 'em both!)
Aud Sentiments - two word sentiment (Happy Birthday card)
As You Like It - favourite die and why - hmm, I use both of these dies a LOT and love them both but if I really have to choose then it has to be the bow which can be used for pretty much anything, Christmas, wedding, anything really

Colour Challenge

It's been a while since I've taken part in a colour challenge and I decided it was time to get back into doing some.  I chose Colour Throwdown's lovely summery shades and came up with this card.  I'm also entering making this a second entry to Darnell's NBUS Anything Goes Challenge - The papers are Stampin' Up digital downloads that I have never printed and the gorgeous flower is a Hero Arts cling that was still in its packet.  I remember wanting it last year and the lovely Wendy at Stamp Attic got it in stock for me.  So why on earth have I not used this fab stamp before now???  I really have no idea...  The stamping and the mat are both grey, not black, to fit the theme.  I paper pieced the centre and added some Cosmic Shimmer dots.  Sentiment is from Simon Says.

Less is More - Week 177 - use watercolour

 
 There have been some amazing watercolour creations around Blogdom lately, partly thanks to a very popular online class and the challenge this week at Less is More is to use watercolour for your CAS creation.  I am very much in awe of those who create stunning watercolour effects, not least because at the moment I'm not really a 'messy' crafter.  I began with the idea of creating a night sky, perhaps for a Christmas card, using Distress Inks and some sea salt that was meant to give a snowy effect.   It was a bit wishy-washy so I used it as a background for Memory Box Chloe stems.  They were meant to be a really elegant white on the white card but it didn't look like much of anything, so I cut some more from bright yellow/orange card, also using it for the sentiment, which was cut with my Portrait.

 
The Distress Inks came out again for my next card, which uses some masking fluid, NBUS bought in my early days of stamping.  I used it to write my sentiment, let it dry and then painted yellows and oranges across the card.  I found some really quite chunky gems in old stash and added them to my card.  I saw this technique on Pinterest, though the card I CASEd had rather better handwriting than mine!

 The third card maybe doesn't have as much white space as it could...  I used a Hero Arts triangle die, more NBUS, isn't it fab?  It is on top of watercoloured card that uses a metallic paint, in real life it really shimmers.  I left the tear-off edge from the pad in place and added a Waltzing Mouse sentiment.
I'm entering  this card for the Week 100 CAS-ology theme of Celebrate.

Looking forward to seeing some amazing CAS watercolour creations :)

Paper pieced sheep

 Having used my digis from Pink Petticoat (Just for ewe) earlier this week I am feeling sheepish (groan, sorry) not to have used them before, they are really fun!  This time I've paper pieced them onto Swiss Dot paper to enter the CAS on Sunday Challenge.  I have used my own sentiment for the pink and kraft card, which has lines dry embossed above and below the panel,  and the other ovine offering is used with its Pink Petticoat sentiment, with a bunch of tiny brown and cream pearls added.

I'm also entering my cards for:
Hanna and Friends - paper piecing
Crafty Little Fairies - spots and stripes (counting the lines as stripes!)
Ruby's Rainbow - flora and fauna
Crafty Sentiments - CAS or full on
Digi Choosday - in the pink (first card)
Twisted Tuesday - a bunch of spotted animals

NBUS - ewe inspire me

 I've been whingeing all week about not getting into the craft room, so of course today I got in there and my mojo promptly left.  I've been seeing lots of fab cards for the amazingly talented Darnell's NBUS (never before used schtuff) challenge and decided to use that to kick start the cardmaking into action.  My main NBUS is Just for Ewe, a Pink Petticoat digi set that I bought ages and ages ago but have never even printed, never mind used!  I needed a Thank You card for a friend who enjoys having sheep in the paddock beside her house so I came up with this very simple effort, based on the layout at Sketch Saturday.  The stamping is also NBUS, from an Inky Doodles set.
   
 Next card came about as the images print four to a page and I fancied making a girly card along the same lines.  Delightful Challenges has the theme Tickled Pink this week.

Mojo was creeping back by now and the next card has the sheep mirror imaged and my own text beneath, using Problem Secretary font.  The little hearts were cut with a Silhouette files for a stencil, this is an NBUS.  I added some Glossy Accents to them, mainly because a tiny bit of GA seeped out when I stuck them down!
This is an entry for CASology, where the key word is Anniversary.

 Final card in the set has no sheep, but uses the stencil that I cut out for the anniversary card.  To enter the Simon Says Challenge this week of stencil it I used some Grunge Paste, an NBUS that I have never tried before, though I've seen some wonderful creations using embossing paste.  I was quite pleased with this, my first effort, but the next one I tried was far too thick and looked silly!  Sentiment is from Inky Doodles.  Added a few of the red hearts to the paste, mostly where the hearts were a bit blotchy.

Darnell what a wonderful challenge idea and thanks for inspiring me to get crafting!

LIM Week 176 - off the edge - one layer

It's One Layer week at Less is More and the challenge is Off the Edge.  I hope to add to my one card blogged here, hope you'll call back later to see :)

This is a case from the very talented  Debby Hughes who provided the tutorial for this week on Splitcoast Stampers.  I've used both solid and detail Memory Box butterfly dies.  The solid one cut out the 'off the edge' butterfly and I then used the detail die to emboss before inking through a PostIt mask.  Sentiment and inking are both Salty Ocean and in real life they match well with each other and the gemstones.

Unlucky number?

 Needed a quick card for a chap and used a Stamp by Judith that I must have had for at least five years!  I just stamped and masked candles until I filled the card, I have just noticed that there are thirteen candles on here, hope no one is superstitious...
Stamped onto textured card and coloured with Copics, Glossy Accents and Cosmic Shimmer added.  Sentiment is from Visible Image.  The mat is coloured with a Copic to match perfectly to the flame.
I'm entering my card for:
Make it Monday - male theme
2 Cute2 Ink - Happy Birthday
Card and Scrap - clean and simple
Visible Image - man oh man

Ooh La La Challenge #158 - Father's Day/ masculine card

The challenge this week at Ooh La La is to make a Father's Day/masculine card.  Dad died four years ago now, he was a Master Mariner, his leisure time when he retired was spent on a small yacht and the sea was in his blood.  Dad, this one's for you xxx.  Image and DP from the "From Boys to Men" CD by Ooh La La, anchor and word cut with Portrait, a bit of nautical looking cord (I hope!) added.
I'm also entering my card for:
Simon Says - Father's Day/masculine
CD Sunday - at the sea (a second entry)
That Craft Place - men
Ladybug Crafts - something for the boys
Always something creative - men
Polkadoodles - men on our mind
QKR Stampede - Father's Day

Less is More - Week 175 - the colours in your bedroom!

This week's Less is More Challenge is to make a CAS card using the colours in your bedroom.  This made me realise how much I dislike the colourscheme in mine, as and when I move home I will look forward to updating it!   The colourscheme is lots of cream, some pale pink and a touch of green.  I've used a heavy textured cream cardstock and cut my daisy from this too, using a Sizzix Bigz die that I've had for years and years.   The leaf is cut from a scrap, using another Bigz die, Tattered Leaves.  The sentiment is Clearly Besotted.  I've used Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar on the flower and cut into the petals to make them a bit less uniform.  The centre has Glossy Accents on it.

Looking forward to picking up some colourscheme ideas from all the Limettes this week!

Halcyon Days - if only!

This has not been the best of weeks and it has been hard to take refuge in my crafting due to many house viewings.  Even my new printer has  been on strike, so printing pages to craft with was out too...  Hence the lack of finished cards or blog entries.

I have managed to print and put together a quick card for CD Sunday Challenge, from the Halcyon Days CD, which has Abigail Mill's textile art on it.  This CD just had my name all over it, it is gorgeous!  This was printed from a single sheet, I matted onto a sandy coloured card and added some raffia to the very realistic buttons that were on the sheet.  A real button was added to the little tag.  Having looked through the CD I LOVE all the images on here, though I'm not a big fan of the layout for CC CDs.

Here's hoping for a better week ahead :)

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