Lucky Dip Week at Less is More

I made a few cards for this week's challenge at "Less is More". 

It's the first time that we've used a picture for inspiration and the colours are just lovely. Do take a look at the blog for the image. 

We also have a guest designer this week, Jenny from Crafting in the country. 

This card uses my new Memory box dies, it's the basic tulip die plus the build a blossom tulip die which I added over the top. This one is covered with Glossy Accents. The frame stamp was also from amongst my bargains at the NEC. I got 12 stamps for £10 mainly Rubber Stampede... I was really thrilled with them.

An inky one next... I just love playing about with ink dusting and over-stamping! 

More tulips!

...and a few more!

... and finally a lovely clover from Blockhead Stamps.

We really hope you'll join us for this different challenge for us... but remember... keep it Clean and Simple!

Another chicken

On Tuesday I went over to the Isle of Wight to spend the day with my lovely friend Mandi!
I had a ride in her fabulous new Mercedes which is SO swish it's not true! It's a gorgeous beast and has every gadget known to man on it I think!
After she had treated me to lunch in Godshill, we had a little mosey around the shops and I saw this young lady ... as lots of you may know I'm rather partial to chickens and so she had to come home with me. Isn't she somethin' else! She just makes me smile! Another for my collection!
She reminds me somewhat of the Penny Black chicken images... what do you think?

I hope they make you smile too!

Triple Embossing x 2

The technique challenge at Blockhead Stamps this month is entitled Metal Magic, which essentially is triple embossing.
For my card I cut a Nestie rectangle and embossed it using Versamark with Gold embossing powder. I wanted to use the Blockhead stamp daisy and so on the final sprinkling of powder I used  WOW Silver Bells embossing powder in the area I wanted the petals of the flower to be. After heating I stamped the flower and was pleased with the outcome. It makes quite a good contrast.
I over-stamped the whole of the panel with some script using Stazon Jet black ink, wiping any excess from the flower itself.
I cut a Dienamics leafy flourish from plain white card and triple embossed that with the Silver Bells EP, dulling down the edges slightly with Black ink. This just happened to fit beautifully in the space I'd left on the panel.
The Sentiment is from SU and is  mounted on a Spellbinders die-cut. The dry embossing is from a Stampin' Up folder. I began by using a kraft card base, but the white shows off the embossing more favourably.

Blockheads Challenge: Magic Metal Technique Blog Hop

To Take our Challenge: Visit Blockheads' Magic Metal Technique to see Karen McAlpine's steps for creating an embossed item that looks like metal.

Congratulations to Skye, the Design Team's pick for the $25 gift certificate this month.  Feel free to submit to the challenge even though the deadline has passed.  You'll still be included in the blog-hop and readers would love to see your example.

1. Karen McAlpine  2. Chrissie  3. Leigh Snaith-Brunton, Design Team  4. Leigh Snaith-Brunton, Design Team  5. Leslie Turner, DT  6. Leigh Snaith-Brunton, Design Team  7. Birgit/Biggan (guestdesigner)  8. Lisa Wohlfarth  9. trisha too  10. Skye  11. Val S.  12. Val S.  13. Karen McAlpine  14. Karen McAlpine  15. Paula Snaith-Morris  16. Avril B

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

OLW & NEC

On Saturday I went for a day out to the NEC craft show with my friend Anne. This was about the fourth time that we've been together and each time we have such fun! Well who doesn't enjoy spending a bob or two on crafty goodies.
We had a great time on this month's  LIM sponsor's stand... WOW EMBOSSING POWDERS! It was wonderful. We met Tania, who arranged the sponsorship and Neil our first LIMister! He has contributed to quite a few of our recent challenges and is on the DT for WOW. Rachel, was also doing some demo-ing on the stand and is a past contributor to our challenges. I bought heaps more new powders and the also the stamps which I used for this card.

This fits with this week's OLW challenge which is to use pinks and orange. I'm sorry it's such a rubbish picture, but the stamps are great.
Here is the rest of my haul!

I really only thought that I would look for the Extra Long Cuttlebug plates and a few more Memory box dies, but a few other odds and ends found their way into my haul of purchases. The question whenever I get home is where to stash all the things that I have added to my supplies!

In praise of Heather

When I first came across Bits and Pieces, the blog of Heather Telford, I was totally smitten by the sheer beauty of her work. She never ceases to inspire me to try inky things, she's an absolute magician with a wad of sponge and a pad of ink, together with a few Post Its.
Her latest creation inspired me to emulate it with this card, I don't have exactly the same products but these are very similar in vein.
The inks used are SU Bashful Blue and DI Chipped Sapphire and the stamps are from Unity (the flower) and SU (the sentiment).
Thank you Heather for sharing your talent with us all!
Do pay her a visit and see her wonderful creations for yourself!

Recipe at "Less is More" Take 3

The recipe this week  from "Less is More" is to take any three of all the challenges  posted to date and combine them into one card!
This is one of my inky indulgences... I began with some Versamark and clear embossed splodges and swirls, then inked  the panel with SU Wisteria Wonder, using my duster brushes. I added a whole bunch of other stamps including text, flowers, butterflies and postmarks. I cut the panel into 3 equal sections and inked the edges with silver ink. It's a sentiment from SU too.
The three butterflies are SU embosslits. The three challenges for this one are Week 13 - Thank you, Week 15 Emboss, Week 16 Butterflies. It fits with several others too, can you spot them?

This one is for Week 12 - Off Centre, Week 55 - Die cuts, Week 56 - Don't Scrap it, Week 57 - Neutrals.
Details are on the LIM blog.
Finally another bit of inky fun!

This is very similar to the first one, except it's different colours and different stamps but the principle is similar. I just had fun! More info on this one is on the LIM blog too!
Look out for me at the NEC today, I hope there'll be bargains to be had! I shall certainly be calling on our sponsors this month .... WOW EMBOSSING POWDERS!
Have a great week!

In Clover

Isn't this a fab stamp!

I coloured it with two shades of purple Whisper Markers, together with a greeny one. I believe that the technique I used to add the colour is called 'thumping' or some such name. Basically I coloured the whole of the flower head with the lilac shade and then thumped the stamp around the edges and randomly in the middle with the purple marker. It makes a great effect doesn't it, it lifts what is basically a solid stamp!

The frame for this clover was the piece left over when I had cut out and inked the image for the card below.

The paper is from Fred She Said and I had fun making the banner from a Spellbinder's pennant die.

It follows the sketch from The Craft's Meow.

Here is another card using the same fabulous image from Blockhead Paper Arts, with the same technique. The ink is Wisteria Wonder from SU and the sentiment from Paper Make Up.

These pleased me!

OLW 83

I haven't participated in the last few OLW challenges and I thought I should remedy that!
This one was set by Jennifer who gave a bunch of pictures from which to choose something as inspiration. This one was based on a blue block!
My 'blue block' is a stamp by Art Impressions and the flower  a stamp from Blockhead Paper Arts.
The ink used was Tumbled Glass DI with the trailing leaves of the floral image inked with a Whispers marker.
The sentiment is from Paper Make Up.
Two mega boxes of card in a hugely heavy parcel from Paper Mill Direct has just arrived... now, where to store it???

A couple of challenges... at last!

Life seems to have conspired against me making cards for challenges of late and so today I thought I'd try to rectify that, so here are a couple.
The first came about when I was trying to find a home for some boxes of SU stamps after a new shipment had arrived. This one was amongst the ones to be relocated and so I thought I would give it an outing. I stamped it with Pacific Point ink and punched it out with the SU scallop square punch, then mounted it on a Nestie square. I then spotted a scrap of matching DP in the drawer and  so trimmed a strip and mounted that on white card and scored the edges of it. Suddenly it fitted the challenge at CASual Fridays which is to have a pattern, an image and a sentiment (the latter is also from SU).

This one uses the sketch from Clean and Simple FTL182.
The little hearts come from a sentiment set. For some reason, probably during a senior moment, I didn't write the make of the stamps on the carrier sheet, so I don't really know the make. I may find out when I clear a little debris from my desk.
The sentiment is from Pink Petticoat, mounted on a Spellbinders pennant die, which I altered slightly to fit. (The black one was shortened and the white part lengthened.)
The butterflies are from an X cut punch.


My choir concert last night at St Mary's Portsea, Portsmouth, was super, I think it was enjoyed by both the participants and the audience. I certainly enjoyed the curry we had afterwards.

"Less is More" Week 59

I had an emergency call from my daughter this week, as the children were not well and she had a couple of important days at work. So I rushed down there early on Wednesday morning, just grabbing an overnight bag as I was going out of the door. The Nursery wouldn't take the children for 48 hours after having a tummy bug. All are now happily on the mend, and I am home for a rest!

Tonight I will be singing is a concert of my choir in Portsmouth. Elgar and Vaughan Williams... fab!

The challenge this week at Less is More is to have some evidence of MASKING!

This one has the large butterfly masked to appear in front of the bulrushes. Stamps by Blockheads Paper Arts.

This one has a simple masked horizontal band, inked using duster brushes and stamped with Black Archival ink.

Finally, a combination of both masking techniques. The freebie Craft Stamper flower stamp was masked so as to overlap and lightly painted with a little pearly paint. The panel has a little emboss resist using  an SU Confetti stamp and inking.

I shall be going to the NEC next Saturday... if anyone else is planning on being there, do let me know so that we can arrange to say hi!

One Layer again at "Less is More"

I've made a similar card to this before but it wasn't a one layer card. I find it quite interesting to see if I can translate one version into another. You can see the previous version here. Details of how I made this are on the LIM blog.

This little card uses a script stamp from Choclolate Baroque and a little bird image from Local King stamps

The colour was added directly with a Tumbled Glass Distress Ink pad over the masked bird.

Neutral shades here again with lots of overstamping.

Woodgrain from Impression Obsession, French Script from Stampin' Up and flowers from Artemio.

Yesterday I simply turned to pick something up from the floor in my craft room and put my back out. I had surgery years ago to have a disc removed and consequently have a weakness there, but haven't had any problems for quite some years. 

It's pretty painful moving around at the moment, I hope that generally taking it easy and a good night's sleep may give it a chance to straighten out a little.






Lainey, one of our LIMettes has honoured me with this award and I feel really flattered. Sadly I am pressed for time to pass it on the the 15 other bloggers which I should do, but if you have not yet received this award then do please take it with my best wishes.
Like Mandi, a fellow recipient, I thought however, that I would share 7 things about myself which  are also in the terms of the award.

1. My son is a doctor (twice over... PhD and medical) and obviously gets his brains from me!
2. I have cut my husband's hair for the past 38 years (think of the money we've saved!)
3. I have recently lost 37lbs in weight (and still going)
4. I passed my driving test when I was a student and lessons were cheaper, on the first attempt after 6 lessons with no driving in between them.
5. I haven't seen my natural hair colour for 20 years.
6. I love pearls.
7. I have the most adorable grandchildren called Daisy and Sebastian.

Thanks Lainey!

More bleaching

Since revisiting the bleaching technique as promoted in Blockheads Paper Arts latest challenge, I have been doing lots of experiments with various card and papers. Some don't have a pleasant effect with bleach... a  muddy, rusty shade emerges from several colours of deep pigmented card stock, but this deep green produced a pleasant gold colour.
I highlighted it with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in Clear Star and coloured the leaves with a green version. The frame was stamped with a Blockheads background stamp and embossed with Distress Embossing Powder in Pumice Stone. I rubbed the embossing with a little pearl embossing wax. (I'm not sure if that's what the stuff I used is called, but it's a creamy, pearly stuff that I rubbed on with my finger).
The sentiment is from Unity stamps.

Here are another couple of my bleachy experiments.
This one was coloured with Inktense Pencils after bleaching and the embossing is from Cuttlebug.

I added Glossy Accents over the coloured parts in this one and stamped the background with a retired Stampin' Up background stamp.
It was fun!

Blockheads Challenge: Bleach Technique Blog Hop

To Take our Challenge: Visit Blockheads' Bleach on Dark Cardstock Technique to see Leslie Turner's steps for creating a card with embossing powder, household bleach and craft markers.  

Congratulations to Evelyn in Oregon, the Design Team's pick for the $25 gift certificate this month.  Feel free to submit to the challenge even though the deadline has passed.  You'll still be included in the blog-hop and readers would love to see your example.

1. Blockheads Gallery  2. Leigh Snaith-Brunton, Design Team  3. Leigh Snaith-Brunton, Design Team  4. Leslie Turner  5. Birgit/Biggan (guestdesigner)  6. Karen McAlpine  7. Colleen Dietrich  8. Chrissie  9. Val S.  10. Val S.  11. Val S.  12. lada_vl  13. Evelyn in Oregon  14. Anne Temple  15. Paula Snaith-Morris

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

OLW... Black, Cream and bling!

Such a simple card, a Paper Mill ivory, hammered card base, stamped with an Artemio stylised flower, with black gems on each seed head. The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse and there's just a trace of Glamour Dust sprinkled along the stems.
If I don't get this posted PDQ it'll be time for the next OLW!
I'd lost another 2lbs at weigh in last night... quelle relief!
My husband is now only 1lb away from his target and has lost a total of 5 and a half stones. I've got a bit of catching up to do!
OLW 81 Black, Cream  and bling.

In Neutral at "Less is More"

I'm staggered at how quickly the weeks seem to roll by. It's  March already and time for another colour challenge at "Less is More". This time around we chose NEUTRALS which range from off white to black with all the shades of beige, brown and grey in between.

We are sponsored this month by WOW Embossing Powders and the the lucky winner will receive a caddy containing 12 different powders. What a fab prize!

A few weeks ago I was inspired by one of our LIMettes Birgit, to buy this set of stamps Available at Blockheads which is from an A4 sheet of floral images. It has tulips, poppies and I think calendulas and is simply stunning.

This time I decided to use a darker background and to use bleach to colour or rather take colour from the images. To add a little depth, once the image was dry, I did use an Inktense pencil from Derwent, which I blended with a water brush. The frame, made from a piece of packaging was cut with a Nestie rectangle, extending the length of the aperture slightly, to accommodate the size of the image. The whole thing was mounted on a Sahara Sand card base.

Here are another couple of bleached images, this time using black embossing powder on black paper. I tried using black card but the bleach made little difference. I had such fun doing these. This stamp is really rather large and makes leaving any white space somewhat problematic, but by using only plain paper and cardstock, with no patterned paper the simple style is maintained.

Different effects can be achieved by the amount of bleach and the areas of the stamp which are concentrated upon. I really love the colour that this one turned out... a perfect match for the SU Sahara Sand card.
I inked the dry embossed panel with a little Sahara Sand and Black Soot inks to emulate the shading on the flowers.
The tag is from Cuttlebug and the sentiment from Wild Rose Studios.

This simple little number includes some home made washi tape. I stuck a sheet of double sided adhesive paper onto a sheet of tissue paper and then stamped the tissue using various wheels on my Rollagraph  handle. I then sliced it into strips and simply peeled back the backing paper to apply it to the card, tearing the end rather than cutting it. The birds on a wire punch is from Martha Stewart... isn't it cute! The sentiment is from Stampin' Up.






My husband got a new toy on Thursday... also a neutral colour, we took it for a drive to our daughter's yesterday, there are quite a few things to master on it as they have updated lots of features compared to our last car. It looks quite mean doesn't it!
Our daughter and her family have suddenly decided to come for the weekend, so I've a few beds to prepare this morning and the cot to get down from the loft... busy, busy!

Do join in with our challenge again this week, we love to see so many inspiring contributions.