LIM Sketch #8

Jen drew a super simple sketch for us at Less is More this week. In fact it's a layout which is one of my favourites!

Here it is!

Here's a simple strip of Pink Petticoat Chevron paper with a primitive heart from a Movers and Shapers die, which was coloured with Distress inks, then a strip of washi tape added before several layers of clear embossing powder.

The sentiment uses 2Peas High Tide font.

Here is a similar card to one I made some weeks ago using a Stamp Gallery bird stamp and a little machine embroidery. The sentiment is from SU.

The stamp for this card had 5 sheep in a row, but I chose cardbase which was narrow than this. I coloured all the sheep and the cut out one of them to add popped up on dimensional pads in front of the others!

I think they're really cute!

More Pink Petticoat paper here with a few SU Embosslit butterflies and a sentiment from Stampin' Up!

Really simple!

I hope you'll join us this week!

50th Birthday

A dear friend if mine will be 50 this week... on Thursday to be precise and I made this card for her. 

Her husband also asked me to make her a card... his pet name for her is Rade a diminution of Radiance. He wanted this, plus a reference to the fact that she loves shoes and is somewhat of a shopoholic. 

I didn't get the shopping bit in but I did manage the reference to shoes.

We will be having lunch together with another friend on Thursday... should be fun. I hope she has a great day!

ABC Challenge- Birthdays!

Best Wishes

A teacher friend of mine co-ordinates the giving of greeting cards to members of staff at her school. She asks  me to produce them for a variety of occasions. This time it's simply 'Best Wishes' and I have made half a dozen for her.

I made this one with the colours from the Colours and Sketches CAS challenge.

I think it's a really pretty combo and always reminds me of a friend whose house decor had lots of evidence of these shades.

The leaf stamp is from Impression Obsessions and the butterflies are from an SU/Sizzix Embosslits die.

I'm not sure of the make of the sentiment, but it's mounted on a reduced size Papermania slider die.

The embossing on the base panel is from  Sizzix folder.

Many thanks for my Top 3 place on the last CAS colour challenge!

New Embossing Folder

The other day I saw a card in Blogland which used this fabulous embossing folder from Sizzix.

I just had to find it and as you can see I succeeded in my mission. It arrived today with a few others... I had to make the postage worth my while now didn't I!

Here it is used as a backdrop to a Memory Box Chloe stem die-cut and some ribbon which I bought in Michael's in Palm Desert on my fairly recent holiday.

The sentiment is from Penny Black. I have edged the panel with a strip of scored card, top and bottom. I think it finishes the edge nicely.

You can't go wrong with a little bling either can you!

Daring Cardmakers - Embossibility

Totally Papercrafts - Embossing of any kind.

Just Us Girls #172

These colours from Just Us Girls appealed to me and this is the card which emerged, I'm not quite sure how it happened but this seems to be it!

I used a slightly ridged grey card which I cut with some Dienamic flowers. This was mounted over some Pink Petticoat Random Dots paper on dimensionals. A couple of lengths of organza ribbon in toning shades of green were added, one through  punched ribbon holes.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!

                  They're great colours aren't they!

Just Good Friends

The theme at "Less is More this week is Friends... a nice easy one!

I must confess that since I began blogging I have made so many good friends, some of whom I've had the fortune to meet in the flesh.

These cards are dedicated to all of you!

Here's another card using my Stampin' Up wheel, coloured with coffee coloured pens! The sentiment is from Unity stamps.

When searching through my computer files the other day, I came across a folder which held all sorts of images that I thought that I had lost.... this being one of them. I'm not sure where is is from but I thought it was cute. I typed the sentiment 'I'll always be right behind you' as it just seemed to go!

I love this image of these two little ones by Rubber Stampede, I think it may have been one of my £1 bargains from the NEC some time ago.

Here's another digi image from The Alley Way Stamps, it's a freebie too. It's a cute little dog isn't it.

I just love Magnum... he looks a cool cat, again this is a computer generated sentiment .

Have a great weekend... I didn't manage many challenges this week, I must try harder next week!

Let it snow!

This is the view which greeted us from our bedroom window this morning...

and this is the view out of my craft room window across the road!

Pretty or what?

Needless to say I shall not be venturing out today!

Here is a card I made because of the weather and inspired by this picture from ABC Challenges.

There are no cardinals in my garden here sadly, but this one, cut from Martha Stewart's birds on a wire punch, is perching in a Memory Box tree.

The snowflakes are cut with a cheapie punch and sadly I don't remember the make of the sentiment.

This one layer card using Stampin' Up's  Take a Sip wheel stamp was embossed in silver and coloured with Promarkers.

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

It's for One Layer Wednesday's Warm challenge hosted this week by the uber talented HeatherT.

Apologies for the rubbish picture. One of these days I'll sort out the formula for getting the right amount of light for my pics.

Stay warm and safe everyone!

Embossing x 2

I've had some Distress embossing powders in a drawer for quite some time waiting for an occasion to use them. (I think they were a bargain once upon a time and I do love a bargain!)

I found a perfect use for them.

This card employs a double embossing technique.

I began by inking the inner, debossed side of  my Craft Concepts embossing folder with Versamark.

After inserting a piece of card and running it through my Cuttlebug, I sprinkled on copious amounts of Brushed Corduroy distress embossing powder and heat set it. Once cooled, I dry embossed it with the script folder. I decided to sand the surface a little and distress the edges of the square and its mount.

I had tried this technique with regular shiny embossing powder, but I prefer the matt look which distress embossing powder produced.

The two die cuts, embellished with a couple of tiny buttons are from Memory Box's Chloe stem die.

Addicted to CAS - Embossing

Allsorts - Dies or punches

Just us Girls- Dry Embossing...with a twist

One Layer Exercise!

This was fun!

The theme for our one layer challenge at "Less is More" is Sport or Exercise

I had to think a little creatively as I don't have an abundance of sporty images, but with a variety of different sentiments I think I got there!

My Penny Black chicken stamps came into their own this week!

Here are the girls doing a bunch of knitting... aren't they the cutest!

This one reads 'I would just exercise, but it makes me spill my drinks'... the image is part of a larger Penny Black stamp.

Another chicken!

Another part image... each of the last two cards feature just one chicken out of a total of four on the original stamps!

A simple Bugaboo digi image of a little chap with a soccer ball. He's a sweetie isn't he!

This last one is of Bugaboo's Gus! It made me laugh out loud when I read the sentiment.

All of the cards are coloured with Watercolour Pencils, blended with a water brush, as there is no chance of colour bleeding through the cardstock... reasonably important with a one layer card!

I hope you'll be creative this week... can't wait to see what appears!

White plus one!

Letterpress background.

I made this Letterpress background with my Letterpress kit... quite some time ago... I was all enthusiastic at the time but haven't made any for ages... maybe I'll try again... but at least I've used up this piece which has lain in a drawer for ages.

The labels are from Stampin' Up with an SU sentiment and the flowers made from Xcut punches with pearl centres. The leaves are from a Creelies die.

Sweet Stampin' Challenge White + 1

I've managed a few challenges this week... didn't I do well!

Penny Black and Blue

As many of you probably realise, I'm quite fond of messing about with inkiness and when I saw that the challenge at Penny Black's Saturday Challenge was Blues, I thought that I would use a few shades for this inky card.

I began by using Tumbled glass DI with a sponge dauber and then added some Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire. I spritzed these with what I thought was water, but the sprayer turned out to have a little mica powder in it and so I got a super iridescent look to the card, which sadly doesn't show up too well, but looks ace IRL.

Over this I stamped Penny Black's Love Flowering stamp in Chipped Sapphire and added a little script stamp from SU in Stormy Sky. Cut out with a Spellbinder circle and mounted on a piece of deep blue card, I then took the bull by the horns and sewed around the circle. (I have to say I would have been really upset if I'd messed that up.) I added the MArtha Stewart butterfly where the stitching began and ended.

I added the sentiment on white card, but it looked really out of place so I inked that up too. It's cut with a reduced length Papermania die.

This is the sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge that I based the card on, but I wanted to add a sentiment too. I hope that's OK with Karen.

Chalkboard Technique

Lots of submissions to "Less is More" this week have used the Chalkboard technique and I was intrigued by it. I looked at various videos on You Tube and the methods varied considerably from crafter to crafter. What I did here was to stamp the image from Lavinia stamps using SU white craft ink onto black card and then add colour to the still wet ink with SU pastels using a Q tip, wiping off the excess with a cloth. I did the same with the SU sentiment which I mounted on Spellbinder pennant dies adjusting the length to fit the sentiment.

The square panel is in turn mounted on a slightly larger piece of toning card and popped onto dimensionals.

It 's for a couple of challenges that I haven't entered previously.

Papercraft star - Picture Inspiration. As you may see from their image it's the colours which I loved!

ABC Challenges -All Beautiful Cards -CAS
Allsorts Challenge - CAS

In need of inspiration!

For sometime I've been trying to make a card that pleased me and sadly falling short of the mark.This one is kind of alright but it's not wonderful.

I based it on this sketch from Freshly Made sketches

But sadly posted it too late for that challenge!

...took the theme from the Paper Players

and I used the colours from PPA

It's the first time that I have inked up this SU Apothecary Art stamp which was a gift from my lovely friend Mandi. I inked the stamp with a Basic Gray pad and then highlighted the flowers with the pink marker, dragging in the colour with a Blender pen once it was stamped.

The sentiment is from Kaisercraft.

I shall also include it in the CAS challenge from Hotshots.

This quick card was based on the colours from CAS Colours and Sketches.

It's in the style of Birgit an amazing Swedish crafter who never fails to inspire me!

Fab Friday

I thought I'd play along with this sketch from Fab Friday. 

I really want to try more challenges this year as I have let things slide in that direction over the past year or so. 

This is really simple.

 I had to do the SU Baroque border on a separate piece of card as my first attempt which was directly onto the card was abysmal! As it turns out I think that the design was improved by this mistake as I could score the edges of the strip,which seemed an improvement to my eye.

The sentiment from Personal Impressions was die cut and mounted with a Spellbinders Framed tag (2).

CAS as can be!

Less is More #101

I really got into the colour challenge for Less is More this week and made quite a few once I got going, so for the challenge of Black and White plus a hint of another colour here are the cards I made this week.

A favourite layout of mine, with Pink Petticoat paper and a ribbon coloured with a Copic marker to match.The border punch is from Martha Stewart and the base is embossed with a folder from Craft Concepts. I added a few flat gems to highlight the intersections.

My additional colour here is gold for the trumpet from Darkroom Door, hand-cut and mounted over a panel stamped with a Rollagraph wheel.

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

Here is a mere touch of red. the deets of this one are on the LIM blog.

For this one I used a little wrapping paper for the manuscript, a Martha Stewart punch once more for the border and a Darkroom Door sentiment, die- cut with a Stampin' Up framelit die.

More die-cuts here, once again the details are on the LIM blog.

Finally, a simple bit of stamping. The image is by Unity stamps and the sentiment from Personal Impressions. The image together with the sentiment is popped on dimensional tape for a little added interest.

I must try to join in with a few more challenges this year, something that I have sadly been neglecting since the inception of Less is More!

Thank You!

I think my New Year's Resolution may have gone to my head... two posts in one day, whatever next?

I made this card for my son's mother-in-law, where we spent Christmas Day. Her hospitality was wonderful and her culinary expertise unbounded. We had a marvellous day, sumptuous food and great games... we even had fireworks. It was just amazing. This is just a little something to say a big thank you.

She loves butterflies, hence the embossed border, which I think is from Sizzix. The image is from a Stampin' Up set called Paisley Petals. The sentiment is from Art Impressions embossed with WOW Green Pearl powder and die-cut with  Papermania tag, extending it just a tad to fit around the sentiment..

It's for Casual Friday's CAS Thank you challenge!

New Year's Resolution

I think I should try harder!

How many times did I have that said about me during my school day I wonder... probably more than was good for me... but now I really think that I should try harder to join in with more challenges.#

Since the advent of "Less is More", I seem to have spent progressively less time on other challenges and I really think that I should remedy that.

Here goes with my first for 2013

Here is the sketch for Retro Sketches #44

I chose an odd piece of kraft card which was lurking in a drawer together with a piece of Pink Petticoat paper, printed long ago. (Another resolution is to try to use more of my  accumulated stash)

The small section was embossed with what I think is a Cuttlebug border EF and stitched with real stitching... there's another resolution... with my new desk I now have room for my sewing machine in my craft room, so I have no excuse not to use it.

The sentiment is Stampin' Up mounted on a Sizzix Framelit diecut.

Job Done!