Less is More Lucky Dip!

When there is a 5 Saturday month, we have a special Lucky Dip Week at 

Less is More 

and we have a Guest Designer too.

This month it's Birgit, who makes amazing cards

but it's extra special as Penny Black is also sponsoring the challenge!

So please DO check it out this week!

Here is my contribution. A gorgeous PB stamp called Brush Tulips. The sentiment is also PB from the clear Friendship set.

I've had Daisy here this week. It's her last week of holiday before she begins in Year 1. We have been to get new school shoes. I take her to the shop where I used to take her mummy... it's a really old fashioned shoe shop, but their attention to giving a superb fit it second to none. We only had to wait in line for 35 minutes to be fitted. However the queue was out into the street by the time we came out! It's always the same just before a new term!

This evening her mummy and Seb will be coming to collect her and my BIL will also be arriving. We're going to have a house full!

Washi!

Washi Tape

Our challenge at Less is More this week is to use washi tape and I have made a few cards using some bought and some home made tape.

This one is from Tim Holtz and is a simple Stampin' Up image coloured partly with ink and partly with a marker.

Here is the same image but this time using home-made washi tape. Simply tissue paper, backed with double sided tape, stamped and cut into strips. Easy Peasy!

This is back to using the Tim Holtz tape, which matches the design on the bird from A Day for Daisies.

I think it's such a cute image!

I have had an abscess around one of my teeth and to date have had two sessions of root canal work. It has not been the most pleasant of times and I now have to wait for a few weeks until I have the final treatment. I'll just keep taking the anti-biotics and hope that it all goes away!
 

Flowers

The challenge at CAS on Sunday is to use flowers on the card submitted.

Here I have a card using an image from Blockhead stamps with the bleaching technique.

I stamped the image onto black paper and then embossed it with black embossing powder.

I applied bleach over the image and waited for the colour from the paper to lighten. I discovered that the effect of the bleach on this particular paper left the image a perfect match for Stampin' Up's Sahara Sand card, which is what the card base is made from.

I think it's a tremendous effect.

I used various Nestie rectangles, adjusted to fit the image for the frame.

Holiday!

This set of stamps from Hot off the Press were free with a magazine quite some time ago.

I love the simplicity of the images and with a little masking this card was created.

The seagull has enormous feet and so the hut had to be masked before he landed on top, but I think he fits quite nicely on the slope of the roof!

It's for the challenge entitled Holiday from Addicted to CAS.

I have just ordered a Silhouette Portrait cutting machine. I'm hopeless with computer led stuff so I hope I manage to get some use from it. I have been Umming and Ahing about whether or not to get one for ages it seems, so time will tell whether or not it was a good decision!

Watch this space!

Senior moments

I have suddenly realised that I had completely forgotten to post my Sample cards for LEss in More here on my own blog.

I really must be having a few too many senior moments.

Anyway, here they are... a spinner card and a motor bike for the theme of Round and Round!

There 's brief tutorial for a spinner car on the LIM blog. They are simple to make and kids really love them!

This is a super Stampin' Up image. I thought the Lili of the Valley sentiment went quite well with this!

This final card was made as a commission for a retiring GP who has a passion for model aeroplanes, so here he is with one going 'round and round' above his head!

Tonight we're off to a black tie silver wedding party!

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it!

From time to time, on the blog of the magazine Craft Stamper, where I am one of the designers, there is the  opportunity for crafters to have their cards published.

This time it's to create a card using acetate.

There are a few stipulations, but you can find the details here.

There are some terrific examples from members of the DT and the card to be published in the mag will be chosen by them from all the submissions at the end of the challenge.

Here I used some cor'dinations card which was embossed with a Cuttlebug chicken wire Embossing Folder and then sanded. This card was split into two pieces and a section of acetate was sandwiched between them.

The agapanthus flowers from Stampendous were inked with a couple of shades if distress ink and stamped inside the folded card to show through the acetate window.

The die cut butterfly from Marianne Creatables was inked with Distress inks, embossed and twinkled  with Glamour Dust, to tone with the flowers and the cardstock.

A simple sentiment was stamped, then die-cut with a Spellbinder tag.

Do give the challenge a try... you may see your card in print!

Another one layer card

The challenges at "Less is More" have once again rolled around to the one layer card.

I really quite enjoy these and sometimes like to give them the appearance of more than one layer.

Here are a couple of cards differing only in the sentiment. Details of how they were achieved are on the LIM blog.

They have a faux layered appearance which is really really easy to achieve.

This last one was was computer generated and coloured with a couple of Copic pens.

My daughter and our two grandchildren descended yesterday. She has some office work she needs to get done and so we will be on child entertaining duties whilst she gets it done. We love to have them, but we are entertaining friends for a BBQ this evening, so it's all going to be really jolly with everyone here!

Subtle colours

Design Seeds have some amazing colour combinations with pictures sure to inspire!

This is the one we are using at "Less is More" this week.

I stamped and inked a piece of card with a tree image from Darkroom Door using colours from Adirondack inks.

Once I had finished inking, I chopped up the card to use parts of it in two separate cards. I  like to make a larger piece than I need as I can  often see that just part of the image has more effect than the whole thing.

For this part of the image, I overstamped it with a sanded  stamp from SU and put it behind a frame. I don't know which one I prefer, maybe the first!

I think it's fun making this kind of card.