Week 230 at Less is More - Sketch

It's time for a sketch again at Less is More and this time it's one that I have used before but find very satisfying!

With two shapes like this, either panels or apertures, it's always more pleasing to have them the same width even though the depths are different. Strangely, manufacturers don't seem to produce squares and rectangles with matching dimensions, so I use one shape and adapt it either shortening or lengthening  the die-cut. You can see a video of how I do this here. This one is in fact for extending dies, but conversely you can shorten dies too in a similar manner.

This one has apertures, cut with a Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangle, the bottom aperture being much shortened.

The stamp is from Artemio with an olive image from the Internet. The sentiment is computer generated and the flourish from MFT.

For this I used a stitched square die from SSS and reduced it a little for the image panel and a lot more for the sentiment panel.

I was a little unsure how the stamp for adding the colour to this image should be used. It didn't seem to fit any way round, so I hope that this looks OK.  The stamp set is from Wplus9. I used Dried Marigold and Ripe Persimmon Distress inks on it, which I spritzed lightly with water after stamping, just to soften the edges.

A new die

I just received this die and wanted to try it out. I discovered that part of  the Craft Concept EF just fitted the shape of the bra cup and made a rather nice lacy effect!

The sentiment is computer generated in Are you serious font.

Here is the same card design in a different colour! For this I used a letterpress technique by inking the embossing folder with Memento Black Onyx Ink before passing the pink card through the machine.

It's another Anything Goes for Simon Says Stamp

We had a lovely day at the races in Salisbury. Here I am with my son and his wife, my husband and my daughter, who is standing next to me. I backed winners in three out of the seven races!

We all had a wonderful time!

Anything goes

The challenge at Simon Says Stamp is Anything Goes this time, so I thought that this is what I would enter. 

Die cuts and rolled flowers with dies from Tattered Lace (sentiment), Sizzix (swirl), MFT (flowers)and Wplus9(leaves)... with numbers from an old Cuttlebug Alpha set (Typewriter).

We had a wonderful day at the races yesterday to celebrate my husband's 70th birthday. The sun shone, the food was delicious and I backed three winners from the seven races run.

A good time was had by all.

The other good news is that we have received a substantial upgrade on our upcoming Mediterranean cruise, so we are really looking forward to that!

Stencilling

The theme at "Less is More this week is stencilling. It has been on trend for a while now, with lots of innovative ways of using stencils being employed.

This is a card I made for some friends of mine, in fact it is a commission from another friend of mine and I have yet to make my own card for them. They are going to have a mantelpiece full of my cards as I've already made another for them from yet another mutual friend.

Here I used a part of a Memory Box stencil with Spun Sugar Distress ink applied with a sponge dauber.

The swirly thing is from a Sizzix die and the leaves from Wplus9. I believe that the sentiment mount is Tonic Studios.

This is very similar in vein, using the same stencil, plus Memory Box leaves and butterfly.

This week my hubby will be celebrating his 70th birthday and we are off to the races at Salisbury on Wednesday with our children and their partners. I hope the weather will be kind.

Stacked die-cuts

The challenge at Just us Girls this week is to use stacked die-cuts. I love this technique as it gives definition and dimension without too much bulk (thinking of postage costs).

For this background I used Aqua Tint inks and water, over-stamped with little spots and stars  (Lavinia stamps) embossed in silver.

The butterfly is also stacked, using a base layer taken from the inked card.

The SMILE die is from Mama Elephant, cut from three layers of card.
It's also another submission to the Butterfly challenge at Addicted to CAS

One layer home!

At Less is More this week it's one layer time again and the theme this week is Home.

Here I used a Stampin' Up wheel. I love the style of these houses, which I coloured with watercolour pencils and blended with a water brsh.. The sentiment is from Little Claire.

Here is another word wheel stamp, executed in a similar manner... once more with a Little Claire sentiment. I had to dust off my box of wheels, I had sort of forgotten about them... maybe I should give them an airing!

The Butterfly Effect!

The base layer for this card was retrieved from the bin after I had thought that it was not good enough to use on a card. In fact I think that it was thrown away because it didn't turn out as I had hoped, but after a quick spray with glitter mist I thought it might be OK for the backdrop for these butterflies... and in fact I'm really pleased with the effect.

The die is from Memory Box used within a panel cut with a SSS stitched rectangle. The sentiment is from Tattered Lace (I think).

The challenge at the Card Concept is this

The butterfly Effect!

I remember a time when I had to hand cut a butterfly that I need for a card, now I have heaps of dies and stamps and still continue to buy more... I just love them!
This is also for a new Memory Box Challenge entitled Outside the Box
The theme of the first one is butterflies!


Addicted to CAS has the theme Butterflies

Sketch

This is just a quick post before I dash off for my exercise class. I began this card yesterday and added the sentiment this morning!

No stamping... simply die-cuts!

The dies are mainly from Simon Says Stamp and Spellbinders although I don't remember the make of the top two butterflies!

It follows the sketch from Case this sketch

 

Now off to the gym!
Addicted to CAS has the butterfly theme too, so this is for that!

Colour me ...striking!

The challenge at Colour me is to use Night of Navy and Red.

Here is a little card using the the Stampin' Up  Oh Whale image and dies. The embossing is from Lifestyle Crafts. The sentiment is computer generated.

I made the life preserver from some Simon Says Stamp stitched circles and the lower case letter i from Cuttlebug's Babyface alphabet.

CASe this sketch

Here is a card I just made before setting off to Bath to babysit my grandchildren this evening.

I used Simon Says Stamp Artful Flowers and embossed them in gold. I then spritzed these with water and coloured with Distress inks in Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio.

The frames were cut with SSS stitched rectangles and the inner and outer pieces popped up onto dimensional pads. The sentiment is from LOTV embossed in gold.

It follows the sketch from CASe this Sketch #126

Now to pack my bag for my overnight stay!

Colour Challenge at LIM

The colour choice at Less is More this week is 

SUNSET

What a lot of colours that entails!

I have done a couple of cards for this challenge. The immediate colours that came to my mind were red-orange-yellow tones, but there are so many other colours which could be included.

I began by inking a strip of card with Distress inks, using sponge daubers, blending the overlap of colours. Following this I merely stamped the Indigo Blu image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, highlighting some of the flowers with a Sakura, Clear Star, gel pen. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.
This is also for Addicted to Stamps Make your Mark Challenge

Here I dropped shades of red and yellow Aqua Tints onto a piece of card and spritzed with water to blend and spread the colour. When dry I used it as a backdrop for the die-cut front panel and the lower layer of the Memory Box butterflies. The sentiment which I believe is from a Spellbinders die, was also cut from the inked card.
This fits the challenge of Butterflies at ATCAS, so I'll enter it there too.

We sang at the Royal Albert Hall this week with my choir the Portsmouth Choral Union. It was a terrific concert, conducted by our previous conductor together with his two other choirs, the Chichester Singers and  Guildford Choral Society... over 500 voices... we made quite a sound!  It was Belioz Te Deum...  it's quite a sing!

As you may see there were hundreds of singers... if you look at the organist (our choir's conductor) and move along that row to the right, I am the second person from the organist in that row, my husband is the fourth to the left of the organist!

Happy Little Stampers Guest!

I was SO thrilled to be asked by Loll to be the 

Guest Designer 

for June for 

Happy Little Stampers!

Loll is the consummate crafter whose work I have long admired and so I was delighted to accept her invitation.

The challenge this month is to use Mists or Sprays.

Here is my card!

I began by scrunching up a piece of copy paper,  then unfolded it and swiped it with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink, directly from the pad. I then spritzed the paper with water to make the ink run. When dry, I spritzed it randomly with Cosmic Shimmer Mist in Ancient Copper.

I cut a large circle from this paper with a Simon Says Stamp stitched Circle die and then mounted it on a slightly larger, white, die-cut circle of card. Using a smaller stitched circle die, I cut an offset  aperture from this piece, adding a Stampin’ Up embossed cloud background behind it, popping the frame onto dimensional pads.

The butterfly is from Memory Box, using the spritzed paper as the background layer. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, stamped in Ranger Caribbean Coast Dye Ink.

I now also have a smaller die-cut circle of the spritzed background to use on another project!

This is it!