Down Under

The challenge at Less is More is entitled Down Under this week, as our sponsor this month is Kylie, from Happy Little Stampers who is also the Guest Designer this week.

Here I used a kids copyright free colouring page image for this cute kanga and joey.  It's simply coloured with alcohol pens and surrounded with a simple frame. The sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers

I'm just back from a couple of weeks in Florida and a cruise around the Caribbean and the Bahamas, so it's down to earth again!

 I do apologise if I didn't get around to commenting whilst on my vacation, but I'm sure you'll understand!

Silhouettes

For the recipe at "Less is More" this week the requirement is to include a silhouette on the card.This is something that really appeals to me so I enjoyed making cards for this challenge!

Here is a simple deer family set in a woodland scene with a snowy embossed background.

The dies are from Memory Box and the embossing folder from Sheena Douglass.

The sentiment was computer generated.

Here is a Sizzix embossing folder paired with a couple of Chess pieces cut with a Joanna Sheen Signature die

I really wish that all manufacturers would put their company name on the carrier sheets of clear stamp sets, it would make their identification much easier for blogging and magazine article purposes! I can't find the make of this sentiment for the moment, when I find it I'll amend the post.

 Here is a stamp from Rubber Stampede and a sentiment from Lili of the Valley

I love this little girl's bunches!

I did cheat with this one slightly... despite trying with lots of different ink on lots of different cardstock, I still went over the stamping with an alcohol pen to make sure it was really black!

Kissing Technique

At "Less is More" this week the theme is to use the Kissing Technique! It's some time since I did this but it can be quite fun.

To achieve this you need two contrasting stamps, one solid and one with a fairly intricate design. Both stamps are inked up (the solid one in a lighter shade) and then the  two stamps  'kiss each other'! That in fact means stamping one onto the other, then the solid one is stamped onto the card.

Here I used a Stampin' Up solid heart and a script stamp from HLS. I inked the heart with Ranger  Pink Gumball  and the script stamp with Ranger Classic Cherry dye inks. The heart was stamped onto the script stamp and then onto card. The only problem with using something like a script stamp is that when printed it appears as a mirror image, but as this writing is so tiny I didn't think it mattered too much!

The sentiment is from Mama Elephant and the background embossing from Stampin' Up.

Here is another heart, this time with a Stamplorations flourish stamped onto it! After stamping the 'kissed' heart, it was cut out and twinkled with Glamour Dust then popped on dimensional pads on the Sizzix swirl together with the All Occasion Dies leaves. The sentiment I believe is from Tattered Lace.

Using rejects

This card started life as a one layer flourish card for "Less is More" this week, but I realised that when masking,  I had put the Post it notes on slightly wonkily, so I cut off the panel (straight this time) and decided to add a little inking which I did using sponge daubers and then accompany it with a die-cut golden flourish too! The sentiment is from HLS embossed in WOW Pale Gold.

It's for the Time Out Challenge

Birthday with the optional twist of adding sponging!
Plus..., Seize the Birthday  Anything Goes

I love these flourish stamps which are from Stamplorations and embossed with three different coloured embossing powders... Deep Blue, Gold Tinsel and Distress Frayed Burlap.!

The sky's the limit

I haven't entered a Simplicity one layer challenge for quite some time and so today I took the plunge and made a card for the current challenge. which has the theme 'the sky's the limit'. For some reason these cute bears from Mama Elephant came into my mind with the sentiment 'I love you to the moon and back', which I made on the computer. The images are simply coloured with watercolour pencils and and gently twinkled with Glamour Dust!

This one follows the sketch from Freshly made Sketches and has the theme of Glitter from AAA Cards

I cut the 'thanks' word from  Cuttlebug's Olivia Alpha set of dies, covering both sides of the card with double sided tape. After cutting, I removed the top layer of DST and dunked the word into a bag of chocolate coloured glitter. I cut out the word twice more in plain card and layered them together. I did a similar process with the sprig of leaves whose origin I sadly can't recall. The card is also a deep chocolate brown, although it appears to be almost black in this picture.

I used the same MFT stitched tag die for both sides of the panel, shortening it on one side and lengthening it on the other in order to fit the width of the card and with appropriate proportions for the sketch!

For Just Us Girls' Trend week, I have the little metal fastener joining the two panels.

Starting the year with a flourish

Week 258 at Less is More is One Layer time again and this time the theme is to use a Flourish!

This card uses stamps from Happy Little Stampers (the script stamps) and Stamplorations (the flourishes).

I embossed the rectangle with a Spellbinders die and the stamped within the masked area. All the stamping was heat embossed with either clear (the black) or white embossing powder.

Here I masked off the left hand panel with Post it notes and stamped the flourish stamps from Stamplorations using Versamark. I then sprinkled a variety of embossing powders over the ink (without shaking off the excess between additions). I used a glitter gold, a platinum  and a deep blue. It's a bit of a wasteful way of using powders as once mixed they are pretty useless and have to be thrown away, but if you have a colour that you're not particularly keen on, you can mix it with other colours and get some extra mileage from it.
This is also for the SIMPLE challenge at CASology

Butterfly thoughts

I made this card, thinking it was an original design on my part then realised that I must have seen the sketch at CAS(e) this sketch, so that's where  I shall be entering it!, together with the Anything Goes CAS challenge at Stamplorations (Optional touch of silver)

 

The Uniko butterflies are stamped in SU Smoky Slate ink with a little added splat stamping from SU and Paper Artsy, some embossed in silver. The sentiment is from HLS. I added a little Wink of Stella to the butterflies, but it doesn't show up on this picture, but looks quite pretty IRL. This is my last piece of grey cardstock, I don't know where I got it but would love to find some more!

Happy Birthday

I had quite a search for this stamp. Sometimes I get into my head that I NEED to use a specific image and nothing else will do, I'm happy to say that I found it as you can see. It's from Stampin' Up and was simply silver embossed and coloured with Distress Inks, cut out and then twinkled with Glamour Dust.

It's mounted on a piece of grey card (although it looks black) backed with silver with a sentiment from HLS also embossed in silver.

It's for the challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches

My husband is holding a choir committee meeting downstairs this evening... time for me to get busy and do some commenting on entrants to Less is More!

Muse

I love Michele's card at Muse this week and made this using her colours and layout.

The black card is from the packaging from my Kindle, which I thought was too good to toss!

The love die is from Winnie and Walter and the letter U from Memory Box, both mounted on an MFT pierced oval. I'm not quite sure of the tag's origin.

Here is Michele's inspiration card.

Now to tackle the dismantling of the Christmas tree for the 39th year since its purchase!

A little more smooshing

Here I used a little more of the card from my last smooshing session, where I used Inka Gold paste together with Distress ink re-inkers and a spritz of water. 

I followed the sketch from Freshly made sketches and theThank you theme from Just us Girls

 

It seems ages since I joined in a challenge apart from my DT obligations!

It was fun!

Smooshing!

The CAS Challenge at Happy Little Stampers this month is all about SMOOSHING!

If you're not sure what this is, there are links to some tutorials if you scroll down a little.

It's a great deal of fun and some magical effects can be achieved. With just one smooshing session you can create lots of  potential backgrounds for die cutting or other purposes.

Here I used some Old Silver Inka Gold paste placed on a craft mat with some drops of Blueprint Sketch and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Inks dropped into it, before spritzing with water and then prints being taken.

Two Paper Smoochies butterfly die cuts were then mounted one atop the other and finished with a few pearls.

The sheen from the Inka Gold can be burnished to a fabulous shine by buffing with a paper towel.

The stamp is from HLS Fun Birthday Sentiments

This challenge is sponsored by

Winner receives one stamp set from HLS

Tutorials:
Smooshing with Acetate by Laura Bassen (5:59)
Smooshing with Inka Gold by Loll Thompson (4:02)
Smooshing with Waterbased Ink Markers by Sage Kimble (5:10)
Smooshing with Re-inkers by Loll Thompson (3:46)
Smooshing with Alcohol Inks by Artful Splodger (1:19)
Smooshing with Gelatos by Kimberley Crawford (starts on video at 2:58 mark)
Smooshing with Inks by Loll Thompson (3:42)

DO join in with this fun challenge, you'll love the technique!

First challenge of 2016 for Less is More

The first colour challenge of 2016 for Less is More is neutrals and I have managed a  couple of cards!

For this card I grabbed a few neutral shades of ink from my Stampin' Up stash and used some circle stamps from Simon Says Stamp to create this bubbly effect!

I die cut the Happy word from Winnie and Walter from this and then stacked it onto three more layers of plain die-cuts, adding the birthday stamp from a Technique Tuesday set!

This is a simple card framing a piece of DP from Pink Petticoat and adding a sentiment from Happy Little Stampers, (the sponsor for Less is More this month).

The Christmas period has been quite busy for me as we've had our grandchildren saying with us for a while and I haven't managed to do any work in my craft room. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon!

I would like to wish a Happy New Year to you all!