The red bag

I have just returned from three wonderful weeks in California and Nevada. 

Many years ago we lived in Alexandria Virginia for a period of three years,  during which time my husband visited the west coast of the US many times. I stayed in Va with our baby (now aged 40)! Since that time Phil has been promising to take me to San Francisco and its environs and this year we did it!

We began in San Francisco which I loved and the highlight for me was trip to Alcatraz. From there went on to Sonoma with numerous opportunities for wine tasting, followed by a stay in Sutter Creek visiting the deepest gold mine site in the US and from there on to Tahoe for a week. After a brief stay in Jamestown, one highlight of our vacation was to visit my friend Darnell in Livermore!

It was lovely to see her again and to meet her lovely husband, the Mister, Kevin!

Phil, Darnell, Me, Kevin

You may be wondering why there is a pic of a red bag at the top of this post... well, when Darnell visited the UK she acquired a few extra items to take home with her and so she purchased the red bag to accommodate these additional items. On my travels, I acquired a few extra items too and was in need of some additional carrying space, so Darnell passed on the red bag to me. 

It seemed rather loath to leave the US, as upon presenting ourselves at the check in on our homeward journey, we discovered that the flight was full and although we had booked business class seats about a year ago, there was nothing available for us on the flight....apart from the possibility of flying economy! The alternative was to fly to Las Vegas or San Diego and from thence in First Class to London! The prospect of first class v economy was a no brainer as far as I was concerned and so the red bag had a little longer in the US by an additional trip to San Diego.

On arrival at Heathrow, we thought it had decided to stay in the US altogether as we were waiting by the carousel for its appearance and were thinking that we would have to report it missing when finally out it popped together with our other baggage! Quelle relief!

SO until Darnell returns to the UK, any bloggers who are are visiting our shores and are in need of additional carrying space for the journey home... there's a red bag here!

Thread

Less is More's challenge this time is to use thread.

Well this I sort of used thread... it's a kind of string I guess, tied into a flat knot suitable for putting on cards... over an embossed backdrop.

You can see a tutorial I made for making this knot here.

The beach hut is from Joanna Sheen and the hi from MFT.

Diamonds

The challenge this week at Less is More is entitled Diamonds. My first thought was of the sparkly things, but then I thought of the shape and that is what I went with here.

I cut the Sizzix aperture die from a corner of the front of the card and placed another piece of card inside to cover the holes. This was overlaid with another Sizzix flower die cut from grey pearlescent paper and a simple hello sentiment die cut from MFT.

This second one again employed a die from Memory Box, used to make a stencil  and covered with embossing paste then adding a sprinkling of Glamour Dust once the stencil was removed.

The butterfly was cut from a Soft Drinks can using a die from SSS and coloured with alcohol inks.

The sentiment is from WPlus9, again twinkled with Glamour Dust.

Altenew Blog Hop!

Altenew is having a Blog Hop and several members of the DT at Less is More are joining in. Here is my card using a stamp from the Celebrations set, stamped onto vellum and embossed in silver, then coloured with markers on the reverse. The backdrop is embossed with a Sheena Douglass snowfall EF. I thought it echoed the sketchy small blossoms on the image. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and the die cut was made with a stitched edging die from MFT.

Look on the Less is More site for full details!

Favourite flower

We have a simple 

One layer Challenge 

at 

Less is More 

this week.

Practically every month someone either forgets the one layer part or the actual theme for the card, which this time is a Favourite Flower. This time I remembered both!

I particularly love spring flowers, they always seem so fresh and new,.. a promise of things to come. Here is a favourite stamp of a favourite flower of mine... the tulip... from Stampin' Up.

It was simply coloured with water colour pencils, blended with a water brush and glazed with a layer of Glossy Accents... apart from the newspaper that is.

I don't think it needs any more!

Peacock Feather Colours

The colour challenge at "Less is More" this week is to use the colours of peacock's feathers... I decided to use an image of  a peacock's feather too as had I picked one up in a Grab Bag from Rubber Necker stamps at Ally Pally some time ago.

Essentially the colours are blue and green, but there is also quite a bit iridescence in these glorious shades. 

To achieve this I used  a variety of glittery powders from WOW; St Lucia Surf, Antigua Breeze and Jamaica Green.

The sentiment is from a die cut from Hero Arts, also inked with Versamark and embossed.

Here's the same stamp, this time stamped on white card, embossed in silver and then painted with a water brush. Various shades of blue and green Brushos were then sprinkled over and allowed to react with the water.

When dry, the feather was cut out and a twinkling of Glamour Dust was added for good measure!

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and embossed in silver.

Watercolour Spritzing

The CAS challenge this month at Happy Little Stampers is
Watercolour Spritzing

I made this card at the HLS Retreat in Swindon a few weeks ago... using Brushos. It was such fun to do! I had had some Brushos for quite a while but needed this input to get me going on the right lines.  Now I can't stop!
I spritzed a piece of watercolour paper with water and sprinkled a couple of shades of Brushos onto it and waited for it to react, adding a little more water as necessary. I also took a print from the paper and so got an extra background into the bargain.
The backing of the Sizzix butterflies and the Clearly Besotted sentiment were cut from the same piece of card, which was placed behind the Sizzix honeycomb corner, aperture die.

This challenge is sponsored by

Tutorials:
Watercolour Spritz by StampTV (3:49)
Watercolor Spritz Technique by Joslyn Nielson (0:43)
Spritzing Brushos by Kylie Purtell (1:57)

Why not have a little fun and join in with this challenge....don't forget to keep it Clean and Simple!