Time to celebrate

I loved this simple sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches and I think it will be one that I call upon in future.

For this card I used a pocket watch die from All Occasion Dies, inlaying the gold with the white card. The sentiment is from Hero Arts, embossed in gold. The lower panel is a section of card embossed with a Darice embossing folder and mounted on a die cut, from an MFT pierced pennant die, cut from both ends to make it rectangular.

Here I combined it with the challenge at The Male Room which is to use die cuts.

Guest Designer

Recently I was lucky enough to win the challenge at Addicted to CAS and with this win came an invitation to be a Guest Designer for one of their challenges...and this is it!

The theme for this challenge is Graduation.

Over the years, it took me a while to establish my preferred style of cardmaking, but for me there is nothing better than clean and simple lines.

For this card I used an image from Hero Arts which I coloured with watercolour pencils and a water brush, and then added a layer of clear embossing powder once I had cut it out.

The sentiment is a die also from Hero Arts, mounted on a pierced fishtail pennant die from MFT, shortened slightly to fit my card base dimensions.

I decided to add a little interest to the bottom of the card by adding a piece of card embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder (Charles) and trimmed with the pierced edge from one of the longer MFT pennants.

I add double side tape to the back of card before cutting sentiment dies, as it makes adhering them to my projects so much easier. However, as this pennant is popped up on dimensional pads and part of the letter 'g' hangs below the pennant, I added a little talc to this exposed part once I had attached it, so that there is no risk of it sticking to the card base itself.

My daughter has just gained a Master's Degree to add to her First Class Degree which she obtained at University some years ago. This time she was simultaneously working full time as Head of People at OVO Energy and being a single mum to two lively children. No mean achievement indeed and we couldn't be more proud of her.
It's also for the Embossing challenge at AAA Cards

I used clear embossing to add shine to the mortar board image.

Clean and Simple butterflies

Four of my favourite things for cards...  die-cutting, smooshing, butterflies and a CAS design.

A piece of smooshed card was placed behind the Sizzix die cut and the three All Occasion Dies butterflies were die cut from the remainder of the card.

For the smooshing technique I placed a small amount of Inka Gold paste onto a craft mat and added some Aqua Tint inks before spritzing with water. The colours merge together beautifully and the Inka Gold adds a subtle touch of metallic shimmer. It can be used for backgrounds or as here, for die cutting.

The sentiment from Just Rite stamps was stamped with Ranger Dye Ink in Caribbean Coast. The front panel of the card was cut with a stitched rectangle die from Simon Says Stamp, elongated slightly to fit British card proportions.

It's for 

The Paper Players

Happy Little Stampers  

Love Brushos!

Since experimenting with Brushos at the retreat organised by Kylie in Swindon last year, I've had such fun experimenting with the wonderfully vivid colour combinations. Here the card was spritzed with water and several powders sprinkled over it before spritzing again and allowing to dry.

The butterflies were cut with an All Occasion die and mounted on a piece of card embossed with a Sheena Douglass EF, which in turn was placed on a square, cut with an MFT pierced square die.

The 'birthday' is from a Papertrey die and inlaid, the 'wishes' is from Craft Essentials Creative dies and overlaid.

A few tiny gems complete the picture.

It's for the challenge at Happy Little Stampers

Anything Goes with Dies

Plus the challenge at CASual Fridays, where their 6th birthday celebrations are approaching. Hence the 6 butterflies!

Happy Birthday CASual Fridays

Double sided!

Lots of things tell us when we're getting old... for example I wondered why I couldn't find the first of my two cards here today when the time for photographing them arrived. Eventually I realised that I had made one card on the back of the other!!!! DOH!

Like Siamese twins, they are now separated again, but what a palaver!

This first one follows the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches ...

and is using the theme from Kylie's challenge at Addicted to Stamps Blog

It's simply a bunch of die cuts from Memory box, MFT, Lil Inkers and I can't quite remember where the sentiment die is from... getting old again!

Many congrats to Kylie on the upcoming happy event in her family and as you may see I've gone with the girly option! I have the cutest granddaughters and can only say what a joy they are. Here is a pic of the little one recently!

~

This card uses the sketch from CASe this Sketch

with the theme of Grunge from Addicted to CAS

All the stamps used on this card are from Stamplorations, who are sponsoring the challenge this time.

Another day, another card!

Here is a card which I made to enter a couple of challenges.

The sketch is from CASe this Sketch...

...with the theme from CASology

The beautiful scroll is from Memory Box and the butterflies (cut from card which I smooched with Inka Gold and Aqua Tints) are from Penny Black. A simple touch of bling completes the look!

Back to crafting

It seems s though I have been out of the crafting loop for quite some time. Since stepping back from Less is More for a while, my time seemed consumed with family commitments and holiday preparations. We are now home for a few weeks and I hope to get a little card making under my belt. I only hope that the mojo returns!

Here is a card for the challenge at CAS Mix Up

The stamp from Penny Black was coloured with Stampin' Up pens and the image then splattered with Pumice Stone Distress Ink applied with a toothbrush (whilst still in the Cutplorations wonky stitched die) . I then added some Sunlight Mist Cosmic Shimmer, flicked from a paintbrush. In fact the spray has stopped working and despite my best efforts seems unwilling to become operational again, so this method of usage seems like a good idea!

My choice of technique is the die-cutting, which is one of my favourite things to use.

Sadly I can't find the origin of the sentiment die.

Always look on the bright side

The theme at Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge this time is rain!

I usually tend to look on the bright side of things, so here the sun is overshadowing the rain in a simple die cut card.

The sentiment was computer generated, but after I had done it I thought that  "Always look on the bright side of life" might have been a more apt sentiment!

I may change it!

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

I have just returned form a month's holiday, which began in Singapore and following a cruise to South Africa via Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius the Seychelles and Reunion, ended in Zambia at the Victoria Falls. It was an amazing trip!

Here I am trying my hand at a spot of tea picking in Sri Lanka!

We enjoyed our trip around Cape Town...

...and the view of the Zambezi from our balcony at the Royal Livingston hotel in Victoria Falls was stunning!

The falls themselves were awesome!

Now it's back to normal for a while!