Mum

In Britain, we celebrate Mother's Day or Mothering Sunday in March, so I have been making a few cards for that occasion today as tomorrow I will be having my eye surgery and I'm not sure how well I will be able to see immediately post-operatively. It's all a little scary as I'm having both eyes done on the same day, one after the other.

I'm entering this card into the challenge at AAA Cards where the challenge is

The Wonky stitching die is from Creative Dies, as is the sentiment and the flower from Sizzix. 

I used the sketch from CASe this Sketch

Now I think I'll go and do a little knitting!

Thinking of you as always

There is a photo inspiration over at Inkspirational this time and the colours really appealed to me... SO together with the coffee shades,  I went with the butterfly theme too!

I cut one from Burlap and the other from cardstock. The background (reminiscent of the bubbles in the cup) was stencilled (Tim Holtz) and stamped (Stampin Up) on a  Creative Dies, die-cut base. I think that the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted, but the packet was in the wrong location so I can't be too sure!!

The DT cards over there this time are fabulous do take a look!

There's a picture inspiration over at Addicted to Stamps and I have taken the butterfly theme from that too!

Sea Birds

Whilst linking up my cat card to Addicted to CAS, I saw the winners for their Teal challenge and thought I'd have a go at using that colour too!

Here I used a  stamp from the Rubber Stamp Gallery and tried to remember how I did the masking for this image the last time I used it. My masking fluid had sadly passed its sell by date and was totally gloopy, so that was out of the question, I started to cut a mask from paper, but that was too labour intensive and fiddly... when finally I remembered that I had some Elmer's rubber cement, which fortunately was still usable! I dabbed a little over the sea birds and allowed it to dry. The white dots in the water were made with an embossing pen and some clear embossing powder. I used Distress ink over the lot in Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon using sponge daubers. I used a little more of these colours with a splodge stamp.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

I'm linking this card the Addicted to Stamps and More where the challenge is Clean and Simple.

Clean and Simple on Friday .. Use a Die. I used the border die, but can't remember the manufacturer.

I made this card for a friend who requested a card for his relative who has dealings with Chai tea. I'm not exactly sure in what capacity this is but I hope this card will do. I downloaded this Font, called Samarkand,  from the internet hoping that it would look in keeping with the type of tea.
The cup image is from Stampin' Up.
I'm linking it to the challenge at Seize the birthday where the challenge is Coffee or Tea!

Pussy cat

A second card in  one day... what is the world coming to?

This one is for two challenges

                    

Freshly Made Sketches ...                          and Addicted to CAS

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted and the image,  as many will recognise, is from Penny Black.

I simply cut a couple of tags from MFT pennant dies and embossed one with a Couture Creations embossing folder.

The image was coloured with a variety of alcohol pens. I have various makes of pens and I simply used colours from those sets which hadn't actually dried up.

Twofer

At last I have managed to join in with Darnell's new Twofer challenge and must admit that I found taking a picture of two cards together somewhat difficult, but this is the best I could do.

My item which I used on both cards was the large heart die from a set from Little B.

For the first I used simply the whole heart and cut the Memory Box elephant from it, adding the 'welcome' sentiment from Paper Smooches. The backdrop was embossed with an EF from Creative Expressions.

For the second card I used part of the heart diecut upside down as the top panel of the card. This time adding the peacock which was a mag freebie and the sentiment from Hero Arts. I don't think it's really cheating to use just part of the heart, but this particular die is so large it's good to be able to use it in a different way!

Dry Embossing

Here is my second card for Less is More's birthday month. This time the challenge is to include dry embossing.

The die is from Memory Box and the EF from Die'Sire Embossalicious. The poppies were coloured with alcohol pens.

Making this card made me realise that I don't use dry embossing enough in my card making... note to self....I must try harder!

My cataract eye surgery is just 10 days away... I must admit to feeling some trepidation, but will be so pleased to be able to see clearly again!!

70th Birthday

I searched everywhere in my computer for this Wax Fruit Image and finally found it in my Documents rather than in my Downloads. Some day I should organise my files! The 70 was added to the image in Word and the image was coloured with alcohol pens.

It is another commission card for a friend.

The 'Birthday' die is from Papertrey Ink and the other part of the sentiment was made with Memory Box dies used to echo the style of the 'birthday'!

It's for the challenge at CAS on Friday

Challenge #125, Color me pretty - Use markers or pencils on your card

My friend also wanted me to make a card for her husband from their cat!

This is what I came up with.

I love this cat image (which I had stamped and coloured some time ago) but I cannot either a) find the stamp or b) remember the make to order a replacement!

The sentiment was computer generated.

Love

Since coming back from my cruise I was asked to make some Valentine cards and here is the first of them. A card for someone from my choir for his wife... hence the musical reference!

The manuscript is from a large background stamp from Impression Obsession, the sentiment from Sir Stampalot, with the addition of a couple of tiny die cut hearts.

It's for the challenge at AAA Cards, where the theme is  LOVE

I love the frog in this picture!

It's that time of year!

It seems almost a lifetime ago that Mandi and I had the idea to start a Clean and Simple Challenge in Blogland. It is in fact 7 years ago that we began "Less is More" and for the past year or so Sarah and her group and like minded buddies have continued the tradition.

Life somehow got in the way for me. We have been taking lots of vacations (we've just returned form a cruise to the Caribbean) and calls upon us as grandparents, helping out our busy offspring (our son is a GP and our daughter is HR Director at Ovo Energy) with the grandchildren has been both our pleasure and delight. However it's all a call on our time, so card making and blogging have taken somewhat of a backseat.

The other increasing problem for me has been cataracts and I will be having surgery on February 27th to rectify this.

Anyway it's my pleasure to join in with this week's challenge at LIM which has the theme - MUSIC.

The first card uses a little washi tape and a few simple die cuts. The swirl is from Sizzix, the butterflies are Penny Black and the sentiment, Tattered Lace and I'm not sure of the make of the foliage.

For this second one I used clear heat embossing of some IO manuscript for the background of the top section, die cut with stitched dies from Simon Says Stamp and Creative Dies from Craft Stash.

I get muddled with which butterflies in my collection come from which manufacturer and this is one that I am unsure of.

The sentiment was from a freebie set from Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine.

It's lovely to join in at Less is More once again and  I must congratulate Sarah, Anita and all the girls on their continued great work!

It's nice to be back even if only for a brief visit!

Hearts

I love die-cutting and embossing and here is a simple card using both techniques. The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug and the flower die from Sizzix. The stitched edge die is a new one from Creative Dies from Craft Stash and the sentiment a freebie from a magazine, applied using my MISTI.

It is my DT card for the Hearts Challenge at Happy Little Stampers CAS section.

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

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!