Wednesday 16 November 2016

Stamplorations Giving Thanks



Giving Thanks Blog Hop


For some time I have been a regular purchaser at Shery's Stamplorations Shop. She produces a range of stamps and stencils and has recently branched into also producing dies....which I love!
This is for her Giving Thanks Blog Hop.
I used the matching pumpkin stamp and die, the image coloured with alcohol pens and given a coat of Glossy Accents before being die cut.
The sentiment is stamped, layered and die cut. It's mounted on an embossed background made with a Stamplorations stencil and mounted on a base cut with a Cutplorations wonky stitched rectangle.
A few inked punched leaves complete the card.


Here is a more CAS version of the same theme!

Visit the shop to benefit from this fab sale!

DO visit the other fabulous designers for this hop!

Giving Thanks Hop
  • ONE (1) winner randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blogs will receive a $50 gift certificate.
  • THREE (3) winners randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blogs will each receive a $20 gift certificate to the shop.
  • ONE (1) commenter randomly drawn from our Facebook page will win a $15 gift certificate for herself and a $15 gift certificate for one friend she tags in her comment.
  • ONE (1) commenter randomly drawn from our Instagram account will win her choice of Giving Thanks bundle (Be Thankful, Oh So Grateful, or Many Blessings)/
Commenting ends on November 30 at 11:55 p.m. Pacific


Giving Thanks Linky Party
  • ONE (1) winner randomly drawn from all entries linked up will receive the Be Thankfulbundle (stamp set with coordinating die, word die, and stencil)
  • ONE (1) winner randomly drawn from all entries linked up will receive Oh So Grateful bundle (stamp set with coordinating die, word die, and stencil)
  • ONE (1) winner randomly drawn from all entries linked up will receive Many Blessings bundle (stamp set with coordinating die, word die, and stencil)
[Players have until November 30 to link up their projects to the linky party.]


Winners will be announced on December 9 in the November Challenges and Hops winners post. Winners have until December 20 to claim their prize.

Monday 14 November 2016

Metal leaf

Some time ago I bought a couple of packs of hessian (burlap to those of you on t'other side of the pond) and somehow they have miraculously disappeared...how could somethings as large as that make themselves invisible? I can understand how a pokey tool and the die letter K  could have gone AWOL, they are much smaller...anyway I bought another pack and this is the first card to utilise it!
The leaf was cut with a die from Impression Obsession from a piece of craft foil. It began life coloured red, but I used a few other alcohol inks and some blending solution on it to get this effect which I rather like. The dies emboss veins on the leaves too which is really realistic.
The sentiment is cut from a die by Penny Black.
It's for the challenge at Just Us Girls



It's also for the 'Thanks' challenge at AAA cards



The challenge at Addicted to CAS is to use the ombre technique. 
Here I used a few shades of Distress Ink applied with sponge daubers.
The die cut scene is from Impression Obsession and the sentiment from Find It Trading Yvonne Creations.
It was actually made using up some ovals left over from some thank you cards which I made for my son and DIL. 
Their precious, long awaited daughter arrived in August and they have been overwhelmed by the generosity of colleagues, friends and family and have lots of thank you cards to send. This is one of the latest set of thank you cards I have made for them.
This gorgeous picture of Cleo was taken by a professional photographer and I adore it.The thank you is from a die by Penny Black and the rest of the wording is computer generated.
I'm still working on finding uses for all the other ovals cut to make the apertures!

Saturday 5 November 2016

Taking a break

This is my last post for Less is More for a while!
I am taking a break, as the pressures of travelling between here and Bath and Worthing to look after our grandchildren on a regular basis and an ever increasing vacation schedule, something had to go.
Since I created "Less is More" nearly six years ago, I have made cards for all of the 300 weeks that it has been existence and am really proud of its format and the support it has received over the years. As challenge blogs go, it  is quite long lived and I know that with Sarah in the driving seat it will continue to flourish.
I want to thank everyone for their support over the years and hope to pop back in now and again with a card whenever I can!

This one is for the present colour challenge of Purple and Gold.
I had to have a play with my new MFT High Rise number  dies and paired them with a sentiment from Cutplorations.
I enjoyed the jigsaw element of fitting the numbers together!
Ever since I saw the technique of smooshing, I really loved the effect and here is a card showcasing the technique, used behind a Sizzix die cut borrowed from my friend Anne, but hopefully a set of my own should be winging its way to me at this moment.
The butterflies are also from Sizzix,.. I borrowed some of these from my friend Val at the HLS retreat, but these are from my own dies purchased since then.
The Celebrate is from Penny Black.
Over recent weeks we have had problems with our internet service from Virgin. Apparently the number of users in our area is greater than the capacity of the system. Ergo our phones, iPads, laptops and computers simply drop the internet from time to time, often at inopportune moments. I have been very frustrated by spending time commenting on LIM entries only to have what looks like a page with the corner turned down and a sad face on it, saying that the site is down or something similar!!! The comments weren't even saved and so had to be totally rewritten.. Grrrrrrrr!
It is not due to be totally resolved until the New Year... which is not a prospect that I relish. 

Friday 4 November 2016

Rare Card

 
I think that not many of us would ever be asked to make a card for an occasion such as this... a 70th Wedding Anniversary!
The person who requested this asked for some poppies and hence the Memory Box die cut!
The die cut heart is from Apple Blossom and the 70 from Cuttlebug's Olivia set of letters.
The sentiment was computer generated in order to personalise it.
It's for the challenge at  Clean and Simple on Sundays where the theme is to use flowers!

Wednesday 2 November 2016

Using Metal!

The CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers this month is to use metal or faux metal!
Here I used some crafting foil to die-cut the leaf. In fact the foil began life as a deep shade of red, but when I added some alcohol inks they removed some of the colour, so I added a little blending solution and some more ink and this was the result. I think it's rather nice!
The leaf is from Impression Obsessions, the sentiment from Papertrey Ink and the embossing folder from Lifestyle crafts.