Happy BIrthday

How could I not join in with this challenge at Less is More.... the challenge I created with Mandi 11 years ago! That's such a milestone in Blog challenge terms. Thanks SO much to the fabulous crafters who have continued the tradition since I stepped down... quite a few years ago now. 

This card is made mainly with dies by Charlie and Paulchen. The window was made from a large arched window die by Memory Box, but I shortened it and removed the arch by partially cutting from each end. It turned out to be just the right size for the roman blind die from C&P. I thought the dresser might come in handy for some baby cards and there are all sorts of other bits and bobs which go with this set.

Long may the CAS tradition continue at Less is More and thanks once more to those carrying it forward!

 

A balanced diet!

It almost seems impossible that it is 10 Years since Mandi and I got our heads together to come up with the idea of a Blog Challenge for Clean and Simple cards. 

The thing we came up with was "Less is More". 

At that time there were very few challenges for CAS cards and lots of people seemed to like the idea but didn't know how to go about keeping a design really simple. It was rather unexpected and at the same time, innovative, that we made suggestions to challengers on ideas for improving or simplifying their makes. The main thing is that we quickly amassed thousands (literally) of followers to our blog. We also encouraged contestants to comment on fellow entrants' cards. There were only two of us on the design team and even though we commented on each individual entry, that meant that there would only be two comments from the challenge. It was the beginning of a great community where lots of people got to know one another, via their comments, It was something that made us both proud.

I am so grateful that like minded crafters were willing to step up to help and when I finally decided to step back after about 6 years of running the challenge, the legacy has been allowed to continue.

Thanks go to everyone who has worked in whatever capacity to keep it going!

I am really touched that the girls at LIM have asked me to join them as a Guest Designer for this very special Milestone Challenge!

Now onto this card!

As with the very first challenge, it's a colour challenge and this time it's 

CHOCOLATE

I used an SVG file from Silhouette which I cut out with my Portrait and coloured the various layers with alcohol pens. When I had assembled the chocolates, I gave them a couple layers of clear embossing to add shine and make the edges look more realistic. I made the sentiment on the computer using the font Dohearts. I have my Word programme set to 105% which makes the actual size on my screen to exactly A4, so I can hold things up to my screen to see if I like the placement of the words. I use Text Boxes to add the words, so that I can move them wherever I want. Not very techy but it works for me!

I popped the chocs onto dimensional pads to add a little relief. 

I hope lots of people will join in on this very special occasion, and I hope to come and visit to see your makes!

Stay safe everyone!

 

Back at "Less is More"

I was so delighted to have had a card selected as the winner in the challenge blog which I created with Mandi many moons ago! I'm speaking of course, of "Less is More".  It is some years now since I stepped down from running the challenge, but am happy to see that the the current designers are continuing with our original concept... albeit tweaked a little to keep up with the times!

The outcome of my win was a request to return as a Guest Designer for one of the challenges. 

When we began "Less is More", clean and simple was not a well known genre and many people found white space really scary! Since LIM's inception, CAS has become much more prevalent and there are some amazing exponents of the style around, the DT at LIM being a case in point.

The theme this time is Festive.

For my card I began by taking two, double dot/dash squares and dry embossing them, one the right way up and the other upside down, so that I got one dot/dash edge and one flat edge embossed in the centre of the card. I then stamped the image, which is a freebie from a Crafts Beautiful Mag, which was generously bought for me by my son's mother-in-law. I coloured it with Inktense pencils and blended with a water brush. This type of colouring doesn't show through onto the inside of a one layer card as alcohol markers would. When dry, I simply added some Nuvo Crystal Glaze.

It's kinda difficult to see the shine in this picture.

I thought that a holly spray was festive enough and didn't need any sentiment!

I'm trying to find an alternative to iPiccy (which I have been using to edit my photos and add my watermarks), as Flash, which it needs, will not be continuing after December. I have looked at several free editing programs, but  I don't seem to be able to get my head around any of them! It would be great if iPiccy could come up with a solution to their software so that it could continue, as I have really enjoyed using it! If anyone knows of an idiot proof editing program, I'd be glad to hear about it!

Thanks once more to the team at LIM for asking me to join them for this challenge!

 

Wonderful Memories

A friend asked me to make a card for her with this specific wording. Needless to say I had to make the sentiment on the computer, which in a way is a good thing, because I could choose a font to suit the image I was using.

I began by cutting the aperture with a die which I bought from a French company called Simply Graphics. Isn't it delicate! The flowers were cut (using a die by Alexandra Renke) from a piece of card which I had coloured by smooshing with some purple inks with a little platinum Inka Gold. I popped a tiny, tiny  gem into the centre of each of them. 

To get the sentiment just where I wanted it, I  die-cut a piece of copy paper with the aperture die. With my Word programme set to 105%, the size of the page on my screen matches a piece of A4 paper. So by putting the lines of text into text boxes and making them transparent, I could jiggle them around so that when the die-cut piece of paper is put over my screen, I can see if the positioning is correct. It's a bit Heath Robinson, but it works for me.

I thought that this card would work well for the challenge at Less is More. 

This time it's Shades of Purple.

This is the challenge which I created with Mandi in 2011 and I am simply thrilled that since stepping back, the tradition of wonderful CAS designs has continued with the fabulous bunch of designers.

Thank you girls for all the wonderful inspiration! Long may you continue to inspire!

 

Big Bold Sentiment

For the second challenge of LIM's birthday month it's time for a one layer card with the Focus on the Sentiment.

Rummaging through my Stampin' Up sets of stamps, (whilst searching for something else, which I still haven't located) I came across this stamp. It's from a set with the title as on this sentiment...' Love you much'. I wanted to have the flower part coloured and the rest of the sentiment in black, so rather than try to ink all of the stamp with markers, I popped it in the microwave for a few seconds to loosen it from the wood block so that I could use it in my MISTI, and thereby stamp it in 2 takes. I coloured the stem and the flower with SU markers and stamped it, then cleaned that off and inked the rest of the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink...  the stray bits of ink on the stem were wiped away with a Q tip and then it was stamped for a second time. 

All I did after that was to colour in the LOVE part with a Wisp of Stella pen in Silver.

It's simplicity itself, and as February is the month of love, what could be better!

It's been great fun being back at Less is More and thanks once more to the terrific bunch of girls continuing the tradition!

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!

Seeing Double at "Less is More"

It's a One Layer Card week at "Less is More" and from somewhere or other Mandi and I dreamed up the subject Seeing Double. Sometimes thinking of the themes is a lot easier than actually carrying them out. I had lots of ideas for my samples this week before realising that some of them weren't actually One Layer!
This is the first card I made with my lovely, small pear stamp. The method I used is on the challenge blog.

This one uses the medium sized pear, it's really quite fun to colour the stamp before making the impression. As I mentioned on "Less is More", these stamps are absolutely flat with no texture whatever etched into them, so any interest comes from the inking.

This one, although not for the challenge at "Less is More", was my first attempt at adding dimension to the stamp, merely by inking.
I am submitting this one to Sir Stampalot's Monthly Challenge   'In the frame' as this is where I bought these fabulous pear stamps. I've made quite a mess of the wooden blocks when trying to get the darker colour around the edge of the image with my ink pads. That doesn't worry me overly however, as I'm not that fastidious.

The last one is merely a double stamping without re-inking in between, to give the impression of a shadow.
Thank you to all those people who visited and tried to leave comments for me last week when either my blog or Blogger were being unco-operative and not allowing comments from some people to be left. Thanks for trying!
Have a lovely weekend, my husband and I will be singing in a 'Prom' type concert is a nearby village tonight. They are raising money for a Macmillan Hospice, a most worthy cause. I'd better go and take another look at the music.

Something Metallic - Week 31 Less is More

The topic this week for submissions to our challenge at "Less is More", is to have something metallic on a card. This could be any form... card, ink, embossing, charms, actual metal (there are many forms of hardware type embellishments for cards these days it seems). It will be interesting to see what people can dream up.
This card has a topper which has been triple embossed and stamped with  a flourish from the Stempelglede Grunge Hearts set of stamps. Details of how it was done are on the challenge blog.
The paper is from Pink Petticoat and the sentiment from SU.

This close up shows how deeply etched the stamp was... it gives a super texture.





The second card I made uses some metal foil. I'd bought it long ago in Bury St Edmunds when visiting my son... there's a great little shop there called The Stamp Hut and every time I visit, I have to just pop into the shop! They stock some lovely goodies and are really helpful and friendly! Do check out their website.

Once more, details of how this was made are on the "Less is More" blog.

We went to see 'Singing in the Rain' in Chichester the other day. It was wonderful, I found myself smiling most of the way through. The dancing was wonderful and I was glad that we weren't sitting in the front rows as the people sitting there got SOAKED! It was such fun and I think that it was the first time that I've been at that theatre when there was a spontaneous standing ovation!
Have a wonderful weekend!

"Less is More" - Take Three Challenges

Today would have been my old Mum's birthday. She was a lovely lady and had she lived would have been 103 today, but after living a full life she died aged 92. Bless her, what wonderful memories we have of fun times together.

I think it was from her that I inherited my love of making things. She made my clothes, both knitted and sewn and in later life learned to do the most amazing, intricate crochet work. A really talented lady!
Anyway, here are my offerings for "Less is More" this week where the challenge is to combine any three of our previous challenges.
You can see which challenges I combined on the challenge blog... but all I need to say here is that I love white on white. I think that this would be a good choice for an engagement, a wedding or an anniversary.
Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog - It'll be all white on the night!

This one uses a stamp set given to me for my birthday, by my lovely buddy Mandi. Once more you can see the challenges I combined on our  "Less is More" blog, but one obvious challenge was using ink!
Several people have asked what exactly this stamp set is .
It's from Katzelkraft and the reference is KTZ74
Do check out the blog and come and join us, even if CAS hasn't been your thing in the past, do give it a try... you may even enjoy it!

Things that Move -Less is More!

At our challenge at "Less is More" this week we would like to see something that moves!

This could be literal or figurative... for my card there's a little of both!

This one has images of butterflies, which in reality can move and the cut out butterfly is only attached under its body and so the wings are able to move a little!

Allsorts Challenge blog - You've been Framed

The second one (I apologise for the dreadful picture) has a small charm which is able to move from side to side, plus the image is of baby carriages which in reality are also able to move.

Do join us in our Clean and Simple challenge and see what you can make that can move!!!

Less is More - Use Ink!

Saturday once more and time for another challenge from "Less is More"!

This time it's to Use Ink!

It sounds easy enough, but we'd like people to maybe try something a little different, new or merely a technique that is a favourite.

This is one of my favourite techniques... a sponged background and a stamped scene.

 The stamps are from Indigo Blu.

This one consists of a simple square stamped directly with a Distress ink pad and then overstamped with a two step stamp from Stampin' Up. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and the whole card was spritzed with a little shimmer ink.

DO join in the fun this week and let us see what you can produce when you get a little inky!

This last one was made with an acrylic block, stamped with Distress Inks then spritzed with water before being stamped onto the card. The Personal Impressions  image was then stamped over the top and the Hero Arts sentiment stamped beneath. Quick and easy!

The colours of your flag!

At "Less is More" this week it's time for another colour challenge.

Wishing to give a little variety to the colour choice this time, we came up with this idea... the colour of your National flag! We have crafters from all around the globe taking part in our challenges and so we should see a bunch of different colours... although many nations have the colours red, white and blue!

This is a new home card for my niece who moved out of her house today, but won't be moving into her new home until a few legalities have been ironed out. My brother-in-law will be sharing his home with them for a while... what fun!

The English flag being the cross of St George is just red and white and this card reflects those colours.

 Details of the stamps used are on the "Less is More" blog, do join us for this current challenge, we'd love to see your work!

Allsorts Challenge - Red Card

"Less is More" six months on!

"Less is More", our Clean and Simple Challenge Blog is 6 months old today. I know I'm getting old but I really don't know where the time has gone to.
It doesn't seem a more than a moment since Mandi emailed me to ask if I would be interested in a joint venture with her to create a new Challenge Blog for Clean and Simple cards! Boy am I glad that I jumped at the prospect!
I popped over to the island to meet her to try get things sorted. We had so much fun then and have continued to have fun ever since...and have become such good friends!
The details of our Feeling Fruity challenge and our cards this week are over on the "Less is More" blog.
ABC Challenge - Z for Zoo

I have had quite a busy week so far, with my daughter and her children staying for a few days... Thursday was spent at Peppa Pig's World at Paulton's Park. Daisy had a super time!

Have a great weekend and do join us this week, we'd love to see your creations!

Week 25 at "Less is More"

We have a recipe at "Less is More" this week... not an excuse to add all sorts of folderols, just an opportunity to use ribbon or buttons.
Here I have used some ribbon  rescued from a gift last Christmas from my son and daughter-in-law and three buttons made from a Die-namics die and coated with Glossy Accents.
The gingham panel is stamped with a new addition to my collection from Waltzing Mouse.The heart is a Stampin' Up stamp, punched with the SU heart punch and decorated with a Woodware punched house and some tiny hearts from a corner punch that has been sculling in the drawer for many a while.
I made the sentiment on the computer in Fabulous 50's font and mounted it on an extended Spellbinder die-cut.
Phindy's Place -Doubling Up (2 Hearts)

This one has that cute teddy from Indigo Blu once more, simply stamped beside a sentiment from Studio G in SU Crumb Cake ink.
It's mounted on paper punched with a Martha Stewart border punch and embellished with grosgrain ribbon. There's a tutorial on the LIM blog showing how I added the bow onto the flat ribbon on the backing paper, using my bowmaker.
I hope to go to see a little cricket at the Rose Bowl today, hopefully the weather will be kind.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone and do join in with our Clean and Simple challenge at "Less is More", we'd love to see your work.
Creative Card Crew - Animal Antics

Circles

When Mandi and I get together to come up with the ideas for our challenges, we are full of enthusiasm for them but sometimes when push comes to shove we find actually coming up with our demo cards quite tricky!
When thinking about this week's cards, I was stumped for a while until I took my inspiration for our circles challenge from this DP which Mandi gave me recently. I love the colour combination.
I cut the circle and surrounded it with the Martha Stewart border punched strip, adapted to fit the curve of the circle. There's a tutorial on the "Less is more" blog...plus details of how I made the card.

Here is another variation on the same theme! Same DP, same border punch, same colours, but a little stamping instead of rolled flowers and the sentiment is computer generated instead of stamped.
I think the colours are really calming.
Both contain circles and both are for the "Less is More" Clean and Simple challenge this week.
DO come and join us!

Something with Legs

Isn't this Ted just the best!

He comes from Indigo Blu and reminds me of a teddy which sits in my conservatory and was given to me many years ago by one of my pupils at the end of a school year (I taught tiddlers don't forget).

He is for our one layer challenge at "Less is More" which this week asks for "Something with legs". It's implicit that he has them although they can't be seen.

He was stamped and masked to add the manuscript 'behind' him. The sentiment is from the Wild Rose Studio.
Alphabet Challenge - Just one Word

More stamps here from Indigo Blu.

My favourite masking technique was used to sponge the central panel in blue, amethyst and green and the  tree was stamped in Early Espresso both before and after the mask was removed. I chose the position for the sentiment by stamping it onto acetate and moving it around the card until I was happy with the chosen spot. then using my lego corner to guide my stamp into place. The legs are on the birds in this one!

Here's a final quickie with legs... this time it's a table from Stampin Up's Scene in a Garden, but the the bird has legs too I guess.

Nuff said!

Shades of Blue

I just love making this kind of card!

It's for our Colour challenge at "Less is More" this week.

I began by stamping the 'Joie'  and the flourish  from Stampin' Up in Versamark and heat embossing using clear embossing powder. I sponged over much of the card with Bashful Blue ink, then stamped the splodges also using Versamark and embossed once more with clear embossing powder. The butterflies were stamped with Stormy Sky  Distress ink and also embossed. I stamped the small text stamp randomly across the card. I had a range of blue Distress inks and sponged around the embossed images with various shades, before cutting the card into three equal rectangles and inking the edges with some of the darker blue.

There's something about a triptych which I find most satisfying.

The sentiment is from Penny Black and both it and the image are mounted on two shades of blue card and popped on dimensional pads to add definition.

Less is More Sketch

There's just something about chickens!

For our sketch challenge at "Less is More" this week, I have chosen to make a primitive style card using Quickcutz dies, Coredinations card and a Stampin' Up sentiment. I think this chicken looks kinda funky.

I don't know about anyone else, but when I make cards using tiny die-cut pieces I invariably lose a vital part sometime in the process, which either seems to be lost forever or turns up in the most unlikely of places. When doing this project, one of the chicken's bodies went walkabout (without its legs). In the end I had to make another only to find the original a little later in my clear sentiments drawer. I always used to pop the 'bits' into a little box I had made, to try to keep them together, but that too seems to have gone walkabout!

The ribbon was rescued from a gift from my daughter-in-law and flattened using my hair straighteners.

Here are another couple of chickens who reside in my kitchen. The one which is hanging up was bought in the USA, when we went back and stayed with our ex-neighbours. We visited their beach house and there just happened to be a Craft Fair taking place that weekend... what luck.

This one looking out of my kitchen window, came from the Isle of Wight. I saw her in a shop when I was over with Mandi and just couldn't resist her. She was only £2.99, I thought that was a real bargain. She reminds me of the set of 3 fabulous Penny Black chicken stamps which Mandi gave me on this visit too!


We went to see Hampshire play Gloucestershire in a T20 cricket match last night at the Rose Bowl. Not only were we fortunate enough to see a game... the rain was threatening all evening, (it only stopped play briefly a couple of times), but Hampshire also managed to win the game.

Another Saturday... so soon!

Saturdays seem to come around so quickly!
Yesterday we spent most of the day sitting in the rain, hoping to see a day's Test Match cricket at the Rose Bowl.
We had brilliant seats, just a the base of the staircase to the England dressing room, but sadly saw only about 2 hours play...a quite expensive two hours at that.
Equipped with two large umbrellas and dressed in many layers including a down jacket and a poncho we didn't really get too wet or cold (so much for flaming June) but were disappointed not to see too much play.

However, it's now Saturday once more and time for "Less is More". It seems like the phenomenon of its popularity continues with just under 300 entries again last week and there were some superb cards too.

This week our theme is MONOGRAM. 

I love making wedding cards with the couple's initials intertwined. I hand embossed them on my daughter's wedding stationery. You can see the embossing here if you zoom in.
This was how I got into card making in the first place and her stationery was my very first effort.
The card above is for my granddaughter Daisy, details are on the LIM blog.

This is another card for Daisy. For this one I printed a large letter D on the computer and cut it out to use the remainder as a mask in which to stamp my flowers. I used Baja Breeze and Almost Amethyst

This is my card for my son and daughter-in-law's anniversary which is fast approaching. They were married in his Cambridge college chapel (Gonville and Caius) and what a wonderful day that was. You can see the stationery I made for them here . The main feature of their invitations was the monogram of their initials.
I just realised that their last year's anniversary card also had their monogram on you can see it here.

There must be heaps of ways of utilising a monogram so do have a go and come and join us!

Less is More - Monochrome Colour Challenge

For this week's challenge I decided to do an interpretation of my blog background as the subject for my card.
The stamp, as many of you will recognise is the freebie from Craft Stamper magazine,which is so redolent of the animated one I added to my blog from Blogamation.
The side panel was masked and sponged using Stampin' Up Sahara Sand ink before stamping with a bunch of stamps similar to the designs on my background. A script one from French Foliage, a flourish from Joie and a Music manuscript stamp I've had for yonks. I embossed some of the white ink with clear embossing powder and also sponged a little darker ink in places to add interest. Its all very random and is a technique I really enjoy doing.
The chandelier stamp itself plus the sentiment were stamped with Timber brown Stazon to ensure good coverage over the embossing.
DO join in the fun at "Less is More"... we had an amazing 325 entries last week, Mandi and I can scarcely believe the phenomenal support we're receiving for our challenge. If you haven't joined in as yet, maybe this week is the time to give it a try.
OLW 56 - Father's Day