#cardforukraine

I think that every one of us is appalled and saddened by the devastating invasion of Ukraine by the tyrant Putin. The card making community is showing its support for the  by making cards in the colours of Ukraine's flag. 

For my card I used an old pair of world map dies, whose origin I don't really recall, but I have had them for many years and scarcely used them. I simply printed the colours of Ukraine's flag onto some card for my die cut and made a sentiment to fit the circumference of the die-cuts using Word Art in Word on my computer.

The gals over at Color Hues Challenge quickly added these colours to their current challenge, so I'm delighted to be able to share my card with them!

I'd like to join in with their other challenge too which is green and gold so I'll be working on that today.

Let's all hope that sanity will prevail and this dreadful crisis will be peacefully resolved and SOON! 

 

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. 

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.

Citrus

It's colour week again at Less is More and this time we are joined by our new Designers with the emphasis  on Citrus... not necessarily the fruit, just the colours.

I have had fun with my husband's shaving foam this week... I  have seen the technique used SO many times but never actually tried it for myself.  I intended using Alcohol Inks, but absent mindedly used Distress Inks instead, but it seemed to work well... so the alcohol inks will have to wait for another day. I merely squirted a bunch of foam onto my craft mat, dropped a few drops of Twisted Citron and Squeezed Lemonade inks onto it, swirled it around a bit and took prints from it, scraping the excess foam off after a few moments.

One thing I discovered was that my ATG gun didn't want to release the adhesive onto the treated card and so I had to use Glossy Accents to adhere the coloured card to the cardbase. I over stamped with a silhouette flower from Unity and clear embossed it as it didn't seem to be drying readily. I added a sentiment using a freebie stamp from a magazine.
This is for Just us Girls - Flowers

Here is a little more of the background paper used for a Shaker card. The sentiment and the dies are from Wplus9.

I love this delicate butterfly from Concord & 9th,  it's cut from some faux mother of pearl card and accompanied by a sentiment from Avery Elle.

This is a simple card with images from Clearly Besotted and a punched border from Martha Stewart.

Another piece of smooshed card here which I used for the die cuts from Cuttlebug (thanks) and All Occasion Dies (the butterflies) The embossing is from a Sizzix folder.

Next week I shall be in Bath looking after my grandchildren for the week whilst my daughter is off "team building" with her company. I'm not sure of the resort this time but there's likely to be lots of skiing and related activities!
She is having a loft conversion at the moment and I think she has chosen the right week to be away... when the ceiling comes down and the stairs are installed!
What fun!

Blue and Green

For our colour challenge at "Less is More this week", we have chosen blue and green.

This week has been a busy one but I just about managed to get a few cards made.

Here is a baby card using some elephants from a Martha Stewart punch. I haven't used a punch for a long time but this one is a really sweet little image. I cut a panel for the front of the card cutting out the three squares and then embossing it with a Stampin' Up folder.  This one always reminds me of a baby blanket.  The welcome is from Paper Smooches and is triple layered.

This delicate wreath is from Penny Black, stamped in Green and clear embossed, with the flowers coloured with a Promarker. A few iridescent, mixed sequins were randomly added around the circle. The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley.

Here's a little Hobby Art stamp coloured with alcohol pens and twinkled with Glamour Dust.The sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers. This is for Just Us Girls ~Merry~ challenge.

I have had quite a few commission cards to do this week and also with various trips out looking for Christmas presents, the time has just flown. However I did have time to make a card for my grandson. Apparently he chose a tree decoration from the Christmas market in Bath of a polar bear with antlers, so I thought I'd make a card for him of something similar!

I just bought this Hobby Art stamp of a strolling bear and looked for some antlers on the web. Having found these, I reduced the size, and printed them and then stamped the bear so that he was 'wearing' them. I think he looks quite cool. The name is from Memory Box letters and the Ho Ho Ho is from a pack of Dovecrafts wooden sentiments.

The background EF is from Sheena Douglass and the snowflakes from All Occasion Dies.

It's for the SNOWFLAKES challenge at CASual Fridays

Colour challenge time!

At "Less is More" this week the colour challenge is Fire!

I've had some fun with Inka Gold Pastes and Distress Inks.

I seem to be on a bit of a die cutting trip this week. Here I used a Memory Box bauble with a Walter and Winnie Sentiment. This is also for the challenge at CASual Fridays... metallic and Merry Monday Red and gold Christmas card

This is my new Winnie and Walter 'Love' word with part of a Penny Black 'thank you' and a little rabbit from Impression Obsession.

I shall be linking this to the Addicted to Stamps  Clean and Simple challenge!

Here is another in similar vein with another Winnie and Walter word plus a pair of  All Occasions butterfly dies. The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug.

I had a few other rather abortive attempts at fiery coloured cards, but the photography of them is a little worse than the cards themselves!

More die cutting here this time with leaves from Impression Obsession and a Memory Box tree.

It's also for the Fall Challenge at Dies R Us

After being away last week, it's taking me some time to catch up on last week's commenting... but I'll get there.

Jewel Colours

I recently decided it was time to try some Inka Gold pastes and so here are a few cards made by using them combined with Distress Inks.

The challenge at "Less is More" this week is to use Jewel colours and as one colour is called Amethyst and another Aquamarine I thought it a good idea to use these for the challenge!

Here I used the Aquamarine and a little Old Silver Inka Gold pastes, simply used from a craft mat after being spritzed with water and a print taken.

This one uses the Amethyst and Old Silver; they have a lovely sheen if buffed with a paper towel when dry.

For this I added some Festive Berries Distress Ink mixed with the Old Silver on a craft mat and after spritzing with water, took a print. When dry, I stamped the Penny Black poppy image with dye ink and then paper pieced the flower onto the stem. The octagon die cut was chopped up to give a patchwork effect and the pieces mounted onto dimensional pads. The LOTV sentiment was attached with twine and an eyelet.

Why not join us!

Berry Colours

The first week of the month is always the time for a colour challenge at "Less is more". 

Here I combined a couple of my favourite techniques, emboss resist and inlaid dies.

The stamp is from the Rubber Stamp Gallery, clear embossed and inked with a variety of berry shade inks, including Rich Razzleberry, Aged Mahogany, Festive Berries, Fired Brick and Ripe Persimmon. A little over-stamping with the teazel stamp and some grunge dots completed the effect.

The dies are from MFT (border) and Poppy (thank you).

I don't know if you can see the layered inlaid letters a little better here!

It's always fun to do!

Red White and Blue

We couldn't let this date go by with a little tribute to our friends across the pond, so the colour choice at Less is More this week is red, white and blue.

Here I used a little cruise ship die cut from Quickutz... I'm on Cunard's Queen Victoria in the Med at the moment celebrating a couple of very large birthdays, so I couldn't resist this image!

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches and Tattered Lace, each word layered from several diecuts of card.

This is a simple die cut card using a background layer for the butterflies made from sploshes of Aqua Tint inks, spritzed with water and then sprayed with a little Spray and Sparkle which gives a fabulous sheen!

The butterflies are from Memory Box. The stitched panel is from an MFT die.

I do apologise for not visiting so many of you but I won't be using wifi too much aboard ship!

Colour Challenge at LIM

The colour choice at Less is More this week is 

SUNSET

What a lot of colours that entails!

I have done a couple of cards for this challenge. The immediate colours that came to my mind were red-orange-yellow tones, but there are so many other colours which could be included.

I began by inking a strip of card with Distress inks, using sponge daubers, blending the overlap of colours. Following this I merely stamped the Indigo Blu image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, highlighting some of the flowers with a Sakura, Clear Star, gel pen. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.
This is also for Addicted to Stamps Make your Mark Challenge

Here I dropped shades of red and yellow Aqua Tints onto a piece of card and spritzed with water to blend and spread the colour. When dry I used it as a backdrop for the die-cut front panel and the lower layer of the Memory Box butterflies. The sentiment which I believe is from a Spellbinders die, was also cut from the inked card.
This fits the challenge of Butterflies at ATCAS, so I'll enter it there too.

We sang at the Royal Albert Hall this week with my choir the Portsmouth Choral Union. It was a terrific concert, conducted by our previous conductor together with his two other choirs, the Chichester Singers and  Guildford Choral Society... over 500 voices... we made quite a sound!  It was Belioz Te Deum...  it's quite a sing!

As you may see there were hundreds of singers... if you look at the organist (our choir's conductor) and move along that row to the right, I am the second person from the organist in that row, my husband is the fourth to the left of the organist!

A colour challenge!

This week at "Less is More" the challenge is to use two colours opposite to each other on a colour wheel.

My first thought was of Christmas colours...red and green. You can see them on this little colour wheel.

I used a slightly darker shade of green and inked the whole of this Tim Holtz stamp with it, before removing the ink from the berries with a brush and adding the red with a marker. After stamping I added a little darker red to the berries with a Copic pen,  to add dimension and make them a little more definitive. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Here I went with blue and gold... gorgeous sky and golden sand. It's an image from the Wax Fruit Company coloured with alcohol pens. The sea has a little Glamour Dust added for extra sparkle.

The 'happy' is from a Clearly Besotted die and the 'birthday' from a Mama Elephant stamp.

Here's another using the Tim Holtz holly stamp with a little tag added for a Memory Box sentiment. This time it's mounted on a SSS stitched square.

A couple of days ago we went to see Way Upstream by Alan Ayckbourn at the Chichester Festival theatre. I've seen some amazing productions there but this was something else. The stage was a river scene with real trees and a real 21 foot houseboat, which moved around the water in the most ingenious way and several people dived into the 'river' which was about 3 feet deep! Quite astonishing, and exceedingly clever as well as being a fine play!  I've never seen a set quite like it in a theatre. I wanted to take a picture of it but wasn't sure if I was allowed!

If anyone lives within striking distance of Chichester I can thoroughly recommend it!

Predominantly black

Happy Easter everyone!

This is a strange challenge at Less is More this week. It's a colour challenge and it's predominantly black. Should be fun to see what emerges.

This one has a Memory Box cat and Couture Creations embossing folder, with a Lili of the Valley tag.

A simple die cut card using newsprint on black 'whitespace'!

The tree is from Memory Box, the bunny from Clearly Besotted (with whiskers cut from a Simon Says Stamp bare tree branch), 'Love' from Sizzix and the 'moon' from a Spellbinders circle. I really don't know what the bobtail die is but I thought it was perfect.

This is a very simple one... Lil Inkers stitched dies, framing a Memory Box group of deer and a Spellbinder tag.

More die cutting, this time Memory box for the keyboard, Spellbinders Tag and ovals, SSS Stitched rectangle with a Penny Black Sentiment.

Yellow and Green

I really enjoy making little scenes with these tiny Art Impression stamps. The embossing folder is Tied Together from Couture Creations, the sentiment from Penny Black and the panels are cut with Dienamics pierced dies.

This stamp from Stamplorations was coloured with Mirage Pens and cut with a square die, allowing some of the tulips to protrude outside the square.

The sentiment is from Penny Black.

More tulips here, this time from Stampin' Up. The frame was coloured using the Bokeh technique and is quite fun to do. These flowers were coloured with watercolour pencils and blended with a water brush. 

I'm singing in a concert at Portsmouth Cathedral this evening. Finzi, Faure and Elgar...lovely!

Colour challenge

We have a colour challenge at "Less is More" this week and it's 

Yellow and Green.

Here I was attempting to colour a stamp to make it look like a glass vase. I used Distress Inks and a little Copic marker. There is a touch of yellow in the centre of the daisies. The daisy stamp was stamped, masked and stamped again and made to look as though they are actually inside the vase!

Another daisy digi here, it says DSB on the file but I can't think what that stands for. Any ideas? Once more coloured with Copics and a sprinkling of Glamour Dust!.

A crocus digi from Fred She Said, coloured with Copics. and a computer generated sentiment.

This actually looks orange, but it is in fact yellow!

White on White Christmas

The challenge at Less is More this week is for a white on white Christmas card. 

What fun!

Here are more of my dies on their first outing! Both are Memory Box.

Each is lightly twinkled and mounted on a background embossed with Random Dots from Cuttlebug.
I'm entering this one for the Keep It Simple Challenge of All is White

Details of these next two are on the Less is More Blog!

I love these little Chickadees. The legs are so unbelievably long and so darn cute!

Have a great weekend and do join in the challenge at Less is More!