One Layer again at "Less is More"

I've made a similar card to this before but it wasn't a one layer card. I find it quite interesting to see if I can translate one version into another. You can see the previous version here. Details of how I made this are on the LIM blog.

This little card uses a script stamp from Choclolate Baroque and a little bird image from Local King stamps

The colour was added directly with a Tumbled Glass Distress Ink pad over the masked bird.

Neutral shades here again with lots of overstamping.

Woodgrain from Impression Obsession, French Script from Stampin' Up and flowers from Artemio.

Yesterday I simply turned to pick something up from the floor in my craft room and put my back out. I had surgery years ago to have a disc removed and consequently have a weakness there, but haven't had any problems for quite some years. 

It's pretty painful moving around at the moment, I hope that generally taking it easy and a good night's sleep may give it a chance to straighten out a little.






Lainey, one of our LIMettes has honoured me with this award and I feel really flattered. Sadly I am pressed for time to pass it on the the 15 other bloggers which I should do, but if you have not yet received this award then do please take it with my best wishes.
Like Mandi, a fellow recipient, I thought however, that I would share 7 things about myself which  are also in the terms of the award.

1. My son is a doctor (twice over... PhD and medical) and obviously gets his brains from me!
2. I have cut my husband's hair for the past 38 years (think of the money we've saved!)
3. I have recently lost 37lbs in weight (and still going)
4. I passed my driving test when I was a student and lessons were cheaper, on the first attempt after 6 lessons with no driving in between them.
5. I haven't seen my natural hair colour for 20 years.
6. I love pearls.
7. I have the most adorable grandchildren called Daisy and Sebastian.

Thanks Lainey!

More bleaching

Since revisiting the bleaching technique as promoted in Blockheads Paper Arts latest challenge, I have been doing lots of experiments with various card and papers. Some don't have a pleasant effect with bleach... a  muddy, rusty shade emerges from several colours of deep pigmented card stock, but this deep green produced a pleasant gold colour.
I highlighted it with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in Clear Star and coloured the leaves with a green version. The frame was stamped with a Blockheads background stamp and embossed with Distress Embossing Powder in Pumice Stone. I rubbed the embossing with a little pearl embossing wax. (I'm not sure if that's what the stuff I used is called, but it's a creamy, pearly stuff that I rubbed on with my finger).
The sentiment is from Unity stamps.

Here are another couple of my bleachy experiments.
This one was coloured with Inktense Pencils after bleaching and the embossing is from Cuttlebug.

I added Glossy Accents over the coloured parts in this one and stamped the background with a retired Stampin' Up background stamp.
It was fun!

OLW... Black, Cream and bling!

Such a simple card, a Paper Mill ivory, hammered card base, stamped with an Artemio stylised flower, with black gems on each seed head. The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse and there's just a trace of Glamour Dust sprinkled along the stems.
If I don't get this posted PDQ it'll be time for the next OLW!
I'd lost another 2lbs at weigh in last night... quelle relief!
My husband is now only 1lb away from his target and has lost a total of 5 and a half stones. I've got a bit of catching up to do!
OLW 81 Black, Cream  and bling.

In Neutral at "Less is More"

I'm staggered at how quickly the weeks seem to roll by. It's  March already and time for another colour challenge at "Less is More". This time around we chose NEUTRALS which range from off white to black with all the shades of beige, brown and grey in between.

We are sponsored this month by WOW Embossing Powders and the the lucky winner will receive a caddy containing 12 different powders. What a fab prize!

A few weeks ago I was inspired by one of our LIMettes Birgit, to buy this set of stamps Available at Blockheads which is from an A4 sheet of floral images. It has tulips, poppies and I think calendulas and is simply stunning.

This time I decided to use a darker background and to use bleach to colour or rather take colour from the images. To add a little depth, once the image was dry, I did use an Inktense pencil from Derwent, which I blended with a water brush. The frame, made from a piece of packaging was cut with a Nestie rectangle, extending the length of the aperture slightly, to accommodate the size of the image. The whole thing was mounted on a Sahara Sand card base.

Here are another couple of bleached images, this time using black embossing powder on black paper. I tried using black card but the bleach made little difference. I had such fun doing these. This stamp is really rather large and makes leaving any white space somewhat problematic, but by using only plain paper and cardstock, with no patterned paper the simple style is maintained.

Different effects can be achieved by the amount of bleach and the areas of the stamp which are concentrated upon. I really love the colour that this one turned out... a perfect match for the SU Sahara Sand card.
I inked the dry embossed panel with a little Sahara Sand and Black Soot inks to emulate the shading on the flowers.
The tag is from Cuttlebug and the sentiment from Wild Rose Studios.

This simple little number includes some home made washi tape. I stuck a sheet of double sided adhesive paper onto a sheet of tissue paper and then stamped the tissue using various wheels on my Rollagraph  handle. I then sliced it into strips and simply peeled back the backing paper to apply it to the card, tearing the end rather than cutting it. The birds on a wire punch is from Martha Stewart... isn't it cute! The sentiment is from Stampin' Up.






My husband got a new toy on Thursday... also a neutral colour, we took it for a drive to our daughter's yesterday, there are quite a few things to master on it as they have updated lots of features compared to our last car. It looks quite mean doesn't it!
Our daughter and her family have suddenly decided to come for the weekend, so I've a few beds to prepare this morning and the cot to get down from the loft... busy, busy!

Do join in with our challenge again this week, we love to see so many inspiring contributions.