Less is More # 300 - Celebrations and Festivals

Hello!

It is so good to see you here today.

It's our 300th challenge over at

 

 Less is More today!

So let the celebrations begin.

As it is the 5th Saturday in the month we have a

LUCKY DIP CHALLENGE

And we would like to see CAS cards for

Celebrations / Festivals.

We have a guest designer joining us today as we are on Lucky Dip week and it is the lovely

Julie Beech from Crafted by Jules

Please hop over to her blog to give her some love as she has made a fantastic card for us this week.

I've had a super busy week this week and that means I only have 2 cards to share today.  So let's get on and take a look at them. 

 

1) Christmas Blessings

I'd like to enter this into:
 Sweet Stampin Christmas - Sparkle and shine ( you can really see the sparkle and shine in the second picture).
Crafting By Designs - Get ready for Christmas
Cards In Envy - Purple and Green
Sparkle and Sprinkle Challenge - Anything goes with glitter, embossing powder or flocking

I took the opportunity to make a Christmas card for this challenge as I haven't started making my batch cards yet. This one may end up being one of the batch ones that I make.

 The inkpad used for this card is an old Big and Juicy - Hydrangea.

I also used a Misti.

Ink the border is from Chocolate Baroque decorative edges. It was inked once with the Big n Juicy pad then re-inked in versamark and heat embossed with WOW! clear sparkle embossing powder (I am LOVING that ep!)

The sentiment is from  Chocolate Baroque frosty trees and it was only inked with the Big n Juicy pad - reversing the colour of the ink from the top border.

The tree is also from Chocolate Baroque frosty trees and this was inked and then heat embossed with the WOW powder too.


Add a couple of complementary colour mats to the tree image and attach it to the card and you are done.  This one really does sparkle and looks pretty luxurious too.

2) Congratulations Mr & Mrs

Another celebration is a marriage. 

Cut a panel to fit onto the card blank.  Unscrew the tops of the metallic distress sprays (brushed pewter, tarnished brass and antiqued bronze) and drop some drips of the ink onto the panel. Spritz the ink with water and dry.

Round the corners of the panel and wipe Encore silver ink along the edge. Attach this to the card blank with 3d foam pads.

Stamp the Chloe's Stamps Wedding Cake Stamps Collection sentiment in clear versamark onto a smaller piece of card and heat emboss with Stampendous detail silver embossing powder.  Using the partial die cutting method, shape the two ends of the sentiment panel using a small Sizzix Labels 4 die.

Twist some white cotton and place this under the sentiment panel, which is attached with 3d foam pads.

Finish with 3 pearls.

Please take a look at the fabulous items made by the rest of the design team HERE. Don't forget to visit their personal blogs too because they sometimes have lots of additional inspiration.

 

I do hope you find time to join in our 300th challenge this week.

Thanks for looking

Hugs,

Sharon xx

Less is More 299 - Vellum / Acetate

Hi!

 

Lovely to see you!

Did you have a good week?  I really hope you did and that you are all settled in for a great weekend too.

 

I certainly did have a good week.  I had a couple of really crafty days, did some gardening, started knitting a jumper, watched a few films, went out on our rib and out with friends too. Fab!  That's what happens when you have no visitors for a wee while ;-)

 

So, Saturday, eh?  Must mean a new Less is More challenge.

It's Recipe/Theme week this week and the subject is:

Vellum or Acetate.

So, as usual, here are 3 cards for your inspiration

1) Vellum Flowers

I'd like to pop this one in at Happy Little Stampers October CAS Challenge - embossing on vellum - I used a stylus to emboss.
Die Cut Divas - Embossing
and Craft Rocket Challenges - Happy Birthday

Blend Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin and Ripe Persimmon onto a piece of card, spritz with water and dry with a heat tool.

Cut a panel from the blended card and doodle a bit of stitching on 2 corners using an opaque white inkssential pen. Attach it to the card blank on 3d foam.

Die cut the Wild Rose Studio Woodland Posy out of vellum. Using some pergamano tools add a bit of shading to the flower heads and add veins to the leaves.

Add gems to the centres of the flowers and secure the die cut to the panel with glue under the gems.

Add a tiny bow to the posy.

Cut the Die'Sire sentiment from card left over from making the panel and stick it to the card blank.

2) Let it Snow!

I'd like to pop this one in at Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes Challenge - Anything goes with Dies
and
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - Snow or Snowmen


This was my quick card.

Cut a window in the card blank using the cloud die from First Edition Crafts Weather Dies.

Secure a piece of snowflake acetate from Crafters Companion behind the window and make it a shaker with seed beads, 3d foam tape and a piece of pale blue card.

Cut out the sentiment, made up from words in the Sizzix Thinlets Tim Holtz Alterations Happy Holidays dies (cutting the 'flake' off snowflake) in white glitter cardstock and stick it to the front of the card.

3) Embossed Vellum Flowers

I'd like to enter this into Creative Knockouts Challenge - Embossing

This card took much longer to do as it had masking, colouring and fussy cutting.

The flower stamps, a mixture of Altenew Majestic blooms and a bouquet stamp from Clarity Stamps, were heat embossed onto a piece of vellum with a Personal Impressions opaque white embossing powder, masking the flowers where needed.

The flowers were coloured in on the back of the vellum with coloured pencils, then the panel was fussy cut out.

A hand cut banner was made for the Altenew Majestic blooms sentiment and that was inked up with two colours from the Archival Brilliance Twilight inkpad.





There are some beautiful examples of cards by the rest of the design team using vellum and acetate over on the challenge blog - here. Please do pop over to see them.

Thank you so much for stopping by again today. I do hope that you found something that you liked in this post.

Hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,

Sharon

Less is More #298 - Incy Wincy Spiders / Insects

Hello there,

How are you all today? Good I hope.

Well, I'm finally able to take a breath (aka able to clean the house and catch up on some crafting) because we have no guests for a couple of weeks. Phew! such a busy spell we had, and now I fully intend to completely overdose on craft. Yippee!

 

I also finally got around to customising the widths of my blog posts in this template. Have been wanting to find time to do that all summer. Now I just have to make myself a lovely blog header, and create a better watermark and I'll be much happier.

Anyway, enough of that.  As it is Saturday it means it is time for another

Less is More Clean and Simple Challenge

 

and it is THEME week and our theme is

Incy Wincy Spiders / Insects

 

There is some fantastic inspiration from the rest of the design team on the LIM blog today so I do hope you will pop over for a look.

 

1) Spider wishes

I'd like to pop this card in at
Crafty Cardmakers - Birthday

and Cards Und More #169 - Watercolour


I had great fun creating this one. I got out the distress marker air spritzer, some water, some watercolour paper and had a really good play with it.
Marker colours used on this:
Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Cracked Pistachio, Lucky Clover, Pine Needles.

Stampendous Dandelion Wish, plus the seeds and sentiment were stamped in archival black ink.

Spider stamp is from Studio 49 Wendy Vecci Botanical Art LCS037. Again stamped in archival black.

The panel was backed with mirri card.

Black Stickles were added as a bit of highlight sparkle.

2) Caught a bug!

I'd like to pop this one in at

Addicted to Stamps - Embossing wet or dry

Incy Wincy Designs - All that Glitters

and Sparkle & Sprinkle - Anything goes with loose glitter/embossing powder and /or flocking

 

 

I found a really old stamp set from KARS which I don't think I have ever used despite owning it for 6 plus years! But when I spotted the fly I knew exactly what I was going to do with it!

The KARS fly was stamped randomly onto the card blank with archival black ink.

The flies were coloured in with Distress Markers in Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean, Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans and Blueprint sketch (nearly had a complete disaster with that last pen as when I touched the brush tip to the card an enormous blob of ink came out! There is something very wrong with that pen.)

Once coloured, the wings were re-coloured with a versamark clear embossing pen and then heat embossed with WOW! clear sparkle embossing glitter (WS15R).

The eyes were also coloured with the embossing pen and a Papermania clear embossing powder was added to them.

The sentiment is from another very old set of stamps See-D's Cute as a Bug #50043. It was stamped in Adirondack denim pigment ink and added to the base card with 3d foam pads.

 

3) Hi Incy Wincy!

Here is my quickie card.

I searched high and low for a cute-ish little spider to make this card but there was not a thing in my stash. So out came the pens and I hand drew this card!

I used a black sharpie pen to draw the spider, web and speech bubble.

The background behind the spider was coloured in with promarkers in Orange and Mandarin to get a shade as close to the card blank as possible.

Then the black mat and the little image was added to the orange card blank with 3d foam pads.

Job done!

 

 

Thanks so much for looking and I can't wait to see what you all come up with on this theme.

 

Do come back again soon.

 

Hugs,

Sharon xx

Less is More 297 - One Layer - Dreams

Hello there

Great to see you here again.

 

Time to introduce a new challenge over at

Less is More.

 

It's ONE LAYER WEEK

 

and the theme is

DREAMS

 

Here are my DT cards

1) If you can dream it...

I recently did one of those facebook things - this one was to tell you your life quote (or something similar) and it came up with the sentiment I used on this card because I loved it.

 

I'd like to pop this in at CASology - Cue Card: Support

Addicted to Stamps and More #214 - Clean and Simple

The sentiment is computer printed onto the card blank using Smarty Pants BTN font.

The Indigo Blu Poppy Meadow stamp was inked in Archival black, as was the Lavinia Stamps little fairy and they were stamped into place.

A Clarity Stamps moon mask was stuck to the card blank. Then the background was created using torn paper for the hills inked in hickory smoke distress ink.

A wink of stella was added to the fairy wings.

2. Reach for the Stars

I wanted to do a full colour ombré background on a card blank and that is how this was born.

I'd like to pop this in at Try it on Tuesday - Sun, Moon, Stars

The ombré background was created with tumbled glass, broken china, mermaid lagoon, faded jeans and chipped sapphire distress inks.

Once completely dry, the Creative Expressions Oasis 1113E and the Penny Black For The Stars  wooden stamps were inked with clear versamark and heat embossed with Stampendous detail silver embossing powder.

The faux bleaching technique of lifting colour with water was used on some areas of the image, and these were re-coloured with distress markers.

A little stardust stickles was added to the butterfly

3) Dream, Love, Cherish

Here's my usual 'it doesn't look like it is a one layer card' that I love to do for our one layer week challenges.

I'd like to pop this one in at
The Mod Squad - for the birds
 

All the stamps used on this card come from Clarity Stamps.

Make a mask of the birds - I used a post-it note, then ink them in archival ink onto the card blank.

Mask the birds and also mask the card blank so that a rectangle area can be seen in the centre. Blend distress inks into the rectangle ( squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, wild honey, spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon).

Let the inked area dry completely.

Remove the mask so that the whole card blank shows...but keep the bird masks in place. Stamp the words and perch with clear versamark and heat emboss with Stampendous detail gold embossing powder.

Remove the bird masks.

4) I'm dreaming of........

 

.......a white Christmas

 

Well... someone had to make a card for that kind of dreaming didn't they?

 

I'd like to pop this in at 4 Crafty Chicks #319 - Die Cuts

Crafty Gals Corner - Die cuts/punches

 

I thought this would be my quickie card but it turned out a very fiddly job in the end!

The poinsettia die from the Sizzix thinlets Tim Holtz Mixed Media Christmas was die cut into the card blank, and then die cut again from white glitter cardstock.

Using tape to hold everything together, the glitter pieced were inserted back into the holes in the card blank (hence it being fiddly!).

The sentiment stamps are from Clarity Stamps and were heat embossed with opaque white embossing powder.

Please take a look at the dreamy makes the rest of the design team have created.

 

Thanks for popping by.

Hope to see you again soon

 

Hugs,

Sharon xx

Less is More #296 - Turquoise & Lilac

Hello there!

 

Wow! It's 1st October so I have to wish you all a

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

 

It's lovely to be able to post a card or two on this special day for us cardmakers.

 

Today we have a colour challenge for you over at

Less is More

and we'd like to see
 

Turquoise & Lilac

 

Such a lovely soft colour combination. I can't wait to see what you make with it.

 

As it is October it means that we have a new sponsor for the month

Dies to Die for

Please do take a look at the store

 

So today I have 3 cards....and an exploding box to share.

Oh boy! I had so much trouble photographing my cards this week. They all looked bright green rather than turquoise, so I messed with the camera settings and now I'm afraid some of these photos make them look more pale blue than anything else, and others are green-ish. Never mind!

1. Holly Christmas

I just had to play with my new Tim Holtz dies and distress crayons that finally turned up this week. It's a good job they didn't turn up when I had all those guests here because all I would have wanted to do was play with the new goodies! I really am in love with these dies...you may see them a few times in the run-up to Christmas.

 

I'd like to pop this one in at

Sweet Stampin' Christmas - Christmas Die Cuts

Addicted to Stamps and More - Holidays

Sparkle n Sprinkle challenge - anything goes with loose glitter, embossing powder and/or flocking

 

The die is a Sizzix Thinlets Tim Holtz die called Mixed Media Christmas. It was cut into a white panel and the edges of some of the leaves & branches had crystal glamour dust added to them. You can't beat the old glamour dust for sparkle, eh?

That panel was mounted with 3d foam pads onto another panel that had smudged distress crayons on it and the two panels were adhered to the card base.

The sentiment is a Marianne Collectables COL1325 and it was inked in archival brilliance peacock.

Here is a close-up to show the glamour dust.

2. Banner Thanks

Here is my real quickie card.

I made this one specifically with the Atlantic Hearts Sketch challenge in mind as it uses their super sketch.

Swipe distress inks onto white linen card and spray them with a distress sprayer, mopping the splotches as they dry. Cover with microglaze to prevent any further water damage.

The sentiment is from Unico All Occassions Sentiments 6. It was inked with distress ink on a separate piece of linen card and coloured in with distress marker.

The 3 dots at the bottom were created from the waste of the banners by using a hole punch.

3. Lilac Bling

I was making an exploding box keepsake for the first birthday of some twins that we know (photos below) so I had a piece of lilac glitter card left over and just had to use it for one of my DT makes.

 

TIP: It is always difficult to stick things onto glitter card and keep them stuck, isn't it? So, if you want to do an image shape (any shape) and mount it onto glitter card, do what I did. I cut a smaller circle out of a glitter card panel and then mounted the panel onto a card base. Once the image was finished, I stuck it to the aperture in the glittercard so it was glued directly onto the card base. Simples!

 

I'd like to pop this one in at

and Incy Wincy Designs - Things that fly

A Lawn Fawn large stitched circles was used to die cut the white linen card, and a smaller one created that aperture in the glittercard for ease of sticking.

Unico Stamps Natures Treasures were stamped in Archival Brilliance Peacock and the infill was made with a distress marker.

The bird and sentiment come from Craft Asylum's Home Sweet Home set and they were stamped in Archival Brilliance Twighlight

 

 

Please remember to take a look at what the design team have created for your inspiration over at the LIM blog HERE.

4. Exploding Box

 

Okay, on to the twins' exploding box. Not part of my LIM DT makes...but I wanted to share it with you.

 

I figured that as the twins are one boy and one girl they would get lots of pink and blue cards. So, I thought that lilac would be a good choice....after all if you mix pink and blue and add a little white you would get lilac, wouldn't you?

 

I'd like to pop this in at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

 

Here is the box:

 

Thank you so much for looking.

Have a wonderful week - whatever you are up to.

Hugs,

Sharon xx