Less is More #333 - Personalise it

Hello there my friends.

Hope you'll excuse any brevity today but it's a busy weekend with loads of house guests and I apologise for the lack of photo staging on some of these photographs but I made the cards in April before I started staging photos and the cards were sent out to the recipients ages ago.

Anyway, Less is More is on our theme week and here is our cue card

Our fabulous Guest Designer is the talented Lucie from LucieG Cards who was our May winner. Please pop over to see her gorgeous card and leave her some of your wonderful comments.

Also, the design team have some fabulous inspiration on the challenge blog HERE and no doubt they will also have a few surprises on their personal blogs too.

Right to my cards. Even though it is almost Father's day in the UK, all my cards are for females!

1) Best Sister

These flowers look so feminine in pinks - I love them.

Here I've used the outer part of a die cut rectangle to make a frame for the stamping. The flowers were masked to add a little bit of inky blending around the flowers.

This one is for:
Addicted to Stamps Challenge #150 - Flowers
City Crafter Challenge #366 - Frame it
Fashionable Stamping #124 - make it feminine
Through the Purple Haze #127 - Pink

STAMPS: AlteNew Garden Treasure stamp set
DIE: MFT Inside out stitch rectangles
INKS: Versacolor 33 pink, Distress inks in spun sugar, worn lipstick, tumbled glass, shabby shutters and peeled paint, Memento Ink in tuxedo black
OTHER: White linen card, 3D foam pads,

2, 3 and 4) Extra Special

This is a group of cards that I sent out to people as a 'just because I miss you'. Again, simple stamping and a die cut rectangle is all that was needed but I think they look rather elegant.

 

This orange one is for
Creative Knockouts Challenge #198 - Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination #130 - Anything Goes

This purple one is for
Creative Moments #120 - Anything Goes (with option of flag day - which I didn't do)
Crafty Addicts #37 - Anything goes with the option of using die cuts

 

These ones are for:

Addicted to Stamps and More #246 - Anything Goes

Stampotique Designers Challenge SDC275 - Flowers

 

 

STAMPS: AlteNew Extra Special stamp set
DIE: MFT Inside out stitch rectangles
INKS: Distress inks in spun sugar, worn lipstick, tumbled glass, shabby shutters, peeled paint, squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, shaded violet and wilted violet. Memento Ink in tuxedo black
OTHER: White linen card, 3D foam pads, star dust Stickles.

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That's it from me for this week.

Thank you so much for popping by. Hope you will get the chance to join us this week.

See you again soon!
Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More # 332 - One Layer Card - Sweet Things

Hellooooooo! How are you? Feeling good?  I am.

I love it when summer really arrives and we've been basking in temperatures of over 30 degrees this week in the Algarve. Not that I am one to bake in the sun...oh no! I spend a lot of time indoors or in the shade - but I love to feel the heat on my skin as I move from an inside area to an outside area. It always reminds me of being on holiday to feel that warmth.

Anyway, enough of that, you're here to find out about the latest Less is More challenge aren't you?

It's that fun One Layer Card week and we want to see you featuring sweet things. Gosh - there are so many possibilities with this theme.

Once again I managed 3 cards so let's take a look at them.

1) SWEET AS HONEY

There really is nothing sweeter than honey, is there?  So using that as inspiration this card was made with a bit of stamping, masking and stencilling then adding a tiny bit of glamour dust for some twinkle.

This card is headed for:
Crafting By Design - Black, White and one other colour
Crafty Creations #343 - Anything goes
Create and Makes Challenge Blog #12 - Anything goes with an option of use yellow

STAMPS: Clearly Besotted In Print and Hero Arts Irreverent Birthday Messages
STENCIL: Tim Holtz Collection Layering Stencil Honeycomb
INKS: Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Inks in squeezed lemonade, mustard seed and wild honey
OTHER: Crystal Glamour Dust, Quickie glue pen, White linen card, masking tape

2) SWEET WATER

I think I'm still in that summer mood after our Neapolitan ice cream colours last week. I've created a summer drink card that reminds me of lazy warm days having picnics!

Here I've used a couple of fruit stamps to represent some sweet flavoured water. I do like using a china white pencil to draw onto Kraft card and coupled with some Spectrum Noir pencils you can get some vibrant colours on there too.

I'd like to enter this into:
Always Fun Challenge #9 - Summer Fun
Aud's Sentiments #181 - Summer and + a sentiment
Creative Moments #119 - Anything goes with the option of Birthdays
Seize the Birthday - One Layer Birthday Theme

 

 

STAMPS: Images - Hero Arts Let's Get Fresh, Sentiment - Wow! Just Saying stampset 41
COLOUR: Spectrum Noir pencils and a china white pencil
OTHER: Kraft Card, Versamark clear ink, Wow! Opaque Bright White embossing powder

3) SWEET CUPCAKES

With a theme of 'sweet things' there had to be at least one cupcake didn't there? These are complete with a sugary frosting!

Here (for the first time ever for me, on an OLC) I've used the inlaid die technique with everything held together on the back with masking tape so that it remains a one layer card.  Why? because I made a mess of the original card and I really wanted to use the image.

I've also used a variation of the line-less watercolour technique and applied it to coloured pencils.  I think it works!

With this card I'm heading over to:
Addicted to Stamps and More! #245 - Photo inspiration

Tuesday Throwdown #346 - Sugar High

Mod Squad - Spark It Up

STAMPS:  Design Objectives Cupcakes, Wow! Just sayin' stampset41, Sweet Dixie Big Sentiments
DIE: MFT Inside out stitched rectangles.
INKS: Memento London Fog
OTHER: White linen card, Glamour dust, masking tape, quickie glue pen, WH Smiths coloured pencils

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Well, that's it from me except to say there is lots of inspiration over on the Challenge blog from the rest of the design team, and possible a few extras on their personal blogs too.

Can't wait to see the sweetness you will bring to the challenge so I hope you have time to join us.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Happy Birthday to AAA cards

Well, this is new for me... a mid week post!

This is just to say HUGE congratulations to all the ladies at AAA Card Challenges on reaching their 3rd birthday. 

I just had to find time to join in the celebrations as I was lucky enough to be a guest designer there earlier this year.  So I made this sweet little birthday card.

This is one of those 5 minute cards that I love to make. I used some paper that I had coloured using brushos and die cut the dancing tulips, glued them to the card so their dancing heads were free to move in the breeze, added a satin bow and stamped the sentiment.  I used the offcuts in the die as leaves too.

STAMP: WOW! Just Sayin' stampset41
DIE: Memory Box dancing tulips
BRUSHOS: Cobalt Blue, Turquoise and Ultramarine
OTHER: Linen card, Ribbon, Mermaid Lagoon distress ink

I hope anyone reading this will head over to AAA cards and join in their birthday fun. There are loads of amazing prizes and lots of different ways to win too.

So congrats again ladies - keep up the good work.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #331 - Neapolitan

Hi! Great to see you.  Well, that's another week flown by and we are at the start of another new month - not only that, it's the 6th month in the year so we're almost half way to Christmas again. How on earth did that happen so quickly!!!!

As it is a new month, there is a change of sponsors at Less is More and for the whole of June we are sponsored by

And the owner of Stamplorations, Shery Russ,  is our guest designer this week. Please pop over to see the fabulous card she made for us.

So, the new challenge is a colour challenge and we've picked those lovely strawberry, vanilla and chocolate colours of Neapolitan ice cream. Well, it is the start of summer over here in the northern hemisphere so those are pretty apt colours for this time of year.

 

I managed to make 3 cards again this week.

1) Shake, Shake, Shake

....shake, shake, shake.....shake your booty! (sorry if that song ends up in your head all day!) Those Neapolitan colours also remind me of milkshakes. I didn't have any milkshake stamps so I made a fun little shaker card instead using one of the new stamps that I recently received. This particular stamp was a present from....well, you know who you are, so I made this to say thank you so much! Your generosity is really appreciated.

I simply coloured with promarkers and added a bit of stickles and beads to complete the card. I die cut the 'thanks' twice in chocolate and ivory and offset the two to give the impression of highlights.

I'm going to pop this in at:
Crafty Cardmakers #189 - Floral Profusion (hopefully I'll sneak in at the last minute!)
Inspiration Destination #123 - Anything goes with a twist of a shaker card
Passion for Promarkers #397 - Make a kinetic card
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Going around in Circles

STAMPS: Uniko Background blocks doodle flower
PROMARKERS: Pale Pink, Baby Pink, Cerise, Vanilla
OTHER: Ivory linen cardstock, beads, acetate shaker foam

2) Neapolitan Stripes

Deckchairs! Stripy seaside deckchairs.

Yes, thinking of Neapolitan ice cream reminds me of summers in the UK and stripy deckchairs on the beach. Here I used masking tape and swipes of ink on the base card to give a stripy look that reminds me of those seaside deckchairs.

Then the splatter stencil gives a perfect representation of the splotches of dripped ice cream that always ended up on my dress.

I'm heading over to the following challenges with this one:
Addicted to Stamps and More! #244 - Clean and Simple
Crafty Creations #342 - Anything Goes

STAMPS: Stamplorations Journey
STENCIL: Artplorations Art Splatters
INKS: Versafine vintage sepia, Versacolor 33 pink, Versacolor 56 cinnamon, Versacolor 54 Brown
OTHER: white card, 3d foam

3) Using up the bits - 5 minute make

Finally, I made a super-CAS card that just uses the Neapolitan colours. This is inspired by all the wedding stationary and note cards that I've seen around lately. I used up a couple of the off-cuts from making a 3d picture earlier this week

This card is for:
Fairytale challenge #169 -  Things with wings
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
The Paper Shelter #296 - Make it digital (I made the text paper - please read below)

PAPER: I made it from a letter written by my great grandfather, it was scanned and the colours of the ink were altered using photoshop software.
DIECUT: Cut on the scanNcut
OTHER: Organza ribbon, gems, white linen card, pink smooth card.

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Don't forget to pop over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Thanks for visiting, and I really hope you get the chance to join us.
It'd be really lovely if you pop by again next week too.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #330 - Shimmer

Hello friends! Are all you people in the UK enjoying your long weekend? Hopefully the weather will be kind to you no matter what you have planned and wherever you are in the world.

I've had a hectic week again but today - I'm going to pretend I am on holiday. I'll do some sunbathing, a bit of swimming and tonight we'll go out for a meal and some musical entertainment. I can do with the break as we've been entertaining other people for the past few days.

Anyway, it's Saturday so time for a new Less is More challenge.

I must admit I was a bit stumped this week. I have loads of sparkly things but not much shimmery stuff.

Still managed 3 cards though, so let's take a look at how I handled it.

1) Shimmering background

When I think of the word 'shimmer' I imagine delicate things with a pearlescent or soft sheen, like silk or satin.

So with this first card I took inspiration from the soft sheen textiles and created a shimmering background made by adding a wash of watered down perfect pearls powder to a piece of white linen card stock. I HAD to use one of my new Uniko stamps as I was itching to ink this little beauty up - it being my all-time favourite flower. The beautiful lily was coloured with felt tip pens and fussy cut.

STAMPS: Uniko pure florals: lily
DIE: Tattered Lace
OTHER: Perfect pearls in perfect pearl, water & a paintbrush, Steadler triplus fine liner felt tip pens, white linen card, 3d foam

I'm going to pop that card in at the following challenges:
Crafty Creations #342 - Anything Goes
Creative Moments #118 - Anything Goes
The House That Stamps Built M2417 - Anything Goes
Inspiration Destination #128 - Anything Goes

 

2) Shimmering Faux Mother of Pearl (a twofer!)

Mother of pearl is another thing that I think of when I see that word 'shimmer'.

I watched a couple of YouTube videos on this faux mother of pearl technique to see how it was done. I didn't have any frosted shimmer paint so I had to get creative and out came my pearlescent stencil dimension paste as a substitute on some super smooth glossy white card.   Not a bad substitute really.

I love it when you can use the 'inn-ey' and the 'out-ey' of a die cut (ok, I used my ScanNCut for this but using die cut words would work just as well). So, two cards for one piece of die cut paper. These actually look really shimmery in real life especially on the pearlescent card base.

INKS: Big n Juicy Hyrangea rainbow pad & a brayer
OTHER: Centura Pearl cardstock for card base, Glossy white card, Sweet Poppy pearlescent dimension paste, Tattered Lace sentiments and phrases USB

These ones are for:
The Mod Squad - Birthday Bash
Stampavie and More # 287 - For a boy/man
The Crafty Addicts #36 - Anything Goes/use die cuts
The Crazy Challenge #249 Birthday

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That's it from me this week. Please remember to take a peek at what the rest of the design team have made for more inspiration and I hope you will join us.

Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #329 - Geometric

Hello friends, I hope you are all well.

I had an amazing time in Seville this week - what a glorious, romantic and beautiful city it is! I will definitely be visiting there again. But more about that later.  Let's crack on with the new Less is More challenge .............and our cue card this week is:

Our guest designer this week is Julie from Crafted by Jules and her card is sizzling hot! Please take a minute to visit her and leave her some lovely comments. The design team have come up trumps too - they have really worked their magic. Please try to pop over to the challenge blog to see what they made.

I love geometric looks on cards but have, up to now, not really bought any geometric stamps. Ha! one set even arrived yesterday, so I had to ink some of it up too didn't I?

That means I have 4 cards to share this week!

1) Glazed Triangles

Here I've stamped the triangles and glazed them with a gellyroll glaze pen before doing the ink blending

I'd like to enter this into:
Crafting when we can #144 - Bright and colourful
Fab n Funky Challenges #351 - Create a background
Lost Coast Designs #36 - Use stitching Faux or Real

STAMPS: Altenew Tiny Triangles
DIE: MFT Inside Out Stitched Rectangles. Sizzix Tim Holtz handwritten celebrate
DISTRESS INKS: Shaded Lilac and Picked Raspberry
OTHER: white linen card, plain white card, black card, water spritzer, Sakura Gelly Roll glaze pen, 3d foam.

 

2) Birthday Wishes

Continuing the bright colour mood I am in this week, here's the one I made yesterday with our sponsor's (Unkio) stamps. I added some sparkle to some of the squares with a versamark pen and sparkly clear embossing glitter.

I've made this one for:
Uniko Challenge #41 - Masculine with option of fathers day (Let me know if I've pushed it too far, but well, men are in touch with their feminine sides now so I think the colours are okay - hope you do too!)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - A bit of sparkle
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

 

STAMPS: Uniko Background builders squared and pure florals cosmos (the sentiment)
INKS: Big and Juicy soothing sunset, Versamark clear
EMBOSSING POWDERS: WOW! Opaque bright white and WOW! clear sparkle embossing glitter
OTHER: White Card, Black Card, Versamark pen, 3d foam

3) A really fast OLC

A 5 minute simply stencil and heat embossed card.

This one is for:
Aud Sentiments #180 - Anything goes with a sentiment
Color Throwdown ctd#443 - Colour Challenge

Sieze the Birthday Challenge - Birthday with optional topping of animals (didn't do the option)

STAMPS: Altenew Halftone Hello
STENCIL: ClarityStamps
DISTRESS INKS: squeezed lemonade, twisted citron, cracked pistachio
OTHER: Versamark clear ink, gold embossing powder, white hammered card.

4) Greyscale Hexagons

This card can be made from any nested hexagon dies, but I used my ScanNcut (just for speed).

I'm popping this one in at:
Incy Wincy Designs (15May - 4June) - Black and White plus one other colour (hopefully this qualifies as the DT made cards that include the shades of grey with the black and white)
Through the Purple Haze #125 - Anything Goes

STAMPS: Uniko Flower Power 2
INKS: Adirondack Red Pepper
PROMARKERS: Ice Grey 1, 3, 5 & Black
OTHER: White Linen Card Stock, 3d foam pads

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Before I go it'd be rude not to share a few pictures that I took of Seville. - I'll keep them small sized.

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Thanks for coming along to visit today.
Hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More # 328 - Spots and Stripes

Hello there! How've you been this past week? Feeling good?  I hope so.

We've had a bit of rain in the Algarve so I made the most of it and holed myself up in my craft room spending the time creating cutting files, text files, and learning the settings I need for my ScanNcut.  I've had it since Christmas and have used it a little bit each week but I've never had any solid time to dedicate to it until now. It has been bliss!

Anyway, you're here for the next Less is More challenge, aren't you?  The cue card this week is:

 One layer week again! My those weeks seem to come around so fast.

This week we are joined by our March winner as our guest designer and that is the talented Sue from Sue's Card Craft. Her card is beautiful so please pop over to see her to leave her some love.

I have 3 really quick and easy cards to share with you.

1) Celebrate Your Day

Here's a 5 minute card that uses a little bit of masking for the stripes and the bokeh technique for the spots. I love how the bokeh technique gives the illusion of depth.

STAMPS: Circles: Happy Little Stampers Mix Mash. Sentiment: Papertrey Ink
INKS: Versamark Vintage Sepia, VersaColor 56 Cinnamon. 182 Bisqe, 80 Ultimate White. Distress Inks Old Paper and Antique Linen
OTHER: Sequins, post it notes and cream card

I'm heading over to the following challenges with that card:
Art Impressions Stamp Challenge #208 - Dots and Stripes
Crafty Cardmakers #188 - Add a Sentiment
Crafty Girls Creations #36 - Anything Goes
Fairy Tale Challenge #168 - Sentiment in focus

2) Flower Power

Again, a really quick card to make. The flower was repeat stamped using two different coloured variegated ink pads. The stamp already has the stripes in the leaves so it was simply a case of adding white spots to the flowers with a gelly roll pen to make this fit the challenge. I think that gives the flowers a fun look.

STAMPS: Uniko Flower Power 2
INKS: Marvy Dee Gruenig Blending Blox in shades of pink and shades of green
OTHER: Sakura Gelly Roll Pen #08 (for the white spots on flowers), smooth white card.

That card is for:
Addicted to stamps and more! #241 - Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments Challenge #179 - Flowers and a sentiment
Incy Wincy Designs - Clean and Simple (a second entry)
Make My Monday Challenges #45 - May Flowers
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Going Dotty

3) Laugh Out Loud

Yes....I've given in and bought another stamp set with slightly naughty sentiments. So many possibilities with this set - I love the one that says 'smile while you still have teeth!' -  really appeals to my sense of humour.  This one was simply stamped with a little bit of masking and 3 coloured pencils were used to colour in.

STAMPS: Clearly Besotted Laugh Out Loud
INK: Memento Tuxedo Black
OTHER: White Linen Card, Red, Blue and Grey colouring pencils.

I'm popping that one in at:
Crafting From The Heart #158 - Anything Goes
Double D Challenge -  Red, White Blue - optional stars and stripes (I didn't get the star in)

Seize the Birthday - Anything goes

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Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll take a peek at the challenge blog to see what my teamies have done with this theme (there's loads of good stuff on there).

Hope you have a chance to join us.

I'm off to Seville for a short break this week - soooooo looking forward to it. We have not had a holiday (apart from trips back home to the UK) since we started decorating our old house to sell so that we could move over here - that would've been over three and a half years ago! You could say that I'm a little bit giddy about this trip. ;-)

Hope your week will be wonderful.

Hugs,
Sharon xx