Less Is More #445 - Pale Blue and Yellow

Oh my goodness, summer has certainly arrived in the Algarve! We've had scorchio temperatures of around 32-34 C this past week. It was a blessing to escape into my cool, shady craft room and play with some inks and stamps, so I made a second card for the Less is More challenge with the theme of pale blue and yellow. Two cards to show this week.

The first one above, a card for the men, was simply stamped in a pale blue ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder, then the bubbles were coloured with Zigs and a bit of yellow blended on the bottom corner before attaching the panel to a yellow card blank.

STAMPS:   Visible Image Jazz It Up

INKS:   Prism Inks (blue lagoon)

PENS:  Zigs (lemon yellow, yellow, bright yellow) 
OTHER: Wow! clear gloss embossing powder, White and Yellow card.

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This second card is another one simply stamped in a pale blue and yellow ink, with a tiny bit of coloured pencil work. I went a bit overboard on the tiny gems, which is why it is down as a second card for this challenge.

STAMPS:   Uniko Originally Organic Additions

INKS:   Prism Inks (arctic mist, canary yellow) the pale blue was overstamped 3 times to make it dark enough

PENS:  Polychromos Pencils (107 Cadmium Yellow, 154 Cobalt Turquoise)
OTHER: WHite and blue card, 3d foam, tiny gems

Please head on over to the challenge blog for some fantastic inspiration from the design team

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I'll sign off for now 👋 but I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,

Sharon xx 

Dragonflies and Bubbles

 

Hi! For a long while now I've admired the beautiful cards made by Rahmat where she draws bubbles and colours them with her colouring pencils. So when the amazing Dragonfly Reflection stamp set from Visible Image arrived I knew I wanted to have a try at colouring some bubbles, using the round stamp with the grid as a base.  I need more practice, but for a first attempt I think it doesn't look too bad.

Here's how I made it:

Use a stamp positioner for these first steps creating the bubbles. Stamp the circle in antique linen and leave the stamp in the stamp positioner. 

Colour the circle with coloured pencils.

Return the card to the stamp positioner and re-stamp the circle with versamark clear ink and heat emboss with white embossing powder.

Repeat this process twice more to get 2 more bubbles.

Stamp the dragonfly onto the card panel and emboss with a lilac glittery embossing glitter, then roughly colour the wings with the same colours you used for the bubbles.

Stamp the sentiment onto the panel, blend some light blue ink around the corners and add a little doodling to the edges. Back the panel onto black card.

Edge the card blank with the same coloured pencils and set this aside.

Heat emboss the dragonfly onto heat embossable acetate using a sparkly light blue embossing glitter. Cut the dragonfly out.  Heat emboss the additional wings with a clear multi sparkle and cut these out leaving a little tab on the inner part of the wings.

Place the acetate dragonfly on top of the image on the panel, secure it with low tack tape, then cut two slots either side of the dragonfly's body for the wings to slot into (cutting the slots through only the acetate dragonfly, the embossed image on the cream card and through the black mat too). 

Slot the extra wings through the slots on the acetate dragonfly, then feed them through the slots on the cream panel and secure with tape on the reverse. 

Add the panel to the card blank and you are done. 

Here is an alternative version of this card using black card as a base

Stamps Used:

(please click on the picture to be taken direct to the stamp set in the online store):
  

  

     

Other Supplies:

Cram card, Black Card, Distress Inks (antique linen, tumbled glass) Versamark clear ink, Polychromos pencils (I used 101 white, 109 Dark Chrome Yellow, 110 Phthalo Blue, 124 Rose Carmine, 131 Medium Flesh, 134 Crimson, 140 Light Ultramarine, 141 Delft Blue, 154 Light Cobalt Turquoise, 168 Earth Green Yellowish, 171 Light Green, 177 Walnut Brown), WOW! Embossing Glitters (royal crush, coastal, clear multi sparkle), WOW! embossing powder (opaque bright white). 

Visible Image social media and other links (just click on the words in capital letters):

SHOP where the fantastic stamps are sold
BLOG with all the latest news and posts
FACEBOOK PAGE with info, inspiration and giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

TWITTER

That's it from me for now. Thanks for stopping by and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less Is More #444 - Favourite Technique

Hello everyone. I hope all is good with you. I've had a fabulous week and to top it off I got to play with some new stamps and make a card using my favourite technique(s). Yes, I can't just choose one technique because I do love to mix and match them together, but this combination today is definitely my favourite.

It's the 5th Saturday in the month so that means that we have a lucky dip challenge at the Less is More challenge and it's all about using your favourite technique.

I received my new stamps from the summer release by Visible Image earlier in the week, so I had a play with the 'Where Flowers Bloom' set. All the stamps on my card come from the one set.

But to my favourite techniques....ink blending and stamp layering with a bit of acetate heat embossing. 

First I blended a background with the 4 distress inks and spritzed it with water whilst drying with a heat gun. Then I just stamp on top of the background and layer up the stamped images - first stamping some of the smaller stamps with the distress inks, then stamping the thread swirl (what a fantastic stamp that is!) in gold ink. Add some clear embossing powder and heat emboss the stamped images. Next line up the word stamps and emboss those with white powder. Finally stamp and heat emboss the flower and stem onto heat embossable acetate, heat emboss with the white powder, cut it out, add some super-shiny stickles and attach to the panel with tiny bits of foam pads (once the stickles are dry).

OUTTAKE

The observant amongst you will notice that I haven't stamped the laugh word as crisply as the others. Why? I forgot to do the clear embossing step (doh! Slaps head with palm). I forgot that the gold ink takes ages to dry so when I first stamped that word and applied the embossing powder, the white powder stuck in all the wrong places. So I had to brush the embossing powder off and then do the clear embossing step. That meant the clear embossing stuck to the word laugh too, so when I re-stamped it I just didn't get a clean impression. Never mind, it adds to the distressed look of the background.

STAMPS: Visible Image 'Where Flowers Bloom'   

INKS:   Distress Inks (spiced marmalade, fired brick, worn lipstick, dusty concorde), Encore ultimate metallic gold ink, Versamark clear ink.
OTHER: WOW! embossing powders (clear gloss, opaque bright white), white card, water spritzer, heat embossable acetate, Stardust Stickles, 3d foam pads.

 Please head on over to the challenge blog to see some fantastic inspiration from the design team. There's loads of techniques that they have used.

LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

I'll sign off for now 👋 but I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Beautiful Life

Hello there. I bet there are lots of you that are looking forward to a summer holiday this year, aren't you? We have just started to welcome the UK tourists back to Portugal and it is fantastic to see people arriving. The beaches are open again, the sun is a-shining and the seas are lovely and blue, so I'm celebrating with some of the incredible ocean themed stamps by Visible Image. I do love a little sea scape on a card.

This one was a lot of fun to make.

First take a piece of card the same size as your card blank and stamp a couple of jellyfish on one side and add some seaweed at the bottom using first and second generation ink.

Now make a couple of masks for the top of the jelly fish and start adding some blue and green colours with oxide inks. Don't worry about getting precise blends. And don't worry about the far left of the card because that will be covered up in the finished piece.

Then ink through the fibres stencil with the lightest blue oxide ink in random places to give that watery look. The nature of the oxide inks means that the colour will overlay very nicely on the darker colours and lso show on the lighter areas too.

Now add some silvery elements with the bubbles stamp and the shoal of fish (not shown in this photo)

You can remove the masks from the jellyfish now and add some colour by painting with the oxide inks. Any colours will do, as long as they are not blue or green so that the jellyfish stand out. I fancied pink and cream jellyfish on the day I made this card. Add more colour to the seaweed with any colouring pens that you have (I used a variety of Zigs direct to paper).

Next add some details with a white opaque pen and some glittery stickles. I forgot to photo these stages so here is a close up of the final card. I added the stickles to the top of the jellyfish and to some of their tentacles as well as a little on the seaweed. The white pen highlighted part of the large jellyfish and I squiggled an extra few tentacles with it. I also used the white pen on the circles on the small jelly fish, a highlight on the bubbles and I scattered some white dots around the ocean for a bit more texture.  Then I thought I would stamp random bits of net.

To make the part that covers the left of the card, I die cut white card using a stitched hill die. It die wasn't long enough to do the whole piece in one go, but it is pretty easy to line up the die again to die cut the last part. You can 'feel' when the die sinks into the cut that was already made. And if you don't manage to line it up perfectly you can disguise it with the sentiment.

The sentiment was simple stamped and heat embossed onto a scrap of square white card and the edges highlighted with a co-ordinating pen.

Attach the sentiment and the die cut piece with fun foam and the card is finished.

Stamps Used:

(please click on the picture to be taken direct to the stamp set in the online store):
 

    

  

  

  

  

Other Supplies:

White card, Versafine Onyx Black Ink, post-it notes, Distress Oxides (tumbled glass, blueprint sketch, lucky clover, antique linen, spun sugar, picked raspberry), Encore Silver Ink, zig pens in greens, opaque white Posca pen, stardust Stickles, water brush and blending brushes, Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders, Versamark clear ink, WOW! primary ebony embossing powder, french navy Promarker, fun foam.

Visible Image social media and other links (just click on the words in capital letters):

SHOP where the fantastic stamps are sold
BLOG with all the latest news and posts
FACEBOOK PAGE with info, inspiration and giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

TWITTER

I really hope you like this card and will try a sea-scape of your own.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less Is More #443 - Sketch 26

Phahahahaha! That doggie image always makes me laugh because it is soooo grumpy looking 😂

Anyway,  Hello everyone. How are you all doing? We're changing things up a bit at Less is More today by throwing in a sketch. We haven't had a sketch for a couple of years so it was about time eh?

It's a super little sketch that really lends itself to the CAS look.

For my super-quick card, I simply masked off a rectangle on the card blank and blended distress inks through it and once the ink was dried I heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder. The dog was one from my ready-made stash already stamped, coloured and die cut so I added it to the card with 3D foam pads. Job done!

STAMPS:   Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs, Uniko All Occasions Sentiments 

DIES:   Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs, Rectangle die to make a mask
INKS:   Distress Inks (cracked pistachio, ripe persimmon, picked raspberry), Versamark clear
OTHER: White card, scrap paper to make the mask, WOW! Ultra bright white embossing powder.

Please head on over to the challenge blog  for some more fantastic inspiration from the design team

LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

I'll sign off for now 👋 but I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Rock Out!

 

Hello there. Have you all been missing going to festivals or watching live music? I have. I can't wait for the time that they all start up again, safely of course. As I was yearning for some live music this week, my thoughts turned to some of the amazing music stamps that Visible Image have. So I trotted off to my craft room to have a rummage through and decided to make a card with the awesome 'Rock Out' set and my favourite background stamps; the 'crackle' stamps from the 'Create It' set. 

Those crackles remind me of the electricity used to power an electric guitar....as well as the electric excitement of attending a live gig. Also, this has turned out as a sister brother card to the ballerina card that I made earlier in the year. Click HERE to see that one. 

I love how the same layout/design can be used with lots of different silhouette stamps. The jumping girl from 'Tomorrow Doesn't Exist' would look really cool with inky blues on the bottom right of the card...and the 'surf' stamp from the 'Mythical Mermaid' set would be an awesome replacement for the crackle. Hmmm....I might just try that out at some point!

But, back to the Rock card. Here's how I made it:

Wet a panel of water colour card and add drops of distress ink re-inker. To help the ink move use a dabbing motion with some paper towel or spritz with more water.  Spritz the panel more whilst drying it with a heat tool on a low setting. Keep adding ink until you have the desired amount of coverage.

Use a rectangular die to cut out the central portion of the panel. The cut out part won't show on the final card because you will be mounting the smaller part over the gap.

Stamp the 'crackle' on the larger panel with silver ink. If you don't have silver ink you could use silver embossing powder (but make sure the base colours are totally dry first).

Wait for the silver ink to dry, then stamp the stars in clear ink and heat emboss with a white powder.  OR, if you are impatient, clear heat emboss the crackles and then you can stamps the stars straight away 😉

I wasn't quite happy with this larger panel, so I added more depth by overstamping with the 'crackle' stamps using the distress inks. I stuck with stamping blue on blue and pink on pink etc. You'll also see that in the final card I added even more depth to the outside of this panel using black ink on the edge of the cluster of stars stamp in the Rock Out set, and made it a border for the inked areas. As the stars are embossed, it's easy to clean off any ink on them by wiping with a cloth.

 Water colour card has a bumpy texture, so place the small panel into a stamping platform and stamp & re-stamp the image (and sentiment) a couple of times, firstly with black ink so that you can see when the image is really crisp, then go over with clear ink and heat emboss with a black embossing powder.

To finalise the card, back the small panel onto black card and add some fun foam underneath. Attach the larger panel to a card blank, then add the smaller panel.

Stamps Used:

(please click on the picture to be taken direct to the stamp set in the online store):
 

  

         

  

 

Other Supplies:

Aquarelle Water Colour Paper,  Distress spritzer, Distress re-inkers and inks (picked raspberry, peacock feathers, blueprint sketch), My Favourite Things die ( Inside Out Stitched Rectangles), Encore silver ink, Versafine onyx black ink, Versamark clear ink, Wow! Embssing Powders (primary ebony, ultra bright white), black card, 3d foam.

Visible Image social media and other links (just click on the words in capital letters):

SHOP where the fantastic stamps are sold
BLOG with all the latest news and posts
FACEBOOK PAGE with info, inspiration and giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

TWITTER

That's it from me for now. Thanks for stopping by and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less Is More #441 - Sea Creatures

Hello and welcome to the merry old month of May. Gosh, can you believe it is May already? That time is certainly flying by again this year.  I'm looking forward to those hot and balmy, sunny months of summer with my make today. 

It's Less is More challenge time and the theme of the day is Sea Creatures.

I love this dolphin stamp because it always reminds me of the time I was lucky enough to go swimming with dolphins in Cuba. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the whole day - such a wonderful experience! But to my card.... I decided a little shaker card would be good because the little pot of micro glass beads that I bought years ago needed some love, and the noise those beads make when you move them around sounds a bit like the surf crashing on the shore.

First, stamp the sea image onto water colour and add a few extra bubbles. Dampen the card underneath the stamp and add some blues with your Zig pens, leaving the bubbles white. Water colour the dolphin with your Zigs too. Add stickles to the bubbles and set the piece aside to dry.

Stamp the little accessory stamps (crab, starfish and shells) several times, I think I used 5 of each shape, and colour those then fussy cut them out.

On a mat of white card the same size as your card blank, die cut a circle and add clear acetate over the hole (on the reverse side of the mat), it's also a good idea to treat the acetate with some antistatic powder too. Position the dolphin and sea image onto a card blank so that they will show through the 'window' of the mat. Use shaker tape around the 'window' on the reverse of the mat (make it easy for yourself.... put the shaker tape in a square shape rather than trying to make it round), so that there are no gaps. Add the shaker tape to the outside edges of the mat too. Now add the beads onto the acetate, and carefully position the card blank over the top ....making sure the image will still peek through the hole.

The final touches are to glue the little shapes around the edge of the circle on the front of the card to make a frame, and to stamp the sentiment onto scrap card and add that to the front of the card too.

Phew! We made it! 

STAMPS:   Visible Image Mythical Mermaid

DIES:  Circle Die - whichever make you have in your stash. 
INKS: Versafine Onyx black  
PENS:   Zig Clean Color Real Brushes ( 36 light blue, 31 cobalt blue, 303 shadow mauve, 91 light gray, 97 pale gray, 64 oatmeal 71 natural beige, 50 yellow, 51 lemon yellow, 52 bright yellow, 70 orange, 200 sugared almond pink, 202 peach pink)
OTHER: White card, Water Colour Paper, Acetate, shaker foam, stardust Stickles, Glass micro beads

Please head on over to the challenge blog  for some more fantastic inspiration from the design team

LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

I'll sign off for now 👋 but I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx