Less is More # 334 - Sketch 20

Hi there! How is life treating you?  I've had a wonderfully fun and busy time with friends and family staying with us.  I do love to see them all. 

I've also had a bit of a time of it with our internet service provider though. We have had appalling service this last week - so much so that I've been unable to load any web pages on my PC at home and have had to go out to cafés and bars to use their free wifi to get any Blogging, Instagram or Facebook stuff done. Hence you may have noticed a lack of presence from me this past week. Hopefully it's just a temporary thing and I'm sure it is all to do with the ISP panicking about the amount of use the changes in mobile roaming will put on their service! 

Ah well, it's perfectly lovely sat in the sunshine outside a café with a tasty cup of coffee. There are worse ways to write a blog post, aren't there?

So, today's Less is More challenge is a sketch challenge and the design team have created some beautiful interpretations of the sketch over on the challenge blog

I have just the two cards for you today (due to time constraints and the inability to upload photos quickly at the moment).

1) Floral Dandelion Dreams

Once I'd finished this card I looked at it again and thought "I've seen something like this before"...then it finally came to me. My teamie Anita made a card a while back that obviously influenced me! The link to her card is HERE.

On this one I had a little play with my distress oxides. I masked the shape, created a stencil from a die and inked through it before over-stamping with the lovely dandelion dreams florals and then added some gems to represent pollen. The sentiment was fussy cut and raised on 3d foam.

STAMPS: Clearly Besotted Dandelion Dreams
DIE: Tim Holtz Alterations confetti
INKS: Versafine vintage sepia. Distress Oxides: fossilized amber, spiced marmalade, fired brick. Distress Ink: squeezed lemonade.
OTHER: Yellow card, White linen card, Post-it notes, gold gems, 3d foam.

I'm going to enter that one in at:
Addicted to Stamps #150 - Flowers (a second entry from me)
Stampotique Designer Challenge #276 - Stencil it - Mine is a hand made stencil from a die cut (Thank you so much for selecting my card in your top three for challenge 275)
Hand Stamped Sentiments #266 - Photo Inspiration - I used the colours and the round shapes from the inspiration

2) One for the men

I'm a bit taken by the bokeh technique, aren't I? I just had to try to give it a really masculine feel this time around.

This card is headed over to:
Craft Rocket Challenge #38 for the Men/Boys
Watercooler Wednesdays Challenge #124 - Masculine anything goes
Unicorn Challenge #22 - For the Guys

STAMPS: Happy Little Stampers Mix Mash set
INKS: Versacolour ultimate white pigment ink, Distress inks in pumice stone, hickory smoke and black soot.
DIES: Lawn Fawn Stitched hillside borders. Sizzix celebration words script.
OTHER: Black pearlised card, white card blank, 3D foam pads

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Well, that's it from me for this week.
I hope you'll get the chance to join us with this super sketch.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon.
Hugs,
Sharon xx

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