Less is More # 368 - Case Card

Hello everyone. Well, we're into spring now although I bet it still doesn't feel like it for a lot of people. Hang in there....the sun will soon be on its way!

As we're on the 5th Saturday in the month it means we're having a lucky dip challenge at Less is More

Aileen from Colour and Sparkle, our January winner has kindly given us this incredibly beautiful card to CASE. (CASE = Copy And Share Everything).



AILEEN'S CARD

 We also have the fab Kylie as our other guest designer this week, and she is also sponsoring the challenge.

https://shop.happylittlestampers.com/

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

I struggled with masculine images for this challenge so I failed to make the masculine card. But I do have 2 other cards for you.

1) Coloured flowers

I took inspiration from the colours, flowers and silver raised sentiment from Aileen's card.

Instead of one single flower type I've used a variety of the stitched doodle flowers by Happy Little Stampers, masking so that they appear behind each other. I also added a few leaves in. Then I coloured the flowers with promarkers, adding a little shadow underneath the arrangement to 'ground' the flowers. The panel was cut with a stitched rectangle die and mounted on fun foam before adhering to the card base. The sentiment was cut on my ScanNcut.

 This card is for:

 Addicted to Stamps and More! #285 which has the following photo inspiration:

Card In Envy - No Patterned Paper
Crafty Creations #363 - Anything Goes
The House that Stamps Built M2818 - Anything Goes

STAMPS: Happy Little Stampers Doodle Flowers
DIES: My Favourite Things inside out stitched rectangles
INKS: Memento Tuxedo Black
OTHER: White card, silver glitter card, Promarkers (Duck Egg, Cyan, Aegean, Ice Grey 1 & 2), Fine tips for promarkers, , Fun Foam.

2) Multiple colour embossed butterflies

I suppose this one is my technique card, as I heat embossed several different colours and types of embossing powders, so you have to be careful not to re-melt and flatten out some of the colours.

Want to see how I did that? Then check out this 4 minute VIDEO (with happier music too for a change)

 

 

This one is a more loose interpretation of Aileen's card, substituting butterflies for the flowers, and shifting the layout up to the top of the card.

Yay! I actually caught the fantastic sparkle from the embossing powders on camera!



This one is for:
Double D Challenges 21st March - Just 'wing' it
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
The Paper Girls #148 - Embossing
Crafty Gals Corner #162 - Anything Goes

STAMPS: Clearly Besotted - Everything Changes II
DIES: My Favourite Things - Inside Out Stitched Rectangles, Whimsy Stamps - Birthday Sentimentables
INKS: Versamark Clear
OTHER: WOW! Embossing powders (Oasis, Misty Sky, Coastal Embossing Glitter) Stampendous ( Detail Silver), Heat it up Black Embossong Powder, Zig Emboss Writer Pen, Glossy Accents, Mini gems. 


LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

That's it from me for now. I hope you found something you like and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Daughters - Your best friends

Hi!

Are you like me? You know exactly what card making style suits you, but you simply have to try something totally opposite every now and then?  That was me last week. So, I had a play with a couple of my fantastic Visible Image stamps and the urge to get all inky again got the better of me.  My crafty session ended up with 2 cards using the same fabulous stamps and inks, but created with 2 completely different styles. One CAS and one full-on inky.

This daughter definition stamp is absolutely wonderful in the beautiful words it uses - I especially love the phrase about a daughter being a little girl who grows up to be your best friend.

It is also a perfect sentiment stamp to use for the thin, white embossing on black card sentiment style that seems to be the 'in-thing' at the moment. Actually, any of the Visible Image Definition stamps would be perfect for this style.

Anyway, I decided to make a shutter card, so above you can see it partially opened, and here is what it looks like from front on when it is standing up.

1) How to make the shutter card

You can watch my video

or follow the written instructions.

Take a piece of card 26cm x 18cm and ink blend a background with the 3 distress inks listed below. Flick some water onto the background and dry it. Then randomly stamp the kaleidoscope of butterflies stamp (isn't that a wonderful definition of a group of butterflies? a kaleidoscope) in aged mahogany and worn lipstick distress inks as well as worn lipstick distress oxide.

TIP: If the back of the card gets inky, you could colour it with the distress oxide and randomly stamp the butterflies on that to make it all co-ordinate. However, if you are using a lighter weight card, it may become flexible and have trouble standing up. If that happens, you may need to glue some white card on the back to fit over your inking instead.

Heat emboss the sentiment in white onto black card and cut it into each individual line.

For how to make the cuts and scores on the shutter card, please CLICK HERE for a page which gives all the measurements and cuts in photographs. Then carry on as follows:

Once the shutter card has been cut and scored, glue the slivers of sentiment as shown above.
N.B.

• the 'daughter (daw'ter) n.' and 'beautiful; she lights up your world;' are only attached on the beginning half of their length.
• the 'a little girl who grows up to be' is positioned so that it is hidden by 'daughter (daw'ter) n.' when the card is closed.

Ink up another spare piece of card in the same colours as the background and randomly stamp the 'splattery bits' from the large butterfly  from the Live Life Now set across it. Punch out (or die cut) 3 butterflies from that piece of card. Add a little aged mahogany to their wing edges, and draw in a body in the same colour, then cover them with distress stickle for a sugary sparkle. Once that is dry adhere some clear gems onto their wings.

Take some linen-type material and ink part of it in dried marigold with a hint of aged mahogany, and leave the other part un-inked. Cut 3 pieces of un-inked material, and 3 smaller pieces in the inked material and fray each edge. Adhere these, and the butterflies to the card in layers with glossy accents as shown above.

2) How to make the CAS card

For the CAS card, mask off where you want the inky panel to be and blend the distress inks into it. Spritz water onto the panel, then stamp the butterflies in aged mahogany, and then remove the masking. Heat emboss the first line of the daughter definition sentiment in white embossing powder onto black cardstock and adhere over the inky panel. Attach the whole panel to the front of a card blank and then add the butterfly (made as above in the shutter card). Finally stamp the whole of the daughter definition onto the inside of the card in black ink.

Stamps Used:

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

        

Other Supplies:

White cardstock, Blending tools, Distress Ink (aged mahogany, worn lipstick, dried marigold) Distress Oxide (worn lipstick), Ruler, Pencil, Craft Knife, Black Card, Anti-static pad, Versamark Clear Ink, Wow! Opaque Bright White Super Fine Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Butterfly Punch, Distress Marker (aged Mahogany) White Linen, Distress Stickles, Gems, Glossy Accents, 




I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

The CAS card:
AAA Card Challenge #111 - Use only a third of your card.

SHUTTER CARD:
Crafting from the heart #200 - Anything Goes
Crafting with friends #63 - Anything Goes
Creative Artiste Mixed Media #36 - Anything Mixed Media Goes
Incy Wincy Designs 19 Mar - No more than 2 colours (excluding Black and White)
Love to Craft - March # 20 - Anything Goes
Mix It Up challenge #11 - Make your own background (a second entry for me)
Pammies Inky Pinkies 1813 - Anything Goes
Polkadoodles #12 - Anything Goes
QKR Stampede #288 - Anything Goes

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 weekly giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us and enter the monthly 'show and tell' challenges
INSTAGRAM
PINterest
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you like my cards and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More 367 - One Layer Cards - Stencils

Hi.

We're all playing with stencils on one layer cards at Less is More today

and  Shery from STAMPlorations is our guest designer. You can see her beautiful card on the Less is More blog. Don't forget to check out the fabulous DT cards while you are there.

I have 3 cards for you today.

1) Your Awesomeness Overwhelms Me

Here's a really simple card where I used a stencil to colour the silhouette. This really is a one layer card! If you want to see how I trick the eyes into thinking it is a panel on a base card you can ......

......watch my video :

I'm entering this into:
Crafty Creations #362  - Anything Goes
Pause, Dream, Enjoy #11 - Anything Goes
Pammies Inky Pinkies Challenge #1810 - Anything Goes

STAMPS: STAMPlorations - Fond Expressions
STENCILS: Sweet Poppy - Clematis
INKS: Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Oxides (Antique Linen, Fossilised Amber, Twisted Citron)
OTHER: White card, post-it notes, low-tack tape, black micron pens (sizes 005 and 08), distress markers (pumice stone, hickory smoke)

2) Under 10 Minute Stencil Layering

Actually this card only took around 8 minutes to make - honest! I filmed this one too and so you can check my under 10 minute claim if you watch it. 

 Crikey - I even appear in this one. I'm doing an experiment to see if I get more views if I appear in the video or if I don't. Would be interested in your thoughts on that.

Anyway, back to the card. I love layering stencils because it adds a lot of depth to an inky panel. Here I only used 2 stencils but I love the result. I'm also loving the colour combo so I'll probably use that one again in the future.

I made this one for:
Little Miss Muffet #184 - Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door 13 Mar - Anything Goes
Crafting From The Heart #198 - Anything Goes

I made a curved mask out of post-it notes and laid down a base coat of antique linen, then blended Victorian velvet through the trellis stencil. Aged mahogany came next blended through the honeycomb stencil. Remove the stencils and stamp the leaves in walnut stain then remove the masking and stamp the sentiment in walnut stain too.

STAMPS: Visible Image - create it and go to words
STENCILS: Creative Expressions that special touch of...Trellis, Tim Holtz Collection Honeycomb
INKS: Distress Inks (Antique linen, Victorian velvet, aged mahogany, walnut stain)
OTHER: White card, post-it notes, masking tape, blending tools, misti.

 

3) Textured Stencilling - using a piece of fly screen!

I spotted a technique in a Jennifer McGuire video HERE for adding texture into stencils....so off I trotted and found a spare piece of fly screen to try it out. It worked!

I'm playing along with:
Crafting With An Attitude #37 - Anything Goes
Creative Moments Challenge 138 - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations #195 - Anything Goes

Mask off a triangle with post it notes. Add both the brickwork and vine flourish stencils together and blend spiced marmalade through them. Remove the masks and stamp the flourish several times over the blended area in spiced marmalade. Stamp the sentiment in versafine black ink. Take the sweet poppy stencil and blend rusty hinge through one of the flowers, then without moving the stencil add some netting (aka fly screen for me) over the top of the flower and stipple aged mahogany through the netting. Repeat that step twice more. Finish with a few pearls to represent buds.

STAMPS: Hampton Art flourish and bloom, Waltzing Mouse Stamps - Big day additions
STENCILS: Clarity Stamps brick work and vine flourish
INKS: Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Inks (spiced marmalade, rusty hinge, aged mahogany)
OTHER: Yellow card blank, masking tape. blending tools and brushes, fly screen!


LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

That's it from me for now. I hope you found something you like and I really hope to see you again soon. 

If you watched either of my videos, please remember to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel if you found them helpful. I am trying to create a channel with all the techniques I know, so some will be old techniques, but some will be new techniques too.

I will definitely create a video for each Visible Image post (the Thursday prior to my LIM posts) and I'll try to film my technique card on my LIM posts too.  So there should be at least 4 videos a month arriving on the channel.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

A little bit of calm.

Hi!

It's time to share another card that I've made with some of my fabulous Visible Image stamps. Today I'm using the wonderful seahorse from the Create Your Calm set and teaming it up with some Ink Splats (to represent bubbles) and the Fibres stencil for a bit of movement in my inky panel.

I'm loving how I can take a large stamp and yet still create something wonderfully clean and simple with it. This is such a beautiful seahorse stamp, but as Veerle has shown how to expertly colour it (which you can see by clicking HERE for her video), I thought I would leave it in monochrome for a contrast on my inky band.

Here is a video of making this card:

 How to make this:

First heat emboss the seahorse with clear ink and a sparkly black embossing powder, then mask the seahorse with either a post-it note or some masking fluid.

Next mask off a section of your card for the inked band and blend 3 colours of distress oxide ink (cracked pistachio, peacock feathers, salty ocean) into the unmasked area to create a smooth ombré look.

Blend more ink through the fibres stencil using broken china and peacock feathers distress oxides and next splatter water droplets onto the panel.

Use second generation ink with the two remaining stamps (the ovals and circles) in the Create Your Calm set, to add more subtle interest to the background, stamping these in faded jeans and peacock feathers distress oxides.

Remove the masking, and add your sentiment. I split the 'own' and 'calm' into two separate words using a masking technique, shown in my video, so that I only inked the word I wanted at each place.

Now ink the splatters from the Ink Splats set in salty ocean, peacock feathers and cracked pistachio distress oxide.

Use a clear sparkle pen on the water droplets in the inky band to give them some shimmer. Use the same sparkle pen in the white areas of the seahorse.

The final part is to add glossy accents onto the ink splat 'bubbles' and also randomly across the band.

Stamps Used:

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

Stencil: 

  

Other Supplies:

White Card, Versamark clear ink, Stampendous disco black embossing powder, Distress Oxides (salty ocean, peacock feathers, cracked pistachio, broken china, faded jeans), blending tools and foam, water, paintbrushes, heat tool, low-tack masking tape, post-it notes, scrap paper, Misti, Versafine Onyx black ink, Sakura gelly roll pen (clear star), Ranger glossy accents, 3d foam 


I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

AAA Card Challenge #110 - Ombré
Creative Fingers Challenge March - Anything Goes
Dare2BArtyz March - Your Favourite Colours (always blues and teals for me!)
HeARTful Stamping challenge Mar 11-18 - Anything Goes
Mix It Up Challenge Blog MIUCB #11 - Anything Goes + make your own background
Penny Black and More! March - Feature A Creature
Polkadoodles #10 - Anything Goes
QKR Stampede #286 - Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge March - Anything Goes
2 crafty Critter Crazies March - anything with a critter

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 weekly giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us and enter the monthly 'show and tell' challenges
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

Thank you for stopping by today and please don't forget to watch my VIDEO. 
I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More 366 - Monochrome

Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello.
How are you all? Hope those of you that have been affected by the snow are keeping wrapped up and warm. We've only had rain and thunderstorms over here in Portugal so we're getting off very lightly. Anyway, here we are, in March already! Spring should be a-sprunging right now, let's hope it does soon.

 

But enough of that, I'd best get on to the new challenge at Less is More, eh?



 

We're in a new month so that means that we have a fantastic new sponsor for the next two challenges:

Sponsor
http://stamplorations.auctivacommerce.com/

 

and the lovely Shery from Stamplorations will be joining us as a guest designer (from tomorrow, Sunday).

We also have the talented Maaike joining us as guest designer too.

Oh, and don't forget to head on over to the challenge blog for some fantastic inspiration from the design team too.

 

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Normally on a monochrome challenge I will have a card or two actually in colour, but this time I've gone right back to the true and pure monochrome of basic black, white and grey for my 3 cards, and I really enjoyed trying to make them all look very different from each other.

1) Faux Tarnished Metal

Well, I have hit the hat-trick in this card! It's masculine, it has a technique (faux tarnished metal) and it is super speedy to make! 

Here is a 4 minute video.

This one is for Papercraft Crew Challenge PCC#282 which is a tic tac toe challenge and the 3 items I used are metallic (albeit faux), clean and simple and birthday.

CAS Colours and Sketches #261 which is this super sketch.


It is also for Pause, Dream, Enjoy challenge #9 where they want a stamped image

STAMPS: Wow - Mr Wow's Wonderful Words, Craft Stamper magazine freebie
INKS: Versamark Clear
OTHER: White, black and silver card, Sizzix embossing folder, Black acrylic paint, Wow ultra bright white embossing powder, foam pads, corner rounder.

2) Half Circle Thank You

Here is another quick to make card.

It's really easy to do and I bet it would look great in colours but the monochrome gives it a pretty funky look. I will probably make a few birthday cards like this for my stash, possibly using oval die cuts too, because it's a pretty gender neutral design.

This one is for:
 The Sisterhood of Crafters who are looking for Clean and Simple cards,
City Crafter Challenge #401 who want to see die cuts
and The Paper Girls #146 which is all about black and white but they do allow a pop of colour so I hope the grey is ok.

To make this: Die cut several circles from scraps of black, white and grey card, then add the die that is the next size down inside each circle, making sure it is offset i.e. towards one edge so that resulting ring will be thinner on one side than the other, then die cut them into the ring shapes. Lay the rings onto an adhesive sheet with all the thin sides together then cut it in half. Adhere the shapes to your card blank and stamp the sentiment.

STAMPS: Stamplorations Fond Expressions
DIES: Lawn Fawn Stitched Circles
INKS: Versafine Onyx Black
OTHER: White, grey and black card. Double-sided adhesive sheet.

 

3) Card 3

As I made 2 cards suitable for men I wanted to balance things with a feminine card.

This one is for:
Crafty Cardmakers #206 - floral delight
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Time Out Challenge  #104 - Bold - I've used 2 bold frames and a little bit of bold text in the sentiment

Mask off a square in the centre of the card blank slightly larger than your central aperture will be. Stamp and clear heat emboss a script stamp into the opening. Using a blending brush, blend iced spruce and hickory smoke in from the top right corner on the unmasked area. Stamp up the flower and leaves in black and grey and cut them out. Cut two frames and stamp the sentiment on the smaller one. Attach the frames to the card blank, then attach the flowers and leaves.

STAMPS: Altenew  Garden Treasure and Extra Special, Impression Obsession Cover A Card Script
INKS: Versamark clear, Versafine Onyx black, Distress inks (iced spruce and hickory smoke) Distress Oxide (Iced Spruce)
OTHER: White card, Clear embossing powder, ink blending brush, 3d foam pads, craft knife and ruler.

LIM Social Media Links

LIM BLOG
LIM FACEBOOK PAGE
LIM INSTAGRAM

Well, that's it from me for today.

I hope you found something you like and I really hope to see you again soon - when I can probably guarantee I'll be back to my usual 'colourful self' ;-)

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Hot colours Masterboard

Well hello!

I hope you have a spare 10 minutes today because I've been experimenting with my smaller Visible Image stamps and used them to create an inky & stamped Masterboard and created a video of the process (which also includes the making of these 3 cards). 

Masterboards are so useful for sparking off ideas and they allow you to make either several completely different cards, or batch make some identical(ish) cards. This is one of my go-to techniques and I always use it when my mojo wanders off for a little while (as it did this week). I chose to make different shaped cards and I have 3 that I'm sharing in this post but I promise I'll be brief about how I made them because the main instructions are in the video.

Here is a 10 minute video for these cards and the technique.

Challenges are linked at the bottom of this post.

1) GOOD TIMES

This card is 15cm square.

Stamp the singer onto plain white card and colour her dress in with distress markers that match the masterboard colours. Add a little shadow at her feet to 'ground' her.  Stamp the small flower around the edge of the image in 2 alternating colours. Take a piece of masterboard, stamp the sentiment and adhere it to a square card blank. Then add a strip of co-ordinating orange card that has been embossed with a folder. Finally add the image raised up on fun foam.

Additional stamps used in this card (on top of the masterboard stamps listed below):

        

2) Live Life Now

Here I've made a DL card.

To make this, use a DL card blank and cut another piece of card the same size as the card front. Turn this panel over and use a pencil to mark where the sentiment will be, then draw the 'split' freehand, starting at the smallest point and curving upwards and outwards.  Cut this section out with your scissors. Turn the panel the right side up and stamp the sentiment in 3 shades of distress oxide. Stamp one of the small sparkle rays in the same 3 colours right at the bottom of the split. Adhere some of the masterboard to the card blank and attach the panel on top. Finish with a pearl in the centre of the sparkle ray.

Additional stamp set used in this card (on top of the masterboard stamps listed below):
 

3) SPARKLE

This is an A5 card made from scoring and folding an A4 piece of card in half.

For one of the challenges I have B for Blooms on this card.

Stamp 3 flowers onto a piece of masterboard and fussy cut them out. On an A5 card blank, mask off and area where the sentiment will go (I cut post-it notes with a deckle edge die for this). Using a blending brush or ink dusters blend a coordinating colour around the masked area and out towards where your flowers will be placed. Stamp the 'stems' in place. Remove the masking and stamp the sentiment. Add your flower heads, the first directly onto the card and the other two raised up higher on foam pads.  Protect the flower you wish to glitter with some microglaze and then add some stickles. Set the card aside to dry.

Additional stamp set used in this card (on top of the masterboard stamps listed below):
 

4) Masterboard Video

My video will show exactly how I created the masterboard (and these 3 cards).

Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/PUQdYmHahho

Items used in the masterboard:

Stamps & Stencil Used in the masterboard:

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

     

Other Supplies:

INKS: Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Ink (mustard seed, wild honey, picked raspberry, rusty hinge), Distress Oxide Ink (mustard seed, fossilised amber, spiced marmalade, twisted citron, picked raspberry, candied apple, iced spruce), Distress Markers (spiced marmalade, rusty hinge).

OTHER: 3dfoam, white card, post-it notes, embossing folder, deckle edge die, blending tools, microglaze, stardust stickles.

5) Challenges

I'd like to enter my cards into these challenges as follows:

Good Times:

Make My Monday #65 - Messy Backgrounds
Jo's scrap shack Fun Friday Challenge FFC222 - Anything Goes
Creeative Fingers Challenge #143 - Anything Goes
The Paper Players PP382 - Sketch

Live Life Now

HeARTful stamping challenge Feb25-Mar4 - anything goes + a stamp
Simply Papercraft #55 - Anything Goes

Sparkle:

Artistic Inspirations #194 - Anything Goes/ Optional use flowers
Allsorts Challenge - B is for ..... in my case, blooms!

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 weekly giveaways
FACEBOOK GROUP come share your work with us and enter the monthly 'show and tell' challenges
INSTAGRAM
PINterest

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

Hugs,
Sharon xx