Less is More #394 - Buds or Petals

Well, in the northern hemisphere spring has sprung, whereas in the southern hemisphere it is the middle of autumn, so the challenge at Less is More this week could be used to cover both seasons. The buds and petals can be for springtime and you can always have falling petals for autumn too. My makes today are spring inspired though.

Cue Card

Sponsor

The fabulous LIM guest designer for this challenge is Anila and she made a beautiful card. Please pop over to see her and also head on over to the challenge blog for some fantastic inspiration from the design team too.

I don't know how... but once again I managed 3 cards.

1) Bloom and Grow

Yay! This was made in minutes and it was a challenge to myself as to just how CAS I could go on a one layer card. I love it when I can make a really quick card.


I just stamped the tiny bloom 3 times in green ink, varying the height, and coloured the petals with green too. Then stamped the sentiment over the top.

STAMPS: Visible Image (creative chaos and bloom and grow)
INKS: Hunkydory Prism ink - rainforest green, Versafine onyx black
OTHER: Zig real colour brush pen 045 pale green, white card blank

2) You Bring Out The Beauty

One of my challenges to myself this year is to use some of the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) stash. I have loads of stamp sets and freebies from magazines that just haven't been inked up. So here we have a NBUS bud image and sentiment.

Simple to make. Blend a subtle blue down one side of the card, repeatedly stamp the bud stamp along the edge and stamp a tiny butterfly. Colour the images with zigs, glitter the butterfly and stamp a sentiment. job done!

STAMPS: Papercraft Inspirations freebie (buds), Concord & 9th Butterfly Beauty stamp set (sentiment), Personal Impressions - a very old set which I don't have the name of (butterfly)
ZIG CLEAN COLOR REAL BRUSHES: 025 pink, 032 persian blue, 041 light green, 044 deep green, 048 emerald green, 049 green shadow
INKS: Tumbled glass Distress Ink, Versafine onyx black
OTHER: White card blank, quickie glue pen, crystal Glamour dust

3) Paradise

My garden is full of these hibiscus flowers in the summer and they are so beautiful to see. But, I have't seen a purple one yet so I thought I'd remedy that with this card.

Another super-easy one to make, simply stamp the outline and filling for the main flower (I added a bit of a deeper colour to the edges but it is very subtle!). Stamp the falling petals and stamp the sentiment. I coloured the stamen in with Zigs to get a two-tone effect but again that is very subtle and the camera hasn't really picked it up.

STAMPS: Uniko Paradise
INKS: Versafne onyx black, Altenew (hydrangea, ultra violet)
ZIG CLEAN COLOR REAL BRUSHES: 050 yellow, 051 lemon yellow 
OTHER: Other

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges

Top card
Crafty Creations #389 - Anything Goes
Always Fun Challenges #107 - CAS

Middle Card
AAA Cards #138 - Along the edge

Little Red Wagon #494 - Everything's coming up (Flora)
Try it on Tuesday - Springtime

Bottom Card
Simon Says Stamp Wednesdays - Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door 23rd April - Anything Goes (entry #2 from me)

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

A bit of shaving!

Hi. Today I'm embracing my imperfect, quirky beautiful self with a fantastic masculine stamp and sentiment from Visible Image, and also having a play with the shaving foam technique.

I've never tried the shaving foam technique before so I thought it was way overdue as I've been making cards for around 10 years now! So, I pinched some of Mr T's shaving foam (Shhhh! Don't tell him!) and had a play. It is a super simple technique and so easy to do, but be warned .... it is blooming messy. I wish I had tried this technique much sooner though because I have ended up with some amazing backgrounds that I can use on cards in the future.

Anyway, here's how I made this card.

First, I dropped some drops of blue distress reinkers onto shaving foam that I had leveled out in a container. Then I swirled the ink around with a cocktail stick.












Next I placed a piece of white card on the top and gently made sure it had made contact with the surface before pulling it away. The foam that still clung to the card was scraped off immediately with a scraper. Then I made another print....and another...and another (you get the picture). These are 4 of the prints that I made. The first one is quite vivid but the colours tone down with each print you take.






I selected the print I wanted to use for this card and once it was completely dry, I cut it down to size so that it would fit on the inside of the card blank. Then I stamped and heat embossed the image in white. To make the image would really stand out I went around the outside edge with a dark mauve polychromos pencil.












Then I added a bit of a border for interest. This was created by stamping the bottom half of the image around the edge of the card. You need to use the side edges of the bottom of the stamp as well to make the pattern look random.






Next I die cut a window into the front of the card so that the inside image would show through and stamped the sentiment into place. The panel with the image was then stuck to the inside of the card.











So, here's the outside

and here's the inside

and these are some of the products I used

An easy (but messy) card for those males in your life.

Stamps Used:

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

Other Supplies:

Plastic container, Shaving foam, Distress re-inkers (faded jeans, mermaid lagoon, tumbled glass), white card, scraper, Prism Ink (french navy), Versamark clear, WOW! opaque bright white embossing powder, Polychromos pencil (#249 mauve), Spellbinders Labels 17 die.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Always Fun Challenge #107 - CAS
Crafty Sentiment Designs 3 April - Anything Goes
Ike's  world challenges #119 - D is for Die Cuts
Jo's Scrap Shack #278 - Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread Challenge #92 - Anything Goes
L'il Patch of Crafty Friends #104 - Anything Goes
QKRStampede #344 - Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door  23 April - 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

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

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Precious Time

"Time is so incredibly precious....always make your story incredible". 

Those are beautiful words from Helen Alexander that really are a mantra to live by, aren't they? It seems like sometimes we get so caught up in the day-to-day grind that we stop concentrating on the things that really count.  I know I'm very guilty of that, so I made this card to remind me to just look up occasionally, take a deep breath and evaluate if I am making my story incredible. You should try it too - it is very refreshing!

That's what I love about the amazing products from Visible Image, you can always find a wonderful sentiment with a deep meaning and a glorious image to go with that sentiment. Honestly, Helen and Mark Alexander are two of the most talented people I know. Long may they carry on delighting us and producing incredible products like these.

Right on to the details of my card. I had loads of fun making it. I got messy with some table salt - it's a technique that I've been meaning to try for years and I love the results so it won't be the last time I use this technique. Here's how I made the card.




Mask off a section on a panel of water colour paper. Wet the section you want to have colour on, then using 3 or 4 shades of water colour, paint the wet section, slightly blending the edges between shades. Sprinkle some table salt onto the watercoloured part and let the panel dry completely before rubbing the salt off with a cloth or your fingers.






Once the panel is dried and all the salt removed heat emboss the How Fragile stamp in white embossing powder. You can add parts of the stamp to the areas that are not covered by the first impression, just make sure that the image will be over the top of any parts that overlap. Make a nice crisp edge to the coloured area by inking Versamark ink between two pieces of masking tape that has a small gap between them straddling the edge of the coloured part, then heat emboss it with gold embossing powder. Attach the panel onto gold card for a thin border before attaching both to a coloured card blank.

Now heat emboss the shattered watch twice onto a holographic gold card with white embossing powder. Cut one of the images up and layer it on top of the other image using 2 different depths of foam.  Stamp the background for the watch onto spare card in purple ink and heat emboss with clear sparkle embossing glitter over the top. Fussy cut the background and water colour the edges to match in with the main panel. Curl the edges slightly then attach this to the card with foam, adding the completed watch on top with more foam. Stamp, heat emboss and cut out the sentiments adding those with foam to the front of the card.





For the inside, take a piece of paper and stamp the cogs over the bottom right corner with a gold ink. The sentiment inside is made up from masking and inking just the 'Always' from 'Always Listen to the voices in your head', then stamping two other stamps from the same stamp set underneath it.

and there you have it!

Stamps Used:

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

  

Other Supplies:

Water colour card, masking tape, Gansai Tambi Watercolours (50 pale aqua, 56 marine green, 57 turquoise green), water & paintbrush, table salt, coloured card blank, gold holographic card, Versamark clear ink, Wow! embossing powders and glitter (opaque bright white, metallic gold rich, clear sparkle), heat gun, scrap of white card, Prism ink (purple velvet), scissors, 3d foam, White paper, Encore ultimate metallic gold ink.


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

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge April - Anything Goes
Creative Fingers #161 - Anything Goes
Inkspirational #184 - Pop It Up
Jo's Scrap Shack FFC#277 - Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread #91 - Anything Goes
Paperminutes #584 - Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door 16 April - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown #429 - 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

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

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Subtle Colours

Hello! I'm back to introduce the first challenge of April at Less is More and we have a lovely spring challenge for you all about subtle colours.

Cue Card

Sponsor

And the LIM design team are joined by their February winner Milla. I hope you'll find time to visit her blog to see her beautiful card, and also to visit the LIM blog as the design team have excelled themselves this time around

Personally, I really struggle being subtle because I have a great love of vibrant colours. However I did manage to come up with three creations for you today - two using AlteNew stamp sets and one using magazine freebies.

1) Flower Hello

The colours on this card are incredibly subtle in real life but the black frame makes them look a little more vibrant.

This is super easy to make.....

Cut a panel of water colour paper and stamp the outline of the flowers in black ink and water colour them with zig pens.

Cut another panel the same size then, using a craft knife and ruler, cut out the central section to leave a thin frame. Ink the frame with clear ink and heat emboss with black powder.

Stamp the sentiment onto the card blank then glue the frame to the panel and add fun foam underneath before attaching that to the card blank. Add tiny drops of stickles in the flower centres

STAMPS: Altenew (ruffled flowers)
DIES: MFT inside out stitched rectangles
INKS:  Versafine onyx black, Versamark clear
OTHER: ZIG clean colour real brushes (english lavender, green shadow, shadow mauve)  WOW! primary ebony embossing powder, stardust Stickles,  ruler, craft knife, water colour paper, white card, fun foam, glue.

2) Floral condolences

I didn't lead with this one on the Less is More site because it has the least amount of 'white space' but it does have the subtlest colouring because the flower was inked in one shade (except for the very final layer).

This was a fun make due to all the rotating on the panel....

Attach the outline of the flower to a stamping platform. Ink it up and stamp onto the panel, rotate the panel 108 degrees then ink and stamp the image again. Repeat this rotation and stamping process for each layer.

Use a blending foam on a blending tool to apply the ink on each layer - this helps to give a subtle shading. on the darkest layer add a tiny bit of lilac onto the stamp.

Mask each flower then stamp the lilac flowers around the main bloom.

Define the edge of the panel with a swipe of the lilac ink. Layer the panel onto pink paper and then on a card blank. Stamp, cut out and add the sentiment.

STAMPS: Altenew (delicate primrose, garden treasure, heartfelt sentiments)
INKS: Distress Oxide (antique linen, spun sugar), Altenew (wisteria)
OTHER: stamping platform, blending foam and tool, white card, pink card

3) Subtle Thanks

This card was made in well under 10 minutes! Well, except for the drying time on the nuvo drops. I wasn't happy with all the shades on my other two cards so I practically threw this one together.

I used some freebies that came with issue 186 of Simply Cards And Papercraft.

The flower stencil is a Dylusions one and it was inked through with spun sugar distress ink.

The stamp is a ranger Letter It stamp and it was stamped in wisteria ink and fussy cut then mounted onto foam.

To finish, 3 of the corners were rounded and white nuvo drops were added to the flower centres.

STAMPS: Ranger Letter It free with Issue 186 of Simply Cards & Papercraft
STENCILS: Dylusions stencil free with Issue 186 of Simply Cards & Papercraft
INKS: Distress Ink (spun sugar), Altenew Ink (wisteria)
OTHER: white card, stencil brush, fun foam, Nuvo crystal drops (simply white)

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges:
Floral Hello
Addicted To Stamps And More #336 - Anything Goes
Through The Craft Room Door April 9th - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations April - April showers bring May flowers
Floral Condolences
Always Fun Challenges #105 - Anything Goes
Creative Moments #166 - Anything Goes optional twist spring or easter
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - No Designer Paper
Subtle Thanks
AAA Cards #137 - Made in minutes (with optional twist of dry embossing)
Crafty Creations #388 - Anything Goes
Try It On Tuesdays 2 April - Use a Stencil or two

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

Acetate Flying Butterflies

Hello everyone.

As I write this post I am listening to the wind howling away. We've had some very windy and rainy days in the Algarve during the past week......but that weather is incredibly welcome because there have been worries of a drought coming this summer. So I say "bring on the rain and fill our bore hole up!". The only down side is that gloomy weather makes it hard to take good photographs, so I snapped a couple of shots when the sun peeked out for a few minutes.

Okay, to today's card. This is such a fun shape of card and it is one that I make very often for friends because they always seem to love a bit of acetate on a card. It is simply a stepper card with an acetate 'tent' on top of it.

Today, for the first time, it contains some suspended elements! Those fab butterflies from the Visible Image Wings of Change set were just crying out to be flying around.

I've also used the Creative Chaos set on the patterned paper and on the flowers inside the tent. (I was a little disappointed that they didn't show up very well inside the tent though.)

The techniques I used on this card are some heat embossing and acetate colouring with alcohol pens.

Whilst tidying my craft room I found this heat embossable acetate. So it was perfect for embossing the butterflies and the flowers in a glittery embossing powder. I was surprised that it took very little heat to do the embossing too!

 Once the butterflies and flowers were embossed, they were coloured with both copic and promarker alcohol pens. I found that if you laid down a colour and then 'dotted' on top with the same pen it gave the look of alcohol inks. Once coloured they were fussy cut.

 The background paper was simply stamped with distress oxide, blended over the top to mute the vibrance of the colour and left to dry. Once dry, a random pattern of butterflies was heat embossed over it.






There are lots of tutorials on creating stepper cards so i won't tell you how to make them here, but the scoring measurements I used were scores at 3cm, 6cm, 10cm, 14cm and 21cm.

The acetate is just an A4 sheet scored in half (it is attached to the front and back of the steps behind the patterned paper).

The flowers were added on the inside behind patterned paper on the second 'step'. The butterflies are attached with invisible nylon thread from the top of the acetate. Then the 'tent' was added to the front and back of the stepper, as well as the patterned paper mats on the front, back and top.

To turn this into a card that people can write on, you can always add a panel of white card onto the back mat.

This card also conveniently folds flat for posting. 

Stamps Used:

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

Other Supplies:

Heat embossable acetate, white card, pink card, versamark clear ink, WOW! metallic gold sparkle embossing glitter, alcohol pens, distress oxide inks (shaded lilac, picked raspberry, spun sugar, nylon 'invsible' thread and needle, coordinating ribbon.


I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
A Place To Start April - Anything goes with twist of 3 or 5 (5 flowers and 5 butterflies inside the tent of this card.
Addicted To Stamps #173 - Lots of layers (stamps or papers)
Always Fun Challenge #105 - Flowers (they are there inside the tent!)
Crafting With Friends #2 - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenge #199 - Shaped Cards no squares or rectangles ------ not sure if this qualifies so feel free to delete my entry if it doesn't.
Get Creative #79 - Anything Goes - no twist
L'il Patch Of Crafty Friends Challenge #103 - Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge #4 April - 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

That's it from me for now. Thanks for stopping by, it was lovely to see you and I really hope you'll be back again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx