Less is More #416 - OLC No Sentiment

Hi there, It's love it or hate it time at Less is More today; yes the dreaded One Layer Card challenge and this time we're adding in a 'No Sentiment' theme.

Cue Card

Sponsor https://cas-ualfridaysstamps.com/products

I've used the same stamp set as last time only on today's card it has been repeat stamped to create a circular pattern and it was coloured with Zigs going from a direct to paper technique (in the dark areas) then using a water brush to pull the colour into the lighter areas. Incredibly easy and very few supplies used too!

STAMPS:   CAS-ual Fridays Stamps (Mon Ami)  
INKS:  Versafine Onyx Black 
PENS:   Zig Clean Color Real Brushes (050 yellow, 202 peach pink, 070 orange)
OTHER:   waterbrush, acrylic block, white card blank.

That's it from me for now. Head on over to the challenge blog for some fantastic inspiration from the design team.  See you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Sparkling Acetate

How is everyone doing? I do hope you are all being sensible and keeping yourselves and your families as safe as possible during this nasty virus outbreak. At least those of us that are well and self-isolating will now have more time to craft. Even if you are working from home you'll probably still have more time as you won't have any travel time to get to and from work.

For me, it means I won't have any friends or family coming over to stay, so I actually had some time to make a super-sparkly acetate card for my Visible Image design team inspiration this week. Just look at the sparkles on this quick video of the card. (I was filming one handed so I do fumble when opening the card!)

Isn't that Renaissance stencil stunning? It is so beautiful and I adore it!

So how did I make this one? It was easy-peasy to make, but you just need time for the paste to set.

Take a piece of acetate ( if you look closely you can see the acetate in this photo) and tape your pretty stencil over the acetate with low-tack tape.

Now spread a translucent dimension paste over the stencil. Very carefully remove the tape and the stencil, then sprinkle glamour dust, or another equivalent glitter, all over the wet paste, tap off the excess and leave it to dry completely. Ideally, leave it overnight.

When dry, trim and score the acetate to make it into a card blank, with the glittery part on the front.

Next take your image and stamp and emboss it with a black embossing powder, then fussy cut it out.

Glue the image to the front of your card.

Take a piece of black card to mat behind the image and tape or glue it on the on the inside of the card. I chose black card because it shows the pattern of the stencil better than white did, plus it was difficult to see the thin double sided tape from the very front of the card.

Now take two identical sized pieces of white card for the area to write your message on the inside and add your 'made by' sticker or stamp to the back.

To line all those mats up, I placed one piece of white card with the dst/glue side facing upwards, on top of the black card and simply closed the acetate over the top. In this photo you can see from the very back of the card when it was closed that the DST shows through, so ....

...now it is ready to add the other piece of white card to cover this DST on the very back of the card blank. This gives a professional, finished look, especially when you add your made by stamp to the very back piece.

And there you have it! A card to impress but super-simple to make.

Stamps Used:

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

Other Supplies:

Hunkydory Crafts Acetate, low tack masking tape, Sweet Poppy Stencil Dimensions transluscent paste, DecorArt Glamour Dust (crystal), Versamark clear ink, WOW! primary ebony embosiing powder, white card, black card, double sided tape.

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

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 #415 - Red, Raspberry and Grey

Hi there! I'm here today to show you my card for the incredible colour challenge over at Less is More. This is such a fantastic combination and I really enjoyed making my card with it.

Also: NEWS FLASH: we're sadly going to be losing Nonni from our design team so there is a DT call going on for anyone that is interested in joining the LIM team. Personally I will really miss Nonni because she has worked so hard for us and always given awesome inspiration for every challenge, but I'm glad to say that she'll still be see on social media in the future.

Cue Card

Sponsor https://cas-ualfridaysstamps.com/products

Head on over to the challenge blog for some fantastic inspiration from the design team, and to find out how to enter the DT call.

On my card today, I stamped the flower head upside down and added stalks freehand with a black Zig pen (I may need a bit more practice with my freehand work!). The flowers were coloured with zigs by adding the clear pink to the top of the petals, the grey to the bottom and then by filling in the gradient by touching the two pen brushes together so that the pigment from one was picked up by the other. When you colour that way the colour in the brush nib gradually goes back to the original pen colour and you have a good gradient from one shade to another. The leaf was also stamped and coloured with the red zig, adding a central vein freehand with the grey pen. The sentiment was stamped and the panel was mounted onto the pink and red mats and then onto a grey card base. Finally, the liquid pearl dots were added and left to dry.

STAMPS:  Casual Fridays Mon Ami
INKS:   Versafine onyx black
PENS:  Zig Clean Color Real Brushes ( 010 black, 022 carmine red, 025 pink, 092 blue gray) 
OTHER:   Grey, red, pink and white cardstock, Liquid Pearls ruby red

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #414 - Big and Small

Hi there. It's a Lucky Dip at Less is More and the theme is 'Big and Small'. I opted for a super-quick card with big and small squares because I'm still battling against getting enough spare time to craft and blog etc.

(Hmmm.....that pattern kind of reminds me of the police!)

STAMPS: Uniko (background builders squared, an pure florals cosmos)
INKS:   Versmark clear, Versafine onyx black
OTHER:   White card, black card, WOW! opaque bright white embossing powder, 3d foam

Cue Card

Sponsor http://www.uniko.co.uk/shop/

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

I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Beautiful Leaves - Some No Line Colouring

Hi! How are you doing? Great I hope.

Today I have some no-line colouring with some of the gorgeous brand new stamps by Visible Image. The latest release from Visible Image has some fabulous  stamps and stencils in it; there really is something for everyone.

I love that there is a larger size of this particular leaf in this new set because it is just the perfect size for a bit of colouring. So, I cut a piece of  Strathhmore Toned Grey paper to a mat size for a 15cm x 15cm card and added a square post-it note in the centre.

Then the leaf was stamped all around the paper using a light grey ink.

Any gaps were filled in with the flowerhead from one of the flower stamps in the same stamp set, and then I set about colouring it.

When colouring with polychromos pencils, the first thing I do is lay down some white in the areas that I want to have white in them, because it is impossible to add that later. Then I used a light green to softly colour where the leaf appeard inside the bubble, and I used 2 blue pencils to add a bit of shading to the bubbles to make them look 3d. (The arc that you can see in the photo must have been a reflection of something because it's not there, or it moves, in other photos).

Then I moved on to the leaf veins, which were coloured in the darkest green, and added a little yellow on some of the leaf spots. I varied where theses spots appeared on most of the leaves for a bit of interest.

Next the rest of the leaf was coloured in. Four different shades of greens were used, the lightest at the top and the darkest at the bottom. I also blended some darker shades around the leaf veins,

and then the pink flower heads were tackled. I added blue for shading to separate the petals and just used pinks for the petals, again the lightest at the top by the white and the darkest at the bottom.

Carry on in this way all around the card. A lovely relaxing thing to do!

Now it just needs the sentiment heat embossing in the centre and mounting onto some gold card and a bit more grey paper. Put it all on a card blank 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:

Strathmore Toned Grey paper, Square post-it note, Memento London Fog Ink, Polychromos pencils ( 101 white, 104 light yellow glaze, 110 phthalo blue, 112 leaf green, 123 fuchsia, 125 middle pink purple, 129 pink madder lake, 140 light ultramarine, 159 hooker's green, 171 light green, 266 permanent green), Versamark Clear Embossing ink, WOW! metallic gold rich embossing powder, gold mirror card, white card blank. 

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

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

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Less is More #413 - More (but still CAS)

Well, I had so many ideas for today's Less is More challenge, but time just ran out on me once again. I did manage to make this one card though.

Cue Card

Sponsor http://www.uniko.co.uk/shop/

So the idea is to use lots of small stamps, be it images or sentiments, but making sure the design is still CAS.

This is one of my cards made with the capsule crafting idea that Kristina Werner is doing in February I mentioned it and added links to Kristina's videos about it in my last LIM post). I am totally sold on this capsule crafting idea now because this card came together in minutes. I really stretches your imagination to have a very limited set of supplies, but the bonus is you don't ummm and errrr and dally about whilst deciding what to use.

Here's what I used on my card:

STAMPS: Uniko Originally Organic Additions       
DIES: Sugar Pea Designs Card Front Builder  
INKS: Hunkydory Prism (Butterscotch, Cinnamon Swirl, French Navy, Blue Lagoon, Artic Mist), Versamark Clear Embossing Ink
OTHER:  White Card, WOW! Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder, 3d foam tape. 

Don't forget to pop over to the LIM blog for lots of amazing inspiration from the design team.
Thanks for popping by and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx

Alternative Sentiment Designs

Hi! I'm back with my second post of today. Here is another 3 card designs that I came up with yesterday that use some of the soon-to-be-released stamps by Visible Image (you can see the other designs by clicking HERE). These stamps are available on pre-order until 15th February 2020 and they are such fun to use! You'll be glad to see that this post is much shorter than the other one, and hopefully I'm showing versatility in these cards that I hope will spark some additonal ideas for you.

Let's start with this striking red card. Honestly, it is SO easy to make if you have some of those inch wide ink cubes.

First cut a piece of white card slightly smaller than your card blank and stamp your sentiment onto it. Attach it to your work surface with masking tape. Tear a bit of scrap paper and use masking tape to secure it over the top of the piece of white card. Now drag your ink cube from the scap paper onto the white card, reducing the pressure as you get towards the middle of the card. Repeat this all the way down the edge. Now do the same again with a darker ink pad, reducing the pressure a lot earlier.

Before you remove the scrap paper and masking tape, stamp some of the heart images along the red part using your darker ink.

Stamp and heat emboss 3 hearts in gold embossing powder onto gold mirri card and fussy cut them out.

Attach the inked white card to a red card blank (or cut a mat of red card) and then add the golden hearts with 3d foam.

Now for the blue sympathy card.

Cut a white panel again and using a light blue ink and a cloud mask, blend some clouds all over the panel.

Stamp the sentiment into place. The stamp the wings into place using 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation ink so that they get lighter as the move further away from the sentiment.

Mount the panel onto a blue card blank (or onto a blue mat, and then onto a card blank).

Finally The Thank You Card

Cut a white panel and doodle a border.

Mask off the border and stamp the 'Thank You' into place first, then stamp the heart at various heights across the bottom of the panel.

TIP: Always think about your design and what items you are going to use. Don't do as I did, I used the wrong type of ink for alcohol markers!!! Luckily I manage to work so that the ink didn't smudge into the coloured area (I should have used and ink like Memento).

Colour the heart at the top of the 'thank you' stalk, then doodle some simple patterns into the remaining hearts. Attach this to a black mat and then add the whole thing to a card blank.

Stamps Used:

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

           

Other Items:

Papermill card (white hopsack and smooth red, blue and black), gold mirri card, Distress Ink (varn door, aged mahogany, tumbled glass), Versafine onyx black ink, Prism ink (blue lagoon), Versamark clear embossing ink, WOW! metallic gold rich embossing powder, 3d foam pads, cloud mask, blending foam, black micron pen, Promarkers (cerise, carmine and hot pink), masking tape

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

That's it from me for now. Don't forget to take a peek at the other cards I made with these sets by clicking HERE. Thanks for stopping by and I really hope to see you again soon.

Hugs,
Sharon xx