Less is More Challenge 369 - Bring Something Back

It's been a very long time since I did any bloggin or joined in with card challenges, but I felt I had to join the Less is More Challenge when I saw the theme: Bring Something Back.  It was just coincidence that Sunday afternoon I had been playing with my Rollergraph wheel, which hasn't been used for years, when I hopped onto the Less is More blog just out of interest.

For anyone not ever seeing a Rollergraph wheel before, here it is:

I've got seven different wheels and it's such a shame not to use them so I will be making more use out of them from now on.

Oh, and I also used Grosgrain ribbon from my stash on the card which is also something that was very popular some years ago.

Thank you for dropping by.

Sue.x

Less is More Week 240 - Colour Challenge

This is what the challenge is this week:

It's time for another colour challenge and we have chosen

Green & Gold

 We would like you to keep any additional colours to neutral tones and make it obvious which two colours are this week's chosen shades.

There doesn't have to be a lot of each colour... just remember to keep your design 

Clean and Simple 

with lots of white space!

And here's my entry:

Gold card is sooo difficult to photograph - it took umpteen times to get a reasonable photo.

The Noel was cut out using my Cameo
The trees were cut out with a Sizzix Paddlepunch, before that the card was run through a holly embossing folder which was coloured with green ink - I then coloured the holly leaves and berries with a gold pen.
A few sequins finished the card.

Thanks for dropping by

Sue.x

Mr Fantashtic

A card for the guys!  Most of us struggle with those I think, but I found an Indigo blu set called Mr Fantashtic on sale on the Clare Curd website - a real bargain so I treated myself to them.  

Here's my recipe:

Indigo blu Mr Fantashtic stamps

Clock stamp was a Do Craft freebie with a magazine

Background mask - That Special Touch

Hobby Art sentiment stamp

A foam stamp I've had in my stash for ages from QVC - don't know who made them

Dimensional gloss for the monocle

Domed resin sticker for the front of the clock

Vintage photo Distress Ink

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenge:

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/week-251-all-about-boy.html

Thanks for dropping by.

Sue.x

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!  I hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend, despite the weather!

Here's a couple of cards I've made over the last couple of days:

This one is for my BIL - the dreaded male card:

I love this clock stamp by Kaisercraft.  I stamped and embossed it with Black Soot distress ink and then used Inkylicious blending brushes to add some colour -I used Pumice Stone and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.

The 'Birthday' was cut out with my Cameo and the rest of the sentiment is from Stick n Stamp.  I had a bunch of bottle caps in my stash for ages so thought I'd add one for a bit of interest.  Here it is close up:

I punched a piece of the clock stamp and then put an epoxy sticker over the top.  I really like it.

A bit of string just finished it off.

The next one is for my little niece:

I'm still loving my Tatty Teddy cd - I don't usually do decoupage but I thought I'd give it a go for this one.

The background paper and sentiment is also from the cd.  He's just so cute!

Sue.x

My second Less is More - One Layer Card

 

 

Here's my second card for the Less is More challenge for this week - a one layer card with little or no embellishments and should feature music.

 

I've used the same Kaisercraft and Paula Pascqual stamps from my previous post and added some Tea Die and Vintage Photo ink.  The musical note was cut out with my Cameo.

 

Sue.x

 



A bit of Steam Punk

And now for something completely off the wall for me -  a bit of Steam Punk!

Those of you that regularly visit my blog know that my usual style is CAS, but I saw Ali from Stamps Away demonstrating some 'That Special Touch' masks on Create and Craft and really like them, especially this winged dressform. 

To create my card I embossed the mask through my Grand Calibur and then used a variety of Distress Inks to build up the colour.

The ticket was a print and cut using my Cameo and the butterfly was also cut out on my Cameo and I overstamped it with Hero Arts  Art, Life and Beauty stamp and again added the same colours of Distress Inks to it.

The ribbon is American Seam binding which has also had the Distress Ink treatment and I dug the metal charm out of my stash.

Not really sure it'll become my regular thing, but I did enjoy making it.

It just so happens that the charismacardz challenge this week is to add metal charms so I'm going to enter into it with this card.

Sue.x

Faux Letterpress

I'm sure you're all sick to death of me bleating on about my Cameo, so for this post I promise I won't mention it again.  So, for something completely different:

I thought I'd have a go at the Faux Letterpress tutorial by Beate here on the Splitcoaststampers blog.  What a great technique, I love it - it's so easy.  I don't get nearly enough use out of my embossing folders, so I will definitely be doing more of this.

Here's the card I made with it:

I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder and Weathered Wood Distress Ink for the faux letterpress - I hope you can see the colours ok.  The Distress Ink has given a kind of dotty effect - I quite like it, but will try a different sort of ink next time for a more solid colour.


  I also used my new Spellbinders Fleur De Lis die and various other punches for the rest.  The sentiment is from Stamping Up and I used the same Distress Ink to stamp it.

Sue.x

Less is more week 53 - Colour Aqua

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY LESS IS MORE

I'm a bit late with my LIM card this week.  It's been so cold I really didn't want to spend too much time in my craft room (I live in a very old, draughty but beautiful cottage with single glazed windows and my room is above the garage making it especially hard to heat up).  But, as it's the first birthday for Chrissie and Mandi's fabulous challenge blog I couldn't miss this week. 

The them is the colour aqua.  Not a colour I use often so I took a tip from Chrissie and used the same ink pad as she did on her card - Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

The background is a beautiful stamp by Anna Griffin.  The sentiment is HoTP.  The flowers have all been cut out with my Cameo and coloured with the same Distress Ink.  I added the ribbon at the top because it looked a bit bottom heavy.  I hope this isn't too fussy for a less is more card.

That's it for now - my fingers are beginning to seize up. Stay warm!

Sue.x

Faux Leather Notepad Holder

I saw these beautiful faux leather covers for post it notes on gayle's blogspot and really wanted to have a crack at them.  I'd already seen the faux leather technique using the Cuttlebug Tiny Mosaic Texture folder and Gayle very kindly sent me the Studio cutting file so I could cut the shape out on my Cameo machine.

I used Faded Jean Distress Ink for my folder. The faux fastening is a finding I had in my stash and attached it with a glue gun.

I got the magnets from Hobbycraft but they're not that strong so I may have to invest in some of the Basic Grey ones that Gayle used on hers.

I think these would make a nice little inexpensive gift for someone to keep in their handbag or on their desk at work.  

I If you fancy having a go yourself visit  gayle's blog for a link to some Youtube tutorials.

Thanks for dropping by

Sue.x

Tis the Season

Hi all.  Hope you're enjoying your weekend. Can you believe it's only 3 weeks till Christmas Day?  I'm still trying to plough through my cards so I'm just posting this and then I'm going to turn off the computer and get on with it.

I haven't done many cutie cards recently, but I have this lovely little digistampboutique image which I won in the Charisma Card challenge that I just had to use.

Here's the recipe:

Digistamp Boutique image

Promarkers

Stable and Star - Print and Cut image done with my Cameo

Pale blue card for the circle

Stormy Sky Distress Ink for shading 

Kraft card

HOTP faux stitch stamp and sentiment

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, whatever you're doing.

Sue.x

Less is more week 41 - Leaves

Brilliant! Chrissie and Mandi have done it again!  They've come up with a challenge this week which enables me to use another stamp (or should I say cube) which has been sadly neglected.

The challenge for this week is LEAVES and it just so happened that I had my Judikins Fall Leaves cube out on my desk which I intended to use on last week's card but didn't use in the end.

Looking at the card now, I wish I'd changed the direction of one of the centre leaves and stamped it a bit more 'off the page', but hey ho, never mind.

I coloured the leaves with Promarkers and sponged Distress Inks between masked lines.  I added some embossed lines and a HOTP sentiment.

Unfortunately, the quality of the cardstock is really poor.  It's from a stash of cream cards and envelopes I bought from Create and Craft a while ago for £4.95 for about 100 (I think).  You get what you pay for - it'll do for layering or even maybe a distressed card. It already has the distressed look without any effort.

Sue.x

Red and Orange

Hope you've been having a great weekend. What glorious weather it's been considering the time of year. Lovely for taking a walk and seeing all the beautiful colours nature gives us in autumn - stunning.

I've used some of those stunning colours for my card today; red and orange which also work for the two challenges I'm entering it into: bonfire/firework colours.

Here's what I used:

Shaped card cut out on my Silhouette

Lavinia leaves, Fairy and Toadstool stamps

Stamping Up Pocket Silhouettes

Versafine Onyx black inkpad

Fired Brick and Wild Honey Distress Inks

Tim Holtz blender applicator and sponges

Fine glitter

Liquid pearls

This was a lovely messy one to do. Inky fingers all over the place, great fun.

Here's the challenges I'm entering:

http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/2011/11/challenge-189-baby-youre-firework.html

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/11/week-40.html

That's it from me. I'm off to play with some of my NEC goodies this afternoon. 

Bye for now.

Sue.x

And now for something completely different.....

.............. Vintage.  This is not my usual style, as you know, CAS is my thing.  

I do love the vintage/distressed/layered and design papers look, but I'm just not very good at it.  I often go on a blog hop and admire the beautiful work done by loads of talented people and wish I could create something half as good.  I decided to have a bit of a play yesterday as I had the whole afternoon to myself and a stack of Distress Inks that never get used. I realised another reason I stick to CAS, they're quick and easy to do while this card took me hours.

Here's it is:

I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out. Here's what I used:

Sugar Nellie Daisy stamp

Prisma pencils

Top note shape cut out on my Silhouette

Cuttlebug embossing folder

HOTP papers

Distress ink - Tea Dye and Vintage Photo

Bakers Twine

American Seam binding coloured with Distress ink

Claire Curd sentiment

Button from stash

I've found I can enter this into loads of challenges this week:

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.com/2011/10/challenge-119-vintage.html

http://cupcakecraftchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/10/cupcake-164-buttons-and-bows.html

http://totallypapercrafts.blogspot.com/2011/10/challenge-89-layer-upon-layer.html

http://charismacardz.blogspot.com/2011/10/challenge-42-embossing.html

Have a great weekend and hopefully I'll be back soon with my usual Less is more card - I'm off now to see what this week's challenge is.

One other thing before I go - I've gained a few new followers recently, so I would just like to say welcome and thank you so much for choosing to follow me, I really appreciate it.

Sue.x

Less is more week 36

Afternoon all! Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

Still loving taking part in the lessismore challenges, you may have noticed.  This week's challenge has been a great one for me again.  So quick and easy. Here's what Chrissie and Mandi asked for:

The ♥ can be singular, multiple, any colour, but, MUST be a one layer card, with no additional layers stuck on, apart from the odd embellishment or ribbon!

And here's my card:

I used my Silhouette to cut out a heart shape and sponged Fired Brick and Walnut Stain Distress inks through the aperture.  I then stamped the sentiment with my Whispers Word stamp using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  

Sue.x

Less is more week 32 - Seeing double

Whoa! Where did this week go? Went back to work on Monday after the 'big' holiday - not too bad.  Then the week sort of just went and before I knew it, it's that time again, another lessismore challenge.  

This is what Chrissie and Mandi have come up with for this week:

ONE LAYER CARD
entitled
SEEING DOUBLESo on your entry this week, we'd like to see TWO of something.

For my entry I've used stamps from a Creative Expressions set (sorry, can't remember the name).  I stamped the glass twice and then the bottle.  I used lots of masking to colour the image with various Distress inks.

I like this challenge, really quick and easy unlike the struggle I had last week. lol!

Right, I have to shoot, my OH is giving me earache to start getting ready to go out this evening.

Hope you're all having a great weekend, I'll be catching up with some blogging tomorrow as OH is off to the match.

Sue.x

Less is more - Week 18 - Monochrome

I'm back! It's so nice to be home.

Hope you're all well and looking forward to the weekend.

Sadly, for the first time since it started, I missed the lessismore challenge last week and I nearly ran out of time for this one as I appeared to have left my mojo on holiday until today when I came up with 3 things I wanted to do.

1. Use this really old Inkadinkado stamp I dug out of my stamp drawer (another sadly neglected stamp)

2. Get a bit more practise using my Silhouette to cut around stamped images

3. Use my Distress Inks (got a whole stash of them and hardly use them)

So, this is what I did:

Scanned my image into the Silhouette software and cut the outline

Stamped the image using Walnut Stain Distress Ink positioning it carefully over the cut outline

Cut out a circle with Nesties and inked with the same Walnut Stain ink

Used the computer to generate the sentiment changing the font colour to match the Walnut Stain ink.

My Silhouette machine continues to amaze me with each new feature I discover on it.  I just love it (sorry, I've probably said that once too often).  I bought my machine second hand off e-bay a couple of years ago and it's been brilliant.  I have the original machine and I was wondering whether to upgrade to the newer SD one (Create and Craft have quite a good deal on at the moment with flexi pays).  If anyone has had the Original and changed theirs to a newer model - what do you think?  Is it worth it?

Sue.x

Thank you

Hi all, hope you all had a great weekend and for those of you interested, enjoyed the wedding on Friday. I intended to watch the service, but ended up in front of the TV from 7.30am until 1.45pm.  What a wonderful day it was!

Well, my lovely daughter has gone back to uni so I have taken the opportunity to sit at my craft desk and had a little play.  This is the card I made. 

Originally it was going to be my entry into this week's less is more challenge, but I'm not sure it really fits the CAS look (I'm going to enter it anyway - I'm sure the ladies will let me know if it's too OTT for the challenge), so I've decided to enter it into the following:

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-13-lucky-dip-thank-you-or.html

http://just-add-ink.blogspot.com/2011/04/jai-66-just-add-flower.html

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.com/2011/04/challenge-96-anything-goes.html

This is what I used:

Silhouette machine for the frame, leaves and flowers

K&Co background paper

Computer for the sentiment

Antique Linen Distress Ink for inking the edges of the frame and flowers/leaves

Just before I go, I would like to congratulate the very talented Kerry on becoming the guest designer at Less is More - it's very well deserved.  Kerry has always been a great source of inspiration for me from the beginning of my cardmaking.  Please visit her blog if you get chance, it's well worth it.

Hope you like it!

Sue.x

Less is more challenge - Masculine

Afternoon all! Hope you're having a lovely Sunday - well rested and looking forward to a new week! 

I'm quicker off the mark this week with my entry into the http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/ challenge.  The theme for this week is masculine, always a bit daunting for most of us I think. 

For my card I've used all Clarity stamps inked with Adirondack Pitch black and I've also used the same technique as in my last post - masking off an area and adding Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  A very easy, quick card.

I'm off now to visit as many entries into the Less is More challenge as I can this afternoon, before tucking into my lamb dinner. yummy, can't wait.

Sue.x

Charisma Cardz Challenge - Week 8 Black, white and one other colour

How gorgeous are these Hero Arts butterfly stamps? - I've had them since my birthday last October and, yet again , a set that has never been inked before today! Shameful!

I used a nestie to emboss around the Love stamp in the centre of the card and then stamped the butterflies directly onto the card and then again on another piece of card, cut them out and added some Faded Jeans Distress Ink to the wings and then decoupaged on top.  I've added a few blue crystals along the body.

And that's it. Another very quick card.

I'm going to enter this into the charismacardz challgeng which is for a black, white and one other colour card.

Sue.x

Less is more challenge 4 - 3 Squares

 3    S   Q   U   A   R   E   S  

This is the challenge Chrissie and Mandi at the lessismoore challenge has set for this week.

If you haven't yet visited the ladies at their challenge blog, please do, as they also have hints, tips and tutorials on a range of techniques. Worth a visit.

Well, I can't believe I've been so quick off the mark. I think this must be a record for me, getting a card in on the first day of a challenge.

For my card I've used a Nesties square and embossed it three times onto a piece of card and then stamped my images into the centre and added a bit of Distress Ink around the edges.  The card has been mounted onto a piece of black card which has been punced at the bottom with the Martha Stewart Doily punch. I've added some gold ribbon from my stash and mounted the whole lot onto some nice linen effect card.

The picture is a bit dark I'm afraid. I think I've spent more time trying to get a decent picture than it did to make the card, so this will have to do. 

Hubby is off to Wembley tomorrow to watch the cup final, so I have the whole day to myself - what joy!  I will be in my little craft room crafting away to my heart's content.

Sue.x