Less is More Week 8

It's recipe or sketch time at Less is More - Chrissie and Mandy have given us a sketch to play with this time around. It's a DL card, tall and slim (for our friends in North America - it's roughly equivalent to taking two thirds of a letter size sheet and folding in half; the sort of size you'd get for a business letter or bank statement!).

I used the same Technique Tuesday set I used on Friday as it was still out on my desk. The original plan was just to use the flower in the place where there's a circle on the sketch but it looked just a tad out of scale so I ended up creating a little group and breaking over the boundaries of the card. No colouring though and this flower is a really easy shape to cut out so it was still a fast card to put together.

The embossed area at the bottom has just a hint of colour - I brayered Bundled Sage ink onto my folder before running it through the Big Shot.

Stamps:
Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Cryogen white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Bundled Sage)

Other:
Embossin folder by Provocraft (Victoria)
Copic marker (to colour the brown strip and the pearls)
Pearls

I always find this shape card looks much better in real life than it does in photos - maybe it's the proof that not everything long and lean is photogenic?!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunshine flowers

We've had a few sunny days this week - enough to bring the daffodils out in profusion! So this week's "free for all" challenge at Splitcoast Stampers felt like one to join in with since the theme is "hello sunshine". I went for a "hello" card in sunny colours.

I just got this little set as a gift (thank you Laura!) and love this sketchy flower! I used a technique that makes for a really fast way to colour something like this - just heat emboss with either clear or white powder and then flood each area with a drop of reinker on a wet paintbrush. The colour will spread out to the embossed lines and you'll get some natural variation going on with no effort at all!

I thought the delicate skeleton leaves would provide a nice textural contrast to the bold lines of the flower. I have a stash of neutral coloured ones and just use a Copic marker to get whatever colour I want for a particular project.

Stamps:
Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Kraft

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko
Distress ink reinker (Spiced Marmalade)

Other:
Skeleton leaves
Clear detail embossing powder
White detail embossing powder
Pearls
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers

Thanks for stopping by, hope your day has plenty of sunshine!

Little reader

I'm combining challenges again today - Effie is providing a fortnightly sketch over on UKStampers (this is number 6) and in the Crafty Secrets member forum at Splitocoast Stampers, Marcy has challenged us to layer up our images this week.

Here I've layered the hands onto the book, the book onto the little reader and the little reader onto the stack of books (so four images all together). I used scraps of card between each layer so there's a little dimension but not too much. Perhaps it's because I have always been an avid reader myself that this is one one of my favourite stamps ever!

There's a lady in my area who runs a little enterprise called "What Katy did next". She sells lots of recyled stuff aimed at the crafter - one of the things she does is rescue pages from books that are not fit for resale through charity shops etc and puts them together into packs of 50 assorted pages. You could get anything from Beano album pages through sheet music and atlas pages! My pack had quite a few children's story book pages and I've used one of them here. I rubbed gesso onto the page with my finger (using a Nestie as a stencil) and doodled a border round it to create a little "story world" for him.

Mats and decorative strips are all coloured with Copics to match the colours I used on the image.

Stamps:
Story of Me (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Old book page
Smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic Markers
Tim Holtz Alterations die by Sizzix (Brackets)
Vintage buttons
Gesso
Nestability by Spellbinder (used as stencil)
Zig drawing pen
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Little boy birthday

The challenge on Less is More this week is for a clean and simple masculine card. I seem to be always in need of little boys' birthday cards so I decided to go "young masculine" for this one!

The punched out letters are coated with Glossy Accents to give them a nice domed finish and the black dots anchoring the orange strip are actually the waste from die cutting tags that have a hole at the top. I added a dot of Glossy Accents on those too.

None of the boys I send cards to are really little monsters but I do love this crazy little character for kids' cards!

Stamps:
Little Guy (Cornish Heritage Farms, retired)
Old Book alpha stamps
Word "birthday" from HOTP set

Paper:
Kraft
Black
Orange
White

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite black)
Versacraft by Tsukinkeko (Spring Green)

Other:
Copic markers
Small circle punch
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers
Glossy Accents by Ranger

Thanks for stopping by!

Golden Santa

I've combined a couple of challenges today - Hazel's Christmas challenge this week is to "go for gold" and I used the sketch from Splitcoast Stampers' regular Wednesday challenge. I did a mirror image of the sketch provided as my Santa needed to face into the card to look right.

My background piece was made by sponging ink onto milky white cardstock and then dragging the edge of an old credit card over an ink pad and onto the panel. I used some variegated metal leaf to make a random frame round the Santa image and rubbed some Rub n Buff wax over it to blend the colours a little and make it a bit more subtly golden rather than very bright in-your-face metallic! As it is, the golden splodge combined with the glitter framing made it very difficult to get a decent photograph.

The sentiment is embossed with white powder onto a piece of metal from a tomato paste tube cut with a Spellbinder die and aged with a Copic marker and a little more Rub n Buff.

I was aiming for a bit random and worn with the glittered border but I'm not sure that it doesn't just look a bit slapdash- ah well!

Stamps:
Noel 2 (Paperartsy)
Sentiment from Season's Greetings (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Cryogen White

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Detail white embossing powder
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Copic markers (Santa is slightly tinted with Eggshell, Pale Cherry Pink and Warm Grey 1)
Easy Metal by Eberhard Faber
Tomato paste tube
Fancy labels dies by Spellbinder
Sewing machine and thread
Spica glitter pen (red and green)
Fine gold glitter

Thanks for stopping by!

Take flight!

I'm hosting the challenge this week in the Crafty Secrets member forum over at Splitcoast Stampers. I've asked people to Take Flight and use anything on their projects that can fly!

I went a little bit quirky today – the lady is cut out from one of the vintage advertising images in the Earthy Paper Pad and I stamped the butterfly wings from the Altered Art set for her to try for size. I stamped Dream/Imagine/Beautiful randomly over the background and sponged over a clock mask as well. After stamping I decided I wanted to accentuate the word Believe so I went over it carefully with a Zig fine point drawing pen.

When I make a shaped card like this I like to get the full shape on the front so I make a card base by putting the fold of the blank just inside the top cutting edge of the die and then cut a separate piece and stick it over the top so it covers the fold.

Stamps (all Crafty Secrets):
Altered Art
Believe
Mini Memories

Paper:
Earthy Paper Pad (Heartwarming Vintage)
Cryogen White

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso and Latte)

Other:
Copic markers
Timeworks mask by Tim Holtz
Nestabilities by Spellbinder (Labels 1)
Rub n buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Zig drawing pen
Foam pads

Thanks for stopping by!

Off the edge

It's one layer week at Less is More and the challenge this time is to stamp off the edge of the card.

I didn't find this too challenging as it's something I quite often do with CAS designs - either off the edge of the card itself or off a panel if it's not a one layer project. I think it helps to avoid the "floating in nothing" problem and often creates a sense of movement, too.

I stamped the balloon off the edge and masked it, then masked off the square and sponged ink over a torn piece of paper to create a slightly cloudy look to the sky. I ran a marker round the inside edge of a Nestie to create the fine borderline - the Memento markers are good for this as they have a nice firm, fine nib as well as the brush one.

Stamps:
Hot Air Balloon (unknown maker - if you recognise it, I'd love to know!)
Sentiment from Ornamental Beauty set (CHF, retired)

Paper:
smooth white

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite black)
Distress ink by Ranger to sponge the sky (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Copic markers
Nestie (used as template)
Memento marker (Tuxedo Black)

Thanks for stopping by!

Swallow song - Less is More #5

I learned something about myself this week - I really, really don't work well with pastel colours! This week's Less is More challenge is a colour one, being the first week of the month and we've been asked to use pastels.

I lost count of how many projects were consigned to the circular file* before I finally made something I felt I could show anybody else! Deciding to go for a healthy dollop of black mixed in with the pastels was the only way I could remedy the situation.

I used chalk in blue, pink and mauve to make a softly dawning sky on some white card and then stamped my birds and sentiment over the top. I added just a touch of grey marker to the birds' breast feathers.

Unbelievably I'm out of black card so the mat here is white card with a black marker run round the edge. I popped the panel up on a bit of foam tape, just to add a little depth.

I don't think I've ever used this sentiment from the set before and I confess that the proofreader part of me struggled with it as it contains something I often correct in other people's work! It's something that is passing into more and more common usage though so I suspect I'm fighting a losing battle. (For those of you of a less nitpicky disposition: there's a plural word being used as a singular - "a child" is singular and therefore it can only be "he has forgotten" or "she has forgotten". We'd have to be talking about the plural "children" for "they have forgotten" to be correct. The use of "they" is an attempt to make it gender-neutral but grammatically it's just wrong!) In the end, I allowed the lure of using a song-based sentiment with a bird image to win out over grammatical squeamishness!

Stamps:
Tree swallow silhouette and sentiment from Mother's Day Centers (both Cornish Heritage Farms, retired)

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Chalks by Pebbles Inc
Black and C1 markers by Copic
Foam tape
Spray sealant by Windsor and Newton

Thanks for stopping by!

* for those who have never come across the expression, "consigned to the circular file" means it hit the waste bin/trash can

Retro circles Santa

Hazel's Christmas challenge is up to week 10 already - eek! This week she's asking us to use embossing on our cards (dry or heat embossing, either is fine).

I think this Santa has a rather retro feel so I've teamed him up with the Retro Circles embossing folder and a brighter green than your average Christmas card for a funkier feel. Baker's twine makes a candy stripe edging and the larger circle is coated in glass glitter for a super sparkly finish.

Photographing the shimmery cardstock was a bit of a nightmare this morning - we have glaring sunshine interspersed with fierce snow showers here in Northumberland. Definitley not the weather for March!

Stamps:
Holly Jolly Christmas and Season’s Greetings clear stamps (Technique Tuesday)

Paper:
Bazzill Bling (Petty Cash)
Black
Simply Smooth

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Satin Red)

Other:
Copic markers
Texture Fade embossing folder by Tim holtz/Sizzix (Retro Circles)
Scor It
Baker’s twine
Circle punch by Fiskars
Deko Ice glitter by Efco (Crystal)
Foam pads
Double sided adhesive tape sheet

Thanks for stopping by!

Cherry Hello

It's Lori's turn to set the challenge over in the Crafty Secrets member company forum at Splitcoast Stampers. Inspired by the approach of St Patrick's day, she's asked us to use green on our projects.

I used the cherry stamp to make a pattern at the top of my card base with a pale green ink and then sponged a little for a green haze! My green panel is Bazzill Bling so it has a bit of a shimmer in real life. The brown at the bottom was coloured with a Copic marker as I didn't have any cardstock in the colour I wanted.

This is a cute little size - 4" square.

Stamps:
Kitchen Classics set plus sentiment from Mini Memories (Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Smooth white
Bazzill Bling (Petty Cash)

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)
Memento by Tsukineko (New Sprout)

Other:
Copic markers
Gingham ribbon
Edge punch by Fiskars (Threading Water)
Tracing wheel
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers
Tags Trio dies by Spellbinder

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Art Journey Challenge

I saw the latest Art Journey challenge on Paula's blog and thought it would be a fun one to play along with. It's been set by Jo and is called "You used WHAT?" - the idea being to use something you wouldn't usually use as part of stamping or inking your design.

My entry is just for fun, not for the prize draw since although my stamp is an Art Journey design it's the cover-mount freebie from Craft Stamper Magazine (March 2010 issue).

I used a piece of netting from a produce bag (Christmas-time tangerines, I suspect - it was a bit I saved in my "might be useful" stash of stuff!). I taped it to my cutting mat to stop it moving around while I sponged ink over the top of it to make my background piece.

I added some starfish and used alpha stamps to stamp the word "dream" along one edge, added a swoosh of colour with some watersoluable pastels and then added the image of the girl (coloured with a mixture of Copics and the same pastels). The top left corner is raised up on foam pads.

A couple of lines of wonky machine stitching and a collection of gems, jump rings, washers etc finish it off. The grey cardstock for the mat is a soft pearlised/metallic one, not sure if the photo really shows that up. I really must remember not to use that silver thread again though - I lost count of how many times the top thread snapped while I was doing this and no amount of twiddling with the tension made any difference!

Stamps:
Craft Stamper magazine freebie (designed by Art Journey)
My Type alpha stamps (Ma Vinci's Reliquary)
Starfish from Seaside set (Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Black
Stardream pearlised (I think this is the Quartz colour)
Smooth white

Ink:
Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Netting bag
Neocolour II Watersoluable pastels by Caran d'Ache
Copic markerSewing machine and silver thread
Mother of pearl button
Washer
Jump rings
Gems
Irridescent "bubbles" (2mm no hole glass bead)

Thanks for stopping by - if you have Art Journey stamps, I'm sure the team would love to see what unusual objects you can find to create with for the challenge.

Shabby ink storage

I've been playing with my Tando ink storage cabinet - had it for a good while and had only got round to spray painting it so it was still looking a bit unloved.

I decided to go for a shabby look (on the grounds that it won't matter if I get it messy while crafting!). I've kept the decoration flat so that it's practical and I can stack stuff on the top if needs be. As you can see - there's room for lots of pads and Distress reinkers fit into the little compartments at the sides.

I sprayed the outside black and the shelves with Glimmer Mist. I made partial impressions with a background stamp and then used white fine detail embossing powder. Once I'd melted the powder, I brushed a little thinned down gesso over some areas to shabby it up even more.

I spread Viva Decor Ferro in a few patches and once it was dry I rubbed over very lightly with some silver Rub n Buff to highlight the texture. I used the same silver on some chippie letters that I coloured black with a marker and stuck them down the side to spell "inks".

It's mounted onto the side of a cupboard in my craft room so the side with the wording is facing out into the room.

You can find the ink pad cabinet and other storage solutions on the Tando retail site {here}.

Stamps:
Chintz backgrounder (CHF, retired)

Ink: Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Black spray paint
Glimmer Mist (Coffee Shop)
Chipboard letters (Maya Road)
White detail embossing powder by Stampendous
Rub n buff by Amaco (Silver Leaf)
Ferro by Viva Decor (Graphite)
Gesso

Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome Little One

The March/April issue of the American Paper Crafts magazine is available now. One of the featured sections is for baby cards in non traditional colours (no pink or blue!). I was delighted to have this card accepted for publication (it's on p.58).

This little chap is from a set called Journaling which also includes a little snippet of script style writing, the word Journal and an ink bottle but I think he makes a cute baby card and the little leaf motif is perfect as a design on a "quilt".

The sentiment is computer generated using Edwardian Script and Courier New fonts and changed to match the colour of the Espresso ink I used for the stamping (R:67 G:52 B:49 is a pretty good match if you're trying this).

Stamps: Journaling set (Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Sugar Daddy (Bazzill Bling)
Cryogen white

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Computer generated sentiment
Scor-It
Silk ribbon

Thanks for stopping by!