Gnome for Christmas

There are plenty of Christmas in July challenges around at the moment - as I was lucky enough to win some stamps from Lost Coast in a recent challenge I thought I should try to play along with theirs using part of my prize! Although I haven’t played at Less is More in several years, I still check out the challenge every time so I’m going to link up there too!

I chose Pointy Hat Gnome as one of my prize stamps so I thought I should ink him up sooner rather than later and dress him in festive colours so he could play along. He's decided to go into the lucrative business of Christmas tree sales this year and is looking forward to the smell of fresh pine resin as people saw through the skinny trunk of thier chosen tree!

This is just simple stamping and masking, colouring with a few Copics and some little wiggles of dimensional pearl paint around the base of the sign and below his feet to suggest some snow - light and flat for easy postage!

ETA: just realised I left a strip of tape over the lower portion of the post after inking so if you’re seeing a slightly weird line down his mitten, imagine it gone now! I hand drew that bit of the sign as the original didn’t have a long enough stem so I couldn’t cut a mask from the stamped image for that bit. Funny how a it takes a photo to show up an imperfection sometimes!

Stamps:
Pointy Hat Gnome (Lost Coast Designs)
Bear Hugs and Vintage Winter Signage (both Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukinko (Graphite Black, Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Cracked Pistachio)

Other:
Copic markers
Pearl pen by Viva Decor (Ice White)
Corner Chomper

 

Hexagon hello and a little giveaway

I haven't played at Less is More for ages but the planets have aligned this week - I recently got some Hero Arts goodies including a set of dies with hexagon shapes and as the theme for this week's challenge is hexagons it seemed right I should play! I have a brand new set of Hero Arts stamps to give away too.

I've gone monochrome for a slightly masculine feel although I think this would make a reasonable hello card for just about anybody!

I stacked black and white hexagone die cuts in two sizes, trimming them flush with the edges of the card. The pointy finger is cut out and popped up on foam pads. It's from a set with various vintage style transport-based images and I think it's a nice size!

Stamps:
Past Times by Hero Arts
Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Paper: black and white

Ink: Onyx Black Versafine by Tsukineko

Other: Geometric Shape Frame Cuts dies by Hero Arts

Now for the giveaway bit! When I got my stuff from Hero Arts, I received a stamp set that was having a bit of an identity crisis. It believed itself to be a set of script stamps where in actual fact it was a chandelier-based set (a little packaging hiccup). Having alerted them to the issue, Libby and the lovely folk at Hero Arts sent me the script stamps and said I could gift the extra set rather than sending it back.

Here it is - it's called Chandelier with Birds.

If you'd like it, just say so in your comment and I'll pop your name into a hat - comments on the card are, of course, very welcome so if you don't mention the stamps I'll assume you're not interested in the draw. I'll draw one at random next Sunday so leave a comment by midnight GMT on Saturday  22nd June 2013.

Thanks for stopping by!

Warm stripes!

It's been ages since I played at Less is More so I decided to put that right today. This week's theme is "stripes" on a one layer card.

I chose a striped animal as the focus of my card - I love these beautiful zebras! I wanted to make something to send to a friend who slipped on the ice last Thursday, broke his elbow and subsequently had to have surgery on it. Warm colours and African animals was about as far away from ice as I could get!

I stamped the zebras, cut a mask for them from ordinary copy paper with a little Zig two-way adhesive on the back and then used plain paper to mask the strip and sponged with ink.

Just a tiny touch of shading on the zebras with grey Copic, a stamped sentiment and I called it done.

Stamps:
Zebra Pair and sentiment from Common Cold (both CHF, retired)

Paper: Smooth White

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick)

Other: Copic markers (C1 and C3)

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackpot!

It's Week 26 at Less is More and because there were five Saturdays in July we have a "lucky dip" challenge this week - Feeling Fruity.

I had some die cut squares out on my desk (because I'd been cutting apertures for a project rather than cutting the squares themselves) and I thought they'd make a good basis for a "fruit machine" card teamed up with some cherries and a simple sentiment. Does this kind of fruit machine exist anymore? I remember there being one in our local chippie when I was a kid!

I put the squares back in to the die and ran a fine line marker around the inside, stamped and coloured the cherries and then stuck them to the card with foam pads over a strip of black card as the "winning line" to anchor them.

Stamps:
Kitchen Classics (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets) plus sentiment from a HOTP set.

Paper: smooth white, black

Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other: Copic markers, Nestabilities by Spellbinder, Crop-a-Dile

If you like to play with chipboard and masks in your papercrafting, why not check out the new Tando Creative Challenge - you have a month to play, there's no requirement to use Tando products on yor entry this month and there's a prize up for grabs so it's well worth a look! You can find the details of the theme and the prize here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fishy thanks

It's colour challenge week at Less is More and the challenge is "shades of blue" - right up my street since I tend to gravitate to blues and greens.

We met up with a friend on our recent holiday in Potugal and he gave us some wine and olive oil from his own vines and trees. We drank the wine while we were still away but we managed to get the olive oil back in one piece in a suitcase! We've just opened the bottle and so I wanted to send a thank you card.

If you've been to Portugal, you'll know there are basically two national foods - salt cod and sardines! So I thought a little shoal of sardiney fish swimming in a sea of blue would make a good thank you.

I scribbled three blue markers onto an acetate sheet, spritzed with water and pressed on to my card. Then I did the same technique as I used on yesterday's card for the fish and finished with a stamped sentiment.

Stamps:
Under the Sea (Darkroom Door)
Sentiment from retired CHF set

Ink:
Memento markers by Tsukineko (Bahama Blue, Danube Blue, Paris Dusk)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Bleach
Acetate sheet and Mini Mister to create background
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers

Thanks for stopping by!

You hoo!

I haven't played along a with a challenge at Less is More for a while and thought it was about time I put that right.

This week's challenge is a sketch. I sat down with a fairly literal take on it in mind and ended up with something completely different! The idea of the sketch is still there but the three evenly sized and spaced circles have transformed themselves into a family of three owls!

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to win blog candy from the Craft Room as they launched their own challenge blog - thank you Julia! - and these Hero Arts owl stamps were part of my goody bag. Cute aren't they?

They're stamped on kraft and have just a bit of colour added with a Copic marker and their eyes done with a white gel pen.

Stamps:
You hoo owls (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bitter chocolate and kraft

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Copic markers
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers
Inkssentials white pen by Ranger

Giveaway!

Also in my goody bag was this 6x6" paper pad by Kars. Now regulars to my blog will know that I really struggle with patterned paper. Whatever I do with it takes an eternity and I'm rarely happy with the outcome. With that in mind, I asked Julia (owner of the Craft Room) if she'd mind if I gave the pad away - better that than have it sitting feeling lonely in a drawer! They're nice bright colours and funky patterns - some designs have a glittered version as well as the printed one.

So, if you'd like to offer the papers a new home, just let me know in a comment on this post and I will draw a name at random. Let's say comments before midnight (UK time) Sunday 4th July, shall we?

Thanks for stopping by!

The red shoes

Being the first week of the month, we're back to a colour challenge on Less is More - this week it's a touch of red.

I had an immediate idea of which stamp I wanted to use but didn't get chance to do it yesterday. When I saw Paula had used a Wizard of Oz theme I almost changed tack but the stamps are new so I really felt it would be rude not to ink them up, right?

I've had a couple of cards published recently using Crafty Secrets stamps and they have a brand new rewards program which means you're in with a chance of claiming a $30 gift certificate for a published project - I chose the new Wizard of Oz set as part of my reward program spending, thank you Sandy and all at Crafty Secrets!

The shoes were stamped on red and again on kraft and then paper pieced. I used a Spica pen to give them some shimmer and the bows have had the Glossy Accents treatment. Other than that it's a couple of punched circles, a stamped sentiment and some tiny acrylic nail art gems with a doodled border - all done!

Stamps:
Wizard of Oz (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
White
black
red
Kraft

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineo (Onyx Black)

Other:
Squeeze punch by Fiskars (large circle)
Nail art gems
Spic glitter pen (red)
Glossy Accents by Ranger
Copic fineliner (to doodle the border)

Thanks for stopping by!

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!

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!

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

Three squares

The Less is More challenge this week is asking us to use three squares on our cards - details here.

I found this one really difficult! I had differently sized die cut squares scattered round the desk, tried turning them to make diamonds, overlapping to create "movement", I pressed a Distress ink pad onto cardstock three times - nothing looked right!

I'm still not quite convinced by this but I've decided it's probably the best that's going to happen after that much experimentation - lol! I stamped the little square frame three times in black and then added the flower head in magenta, turning the stamp so the flower is at a different angle in each frame. Lots of white space and a little bit of black for "pop".

Stamps:
Inchie Style (Cornish Heritage Farms, retired)
Sentiment from a HOTP set

Paper:
smooth white
black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Chalk ink by Clearsnap (Dark Peony)

Thanks for stopping by!

Hello spring

Sadly, it's trying to snow here today but spring is the theme for this week's Less is More challenge (details here) so I'm continuing to hope that the weather will turn soon!

Spring flowers often have a particularly delicate and fragile quality about them, don't they? Crocuses, snowdrops and the lovely bulb flowers (with the exception of the somewhat sturdy-looking tulip!).

I made a scrapling today (a card made with the bit you trim off a standard sized sheet when you want to make a square card). This paper white narcissus is from an old Stampin' Up set called Long Stemmed and I think it's really pretty. I've used kraft on kraft layering and popped up the panel on some foam tape to avoid the ribbon bulging through the card. I punched a hole either side of the stem to thread the ribbon through.

Stamps:
Long Stemmed (Stampin Up!)
Setiment from Mini Memories set (Crafty Secrets)

Paper: Kraft

Ink: Memento by Tsukineko (Bamboo Leaves)

Other:
Inkssentials gel pen by Ranger
Prismacolour pencils (green and yellow)
Green gingham ribbon
Foam tape
Tags Trio dies by Spellbinder

Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Blossom

Who's ready for spring?!

The challenge at Less is More for the second week each month is to make a one layer card. The theme this week is to use a flower or a tree. I guess I could argue either way on this since it's blossom on a tree branch!

This is one of the first stamps I ever got. I bought it unmounted on eBay and all the seller could tell me was that it came from an American supplier called Susan Cotes who had a "spare time" business making stamps. I lost track of it for a while but remembered it when thinking what to do for this challenge and hunted it down! It's a nice size for this kind of clean and simple design - this is a 5" square card so you can see it's a substantial stamp.

I found some other oldie but goodie stamps in the process of locating this one so I'm sure they'll be inky soon, too!

One last detail - this card is a great example of why I'm very happy I decided to get a Scor It tool rather than something like the Score Pal. Because you score over a ridge rather than into a groove it means your card is face up on the surface when you make this kind of decorative score line. That means you can score up to the image and stop because you can see exactly what you're doing :o)

Stamps:
Cherry blossom (Susan Cotes)
Bon jour sentiment (Alluring Impressions)

Paper:
smooth white

Ink:
Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)

Other:
Copic markers
Inkssentials white pen by Ranger
Scor It
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers

Thanks for stopping by, let's hope the blossom on the card is a forerunner of the real thing appearing on our trees soon!

Less is more

There's a new challenge blog on the block for those of us with a bit of a thing for the Clean and Simple style. Less is More has just launched and the first week of each month is a colour challenge. The very first combo is black, white and pink.

I'm combining challenges today - the member company forum challenge for Crafty Secrets over at Splitcoast this week is to use punches. I punched small circles from cardstock stamped with the script stamp and various images from the Artsy Banners set. I alternated the ink colour for foreground/background. The little hello is from Mini Memories and served as the perfect sentiment in terms of size and style!

I didn't want to mat the circles but I did want to define the edges so I ran a Copic Multiliner round each circle once it was stuck down.

Stamps:
Artsy Banners (plus sentiment from Mini Memories) - Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets

Paper:
Smooth white

Ink:
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Cherry Pink)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Copic Multiliner
Squeeze punch by Fiskars (small circle)
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers

Thanks for stopping by, do check out Less is More if you fancy a clean and simple challenge!