Saturday 31 May 2014

MORE THAN ONE STAMP

Hey Happy Saturday and it's that time again ... yes the Less is More challenge. 
This week is a Lucky Dip but we ask that you use more than one stamp so 
looking forward to seeing what you can come up with.

 I must say you are an amazing bunch based on what I've seen in the last few weeks
 whilst commenting for Less is More and it's a joy to check out your creations.
 The talent and ingenuity is outstanding and I love it.

My stock box is running very short on male birthday cards so I've two to share today.
First up I fancied a retro, funky, trendy look for teenagers using a selection of stamps
 from various Uniko Studio & Clearly Besotted sets with Happy Word die from CBS.




This one is much calmer on the eyes with only two stamps both from 
Clearly Besotted: Bicycle from the Going Places set and sentiment from Design a Tree.
It seemed a little flat so the bottom half is dry embossed with 
a strip of washi tape for extra interest. 



Ok it's over to you and I'll catch up with you later.

Sarah


Wednesday 28 May 2014

WHAT'S THE BUZZ

Well I seem to have survived day one of our renovations and despite missing a few inner walls all is calm. I'm trying to ignore the mess but my workmen have been fabulous at keeping it contained and protecting the carpets so positive thinking ... simply so EXCITED for the end results and maybe a piccy or two to show you.

So I grabbed a bit of crafty time in between brewing up and trying to answer plumbing and electrical questions intelligently! What better incentive than some fabby challenges this week ...



Card Recipe:

Image: Pink Petticoat -
Buzzy Little Bees which I've printed twice then coloured and fussy cut the top one so that I could make a 3D effect with the wings which are glistening with a Wink of Stella and glossy accents to the body of the bee.
Sentiment: Pink Petticoat -
cropped from an image from Little Garden Bugs and
'Birthday' from Clearly Besotted
Hexagon Dies: Clearly Besotted
Papers: Papermania, & Echo Park


Challenges:

CASology: Theme Word - Bee
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes
Card Concept: Colour Combo
(Whoops quick edit - I'm hoping my card will fall into the Clean and Simple Style)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog   

Have a fun evening and thanks for calling in.

Sarah

Tuesday 27 May 2014

A PASSION FOR PURPLE


Hi All

Not sure if I'll get to post anything until the weekend ... just depends whether I can get near my craft desk with the work going on so decided I'd better have a play today.

My card uses the sketch from the latest Seize the Sketch Challenge and colours from this week's ColourQ.


I was trying to use the photo inspiration from ColourQ too so inked up various floral stamps and foilage.

    

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Uniko - Background Builders Vines & Clearly Besotted - Bridal Bouquet
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted - Design a Tree
MFT Chevron Stencil - inked with distress inks
MFT Die-Namics - Pierced Rectangle Stax
Sequins: Doodlebug plus a drizzle of Wink of Stella to the leaves.

Right off to catch up with another episode of BGT and hopefully I'll manage to skip the adverts otherwise it goes on forever! Catch up with you soon and thanks for calling in.


Sarah

Monday 26 May 2014

SWIFT MASCULINE CARDS

Hey there and a happy bank holiday Monday.

I've managed to squeeze a quick hour of crafty time in as the shifting, packing and moving from the main bedroom to my daughters ready for renovations is just about complete and there were a few challenges I was hoping to get around to.

                                    

So this one is to enter the CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge and as I've hunted down a few snippety bits I'm heading over to Pixies Playground too.  The papers are Doodlebug cut using various Sizzix framelit circle dies. Lastly, I die cut the CBS 'Happy' word die 3 times for added dimension then stamped 'Birthday' from CBS Happy days.




Next up is to enter CAS Colours and Sketches using the colour combo from ColourQ which hopefully hasn't closed the doors yet!




Materials Used:
CBS: Geometric Style I dies and sentiment
MFT Die-Namics: Sentiment Strips
Darice: Honeycomb embossing folder
Stampin' Up: glittered brad
Sparkly sticky gems from my Crafty Auntie


   

Right off to catch up on Britain's Got Talent so hope to post something tomorrow and pop around your blogs. Thanks for stopping by.


Sarah

Sunday 25 May 2014

CRAZY FLORAL ADDICTION 3

Last one for today and you can check my other 2 Crazy Floral Posts here and here



As soon as I saw the photo inspiration at Muse this week I wanted to join in but have been struggling for time to get down to it and I'm now really cutting it fine to enter too!

I started by spreading distress inks straight from the ink pad to a scrap of cardstock in different colours then added water splashes and droplets to allow the colours to merge slightly.  I've used a chevron / zigzag die to cut strips of the inked card and also used it to make the leaves.

Card Recipe:
Image: Layered Prima flowers from my stash with a glittered brad from Stampin Up
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted
Dies: MFT Die-Namics - Chevrons & Marianne Creatables - Leaves

Challenges:
Muse: Photo inspiration
Addicted to CAS: Texture
Addited to Stamps: Anything Goes
Pixies Snippet Playground
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Botanical


Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog    


Ok that's it for me today and hope you all enjoy the weekend and thanks for calling in.

Sarah

CRAZY FLORAL ADDICTION 2

Back again with 2 of 3 floral crazy posts!



Card Recipe:

Image & Sentiment: Uniko Studio - Flower Power and A Gift for You
MFT Die-namics: Pierced Rectangle Stax
Gems from my stash

Challenges:

CASology: Flower
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Botanical
Addicted to Stamps: Anything Goes

  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog

Back with one more in a minute!

Sarah

CRAZY FLORAL ADDICTION 1


Happy Sunday All

Hope you are enjoying the extra long weekend. To be honest I've snatched a few moments blogging time as our work men arrive on Wednesday morning to rip out the main bedroom and ensuite so the house is pretty tipped up right now and I'm frantic wondering if I can protect all my craft stash from falling dust! On the plus side once work starts there won't be a lot of point doing housework and cleaning !!! So oooh that could mean crafty playtime ... fingers crossed :-)

So I'm flying in really with 3 very quick posts which are all on a floral theme and I think I've gone crazy for flowers this week but I think blogland challenges are crazy for florals too!



Card Recipe:

Stamps: Uniko Studio - Background Builders Vines on a masked panel of distressed ink in Spun Sugar
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted - heat embossed with WOW silver embossing powder for a mini texture
Waxed cord from my stash to add a little more texture

Challenges:

Uniko Studio - Monthly Challenge (I'm hoping my Heartfelt sentiment can pass for thinking of someone)
Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge: Botanical
Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes
Addicted to CAS - Texture

 
 Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog

Back in a moment with a couple more!

Sarah

Saturday 24 May 2014

LIM ... Use a Die-Cut

Whoosh ... can you believe it's back round to Saturday again and another Less Is More Challenge. Today the recipe is to 'Use a Die Cut' and I've gone from the simple one die card to the other extreme with a fiddly 6 die card!


So first up and I was itching to use another new release from Clearly Besotted 
(An Apple a Day). 
It's a very quick and simple layout with an MFT Die-namics snow scene border die 
mounted at an angle using 3d foam with a wrap around of bakers twine 
from my stash and a couple of enamel dots.


Also from Clearly Besotted I've used the 'sending you' and 'Wishes' sentiments 
from 'In the Frame' which I've very naughtily cut in half 
BUT they can still be used together for future stamping!


My next card uses a Memory Box Tilda Floral die, with the outline and petals coloured  with various promarkers, pieced back together like a jigsaw and adhered to a white circle die-cut using Sizzix Framelits. 
Next up 3 dies from Clearly Besotted Fancy Florals again colour treated 
with promarkers and adhered to the centre of the flower. 
The whole lot has had a serious coating of glossy accents then layered 
onto a Nestabilities Scalloped Circle die with 3d foam.


Finally a stamped border using Uniko Studio's Flower Power Background Builders
and sentiment from Clearly Besotted Fabulous Fuchsias.

I'm also going to play along at CASology with this card as the theme this week is Flower 



Ok it's over to you now and I'll be popping around blogland to see what ingenious ideas you've come up with using die-cuts so catch you later. 

Sarah


Thursday 22 May 2014

MAD ABOUT FLOWERS

Hi All

Pretty hectic week this week so sorry not been around much and I'm just flying in with a really quick post as I'm off out in a minute.

It's a card to enter a few 'floral' challenges which seem to be the rage at the moment so here it is:



Card Recipe:

Image & Congrats word Die: Clearly Besotted (Bridal Bouquet stamp & die set)
Uniko - Background Builders Vines for the mini dots to the flowers
Papers: Papermania textured card
MFT Die-namics: Snow scene border die
Twine from my stash

Challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge: Botanical
Clearly Besotted - Colour Challenge
The Paper Players: Florals

     Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog

Thanks for stopping by it's much appreciated and sorry it's such a rush.

Sarah

Monday 19 May 2014

FLY BY MONDAY

Hi there

Just remembered I have a card to post that I made yesterday ... I forgot all about it with having a BIG clear out. I finally have a date for work to start on my bedroom / ensuite renovations (next Wednesday) so the whole room has to be emptied, packed up and moved to my daughters room temporarily. Despite the gorgeous weather it had to be done and still plenty to do but needed a 'craft' break!

My card is to enter the CASE This Sketch Challenge and I've had a go at water colouring using distress inks and water; allowing the colours to merge and swirl then add water droplets.



Materials Used:

Clearly besotted: Elegant Butterfly Dies coloured with distress inks and water with the bigger one clear embossed. Sentiment is also CBS from the Fabulous Fuchsia set.
MFT Die-namics: pierced rectangle dies
Sizzix: Embossing folder
Sequins from Doodlebug and pearls from my stash



Ok that's all for now. Hope you are all well and thanks for stopping by.

Sarah

Saturday 17 May 2014

LIM ... THEME FLOWERS

Morning and happy Saturday 
First of all I would like to thank everyone for the welcoming and encouraging comments left 
on my own blog and Less is More following my DT announcement last week. 
You are an amazing set of blog buddies and it's much appreciated. 
I've had a fabulous week visiting all your blogs which are packed full of incredible inspiration.
I have also gained some new followers so thanks for joining you are most welcome.

So this week the theme is flowers and lilies are my all-time favourite flowers, which brings me onto my first card which uses a brand new MFT Die-Namics set of dies called 'lily'coloured with Promarkers. 
For the background, another newbie; an MFT chevron stencil used with distress inks.

Both of these products have been on my wish list since their release so I had a little spend at the weekend. 




The background panel has been die-cut using another MFT product (Pierced Rectangle Stax) and adhered to the card with 3D foam. I love this pierced rectangle set so you may see it popping up quite a bit ... the problem is I'd now like all of the MFT Pierced shape sets!

To finish I've added a 'Happy' die-cut sentiment, also coloured with Promarkers and a stamped birthday greeting; both from Clearly Besotted. Last but not least a little bow of hemp cord to tie the stems together.

It's another die-crazy card which is this week's theme at Simon Says Stamp so 
I'll be popping over there with this card.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog


For my second card I couldn't wait to try out the newly released Clearly Besotted products and this set is Bridal Bouquet. I've stamped different sizes of the flowers and foliage then die-cut some of the blooms and leaves, attached with 3D pads to add a little dimension. 




The 'Congratulations' sentiment is another word die from Clearly Besotted which is cut from some silver pearlised card. To finish off I've swept my clear Wink of Stella brush over the blooms 
and added pearls to their centres. 

I've used the colours from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge so 
I'm heading across there shortly.


Ok it's your turn now!
Thanks for stopping by and I am looking forward to visiting all your blogs again this week
 to see what you've come up with for this week's LIM challenge.


Sarah