Less is More Week 10

Well I've had such a hectic week and I've only just about made it with my Less is More challenge this week which is to make a one layer card with emphasis on the sentiment.  I decided to make a scrapling this time  - for those who may not know (and I didn't until recently) this is a small card made from the scrap left over when you cut a square card from an A4 sheet.  Yet again I've been tempted by a set of free stamps on a magazine - these are from Pink Petticoat and this is just one of the sentiment ones stamped with Versafine and coloured with Copic pens.  This was incredibly quick to make but would you believe that as I was putting the stamp back in the packet I dropped it into my rubbish bin which was full of all the usual tiny scraps of paper, backing strips from  DS tape and all the other scrappy bits I throw away.  As the bin was quite full it took me far longer to find the tiny clear stamp than it did to make and colour the card!!

 

Cupcakes

Today's card has a row of cupcakes cut using a Papermania die which seemingly has hundreds of tiny pieces on it although in reality it isn't quite that many but there are several bases, icing pieces and lots of cherries, candles etc so this means putting tiny pieces of card on the die to get the various colours.  The iced sections were cut from coloured paper/card and then run through a tiny Xyron sticker maker (the X-shaped one) and then glittered. Background paper is also from Papermania as is the scalloped border (another die).  The sentiment was produced on the computer and cut out using a Nellies die.  The flowers were cut and embossed using a Nellies flower punch and these were glittered by the same method as the icing sections. This card was another of my demonstration samples.

Bah Humbug Challenge 14

The folks at Bah Humbug this week are asking for candy canes which has caused me a bit of a problem actually finding any as I knew I certainly don't have any stamps with them so it was another trawl through seasonal CDs.  I've used an elf from Polkadoodles Jingle Jangle Christmas and cut out a separate candy cane from the same CD for him to hold; there was also a suitable border on the  CD and that is where I found the background paper.  The greeting was printed from My Craft Studio. 

A Hoot of a Day

There always seems to be something so appealing about owls and this little chap was die cut using a die from the Papermania Forest Friends range and because all the pieces are on one die (apart from the eyes and feet) I cut out a set in brown and another set in Kraft card and then I could mix and match to make two owls.  This one has been added to an easel card - background paper is from Kay & Co and he has been popped onto an embossed tree (Crafts Too embossing folder).  I added some quilled flowers made using X-cut quilling dies and the message was stamped onto a Spellbinders fancy tag using a stamp from Joanna Sheen's owl stamp set.

Forgotten Friday 11

A couple of years ago I bought quite a number of canvasses, only decorated a couple and the remainder have lain on the shelf ever since until this week when I cut out this butterfly using a Tim Holtz die.  I'd not really realised quite how large this butterfly is and as I wanted to combine it with some other die cut and embossed elements I decided using a canvas was the way to go.  I'm doing a couple of days demonstrating with the Big Shot and thought this could be one of my samples as well as qualifying for Judith's Forgotten Friday challenge this week so two birds with one stone as they say. The layers of the butterfly are glossy card with alcohol ink with a top layer of Core-dinations card which has been sanded to show the core. Background was coloured with Distress inks and stamped with various grasses etc from Elusive Images (now known as Chocolate Baroque).  The larger flower was cut from card using Tim Holtz tattered flowers die, then embossed and sponged with ink; the other flower is a crumpled one made from brown parcel paper spritzed with Glimmer Mist.

Say it With Flowers

My friend Anne is a guest designer for a new challenge - St Lukes Hospice and the first one was 'say it with flowers' to ease us in gently as most people have flowers in some form which can be made into a card.  There is a Freepost address on their blog so that if you wish you can send the actual card to them to help raise funds.The image on this card is a stamp from Hobby Arts on Kraft card and coloured with Polychromos pencils, background paper is from Polkadoodles and I've added a punched border, some ribbon and a greeting

Curiosities

I was tempted by some of the new teeny tiny stamps from Chocolate Baroque and had a play with some masking techniques to come up with this card. The background paper is from the Echoes of Italy collection and the 'frames' are from a Judikins cube which I've had for many years. The colouring was done with Distress inks.