Less Is More shaped card

Back with a share for Less Is More.. they are looking for a shaped card this time. Here's my entry...

Love that cute little guy poking his head through.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Off to have a little browse through the other LIM entries now, I'm sure there will be some brilliant ones!

Challenges: Less Is More - shaped card

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Stars (and/or moon)

Come and Get It Challenges - Window cards

Choc, Coffee & Cards Challenge - For the boys

More male birthday cards

As promised, here are the other two possibilities for my brother's birthday... similar theme (sort of!) but very different type of card. As these are both one layer, I'll be entering them into the St Luke's Charity Challenge (still a few days to go!)

This was the first one I made.. A midsection created with score lines and masked off with scrap paper. TH masks and some inks sponged on. I liked it... but thought perhaps it would be improved with a bit more 'depth' in the background like so..

With masks in place, script stamped in picket fence distress stain and then the same inks sponged on (with a bit less of the vibrant blue as I wasn't so sure about it!)

I have deliberately left the sentiment off the second version, in case I don't want to use it as a birthday card. And I really can't decide which I prefer, I think that I like them both!

So I need your help to decide which to send! The card from yesterday's post, the top one or the bottom one from this post! Mum's vote is yesterday's share. I'm really torn!

Whatever I send, this is definitely a technique I'll be doing again - I only recently got myself some sponges and some ink duster brushes, and I have loved playing with them! Such different effects! And so QUICK to make! I'll definitely be making some of these to send off to St Luke's with my next load!


Challenges are pretty much the same as yesterdays...
Try It On Tuesday - Fathers day (cards for men or boys)
Simon Says Stamp - Cards for a special man or fathers day
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - For men
And of course St Luke's Charity Challenge - One Layer Month

How old??

Here is a card I've made with my brother's birthday in mind... though I've made some others which are also contenders, so I'm not sure which one to send as yet! I will share the others tomorrow and would love to know which one you think I should send!

I struggle with cards for my brothers. Not only do they need to be 'male' cards, I also don't know that much about what they like to do!!! I end up going for the same theme each year - so I decided to try something very different this time. This particular brother lives overseas, so I started thinking about using a map. On top of that, I stuck a Tim Holtz compass mask which I've barely used and wanted to try. I swiped Picket Fence Distress Stain all over the map, as a sort of 'base' and then splodged on colours using blue and brownish Distress stains. I then hummed and haa-ed for a bit before my husband suggested I dry emboss a frame around the outside - which worked sooo well and made it look totally different. I swiped some blue ink over the embossed frame to make it a little clearer. All I had to do then was mat it on black, add a sentiment and tie a bit of bakers twine around it :)

I'm pretty pleased with how it turns out - I always feel excited when something that isn't fairly CAS works out well, as I do tend to err towards CAS styles!

Entered into the following challenges:
Try It On Tuesday - Fathers day (cards for men or boys)
Simon Says Stamp - Cards for a special man or fathers day
Pan Pastel Challenge - Pastels
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - For men

As always, I'd love to know what you think! Thanks for visiting x

Time for Tea

Today's share is something totally different. No more one layer cards for me!

I enjoyed doing this one.. It's the first one I have really 'coloured in' and I did the colouring with a water brush and distress inks/stains. I have no interest in the detailed colouring that people do with things like promarkers, and I really don't like all the cutesy stamps with children playing (especially those Tilda stamps - they look like cabbage patch dolls, grim!), so I didn't ever see myself going for the whole 'colouring in' stuff! But I did quite enjoy doing this. You can tell I need a bit of practice!!!

One layer card #2

Thanks for your lovely comments on yesterday's One Layer share...

Todays share is the same basic layout (and some of the same stamp sets), with just a little tweak..

I love the flower image on this one.

The background stamp doesn't show up too well - it's lots of flower names (a really lovely background stamp which cost £1 - even better!)

Again, I'm entering into the St Lukes and Less Is More one layer challenges.

I doubt I'll get a chance to make any more this week, bit gutted as I so enjoyed doing them!

Thanks for visiting :)

One layer cards

The Less Is More and St Luke's Challenges are asking for one layer cards... here's my first entry.. I've another (similar) to share tomorrow.

I always find the 'ideas' part the hardest when making cards (I'm sure I'm not the only one!). Once I've got an idea, I'm away! It's harder on one layer cards, because you can't move things around the add or remove things. But once I'd picked my three stamps, loads of ideas popped into my head!

What do you think?

Challenges:
Less Is More - One layer with three stamps
St Luke's Charity Challenge - One layer

Demo day

Today has been fab. The weather's been beautiful; my lovely man has been lovely as ever; and I've had loads of lovely crafting time.

My local stamp shop, Stamp Addicts in Kempston, had a demo day which I popped along to. The demos were great - Hels Sheridan was there with her awesome tags - I was so surprised by how different they look in the flesh.. they've got so much more dimension than you can see in the pics! I picked up some great tips from her.  There was someone there demo-ing Pan Pastels, and someone demo-ing for Stix2, and I got some great ideas from her which I've been trying out today.. tho they haven't made it on to today's card!

I left the shop with some new toys... some ink dusters, a water brush, some sponges... and after a day of playing with them - seriously, how have I been managing without these things! I also picked up some Picket Fence distress stain after seeing the amazing things Hels does with it, and I am already in love.

Anyway, enough jabbering. Today's card uses a bunch of my new stuff and I've attempted a style I'm not too comfortable with (but just love to look at)!!

The sentiment is a vellum sheet which I have had for ages, not sure where it came from, inside a ticket die frame which I've distress inked, stained, embossed and stamped. The flower is made up of a large one from a shop-bought set, a sizzix die, and two punches - a flower one and an icicle for the middle. There's also a silver washer thrown in there for good measure. Each part of the flower has been attacked with an array of Ranger stuff. and a bit of silver for a shimmery finish (which you can't see at all on the photo). A little bit of bakers twine to 'ground' the flower. The background is a piece of white cardstock with a V&A design stamped on using my new Picket Fence stain, then distress inks blended on using the duster brushes and a water brush to bring the Picket Fence back up so it's not overpowered by the inks. I've overstamped a couple of times with a script stamp.

I think it's ok... I'm still not sure about this style! My attempts always seem to lack embellishments, but if I try to put them on there it looks crap! I spent at least 10 minutes trying to put a gorgeous Mother of Pearl butterfly on there with no success!

All critique gladly received :) and I would definitely go along to another demo day, so many great ideas!

Challenges:
Crafts 4 Eternity - Colour challenge
Craft Your Passion - Distressed edges
Crafters Companion - Here Comes Summer
Sweet Stampin - Flower Power
The Stamp Man - Favourite Technique - anything with my new water brush!

Why re-invent the wheel??

Today's card has been 100% copied (or CASEd if you like) from something I saw here online. I loved it, and thought - why reinvent the wheel? I love pretty much of all of the card designs on that pinterest site, to be honest!

This one will be going in a box ready for my 8 year old brother-in-laws birthday later in the year. I may make one the same for my nephew, and I'm thinking about how to make it a bit more girly for some of the little girls in my life!

I'm not going to enter it into any challenges, because I don't truly think I can claim this to be 'my work'. Huge kudos to whoever made this first, I know i've seen loads of versions of it around the internet :)

Obliteration room

A friend of mine sent me this link yesterday. Wow.

I had been looking for inspiration for a friends birthday card.. and this was it.

Spots made using cotton buds and the ends of wooden kebab sticks.
ETA: I've entered this one into the CAS-ual Fridays Birthday challenge - thanks for the heads up, Tara!

This one is based on last weeks Less Is More sketch again... which I am going to come back to time and time again, I'm sure!

Also, some exciting news.. I made the top 5 in the Allsorts Challenge with my pirate shaker card from the last post... my excitement was only slightly dimmed when I realised there were only 18 entrants ;)

Hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend. I just need to finish packing my things, and I'm off for the weekend!