31 October 2014

ShowCASe Week 194

Happy Halloween!

We had some great fun entries for our 
'Little Creatures' 
challenge and here are our showcase choices!

This is so clean and simple... and a super, pretty little creature takes centre stage.

Neet's little ladybirds really pop,  a super CAS card!

Such delicate inking on this background and a beautifully coloured bee, fabulous!
Love this sentiment too!

Mill@n
1DSC_0738
What an adorable dog... so simple... so super!

What wonderful examples. Please take our ShowCASe badge for your blogs.
showCASed
We love seeing your inventiveness each week.
Do come back tomorrow for another challenge... it should be fun!

25 October 2014

Recipe Week 195

There's just one vital ingredient in our recipe this week, which is
NEWSPRINT
There can be a lot or a little, but as ever, the card MUST be Clean and Simple. Please remember that we like to see areas of white space, few layers and minimal embellishments.
Here are some of our cards for this week, there are more examples on each designer's individual blog. Do have a look at all the examples, you can click on our names which will take you to our blogs.
Having picked up an old and yellowing book in the charity shop,
then carried out the sinful act of tearing a page out and die cutting
with 2 Clearly Besotted Standalone Butterfly dies!!!
These were aged even more with a sponge daubing of Memento brown ink

Aside from the heart-shaped button and twine from my stash it's a
Clearly Besotted collection of additional stamps:
Fancy Flourishes, Building Blocks & Simply Quilled
 Due to a (hopefully!) upcoming move, I've had a ruthless cull of books, but Pinterest came to the rescue with a free printable page that I used.  I've stamped a Dina Wakely scribbly bird onto it (new acquisition thanks to winning a Simon Says Stamp voucher) and coloured with Inktense pencils to make it a robin.  The white embossed sentiment is Paper Artsy.
Chrissie

I began by stamping an Impression Obsession 'fill the page' background stamp of distressed newsprint onto some ivory paper in Basic Gray ink. A leaf stamp from Clearly Besotted's Autumn Flowers set was inked with three shades of Distress ink. Shabby Shutters to begin with, then a little Peeled Paint  around the edges of the stamp and finally a touch of Forest Moss around the extremities. This was stamped onto the newsprint background, in the orientation I wanted for the finished card.
The leaf was then die-cut with the matching die and layered with three other pieces of die-cut card to add a little dimension.
The embossing folder is Adagio from Couture Creations and the sentiment from Stampin' Up. A few tiny pearls were added in a little cascade to complete it.

We're sure that you must have lots of innovative ways of using newsprint in your creations, we can't wait to see.
As ever we really would like to encourage you to visit a few of the other participants in this challenge to leave a friendly word.
Enjoy and have a great week!
***


24 October 2014

ShowCASe Week 193

Week 193 Showcase
Here are the fabulous cards chosen for our One Layer ShowCASe this week. 

What a vibrant pair of little penguins!

What fabulous colouring on these jolly jingle bells!

Perfect placement, superb composition and wonderful colouring.

Viv
Christmas, robins, LIM
Just couldn't resist Viv's cute robins.

Well done everyone, please take our ShowCASe badge with our congratulations!
showCASed
Another fun challenge starts tomorrow so do come back to join us!

18 October 2014

Week 194 Little Creatures

For our theme this week we have chosen
Little Creatures
We don't mind how little they are... cute, cuddly or creepy we'd just like to see something small!

Here are our cards this week.
The stamps are from Impression Obsession, a set I picked up in a sale bin at a craft show once, I think the ladybirds are cute! The grass tufts are from a tiny Art Impressions stamp.


I've used a digi stamp - this one was free but I'm sorry 
can't remember where I picked it up from.
The sentiment is Clearly Besotted: Sweet Little Sentiments,
Scalloped die also Clearly Besotted then for added interest
bakers twine, gems from my stash and glossy accents.
Anne

 Ladybugs and jar are Alysinkyfingers stamps.  I computer generated the sentiment as unfortunately the one that came with them had a typo in it.  The jar is lightly coloured with Copics and given a good dollop of Glossy Accents.
JUST A NOTE!
Please remember to keep your submissions Clean and Simple... last week a few entries were submitted without taking note of the focus of the challenge... some were not one layer, some with no reference to 2 of something and others not CAS. 
It seems easy for crafters to see a brief outline of our challenge on Paper Playful and then simply submit their cards without actually reading any of our blog post.
In fairness to those who always follow the challenges implicitly, if your submissions do not adhere to our guidelines, they may be deleted.
***


17 October 2014

ShowCASe Week 192

Autumn's Bounty
Colour ShowCASe

We were blessed with so many wonderful contributions for this challenge, you obviously love those autumnal shades

Here are the wonderful ShowCASe crafters' cards

We love how the leaf colours are echoed in the corner of the card!

Look at Heather's wonderful colouring and fab CAS design.

Jan's stunning creation is breathtaking... wonderful leaves and such imaginative use of the wreath die!

What awesome simplicity, those wooden elements are a perfect touch!

Lisa's work is a constant source of inspiration!
We just had to have a few extras this week as there were SO many wonderful entries to choose from.

Here is the badge to add to your blogs with our thanks!
showCASed
Please come back tomorrow for another fun CAS challenge!

11 October 2014

Week 193 One Layer Card

What fun!
It's
 One Layer Card
time once more.
For your cards this time, we would like to see 
It obviously doesn't have to be cats, but remember... keep it ONE LAYER, keep it CAS and include 2 of something!


Cute as a button (don't you think?) the Rockin' Robin set from
Clearly Besotted Stamps - new October release
consists of mini building stamps to create different looks.
The images are inked with Memento Inks with some extra inking for shadow
The spotty red tummies are 'winked' with Stella and I've heat set some
fluffy stuff and glamour dust to the branch to give it that snowy effect.


Totally stunning Impression Obsession stamp, Versafine black and hats coloured with Inktense pencil
Here I combined a couple of images from A Day for Daisies. I felt quite proud of being able to pop one behind the other as I'm not terribly technically gifted! I also rotated one flower a little as I preferred it at this angle.
I coloured them with Watercolour pencils, combining the colours with a water brush. I added some Glamour Dust and over-stamped the lot with a stamp from SU Gorgeous Grunge.
The sentiment was computer generated.
One Layer - Two flowers!
***


10 October 2014

ShowCASe week 191

For our 
Mostly Words challenge, 
there were some really interesting cards submitted. 
Here are our 
ShowCASe
choices for week 191!


This sentiment really pops!

The sentiment really grabs the eye on this beautiful card. What subtle colour choices!

More die-cutting, with terrific use of DP!

These are all simply wonderful.
Thank you everyone.
showCASed
Here's our ShowCAse badge for you with our congratulations!
Come back tomorrow for another challenge... it's your favourite this week!
No prizes for guessing!

09 October 2014

September Prize WInner

We are delighted to announce the winner of our challenge for September.
Our sponsor is Uniko Studio
Producers of wonderful stamps.

And now for our winner!
This lady produces beautiful cards and is a regular contributor to our challenges, so we are delighted that this time it is
Maarit
If you will let us have your contact details Maarit, we'll pass them on to Uniko, so that they can organise your prize..

Here's the winner's badge for your blog!
Winner....

04 October 2014

Week 192 Colour Challenge

A new month, a new challenge, a new sponsor... 
well not so much new, as back with us again.
We are delighted to welcome back 
April Sponsor
We're sure that you'll agree that Stephanie produces the most amazing range of stamps and dies and we are delighted to welcome her back as a sponsor to Less is More once again.
If you haven't yet discovered her amazing products, click on the link and take a peek, you won't be disappointed.

For our Colour challenge this month we have chosen 
Autumn's Bounty
Sounds kinda poetic doesn't it...
so we'd love to see autumnal shades in your cards.
Don't forget to make them CAS of course!


 Darkroom Door leaf stamp coloured with Lyra Aquacolour crayons and then misted with water.  Used a Pigma pen to outline the individual stamps, which were masked.


 I inked a piece of card with some Distress Inks (Peeled Paint, Wild Honey and Vintage Photo) using sponge daubers and overlapped the colours somewhat! Then I die cut the leaves and inked a little more around the edges of each one with one of the darker shades, just to give a little definition.
The backdrop is simply swiped with a little watercolour (distress ink), using a fairly large paintbrush.
Being totally unhelpful, I'm not sure of the origin of the sentiment stamp but the dies are from Cheery Lynn. The latter are a sort of pinky purple  colour! If anyone is all over this kind of thing please let me know.
This one used:
Clearly Besotted: Frame Mat Die with a Framelit circle cut from the centre
Autumn Blossoms: Acorn stamps
Fresh Flowers: 'Thank You' Sentiment
Marianne Creatables: Leaf Dies
MFT Die-Namics; sentiment strips with Doodlebug DP
and to finish some twine, Wink of Stella and glossy accents

We all have extra examples on our personal blogs so please pop over and visit us there to see them. We love to have visits too!

The trees in the UK are just beginning to change colour, let's hope we have a wonderful display again this year.
***


03 October 2014

Week 190 ShowCASe

We had a super, select group of submissions for our Music and Dance challenge and our super ShowCASe 
this week has been selected by Anne.

Without further ado, here they are!


Hannelie always treats us to fabulous designs and often offers free sentiments too, as was the case for this challenge. Do pop by her blog and leave a friendly comment... you could also help yourself to this super sentiment.

Rahmat

What a wonderful creation this is... super CAS and really imaginative!

Coby


Anne loved these chaps doing their little dance!

Here is our badge for you, with our thanks!
showCASed
Another fun challenge awaits you tomorrow, so be sure to drop by and join us again!
We're waiting to see you!