Drink!

Well hello there.  I hope you have had a fantabulous Christmas and are looking forward to a creative 2013.  The lovely and hard working ladies over at Less is More have asked us to make a card with a drink theme.  A little surprisingly I didn't go with an alcoholic theme but with a thank you card for my amazing sister in law who hosted such a lovely Christmas Day.

She recently got a new fancy coffee machine so can treat herself to a latte whenever the mood takes her.

I took the suggestion from a few others and layered up the die cut letters for some depth with four strips of brown card for the ombre effect.  Used my new mini sewing machine for the border.

Have a celebratory 31 December and see you all next year!

Less is More week 98

The theme is Anniversary this week at LIM so that's what I've made.

 

Some wire and beads is all it needs for a clean and simple card.

 

I have a free-ish day tomorrow, just present wrapping, so hoping to get to the new challenge much sooner than this week.

 

Happy Christmas all.

Less is More one layer week

It's the not-so-dreaded-any-more one layer week over at Less is More, and the theme is In A Row.

So without further ado (I'm supposed to be working) here's a row of tree trunks.

 

This looks very plain but I used some dual coloured embossing powder from Moon Glow called Tannenbaum Green gold.

 

Here's where the gold comes in:

 

 

I hope you have an inky weekend - even if it's just because your pen leaked onto your fingers when you were writing your hand made Christmas cards :-).

Bye for now

Pat

Where's Santa?

This week's challenge at Less is More is a seasonal colour one, Red and Green.

I hope you can see the red in my card.  It's subtle but it's there.

The greeting inside says Where's Santa?, a la Where's Wally?

I think this might go to my husband's nephew who is eight and will appreciate the joke.  I hope you got it too.

Week 95 Recipe Glamour and Glitz

Hello

This week's recipe at Less is More is glamour and glitz.  Now, I think we all enjoy a little of that don't we?  I have gone for more than a little though.

A die cut Christmas tree and Hobby Craft glitter card (on offer 3 for 2 in lots of toned colourways).

And in close up to see that lovely glitter.

Not sure if it needs a sentiment or whether that would take away from the simplicity.  Any suggestions?

Thanks for looking.

Pat

Penny Black Christmas

Just a very quick post to share another Christmas card using a Penny Black Christmas stamp that my lovely crafty friend Jennie gave me for me birthday.

Mssked and sponged then stamped, then red berries were dabbed on top of the brown with a metallic Pentel brush pen that I've had forever.

That's me done for the day, three posts at once!

Byeee.

Less is More week 94

This week's theme from the LIM ladies is Hardware.  I thought I had lots, but it turns out I just have lots of brads and not much else, so brads it is then.

Two fairly similar cards, a cream birthday card with a flower and fancy brad that I acquired from somewhere or other.

 

And the second one is another Christmas one to add to my stash, I suppose I ought to start writing and posting them as well as making them!  I'm not sure about the layout on this one, but can't work out what I should move, what do you think?



 

Sorry the images are a bit dark, I can't adjust the quality on my work laptop, hope you can see them well enough.

Bye for now.

Pat

Happy Birthday Lynne

It's my lovely SIL's birthday tomorrow and I thought I'd show you the card I made her.  She doesn't usually read my blog so I should be safe posting this a day early.

The idea was inspired by this card from JJ Bolton at Ribbon Girls a few months ago.  I've been wanting to try it for ages. 

I cheated and used a simpler method than JJ, first stamp and colour your image, then die cut the letters out of it, die cut some plain white letters and build up the thickness of the diecuts by gluing the white letters underneath each one, then stick them back on again into the apertures, having previously mounted the main image onto a base card (otherwise your letters fall through!).

I hope you like it, I might try some Christmas cards using this technique, it would be a good way to use some of those large collage-type images that I have.

Have a lovely inky weekend.

Pat

Cat Yoga

Hello there.

 

I don't usually do this but just had to show you this picture of my cat Bonnie sleeping.  Yes, that is her back leg tucked behind her ear.  If only I was as flexible as that!

 

 

That's all, just had to share.

See ya!

One Layer Wednesday week 113

Happy Tuesday.

For the first time, I have an entry for the OLW challenge, which this week is to use dark red, green and gold.  Very seasonal I thought, so I stamped and embossed some old, old Penny Black baubles and then coloured them with some equally old Pentel metallic brush markers.  I haven't used these for years but they still work beautifully.

I'm really sorry about how dark the picture is but I'm using my work laptop and it doesn't come with any software to edit photos.

The greeting is part of a Christmas borders Hero Arts clear set that you buy thinking it will be useful and then promptly forget you have it.

See you soon

Bye

Pat

Less is More week 93

Happy Sunday

This week at Less is More the theme is Houses and it's one layer week too, just for the additonal challenge.

I tried to think slightly outside the box and this is what I came up with.

I know the picture looks quite blue but the base card is actually grey.  I coloured the images with my Karismacolor pencils and added some silver foiling.

I just wanted to say thank you to Jen for helping out on the blog for a while, your cards are always fabulous and just my style.

Have a great week.

Pat

 

More Christmas cards for the pile

Good evening.  An even quicker post than yesterday.

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, I've made four Christmas cards this afternoon and I actually like all of them!  What do you think?

They are all die cuts and embossing folders, the only stamping is the greeting on each one.

I'd like to enter the robin one into the CAS-ual Fridays challenge, their theme this week is Tearing.

Have a lovely, hopefully crafty, weekend.

Pat

Less is More - Week 92

Well hello everyone.

I'm sorry I've been absent for a while, life has just been so busy recently that I haven't been able to post, but I'm back!  I'm not really supposed to be here now, I took a day off work to tidy my craft desk, I'm so ashamed of the state it's got into, but a quick post can't hurt, can it?

The Less is More challenge this week is a colour challenge and it's Pink.  I actually don't mind pink, it's one of my favourite colours, just behind purple which is the the best colour in the whole wide world.

So here are my offerings.  Both dies are Memory Box (what did I do without them?) and the greetings are Hero Arts and Marion Emberson.

This one was coloured by adding a sheet of vellum behind the diecut aperture and colouring with Marvy le Plume pens.  It's amazing how much the vellum mutes the colours beautifully.  The back looks hideous!

These next two are cut from the same piece of pink card, but for some reason this photo came out much bluer and this is the best I can do with my limited knowledge of photo tweaking.  I layered the pink card onto a piece of white card before die-cutting to give it strength as the pink card was fairly thin.

This one had a layer of sticky tape runner behind the butterflies so I could add the glitter.

Thanks for looking, I will try to be more regular with my postings.

Have a good weekend

Pat

Week 86 Recipe - Take 3 challenges

Hello

This week over at Less is More, the fabulous clean and simple challenge from Chrissie and Mandi, is to take any three previous challenges and combine them into a card.

Here is my humble offering:

and in close up to see the glitter:



The ladies have such wonderful ideas that my card seems to fit loads of weeks:

Week 18 Colour Monochrome

Week 24 Theme Circles

Week 35 The colour of your eyes (only kidding, how fab would it be to have purple eyes??)

Week 42 Silhouette

Week 81 Tearing

And a voluntary one layer card:

Another gorgeous Penny Black stamp, with Versamark and glimmer chalks.

Up close for the gleam.

I guess this would fit

Week 23 Something with legs

Week 42 Silhouette

Week 45 Let it snow

Super easy and quick, this may just be my 'bulk' Christmas card this year.

Have a great weekend.

Pat

 

 

Less is More week 85

Hello

This week's challenge at Less is More is to incorporate an oval somewhere in the design of your card. 

I'm very happy with this card.  I love the gentle scallops on this set of nesties, and I cut the butterfly out of a matt metallic pink card that I bought years ago in the Tottenham Court Road branch of Paperchase and have hoarded for special occasions.  If you are ever in London and have a couple of hours to spare, I love this shop.  All that speciality card and paper upstairs, fabulous!

Have a great week.

Pat

Less is More week 84

Hi there

Well, it's one layer week at Less is More and the ladies have asked for foliage in our cards.

Mine is somewhat imaginary.  I mean, the foliage must be there but unless your eyesight is way better than mine, you can't actually see it.

I sponged over a Poppy Stamps diecut with various blue distress inks then painted the trees with white pearlex water color and splatted the same white as snow.  I think I quite like the effect actually.

Here's a couple of other cards, no particular theme, just to prove I have been busy, even if I have been rather absent of late on my blog.  Please forgive me. Life, you now.



Must dash, I think my low-fat pizza is done.

Bye for now.

Pat

Less is More week 81

Hello

This week at Less is More we have been asked to use tearing on our card.  I've been meaning to do something like this for a while now so I enjoyed this challenge.

I'm not that happy with the result, I think the flower needs one more petal but the centre is stuck down really firmly for once so that's that.  Why is it that glue only 'takes' when you don't want it to?

And the kraft base card was really thick and difficult to tear.  Don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.

Then as I had lots of petals left over I made another card which I sort of prefer, but again one more petal would have been better I think.  Ah well, can't do perfection every time.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Pat

Week 80 at Less is More

Good evening

Well it's one layer week this week at Less is More, and Chrissie and Mandi would like us to feature fur or feathers (try saying that quickly after a glass or two of happy juice).

You can't exactly see the feathers on my card but I'm sure they are there. 

I masked a torn panel with post its, use my duster brushes with three or four distress inks, then stamped the people (a lovely little Art Impressions stamp - I know some of you would paint the people yourself but mine always look amateurish) and hand drew the birds.  See, I said the feathers were subtle.

And as I completely ran out of time last week (not like this week at all then, plenty of time, at least 24 hours until the deadline) here's the card I would have submitted. 

Kittie Caracciolo showed us how to make these wonderful colour washed punched flowers a while ago on her fabulous blog.  You must go and visit her here, she does lovely things with punches and dies.

Thanks for popping by, see you soon.

Pat

Less is more - Sketch for week 78

Hello there

Well it's Friday and the weekend is nearly here, hurrah!

Firstly, I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to Mandi and Chrissie for showcasing my card last week. It was such a surprise and a big boost to my confidence.  It was only the week before that my DH asked if I'd ever been showcased and I said not yet.

The Less is More challenge this week is a sketch.  Sometimes with sketches I decide that I want to do something unusual with it and fail miserably so this week I've just stuck to the straightforward sketch and enjoyed making some cards that I'm pleased with.

This one is my favourite as I love that butterfly sticker.  Hmm, just realised there's no scallop border on this one, think I'll have my showcase badge stripped from me :-(

This one uses my Martha Stewart hydrangea punches to make a faux embossed look.  And I dragged out my lightbox to do the embossed border with an old fashioned brass stencil because as usual I didn't plan ahead and stuck the flowers onto the base card before thinking how I would add the scallop.

Another piece of patterned wrapping paper, gold peel off border this time and EK Success punch tucked under the edge.  See, I do learn eventually!

It looks like the weather here in the south of England will be suitable for crafting this weekend (such a hardship) so enjoy yourselves.  I wonder what colour we'll have tomorrow, can't wait to fnd out.

Bye for now.

Pat

Less is More Week 77 Theme

Hi there

This week's themed challenge at Less is More is to use sewing on your card.  Fake or real, no matter.

This card is one I made for my husband (good thing I mentioned that, you'd never have guessed otherwise!) and has two sets of hearts sewn on with a tiny bling on the i of Anniversary.

Any card I make for him tends to have claret and blue as the theme, as he is a West Ham fan.  Luckily it's a fairly flexible colour scheme.  Although to be fair to him, he seems to be picking up some card making knowledge.  He knows what decoupage is, and can spot vellum at 20 paces.

I've enjoyed looking at everyone else's superb efforts this week, there are some amazingly talented ladies out there.

Enjoy the weather if you are in the south of England this week.

Bye for now.

Pat

Less is More - week 76 again

Well hello, thanks for your perseverance.

My third card for Less is More is a little more subtle in its 'three', it's three little windows on a cat stamp.

Unforunately I let myself down at the very end by adding a raised greeting.  As usual I didn't plan where the greeting would go until the rest of the card was done and with the embossing, I left myself few options.  Please forgive me Mandi and Chrissie.

Enjoy your week.

Pat

Less is More week 76

Hello again.  Here is my second card for the lovely ladies at Less is More.

This time I have used three colours of distress ink to sponge a mask, Shaded Lilac, Broken China and Peacock Feathers.  The stamp is a new one from Penny Black, a real impulse buy but I'm loving it already.

I'm not that happy with the greeting in black but I find distress inks a bit patchy for stamping very fine greetings like this.  If you look closely you can see that glitter glue isn't dry yet but the sun came out so I took a photo while I could.

Thanks for looking.

Pat

Less is More week 76 - One Layer Challenge

It's one layer week over at Less is More, and this week the ladies would like us to use three of something, colour, images, words, it's up to us.

Well I've done three cards.  I hope you're impressed.  I'll do a separate post for each card, please feel free to skip ahead.

The first one has three butterflies in three colours. 

I sponged through a Cheery Lynn die that has three small fancy butterflies, but the outline works just as well.  I used Versamagic inks, Pink Grapefruit, Spring Pansy and Pretty Petunia.

Enjoy the last moments of the weekend.

Pat

Less is More week 75

This week at Less is More is Colour week and it's gold.  Very appropriate for the upcoming Olympics but not being a sporty type of girl myself (if I leave my mug upstairs I'd rather use a clean one, I'm not lazy, I'm energy efficient) I decided to leave that aspect to much more talented ladies such as the fabulous Jenny.

I decided to make another Christmas card.  The afore-mentioned Jenny inspired me to buy this die and I'm loving it.  I think it looks great in any colour, hopefully you like my little gold and white number.

I agree with everyone else, photographing shiny card is not easy, especially with our weather.  But trust me, this is gold mirri card, you can just see my camera in the reflection if you squint.

Bad news!  I've been having some problems with my right arm constantly aching and the doctor said I need to take three days off work next week and not use the PC at all to see if it helps.  Hurrah I thought, three complete days of guilt-free crafting.  Not so apparently, crafting is banned too.  What am I going to do with myself?  I can't look through my Pinterest boards, I can't sort out my craft stash as I'm not allowed to use my right arm at all if I can help it.  Hmm, Create and Craft TV here I come!

Oh well, have a great weekend ladies and I'll be round next week to look at all your lovely designs.

Pat

Less is More week 74 Lucky Dip

Hello

Here I am, a whole day early before the deadline for the fantastic challenge site Less is More.  Far better than last week, when I finally uploaded my creation with about half an hour to spare, only to realise two days later that I had forgotten to link it onto the LIM site.  What a dope!

Anyway, this week's challenge is to be inspired by the Less is More header.

So here is my take on this weeks' challenge.

If you can't read the little writing it says 'except chocolate & stamps & wine & ink pads & diamonds'.  I'm sure you would have your own list.

Have a great weekend.

Pat

Less is More week 73

Hello and welcome to my take on Recipe week from Less is More, this week it's Paper Piecing.

Once again I'm Last Minute Lil.  I had the idea for this card on Sunday, started it on Tuesday and here I am with less than an hour to go.  And you'd think I'd learn that late night card making leads to dreadful photos, so sorry about that, I hope your imagination thinks this is better than it looks.

I give you two photos, neither of them great.  Maybe if you squint and merge the two images, you might see a half decent card.  I've used one of my all time favourite Christmas stamps from Denami, paper pieced with various gold, silver and copper papers.  A silver rub-on greeting and punched silver star to finish.

I have a crafty and potentially expensive couple of crafty weeks coming up.  The Craft Barn demo day tomorrow, a new craft fair at Bracknell on Sunday and Newbury craft fair next Saturday.  I am so looking forward to it.

Have a lovely weekend, see you bright and early tomorrow for the new challenge.

Pat

Less is More week 72

Hi everyone.  Thanks for dropping by.

The Less is More challenge this week is Something Shiny.  Well, I can do shiny, that's not a problem for me, just ask my husband,  I can't walk past a jewellery shop without looking in and drooling :-)

I can't believe I'm so early with my entry this week.  I think it's because I'm very excited about my latest purchase from Dies to Die for, another gorgeous Memory Box die.

I hope you like it.  Enjoy your weekend.

Pat

Less is More week 71

Hello LIM-ettes.  This week is One Layer week over at Less is More but Chrissie and Mandi would like a card with a flourish. 

I hope this Penny Black stamp counts as a flourish, it's an old faithful background stamp.

Enjoy the rest of your week and thank you for all your very kind comments.

Pat

Another red, white and blue card

Hello and happy Wednesday. 

At least it is for me as I have the rest of the week off.  I'm supposed to be tidying my craft room but as usual I got side tracked into making a card.  It's another red, white and blue one for Chrissie and Mandi at Less is More.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Pat

Less is More week 70

Hi everyone

Well this is the Jubilee weekend and to celebrate the lovely ladies at Less is More have asked us to make a card using red, white and blue.

I didn't really have a need for a jubilee themed card so I went with the colours and made a card suitable for a man.

Just black embossed and water coloured, added a computer generated sentiment and textured with the trusty swiss dots folder.

Have a lovely extra day off tomorrow.

Pat