You are fabulous

Now, I know you are all fabulous, but my card today is for a friend of mine who is going through a relationship crisis.  Her self-worth is a bit low, as tends to happen so I just wanted her to know how fabulous she is.

And since the card is mainly black (with white I grant you) and a teeny hint of red, I'm entering it into the Less is More challenge which this week is predominantly black.

I stamped the lady too far over on the card blank so I trimmed it down and used it as a layer (not the first time I've had to do this!).

Off to do some commenting on the lovely creations at Less is More, loads of inspiration as always.

Byeee.

Fluttering by

Hello, happy Friday.

Did you manage to see the eclipse?  Sadly, we had solid cloud cover until about lunchtime, which was a tad late, but still nice to see.

I have made a quick card to join in with the fun at Less is More.  This week is one layer week and ta-da I remembered!  I used perfect pearls to dust over my big and little butterflies, all Penny Black stamps, now I come to think of it.  I was then going to use a spotty stencil with some clear gel stencil paste but I couldn't get the lid off (so that's why they say to clean the lid every time) so I experimented with some glossy accents. Of course I had to remove the stencil immediately so the accents spread out and each dot seems to have a bubble in it, but I think that just coordinates with the holes in the sequins (sounds plausible, doesn't it?).

 

I tried to be arty with my photo but it was still cloudy so I'm sorry it's such a dark picture.

 

Here's another angle to try to show the gorgeous shimmer.

 

Hope you enjoy your weekend.

Bye.

Happy Mother's Day

Hello

Sorry, did I wake you up?  I know, it's been ages since I posted anything (hangs head in shame).  I'm going to try to be more frequent in my postings.  Maybe the lighter evenings will help.

Anyway, I thought you might like to see the card I made my Mum for Mother's Day.  Unfortunately she's allergic to daffodils so I will have to be more imaginative with her gift.

I used some NBUS of a HoneyDoo stamp set.  The flower heads and leaves are separate to the flourish that doubles as the stem, which is great because the flourish would work well on its own.  (I might even decorate the envelope with it if I remember).

I'm linking up to Less is More this week as they have a colour challenge of yellow and green, very springy colours.

By the way if you think I've been fancy in Photoshop making that reflection of my card, I didn't, it's just my shiny kitchen worktop!

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Modern Christmas

Hi there, sorry for my absence recently.  No reason, just doing other stuff lately.

I've made a Christmas card in non-traditional colours for the Less is More challenge, although I'm not really a red and green girl anyway, so most of mine tend to be silver, gold, purple, jade etc.

 

I used some white embossing paste through a snow stencil after sponging the jade ink onto the card.  I then added various die cuts, including a double layered Peace.

 

I made a similar one like this:

 

 

Enjoy your weekend.

Bye for http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/week-196-colour-challenge-non.htmlnow.

Mostly words

Hello

I hope you're enjoying your Friday evening and looking forward to a great weekend.

I made this card a few days ago for the Less is More Challenge and then forgot to post it.  So as per usual it seems I'm squeaking in at the last minute.

We have been asked to make a card that is mostly words.  I hope my one word is sufficient.

 

I die cut the word and the snowflake three times in white card and once in silver glitter card and layered them up for depth.  I punched a tiny hole in the Y and used a jump ring from my jewellery stash to hang the snowflake so it swings freely.

 

Just for once I think this might be an idea of my own and not a rip-off CASE of someone else's brilliant idea.

 

I'd better finish this before I actually miss the deadline.  One day life will slow down and I'l get more time to devote to this wonderful hobby.

 

Thanks for looking, bye for now.

 

 

CHOCOLATE!!!

Well hello there.  Happy Friday to you.

I thought I'd share a little card with you, that will be for my husband, not sure which occasion yet.  Maybe just because.

He knows how much I love mint aero chocolate bars, so he's understand how I feel about him.

I'm going to link it up to the colour challenge this week at Less is More, which is chocolate and mint.  Two of my favourite flavours, along with banana. Why don't they make banana filled aero?

While you're here, shall I show you another card I made last night?  It's for a friend's birthday on Saturday.

I made the white keys glossy by cutting the rectangles, then laying some wide clear parcel tape over the card and folding the edges under, then rounding the corners.  The black card was already glossy when I bought it!

The little peel-off border was to fill in the space I left by misjudging where to print the greeting.

Thanks for popping by, enjoy your weekend.

Shaker card

Hello all

I am running a card class next week at my craft group I attend and wanted to show the ladies an example of what they will be making.

So, for my Farnborough girls, here you are:

 

 

It's a shaker card with a complete clear front panel, with seed beads inside, so you can see the greeting inside the main card.  It is embellished with punched flowers, mine are trying to look like water lilies, but we can experiment with different shapes and colours.

If you have any other ideas and would like to bring some card and embellishments for that instead, that would be great.

See you next week ladies.

Happy Christmas

Ha!  That caught you out.  Just checking you're awake.

I've made a quick Christmas card for the Less is More challenge, which this week is a sketch.  And it's voluntarily one layer as well.

I copied Ardyth's idea of shading only the corners to imply a frame all around the picture.

Must dash.  Have a good weekend.

Is a butterfly an animal?

Hello and welcome to the weekend.

I have made a butterfly card using the fabulous technique demonstrated most beautifully by Maile Bells here.

I think it's a lovely simple variation for a card layout, and can see me using it for my Christmas cards this year.

I'm hoping that a butterfly counts as an animal, so that I can link up to the Less is More theme this week.

 

Enjoy your longer than usual weekend if you are in the UK.

Flat foliage

Happy Monday to you

I can't believe I'm five days earlier than usual for my submission to the Less is More challenge.

It's one layer week (so glad I actually remembered in time) with a theme of foliage.

I've made two Christmas cards using the same Dreamweaver stencil.

This one was my favourite until I stamped the greeting downhill :-(  It looked straight on the clear block too.  May just have to add a better one over the top.

I like the crass stitched look.

To get the writing through the stencil I had to ink the stamp and lay it face up on the desk then press the card down into it (I also dry embossed it first).

As an unrelated item, I also made another Christmas card (go me!) where the same image is stamped onto acetate and then you tuck the acetate into the border in the right to make it stand proud to give a three dimensional effect.

Enjoy your week.  Bye for now.

Butterfly Birthday

Hi there

This is a really quick post to submit to the Less is More challenge this week, which is a range of colours including yellow green and blue.

 

I sponged some vellum with various colours of Brillaince ink, then die cut Memory Box butterflies and inlaid them.  Stamped greeting in brilliance Sky Blue and a few sequins to be on trend.

 

Have a good weekend.

Rain clouds and silver linings

I've had a good couple of weeks, as I've been on holiday (a staycation as our American friends like to call it) and although I haven't been as crafty as I would have liked, I have found the surface of my desk today!  Apparently it's beech, who knew.

However, sometimes life brings you rain clouds.  I hope that when it does, you find a little sliver of silver lining like my card here.

I've used a new die (yay, more NBUS) for the tree, it's a Memory Box set, you get five plain trees in various sizes and a second set gives you the five outlines.  I can see lots of uses for the plain trees, balloons, lollipops...

You can't really see it very well but there is a silver cloud slightly offset underneath each grey one.

It's the closest I could get for the challenge at Less is More this week for their Singin' in the Rain theme.

Looking forward to tomorrow's challenge.  Enjoy your weekend.

Earth Tones

Happy Friday. 

I made a simple thinking of you card in cream and pale orange for the weekly challenge at Less is More.

 

As I say, very simple.  I'm itching to add some glitter to those hollyhocks and maybe a cream satin ribbon down the left hand side, but I'm never sure with thinking of you cards, it always feels wrong for it to be too 'pretty'.  What do you do?

 

I have some time off next week so I really hope to get away from the decorating and into my craft room.

 

Enjoy your weekend.

Happy Birthday Darnell

Many of you know and love Darnell.   That lovely lady who is creative not only with her crafting but also with her words.  Today is her birthday and I'd like to wish her a very happy day.

 

Darnell, thank you for sharing your life and creativity with us, helping us to laugh, smile, support and empathise with you and your friends and family.

Water colouring is In

Hello.  I hope you are enjoying your Friday and are looking forward to the weekend.

I have a quick card for you and for the Less is More gang, who asked for watercolour on our cards this week.

I heat embossed the image, which is new to me, bought from a friend's craft sale.  Then I smooshed distress inks onto a craft sheet and swiped the card through the inks.  I forgot how inky your fingers get when you do that, I now have attractive mustard yellow finger tips.

I hope this counts as watercolouring.

And as the stamp is new to me and was clearly unused when I bought it, I hope this counts as NBUS Darnell?

Must dash, I'm supposed to be working, sssh.

Hello

Hi there.  I hope you are enjoying your day and have some sunshine wherever you are.

I've made a little card in sunshine yellow to celebrate our summer that has finally arrived.

 

 

I took my inspiration (ok, so I copied) from the HeroArts blog here.

 

Gotta dash, starting work in a minute.  Bye.

Party invitations

These are five variations on a party invitation that I have designed for a friend of ours.  I just need him to choose the wording in the waves, whether he wants the sails coloured in and if so what colour.

Butterfly birthday

Hello

I hope you are enjoying your week and getting some crafty time in.

I have made a birthday card for one of my friends that I have known since school, which means that we are all reaching the grand old age of 50 this year (I did mine last year in fact).

This lady is indeed fabulous at fifty, as she has been all her life.  In fact even more than me, she just can't be that old!

I used green blue and lilac so I'm entering this into the Less is More challenge this week which is to use three colours or three shades of a colour.

I used my old but still wonderful PearlEx watercolours and painted a piece of card randomly with blue and green.  I then die cut the butterfly and swirls and used up the scraps with baby butterflies.  I computer generated WordArt greeting and some bling and it's done.  Thanks to this card for my inspiration.

Sketchy Birthday

Hello world

I hope you are all looking forward to the extra day's holiday on Monday we get here in the UK.

This week at Less is More, we have a sketch to follow.  It's a lovely one too, so thanks Chrissie.

Here is my offering, a pretty literal interpretation.

I wish I hadn't added the dragonfly now, but I found the punch in one of my boxes of punches (ahem, I have three, two large crates and one small one) and decided to add it.  Maybe it's just the glitter glue that make it look a bit odd.

Ah well, 'tis done now.  Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Happy Birthday Debbie

Today is my friend Debbie's birthday.  She was the first person to show me stamping and embossing, around 12 years ago and the rest is history :-)

I didn't actually manage to get the card in the post until today, but I wanted to share it with you all.

Happy Birthday Debbie, you are a truly amazing, strong, courageous and beautiful lady.

 

 

I'm also linking up to the Touch of Turquoise week at Less is More.