200 Less is More Challenges

My favourite challenge site has reached a milestone today - 200 challenges and counting!  WOW that's an awful lot of commenting by founder LIMette Chrissie over the last 4 years - thanks so much - we all appreciate your hard work!

Of course I had to join in this week and the theme in honour of this milestone is celebration http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/200th-challenge.html

I went a bit out there and made a simple wedding card - they're a cause for celebration right?

I used the awesome new Sketchy Landmarks set from Altenew which is one of the sides of Westminster Abbey and I just love it - simple yet intricate.  I embossed it in white and then used distress markers scribbled on my acrylic block with a paint brush and water to get a soft water colour look.   I made a mitred corner mount using washi tape and mounted the stitched detail panel on top and finished with a sentiment from the same set.

Thanks for visiting.

Bunny Christmas

I get so little time to craft for fun at the minute but I was really taken by this sketch when I saw it at Retro Sketches tonight that I forced myself to make a quick card before the deadline closes in a few hours.  http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/retrosketches-142.html

Made with a SSS die, LF Snowday stamps and papers and some washi tape.

Santa's coming to town

I have loads of stuff I SHOULD be doing today, but in the true spirit of the procrastinating crafter, I'm doing stuff for fun instead!  So I made a card for this week's "anything Christmassy" challenge at Less is More  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/week-199.html

I just went really simple with the Joy to the World set from Avery Elle on a small square card.  Stamping the "santa" version of the globe in a nice bright red with the stark black santa silhoutte and sentiment really works for me.  The globe base had to be metal so I went for a cold silver.  I think I may be knocking up a few of these as I am badly behind on Christmas cards and these take about 30 seconds!

Right, I have an exciting gift project I need to finish for tomorrow - catch you later.

PJs and Trees

Today is Waltzingmouse PJ party day and I've managed to combine their sketch challenge with this week's LIM challenge which is to feature more than one tree  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/week-198-theme.html

Here's my take on the sketch which I've included below for reference.

I used the row of trees from Flurries and a bit of inking with a dauber over scraps of torn paper to get some hills to ground them on.  I wanted to tie into the "warm" in the sentiment so decided to add a large low yellow sun rising behind the hills.  I put my die cut panel onto a soft background of snow created using texture paste and a SSS stencil.

I didn't manage to do all the challenges this month but I did have a go at the Scandi Tag too.

I decided to do a sparkly red snowflake - not traditional but I think it works - particularly with this spikey number from the last release.  I added a little scani-ribbon and a simple sentiment along with a dashed border and hey-presto - a quick and easy gift tag.   I really love to wrap with plain coloured papers at Christmas and let my trimmings do the talking so these are going to look great on my red wrapping with lots of natural hemp twine.

It's just the day for a PJ party here - cold, grey and foggy.  What could be better than staying in and getting inky!

Savannah has a Star

I had a little birthday splurge on my favourite stamps for "colouring in" this weekend - I do soooo love an Uptown Girl from Stamping Bella.   It's a brand I don't sell myself though, so if you want them, then like me, head on over to my mate Elaine's fabulous store Quixotic Paperie and pick up a  lovely leggy lady (or 12 like I did!!!!)

I always like to try and play in my favourite weekly challenge - Less is More - and this week, they want us to feature a star on our one layer project - hope this one isn't too subtle ladies - she does have a star and it's even in the name of the stamp but it is a bit little!

 

I had such fun colouring Savannah in - and I love the idea of wearing a Christmas tree!  I stamped her on a kraft base card and used the stitched mat square dies from Lil' Inker Designs to create an embossed border and then traced the solid line in red to make it pop between the dashes.  I coloured her with Polychromos pencils - using just 3 shades of green to get some depth in the shadows and highlights on the tips.  I love using pencils on kraft - you can get such a grown up finish from a medium considered so childish!   I finished with one my favourite Christmas sentiment sets by Hero Arts.

Non-Traditional Christmas Colours

The challenge at Less is More this week is to make a Christmas card with no red or green http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/week-196-colour-challenge-non.html and Virginia's View challenge is "All About Metallics" http://virginiasviewchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/virginias-view-challenge-9.html so I combined the two for my card over on the store blog this week.

I die cut an ornament from Paper Smooches from double-sided adhesive sheet and then covered it in 3 shades of microfine blue glitter to get a shaded effect (I used Blue Purple, Royal Blue and Bluebell - all of which can be found here) and then added the ornament topper in grey and silver.  A bauble needs somewhere to hang and for that I used my new Spring and Berries die from Elizabeth Craft Designs and cut it from silver card and I used the matching embossing folder to add interest to the background.  A simple die cut "joy" sentiment in matching silver was the perfect finishing touch.

It was the first time I'd tried the microfine glitters and I really love them - you can colour with glitter like you do with copics - the shades blend so well together and a little goes such a long way.  I am going to be glittering everything this Christmas!!!!