This makes me Happy!

I love the theme at Less is More this week - it's simply to make something that makes you happy and to say why.  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/week-213-this-makes-me-happy.html

Well recently with a full-time job and and running a craft store in my "spare time" I've found little time for crafting, so at the moment making ANY card at all makes me very happy!   However, I decided to take it a little further than that making a card from a stamp brand whose images always make me happy when I colour them and a technique that I find both happy and relaxing.

This images makes me really happy as it reminds me how I never want to wear 80s fashion again!!!  I stamped Farrah (Stamping Bella) onto copic colouring card and then rifled through my scraps draw for suitable paper to stamp all her clothes onto as the technique that makes me happiest is paper-piecing - I really love the look of it and cutting all those fiddly bits like the shoes!   I coloured her body and hair and tights with copics and then set about dressing her up with her paper clothes - just like those dress up dolls I had as a kid in the 80s!  The radio is copic coloured and paper-pieced on top.  I added a little shading to the paper-piecing with copics too.

To create the frame I used a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle but made it narrower using the technique Chrissie has shared on LIM several times.  The sentiment is an old one by Personal Impressions trimmed with a Lawn Fawn stitched circle.  All mounted onto a new Avery Elle card base.

Thanks for visiting :-D

Wings

The challenge this week at Less is More is "wings"  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/week-212-wings.html   There were already a lot of birds and insects in the gallery so I opted for something mechanical!

This is an as yet unreleased set from Avery Elle which will be on sale on Friday.  As I managed to get them early it will be on sale in my UK store at the same time as it gets released Stateside along with the rest of their release which is a stunning one.  There are so many sets I want myself!

This is called Fly By and comes with other sky writing sentiments which are such fun.  I heat embossed that in white and added some frosted lace stickles.  The clouds are outlines which I coloured in using grey and white ink with a cotton bud to get a fluffy feeling and added some stickles to the top too.  The plane is paper pieced using Avery Elle's Happy pad which is also out on Friday.

Catch you later!

One Layer Love

It's a handy theme at Less is More this week as I woke up this morning to find a valentines card on my pillow as my husband is away today and had said he wasn't doing a card.  Whoops!  Luckily he won't be back whilst late so I had time to make one for him....

It is one layer week at Less is More, so you'd think die cuts were a no-go, but with a liner on the inside, you can do embedded die cuts on a one layer card and nest them back in to the finished card.  In this case I used some copics to add shading first.  The hearts banner die is by Lil' Inker Designs.

The little excited penguins and matching sentiment are from Mama Elephant's love quotes and I watercoloured them lightly with distress markers and a paintbursh.

Here's the challenge link if you want to play along.  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/one-layer-challenge-week-211.html

Going Retro

Another quick post so I can link this up before the deadline closes.  February is a busy month for me on birthdays - I have two valentine babies amongst my friends.   I used this weeks' retro sketch for the layout on this one  http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/retrosketches-152.html

The fabulous diva is by Kraftin Kimmie and I did a quick watercolour job on her with distress pens, a spray bottle and a paintbrush.    The glittery panel is by Neat and Tangled and the sentiment is one of my favourites by Avery Elle.

 

All Creatures Great and Small

That's the challenge at Simon Say's Stamp Wednesday Challenge this week and they are highlighting Paper Smooches. http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-all-creatures-great-and-small/

Well as it happens, I made a card for the guy I share an office with to give to his girlfriend, who is a bat inspector, which fits the theme on both counts so I thought I'd join in again this week.

Really simple card as he didn't want anything too girly.   Copic coloured bat from Falling for You fussy cut with a die cut PTI tree maskerading as a branch for him to hang on.  I did a bit of scissor surgery on the sentiments to mix them up taking "for you" from the nutty sentiment in the set.  Layered with Lil' Inker Designs stitched square dies.

Purrfect Love

I made a quick card for a friend to give to her partner for Valentine's day and thought I'd enter it in this weeks' CASology challenge as their theme is love  http://casology.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/week-133-love.html

It's a simple watercolour of the cute cats from Mama Elephant's Purrfect Pair on some stitched mats from Lil Inker Designs.  A little glossy accents to finish off the milk bottle et voila!  Quick and simple but very cute.

Bright and Beautiful Birthday

The current Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp is all things bright and beautiful and as I wanted to make a bright birthday card for my great nephew's 6th Birthday yesterday I thought this was the perfect opportunity to break out Simon's Farmyard Birthday stamps and play along.  http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-all-things-bright-and-beautiful/

I coloured the animals with copics, fussy cut them and layered them in and around presents made with a Simon's die and some scraps of brightly coloured papers from my ever increasing supply from my scrap box.  I know, these tiny boxes aren't going to make much of a dint in them but at least I didn't go straight for fresh sheets!  The number 6 is from Quinn's numbers by Lawn Fawn and it was mounted onto a white card on a stitched rectangle also from Lawn Fawn.

Happy 4th Birthday Less is More!

I was really thrilled when Chrissie asked me to guest again over at Less is More today to celebrate their 4th Birthday.   I can hardly believe this challenge site has been running for 4 years.  I found it on week 2 and have played along as often as I can ever since and really found my CAS style through their challenges so I have a lot to thank them for!

The challenge today is a colour theme of pink and grey and I decide to give it a birthday twist in honour of the challenge with a host of pink balloons!

I stamped the balloons using one shape from the Whole Lotta Happy stamp from Wplus9 using Blush, Piggy Bank and Lollipop pigment inks by Mama Elephant.   I die cut the birthday from grey card using the birthday script die from Mama Elephant and stamped wishes from the Whole Lotta Happy stamp underneath using grey versafine.   I drew the balloon strings by hand using the pumice stone distress marker.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LESS IS MORE!

Magic Ink

I learnt this week on one of the online card classes that Versamark ink has a magic property when used with Hero Arts Shadow inks and its a really cool technique so I thought I'd share it with you.   Here's the finished card and below there is a little photo tutorial showing the magic of how it works!

So it may look I did and emboss resist technique, but it isn't!   For this technique you start with the direct to paper technique with any colour of Hero Arts shadow ink and colour your white paper entirely.   For this card I used Ultra Pink all over and then added a little Orange Soda around the edges straight from the ink pad - don't panic about how much ink you are using, these pads are really juicy and last for ages.

I wanted to create a repeat pattern all over my card that had detail but worked just as an outline, so I opted for one of the gorgeous floral groups from Paper Smooches Blossoming Buds set and inked it up well using Versamark ink.  I started deliberately over the edge to give it a feel of a piece cut from a larger piece.

Now this is where the magic starts - don't ask me to explain the science bit, I'm no Sheldon Cooper, but essentially something in the versamark reacts with the coloured ink and after a few seconds your image starts to magically appear from the background!

It is very pale to begin with so can be a bit tricky to see where  you stamped your last image (if you looks closely I did a bit of a mistake and overlapped a tiny bit but I think I got away with it just!)  If you want to be more precise just wait a couple of minutes in between stamping each image as the longer you leave it the brighter it gets.

So by the time you stamp your last image, the first ones are nice and bright, but leave it overnight and it gets much whiter still as you can see how bright it is on the finished card which I photographed after 24 hours.

 To finish it off I added a big bold sentiment from Altenew's Super Script set embossed in gold on a strip of vellum.   I felt the whole piece had a bit of an Indian wedding look so thought this worked well as a sentiment and brought out the gold a little further with a few gold sequin highlights.

As it's anything goes week over at Paper Smooches Sparks - I'm going to link it up to their challenge
http://papersmoochessparks.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/february-1-7-anything-goes-wk1-challenge.html