Less is More - Week 59 - Theme - Masking

Hello Everyone - a quick post today as I'm off down to Portsmouth in a minute to meet my new great nephew Charlie.

This weeks challenge over at Less is More is Masking and my immediate thoughts turned to my JudiKins stamps - African Safari and Square Postage Frame.  I stamped the frame onto an off white pearlescent card and onto a piece of copy paper.  I then cut out the centre of the frame on the copy paper to use as a mask and also punched out a circle for the sun.  I inked up my brayer with Big & Juicy Foliage ink to give the background colour.  When it was dry I then inked up my African Safari stamp with Versafine ink and stamped into the frame.  I then cut out another mask for the whole frame, placed it on the card and then used an ornate swirl (unfortunately as it's a clear stamp and there's no name anywhere I can't remember where I got it from.......).  I inked this up with the Foliage inkpad and stamped over the masked frame.  The finishing touch was the sentiment which is by Hobby Art.

 Thanks for dropping by.

Take 3 and Faux Postage Challenges

This week Mandi and Chrissie over at Less is More have given us a recipe challenge as follows

Take 3 Challenges

We want you to choose 3 from any of our previous 29 and combine them in your design.

I am also going to enter this into the challenge over at Rainbow Lady where Chocolate Baroque are sponsoring a Faux Postage challenge.

Now giving us a challenge is fine but expecting us to choose three out of the last 29 challenges goes a bit far!!!  lol  For my card I have chosen Week 4 Three Squares, Week 15 Embossing and Week 19 In the Frame.

I've taken an A5 card blank and stamped my Judikins Square Postage Frame.  I then masked off the outside, punched a circle for the sun/moon and then brayered using Big & Juicy Foliage.  I removed the punched circle and then moved onto the other two postage frames in turn.  I then inked up my Judikins African Safari cube stamp and stamped an image inside each of the frames.  To finish the card off I used my Hougie Board to add some embossed lines.

Thanks for dropping in.

Less is More - Week 28 - Ink

Well, what a wonderful excuse to get inky this week over at Less is More. But I have a confession to make........... I've actually made 3 cards as I got a bit carried away, but with all the frustrations of the email hackers this week I completely overlooked the fact it had to be a one layer card! So although mine aren't technically one layer I am going to post them anyway and hope I'm forgiven after my disastrous week - pretty please!!!! lol

I got my spin art toy off the top shelf and dusted it down. Just in case you don't know what these are they are actually kiddies toys, battery operated (although you can get smaller manual ones) and you put your piece of coated cardstock in the centre and set the machine to spin whilst dripping inks through the central opening. I've used alcohol inks here but you could just as well use acrylic inks etc etc. You can get the most amazing effects with this and for my first card I overstamped with an image which I think came from I Brake for Stamps in the States. All it needed was the addition of some ribbon.

The next one I haven't actually done anything to as it looked so much like a bird in flight that I thought it would be spoilt if I added another image. So again a piece of ribbon was added together with the sentiment which is an Anita's rubber stamp.

The third card - can you tell I was on a roll here!!!! lol - I squidged the lid of a Big & Juicy Soothing Sunset inkpad and smooched a piece of coated card over it. I then stamped the Inkadinkado butterfly on top. The butterflies are a Stampin Up sizzlet and the sentiment is from the Stampin Up Flight of the Butterfly set.

Have a great weekend.

Faux Pressed Flowers

Just a quick post today.  I saw this great tutorial over on Splitcoaststampers for Faux Pressed Flowers.

On a piece of white card cut to fit a 5"x7" card blank I stamped a flourish and sentiment using a Big & Juicy pad and then chose some paper flowers to match the colours.  These were glued onto the flourish  and then put through my Joy die cutting machine in a Cuttlebug embossing folder - it's quite amazing how these 3D flowers almost become part of the background.  It was then mounted on the cardblank and I added some co-ordinating paper.  I then used a Martha Stewart punch to punch two borders - the top one I added some matching ribbon and a ribbon bow.  All the card needed then was the addition of some gems and it was finished.  If you don't like the flat finish you can lift up the petals of the flowers.

Thanks for looking.

Rustic Beauty

The September challenge over at Flourishes is:  Rustic Beauty: As the leaves start to change colors to usher in fall, we want to see your rustic beauty! Interpret this challenge however you like – want to use a little distressing? Want to use shades of rust? Want to use things that look aged or antiqued? You choose!  


I have just made a card which is the homework card, the theme of which was Autumn, for our club night on Wednesday and it seems to fit the bill.  On a square cream card blank I used some backing paper from the new Artylicious Essence of Nature CD 

This is in lovely autumnal colours.  I then die cut some leaves, using my Spellbinders leaf dies, in varying colours and, leaving the die still on the card, inked each one with chalk inks.  I then stamped the pheasant (from SU Autumn Days set) using Big & Juicy Spice and clear embossed.  I also stamped the sentiment which is from the SU Sincere Salutations using the same recipe as above.  I then cut this out using my nesties Lacy Circles and mounted it on co-ordinating card which had been stamped and embossed using SU Large Medallion stamp.  A ribbon down the side of the card, some gems and Stickles copper glitter glue completed the card.

Thanks for stopping by.