Second post this week and it's only Tuesday!

Well, my Less is More mojo is on overdrive and I haven't made a mess of anything yet, so I made a few more bling cards. These were all very very quick too, which doesn't always go hand in hand with LIM!
My first uses a previously uninked stamp that I got last year. It is a Hero Arts cling stamp called Wreath of leaves. I just added a few gems and a little Hero Arts sentiment.

After that I remembered some other stamps I bought last year, and didn't really get round to using. These are called Joyful Bubbles by Paula Pascual and were an absolute snip at £4.99. I stamped both cards with versafine (Royal purple and majestic blue) then embossed with Kaleidoscope embossing powder, adding a couple of gems too. The first is the blue one...

 

...with a close up of the sparkle...

The second is the purple one...

...and another close up...

I am thinking this kaleidoscope embossing powder is seriously addictive!

Challenges:

Stamptacular Sunday : Anything Christmas

Crafty cardmakers : Heat Embossing

Thanks for looking!

Bling at Less is More

It has been one of those weeks at work, which has led to my craft space getting overcrowded and mistakes and spillages a plenty. First of all I have managed a Less is More entry where the theme is Bling. I dug out an ancient Stamporium stamp, embossed in silver sparkle and painted the holly leaves with bleach. I added some red gems and then decided the leaves needed a bit of sparkle too and added diamond stickles. Not my best, I'm afraid.

Last week the theme was silhouettes and I was really trying to join in. Unfortunately I got some really bad ink smudges on the one layer card I had made. I tried to get rid of them with bleach, but the colour of the base card was affected, so I gave up and put it to one side. Suddenly yesterday I had a brain wave and found the Parisienne borderability I had bought but not yet used. I was quite impressed with how well it covered up the mistakes!

I used ink dusters, dusty concord, wild honey and black soot distress inks, and tree stamps from the Inkylicious Winter's tale plate. Thanks for looking. I am hoping to visit a few more LIMettes this week, but with School Panto week rapidly approaching I may well not get the chance!

Age cards

I have been busy this week working on a few orders.My First card is for a colleague's son who turns twenty-one next weekend. He is a mechanic, so I went for a cogs and tools look. All of the images on this card were free clip art from the net, as was the font.

 The tools are novelty buttons that I've had in my stash for years.
My next card is for a lovely student I have in my class two days a week. She will turn Eighteen on Friday. For this one I used a computer generated number and then a Waltzing Mouse stamp for the fancy circle.

The roses and leaves were made with Marrianne dies, the border was made with my new Martha Stewart Doily lace punch (I wore out the old one) and the circles were cut with nesties. I used the Victoriana embossing folder on this one.
One of our lunchtime supervisors is fifty at the end of next week, so this next one is for her.

I cut out some numbers and used B&J soothing sunset, my ink dusters and a Fun Stamps paisley stamp to decorate them. The flowers and leaves were punches and the background was embossed with a paisley cuttlebug embossing folder, and the background paper is some I had printed out from an Artylicious cd, and just used a corner of it. The sentiment is a Waltzing mouse stamp. 

Finally I have a card for which I pieced together a selection of scraps and finished off with a little scene using Hobby art Scene it Tuscany stamps and coloured with Distress inks. I was rather pleased that you can't tell the backing paper was in five pieces and the corrugated card covers a big jagged gap!

The more I look at it the more I think I made a bit of a faux pas, as there is only one glass and two bottles of wine partially drunk! Apart from the first one I made all of these from scraps and snippets, so they are all eligible to be entered into Jules's Crafty Snippet Challenge.

Less is More - one layer and leaves

When I saw the challenge was leaves at Less Is More this week I knew straight away which stamps I was going to use. I bought these Chappell Road maple leaves at the first show I ever went to in Leeds many years ago. I stamped them in Big and Juicy Foliage, sponged around the edges with Tea dye distress ink and used a damp brush to spread a little colour across the leaves.
I thought I would also show you yet another triptych card that I would have submitted for last week's challenge had I finished it in time!

The Allium stamps are from Lavinia and I used Copper embossing powder this time. More details about how I made it can be found here.
Thanks for looking, and I hope I will get round to visiting a few more of you this week!

Blog Candy Winner

Well, the time has come to announce the winner of my blog candy, and Mr Random Number Generator said 10, which, counting through the comments is Debbie of Fairy Bluebell's Craft Adventure. Check out her blog because she has been creating some stunning Christmas cards lately.
Drop me an email with your address on it Debbie and I will pop your parcel in the post.
Welcome to the new followers who have arrived this week and thanks for the lovely comments you have left for me - much appreciated!

Lest we forget

A simple card using one of Teri's fabulous sketch digis from Delicious doodles, coloured with promakers and some papers from an Artylicious CD. Will be back later with the blog candy results.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

BLOG CANDY and changes to the Stampalot challenge

 This candy is now closed

Thought I ought to let you know that as from November the starting date of challenges at Sir Stampalot will be the first Sunday of the month. That means that most months our challenge will run until the end of the month................unless the first Sunday falls on the first of the month...............but rather than complicate things there will be a list of exact dates on the sidebar to make life easier for all of us. Our current challenge will run until 31st October and the new challenge will start on Sunday 6th November.
Now, on to my Blog candy. If you come here regularly you will know that I have celebrated my third Bloggerversary this week, so as a big thank you to all my lovely followers I am having a bit of Blog candy to celebrate. I have also passed the landmark of my 500th post too. I do love being here in blog land and am amazed by all the lovely people I've met both electronically and in real life through blogging.  I want you to know how much I appreciate all your lovely comments and I'm offering this with no strings attached. If you are a follower then pop a comment below. I don't expect you to put anything in your side bar about it, but if you do then thank you. If you are a follower and you leave a comment below by 11th November you will be in with a chance of winning this prize.

 I will attempt to add a few more bits to it over the next couple of weeks. Now, forgive me, but I've been to Doncaster and have some lovely new stash to play with so I'm off to have a little fun, probably with my own Inkylicious stamps like you can see in the picture!

LIM - red and orange

I had to make a couple of quick birthday cards and so what better than to go for CAS cards, however, there was a fair bit of time and inkiness to get carried away with before I managed to get them finished!
Here is the first:

I used cut and dry to cover a piece of watercolour paper in Distress inks (Fired Brick, spiced marmalade, Dried marigold and Wild Honey), spraying it with iridescent gold glimmer mist. Once it was dry, I used the Hobby art Stamp set 'Anna's collection - Just for You' in the same colours. I added a couple of gold embossed flower heads before cutting the panel into three equal parts. The sentiment is a very old one from Stamporium (no longer available). I am entering this one into the LIM challenge where the colour theme is red and orange this week, and Clean and Simple Sunday where the theme is Flowers.
I enjoyed this one so much I decided to do a very similar one with different colours and different stamps.

For this one I used Adirondack inks in Bottle, stream and purple twilight with the Wild Meadow stamps from Elusive images/ Chocolate Baroque. I will do my best to visit some of the lovely LIMettes during the week. Thanks for looking and for leaving lovely comments x

Blues and Greens at Sir Stampalot

Well, it's the first Sunday of the month and time for a new challenge at Sir Stampalot. The theme this month is a colour challenge and we chose Blue and Green.

I began by creating a background using a Woodware holly swirl and versamark ink, then sponged broken china, shabby shutters and pine needles distress ink over the top. I used the same inks, plus forest moss to create a background on watercolour paper which I spayed with iridescent gold glimmer mist. When it was dry I stamped the Poinsettia (Penny black slapstick cling - Christmas pride) and embossed it in gold. The ribbon was recycled from a box of chocolates and the greeting is very old from Stamporium (no longer available). the beads used for the centre of the poinsettia were from my stash. I cut the shaped card using an XL frame Go Kreate die called frilly #1.
I'm entering my card into Allsorts Challenge this week where the theme is 'Anything but a square'.
There's lots more fabulous inspiration over on the Stampalot Challenge Blog, so do pop over and check it out!

What is the prize this month? Well, we are keeping that a secret for a little while, but I am sure I don't have to tell you how fabulous the prizes are from Sir Stampalot, and it will be just as AWESOME as it always is!

I will make a mid week card!

I have been doing little bits of this card since Tuesday and I was determined to finish it today.

It is an easel Christmas card. I brayered a background with Eggplant and Peach Bellini Adirondack inks before stamping in Memento Paris dusk. The lovely cottage is Art impressions (T-1221), The fence is from a set by Lindsay Mason called 'Build a snowy scene' and the Fir trees are from Inkylicious. I added a few highlights and shadows with promarkers, white gel pen and glitter.
Here is a close up of the scene...

and here is the poinsettia 

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
Allsorts - Christmas easel cards
Ladybugs crafts ink challenge - Non-traditional Christmas colours

Thanks for looking! Don't forget there is still time to pop a comment on my candy post here