Guest Designer at Less is More

It's always exciting to be asked to be Guest Designer on a Card Challenge Blog.  I am no different to anyone else, my heart did a jump and a flutter and I of course sent an email back instantly saying 'yes I would love to do it'. Then of course the doubts hit in. 

Guest Designer on Less is More, mmmm can I keep myself CAS enough. Stop those extra bits and pieces sneaking in. 

I picked this beautiful digital flower even though I have a thousand stamps I could use but I was on holidays down the coast when I got the email and there is nothing like there here and now. So I used what I had with me. I coloured with Copics and kept the colour very light in the centre of each petal

so white shows through giving a curve to the petals.

I did want to go one layer but I hadn't taken any stamps with me but I had some die cuts and sequins so attached these. 

The diecut in silver glitter works beautifully with the blue and the sequins are a mix of all blues

and silvers. A little bit of yellow pen for the flower centres and the card is finished. I'm really happy with how it looks, it was extremely easy to do and very quick to throw together. 

Now it's time to go over to the Less is More challenge and check out what all the Design Team have done and get inspired and add a card or two of your own.

Thanks so much for coming to have a look.

EDIT:

Just back to add a few Challenges :

Perfect for

Just Us Girls Challenge #434 CAS

Simon Says National Craft Month

Although this post says the 1st it is 

still the 31st there. I hope 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

It's a great day to Celebrate

Again it's only an hour to closing at the Muse Card Challenge and so I need to get my card entered.

When you see the card for this week you will see where my inspiration can came from:

Muse Challenge #258

This card is done by Kim and it is so very cute and I instantly knew what I wanted to do just had to get it done and of course like every week it became the day the challenge closes. I kept thinking which stamp will I use for the balloons and what should arrive in the mail today but the layer stamps from Sunny Studio.

Talk about love at first sight. I love them. Had to do a bit of playing to get the layering right but once I got there I ended up with balloons in lots of different colours.

There are three parts to the stamp, so  that by using three colours you get that depth to the balloon. I play around with mixes in Distress Oxides and Distress Inks and found some good colours that worked well together and will add them in another post.

Here I have used Distress Oxides and of the two the Oxides do look better

but sometimes the colour choices are not enough so Distress Inks are also good.

When I saw Kim's card I straight away thought of balloons floating along with a couple of panda's but with them tangled from the strings and a panda on the ground laughing at it. 

My panda's are The Ton panda's and they just crack me up with their sweet little characters rolling all over the place laughing at what life throws at them. I stamped all the panda's then fussy cut them.

After placing the balloons with dimensional foam and attaching string with glue I added a bit of glue to the pandas feet and hands then twisted the string so they became tangled.

Stamped the sentiment that came with the balloons and positioned that funny little fellow in the corner and they are all ready to fly away.

Better get it linked before it closes.

Edited to add

Challenges:

Seize the Birthday : Teal and White - without the Twist

Gone without the twist as the balloons are yellow and

the panda's black and white.

HLS Anything Goes With Dies Challenge

The balloons are diecut.

Thanks again

Three Easter Cards

Three Easter cards, two using stamps from the same company but doing one card very glittery and one quite CAS then a Stamping Bella card thats meant to be for Easter but I have actually used her for a Birthday card cause I reckon bunny hugs can be for any time of the year really.

This sweet stamped image is from Lil Inker and the sentiment is one of a collection that you can stamp into the centre and doesn't necessarily need to be for Easter. I have used an oval die that has added to the Easter egg look so it ties it all together.

Very simple copic colouring. Used a die cut that comes in a set of three pieces but I find I like the two ovals best without using the centre cutout. (Of course it wasn't till I took the photo and was editing that I saw the missed bits still in place - ohhh well, just ignore them ok) 

I added the die cut piece to a yellow cardbase. Then remembered I needed the sentiment. Luckily it lined up and stamped perfectly with the Misti. 

With this image I stamped and coloured not only the flowers but I did the outline with pale blue. This time I decided to add the two layers of diecuts. So the white layer then a ,ayer in silver glitter.

Check out that glitter. Again added the sentiment using the Misti after I had put the card all together. Lucky this device works so well.

Looks a lot fancier than the first, not my style normally but Im sure  there is someone out there who will love it. The stamps are so pretty and easy to use and colour (three different ones) and as I said before they come with a collection of sentiments 'Easter' 'Hello' Thanks' 'Spring' 'Love' and 'Friend'

Now we are onto a Stamping Bella card. I coloured thistle sweetie a couple of weeks ago then wasn't so happy with her so put her aside. I am learning to put aside what I don't like so I can look later and see if I can fix or use in a different way.

With this image I had a few issues with her hair and ended up with ink where it wasn't meant to be so had to try and tidy and fix so it ended up ok. I also added glue lines to the frills of her petticoat and added glitter but hated it and luckily was able to remove most of the glitter.

I cut the coloured image out with the largest die cut and added to the pink card base at an angle. To finish it off I added the 'Hugs' die cut from MFT (new and happily used before it has sat for too long).

I ended up happy with the card in the end. The pink card looking pretty with the pink and green of the coloured image and the cute little fluffy bunnies. Makes a perfect Birthday card which is what I am using it for in this instance.

Challenges:

Just Us Girls: Challenge Photo Inspiration

My First Easter Card I feel is inspired by the

colours and the easter images.

A Gem of A Challenge #215 Easter

My second Easter Card

CAS on Fridays Challenge #129 Easter

My first Easter Card

Cute Card Thursday #522 Easter

second Easter Card

Seize The Birthday Teal and White - Without The Topping

Hugs on your Birthday

Addicted to Stamps and More #284 Clean and Simple

My first Easter Card

Crafting From the Heart #199 Anything Goes

Hugs on Your Birthday

Make My Monday Challenge #67 Easter Fun

The second Easter Card

613 Avenue Create Challenge #207 Anything Goes without the Twist

Hugs on your Birthday

Thanks so Much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon. xxx

Beautiful Rainbow Garden

First I want you to look at the background not the stamped image. The background was done using Distress Oxide and just blending the different colours together in random mix. At the time I also sprayed lightly with water and laid gladwrap on and left overnight but you could hardly see the effect the next day.

The pieces sat in my background box for ages as it was a sort of odd colour and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. After finally remembering I had these wonderful stamps from The Ton, this one is the background  Magnificent Magnolias stamp andI cant believe I forgot I had it. But anyway this is now remedied. I stamped and white embossed. Before stamping I made sure to use the anti static pillow very well so there are no stray bits of white.

As you can see it embossed really well. NOW I was going to follow trend and do what I was seeing happening on Instagram with removing colour from the flowers by adding water and dabbing with paper towel but OF COURSE my piece had been blended too long ago. This ink was going no where. It was here to stay. 

I was rather disappointed and debated binning but after posting on Instagram and much comment on keep and just add a sentiment and use I thought more on it and decided to try what I had thought of as my second option at the time pencil.

This is my Rainbow Magnolia Garden

Its a magic garden because the magnolias all grow from one bush but they are multi coloured, some petals even double coloured. The flowers may be green and the stems pink or pink and purple.

 

I love this stamp and the wonderful fine detail of the stamped image. It stamped out perfectly every time even though I used the VersaMark ink multiple times there was no thickening of the lines and I love that. There was also no worries with bits of image not stamping whether on watercolour paper, vellum or cardstock so Im very impressed.

I loved colouring over the Distress Ink Oxides, the pencils just glided over. I used Faber-Castell Polychromos. A wee bit hard on my hands but thats because I was wanting to work in less layers.

I cut the piece with a stitched rectangle die. added some fun foam to the back then attached to a black cardbase. Finished off with a die cut silver glitter 'beautiful' and some clear enamel dots.

I absolutely love how this turned out and think I may use my other background that is done in a similar way with.......... 

ooooohhh new stamps and yes there is the rose background just waiting to be stamped up. Just image mmmmm.  But it will have to wait for now. Just wanted to share my latest which hopefully won't disappear into my NBUS pile for a year like the magnolia one did. No I don't think it was that long but it does get hard to keep up with these releases.

Thank you so much for coming to have a look and I hope you will come again soon.

Challenges:

Work It Wednesday March 2018 Inking Technique

Blending Distress Ink Oxide

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge : Floral Frenzy

The Ton March Challenge 3/18 Spring

Hope you have a beautiful day.

Wow this card is another last minute decision. I woke up with a migraine and wasn't going to do anything but relax then got motivated after dinner and with 2 hours to go for the Muse card challenge.

Tracey has done the most amazing card

and you have to look very closely to see where my 

inspiration comes from. The loosely attached flowers, the humming

bird and the stamped sentiment and the soft colours.

My interpretation are the softly coloured humming bird(s) with added sparkle and flowers.

I have used flowers from three different companies and leaves from another.

The sentiment is from another company and the stamped and silver embossed band is from another Stamp company. I think I have managed to combine 7 different stamp companies in the making of this card.

Not bad when you look at the end result and see that its not that cluttered looking. The flowers are attached with double sided tape and the humming birds with double sided dimensional foam tape, the top bird with it doubled up so it sat higher than the flowers.

Lets see if I can think of all the Companies:

Penny Black :Border stamp

Pretty Pink Posh: Humming Birds

Leaves: Stampendous

Flower 1: I've gone blank, I have a pile I have stamped

and embossed ready to colour but cant remember from which set.

Flower 2: Happy Little Stampers

Flower 3: Ellen Hudson 

Sentiment: Altenew

All are watercoloured with Zigs but only the birds have a bit of Wink of Stella added.

The flowers are all white embossed.

Challenges

The Muse Card Challenge #257

HLS March Watercolour Anything Goes

all the flowers and birds are watercoloured so 

I hope this meets requirements and is okay.

without the Twist.

HLS March Anything Goes With Dies

One of those rare times when I have every flower

and the birds die cut.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and I hope you come again soon.

Celebrate

 I had a Distress Oxide background in pinks and mauves sitting around and decided to play around with it using Copics on the stamped flowers. I have used flowers from The Ton. The flowers are

Magnificent Magnolias and I had made the mistake of unpacking and putting with my flower stamps rather than my unused stamps therefore forgetting I hadn't used them. It was only as I was using the beautiful digital files from Dot Bstamps that I thought to myself I think I have some stamp stamps here and went looking.

I have made sure to prepare the surface of the Distress Oxide cardbase with the Antistatic pillow very well before stamping with my VersaMark ink and embossing in white so there are no stray white specks. These stamps are beautiful to work with and the lines are so wonderful and fine.

Once done I then used my copics and I went with the R81 R83 R85 R89 colours. I worked very hard to keep off the white embossing so I wouldn't damage the copic pen tips. Sometimes I feel the ink pulls harder on the Distress Oxide. 

The Colourless Blender comes in very handy for removing any colour that touches the white or over colours. I used grey to add shadow then went in with the colourless blender to soften it as at times it can become overbearing. Again its great if you feel you have gone too far.

I also added a little white pencil to the flower petals I felt where in full light to highlight them more. 

 I die cut with a stitched rectangle die but one side was too short for the die so I used one of those add stitches single die pieces which just imprints a line.

I keep forgetting I have these different pieces that add different stitches and cut different shapes so I have removed from die storage and put into a round container on the bench with the  die cutter so they are in view all the time- in view - more likely to be used.

I wanted a little bit of bling and couldn't decide what and after lots of fiddling around ended up using a fancy cutout die for a strip along the top of the card. Sorry cant think of the brand. It wasn't quite long enough but I found that by laying the die down into the last line of circles cutout and taping down and coving that piece with a piece of cardstock so it didnt re-cut it, was a perfect line up and ended up being longer than the card so was perfect. 

With that, a Gun Metal Silver cardstock 'celebrate' die cut and some clear glass gems I was happy with the finish.

In real life I love the look of the card, the flowers are absolutely beautiful,  and look stunning against the background even though so similar in colour.

I just don't know that the photo shows that beauty as well. What are your thoughts.

I have another background I am playing with but its a rainbow coloured Distress Oxide background that I blended then did glad wrap on but the glad wrap doesn't show up that much. I nearly threw the piece out as it didnt do much for me but decided to keep it. Well I have stamped on it and embossed in white and the embossing looks absolutely unbelievable  but I don't know what to do next so you will have to wait to see..........

Challenges:

The Flower Challenge #18 Anything Goes 

Can't enter this as Im on the design team just reminding 

you all it's still on and has a few days to go.

Allsorts Challenge Blog #459 Bring on the Bling

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #521 Celebrate

Mix It Up Challenge Blog #11 Anything Goes + Make Your Own Background

Simon Says Monday Challenge Spring Inspiration

UPDATE ON MUM and DAD

Now just to finish off I thought I would share dad's latest batch of cards he has received from all you wonderful people in Blogland and Instagram. I can never ever thank you all enough for the joy you give him when he receives your cards. Sometimes he forgets to call me and tell me about a card, so I get there and have to search his room and find cards hidden here and there and other times I will find cards already up on the wall that I haven't taken a photo of and other times dad will call me about particular cards (one that comes to mind is Ruth's (Crafting With The Baby Naps) which he rang me about daily for a week and on one day which was obviously a bad one for him roughly six times to tell me he had received mail then described the mail from the envelope to the card and the writing. I act surprised and interested each time and our days go on.

For dad life is one day at a time, hour by hour. Good days and not so good days. Mostly happy and enjoyed when visited and especially happy when he sees mum. He loves his cards and he would say thank you to you all if he still had that social skill I am sure.

 

 

Left to right from the top is Larissa from Car-D-elicious  Karren from KarenJ-StampingStuff

a family friend of mine Trisha who is on Instagram;  Anna from createwith_anna   (Instagram sorry I don't know how to make an instagram link) ; Ruth from Crafting While The Baby Naps  ; Bobby from Bits and Pieces  ;  Lorena lorena_wakefield Instagram;  new wall started; first wall now over crowed ; Mr and Mrs Cardena from Instagram;

BEST NEWS FOR LAST

I spend Thursday and Friday with mum and dad and on Thursday when I got to mums room she was still asleep. When she woke up she knew me, really knew me, we chatted for just a little while. It didnt last long but it was the first time since Christmas that she really knew me and it made everything just sparkle.  

Mum went into a funk shortly after but about an hour later she came back again to the extent of sitting quietly and enjoying having her neck and head rubbed and just relaxing the two of us in a quiet corner. Then out of the blue she started talking properly saying some wonderful things and also making me realise she is aware of those not visiting her and she cried over that for just a couple of minutes then she disappeared again. She was very happy and peaceful for the rest of the visit.

This makes you realise that no matter how far gone someone can seem to be in Alzehimer's there is always the chance that they may have a moment, a minute of clarity and to be there for that makes everything you do in life worth it.

Thank you everyone who read to here and I hope you come again soon. Love that you all come and visit xxxx Aileen