Guest Designer for LIM!

I was really flattered when Chrissie, from Less is More, invited me to be a Guest Designer for this week's challenge, which is to create a card Using More than One Stamp Set. I have been entering cards for the challenges right from the start and have only missed a few weeks since Chrissie & Mandi started the challenge blog in February 2011. I have to say it has become a bit of an obsession with me at 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning, when I can often be found making cards when I really should be doing something else :0)
Anyway here are the three cards I have made - Using More than One Stamp Set

My first card uses the Field Flowers stamp set for the stems and the sentiment and the flowers are from Petite Petals, punched with the co-ordinating punch. I used Old Olive for the stems and Melon Mambo for the sentiment and flowers.
To add a bit of interest I added some paper piercing using a template from the Festive Paper Piercing Pack.

My second card uses the Gorgeous Grunge set and the cute little lion and sentiment from Zoo Babies.
The Gorgeous Grunge 'splatter' was stamped in Pumpkin Pie and Crumb Cake and the lion was inked using markers in the same colours. This was punched with a Circle Punch and matted onto a Scallop Circle then fixed to the card with dimensionals. The panel was matted onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then onto a plain white card blank.

My final card uses Gorgeous Grunge (again!) and the image and sentiment from the Hostess set, Simply Sketched. I started by stamping the Gorgeous Grunge 'splat' in Old Olive on a piece of Whisper White cardstock then the bird stamp was coloured using Old Olive and Chocolate Chip markers and stamped on top of the 'splat' before colouring the bird using a Blender Pen. This was matted onto a piece of Old Olive cardstock which had been stamped with Gorgeous Grunge and the sentiment, punched with the Oval Punch, was matted onto a Modern Label.

Thanks once again to Chrissie for the invite and I'll be back soon

Margaret x

This is one of the projects we made at last week's class - a card and matching money/gift card holder. It uses Summer Starfruit cardstock and ribbon and some of this year's SAB designer paper.
The flowers were stamped with an image from Flower Shop and one from Petite Petals and punched with the co-ordinating punches. The sentiment on the card is from Field Flowers and was punched out with the Small Oval Punch and matted on a Modern Label. The closure for the money holder was diecut using one of the Labels Collection Framelits (sentiment and punch on holder are now retired).

The weather here has been atrocious today, it hasn't stopped raining so I have been busy making a commissioned engagement card and 'practicing' projects for my next class. Maybe it will be dry tomorrow :0)

Margaret x

Simples Sunday

Once again this week I have used the LIM challenge, a card using Diecuts, for my Simples Sunday post and this is a really simple one.
I started by paper piercing two hearts, using the Occasions Paper Piercing Pack, on a panel of white cardstock. I then added three Rich Razzleberry flowers cut with the Floral Fusions Sizzlits Die and a Basic Pearl added to the centres. A few Pistachio Pudding leaves, cut with the Little Leaves Sizzlits Die, were placed around the flowers and all that was left to do was add the sentiment from Field Flowers. Simples!!

I sincerely apologise for my distinct lack of comments on last week's entries for the LIM challenge - the week ran away with me again. I am on half term this week so (fingers crossed) I will find some time to look round all the lovely entries.

Have a good day

Margaret x

Tag Card

Today's card is probably one of the most difficult I have ever had to make and is for a lovely lady who has recently had some really sad news.
I took inspiration from a card made by Catherine Pooler (her video can be seen here) and, although I didn't use the same technique, I did use a similar colour combo.
First I cut a tag of Whisper White with a brand new punch, which will soon be available in the new Spring/Summer catalogue, then stamped the flowers and stem from Field Flowers. For the flowers I inked the stamp with Pool Party then added Island Indigo and Elegant Eggplant using sponge daubers and the stem was stamped in Pear Pizzazz. The 'hello' from Oh, Hello is stamped over the stem in Elegant Eggplant. I tied some Bakers Twine at the top of the tag before fixing to a panel of Pool Party, which had been randomly stamped with the other image from Field Flowers, and then onto a white card blank.
In this particular situation no words will make anything better so I plumped for a retired sentiment inside the card which says just about all there is to say.

Back soon

Margaret x

Chocolate Box

Today I have a box I have made as a small gift, which holds a box of chocolates. It is made with Wild Wasabi cardstock with a band from the old style DSP stack. The flower is made from Whisper White cardstock and the Blossom Punch, sponged around the edges with Wild Wasabi and a sponge dauber. There are several tutorials around showing how to make these flowers and I'm sure all those people are experts at it however, this being the first one I've made, it took me ages and is by no means perfect but I was reasonably happy with it as a first attempt! I finished the box off with a sentiment, from Field Flowers, punched with the Oval Punch and matted onto a Scallop Oval and three DSP loops which sit behind the flower.

Margaret x

Shabby & Vintage?

If you have visited my blog recently you may have seen two cards which I entered for the House of Cards October Sketch Challenge (you can see the sketch below) - one being CAS and the other Classic & Elegant styles. Well this week the style is 'Shabby & Vintage' and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever made a card in this style (well not intentionally!!) Not to be beaten I had an idea in my head and set to - whether it can be described as shabby, vintage, a mixture of both or neither remains to be seen but at least I tried.
I started with a piece of Pink Pirouette DSP and sponged around the edges with Crumb Cake then added the 'crosses' with two strips of cardstock which had been cut with the Scallop Trim Border Punch, this was then matted onto a Crumb Cake card blank. The fancy circle in the centre is from the Perfect Pennants Bigz die with a circle of DSP, cut with a Circles Collection Framelit, matted onto it and stamped with the sentiment from Field Flowers.
For the larger flowers I took a piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock, distressed it with a bone folder and separated the two layers before cutting with the Floral Fusions Sizzlits die. These were sponged lightly with Crumb Cake before glueing the layers together and a Basic Pearl added to the centre. The leaves were cut from the Little Leaves Sizzlits die and the tiny flowers from one of the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch pack. The 'ribbon' loops are pieces of Crochet Trim coloured with Pink Pirouette ink. My apologies for the long explanation but there were a lot of different components to the card and this is one I definitely won't be adding to my 'Simples Sunday' collection :0)

This is the sketch!!

                             
              Margaret x

Masculine SUO Challenge

The challenge at SUO (Stampin'Up! Only) this time is a Masculine card and, as I need a couple of cards for men over the next few weeks, I thought I'd give it a go.
My card is a triple time stamping card, of which there are several fabulous examples around but I first saw the idea on a YouTube video by Dawn Olchefske.
As it's for a man I decided that the lovely leaf stamp, Magnificent Maple, would be ideal and I have stamped it in Chocolate Chip onto Very Vanilla. The base card and mats are Soft Brown Sugar and the card was finished off with some Linen Thread, a button made with Simply Pressed Clay - coloured with a Baked Brown Sugar marker and a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments. I decorated the inside with another leaf, this time stamped off to give a lighter shade, and a sentiment from Field Flowers.

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

LIM - Get Well

The challenge this week at LIM is a one layer, Get Well card and, whilst I know some people find one layer cards a challenge in themselves, I actually like making them. Probably because I'm plain and simple :0)
For my card I used a Sahara Sand card blank and scored a few lines to add a bit of interest. The flower stamp is from Love & Sympathy, coloured with Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant markers, and the Elegant Eggplant sentiment is from Perfectly Penned. For the insert I stamped another flower image off one corner and added the sentiment from Field Flowers.

My apologies for the lack of posts this week but, going back to work, the week seems to have flown by and what little crafting I have got done has either been for forthcoming birthdays or my class next week so it's too early to share those! Hopefully I'll be back in a routine soon :0)

Thanks for stopping by and I'll try to get round to comment on the lovely LIM creations this week (something I didn't quite manage last week!)

Margaret x

Less is More Watercolouring

The LIM challenge this week is to use a rubber stamp and, a bonus challenge, to add some watercolouring. This is my first attempt at what you could call actual watercolouring, that is on proper paper using water, and now I've tried it I have to say it's not a technique I particularly like! Anyway I tried and this is the result.
I used a combination of Field Flowers (stem and sentiment) and Fabulous Florets stamped in Old Olive and Raspberry Ripple and coloured using an aqua painter. The sentiment was punched using the new Label Bracket Punch (available in the new seasonal catalogue) which was then re-inserted into the punch to make a different, smaller shape.
That's it from me as I have a busy day ahead. Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back tomorrow for Simples Sunday.

Margaret x

Handmade Flowers for LIM

I struck lucky with the LIM challenge this week, which is 'Handmade Flowers'. These little roses have been sitting abandoned on my desk for the past couple of weeks after deciding I needed far too many for the oversized card I had been asked to make!
They are made with a couple of different size Scallop Circle punches and are cut and rolled to form a rose - these are made with So Saffron and Very Vanilla.
I used one of the ovals from the Ovals Collection Framelits to cut an aperture in a piece of cardstock then stamped the leaves from Summer Silhouettes in Pear Pizzazz. This was then fixed to the card blank before adding the roses and a few leaves punched with the Bird Builder punch. The card was finished with a simple sentiment from Field Flowers stamped in So Saffron.
Have a great weekend - thankfully it is going to be a little cooler before the return of the heatwave next week!

Made to Match

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to dinner at a work colleagues house to celebrate her new job and I bought the gift-wrapped rose to take as a present. I needed a card to go with it so I took inspiration from the gift bag and came up with the card above. I used Field Flowers stamped with Daffodil Delight and Wisteria Wonder and, two new colours, Pear Pizzazz and Blushing Bride.
The cardstock used for the mat is Melon Mambo with some Melon Mambo ribbon (now retired) and the sentiment is from Sassy Salutations, stamped in Basic Black and punched with the Decorative Label Punch.
Tomorrow I will be back to show you this month's card I made for the card swap group, which hopefully Zoe has received by now!

Tile Effect

Today's card is using a technique which I believe is called the 'tile effect' and one which I have seen lately around blogland. I thought I would give it a go and am quite pleased with the result.
I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock and scored a grid at 1cm intervals to create the 'tile effect'. Once this was done I sponged the cardstock with Wisteria Wonder before stamping the images from Field Flowers in Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive. Unfortunately, as you can see, I was in too much of a rush to use my stamp-a-ma-jig so the stems disappear a little too much into the flower heads!! A butterfly was stamped in Elegant Eggplant and another, punched from Vellum with the Bitty Butterfly Punch and sponged with ink, was placed so it overlapped. The sentiment, also from Field Flowers, was stamped in the bottom corner before matting and layering onto Elegant Eggplant cardstock and a white card blank.
Tomorrow I will be back with another very easy CAS card using new stamps, a new punch and a new colour!

Card Swap Group - Birthday card

It was Zoe's birthday last week so now I can safely show you the card I sent her. Zoe is a member of the card swap group, and also a SU demo, and her favorite colours are purples - hence the Elegant Eggplant! I used the Field Flowers stamp set (and whoops I got the bud the wrong way up!) along with a couple of sentiments and stamped in Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder and Old Olive. I cut a ribbon border from DSP with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch and added a butterfly punched with the Bitty Butterfly punch. The sentiment on the stem was punched with the Jewelry Tag punch and the other with the Oval punch matted onto a Wisteria Wonder Scallop Oval. I added a bit of diagonal scoring in the top right hand corner to add a bit of texture and finished the card off with a few Basic Pearls. Hope you had a great day Zoe!

(Fairly) Simples Sunday

Today's card is one I made a few weeks ago but thought it would fit the Simples Sunday as it was fairly simple to make. I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and lightly drew around the outside of one of the Apothecary Accents Framelits in pencil, Then using the Summer Silhouettes stamp set I stamped three flowers in Raspberry Ripple then covered them using my pre-cut post-it note masks before stamping the leaves in Certainly Celery. (Tip: after cutting masks for stamps don't throw them away, stick them to the inside of the stamp box and you can re-use them several times) With this particular stamp set, to save time, you can stamp directly over the leaves providing the flower is a fairly strong colour and the leaves are not too dark. The centres of the flower are stamped in Early Espresso and the sentiment is from Field Flowers. Once the stamping was done I placed the die back on using the pencil line as a guide, fixed in place with a post-it and ran through the Big Shot. A length of Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin ribbon was placed across a panel of cardstock then fixed to a card blank and the stamped die cut was fixed using dimensionals. I added a few Basic Pearls to finish the card.
I will be taking a break from blogging for a few days as I haven't had a lot of crafting time just recently but I will be back soon.

A Chocolate Treat

Last week I showed you a card I had made with some 'leftovers' (picture below) and today I'm showing you a treat box which was made to match.

I needed a small gift for a work colleague and, having already made the card, I decided to make a matching box to hold a small box of chocolates.
The box is made with some sturdy white cardstock (non SU) and decorated with stamps from Field Flowers in Elegant Eggplant and Wisteria Wonder. The sentiment is from A Word For You, punched with the Decorative Label punch and finished with a couple of Basic Rhinestones.

Using leftovers!

The Elegant Eggplant oval, leftover from cutting an aperture for yesterday's card, and the Field Flowers stamp set were sitting on my desk so I thought I would make a second quick card.
I cut a smaller oval from Whisper White cardstock and used one of the flower images to randomly stamp using Wisteria Wonder. Field Flowers is a 2-step set so I used one image for the oval and the other to stamp three images down the side of the card in Elegant Eggplant. The sentiment is from Bring on the Cake which was stamped onto a strip of card and then cut with the oval die to match up with the stamped oval. To finish the card I rounded the corners of the Whisper White panel and the card blank and added a couple of Basic Rhinestones.
Hooray I've actually used a 'leftover' rather than putting it in a drawer to use later - something which never seems to happen!!!