Unashamed CASE

I checked the Less is More challenge at the weekend and found the the new theme is Foliage. It also has to be a One Layer Card.

Great, I thought, back in my comfort zone, and reached for my trusty well used favourites.
Then I had a look at the examples and decided to do an unashamed CASE of Jen Nelson's card. I liked the cream background, the colours and the slightly Victorian feel. I hope I have managed that here.
I always plan to make Christmas cards ahead of time but rarely get more than a few done. I don't really want to think about it in the summer.
Well here is one. That makes a grand total of erm..1 but early days...

It's quite little, about 10cm square. I like to do plenty of stamping and inking on a card but in the case of Christmas you sometimes want to produce quite a few quite quickly. This has a satisfying amount of colouring on it so I felt as though I had done something. It's not perfect and I wanted liquid pearls for the berries but I couldn't find the right colour so maybe I'll get some and make a few more. I use a white gel pen instead.
The stamps are from Inky Doodles.
Sentiment - Marion Emberson
Jen, I hope you don't mind this humble copy.

Buttons and checks

This card was inspired by a tiny piece of stamped paper that has been on my desk for months. I saved it, as you do, thinking it would come in handy one day.

It is all stamped with Inky Doodles stamps. The checks are from her Primitive Angel set and then the patterns are my favourite Print Backgrounds 2. Then I needed something else and I remembered the button stamp from Warm Winter Wishes. I bought that set just so I could have the button stamp. It sounds as though I have all the Inky Doodles sets but sadly I don't. Just those ones. 
I have mounted my fabric strip stamps onto 6" rulers to make stamping in grids easier. I keep them on there. I love them, the combinations of colour and size are endless.

This is the finished card after much fiddling about. I orinially masked off and inked a yellow and a green background square but they didn't have enough definition so I moved on. I still have the card so maybe I'll go back to it.  Am I the only one who makes everything three times?

I am entering this into two challenges:
The Paper Players - Cute as a Button. No I'm not - it seems I'm just too late :(
Stamplorations - Bi weekly sketch Challenge.

Smudgy shades

I can't get on with anything this morning as everyone is asleep. I've done all the quiet jobs so I'm having to post a card.
 I wanted to try watercolour backgrounds that I have seen many people using. It can look quite grungy or much smarter. Mine is grungy and not just because I dropped the acrylic block!
I used colours from the current Less is More colour challenge:


                                           
These colours are lovely but probably not a combination I would normally use.  Incidentally I had a look at the Design Seeds website and it is gorgeous. I'm probably the last to know but I'll definitely be going back for colour inspiration. design-seeds.com

I inked an acrylic block and then spritzed with water and pressed onto the card. I did the bluey green first, made a good impression and then dropped the block onto the card. I wasn't surprised, I am very clumsy. I carried on regardless and did the green and the yellow and then you could hardly see the smudge. The yellow was too bright, I thought so I went over it again with the left over green. 

 

It then took me way longer to get this mediocre photo than it took to make the card and it still doesn't show that the green is really green not grey. 
I'm still not very sure about the end result. Should I have left the ribbon off? I like the backgrounds but still considering the finished card. Tell me what you think.

Celebrate your day

                                               


 Often when I finish stamping a design I'm not sure about it. Then I go away and come back to it and is seems to have improved!
This was one of those. I masked off, coloured the background with sponges and Adirondak inks and then stamped the flowers and grasses in grey. I added a small amount of Stickles for accents in the flowers. But I wasn't very happy with it.

Then I came back to it and added the scroll, I liked it much more.
I'm entering it into the Less is More challenge this week.

 The challenge is...

Anything Goes!

The Recipe is just to have fun! 

Half my family have gone away this week so I have definately been having fun indulging in the extra time. (I miss them desperately you understand!)
The stamps are Inkylicious.

Turquoise flowers

I was looking for a sketch for card inspiration the other day and found this one at Stamplorations.

    Here is what I came up with:

     Using one of my favourite colours and stamps. I kept fiddling and 'improving' and finished up adding stitches with a white pen. I like the effect but it is very subtle.  I forced myself to stop at that point before I went too far. 
I hope you like it. 

Stamps are-
Inkydoodles - Print backgrounds 2 and 
Paula Pascual - Simple flowers.     

She's a star

I could do a whole blog with cards I start, inspired by challenges, and then don't finish in time to enter.
Here is one. I started it weeks ago but then couldn't decide how to finish it. Finally I thought of the star and gold thread and that just finished it off. By then the challenge was weeks old. 

I made it for my daughter who has just graduated with a First.  I couldn't be more proud.
The stamps are:
Inky Doodles - Border star stamp and individual stars.
The sentiments are printed. Then I've added coloured highlights to the stars with a gel pen. The gold star is embossed and wrapped with gold thread.

Inky fingers

I have very little artistic talent which is why I like stamping. The stamps do most of the work. 
So with challenges which go off piste my efforts usually look like something a child has done. With this challenge from Less is More I have made ...Oh something which looks like a child has done it!
The challenge was Adapt a Fingerprint.
After various messy ideas this is what I made. It's for my little neighbour who will be 8 so she'll probably appreciate it.

It seems a few people found this more challenging than usual but there are some great cards. At least I had a go and these inky finger prints are on the front not the back or inside as is usually the case! The lovely curly stamp is Hobby Art.
I also finished it in time. Below is what was to be my entry for the recycled week and then when not finished in time, the Earth Tones week. I finally had a tidy of my desk and finished it. 
The panel is handmade paper which I made a while ago, probably from old school newsletters. The ribbons are also cut from the insides or label of a new clothe.It even had writing on the other side, you can see the back here, so who knows why I kept it. It seems I'm not alone though.

I'm much more pleased with this one. The stamps here are 
Inkylicious -Script and - Grasses and 
Hobby Art - words.