Thursday 31 December 2015

.... Just 1 hour to go!


... well here in the UK we are just over an hour away until we hop into 
2016
and I wanted to wish all my wonderful crafty friends and buddies
a fantastic New Year! Here's hoping it will be a year worthy
of fun, celebration and fulfilled dreams!

I must apologise also that I've been AWOL for almost 2 weeks!
Holiday time though ... you know how it is but hopefully normal
service and posts will resume from Saturday with the first 
Less is More challenge of 2016.

So here's a little card I made to celebrate with you all and it's party time!
Not only a new year but my daughter will turn 18 on the stroke of midnight!


Fortunately this week's challenge over at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday is 'Party' 
so before I crack open the bubbly I'll be hopping over there with this one!

Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog

There's a mish-mash of products from various crafty places here but because it's 
NY Eve I'm being lazy and not adding my supply list but please get 
in touch if you'd like to know what I've used here!

All that's left for me to say is Happy New Year! Cheers! Have fun 
wherever you are! Thanks for being a wonderful blog follower!
Your comments and feedback make my day every day!

 Catch up again soon!
Sarah

Saturday 19 December 2015

Less is More #255 & #256

Hello LIMettes!

We've reached our final challenge of 2015 as this one runs for 2 weeks to 
give us all time to enjoy the festivities and still sneak a little bit of crafting in!!!

So I would like to wish you all 
a Wonderful Christmas & Festive Holiday Season!

 I can't wait to see what you make of this challenge ... it's theme week 

Homespun

This one completely floored me and I'm still not sure I've 'hit the nail on the head' 
so to speak but Chrissie has kindly offered up the dictionary definition
on the main Less is More blog site HERE

I've gone with a few ideas so hope you feel inspired to play along - my first one
 is quite literally 'spun' having tipped up all my boxes of bits and bobs to find my 
flower 'spinning' loom and using Hemp twine I've fashioned this 
flower with a button threaded to the centre. 


It's not exactly postage-friendly hence the circular aperture and mounting on funky 
foam to allow the flower to be stitched to the card base. The striped design paper 
matches pretty well and adds a little more interest to the card. To finish a birthday 
sentiment from Happy Little Stampers - a refreshing change from all the 
Christmas sentiments I've been using these last few weeks!



BUT back to those old 'winter' wishes here with a random stamping of 
'knitted' hats and scarves from the Clearly Besotted: Let it Snow set.
The sentiment is from Uniko: Pure Florals - Poinsettia which is heat
embossed in Hero Arts White EP and to finish a wrap around of bakers twine!


Last but not least and it seams that Anita, Chrissie and I were sharing
the same 'homespun' book this week as we've gone with a similar theme!
If I'm honest this one didn't turn out how I anticipated and I almost scrapped it!


Using the WPlus9 stacking hearts dies I've die-cut several layers of cardstock in
both sizes, topped with some 'old English country garden - style' design paper.
 The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted: Home Sweet Home and stamped in grey to 
give that dull / rustic / primitive look (I hope) along with the grey textured panel! 
BUT ... I just couldn't resist the pop of colour from the ribbon scrap I found in my stash 
which picks out the centre of the bloom brilliantly. 

this week and having used 5 layers of each size of the Wplus9 heart dies
and a pierced rectangle from MFT Die-Namics I'm hoping this will work there!

Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog

Ok I'll hand over to you talented crafters and please pop over to see what 
my teamies have been up to too - I'm sure you'll love their takes on this theme.

Thanks as always for stopping by and catch up with you again soon!

Sarah

Saturday 12 December 2015

Less is More #254

Happy Saturday friends!

Are you well? Ready for a Less is More challenge?
... and 
are you ready for Christmas?

Well I might be ahead of you on this challenge but I'm certainly 
panicking at the unhealthy speed of Christmas of approaching!

Anyway onto our challenge and unlucky for some maybe it's the turn of
the ONE LAYER CARD week!
and the theme is 'What's in My Stocking'


For me ... I've not got a clue what will be in my stocking so I've 
made a couple of cards showing items I'd quite happily like to find!!!
First up neatly wrapped surprise pressies!


I was inspired by Therese Calvird's cards and video this week HERE so I 
decided to have a go at heat-embossing some simple images in white EP onto 
coloured cardstock. The images are from Clearly Besotted: It's Your Birthday
and sentiment from Rockin' Robin (also CBS). To finish a few mini gems


Next up is also to enter at Merry Monday Christmas Challenge as I 
adore their photo inspiration below and I'm quite partial to a few
sweeties in my Christmas stocking - shhhh don't tell the dentist!


The images are from Clearly Besotted: Naughty or Nice, coated in 
glossy accents and left to dry overnight before inking with distress ink
in Blueprint Sketch. The curve detail is created using the MFT Die-namics stitched 
border dies to emboss the card base. The sentiment is from CAS-ual Fridays



Last but not least I do love having flowers around at Christmas but whether
 they'll be peeping out of my stocking on Christmas morning remains to be seen!


The flower stamps are from Altenew Vintage Flowers and I'm still trying
to get to grips with stamping these intricate flowers. They are beautiful but
quite tricky and time-consuming to line up accurately. Once stamped I masked
the blooms then used some Evergreen Bough Distress Ink to create a wintry 
background. The sentiment is from Uniko: All Occasion Sentiments #6


Ok hope you enjoy the challenge and have some fun!
Check out those wish lists and see if you can re-create on card!

If you need more inspiration then please head over to the Less is More
blog HERE where my teamies have worked their little socks (stockings) off!

As always thanks for stopping by and catch up with you soon.


Sarah

Friday 11 December 2015

CASology Week #176

Hello friends - WOW! I cannot remember the last time
I just entered a challenge for the fun of it!
Life just rushes by and mostly I only find the time to 
create for my DT commitments but here's one that started out
as a Blue & Green card for this week's Less is More Challenge!

THEN ... I messed up and added red!
Only just got around to photographing it but thought it would fit in 
well at the current 'TREE' Cue Card at CASology



I started out by inking the sky in Chipped Sapphire, Blueprint Sketch and
Tumbled Glass Distress Inks before spritzing with water and perfect pearls.
The snow bank was created with a snowdrift die from MFT Die-Namics and the 
trees are heat-embossed in white then inked with Twisted Citron & Mowed Lawn.
The stamp set is Winnie & Walter: It's a Wonderful Pennant. The sentiment is
from Uniko: Simply Said - Christmas and to finish a few red nailheads.



Thanks so much for calling by and I'll catch up again tomorrow!


Sarah

Uniko: Revisit Background Builders Christmas

Hi Everyone, it's time for a little more festive fun with a revisit post from 

Uniko.

This month we've dusted down, re-hashed, and re-vamped 
the Background Builders Christmas set! 

It's got lots of fun and festive background stamps so here's my creation with 
the snowflake stamp heat embossed in alternate white and silver EP then 
covered with distress inks. The snowflake is the medium size from Uniko's 
Decorative snowflake dies and the sentiment came as a little freebie in last 
months release stamps! To finish a few sparkly gems from my stash.



I hope you feel inspired and please head over to the Uniko blog HERE 
to check our my teamies creations with this set. Also as tradition holds
there's a Giveaway blog hop with  the lucky winner receiving this set or 
an e-gift voucher to spend in the Uniko shop. To be in with a chance, 
please stop and leave a comment at each of the following blogs:

Bev (Uniko)
Sarah P (That's me)


The theme over at Inkspirational is 'Flake' so I'm going to 
skip across there with this card too.


Thanks as always for stopping by and I hope you'll 
call by tomorrow when I'll be sharing the latest challenge
details over at Less is More.



Sarah

Sunday 6 December 2015

AAA Cards Challenge #54

Morning blog buddies, I'm here with details of our last challenge
before Christmas over at AAA Cards and the theme for this one is
 'Silent Night, Holy Night' ... you can't get more festive than that!


I've created a night-time sky with distress inks before stamping
my favourite tree stamp - can't remember where it's from as it's been in
my stash forever and it's one of the only wooden stamps I use!
The sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers and to add some extra festive snowy 
detail to my sky I've flicked and spritzed a mixture of water and perfect pearls, 
left it to sit for about 20 seconds then blotted it with a paper towel. 
I seem to have had a weekend of snowy cards so it would be wrong not to 
 link this one up at Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge too: 'Let it Snow' 
Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog
... and it's another inky blend, favourite technique of mine so I'll hop over to
Happy Little Stampers - CAS challenge too!
Here's our inspiration photo below and before you race off 
to your craft rooms please check out the main AAA Cards blog 
where my teamies have created some fabulous cards.

Thanks as always for stopping by and we'll be back with more 
challenges in the New Year.

Sarah

Saturday 5 December 2015

Less is More #253

Hi there friends and apologies for my lack of posts this week which is 
basically down to crazy Christmas time chores which are creeping
up a little too quickly for my liking along with a lack of mojo! 

It's time to announce this week's challenge over at 

... and we are back round to our colour week! 
This time, looking for Green & Blue on your cards.

Here's what I've come up with - Christmas all the way at the minute!

Using a piece of blue textured cardstock from Papermania I've die-cut
snowflakes with the Lawn Fawn snowflakes die before mounting the card panel
on 3d foam. The sentiment is from Happy Little Stampers and I've added
subtle green with some gems from my stash to the centres of the snowflakes.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge it's: 'Let it Snow' 
so I'm heading across there with this one, plus
Time Out Challenges have a word theme 'Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies'
so I'll stop off there too!

Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog  

 Grab Our Badge!


Next up uses one of my favourite techniques which has to be inky blending
with distress inks followed by a spritz of perfect pearls and water as I've done here!


The Christmas tree image is from Inkylicious and it's heat embossed 
in Hero Arts Clear EP before inking with Twisted Citron and Blueprint Sketch
distress inks. To add a little festive bling I've used coordinating gems from my stash!
The panel is die-cut using MFT Die-Namics pierced rectangles and the sentiment 
is from Stamplorations: Christmas Flower

I'd like to enter this one at Happy Little Stampers - CAS Challenge
where it's 'favourite technique' - Has to be done!


... and what a bonus my image features lots of stars so how about a 
skip across to Happy Little Stampers - Christmas Challenge if that's allowed!


... and what's more it's 'holiday' themed at Addicted to Stamps and More
 so it would be rude not to pop in there too!


I hope you enjoy this challenge and find time to play along!
Thanks for calling by and I'll be back very soon if not already 
(depending who Mr Blogger favours this morning) 
with my Addicted to CAS challenge post!


Sarah

Addicted to CAS #78


Morning friends it's time to announce our last challenge before 
Christmas here at Addicted to CAS and my super talented fellow teamie
both here and at Uniko has chosen the codeword 'Joy' for this one!

Here's my card using an emboss-resist technique with Distress Inks.
The snowflakes are from Uniko: Stunning Snowflakes and the sentiments
are from Hero Arts Stamp and Cut.




I hope you feel inspired to play along and don't forget to check out the main 
ATCAS blog HERE for more superb creations by my fellow teamies.



As I'm featuring snowflakes here I'd like to skip across to 
Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where it's 'Let it Snow'
and Time Out Challenges - 'Snowflakes are Winters Butterflies'


Once again Kylie is sponsoring this challenge with a $15
gift certificate to The Happy Little Stampers Store


Thanks as always for calling in and hope to catch you again tomorrow
when I'll be back with the latest challenge details for AAA Cards.


Sarah