29 December 2011

Music showCASe

Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas...we did!

Just popping by to announce our showCASe for 
Music
What a wonderful array of cards we had, thank you

Please display our showCASe banner, which you can grab from our page at the top.

Well done ladies, your cards are simply sensational!

Don't forget our current challenge is running for two weeks
 so we won't see you with a new challenge   until 'next year' 
7th January 2012


Ann

Julie

Gina

Thanks again to everyone, we value each and everyone of you that take the time and trouble to enter



24 December 2011

Week 47 - Just One Word

Before we let you know our final challenge for this year, which will run for two weeks,
we'd like to thank you all for your wonderful support and to wish everyone a very
Our final challenge for 2011 is 
JUST ONE WORD
Whatever type of clean and simple card you make, the sentiment must consist of simply one word. 
I guess our card to you would merely say "Thanks ". There are lots of sentiments where a single word can say it all... Enjoy, Welcome, Peace, Joy, Birthday, Sympathy, Love, Thanks etc..

It may be necessary to select just one word from a sentiment stamp in your stash. A good way to do this is to mask the unwanted words with sticky tape before the stamp is inked, which is then removed before stamping onto your project. If you ink the whole stamp, even if some words then have the ink removed, there's always the chance of getting a 'ghost' impression when you stamp with it.

Chrissie
You have most probably seen something similar to this from me before, but this time I wanted to try all neutral colours and so began with Crumb Cake cardstock as a base and sponged and inked a panel after masking the card with Post it notes. I used Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Sahara Sand and Soft Suede, plus the white of course.
The sentiment is part of a stamp from the now retired SU Occasional Greetings set, which I masked with Selotape before inking so as to use Just One Word!




Here is a fab Penny Black stamp of these amazing ducks wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas. They're coloured with Copics and the letters are gently glittered with Glamour Dust.
There are a few more One Word cards on my personal blog, which you can see here






Mandi


For my card I used a FAB set from Close to my Heart, Over the Rainbow. I love the quirkiness of it!


The colours used are Stampin Up, Bashful Blue, Pear Pizazz and Regal Rose.
I stamped the segments, then positioned them by using 3d foam. Once I had figured out where I wanted to rainbow to go, I then stamped the 'Somewhere'. When I was planning it, I did picture it going off the page, but as you can see that didn't happen!
To finish I used glossy accents on the rainbow.



My second card is, as Chrissie has done a variation on a previous design. I tend to do this, if it works, it works, so I alter slightly knowing it will be a lot less faffing for it to look right!

The letters are Sizzix Fun Serif Upper and Lowercase, sadly discontinued now, but, there are some sets around on ebay. the stamps are Hero Arts, coloured with Promarkers and then glittered with Glamour Dust, as are the letters.






We do hope you will finish the year being as creative as you have each and every week!
We will visit you all, but maybe not everyday.
Have a Wonderful Christmas!

20 December 2011

ShowCASe Catch-up and November Winner

It seems like we've both been manically busy over the past few weeks, Mandi producing stationery in epic quantities and Chrissie involved with many singing engagements and also the odd requests for sewing.
The long and short of the matter is that we have failed to post some Showcases and we also have to announce our November winner.
Without further ado and in no particular order, here are our ShowCASe choices.
Bit of Bling



GREEN




Let It Snow




With such fabulous submissions each week, choosing our showcase cards is always a difficult yet pleasurable task.

For our monthly winners we like to choose crafters who have shown loyalty to our challenges, by their submissions, commenting and general participation in "Less is More".
Our 
November Winner
 is 
who almost without fail manages to get a fab submission for each challenge posted within the first hour of the post going live.
We will pass on your email details to Amber Ink so that they can forward your prize to you.
Please grab the winner's Badge above.

Congratulations everyone and once more, apologies for the tardiness of these postings!
Do please take the ShowCASe badge from the page at the top of the blog which we hope you will display with pride.

17 December 2011

Theme Week 46

So, is everyone ready for Christmas? 
We do hope the last couple of challenges assisted in getting those final cards made,
or all in Mandi's case!
Thank you for all the snowy cards last week, luckily we have escaped the real white stuff so far down in our neck of the woods.

This week is Theme week and we have chosen
MUSIC
We get together and decided on the challenges for each week, some are obivoulsy more Chrissie, or more Mandi... it's no surprise that this week is more Chrissie!

We do hope you enjoy it and please be as creative as possible. If you don't have any musical stamps, maybe you would like to theme your card to a song.

One little tip: Chrissie can spot upside down music at 100 yards..so be careful!

Another little note re our showCASe choices. We know we are behind, but will endeavour to rectify that over the course of the next week. As you can appreciate LIM takes up a lot of time which we have been desperately running out of lately.

Have fun!

Chrissie
This card uses the Notes wheel from Stampin' Up and an image from Magenta of 3 instruments, which has been coloured with Copics, cut out and then embossed with clear embossing powder.
The sentiment is from SU Plane and Simple.
Mandi mentioned about me spotting music manuscript that has been added to cards upside down... if you're not sure about which way up it should be, a quick tip is to look at the quavers (the notes with a stick and one curly flick) The tail (or flick)should always be on the right hand side of the stick.
Details of how I made this one plus a few other music related cards are on my personal blog, here.

Mandi

Horrendous to photograph again!

6x6 card base, hammer effect card I buy from here
Sentiment printed on computer, font is Adore
The snowflakes are Martha Stewart, jewel embellishment from Hobby House and Glamour Dust to finish.
I don't think it needs much interpretation, but, my 'music' is of course 'White Christmas' probably one of the most beautiful Christmas songs ever.
I did make another version too, when I remembered my music EF!

We'd like you to interpret the theme in whatever way you wish... we don't want to preclude you from entering this challenge should you have no music related stamps... we know that just by looking at Mandi's gorgeous card, you'll be humming away in no time! So do get creative!
Join us, we'd love to see your musical creations!

10 December 2011

One Layer Card - Let it Snow

What a lot of lovely greenness we saw last week!
Wonderful work ladies, but now we're back to that week which you all LOVE... the 
ONE LAYER CARD
This time our theme is 
Let it Snow!

Mandi
I'm not so sure you enjoyed going green last week! Maybe you will prefer the snow. Lots of you have it for real eh! Us Southerners are escaping it at the moment,


Photographing this was a nightmare! I ended up trying the mirror as the reflection seemed to show the gold embossed snowflake better than without it!
I do love snowflakes, they are so light and delicate, hence why I decided to use black lol
Supplies. Inkadinkdo stamps, stamped with Versafine Black Onyx, some are inked and stamped directly, then others are inked, stamped onto paper, then onto the card, for a lighter shade, adding dimension. I  glittered the black snowflakes with a zig glue pen, then added the obligatory gems and a swirl of liquid pearls. Maybe you can see better in the close up photo.
It really is so sparkly, but, you will have to take  my word for that!

Here is a card using one of my very favourite techniques... emboss resist.
I masked the image panel using Post It notes and stamped the Artemio snowflakes in Versamark which I embossed with Wow, semi-dull clear embossing powder. I used a stamp wheel which I think is a Rollagraph  for the blobs, which I embossed with Wow Sparkling Snow embossing powder.
I then sponged over the embossing using Bashful Blue and Night of Navy inks applied with sponge daubers.
The sentiment from Butterfly Kisses was stamped in Night of Navy with a little touch of Glamour Dust.
There's another card using a variation of this technique on my personal blog!







 For this card, I opted for a navy card base and stamped the various snowflakes  in a trail using Versamark and embossed using Sparkling Snow embossing powder. The three larger ones are Inkadinkado and the smaller ones,  Just Rite.
The sentiment is part of a MSE stamp which I masked with Sticky tape before inking as I only wished to use part of it, I then removed the tape before stamping.




08 December 2011

ShowCASe Leaves

It seems that we have been remiss and failed to post the ShowCASe for the One Layer week with the subject 
Leaves
 We're really sorry as there were some superb entries that week. SO without further ado here are our choices.


I'm sure that you'll agree that these are all absolutely stunning creations.
Well done ladies and once more, sorry for the omission! Do grab our Showcase badge from the page at the top of the blog!

03 December 2011

Week 44 - Colour

Christmas is fast approaching but first we'd like to thank you for voting in our poll... we were thrilled to discover  that so many of you love the whole purpose of our challenge.... Clean and Simple cards and that you also find the examples that we post each week a source of inspiration.
We had thought that the fact that LIMettes comment on each other's cards and have got to know each other well, giving a feeling of community, may have rated a little higher, so it was interesting to see the results.
Thank you all so much for your participation!

Oh gosh we are in December already, where does the time go...well lots is spent at "Less is more" we are glad to say. Thank you for all your submissions for 
 last week. We certainly feel festive after all that bling!

Before we tell you about our challenge, we are delighted to announce our sponsors for this month.


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These super ribbons are up for grabs, for one lucky winner,







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Winners to be announced early January 2012

So onto the challenge 
It's the first week of the month and so once more it's a Colour challenge, this week we have chosen
GREEN
We're being kind, thinking that this challenge may allow you to catch up on any Christmas cards you may need to make... but of course any occasion card will be wonderful.
Chrissie



Here is a simple card using a stamp from Studio g.  It's heat embossed in silver, coloured with Copics and mounted on a panel with embossed line edges with a little ribbon treatment added. The ribbon holes were made with a Tonic punch together the punch lining up gizmo... I'm not quite sure what it's called but it means that the holes can be punched equidistantly with no guesswork. This panel is die-cut with a Spellbinders Edgeability  die. The sentiment is from Inkylicious.
This wreath stamp is from Penny Black with a few additional stars (MSE I believe) stamped on top in a contrasting embossing powder. The border panel at the bottom was made with the same stamps, plus larger star which is probably a Stampin' Up star from some set or other. I get a little confused at this time  of year with what stamp comes from which set. The sentiment is certainly from Stampin' Up.
The edging on this is punched with Fiskars Upper Crest punch.
Mandi


I firstly stamped the Hero Arts branch from 'Magic of Christmas' set Then stamped a bauble from an Elusive set from 2007. I've had it that long and never stamped it.....shameful!
I coloured with Stampin' Up pens and one Marvy le Plume pen, then glittered, to within an inch of it's life lol
 and added a couple of gems.



Penny Black Pine Silhouette stamp, stamped with Forest Green Stazon
Few pearls, gems and punched snowflakes to finish. The sentiment is Stampin Up set Seasons of Joy

I'd made this and..l.lost it! lol


Thank you all for your continued participation and support, it's greatly appreciated.

02 December 2011

Silhouette showCASe

Her are the fabulous entries we have chosen to showCASe for our
These created the most perfect silhouettes!
We are sure you will agree they are sensational!

Thank you to everyone who entered.

Stunning scene

It's the shadows that did it!

Subtle, perfect silhouettes

Ingenius sentiment!


Plase grab the showCASe banner from our page at the top

Thanks again, see you on Saturday for our new challenge!

26 November 2011

Week 43 Recipe - A Bit of Bling

19 November 2011

Week 42 - Theme

Another week, another challenge.
Where do the weeks go to?
We saw some fabulous work on your beautiful One Layer Cards with minor variations of the interpretation of One Layer however. If in any doubt as to what we expect, just check with the definition at the top of our blog.

This week it's time for another theme which is 

Silhouettes
 n. silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black.


Here I used the same Hero Arts stamp which I selected for my Split Negative card a couple of weeks ago. This time its the complete stamp embossed on a black background using Heat it Up Snowflake Tinsel embossing powder.
The silhouettes on this one are from a Memory Box die, arranged in slightly closer proximity than on the die itself. The sentiment is from Penny Black.

This is in similar vein using all three of the deer from the Memory Box die. The trees are stamped from a Hero Arts clear set and have been twinkled with Glamour Dust. The background was embossed with Craft Concept's Starry Night embossing folder. This is a little more layered than usual but the design is still basically CAS.


Mandi


For my first card I used a digi image from Stitchy Bear I saw it on one of our LIMettes blogs, Caro a while ago and had to have it. Isn't it just adorable!
I dragged the digi onto a blank document, then added the sentiment to fit onto the right hand space.
The font is Fontasia V2 here
I used the text box method, which we have explained in the past. I went over the 'Magical' with a zig glue pen and sprinkled with Glamour Dust for a sparkly effect. I also added glitter to the fairy wings. The top has a panel of Swiss dots and a cute little fairy castle charm tied onto the ribbon.

For this silhouette I stamped a silhouette style stamp from Stampin Up, Ornate Flowers, in black onto Melon Mambo card stock. I lined up the small stamp by eye as there were only 3 of them and the set I have is a cling which you attach onto a acrylic block, making for easy lined up design. I trimmed one edge with a scallop edge punch, also Stampin Up and then attached to a black card base. It is an A6.....Approx 15cm x 10.5cm. The gems are in an orange shade, from Doodlebug.

Have fun with your silhouettes we can't wait to see what you come up with.