Less is More plus a bit of Brayer fun

 It has been a few weeks since I managed to enter Less is More, but as I am enjoying a few days of crafty play, I thought I'd better turn my thoughts to this week's Challenge where the theme is one word. I have looked through lots of stamps and finally came up with this.

A very simple watercoloured house. The stamps are from Chocolate Baroque and haven't been inked nearly enough!
 There are some fabulous CAS cards on show from Chrissie and Mandi, and I am looking forward to spending a little time visiting my fellow LIMettes.

My brother has a birthday in early January, and as a keen bird watcher I thought I would use my pheasant stamp and silver birches from Clarity stamps. I stamped and masked before brayering the sky and stamping the Inkylicious trees in the background. I then used my ink dusters to put a few shadows in the snow and coloured the pheasant with promarkers. The base card is stamped with the clarity small feather stamp in very pale blue. I often make him cards that would double as a Christmas card... well, serves him right for having a January birthday!

Next up is my first play with my Christmas stamps. The Stampscape set is called The light and the sea. The only stamp that isn't from that set is the foliage on the right, which is from the Andy Skinner Winters tale set. It isn't perfect brayering, and there are a few stamps hiding fingerprints (note to self: new handcream and shiny card are not a good combination!) but never mind. I was please with the colour combo. Bet you Brenda will be able to tell you the colours of Adirondack I used in both!
A very happy New year to you all and thanks so much for your lovely comments this year. I really appreciate them. Thanks too, to all of my followers for your continued support.

See you on the other side!

I've spent the last 24 hours making cards and baking mostly, with a few hours sleep snatched in the middle. I haven't made half the goodies I'd intended. Just mince pies from me and mocha cupcakes from Meg. There is a nice piece of gammon cooking at the moment. Shortbread and cookies will have to wait, and I blame the councillor who thought it was a good idea to not break up until the 23rd!
Here are my cards. The first, second and fourth are all made from snippets so I'm entering them into Jules' Crafty snippet challenge. If you want any details  about the cards please ask and I'll let you know.

Thanks for looking and a very Merry Christmas to you all!

Brayer or dusters?

I know there are lots of  people who prefer either dusters or brayers, but I have to say I love both and have no particular preference. I love the way I can create shafts of light in woodland using a brayer, like these two examples a la Barbara Gray, but inspired by Crafty Linby's cards here.

For the first I used the Clarity silver birch and 2 sizes of Birch leaves with big and juicy waterfall. The sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse.

For the second, I used the same stamps as above, but also added two Lavinia ferns. The ink was Adirondack Butterscotch, Lettuce, Meadow and Bottle. Both examples were done on Silk Art card.

However, I also love the versatility of Ink Dusters with which I find I can create softer landscapes and add patches of colour and shading. I've had another play with my ink dusters and 'flight of dreams' stamps from Inkylicious, using my Creole Spice Kaleidacolor ink pad.

I am entering this card into this week's Allsorts challenge where the theme is 'You've been Framed'.  

I've also had another go at a beach scene, this time trying for a more sunset/ evening feel - I don't know how successfully though!

 I used a mixture of Big and Juicy soothing sunset, Memento desert sand and rich cocoa, and a touch or two of walnut stain and dusty concord distress inks. I used the Seascape memories and essential grasses stamps (Inkylicious). I used white gel pen to add a few little highlights where the sun is catching the water. The lovely little shells on the base card are also from the seascape memories set, stamped in chalk ink and brilliance inks. I'm entering this card into the latest challenge at Stamping for the Weekend where the theme is holidays.

So, there is definitely room in my crafting world for both brayers and dusters. Thanks for looking!

Less is More - Monochrome

 

Here is my card for this week's Less is More, where the challenge is Monochrome. I have had so little time and so little inspiration this week, but I managed to finally have a go  at about ten last night. I used a clarity corner stamp and majestic blue versafine. I am getting better at these. It still isn't perfect, but it is a big improvement to the first one I made. Hope this is CAS enough - not as much white space as I normally have!

Thanks for looking! I will try and leave as many comments as I can, but as I still have 12 reports to write and a lot of tweaking to do I might not get round as many as usual. Bear with me. I should have finished them by the end of next week!

January Birthdays

There are a few Birthdays hot on the heels of new year in our family, so as soon as Boxing Day is over I start making cards for them. My MIL will be 86 on 4th January, and for her card I decided to do one of those half aperture swinging card things (If you know the proper name please let me know!). She is very fond of Pansy's and butterflies, so this year I've used a Hero arts butterfly, coloured with promarkers. There is a little bit of DP (MME) behind the butterfly and lots of stamping and distressing with wild Honey Distress Ink. The music background is a very old stamp from Stamporium, and the ornate corner is from Elusive Images.

My Dad also asked me to make a card for his dear friend Eric who is 80 on the 4th. They used to teach together and every Easter holiday they would disappear (along with another friend, John) for a couple of days up to the Lake District to plan the annual school camp. If I'd known a bit sooner I would've bought a camper van stamp for this one, as that is what Eric drove for many years. Anyway, the main request for this card was to have mountains on it, so what better excuse to get the brayer out!

The only stamp on this one is the 'spruce scape' from Clarity stamps.  I'll be back tomorrow with my Brother's birthday card (7th January) and a few others I've been playing with.
Steve was back at work today, so Meg and I decided we would go out for a while. We had tea and cake at Derby garden centre (very nice), a quick look in craft central there and then back to IKEA and Decathlon. What possessed me to go anywhere near IKEA? It didn't seem that busy, but it took us 45 minutes to escape from the car park! Although I guess he will never read it, I'd like to thank the bloke that let me into the queue in front of him. Might still have been there otherwise!

A bit more Autumn

It's the weekend and finally I've found the time to post. Here is a card featuring a 'Stampin' up!' set called Touch of Nature, that they have now discontinued.

All stamps are from the set except for 'Old French Writing' (Hero Arts) used on the base card. The bird and branches were stamped, coloured with promarkers and then embossed after colouring over with versamarker. The background stamping and shading was with a variety of distress inks, as was the leafy part of the base card. I'm entering this one into the Lot's to do challenge this week where the theme is autumn colours.
Next is a birthday card for one of Meg's friends who has the nickname 'Wolfie' so I thought the husky/ wolf image from Clarity Stamps would make an ideal card.

Both of these cards are very much in the style of Michelle Zindorf. If you have never visited her blog or looked at her tutorials please do. She is one extremely talented lady!

Blog Candy Winner and the reason I've been a bit quiet!

Hi Guys! I am sure you are all desperate to know who has won my two Tim Holtz stamps, so courtesy of Mr Random Generator the winner is.........

Number 8

Jules

Email me your address Jules and I'll pop them in the post to you.

Now, I promised I would show you my 'project' card for my boss's retirement, so.....

This is the back, 

This is the front,

and this is what the inside looks like. Each of the four panels measure about 10cm square. The plain panels are for each member of staff to write on, and I used a clarity stamp corner to do the centres of them in Tumbled Glass distress ink. the cover was made using starburst stains (See Kay Carley's article in August's Craft Stamper) Now for the panels...

A tropical sunset (Stampscapes stamps),

A musical themed panel featuring my very first bit of image transfer,

A beach in the Hebrides (sorry, Jules, I'm afraid I stole your design for this one!),

  and some blue flowers (Aspects of Design from the Stampman). I've tried to include a bit of everything she likes. Thanks for looking! I'd also like to say Hi and welcome to my new followers. It is lovely to have you with us.

Bleach!

I've been having a little play with some bleach. I used a clarity stamp and made myself a makeshift ink pad with some kitchen roll and some bleach. I was trying to create the impression of elephants stampeding!
Next I stamped a flower panel (Stamporium) in chalk ink and bleached out the petals. I then painted them with Sparkling H2Os.

For the third card I used a flower stamp (Stamporium) that I stamped and embossed onto darker paper that would turn much paler when painted with bleach - I use economy thin bleach as the thick ones don't tend to work. You can buy paper and card specifically for this, but I tend to try darker pieces from my stash.When the bleach was completely dry I coloured it with my Tombow pens.

January Birthdays

Whilst I had the Cuttlebug out I decided to try a brass stencil in it using the rubber mat I have and came up with this. The stencil is from Lasting Impressions and I have used it alot. Then I turned my thoughts to my brother's birthday on 7th January. Knowing how much he admired Megan's Christmas card I decided to do him a wolf too, but not in snow this time. I'm quite pleased with him. The Wolf/ husky is a Clarity Stamp, the leaves are Lavinia and the bracken Crafty Individuals. The small fir tree is by Making tracks, inc.

Finally I moved onto a card for my mother-in-law. Her birthday is on the 4th January. I came up with this initially, but on second thoughts it might be a bit modern for her taste. The stamp is from Stamp to your Arts Content, but I'm not sure how clear the Clematis image will be to an 84 year old, so I might just have another go.

I feel very positive about today. The cooker is fixed, Meg has been out on her new bike, I've made cards, done the shopping and had some R'n' R. Planning for next term is looming now!

A Card for Meg

Meg has been a fan of 'Due South' for a few years now, and has watched every episode. She loves Diefenbaker the Wolf so much that he is the screen saver on her phone! When I spotted this Husky stamp by Clarity Stamps I thought it was just the ticket. The other stamps used are Lovely as a tree by stampin' up!, fir branch by All Night Media, and fir tree group by Clarity stamps.

More trees and christmas cards

I've not posted any cards this week until tonight, because I have had one of those weeks. I did lots of work for school and only managed a short time crafting each night. I had lots of bits partly done but not put onto a card, so I've had a finishing off night. I think I'd better leave the trees alone for a couple of days and do a few feminine birthday cards now, as I have several friends with birthdays in the next three weeks.
This card uses a Clarity Stamp and the one below a cuttlebug embossing folder.

The Pointsettia is a Graphicus stamp and the Holly is from Lavinia Stamps.

We have a relatively quiet weekend so I'm hoping to have more time to 'play'!

I've got a thing about trees...

I seem to have bought some more tree stamps! Of all the stamps in my collection the trees outnumber anything else. I bought the Stampendous 'winter trees' and the clarity fir tree group at Doncaster. I also found the inkadinkado fall season stamps online. The lower 2 pictures are virtually direct copies of Michelle Zindorf's, but I loved the originals so much I had to try to recreate them. What I should have been doing this evening was marking books, but the pull of unused stamps was too great!

Lots of goodies!

Now where am I going to put it all? I'm afraid I spent a little more than I intended, but about half of it is being put away for Christmas, so I'm not feeling too guilty. There were some really good exhibitors at Doncaster, my favourites being Crafty Individuals, Lavinia Stamps and Clarity Stamps, from which I bought the stamp below. Barbara Gray did a super demo that involved using a brayer to create a reflected image, so I had to come home and have a go myself. Not identical to hers, but very much in the style. I'm itching to get some of the others out of their packets, but I really don't have time right now. I need to get my things ready for tomorrow and get to bed at a decent hour.