New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi guys!

We have a new challenge for you at Less Is More. September has 5 five weeks so we have one of our "lucky dip" challenges for you and this time it's watercolor. 

I made my card using stamps by Altenew. This card was actually quick to make but had several small steps and I thought I'd list them for you in case the look of the card interests you.

*First I inked the top half of the card with green DI using an old make up brush

*I splattered water on my ink, let it sit for 30 secs or something and blotted it away receiving white spots on my ink. 

*I stamped the flower with the help of Ranger stamping tool (this stamp is HUGE, I only used 1/3 of it for this card)

*I watercolored the flower with a coat of grey water color 

*I randomly added pink, purple and blue watercolor to the petals

*After this was dry, I water colored on top of the whole image with shimmery gold water color from Gansai Tambi's starry colors

*Splattered watered down white acrylic paint + my gold water color all over. :)

*Stamped the sentiment

*Ready!

From the detail photo below you can see how the golden water color shines. :)

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you playing along! Our blog is filled with DT inspiration and I hope you'll check out everyone's cards. We have a guest designer too: Jane from Purplejetlovescrafts. She has the most wonderful CAS style, do visit her blog and leave her some crafty love! Our September sponsor is Happy Little Stampers. 

I'd like to join:

 Altenew September Inspiration Challenge

Guest Designing at CASE This Sketch!

Hi guys!

I have the great joy to guest design at CASE This Sketch Challenge blog in their current challenge! The sketch is a fun one:

It begins a series of retro sketches: CASE This Sketch is using some of their old, fabulous sketches for second time just because they are so great! :)

I followed the sketch pretty strictly... I've used some orange card base, black card that I had previously stamped with the Ton background stamp and golden Delicaa ink (also die cut this with Lil Inker dies) , an Altenew flower (die cut and colored with Copics) + Altenew sentiment (heat embossed with white). The combo of Copics I used is pretty fun: when you choose a color combination where the 2 lightest markers that you are using are a bit "too light" they start to push back the darkest colors and you get a soft, sort of water color look. I think I used YR68, YR14, YR02, R000. Of course you can use less than 4 markers too but 4 is often good for a very contrasting color combination!

Thanks for popping by and thank you CASE This Sketch for a fun GD opportunity! Do play along and don't forget to visit the blogs of the designers of this challenge -there's some of the most wonderful talent of bogland on offer in there! 

I'd like to join

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Guest Designing at Paper Smooches

Hi guys! 

I'm here with my final guest designer card for Paper Smooches: I've had the pleasure and honor to be their guest for the month of September and play with their newest release. My last GD card is a wintry thank you-card -very CAS and very quick to make using some basic distress ink techniques, stamping, coloring and die cutting. Check out all the information about the new products from Paper Smooches blog HERE. Thank you so much Paper Smooches for having me as guest designer! 

I'd like to join:

CAS on Friday: Dies

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

Another week flew by and we have a new challenge for you at Less Is More! It's time for a sketch challenge and here's the sketch:

I rotated the sketch vertically and used stamps by Simon Says Stamp + Waffle Flower Stamps (the small cup with the bunny). I've done some simple masking + used Copics to color in my images. As almost always I couldn't leave my favorite white gel pen out and have added a lot of white details. :) A couple of Nuvo drew drops finish off the card. 

I hope you'll now head on over to our challenge blog for lots and lots of DT inspiration! In the month of September we are sponsored by Happy Little Stampers. Play along for a chance to win a voucher to their store! 

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

We have a nice and easy word prompt for you at Inkspirational Challenges:

Our talented guest designer Shawna and regular DT members have lots of fun inspiration for you, don't miss any of it but visit the challenge blog using the link above! 

In my quick and simple card I've used a sentiment stamp by STAMPlorations, background stamps by Uniko and flower by PTI. Coloring with Copics, white gel pen and wink of stella. Easy peasy!

I had to take my photo in unnatural light and it makes the white "overly" white... The background stripes are a lot more visible IRL for example. My camera settings should be ok and the light bulb I'm using is the kind they recommend for taking photos like this -if anyone has any tips for this, I'd love to hear them! Maybe I should just have the light more far away?!? Or it's coming too much from above maybe?

Edit. a couple of hours later... I now took a new photo outside in natural light... No sun in Finland... Now my card base looks blue! Oh man! :) This is hopeless!

Edit. One day later! :) I can be quite persistent sometimes... Don't know if it's a good or bad quality! ;) A bit less grey in Finland today and here's my third attempt to get a decent photo of this card. Getting there slowly but surely! :)

My card was inspired by the sketch at CASE this sketch and colors at CAS colours and sketches. I'm also entering: Simon Says Monday: Shimmer and Shine + Simon Says Wednesday: Pop it Up (my flower is popped up!). 

Thanks for popping by!

TIME OUT Challenge Reminder!

HI friends!

I'm here to remind you of our current TIME OUT Challenges, where we are inspired by words:

Paint The Flying Spirit Of The Birds Rather than its Feathers

Our sponsors for this challenge is Happy Little Stampers and the winner of this challenge will get a $15 gift voucher.

I was obviously inspired by the word "birds"!

I stamped this card already in June when visiting my friend Marina from My Perfect Life in England. I loved these Penny Black birds Marina has, they are super cute! I did my coloring with Copics and aded Stickles for shine. A couple of enamel dots finish off this bright and happy card!

Now I hope you'll head on over to our challenge blog for more DT inspiration! We are thrilled to have Carol joining us as guest designer... If you don't know her blog (impossible, I think!), click HERE. After admiring the work of Carol and our regular DR members, it's your turn to take TIME OUT and craft! 

I'd like to enter:

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/ Shimmer and Shine (zoom to the birds and you'll see the Stickles!) 

Penny Black and More September Challenge Get ready for Christmas

AAA Cards: Autumn colors (I know this is a Christmas card but red and yellow say autumn to me! Do you agree?) :) 

Guest Designing at Paper Smooches!

Hi guys!

I'm here with a quick post featuring my third guest designer post for Paper Smooches. I've used the most adorable monster die from their laters release along with other dies and sentiment stamp... Click HERE for more details in Paper Smooches blog! 

I've used some basic distress ink sponging and splotching techniques in my card. I couldn't resist adding googly eyes to my monster too. :) The black frame is also sponged with DI and I've added glitter to it with Wink of Stella. Hope you like and thanks for popping by!

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

It's time for the weekly Less Is More challenge and this Saturday we have one of our theme challenges for you! The theme is "Take Flight". Our design team has wonderful samples for you HERE, don't miss any of them!

My first card is an all-white card created with a STAMplorations die cut butterfly, starry-galaxy type of Echo Park background stamp and Altenew sentiment. I heat embossed the background and the sentiment. This is actually my card nr 2, my first attempt is the second card of this post... It ended up to be on the edge of not-CAS so it didn't find his way to our challenge blog. :) I do like this all-white card but what a pain it was to photograph, goosh! I added a detail photo for you to have a closer look. 

close up:

With this all white card I'd like to join:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Clean and simple 

ModSquad Challenge: Heat embossing

Simon Says Monday Challenge: It's written in the stars

STAMPlorations Summer CAS card challenge

Below is the second card... It was nicely CAS before I ended up die cutting the wonky edges to the card base and making inlaid die cutting with the pieces -it looks ok in the photo but IRL it's pretty layered and "full". Love this backgorund stamp though, I have many ideas for it! 

Click the photo larger for closer look of the details

Before going I'd like to remind that in the month of September we are glad to be sponsored by Happy Little Stampers. Play along for the chance to win!

Thanks for popping by!

Guest Designing at Paper Smooches!

Hi friends!

It's time for my second GD card for Paper Smooches -I'm their guest designer for the month of September and am so enjoying playing with the goodies I received! Click HERE for the post in the Papersmooches blog so you can read more about the products I used and have a look at more DT inspiration! 

I made a quick little fall card by stamping small leaves for the background. I then cut it to a curved shape using one of the new dies. My coloring is made with Copics and as always, I needed to add white gel pen everywhere... I'm addicted to it! :) 

I'd like to join: 

CAS on Friday: Coloring in

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Clean and Simple

Thanks for popping by!

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi friends!

We have a new challenge for you at Less Is More: 

We'd like to see one layer cards with coloring!

If you are a regular visitor you know I really much like to color in... But lately life has been super hectic and I haven't been giving much attention to my markers. I do miss them so it was fun to create this quick little one layer! Click HERE for fabulous inspiration by my teamies! In the month of September we are happy to be sponsored by Happy Little Stampers. 

I needed a birthday card for a 3 year old boy and thought this dog stamp that I borrowed from my friend Milla would be fun for him.... This dog has such a fun, grumpy smile! The white dots I added to his face unfortunately make him look he is a little bit ill but oh well... I do tend get crazy with a white gel pen and once I started adding the dots, I couldn't stop! :) I "grounded" him on a stamped PTI background with help of simple masking. Some enamel dots and teeny tiny rhinestones for his collar finished of the card. 

I'd like to enter:

CAS on Friday: Use markers/pencils

AAA Cards: Creatures great or small

thanks Sarah and Izzy for the tip, I had missed this one!

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

We have a brand new challenge for you at Inkspirational. The next fortnight we are inspired by this beautiful photo:

Our design team along with guest designer Karren (one of my favorite designers! do check out her blog!!) have fabulous inspiration for you in the challenge blog. Click HERE for all the details!

I was inspired by the sheet music paper and the black silhouette image -it made me choose to use the bold die cut sentiment by STAMPlorations. I've also used my favorite snowflake die and created a quick Christmas card without any stamping. The embossing folder I used in the card base is a magazine freebie. Super quick and simple!

Hope you like and thanks for popping by! I hope to see you joining us!

I'd like to enter:

Stamplorations Summer CAS card challenge

Stamplorations Never-Ending Anything Goes Challenge

TIME OUT Challenges Reminder

Hi friends!

Here's my reminder card for the current TIME OUT Challenge where we are CASEing this wonderful card by Bev from Uniko:

Uniko is also our sponsor and the challenge blog is filled with wonderful inspiration from our DT and guest designer Lucie, whose designs I adore... Don't miss any of the fun, click HERE!

It's pretty obvious how I was inspired by Bev: I loved the bold stripes of color and the use of an outline flower image. I decided to play with my newest Altenew stamps and was also inspired by the color palette of the Altenew September Inspiration Challenge. I really love how this card turned out and I would never had thought of this design without Bev so a huge thank you for inspiration, Beverley! 

Thanks for popping by friends and I hope to see you playing along at TIME OUT!

Guest Designing at Paper Smooches!

Hi friends!

I was the lucky winner of Paper Smooches September Guest Designer Search and here I am sharing my first card with their wonderful new goodies! Here's the stamps and dies I created this card with:

The stamps are great for planner crafting which is very popular at the moment. However, I don't have a planner/journal (yet!!) so my plan is to make cute, fun (hopefully!) CAS cards with these new stamps. These dies can be used for example for creating cute Halloween monsters but I decided to make my own background with the geometric shapes. Below is a photo of the "faux dry embossed background" I created with the shapes -my stamped card front is attached on top of this background that adds quite a lot of dimension and interest to the CAS design! I've popped up the stamped card front with fun foam for even more dimension. 

Thanks for popping by and don't forget to visit Paper Smooches for more info and inspiration! 

September Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers!

Hi friends!

It's already September... Time to get busy making Christmas cards, only 4 months to go! :) The September Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers is Anything Christmas goes with the optional twist of Sparkle. Most of the team went with the twist and there's fantastic inspiration on offer HERE. We hope to see you playing along! Click HERE for information about the prizes. 

My card is a very simple CAS design. I've used a Mama Elephant bunny (I got to stamp and die cut this from my friend Milla, thanks Milla!), A Penny Black sentiment, some sircle dies + an snowflake embossing folder. The bunny is colored in with Copics and the sparkle is in her wings -I used Stickles. 

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you playing along at Happy Little Stampers!

New Challenge at Less Is More!

Hi guys!

We have a new challenge for you at Less Is More and it's time for a color challenge in our rota and we have chosen Royal Blue and Lime Green for you to work with.

It's already September now which means we have a new sponsor for the new month. We are proud to have Happy Little Stampers joining us so play along and you could win a coupon to their store! HLS owner and designer Kylie is also guest designing in this challenge. Don't miss her card or any inspiring work by our DT, click HERE!

I must apologize for my photo... It was taken on a rather gloomy day and my colors look a bit washed out... I wish you could see them IRL! I've heat embossed the two Concord &9th flowers with white powder, water colored them with Koi water colors, masked them and stamped the background patterns with two Marianne Design stamps. The sentiment is also from a Concord & 9th set. I added tiny black Nuvo drops for embellishment. I find Nuvo drops so much nicer to use than sequins or real enamel dots. Maybe it't the fun of making the drops yourself! :) 

I'd like to join

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/ Anything Goes

http://aaacards.blogspot.fi Masking

Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you joining us at Less Is More! This is a wonderful color combo, our DT is rocking it and so will you for sure! Happy crafting!