LIM DT: Chocolate!

There’s a birthday celebration over at Less is More Challenge blog. The clean and simple challenge has been running for 10 years! There are lots of prizes to be won if you’d like to enter, with the birthday theme being the colour ‘chocolate’. I decided a tenth birthday cake was in order and came up with this card:

10th birthday chocolate cake

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LIM DT: Clothing/Fashion

After a Christmas hiatus, Less is More is back with a new clean and simple card challenge. ‘We’re probably all sick of sweat pants and casual clothes, so let’s look forward to a time when we can all dress up again’ sets off the clothing/fashion theme. I remembered that I had done some paper piecing of dresses when I was with Craftwork Cards and managed to unearth the ‘Sophie’ stamp set from 2016 which is perfect for dress-up!

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LIM DT: Festive OLC

Another challenge is live at Less is More. This time it is a one layer card with the theme ‘festive’. As before, one layer cards mean just that: no hiding behind layered papers or mats, perfect printing first time and minimal embellishments. Even die cuts aren’t allowed as they are an added layer. I normally paper-piece the stamp I chose to use, so that was not an option in a one layer card. Instead, I went with some colouring-in:

I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black using a stamp platform, and then again with Versamark as I then decided to heat emboss the outline with clear gloss to make it stand out a little. I then coloured in with ProMarkers adding lots of layers and then highlights with a correction pen and Posca markers. Finally, I added some stickles and liquid pearls to give a little more interest to the card.

Used for this card

  • Woodware clear stamp: Huge Noel [FRS219]
  • Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad
  • VersaMark ink pad
  • WOW! Embossing Powder: Clear Gloss Super Fine
  • Letraset/Winsor & Newton ProMarkers: Denim Blue / China Blue / Cool Grey 3
  • Ranger Stickles: Waterfall / Gunsmoke
  • Ranger Liquid Pearls: Royal Blue
  • Tippex Correction Pen
  • Posca Pen [PC1-MR]: White

LIM: More than one type of foliage

It’s recipe time at Less is More and the theme chosen is ‘more than one type of foliage’. One of the main aims of the challenge (aside from making sure the card is clean and simple) is to make the theme to be the focus of the card. There was only one stamp set I could think of in my collection that would fit the bill – a set of five fern fronds by Hero Arts. Here’s the eventual winner, from three I made, for my design team card:

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LIM DT: One Layer Card – Cheers!

It’s a one layer card challenge at Less is More today – a card made from a single piece of card folded in half where the image is stamped or printed directly onto the card stock. It also has no additional layers and only minimal embellishments. It can be trickier than you think, especially if you are stamping and muck up the print first go (or several goes!). One slip with the pen/ink and you have to start over. Here’s my take on the theme ‘Cheers!’:

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LIM DT: Summer flowers

Another thematic challenge over at Less is More challenge blog – ‘summer flowers’. As I write, my garden has all colours of roses, some of them smelling divine (especially Gertrude Jekyll). Thus was my colour palette inspired and it was handy having the stamp from Stampendous to use (from 2013!). I think some of my ProMarkers are older than that, but are still in perfect condition thanks to my airtight storage solution.

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LIM DT: Colour Challenge

It’s a new theme over at Less is More Challenge blog – this time it’s a colour challenge. We’re looking for clean and simple cards with Fuchsia, Yellow and Grey as the colour combo. There’re plenty of cards from the design team to give you inspiration, and there’s a prize drawn from all the entries at the end of the challenge. I’ve done three cards this time – I hope you like them!

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LIM Challenge Card: Butterfly Inchies

A quick, clean and simple, one layer card for the Less is More challenge #416. One layer cards are exactly that – no fudging allowed, no mats and careful stamping and colouring. Mistakes mean starting over… Clean and simple means leaving plenty of white space. This time’s challenge also called for no sentiment. Here’s my take:

I almost put shading around the squares and then thought that would make it look more than one layer! Darkroom Door Butterfly Post collage stamp stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and then coloured with ProMarkers.

Challenge: Colour Palette

Over at Less is More this week, the challenge is a colour one: to use red, raspberry and grey. The colours are complementary but clearly restricted! I unearthed an old Creative Expressions stamp of a daisy, which I thought could double up as an echinacea cone-flower which suits the colour scheme. I chose Warm Grey 3 ProMarker, along with Hot Pink and Carmine to match the screen colours set by LIM. I used the red to shade the inner part of the petals which doesn’t show up overly well in the pic…

ProMarker Challenge: Three Beach Huts

Over at the Passion for ProMarkers challenge blog this week is the theme of ‘three of something’. I had a rummage through my stamps and found all manner of fours, fives and sixes. Eventually, I found an often used, but not recently, Michael Powell stamp of three beach huts. I love his style and when I was making cards, used several of his other stamp designs.

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