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:
It’s a CASe challenge over at Less is More. Ok, it was a new one for me too. Apparently, CASe stands for ‘Copy And Share everything’ and the aim is to take inspiration from any or all of the elements of a starter card, all the while keeping to the clean and simple principles. Here’s my card, and below is Sharon’s card that she made as our starter for ten:
It’s a colour challenge at Less is More for the next fortnight and the chosen theme is ‘shades of purple’. I had three goes at picking out the colours – it’s curious how when you put some colours together they show up different hues in adjacent colours that you didn’t notice before (and weren’t purple). One technique, in particular, showed this up perfectly (read below). Anyhoo, here’s my take on the challenge and two bonus cards…
Over on the Less is More challenge blog this week is a lucky dip and from the pot came the chalkboard technique. In essence, this uses white pigment ink on black card, with the option of adding white heat embossing for even more contrast. An example video is available at the end of this post.
Three cards for you today in reverse order…
I know, I know, I mentioned the c-word in the middle of summer. It’s not my fault! The Less is More challenge theme this fortnight is ‘Christmas in July’ and it’s a one layer card. That is to say: one piece of folded card stock with no other layers or embellishments added and keep to the clean and simple rules as well. It’s not that easy and is one of the challenges that I usually need several attempts at to get my stamping and colouring all square and ‘perfect’ for the design team post.
Here’s my take on the theme:
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!
It’s a new challenge over at Less is More, to use both a solid and an outline. I made two cards, and it was a close toss-up as to which I was going to feature as my design team card. This one won out eventually:
I could have lined up the outlines perfectly (using a stamp positioner) but I liked the offset look that occurred when I did it all by eye. I think it emphasises the solid and outline as distinct elements.
I’m delighted to be able to share that I have been accepted on to the Less Is More Challenge Design Team. You’ll all know that I have recently been taking part in their challenges after a long hiatus, and it’s an honour to join the DT. You can find the fortnightly challenges here, and a little more info on the card(s) I make following the theme here on my blog. You may even get to see the outtakes…
I’ve used one of my most favourite techniques for my card for the splats – get your Distress Stains out, make sure the tip is nice and juicy and then firmly tap against your page (actually, you thump it down with a bit of force). Watch where the spatter goes!
Here’s another clean and simple card for the Less Is More Challenge blog. This time the theme is ‘out of focus’ and suggestions were bokeh, airbrushed backgrounds and watercolour stamping. I chose to go down the alcohol ink background, a suitably defocused technique. Stamped over is a sentiment block of text, cut out to make a tag. Finally, a sentiment stamp direct to card finished off the design:
CAS? It stands for ‘Clean And Simple’ and refers to a card that has plenty of whitespace around the elements. Ideally a one layer, no embellishment type of card, it is perfect for the Less Is More challenge site. And it usually is anything but simple to make. This time, the theme is ‘more’ – we did ‘less’ last time. Here’s my take on the challenge:
