Autumn birthday card.

I love the colours of autumn and they are so easy to use in crafting. I was so pleased then that two of my favourite challenges were takinf autumn as their themes.
Less is more has a colour challenge : "Autumns's bounty" and One Layer Simplicity Challenge has the theme "turn to fall"

I also needed a birthday card for a friend that loves autumn colours so the timing was perfect.

The card was made with an old set of "see-Ds" stamps (I don't even know if they still make these, but if they do the set is whimsical garden) and then, of course the colours are distress inks: vintage photo, spiced marmalade, barn door and mustard seed. I just used post-it notes for masking and randomly stamped.

PaperArtsy Guest Post: Kraft and Black

Yesterday, I had another guest spot on the Paperartsy Blog. Pop over and have a look at what I've been up to.

And don't forget to take part in the challenge too, to win stamps!!

PaperArtsy Blog

It's time for my PaperArtsy blog post, and it's a clean and simple card again.

You can see it in full here

don't forget that you can use my card as inspiration for the challenge, to win stamps.

PaperArtsy Project

It's time for my monthly project on the PaperArtsy blog again.

This month I've gone for a card that is one layer, but is also shabby chic. One Layer doesn't always have to mean Clean!

I've used the gorgeous limited edition Jofy paint colours.

To finish the shabby chic look I created these shabby corners.

Don't forget that you can use my card as inspiration in the weekly challenge. I'm really hoping to see a few shabby corners there!

one layer simplicity #3 and less is more #161

I made a decision today that whatever the new challenges today at One Layer Simplicity and Less is more, I would combine them to make a card, and hopefully one that would be useful.

Less is More announced yellow and green as the theme, so straight away I thought Daffodils, and then One Layer Simplicity announced use water. yes! I could do that. (although just read the one layer simplicity challenge again, and it specifically says to use water to create a background or spritz your inked stamp, so this card probably doesn't qualify - it's okay, the kind people at the challenge have allowed it.... and even edited the challenge to include the technique :D.  )

I used distress inks and a water brush to colour this daffodil stamp from The frantic stamper.

And that's a mothers' day card sorted!

One layer simplicity challenge #2

the one layer simplicity challenge has replaced the One Layer Wednesday Challenge.
I've been meaning to take part all month and made something today, but then have just spotted that the challenge only runs to the 24th of each month.
Oh well I may as well post it anyway.

The challenge was "Can you repeat yourself"
I made a really simple card, repeated the main stamp to create both a background and a focal image.

I added a little extra touch by cutting into the card at the corners of the masked off area, and then scuffing them with my knife blade to create a faux shabby chic layer. I'm really pleased with this effect so expect to see it a lot more on my cards!

All the stamps are from PaperArtsy

More PaperArtsy Clean and Simple

 I almost forgot to blog this, this week.

...ooops

This is my guest designer post at PaperArsty, using the gorgeous new Lin Brown Word stamps

check it out here, and don't forget to enter the challenge to win free stamps!

less is more, week 154 : one layer hearts

I find it very hard to resist the one layer weeks at less is more so here's my quick card using PaperArtsy stamps.

Just simple stamping and colouring with Derwent colour soft pencils. The hearts are colour with red, edged with black and then the colours blended with a derwent blender pencil.

less is more: any previous challenge

This week at Less is More we are challenged to make a card based on ANY of the previous challenges.

  I have decided to go right back to the beginning to week 2 and the very first one layer challenge - a flower or a tree and show this card that I have made for my mum's birthday.

i think that all of the stamps are hero arts except the splatter which is PaperArtsy

my third week as guest designer at PaperArtsy

This week on the PaperArtsy blog (here, here and here) I have concentrated on making cards suitable for batch-making for christmas.
Don't forget to take part in the challenge to win stamps! there's still time

less is more- photo inspirations

This week at Less is more, we are challenged to use this photo

to inspire our use of dark card with a splash of colour.

I made a simple heart stencil from post-it notes and then stamped through it using the small splatter stamp from this paperartsy set and some opaque paints from the fresco range of paints (I used guacamole, sky and cheesecake)


I finished by stamping the sentiment with cheesecake paint.

PaperArtsy opaque paints, work brilliantly on dark card, and a lovely to stamp with.

less is more sketch#10

It's sketch week at Less is More, with this sketch

I'm starting to get into Christmas mode, so I made this card using Jofy stamps from PaperArtsy. The bauble is coloured with pencils and whispers pens (to get the depth of colour) and finished with  some glitter glue.

I had to trim the sentiment to make it fit, but I like it with the squiggles so I also made another card, similar but not following the sketch, which I shall be entering for One Layer Wednesday's Free For All Challenge.

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Less is more: get well soon.

It's One Layer week at Less is more, so I just had to take part. The theme is get well soon. I decided just to go with the sentiment and simple embellishment. The sentiment is a studio G stamp, and the flourish is by PaperArtsy and stamped with jenni bowlin stick candy ink

 

and is the perfect size for this stamp. I finished by simply dotting pink glitter glue (cheap Craft Planet stuff) around the flourish. Job done!

p.s. keep an eye on the PaperArsty blog tonight, I'm not saying why....

(back at you, Laura!)

one layer wednesday: it's all about the sentiment.

I can't resist a good one layer challenge. This week the theme at OLW is "it's all about the sentiment"
I immediatly knew that I would use this sentiment from PaperArtsy, it's a great sentiment but it's also a nice big stamp which makes it a great focal stamp.

I am also entering this card for Daring Cardmaker's theme of "signature style". This is most definitely my signature style, right down to using the splatter stamp, which I seem to use all of the time!

I have overstamped with fresco Hey Pesto paint, which is a transparent paint meaning that you can stamp it over the sentiment and it won't obscure any detail. The stamps I used are the splatter (my favourite stamp) from this set and the flourish from this set.

I decided that the card needed a little more detail, I thought about adding some embellishments but decided that I wanted to keep it truly one-layer so decided to add some pink splatters.

*first problem: no pink paint! so I mixed some London bus(transparent) and nougat (opaque) to make a gorgeous pink.

*second problem: this paint was opaque(which I wanted it to be so it would sit above the green) which meant I couldn't stamp it as it would obscure some of the lettering. So I applied it with the end of a paintbrush, just dotting it wherever I felt it needed it.

I really like how it came out, and the best thing was the whole thing took less than 5 minutes!

 (you may note that I've been using a lot of PaperArsty recently, it's kind of taken centre stage on my craft table for a good reason which will be revealed very soon!)

clean and simple stamping : sketch 256

 

 I love this sketch at Clean and Simple Stamping, this week.

 

I made this card, using Stamps and Paints from PaperArtsy.

To make the edge panel, I masked off the section with post-its and applied Hey pesto (transclucent paint) with a sponge. I then stamped a small splatter stamp  with cheesecake (opaque) paint.

I then stamped the splatter stamp again (twice) with tinned peas (opaque) paint (and a little bit of cheesecake).
I finished with a cool star stamp and a good luck stamp

less is more: use a rubber stamp

This week's challenge at less is more is so easy that I found it almost impossible! use a rubber stamp....
okay which one of my hundreds (*coughs-thousands*) of stamps do I choose?

I decided to go for a paperartsy stamp that never fails. It really is a useful stamp.

There was also an optional extra part of this challenge, to use water colours.

so to make this card, I stamped the flower with black archival ink and then just swooshed some water colour paint over it. to finish I stamped the script stamp with dusty concord distress ink while the paint was still wet.

One of the things that I like about this card is that because the archival ink is oil based, it repels the water colour paints, leaving a "halo" around the stamped image.

I am also entering this card for One Layer Wednesday's "silhouette" challenge

less is more: round and round

This week at Less is More the theme is "round and round"

 I used these really cool cogs from PaperArtsy as well as some of their paints

The crisp edges of the paint are created with post-it notes.

less is more: Colour Challenge

I really likes the colour combination for this week's Less is More Challenge. So I decided to make a quick One-Layer Card (although it isn't One Layer Week).
This is the colour combination

My Card is made using Mustard Seed and Pumice Stone Distress Ink and Smokey Grey Versafine Ink.

All of the Stamps are from PaperArtsy.  The Paris Stamp is a Mini, and The Splatter and Script are from Hotpicks (1006 and Extra 06) but there are similar minis that would do the same Job

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less is more - need for speed

Wow, it's ages since I last blogged. Where does the time go?

Anyway I liked this weeks theme at Simply Less is More for One Layer Week.
I took a slightly ironic look at the theme, need for speed, with this belated birthday card.

For a bit of interest I added stickles glitter glue for the snail trail, and glossy accents for the shell.

New PaperArtsy Stamps

There's lots of exciting things happening at PaperArtsy with several new stamp ranges being released. Keep an eye on the PaperArtsy blog for more info.

I was lucky enough to receive these lovely stamps from Lin Brown's collection a few days prior to release, and have made a few quick samples. I love the handcarved appearance of these stamps.

I also combined them with a few of my other favourite PaperArsty stamps for the next couple of cards