less is more: one layer challenge witches and wizards.

 I took a slightly oblique look at this week's challenge on Less is More and instead of using a picture of a witch or wizard, I used the famous quote from one of the Witches in Macbeth.

I was inspired to do the moon and brayering by Martyn Parker and Barbara Gray, from their classroom session today!

The stamps are from PaperArsty Halloween 04. I used Faded jeans distress inks, and a lot of post-it notes.

less is more: spots and stripes

I love this week's challenge at less is more it's one layer week AND spots and stripes.

I've made my spots and stripes without any stamps. I masked of areas for the stripes and dragged an ink pad along them. I then created the spots just using the eraser end of a pencil and the same ink pads.

I've finished with a simple sentiment stamp from PaperArtsy

OLW 76 colour in winter

The Challenge at one layer Wednesday is to use grey and white and a pop of colour,
This fit perfectly with a technique that has been swirling around my head for the last week. I was thinking about colouring on kraft card with pencils and how it would also work nicely on grey card using just grey and white pencils (it does, trust me)
but then I got to thinking if it would work if you created your own grey background with distress ink.

to make this card, I stamped the elephant (lili of the valley) with versafine grey ink. then masked off the area with torn post-it notes, and inked up with pumice stone distress ink. I then coloured with various grey and white pencils, with my pop of red. I finished with glossy accents on the bubbles.

cocktails and stripes

I've combined the stripe challenge at one layer wednesday with the cocktail challenge at less is more to make this really simple card.

To make the stripes, I randomly snipped a piece of copy paper with scissors, then cut them at irregular heights and angles. I sprayed the back with stick and spray, and then brayer the ink over the top.

I had previously stamped and mask the glass stamp from The Frantic Stamper's own range of stamps.

I stamped the word celebrate, lightly coloured the glass with pink pencil and applied glossy accents.

less is more- metallic (wish upon a star)

This week at less is more it's a colour theme, and it's metallic. I decided to use a simple metal charm on my card, which I think works well with Jo's Wish Word Stamp from the new releases at stampotique.
I've also used the freebie star stamp (also designed by Jo for Stampotique) from this month's Craft stamper, to make a stencil, which I have sprayed through with Crafter's Companion's Spray and sparkle (iridescent) much like I did on the book cover in my last post. You could also do this with the star stamp in Jo's new range, it's the same but substantially larger (I'm lucky enough to have both)
it's hard to photograph this, but it looks lovely in real life.

gorjuss floating front

I've been waiting for this gorjuss girl to come back in stock at Happy daze for a couple of weeks now, as I was desperate to try her out with my floating front card technique (as seen in Craft Stamper Magazine)


I have coloured her with pencils and paper pieced the bird with some paper from my stash.
The bird background is done with a mask from a set of five and Jenni bowlin soap powder ink (both from happy daze) I distressed the top with my brand new paper distresser. I can finally stop using my scissor blade!




but why the paperclip? lol I didn't quite get round to doing the tab fastener at the back.... but I will, although I quite like the paperclip!

Crazy Amigos- insects and my first ever art jounalling

I have been thoroughly inspired by the very talented Kate Crane to try my hand at art journalling. This is something that so "isn't me" but I wondered if I could make it so.

So I've journalled within a card that is very much me. I'm so into using the torn sticky edge of post-it notes at the moment, to create a random edge frame on a one-layer card.

I stamped medium bee from Jo's range at Stampotique, then masked the bee and the background.
I then inked with the Jenny Bowlin Malted milk ink (it's on special offer at the moment) which I was ispired to use after seeing Jo use it at The Happy Stampers Show. What a lovely colour, like a light honey. I applied this with blending foam and also stamped Hexagons (although these don't really show)
I then left the masks in place and drew random lines. I'm not yet ready to jounal my own thoughts so I used those of another

When the first summer bee
Thomas Moore

When the first summer bee
O'er the young rose shall hover,
Then, like that gay rover,
I'll come to thee.
He to flowers, I to lips, full of sweets to the brim--
What a meeting, what a meeting for me and for him!

Then, to every bright tree
In the garden he'll wander;
While I, oh, much fonder,
Will stay with thee.
In search of new sweetness thro' thousands he'll run,
While I find the sweetness of thousands in one.

I wrote the words in my normal handwriting, allowing them to go over the edge, so you only get a snippet.

Finally I removed the masks, stamped Daisy Daisy, coloured the flowers and bee body with markers and added stickles to the wings. as a bee is an insect I am entering this for Crazy amigos' insect theme.



Stamps are available from Stampotique and all products are available from Happy Daze,

scene stamping at gingersnaps

This week's new theme at Gingersnaps is scene stamping. I decided to make a miniature scene on my one layer card, by masking of a square with post it notes which I had torn along the sticky edge. I stamped the grass and sky with green and blues, and then I inked over all of the area using pumice stone distress ink (I used this colour and this technique a lot at port sunlight)
I then over stamped whte quote and swallows

All of the stamps are from Scrollswork. The closing down sale has now started to stocks of favourite stamps will drop quickly, so if there's something you have your eye on, don't leave it!!

OLW: home sweet home

The challenge at One Layer Wednesday this week is to make a new home card with two different coloured inks. straightforward enough......? no! I really struggled with this but thought I'd post what I came up with anyway..http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
I used crushed olive and spun sugar through a clevercut mask for the background. I used a paperartsy Mini stamp and a bit of doodling with a handwritten sentiment

gingersnap supply challenge - mists

The new challenge at gingersnap this week is to use mists in your artwork. I've used a glitz spritz spray along with a number mask from crafters workshop and this oh so funny little girl from lili of the valley.


the overall theme at GS this month is oriental, but I don't really do oriental, so I decided to just go with the mists, and as a result, my piece sticks out a bit like a sore thumb, lol

One Layer Wednesday: sketch

I'm always a bit doubtful about using sketches with one layer cards, but then once I've done them I realise it's no big deal. luckily the one layer wednesday challenge is a really, really easy sketch.

To make my card I used a square post it note over the centre of a square card and used a mask to ink the dots with victorian velvet ink. I then drew a black dot at each corner of the mask before removing it. I stamped flowers from Jo's Flower cube from Stampotique in black and victorian velvet. Before stamping the top one I masked off the frame, so that the flowers appear to tumble out of the frame.

to draw the lines, I joined up the dots with lines. I then alternately drew a dot inside and outside of the corners and joined these up with much more wiggly lines (avoiding drawing over the flowers). while I had the pen in my hand I took the plunge and hand-wrote the sentiment!! I NEVER do that!! lol

finally I just finished with a heart gem.

Jo's flower cube is available directly from Stampotique or from Happy Daze in the uk

If you like One Layer Cards. please check out my new series in Craft Stamper Magazine, Where I am doing a six part series of just One -Layer Cards!!

(and tomorrow there's the release of the FREE ezine from craft stamper, which I'm thrilled to say includes a one layer project of mine from 2010)

gingersnap annual copper challenge.

Okay I admit it I absolutely left this card until the last minute. So it's a bit of a rush job and I should probably do it again, but here you go!!


for the annual copper challenge at gingersnap creations I decided to experiment with brilliance cosmic copper on kraft card. I first masked off a random shape and then inked through one of the new masks (trees) that I got from Harrogate.
I finished with a simple quote from stampin up. however I've overinked my stazon pad, so the stamping is "well dodgy"