Simply Less is More # 95

Good afternoon all!

This weeks challenge at Simply Less is More is GLAMOUR & GLITZ

My first thought was Christmas but then I came up with this idea,

This was inspired by a birthday card that Alan got from his nephew. Obviously it wasn`t pink lol.

This view shows off the glittery paper better.
Really simple card to make.
6x6 square Linen card base. I cut the stars from pink and silver glitter paper using a X Cut nested die set and I`ve also added a few peel off stars.
The sentiment is by Layers of Color stamped in Versacolor Magenta and embossed in Clear EP.

It`s been a strange old week. Because we had the funeral on tuesday I had to change my day off and it`s thrown me completely. I`ve spent all week trying to play catch up so not had any time for crafting and not a great deal for commenting either. Apologies to those of you that I didn`t get around to last week.
It`s my birthday today so I`ve pinched a bit of time to get some crafting in. I really don`t know where the time goes.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

More Christmas cards

Hello All!

I`m at Alans sisters funeral today so I`ve scheduled this post. Fingers crossed it works.

A couple of weeks ago I made a card for the Simply Less is More Pink challenge and liked it so much I thought I`d make some more in other colours.

I made a green one too but it doesn`t look right.
Details for the cards can be found HERE

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Deck the Halls

Good Morning All!

I`m in Christmas mode now. I`ve got most of my presents bought and am now frantically making cards.
Here is one I made over the week end.

I stamped and heat embossed the image from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) onto the base card.
Masked a rectangle with post its and inked the background with Antique Linen DI, Versacolor Sandstone and a litle bit of Versacolor pink.
I added some various sized red gems for the berries then made a frame using SB Rectangle Dies.
The sentiment is from the same stamp set, stamped and heat embossed.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Simply Less is More # 94

Good Afternoon All!

The challenge this week at Simply Less is More is to use HARDWARE on our cards.
This will probably be something metal but could just as easily be brads, charms,eyelets,clips, staples, pins, studs etc.
Right...

I always check the challenge on a saturday morning before heading off to dads and then to do the weekly shop. This gives me a chance to come up with an idea or two while I`m dusting and vacuuming. During my trip to the supermarket I had a lightbulb moment when I spied a pack of christmas party confetti.
This is what I came up with;

The cards bases are 6x4.
I ran a smaller piece of card through the CB with Swiss dots and Candy cane EF matted onto mirri card.
The sentiments are both from Papermania Silent Night set stamped and heat embossed and matted onto mirri.
The Holly and Berries are from the confetti, made of this metal or foil and are a lovely finishing touch and really cheap too.

I knew I had some charms that I bought after the charm challenge and I also have a SiL birthday coming up so I`ve posted that one too.

5x5 card base.
The panel is made from the off cut when I made the base from an A4 sheet.
I stamped the image from Marianne Emberson in Versacolor sandstone and embossed in clear EP, then inked the panel with Spun Sugar DI and Rosebud Memento.
Added some twine and a butterfly charm.
The sentiment is computer generated.
And there you have it.

I`ve had a terrible week. Alans eldest sister has been very poorly for a long time and recently went into hospice. Last saturday we were told that she had taken a turn for the worse and she died on tuesday. At the same time we found out that a brother in law is ill and is awaiting tests. Fingers crossed it`s not as serious as it could be. Ruby is back in Leeds General having chemo and then one of my regular customers, a lovely bubbly lady has just been diagnosed with lung cancer. I am in desperate need of some good news please.
Sorry to be such a misery guts.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Simply Less is More # 93

Good afternoon all.
I hope I find you well, warm and bug free :-)

I`ll start with a WOOHOO! And to say how chuffed I was to be showcased for week 91 at Simply Less is More. Thank you Chrissie ( and Mandi who is still so busy with her wedding shop).

On to this weeks challenge. It`s one layer week again and although they no longer fill me with dread, I still prefer the safety of a layer or two. Anyway the theme this week is HOUSES and joining Chrissie in Mandi`s absence is the lovely Jen 
of the Tiny Blue Butterfly blog.
Regular visitors to my blog will know that I rarely have stamps that go with the themes in these challenges and this week is no exception. I do not possess a single house stamp,sad but true. So after a bit of head scratching and a lot of raking about I came up with these,

 This is the second card I made. It`s a digi image from Beckys Place.
I love this image but mucked up with the colouring on the ribbon a bit. Any tips on colouring tiny bits with Promarkers will be gratefully received.
The sentiment is Computer generated.

This one is my favourite. The stamp is by Pink Petticoat 
and was a freebie with a magazine. Stamped in Memento black and coloured with Promarkers. I`ve added some fluffy stuff to the hearts in the roof and to the smoke from the chimney.
The sentiment is computer generated.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Simply Less is More # 92 and In the Pink # 7

Good Afternoon All.
Yaay, it`s the weekend. Time to cram in all those chores you don`t get time to do during the week :-(
But, hopefully, some craft time too :-)

It`s colour week at Simply Less is More  and I have to admit my heart sank when I saw it was PINK.
Don`t get me wrong, I love pink but I spent most of thursday afternoon with 3 sheets of pink card in front of me to make a card for the In the Pink Challenge 
which just happens to be CaS this week, and I couldn`t come up with a single idea.
This morning however, I thought of this;

So I`m entering this one into the In the Pink Challenge too.

Now snow isn`t the first thing I normally think about when using pink but I kinda like this.
Started off with a 6x6 square base card.
Made another square slightly smaller than the base and cut a square in the middle with a nested square die.
I like to go around my die cut shapes with a ball tool to give them an edge.
I then stamped the snowflakes (Lge from Inkadinkado, sm from Anitas) in white ink and embossed in white EP onto the base card.
I then started from the top and inked in Spun Sugar DI, Versacolor Pink and Memento Rosebud to give a slightly graduated look. It`s ages since I did some resist embossing, must do it more often.
The sentiment is by Creative Expressions stamped in Memento Rose Bud and embossed in clear EP.

Now you all know how I make my cards and then decide that I`m not happy with them but I`m so pleased with this one that I think I`m going to lots more in different colours.

A quick word about Ruby, she is home from hospital and is doing well. The doctors were so pleased with her that they let her home early and she is to carry on with her medication, orally, at home.
She is so funny. When she first went into hospital this time she saved the covers from the disposable thermometers and made a magic wand with them to magic her spots away.
When it didn`t work she said she thought her magic needed some medicine, bless her.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

Cas_ual Fridays #77

Good Afternoon All.
I hope I find you well and keeping warm.To  those of you on the east coast of the USA, my thoughts are with you and I hope things improve for you very soon.

The challenge at Cas_ual Fridays this week is to make a clean and simple masculine project.

This is my take on the challenge,

Hull City, our local football (soccer) team play in Black and Amber kit so the colours are always welcome in the fundraising box. I`ve also wanted to try this technique for a while and was inspired recently by THIS 
card by Rosemary.
I used a Die-namics alphabet die on the strip of card leaving it with the negative, placed it onto another strip of card in the opposing colour with some double sided tape behind the letters. Then cut out the same letters from the opposing colour card ( positive) and placed them inside the negative. Sounds complicated when I say it but it is sooo easy peasy and the effect is amazing.
To finish off the design I stamped a football from The Stampman in Versafine Onyx and embossed in clear EP then cut it out with a nestie circle.

The sentiment is by Anitas, also stamped in versacolor and embossed.
Really enjoyed making these and I`m pleased at how they`ve turned out.

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx

St Lukes Charity card Challenge November and some rather sad news.

Good Morning All.
I hope I find you well and managing to keep warm.

I`ll start this post with the sad news. Unfortunately this is going to be the very last St Lukes Charity Card Challenge.
Tara has written her own piece explaining why so I`ll copy that here. She tells it so much better.

This is going to be quite a difficult post to write, but, as you can probably already guess from the title of the post, this is going to be the final challenge from St Luke's charity cards challenge and this one is JUST FOR FUN, we are no longer accepting any new cards to sell on behalf of the hospice.

The idea for this challenge came to me a little under two years ago when I looked at the box full of cards I had made for challenges but had no recipients for and thought that up and down the UK there must be other card makers who were in the same boat.  What if we could something useful with these brilliant cards?  As my father had died 3 years before in St Luke's hospice of lung cancer, I thought that collecting these cards to sell on their behalf would be a perfect way to give a little back.  I thought we would get maybe 20 or 30 cards each month and that it would take a while to build up enough stocks for a sale, but I was so overwhelmed when you lovely, generous and creative people started to send not only your challenge cards but also boxes full of others.  I need to do a final count but I estimate that we will have received around 2250 cards in the 18 months we've been running which is not bad for a half baked idea!   The problem has been in the selling of the cards - it's been a tough year both due to the bad weather and resulting low fair turnout and cancellations, but also for me personally as my father-in-law now has terminal cancer and my mother is now housebound which means I just haven't had the weekends to give up to attend fairs in the last 6 months.  Even though the cards go to the hospice, there isn't anyone there that does anything with them, it's all me and I'm afraid I just don't have the necessary time to commit currently.  I have been frantically investigating other methods to sell the cards - I had always hoped when I set up the challenge that the cards could stock the hospice's charity shops across the city, but now I've looked into this a little more the prices they put on cards in the shops just does not match the quality of cards you send us and therefore I just didn't feel comfortable with asking you to donate anymore knowing they wouldn't fetch a fair price.  The staff at the hospice were also not able to track cards donated or sold so we would have no information going on the blog about your donations or the money they had raised - again not something I felt comfortable with.  Therefore I have no option but to stop the challenge.

We still have a few prizes from our kind sponsors so I thought the best thing to do would be to go out with one final challenge but this is one is being run just for fun and as a thank you to you all for all your previous donations.  You can still link up your cards and be in with a chance to win this one final bumper prize.

It's the final challenge, but I won't be totally closing the blog will stay active as there is still a job to do with all the stock you have so kindly donated already.  Again, the hospice don't really know what to do with them (they suggested storing them in their cellar!) so they will be stored by me  at home until next year and will be taken to St Luke's own summer fair (I will continue to man the card stall there for them each year as a volunteer) and if I get a little more time next year I will try and do a few more fairs until I run the stocks down.  Any new sales will be updated on the blog from time to time, so if you're a follower you'll get the updates as they happen.

All that's left to say is a MASSIVE THANK YOU for all your support and we hope you had a little fun while it lasted.  

All I can say is a huge thank you to Tara for having faith in me and inviting me to join her team and also to the other DT members as I`m sure we`ve become good friends over the last few months. I going to miss the monthly challenge but I`m sure we`ll all keep in touch one way or another.

And a great big thank you to you all for your continued support and fabulous inspirational entries to our little challenge :-)

Anyway we still have Novembers Challenge to do and we have some fabulous prizes for the winner, but remember this time we don`t need you to send your cards. This one is just for fun.

This month we to see your TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS CARDS.

Traditional and/or religious, with all the trimmings.

I`ve gone for  traditional Holly and Poinsettia with my card Not too many trimmings as the DP is quite busy anyway.
The DP is by Teresa Collins, matted onto some wine coloured card.
The stamp is by Inkadinkado Seasons Greetings set stamped in clear ink and embossed in Cranberry EP then cut out with a nestie circle. I`ve matted that onto a SB Scalloped circle in dark green card.
The poinsettias are from a die by Marianne designs also in wine coloured card.

All that`s left now is too tell you about our fabulous prize for this months outright winner, and a goodie.

 This gorgeous stamp set from Waltzing Mouse

 A die by Die Versions and a lovely Christmas stamp from Crafters Companion.

Once again, thank you all for supporting us these last few months. I have a feeling you haven`t heard the last of us ;-)

Thanks for popping in...Lynne xxx