Clean and simple pencil crayon Christmas card.

It's been a while since I posted.
I have mostly given up papercrafting and stamping and am now focusing on yarn crafts.
This is purely down to lack of time.
Occasionally though I just can't resist and have to whip up a card.
This is the simplest card made from kraft card and pencil crayons.
The white edging on the central piece is just done by running a white pencil around the edge.

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!!

Clean and Simple Fathers day Card

Leaving it until the last minute as usual, I needed a fathers day card for the boys to give to their dad tomorrow.

My Stampotique stamps haven't been out of the box much recently, but I remembered these owl stamps (designed by Jo Capper-Sandon) and thought that they would be perfect with this silly sentiment (which I did with individual letters.

The images are coloured with pencils

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.

Stealing an idea!

Today I needed to make a fiftieth card for a male..... I know! complete lack of inspiration.

And then I just happened to look at today's ShowCASe on Less is more and I saw this card (click on the link to see it) And that was it. I was inspired, so I immediatley tootled off and made my version of this card.

The numbers are banana frog stamps stamped with nougat fresco paint from PaperArtsy. I also used the script from PaperArtsy, again with the nougat paint, in a masked strip. I don't know who made the happy birthday but I use it alot.

While I was at it I also needed a 12th birthday card for a boy, and used similar techniques to create a totally different card.

PaperArtsy Blog: CAS corner

After all the fun of my guest designer stint at PaperArtsy, I was thrilled to be asked back to contribute a regular monthly spot- What I like to think of as my clean and simple corner on the PaperArtsy blog.

My first contribution is a CAS valentine card, which you can see here in full. I haven't used any inks at all to make this card, all of the stamping is done using PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paints. I love the effect they give with stamping.

You can also enter the challenge, taking inspiration from any of this week's posts : including mine.
I hope you like my card, I'll be back next month with more from CAS Corner.

Quick Birthday card

I just needed to make a birthday card today, and wanted something pretty. The swirl and splatter are both PaperArtsy but the happy birthday is not. The flower is punched and then made 3d using an embossing tool on the back.

my final guest designer week at PaperArtsy

Have you seen my final week as guest designer on the PaperArtsy blog? I'm concentrating on last minute gifts and wrapping.

Of course there's a challenge, and you can win stamps.

Although I've officially finished my guest designer work at paperartsy, I'll still be popping up... to make sure that us clean and simple crafters are still represented!!

less is more: christmas card- use a bird

The theme at Less is more this week is to use a bird on a Christmas card.
For the Christmas cards that I make for my book group each year I try to incorporate book pages somewhere on the card. So, that was what I had in mind while making this.
Also every time I see this leaf die from the grunge flower #1 set from PaperArtsy, it reminds me of a bird, so I thought it was time to try it out in that way.
I have used PaperArtsy paints too. The blood orange (for the red breast) and spiced paprika (for the body) are both translucent so show the words through well. The cinnamon (main body) is semi-opaque, so gives a bit more coverage but not too much. I only applied a tiny amount of the paints, anyway, for a subtle hint of colour.

I drew on the eye and feet with a fine tipped marker.

The words are from PaperArtsy's squiggly ink range.

p.s. sorry, I know it's tuesday, but I have no new chutney recipes this week!

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 - string or twine

I love this challenge theme at the Less is More Challenge, I have a bit of a thing for string it's so cheap yet adds a lovely rustic feel to projects.

At first, I was just going to use it to hang a bauble on a card, so went straight to this Jofy set of stamps. Then I spotted the "trunk" of this christmas tree and thought it would be perfect to be made of string.

I stamped it once onto the base card and glued the string directly over the trunk. I stamped it again onto card and coloured with a combination of pencils and marker pens. The attached with 3D foam.

I finished with some more string to further highlight the theme.

I have been working with string in another way this week. A friend asked me if there was anything I could design that you could pop over a salsa jar so you could put them straight on a table without looking cheap. I thought that a string based cover added a nice rustic feel to a table and made these covers by crocheting string. Very easy to do, double crochet (US single crochet) into the back loop only of previous row, until it fits round the jar stretched. Make it as wide as you want to cover the label on your particular jar. Mine is 9 stitches wide.

My PaperArsty Guest designer week and the less is more challenge

Have you checked out my week as guest designer on the PaperArsty blog this week. I've ben using dies in a variety of ways.There's a challenge you can take party in to win stamps, by making something inspired by my pieces. the challenge is here, and you can see below a sneak peak of my samples. Check out the full projects
here, here and here

You have until noon tomorrow to enter, and as most of my projects are very quick amd simple, you have plenty of time!

I decided to use one of the techniques from my GD week to make this card for the Less is More Challenge this week. The theme is Trees. Now I don't have any tree dies so I decided to handcut the aperture of this card (just draw it on the back, no one will even see the pencil lines). This card only took about 10 minutes, so there really is still plenty of time to enter the PaperArsty Challenge.

The paints I used are Tinned Peas, Hey Pesto and Guacamole, from PaperArsty's range of fresco paints. And the words are from a JoFy christmas plate, the splatter is of course the well used Mini 72

I'd love you to come and take part in my challenge at PaperArtsy, It's such a thrill looking at all the artwork.

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.