Category Archives: Uncategorized

Colorful Options Peach

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Hello lovely crafters. I’m back today with some happy news. A little while back I was a winner at Colorful Options for this card for their pastels challenge. I was so excited to win as there were so many amazing entries. As a result of my win, I was invited to be their guest designer for June for their Peach Challenge.

Now peach isn’t exactly a go-to colour for me and I thought I would struggle but to be honest I even surprised myself at how quickly my card came together so much so that I made two!

The bear is from the Colorize series by Tim Holtz for Sizzix I used shades of Saltwater Taffy Distress Oxide to ink up the pieces and background and added a couple of splashes of water. The bow tie is from another Tim Holtz set as I felt my bear was looking a little underdressed for the occasion.

For my second card, I used the Stylish Ovals Hello You Floral dies from spellbinders to cut the flowers and oval frame which I layered up to give dimension. I watercoloured the flowers using a combination of Saltwater Taffy and Carved pumpkin Distress Oxides. The florals were attached to an Altenew cover die Starburst Florals. I really enjoyed making this card watercolouring is not something I do very often but I found it rather therapeutic and I will definitely be doing a lot more in the future.

Do pop over to Colorful Options as the design team has created some amazing cards to inspire and delight and there are so many ways you can go using their mood board.

Take care

Marie

Less is More #484 One Layer,Flowers

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Hello crafty friends it’s time for a new challenge at Less is More and for the next fortnight, we are asking you to create a one layer card with flowers as the theme.

This is my second attempt at a one layer card I did struggle I cannot lie but it does seem to be getting easier only took me three days instead of a week !

Not my finest work as you can see from the above card I’m not a confident colourer inner. I used a variety of Distress Oxides and a water brush to colour this pretty stamp Stylish Ovals Birthday Wishes by Spellbinders. There’s not much more I can say about a one layer card apart from the fact it looks much better in real life.

Do pop over to LIM to see the beautiful CAS one layer gorgeousness from my teammates, we do hope you will play along. Don’t forget to keep it clean and simple.

I’m playing along with Double D who are asking us to use flowers

NBUS #challenge 50 as this stamp set is fresh out of it’s packet.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend

Marie

Things with Wings!

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Just popping in with a quick card for a few challenges as I was particularly inspired by a new challenge blog (to me) how remiss, over at Sparkles Monthly Challenges. Their theme for this month is “Things with Wings” The Design team has created some beautiful cards full of inspiration and the gallery is filled with creative fabulousness.

I used this huge butterfly die cut by Tim Holtz called Perspective and it really is HUGE. I applied several layers of embossing powder in black all over and some hot pink in the centre. Behind the butterfly are layers of Distress Oxide spritzed with plenty of water, Nuvo crystal drops in black, and a Tim Holtz sentiment sticker in the middle to finish off.

I’m also playing along with NBUS as my butterfly has never been used before, mainly because I was so scared of it’s size.

Triple B who are asking us to feature Birds, Butterflies, Blooms, or all three

Do pop over and check out the aforementioned blogs as there is something for everyone plenty of creative beauty to get those crafting juices going.

Take care

Marie

Less is More #483 Spring

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Welcome back to another challenge at Less is More and for the next fortnight, we are asking you to share your spring inspirations with us.

Has spring sprung in your part of the world? Here in Greece the weather has been awful, rain, rain and more rain I mean April showers are one thing but it’s the middle of May and it’s just miserable!

The first thing that came to mind when I thought about spring, apart from the fact that we aren’t having one this year is the following card. Not one of my best but I just couldn’t shake it so please be kind.

I know I know it’s awful and puny but that’s my current mood. I used my trusty Cameo to cut the spring which is popped up on foam and hot foiled and die cut the Pinkfresh Studio sentiment.

Feeling guilty about my rubbish card I’ve made another a little more season appropriate.

This cute little duckie is from Vicky Papaioannou for Spellbinders which I simply die cut and added a touch of Distress Oxide in Broken China and a couple of sploshes of water for rain, oh, and of course a googly eye for good measure.

I’m sharing my little duckie with the lovely Darnell over at NBUS as it’s her first time out of the packet the duck, not Darnell haha

We do hope you will play along with us at LIM my teammates have made “real” cards so please don’t be put off by mine.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

Marie

Flowers Galore!

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Hello lovely crafters I’m popping in today to share three cards for a few challenges some of which are new to me. It’s the time of year when the challenge themes are mainly flowers or spring and due to the lack of lovely weather here in Greece, I’ve made tons of them in order to cheer myself up. Having said that the three that I’m sharing are all monochromatic so that may give some insight into my current mood. The reason is I’ve just returned from a quick visit to the Uk to visit my lovely sister Kal and her family and although I had a fabulous time I really do miss her and her loopiness. The upside is she gifted me tons of lovely crafting supplies as she has turned her attention from crafting to Lego so that’s a result for me! She did try however to entice me into building a few things which I was rubbish at. To be honest, I was afraid I would become addicted and I just can’t afford another hobby plus my bloggers blindness would increase tenfold as those little bricks are minuscule, and even with the aid of my glasses I was visually challenged after half an hour, and needed a lie down !

I made all three using the Be Bold Blooms die set from Spellbinders and a couple of Altenew embossing plates for the backgrounds. I love the simplicity of them especially the first one although it was a nightmare trying to get the placement right and took longer than the cutting itself. I’ve added foam tape randomly behind some of the blooms and leaves to add a little depth.

Triple D are asking us for blooms birds or butterflies.

Get Creative Challenges #121 Flower Frenzy ( I was certainly in a frenzy cutting all of these flowers )

Happy Little Stampers

Please do pop over the above-mentioned blogs as the Dt’s all have the most amazing cards to inspire and delight.

Until next time I hope you are all well and happy.

Take care, Marie.

A is for Automobile #482

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Hello crafty friends. We had so many entries for our last challenge at Less is More for our Anything Goes theme. So many wonderful cards you sure made it difficult for the design team.

On to our new challenge which is an alphabet theme and we are asking you to feature an automobile, keeping it Cas of course.

I used the Tim Holtz colorize die Road Trip for my automobile, there are about a thousand pieces to this set, signposts, luggage, a tree, and even exhaust fumes! but in the spirit of cas I only used the car which only had five hundred pieces!. I added a touch of pumice stone distress oxide behind the card, and added some little hearts for my own take on exhaust fumes, the sentiment is generated with my Cameo.

We do hope you will play along with us and look forward to seeing what you come up with but don’t forget to keep it cas.

Wishing you all a wonderful bank holiday

Take care

Marie

Alcohol Inky Mess

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Hello crafty friends just popping in with a quick card for a couple of challenges.

I made this card using Ranger alcohol inks on vellum oh what fun ! O what a mess ! but I loved making it. I used Tim Holtz thinlets die insects 665634 which I cut from textured gold and shiny card and then played around with the alcohol ink. super messy but so much. An idea-ology sentiment to finish off and there you have it.

I’m entering it into

Country View Clallenges who are asking us for Things with Wings and Addicted to Stamps and More who are asking us for a card for any occasion .

Do pop over to both challenges as both of their galleries are chock full of amazing inspiration.

Take care

Marie

Less is More #481 Anything Goes

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Welcome back to another challenge at Less is More. For the next fortnight, we’re not limiting your imagination to any particular theme but we are asking that you keep your cards clean and simple.

Well if you’re anything like me being given free reign with a theme tends to end up with plenty of cards on my desk and not being able to decide which one I like best so I will be sharing two with you today.

Not the best of photo’s but the weather this week in Greece is rubbish rain and misery just in time for Greece’s Easter celebrations !! I used the Tim Holtz die set Robots it’s one of my favourites as you can mix and match the pieces to make your own creation. I partially coloured the base with Distress Ink in Pumice stone added a sentiment sticker from Idea-ology some googly eyes and all done.

Another rubbish photo taken indoors in bad lighting, it was difficult to catch the gold hot foil on this one. I used the Pinkfresh Studios Folk Art birds glimmer plate and stencils which were coloured with Distress Oxides then die cut and popped up with foam and positioned behind the heart aperture. Another sentiment sticker and all done.

We do hope you will join us at Less is More once again my team mates have outdone themselves so lots of lovely inspiration in our gallery.

I’m linking my robot card to Happy Little Stampers for their Anything Goes with Dies Challenge.

It’s Easter here this weekend In Greece my most favourite holiday celebration and usually signals my first swim of the year in The Med. Not this year it’s all rain, rain and more rain plus Mr P has ” man flu ” so we will be staying put and feeling sorry for ourselves and I will be catering to his every whim(not).

Take care

Marie

Flowers

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Just popping in with a quick card, which actually wasn’t that quick to make in fact it took ages! So many die cuts on this card most of which went on the floor, on the dogs and to be honest on my nerves. Once I got cutting I couldn’t stop and then I couldn’t quite decide on the colour combinations I liked, you know how it is when you have millions of pieces and non of them seem to work together, and then when I did decide on the colours I liked I couldn’t decide on the placement !!! So without further ado here is my annoying floral offering.

The flowers are from Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms collection, The Umbrella and sentiment and distress oxide are from Tim Holtz and the butterfly is from Pinkfresh studio which has been hot foiled, stenciled, and die cut, plus a few gold blobs just because I felt like!

I’m entering a few challenges with this card hoping that someone out there will recognise my pain and cheer me up with an encouraging word or two.

Triple B challenge is asking for birds, blooms, and butterflies or any of each

Time Out Challenge has the above photo inspiration

Colourful Options who are asking us for pastel colours

Craft Rocket Challenge is asking for lots of lovely layers


All of their galleries are jam packed with floral goodness so I do hope you are as inspired as I am.


For those of you that celebrate wishing you a very happy Easter and hope the weather is being kind to you. Here in Greece, we celebrate next week and just as well as the weather is rotten more like winter than spring.

Take care
Marie

Less is More Challenge #480 – Colours

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Welcome back to another fun challenge over at Less is More and for the next fortnight, we are asking you to make a clean and simple card using black and aquamarine. I truly love this combination even though it was quite difficult to get the perfect colour combination. As you will see from my card it looks turquoise but I can assure you in real life it’s aquamarineish.

I made the heart using the Faceted Hearts die from Tim Holtz coloured with distress oxides then used clear embossing powder in a random fashion so as to leave some non-shiny areas so I could add a touch of black soot distress ink. The wings were cut using a Tim Holtz 3D impresslits called Winged, it cuts and embosses in one pass what a result! I wet embossed the wings to give them a shiny effect and attached them to the heart. The square was coloured using Black Soot distress ink, the sentiment is from Stampers Anonymous.

I do hope you will join us at Less is More my teamies have some amazing cards to inspire and I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

Marie