28 February 2015

Week 213 This makes me happy!

What a bumper number of entries for our last challenge and what a super reaction we had to our poser about one layer cards.
It was wonderful to have so many responses and so many differing views.
We appreciate the time you took to put forward your points of view.
One thing is apparent and that is that we all agree to differ!
The common theme however is that we as challenge hosts should set the parameters for our challenges and make it clear what is and is not acceptable.
We have had Guidelines from the outset, to help make clear was is expected, but on the subject of one layer cards, I will be adding some more guidance for the next challenge onwards.
Now on to this week!
We would like to see something that makes you say...

This makes me happy!
 It could be a colour, a technique, a design, a subject that pleases you... whatever! 
However, we would like you to TELL US what the thing is that pleases you!


Many things make me happy, home and family being big on the agenda. I just had a new chair delivered and this lady looks as though she is sitting comfortably too!
This is a card with one of the fabulous stamps from Art Impressions. They are such fun.  This lady also has something else which makes me happy... wine, but I tend to drink more white and rose rather than red.
The backdrop is from an embossing folder of corks from Darice, the sofa is paper pieced and she is coloured with Mirage pens.
The sentiment is computer generated in VNI Thufap2 font.

I could have gone on forever with things that make me happy BUT
I've limited my examples to three: coffee, cake and my pet dog 'Cookie'!!!
The other two are on my personal blog!
Card Recipe:
MFT Die-Namics - Coffee Cup dies
Paper Smooches - Dots & Dashes Dies
Clearly Besotted: Good Times sentiments
Design Paper: Doodlebug and co-coordinating sprinkles


Many things make me happy, my family, my friends...   My four legged friends are also part of my family and I couldn't imagine life without them.  My happy card uses a Lawn Fawn dog, Mama Elephant sentiment and a Simon Says die.  My background was painted with Aquatints, I'm still trying to get the hang of them.

We hope that this challenge will give you plenty of scope, but please remember to keep your submission Clean and Simple with plenty of white space!
Don't forget to tell us why it makes you happy too!
***


27 February 2015

ShowCASe Week 211

We had some wonderful LOVE cards for our one layer week and the discussion this week concerning one layer properties  is wreally interesting and thought provoking. Thank you all who have contributed to the discussion... but more of that later and now to our 
ShowCASe

Birgit submits wonderful cards each week, all worthy of showcasing, but the warmth exuding from this fabulous card is nothing short of breathtaking!

So wonderfully CAS and perfectly stamped!


Fabulous shading in Carole's unmistakable style!

Thanks so much everyone!
Ladies please take your showcase badges from the page at the top!
How lucky we are to have such amazing participants!
See you all tomorrow for outr new challenge!

21 February 2015

Week 212 Wings

We were having the discussion last week about whether a card with inlaid dies is one layer or not.
Sarah made one for the challenge, but I couldn't decide if it was one layer or not as there has to be a layer behind it to support the joins between the dies. SO... is it or isn't it?
What do you think? It would be good to know!
Please leave a comment with your point of view, it will be really interesting to read what the general opinion is.
Now on to this week, and for our 
THEME 
we have chosen
WINGS


SU Wetlands stamps one a one layer card with area masked off and Pan Pastels applied.

Many of you will know how much I love chicken images. This one was bought at the Portsmouth Craft Fair recently, I think it's from Woodware. It's coloured with Copics and Mirage pens and the backdrop is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.
A bit of a soppy looking chicken isn't she!


Using distress inks (picked raspberry, seedless preserves & barn door)
I inked an off-cut of watercolour cardstock, spritzed with water
to allow the colours to blend then left to dry. 

From this panel I die-cut the dragonfly
which is a standalone die set from Clearly Besotted, layered 3 times with the 
intricate elegant cut-out dragonfly on top. The same watercoloured panel 
is used to create the 'corner' pieces surrounding the front card panel.

More Clearly Besotted stamps used: With a Flourish,
Building Blocks & Sentiment from Spring Flowers
To finish mini silver pearls from Hobby House.

Do visit our personal blogs as there are additional examples to be found on each of them...we try to be vigilant in visiting and commenting on all of your submissions... and we love receiving comments too!
There are lots of things with wings so let's hope we see a variety of them
Do join us, we're waiting to see what you can come up with!
Don't forget to keep your submission CAS with lots of that lovely White Space!

***


20 February 2015

Birthday ShowCASe

It seems almost as though this is a second 
Showcase for our Birthday Challenge
 as the prizewinners posted yesterday are a showcase in themselves.
Here are our three choices!


moment
Such a lovely image delicately coloured.

SO beautifully simple!

Just the cutest and so beautiful!

Please take the ShowCASe badge from the page at the top and accept our congratulations on such superb work!

Do come by tomorrow everyone for our next fun challenge!

Birthday Winners!

We're sure you've been waiting for this post to find out the winners of the fabulous goods from our Sponsors for our special Birthday Celebration!
We are really grateful for the support we receive both from participants and sponsors alike!
So without further ado here are the Winners in the order they were submitted!
Winner....

 One for each crafter
#94 Susan & #134 Flo

     
#147 Anita

#149 Karen

All of these prize winners were selected randomly from those adhering to the rules of  this  challenge in particular and CAS in general.

If you  send in your contact details these will be passed onto the sponsors or you will be sent either your prize or instructions on how to receive it.
Thanks so much for your support for what was a bumper fun week. We really appreciated all the kind comments we received and hope that you will continue to enjoy our challenges in future!

14 February 2015

One Layer Challenge Week 211

What a bumper bundle of cards we had submitted for our Birthday Challenge last week. 
Not all kept solely to the specified colours and not all were exactly Clean and Simple, with a decided lack of white space on many submissions, but we were delighted to see so many new contributors and hope that they will become regular LIMettes, thereby becoming accustomed to the parameters of CAS.

I would like to reiterate our thanks to our fabulous Guests and sponsors and will be publishing the list of winners during the week.
Now for this week's challenge!
One Layer 
and the theme is
LOVE

Please remember, lots of white space, NO additional layers and minimal embellishments! 
If you are unsure of our definition of a one layer card, please check the Guidelines page at the top of the blog.


This little chap is from Penny Black, coloured with Spectrum Noir Pencils, blended with a little with a paper stub and some blending liquid. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted. I twinkled the heart with some Glamour Dust. I find that pencils, even having been blended, don't bleed through to the back of the card front... and important consideration with a one layer card.

Card Recipe:
Clearly Besotted: In Print & Build a Bug
MFT Die-namics: Coffee cup & Blueprints 15 (hearts)
I made my own stencil from these sets and inked up 
with Gold Delicata ink then heat embossed with Ranger Clear EP
The bees wings are winked with stella; with 2 pearls from Hobby House for eyes.
I have revolted against the popular Valentine colours for my 'love' card.  It is inked with brushstrokes using Aquatints.  The sentiment is by Unity and again, it is not quite the standard sentiment - but it does mention love as well as a food close to my heart lol!

We are looking forward to seeing your creations!
***


13 February 2015

ShowCASe Week 209

ShowCASe for our 
LITTLE ONES
Week 209
We had some beautiful entries for our Lucky Dip week and were so glad to have Tara join us.
Here is our selection.

PB_LoveTail
What beautiful colouring... those tiny hearts must have been really fiddly to cut out!

We just love the proportions of this wonderfully CAS card!

So cute, so CAS, so much wonderful white space!
 DO please take your badges from the page at the top of our blog with our thanks and congratulations!

Watch our for our new One Layer Challenge tomorrow and the prizewinners from our Birthday celebrations will be announced during the coming week!
What fun!

07 February 2015

We are celebrating 4 Years of "Less is More"

What a day to celebrate!
Less is More is 4 Years old
Who would have thought that when Mandi and I began a challenge blog for Clean and Simple cards that it would have had such an impact on Blogland.
It was a success from the outset (for which we thank you most sincerely) and seems to have influenced the ethos of several other CAS challenges which have sprung up since then.
Now lots of challenges request that participants comment on their fellow crafters, something that we felt strongly about... everyone loves a friendly comment don't they!
Today we have people from all over the world joining in with our challenges and the standard of entries is simply superb!
We are lucky enough to be joined this week by representatives from lots of the fabulous companies which sponsor us, and there are lots of goodies up for grabs from them this week!
So a huge THANK YOU to them and lots of good reasons for you to join in!
As it is the first Challenge of the month it's a 
Colour Challenge 
and this time they are
PINK AND GREY
Here are some examples from our sponsors
Uniko Studios
Uniko is offering the giveaway of a set of their new release stamps

Bev

Uniko Studio is 3 years old this month!
The gorgeous Beverley is a regular sponsor of LIM and also one of our 
super guest designers this week 
WOW Embossing Powders
WOW also our Sponsors for February!
WOW is offering a carry case of 6 Embossing Powders


Devine stamp stamped on grey baz with versamark
Pink perfection on white baz
Pink sorbet on the little hearts
And it's all relative stamp
Clearly Besotted is offering a £10 voucher


I'm sure you'll have come across Michelle but if not check out her
AMAZING blog and video tutorials plus details of what products she's 
used on her GDT card.

2 sets of Paper Smooches stamps are up from grabs from Tara

I used Wplus9's Whole Lotta Happy stamp for the balloon with 3 shades of pink pigment inks from Mama Elephant (blush, piggy bank and lollypop).  The birthday script die is cut from grey card and the wishes is from Whole Lotta Happy too.  Strings were hand drawn with a distress marker (pumice stone).
Jen

Mandi

Well hello everyone... or those of you that even remember me :)
Where have those 4 years gone? LIM has gone from strength to strength, it's barely recognisable nowadays to how it was in 'the old days' Amazing achievement from Chrissie and her team.
My business is going fantastically, I love every moment. My only regret is that I'm not 10 (or 20) years younger!
If you;d liketo follow what I'm up to click here Finishing Touches
Thank you Chrissie for inviting me
Love to all  xx

This uses a beautiful birthday set called: Balloon Bash
along with some sentiments from the new sets too.
More will be revealed this week!
A little sneaky crafty trick here to create my grey stripes 
(may not be new to you talented folk) but I used the back
of one of the Uniko Studio background builders stamps 
to create them and I like how it's turned out.

Anne

I seem to have made a lot of new home cards lately, can't think why it's on my mind!  This uses Stampin' Up holiday home white embossed on pink.  The background is cut with a Simon Says die and I've added some washi tape and a White Stuff clothing button, coloured grey with my Copic pens.

Chrissie
This utilised a home made stencil inked with Distress Inks, stamped with SU Gorgeous Grunge splats and embossed with silver EP. The base layer of the Memory Box butterfly was inked with distress inks, stamped with floral images and also heat embossed with silver. The leaves are from Memory Box. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted, I think it echoes the line of the butterfly beautifully! The front panel is cut with a stitched rectangle, elongated slightly to fit British measurements, from Simon Says Stamp.

The prizewinners of the goodies generously donated by our lovely sponsors for our birthday celebration giveaway, will be chosen at random at the end of the week once the the Inlinkz has closed; winners will be announced the following week.
As always we would encourage you to visit the blogs of our DT this week, particularly those of our Guests as well as some of your fellow participants.
***


06 February 2015

ShowCASe week 208

Today we have our ShowCASe from Week 208 to show you.
We had some amazing entries and choosing was indeed a pleasure.
You may remember that we had this Sketch to follow
What a clever design trick to use this positive / negative idea!
Look at the fabulous texture and  dimension Val achieved with this super heart!
This super shaker card has subtle texture, a striking sentiment and an intriguing focal point! 
showCASed
Here is your badge ladies, with our congratulations!
Be sure to join us tomorrow at the start of our Birthday Week Celebrations. We are going to be joined by lots of our regular Sponsors and there are lots of Giveaways up for grabs.
See you there!