Week 65 Sketch

We don't often have a sketch, but whenever we do it is always simple.
There seem to have been lots of layers creeping into submissions of late and in some cases a considerable lack of white space.
For this week's sketch we'd like you to keep to the proportions of this drawing so that there is considerable white space remaining in the finished card.

You may choose either of these
SKETCHES.

Mandi

The Woodware 'Gerbera' stamp is large, approx 10cm square. I stamped it onto some card using Versafine Onyx black ink, then watercoloured with a plum colour pencil. I wanted the central panel approx 7cm sq and the middle of the gerbera slightly set towards the bottom. I kinda started it by eye and trimmed to the desired square size. Glittered with a Zig marker and Glamour Dust to finish. I did some extra black dots in the centre with a Stampin' Up pen. The sentiment is Penny Black.

Chrissie

For this card I decided to do a triple embossed square, but with a slight twist. I added my layers of silver embossing powder, but when cool I stamped the kiss image in Versamark over the silver and then sprinkled it with red embossing powder and then gently melted it.

After this was done I heated the top of the square until molten once more and stamped the music image from Prickley Pear into it, having first inked the stamp with Versamark. Although not obvious, I inked the mounting square with my brayer and a Big and Juicy ink pad. I need lots of practice with my brayer!!

The sentiment is from Paper Make Up.

This one is in tribute to Birgit, one of our faithful LIMettes and a consummate crafter. She has made similar cards by adding part layers of the same image superimposed over each other.

This image (Camelia) is from the Wax Fruit company and has been coloured with Promarkers and gently twinkled with Glamour Dust. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft.

 I think it's a great idea to add interest to a focal image.

I'm sure that we all gain inspiration from each other week after week... and we love to see so many wonderful submissions full of superb ideas.

Let's see what this sketch brings!

Showcase Week 63 - Doodling

Once more we had a really difficult job to choose, but without further ado here are our choices for this week's Doodling ShowCASe!

Birgit

Darnell

Klaartje

Valerie

Gay

Susan

What amazing talent!

Aren't we lucky to have such wonderful crafters submitting projects such as these each week.

Thank you everyone, please take the ShowCASe badge from the page at the top to place on your blogs.

DO join us again tomorrow for our new challenge!

Week 64 Theme - How Charming

 As we are being sponsored by The Ribbon Girl this month, we thought that we would have a challenge whereby you could use some of the products you might find in her store.

She has a mighty array of charms, perfect for that subtle embellishment on a Clean and Simple card, plus all manner of wonderful ribbons and trims.

Just as we don't always make One Layer Cards, we don't always want to make cards completely devoid of embellishment, the key is to keep it minimal... to enhance not overpower.

SO our theme this week is 

How Charming!

Make and/or use a charm on your project

Chrissie

The oval on this card was cut from a sheet which I made by squishing leaves and flowers from the garden between two pieces of card and running them through my Cuttlebug machine. I love the effect it gives, Sylvie one of our LIMettes whom I met at Alexandra Palace, used this process for one of her cards on Three shades of Green week. 

The branch is from a Memory Box die which I bought at the craft fair and the sentiment was one of the 40 odd unmounted stamps which came from my £5 grab bag! 

The colours in the paper leant towards gold rather than silver, but I only had silver charms, so I heat embossed this one with Gold Embossing powder. I dabbed it on the Versamark pad, then with my pokey tool through the hole, I dipped it in the EP and heated it. As this is a plastic or acrylic charm, I had to be careful not to melt the loop of the charm itself.

The WOW powder gave a wonderful finish to all the embossing.

I embossed the panel for this baby card with a Cuttlebug border embossing folder. In order to have no tell tale embossed lines from the edge of the folder, I use a different sandwich which is

A plate (base Plate)

Embossing folder with the card enclosed

Tan Mat

C Plate

Result... crisp embossing and NO Lines!

I hand embossed the very edges of the panel with an embossing stylus and a scoring board.

In order to get a colour match for the various elements on this card, I used the same SU marker to ink the stamp (Anita's) and to colour the edge of the scalloped circle and the ribbon.

The sentiment is from Paper Make Up punched with Stampin' Up's Label punch.

Mandi

I use charms a fair bit, although with peer pressure again I sat for a few hours wondering what to do! This is basically a DL card turned lenthways. I then cut Sizzix hearts in various ivory and black card, in different shapes and sizes. I then over stamped some and embossed the black primitive one in a Cuttlebug folder. I randomly placed them along the base of the card and attached them using 3d pads or PVA glue to give plenty of dimension.  The charm is suspended on some Stampin' Up Twine. I like the look of the twine, as this overall effect has a vintage feel. If you can see the heart has a tiny rose on there, it is SO cute.
Charms and mulberry rose are from Ribbon Girl
Not a great deal of white space, but there is in comparison to the shape of the card.

We do look forward to your entries....
Have a 'charming' week

showCASe for Week 62

These Fridays do come round quickly, don't they!
Our decision-making is so hard, you all make us such wonderful entries, 
it makes for a difficult task to choose just a handful, but here they are. 
All full of fabulousness!
Thank you as always to everyone who entered. 

ShowCASe for our Colour Week 62

Shades of Green


Sarah

Sylvie

Victoria

Lynn K

Monika

Beate

Jingle

Well done once again ladies, please display our showCASe banner on your sidebar


See you tomorrow with our next challenge

Week 63 One Layer

It's Saturday once more and we know you are all ready for another challenge. You  all seemed to enjoy 'Going Green' last week, we had some fabulous entries. Thank you.

So the second week of the month and ONE LAYER, a genre lots of you seem to produce even when you don't have to! We are most impresssed!
We have chosen something a bit different for us and it's...

Doodling

This can be in any form you wish, faux stitching, hand written or drawn elements on your card, zentangle. As long as you create something with 'ink' by hand

Chrissie 

The doodling in this card may not be immediately obvious, but the stamp is just the four flower heads and the rest was my scrawling afterwards. The sentiment is from Gina K Designs Botanicals set.

I added some Glossy Accents to the flowers to look like dew... it may look better when it's completely dry.





Mandi

I chose to use the 'Zentangle' method, which is probably THE doodle art technique!

I made an A6 card from a aheet of A4 folded in half. I then stamped the flower, a really old Anita's stamp, then filled in the scribbled petals in lots of small patterns with a fine liner pen. Finished with a Penny Black 'Happy Birthday' stamp. 

I do intend adding further cards to my blog, if you could bear with me this week. 

All explained on my personal blog!


Chrissie will be going to the craft show on Sunday at Alexandra Palace with Gay (mustavcoffee) and is hoping to meet up with a whole bunch of LIMette chums  Jenny, Vicky and Sylvie... sounds like the start of a convention!
Anyone else going to be there? DO come and say hi!

showCASe Week 61

Better late than never as they say....

AS usual we had some terrific entries yet again and as always a very hard decision.

These are the handful that stood out

Thank you ladues, DO grab the showCASe banner from the top of our blog

Angelique

Lols

Ange Kelly

See you tomorrow for our next challenge

Winner March

Hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekend and didn't eat too many choccies! 

 We are delighted to announce our winner for March 

A superb prize from WOW

You know her and love her as much as we do. 

It's LIMette

 Jen

 The Tiny Blue Butterfly

 It is such a treat every week to see Jen's wonderful work. 

Sometimes we get to see more than one!

If you would like to get in touch with your postal address, we will arrange to send your prize... it is rather super! 

 Enjoy what's left of the day!

Week 62 Colour Challenge

It seems you loved the picture we posted as inspiration for your cards last week, and there were some lovely, delicate interpretations submitted.

This week we have another Colour challenge for you and to give it a slightly different twist we would like to see 

Three Shades of Green.

For this you could use one ink but use it in different ways to create different shades, for example direct stamping, then secondary stamping, dusting, stencilling, maybe inking directly from the inkpad. This would create different shades of the same colour or you could simply use three different greens.
There is such a variety of mediums you could use too... paper, pencils, chalks, inks, paint, markers, etc., etc. It's not a one layer week, so let your imagination roam...but remember that WHITE SPACE!

We do like to be different!

We are sponsored this month by The Ribbon Girl
with a

for one lucky winner

If you haven't already shopped at the Ribbon Girl you need to pop along, there is much more than just ribbon.
Mary and Andrea give and excellent service and pack the goodies so beautifully you don't want to open them!

Mandi

I created my three shades of green using Stampin Up ink pads Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz and Certainly Celery. I cut a square of about 9cm and then used the emboss resist technique with WOW Clear Embossing Powder. I knew roughly how big I wanted the panels, so cut them to suit. Using a retired Stampin Up sentiment set I stamped in the darkest shade, Old Olive. The swirl is a new purchase for me - Cheery Lyn Tropical Flourish I got here
 Finsihing off with a couple of punched daises and pearls.

For my second card, also a 6" square I used a Crafters Workshop Dot Burst stencil and marked out the largest circle. I then stamped a dotty circle from Stampin Up's Circle Circus stamp set in Lucky Limeade. I then added the punched retro flowers to the largest circle dots in a mint card. Finally I marked out the middle circle and punched tiny flowers in a Teal card, then the same Stampin Up sentiment to finish off, also in Lucky Limeade.

Chrissie

For this I used one of the stamps I picked up at the NEC ...6 for £5, it's a terrific Rubber Stampede image of Eucalyptus leaves. I inked the stamp with SU Marker Pens in Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive and Always Artichoke and stamped it twice without reinking.
The sentiment from Woodware is mounted on one of SU's Four Frames in Pear Pizzazz and punched with the matching punch.

Here are three Hero Arts apples, this time inked with Distress inks in Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss. The two outer apples were simply stamped with the colour already added to the stamp, the centre one was coloured afterwards as it is simply a line image. For this one I applied the colour with a water brush, picking up the inks from a dab with the ink pads on my glass mat.
The border is made with a Spellbinders die and the sentiment is from Kaisercraft mounted on a Memory Box tag.
We hope that you will enjoy our slightly different colour challenge.
Look out for the March WOW Embossing Powders winner to be announced very soon!
We would like to wish you all a very
Happy Easter!

showCASe for Week 60

Another dificult week for chosing our showCASe entries for this week.

Being such a varied challenge, it proved rather 'challengeing' for us to say the least!

However, we have to choose and here are the fabulous entries that stood out for us

To remind you it was
Week 60 Recipe
Take 3 Challenges

Thank you ladies and do grab our banner if you don't have it already

Gina
SO simple, but SO striking

Jan
Superb...you absolutely got it spot on this week!

Loli
Loli made a few this week, all fabulous!

Victoria
Superb placement

Karen
WoW is our FAV combo, so good we chose another!

Di
SO striking and a difficult combo of challenges!

Thank you again ladies and to all of you who entered

See you tomorrow for our new challenge