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.

Amelia

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

Susan

We just love the proportions of this wonderfully CAS card!

Elaine

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!

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

Marion Emberson

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

Clearly Besotted is offering a £10 voucher

Michelle Short

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.

Make the Day Special

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

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

Sarah

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. ***

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Mary V

What a clever design trick to use this positive / negative idea!

Valerie

Look at the fabulous texture and  dimension Val achieved with this super heart!

Ma Mi

This super shaker card has subtle texture, a striking sentiment and an intriguing focal point! 

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!

Lucky Dip Week

We have another 5 Saturday month, which means just one thing...

LUCKY DIP WEEK

...and Lucky Dip Week means a Guest Designer

We are delighted to welcome our Sponsor  for this month, the lovely 

Tara 

from Make the Day Special

Our topic for this challenge is 

Little Ones

You may interpret this in any way you choose... babies, children, small elements on your card... whatever your imagination dictates.

Here are our examples!

Tara

 I made it using the Tiny Hearts die from Paper Smooches die cut from cardstock blended with 4 shades of distress ink for a gradient effect.  Lightly drawn large pencil heart was then filled with my "little ones" and erased before finishing with a sentiment from Oh Happy Day by Avery Elle on vellum.

Sarah

This one uses a newly released stamp and die set from 

Clearly Besotted: Baby Shower

Uniko Studio: Sweet Baby sentiments

Ribbon & pearls from my stash

Anne

For a baby boy:  Kaisercraft stamps with an Avery Elle sentiment and some twine.

Chrissie

There are lots of 'little ones' on this card...the tiny hearts are the waste from a large die from Simon Says Stamp.

Even more are apparent here when the envelope is open.

There are lots of little gems too! The scalloped edging is from a Lawn Fawn die.

The envelope was created from a Spellbinder die, here's a little video showing how!

There are additional cards to inspire you on our personal blogs, just click on our names to be taken directly to them.

We are looking forward to seeing you!

***

An InLinkz Link-up

ShowCASe Week 207

FRIENDS ShowCASe

Week 207

We had a bumper bundle of contributions for our friends challenge with some terrific cards in the Gallery!

Thank you all

Here are our choices 

Marika

Look at the amazing colouring of these beautiful tulips! Gorgeous!

Sue

Another beautiful watercolour creation with a fabulous sentiment!

Ardyth

What a fabulous design Ardyth created... I'm sure this will be pinned and cased by many!

Brilliant!

Joanna

What a cute little doggie, beautifully coloured and SO clean and simple!

Here's our Showcase badge ladies!

Thank you so much!
Do come back for our Lucky dip challenge tomorrow!

ShowCASe Week 206

It seems that One Layer cards no longer hold such terror for LIMettes these days and we had a wonderful array of cards to choose from.

Here are our ShowCASe choices for 

Week 206 

New Beginnings

Linby

What a great effect of the contrast between the stamp and the stencil!

Lindsey

What an elegant, simple herald of spring!

Lynne

Simple, yet striking!

Super!

What great cards yet again!

Here's our badge ladies and we hope to see everyone tomorrow for our new challenge.

Week 207 Theme

For our theme this week we have chosen

FRIENDS

You can choose any aspect of friendship for the subject of your design, but of course it needs to be clean and simple with lots of white space.

We also would like to remind you that we love it when you visit other contributors to our challenges to leave a friendly word!

Here are our examples

Anne

Stamps from Acid Drops and Whatnots, coloured with Copics and mounted on a stitched rectangle from a die by Simon Says Stamp.

Chrissie

This is a sweetie of a stamp from Penny Black. It was stamped then masked and over-stamped with a scratch stamp from Stampin' Up using Versamark. A few shades of Pan Pastels were applied directly over the Versamark using pieces of sponge.  Once the mask was removed, the ducks were coloured with Mirage Pens. It's cut with Die Namics pierced ovals The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley.

Sarah

Supplies used:

Distress Inks: Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry & Spiced Marmalade

Sentiment: Clearly Besotted - Say it In Style

Beautiful Blooms die from Uniko Studio

Wooden patterned button from my stash

We hope you'll have fun with this one!

***

An InLinkz Link-up

ShowCASe Week 205

We had some amazing contributions for our last colour challenge, what a hard job it was to choose our ShowCASe, but here they are!

Jan

What a dramatic effect the black cardstock has!

Wonderful design!

Jill

What a great CAS design... and superb composition!

 Judy

What a beautiful composition!
Darnell came to the rescue and copied the card pic for me.
Thanks Darnell you are an absolute star!

Rebecca

This freebie feather has been much in evidence on Blogland recently, nowhere more beautifully employed than here in Rebecca's card!

Here is your ShowCASe badge ladies! Please take it with our thanks!
We'll see you tomorrow for another fun challenge!

Week 206 One Layer Challenge

It's back to 

One Layer Cards 

once more and this time our theme for your cards is 

New Beginnings.

Anne is making a new beginning in her new home, but packing cases still surround her and she may not get a card posted for this challenge... also her camera cable is yet to be located! However she has internet coverage and hopes to be back visiting you and commenting again this week.

Sarah

I wanted

to do something a bit 'off the wall' but was struggling if I'm honest.

So who better to ask ... the family!

My son decided a new leaf could be a new beginning so 

here's a card showing 'turning over a new leaf'

Now this is a bit too CAS even for me so couldn't resist adding a little bling!

Card Recipe:

Paper Smooches: Botanical Stamp set

Uniko Studio: All Occasion Sentiments #1 (NBUS)

Twine & gems from my stash

I wanted my little scene to appear as if the recipient was

leaving for a sunnier and brighter climate with the graduated sky colour

and clouds of course!

Card Recipe:

Paper Smooches: Metropolitan Stamp Set

Clearly Besotted: Say it In Style Sentiment stamps 

Derwent Coloursoft pencils and glossy accents

Chrissie

The  stamps here are from Stampin' Up. The tiny hearts from the Confetti set and the sentiment from Love and Laughter.

The frame was embossed with Sizzix dies and the 'minimal embellishments'... the tiny birds, cut from a Memory Box die.

Here are stamps from Clearly Besotted, surrounded by a Simon Says Stamp embossed frame.

One Layer Cards are so useful these days when postal costs are so high... for even smallish envelopes which exceed a certain thickness, so the better we become at them, the more economic it will be!

***

An InLinkz Link-up

ShowCASe Week 203/204

We had some beautiful entries for our Family challenge and here are the ones chosen for our Showcase 

from that 2 week challenge.

Chris

What an ethereal effect Chris has achieved with this herd of deer!

Sue

The placement and stamping are simply fab... made all the more effective in monochrome!

Lorraine

What a beautifully calm portrayal of the Holy Family!

It seems that this week's ShowCASe is a rhapsody in blue!

All beautiful!
Thanks you ladies, please take our ShowCASe badge for your blogs!

See you tomorrow for another one Layer Challenge!

Week 205 Colour Challenge

Another year has begun and "Less is More" is approaching its fourth anniversary... where has that time disappeared to?

We are DELIGHTED to welcome back our own LIMette Tara from

Make the Day Special 
as our sponsor this month!
She carries the most amazing array of crafty products from the USA and gives superb service too!
Do check out her stock!

We have a super
  Colour Challenge
for you this time... with a little personal choice for you too!

BLACK, METALLIC + ONE

DO  keep your designs uncluttered and remember to include that white space!

This week Anne will be moving to her new home and we are delighted that she has managed to get some cards made for this week's challenge, however, she will find commenting difficult (or even impossible if she doesn't manage to get her internet established in her new house.)

I'm sure you will all want to join with Sarah and me in wishing her every happiness in her new abode!

Chrissie

Lots of die-cuts here. Treble clef die from Cheery Lynne. 'Love'& 'you' from WPlus 9 and small hearts from a larger Impression Obsession heart.
The stitched panel is from Simon Says Stamp, extended slightly to fit British card dimensions. (There is a short video on my personal blog showing how I do this!)

Other colour is RED 

Sarah 

Black: Scalloped sentiment strip & Image 

(Clearly Besotted: Good Times - a newbie from Santa)

Metallic: Die cut basket in silver foil card then dry-embossed 

and

Sentiment (also Clearly Besotted: Good Times)

 heat-embossed in WOW metallic silver sparkle EP

Other Colour: pink Butterflies & Gems

Anne

Two favourite Memory Box dies used on a gorgeous textured, dull gold cardstock bought at one of those 'stuff your box for £..' stands at a craft show.

As ever, there are additional cards on our personal blogs, so we hope you will stop by and take a look at those too!
There are two winners to be announced this week, so keep watching to see who has been chosen this time.

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An InLinkz Link-up