ShowCASe Week 230

It seems you all enjoyed our sketch challenge last week 

and came up with some incredible takes with it!

Seriously! You need to give yourselves a HUGE slap on the back 

for your superb talent and ingenious ideas! You certainly don't 

give us an easy time selecting our ShowCASe.

Thanks to everyone who participated - You are all winners!

So in order of entry here are our choices for Sketch week

Birgit

Birgit's take on the is sketch is simply awesome; not only down to 

her 'trademark' inking but the quirky little divide of the sketch 

then the cutest mini charm to complete the nautical scene! 

Hannelie

Once again Hannelie's CAS card stood out in the gallery

with her classy and elegant twist on the sketch by transforming it 

into a stained glass window similar to the door to her house!

Elaine

Elaine's colourful and striking floral image raised and set 

against the identical images in monochrome looks fabulous;

she's certainly showcased the gorgeous Stamplorations set perfectly.

We would love you to display your 'showCASe' badge

with pride on your blogs and you can find it on the LIM Badges page.

Well done everyone and thanks for playing along.

There's still time to join in our red, white and blue 'colour' challenge 

which closes at 10pm BST today and we'll be back with our 

new challenge details tomorrow morning. 

June Winner

Hello there! As the title suggests it's time for us to 

announce our winner for the month of June and our sponsor was

 So our lucky winner for the month is

Carole Dion

Creations A les tresors

Carole enters the Less is More challenges week after week

and produces the most outstanding creations. Her trademark

inky blending is second to none and our challenges never appear to 

faze this super talented lady.

Not only that but Carole is constantly encouraging her fellow

Limettes leaving great comments along the way.

We love your work and are thrilled that you regularly participate 

at Less is More Carole - the prize is truly deserved and 

we hope you enjoy it.

Please contact us by email for details of how to 

receive your prize.

LIM2011@gmx.com

There is a winner's badge waiting for you at the top of our blog, 

which we'd like you to display on your blog with our thanks!

Congratulations!

Don't forget there's still time to enter our current challenge

Colours - Red, White and Blue

ShowCASe Week 229

Morning all, it's time to reveal our ShowCASe stars 

following the Stencilling Challenge so in order of entry here goes -

we couldn't stick at 3 this week so we've thrown an extra one in too!

Cornelia

Incredible stencilling, fabulous splashes of colour

with a bold and stylish sentiment!

Sarah G

Fantastic ombre inking with the most stunning bird on a wire stencil,

further enhanced with embossed shine!

Magic Flying Boots

A beautiful scene with wonderful depth created with inking

and gentle shadow to the trees, the stunning blues pull it all together!

Theresa Pace

Awesome stencilling, inking, bleaching and white lines creates 

some fabulous dimension to this work of art!

Well done ladies and please take the ShowCASe badge from the page at the top 

which we'd love you to display proudly on your blogs.

Thanks to everyone who participated, we'll be back tomorrow with our new challenge 

and there's still time to enter this week's sketch challenge if you haven't already.

ShowCASe Week 228

It's time to bring you another SHOWCASE following

our Home Challenge 

Oh My Goodness what a task we've had selecting our favourites

You are all simply amazing; each of you a winner but here are our

choices for this week in order of entry

Hannelie

At first glance this appears to be more than one layer

but the tricky and brilliant masking and colouring makes

this an outstanding one layer project

Susan

Susan's crisp and clean colouring in such fun and 

summery colours stood out 

Skye

What a fun and classy idea to use the internal

view of home and coloured beautifully on kraft

Liz

Here's a unique take on the challenge

with a fabulous image and perfectly coloured

We would love you to display your 'showCASe' badge

with pride on your blogs and you can find it on the LIM Badges page.

Well done everyone and thanks for playing along.

There's still time to join in our 'stencil' challenge which closes

at 10pm BST today and we'll be back with our new challenge

details tomorrow morning. 

Week 229 - Theme - Stencilling

Morning Limettes

Did you enjoy working with the Home theme last week?

We know some of you dread the one layer weeks 

but you all coped brilliantly so onto this week's challenge

Theme Week  and we'd like to see some Stencilling on your project. 
As always please follow the 'clean and simple' guidelines with lots of 'white space'

Here's our examples and there'll be some added

inspiration on our own personal blogs if you'd like to take a look

Anita

I took a panel of white cardstock and roughly blended three Distress Inks, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio.  I laid a stencil over the top, Leaf Swirl by Imagination Crafts and spritzed through with water.  I immediately removed the stencil, left it for approximately thirty seconds and then blotted the panel with a paper towel to remove the water which then removed some of the ink, this is known as the ghosting technique.  Once dry I stamped the sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Sweet Rose stamp set in Versafine Onyx Black.

Anne

 I love this technique which Barbara Gray showed in her Stencil of the Month Club.  It uses a swirly stencil from Clarity.  I masked all but the central panel and rotated the stencil on the spot, inking with various Distress Inks in blues and greens until no white showed.   The sentiment is Stampin' Up and the figure is a Clarity stamp.

Chrissie

Here I inked through part of a Memory Box stencil in Shabby Shutters ink using a sponge dauber and added a little foliage, sparkled with Crafter's Companion Glitter Spray.

The butterfly is also from Memory Box

Sarah

Card Recipe:

Simon Says Stamp: Mosaic Ornaments inked with

Ranger Dye Inks then clear embossed to add some shine

Uniko Studio: Balloon Bash and sentiment from

Clearly Besotted: Christmas Sparkle

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An InLinkz Link-up

ShowCASe Week 227

We have another super SHOWCASE to bring you this week.

The contributions for Week 227 were superb, what a pleasure it was to visit you all. There were a few a little lacking in white space, but such wonderful colours!

Without further ado here are our choices.

Heather

Superb scene, wonderful watercolour and perfect positioning!

Lorraine

What gentle sunset colours!

Ankie

Superb stamping and inking and LOTS of White Space!

Maaike

We  just had to add one more... Maaike made a superbly CAS version of a sunset picture she found, resisting the urge to cover the whole card with the colours!

Beautiful!

Please take the showcase badge from the page at the top and we hope everyone will join us tomorrow for our new challenge!

Week 228 - One Layer Card

Morning Limettes

This week we are back with another 

One Layer Card week

and the theme is 

Home

You certainly rocked last week's sunset challenge with your

fabulousness and inspirational use of those colours.

Let's see what you make of this one and where your inspiration takes you. 

You don't have to use an actual house/home image; maybe what 'home' means to you.

Please keep your design to ONE layer with lots of yummy 'white space'
We have had quite a few submissions of late considerably lacking in WHITE SPACE
so do try to leave some of your designs with areas containing no image or decoration! 

and here's our examples. 

Sarah



I rarely use digi stamps these days but the sunny weather  here in the UK was calling me outside and my mojo  was on the sun lounger and not my craftroom!  The digi image is from Pollycraft and my sentiment is from  the super talented Hannelie - Desert Diva who kindly allowed me  to use her perfect image ... from her card last week HERE 

Anita



Lots of masking was involved with this card.  
I started by stamping the curtains then masked these off before 
stamping the window frame in VersaMark ink 
and embossing with clear embossing powder.  
The mask was put back in place so I could blend the sky through 
the window with Distress Ink in Salty Ocean. 
I then stamped the vase and flowers and the sentiment below.  
The sentiment is from the 'Home Sweet Home' stamp set by Woodware 
and all the other images are from Clearly Besotted's 'Window Dressing' set.  

Anne



This card is mostly Stampin' Up - balloons are From the Herd and 
the houses from Holiday Home.  The sentiment is Little Claire 
and I coloured with Copics, the light colours haven't bled through, 
so this can stay a one layer card!

Chrissie

This is from an old Stampin' Up wheel stamp, but I love the images. 
It's gently coloured with watercolour pencils and blended 
with a waterbrush. The sentiment is from Little Claire.

If you head over to our personal blogs there's likely to be more ideas 

and please remember to leave some lovely comments along the way

and for your fellow limettes ... we all love a comment!

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An InLinkz Link-up

ShowCASe Week 226

It's ShowCASe time!

What fun we had looking at all your two or four legged submissions!

Here are our choices from the fabulous gallery examples

Julia

Julia's card is beautifully coloured and is very clean and simple with lots of white space!

Rema

Rema too, has a fabulous design, with perfect placement and lots of white space!

Don't you just love this cool raccoon!

Sue

An extra layer here but still perfectly CAS!

What a super scene Sue created!

Do please take the badge from the top and we hope, display with pride!

Join us tomorrow for another fun challenge!

Week 227 Colour

We have a new month and a completely new (to us) Sponsor
We are delighted to have
Handy Hippo Crafts

as our sponsor this month and there is a £25 voucher up for grabs to use in their super craft store.
DO check them out if you've never visited their online store before.
Super service and great products!

For our Colour Challenge this week 

we have chosen

SUNSET

You do not have to make an interpretation of a sunset, although of course you are free to do that, but merely use the colours which this word brings to your mind.

We did wonder about adding a sunset picture, but wondered if that would influence your thoughts too much and so decided to leave it to your imaginations.

Having looked at sunset pictures on the internet, there are lots of colours to choose from, but remember to keep your design Clean and Simple with lots of White Space.

Chrissie

Aqua tint inks were dropped onto a piece of card and then spritzed with water to make them run into each other. When dry, part of the card was used to show through the die-cut slash in the front panel and the rest for the Spellbinders sentiment and the base layers of the Memory Box butterflies.
Other dies are from Simon Says Stamp.

Sarah

Card Recipe:

I've gone with a sunset-type coloured skyline although I'm no artist!

Using blended distress ink: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade,

Festive Berries and Picked Raspberry

Clearly Besotted: Life's a Circus stamp;

 sentiment from the Design a Tree set both heat-embossed

Anita

I blended Distress inks in Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade then stamped the tree from Clearly Besotted's Birch Trees set in Versafine Onyx Black ink.  I die cut a panel from this using an MFT Die-namics Stitched Rectangle.  I mounted this on 3D foam with the sentiment from the same set stamped vertically alongside it.

Anne

I have used Distress Inks to get a wintry look to my landscape:  Barn Door, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Squeezed Lemonade.  Sounds yummy doesn't it!  The stamps are from several of Jenny Mayes' Hobby Art Scene-Its.

As always, please visit the DTs personal blogs where there are inevitably more examples to give you extra inspiration... and they like comments too! 

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An InLinkz Link-up

ShowCASe Week 225

Week 225's

Metal ShowCASe

It was interesting to see all the different ways METAL was added to your submissions for Week 225. Choosing a the ShowCASed items was fun... thank you everyone who took part!

Without further ado here are our choices.

Nessa

The heart shaped paper clips are the perfect touch for this terrific WOW wedding card.

Karen

Karen added just  touch of metal with the two eyelets, but what a fabulous CAS design!

Heather

Heather's design is perfect for this showy metal embellishment.

Ladies, please take your ShowCASe badge from the page at the top of the blog, which we hope you will display with pride.

Tomorrow is the start of another Colour challenge, so do join us then!

Lucky Dip Week 226

May is another 5 Saturday month and so once more we have a treat for you.
A Guest Designer
We are lucky enough to have Rebecca (Melly Moo) to join us this week.
She contributes regularly to our challenges and I know that you are all inspired by her fabulous work.
Welcome Rebecca!

Our Lucky Dip theme is
2 or 4 Legs.
Here's what the team has come up with!

Rebecca
  

Details of how Rebecca made this are on  her blog, do pop over and pay her a friendly visit!

Anne

My two legs are busy getting legless!  I've coloured a favourite Art Impressions stamp with watercolour pencils on textured card, with some added paper piecing.  The sentiment is a Katy Sue Wine Buffs stamp.
When I was assembling my card I got a mark on the image - tiny wine coloured sequins came to the rescue!
Chrissie

The stamping on this is in fact deep brown, but looks almost  black in this picture. The fox and his matching die are from Clearly Besotted, as is the sentiment, all stamped with Ranger Java Bean dye ink.

The cloud embossing is from Stampin' Up and the tree from MFT. The panels were cut with Simon Says Stamp stitched squares and rectangles.

Sarah

Looking at these cuties, they don't appear to have legs but
I've just googled penguins and legs and apparently they do have very short ones!

Card Recipe:

Sheena Douglass: Falling Snow Embossing folder

Mama Elephant: Arctic Penguins

Clearly Besotted: Signature Christmas

Distress inks in Tumbled Glass & Broken China

Anita

I die cut a circle from white cardstock and trimmed off the edges so it would sit in the corner, and then stamped the sentiment from Clearly Besotted's 'Be Merry' set.  The sentiment was masked before spreading embossing paste through a Tim Holtz 'Speckles' stencil.  The reindeer was stamped and die cut using Clearly Besotted's 'In Stitches - Christmas' stamp and die set, then popped up on 3D foam.

It looks like Christmas is coming to Less is More with the last two cards... there's nothing quite like being prepared!

Please do visit the DT's personal blogs... there is always a little extra inspiration to be found there!

Join us with this  fun challenge and don't forget that creatures are not the only things with legs!

***

An InLinkz Link-up

ShowCASe Week 224

It's ShowCASe time again, this time from our 

Hello Sunshine Challenge

Week 224

It's our pleasure to present you with three fabulous cards from amongst a super selection of submissions, all guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

Linda

Lots of lovely white space and terrific use of the stencil!

Julie

Wonderful shine and fabulous texture...to say nothing of a fab design!

Birgit

Another beautiful scene created in her impeccable style! 

We hope you'll take the SHOWCASE  badge from the page at the top to add to your blogs!

Another challenge approaches so do join us tomorrow at 8am BST for more fun!

Week 225 Recipe

First of all we have some really good news!

Following her Guest appearances over the last few weeks whilst I have been away, Anita has enjoyed herself so much, that she has agreed to stay on as a permanent member of the Design Team here at "Less is More" and we couldn't be more delighted!

I know how much we all appreciate her input and inspiration, to say nothing of her uplifting  comments to every participant in our challenges, so DO join me in giving her a huge, huge welcome on board. I know how much you all enjoy seeing her creations each week!

Do please visit her to add your congratulations!

Now onto this week's recipe which is to 

Use some Metal

You could use charms, brads, eyelets, photo anchors, wire, paper clips, metal embellishments or any of the ideas supplied by the DT. There are also lots of dies which are reputed to cut metal, so let's see what you can come up with!

Here are our cards to give you a few ideas!

Anita

I really struggle with masculine cards so I'm really pleased with this one.  On a strip of dark grey cardstock I used translucent embossing paste through a metal effect stencil by Dutch Doobadoo.  Once dry I added a hammer charm/brad (from my stash) to some co-ordinating grosgrain ribbon and wrapped this around, securing on the back.  This was then mounted on a strip of lighter grey cardstock and a simple sentiment was stamped to finish, this from Sentiment Sampler by Paper Smooches.

Anne

Stampin' Up Fritillary, stamped through an aperture with a space left for one wing.  Coloured with Inktense pencils, thin metal wire antennae threaded through tiny holes and secured at the back with tape.  Hobby Art sentiment.

Chrissie

This is simply a beautiful diamanté buckle threaded onto some grosgrain ribbon, which is in turn is mounted on a scored panel and accompanied by a die cut Congratulations sentiment. As ever, I added some double sided tape to the back of the card before cutting the word so that once cut, all I had to do was peel and press the sentiment in place. The simplicity of this design really pleases me!

Sarah

Card Recipe: Tin Can die-cut butterfly using Clearly Besotted Butterfly standalone duo I've coloured the non-red side with some permanent markers  Uniko Studio: Sentiment from Simply Said birthday (heat-embossed with WOW metallic silver sparkle EP) Vellum die-cut leaves, silver glitter card strip with gems  & silver pearls for a bit of glam
We're sure you'll come up with some cracking designs and we can't wait to see them! PLEASE  remember to keep your cards CLEAN AND SIMPLE with lots of WHITE SPACE! ***

An InLinkz Link-up

ShowCASe Week 223

I enjoyed looking through all the water challenge submissions after my return from my holiday on the water... the Danube to be precise!

What lovely cards there were too and here are our

 ShowCASe choices.

Anja

What cute narwhals in this fabulous bubbly water.

Sarah G

Smiley goldfish in terrific swirly water.

Linda

What terrific colouring of these fab frogs, with really effective water.

These are all wonderful examples of CAS one layer cards...simply superb.
Thanks everyone!
DO take the showcase badge from the page at the top... and many congratulations!

Another challenge will begin tomorrow morning at 8am so do join us then!