Week 40

Remember, remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot!

In the UK, it is traditionally on 'firework night' that the 'Gunpowder plot' of 1605 is commemorated. It was then that Guy Fawkes was arrested for laying explosives under the House of Lords.

Our first week of the month is another Colour challenge and redolent of bonfire flames we have chosen

Red and Orange

We are sponsored again this month by 

Amberink

Chrissie

My first card for this week's challenge uses a couple of Anita's stamps... some of the first ones I ever acquired. They are similar in design, but differ in size and texture, one being solid and the other simply lines. The orange flowers were inked with  Scattered Straw Distress ink with a little Wild Honey added around the edges. The stamp was lightly spritzed with water before stamping. The red ones were stamped with Barn Door and Fired Brick DIs. I found a little flower centre in an old box of SEE Ds, which I used to fill in the centre of the flowers. The large open flowers were stamped with Fired Brick ink.
The sentiment tag and the border are from Spellbinder's dies.

I made this card from one of Arielle's images from the Wax Fruit Company. I just love her images. It's a quarter of a gerbera which I flipped and rotated to make a full flower image. It's coloured with Copics.
The sentiment is from Hero Arts.
As Mandi is off enjoying herself on the Queen Mary, I thought I'd pop in an extra one this week. I made this a few weeks ago for a friend.

I'm sorry that this is such a rubbish picture ... I can't even enhance it very well in Picasa.

Once more, I used  Distress inks. I swiped pieces of card with them before cutting out the butterflies with my SU embosslits folder. I double mounted the butterflies and then added a little Glamour Dust to each of the smaller butterflies. The sentiment was computer generated but I can't think what font I used... I'll add it later if I can find it!

Let's see lots of vivid reds and oranges this week, but remember that white space and minimal layering too!

Have a great week!

Week 39 Lucky Dip - Stars

This month once more we have 5 Saturdays and so we have another Guest Designer joining us for our Lucky Dip week. Her work is known and admired by us all and we are delighted that 

Vicky

has agreed to be our Star Guest this month!

She gives so much inspiration to her fellow LIMettes and anyone else who reads her blog for that matter and we are delighted that she could join us.

As Vicky is such a star, it gave us the inspiration for our challenge for this week!

It is...

*STARS*

Details of how Vicky made these cards can be found on her blog here

Chrissie

For my first card I decided to do a Split Negative card. 

For this I stamped one image in Versamark onto a black background which I then embossed with Snowflake Tinsel embossing powder. I stamped another image onto a white background and embossed that with Black Twinkle embossing powder. After trimming both images I then cut them in half vertically and put half of each image with its negative. As you can see, the other halves don't get wasted, you put those together to make another card. The stamp I believe is Hero Arts.

My next card uses my favourite emboss resist technique and I had fun getting inky with this Artemio star.

I stamped it with Versamark and clear embossed it, then sponged ink with a dauber in Bashful Blue and Night of Navy. I over stamped a few SU Splodges and embossed them with Snowflake Tinsel embossing powder.

The border is from a Martha Stewart punch and a small star charm is suspended from a double ribbon. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Mandi

It's great having the wonderful Vicky with us today, you all know how fabulous she is!

 For my card I Printed the sentiment from the computer using Century Gothis font. Then stamped the tree from a small Kanban set. It's a FAB little collection of trees.
The star is a Stampin' Up punch, triple embossed to give that glorious glossy look!

We talk about our inspiration....

here's mine........

MY TOES all ready for my hols LOL

Now I couldn't leave you without a bit of 'Mandi Bling' 

I am in total holiday mode now. My ever increasing list is almost ticked off. I've neglected you all this week...I'm SO sorry.

I shall not be on a cruise this week... but I will be at the NEC on THURSDAY!

I shall carry my "Less is More" tote bag (with Chrissie written on it) and if anyone is going on Thursday, DO please stop to say HI!

If any LIMette knows she will be there that day and would like to say hello... if you email me prior to the day, I can send you my mobile number.

I wonder what goodies are to be had this time!!
Have a great week everyone!

ShowCASe - Cocktails

 Here's our ShowCASe chosen  from those inventive LIMettes who ventured a card for this tricky challenge. 

We loved the ingenuity of some entries and enjoyed looking at them all.

As ever it was difficult to choose but here are this week's cards.

Tara #17

Brilliant, this really made us smile!

Jenny #67

Wonderful effect on the glasses!

Lisa #92

A great interpretation of her inspiration cocktail picture.

These three highlight the fact that our challenge could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Even if the subject of the challenge may seem difficult at first, there's always a way to get around it if you can think outside the box!

Great work ladies, please display our Showcase banner on your blogs. You can find it on the badge page at the top of our blog.

Week 38

We seem to have stumped a few people with our challenge last week as the submissions were the fewest we've seen to any of our challenges, although there were some stunning entries. 

This week we have a really easy recipe which is simply

POLKA DOTS

As long as your design is Clean and Simple, has some white space (or its equivalent) and polka dots in evidence somewhere, it will be perfect for this challenge.

Mandi

This week I did an A5 card [A4 folded] Firstly I printed the sentiment,I  knew roughly where I wanted it placed as I print sentiments often and save lots of different positions.
The vases are PTI Gracious Vases. I LOVE this set, it's a popular one and used to perfection by many.
The polka dot circle is printed from Pink Petticoat
The vases are stamped in Versamark 'Turquiose' and 'Boysenberry' The central black vase is cut out and mounted onto 3d foam. The flower stems I thought matched the polka dots!
The 'shelf' is cut from Stampin Up Top Note die.

For Stampin' Up products please contact me here.

Chrissie

For this card I stamped a large Waltzing Mouse polka dot stamp onto some hammered card. I didn't want a completely covered texture, so the uneven surface of the card worked perfectly for this.

I then cut the edges of the stamped strip with the scalloped cutting blade on my Woodware trimmer and chopped it up into triangles.

The trunks of the trees were stamped with a sentiment stamp from SU and the greeting is from SU Contempo Christmas. I'm working on some more similar Christmas trees but using masking techniques instead and different background stamps for the various layers of the trees, It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Fewer cards from us this week, so let's see lots of inspiration from all our wonderful LIMettes!

Week 37

Another week and another challenge, the theme for which is
COCKTAIL
You may interpret this however you wish... your favourite tipple, the colours of a cocktail or a simply cocktail of colours. Let your imagination run with this one, it will be interesting to see how imaginative you can be.
Here is a little fun... you can follow the link to see what cocktail you are... it's interesting to see that both of us are 'poised' ladies in the same proportions what's more!

Chrissie

You Are Made Of Ambition, Poise, and Giddiness

3 parts Ambition 2 parts Poise 1 part Giddiness And a Splash of Genius Limit yourself to one serving. This cocktail is strong!

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

Mandi

You Are Made Of Elegance, Poise, and Understanding

3 parts Elegance 2 parts Poise 1 part Understanding And a Splash of Glamour Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

Chrissie
I have done a couple of different things with this challenge. Firstly I have the wonderful Penny Black stamp which Mandi gave me... I love these girls.

The sentiment, which reads, 'Honey, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.' is computer generated in what else but Cocktail and Cocktail Bubbly fonts.
The image was coloured with Copics.

This one takes a little lateral thought... and you can obviously see a cock('s)-tail!
We did ask you to be inventive!

Mandi

Firstly, I am so sorry I didn't visit many of the later entries.
 This was due to my work load, I'm in the process of completeing a large wedding order.

Isn't Chrissie imaginative, I love her style, I know you all do too! Mine are more predictable, but I hope you like them.



This stamp is Creative Expressions, I've had it yonks, used it loads! The 'cocktail' drink I did using Promarkers. I wasn't having any success at first, they kept bleeding into each other, even when masking. So I cut them as strips, stuck them onto a piece of paper and then over stamped again with the glass, then cut out and stuck on! Cheating I guess but the 'Mandi way' lol. Finished off by coating with glossy accents, colouring the stem in black and also adding the 3 gems to finish,

For my second card I took inspiration from this picture.
I do love a cocktail. They conjure up a picture of tropical places,  bursting with a plethora of vibrantly colourful flowers. Nothing to do with the alcohol content of course ...cough cough!

Stampes used, Stampin Up flower from the Growing Green set, Stampendous Daisy flower, and the other is a triple poppy design, no idea whose it is! Leaves are a mix od Crealies dies. The sentiment is my newly acquired Papertrey Ink 

Yes, it's in your face, but, I like it!! Says a lot for me ha ha

Enjoy concocting your 'cocktails' maybe even have a real one!

Showcase Week 35

Our job to choose our favourites seems to get harder week by week.

You are certainly getting the "Less is More" bug and also seem to be enjoying it, which is great!

These are our showCASe choices for Week 35
Colour of your Eyes

Ann

Margaret

Laurie

Tania

Benzi

Thank you ladies, please grab your banner from the page at the top.


See you here Saturday for the new challenge

Week 36

We enjoyed your cards last week, as always, but also great to see lots of our
LIMettes lovely eyes that eagerly await our post Saturday morning!
It must be said that this was our least popular week, let's hope this one is more to your liking!

Being the second week of the month it is One Layer

An easy one for you it's

The ♥ can be singular, multiple, any colour, but, MUST be a one layer card, with no additional layers stuck on, apart from the odd embellishment or ribbon!

Mandi

For my card I folded a piece of A4 paper and hand drew half  a heart, which I cut out. Opening the paper to reveal a full heart I placed it over the folded 6x6 card and secured with some sticky bits from a Post it note. Using a few retired SU stamps and an Anita's daisy stamp  I randomly stamped within the heart aperture.
Using these SU colours
Basic Black, [new]Pool Party, [new] Calypso Coral and Melon Mambo.
The little black gems were added to finish.

For Stampin Up products please contact me via here
 I am placing an order this weekend. There's still one place left on one of my Stampers 6 Clubs.
By joining you get a FREE catalogue and get to be hostess for one of the 6 months, which means a spend of  at least £25......how fabulous!
If you don't want the commitment of a club and just want to order when you like please feel free to let me know. Catalogues are only £4.00 including postage to your door!
UK residents only please

Chrissie

At first glance you would say that this was decidedly not a ONE LAYER CARD, but in fact there is a hole in the front of the card and the image is attached to a piece of acetate inside....

so it kind of IS a One Layer Card after all.

 You may be able to see it more clearly here.

The Heart is SU, the flower Inkylicious and the sentiment is Studio G.

This next card is one of my first using kraft cardstock, in this case Crumb cake from SU. I masked a section, then inked it with SU Whisper White, using a sponge dauber.

The image which I stamped in Versafine is a retired one from SU which I bought from the US via eBay. The copics reacted oddly on top of the ink and so I added some Glossy Accents to perk the colour up slightly. The sentiment is a recently rediscovered one from MSE.

Do show us your one layer cards, you're getting so good at them these days and as long as there is at least one heart in evidence, plus some white space, we'll be delighted.

Week 35

Here we are again and it's time for another COLOUR challenge.

This week we have chosen

THE COLOUR OF YOUR EYES

You don't necessarily have to have an exact match, but if your eyes are blue, then any shade of blue will be fine, likewise with brown, grey, green etc.. (We aren't as mean as all that!)

However, the colour you choose should be the predominant colour on your card... we don't want to see just a hint of it.

Here are some canvas bags we made.Watch out for these walking around craft shows in the future! We could fit quite a few goodies in these babies!
Today is apparently World Card Making Day,
 so let's show the world what you can do!
Now for our cards

Chrissie

This week I've been messing around with this leaf stamp from Paper Artsy. Many of you have seen the robin, chicken and penguin on my blog that I have made this week and so as my eyes are a bluish colour, here is a little bluebird! The branch is from a SU punch and the sentiment is computer generated in Jenna Sue font.

This one again uses Distress inks. The base layer is swiped with Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood and Chipped Sapphire, the middle layer is embossed with a Crafts Concepts folder and the Paper Artsy Image is stamped using Chipped Sapphire. The sentiment is from SU's So Happy For You set. This is stamped with Midnight Blue Stazon as I really don't think that Distress Inks stamp precisely enough for sentiments.
I actually think that my eyes are more like the Weathered Wood colour rather than any of the others, but I can dream!

Mandi

Well I have green eyes! I made my card, showed my Mum and she said, lovely but your eyes aren't that colour! ha ha I made her look in the bright sun and she said OH, they are...sort of!
So there you go!

This fabulous motif stamp is Viva Decor, Baroque Set. I'd never heard of this set until our lovely LIMette Viv used it here.
I LOVE it! [I got mine on good ol' eBay]
I used this shape as I felt it replicated the shape of the eye.As the stamp is clear one and doesn't take dye ink overly well. I stamped with a couple of Versamark ink pads first Sage and Bamboo, then inked with Stampin up Pear Pizazz to finish. It gives for a slightly mottled effect.
 The sentiment, I printed first from the computer in Young Love font. I played around for ages on placement. So have scraps of this design everywhere! Of course, my obligatory bling in the centre! Oh to have eyes the colour of the gem!

*** Only ONE place left ***
UK residents only please

£25 per month spend [plus £2.50 postage] for 6 months

I need 4 members to start the club October 1st [Today, but, order to be placed by 10th of this month]  Just a reminder... you get a FREE BRAND NEW catalogue, you become a virtual hostess for one of the 6 months and get to choose goods to the value of
AT LEAST £25.00.

Stampin Up products are fabulous, high quality, with matching card stock and inks, also some ribbons, buttons, etc.

You really will not be disappointed. 

I can also promise you service to match!
Contact me Mandi overmoores@aol.com or 07921 524090
or via here 
*** Only ONE place left ***

WEEK 34

Well what a Week!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

You girls certainly know how to keep us busy and what a TREMENDOUS effort on the part of SO many LIMettes.

It was almost with tongue in cheek that we suggested that we try for 1000 submissions in one week, but you very nearly did it, congratulations everyone! We are absolutely delighted.

Our eyes are now rectangular and our fingers are flat!

We visited everyone, but we couldn't leave comments for all... there were quite a few submissions with Word Verification still in place and this takes so much extra time, which this week we didn't have!

 So PLEASE TURN OFF WORD VERIFICATION

After making SO many comments, it would have been wonderful to receive a few more on our own personal blogs, but there are still some problems on accessing Chrissie's blog we understand.

** If you can't leave Chrissie a comment, maybe you would try accessing her blog through a different browser. Tara couldn't via Firefox, but, could via Internet Explorer. Mandi uses Safari and that works fine ** Thank you

Mandi says Failing all else, leave it on here, LIM and I will copy it to Chrissie's blog

We seem to have had little time for our sample cards this week and here we are back with a 

SKETCH

Chrissie

This is a digi image from A Day for Daisies.(I really got into my pears the other week), which I printed and masked before adding the stamping from three Paper Artsy stamps.

The pears are coloured with Promarkers and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up stamped with Memento ink in London Fog.

This one involves a little bit of simple recycling.
 It always seems such a waste to throw Christmas cards out after the celebrations are all over and so the ones I don't send for official recycling, I keep back for reuse on my cards.
There were five little robins in a row, I now have five little cards with a robin on each!
The corners were cut with my new Crop a Dile  Corner Chomper and the image mounted on some red backing with small pearls added to the corners. The sentiment is another from the same SU set as the first card.

Mandi

As the sentiment is printed on the computer I needed to do this on an A4 sheet first. I worked out the position using a scrap sheet. The font is Champignon. This is a 6" [15cm] square card. The square panel is about 8cm square. Once the sentiment was printed, it was scored using a score board, folded in half lengthways and 6cm was trimmed off, making a 15cm square card base.

 I cut the square and stamped the Anita's daisy flower randomly in Stampin Up Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive. I joined the daisies with lines and leaves by hand using a Stampin Up black marker. Finally I added the 6mm black gems to the centres of the 3 whole daisies. The panel is mounted on 3D foam.

I had a bit of a lesson from Chrissie, as to how to do inked backgrounds! [She is SO FAB at it, as you know]. Taking a sheet of smooth white cardstock roughly measuring 7cm square, I inked the background. [There was no need to mask an area as I was trimming to size later] Whilst this isn't perfect I thought it was 'OK' I used Stampin' Up ink pads Rich Razzlebury, Melon Mambo and Peach Parfait and made the effect using SU daubers. The process of the sentiment placement was easy as it's the same as above! This time the font is Dear Joe 1 M&S. I stamped the Hero Arts Palm Tree onto the left hand side of the panel. To finish I stamped over the square with Versamark and heat embossed it with clear powder. The panel is mounted on 3D foam.

*** Only ONE place left ***
UK residents only please

Can I give a last shout out for my Stampers 6 Club.

£25 per month spend [plus £2.50 postage] for 6 months

I need 4 members to start the club October 1st.  Just a reminder... you get a FREE BRAND NEW catalogue, you become a virtual hostess for one of the 6 months and get to choose goods to the value of
AT LEAST £25.00.

Stampin Up products are fabulous, high quality, with matching card stock and inks, also some ribbons, buttons, etc.

You really will not be disappointed. 

I can also promise you service to match!
Contact me Mandi overmoores@aol.com or 07921 524090
or via here 
*** Only ONE place left ***

We don't expect that there will be 1000 submissions this week, but we'd like to welcome back all those who joined us for the first time this last week and hope that you'll join us on a regular basis. We would love it if you could visit other LIMettes to leave a friendly comment.
Have a great week and thanks again.

Week 33 - 1000 Challenge - Anything CAS Goes

What wonderful doubles we saw last week, once more choosing our ShowCASe will be a difficult job, but watch this space for our choices later in the week.

Now we are going for the 1000 submissions.

so 

Anything CAS Goes
If you make more than one card for us, you will need to post them on your blog and submit them separately, for each card to count towards our target!
You are doing SO well, thank you all!

We hope that the scope of the challenge doesn't leave you wondering what to do... you could use any of our previous challenges as inspiration, CASE a card which has given you inspiration (as long as you credit the original crafter with the design), or just do your own thing.

You may enter as many times as you wish as long as each submission is with a different creation.

Let's go LIMettes, how many can we reach?

We may leave blanket comments to show that we have visited you, so we hope you'll excuse that on this occasion.

Mandi

To achieve perfect placement of coloured blocks, I placed scraps onto the square of card [13cm x 13cm] I then printed the sentiment on the computer, Cherish font.
I embossed the blocks with my Crafts Too embossing folder, keeping them in the same order as the finished card to achieve the following on design. The fabulous butterfly, I've had forever! One of my first purchases. It's from Creative Stamping, I doubt it's still in production.
The colours are Stampin' Up: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and the new Calypso Coral.
The butterfly was stamped onto a scrap piece of card, coloured and and I cut out the wings only. I curled them  for a 3D look. The body is stamped directly onto the card base, using a Stampmajig for perfect placement.

The second card is made in much the same way, but, the sentiment was stamped from an old SU set. 

the colours are from Stampin' Up again.

Pear Pizazz, Melon Mambo and another new one Island Indigo. I finished off with my favourite bling! 

Can I add that Chrissie and I show each other our cards, I showed her mine PRE bling! lol
I bought the rhinestone embellishment here.

For Stampin' Up products please feel free to contact me via here 

or overmoores@aol.com

Chrissie

Here is a really simple little card with a gorgeous digi image from A Day for Daisies, aren't these ducks just the cutest! I think it would be a prefect for anyone having triplets too, but you don't need one of those cards every day! It's a Stampin' Up sentiment.

This one is a simple little card using a Stampin' Up Delightful Decorations bauble stamp adapted to make a vase. I simply put some sticky tape across the bottom of the stamp before inking with Versamark, and then pulled it off before stamping. I embossed the image with Fine Detail Gold embossing powder. This was then punched out using the SU bauble punch and the bottom of the card cut off leaving a similar border as around the rest of the stamp.
The flower is from SU's Silhouette Sentiments and the sentiment from SU Happy Moments.
The border punch is Martha Stewart.