Less is More challenge #52

I've never entered a Less is More (LIM) challenge before as I never seem to be able to find the right balance between 'Simply Chic' and 'Too Simple'. However, I took the plunge this week and decided to enter.

This week's Less is More challenge was to follow this sketch. 

I had a Nikki stamp that I'd been wanting to try paper piecing on for a while now. The chair she's sitting in was crying out to be patterned so I stamped the image again onto the new 'Cheerful Treat' striped paper. I just paper pieced the chair and coloured the rest of the image with my SU markers and Promarkers. I cut the image out using a Nestability die and sponged the edges with Concord Crush ink.

To create the sketch required I used another piece of the striped paper and also added a sentiment and butterfly from the retired 'So Happy for You' set.

Boys Toys class update

I had a lot of fun at this week's Papercraft Session, despite a kettle malfunction leaving us all slightly parched. As well as the 'Rock Star' card I showed you in a previous post, we also made a punch art BBQ card for those Dads who like to do the cooking as long as it's outdoors ;D

Every part of the barbecue is made from Stampin' Up! punches and even the beer bottles are made using the Word Window punch. The clouds are made using the 'faux clouds technique', where I've punched out a shape using the scallop circle and used the negative image as a template to apply Craft ink in Whisper White using a sponge dauber.

The sentiment is from the Sale-a-Bration set 'So happy for you' and the 'dad' is stamped using the Just Perfect alphabet stamp set and that all important Stamp-a-ma-jig for perfect alignment.

I nearly forgot to say - see the embers flickering from the barbecue? That's actually the stems from one of the stamps in the Pocket Silhouettes stamp set! I used a Real Red marker to just ink up the parts I wanted to stamp. It's good to take a step back and look at your stamps sometimes in order to see what else they could be used for.

The MP3 gift card holder uses one of the sentiments from the Just Believe stamp set, which is one of my favourite sets from the current catalogue.

Here's a pic of the completed projects from the class.

Blissful Birthday

I've been a busy bunny today. As well as doing lots of planning for my first class (sneeky peek to follow later today), I made a birthday card for my Mother-in-Law using the Stampin' Up! stamp set 'Bliss'.

Bliss was one of the exclusive stamp sets that were available during Sale-A-Bration earlier this year. I really love the butterfly in this set as it's so easy to make it look like it's about to flutter away! The sentiment is from another SAB set, So Happy For You, and the frame surrounding the sentiment is from the amazing 'Baby Blossoms' set - which you can purchase from the Mini catalogue until the end of September.

What do you think of those colours? The aubergine is one of my favourite SU! shades, Elegant Eggplant. See how I've managed to make white to show up, even on such a dark colour?.. I'll let you into a secret - Whisper White Craft Inkpad from Stampin' Up! It's amazing stuff and it was the very first thing I bought when I discovered SU! products. I've also used Regal Rose and Rose Red cardstock.