Less is More 91

It's a rainy Halloween in Northwest Washington.  We're quite used to trick-or-treating in the rain around these parts!  I found a little bit of time the other night to make a couple of cards for Less is More 91, which is a sketch challenge from Chrissie.

For the first card I stamped a cheap Studio G stamp onto PTI rustic white cardstock and a piece of patterned paper from my scrap box.  I paper pieced the leaves and cut the squares out before mounting them on a rustic white card base.  It was a little blah, so I added some random bling.  Unusual for me, but I quite like the results.  The sentiment is from PTI lovely layers; I've used it quite a lot.

I rotated the sketch for my second card.  I embossed Hero Arts woodland scene in clear before sponging over the top with blues and purples.  I cut the scene into three divisions and mounted them on blue cardstock.  The sentiment is from Penny Black.

Our thoughts are with all those along the Eastern Seaboard who are dealing with the aftermath of Sandy.

Thanks for your visit today.

Ann

PDC 154 and Less is More 90

Well! It's been a while.

I wanted to play along with the third anniversary challenge at Play Date Cafe.  The color combo was tricky and I had a hard time pinpointing the colors of flame, grape, and mulberry.  I found a few that worked for me and used my favorite SU French foliage leaf.  Again.  I know!  I love this leaf.

This is also my entry for Less is More 90, with the theme of autumn.  I stamped a background of leaves across the main panel.  I really like the unexpected pop of purple in the leaves.  I hope it's not too busy for Less is More.  Fingers crossed. :)  Also, my white space is not white.  I rarely use a colored card base, but I like it on this card.

Thanks for dropping in.  I'm slowly working on getting caught up on my commenting.  Life has been crazy.

Ann

Color Inspiration:

Thinking of You

Last night before bed I made a fast one-layer card for this week's Dynamic Duos and CASology challenges.  It was simple to combine orange and green with leaves to make a quick fall card.  I masked a panel and stamped my favorite leaf from SU French Foliage, using the rock and roll technique to add a bit of green along the leaf edges. This was a five-minute card, which doesn't happen very often for me. :)

I also decided to share one last Less is More card using silver that I didn't post yesterday.  I hadn't decided if I liked it or not, but this morning I decided that I do! :)  I punched flowers out of a shimmery silver paper to create a Christmas wreath.  I've seen a lot of wreaths made out of punched shapes lately, and I wanted to give it a try.  I tried it with a sentiment, too, but prefer it without.

Yesterday morning while tromping about in the woods with my dog, I was surprised by this lovely owl as it swooped down right in front of us.  It drifted up into a tree where it stayed long enough for some pictures.

Thanks for your visit today.

Ann

Inspiration:

Less is More: Silver

The challenge at Less is More is to use silver.  Saturday night I made several Christmas cards, but am just now getting around to posting them.  For my cards, I chose to I emboss in silver on black cardstock.  I had several sheets of beautiful, heavy silver cardstock and this was the perfect opportunity to use it.

I'm partial to the first two cards with the large tree images in silver.  I left a wide silver mat around the edges and stamped my sentiment on the inside.  I felt a sentiment on the outside would detract from the beauty and simplicity of the images.

Thanks for visiting.

Ann

One-Layer Wednesday 108

The one-layer Wednesday challenge at Simplicity is to use one stamp to make two cards, attempting to get a different look on each card.  I used a beautiful Penny Black stamp called day-dreams that I've had and have never used.  I rarely color, but I pulled out my Prismacolor pencils that I've had for about seventeen years and gave it a go. 

My first card didn't photograph well.  I used bright, cheerful colors on white cardstock.  Normally I would have placed a strip of patterned paper along the bottom, but since this is a one-layer card I masked and sponged.  I felt it needed that color at the bottom to ground the image and balance the color in the flowers.   I'm thinking of adding a bit of black and white twine along the top edge of the masked area.

For my second card I tried to achieve a softer look.  I stamped the image in brown on kraft, colored the flowers, and sponged a little white ink around the edges.  This card is most definitely a simplified CASE of this beautiful card by Sylvia B.  

I decided to go for a third look and masked a rectangle in the center before sponging distress ink.  I flicked some water on the sponged area, and if I were to remake this card I probably wouldn't do it again.  I colored the image with my pencils and added a sentiment below. 

I was glad to get some card-making in last night and stayed up much too late, but I sure had fun.  I also made several cards in silver for Less is More, which I'll be posting later.

Thanks for visiting!

Ann

Less is More 87

Lucky Dip week at Less is More has us making love and marriage-themed cards.  I don't have much in the way of wedding stamps, so I went through my stamps looking for general stamps that I thought I could use for a wedding card.  That was kind of a fun exercise in and of itself. 

One of the sets I pulled out was PTI lovely layers.  I was thinking of going with a classic black and white color scheme and  decided to use the lovely layers dies instead of the stamps themselves.  I pulled out scraps from my scrap bin and experimented with different combinations.  I ended up layering black, silver, and vellum and finishing it off with a bit of bling.

I wanted to keep the finished card clean and simple for the challenge, but it looked too plain just adhered to a card base.  I cut a circle from another piece of cardstock and popped it up on foam tape to act as a frame.  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks for visiting!

Ann