Less is More #398 - one layer and spots

It's absolutely ages since I joined in with many of the challenges I used to play in (when I had more time), and one of those is Less is More.

I have a big Really Useful Box, stuffed full of unused items such as stamps, dies and stencils (or NBUS as Darnell would say). Some are to be used for my Snippets Playground challenge samples, and some are items I either bought just for me, or have been sent by lovely friends.

This card is a mixture, the stamp set is a one off that I fell in love with and bought last year - there was only one in stock, and it doesn't seem to be available here in the UK right now. However, the stencil has a duplicate in the Toy Box and that will be on offer, sometime fairly soon.

So - the theme is one layer over at Less is More #398 - and you also have to include spots. This is my offering:

I used:

- 6" x 6" white card blank (in fairness, Hobbycraft's card blanks are a teensy bit smaller even though they quite cheekily sell them as 6" x 6" (the envelopes are 6" x 6" though) and I usually trim them down slightly to 5.75" x 5.75" - as I did in this case

- the stamp set I used is such a fun one - it's by Your Next Stamps and is called 'One in a Chameleon'. Really great images and also some very cheesy sentiments as well. Also I especially like that the images lines are lovely and thick, which makes them perfect for masking

- stamped the chameleon and one of the flowers onto a piece of Woodware Magi-film, using Ranger Archival ink (wasn't sure whether Memento would possibly smear when I was fussy cutting the images so played safe) - and then spent ages carefully fussy cutting out the two masks

- then stamped the chameleon and the flower onto the card front, using the Misti of course

- popped the masks onto the images on the card front and then adhered the stencil in place using some low tack tape before stencilling the green spots using an Altenew 'Feeling Dotty' stencil, SU's 'Wild Wasabi' ink pad and a Clarity stencil brush

- removed the stencil and the two little masks then coloured in the flower and the chameleon using Whispers brush pens

- then added the two sentiments (using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink) with the help of the Misti and some clear acetate with grid lines on for the initial alignment - and naturally also did a check before 'going for it'!

- final touch, a coating of Glossy Accents on the eyes - and I also checked that the Glossy Accents wouldn't react with the pupil of the chameleon by trying it on a snippet of card first - me not always as daft as me looks!

Finished! As I said, this is such a fun set of stamps and it's ages since I did any masking so am quietly pleased with the result. I did Google to look for ideas to colour in the chameleon and came across some images where folk had used the colours of the rainbow - which I admit I unashamedly followed and then I thought I'd do the same when colouring the flower). And I do love his little 'two-fingered salute ☺

It also struck me that, as it's a celebration of World/Gay Pride at the moment, it's quite appropriate.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #351

Time for another new challenge fortnight in the Snippets Playground. Am writing this on the day before the challenge goes live - and it's damp and windy here. Let's hope we haven't had our Summer already - we've had some glorious days recently, at least the children were off school on holiday to make the most of it.

First of all an apology, I might have rectified things by the time this publishes, but with one thing and another I just haven't managed to keep up with commenting on entries for the challenge that just closed. I'll be there ASAP I promise!

And here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of green card for the 'frame'

- a snippet of white card for the image panel (some challenges I tend to use just a couple of larger snippets -  depending on what the prize is and whether it lends itself to a variety of smaller snippets or not). A snippet is still a snippet!

- stamped the rockery onto the white panel, using a stamp from the fairly new Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- then used one of the re-usable masks to cover the rockery before using the lizzy stamp to stamp the flowers and foliage. The masks made by Clarity are brilliant, wish more companies did that

- coloured the whole image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending fluid

- only then did I trim the panel down into a square before adding the sentiment using a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Messages' set of sentiment stamps and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink (and the Misti of course!). The set of sentiment stamps is dated 2007 - and sadly no longer available (I did try!)

- then trimmed the snippet of green card (chosen so I could match some of the foliage to it) to just slightly larger than the image panel

- glued both panels onto the card front - all done!

As so often happens - the colours are so much more vivid in real life - especially the bright (almost neon) orange, sigh.

I love Clarity stamps and this set is so lovely to stamp as well as colour. It came with the Clarity perspex mounts (one for each of the two stamps) - which I did use - but the Misti or any perspex block would have worked just as well. Plus, the mounts/handles take up a lot of extra storage space - the stamps are the usual clear cling material (great quality and very well made I should add!) and really I think that Clarity could save work, postage and costs by selling their stamps without accompanying mounts - just my opinion of course. Their products are still fabulous!

And of course, the prize this fortnight is this:

A Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set. Now, I do of course also have the two mounts which came with the stamp set, as shown in the photo, and they're also part of the prize. But, if you win and are happy not to have them sent then that's just fine. It's easier and cheaper postage for me (the difference between a large letter and a small parcel) - but as they came with the stamps it's only fair to give you the option. I think my own ones will end up in the 'donate or throw out' pile of stuff when I do my intended blitz of the craft room!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 11th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone ☺

And finally, a few photos of Dudley for your enjoyment taken just minutes apart the day after his 2nd part of being groomed (so only taken on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday. They do show how he can look so puppy-like one minute - and rather elegant the next! Captions as dictated by Dudley:

Aw come on Daddy. I'm doing my 'please come and play' pose here!

Just to prove that there's still a lot of peach on my ears and down my back (aka saddle). And I'm trying the 'look a bit mournful' approach now to see if anyone will play

Me - being a real Havanese and doing my 'regal' look! Puppy one minute and a real 'poser' the next. And I'm so good when Mama fixes my top knot - I lie very still with my chin on my paws now and rarely move during the whole process. To be honest, it makes life much easier to get it over and done with rather than putting up a fight - but that's just between us!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me -

Less is More Challenge #363 - OLC Cute

First of all, it appears that Blogger has been fixed and embedded comments (the default setting) is working fine again without those long delays. I've reverted back to that rather than the pop up box which I didn't find as good in some ways - mainly embedded comments gives me, as well as others, the option to reply to comments within the comment facility. I've done this because I often find follow-on comments and don't want to stop that happening but will keep an eye on things just in case I need to flip back to a pop-up.

How happy I am that Less is More has switched to being a fortnightly challenge - I really do need thinking time for challenges, plus I generally only post on here a couple of times a week (possibly three if necessary) and of course one of those is always taken up with the Snippets Playground.

So, this fortnight's theme over at Less is More is the dreaded one layer plus 'Cute'. And this is my entry:

I used:

- 4" x 5.5" card blank, made using Strathmore Mixed Media Vellum Surface 300gsm paper (which of course gives you a nice sturdy card to work on)

- the Misti and a little penguin from the Jane's Doodles 'Winter Wishes' stamp set plus a sentiment from the Inkylicious 'Seasons Greetings' stamp set

- I measured out the card area using the Misti graph paper to get exactly the placement I wanted and then put the stamps in place and picked them up on the Misti lid

- did a practice run on the graph paper then put the card blank in place and stamped the image and sentiment at the same time. I was lucky that both stamps are exactly the same thickness despite being different brands - mostly it does work out OK but now and then the stamps will differ in thickness (ask me how I know this!)

- I used Ranger 'Black Archival' ink to stamp BTW - it's perfect for water based colouring mediums (I hear there's now a 'hybrid' ink pad made by MFT so that's something I aim to add into an on line order sometimes soon)

- so now I had one card with the outline penguin and sentiment - all ready to roll - so removed the card from the Misti

- the next step was to pop a Post-It note over the penguin which was stamped on the grid paper and then stamp the penguin again (there's a bit about the Post-It notes below this 'I used' bit of my blog post

- then fussy cut around the penguin and placed it on top of the penguin on the card as a mask

- out came the Ziggies and I did a very rough background using a couple of shades of blue and a water brush - somehow, the shape evolved into a bit of a domed shaker, not that I set out to do that!

- added a touch of grey/blue shadow underneath the penguin and quickly dried it using the heat gun

- then coloured the little penguin, again using my Ziggies

- final touch is 'White Opal' Liquid Pearls, dotted hither and thither to depict snow

One thing I learned whilst making this card is to do the 'flick to flatten' technique to get rid of any 'Hershey pointed tips' on the white dots of Liquid Pearls.

Another thing is those Post-It notes I mentioned. They're sticky all over the back (apart from a strip which is left clear at one edge with rounded corners to make removal and separating them easier). Jennifer McGuire uses them a LOT for masking and I'd been hunting on line for them in the UK for ages. I finally found some on Amazon UK a few weeks ago - hooray! They're known as 'Super Sticky Full Adhesive' and I bought the 50.8mm size. I instantly lost a few pads to my 'in-house critic'as for normal use they're much better than the single stripe of sticky style. Then, when working on this card, I found that 2" x 2" or so size could be cutting it a bit fine for bigger images - so I've just ordered more in 76mm x76mm size which is approx. 3" x 3" of course - link to Amazon UK is HERE. I've used various ways of masking images and this seems to be the cheapest and (for me) most accurate. My attempts at using masking fluid weren't as successful for small chaps like this penguin :)

But, a little word of slight warning. I almost came a cropper when doing the blue Ziggie background using a waterbrush! The colour from the bright pink Post-It made a bid for freedom - I had to make sure I worked towards the mask rather than away from it and Little Master Penguin does have a faint pink 'halo' in parts! Having said that, I was sloshing a fair amount of water around and, for the most part, will be using the Post-Its to create layers of stamped images. I do have some masking film which I'm sooo mean with as it cost a lot of money at the time!

And finally, just to finish off this marathon post, I was working away in the craft room ready to add the little white Liquid Pearls dots and Len glanced in on his way to the bathroom. There was a shout of 'Good grief, that's like a whole chemist's shop you've got there on your desk. And I dread to think what else is hidden in those cupboards!' Oooopsie:

I really can't imagine what he means, a girl needs choices, snigger 😀