Mwah!! X Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello there .....

Just let me fight my way through the pile of mail that's dropped through the letter box, not to mention all the flowers that have arrived this morning.  No wait a minute ..... I'm awake now ..... must have been dreaming (haha!)

Actually ....... I did get, not one, but two Valentine's this morning ..... lucky me!!!

One from hubby ...... thank you sweetheart!  And a rather nice surprise when one dropped through the letterbox all the way from the US, from my lovely blog buddy Darnell .....

Thank you so much hun ...... mwah! mwah! mwah!  I'm impressed that you managed to get it here on the actual day .......

So a lovely start to Valentine's Day 2015 for me ...... I hope yours is going the same way.

Here's the card I couldn't share with you the other day ........

Hubby's Valentine's card ....... all hand made with love, for the special man in my life! (It's CAS I know but I spent precious time on it!!)
Unlike mine ....... which was actually chosen by a work colleague!!!! Yes...... hubby confessed .... that he didn't go out and choose it himself!
At lunchtime yesterday, Jason announced to the office that he was popping into town to get his girlfriend a Valentines card ...... someone else in the office chirped up "get me one while you're going" ...... and hubby did the same!
So .....thank you Jason .... it's a lovely card.  And thank you darling ..... I love you too!   It's the thought that counts so I'm told!!!

Thanks for popping by today ...... have a love filled Valentines Day, and remember ....

Anyone can catch your eye ......

But it takes someone special

To capture your heart

xxx

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Craft Stamper ....... Take a technique

Good morning!

Happy Friday the 13th ...... you're not superstitious are you!  Fingers crossed, but everything's going OK this morning ........ lets hope I don't regret saying that!

It's the second Friday of the month so that means I have a little reminder for you of the latest Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge.
It's all about Take a Technique this month ...... Stencilling!  We want you to use a stencil in some way, somewhere on your project.  Don't forget to include some rubber stamping on there too!

I actually did a 2 for 1 thing last week ...... I needed a gift tag to go on a house warming gift and I used a stencil for my background on there so ...... ta dahhh!!  two jobs crossed off the old 'To Do' list with one little project! It's so nice when a plan comes together.

I used the Wendy Vecchi Brick Wall stencil for the background ...... first with a bit of white ink (I love the look of white on Kraft card, don't you!)  then I went back over the top in places with a touch of Grunge Paste to add a bit of texture.

The houses are from the Stampin Up set Holiday Home ..... and have been stamped in Versamark ink and embossed with a fine white powder

I did a bit of masking here and there to stamp the houses across the tag, and finished off by adding a single house using foam pads for dimension.

I found the perfect piece of ribbon in my stash which I attached across the bottom and you can just see I finished off the whole thing with a little bit of faux stitching, a piece of natural ribbon and of course a key!

For the back of the tag I added more of the brick wall using shades of Distress inks

And another of those cute little houses ...... stamped and embossed again, coloured using Distress ink and then cut out and attached to the tag

Here it is on the gift all ready to go last weekend ......

Don't worry ..... I was given permission to blog it by the recipients!!

Now it's over to you ...... remember there's two great prizes up for grabs.
The first is from this month's sponsor ...... the winner (chosen at random) will receive 2 stamp plates (winner's own choice) from the fabulous Paperbabe stamps.

The second prize is our Design Winner .... chosen by the DT!  They will get their winning project published in Craft Stamper magazine (oooh!) ...... be invited to do a Guest Spot for a future Blog Challenge (ooooh!) AND will also feature in their very own Winner's Profile Blog post (whoo hoo!!!)

Go on ... give it a go.  You have to be in it to win it!!  Check out all the rules and guidelines over n the Craft Stamper blog ...... and see more fabulous inspiration pieces from the rest of the DT today over on the blog.

Happy stamping ...... and stenciling!!

Thanks for popping by .... have a great Friday and enjoy the weekend!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Less is More is Four years old!!!

Happy Thursday evening folks ......

What a busy week ...... I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow ...... and it's Friday the 13th too (oh no!!)

Not sure if I've mentioned it but, it looks like we're moving .... again!!!! I seem to recall I did say I wasn't doing it again but hey ho! here we are.
This place just isn't big enough now that the whole family is back.  I could give up my craft room but where would I put all my stuff!!!!  No .... there's no other way around it ...... we need a bigger house!
If things go according to plan we're hoping to get the keys to the new place sometime mid March ..... so that means the next few weeks are going to be spent having a good old clear out ..... craft room included!!  Not looking forward to that!!!

Anyway .... I'm trying not to think too much about it all yet .... we haven't signed anything so anything could happen in the meantime. Plus I have a trip to the UK before then ..... there's loads of time!!
I have however started making lists ..... things to do - old house, things to do - new house, things to buy, things to get rid of.  You know me and my lists.  I have a list of all my lists!!!

One of the things on this weeks list was the Less is More Challenge ..... I missed it last week (sigh!)
It's rather a special week this week ...... because they're celebrating.  Less is More is 4 years old ...... whoo hoo!!!  And boy are they celebrating in style ....... lots of guests/sponsors and loads of fabulous inspiration.

So what's the theme then ..... well it's a Colour Challenge, and this time its ......

PINK and GREY

Nothing to do with that film that's coming out at the weekend  I'm sure!  

Here's the second card I've made .......... had a little panic when I suddenly realised that I couldn't actually blog the first one because a certain someone would see it before weekend (yes ...... hubby does actually read my blog!)  

(Ooops!  now you know that you're getting a Valentine's card darling!  No need to feel that you have to go out and buy one for me ..... honestly!)

Anyway, here it is .....

CAS ..... pink and grey!

The pretty little bouquet of roses is from a set of stamps from STAMPlorations, designed by the lovely Shirley Bampton  (The Bees Knees range) ..... my teamie from the Craft Stamper Blog Challenge.

I stamped the image using Grey Versafine ink and then added colour with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink, mixed with quite a bit of water.

I added the sentiment (from the same set) and used a paint brush to splash some of the pink ink around the image, before finishing off with a pretty satin bow.

I used more stamps from the set on the inside of the card too .......

along with more ink splashing .....

Congratulations Less is More on 4 years of challenges.  Thanks ladies for all your inspiration each week .... here's to the next 4 years!!!

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy your evening.

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Follow your Art .......

Happy Monday folks!

So .... another week begins ..... there's so much I want to get done this week! There's blog challenges to enter, DT stuff to finish, cards to make ...... and new stash to play with ...... where do I start!!!
Oh, I'm also hoping to get a little more done in my journal too ....... it's coming along!

Page 2 ....... using stuff that was out on my desk!

Fresco Finish paints for the background, along with texture paste through the brick wall stencil
A little bit of stamping here and there using Gorgeous Grunge from Stampin Up, and one of the brand new Limor Webber designs from IndigoBlu ..... Limor Circles

There's words on there from Wendy Vecchi and Tim Holtz .....

along with some torn book pages.

The main sentiment is from Stampendous ...... teamed with one of the recent stamps from Craft Stamper magazine

and I had to have some flowers on there somewhere ...... beautiful designs from Wendy Vecchi coloured with Spectrum Noir pencils.

Oh well .... I suppose its time I made a move .... there's all the boring stuff to do before I go in the old craft room ...... housework!!!!!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day, and have a great week!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx

Pretty little bows ....

Happy weekend folks!

And what a lovely weekend it is too ..... we've got blue skies and sunshine again.  It's still a bit chilly though!

We've had a lazy start today, I haven't done a thing!!! ...... nothing to do with the fact that it was late when we got in last night, and maybe we'd had just a little too much to drink ..........  OK, OK, who am I trying to kid ...... it has everything to do with that!  
I think it's safe to say Rich and Laura's beautiful new home was well and truly warmed!!

Anyway on to the subject of today's post ....... my entry into this week's Merry Monday Christmas card challenge.
This week the challenge was to use Bows ...... create a Christmas card with a bow on it

I think I've managed that ......

The idea for this was taken from a design I did whilst I was on the Craftwork Cards Design Team.
They're a fab company, producing gorgeous, top quality paper products one of which is their Paper Bows ......... die cut pads full of cute little bows ..... different designs to co-ordinate with all their latest paper ranges and different sizes too ..... so cute, and so easy to put together.  If you want to see my original design you can find it here on the Craftwork Cards Blog.

For this Merry Monday card I actually cut my bows using one of my favourite dies from Die-namics called Beautiful Bows.  You get the two sizes in the set, and they're so quick and easy to put together.

I cut two of each size from some Stampin Up Christmas papers and made up each bow.  You can see I've made the tails slightly shorter on one of each of the different sizes, to form the tree shape

I added a couple of circles, cut from co-ordinating glitter card, to the top .....

 a tub for my tree to sit in at the bottom ......

and some festive words to finish it all off ....... well, that's another Christmas done!

So, what are you all up to this weekend .... anything nice? I believe there's a Craft Show on in Manchester, over at Event City ..... if any of you are off to that, have a great time .... spend loads and get lots of new stash!!! I wish I was going (sigh!)
Me ....... I was hoping to spend some time in the old craft room playing with my new Brushos perhaps, or doing another of my journal pages maybe, or even making a Valentine's card seeing as that's only just around the corner ..... decisions, decisions!
First though it's time to go and collect the car ....... no way were we driving home last night!!!  Then I think we may just take a stroll down the prom ..... it's a shame to waste this nice weather.

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend.

Cheerio until next time

Linda 

xx