LIM DT: Anything CAS goes – a sympathy card

Dear reader, you may recall that I’m not a fan of ‘anything goes’ card challenges. Many entries to the two challenges I contribute to are not clean and simple, despite this remaining a requirement of the ‘anything goes’ theme. Well, this week at Less is More, we have our monthly ‘anything goes’ challenge – do play along with us, but keep your design clean and simple! Without a defined subject matter, I struggled to get inspiration but came up with this sympathy card after rummaging through some unused die sets:

Sympathy card with black frame and white dove. Sentiment reads 'thinking of you'. Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: Hot/cold drinks

Lots of potential designs for the latest AAA Cards‘ clean and simple card challenge ‘hot/cold drinks’. I looked through my stamps for something suitable, thinking I had one from Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz – you know, the blueprint-style coffee cup – but I couldn’t find anything. Then I remembered I had some coffee-themed napkins that I would be able to decoupage. Unfortunately, the design was too large for a card, so that idea was binned too. Finally, an archived memory resurfaced and a quick rummage later allowed me to create this super simple card:

Super simple hot/cold drink card featuring a teacup on a yellow polka dot tablecloth Continue reading

LIM DT: One layer card – flowers

A new one-layer card challenge this week at Less is More. You have to do everything on the card blank. No die cuts, no layers, and minimal embellishments (if at all). It’s quite a tough assignment for those that like plenty of frills on their cards, but it makes for the desired clean and simple card design. This time, the theme is ‘flowers’ and I came up with this:

Pink rose flowers on a French text background, one layer card Continue reading

LIM DT: Black & Aquamarine (#480)

For the new clean and simple card challenge at Less is More for the next fortnight, we have a colour theme – black and aquamarine. I have to admit looking up what sort of shade aquamarine is and decided it was on the greenish side of turquoise/teal. I picked out a light and dark shade from my distress crayons and basically used them as watercolours to fill in the stamped image. Here’s the final result:

Aquamarine and black coloured tiles with happy birthday sentiment

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AAA Cards DT: Small and few + Easter/Spring (#213)

Another clean and simple card challenge has been posted over at AAA Cards. This time the theme is ‘Easter/Spring’ and the challenge is to use small and few elements. It’s been a while since I have made any papercraft flowers, so that’s what I went with for my design team card…

small and few spring daisies

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AAA Cards DT: Along the edge + your country (#212)

One theme that recurs regularly in clean and simple card making challenges is ‘along the edge’. You have four to choose from, but the elements on the card need to predominantly be arranged on the edge of the card blank. This leaves lots of white space on the card which can be daunting for some. This week’s theme over at AAA Cards also throws in the wild card of ‘your country’. With the design team being from all over the world, we’re sure to have some fabulous cards for your inspiration. Here’s mine:

Your country - along the edge with London themed papers

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LIM DT: Shades of Blue

A really quick clean and simple card for this week’s ‘shades of blue’ colour challenge over at Less is More. Blended blues, in Salty Ocean/Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire distress inks, make for the main element of the card with a delicate sentiment to finish. Cut pieces on a diagonal, space them out and mount them on sticky foam for an added bit of depth. That’s all there is to it…

shades of blue card

LIM DT: CASe Card

Lots of abbreviations today in my post title: LIM – Less is More, a challenge blog for CAS – clean and simple cards or projects. DT is short for design team – a number of crafters who publish inspiration for the challenges every fortnight. Finally, we have CASe which isn’t really an abbreviation as such but comes to mean copy elements/everything from a starter card. This time, Elaine has given us our starter for ten with a lovely watercoloured rose theme. Alongside is my take on her card…

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LIM DT: CAS inking

One of the challenges of [C]lean [A]nd [S]imple card design is keeping some white space around your elements. This week’s challenge over at Less is More is CAS inking. We’re hoping that entrants will restrain themselves and keep roughly two-thirds of their card free of inking or texture as per the challenge rules. I created several inked pieces and chose two to go through to card stages:

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