LIM DT: Off-centre, a one layer card

Less is More challenge blog has just published their next clean and simple card challenge – a one layer card with the stipulation of being ‘off-centre’. The one layer bit is the challenge, as it negates the use of die cuts, embellishments and rather obviously, layers. I’ve used masking to ‘layer’ my one layer card…

off-centre card design with music notes and pen nibs Continue reading

LIM DT: Birthdays theme

After a short hiatus over Christmas and New Year, it’s great that the Less is More challenge is back! This time, it being our 11th birthday, the theme is, well, ‘birthdays’. Make a clean and simple card (lots of white space and minimal elements) and enter the challenge 🙂

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AAA Cards DT: One layer + big sentiment

Another clean and simple card for you, featured in AAA Cards latest challenge: one layer with an optional extra of a big sentiment. The mood board for this week’s challenge included hearts, I’m sure, in time for Valentine’s Day. I looked out my only stamp to feature a heart, hoping it wasn’t too fussy for a CAS card, and used it along with a big sentiment for my card:

card with big sentiment

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AAA Cards DT: Mood board + snow

This is my first post for AAA Cards, a clean and simple card design challenge blog. I joined the design team in January and will be posting inspiration cards bi-monthly (twice a month). Apparently, bi-monthly is both every two months and twice a month! Is it any wonder students find English difficult to learn?

The first challenge this year is a mood board (reproduced below) with the optional extra theme of ‘snow’. I took my colour scheme from the pic with the skier and the theme from the snowflake. It’s never too early to make a card for Christmas…

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AAA Cards DT: One Inchie

At the end of the summer, I was delighted to be invited to join the AAA Cards design team. AAA Cards is another clean and simple card challenge blog with a twice-monthly theme. All entries have a chance to win a ‘guest designer’ spot in a future challenge.

As a newbie DT member, I will start officially in January but feature in this week’s challenge as an introductory offer. The theme is ‘one inchie’ with the optional twist of making a card suitable for a man/boy. For those not in the know, an inchie is a piece of work that is either 1″ square or diameter. An added challenge is the requirement that all the artwork, sentiment, and matting must be within the prescribed one inch. There is an option for the inchie to be an aperture as a window to artwork inside.

An inch is not a lot of space and few, if any, of my stamps/die cuts/sentiments would fit. So, I thought laterally and rummaged through my stash until I found my shrink plastic. If the stamp is too big, shrink it!

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LIM DT: Spots OLC

This one-layer card challenge is a little easier than the last one. The theme is ‘spots’ over at Less is More. I’ve previously used a stencil for making a multi-coloured spotty card, so wanted to do something different this time. After digging through my rubber stamp collection I found a semicircular spotty pattern by Magenta. It just so happens that after having it for years, this was the first time it had been used. I made two cards:

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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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LIM DT: Clothing/Fashion

After a Christmas hiatus, Less is More is back with a new clean and simple card challenge. ‘We’re probably all sick of sweat pants and casual clothes, so let’s look forward to a time when we can all dress up again’ sets off the clothing/fashion theme. I remembered that I had done some paper piecing of dresses when I was with Craftwork Cards and managed to unearth the ‘Sophie’ stamp set from 2016 which is perfect for dress-up!

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LIM DT: Shades of Purple

It’s a colour challenge at Less is More for the next fortnight and the chosen theme is ‘shades of purple’. I had three goes at picking out the colours – it’s curious how when you put some colours together they show up different hues in adjacent colours that you didn’t notice before (and weren’t purple). One technique, in particular, showed this up perfectly (read below). Anyhoo, here’s my take on the challenge and two bonus cards…

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LIM DT: Chalkboard Technique

Over on the Less is More challenge blog this week is a lucky dip and from the pot came the chalkboard technique. In essence, this uses white pigment ink on black card, with the option of adding white heat embossing for even more contrast. An example video is available at the end of this post.

Three cards for you today in reverse order…

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