LIM DT: Use Vellum

The recipe challenge this week over at Less is More is to use vellum in your clean and simple card design/make. One of the trickiest things is to find a means of attaching it to the card without the glue showing as a darker area given its translucency. I’ve got around this by taping a fold-over flap to the inside of the card. I found the flower in a long-neglected box of Pergamano parchment craft. I mounted it on black to get the right contrast for the white of the stretched vellum. The sentiment is stamped in white pigment ink several times to get it opaque.

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AAA Cards DT: Small and few #221

A little challenge over at AAA Cards this fortnight, with the main theme being ‘small and few’. The optional twist is to add (lady)bugs to your clean and simple card design. Here’s my take on the theme:

floral corner with added ladybugs

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LIM DT: Butterflies

Over at Less is More, there’s a new theme challenge for your clean and simple cards/makes – ‘butterflies’. Clean and simple means minimal layers, and lots of blank space, drawing attention to the stamping/colouring/sentiment. Here’s my one layer take on the theme, using watercolour pencils and a bit of distress ink over a mask to get the blue band across the middle:

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AAA Cards DT: Along the edge #220

Challenge time again over at AAA Cards and the theme for the fortnight is ‘along the edge’ with the optional twist of ‘under the sea’. As always, the card should be clean and simple – minimum layers and embellishments and lots of empty/white space. Here’s my design team card for your inspiration:

CAS card with under the sea theme

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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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LIM DT: Silhouette

This week’s theme at Less is More clean and simple challenge blog is ‘silhouette’. I considered a traditional take on the profile of a person but wasn’t particularly excited by that. Then I worked through all my stamps and came across a silhouette dragon, various cogs, flowers, and flourishes. One of the other design team members had used a floral theme, so that was out. Finally, I came across my well-used, but long-neglected, Stampscapes stamps from way back in the 1990s and decided they were perfect for the challenge:

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LIM DT: Winter Whites

It was sooo tempting to draw a line of drying laundry after a whites’ wash for this week’s ‘winter whites’ theme over at Less Is More challenge blog. I decided that this possibly wasn’t the best idea for a greetings card, so dropped it in favour of this design:

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Craft Label DT: Oh So Sweet II

I took a couple of hours over the weekend to make a series of cards using the new paper pad from First Edition, Oh So Sweet available from Craft Label. I’ve already made a scrapbook layout with a description of the pad contents here, so I won’t repeat it again. Though I love the pastel colour palette, I did find it missing some dark contrast pages and had to add distress ink to some of the edges to get that contrast where I wanted it.

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Craft Label DT: Butterfly Kisses Cards II

The thing with a 6×6″ paper pad is that when you’re using the papers to make cards, the pad doesn’t last very long – go with the 12×12″ pad! This also gives you the opportunity to do scrapbook layouts. The paper pad, stamps and embellishments I have revisited are from Dovecraft – Butterfly Kisses – available from Craft Label. Here are the five additional card designs…

As well as the paper pad and embellishments, I used two coordinating Distress Oxide colours to stamp with: Dusty Concord and Bundled Sage. Top tip: give the clear stamps a good wash before first use to remove the manufacturing film that can cause the ink to bead up rather than lay flat.

Craft Label DT: Oh So Sweet

New from Craft Label: Oh So Sweet paper pads and coordinating albums. The papers are beautifully designed and coloured, with glittered and pearlescent sheets along with several double-sided designs. The designs have all things sweet – macarons, lollies, cupcakes, cake slices, cups of tea, florals and even references to Battenburg and dolly mixtures. It’s strange how a scrapbooking paper design can evoke memories, and this was no exception. Here’s a layout recording one of our favourite refreshment stops while we were staying in Boston on our US trip back in December 2016.

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