AAA Cards DT: Add a tag or ticket

A new theme starts at AAA Cards clean and simple card challenge blog today and runs for the next two weeks. This time we are asking for cards that feature a tag or a ticket. There are some great inspiration cards from the design team, and here’s my take on the theme:

card with a stamped tag

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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: Sketch for a teen card

Another sketch challenge has been set at AAA Cards this week. Use the design to guide your creation of a clean and simple card suitable for a teen. I struggled to find something to fit the theme and eventually raided a different stash for inspiration. With the popularity of proms, I thought this ‘couture’ stamp would be suitable. The guide sketch is below.

Card suitable for a teen - based on sketch Continue reading

LIM DT: Orange – colour challenge

A bit of an early autumnal colour palette challenge over at Less is More for the next fortnight… orange. I toyed with the idea of taking it literally and plonking a representation of the fruit onto the card. However, inspiration didn’t fully materialise and I decided to go with a technique-based card instead:

Mottled orange strip with white happy birthday sentiment on a white card blank. Continue reading

Bible Journaling: Acts (BJ-24)

In our Bible journaling session on Monday evening, we’ll be exploring verses from Acts. Free downloadable templates for these illustrations are available from my online shop. As normal, the evening starts at 7:30pm, costs £5 and will feature a new technique of using pastel pencils for colouring. Suitable for beginners, and if you don’t have a Bible to work in you can work on paper and make a bookmark. Book your place now 🙂

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Art journaling: playing with Brushos

This morning’s project was to prep for this evening’s art journal session at The Studio. We’re playing with Brushos, concentrated crystals of watercolour/dye. They give great, largely unpredictable, paint effects and work wonderfully as backgrounds to mixed media work. They are also tiny and get into all sorts of different places, so they come out rarely and take some cleaning up after! A pot once dropped into my distress ink box and took months to get rid of them all… Everything is covered and ready for colour carnage: here’s my example:

Art journal page featuring BrushosThe session runs from 7:30pm, costs £5 and needs to be booked in advance. Materials are included and if you need a suitable art journal to work in they are available for just £2 on the night. Just get in contact for more information or to book your place 🙂

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AAA Cards DT: Sketch ± baby card

Time for another clean and simple card challenge at AAA Cards. This week we have a sketch to work to (see below). This is a guide to a card layout rather than drawing your own. The optional extra is to make the theme suitable for a baby. Here’s my card as part of the design team’s inspirations:

Baby themed clean and simple card

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LIM DT: Photo inspiration – one layer card

You have a fortnight to join in the latest Less is More clean and simple card challenge. It’s a photo inspiration theme – take whatever elements you like from the provided photo prompt, whether it be colours, shapes, theme, words and so on. Oh, it’s also a one-layer card challenge – no embellishments, matting, die-cuts… Everything has to be on the card blank. Scroll down for the inspiration photo and description of how I made this design team card:

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AAA Cards DT: Monochrome

Today’s new challenge at AAA Cards is to make a monochrome card. Monochrome in this context does not necessarily mean without colour – different shades of the same colour are allowed. I chose to go with a greyscale monochrome and produced this masculine card:

Masculine themed card in grey and black tones Continue reading

LIM DT: Under the sea (#488)

Less is More challenge blog is following up their ‘B is for Beach’ theme with a new seashore-related subject: ‘under the sea’. Just enter your clean and simple card designs in the next two weeks featuring the theme for the chance to have the accolade of being shortlisted for our favourite card. I’ve not got any ocean-related stamps, so have created this panel card to fit the theme:

Under the sea themed card featuring a seahorse motif

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