Christmas Card 2023 – a ‘stained glass’ tag

Scrolling through my photos on my phone, I came across some I’d taken of the cards I made for Christmas (now last year). As they’ve all been sent, received and recycled, I can share them here. Featuring a ‘stained glass’ design, the tag is removable and designed to be kept and used year-to-year. Making notes follow…

Removable handcrafted 'stained glass' tag Christmas card
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Art Journaling: Up, Up & Away

My next Art Journaling Session is on Monday evening, 6th November at The Studio. If you’re recovered your hearing after the fireworks, do come along and join in! We’ll be working on the theme of ‘up, up and away’ for our mixed media layouts in our journals. Here’s the inspiration example:

Mixed media art journal layout based on the theme of 'up, up and away' featuring a bright ink background and hot air balloon.
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LIM DT: One layer card – ‘hello sunshine’

It’s a one-layer challenge over at Less is More clean and simple card-making challenge blog. Don’t forget that one layer means just that… everything has to be on the card blank. No die cuts, no matting and very minimal, if any, embellishments. The theme is ‘hello sunshine’. I have tried to emulate a sunrise with my design team card:

hello sunshine card with blended stencilled sunrise
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LIM DT: Music

Theme week at Less is More, and we’ve been set ‘music’. Despite the fact I play the clarinet, massacre a tenor sax piece and know where the notes are on a piano, I’d not say I was a musician! (Just ask how well I can play a syncopated rhythm…) I’m also not an avid listener of music – it is on in the background for most of my working day but I don’t choose to listen to it in my down time. So this theme was a bit of a challenge until I realised just how many ‘classic’ music-themed stamps and embellishments I had in my stash. This is my design team card for your inspiration, but don’t forget to check out the rest of the cards the team have created.

music themed card with rubber stamped background, rusty quaver embellishment and a quote sentiment

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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

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: Dogs/puppies

Finally! A challenge for which I had a choice of stencils and stamps to use in my card design – dogs/puppies. This is this week’s theme over at AAA Cards‘ clean and simple card challenge blog. After using technology to make last time’s card, I thought I would go back to my card-making roots and go for something using basic techniques:

Dogs in a row, stencilled silhouettes on a teal background and kraft card blank Continue reading

LIM DT: Colour – black and light purple (#485)

Our monthly colour theme has come around again at Less is More clean and simple card challenge. This time it is ‘black and light purple’. I’ve taken the set palette literally and haven’t even used white (which is allowed). A top tip from the outset is to not try stamping an outline onto textured card stock… Here’s my make:

Black card with light purple stamped panel and sentiment

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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: Anything Goes (#481)

Another ‘anything goes’ theme at the Less is More clean and simple challenge blog. This time it doesn’t have to be a one-layer card which leaves a little leeway for embellishments and matting to be added if needed. Remember that clean and simple requires a large amount of white space around your chosen elements. I’ve elected to add a little dimension to my card by lifting up the butterfly wings. I also added a little star dust to the wings which doesn’t completely show up in the pic. Here’s my finished inspiration piece for the challenge:

anything goes card featuring 'hello' sentiment and coloured butterfly on grey text background

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