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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LIM DT: B is for Beach (#487)

Challenge time again at Less is More… We’re asking to see your clean and simple card designs on the theme of ‘B is for Beach’. You may remember a beach challenge a few weeks ago for a different challenge blog where I chose to go for a less traditional interpretation. For this challenge, I have used a more obvious inspiration:

B is for Beach themed card with sandcastle coloured with ProMarkers

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AAA Cards DT: Everything Beach

Summer is almost here, and in anticipation of a heatwave AAA Cards‘ latest challenge is to make a clean and simple card on the theme of ‘everything beach’. I’m a little more of a pragmatist, live in the UK and anticipate foul weather when I go to the coast. Foregoing buckets and spades and fancy parasols, I found this previously unused stamp deep in my stash and created this:

Stormy beach scene with seagulls and lighthouse 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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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: Spring (#483)

It’s another theme challenge at Less is More this week. We’d like to see your clean and simple cards based on ‘spring’. Now, because I know what’s coming up in the next challenge I didn’t want to do a similar image and decided for this theme to play around with some typography. Here’s what I came up with:

Spring card featuring typography and a quote from Robin Williams

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AAA Cards DT: choose a side – Hot or Cold

It’s a colour challenge this week over at AAA Cards’ clean and simple challenge blog. Our task is to choose a side (of the colour wheel) – either hot or cold. Most of my art includes warm colours, so I thought this time I would take on the cold side. This meant choosing purples, blues and greens and I turned to the distress palette for my inspiration card:

clean and simple card design with cold colour palette 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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AAA Cards DT: Inspired by song, book or movie

A themed challenge this week over at AAA Cards: a clean and simple card design based on your favourite song, book or movie. As normal, I worked through my stash and sought out which bits and bobs I could use to make my design team sample card. I’ve fudged my response to the theme a little… Here’s my homage to ‘every black and white movie ever made’:

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AAA Cards DT: Along the edge ink blending

‘Along the edge’ is one of the AAA Cards‘ regular clean and simple card challenges. This week, it has the optional extra bit of work to incorporate ink blending into your card design. Here’s my sample as part of the design team:

ink blending edge border through a stencil Continue reading