Another challenge over at AAA Cards – it’s a colour scheme recipe with the guidance to be black and white and one other colour. As with all their challenges, the aim is to keep your card clean and simple (lots of white space, few, if any, embellishments and keeping elements to roughly one third of the card).
It’s the last challenge of the year at Less is More and this time around it’s a photo inspiration. The idea behind this is to use the colours or textures or style within the photo to make your clean and simple card/project. Here’s my take on the photo inspiration (further down the post):
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!
Craft Label is stocking several different Christmas themed paper pads, in various sizes, and I’ve had a chance to play with two of them. First up, the First Edition North Star paper pack. This features 48 sheets, 3 each of 16 designs, one glittered design, two foiled, two pearlescent and half are double-sided. The colour palette is grey, silver and navy blue with some cute penguins and polar bears as design elements. Backgrounds are varied from patterns to grungy watercolour. The papers are 200g/m2 weight and are printed with soy inks. The pad is available in 12×12″ (£15.99), 8×8″ (£9.99) and 6×6″ (£7.99). Here are three quick and easy Christmas cards made with the pad:
Less Is More challenge time again… and the theme is ‘OLC Going Dotty’. This is a one layer card challenge, with artwork applied directly to the card. No matting or layering is allowed and no other embellishments either. It can be quite tricky and it’s not unknown for several attempts to be needed to get perfect stamping and other mark-making. Here’s my design team card, just one this time:
Quick and simple – stamp a sentiment first in jet black archival ink and then mask. Apply distress oxide inks through a Tim Holtz mini-stencil and take off the mask. All done!
It’s a fortnight since the last Less Is More Challenge, which means there’s a new theme. This time it’s ‘white and cream’ colour challenge. Again, I’ve done two cards… I thought the first I made was too simple and not at all ‘exciting’. I think the second has a little more interest and this is the one I chose for the DT post:
I’m delighted to be able to share that I have been accepted on to the Less Is More Challenge Design Team. You’ll all know that I have recently been taking part in their challenges after a long hiatus, and it’s an honour to join the DT. You can find the fortnightly challenges here, and a little more info on the card(s) I make following the theme here on my blog. You may even get to see the outtakes…
I’ve used one of my most favourite techniques for my card for the splats – get your Distress Stains out, make sure the tip is nice and juicy and then firmly tap against your page (actually, you thump it down with a bit of force). Watch where the spatter goes!
CAS? It stands for ‘Clean And Simple’ and refers to a card that has plenty of whitespace around the elements. Ideally a one layer, no embellishment type of card, it is perfect for the Less Is More challenge site. And it usually is anything but simple to make. This time, the theme is ‘more’ – we did ‘less’ last time. Here’s my take on the challenge:
