LIM DT: Colour wheel

It’s a relatively easy challenge over at Less is More this week – use two or more colours from a traditional colour wheel. I love the contrast that complementary colours bring, so have stuck with just purple/violet and yellow for my colour scheme:

colour wheel - purple and yellow burst around birthday sentiment Continue reading

LIM DT: Draw your own frame

The next challenge at Less is More is to make a one-layer card using a self-drawn frame. I went a bit mad and hand-drew the whole thing. The finished piece looks like it is layered because of shading using an alcohol marker on the bottom edge of the mandala – a very effective way of adding depth without layers. The background is a masked, dense layer of blended distress ink over which I’ve used a black pigment marker and Stabilo pencils for shading.

frame surrounding a hand drawn mandala card Continue reading

LIM DT: Friendship (for World Cardmaking Day)

Apparently, World Cardmaking Day is held every first Saturday of October and is dedicated to those that prefer to make cards rather than buy them. In honour of this, the latest challenge at Less is More is to make a CAS card on the theme of friendship. I made the following card, and I’m not sure I like it! I think that the blue shading around the top and bottom of the rose detracts from the clean and simple aesthetic.

friendship card with coloured rose Continue reading

LIM DT: Black and white colour scheme

This ended up being a fast and simple card once I had chosen the stamps! The challenge over at Less is More for the next fortnight is to create a clean and simple card using just black and white. I was tempted to add shades of grey as shadows and to add some depth but decided it wouldn’t meet the challenge.

black and white folk art foliage card Continue reading

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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LIM DT: Favourite Flower – a OLC

Just in case you need reminding, OLC stands for ‘one layer card’ where you aren’t allowed to use any layers other than the cardstock that forms the card itself. It’s the latest challenge over at Less is More, along with the theme of your favourite flower. Die cuts are out, as are most embellishments so it’s a difficult challenge. I don’t particularly have a favourite flower, but I do have a favourite daisy stamp so I went with that!

favourite flower stamped card

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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:

butterflies themed card Continue reading

LIM DT: Traditional Christmas colours

Well, it’s mid-July and we’re in a Christmas mood. At least, the crafting world is celebrating Christmas in July as most of the manufacturers release their seasonal goodies. Over at Less is More clean and simple card challenge blog,  we are entering into this spirit with a colour challenge of ‘traditional Christmas’. I guess, like the challenge at the beginning of the month, that this is open to interpretation! I’ve gone with a classic red, green and gold:

traditional christmas colours - red green and gold Continue reading