Card making: Online Card Classes – Extraordinary Embossing Folders Day 1

In the first of a series of posts, I am going to update you on what I have been doing during my blog’s radio silence… Several groups have been postponed for various reasons, so I have not posted about them, and I have spent the time on a number of projects. This week has been a new Online Card Class; Extraordinary Embossing Folders. For five days there were two videos per day with techniques to expand your use of embossing folders. It’s been a while since I did any card making, so it was good to do some today based on the first day of class:

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AAA Cards DT: Fall/leaves

We’re still in meteorological autumn (just) and there’s an apt theme to the next challenge over at AAA Cards‘ clean and simple challenge blog: fall/leaves. I’m writing earlier in the year, so I don’t know whether there have been gales and thrashing rain or an Indian summer. However, I can pretty much guarantee there was the traditional leaf-changing-colours period and it’s to this I pay tribute with my take on the theme:

Fall/leaves sympathy card

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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

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

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

AAA Cards DT: Pink Birthday

Over at AAA Cards challenge blog we’re celebrating 9 years of clean and simple card-making. There’s even a money prize up for grabs! The challenge this time is ‘pink birthday’. I searched through my stash and remained uninspired by what I had on a generic birthday theme. Eventually, I settled on one of my flower stamps, coloured it pink and made it a birthday card with a stamped mini-sentiment:

floral pink birthday card with tiny sentiment Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: Moodboard (All the bears)

Happy New Year from the AAA Cards Design Team! Our clean and simple 2023 challenge programme starts with a moodboard for your inspiration – take whatever elements you like from the featured photos to make your card. The moodboard pic is below. Here is my take on the challenge:

Tatty bear stamped image Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: Anything CAS goes ± Halloween cats #227

I don’t normally ‘do’ Halloween stuff, but the optional theme over at AAA Cards this week for their clean and simple card challenge is ‘Halloween cats’. I don’t particularly ‘do’ cats either – I’m a dog person – so I dropped that part of the challenge and went with a straight Halloween theme instead. This stamp from Tim Holtz was perfect for this, or a pirate card, and I’ve just coloured it in with alcohol markers.

halloween card

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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

AAA Cards DT: Christmas pets in July (#219)

As previously mentioned, Christmas in July is a thing in the crafting community. This week at AAA Cards challenge blog, the theme is ‘anything CAS goes’ with the optional twist of Christmas (pets) in July. I’m not a fan of the whole Christmas thing, especially starting in July, and am renowned for being a little bah humbug about the whole thing! So this card suitably sums up my state of mind…

bah humbug bulldog card Continue reading