AAA Cards DT: One Inchie

At the end of the summer, I was delighted to be invited to join the AAA Cards design team. AAA Cards is another clean and simple card challenge blog with a twice-monthly theme. All entries have a chance to win a ‘guest designer’ spot in a future challenge.

As a newbie DT member, I will start officially in January but feature in this week’s challenge as an introductory offer. The theme is ‘one inchie’ with the optional twist of making a card suitable for a man/boy. For those not in the know, an inchie is a piece of work that is either 1″ square or diameter. An added challenge is the requirement that all the artwork, sentiment, and matting must be within the prescribed one inch. There is an option for the inchie to be an aperture as a window to artwork inside.

An inch is not a lot of space and few, if any, of my stamps/die cuts/sentiments would fit. So, I thought laterally and rummaged through my stash until I found my shrink plastic. If the stamp is too big, shrink it!

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LIM DT: Silhouette

This week’s theme at Less is More clean and simple challenge blog is ‘silhouette’. I considered a traditional take on the profile of a person but wasn’t particularly excited by that. Then I worked through all my stamps and came across a silhouette dragon, various cogs, flowers, and flourishes. One of the other design team members had used a floral theme, so that was out. Finally, I came across my well-used, but long-neglected, Stampscapes stamps from way back in the 1990s and decided they were perfect for the challenge:

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LIM DT: Winter Whites

It was sooo tempting to draw a line of drying laundry after a whites’ wash for this week’s ‘winter whites’ theme over at Less Is More challenge blog. I decided that this possibly wasn’t the best idea for a greetings card, so dropped it in favour of this design:

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Craft Label DT: Clear stamps and alcohol markers

After a small hiatus, I’m back with some Craft Label goodies and design team inspiration. This week, I’m concentrating on using clear stamps and alcohol markers to make three cards with a minimum of other items needed. This is an intellectual exercise as much as anything else but showcases what you can do with a minimal set of media.

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LIM DT: Autumnal one layer card

One Layer Cards (OLCs) are often the trickiest of the Less is More challenges. All the elements must be directly on the cardstock used for the card itself. No die cuts, matting layers, or indeed most embellishments are allowed. The card itself must retain the clean and simple rule as well. This week’s theme is ‘autumnal’ and I’ve used a previous art journal page as inspiration for my card, which I think would be suitable for a sympathy card.

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LIM DT: Sparkle

Ok, so this latest challenge from Less is More is going to cause all sorts of consternation as it is notoriously difficult to photograph glittery things. I’ve tried multiple light sources, but still haven’t managed to avoid shadows or overexposure. So, it’s left up to you to imagine the sparkle in these two cards!

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LIM DT: Spots OLC

This one-layer card challenge is a little easier than the last one. The theme is ‘spots’ over at Less is More. I’ve previously used a stencil for making a multi-coloured spotty card, so wanted to do something different this time. After digging through my rubber stamp collection I found a semicircular spotty pattern by Magenta. It just so happens that after having it for years, this was the first time it had been used. I made two cards:

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LIM DT: Shades of Blue

A really quick clean and simple card for this week’s ‘shades of blue’ colour challenge over at Less is More. Blended blues, in Salty Ocean/Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire distress inks, make for the main element of the card with a delicate sentiment to finish. Cut pieces on a diagonal, space them out and mount them on sticky foam for an added bit of depth. That’s all there is to it…

shades of blue card

LIM DT: CASe Card

Lots of abbreviations today in my post title: LIM – Less is More, a challenge blog for CAS – clean and simple cards or projects. DT is short for design team – a number of crafters who publish inspiration for the challenges every fortnight. Finally, we have CASe which isn’t really an abbreviation as such but comes to mean copy elements/everything from a starter card. This time, Elaine has given us our starter for ten with a lovely watercoloured rose theme. Alongside is my take on her card…

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LIM DT: Pale Blue and Yellow

Challenge time again at Less is More, the clean and simple challenge blog. This time, it’s a colour challenge: use pale blue and yellow, and black and white are allowed. It took me a little while to come up with my design – a couple of the design team had already posted their cards and I didn’t want to do the same or a similar card. Here’s my final take on the challenge:

Pale Blue and Yellow Hip Hip Hooray card

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