LIM DT: Under the sea (#488)

Less is More challenge blog is following up their ‘B is for Beach’ theme with a new seashore-related subject: ‘under the sea’. Just enter your clean and simple card designs in the next two weeks featuring the theme for the chance to have the accolade of being shortlisted for our favourite card. I’ve not got any ocean-related stamps, so have created this panel card to fit the theme:

Under the sea themed card featuring a seahorse motif

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AAA Cards DT: Dogs/puppies

Finally! A challenge for which I had a choice of stencils and stamps to use in my card design – dogs/puppies. This is this week’s theme over at AAA Cards‘ clean and simple card challenge blog. After using technology to make last time’s card, I thought I would go back to my card-making roots and go for something using basic techniques:

Dogs in a row, stencilled silhouettes on a teal background and kraft card blank Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: Outdoor activity

Another fortnight has flown by which means it’s time for another challenge over at AAA Cards. We’ve chosen a theme of ‘outdoor activity’ as our prompt for a clean and simple card make. I spent absolutely ages going through my stash and could not find a single stamp or piece of ephemera fitting the theme that I hadn’t used recently. Google stepped up to the challenge, however, and after tweaking my search criteria and a downloaded file I made this card:

Outdoor activity: angler at sunset Continue reading

LIM DT: Anything Goes – keep it CAS (#486)

Less is More challenge time again – anything goes but keep it CAS. This theme is therefore an open season, though keeping the design clean and simple is a necessity if you wish to be featured in our winner’s gallery at the end of the challenge (so many entries aren’t). I struggle with an open theme, much preferring a more specific challenge. As is normally the case, I had a rummage in my stash and found an abstract stamp design that I had not used before and came up with this:

keep it CAS - an abstract teal and brown birthday card

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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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LIM DT: One layer card – flowers

A new one-layer card challenge this week at Less is More. You have to do everything on the card blank. No die cuts, no layers, and minimal embellishments (if at all). It’s quite a tough assignment for those that like plenty of frills on their cards, but it makes for the desired clean and simple card design. This time, the theme is ‘flowers’ and I came up with this:

Pink rose flowers on a French text background, one layer card Continue reading

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

AAA Cards DT: Torn edges

One benefit of being on the AAA Cards design team is that the themes are set a year in advance. This allows me to work without last-minute deadlines – for instance, I’m writing this between Christmas and New Year 2022. It also means that you can get in early with your design so that there is minimal chance of duplicating ideas. On this occasion, one of my teamies had already posted a card using torn edges as a mask, so I have gone on a slightly different tack with my card.

torn edges panel coloured birthday card 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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LIM DT: Black & Aquamarine (#480)

For the new clean and simple card challenge at Less is More for the next fortnight, we have a colour theme – black and aquamarine. I have to admit looking up what sort of shade aquamarine is and decided it was on the greenish side of turquoise/teal. I picked out a light and dark shade from my distress crayons and basically used them as watercolours to fill in the stamped image. Here’s the final result:

Aquamarine and black coloured tiles with happy birthday sentiment

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