AAA Cards DT: Mood board + snow

This is my first post for AAA Cards, a clean and simple card design challenge blog. I joined the design team in January and will be posting inspiration cards bi-monthly (twice a month). Apparently, bi-monthly is both every two months and twice a month! Is it any wonder students find English difficult to learn?

The first challenge this year is a mood board (reproduced below) with the optional extra theme of ‘snow’. I took my colour scheme from the pic with the skier and the theme from the snowflake. It’s never too early to make a card for Christmas…

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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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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: Purple and Yellow

We’ve reached ‘colours’ on our rotating challenge themes at Less is More and this time around it is purple and yellow. For those unfamiliar with the challenge, it is to make a card or project that is clean and simple – there must be lots of clear and clean space around whatever elements you’re using. Here’s the card I made for the design team inspiration:

Purple and Yellow themed card

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Art Journal Page: Scratch ‘n’ scrape

It’s lovely to have restarted my art journaling sessions here at the Studio (first and third Monday evenings of the month). This means that I have also returned to my art journal after a several-month hiatus to create the sample pages for the session. This month the theme is scratch ‘n’ scrape, in part known in the trade as sgraffito. We’ll also be playing with analogous and complementary colours. The overall effect is quite grungy and builds up using quite a few layers and media.

If you’d like to know more then I have one space left on Monday 4th October and four spaces on Monday 18th October, just let me know if you’d like to come.

LIM DT: Hexagons

It’s a shape challenge at Less is More this week, with the theme being ‘hexagons’. I chose to use a honeycomb die for my shapes and used both the positive and negative elements to make two cards. I had a master sheet that I had coloured with inks and paints during the Creative Jumpstart course at the beginning of the year which I used to cut the shapes from.

Here are the cards:

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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: 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: Christmas in July

Don’t forget that in the crafting world, new Christmas releases occur from any point in June to the end of July. I’m not entirely sure why, but, presumably, it’s like fashion, a season in advance. Thus, the Less is More challenge this time is ‘Christmas in July’. I’ve created two cards: initially, the watercoloured card, which I decided wasn’t clean and simple enough, and then the snowflake and sentiment.

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LIM DT: Sketch 26

For the unfamiliar, a sketch challenge starts with a block drawing which you then adapt with added elements to make your card. Over at Less is More, the clean and simple card challenge blog, we have set sketch 26. Here are two cards based on the sketch.

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