A different colour scheme this week at AAA Cards challenge blog. We’ve gone for the fairly classic black, white and gold. The prompt guide photo has baubles, and I have also gone with a Christmas theme, but any subject matter is allowed as long as the colours are stuck to it and it is a clean and simple design. Here’s my design team card:
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:
The current challenge at AAA Cards blog is to use a rectangle just 1/9th of the card face. The optional twist is to add butterflies to your layout. The normal ratio of white space to an image on a clean and simple card is 2/3rds to 1/3rd, so reducing this again makes for an extremely clean card, though not necessarily simpler. Here’s my take on the theme:
Another Less is More challenge blog design team post… I had to go very deep into my stash to find some baby-themed stamps, but after almost getting lost in a drawer I managed to look out three suitable images. All have been stamped on paper for acrylics as I couldn’t immediately lay my hands on watercolour paper. I then cut out the images and stuck them onto the cards.
Another challenge is live at Less is More. This time it is a one layer card with the theme ‘festive’. As before, one layer cards mean just that: no hiding behind layered papers or mats, perfect printing first time and minimal embellishments. Even die cuts aren’t allowed as they are an added layer. I normally paper-piece the stamp I chose to use, so that was not an option in a one layer card. Instead, I went with some colouring-in:
I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black using a stamp platform, and then again with Versamark as I then decided to heat emboss the outline with clear gloss to make it stand out a little. I then coloured in with ProMarkers adding lots of layers and then highlights with a correction pen and Posca markers. Finally, I added some stickles and liquid pearls to give a little more interest to the card.
It’s recipe time at Less is More and the theme chosen is ‘more than one type of foliage’. One of the main aims of the challenge (aside from making sure the card is clean and simple) is to make the theme to be the focus of the card. There was only one stamp set I could think of in my collection that would fit the bill – a set of five fern fronds by Hero Arts. Here’s the eventual winner, from three I made, for my design team card:
It’s a new challenge over at Less is More, to use both a solid and an outline. I made two cards, and it was a close toss-up as to which I was going to feature as my design team card. This one won out eventually:
I could have lined up the outlines perfectly (using a stamp positioner) but I liked the offset look that occurred when I did it all by eye. I think it emphasises the solid and outline as distinct elements.
This Monday, the art journal session at The Studio has the theme ‘perfect palettes’. For this journal prompt, I picked a colour chart from the ever fabulous design-seeds.com and did my best to match the palette. Of course, this was a little harder when printing out the image – the printer colours aren’t a good reproduction.
And here’s the resulting page (and don’t forget that the colours changed again when I scanned it in…). So the palette isn’t exact, but, as with all journal prompts, it’s what sparks the rest of the page. I also chose the theme to help those who struggle to know what colours might work together.
At today’s bas relief cards workshop, I did the unthinkable (for me at least) – worked on a technique and a sample alongside a workshop guest, without trying it first weeks before. And despite the gung-ho attitude, we both ended up with, even if we do say so ourselves, a cracking outcome. There was something rather pleasing about making a 2D stamped image a little more 3D, smudging and smoothing paper clay into place before letting the stains and paint do their thing.
For February’s Studio workshop, we’re going to be playing with adding dimension by using paperclay to create bas relief centrepieces for your cards/scrapbook pages and mixed media projects. Here’s an example I’ve just finished:
Not sure if I have got the balance right between the vase and the roses, and may be an ivory card for the sentiment might have worked better too. But that, after all, is what playing is all about…
If you’d like to come to the workshop on 4th February, there are spaces available. For more details, see my workshops page, or email me to book your space.
