Clean and simple

The weather in Adelaide today has been awful. Perfect for staying home and making cards! After such a long break in cardmaking, it feels like my brain is trying to make up for it by constantly thinking of possible card designs. I like fairly simple cards, so I decided to try a one-layer card. The challenge I find with simple one-layer cards is that if I make a mistake, it's not easy to cover the mistake up. Take for example, the card below.

 

Everything was going fairly well until I stamped the leaf! The poor placement of the leaf resulted in a fair bit of angst on my part because I really don't think it worked where it was. So I decided to flip the card over and try again, see exhibit B.

 

 

 

It still didn't work for me. Cue some swearing. I was tempted to throw the entire thing out, but I figured having a card handy would be better than wasting good cardstock, so I flipped it back over (lesser of two evils) and embossed the sentiment in black. If only I could just shift the leaf over and down slightly in the first try so it doesn't "clash" with the red.

 

This next card is a CASE from a card done by Maile Belles, who makes simple but elegant cards and whose style I love.

 

 

 

 

And then I decided to make one more card using many colours and the Polka Dot Basics II set from Papertrey Ink.

 

 

As I mentioned before, mistakes aren't easy to cover up and I really didn't want to start from scratch (or waste good cardstock!) so I left the splotchy stamping in the top left corner as it was. My original idea was to use my Scor-Buddy to score a line across which would've acted as the divider between the pattern and the white space, but that didn't work out so well. The addition of a thin strip of ribbon improved the look a lot, in my opinion.

 

 



 

 

I used a Fiskars stamp press for the first time, and it worked really well! I've had it lying around for a few years, so I thought it was high time I used it. It really helped me in keeping the dots straight horizontally, it was just my bad judgement that results in the uneven spaces between each line of dots.

 

Anyway, that's enough crafting for the day. I'm off to curl up on the couch and watch some TV! Thanks for stopping by!

 

 





 

FTL 254

After 10 months of not making anything, out come two cards in one day! I've always wanted to try paper piecing and I decided to use the current Clean & Simple sketch challenge to try this technique.

 

The  paper piecing was a bit messy, with raggedy cut edges, but it was fun! I used a few items from my craft stash that have been hanging around for ages, but never been used before. One was the cupcake stamp from Unity Stamps and another was the dew drops from Robin's Nest. Thanks for swinging by!

 

Freshly Made sketch #99 & CAS-ual Fridays #112

I think it's been about 10 months since I made anything, and I suddenly wanted to start creating again! I decided to pair the Freshly Made sketch challenge with the CAS-ual Fridays colour challenge.

 



It didn't turn out quite how I thought it would, but it feels nice to be making cards again! Thanks for taking a look!

Saturday Sketch Challenge 271

Hello! I needed to make a birthday card at the last minute and chose the awesome sketch by Stamping 411.
 

 

 

 

I don't really like how it turned out, but I'm out of time so it'll just have to do! I used a lot of retired DSP and cardstock for this, namely Ruby Red and the Sweet Slumber Specialty paper.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

FTL 205

Well, it's been a very long time since I've posted anything, and i apologise profusely for my absence! It's not that I haven't been making anything, it's more I haven't had the time to create as I used to. Plus, I haven't taken part in any challenges for months and months, so it feels good to be back!

I've always loved the Clean & Simple sketch challenge! This is what FTL sketch 205 looks like:

And here is my offering...

 

The tea dye ink turned out a lot lighter than I thought, but I suppose it gives it a much more subtle look. Anyhoo, hopefully this means I'll be getting back into the swing of things and participating in more challenges. I'll be back to post more of what I've made during my extended (and unplanned!) hiatus.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

FTL 162

Here is by take on the latest Clean & Simple sketch challenge using PTI's Botanical Silhouettes as well as Half & Half.

Thanks for stopping by!

FTL 159

It's been a while since I last participated in a challenge, so I decided to make a baby card using the latest Clean & Simple sketch. I took some liberties with the sketch by omitting the sentiment and adding a bow.

I love the little diaper stamp from PTI's Night Night Moon set. Thanks for stopping by!