Quick and Simple Cards

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first of our bi-monthly fifteen minute card blog posts for May. We hope that you are enjoying our newest feature on the Design Team Blog, and that you are finding some inspiration from our cards that take no longer than fifteen minutes to make.

We have some fabulous designs to share with you this month, created by the Design Team and we have been joined by the Guest Design Team again with their projects to show you that a stunning card can be simple in design, and does not have to take hours to prepare. Whether you are looking for speedy batch cards, or are a beginner to stamping, we hope that you will find something amongst our selection that will have you reaching for your own craft supplies.

Anne has created a set of three cards, stamping the image onto patterned paper, and embossing with clear embossing powder. She has partly coloured the images with glitter pens. Adding some pretty ribbon and gems finishes the cards perfectly.

Brenda has created two really pretty cards for us this time around. The first card was created by masking a corner section of the card, and stamping the Song Thrush stamp using Versamark then embossing with white detail embossing powder. She used a selection of Distress Inks to cover the embossed image and buffed the area with a tissue to bring out the embossing. The sentiment is from the June Fairy stamp set.

Her second card was created by stamping the sentiment onto the right hand side of the card, and then using masking tape to create a panel on the left-hand side of the card, (sticky notes would work just as well). Randomly stamp the leaves from the Autumn Poppy stamp set, using Distress Inks to ink the stamps. Add a little Distress Ink around the edges of the panel while the mask is in place, but you could alternatively use a ruler and draw a line around the panel, or a squiggly freehand one. Finally, mat onto co-ordinating cardstock.
Brenda did say that the size of the sentiment that you choose would dictate the size that your card would need to be.

Dominike has created a vibrant card, stamping onto a book page and adding acrylic paint.

Rachel has created two lovely cards, her first using one of our fairy stamps, coloured with pencils, is placed onto a Distress Ink background.

The second card using our Elegant Iris stamp set, was coloured using water based markers.

Vronnie's Rennie Mackintosh style card, very CAS in its layout, is beautifully coloured.

Next, we have two cards from Gerrina, she has stamped the images with Versafine Onyx Black Ink, and coloured them with pencils. She then drew the lines with a fine marker, using a ruler, moving it slightly each time. Her coloured card matting adds another dimension to the cards.

Zoe has used the same sentiment as Gerrina in her card, but how see how different her card is with the vibrant splashes of colour behind the sentiment, and the use of some toning sequins in the white space.

Shilpa has created a simple yet very effective quick card using a lovely tulip image. She spritzed some peach colour ink and water onto a craft mat, and picked it up with a small acetate sheet before smooshing it onto a piece of watercolour paper. She heat set it with a heat gun. She repeated the same procedure with red ink. Once the surface was dry, she stamped the Tulips and Best Wishes images using Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink. Finally, she adhered the panel onto white card using foam adhesive.

We have already had a fabulous selection of cards to share with you, but for this post, we have a bonus Kraft selection.

Lesley has made two delightful cards featuring some of our tiny stamps and greyboard tiles. For her first card, she used scrap paper as a mask and inked in some hills. She added trees from the Teeny Weeny Meadow set to create a scene. She edged the tile with a gold pen. She stamped a squiggly border using Versamark and added white embossing powder. Adding a sentiment from the Amazing Birthday stamp set.

For her second card, she stamped the car, using second generation stamping. (This means stamping the image first onto scrap paper to get rid of some of the ink, and then stamping onto the tile before re-inking, so that you get a fainter image). She then stamped the man on the bike using the same ink, Coffee Archival Ink. She stamped the ironwork arch using Potting Soil Archival Ink to frame the images. All the stamps came from the Curiosities stamp set. She edged the tile with the same ink, and adhered it to the card, then drew a line around the tile onto the base card, using a fine-tipped dark brown permanent marker. She then drew a squiggly line around the card. Finally, she stamped 'Just for You' centred on all four edges, using Potting Soil Archival Ink.

I have made a little set of notelets using a variety of floral images and sentiments, using kraft card. I took two sheets of A4 card, and measured 9.8 cms across the card, and cut three equal strips of card. I then scored and folded the card strips in half, and rounded all of the corners. I stamped the images and sentiments using Versafine Onyx Black Ink. These little notelets will be so handy for all sorts of occasions.

I have also created a card using a Poppy image from the Flora and Fauna stamp set. I die cut three squares, and stamped a segment of the image onto each square, and coloured it using pencils. I mounted the squares onto a strip of black card, before adding the strip to another piece of kraft card. I added a sentiment from the Card Sentiments clear stamp set.

Finally, Magda has created two cards, the first uses a pretty stamp from the Dusky Damask stamp set, simply stamped in dark brown ink. She has picked out a single area of the image and coloured it using gelli pens and glitter.

Her second card is fabulous, and a technique that I am certainly going to try! She has used Brushos on her background, stamping the butterfly image first with Festive Berries Distress Ink, then Picket Fence Distress Ink, and finally, edging the image with a black pen. She has used gesso on her stencil. The Brushos look great on Kraft, don't they?

Well, we hope that you have enjoyed reading about all of the techniques and projects throughout our blog post this time around. Join us later in the month, for another post filled with quick makes and lots of tips and techniques.