Today I'm sharing a couple of clean and simple cards that I made for the current AAA Cards Challenge where they are looking for no layers and an optional big sentiment. Both of my cards were also inspired by the photo over at The Card Concept and I'm also linking up over at CASology where clean and simple 'affection' is the order of the day and at Just Add Ink where the theme is minimalism:
I love a good no-layer card, especially if it features a single sentiment. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the 'More Love' stamp set in the Stampin' Up! mini catalogue as it is the perfect 'one and done' stamp and whilst it could be used for Valentine's, I think it's a lovely set to send to someone as a gesture of more general love and affection. I love the bright green of the foliage on the Card Concept's inspiration photo, and as I was rummaging through one of my drawers came across some retired notecards that had a pre-watercoloured base in green that I thought would make a nice easy, yet interesting background for my stamp. So this was the first card I made:
I heat-embossed my sentiment in gold, then coloured the flowers in with Melon Mambo and Granny Apple Green Blends, in a nod to the pretty florals on that floral heart:
I really liked the texture of the watercolour paper and the green, but it was definitely a different take for me. I wasn't sure about my experiment so decided to revert much more to my clean-and-simple comfort zone and recreate my card onto a basic thick white cardbase:
On this card I used watercolour pencils to colour my flowers, as I didn't want my Blends to bleed through to the reverse, since my card was a no-layer:
My CAS-loving heart feels much better about this card, and the white base is more fitting with both the background in the Card Concept inspiration photo and my general approach to CAS card making. Either way, a simple card base, single stamp and a simple-yet wow impact from the metallic heat embossing with just a little colour is about as minimalist as I get!
I am linking up the white version of my card for the above challenges, but I'd be really interested to know which one you prefer - do leave me a comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts. Here's a side-by-side photo for comparison:
I really like this stamp and haven't seen many examples of it being used in blogland, so maybe I'm in the minority! Either way, I will be sending some of these to some special people this week to let them know they are in my thoughts.
Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:
You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any.
Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with a special project for this week's Paper Player's theme challenge - you won't want to miss it! Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: