Making Clean and Simple Cards – Easy for Some, a Challenge for Me!

Click for a Larger Image

Clean and simple cards have never been easy for me to create — I’m a “bling” kind of person.  The more goodies and ephemera on the cards, the more I like it.  That’s why for my second AECP project I decided to choose the lesson for “Boutique Cards” (which are mostly clean and simple).  Time for me to restrain my inner bling and learn a new skillset!

(AECP is the Altenew Educator Certification Program, and it teaches new stamping and papercrafting skills and how to pass along those skills to others.  How cool is that?)

And just as an FYI, I bought all my own supplies for this project.

What is a Clean and Simple Card?

That’s a good question, and I don’t think there is a single definition.  But from what I have observed, it’s a card that makes liberal use of white space (or “space” since it could be a color other than white), and has relatively few elements.  Sure, there can be some special elements, like mirrored cardstock or even sequins.  But overall, it’s a card that can be created quickly and easily.

Making Clean and Simple Cards

All that being said, it took me quite few tries to come up with a card to use as my second AECP submission.  You’ve already seen my final submission by now for mking clean and simple cards, but you can see the others I created in my gallery (linked towards the bottom of this post).

AECP Lesson Submission for “Boutique Cards”

For making a clean and simple card I started out with an A2 card base in Crest Solar White 110 lb, as it would be a smaller card for me to keep clean and simple, LOL.  I’ll list all the supplies at the end of the steps I took to make the card.

Step 1:  Cut the Card Panels

It’s very rare for me to stamp directly on the card base, and this was no exception.  I cut an panel sized 5.5 inches x 4.25 inches out of grey 67 lb. cardstock and set it aside.

Then, I cut another panel from white 80 lb cardstock — this time I cut it to 5.25 inches x 4 inches.  This will be the card panel I’ll stamp on.

Step 2:  Shadow Stamp

I wanted a watercolor-ish look to the card, so I decided to do what I call “shadow stamping”, and it took three ink colors for the card.  However, because the pink is so light, for demonstration purposes I used three different purple shades from Altenew — Soft Lilac, Wisteria and Lavender Fields.

The stamp I am using is from the “Wings of Hope” stamp set from Altenew.  Using the largest flower image, I stamped it once in Wisteria Fields (the middle shade of the three).

I next inked up the stamp using Soft Lilac, which is the lightest of the three shades. For my “shadow stamp” I offset my stamp a little so that it formed a shadow.  Doing this gives it a little more of a watercolor-y look (to me, anyway).

I then inked up just the middle of the stamp with Lavender Fields, the darkest of the three shades.  I then took a blending brush and tapped it into the inked portion to feather out the color and make it more diffuse.  After that, I lined up the stamp with the original image and pressed it down.

(It doesn’t matter if the stamping is a little off — remember, this is a watercolor look.)

So the photo examples are the purple colors, but for my finished card, I chose the colors Rose Quartz, Pink Diamond and Cotton Candy (all three from Altenew).

Click for a Larger Image

Step 3:  Add the Leaves

For the leaf stamp (also from the Wings of Hope set), I did the first two steps of the shadow stamp with the same color — Limestone, which is a pale grey-green.  I then used the color Firefly just on the tips and blended it down the stamp with a blending brush.  I then tried to match up the final leaf stamp with one of the others.  Both Limestone and Firefly are inks from Altenew.

Step 4:  Stamping the Sentiment

I used the Altenew Pure Graphite ink to stamp my sentiment, which is from the Himalayan Poppy set.  I chose the Pure Graphite color because it’s a dark grey, and I though it would be a better choice than using black.

I stamped it onto the right side of the cardstock.  Although you can certainly use an acrylic block to do your stamping, I prefer to use my stamping platform (Tim Holtz stamping platform) for the sentiment.  I generally double-stamp to get a really crisp outline and the stamping platform allows me to keep my stamp lined up perfectly.

Finishing it All Up

I mounted my cardstock onto the grey panel, leaving a 1/8 inch border all the way around, with double-sided tape.  I then placed my grey panel on the card base (again, using the double-sided tape).

Well, my inner bling started speaking to me, saying the card needed a little something extra.  So, I grabbed some iridescent ink and added a few splatters to my card.  Hmm, not quite enough, so I added three enamel dots.

Click for a Larger Image

So that’s my submission for making clean and simple cards for my AECP project called “Boutique Cards”.  If you’ve made it this far, here’s a link to the other cards I made while trying my skills.  And of course, below are my supplies.  Hope you have enjoyed this project and see you later!

Supplies

• Stamps:   The flower and leaves are from the Wings of Hope set and the sentiment is from the Himalayan Poppy set.
• Inks:  Altenew inks in the following colors:
  • Inks for the demos images:  Soft Lilac, Wisteria and Lavender Fields.
  • Inks used on the final card:  Rose Quartz, Pink Diamond and Puffy Heart for the flowers.  Limestone and Firefly for the leaves.
• Cardstock:  Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb (card base), Classic Crest Solar White 80 lb (white panel) and a grey 67 lb cardstock
• Embellishment (a.k.a. “bling”):  Sparkle Silk (Spellbinders) and Enamel Dots (Altenew)
• Acrylic blocks (Amazon) for stamping the flowers and the leaves.
• Stamping Platform:  Tim Holtz Stamp Platform for stamping the sentiment (Amazon).