OLS1 - Details

Instead of choosing plain ol' favorites, our design team spotlights cards that demonstrate those little details of design that make one-layer cards stand out. We hope that this helps everyone get ideas for taking their one-layer cards from good to great!

Admittedly, we all found it hard to narrow our choices to just three or four cards to spotlight. There are so many awesome entries! Many thanks to all who played along.

We hope you enjoyed our first One-Layer Simplicity challenge and that you are looking forward to February's challenge hosted by Heather Telford.

Susan's Details



#137 Deepti went outside the box on her adorable Valentine's Day card. The flowers outside the frame are lovely, as is the hand-drawn frame itself. Also, her coloring is bold, bright, simple...simply perfect!





#111 Karin pulled off a stunning victory with this white embossing on colored, textured card stock. There are no mistakes in the embossing, no stray powder clinging where it shouldn't. That level of skill and precision is awesome.




#93 Lynn's soft and gentle sympathy card uses perfectly placed twine to ground the bird, but the "cut in half" design works perfectly to show how our lives feel cut in half and frayed by grief.




#151 Debra James made this lovely monochromatic card, adding depth and dimension to her simple flower using copics over ink. The dashed line adds movement, and the oblong shape of the card creates some wonderful white space.

Ardyth's Details



#60 Nonni's shading of the blue to make the flowers' petals look dimensional is a simple yet WOW technique. I love how they pop off the card!




#95 - Valerie's use of a stencil to put a lot of bold colour on her one layered card. This is a real eyecatcher and will surely bring a smile to the recipient's face!




#131 - Cornelia's use of a masked/sponged oval to ground her image is a fantastic way to emphasize the drama of the black silhouettes. If you visit her blog, you will also see the way she CASified a sketch to eliminate layers.



#96 - Lauren's genius idea of embossing the letters rather than die cutting and adding a layer really caught my eye - what a great way to emphasize the sentiment!


Karen's Details 



#12- Ingrid; Love the torn edges on her sponged beach scene card...makes me want a vacation.



#13- Corina; I love the collage and grunge style of her card.

#113- Sandie; The true definition of a clean, cute, fresh and fun CAS card.



Heather's Details













#20 Shery R showed how a one layer can display plenty of depth by creating shadows behind these fabulous feathers.




#52 May used two parts of a whole to balance this simple layout beautifully and I like the few pops of colour on the white and kraft.















#104 Toni used the basic black and white colour scheme to show off her intriguing hand drawn details.



Thanks again to each and every one of you who participated. We're off to a great start with our challenge because of YOU!!!!

One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #1: Restocking the Shelves

Welcome to the very first One-Layer Simplicity Challenge! It's kinda-sorta like the One-Layer Wednesday Challenge, only better!

It's NEW!

It's IMPROVED!

It will organize your craft supplies!

Well, not really. You'll have to do that yourself. Sorry about that. I just got carried away.

I'M SO EXCITED!!!

Here's how the new challenge works.

1. New Blog. All One-Layer Simplicity challenges will be posted right here on this brand-new blog, simply and beautifully designed by our own Ardyth. This means you no longer have to search five blogs for our one-layer challenge. It will always be right here.

2. Monthly Challenge. The One-Layer Simplicity Challenge is a monthly challenge. A new challenge will be posted by one of our five design-team members on the first of each month and will be open to entries through midnight EST on the 24th, when the InLinkz collection will close.

3. Highlight Week. The last week of each month will be Highlight Week. Making successful clean-and-simple, one-layer cards requires attention to detail, and we want to encourage your creativity in using your stamps, ink, and embellishments for maximum minimalist impact! So our design team will highlight some of our favorite details from among the entries for that month, calling out those little touches that really make CAS cards special.

For those of you struggling with making minimalist cards, we hope our Highlight Week posts help you grow in confidence. For those of you who already love making minimalist cards, we sure hope you have fun playing along!

And now for the details of the first challenge....

OLS1: Restocking the Shelves

The holidays are over. Store shelves are empty and need re-stocking. So do our card stashes. Perhaps you sent all your thank-you cards after Christmas. Perhaps you just realized you're facing another year of panicked, last-minute, emergency birthday-card making. Perhaps you want to get a really early start on Christmas cards.

Whatever your card-stash shortage, January is the month to restock! Design a simple, one-layer card of the theme you need. Then, make a few extras to have on hand.  You're welcome to share multiple designs as well through the InLinkz collection, which will be open until midnight, January 24th!

I need to make a lot of birthday cards for my extended family in 2014, so here's my first restocking effort. The card will go to my cousin's 13-year-old daughter, who told her mom last birthday that my cards were her favorites!

My card takes advantage of the rule of thirds, placing a metallic silver line on the 1/3 horizon after masking some randomly happy, layered yellow and green flowers. The silver theme is enhanced with silver half-pearls and gray ink for the sentiment.

Now it's your turn! What type of card do you need to restock the most? How can you convey that sentiment most effectively with just one layer of card stock, folded in half? Remember, no other layers of paper allowed!

OLS1 Challenge Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of card stock folded in half. No other layers of paper are allowed.

2. Make a card to restock your card stash. Any theme goes...sympathy, thank you, thinking of you, Christmas, birthday, get well, etc. Just remember to keep embellishments to a minimum.

3. Post your card somewhere on the internet and link to it using the InLinkz button below. Remember if you link to your blog, please link to the individual post and not your blog's home page so we can find your card easily.

4. The most important rule of all...HAVE FUN!!!!