Wednesday, November 30, 2016

It's Been a Great Run


Ardyth, Heather, Karen, and I want to thank you for your kind support for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge over the three years we've been at it. We are sorry to announce that the November 2016 challenge will be our last.

This blog grew out of my inability to keep up the weekly One-Layer Wednesday challenge on my personal stamping blog. Jennifer Styles helped for a time, but she eventually had to step down, and that's when Ardyth, Heather, and Karen stepped up. They were delightfully committed to the idea, and eventually, Ardyth did the work setting up a separate OLS blog, creating our badges, and such. I so appreciate all her technical and creative support.

As the landscape of stamping has changed and as trends have moved toward more complicated, product-intensive design, we've noticed participation waning, especially in the past year.

We don't have a corporate sponsor and don't do giveaways, which would give us a competitive edge, so to speak, but I never wanted one-layer simplicity (note lower case!) to be about competition. And I know that the trends will shift back again eventually. That's after all what trends do.

Those who've known me for a while know that I make simple cards because I love them. So do Ardyth, Karen, and Heather...and you! I encourage you to explore other challenges and to look at them with fresh OLS-inspired eyes. Ask yourself, "Could I do this with one layer?" And give it a try.

That way, the spirit of what we've done here at OLS will live on. It's been a great run, and we thank everyone who has played along with our super-CAS philosophy. We hope you will continue to follow our individual blogs (see the links below!), because all four of us are still very committed to stamping.

Stamp with joy!

--Susan


Ardyth's Blog: MASKerade

Karen's Blog: Snippets

Heather's Blog: bits & pieces

Susan's Blog: Simplicity


23 comments:

  1. Thank you all for running this challenge. One of my favorites for sure! I will miss it!

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  2. Will really miss your challenge...it always challenged me to produce a one layer card - thank you for all your work and inspiration, we've all be truly blessed by it!

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  3. It's been a blast, but it's time to move on. Thanks to all you wonderful participants - we love that you shared your creativity with us over the past 3 years. Thanks to the rest of the team for sharing their time and inspiration. See you all in blogland!

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  4. Thanks for putting so much of your time into this great challenge!
    One of my favorites!
    I'll mis it , but one-layer cards stay my favorite, although I don't always make them CAS!
    See you in blogland!

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  5. Oh my goodness I will miss this so much. My fav is one layer and simple cards. I am not keen on the shift to more techniques and products and will continue to make my one layer, simple cards as this is what makes me happy. I think you have done a superb job and I thank you all for this. I would love this to continue and if you ever do want to or some of the other team do I would love to be invloved, please let me know as I am not interested in sponsors etc and it doesn't bother me that there are not many entries x

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  6. Thanks, ladies! While I never seem to have time to enter challenges these days, I've been a very dedicated stalker, and have learned so much about simplicity and white space! You all rock!

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  7. I'm sad, but totally understand. Thank you, all, so much for providing this space for the CAS lovers among us!

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  8. Thank you for running the challenge ... you are some of my absolute favourite CAS designers. I'll see you on your personal blogs.

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  9. I'm sad, but totally understand. I've never been trendy & the new one of what I often see as cluttered is not calling to me--haha! I usually had 1 layer on my cards until I began participating in OLS. Thank you all for sharing your talent here & I wish you the best in Blogland where I know I'll continue to see your work.

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  10. I've not had time to join in lately but thoroughly enjoyed it when I did previously. I'll be sad to see OLS close but completely understand. Thanks so much for all the wonderful inspiration x

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  11. I'm sad to see the OLS challenge is coming to an end. I only discovered it a few months ago when I started gravitating more toward CAS designs, so I've only entered a couple of times. Thanks to all of you for the work you put into it!

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  12. I have enjoyed the challenges, learnt such a lot and I thank you for all your hard work and amazing inspiration x

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  13. So sorry to see you go. Although I do not post cards, I enjoy seeing and CAS-ing your designs. I follow all the design team's blogs. Thank you for your sharing your time and talent.

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  14. Well, shoot. It's because I missed the last challenge by a matter of MINUTES, isn't it? Seriously, it was a great run and I appreciate the time and inspiration you all put into this OLS challenge, even when I didn't get my act together to play in each one. While changes are happening all around us, it's been lovely to see lots of bloggers gravitate to the CAS OLS method of card art, thanks to you talented ladies! Hugs, Darnell

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  15. So sorry to see you go - thanks to this challenge I find I am making more and more of my cards one layer ones even when I don't need to (it saves me a lot in postage too!). Hope to see you all around elsewhere in blogland
    Jane

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  16. So sorry to see the challenge end. This challenge was my inspiration to make my first one-layer card ... and, it was so much fun! A big thank you for the very talented team ... I always check your blogs. Hugs, Marilyn

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  17. I too, am sorry to see this challenge go even though I didn't participate very often, it is a favorite of mine. I do follow each of you ladies in my feeder so will be keeping up with what you are doing. Thank you for the time you did put in... and for the inspiration!

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  18. I only participated a few times but I have often visited here and been so impressed and inspired by the challenges and beautifully creative entries. Thank you so much for running this challenge, and I will definitely continue to follow your blogs.
    Jen

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  19. I may not have participated much (I don't have much time for participating in any challenges), but I did love OLS because I love one-layer CAS cards the very best. I'm sad to see you go, but support your choice. Thank-you for keeping it running for so long. xxx

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  20. Thanks ladies. I haven't played along much recently, but the OLC weekly challenge was one of my favourites and I did play as much as possible. Sorry to see you guys close. But you'll see me at your blogs! xxx

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  21. This is so sad to me. So sorry to see you go.. I have enjoyed when I have gotten to participate, but I always check in to see what is going on. Thanks for all you did to bring all this inspiration to us every month. xo

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  22. Thanks to Susan, Ardyth and Heather. Your inspiration and talents have helped me be a better card maker!!and your friendships are appreciated and treasured.
    Thanks to all of you that have played along and supported out fun run with this challenge. It was a fantastic time!

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  23. Lovely to hear from all of you who found OLS inspirational and educational and just plain fun. We had fun providing some challenges and inspiration and were blown away by the talented participants.

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