One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #9: Hip to be Square

Ardyth here, your hostess for OLS9. This month, it's hip to be square! Make a one-layer card  incorporating a square in some way. I love to make 4 1/4x 4 1/4 inch square cards - they feel modern and symmetrical PLUS they fit into a standard envelope and don't require extra postage. You can choose to use your squares in other creative ways - as long as there's a square on your card somehow, somewhere, you're hip!

For this square card, I chose a square Papertrey stamp and stamped it 4 times in bold colours, creating another square. I chose a bold, thick Technique Tuesday sentiment stamped in black, to ensure that it was easy to read. The brightly-coloured square grounds the sentiment, but doesn't overwhelm it.

How to be Hip! (Rules for OLS9)

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of cardstock folded in half.  No other layers of paper are allowed.
2. Make a one-layer card using a square in some way. Remember to keep embellishments to a minimum. 
3. Post your card somewhere on the internet and link it to us using the Inlinkz button below.  If you link to your blog, please link to that specific post and not your blog's home page so we can find it easily.
4. Link up before midnight on September 24.
5. The most important rule of all is to have fun!

An InLinkz Link-up

OLS8 - Details

Welcome to the Details Post for OLS#8. As we do each month, a few design team members will call out selected details from entries for the month as particularly effective design elements. One-layer cards have little room for embellishment or dressing up, and it's often amazing how a simple little detail will elevate a CAS card to something amazing!

Thank you all for participating in the August One-Layer Simplicity Challenge: Shades of Summer! What a great collection of cards we got, and it has been so difficult to pick just three whose details elevate their designs especially well.

Susan's Details

Kimberly used fabulous, summery colors from the #5 inspiration photo, but what I really love is the use of a bold, black sentiment and subtle half pearls.

 

Shirley used a gorgeous no-line watercolor technique to achieve the effect of a hand-painted rather than stamped-and-painted butterfly using the colors from the #5 inspiration photo.

 

Jasleen exploited the blue and orange combination from the #3 photo. Her one-corner, fade background is simply stunning.

Ardyth's Details

Sherrie's use of background stamps to make a sunny beach scene is inspired!

Julia's beautifully blended and framed card evokes summer perfectly!

Chris's use of line images leaves this CAS card feeling very light and airy!

 

 

 

 

Karen's Details

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Katherine's card caught my eye with it's fun lineup of glasses and the paint splatters. 

 

 

Sandra's card had such a tranquil, calm beauty to it done in the colours of Fall.

 

 

 Sue T's card really makes such a pretty statement with its banner greeting and the cascading flowers.


Cheryl's Details



Maura used such bright happy colors for her card.  I love how she masked and stamped on her balloons for added interest.




Lynn's soft outline around her images caught my eye.  The perfect masculine card.




Darnell's technique (colored stamp with markers, then lightly misted with water) resulted in a beautiful watercolor effect, with a soft subtle feel.




Thank you all so much for participating in the August challenge. Now, get ready for Ardyth's September challenge!!!  

One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #8: Shades of Summer

Our August OLS#8 Challenge is to be inspired by summer's wonderful colors! Those of us in the northern hemisphere are enjoying summer, and those of us in the southern hemisphere can dream about summer.

There are lots of fabulous options for this challenge, so remember that you have 24 days to play and are free to enter as many times as you wish. The challenge closes on August 24th.

For this challenge, pick one of the following color combinations and make a card celebrating this warm and fruitful season:

Shades of Summer #1

Shades of Summer #2

Shades of Summer #3

Shades of Summer #4

Shades of Summer #5

Shades of Summer #6

Aren't all those photos and colors beautiful?!!! If you've never spent time on the Design Seeds website, you might want to visit. AMAZING inspiration there, and all our inspiration photos this month come from it.

Tips for tackling this challenge:

1. Don't feel like you have to use ALL the colors in a combination...just 2 or 3 are fine, if you're keeping it really simple. Or use them all. It's really up to you.

2. If you don't have an exact shade of ink to match, don't sweat. Get as close as you can to the suggested colors, as I have done below.

3. Remember that you can off-stamp if you have a dark shade and need a lighter one. If you've never off-stamped, here's how: ink the stamp fully, stamp it on a piece of scrap paper, huff your moist breath on the stamp, then stamp it on your card. Test with the ink you're using on scraps first because some inks off-stamp better than others.

4. Keep your cards themed summery (floral, beach, ocean, picnic, summer sports, fruit, garden, etc.).

Using Shades of Summer #5

My first card uses a simple little flower from Hero Arts in a grid and a tiny sentiment from Clear and Simple Stamps. Of course there is bling to make things sparkle!

Using Shades of Summer #3

My second card makes the oranges of the inspiration photo dominant with a tropical ocean reef theme. Note that Shades of Summer #3 actually has more blues...but I changed the emphasis. Feel free to do the same.

Rules for OLS#8

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

2. Make a card inspired by summer using colors from one of the 6 Shades of Summer options above. Remember to keep embellishments to a minimum.

3. Post your card somewhere online and say which Shades of Summer option you used. Then, link to it using the InLinkz button below. If you link to your blog, please be sure that you link to the specific post and NOT your blog's main page.

4. HAVE FUN!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

OLS7 - Details

Today we are posting our monthly 'details' post.  For this post the DT members comment on little details catch our eye and inspire us in our cardmaking.  We look for elements that work really well on one-layer clean and simple cards. It is always hard to narrow it down to a few.

Thank you to all who decided to "Wave the Flag". Ten different countries were represented, USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Netherlands, Germany, Scotland, China and Japan.

Please join us back here on Friday August 1st when our next challenge goes live.

Ardyth's Details:

Deb's creative use of stars and stripes gives this celebratory card a patriotic feel!

Myrna's creative use of the red and white maple leaves is stunning!

Heather's Details:

Shirley-Bee's stamped stencil is so eye-catching with all the blended colour.



Sandra's layout is very clever with the intersection of butterflies and text highlighted with a different colour butterfly.

Karen's Details:

Chrissie's card is all about relaxing and a great example of CAS.

Joyce M's card is wonderfully done using canoe panels to constuct the flag....great idea.

Susan's Details:

 

Joyce used small icons to hint at an American flag design (star and stripes) in a wonderfully CAS way.

 

Sandra’s use of black on a grid background was completely different and worked perfectly as a foil for the colors and shapes of the flowers.

One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #7: Wave the Flag

Welcome to the July One Layer Simplicity Challenge. Canada Day and the American Independence Day both fall in July so I thought I would challenge you to take some inspiration from your own country's flag when making your one layer card. I created two cards, one inspired by the country I am from and the other by the country where I now live. You can take inspiration from the layout, the colours or the symbols and images on your country's flag.

                 

I am looking forward to seeing how many countries will be represented in this month's challenge.

OLS Challenge Rules

l.  A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of cardstock folded in half.  No other layers of paper are allowed.
2.  Make a card inspired by your country's flag. Remember to keep embellishments to a minimum. 

3.  Post your card somewhere on the internet and link it to us using the Inlinkz button below.  If you link to your blog, please link to that specific post and not your blog's home page so we can find it easily.

4.  The most important rule of all is to have fun!

OLS-6 Details

Today we are posting our monthly 'details' post.  For this post the DT members comment on little details that have got our attention or cards that caught our eye.  Every month we have such a hard time highlighting  just a few.

Thanks so much to everyone who took on our 'I've Been Framed' Challenge this month.  We really enjoyed seeing all the wonderful cards from so many talented cardmakers.  We are so happy you share your creativity and talent with us.

Please join us back here on Tuesday July 1st when our next challenge goes live.

Karen's Details:

May Park created such a pretty, elegant card stamping roses as her frame.

Darnell's card was so cute and fun and I love how she used a die to create a frame.

Vicky used piercing to frame the lovely yellow flowers on her card.

Deepti's card is just too cute!



Ardyth's Details:



Anita's embossed frame is a clever way to contain those beautifully bold butterflies!



Ange's graphic frames draw your eye to her sentiment!




Cornelia's dramatic sky and partial frame make this card take off!



Heather's Details:



Janet's neatly laid out frames are all the more interesting because of the gorgeous watercoloured backgrounds.



Shery's simple black lines and bold black sentiment co-ordinate beautifully to frame the gorgeous speckled background.



Joyce has so many clever details in this bright happy card: plenty of white space as well as evenly arranged elements in her layout, great bold colours, an angled design that guides the eye and a simple clear sentiment as well as tiny bonus ones. Wow!



Susan's Details




Chris F. kept her card so tidy and clean with a woodgrain frame around two wood pencils...so appropriate!




Swanky Greinke Designs combined glitter, kraft paper, and white acrylic paint...genius!



Maura created a beautifully subtle wedding card with white embossing on soft stone card stock and just the right touch of bling!



Cheryl's Details:














Vicki's stamped images outside the frame caught my eye. The second generation stamping (or stamping off technique) she used, adds a soft free-flowing feel to her card.










Sherrie created a clever card with her rainbow of frames and a fun sentiment.














Cornelia's clean and simple Father's Day card, with it's frame background has a wonderful graphic feel it. The read hearts are a sweet touch.

One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #6- I've Been Framed

Welcome back to this month's One-Layer Simplicity Challenge.  Loved seeing the gallery filled with flowers last month; just amazing cards.  The challenges appear on the 1st of the month and will run until the 24th.  So are you ready for a new one!?  Your challenge this month is

I've Been Framed

Create a one-layer card with a border or a frame.  

You can stamp a border, draw one in, doodle, stamp, it's all up to you.  

If you would like to display our blog badge on your blog, please visit the tab at the top of this page.

OLS#6 Challenge Rules

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

2.  Make a card with a frame or a border on it.  Remember to keep embellishments to a minimum.

3.  Post your card somewhere on the internet and link it to us using the Inlinkz button below.  If you link to your blog, please link to the specific post and not your blog's homepage so we can find it easily.

4.  The most important rule of all is to have fun!

An InLinkz Link-up