OLS4 - Details

Today we're posting our monthly 'details' post. This is where the DT members comment on those little details that caught our eyes and our hearts. Every month we say that we have a hard time picking out just a few, and it's true!

This month we had a lot of fun imagining where we could go and how we could get there! I love seeing how these challenge themes inspire you. You bring your talent and share your creativity with us and we truly appreciate that!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated - whether by linking up a card, or by coming by and commenting or even just by looking at all the gorgeous cards that were linked up!

Our next challenge will go live on May 1 - can't wait to see you there!


Ardyth's Details:


27 Chris F - Chris's use of watercolouring as backdrops to black line images makes this card fun and whimsical!


14 Patti - Patti's use of selective colouring makes her focal image really pop!


 
#3 Sherrie M - I love the way Sherrie's sentiment and focal image relate to each other and the grey oval grounds the tower perfectly!

Heather's Details:


#25 Sandra used red to great advantage on her focal image and the long sentiment doubles as a road to make a clever CAS card.

#21 Deepti used colour expertly; her sunny background makes the lovely hand drawn sailboat pop.

#35 Bev T used a simple monochrome colour scheme to create a very effective collage.



Karen's Details:

#2- Ingrid- Love her beach scene and how she sponged the block and blended the beachy colours         together so well.

#24- Jasleen- Great one-layer with lots of interest and details.



ETA - Oops - this post went up without Susan's details - here they are!




#12 Lynn’s crisp and clean play on a New York minute stole my heart with its kind sentiment and yellow taxi.



#33 Yvette made her card shape fit her design for this absolutely adorable House Mouse trekking his way toward happiness in lime green shoes.

One-layer SImplicity Challenge #4: Road Trip!

Welcome to our fourth challenge at One-Layer Simplicity!

We are so thrilled with your response to OLS - we know you love to have all the challenges in one place here on our new blog.  The challenges will appear on the 1st and run until the 24th, giving you lots of time to play along.  This month we're going to take a

ROAD TRIP

Make a travel-themed one-layer card.

It can be destination-based (ie a favourite or dreamed-of vacation spot) or journey-based (the transportation you used to get there).

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

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 using travel-themed images and/or sentiments.  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!

An InLinkz Link-up

OLS3 - Details

Well, it has been another great month of wonderfully inspiring cards posted here at OLS.  Every month, our design team spotlights cards that demonstrate those little details that really make one-layer cards work.  One-layer can be difficult for many but we hope that by looking at the designs of other card makers it will give inspiration and encourage you to give it a try.  It may just give you a new perspective or some helpful hints that you can use to make a really eye catching design.

The design team is asked to feature 3-4 cards but honestly, that is a difficult task considering all the awesome entries.  Thanks so much to all that played along and I hope you had fun 'adding water' to your one-layer designs.

We hope you enjoyed the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge for March and that you are looking forward to April's challenge hosted by Ardyth Percy-Robb.

Karen's Details

Audrie's  card was just wonderfully done with the ink mixed with water just flowed onto her embossed areas.


Chris's card is wonderfully done with a water-coloured background for the silhouette images.


Vicky's card had a softness and the lovely feel of a country garden which she created using her acrylic block and scribbles.


Sandra's card caught my eye with it's wonderful colour, interest and depth she created using inks and water to blend.


Ardyth's Details


#52 Leslie's minimal but vibrant pops of colour add a fun, whimsical touch to a serious sentiment!


#10  Linda's blending of two fresh spring colours is breathtaking - and I love that she left lots of breathing room!


#64 Darnell's layering of coloured (and watered) stamping,embossing and shimmer is an amazing effect - sparkly, colourful and full of interest!





Heather's Details


Kailash has used pretty spring colours, softened with water to create her own gorgeous floral pattern.


Chris F vibrant splash of colour is balanced by a large sentiment and border to link the whole layout.

Lyn's free and abstract watercolour background gives the delightful impression of a forest.

Susan's Details


Cornelia used water to create this dreamy, soothing card in gray and blue...so unified and harmonious with the message.


Janet turned a "mistake" into a lovely card with pen lines and pearls, and her "correct" versions of the card are equally lovely!


Sunny used a lovely right-angle design and overlapping with perfect placement to make her simple and fresh card catch my eye.



I love that Bonnie made a Christmas card in March...and the embossed lines and vivid colors make it stand out!

One-Layer Simplicity #3 - Just Add Water

Welcome to another month at One-Layer Simplicity.  Are you ready for another fun challenge??!!  

We are thrilled to have all the challenges in one place now on our new blog.  The challenges will appear on the 1st and run until the 24th, giving you lots of time to play along.  So get out your water sprayers or your water brush and get ready to

JUST ADD WATER

You all know how much I love spraying my stamps with water before pressing them onto my paper.  It gives such a wonderful watercolour look to the images and if you use water-based inks, they blend together so nicely. 

You can check out all the guidelines for the making of a one layer card on the tab at the top of the blog page.

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

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 that uses water sprayed or applied onto an image or create a background using water to blend.  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 and add water to your colour image or spray away this month.

An InLinkz Link-up

OLS2 - Details

If you joined us last month you will know that our design team spotlights cards that demonstrate those little details of design that make one-layer cards stand out. Looking at the designs of other card makers can give us all the inspiration to try something new on our one layer cards and give us the helpful hints we might need to make a really eye catching design.

Once again it was very hard to limit ourselves to just a few details. There were so many imaginative ways to use repetition on a card.

We hope you enjoyed our February One-Layer Simplicity challenge and that you are looking forward to March's challenge hosted by Karen Dunbrook.

Heather's Details


#71 Joyce M What can I say? Tilting the dress forms was a stroke of genius; it creates movement and the overlaps add a few more tones to the lovely colours chosen.

#81 Patti shows us how to make the sentiment an integral part of a simple design.


#103 Anita's positioning of the sentiment is beautifully done. The masking and placement show her attention to detail and balance.

Karen's Details

So many wonderful cards again this month in the gallery.  Here are 3 that I really liked:


#3 Toni's card was such a great example of colour variations and using a stencil over a stencil.



#10 Sue's watercolour flowers were wonderful and airy just like a watercolour picture.



#83 Mynn's hexagon card had such great detail and wonderful balance and colours.

Ardyth's Details


#85 - Lauren's choice of colours and simple shapes made this simple card stand out to me.


#79 - Gay's beautifully elegant card shows that using classic black and white is always stylish!



#90 - Karen's choice to use colour for her line images really reinforces her message.


Susan's Details



#23 Michelle W uses bling to create movement for the eye in an otherwise static graphic design



#45 Gillian R went super-clean with her design...but the chevron hearts pack an unexpected design punch




#52 Shirley-Bee used distressing so very well to soften her lovely trio of flowers

One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #2: Can You Repeat That?

What a wonderful response we had to the new, improved, restyled, relocated One Layer challenge. What was once One Layer Wednesday now appears once a month on the 1st and runs until the 24th giving you way more time to get involved. Some people entered last month's challenge several times which just made for more wonderful inspiration. I hope you enjoyed our details post which highlighted some of the important little features of one-layer cards that make them special. 

This month the challenge is to use repetition on your one layer card. You could choose an image and repeat it like I did with the dragonfly or perhaps repeat your sentiment.

If you would like to display our new badge on your blog please visit the badge page accessed at the top of this page

OLS2 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 which features something repeated. It could be an image or a sentiment. 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! Let me repeat that...HAVE FUN!!!

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!!!!