I’ve been eyeing a new card challenge blog, The Card Concept, who just debuted their first challenge this past week. Their color challenge is a mix of pinks and browns, which is right up my alley, but I couldn’t quite tie down a concept until I laid eyes on this week’s Clean and Simple challenge from The Paper Players – a single-layer Valentine’s Day card. This super-clean card came to life the very moment I combined the two challenges:
And here are the challenge banners from The Card Concept and from The Paper Players:
Tips, Tricks and Reminders
- A Striped Border. I love the simplicity of these architectural lines. For starters, there are three lines on the horizontal and three lines on the vertical. You know how I love my threes. With a straight-edge and the brush tip of my Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride Stampin’ Write Markers, I created these lines, intentionally keeping the darkest lines on the top and right of the others.
- Crumb Cake Notecards. I didn’t set out to make a notecard-sized card – it just happened as I played around with the design, colors and concept. In the end, the card is perfectly sized for one of Stampin’ Up!’s Crumb Cake Notecard Envelopes.
- A Simple Sentiment. I just love this sentiment from Happy Watercolor. “You Make me Happy” is everywhere in Stampin’ Up! stamps these days, but I love, love, love it. I stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso and then carefully added the blossom from Petal Parade (a Sale-a-Bration stamp). It looks like the flower blooms right out of the “k” in “make,” doesn’t it?
Stamp sets: Happy Watercolor, Petal Parade Papers: Very Vanilla Inks: Early Espresso, Blushing Bride, Stampin’ Write Markers (Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride)
Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Brian
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Sale-a-Bration. You are in for quite a treat with this year’s Sale-a-Bration. What’s Sale-a-Bration? Sale-a-Bration is Stampin’ Up!’s annual sales event (this year it lasts from January 28 to March 31) during which customers have a great opportunity to earn awesome, exclusive products. Here are three great ways to take advantage of Sale-a-Bration:
- Earn free products for purchases. For every $50 in purchases, customers are able to choose a free product from a selection of exclusive stamp sets, kits and other products. The selection of products is really great this year – the best I’ve seen.
- Join Stampin’ Up!. If you have ever thought about joining the Stampin’ Up! family, this is your time. Not only will you earn a discount on the product you want, but you’ll be a part of a wonderful, supportive group. If you’ve ever thought about joining, I’d love for you to reach out to me at [email protected] so I can help you plan for Sale-a-Bration.
- Hostess Benefits. When you purchase more than $150 in Stampin’ Up! products, you earn hostess rewards for free items of your choice. During Sale-a-Bration, you have an opportunity to earn extra hostess benefits for large orders and large parties. If you’d like to gather orders from friends (whether or not they live near you, shipments can go directly to them), I would love to help you earn the extra rewards.
I love this. It is so much harder to get a CAS just right but you did it big time! Perfect balance. What a fun technique creating a single plaid border.
Perfect! 🙂
Love this card.
Beautiful!
Love CAS cards and this one is also beautiful!! The border is perfect, it kind of gives the illusion of depth. The bloom does look like it’s growing out of the letter “k”, how clever of you!!!
Fabulous CAS card Brian – and really so striking! You have used the challenge colours to perfection! I created border lines with a marker on a card of mine today too but I’m not sure if you’re going to like it as I have only drawn 2 lines! 😉 Thanks for joining us at The Card Concept this week!
Great CAS and I love how you got all of the colours on your card! A perfect execution 🙂
Oooohhh……(heavy sigh) but it’s a very good sigh. That is my reaction to your card today. It makes me happy just looking at it. Can you tell that I simply love it! Thank You Brian.
Awesome!
CAS perfection…….love those straight lines! But the question is can you chew gum at the same time?
Brian, I love, love this card and the colors!
Your lines are perfect! Such a pretty card.
I like it ! It is the cutest ! I have grown attached to threes also . Okay here`s my corny for the day ….Threes are the trip ! Get it ? But, of course you do !
Love it, Sonny!
What a gorgeous card! Certainly making me happy! One to case…
Brian, I love this card. So elegant even though it’s a CAS. I think I’ll turn this CAS into a CASE!
Me too Robin! And I just love how the flower is blooming out of the “K”!
Awesome single-layer card, Brian! You nailed these two challenges!
I love it when you share a card that is simple: just a few colors repeated, single layer, etc. We love to make cards all fancy shmancy with oodles of embellishments and techniques, but it’s really important and nice to also demonstrate that a beautiful card can be made using minimal product and minimal fuss. A card like this is awesome to show us newbies that we can make something gorgeous without breaking the bank.
That’s what I love about you Brian; you make the most amazing cards that showcase all levels of aptitude. Thank you.
I love those stripes. Such a clean, elegant look.
This is just the most charming card! I just love how you incorporated the colors in the stripes!!!! SO glad you shared this with us. I haven’t gotten those Crumb Cake envies either….but I think I should!
I love this card, Brian. Just beautiful.
Love….Love….Love…..this card!
So Brian – did you measure the space between those lines? They are absolutely perfect and I know if I drew them they wouldn’t be so perfectly spaced. When I look at this card the first thought I had was “What an amazing note card set this design would make”. All you would have to do is change the saying. Versatile, beautiful and simple…………it can’t get any better than that. Thanks for sharing.
The lines are eyeballed, Grace. It took several tries to get the look I wanted – this wasn’t a one-time deal. 🙂
OH MY GOSH. . . you did it again! That is what came out of my mouth as soon as the page loaded! I almost had to catch my bottom jaw before it hit my desk! LOL! Now to go back up and read what you wrote . . . I’ll be back!
You’re amazing Brian! This is totally why I visit you every morning with coffee in hand. I love your humor and wit but then there are the cards you create that inspire me! I bet anything that your lines of 3 will be popping up every where now!! 🙂 I love everything about this card! I wonder if your card falls under the CAS or the CAGraphic theme?? It’s really both!!
I’m totally in love with this card Brian! I love the colors, I love the simplicity, I love the lines of 3, I love the sentiment, I love the placement of the blossom, I love the Crumb Cake Note Card Envelope . . . this is definitely what I call PERFECTION!
Wow! Thanks, Tonya!
Love- love-love this!!
Great clean and graphic use of these colours! Thanks so much for joining us at the very first Card Concept challenge – I hope we’ll see you again!
Oh Brian this is one of my favorite cards – clean, classy and so appealing!
One layers are so hard, and this one is perfection!
Brian, this is a perfect CAS one layer creation! I love it! The colors are awesome and thanks for turning me on to the new challenge blog. Thanks for playin’, too!
I can’t even begin to tell you how perfect these lines are… Perfect colors, perfectly straight and the perfect design element. Such a simple idea that looks so wonderful!
Awesome card. I love the simplicity.
This card just screams elegance and simplicity at the same time. I just love those hand-drawn lines that define this card beautifully! NJ!
a show stopper for sure…I luv this….so glad you played along with the first Card Concept challenge!
sparkle & shine *~*
Ditto to all of the above! I absolutely love your tips and technique details. I would not have caught on to the flower blooming from the K, but your explanation opened my eyes and I love it. I am still in awe of the way you see things like that. I just like the look of the card. Thanks again for sharing! Nancy B
Beautiful lines and great use of this week’s colors. So glad you joined us for our first challenge at The Card Concept.
Ok so admit it… you are really an engineer or an architect, not a CPA right? You have to be in order to get those lines so beautiful, even with a straight edge. I am IN LOVE with this card; it’s simplicity, it’s classy look and the colors. A real show stopper! Way to go! CASE-ing….although my lines are probably going to be squiggles, even with a straight edge ruler.
Funny, Bobbi! Just a CPA – math is my friend. Thanks!
What an awesome result from combining the two challenges! Very eye-catching!
LOVE this! I just tried a little variation of yours and laid down a line using the fine part of the marker and then used the brush on either side of that line – striking! Thanks for inspiration.
Wow! I am really blown away by all the kind comments you all left me today. I enjoyed making this simple card, and I am so glad you all liked it so much. Thank you!
Yes, this is a great little saying; I love it too, but what I really like are the lines! I kept racking my brain trying to think what they reminded me of, and then it hit me: the corner pattern of a gentleman’s handkerchief! Do men still carry handkerchiefs? The color combo is also perfect. Wonderful, Brian!
Fantastic card design, Brian! Congratulations on the win at The Card Concept!! Hugs, Darnell
I absolutely love your card! I loved it so much I headed off to my craft room to recreate it, I had it all measured out, drew my first line and it smeared right at the end. Oh well I thought, keep going. My second line came out perfect, moved to do my third, smeared the whole way and when I picked up the ruler I had all these colored smudges on the left border. Uggh! I don’t know how you kept your card so clean. I decided to finish it just to see if there were going to be other challenges, there are smudges from my ruler all over the place. I did let my lines dry a little before picking up my ruler on the lower lines and that helped a little, I will try again! Thanks for the card idea.
This is a wonderful card, perfect colours, super sentiment and as you say, Brian, it looks like the bloom is spreading out from the top of the ‘k’. Very pretty!
Brian, thanks for the new challenge intro! Ill bookmark it 🙂
In the meantime, I love the pink and brown with the stripes and flower. It’s beautifully CAS and the stripes make sure your eye travels all around the card. Gorgeous. So glad you joined the Paper Players again this week
Jaydee
Brian, I love everything about this! CAS perfection! Thank you so much for joining us this week at the Paper Players! 🙂
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I love the design and the colors. Someday, I’ll have an eye for it! It’s a work in progress…..
Great CAS card! Love the color combo!
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