Simple Card Making

Start with the  basic supplies of stamps, ink and paper and take it from there.

Before starting your cards check out your card sizes and layers

Click on any Image to see the cards in Gallery format

Patterned Paper

Patterned paper is a fantastic resource for card makers. 

There are designs to suit everyone tastes from florals....watercolour....space themes to super heroes and snow scenes in a whole range of colours.

Paper pads can be bought in various sizes but the most common are the 6" x 6" pads and 12" x 12" pads.  Of these, the 6" x 6" pads are best suited for card making as the images are scaled down and more suitable for cards.

The big bonus is that all the papers in the pad co-ordinate with each other.  The colour palette has been decided so that takes the hard work out of colour choices.

Use the papers as the focal point of your card front.  Either completely covering the card front or mix two or three paper designs together.  Add a sentiment and you have your card.

Creating cards this way is also handy for those occasions when you have to make a batch of cards - for a fundraising event or to replenish your card stash.

Examples of simple card making with patterned paper.....

Paper pads from companies such as Echo Park and Doddlebug always have a few pages in the pads with cut out sentiments or tags that can be used as the sentiment on your card.  

This makes the creating process even quicker as all you need to do is fussy cut them out and add them to your card front.

It's easy to step up a simple card by adding a few embellishments like ribbon, enamel dots, cut a parts or sequins. 

If you are using a standard card base size there will always be a strip of patterned paper left at the end.  Decorate the inside of your card with this small strip across the bottom of the card for a finishing touch.  

More....patterned paper ideas

Monochromatic Cards

Another way to keep your cards simple is to have a monochromatic colour scheme.

Stamp a card front with one ink colour or two or three tones of the same colour.  It's surprisingly effective and very classy!

Ready Made Sentiments

Save time by using ready made sentiments.  Many card packs are sold with decorative toppers, ephemera or sentiment sheets as extras.

Alternatively purchase a book of sentiments such as this one from Hunkydory that has over 640 sentiments!  That's enough for a whole year of card making!

My personal favourites are the Idea-ology sentiment strips from Tim Holtz 

Washi Tape

I've previously suggested using washi tape.  However, Altenew  have really upped the game by introducing washi tape rolls that are large enough to cover a card front.

The designs are beautiful but not cheap. They do however cut down a ton of stamping time. 

The beauty of washi tape is that it's removable so unlike that sticky backed plastic you used to cover your school books it's easy to smooth out any creases.

Simple Card Designs

Keep your card designs simple - it's easy to over complicate things - remember the old saying "less is more".

And while I'm in the quote zone another one that springs to mind is "You can always add, but you can't take away"

I've put together some simple card designs that will use the minimum of supplies.

My layouts include International and US/Canada measurements to accommodate the different paper/card sizes.  Each layout is a free PDF download.