Clean and Simple Boutique Style Cards

Hello everyone, I'm here with another duo of cards. This time for the class Clean and Simple Boutique Cards taught by the talented Jennifer Rzasa .

I was really excited for this class, because I love clean and simple cards. When I first started stamping, I did what was trendy at the time, which was lots of layers and sponged edges and ALL THE THINGS, it seemed. But as I became more confident as a crafter, I really found my own style and it definitely is more on the clean and simple side, with a few messier techniques thrown in. Although there are typically less layers, less stamping, less embellishments, and just less overall, the execution of getting the card "just so" can often take longer than a more detailed card.

For my cards, I took pointers from the Simple Styling lesson. The cards for this part of the lesson are all quite simple, but they have something about them that pops! I took that lesson and applied to the below two cards- keep it simple, but bring in a "pop" element, whether that's a simple embellishment, a pop of colour or dimension or something unexpected.

First up, I really wanted to use the Crafty Life stamp set. I own both the Crafty Life and Crafty Friends sets, and I love that there are a few sentiments in both that can still be used for non-crafter recipients. I saw this sentiment -My world is more colorful with you in it- and knew that I wanted to figure out a rainbow colour scheme. Although I didn't use any metallics here, I was inspired by one of Jennifer's cards that featured a bold sentiment over a watercoloured background, so that's what I've done here. I also find that the card itself feels more luxurious and boutique-y, due to the cotton watercolour paper.

I started with a few distress inks and painted simple stripes in rainbow order. I used Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Candied Apple for my rainbow. A key tip for these is to use a paintbrush that is the approximate width that you are wanting each of your stripes, that way you don't have to fuss too much about getting them all the same width. It's okay to still have a little bit of variety with all the stripes, since that helps achieve a more organic and interesting look, but the paintbrush does help with consistency.

Next, was time to stamp the sentiment that inspired it all! I highly recommend using a stamp positioner (I used the MISTI) when inking up sentiments, especially when you've already put a lot of work into your background, and also when using textured paper, such as watercolour paper.

After that was stamped, I wanted that extra little "pop". I found this cute flower shaped button. It was white, so I used a yellow alcohol marker that coordinated nicely with the Mustard Seed stripe and coloured it. This allowed it to add a pop, while still blending in. I love the little something it added!

For this next card, I still had the Crafty Life set out and wanted to use these awesome block words. I thought this would make a fun card for one of my crafty friends. I used a stamping positioner to ensure that the 4 sentiment stamps were lined up and spaced evenly. I also used the MISTI for this because I wanted to ensure that the boldness of the block sentiments would be stamped and the MISTI allows for additional impressions if needed.

Next, I stamped a second "craft" on a scrap piece of the same kind of cardstock as the card base in Raspberry Fizz and cut that out. I popped it up with foam tape so in addition to the pink pop, it also pops because of the dimension. This is a great way to jazz up an otherwise one layer card. 

Due to the visual space of the sentiment, I decided that a 4-bar card would be a better fit. This was just the right amount of white space. Don't be afraid to use different card dimensions when attempting to achieve the right amount of white space. This really took the card from a lost, floating sort of feel to balanced.

Thanks for coming by! I hope you've been enjoying my posts so far this week. I have just a few more Level 1 cards to post and then I'm hoping to take on the Level 1 challenge and go through my Level 2 classes. I have been having so much fun learning new techniques, re-discovering older ones and using my Altenew stamps and dies to their full potential!

Supplies:

Stamps: Crafty Life

Ink: Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Candied Apple, Ranger Archival Black ink, Raspberry Fizz (PTI)

Paper: White, Watercolor paper

Accessories, etc.: small button, yellow alcohol marker, foam tape, paint brush