Quick and simple cards with minimal supplies

Hi Everyone,

Mirella here. Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! As you know, I am Polish, and in Poland we have quite a funny tradition on Easter Monday, which - loosely translated - could be called "Wet Monday". Depending on the regions, it's celebrated differently, but in my corner of Poland we basically drench each other with buckets of water, hahaha. In theory, it's meant to be a bit more sophisticated, and boys/men are meant to SPRINKLE girls/women with water (or sometimes perfume - imagine the smell!), but that rarely happens :o) You can read some more on it here. I do hope, however, that it's not applied too heavily this year, as from my understanding from my Polish relatives - it's rather cold at the moment! 

Back to card making now...

I thought that it might be good to share some quick and simple designs with you today, seeing that we don't always have the time, or the supplies, to make very elaborate and complex cards. I know that I sometimes find myself in need of a card for "yesterday", and I usually stress that I don't have enough time to make one. The designs below, however, should give you an idea of making something quick and easy. 

CARD 1 - For girly girls

1. I treated a panel of pink cardstock with an "embossing buddy" and stamped the "Happy Birthday" design all over it with Versamark Ink. 

2. I then covered the stamped images with a sparkle embossing powder (you can use clear embossing powder and - optionally - mix it with glitter, or you can use any embossing powder you have) and heat set it.

3. I knocked over the opened jar of embossing powder, and ended up with glitter all over my desk - but that is a VERY optional step, and only do it at your own risk! :o)

4. I stamped some confetti from the Let's Party set with Versamark ink only, to get a watermark effect on the cardstock.

5. To finish off the panel, I sprayed it very gently with some water mixed with Perfect Pearls - that way the whole panel has a delicate shimmer all over it.

6. I mounted the panel on a top folding white card base. 

CARD 2 - For boys and girls

1. This is an even simpler and faster version of the first card, as I only stamped the images with Versamark Ink. For this to work, however, bear in mind that you'll want to use a dark enough colour of cardstock, so that the watermark impression is properly visible. 

2. I matted the dark green panel on a slightly bigger panel on black cardstock, and adhered them to the light green card base, with a layer of craft foam in between - this gives the card a slight dimension. 

3. Isn't it super easy? I had to fight the urge to add additional embellishments and element to this card (e.g. I was thinking to cut out another little "happy birthday" circle out of a separate piece of cardstock & pop it dimensionally - or even on an action wobbler! - in the center of the card), to keep it simple, as I promised. 

CARD 3 - With some masking

1. This card is definitely slightly more time consuming & complex than the other two, but I wanted to give you some inspiration towards our current MASKING challenge. Plus, I just really wanted to play a bit more with my supplies! :o)

2. First, I created my coloured panel - I stamped & heat embossed in gold the 3 big flowers, masked them off, and then stamped & heat embossed the smaller flowers around the big ones. I also heat embossed the "Hugs" sentiment. 

3. I cut the panel around the design, leaving a small border around the stamped images.

4. Next, I blended my Distress Inks on top of the panel, adding Peacock Feathers from the bottom, and Broken China from the top - to create a slight ombré effect. This is totally optional, and to make it faster, you can simply use coloured cardstock for the panel you're embossing on (note: I started with a white panel). 

5. I coloured parts of the stamped flowers with the Gold Wink of Stella glitter pen, and splattered some of the Wink of Stella all over my white card base, for some additional interest. 

6. The card was still a bit too empty for me, so I decided to add three stripes of glitter paper to the base, going from thinnest to thickest. This is totally optional, of course, and if you don't have glitter paper, you can draw the lines with a glitter pen, add stripes of double sided tape & stick some fine glitter to it, or create your own gold paper with embossing powders - there are lots of possibilities! 

7. Finally, I mounted the blue panel on top of my white card base, adding some foam tape in between, for additional interest and slight dimension. I'm really happy with how this turned out - and what do you think!?

Stamps used:

Do remember about our fun challenge that we currently have - MASKING!

Mudra stamps are now available at the following Retailers:

The Craft Shop 

Lulupu - The Craft Lounge 

Craft Adda 

Crafts Need

Anandha Stationery

Hindustan Trading Company 

Kat Scrappiness  

Art and Craft Store - Noida

Hindustan Trading Company, Chennai

The Craft Store, Srilanka 

PaperCurves, UAE

Have a fantastic week!

Mirella