Keep it Simple Sunday

How are you at keeping it simple when it comes to card designs? I have to tell you that it's a challenge for me! That's one of the reasons I like Keep it Simple Sunday...it pushes me to create quick and easy cards and I hope that my posts serve as an inspiration to you as well! Making your own hand stamped cards really can be fast and simple. For me, the biggest challenge is coming up with a clean layout and then reigning myself in when I want to add extra layers or embellies and I think that one of the best ways spark your own creative ideas is to look through magazines or catalogs. Lately, I've been really enjoying a Stampin' Up! catalog that I received from Mary Fish. Mary is a wildly talented SU! demo who has an amazing blog filled with beautiful creations. You should check it out! Tonight after dinner I decided to browse through the catalog and found a darling layout, similar to mine. (I rarely ever copy a layout exactly but rather see something that sparks that "ah-ha" moment and then a card design comes together in my head.) The thing that stood out tonight when I was looking through the catalog was a card with multiple layers of scallops. I love scallops (that's probably obvious!) and having more than one layer of scallops...why that's pure love! Since I had a few minutes to spare before the kids went to bed, I dashed off to my studio and had this card created in under 20 minutes. See...Simple!! This baby was actually created with scraps that I had sitting next to my work space so the cutting was done in seconds. I paused for a few minutes to consider the image and remembered that long ago I purchased some of these darling turtle stamps (called Turtle Tots) from Stamping Bella. This sweetie had yet to see ink! Once I stamped the image and colored with Copics I simply added a sentiment from Sweet 'n Sassy (they have the best sentiments!) and all those ruffled scallops! I also stamped the basket and heart that the turtle is holding twice, cut them out, and popped them up with foam tape for a little dimension. A sweet card made in under a half hour...how divine. Enjoy!