A Quick and Simple Card Recipe...

Happy Monday Morning Everyone!  Today I want to share with you one of my favorite techniques for creating a lovely card in less than 30 minutes.  But even though it is a quick and pretty simple process you can see that the card created is rich with depth and dimension.  This particular technique works so well with Susan Weckesser's "Sail Away" stamp that lately I seem to be using it to make a card a week and here are some of my favorites: 

The basic steps are as follows... pick a solid-colored card base and stamp your image on to it.  Stamp a second image on a different colored piece of plain or patterned paper.  I like to use my inky scraps adding one or two more colors to co-ordinate with my card base. (see below)  From your second image choose one or two or three elements that you want to emphasize and cut them out, adhering them to the card base using foam adhesive dots on some pieces to create depth and dimension.  At this point you can add a few embellishments and a sentiment if desired.  I like to use a black pen to draw a wobbly line around the edge because it finishes off the card and also gives it a whimsical, homemade feel.  That's it... Quick, easy and you can use whatever you have on hand. 

On the variation below you can see that I cut the waves from a piece of scrap paper sprayed with yellow dylusions ink and then I over sprayed it with blue dylusions ink after I had cut it out.  Also, on this card I didn't stamp the image on the base card but cut out two images and layered them.  I popped the sail and the two larger waves to frame the boat and I drew in only one thick black line for the border.  I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed with white embossing powder it to make it more prominent.  I especially love how the thick black line border cutting through the sentiment draws your eye to that corner.

On this last card (below) I stamped the image on the card base and then as well as adding popped pieces of the image I also filled in various bits of the stamped image with colored stickles and liquid glass for some added sparkle.

So now you know my "secret recipe" for a quick handmade card that doesn't LOOK quick - I do hope this little technique gets your creative brain cells firing.  If you liked this project please stop by and see what else I am doing on my blog (grin)

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera