A no-frills, non -floral card design: Clean & Simple Cardmaking Tutorial | Easy Handmade Card Idea

 

In this Clean and Simple (CAS) cardmaking tutorial, I share a fun geometric card design suitable for anyone who is a no-frills type of person. Yes, cardmaking does include many floral designs, but that is not all we can make.

If you want to make your card along with me, watch my You Tube video, complete with a blooper right at the end! 👉 The blooper shows up around the 27-minute mark, so you can either craft along with me as I stamp and assemble my card or skip ahead for a laugh. If you enjoy DIY cardmaking, stamping, or beginner-friendly handmade card tutorials, this video is for you! Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to help my channel grow—I’d love to connect with fellow crafters.

Supplies

• 
• Altenew's Doodled Triangles Stamp set
• Altenew's pigment ink in Permanent Black
• Fresh dye in in Aqualicious, Warm Sunshine, Frayed Leaf, Sweet Leaf, Limestone
• Altenew white card stock

1. First you are going to cut and fold your white card stock into a fold-open A2 (4.25"X5.5') card.
2. Observe the design in the picture and begin stamping. Some elements should be stamped first and you will need to make a mask (as easy as a scrap piece of card stock) so that some elements look further back. It may be helpful to watch my video if you have any question as how to do this.
3. Lastly, stamp the sentiment.

And there you have it.  A CAS (clean and simple) design that relys on geometric shapes for pattern instead of florals and embellishments. Who says card making is just for frilly women!

Clean & Simple Cardmaking Tutorial + Funny Blooper | Easy Handmade Card ...

#Ever messed up your handmade card at the very last step? 🙈 You’re not alone! In this Clean and Simple (CAS) cardmaking tutorial, I share a fun geometric card design—and yes, you’ll see my real-life crafting blooper happen right on camera. 👉 The blooper shows up around the 27-minute mark, so you can either craft along with me as I stamp and assemble my card or skip ahead for a laugh. If you enjoy DIY cardmaking, stamping, or beginner-friendly handmade card tutorials, this video is for you! Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to help my channel grow—I’d love to connect with fellow crafters. 💬 Are you a cardmaker too? Share what you’re working on in the comments—I’d love to see your creations!

Let it Shine: Creating cards with bling

It's that time of year where we bring out all that shimmers and delights. With this simple card, I used iridescent textured foil for a white to pinkish moon glow of snow. (The photo does not do the iridescent shimmer justice.) I then framed it with evergreen branches and a holiday sentiment.

Supplies

• Altenew Festive Tree layering stamp set 
  
• Altenew fresh dye inks in Evergreen and Olive
• Altenew pigment ink in Permanent Black and White Cloud
• Altenew scissors
• Altenew Solar White Card Stock
• Altenew Black Card Stock
• Glue
• Textured iridescent foil

1. Create two A2  (4.25"X5.5") fold-over cards from your card stock.
2. Use the Festive Trees layering stamp set to stamp five trees framing the bottom half of the front (see the photo).
3. Cut out and glue the textured foil to front of one of your A2 fold over cards.
4. Cut out the frame of trees from the front of the white card stock-only card.
   
5. Align and glue the frame of stamped trees to the bottom of the card with the foil front.
6. Cut a 5"X5.5" strip out of black card stock.
7. Stamp "Cheers to a Happy and Healthy New Year" sentiment onto the black strip with your white pigment ink. 
8. Glue this strip across the the front of card, 3/4 of way down.
9. Stamp "Warmest Wishes" sentiment onto white card stock in black pigment ink.
10. Glue this sentiment onto the middle of card.

This card is simple to make. I used mostly generic supplies; except for the iridescent foil - she is the star. It is worth noting that this layering stamp set used to be bundled with a matching die set. I believe that die set is now discontinued. I bought the stamp set on clearance. It was not hard to fussy cut the stamped trees.

I recommend always checking sales and clearance items first when visiting craft stores. Often there are items that are new to you but "old" to the store. Or items that are missing a matching piece of the set, but you know how you can make it work. Just one small way to make a  potentially expensive hobby more economical.

CAS card - letterpress at home

 Have you ever received a fancy card with letterpress type?

With letterpress, the paper is textured and you can literally see the printing process. It denotes an important and special feel to the card. Letterpress is officially done at a printers; but I have a trick to make a faux letterpress card. 

This trick is actually multi-step, requiring agile fingers and patience. I will show you a tip to make it go smoother. It took me several tries to figure it out but I am happy to pass it along. But first:

 Supplies

• White cardstock
• Altenew Butterfly Dreams layering stamp set
• Altenew Fancy Hello Die
• Altenew fresh dye ink sets in Golden Sunset and Sweet Dreams
• Die cutting machine
• Spray adhesive
• Vellum

1. The first thing you will do is die cut five fancy hellos from card stock.
2. Then you glue each fancy hello on top of each other, making one thick fancy hello. For me, this was harder than it sounds. I have neuropathy in my non dominant hand and this creates numb fingertips and lack of dexterity in that hand. Usually it does not interfere with my art, but this stacking of such delicate die cuts was frustrating. Until I figured out a way to make it easier. Take two sewing needles and stick 
   
   them into something softly solid. Then line up the die cuts using the needles as guides (see photo). Letting the die cuts fall onto the other dies, with the two needles holding them still, allows you to fuss and get them exactly lined up. Voila! I got this idea after many failed attempts of glueing 5 hellos onto each other and then printing (step 5) with them. Since those were not lined up as well, they created a fuzzy mess of a hello on my card. 
3. Die cut a fancy hello out of vellum and stick that to the bottom of your five glued-together hellos. So, now it is six layers, and the bottom layer is ink resistant.
4. Ink the bottom of the hello (onto vellum side) and then carefully situate onto the card where you want it to rest. 
5. Now run that through your die cutting machine (you will probably have to fuss with the number of layers of plates you put on the stack). Your card is now imprinted with the fancy hello and it is pressed into the paper making an indent in the paper. Faux letterpress.
6. Now the fun part - stamping and playing with colors. Using my Butterfly Dreams layering stamp set, I stamped three butterflies. I used the two sets of mini cubes in yellows and teals. You know I could not resist and several times combined more than one color in inking the same stamp. 
7. With my butterflies flying happily, I used those same ink cubes to make irregular splatters of color on the card front. To do this, I pressed a brush onto an ink cube. I transferred the color to a palette. Then I sprayed water onto the ink and made the ink watery; so I could pick it up it with my brush and splatter the watery ink onto my card.

I like the look of this card, I am glad to know this technique. Stay tuned and I will show you other card making techniques that create interesting textures as well. Happy stamping.

Easy card : clean and simple

 

My first class in the Clean & Simple (CAS) style of card making was basic. I admit, that I had to hold myself back while creating this card. Basically, I stamped the images and colored in two spots that I felt balanced the composition and injected a little pizazz. It is pretty straight forward. 

Supplies

• Altenew Many Thanks stamp set
• Altenew Healthcare Heroes stamp set
• Altenew fresh dye ink in crimson
• Altenew pigment ink in permanent black
• Staedtler watercolor pencil no. 124
• Hangfan alcohol marker in carmine
• No. 6 round brush

One item that I did not list in the supplies is Altenew Stampwheel 2.0. I did not list it because it is absolutely not necessary. But I am writing about it because it makes your life so much easier if you're going to be making cards regularly. I love it! If you are into making cards, put it on your gift wish list now. A birthday or celebration anytime soon?

This detail shows how thorough my black ink stamped. Without the Stampwheel 2.0, I would probably not have such crisp lines without breaks. The Stampwheel 2.0 is a tool to help you line up your stamps so that they always land in the exact same spot; this way you can keep stamping until your image is perfectly rendered. It has many other benefits, such as keeping your stencils in place and creating circular patterns or wreaths. I plan on doing a video about the Stampwheel. 

Keep on crafting.

Clean and simple card making: stamped backgrounds

I made another card illustrating how repetitively stamped backgrounds can create a visual rhythm to your design. This simple layout had me stamping, blending, cutting and glueing. I felt like a school kid with my big glue stick.

Now, when you look at my supply list, you're going to smack your head when you look at all the inks. Rest assured, you only need a red, a green and a black. I like to mix colors. I often use different shades of a same color to create small variations.

Another tip I can give you regarding supplies is to purchase coordinating sets when you can. Especially for beginners, this actually lessens the amount of supplies you're going to need because most of the main elements will be included. 

Supplies

• Altenew Mini Delight One in a Melon stamps and die set
• Altenew fresh dye inks in frayed leaf, olive, crimson, coral berry, permanent black
• A striped stencil
• Two Altenew blending brushes
• Altenew Glitter cardstock set 3"X6"
• White cardstock
• Altenew Scissors
• Altenew Glue tape

The irregular, diluted striped background reminds me of tablecloths on picnic tables. Perhaps it's because the Fourth of July was last week, I felt like adding some spark to my watermelon slices. I cut silver glitter halos around the melon slices and sentiment. Overall, it feels refreshing.

Steps

1. Cut your cardstock into an A2 sized (4 3/8" X 5 3/4") fold over card.
2. Choose the color inks for the card. Stencil a striped background with a sheer (light pressure) layer of inks
3. Stamp three layer watermelon slices on white cardstock. Stamp sentiment on white cardstock. Note: the corresponding die cut out the slices leaving white border. I colored them in with alcohol markers because I just wanted a glitter border (step 5 &6)
4. Cut out watermelon slices and sentiment.
5. Glue watermelon slices and sentiment to glitter cardstock.
6. Cut out the glitter haloed watermelon slices and sentiment.
7. Glue slices and sentiment to front of card. 

There you have it. Easy peasy.

CAS card using repetitive pattern

This card is a far cry from the multilayered roses in a Victorian garden card I made two posts ago. Granted, a skeletal human spine and brain are not usual thank you card images. Does it clarify things if I tell you this is a thank you card that I plan on giving my neurosurgeon(s) at my next appointment.? Thought so.

Within this last year, I had two serious spinal neurosurgeries. They were both myelopathy emergencies and I was quite ill by the time I was taken to surgery. The good news is that I have regained abilities with my hands for the most part and my doctors arrested the spinal compression that was causing me to lose my balance and that would eventually paralyze, then kill me. 

I am still trying to walk and hope the end of the year will see me getting around without a wheelchair or walker. But even if I stay as I am now, I am so very, very grateful to the neurosurgery department of Cleveland Clinic Hospital in Florida for saving my life and giving me back much of my abilities. 

I will see my main spinal neurosurgeon later this month for my nine month follow up. I am tickled to be able to give him this card. Hopefully, he will smile as he sees my colorful renditions of spines and brains; remembering all the macabre images he had to look at in the course of my treatment. It is especially poignant for me to give him this card as I remember so clearly lying on a gurney and asking him to "save my hands". I told him I was an artist and that I would rather live with a wheelchair than live without being able to create with my hands. And that is what he did. I am sure the significance of a handmade card will not be lost on him.

Supplies:

• White card stock
• Altenew Green Meadows gradient cardstock set 3X6"
• Altenew Permanent Black pigment ink
• Rubber stamps of anatomy
• Staedtler watercolor pencils
• Altenew Label Love stamps
  
  
  

1.Select one (one is best, but in my case I really wanted both images) image that you will stamp across the front of your card in a pleasing pattern.

2. Play with adding colorful accents with your chosen paint medium. I chose watercolor.

3. Cut a strip of accent color card stock to serve as a banner across the front.

4. Stamp your sentiment on the strip.

5. Glue the cardstock strip down.

This simple design makes a statement despite its humble methods. Patterning an image all over the front of the card which holds meaning for the receiver, makes this a very personal type of card. Best of all, it is quick and easy! 

Clean and simple stamped cards 1

Clean and Simple (CAS) refers to a style of card making which utilizes minimal tools such as inks, stamps and your own hand. Often images are stamped and then colored in with watercolor, alcohol marker or some other sort of color.                                     

Of all the card making styles, CAS gives the card maker much more latitude to express themselves freehand. Because CAS is so popular and easy to do, I will offer various examples in the next several posts.

I made two cards for the creatives in my life. Card number one featured stamping of brushes and a few stain-like rings. I then used watercolor to do the rest. On the inside, is the sentiment.

My second card featured the sentiment on the front and I stamped, painted and splattered color all over. The inside is blank. I definitely played more while making the second card. It is actually more my creative style, a little messy, jajaja.

I purposely did not stamp the sentiment in either card solely with black ink. I wanted it to appear almost faded, like the rings left behind on my art blotter. I used Distress Ink in Pumice for the sentiment on first round of stamping. I then stamped over it VERY lightly and in sporadic places with black.

Supplies:

• White cardstock
• Rubber stamps with the sentiment and also stain rings.
• Altenew Permanent black pigment ink, Golden Sunset mini ink pack, Tim Holtz Distress ink in Pumice
• Staedtler watercolor pencils

1. Cut and fold your cardstock. I recommend a paper cutter and scoring board if you plan to get serious with card making. They make your work easier and much more polished. But those are "nice-to-have" products, not necessary.

2. Stamp the front of your card(s).

3. Paint colorful accents in your composition with watercolor pencils.

4. Stamp the inside of your card.

That's it. You can see why paper crafters call this Clean and Simple. But don't let the name fool you. As you will see in the next several posts, there are many other ways to make impactful cards with the CAS method.