Create a smile: clean & simple ideas 4/7 * lovely layouts

Hello crafty people, Nicole here.

This is part four of my clean & simple cardmaking series about "how to spice up clean & simple cards".

Clean and simple cards are super fun but because there is so much white (or blank) space on them, you don't want them to be boring, right?! I made a little series about my favorite ways to keep clean and simple cards interesting :-)

My forth tip is LOVELY LAYOUTS. As the title says, I'm focusing on the layouts. How you arrange your critters and sentiments can make your cards more interesting.

Of course there are endless possibilities for layouts. Here are just some of my "go to" layouts I feel comfortable with and that work for me.

The first one (hello sentiment) is very similar to the "circle" but a bit of a looser take on it.
For the second (flowers), I call it "in the corner", you pick one corner and use about a third of the card to build your focal point.
The third one uses the "rule of thirds". I created about 2/3 ocean and 1/3 of sky. This works really well for me.
And the last one (with the heart) is kind of a mix of no.1 and no.2. It's a circle that moved to the side.

Just try to find out what layouts you see on clean and simple cards you like and use them for your personal creations :-)

for the card on the top

create a background with a stencil, Distress Inks and sponge daubers
move your stencil and change colors to create some depth
die cut a circle window from a white piece of cardstock
color your critter (I used alcohol markers and added dots where the shadows are)
stamp your sentiment and fussycut it
arrange your card by using foam tape for the white panel, the frog and the sentiment
add some sequins for a finishing touch

I found that the card needed a tiny pop of color, so I added a purple flower behind the frog.

For this card, I combined three fun ways to spice up clean and simple cards. You can check out my blog posts on "creative coloring" and "beautiful backgrounds" to find out more :-)