When You’ve Lost Your Craft Mojo: 3 Simple Cardmaking Ideas

We all go through moments where ideas just don’t seem to flow and starting a new project feels difficult. In this post, I’m sharing three simple card ideas I use when I feel stuck creatively — quick, accessible ways to get back into making without pressure.

Sometimes limiting what we use can really help when you mojo decides to take an unscheduled holiday!

When I was tidying up my craft space the other day, I found a bag of different random bits which must have been left overs from prepping or other projects. It had some punched tags, a die cut frame, a stencil mop up piece, a few stamped images and some small strips of white card. Now my first reaction was to "file them" - put in the bin - but I needed a break from tidying, so wondered if there was anything I could do.

Supplies Used:

• Distress Oxide Ink - Mermaid Lagoon 
• Distress Oxide Ink - Twisted Citron
• 'Hit The Note' Stencil 
• 'Hanging Garden' Stencil 
• 'Moroccan Trellis' Stencil
• Distress Blending Foam
• Art Institute Glue (I also use the ultra fine metal tip as helps with precision)
• White card (from my stash)
• Stamped Flower images + extras (from my stash & taken from lots of different stamp sets)
• Sequins (from my stash)

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Card Idea 1: Mop Up stencil background & a simple focal point

I thought this was the easiest card idea to start with because everything was essentially done for me! The background is a mop up using Hit The Note stencil. The colours are mermaid lagoon & twisted citron oxide inks - how do I know this? They are 2 of my favourite colours!

The flowers have also been stamped in the same colours so a perfect match. This does make think this may have actually been a demo idea because of all the coordinating pieces! I layered everything up and added a sentiment.

Card Idea 2: Stenciled Focal Point on a Clean Background

The first card then sparked me to use up the other bits and stick to the stencil being the main feature. For this card I grabbed Hanging Garden stencil and the same oxide ink colours. I started with mermaid lagoon but was way too heavy handed. I added a bit of water to spread the ink out. Once dry, I went over this with the same stencil and twisted citron. Now it looked so much better!

Using the same ink colours and stencil, I decorated two of the tag shapes. With a few bits from my bit box - that's a box of stamped & cut out images (various collections & usually uncoloured) - I made the card up. Initially I laid the tags on top of each other but it looked "naff" so I grabbed a piece of twine and made the tags appear as if strung together.

Card Idea #3: Different Parts of the stencil

Now this card was made using up the white strips of card. I normally save these stripes to stamp sentiments on rather than use a huge piece of card. I grabbed 2 of the previous stencils ( Hit The Note, Hanging Garden) & added in a 3rd, Moroccan Trellis. Sticking to the same ink colours, I stenciled different pieces on to each strip.

Some of the stripes, I coloured with ink first before adding the stencil and on a few, stenciled one pattern on top of another. When happy, I used a stitching tool to add a bit of extra details and then layered the strips on top of each other in different angles. These were then put on to an A6 card blank. When I took a photo of my finished card I realised only one sequin!!! Why??? I deleted the photo and added two more and it now looks more balanced.

The power of limited products!

• Simplicity & speed: few choices means quicker decisions

• Cohesion: limited colours suddenly makes everything looks as if it all works together

• Focus on design: this has made me choose one element to create my design - stencils!

• Budget friendly: simple designs using limited products = win, win

A question, or even a few, for you!

• If you were going to do this idea, what would be the two ink colours you would choose? 

• Why those colours?

• Would you limited the ideas to just one stencil or use more?

I'd love to hear your ideas, especially the colour combos. I think we can all get stuck in the same rut with the colours we use and hearing about other combos can make the one idea look completely different.

Until next time, take care,

Lou

xxx