Single Layer Card Ideas

Today I’m sharing 5 beautiful single layer card ideas with you. We often feel like beautiful cards need to have layer upon layer but today I wanted to share 5 ways to make amazing cards with just a single layer of card stock.

Whether you are just starting out on your card making journey, or you’ve been stamping for years, these techniques are great go to techniques that can be kept simple, like the samples in this post, or stepped up.

Check out the video linked below to see how they all come together.

Masking Technique 1

Masking techniques are a great technique to turn to when creating single layer cards because they all you to create layers of ink, which can give the illusion of layers of card stock.

For this first card, I used some Post-It masking tape to tape off a strip across the card. If you don’t have masking tape, you can use a strip of scrap paper and some temporary adhesive. After adding the tape, I stamped the floral image from the Love this Moment stamp set and stamped a border along the top and bottom of the tape. When you peel off the tape, you end up with a blank strip across the middle, which is perfect for a greeting. To finish off the card, I added some dragonflies, a bow and a few trios of dots.

Stamping a matching envelope is a great way to make a simple card feel extra special so I repeated the same floral pattern across the bottom of the envelope.

Masking Technique 2

This second masking technique uses a torn sheet of scrap paper that I temporarily adhered to my card front. Then I used a blending brush to add my layer of old olive. The next step was to stamp my leaves (from the Changing Leaves stamp set), then splatter with a black blend.

When you remove the torn piece of paper, you are left with this fun border strip that looks like it’s a piece of torn pattern paper. All that’s left to do is add a greeting, some embellishments and create a matching envelope.

Masking Technique 3

For this last masking technique that I’m sharing, I created a template by simply cutting a rectangle out of a piece of scrap paper the same size as my card base. Then I positioned it on the card front and use a blending brush with some pool party ink to fill in the background. Before removing the template, I stamped all of my images so that they’d be contained within the frame. When you remove the template, your left with a beautiful stamped layer and nice clean borders around the edges.

Use your Dies without Adding Layers

For this fourth idea I’m sharing a way that you can use your dies without adding layers. To create this card, I started by stamping the leaf image. Then I took one of the countryside corners dies and used it as a template and traced around the inside with a Sharpie Pen. This creates a fun frame around the edges of the image. I finished it off with some dots and a baker’s twine bow.

Adding the little bit of twine and dots really steps up the card, but what isn’t showing in the photo is that the leaves are coloured with Wink of Stella for a bit of sparkle. There are so many ways that you can make a single layer card feel special and Wink of Stella is definitely one of my top picks.

Debossed Border

For this last card, I stepped things up a bit by doing some heat embossing and some debossing to create a frame around the image. Using your Simply Score Board to add a bit of detail to your card is a GREAT way to add detail and texture to your single layer card. Don’t limit yourself to just a border though, you could create all sorts of different patterns!

These are just a few of the ideas I came up with for single layer cards but as I was typing up this blog post, several more came to mind. Who knows maybe you’ll see a part 2 to this post:)

Until next time,

Shopping List

Click on any of these images to shop my Canadian online store or to find out more information about any of these products. In addition to the supplies listed below, I also used some Post It masking tape, a Sharpie Pen and a Simply Score Board.