Peridot Cards

I’ve moved on to new paper.  It’s the Recollections Blue Blooms 6×6 paper pad.  I liked the colors, patterns and rose gold foil treatments so much I purchased 2.  Unfortunately I’m struggling a bit.  There are a lot of busy prints which I thought could be toned down with matting.  But, trying to find the right colored cardstock for matting has been difficult and I’ve ended up using black.  I think the black works well enough with the darker papers, but I’m finding I don’t like it as well with the lighter (i.e. pink) papers.  Also, I’m finding that the foil treatments seem to “fight” each other even when separated with matting.  I’m determined to finish one of the 2 paper pads.  I figure I’ll use the first paper pad as practice for the 2nd.

I actually like the first cards (2 of the same).  The background paper is a blue with pink diagonal pin stripe.  The focal panel is a pink and blue floral print on a white background.  The sentiment is stamped in black ink on white cardstock and placed across the focal panel.  As neither paper had a foil treatment, I decided to add some shine using the medium width Love from Lizi silver peel-offs along the top and bottom edge of the sentiment panel.  If doing this layout again, I’d probably use the wider width peel-offs for more impact.

The 2nd set of cards uses a blue tone-on-tone print for the background.  The focal panel is another pink and blue floral print but on a dark background.  I’m not sure if it’s blue or black, seems to depend on the light.  The floral print has the rose gold foil treatment on the leaves.  For the sentiment I used a strip cut from one of the 6×6 sheets.  When cutting, I was careful to include the foil treatment on the sentiment.  I wanted something in the upper right corner of the card but wasn’t sure what.  I thought a small foil flag would look nice but there wasn’t a large enough piece of the foil on any of the papers.  I ended up settling on a few pearls.

The paper pad also included 2 sheets of cut-aparts.  I doubt I’ll be able to use many of them, but will try to include a few.  The next set of cards used a pink patterned paper for the background.  The pattern was done in the foil treatment which made it very busy.  A matted floral panel and cut-apart covered much of the background which helped reduce some of the busyness.

I haven’t decided if I like the next card or not.  The background is a pink tone-on-tone print.  The focal panel is another floral, but is just shades of pink on a black background.  With all the florals, I thought wedding or anniversary.  Since I came across the anniversary stamp first I went with that.  I debated about adding pearls to the floral print but thought they got “lost”.  Instead I added the pearls to the background paper in the upper right corner.

I have a few full sheets and lots of scraps left, plus another whole paper pad.  I don’t want to give up on this paper yet.  I’ll see if I can find some other card sketches that may work with this paper.

There were 2 12×12 cut-apart sheets included in the American Crafts paper pad and I wanted to use some of those before I switched to different paper.  I specifically wanted to use the 2×3 inch cut-aparts as I already had a card sketch in mind.

For the first card I used the flashcard and library card cut-aparts.  The pink background paper is part of a 12×12 sheet from the same American Crafts paper pad.  I decided to use some gray cardstock for the matting as all of the paper colors were fairly muted.  I wasn’t sure what sentiment to go with so went through my spare cards and decided I was low on “Thank You” cards.  The pink background paper had a few areas with a distressed look but they only showed on the lower left corner of the card.  The upper right corner looked a bit bare so I added a few iridescent sequins which added some interest and a bit of sparkle.

For the next card I used 2 pink patterned cut-aparts which matched the pink background paper nicely.  As this portion of the background paper did not have any of the distressed areas, I used a swiss dots embossing folder to add a little interest.  I again used the gray cardstock for matting.  With so much pink, the card had a very feminine feel.  I debated between using a baby sentiment or a general sentiment, but as I don’t use a lot of baby cards I went with the general sentiment.  And since I liked the look of the sequins on the previous card, I added a few to this card as well.

The cut-aparts for the 3rd card were a green floral and a bird print.  I’m not sure why but the bird print said “sympathy card” to me.  I went with the arrow patterned paper for the background as it picked up the green colors in the cut-aparts.  Keeping with the green scheme, I found a green cardstock to use for the matting.  The card looked a little “flat” so I added a couple sequins.  I haven’t decided if I like the sequins or not.

The last 2 cut-aparts included a bright pink checkerboard pattern and a sentiment.  I still had some of the pink and white striped paper leftover and used it for the background.  To soften the look I rounded the bottom corners.  I tried gray cardstock for matting but the colors of the printed papers overpowered and I went with black cardstock instead.  Since one of the cut-aparts included a sentiment I decided not to add another.  Without a sentiment layer the card looked really flat.  I pulled out some black and white bakers twine, wrapping it around the top of the card a few times and tying a knot.  I thought the card still needed something so I added a few pink sequins to the sentiment cut-apart.

I’ve made 20+ cards using this paper pad.  There are still several sheets left but I think I’ll move on to something different.  After all, I can always come back to this paper next year.  LOL.

I originally wanted to make at least 1 card using each of the larger patterned papers in this American Crafts paper pad, but…  I find I’m losing  my enthusiasm.  Instead I think I’ll try 1 or 2 more different papers and then use up some of the scraps.  For the 1st paper I chose an arrow pattern that is mainly taupe and cream colored with a few greenish arrows.  The 2nd paper is a busy print but only 2 colors, a greenish background with white outline drawings of houses.  Based on the colors I thought these papers might be used together.

The first card used the arrow patterned paper for the background.  For the focal point I wanted to use one of the houses from the other “new” paper.  I picked a circle die that was an appropriate size for the card and then matched it with one of the houses.  Black cardstock for the matting seemed too stark, so I tried a gray.  I think it looks OK.  I wasn’t sure where to go with a sentiment.  While looking through my stamps I found the “Home Sweet Home” and thought it was perfect with this paper.  I even had an inkpad that matched the greenish color in the papers.  And the green sequins in the new sequin mix I just purchased also matched.

I made 2 cards using the next layout.  Both cards used the house patterned paper as the background but different papers for the circle focal point.  One used the arrow patterned paper and the other a bit of a cut-apart.  The cut-apart was too large to use on a card so I positioned a circle die to just include the portion that I wanted – the “Built with Love & Dreams” banner.  I matted everything with gray cardstock and added a few more of the new green sequins.

The next 3 cards are all about using up scraps.  The “Thanks” card used another cut-apart, the yellow polka dots, and some of the diagonal striped paper scrap.  For something different I used a parentheses border punch on the bottom edge of the striped paper and the matting.  To cover the seam between the polka dot and striped papers I added a solid color strip and a yellow polka dot ribbon.  The “Thanks” sentiment is another of my new Queen and Company dies, which I cut 3 times and then layered for some thickness.  I was amazed at the difference layering makes.  To bring some more color to the top of the card I added a few teal pearls.

I still had a lot of the floral paper left.  I decided to use it as a background and repeat a previous layout.  I used the pink and white stripe scrap for the circle focal point and added 2 small pink and yellow flags in the upper corner.

For the last card I used more diagonal striped paper.  I still had a large piece of the floral paper and decided to focus on an individual flower.  For something different I cut the flower image into strips and then re-assembled them on a piece of black cardstock.  I wrapped the panel with teal ribbon and added a sentiment banner.  As a final touch I added a flower with a glittered brad as the center.  I made 2 of this layout which used up all but a few small scraps of these papers.

After an unexpected “vacation” for a health issue, I’m back to making cards.  Since the paper and all the supplies were still on my desk I decided to continue using the American Crafts paper pad.  The paper’s prints and colors are bright and cheerful so perfect for spring cards.

I again made 6 cards – 2 each of 3 layouts.  I liked the mix of the ticket and floral prints on a previous card, so decided to use them again.  This card is a simple design using the ticket print as the background.  A strip of the floral paper is matted on a scalloped piece of black cardstock.  I am still excited about my new Queen & Company word dies and decided to use those on another card.  “Miss You” is a requested sentiment for the cards I donate, so this die was perfect.

For the 2nd card I used the same 2 papers but flipped them to use the ticket print as the focal point.  I matted the layers with black cardstock, using a scallop punch and a corner rounder.  To highlight some of the colors in the background paper, I added a few pastel paper and rhinestone butterflies.  I wasn’t sure where to place the sentiment but knew I didn’t want to add more layers or black cardstock.  By chance there was a space on the ticket print paper that was perfect to stamp a small “thinking of you” sentiment.

For the 3rd card I decided to mix the floral paper with a diagonal stripe paper.  As both are busy prints I kept the layout very simple.  I again matted everything with black cardstock using a scallop border punch on the matting for the diagonal stripe paper.  Since I still had the “miss you” die on my desk, I decided to use it again.  I die cut the sentiment twice, once from white cardstock and again in black cardstock.  I glued the die cuts together with the black die cut slightly offset giving a shadow effect.  To finish, I added a few iridescent rhinestones that picked up the colors on the card.

I am still having fun mixing the larger scale designs and there are several prints that I haven’t tried yet.  I think it might also be fun (and help reduce my stash) to try mixing in some of the different colored cardstock that I have in my craft room.