Jen Hadfield Simple Life 6×6 Paper Pad
It’s been weeks since my last post. I’ve been making cards but just haven’t taken pictures and posted them. This paper is from a Jen Hadfield 6×6 paper pad that I’ve had for a couple years. I liked the warm feel of the papers but struggled a bit when trying to combine the papers on a card. Of course now that I’m looking at the pictures I’m not sure why the struggle as several patterns and prints seem like obvious “matches”.
I always find it exciting and a bit overwhelming to start on a new paper pad. There are so many fun papers and endless options to choose from. For the first cards I tend to pick a simple layout just to get going and these cards were no exception. I popped up the sentiments but the cards still looked a bit flat so I added silver Love from Lizi peel-offs for sparkle and flowers/butterflies for some more dimension.
As I was thumbing through sketches for ideas, I noticed that this sketch was perfect to use with the leftover papers from the first cards. By flipping the papers used for the background and focal panels I was able to use up all four of the 6×6 sheets of papers. The sketch also worked great for using 2 of the included cut-aparts as the sentiment panels.
There were a lot of colorful papers in the paper pad but only 1 sheet of red paper. I decided to try the cute bicycle print which had just enough red bicycles to pick up on the red gingham. I wasn’t sure what to do with the dark green geometric print and ended up pairing it with the white wood panel print. I think the card has a nice masculine feel to it. Adding some scalloped matting, Love from Lizi peel-offs and a few brads finished off both cards.
I wasn’t sure what to pair with the brick and wood grain papers. They both had a masculine look to them and were a realistic image which I didn’t feel coordinated with the more floral and feminine papers. I decided to stick with the masculine feel and kept the cards simple using solid color cardstock for the backgrounds and adding a few brads as embellishments.
I liked the mix of the red gingham paired with the bicycle print and decided to use that combination again. There was also some of the white wood plank paper left which paired nicely with the blueprint pattern. It’s not very noticeable in the picture but to add some dimension to the backgrounds, I used my scoring tool to add a “frame” around the gray and kraft cardstock panels.
When I pulled the paper out of the paper pad, I immediately knew I wanted to use the sheet music print with this floral paper. I really liked the combination of the two prints and there was even a matching orange flowered cut-apart. The background paper for the second card was a simple print of garden plants and tools. In keeping with that theme I used the rest of the wood grain and leafy green print papers.
There was still a good sized piece of the black and white cross stitch print left. I decided do another monochromatic card using the black and white polka dots and cut-apart. I had tried to figure out a way to combine the black and white stripe as well, but ended up pairing it with the pink floral print which added some nice color.
My favorite paper in the paper pad was this floral print. I find that I usually end up using my favorite papers either on the first cards I make or the last cards I make. In this case they were the last cards. I had also set aside the 2 sheets that I used for the backgrounds as I thought they coordinated nicely with the floral print. I kept the cards simple, adding a scalloped strip across the cards and a few more silver Love from Lizi peel-offs.
I was able to make a lot of cards using this 36 sheet paper pad. It did take a bit longer to use up all of the paper but the extra time was worth it as I really liked all of the finished cards. I already have another batch of cards complete. Now I just need to take some pictures.