Crafting Resolution
With the holidays over, I’m getting back in to card making. I was doing a little organizing in my craft room and… I have way too much paper. I see a cute paper pad and can’t seem to resist. So, my resolution for the year is to use up some of the older paper. My goal is to use 1 old paper pad for every new paper pad I use (or purchase).
I’ll be donating most of the cards and as I have already made cards for the upcoming holidays, I decided to pull out an old DCWV 12×12 paper pad – Tahiti Beach stack. It’s cute paper with many of the patterns having a shiny glittered finish. I’ve used several sheets of paper over the years but still had about 14 12×12 sheets left. After so many Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas cards it was nice to just do some cards with no sentiment or “generic” sentiments. As the charity where I donate the cards will be sending them to different locations, I was also able to make multiples of the same card.
I wasn’t sure what to do with the “sand” paper, so decided to use it as the background. One of the 12×12 sheets was several stripes of different patterns that coordinated with the paper pad. I cut the stripes apart and was able to use them on several cards. For this card, I added a red floral strip to break up the beach themed word paper.
For the next card I used almost 1 full sheet of the floral paper. You can’t see it in the photo, but the white flowers have a shiny glitter finish. Besides an overabundance of pattern paper, I have lots of one-off sheets of cardstock. I found a single sheet of this light blue cardstock that coordinated nicely with the blue in the flowers. To balance the busy floral print I added a simple “Thank You” sentiment.
I still had a full sheet of the beach themed word paper and decided to try it as a background. I added a strip of the left-over blue cardstock, another strip from the 12×12 sheet of pattern stripes and a strip of glittered washi tape. With all the words on the background paper, I decided to skip adding a sentiment.
There was a small piece of the pink-ish floral paper left. I paired it with a diagonal stripe paper and another piece of the light blue cardstock. For the first layout I added a “Thinking of You” sentiment stamped in light blue ink. For some dimension I added a few gray flowers with blue brads as the centers. For the second layout I added some more of the glittered washi tape and skipped the sentiment.
For the next 3 layouts I used a taupe striped paper and another of the beach themed word papers. For the first layout I added a strip of light blue cardstock and stamped a sentiment in Memento Bahama Blue ink. For the second layout, I added a strip of the light blue cardstock and instead of a sentiment stamped some flip-flop sandals and colored them using Copic markers. For the third layout I skipped the sentiment and added another strip from the 12×12 sheet of pattern stripes.
There was still more of the beach themed word paper, so I used that for a background again. For the banner on the right side of the first card, I fish-tailed and matted a piece of the “sand” paper. On top of the banner, I added a strip from the 12×12 sheet of pattern stripes. I used a sailboat stamp, Copic markers and a die to create the embellishment. For the second card, I cut the “sand” paper on the diagonal. To cover the seam I added a pattern strip across the card. To add some interest to the top of the card I added a small flag that coordinates with the color in the pattern strip.
I still had a 1/2 sheet of the striped paper and a full sheet of the aqua paper that I wanted to use. I couldn’t find a color of cardstock that I liked with the papers, so decided to skip any matting. I didn’t like the look of a straight line between the papers, so pulled out a Creative Memories wavy paper cutter. I think the wavy edges add some interest. Instead of a sentiment, I stamped the beach scene and colored it with colored pencil. It’s a very simple card, but I think it’s my favorite of the bunch.
I used 12 different layouts and ended up with 38 cards. I still have a few scraps left but I think I can call this paper pad “done”.
One thought on “Crafting Resolution”
This is a great idea and for a good cause! I also have a paper pad addiction and need to reduce my stash. Very nice cards!
Thanks for the inspiration to put my paper pads to good use!