So I am on leave this week, sick leave to be exact. I wasn’t allowed to drive yesterday or today after having an operation, and so today I decided to set myself some crafting challenges for the week.
First up, using papers and embellishments (mostly papers) that I have scattered all over my work desk – offcuts, things I liked and put there but am yet to use etc – and also the papers I often get free with crafting magazines. Stamps and other embellishments are allowed, but no other papers (but not to worry, the pile is huge).
This evening I managed to make 8 card. Part of the challenge was to use the paperstack (book) of Romantic Garden paper by Meg’s Garden – the papers are beautiful but the elaborate designs and square shape makes them somewhat difficult to use. I had a similar issue with my Vintage Christmas Cards last year, you can see that each paper is pretty much an artwork in itself. But just sticking on paper that covers the entire front is not really cardmaking to me, I need a way to make it my work.
Anyway, here are the results.
This first card uses a whole sheet of the paper. You can see how elaborate the designs are, and I hate to throw out any of that. in this one the paper is trimmed slightly to fit, distressed around the edges, and the two butterflies were stamped on it. Paper then mounted onto a square card. I am probably going to add some gems to the butterflies, but I haven’t decided on the colour yet.
Details and other designs are below the cut:
This was trying to use the papers creatively and to best advantage. The butterfly and tag cards were made using one of the Romantic Garden pages. The vintage label is on one side, so I cut that out and then used the rest of the paper on the other card. I used my star punch on the offcuts to make matching embellishments.
Left card: on paper stamp Christine Adolph’s Collage Cube striped background in Antique Linen distress ink, then the butterfly from the same cube in Adirondak Raison ink. Add pearls to the butterfly, mount on gold, then onto the pink Romantic Garden paper. attach a piece of ricrac to the front. Edge in the raisin ink then mount onto the card.
Right card: honeycomb background from Collage Cube stamped randomly in Tattered Rose distress ink. Vintage label from the same paper mounted onto bronze metallic paper. a bit of lace wrapped around the bottom. Strips of pink flower washi tape added to top and bottom, also to inside of the card (not shown). Mount the vintage label onto the front of the card, swipe edges in Raison ink, and add stars punched from the offcuts.
Lower row: uses a piece of green Romantic Carden paper, gold paper that has been punched with Martha Steward doily punch and stamped images (Collage cube for the background and flower on the left, Hero Arts wildflower and music stamp on the right).
These papers were from the Sweet Wishes paperstack that came with issue 22 of Australian Papercraft Essentials (no brand name supplied). I was rummaging through my stash and found the rub ons (right card) and decided to try to make something that popped with colour. The left card is similar, but used stamped flowers instead of the rub ons.
Finally, some paper from a Die Cuts with a View paperstack. I do love this paper but it needed something to lift it a little. The stamped image (an old PSX stamp) has had the corners punched with an Anna Griffin corner punch, layered onto silver, and then onto the main paper. Inside I actually used the large pieces of the punched out corners, stained with pink ink