Creating custom patterned paper to make cards

Hello friends,

I have another card making video for you guys today. It’s a bit long. I tried to speed things up but there are just so many things I tried to pack into this video that it did become 15 mins long even after all the speeding up + trimming. I hope you guys do stick around.

Five cards

I had some old Recollections stamps set that I bought long time ago. May be a couple years ago! I did use these stamps for some small cards etc. But this time around I decided to play with it to make an autumn themed patterned paper. I used this patterned paper to make 5 cards. I might just make one more, but that’s for later 🙂

I tried to look for the exact same stamp set online but did not find it. Here are some alternatives which I thought would work best for creating a similar look.

Memory Box Clear Stamps AUTUMN BIRDIE Open Studio CL5158

Memory Box Clear Stamps FALLING FOR YOU POPPY STAMPS CL409

Simon Says Clear Stamps FLOWER FRIEND SSS130301

Hero Arts Autumn Clear Unmounted Rubber Stamp Set

Hero Arts Ink and Stamp Set, Floral

Karen Foster Design, Clear Stamp Set, Thanksgiving

InLinkz.com

All these stamp sets have small nature themed images. You could also use some smaller stamps from other regular stamp sets you might have.

I wanted this paper to have several areas of smaller colors plus some subtle embossing. The outline leaf image provided just the right touch. I did think of heat embossing the acorn too, but gave up as I did not want to add too much extra effort and also did not want a strong color like brown to become overpowering due to the embossed effect. I wanted the embossing to be just enough and not really compete with other colors on the pattern.

Creating the paper took me about 10, may be 15, mins or so. I was able to make 5 cards out of it, so I think the effort was well spent 🙂

For making the cards, I used SSS stitched rectangles dies. I have only one set of these and that means I have only some sizes. But since this is a symmetrical geometric pattern it is easy to manipulate sizes using the same dies in different ways. As you will see in the video, I even used it to cut diagonally on this card here. Just a fun way to get something extra out of the supplies I already have.

Three cards

On three of these cards above, I used long scripty sentiments from SSS “Flowers on my mind” that came with the SSS March 2015 card kit. I don’t have large acrylic blocks that can accommodate these long sentiments and also if I didn’t get it right the first time (like I still often do), I would have messed up the whole card. So I used my favorite MISTI tool to stamp these sentiments.

On two of these cards, I used the painted hello die which came with the SSS October card kit. I die cut it once with cardstock and again with foam in matching color. That gives it a beautiful raised look without the extra fuss of cutting several layers and lining them up.

Hello cards

Here are some things that I learned for making multiple cards at once:

1. I decided to plan things out a little more up front which helped in not wasting time browsing pinterest for ideas while I was working on the cards.

2. I used similar embellishments. That way I didn’t have to spread out too many supplies and also it was quicker to perform similar steps.

3. I made the card bases ready all at once and also worked on cards with similar sentiments / stamps at once. Kind of line assembly line of manufacturing where a single step is performed multiple times before moving to next step.

Here’s the video where I put it all together. I hope you enjoy and get inspired. Please do leave me comments / thumbs up / subscribe to my blog + youtube channel. Your encouragement means a lot to me!