Patterned Paper Play

I do love patterned paper, but often I just collect it rather than use it as I have the "but if I cut it, it will be gone" fear.  I am determined to cure myself of this.   So today I've made 2 cards using 3 sheets of paper from MFT's Party Time paper pad as the focus of my designs.

I wanted a couple of fun and colourful birthday cards for my stash so opted to use the newHanging Happy Birthday die and to frame it I thought the Oval Window Cover Panel die from Reverse Confetti was the perfect shape to frame it.

I started with the balloon paper and cut the oval from it, and then selected the wide rainbow stripes and cut it again from that.   I could then swap the inner oval border frame between the two - zero waste of my lovely paper!   To finish the first card I die cut the hanging banner from white card and then the sentiment letters from the rainbow paper strip I had left over - this meant the sentiment matched the rainbow of balloons perfectly.  I popped the finished frame up on foam tape so the sentiment hangs and sways and added some more patterned paper behind to keep it bright and fun.   I traced the outer ring of embossed lines with a black gel pen just to make them stand out a little more.

For the second card I had leftover white letters so thought it would be fun to twist how we normally add colour to a white base card and I decided to make my focal elements and sentiments white on a boldly coloured base.  I think it makes an interesting change.  I added a balloon (using stickles to add the highlight I would normally add in white) and a party hat and finished by tracing the outer ring of embossed lines again but this time with a white gel pen.

If you find mixing patterned papers scary, picking one pad and using 2 or 3 sheets form it is often a good place to start as the collections have been designed to pair with each other so the hard work has been done for you by the brands.

Hope this makes you look at your paper stash and cut a few sheets too!

Tara