Aloha, all!
This is the second week that I’m featuring Stampin’ Up!’s Designer Papers in my greeting cards. For the entire month of July, most of Stampin’ Up!’s Designer Papers are on sale at 15% off the catalog price. I’ve been working to show you that these papers can carry a whole card design all by themselves. So, even at full price, they’re worth having in your crafting stash.
In the first paragraph about each card, there is a link to Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper set that I’ve featured in that card. If you click the link you’ll be able to see all of the patterns in that paper set. And you can even order it right then and there as you’ll be in my personal Stampin’ Up! store!
The Tailored Tag Punch
The Tailored Tag Punch has been around for a little while, and I keep forgetting to use it. But it really works to make cards that are about as quick and easy as you can get. As you’ll see in today’s cards, all you have to do is punch a bunch of paper (or cardstock) with the punch. They all fit together perfectly just like a jigsaw puzzle. And I’ve seen a lot of cards where that’s how the punched pieces are lined up.
My preference when using Designer Papers, though, is to let just a sliver of a complementary background color show through between each of the punched pieces. It almost looks as if I’ve just outlined the pieces with a dark marker. But gluing them down with the sliver of background showing is a lot easier, in my opinion.
Of course, this is another design that cries out for Multipurpose Glue for the adhesive. Many, many of the tags in these cards have been skootched slightly toward or away from another tag.
The Card Design
As you can see from the cards I made for this article, the Tailored Tag shape works both horizontally and vertically. But either way, I’ve found that placing the middle piece in this design makes the card creation a lot easier than starting from one of the sides. After I’ve placed that first piece, I work outward from it to the outside edge of the base on which I’m gluing the pieces. When I get to the edge, rather than placing the glue on the back of the piece I’m gluing down, I place it on the base. This is especially important when a piece is going to end up being partially over the edge of the base. No sense getting glue all over your works table whether there’s paper over it or not. They’re both going to get glued to your card.
Speaking of the edge, I make my background piece larger than the 5-1/4″ x 4″ I want it to end up being. When all the tag pieces are down, I trim the excess pieces of designer paper around the edge of the card base. Then I trim each of the four sides by 1/8″ to end up with the 4″ x 5-1/4″ layer. Finally I mount that layer on a slightly larger 4-1/8″ x 5-3/8″.
All three of these cards have the same tag punch layout, and I’ve included a copy of that here. Turn it 90 degrees and you have the layout for the middle card with the landscape orientation.
Hand–Penned Card
The card on the right features the Hand-Penned Designer Paper set. I tried to feature the purple color in the set. That color is Highland Heather. Then I added two Gorgeous Grape elements. One is the background cardstock and the other is the 3/8″ Gorgeous Grape Sheer Ribbon
For the finishing touches I added some of the Pastel Pearls that go so well with the Highland Heather and Gorgeous Grape colors. The sentiment for this card is from the Art Gallery Stamp Set which I stamped using Gorgeous Grape ink and matted with a layer of Grogeous Grape Cardstock.
Sweet Symmetry Designer Paper
This time I really tried to make the designs from the Sweet Symmetry Designer Paper as symmetrical as I could. And I think it worked pretty well.
To accent this set of papers I used Night of Navy Cardstock as my background layer and grabbed some navy rhinestones from the Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels set for some accents.
To stamp the sentiment I used another stamp from the Art Gallery Stamp Set. But this time I stamped it directly onto one of the Tag punched pieces with Night of Navy ink. For the “ribbon” I used the White Baker’s Twine from the Baker’s Twine Essentials Pack, finishing it with a bow.
Pansy Petals Designer Paper
Finally I found a design where I could use the Pansy Petals Designer Paper set without having to break out the multi-pansy pattern. With the 2-1/2″ length of the tag shape, I could capture some of the floral designs in another sheet of the paper. Making these cards has really helped me understand how I can have fun using this set of papers to make cards. You’ll be seeing it more often for sure.
The background layer in this card is Evening Evergreen Cardstock. When searching for ribbon for a bow, I had some choices of Evening Evergreen ribbons, and chose the Chevron Weave Ribbon. I just liked it with this card because it’s a bit on the darker and heavier side.
The sentiment is yet another one from the Art Gallery Stamp Set. I just cut it into a little rectangle and matted it with Evening Evergreen to match the background and ribbon. There are a few gems sprinkled on the card front. They’re the Pale Papaya gems from the Genial Gems set.
Coming Up — A Design From One of My Tutorials
Be sure to check back here on Wednesday when I use current papers to reprise a designs in one of my tutorial booklets.
Happy Crafting with Papers!
Just beautiful!!