Make good use of your patterned paper!

Hi Tea-Timers, hope you're all well! For this month's blog tutorial, I'm going to do something a little different - instead of focusing on a particular technique, I'm looking at a particular resource - patterned paper! 

If you're anything like me, you'll have a stash of beautiful papers, but you might not be sure on how to incorporate them into your cards. Or maybe you're too afraid to cut into them... or you might not have even bought any because you don't know how you'd use them! So, here's some ideas on how to use up that crafty stash and let those beautiful papers shine!

1. Let the paper be the main feature of your card

Have a paper that you really love? Why not let it be the main focus of your card? I fell in love with the beautiful spring vibes of this paper, and wanted the pretty florals to be the main focus of my card, so I simply added a die-cut sentiment (coloured with Copics) and pre-made sentiment strip, and a few co-ordinating sequins (by Lucy's Cards). I trimmed the paper down to 3.75" x 5" and added some foam to the back, before adhering it to a white A2 card base. Quick, simple, and super pretty!

2. Use the patterned paper to create a scene

Why not create a scene with your papers, and then add some cute critters? For this card, I used the cloudy sky paper from the Brighter Days paper pad to make the sky, then die cut the ground using one of my Landscape Edge dies. 

As the patterned paper is quite bold, I kept the rest of the card minimal with white ground and white die cut letters to co-ordinate with the clouds, and I matched the piggy's coffee cup with the blue sky. For my FRIEND sentiment, I used the Anthony's Alphas dies and popped them up with foam tape, then I stamped, coloured and die cut the little pig from the All Occasions Critters set, and added him with liquid glue.

Another example of using your patterned papers to set the scene is this card I made for Valentines Day, where the sky and grass are again both papers from the Brighter Days pad:

3. Use your paper to add a co-ordinating border

On this card, I used the black and white paper to co-ordinate with the bold, black outlines of the coffee cups. I made a mini-slimline card base (6" x 3.5"), added a strip of the patterned paper to the left edge, then added my coloured and die-cut coffee cups in a vertical line down the card. I then simply added a sentiment, heat embossed in white on to black card stock, to pull all of the black and white elements together. 

4. Have your paper popping out from behind a die cut element

This is another super simple card that packs a punch because of the bold, striped paper visible through the shaker window. I used the Big Birthday Wishes sentiment die to make a window in a white piece of card, just smaller than A2 size, glued some acetate behind the window, and added foam tape around it to create a shaker window. I then filled it with clear sequins, placed the patterned paper over the window, and added the whole shaker to an A2 card base.

5. Use your patterned paper to "colour" your stamped images

I particularly love this technique! In my first example, I stamped out the houses from the Hillside Village set on six different patterned papers, and fussy cut each of them, before assembling them back into the little row of houses. I attached them to my slimline card base using different depths of foam tape, to give the card some interesting dimension. I then stamped my sentiment (from the Be Slothy set), added a few raindrop embellishments, and mounted the panel onto a neutral coloured slimline base.

Another example using this technique is this fun Christmas card, using the Stop Dachshund Around stamp set - I stamped the dogs' jumpers onto different patterned papers from the Joyful Winter paper pad, before gluing them to my coloured-in dogs :)

I hope that's given you some inspiration, and you'll break out those paper pads soon! If you're still not sure, my final tip would be to check out some card sketches online - you could use these to give you an idea of where to use patterned papers as an accent on your card.

I'd love to see how you use your papers - make sure you share them on the T4TD Friends Page, or on your social media, and make sure you tag us so we can see what you've made!

Have a lovely crafty March and don't forget T4TJAYNE10 will get you 10% off anything you buy at the T4T store.