A few months ago Design Bundles released a new freebie digital paper pack - the Summer Digital Papers Set: sixteen 12x12" papers with a (loose) summer theme. As soon as I saw the set I thought of Christmas even though it's labelled as "Summer" and one of the papers features watermelons! So I thought it would be fun to try a 10 cards 1 kit with the set, but with a Christmas theme. I also thought that it would make a great debut video for my YouTube channel. Alas, I didn't get around to editing it in time 😞.
OK, so I know that Christmas is long gone, but I'm posting this anyway because I went to all the trouble to make the cards and film the process and it seems like a bit of a waste not to. Besides, if you ignore the Christmas theme this could be great inspiration for how to use patterned papers for cards in general.
I did use some die cuts, stamps and card from my stash, but I tried to keep the "extras" to a minimum so that the cards could be recreated easily with whatever you have in your stash.
Card 1
I was struggling to get started so used Freshly Made Sketches 457 for inspiration. I used a Kraft card blank and four of the patterned papers and cut a stag head silhouette from Kraft card to match the base. The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed with white embossing powder.
The stag head could easily be replaced and the sentiment changed for a card for a different occasion.
Card 2
For this card I cut one of the green papers into a triangle for a tree and used the red paper to create presents. I also used pink glitter card as a mat to match the pink of the patterned backing paper and then cut 'tinsel' from the glitter card to decorate the tree. Acrylic gems for baubles and a simple sentiment stamped in green to match the colour scheme finish off the card. (If I were going to make this again, I'd make the presents slightly smaller.)
Card 3
For this card I embossed a piece of plain white card, slightly smaller than the card front. I cut strips of the triangular patterned paper and used them to create a frame around the embossed card. Then I cut three triangles for trees and a scalloped circle to frame the sentiment from different papers in the set. I added a few gems for an extra festive touch.
Card 4
Here I made rosettes of varying sizes from three of the patterned papers and used silver glitter glue to make them look like hanging ornaments. I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment onto a piece of one of the green papers. This design would also suit a birthday card or any celebration card.
Card 5
The striped patterned paper screamed "candy cane!" to me so I cut out two mirror images of candy cane shapes. (I didn't have a candy cane die so I drew a template and used that as my guide.) I die cut a bow from the the red paper and some pine sprigs from one of the green papers. The elements were arranged on a Kraft tag to match the card blank, and then I used the red gingham style paper as the background. I also added some silver string to the tag.
Card 6
For this card I die cut the pine sprigs from one of the green papers and die cut three circles from three of the patterned papers. I fussy cut various triangles from the patterned paper and arranged all the elements to make it look like baubles hanging from a tree. I cut a sentiment from pink glitter card to finish off the card.
Card 7
I kept things fairly simple for this card, cutting a stitched edge rectangle frame from Kraft card and a rectangle from the red patterned paper. I die cut a bird and a sentiment from plain white card and finished off the card with a few gems.
This could also be adapted for any other occasion by changing the sentiment and using a similar die or florals in place of the bird.
Card 8
This is one of my favourites. Pink isn't readily associated with Christmas, so to make the card more festive I stamped a snowflake-like motif in the centres of all the polka dots and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder. Then I layered rectangles of gold mirror card and the pink patterned paper as shown and die cut a sentiment and the stag head from gold mirror card as well. Again, this could easily be adapted for a different occasion.
Card 9
I had a lot of small paper pieces and offcuts left over so I decided to try some paper weaving. I embossed a piece of white card with the swirly pattern then die cut a bauble aperture from it and placed the woven paper behind the aperture. Then I die cut the bauble hanger from gold mirror card and pieced it back into the aperture. I also stamped two sentiments on circles which I covered with Glossy Accents. I was hoping to get a somewhat domed effect, but they turned out pretty flat. I added a few gems to finish.
Card 10
I left the red and black polka dot paper until last. I really struggled with how to use it because it didn't feel Christmassy to me. In the end I decided to use a layout that I've used a lot in the past and like. I cut a strip of black card to go across the card and a slightly smaller strip of the patterned paper to sit on top of it, then cut a stag silhouette and the sentiment from black card. The stag silhouette didn't pop out enough when directly on the patterned strip so I also cut a decorative oval from white card for it to sit on. I added a few gems on the white spaces for a bit of added interest. I'm still not sold on this colour scheme, but it was interesting to try.
EDIT - I did it! I finished the corresponding video and posted it to YouTube 🙌🙌
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This was a lot of fun and a great creative exercise! I was really pleased with the variety of different cards that I ended up with despite using limited resources. Why not challenge yourself to create 10 cards from 1 paper pack? Design Bundles have thousands of background papers as well as other graphic resources at very reasonable prices. It's a really cost-effective way of adding to your stash (provided that you have a decent printer), plus you'll never run out of your favourite design again!
If you're new to digital crafting or don't have much of a budget for craft supplies it's definitely worth checking out their freebies page, but remember to read the licence terms to make sure you don't violate any terms of use.
