Earlier this year I downloaded the Copper Tiger digital paper set by Digital Curio (via Creative Fabrica).
I plan to do a series of tiger-themed crafts throughout the year to celebrate the Year of the Tiger. I finally sat down a couple of weeks ago to make this hanging heart idea that I had.
I have used the paper set exclusively. The only extras I used were the gem for the flower centres and the letter dies that I used to make the words. You could also use a digital cutting machine to cut the letters. Apart from the slightly wonky lady, I really like how it turned out ☺.
PROCESS
SUPPLIES
Happy Valentine's Day 💝.
Here is the second card made with with the Nordic Winter digital paper pack (see the first here).
To make the card:
Watch the process video:
Supplies:
I recently downloaded the Nordic Winter Christmas Backgrounds digital paper set. I wanted to do a 10 cards 1 paper pack for this set, but I don't think that I'll have time to get that all done. So I'm going to post about each card as I go rather than waiting for all the cards to be completed.
 |
| Nordic Christmas Digital Paper Set by Green Light Ideas (via CreativeFabrica.com) |
To flesh out the paper pack I used the colour picker tool in my graphics program on the patterned paper to create some solid-colour coordinating cardstock in pink, brown, grey, beige and blue. I also made some generic Christmas sentiments using the brown background. Take a look at this post to find out create your own sentiment strips.
To make the card:
Here's the finished card:
Watch the process video:
Supplies:
280gsm+ White Card
190gsm matte printer paper* to print:
*I get my photo paper from StinkyInk.
Back in March I released a Skillshare class about crafting with digital supplies. The class is about making use of digital supplies to create physical items - in this case hanging hearts for home décor.
I made a few samples, but I just realised that I haven't shared them on the blog! I used old cereal boxes for the heart base, and the background and embellishments are items that I downloaded, printed and cut out.
This was the prototype that I made when I was feeling out the idea for the class:
If you want to find out more, head over to Skillshare and check out the class here. If you aren't a member you can get a free 14-day Premium membership trial which will allow you to watch this class and hundreds of others. While you're there, take a look at my Easel Card class as well.
So, you've accumulated a load of patterned papers (either physical or digital), but you have no idea what to do with them. At least, that's a problem that I have. I'm not a prolific card maker, nor do I scrapbook, but I can't resist a pretty patterned paper or an interesting background texture. So what to do? Collage, that's what!
I tend to overthink things and spent ages trying to decide what to collage. In my mind I felt like it needed to be some grand, artistic piece. But it really didn't have to be so complicated. In the end I went with a simple floral layout inspired by an embroidery design.
I used papers from my digital stash, but any papers would work. This would actually be a great project for using up paper scraps. I chose a newsprint, a pink paper with a a slight texture for the flowers, two different green papers for the stems and leaves, yellow paper for the flower centres and a lovely bluey-purple paper for some berries. I've listed links to all the papers used at the end of the post.
1. I printed out three sheets using one of the designs in the Old Newspaper Textures set. The original file is a 12 x 12 sheet and the text was quite large. So I resized it a couple of times to make the print smaller. I tore pieces from all three sheets and stuck them down on the canvas board trying to get a nice mix between the different text sizes.
Sentiment strips can be a really elegant addition to your card fronts, home décor projects, mixed media artwork or scrapbook pages. They generally come pre-printed or as a stamp (and die) set. Both of those options are just fine, but they can be costly and you are limited to the words and phrases that are offered, the font used, the size of the strip etc. Making your own sentiment strips is both cost-effective and non-limiting because you choose the words and phrases, the font, the size, the colour scheme and so on.
In the following example I used Photoshop to create my sentiment strips, but you could also do this in a word processing program if you don't have a graphics program.
2. Draw a rectangle to cover the sheet and fill it in black (or whatever colour scheme you fancy).
3. Using the text tool, select the desired font and create a page full of short sentiments to cover a variety of occasions and lay them out onto the (black) background. If using a dark background colour remember to select white or a light colour for the text and vice versa.
Remember to set your print settings to best quality and consider using photo paper rather than copy paper to get a good depth of colour in the background.
I've been interested in digital crafting for a couple of years. I first came across the concept via Create and Craft TV, which introduced me to digikits - a digital graphics set consisting of clipart embellishments and digital backing papers. The digikits were used in a graphics program to create greetings cards and scrapbook pages, which were then printed out.
Creative Fabrica is a marketplace website where you can buy graphics resources for a variety of applications. There are literally millions of resources including:
I love patterned paper and die cutting and as a result I have a significant collection of the two. However, buying paper pads and cutting dies can be expensive. A 6x6 paper pad with around 8 different designs would cost £5-£10. A 12x12 paper pad would be in the £15-£20 range. Plus once the paper has been used up you have to buy more and the particular set that you like may have sold out or been discontinued.
With digital paper the files are yours to keep, so you can print as many sheets as you want and never run out. If you are tech-savvy you can also adjust colours or resize the pattern without having to buy a new set as you would with a physical paper pad. With digital paper sets of around 10 different designs generally costing less than £5, the savings and value for money are clear.
Where a cutting die could cost in the region of £10-20+, a digital cut file of the same design would generally be less than £5. And because the files can be resized, you are essentially buying the equivalent of a die set rather than a single die.
Most digital files will come with a Commercial Licence, which means that you can sell whatever you make - both digitally and physically - with fewer restrictions compared to branded craft supplies.
In summary:
If you're at all familiar with this blog, you'll know that I have a bit of a hoarding problem when it comes to art and craft supplies! This also applies to digital products. I have literally hundreds of digital papers, textures, clipart, fonts and cut files.
I was looking for a way to use some of my extensive collection of digital assets in real life and not just leave them languishing in cyberspace. But then it occurred to me that there might be people like me who might be looking for ideas about how to use their digital products and thus this class was born! It's also a perfect introduction to crafting for those who might want to give crafting a try, but don't have any supplies.
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
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
