Exploration: Rose Gold Pattern Paper

In my last post, I compared the card kits “on paper” to see how they stack up against each other. It’s hard to make a decision just on the “specs” of the kit. They all look so beautiful and quite frankly, I’d love to sign up for them all. However, card kit shopping isn’t like buying a laptop. There’s a “fun” factor that you just can’t gauge by looking at the contents of the kit. I don’t have a huge budget to subscribe to multiple kits. I want to pick 1 (maybe 2?) that I know I’ll get a lot of use out of and will enjoy.

One thing I noticed was many of the card kits come with 6×6 paper pads and tons of ephemera. I don’t use either in my card making, but they look so beautiful! I don’t even own a lot of pattern paper. The few I do use are generally small repeating patterns in basic colors. I didn’t want to buy a card kit and end up with a ton of materials I’d never use. But they are so beautiful, I could easily talk myself into the purchase. However, I want to at least try to be practical. 🙂

My DIY Card Kit Self-Challenge

So, I decided to set a challenge for myself. I recently purchased a 12×12 DCWV Rose Gold Pattern & Foil Paper to explore foiling options. It’s been sitting in my stash for a couple months now. I decided to create my own “kit” and see if I’d enjoy making collage-style cards using layers of patterned paper. My kit included – the Rose Gold paper pad, old pattern paper from my scrapbooking days 15+ years ago (may as well use it up), solid color card stock and card bases, pearl dots and basic shape dies. Because the paper pack came with sentiments presented as cards & strips, I decided NO STAMPING on these cards! Crazy, I know. That would be a first for me.

This was going to be a challenge for sure! I like inking backgrounds, stamping and die-cutting. So if I didn’t have fun making cards using my DIY card kit, I knew I could eliminate a whole class of card kit subscriptions that seemed heavy on the pattern paper and ephemera. Some of those card kits seem focused on making it really easy for you to create cards without needing additional supplies. Those kits have everything — pattern paper, solid card stock, tons of ephemera (die-cuts and stickers), bling and even envelopes! But they are usually light on the stamp (which are usually sentiments) & dies (usually small ones). Stamps & dies you can use long after the materials run dry. For me, that’s the biggest value in any kit. But I didn’t want to discount the fun and value in paper packs and ephemera just because I hadn’t tried it yet.

Challenge Results

I won’t lie. It was hard. I am not an artist or graphic designer, so matching colors, patterns and layering in a pleasing way was new for me. I did have to watch a lot of “10 Cards, 1 Kit” videos for inspiration (e.g. Kristie Marcotte, Jackie’s Craft Table, Cards and Coffee Time, Crazy Paper Chick, and Scrappy Tails Crafts to name a few). Boy do they make it look easy! I have a new appreciation for this skillset. Well, I always did appreciate how much skill was involved, which is why I steered clear from it. LOL. But now that I rolled up my sleeves to give it a try in earnest, I do appreciate the craft in a whole different way.

Here’s a video of me assembling the cards I designed using my “homemade” card kit soon. There were a few hours (spread over several days) of planning, design exploration and research. That would have been boring to watch, so I didn’t record any of that. In the video, I show the actual assembly of cards and the finishing touches. All the design and paper / die cutting was completed before I recorded. I did speed up the video to keep it short and recorded a voiceover to share my thoughts.

Below are photos of the cards I made during this first attempt.

Conclusion?

I can’t believe how much fun I had! Part of me was hoping I wouldn’t enjoy this style of cardmaking. It would certainly make my card kit subscription decision easier. But I had so much fun! There really is something to it.

Having a set of thematic supplies really helps with the creative process because everything goes together. Ironically, having a few restrictions, opens up more creativity. You get to explore different ways to put it all together. I also like that it forced me to flex a different creative muscle. In general, I think creating cards in this way will help me learn proportion, color matching, balance, etc. It also took minimal tools & supplies to make the cards — really just a paper trimmer, scissors, and adhesive. I barely even needed my Cuttlebug. Plus with no stamping, I didn’t have to bring out all my inks, stamps, brushes, etc. Bonus – no inky fingers!

This has definitely made my decision on which card kit to get much harder. I don’t have a stash of pattern paper, so the card kit subscription could be a great way to start building up a stash.

I did buy past card kits that were on sale from Spellbinders, Scrapping for Less and Hero Arts. I haven’t received all of them, but I’ll definitely share my card making when I sit down to play with them!

Until then, I still have plenty of Rose Gold pattern paper left so I’ll keep making more cards in this style!