TIPsy Tuesday - Playing up the Paper Design

I love to have a patterned fabric to play up. One of my design strengths is being able to make the most of a pattern's fabric with the right cuts and arrangement of design. Last year I had a job of beautiful toile fabric with different scenes of ladies, gentlemen and children working, dancing and playing. I spent 6 hours working out the arrangement of the scenes for pillows and window treatments before I cut a single piece of fabric! It sounds excessive and it probably is but the results were well worth it.

Patterned paper - called Designer Series Paper (DSP) at Stampin' Up! - gives us the same opportunity. I'm not going to spend 6 hours working out how I'll cut a few sheets of paper for cards but I can take a few minutes to consider the design of the paper before I start cutting.

One of the most effective ways to use a paper design is with a punch. Just punch out some part of the design for your card. When you punch out a design and eliminated all the background and other images, your paper looks totally different. You are really getting more for your money. In the card above, I punched out 1/2" circles out of the Cameo Coral DSP to create the alternating circles on the card. The other circles are stamped and punched.

Here is another example:

The scalloped flower on the bag from a previous post was actually punched from a flower in Urban Garden DSP. The floral design of this paper is large and hard to use on cards, but one sheet of paper would yield several flowers in different colors that are perfect for cards or scrapbook embellishments.













So the next time you are looking for a quick embellishment or are faced with a particularly busy paper, browse your punches and see how you can use it in a different way.



Ingredients for top card:
All from Stampin' Up!
Stamp sets: One of a Kind, All Scallops
Ink: Rose Red, Whisper white
Paper: Raspberry Tart DSP
Cardstock: Cameo Coral
Ribbon: Whisper White 1/4"Grossgrain