Make your own paper

Stretch your white paper, 3

Today is the third installment in a series on stretching your supplies and jazzing up basic white cardstock. Today I’ll be creating my own colored cardstock and using Birch Press layered dies to create some cards. Please continue reading to learn how I turned the DCS 12x12 sheets into these beautiful and colorful cards. The paper products were supplied by Cut Card Stock. Check out their website for some great paper deals. 

Jazzing up white cardstock

First I took 2 pieces of DCS 12x12 white sheets and cut them into 4x4 squares which gave me 18 squares. For each square, I used Distress Oxide inks and blending tools to ink each square. I then ran these squares through my Gemini Jr die cut machine using Birch Press layered dies. These dies are 3.75” in diameter and three can be stacked for a unique look. In choosing the distress oxides to use, I decided to consult my color wheel and look for complementary triads (colors opposite each other) and analogous triads (colors next to each other). Here are the color combos I came up with:
A)Analogous: Peacock Feathers, Evergreen Bough, Blueprint Sketch
B)Analogous: Abandoned coral, Mustard seed, Ripe persimmon
C)Complementary: Wilted violet, Lucky clover, Spiced marmalade
D)Complementary: Barn door, Mowed lawn, Blueprint sketch
E)Rainbow: Festive berries/wild honey, Mowed lawn/lucky clover, Blueprint sketch, Seedless preserves

Assembly of cards

I then die cut all the squares out using the Birch press layered dies, which has three dies that combine to make the image, and glued the pieces together. These dies are large enough to fill the space of an A2 card. On Neenah 110lb cardstock I cut three 8.5” x 11” pieces in half to make 5 top folding notecards and used the last half piece to die cut the sentiments using Birch Press sugar script dies. The background embossed panels were used to provide some interest in the background of these bright die cuts. 

These cards did not take that long and I made a lot of cards with a little effort. It is nice to know that if you do not have the perfect cardstock color, you can make your own. Leave me a comment and let me know which color combo is your favorite. Have a crafty day.