Cardstock is the new hero!

Do you have a mounting selection of cardstock sitting in your stash that gives little inspiration? Has your cardstock only ever been used as your base albeit an important role but not very awe-inspiring?

By simply making it the hero product you can create many cool projects using your overlooked scrapbook stash of cardstock. With a little bit of dressing up, you can take your cardstock out of the mundane and breath new life into it!

Over the next few weeks we will be showcasing some very simple and inspiring ways to utilise cardstock and maybe even get you using some of your tools like punches and your cuttlebug that are collecting dust like mine are.

So I hope you will join us in exploring the use of Cardstock and maybe just maybe re-think and re-invent new uses for this humble of scrapbook products.

Project 1

The Fun Fair:

An explosion of colour, shapes and pattern.

Cardstock comes in a wide range of colours covering the entire colour spectrum. There are bright, parchment and pastels including some metallic also available. You can get it in varying textures like linen, canvas or a woven cloth. They also come with an embossed pattern, which is great to add some extra texture instantaneously.

In this project I am going to show you in 3 easy steps how you can create a fun colourful page, filled with lots of pattern and shape without the use of patterned paper and other embellishments. The key is to select a collection of coloured cardstock that energise and evoke a sense of fun and then you are well on your way to creating a masterpiece entirely made of cardstock.

Below is a digital scrapbook page I created as a draft design. I often do this so I can iron out the composition of my designs and then it will become my reference guide to how I create my traditional page. So now that thats done, lets begin…

‘Clowning Around’

Digital Credits:

Embossed and Plain Cardstock Papers by Emma Stafrace

Essential Digital Stitches: C Smith Designs

Word Art: Foto WordMix No.1 by Anna Aspnes

Alpha: Blue Illusion by Kaye Winiecki

Step 1:

Using your Cuttlebug and embossing folders to depress a textured pattern on various coloured cardstocks. Making sure you use many different patterned folders to add a variety 

of raised impressions on your cardstock.

Step 2:

Cut the embossed cardstock into different the shapes of your choice. I am cutting mine into diamond shapes which were inspired by the bright and colourful lights at a recent travelling road show my family and I went to.

Step 3:

After adding some inked areas using a Crafters Worshop template I included some  customized word art by creating my own using a product called Grafix –Rub Onz. The great thing about this product is you can stamp, paint and draw on it so its versatitlity is fantastic. (To see how to use it check out a tutorial on how to use that here on my blog). Then I positioned the pre- embossed and cut diamond shaped paper discs to the base cardstock.

Step 4:

Once the cardstock diamonds were adhered to the base I ran some straight stitching in vertical rows running through the centre of each grouping this not only fixed them more permanently to the base cardstock it also added another element without being too overwhelming. And finally after printing off the title it was included to finish off the page. 

So there you have it I hope you enjoyed this really fun and easy look at creating with cardstock and perhaps inspired you to use it as your hero material in future projects.

Em Stafrace