How to Disappear a 6x6 Pad of Paper

The other day I read this post on the Operation Write Home blog, and I was soooo excited. I collect 6x6 pads of pretty paper, and the thought of using up a whole pad to make cards had me giddy. I planned to do just that this weekend, and I am well on my way.

This post is kinda long because I've made 30 cards already today, and I'm not done yet, so grab a cold one and let's get started.

First, last night I set up a table in the Dining Room and took apart my unopened Basic Grey pyrus 6x6 paper pack. I laid out all the papers to get an idea of what I was dealing with. Then, to dip my toe into the water, I made this card:

Actually, I made four of them.

It may be difficult to tell, but I added texture to the horizontal strip of blue with the MFT Grosgrain Texture Board. I added faux stitching with my SU More Mustard marker. Sentiment by MFT.

For most of these cards, I used OWH sketches. I found myself looking for sketches that used large pieces of paper, at least at first. :)  The blue here is Buckaroo Blue, one of the first SU In Colors, and I'm very sad to say I'm almost out of it. :(

Then today I got to work in earnest. I made two of these:

I made two of these:

You can also see I made good use of my new Corner Chomper. I may be in love with the 1/4" side.

I made four of this one:

You can see I used my lazy-person technique of adding a piece of contrasting card stock under the banner and not actually cutting a whole layer. I'm liking it muchly.

Then I made two of this card:

I was going to stamp the moon in the MFT travel set and cut it out, but instead I decided to punch one, and it worked quite well! That's a 3/4" circle punched off the edge of a card stock remnant, then a 1" circle punched out around it. Perfect.

The card stock here is Always Artichoke, and I actually used ribbon! Wow, it's been a while.

Then the OWH blog linked to this challenge as part of their weekend Virtual Cardmaking Party, and I decided to try an angle cut:

The challenge was to use one image, two patterned papers, and three words. I used a Paper Smooches bird for my image and colored it with a Copic for a pop of color. That dark paper was more difficult to use than I thought it would be. I made two of this card.

Next, I couldn't decide if this pear paper went better with green or brown, so I didn't choose -- I made two of each. Here's the green:

and here's the brown:

The card stock here is SU's retired Rust. I need to tell you I punched out several pieces using a scallop border punch, and I finally gave up and used an MFT die. Maybe my punch is old enough that it's no longer sharp, but those dies make such clean cuts, and no aligning! I embossed the Paper Smooches sentiments with SU Winter White EP.

This next one may be my favorite:

Maybe it's the paper. Maybe it's the layout. I suspect you'll see this sketch again. :) I made two of these.

Oh, that's More Mustard card stock under the sentiment, and the sentiment itself is stamped on one of the solid papers from the pack. This off-white color led me to use mostly SU Naturals White for the card bases, and now I'm almost out of it.

More big pieces of pretty paper went into this next card:

Using only one pack of paper made me stretch my decision-making when it came to pairing papers. This one worked because the background is a small pattern and the top piece is a large pattern, but normally I wouldn't have thought to put these two papers together.

Next up:

I used small strips of papers behind the larger rectangle. With all the straight lines, I decided the center needed a circle, so I cut the MFT doily out of a Naturals White piece and stamped the Paper Smooches sentiment in the center. I cut six doilies, since I made four of the blue version of this card, and two of this one:

Both this one and the blue were paired with the Rust card stock.

Okay, that's thirty! This is what I have left from the paper pack:

(sorry for the bad lighting) At the top left are a bunch of 2" strips that I'll tackle next. To the right of them are -- amazingly -- the solid papers from the pack, and top right is my pile of printed OWH sketches I'm using for inspiration.

Someone asked me if I had a strategy or method for sentiments or embellishments. Nope - I was pretty much stamping without a net. I know OWH needs all sorts of cards, so I tried to mix up the sentiments, but honestly, I found myself looking for sentiments to fit whatever shape I'd cut for the sentiment panel.

Okay, time for some food and a break for my neck. I'll do another post later with the rest of the cards and a grand total.

Thanks for stopping by!