Are you ready for some inspiration for your designer paper?  Yes, all that beautiful patterned paper that you either have at home or have been eyeing up in the catalog.  Then hang on to your hats because today is the monthly Fun n’ Crafty blog hop and we are featuring projects that use designer paper! Many of the papers featured are included in the July Buy 3 get 1 free promotion, so if you find some favorites along the way, you don’t have to feel so bad because they are on sale!

Idea #1 – Let Your Designer Paper be Your Focal Point

I’m going to be sharing two cards today, but this first one is the type that would have had me cringing a year ago… because I use “big” pieces of 2 sheets of paper!  Gasp! I know, right?  But the thing is, I realized that when I actually let myself use my papers, they make great borders and backgrounds. These patterns are from my new favorite paper collections from the Stampin’ Up catalog – Maritime Designer Paper. I’m not normally a nautical person, but I love how many of the prints can be used for any type of card… but especially masculine cards!! I added some Silver Foil paper, some baker’s twine, a Cherry Cobbler button, and the sentiment from the Hip Notes stamp set. And if you noticed from the first picture, I had the Silver Foil paper curved so that it gave some dimension to the banner.  To help hold that curve in place, I stacked 2 Stampin’ Dimensionals on top of each other and then placed the stack under the raised curve part of the banner to keep it held up.  The other end is glued straight down to the card front.

Idea #2 – Try Some Paper Piecing

I’ve been meaning to try paper piecing with this stamp set (Vivid Vases) for ages, so now seemed like the perfect time to actually get it done! If you aren’t familiar with paper piecing, it is the idea of taking a stamp set with outline images that you would normally want to color in and instead of coloring in with markers, you stamp your image again on a piece of patterned paper and cut it out to glue on top of your stamped image. So, in this case, I used the new Flower Pot designer paper to give me a fun and funky floral background as well as for patterns for each of my pots.  Each paper used in this card are all from this one paper set. Then when I was done, I was grateful for Stampin’ Up’s color cordination between products because I needed something and really wanted some ribbon to match without competing with all the colors and images I already had used.  Thankfully I was able to grab some Calypso Coral seam binding ribbon and Mossy Meadow stitched satin ribbon to complete the card. So hopefully you enjoyed these ideas for using up some of the paper in your stash! Lets keep the fun going and hop on over to Kathy’s blog for more ideas to try! Blog Hop Participants:

• Jennifer B. of Northwest Stamper <— YOU ARE HERE
• Kathy T. of Stampablog
• Tobe B. of The Craft Sea
• Angela M of Stamp with Angela
• Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
• Sara G of 1200 Some Miles

July Online Stamp Club Hostess Code – 7RDHVEKR Use this code to get free exclusive tutorials & project kit!  Learn more