How to Combine Paper Collections | 22 Easy Card Ideas

Take a look at these two paper packs, would you ever use them together? If your answer's no, I have a feeling I'm about to change your mind. Hi it's Lucy here and let's get started. And we'll kick things off by combining one paper from each collection and I think these two packs were made for each other. The brick adds a lovely bit of texture while the florals soften everything beautifully. And one little tip when you're cutting the brick paper is to make sure the bricks are running across your card rather than up and down. It's also worth checking they're the right way up as there's a very subtle shadow beneath some of the bricks that helps you tell which way is the bottom. And I find the easiest way to adhere pattern paper is to add the double-sided tape directly to the card base rather than the paper and that way you can make sure you've got adhesive right to the edges before trimming away any excess. I think adding a nice thin strip of gold cardstock creates a beautiful border between the two papers and I'm using a glue pen here to add it and I'll share another easy trick for adding thin strips on another card shortly. For the focal point I've die cut the smallest frame from the die set on screen using gold cardstock and then layered a piece of the textured paper from the floral pack behind it. I'm also fussy cutting a selection of flowers to use as embellishments throughout today's cards and don't ignore the flowers around the edges of the paper either you can usually tuck those straight edges underneath another flower or a frame so they're still perfectly usable. And don't worry about getting every card absolutely perfect either with these lovely watercolor style florals any tiny imperfections just disappear. And I'm adding a piece of scrap card behind the frame so everything sits nice and level and then giving the flowers a slight curve for a touch of dimension on each petal. I actually only do this on this first card even though as you know if you watch my videos often I bend my ephemera often but most of the other flowers today will lay flat or with a little foam tape instead. And to finish this card I tried adding some muted gold pearls to the flower centers they didn't look too bad so I've kept them in but in the end I swapped them out for these larger bling embellishments from my stash instead and I also added a sentiment off camera and that's our first card finished what do you think? And for this version I'm simply changing the papers to show how different the same layout can look. I'm using a couple more of the flowers that we fussy cut earlier including one from the edge of the paper and once it's tucked against the gold strip you'd never know it had a straight edge. I've added another flower in the bottom corner to balance the design and I think this is just a softer version of the first card same layout completely different feel so let's move on to the next idea. This time I'm covering the card front with the brick paper and then die cutting a panel from the floral collection using a slimline die and these are great when you only want the stitching detail down the sides. A little tip for thin strips is to add your double-sided tape to the back of the cardstock before you cut it and that way it's already adhesive backed making it much easier to apply without any messy glue or anything on the tiny strips. And I finished this one with one of the fussy cut flowers and a sentiment and that's all it needed. Here's another simple way to combine the two paper pads. I've added one paper to the top and the other to the bottom leaving a gap in between so the white card front becomes part of the design. I thought I'd leave both sentiment options in because you might actually prefer the other one. In the end I chose the darker sentiment as it coordinates nicely with the brick paper whereas the lighter one suited the floral print a little better. So it's just up to our own individual opinion on this. I've also added a couple of small flowers near the sentiment but you could definitely take this designer step further. As there are two of each sheet in the packs you could fussy cut the flowers from the duplicate paper and layer them over the originals with foam tape so they stand up or you could even just offset them slightly to create the look of fuller blooms as well. Yay let's do some tearing because I absolutely love this technique. Do you do tearing? It's really easy and it's not as scary as it sounds if you haven't tried it. I place the two sheets together and tear straight down the middle and that way I know I'll have enough of each paper left to make a card from both halves. And for the first card I'm keeping it really simple by adding the two torn pieces to the card from. I think the brick paper behind the florals gives the nicest contrast. I also like to use my fingernail to lift the torn edge ever so slightly before pressing it back down a bit. It just adds a little extra texture and interest. And then for the second card I'm using the same idea but changing it up a little. I've torn the floral sheet a bit narrower and added a third torn paper from the textured sheet. It's amazing how a small change like that gives you a completely different look because now we have three layers. And the floral papers are also perfect for die cutting your sentiment circles so I've used them on these too. And then finish both cards with a single fussy cup flower. And don't think that the cards get more complicated as we go along because coming up I have one that literally takes just a couple of minutes to make. Maybe even just one minute. I'm using the slimline rectangle die again but this time turning it lengthways for a completely different look. And I've mounted the panel onto some shimmery off-white cardstock before adding it to the brick paper background. And to finish I've added a few of the fussy cut flowers along with a sentiment which I've die cut from the same shimmery cardstock to tie everything together. And here's another version using different papers but exactly the same layout. On the first card I think the sentiment looks best on an angle but on this one although it's the same sentiment I think it felt better placed straight. And it's always worth moving your sentiment around before sticking it down because sometimes it can go in different ways and things so such a small change can make a big difference to the overall design. And another nice thing to add is a few nouveau drops here and there. I mostly like to use them in threes in a triangular pattern and not an exact triangle and maybe make one larger than the other two. Now here's a really easy way to use this background die. It might look a little complicated but it's actually incredibly simple and I'll show you a few different ways to use it. For this first one I'm just using the outer frame and I've placed it over my pattern paper and then I'm just going to trim around the outside to create a perfectly shaped panel. I've layered it onto the white brick background and finished it with similar embellishments to the previous cards. I really like how the die cut frame works with this circle frame and it's also a great way to use up this leafy paper in the background too. I love this style of background die so let's make a couple more versions using all the pieces this time and they look quite intricate but they're actually really easy to put together. I've die cut two floral papers along with one framing off white cardstock and another in gold and that's enough to create two cards that are the reverse of each other. So to start I've added some wide double-sided tape to two white card panels that are slightly larger than the die cut frames. Wide tapes work brilliantly for this because it holds all those little pieces in place but you could just as easily use glue or narrower strips of tape if you don't have this size. And the first card uses the gold outer frame with the off-white inner pieces along with one of the floral papers and the second card is simply the opposite with the off-white frame and gold inner pieces and the second floral paper and that's why you'll need both sheets from the paper pack. It's much easier than it looks if you keep all of your die cut pieces in order. I think most of the little triangle sections are the same size so don't worry too much if one gets mixed up and once all the pieces are in place it's just a matter of trimming around the outside of the frame again. I absolutely love the gold accents on these and they look just as lovely in portrait or landscape orientation. You can use them either way and I've finished both cards with the same circle and sentiment frames just swapping the colors to match each design and on the card to the left I also added a thick layer of cardboard underneath the sentiment circle just to give it a little bit more height which is another option if you want a bit more dimension but the other one will probably go through the post better. And what do you think? I think these background dies always look so impressive and people who don't make cards are often amazed by them because they have no idea how easily all of these pieces are cut for us. And one little tip with die cut sentiments I almost always cut them twice and glue the layers together. It gives them a bit more strength but more importantly a much nicer finish than using just a single layer. Not a fan of gold? No worries here's another option. It was actually starting to get dark when I filmed this segment but I still wanted to show you because I wasn't happy with the craft cardstock I'd originally used for the inner frames. It just didn't work with the brick paper I wanted to use so I simply die cut the pieces again in a darker brown and glued them straight over the top and problem solved. And here's the finished card alongside another version using the same idea but this time as a portrait card instead of landscape and it just goes to show how versatile this design is and you definitely don't need the gold accents and I'd love to know which you prefer with or without gold. I actually really love both I can't decide myself. And now as promised here's the easiest card in the whole video. I still have one of the torn pieces left over so I've added it to the side of the card and popped on a die cut sentiment and that's it. Can you believe this one took around two minutes to make I'd say including the die cutting. It's simple but I think it really turns out very nice. I like it. What do you think? It's a really good way to use up your pretty papers. Another easy way to add a bit of interest is to distress the edges of your papers using a distressing tool or even just the edge of a pair of scissors works. It gives the card a lovely shabby worn look and you can do this to any of the papers even the ones that you put down on the card front to cover it. And also like if I distressed the white border as well it would have created quite a different effect again because it would have had the two layers next to each other. And for the sentiment I've die cut it from one of the floral papers rather than card stock and I think it works really well on this design. I do love how easy but pretty this card turns out. Let's do some tearing again but this time on an angle and I always like to keep that white torn edge so I make sure the piece I want to use is underneath and tear the top piece towards me and that gives the piece I'm keeping that lovely white edge. I've added it to a white brick background then finished it with a sentiment and a couple of the half flowers tucked underneath the torn edge and they're quite subtle because the colors are so similar but I think they add just the right amount of extra interest. I've cut this floral paper in half which makes it perfect for creating two cards. I also wanted to show how it looks against two different brick papers so I've used a different color for each background. And on this first card I've swapped the small printed flower for one of the larger fussy cut flowers and added it with foam adhesive and I really like how that little bit of dimension makes it stand out. I've actually decided to just leave this one without a sentiment. Sometimes it's nice to let the papers do all the talking and it also means the card can be used for just about any occasion because I really think that this style of card can be. And for this second card I haven't added anything extra because the paper is already busy enough on this side and a simple white sentiment is all that it needed. And how great is that just one 6x6 sheet gave us two different cards and I think they both turned out really nice. Here's another design using the brick paper and a torn piece of the floral paper. This time I've layered the torn floral piece over the top so the brick paper peeks out along the bottom and the torn edges along the bottom too. And to balance the design I've added a narrow strip of brown cardstock. And a little tip here it's often helpful to line your ruler up against the strip before sticking it down if it's with double sided tape or while the glue is drying just to make sure that it's nice and straight. And for the sentiment I'm using one from my July member sentiment sheet. I've added a simple white doodled border around it with a gel pen and then popped it up on foam tape. And to finish the card I've tucked one of the little half flowers just above the sentiment. I'm determined I won't have any flowers left on my craft table. I'm using my July member sentiment sheet again for this one. I will die cut one of the sentiments with the circle frame die but I wanted to keep those beautiful florals attached so I let part of the design hang off the cutting plates and that way the die only cuts where I want it to. And after fussy cutting around the flowers I realized the flowers and leaves looked like they wanted to cascade down the card but I'd planned on making a landscape design and rather than starting again I simply trimmed away the longer leafy stems and kept just the flowers. I still wasn't completely happy because I'd left a white border around the flowers so I went back and fussy cut them again. Sometimes a white border works and sometimes it just sticks out too much so it only took another minute or two and I'm much happier with the result now. And to finish the card I've added one of the stripped sentiments from the same sheet, a couple more fussy cut flowers and yes I couldn't resist adding a little touch of gold to this one too. Do you make square cards? I didn't want to leave you out so here are a couple of ideas. One of them is ingenious if I do say so myself. You'll see that in a minute but let's start with this one. It's very similar to some of the rectangle designs but because there's a little more space to play with I've used a larger circle die to create a stronger focal point. I've added one of the floral papers behind the white frame and then finished it with a sentiment and a few fussy cut flowers. And now for my genius idea. Have you ever looked at the cover sheet from a paper pack and thought that's too pretty to throw away but never actually used it? Well today we are. I trimmed it down so it's just slightly smaller than my five and a half inch which is 14 centimetres square card base and of course it's still got the title in the centre and branding running along the sides but that's an easy fix. I simply added two narrow cardstock strips to cover the writing up on the sides and to make sure my sentiment sat nice and level I glued a scrap of cardstock underneath the centre first then added my sentiment circle over the top and that's it. How gorgeous does this card turn out? It only took a couple of minutes to make and it rescued a sheet that would normally end up in the bin. So be honest am I a genius or are you all sitting there thinking yeah Lucia I'd have done that too? I'd love to know. Wow did you get a few ideas from today's video? Here are all 22 cards together again and I'd love to know which design or technique was your favourite. So let me know in the comments below I love reading them all. And just about everything I used today including the paper packs and a lot of the dyes are from In Love Arts and if you'd like to grab anything you can use my discount code LUCY25 to save 25% off and they already have really good prices so that's a bargain and you'll find that along with all the product links in the description box below and they also offer worldwide free shipping options so be sure to check those out while you're there too. And I may receive a commission if you purchase using my links but it doesn't cost you anything extra and then you receive gorgeous goodies. I receive a little support for my channel and we help support a small business too so we all win. How good is that? But don't forget you might have things in your stash that you can use as well and if you've enjoyed today's video and picked up a few new ideas I'd really appreciate a quick thumbs up it really helps my channel more than you might realize. And if you'd like to share me with a crafty friend I would love that. I have to say I was so pleased with how well these two paper packs work together they have such different styles but once you start mixing them they really do complement each other beautifully would you agree with that? And if you're one of my wonderful members I hope this has given you a few more ideas for using July's sentiment sheet too and I've just posted the new August sentiment sheets so I hope you have lots of fun creating with those as well. And another thing I was really pleased about was how little paper I actually used to make all 22 cards. Let me show you what's left I mostly have I do have more brick papers than I do the florals but as you can see there's still so much paper remaining and we mixed the collections together fussy cut flowers even used the cover sheet and there are still plenty of papers left for another crafty session and I think those brick ones would go really great for masculine cards too. That's one of the things I love most about paper packs you can create so many cards from them and still have lots left over. If you're not sure where to find everything I used today I'll show you exactly where it all is and you can see how to find everything on screen now just click the word more and it'll all open up for you and if you'd like to receive my monthly sentiment sheets and other perks while supporting my channel you can check out my membership using the QR code or by clicking the join button below the video don't worry it won't sign you up it will simply show you all the details and see so you can see if it's right for you and a huge thank you to Sue for shouting me a coffee this week I really appreciate your support big hugs thanks so much for spending some crafting time with me today I hope I've inspired you to look at your paper packs a little differently and if you'd like even more ideas using background dies just click on the video on screen and I'll see you in my next video happy crafting and bye for now