Making your own Patterned Paper

Sometimes you can’t find the right patterned paper as a background… even if you have thousands of sheets like I do!  This is the time you’ve just got to make your own!  The added bonus of course is that you get the right ‘look’ – whether it be colour or the pattern itself.

I love the look of old sheet music on Christmas decorations but am unwilling to cut up Grandma’s old sheet music!   So some time ago I bought a large background size stamp of music.   Unfortunately it looks even more ragged than some old sheet music lol, but if you only use a little it can look very effective.  

 

SU warm words, Whimsy music notes

For my first card I stamped some cream cardstock with the music background stamp and cut it into 2cm strips, from those I cut 3 x 7cm lengths and cut the bottoms like a banner.    

The cream cardstock looks like old yellowed paper and looks effective against the white background.   I stuck these onto the white at different levels, wrapped some white and gold string around and added some little adhesive pearl look embellishments, and one little red star as well.   The sentiment was a simple one but I think it goes with the clean overall look.  The silver-grey cardbase gives enough grounding without overwhelming the cardfront.

SU Wonderful Wreath, Christmas Lodge and Reindeer Print, Real Red & Gumball Green inks.

For this card I wanted to use the wreath stamp that I bought recently (we all need an excuse to use our new stamps!).   

I stamped white cardstock with Gumball Green ink and matted it onto a layer of Real Red cardstock.   However I wanted a regular size card and it needed more than the red cardbase or even another white matted layer.  The answer was to make a simple pattern on the white cardstock with a holly stamp from an old SU set, Reindeer Print and I used the same Gumball Green ink.  

To finish the card off I stamped a sentiment from SU Christmas Lodge in Real Red ink and attached it with dimensionals.   Then I added some little red rhinestones to the wreath as if they were little holly bunches.  On the inside of the card on the white writing card, I stamped another little holly stamp in the corner, tying it all together.

Have you made your own patterned paper in your projects?