Need a quick yet elegant card? Patterned paper is the answer. Sure some stampers object to using lots of patterned paper rather than fancy stamping techniques, but I think if you’re giving a card to someone who would love an elegant hand-made card but doesn’t care about fancy techniques, then patterned paper can work beautifully.

All images Copyright Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008. Card designed by Angela Sargeant

This card uses our new colour range called InColors and features Soft Sky (the blue colour) and Wild Wasabi (love that name – Wasaaaaaabi, LOL). The base of the card is Soft Sky then layered on top is Patterned Paper from the Stampin’ Up! Spring Silhouettes Double-Sided Designer Series paper. It looks like I have used a few sheets of paper but in fact it’s just one small part of the sheet of 12″x12″ paper. The next thing I did was to stamp the “Inspire” message from the fabulous Life Definitions stamp set (a set of 28 stamps) in Wild Wasabi on Very Vanilla cardstock, layered that onto Wild Wasabi cardstock and adhered to the top left hand side of the card. The flowers on the card are from the just-released-in-Australia Pretties Kit; the flowers are all in white but can be tinted to any colour you like. The pink flower was coloured by picking up the colour from the Pretty In Pink inkpad with a Sponge Dauber and then dabbing the flower with the Sponge Dauber, like this:

Under the pink flower on my card there are two other white flowers and I just attached them together with a green Rhinestone Brad. To finish off the card and to balance it out, I wrapped some double-stitched Soft Sky Ribbon around the card then attached three flat-backed pearls (also from the Pretties Kit) onto the ribbon using Mini Glue Dots.

Here’s a run-down on the products I’ve used:

Soft Sky Cardstock
Soft Sky Double-Stitched Ribbon
Wild Wasabi Cardstock
Wild Wasabi Inkpad
Spring Silhouettes Double-Sided Designer Series Paper
Life Definitions Stamp Set (28 stamps, 26 of them being definitions such as: Remember, Together, Wish, Memories… great for cardmaking and scrapbooking)
Pretties Kit (includes 50 flowers, 60 half back pearls each in white & cream in various sizes, 45 round pearls each of white & cream, 20 round beads, Rhinestone brads, hat pins and more!)
Sponge Dauber (to colour the top Pretties flower)
Pretty In Pink Inkpad (to colour the top Pretties flower)
Ice Circle Rhinestone (come in 4 colours and 3 sizes)
Mini Glue Dots (to secure the ribbon and flat-backed pearls)
SNAIL Adhesive (adhesive for cardstock)

I hope you like this card, although it’s simple I believe it’s elegant and would work well as inspiration for a scrapbooking page. Any questions on the card or product information please email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com