"Gossamer Blue" Hydrangea and Roses Card using Lemoncraft Papers

 Hydrangea and Roses card for Cherish the Memory

With Tips to keep in mind while working with vintage inspired paper

Hello there! 

When I am not working on mixed media canvases, or playing with paints and inks in my art journal, it is nice for me to turn to card making. Card making allows me to use paper mainly as the main medium, versus the usual mediums I use for mixed media, all the while allowing me to still make them mixed media! I find that to be a wonderful thing because I get bored easily. I like to think that I have crafting ADD. Do you ever feel that way? 

This card was made using Lemoncraft papers, from the Gossamer Blue collection, and if you also love vintage graphics, you'll love this collection! This paper pad from Cherish the Memory has beautiful shades of blue, with varying hues! 

The Lemoncraft paper for images to die cut/fussy were my favorite. I used a spellbinders die to cut this pretty hydrangea from it's rectangular scroll design, which was perfect as it was, but I wanted to create a border that would complement it's surroundings on the card. 

Here you can see the different hues of blue that the paper collection has! The blues vary in range from a deep ocean blue, to a light sky blue with tints of teal. Natural jute twine was used to connect the sepia tones of the vintage inspired background of the hydrangea (there is a lot of beautiful old text backgrounds in the paper pack) to the rest of the card. Balance of color is very important to me to tie (no pun intended) it all together!

Tips to creating an aged look for when working with vintage inspired paper :

• Use a distress tool to rough up the edges of the paper. I use a distress tool by Prima Marketing but you can also distress paper by using the side of the blade on a large pair of scissors, as long as you are careful.
• For corners it's a wonderful idea to get yourself a decorative corner punch. The one I used for this card is the Fiskar's corner punch called "Romantique" and I love it!
• When making a mixed media card, or anything vintage inspired, I love to throw antiquated looking lace in off white and cream colors. The lace I used here creates depth and complements the jute twine. Doilies are great too if you have them!
• When working with vintage inspired papers, especially with sepia and warm tones, it is best to stick with off white shades and creams. Ivory is a good replacement for white. Personally, I love to use ivory pearls!

At first, I wasn't so sure about using the jute twine in combination with the satin ribbon, but I thought, "Why not?" went for it and loved it! No rules in art I always say! Which pretty much goes against just about everything I was taught in graphic design back in my college days :) The ribbon helps create the illusion that it is holding the blue roses together in a bunch, and the jute twine can be seen as the adornment filler for the roses or simply what attaches the image to the roses. All in the details.

For the background, I used a TCW stencil with wording to play along with the text in the paper by using modeling paste for texture. There are many mixed media details that can be subtle and soft, perfect for card making for adding interest, a blog post might be in order for that! 

The light blue specks you see on the main background paper (the distressed one) I created by using a Lindy's Stamp Gang spray called Tilt-o-Wheel Teal to match the foreground paper and tie everything together. When I did this, I made sure to cover the main image with a piece of scrap paper for masking it away from the speckles.

I hope you enjoyed this post and have gotten some new tips for yourself, or simply some inspiration! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or would like to read about something not being discussed. Thank you! Please subscribe to my blog if you'd like to be updated for new posts which happen about 2-3 times a month. 

Links to some of the goodies used! Click on the pictures to see specific items.

Cherish the Memory Etsy Store