We all have it. Stockpiled everywhere in your scrap area. In beautiful colors like scarlet, spruce, canary, cotton candy, lipstick, sea breeze, powder and raindrop, it’s not wonder that scrapbookers cannot keep their hands on these wonderful papers.
Every time I go to the scrapbook store I must come home with at least 6-10 new sheets of beautiful, luscious colors to create beautiful layouts on!
In fact, my favorite thing I’ve organized so far was my cardstock! I love the array of rainbow colors that sits on my shelves. They are beautiful to look at, and with all the unique textures they are the perfect beginning to any scrapbook page!
However, with today’s new and innovative products, we tend to forget the simplicity and beauty of just plain cardstock. How can you leave the embellishments off? How can you not use those awesome rub-ons?
It can be done.
Sometimes, it’s just nice to go back to the basics.
Since I find it hard to leave off the fun embellishments, I only challenge myself to work with cardstock only, about once or twice a week. This allows me freedom the rest of the time to do whatever I want.
I can tell you when I am done creating a cardstock only layout, I’m always pleased at how well it turned out. My photos are always the main focus of the layout, the colors complimenting them perfectly.
At first it was hard not to be tempted with letter stickers or my computer to journal with. And it was hard not to use the metals and ribbons on my layouts.
But the more I played around with the cardstock, the more I realized that you can do a lot with just cardstock as the base of your layout.
Play around with inks, chalks and paints too. Smudged, rubbed or brushed on, they give the layout a little added texture and a new dimension.
It’s very simple to create a layout from just cardstock. Think of it like this. You take two pieces of cardstock. These are your background papers. These colors should compliment your photos and make them really the center, the focus, of the layout.
You can use templates to trace out letters for the title in another complimentary color. Use ink or chalk around the edges of the letter giving it a light aged look.
Create a journal block out of a rectangle of another color of cardstock. Using a regular black scrapbook journal pen, simply write on the journal box whatever you would normally type in the computer.
A page created this way, can often be completed in 10-20 minutes, allowing for more scrapbooking and more layouts to be finished and added to those albums.
And don’t forget using your cardstock for paper piecing, die cuts, punch art and more!
What do you like to do with your cardstock?