Patterned Paper

I have to  admit that I have a love-hate relationship with patterned paper. I love it so I end up buying it but then I never use it, and it accumulates so I end up hating it! (OK - hate is a strong word - maybe resenting it!). One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to stop buying patterned paper, and I am proud to say that I have generally adhered to this (except one 6x6 pad - but it was really cute AND on sale!!!)... the issue is that I still subscribe to two monthly card kits that come with patterned paper so my collection is continuing to grow....

When I saw Virginia's View Challenge to use patterned paper, I immediately thought of my growing collection and knew that I needed to do something. I also needed to make a card for my dinosaur-loving nephew - and I had bought this stamp set from Clearly Besotted for the occasion - so patterned paper piecing seemed to be the way to go...

For my card, I used some Basic Grey Serenade patterned paper from an old Simon Says Stamp card kit - I used one fairly neutral piece for the background and a striped piece down the side for balance. I then stamped the dinosaurs on a few different pieces of more patterned paper and started fussy cutting (a LOT of fussy cutting!!!). Everything was glued down and the eyes were highlighted with some Glossy Accents... and I shaded the ground with a pencil crayon. 

A final part of the card that I want to highlight is the greeting. I used the Stampendous Aged Copper Embossing Enamel and this stuff is amazing!! It has large chunks of copper and smaller pieces of blue-green powder that combine for an aged look. It is very similar to the Ranger Verdigris but slightly more blue and with the copper chunks. I highly recommend this embossing powder - here is the close-up of the "aged" greeting - but the photo really doesn't do it justice:

The end result of this patterned paper experiment is one that I absolutely LOVE!!! I put this card my shelf with my other finished cards and my eye keeps getting drawn to it. Maybe I should take out my patterned paper more often LOL!!!! I will definitely link this card up to Virginia's Challenge with many thanks for making get out my patterned paper!!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Dino-Mite
Patterned Paper - Basic Grey Sweet Serenade (via Simon Says Stamp card kit)
Embossing Powder - Stampendous - Aged Copper


Thanks for stopping by!!!