Friday, July 30, 2010

Summer Fever

I have a confession. I am a bit of a paper snob.
When I first started scrapping, I bought a slab (or 2--or THREE! LOL) 
at Michael's and just went WILD! It really is a great investment
for a beginner scrapper-it gives you plenty of choices for scrapping
& the papers are usually coordinating and easier to match.

But THEN, I discovered the LSS and cardstock quality pattern paper and
my snobbery began. I gave away my economical slabs and switched to individual sheets
of designer paper (which I still hoard adore to this day).

When  I started designing for ATD, Momenta I was a bit nervous
of using the 'paper packs' as it really is ALOT of paper
(and a DIE HARD addict like me is hard pressed to
find a place to store THAT much paper) BUT 
I also love challenging myself and knew I would find a way to 
make it work. What I MUST say right now is that I am pleasantly surprised to 
be re-disovering the benefits of paper pack slab-
ESPECIALLY for a project like this-
which uses a TONNE of paper.

 For this project, I started by making a 4x6" template of an isosceles triangle.
I then picked out a variation of colors from my paper pack 
(since the Momenta Value packs have 4 of each pattern,
you will have MORE than enough choices for a project like this)
and cut out 12 triangles (my 2 words only contain
11 letters but I added a 'spacer' to keep my words seperate).
I then matted and adhered each triangle on a contrasting color cardstock
 (I wanted this project to be as colorful as possible) and then trimmed the
edges of each triangle with shaped scissors.
**Make sure to use enough glue to cover the whole surface
of the triangle which will keep it from warping in the future.**

Using paper punches, I punched a 3.5" scalloped circle from
colored carsdtock and a 3" circle from white cardstock, layered them and adhered.
Next, I made these little accordian circles from various scraps
(paper strips were 1" wide) that I learned to make from THIS blog-- Thank you Helen!!
and adhered them with one more smaller circle (about 1.5")
I then finished it off with black corrugated alphas and
then threaded it all together using hemp cording.
I worked on this for about 3 evenings (in 1-1.5 hr hour increments).

By using a paper pack, I was able to make a multi layered project that is still fairly lightweight
(and thus, less likely to fall apart from the weight).
Another benefit of using a paper pack (as opposed to a cardstock pack) is that a
lighter paper goes through a paper punch THAT much easier since it is thinner
(and the accordian circles were alot easier to work with as well) and
makes a project like this ALOT easier on the hands
(since you have to make so many of each element).


While I still prefer to use a heavier cardstock on my LOs
(Momenta makes alot of their patterns in cardstock too!)
I hope I have given you a reason to take a second look at a pretty paper pack.

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Creating!

6 comments:

Michelle said...

beautiful cindy, love how it turned out.

Julie said...

Awesome! Love it!

papertrails leaver said...

your summer banner is amazing! I am a bit of a paper snob too so don't feel bad. :-)

Igagnon76 said...

gorgeous project! and i'm a total paper snob too! LOL!

Tina McDonald said...

This is fabulous!!! I too like heavier paper... but the light weight does have it's benefits! You certainly found some Here!!

Tracey Taylor said...

Loved reading this post. Thanks for all the tips. Your banner is just sweet. I love all the layers and must admit the lighter weight paper does have it's place. :)