Experiments with American Crafts

It's no secret that I *love* American Crafts' D-Ring Albums, Slick Writers, and Thickers.  But, truth be told, I've never really played with American Crafts patterned paper.  Lots of large bright patterns.  Very bold.  So, when the design team call went out a few weeks ago, I decided to see what I could do.  I bought this pack of patterned paper...

...and started playing around!

This is a $1 wooden frame from Michaels:

I painted the frame blue and then hand cut a ton of flowers from various American Crafts papers.  You can see a bit of the crazy hyper-dimension in this detail photo:

 

I used a ton of foam adhesive to create lots of dimension and depth.

Take a peek at this next layout.  Can you see what I was trying to do?

I was going for a more controlled, but still painted look.  It feels a little still to me.  You know, not enough movement and energy. 

Cards are never easy for me.

I used a homemade stencil on the layout below.  Also added some pops of color with Sakura's Glaze Pens.

I did a lot of hand stitching on this next layout:

I think it's one of my all time favorites.  It's my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and me.

Went a little masking tape crazy on this one:

I painted the black outlines as an echo of the outline around the red flowers.

I feel really good overall.  I conquered my fear of those big bold patterns.  And I figured out a few fun tricks along the way!  That said, there are some hits and some misses. 

What do you think?