You may have come across the terms "One Page Wonder" or Kylie Bertucci's catch phrase "Love It Chop It" - quite simply put, this is a technique that puts your spare 12" x 12" patterned papers to good use and enables you to make many cards from just one sheet of patterned paper!
If you are anything like me, I will generally absolutely love a few patterned papers out of a paper suite collection and will use these to either replicate cards I have fallen in love with on pinterest or create my own masterpieces, but the unfavoured pieces that I don't quite know what to do with or have not fallen in love with get added to my growing collection of retired paper sets. And that's a lot of money and paper wasted, right? Something none of us want to do. So read on to discover a simple way of converting these paper hoarded stacks into beautiful cards that you can pass onto those to show you care.. it may be a simple thank you card, or a thinking of you card. I have dubbed them my "Hoard It Snip It" technique...
Hoard It Snip It Technique
Step 1
Start by taking a sheet of grid paper and cut out a 12" x 12" square, ideally leaving the measurements shown on the left and top sides.
Step 2
Establish what your card size will be as this will determine what size your cutouts should be.
Step 3
Using a pencil and ruler, apply your desired cutout shapes to your 12" x 12" grid paper, trying to minimise as much wastage as you can. Mix up your shapes by having triangles, rectangles, squares, etc. to ensure you end up with a variety of different cards. Try to ensure you line up your shapes so you have cutting lines that are straight and not all over the place.
Step 4
Once you have finalised your finished 12" x 12" sheet with your desired shapes, it is time to cut them out using your trimmer.
For example, this was my design I settled on which made enough for 12 cards with a bit of wastage which couldn't be helped.
Step 5
Next you adhere your cutout shapes onto your card bases. To jazz the card up quickly & easily, I find adding plain colour-coordinated cardstock behind the patterned cutout shapes to create a small border makes it look better, but this is optional. On the cutouts above, I used 1 1/2 A4 Night of Navy Cardstock to create a border around each cutout shape.
Step 6
Select a sentiment you would like, and now it is up to you how you decorate your card keeping it as simple or complex as you like. Some suggestions include:
- layering the sentiment on white or vanilla card (to suit card base) with coloured circle/ oval/ scallop/ rectangle or square border behind & adhering with dimensionals for a 3D look.
- adding some interest with cutout flowers, leaves, butterflies, ribbon or trim, sequins or enamel dots, etc.
- stamping your sentiment directly onto the card base on the non-patterned section.
For example,
