Ways with Busy Papers and Bringing Sticker Sheets to Life

Wow, that was a long blog title : )
Happy New Year to you.
Here's my first blog post of 2015.

I had so much fun with the Carta Bella 'All Bundled Up' collection last year.
The colours are 'me'.
But when going through my stash recently I realised that I still had some papers left over, but they weren't calling out to me. They were beautiful, but a tad busy for my liking.
They were too good to leave to one side, so I decided to go with it and embrace the busy.
I thought that it would be a good blog post as I'm sure we've all felt like that about pretty papers at some stage.

Here is the LO, so you can see the papers in their finished glory.

The problem I find with busy papers is that they can detract from the photo. This is a shame as the whole purpose of scrapbooking is to display our photos and document our stories.
I find that by toning down the papers slightly can work a treat.
In this instance I used a glassine envelope that came as some packaging. Vellum would work in the same way. What I like most about this is that you can still see the pretty paper, but in a more subtle, toned down version. It no longer interferes with the photo.
You can see this here.

Another technique I like to use is by painting down some gesso. Again, the patterns can still be seen a little, but you are giving your photo a base.

Another good way to use patterns is to use smaller pieces of the papers.
Here I have layered them up. I used 2 larger rectangles at angles underneath the glassine envelope. I then added a smaller strip again to make it look like a third piece of the paper was there.

You can also use punches on these papers. Flower and circle punches are my favourite. The papers seem less overwhelming.

 Now for the sticker sheet.
I love adding the matching sticker sheets when I buy papers. But sometimes stickers need to be brought to life a little.

You can see on the photo above where I made a little strip of bunting from 5 small stickers from the sheet. I stuck them on with 3d foam tape and pieced a hole on each corner of each flag. I then threaded through some embroidery thread which was tied at one end in a knot and in a bow on the other end.

Next is the snowflake.

Look how pretty it looks. All it needed was 3d tape in the centre, some Stickles  and a gem in the centre to finish.
I have used the stickles glitter and small gems on quite a few of the stickers on the page. It makes such a difference.

And finally. A little hand stitching.

I used the alpha stickers on the sheet and stitched a little on each line.

 There are still a few of these papers and matching stickers etc...if you love this collection as much as I do. You can see them here.
Don't forget, there's 20% off right now too.

Have fun!!

Lisa x