Following the Trends

 

I don't know if you do this, but I follow a lot of other paper crafters on social media. I watch videos, subscribe to amazing crafters on YouTube, follow them on Instagram and Facebook, and so on. Well, this has been a huge trend for card makers lately. I first learned about fractured cards (or faux shutter cards, named for the appearance of a camera shutter closing or opening) last fall at a friend's stamp event. One of the projects that we made was a fractured card, so I already was familiar with how to make them.

Looking at all of the examples lately, I decided that I had to use some of my pretty retiring papers before they, well, retire, and make some of these up. Using the Lighter Than Air DSP, which has so many pretty pastel colours, rainbows, everything to satisfy my girliest parts, and chose coordinating colours. I used Azure Afternoon, Lemon Lolly, Fresh Freesia, Bubble Bath, and then grabbed Petal Pink and Lost Lagoon for some of the floral pieces too. 

All of the flowers were laid on the foliage that I cut out with Lost Lagoon. I love how soft that green is, and that it fits so well with all of the pastels of the other colours. It combined with small blooms as well, and made some wonderful accents behind the colourful florals. 

The fractured look is obtained by cutting a layer of DSP, then placing the focal image, a square in this case, but you can use any shape with straight sides to modify it, somewhere on the center of the DSP. You need to remember to place it away from the edge so that the full effect of the "fracture" is apparent. Using strips of paper that match the card base, you place the strips starting even with the edge of the corner, and continue placing them around the edge of the focal square until they are all placed. It is just fine to leave them hanging off the edge of the card. The next step is to trim them off by turning the piece over and snipping the strips close to the edge.

I added a bit more to some of the cards by using corners of coordinating DSP to glue on top on opposite sides, then again flipping and trimming to give the effect of multiple pieces of paper. 

After I adhered these panels to the card base, the strips all but disappear and it looks like the DSP is actually the pieced paper rather than the strips. I added a coordinating layer of paper behind the white focal piece prior to adhering these, but that is not at all necessary. 

Using the Paper Florist dies (there are SO many different ones in the set), I made a variety of flowers. It took a little bit of time to get a groove piecing them together, and I kept cutting the pieces out in different colours so that I could achieve a variety of looks with them. I think there is really no limit to the types of flowers that you can make, especially just changing up the colours. 

The Lighter Than Air and Paper Florist dies are retiring at the end of April, and I will miss both of these. Unlike many demonstrators, I will keep these dies and continue to use them in my future projects. I tend to only buy things that I like, and that makes it just a joy to craft. I think these dies will make wonderful decor pieces, and I plan on using them to update my kitchen pictures. They were honestly a lot of fun to use. 

If you are interested in any of the products here, or checking to see what else is retiring at the end of April, use the links on the home page and check them out. I will work on making a tutorial for this project, and I will update my post when it is ready. I hope you like this project, and check out some of my others. I would love to read your comments when you do!

If you would like the tutorial, use the link below.

Download Free Tutorial