My Core’dinations Creative Frenzy

I know there are lots of "patterned paper people" out there. Don't get me wrong, I love a pretty piece of patterned paper as much as the next person ;) But me? I am a cardstock gal. Always have been, always will be. It is VERY rare that I will do a project without any cardstock. For one thing, I like how the absence of pattern gives the eye a place to rest. But even more than that, I love texture. So when I was first introduced to Core'dinations--cardstock with so much texture and depth, it was truly love at first sight. From pre-embossed designs to different color cores, there really is something for every project and technique. The best thing about Core'dinations is how many different ways it can be played with to create such different looks. I tried to use a variety of methods in my projects.

For example, in this layout,

I cut squares of pre-embossed Core'dinations cardstock, sanded them and glued them down to a black background. Once I was sure I had wiped off most of the dust I sewed inbetween the squares for a quilted look. Then I punched stars from a white wash color and sanded half of them. The other half I flipped over and layered underneath:

For this layout, I wanted to create a polka dot background (again with some Whitewash Core'dinations):

so, I opened up an embossing folder, placed it underneath the cardstock

and sanded. I continued to move the embossing plate around to different parts of the cardstock.

I highly recommend getting one of these Dust Buddy wipes if you are doing lots of sanding:

After all the sanding and wiping, I was left with a fun polka dot background:

To create this fun worn flower:

I started with a purple and white core Core'dinations cardstock and cut a bumpy spiral:

(yes they make dies to cut out these bumpy spirals but it is easy enough to cut your own!). Then I sanded the edges of the spiral:

and rolled it (just the way you make a rolled rose, starting from the outside going in towards the center. I added a few hand cut and creased leaves from a pre-embossed green Core'dinations cardstock. Even the journaling strips were printed on a Whitewash color of Core'dinations so I could sand the edges and add an additional pop of green.

Finally, for this last layout, I used a tearing technique. Well, not really TECHNIQUE, I just tore the paper lol, but look at how cool strips of Core'dinations looks when it is torn:

And the three hearts were punched and then embossed using my Cuttlebug and a heart embossing folder:

Isn't Core'dinations fun? If you made it all the way through this post and you're still not convinced that you could make something without patterned paper, check out THIS POST, where I made two patterned paper-less cards :)

Thanks for stopping by!

:) Rebecca