Patterned Cardstock - just for scrapbooking? Not!

Not so long ago, I would wander into a scrapbook store or a craft store, and look at the beautiful scrapbooking papers or patterned papers, and think to myself, "Wow, these are SO lovely, but I really do NOT scrapbook often enough to justify spending the money..."  But over the past few years, I have come to learn just how many projects these beautiful papers can be used for - OFF the scrapbook page!  And not only off the page, but in bits and pieces!  You would be AMAZED at just how much you can do with a sheet (or few sheets) of some gorgeous paper!

Back in July, while at a scrapbooking store several hours from where I live, for a weekend of workshops with Donna Downey, I fell in love - I mean head over heels - with My Minds Eye's Lost & Found collection.  And not just one line in the collection - but the ENTIRE collection.  Every piece of paper in the collection is glittered, the title tags are glittered, the stickers are glittered, the layered rosette flower stickers are just gorgeous, the buttons, the brads, the trims, the chipboard album covers...I mean, MME really hit it out of the park with this collection!  I resisted, though, and didn't buy any at the time.  But when a friend recently asked me to make baby shower invitations for a mutual friend, due to have a little boy in December, I knew within seconds exactly what papers I wanted to use!!  So without further ado...I present...my MME Portobello Road baby shower invitations.  I wish I would have taken photos along the way, but alas, I didn't...so I'll do my best to describe the process to you.

For starters, I began with just two patterned papers - Portobello Road "Party," and Portobello Road "You and Me."  I also used the Portobello Road stamp set.  Addtionally, I used plain vanilla 12x12 cardstock (Stampin' Up!), my computer word-processing program, the Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge, a Tim Holtz Alterations -On The Edge "Brackets",  some white Maya Road crocheted trim, some Stampin' Up! light blue narrow organdy ribbon, a Brown Staz-on ink pad,  Vintage Photo distress ink, an Ink Blending Foam Applicator, and a sepia Martha Stewart marker.

1. I started by cutting my vanilla cardstock into 6"x12" pieces, and then cut the base tag shapes on my Cricut using the Graphically Speaking cartridge, at 5.5" size.  
2. I inked all the edges of my tags using Vintage Photo distress ink with an ink applicator.
3. I used the "You and Me" paper to cut 1"x5.5" strips of paper, then ran them through my Sizzix with the Brackets Alterations die to give the fun edge.
4. I cut the banner off the tops of all of the pieces of my "Party" papers, and then cut the rest of the paper (using the back side) into 3"x5.5" strips to use for the centers of my invitations.  
5. On my computer, in a word processing program, I typed out the information regarding the baby shower.  I printed it on regular paper, and made sure it would fit on the center strip of patterned paper.  Once I had it sized as desired, I used temporary adhesive to adhere the strips of patterned paper to the same sheet of paper I had already printed on, and ran it through my printer again, so that the information would print on the patterned paper rather than the plain paper.  I repeated this process until all of my invitations had been printed.
6. I inked the edges of the center, printed strips, with the distress ink.
7. I adhered the die cut strips to the tag bases, and then adhered the center strips over the side strips, centering them on the tag bases.  I punched a hole to line up with the hole in the tag which the Cricut had cut.
8. I used my distress ink and foam applicator to apply distress ink to the crocheted trim, and then glued the trim to the bottoms of all of the invitations.
9. I carefully cut apart the banner pieces from the tops of the "Party" papers.  I chose to cut apart each individual triangle piece.  I had 15 invitations to make, and there were 9 triangles on each page, which meant I used 5 pieces of paper.
10. Using the word "BOY" from the stamp set, I cut apart the letters very carefully.  Using the brown Staz-on ink, I stamped one letter from the word on each of three banner triangles for each invitation.
11. After stamping the banner pieces, I used a foam pop dot to adhere the banner pieces to the invitations.
12. I used the airplane from the same stamp set and, again with the brown Staz-on, stamped the airplane above the banner pieces on each invitation.
13. Using the sepia colored Martha Stewart marker, I hand-drew in a loopy line from the tail of the airplane to the end of the banner, to make it look as if the airplane was pulling the banner.
14. I tied a piece of light blue organdy ribbon through the hole of the tag invitation to complete it.

I'm very happy with how the invitations turned out, and am even surprised myself at how much precious, gorgeous, glittery cardstock I have leftover even after making 15 invitations!  I was sure to save the area above the banner on the "Party" paper, with the beautiful birds, as I am certain I will be able to use those pieces for something lovely.  And I still have several good sized-pieces of the "You and Me" paper left as well.  Cutting these special papers apart not only allows you to use them in unique ways, but it also helps you to maximize your "bang for the buck," so to speak.

What about YOU?  Have you cut apart any beautiful patterned papers or cardstocks to use for special projects or to save money?