A Few Strips Is All You Need for a Few Quick Cards! | Tremendous Texture with Erica

If you want to add pops of colour to your cards but are short on time, strips of coloured card stock is hard to beat time wise. You don't need a specific diecut for this, it's probably faster to just chop the strips using a trimmer to be honest. All you have to do is meticulously check the sizing, so they are all the same width. 

Hi Altenew friends and fans, it's your texture-loving gal Erica back on the blog and the YouTube channel with a few fun ideas using strips of card stock. I have used a color scheme for these cards that is inspired by two of my own cards. It felt so summery and cheery, but I wasn't sure the exact colors used as they were all pre-cut, but I have tried to color match those strips to Crafting Necessities Colored Card Stock. The shades I ended up settling on are Lagoon, Minty Mint, Limeade, Fresh Lemon and Pink Diamond.

There are so many ways to use strips in your designs, and these are just some of them. If you want to try the strips technique make sure to have some fun with it. One top tip I will mention though is to use a grid mat to adhere your strips straight. If they are not straight and the same width, it will be quite obvious, plus you might end up with gaps between your strips and take it from me, that will annoy you. 

As I mentioned, I was inspired by two cards I made with some pre-cut strips, but rather than just straight up copy those, I thought it would be fun to add in some delicious texture with the help of Shimmer Relief Paste. I am somewhat addicted to that gorgeous stuff, please don't hold it against me! 

As the Shimmer Relief Paste needs time to dry, the first thing I did was create the backgrounds. I have used Enchanted Gold and Pearl. This was done by spreading the paste quite thick and not smoothing it out, to give it that delicious texture. If you want to have a smooth look, which will still be gorgeous and shiny, just use a spatula or something to flatten it with. If you are planning on sending the card in the mail, the flat option is the better one. 

Now for the strips part! Here you can really have some fun, play around with the colors you have picked, and see what order looks the best to you, sometimes swapping one for another can really change the look of the whole card. Sounds like an exaggeration, but it's really not. Color order matters so play around and see what appeals to you. 

You will see that the order of strips on these cards are not the same, even the two that are made from the same panel. You can see the strips are technically in the same order, BUT thanks to the cut, it looks like it's different, and also because the standard A2, 5.5"x4.25" panel, the 1" strips are covering too much, so some of them will be chopped off. 

I had planned on only making two cards, but I had plenty of strips and something went a little wrong along the way so... I ended up with four in the end. It happens, right? One has a whole panel of strips, two are made from one panel cut in half at an angle, and the final card was a total fluke really. That one also has a little secret, but I will get to that in a bit. You can also see the secret in the YouTube video so I hope you get a chance to watch it. 

I should really have started this whole post by showing you the cards that inspired all of these strips shenanigans. Better late than never, so here we are! 

I actually made these with a crafty friend called Brennan, during an Instagram live, which you can watch the replay of over on my Instagram page. We did a little collaboration on some Christmas In July projects, where I also used strips, but in Christmas colors. So versatile, I tell you! 

These are finished off with a beautiful big words die cut that says 'You Are Loved' and it's lovely. The second card has some word sentiments from Timeless Sentiments Word Dies, which is such a classic set! Definitely a must-have if you like word die cuts. 

For today's cards I have used the same diecut set, Timeless Sentiments, as well as some glitter card stock! I used both Citrine and Moonstone. The reason I picked these two was to coordinate with the Enchanted Gold and Pearl Shimmer Relief Pastes. The coloured card stock strips, the word diecuts and all that gorgeous Shimmer Relief Paste were all just so good together. 

These word die cuts are brilliant, by the way. I can't recommend them enough if you like die cut word sentiments, honestly. You can use them on their own, or layer them with the shadow die cut piece. I have built mine up with some layers, and when it came to putting them on the cards I even mixed and matched a little. Usually I stick to one color, but seeing as one of the backgrounds had both the gold and white paste, I thought why not try something new? I think it worked out pretty well, if I may say so myself. 

Ok, so the card with the secret on it? Are you curious about it?? Let's get to it. I had a fab background but at this stage, I didn't have enough long strips of card stock left. I wasn't deterred by the lack of strips, no, no! I ended up doing a bit of clever puzzling using two shorter strips and adhering some Instant Dimension Foam Tape on the back of them to raise them up a little too. 

To cover up the 'seams' with the word sentiment worked fabulous because on this one I used the slightly bigger 'thank you' one! Not a crazy or super exciting secret, BUT even if you think you might not have enough card stock strips left to use, this might work! If your word die cut isn't big enough, maybe some embellishment, a stamped image, or even some die cut flowers will work. 

All of these cards have been put together with a bit of Instant Dimension Foam Tape, because layers are life! Some of the word diecuts were also adhered to the cards with some of that amazing stuff. The biggest difference from the two inspiration cards is that these all ended up without extra embellishments, but the Shimmer Relief Paste made up for it, I think. If you need some extra sparkle, you could also add in strips of glitter card stock! 

With that I am all done for today but I'd love to hear what you think of the strips technique. Is this one you have tried before, are you a fan of strips or what would you do to improve on this technique? I hope you get a chance to check out the video and be inspired to have some fun with strips! 

With love and light, sparkle and creativity from your gal Erica