Summer into Autumn trends

Hi everyone!
It’s Nat here, back to share some projects that will hopefully inspire you as we move from Summer into Autumn.
I’ve been noticing that the colour palettes of many of the lovely lines that have been coming into the store over the last month or so all share some similarities.
I’m loving all the aqua, pink, coral and grey tones we are seeing – plus it looks like gold is definitely here to stay for a while!
The great thing about these colour tones is that they lend themselves perfectly well to all occasions whether for cardmaking or scrapbooking. And I love that! I’m all about versatility when it comes to buying my craft supplies, especially because I love mixing in new stash additions with what I already have.
So first up I wanted to give a shout out to some of my favourite product picks for this blog post.
Numero uno… it has got to be this fantastic speciality gold foiled paper from Teresa Collin’s Nine & Co. line:

I cannot stress just how much use you will get out of this paper. I’ve used it plenty and I still have over half a sheet left. It is a beautiful shade of gold and the foiling is stunning. I think I will be hoarding this until I’m down to the last sliver of a strip! A little definitely goes a long way with this paper. Also the weight is closer to a sheet of cardstock than regular patterned paper, so fab quality!
Number two, staying with the Nine & Co. line it’s the chipboard accents which can be found here and the cardstock die-cuts, the contents of that packet look like this:

Both of these complement each other perfectly and you get plenty of usable details. Plus the gold foiling on the chipboard die-cuts is super nice!
And lastly, my favourite set of enamel dots from My Mind’s Eye’s Just Sayin’ collection:

I especially love the mix of shapes and the glitter gold dots are a great shade of gold. You can’t go wrong with pink, aqua and a little extra gold glam! I really don’t have many of these left now as I’ve been using them on almost every project I’ve made in the last few weeks.
And finally, it goes without saying that the Notes & Things collection from Crate Paper has been a big hit! I’ve really loved incorporating some picks from this line into projects – especially alongside the Maggie Holmes Storyboard collection that came out earlier this year.
So now onto a few projects celebrating the tones and trends we’re currently seeing.
We’re going with coral, aqua and gold for this first card:
I currently have a bit of a thing for die-cut apertures on cards. It’s amazing the visual statement you can make with just a couple of circle dies and some 3D foam tape! For this card I die-cut a larger circle of glittered paper and attached it to a piece of that lovely coral striped paper – I then ran that through with a slightly smaller circle die so as to create a neat border around the circular aperture. Mounted behind that is a piece of the gold foiled paper.
You can see the effect a bit better in this photo, love the gold shade here! And I’ve used a couple of die-cuts from the Nine & Co. cardstock die-cuts pack as my main elements. That banner is great for a stamped greeting!

Now my next card features another big trend of the season – the little red fox!
I love this little guy! I had a thin strip of the gold foiled paper left over and I just stuck it down the edge of this card then used a journaling card instead of paper for that colourful background – journaling cards, they’re so useful! Diagonal stripes are definitely very popular at the moment – and one of my favourite patterns alongside chevrons.
I used some of the foiled and plain chipboard from the Nine & Co. collection here too. I really like the look of the chipboard elements layered for extra pop. And there are plenty of fishtail banners in the chipboard set. I particularly love the striped gold foil one I used here.

Also for this card I have a little tip for how to create a double-ended banner using the Fishtail dies from My Favorite Things:
Step 1 – Select the appropriate die for the text/greeting you want to use.
Step 2 – Cut your banner then stamp your text.
Step 3 – Flip the die round and slot the die-cut strip back into the die, lining it up where you want to cut at the pointy end.
Step 4 – Secure the die and banner strip with a piece of washi tape to hold them in place when running them through your machine.
And when you’ve done that, you should have a perfect double-ended banner:
I also really wanted to see how the gold foil paper would work as the actual background to a card – it was a tad difficult to photograph, but the effect is really classy in real life (the gold tone is just like the bottom part of the pic):

However the aqua paper directly against the gold foil was a bit harsh, so I softened the look by mounting the aqua paper on a piece of vellum. Much better!
With all that gold foil this card didn’t need much else so I simply used one of the cardstock die-cuts from Nine & Co. to frame the greeting.

Next up there’s more gold foil paper on this card, but also did you know the journaling cards from the Notes & Things collection include a lovely little vellum pocket filled with gold sequins?
That was a happy surprise…
Sequins are all the rage right now as accents dotted about here and there on projects, but I love the delicate look of them in a glassine envelope or vellum pocket, plus you can shake them around a bit. Very pretty. I actually trimmed down the vellum pocket with a pinking edge die here and sewed it shut to keep all those little sequins in there. The background paper from the Notes & Things line features some lovely grey tones which are perfect for a neutral background that isn’t too busy. I cut out a couple of phrase elements from the Memo Paper in this line for the greeting.
And yes, there’s a bit more gold foiled paper here, plus extra pop with the gold foiled chipboard accent from Nine & Co. and one of the lovely stand-out butterfly stickers also from Crate’s Notes & Things line.

Now it’s time to showcase a different shade of gold – it comes in the form of this striped glitter gold paper in the My Mind’s Eye Just Sayin’ line:
I used a strip of it for that scallop border. It’s a much deeper shade of gold and is very sparkly when the sun hits it. I love the look of it against aqua and cream/white tones and those triangles.
And it looks great against bolder colours like that pink, yellow and red. The greeting is also given a bit of extra pop by mounting it on a piece of wood veneer.

And finally, with some of the scraps I had left-over I made a little notelet card:

The striped glitter paper is great for decorative edges and teeny tiny die-cuts and punches.
A great way of making the most of those scraps!

And last but not least I have some pocket pages to share with you.
I’m a bit of a slow scrapper and my 2014 album has been neglected lately…. as you can see since these pages are for March!
But I’m determined to get caught up SOONER rather than later.
Here’s the left-hand side:

And the right-hand side:
Lots of Crate Paper Notes & Things journaling cards and papers mixed in with journaling cards from the Maggie Holmes Styleboard collection (which has to be my favourite set of journaling cards ever!). And of course plenty of chipboard accents from Nine & Co.

Lots of gold accents for this pocket – the gold chipboard heart, the gold glittered 6×4 journaling card tag, and the lettering on the stand-out sticker.
I love the trend in arrows at the moment – especially the ones that look hand-drawn – and this gold foiled chipboard one from Nine & Co. was just right for this pocket. Also I’m a huge fan of the alphabet sticker sheets by Basic Grey. With four colours and two fonts to a sheet they’re very handy for pocket scrapping!
Here’s another trend we’re seeing more of – triangles – love them in the form of enamel dots!
I’m all about layering elements – I just can’t seem to leave things alone. So the journaling cards that have bits and pieces already stitched on are a particular favourite, like this one from the Notes & Things pack.
More Basic Grey alpha stickers here… so handy!
And here they are mixed in with some Studio Calico stickers plus the aqua version (sadly no longer available) of these alpha stickers by Elle’s Studio – I love that they feature hashtags!
And lastly, way to go getting the most out of your supplies – use the packaging on your page! <g>
That clipboard is actually the card insert for the stand-out stickers from Notes & Things. Very handy!
Here are some of the products featured on my March pocket pages:

I hope you enjoyed this collection of projects – I’d love to know what trends you’re currently enjoying or want to see more of!
Happy crafting!