Cardstock

One the things on my "must buy" list for the Paper Craft festival the other week was cardstock - plain and patterened. Did I get any? No. I've been thinking this past week about what seems to be my phobia of paper. If you knew me, you would know that paper and I can't be enemies - just not possible. I love the stuff, but everytime I go shopping for supplies I seem to get a tool, stamp set, ink, anything but paper, except maybe a couple of sheets of Bazzill. Here's what I've been thinking and learning about myself and my paper issues this week:

When I started out my scrapbook paper collection I felt I needed a big range of colours. The only way I could afford this was to buy a couple of those big cheapy packs from Big W. Bad idea for so many reasons.

I used to use paper a lot, in layouts and in cardmaking. I've recently switched to using only cardstock in my crafts because it looks better, is heavier and works better for me. So my first lesson is that I need to buy cardstock, not paper.

The other problem with the Big W paper is that it's cheap, and it's looks it. I've jazzed it up before and it comes out ok, but mostly it looks cheap - and I don't put a lot of effort into my work so that it can look crappy. Second lesson - buy quality, not quantity. (Same goes for chocolate - but I guess you knew that already).

So now I have this big pile of nicely filed and organised crappy scrapbook paper. My husband would kill me if he knew that I don't really use it. So today I set myself a challenge. I took one set of stamps, scissors, ink, pencil, ruler, trimmer, white cardstock and my two folders of patterened and plain crappy paper into the living room. I sat down, pulled out a piece of patterned paper and made as many cards with it as I could. Three was the total. I still have about half of the page left. Then I pulled out another piece. It was ugly, so ugly. Determined to go on, I did my best at a few cards. They look so bad. The colour is very dull. That kind of worked with my first three cards, but a dull red? Who needs that?! I think I need to limit my crappy paper creativity to one page per sitting.

Anyway back to my main issues. The third lesson that I have learnt is that I have absolutely no colour co-ordination what so ever. I've been glued to the Stampin Up colour family page in their catalogue all week to teach myself a little colour style. If you saw the colour of the shirt I am wearing now, you would know that it hasn't helped me any.

You know, I don't think that I've ever put two pieces of patterened paper together on the same card or layout ever! How bad is that. Do other people have these issues or just me?

My final issue, before you admit me to the mental asylum, is that I need to be ultra comfortable and really take my time in order to actually buy any cardstock. Is that why these great companies are putting stuff together in packs and kits? Usually I will buy a couple of patterned papers that I like, but they don't match, so I don't ever use them together. Maybe I'm just lazy when it comes to buying paper. I feel like it's this great effort to choose my colours. Hello - Stampin Up colour families!

Ok, so,
Lesson One - buy cardstock, not paper.
Lesson Two - buy quality, not quantity.
Lesson Three - get some style and colour co-ordination.
Lesson Four - buy patterns from the same range.

Where to start - I need Bazzill in white, black, cream, kraft.
I need a pack of co-ordinating patterened papers.
I need to select a range of Bazzill to match those papers.

Winning the lotto wouldn't go astray either.

Pictures above: strawberry flower - inspired by one of the cards I made today. Source - Wikipedia.
Amanada's scrapbook room - loving the paper. This room was the first scrapbook room I ever found on the net, even before I started reading blogs. I'm still jealous. Source - www.kevinandamanda.com