I have been waiting to create with my Perennial Essence designer series paper, and Sunday afternoon seemed as good a time as any.  This paper is so colorful and so beautiful, you could almost just frame each piece as it is and hang it on the wall - in fact I have heard of people doing just that.

I do find the floral sides a little busy, but they are not like patterned papers with a small repeating pattern like we are used to - instead these seem to be like hand painted artworks.  The opposite sides are best described as watercolour washes of bright colours - again no repeats in the pattern. This paper pack will go A LONG WAY if you use small pieces in creative ways.  It would be an absolute shame to use it as a base matte and cover it up with another layer.... so find ways to leave it exposed with all it's beauty. 

In that vain I knew I wanted to have wide strips on plain white card bases so the colour would pop.  I started with plain rectangles, and that wasn't quite doing it.  I cut shapes out using large dies - ovals, scalloped shapes - it still wasn't doing it for me. So off to Pintrest I went to see what others were doing, and one of the very first images I came across was from Gail Ellis, and she did almost exactly what I was trying to get out of my brain.

To dress up the simple rectangular strips, she added more white with scalloped and curved edges popped up on dimensionals on either side of the dsp.  She also added silver and gold foil at the edges. I loved this, and so my cards are based on her beautiful designs.