Using 6 X 6 Paper Pads to Make Cards For Your Stash

Hey there!

I know that scrappers and crafters can understand my pain. You see all of the pretty paper pads and when a sale happens you buy several with the purpose of making specific things. You know that you are going to create some pretty fantastic projects. Then life happens. And you haven’t created a thing.

I have several paper pads that had specific purposes and have ended up in my paper crates gathering dust. I decided that since my general card stash was dwindling, I’d add some hello cards to it using these paper pads.

My goal was to show that you don’t need a ton of embellishments and tools to create beautiful cards. You just need a few items and your creativity.

You need a paper pad, scissors, glue and either complete note cards and envelopes or you can create your own note cards.

As I mentioned, I used two 6” X 6” paper pads from my stash - the Hello Day Collection from Studio Calico and the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Paper Pad from American Crafts. You can find these types of paper pads at Michaels, Hobby Lobby or Joann Craft Stores for $5 - $10. Target and Walmart even have paper pads! I found my Dear Lizzy paper pad at Tuesday Morning for $2.99. You don’t have to spend a lot. Just find something that speaks to you.

I believe I’ve shown my scissor collection before so I won’t bore you with that again but I do have several types of scissors that I can use for crafting. For this project I only used 1 pair and they are just regular old scissors that I found at Hobby Lobby. They were pretty so I bought them.

Glue is easy. You can use wet glue or double sided adhesive tape. I used the double sided tape for these. Sometimes wet glue can be too wet. It’s just your preference. Wet glue is easiest to find so you can use that. But, don’t go big. Just use a little bit of glue, a dab or two.

I like using pre-made note card kits. I can focus on the design of the cards instead of making the card bases. I use to make a ton of card bases and then make the envelopes to match but that got to be really tedious and this allows me to focus on the fun stuff! I picked up this value pack of 50 note cards and 50 envelopes for $3.50 (because I got them on sale!!). That’s about 7 cents a card!

The first thing that I do when starting with cards is I pull papers for my card matte. I want the back of my card to be somewhat plain so that the decorations stand out. Now, these note cards are 5 ½” X 4”. I like to have a faint white border on my cards so I cut my mattes down to 5 ¼” X 3 ¾”. I like the look that it gives me.

I happen to have a lot of embellishments that I have cut out so that’s what I used. But, if you don’t have that, make sure the paper pad that you decide to use has some pages with cut outs. Many paper pads now include 2 - 6 pages with cut outs because they know folks are making cards or using the cutouts for embellishments.

I did pull out some twine just in case I wanted to add that. You can use twine or ribbon if you’d like. You can find pretty ribbon at the Dollar Tree or catch them on sale at your craft store. The twine is the same. I often find twine 3/$1.00 or at Dollar Tree or slightly higher at Tuesday Morning.

Then I get to cutting and gluing. I arranged everything on each card before sticking it down. I double matted some pages and add banners as well.

Some of the twine is wrapped around elements and some is just tied in a bow.

I used tiny word stickers for some cards. If you have those you can use them or stamp a sentiment on your card. Or you can freehand a sentiment. That works too.

I stopped at 4 cards but I can certainly keep going (and probably will). I like having them around for friend mail and to add to gifts. I leave some them without sentiments initially and then add the sentiment that is needed when it’s time to give it.

Using paper pads to make cards is fun and easy. You can pick up a fun paper pad and make several cards with it. Go ahead and see what you can make. Run to your local store and try it for yourself. Tag me on Instagram and let me see what you come up with!