My Core'dinations Creative Frenzy

Get ready for a lot of photos...I went a little "Core'dinations crazy" over the past few weeks, and it's time to share the results.

It all started when I received my Coordinates Collections "Blooms" kit to play with, and it had a sheet of Core Impressions My Mind's Eye cardstock.

The rich brown color was so pretty by itself, but I couldn't resist sanding away a bit of it to reveal the red underneath. It made a perfect background for the butterflies on this layout.

But that was just the beginning. With sand paper and my Imaginisce d-stress tool in hand, I was ready to experiment a little more. I've had this Maya Road Picket Fence album in my stash for a while and it seemed like a perfect fit for the Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock. After I had glued and trimmed it from the fence shape, I sanded the edges and used the d-stress tool to add some lines to give it the look of a weathered garden fence. I also embossed a sheet of the Whitewash with a pink core to use as part of the title block.


And since this little book showcases my family gardening, I created this little flower by tearing circles of yellow Core'dinations cardstock into circles, crinkling them up, then unfolding and layering.


There's Core'dinations on literally every page of this mini book. I used it to mat the photos, create layers for backgrounds and even to punch the butterflies for accents on the page below.


On these pages, I created handmade accents and journaling spots with Core'dinations.


For the flower, I used an edge punch to cut along a 1" strip of cardstock, then I pleated it into a circle on top of a Cosmo Cricket Gluber and topped with a Crate Paper brad. I added some leaves that I hand-cut from the Whitewash cardstock and sanded to get a pretty green color.


Ok, this is subtle, but I love this idea so I'm going to share. I used the Imaginisce d-stress tool to sand journaling lines onto this cardstock. I have a hard time keeping my handwriting straight, so these subtle, sanded lines were a perfect way to make sure my writing would stay neat.


I was amazed at how easily the Core'dinations cardstock tears in a semi-straight line. It made it easy to create some accent borders and strips to add unity to my pages.


And just for fun, here's the back of my little book. I couldn't resist adding this little birdie as a "bye-bye." To get the weathered effect on the cardstock, I used the same technique I used on the cover, but I rubbed a little Distress Ink around the edges to create some depth.

And finally...a card! This one includes a mix of sanding, embossing and tearing -- because I tried it all! On the embossing, I accidentally embossed the wrong side of the cardstock, but it gave this cool "reverse embossing" effect, which I ended up loving. Yay for happy accidents!

Thanks for checking out my Core'dinations Creative Frenzy! I hope there will be many more Core'dinations projects in my future!