Printed card blanks

In addition to using blank cards - which come in white or cream, and a selection of pastel colours - you can also buy printed card blanks. I bought a box that contained a selection of different-patterned card blanks, thinking it would give me a choice of backgrounds and save time as I would need fewer embellishments. However I found some of the patterns too 'busy' and anything more than a single flower or 'happy birthday' sentiment seemed too much. They are also more expensive than plain cards so I think in future I would buy plain cards and use coloured paper if I wanted to create different backgrounds. Even so, I was quite pleased with the cards I did make (again these are old pictures from a couple of years ago).

This one uses a piece of sticky ribbon and Anita's outline stickers. I think the clothing design works well against the striped background.

I like this one as well, especially the way the black stickers stand out:

I didn't especially like the background of this printed card, which looked a bit 70s to me. In addition, the main sticker I have in the middle of the card has a pale background and the pattern on the card shows through. I could have overcome this by putting the sticker onto a separate piece of card or plain paper (known as 'matting') but I didn't realise I needed to.

I like the background of this card and think the butterfly looks nice, but in retrospect I don't think overlapping the rectangular stickers over the ribbon was a good idea. We live and learn!