Card Making Process: Essential Cards with Authentique

The last time I was able to make a stop at Archivers, I found this great 6" x 6" paper pad by Authentique called the "Essentials Collection."  It's a good buy because there are sample papers from four different lines from Authentique:  Journey, Blissful, Uncommon and Splendid.

From this selection, I challenged myself to coordinate several patterned papers and to use colors that I don't normally choose:

The first card was just that; I used some Blissful to make the yellow and black card.  I rarely use black for the card base, and yellow never seems to be on my scrapping radar, so this was a good stretch.  The ribbon keeps it a little feminine, since I used flowered paper:

The second card was using blues from Journey and creating a card with patterned paper that already had a preprinted sentiment.  I added some of my own little daisies to add more dimension, in addition to the paper strips and button at the top:  

I hope that gives you some new ideas and a little encouragement to try something new.  My next project is to tackle scraplifting some of the awesome cards on Pinterest!