April's Review	Chris' Review	Renee's Review	Stephanie's Review	Pomaika`i's Review

Review by April

BasicGrey is always debuting a fabulous new collection and I'm always impressed with their cutting edge designs and products. Inspiring, current, high quality, and extraordinary are all words I would use to describe their paper collections. I look forward to every chance I get to review their products and their new Bittersweet collection is not only totally charming, it's a joy to create with.

For the BasicGrey Bittersweet collection review I received:

• One Bittersweet Collection Pack
• One package of Bittersweet Buttons
• One package of Bittersweet Chip Stickers
• One package of Bittersweet Chip Sticker Shapes
• One 12"x12" sheet of Bittersweet Margie Monograms Stickers

The Bittersweet Collection Pack was filled with 18 lovely sheets of 12"x12" papers, one 12"x12" sheet of coordinating alphabet stickers, and one 12"x12" sheet of coordinating element stickers. Six of the papers in this pack were distressed solids, and the other 12 were intricately designed patterned papers that were decorated with hearts, stripes, dots, and an assortment of flourishes and paisley designs. All of the papers are 65# heavyweight papers and they are also acid free. There are a mixture of warm colors in this collection including different shades of browns, pinks, reds, and white. The sheet of die-cut alphabet stickers are printed on an 80# cardstock and offer two different colors of the same font in both uppercase and lowercase. There are over 37 exclusive coordinating element stickers all printed on one sheet and it provides a mixture of sweet shaped hearts, journaling boxes, border strips, stamps, and more! The Bittersweet Button package contained 66 buttons of clear and opaque colors, all of which came in different sizes and styles. The package of Bittersweet alphabet chip stickers includes 4 sheets of printed die-cut chipboard letters and numbers that are adhesive backed and acid & lignin free. The letters come in uppercase and lower case and there are several extras of each letter and number. The Bittersweet chip sticker shapes package includes 4 sheets of printed die-cut adhesive backed chipboard shapes that are also acid & lignin free. The shapes include a variety of flowers, swirls, flourishes, hearts, and decorative frames and they all come in patterns that match the papers in the collection. The Bittersweet Margie Monogram stickers come on a 12"x12" acid & lignin free, 80# cardstock sheet and can be used as is, or used as overlays on top of their matching chipboard monograms. There are doubles of the vowels and a few of the other letters, and they range in size from two to three inches tall. This fantastic collection also includes coordinating brads, rub ons, and even a few clear stamp sets.

I didn't even get farther than the product description sheet on the top of the Bittersweet paper pack before I was instantly inspired! I thought...wow, wouldn't this product sheet look cool on a layout! So that is exactly what I did. I cut out the section of the product cover sheet that showed small examples of what each paper in the paper pack looks like. I adhered it to a sheet of cardstock and then embellished it with Bittersweet Chip Stickers, BasicGrey buttons, and Bittersweet Element stickers. To complete the layout I added a few photos, journaling, and glitter glue.

Title:Six Reasons
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Collection)
Chipboard Letters (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Chip Sticker ABC)
Buttons (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Buttons)
Chipboard Shapes (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Chip Sticker Shapes)
Stickers (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Element Stickers, & Bittersweet Alphabet Stickers)
Glitter Glue (Ranger: Stickles)
Pens (Sanford Uniball, & American Crafts)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I really liked how well all of the Bittersweet papers and embellishments coordinated, and it was easy to build quick layouts that made me happy! I used one of the distressed solids for my background on my second layout, and then decorated it with strips of Bittersweet patterned paper and embellishments. I thought this collection looked great with color photos and black and white pictures.

Title: Loveable
Products used:
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Collection)
Chipboard (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Chip Sticker ABC)
Buttons (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Buttons)
Stickers (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Element Stickers)
Glitter Glue (Ranger: Stickles)
Pen (American Crafts)
Glitter Brad (Making Memories)
Flower (Prima)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

The Bittersweet chip sticker shapes were a lot of fun to work with and I used them to add dimension to my third layout. With so many gorgeous Bittersweet embellishments to choose from, it was easy to decorate the entire layout just using products from this collection!

Title: Love is All You Need
Products used:
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Collection)
Buttons (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Buttons)
Chipboard Shapes (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Chip Sticker Shapes)
Stickers (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Element Stickers)
Pen (Sanford Uniball)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

To create my fourth layout I used the beautiful Almond Toffee paper for the background and then layered it with more patterned papers, stickers, buttons, chipboard shapes, and the awesome Bittersweet Margie Monogram stickers.

Title: Thirty-One
Products used:
Patterned Paper (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Collection)
Buttons (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Buttons)
Chipboard Shapes (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Chip Sticker Shapes)
Stickers (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Element Stickers, & Bittersweet Alphabet Stickers)
Monogram Stickers (BasicGrey: Bittersweet Margie Monograms Stickers)
Glitter Glue (Ranger: Stickles)
Pen (American Crafts)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I thought the entire Bittersweet collection was delightful. There were a ton of gorgeous colors to work with and they all seemed to harmonize beautifully with one another. It's always a pleasure to work with patterned papers that are heavy in weight because they stand up well to distressing and altering. What I like most about the BasicGrey collections is that they offer you a complete crafting package. Not only do you have several patterned and somewhat solid cardstock papers, but you also have matching stickers, rub ons, chipboard shapes, and a variety of unique embellishments to work with when creating! I found the Bittersweet collection to be very inspiring and unlike other collections I may use one or two papers out of, I plan on using every bit of this super sweet collection!

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Review by Chris

BasicGrey has a well-deserved reputation for producing beautifully designed, high-quality papers and coordinating elements. They also produce a few innovative tools and some very fun chipboard mini-albums in grey and dark and light brown. Their most recently released collection is Bittersweet - a beautiful line of pinks, browns and reds. It is surely perfect for Valentine’s Day layouts, cards and projects, but since there are only a couple of papers that have a heart motif in the pattern, it certainly could be used for any purpose.

I received the Collection Pack which includes 18 single-sided heavy-weight papers, one sheet of coordinating alphabet stickers and one sheet of coordinating cardstock stickers. The collection includes 12 patterned papers and 6 coordinating distressed solid colors. I also received a sheet of mini-monogram stickers and monogram stickers, a collection of coordinating brads in 6 colors and two different sizes, and a 6x6 paper pad.

As I flipped through the patterned papers I noticed that although they still have the trademark distressed look that BasicGrey is noted for, it is a little more subdued in this collection. The colors are rich and decadent. Think of the colors of a box of chocolates and you'll be close to imagining the rich dark browns and luscious milk chocolates. Imagine the filling in a raspberry truffle and you'll be close to picturing the delicious shades of pink in this collection. Just yummy!!

I began my projects with a color-blocked card. I love that BasicGrey has produced smaller versions of their larger patterns and padded the papers into a 6x6 pad. This size is perfect for cardmakers. Whereas the larger patterns might get lost in smaller pieces of paper, the reduced patterns are just right for a card front. On this card, I used three different patterns along with two of the solid colors from the collection. The center greeting and the filigree border strip come straight from the Element sticker sheet. Prima’s mulberry paper flowers featuring French script attached with a BasicGrey brad created the perfect accent.

Hugs Love Kisses card
Products used: Patterned Paper (BasicGrey Bittersweet, Crushed berry, Brittle, Mousse, Vanilla Fudge)
Border strip and Greeting (BasicGrey Bittersweet element stickers)
Brad (BasicGrey Bittersweet brads)
Flowers (Prima, Got Flowers)
Adhesive (Ad Tech Permanent Bond Glue Runner, 3-D Design Blocks; Glue Dots)

Matt is really attached to our dogs and every time he comes home from school, they will not leave him alone. I snapped some photos of them napping together and this paper with its heart theme seemed perfect to use. Pink is OK to use with "boy" layouts, right? Well, the dogs are girls so I figured it would be fine! Although I do not generally use so many different papers together in so many layers, these papers all go coordinate so well that I just kept adding them. I used a couple of the pieces from the 6x6 pad, with the smaller designs in the center of the layout. I love the sticker element sheet and used several of the stickers, including one for the title of my layout – Love is all you need. Lily is the favorite, as you can see. She always manages to let everyone know that Matt is "hers" and I thought those arrow stickers were just the right accent for the close-up photo. I had some handmade crochet flowers in my stash that coordinated perfectly with the color scheme here.

Love
Products used: Patterned paper (BasicGrey Bittersweet, almond toffee, essence, rocky road, praline, vanilla fudge)
Stickers (BasicGrey Bittersweet element stickers)
Brads (BasicGrey Bittersweet)
Punches (Fiskars, Threading Waters; EK Success corner rounder)
Journal element (Cavallini Papers, Vintage Labels)
Crochet flowers by me
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Tape Runner)

The pink and brown paisley and swirley papers reminded me of this photo of me taken with Tim Holtz in Florida last June, so I just had to scrap it. There are five different BasicGrey Bittersweet papers on this page, yet they all coordinate so well that everything just flows together. To keep the theme of distress to go along with the photo, I tore and distressed the edges of some of the papers. I used distress crackle paint on the grungeboard letters and lots of Prima’s paper flowers. The flowers’ button centers are all from my collection of vintage shirt buttons. Some ribbon that recently arrived from Luxe coordinated nicely with all the pink and brown and the flower theme of this layout.

Distressable Fun
Products used: Patterned paper (Basic Grey Bittersweet, truffle, raspberry cream, lipstick red, meltaway, rocky road)
Border strip (BasicGrey Bittersweet element stickers)
Letter stickers (Basic Grey Bittersweet alphabet stickers)
Ribbon (Luxe)
Grungeboard letters (Tim Holtz Idea-ology)
Paint (Ranger, Distress Crackle paint, aged mahogany)
Vellum (Club Scrap)
Flowers (Prima)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Tape Runner; Glue Dots)
Perfect Printing Pouch (ScraPerfect)
Sketch by PageMaps

Finally, I could not resist making one more Valentine’s card. This one uses two patterned papers, two solid papers, a sticker and some monogram letter stickers. A little ribbon is all that was added to the BasicGrey products for a simple, yet beautiful card.

Love card
Products used: Patterned paper (BasicGrey Bittersweet, Ganache, Meltaway, Belgian, Crushed Berry)
Alphabet Stickers (BasicGrey Bittersweet collection, Hip Mini Mono Stickers)
Heart sticker (BasicGrey Bittersweet Element Stickers)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech Permanent Bond Tape Runner; 3-D Design Blocks)

BasicGrey is surely a company you can depend on to produce the highest quality, most beautiful products. This collection, in particular, is one of my very favorites of all the collections they have produced. I love the richness of the browns, pinks and reds. The designs of the paper, as always, are unique, innovative and gorgeous. The variety of choices of product in this line is outstanding and the potential ways in which to use the collection are bounded only by the crafter’s imagination. Once again, well done BasicGrey!

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Review by Renee

Basic Grey is one of the most well known paper lines in Scrapbooking today. If you ask almost any scrapbooker around to name a certain number of scrapbook companies, you can almost be guaranteed that Basic Grey will be among their list. In fact, when I look through my huge paper stash, Basic Grey is among my top five hoarded collected paper lines. So imagine my happiness when I discovered that I would be reviewing the new Bittersweet line from Basic Grey.

The Bittersweet collection is a line of papers and embellishments geared for the upcoming Valentine season. The color palette is pinks, browns, reds and tans and consists of the usual patterns as well as grundged, solid papers. Even though it was marketed for Valentine projects, like all Basic Grey collections, it was versatile enough to be used for almost all layouts regardless of theme.

For this review, I received one paper pack collection, one set of matching buttons, one package of bittersweet chipboard and one set of Bittersweet stamps. The paper collection consists of eighteen new patterned paper designs. As with all Basic Grey papers, the papers are heavy weight. The collection consists of several patterned papers, and a number of grundged solid papers. The paper collection comes with a sticker sheet of alphabets in two coordinating shades as well as a sticker sheet of die cut sheets. In addition to the paper pack contents, I received a package of chipboard shapes for the Bittersweet collection. This consisted of four different sheets of chipboard, color coordinated to match all the papers. I also received a package of buttons matched to the papers as well as a set of clear stamps coordinated to the collection.

For my first project, I used three different patterned papers to scrap a picture from one of my many traveling crops. I loved the color palette of these papers, as they felt so feminine to me. They were a perfect complement to my scrapbook photo.

Title: Queen of Scrap
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Basic Grey Bittersweet)
Chipboard (Basic Grey)
Buttons (Basic Grey)
Die Cutter and Cartridge (Provocraft Cricut)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my second project, I created a thank you card for my son to use to thank my parents for a recent trip to the Sugar bowl game. I wanted to design something that was elegant but not to frou frou. The chipboard shapes were a perfect fit for this project. With four sheets to select from, there were plenty of shapes to use to choose from.

Title: Thanks Card 2
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Basic Grey Bittersweet)
Chipboard (Basic Grey)
Glitter Glue (Stickles)
Die Cutter and Cartridge (mfg)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my second project, I decided to design a Valentine project. I used several stickers from the sticker sheet to design a fast and cute valentine. I was also dying to try one of the envelopes on my new cartridge, so I used the patterned papers to make a coordinated envelope for my card. When the valentine is given, I plan to use one of the hearts on the sticker sheet to close the back of the envelope. Bittersweet is a fabulous collection of products for Valentine. They were super easy to put together into a really cute valentine.

Title: Valentine card and envelope set
Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics)
Patterned Paper (Basic Grey Bittersweet)
Stickers (Basic Grey)
Die Cutter and Cartridge (Provocraft Cricut)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

I loved working with this new Basic Grey collection. I love the pink and brown color palette and found this collection to be fun and easy to work with. Want something a little out of the traditional vein? Then this one is definitely for you.

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Review by Stephanie

When someone says Basic Grey, I get happy vibes. Basic Grey is one of my favorite paper lines and I look forward to each new release. To date, Basic Grey has approximately 50 paper collections to its name and each of their collections, in my opinion, keeps getting better and better with each new release. When I found out Scrapfriends would be reviewing another Basic Grey collection, I just had to have it. With its name, Bittersweet, I was immediately thinking of Valentine’s Day, Love, Marriage, and Anniversary. As Basic Grey’s website proclaims, it is a “decadent collection of papers” and they are absolutely right! In shades of pinks, off white and browns with names such as Crushed Berry, Rocky Road, Truffle, Mousse and Belgium, to name a few, you can almost taste this new collection.

For my review I received 18 sheets of single sided heavy weight papers, 12 of which were beautiful patterns of stripes and florals, and 6 of which were coordinating distressed solid papers. I also received a sheet of coordinating element stickers, a sheet of upper case and lower case alphabet stickers in 2 coordinating colors, 180 brads in 6 colors, both large and small, 4 sheets of self adhesive chipboard letters, and an acrylic stamp set with 10 images. This is a wonderful collection.

I was so excited to get this collection and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. My first project is a layout about me. I felt the colors in this collection complimented my attire and I wanted to combine as many items from this collection as I could. In a Scrapfriends review of the Autumn 2008 Somerset Workshop, I learned about using sandpaper on a photograph to sand away some of the busy background. Since I was so intrigued with that review, I decided to scratch up my photo and use it on this project. I love how all of the papers complement each other and are not overpowering.

Title: Life
Products used: Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Stickers (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Brads (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Flowers (Prima)
Ink (Whispers)
Quote (DCWV)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

This collection is perfect for creating any number of love themed cards.

Title: Cards
Products used: Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Stickers (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Brads (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Ink (Colorbox, Stampin Up, Whispers, Staz on)
Stickles (Ranger)
Embossing folders (Cuttlebug)
Stamps (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection, Stampin Up)
Embossing Powder (Stampendous)
Die Cut (Cricut)
Punch (Fiskars)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

My niece is getting married this year so I altered a mini metal mailbox. Then I created several 3x3 mini cards to go inside the mailbox.

Title: Altered mail box and cards
Products used: Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Stickers (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Mailbox (Target)
Ink (Colorbox)
Embossing folder (Cuttlebug)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

Thanks Basic Grey for another fabulous collection to work with.

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Review by Pomaika`i

I was beyond excited to review the newest "Valentine" related collection from Basic Grey called Bittersweet. Out of curiosity I looked this word up in an online dictionary. Bittersweet. [adj. bit-er-sweet, bit-er-sweet; n. bit-er-sweet]–adjective 1. both bitter and sweet to the taste: bittersweet chocolate. 2. both pleasant and painful or regretful: a bittersweet memory.

So what does Basic Grey have to say about their Bittersweet collection? "Like a decadent box of chocolates, Bittersweet comes beautifully wrapped in sweet candy pinks, velvety mild chocolate and rich truffle browns all in a wickedly delicious array of intricate patterns." Are you hungry yet?

For this review I received the Basic Grey Bittersweet Collection Pack, one 6 x 6 Bittersweet Paper Pad, and a set of "Buttercup" Clear Stamps. The Bittersweet Collection Pack was a truly yummy assortment of 18-12 x 12" single sided papers, one 12 x 12" sheet Socket Alphabet Stickers, one 12 x 12" sheet Hip Mini Monogram Stickers, and one 12 x 12" sheet Element Stickers. Every piece designed to coordinate with the rest.

Each of the 18 sheets of scrapbook paper has a unique design. There were 6 coordinating solids with names like Lipstick Red, Belgian, Blushing Pink, Peanut Butter and Crushed Berry and 12 patterns including Vanilla Fudge, Cherry Cordial, Praline and Raspberry Cream. I imagine the best job would be trying to come up with creative names for paper designs at Basic Grey! Something clicks when you put the paper designs together with the names. I want to mention something about the solid papers. They are really not solid, they have depth and dimension through their shading and if you look closely on some papers you will see subtle patterns borrowed from the patterns in the collection.

Each piece of paper is medium weight with strong rich colors and patterns that are subtly distressed. Predominant colors in this collection are pink, red, brown and cream. The patterned paper designs look like exquisite wallpaper, a mix of paisley florals and art deco patterns. The 6 x 6" Paper Pad has two each of the same 18 paper patterns and solids in a reduced size. What is cool about this is that by mixing and matching the 12 x 12" and 6 x 6" papers, you can get a multitude of design effects.

My first project is a Christmas layout. Yes, you read that correctly. The Bittersweet Collection is not limited to Valentine's Day Layouts. The patterns are not specific to love and romance, and as you see, can be used for all types of scrapping needs. I feel that versatility like this is an important feature when choosing scrapping supplies. Your scrapping budget will be stretched by choosing items that can be used for a variety of projects and not limited to a certain theme.

In this layout, I used Essence as my foundation. I cut a frame to fit over my photo from Ganache, inked the edges and rounded the frame corners. With my decorative scissors I cut the edges of strips of Brittle and Hand Dipped to create the vertical "ribbons" on the side of my frame. For embellishments I cut a circle from the 6 x 6" Hand Dipped reduced size design and layered punched flowers of Lipstick Red and Meltaway. The line of hearts is a sticker from the coordinating Element Sticker Sheet.

I wanted a fancy journal spot for my page, but I had already used the gorgeous journal spot from my Element Sticker Sheet (see project 4 below). The outline of the block and its shape remained on the sticker sheet, so I carefully cut it out and stuck it on a sheet of Blushing Pink paper. I then cut carefully close to the outline and inked the edges.

Title: Happy Holidays 2006
Products used: Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Stickers (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Ink (Adirondak Ranger)
Pen (Sakura Micron)
Rhinestone (Bead Party)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

My second project is a little Valentine Jigsaw Puzzle Mini. I covered each chipboard puzzle piece with various 6 x 6" papers, cut the shape out with an exacto blade and sanded the edges. I punched a hole in the top of each piece to accommodate a chain "binding."

For embellishments, the 12 x 12" sheet of Element Stickers comes in handy. It has a colorful assortment of sicker shapes, titles, borders and journal spots in a range of sizes. Each sticker is cardstock thickness, and in full coordinated color. Most of the stickers are specific to Valentine's Day, however there is a nice selection for general projects as well.

Before I added the stickers to my Puzzle Mini, I matted them with cardstock, cut the edges of the cardstock with deco scissors, then mounted the whole thing on pop dots for dimension. I really like how this turned out.

Title: Hugs and Kisses Puzzle Mini
Products used: Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Stickers (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Vellum Quotes (Quick Quotes, Joanns Essentials)
Ink (Adirondak Ranger)
Rhinestones (Bead Party)
Ribbon (Offray)
Other (charm, chain, hearts)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Joanns Tacky Glue, Pop Dots, All Night Media)

My third project was inspired by the "one little word" concept, where you choose one word to focus on for the year. I wanted to make something to remind me of my inspiration this year. I used a canvas and adhered papers to it. I painted my word using stencils and crackle paint. As it turns out I could have skipped this step since you can't really read what the large letters say anyway. Oh well, they look like interesting designs I guess.

To enhance my Blushing Pink background paper, I used the Buttercup Acrylic Stamps that coordinate with the Bittersweet Collection. These stamps come on a 4 x 6 clear transparency with a cover. One transparent sheet has the image of the stamps printed on it so that you always know where to replace them. I like that the stamp images are colored rather than just black. This gives me some design ideas as to how to color them when using something other than ink. I used watercolor crayons to color the stamp image using two different colors. I sprayed the stamp with water and stamped my background paper. I love the way it turned out. It is very subtle, not at all like ink and looks like part of the paper design.

For this project I wanted to include my interpretations of my word which happens to be a Hawai'ian word "noa". Finding coordinating letters was easy with the Basic Grey Alphabet Stickers that were included in the Bittersweet collection. I really like these matte finish cardstock letters. They are very easy to remove and a good size for subtitles or titles on smaller layouts. I inked the edges of the letters stuck them on and then covered everything with matte medium. The Alphabet Stickers come in two colors, Lipstick Red and Peanut Butter. Each color set takes up approximately one half of the 12 x 12" sheet. Each letter set has both upper and lower case letters and numbers. There is a generous amount of duplicate letters so you will have a chance to create many titles before you run out of letters. Though I didn't use the Mini Monogram letters in my project, I love the larger size. They are perfect for titles, and I love the deep Belgian (brown) color.

Over the top of my background papers I adhered some distressed vintage sheet music. My focal letters are made of chipboard covered with more wonderful Bittersweet 6 x 6" Brittle and Lipstick Red paper. I used Matte medium to adhere and cover my project for durability. When the matte medium was still wet, I added some clear glitter for bling.

Title: Word of the Year-Noa
Products used: Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Stickers (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Chipboard Letters (Creating Keepsakes)
Ink (Adirondak Ranger)
Acrylic (Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints, Ranger)
Matte Gel Medium (Claudine Hellmuth Studio, Ranger)
Rhinestones (Bead Party)
Ribbon (Offray)
Other (buttons, lace, old sheet music, 8 x 8" canvas)
Adhesive (Joanns Tacky Glue, Pop Dots, All Night Media)

The last project I would like to share with you is a coupon card I made for my dear neighbor's birthday. I created this card in less than 5 minutes using the Bittersweet Collection. Meltaway is the background paper. I used my decorative scissors to cut the edges of a strip of Praline for the bottom border. I added a fancy journal spot and popped the row of hearts from the Elements Sticker sheet. Easy peasy when everything coordinates! (Remember my journal spot in my first layout? This is the journal spot that belonged in the outline I used).

Title: Coupon Card
Products used: Patterned Paper (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Stickers (Basic Grey, Bittersweet Collection)
Ink (Adirondak Ranger)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Pop Dots, All Night Media)

I highly recommend Basic Grey's Bittersweet Collection, 6 x 6" Paper Pad and Buttercup Acrylic Stamps. With this collection, you will have a variety of timeless paper designs that you can use for many types of scrapping themes. Basic Grey Designers did an excellent job on this collection. The patterns are eye pleasing and jaw dropping gorgeous to use. I love the subtle distressed look of Basic Grey these days, the paper seems almost three dimensional with the excellent shading and design elements.

Anyone can use these items for their scrap, card and home decor projects. Basic Grey has another winner with their New Bittersweet Collection. Treat yourself to a decadent scrapping experience. There is nothing bitter about this collection, it's all SWEET!

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