I first met Karen Foster last fall at Memory Trends, the scrapbooking trade show. Karen’s booth was so popular that I had a difficult time getting a chance to speak with the designer, but on the last day, things quieted down enough for me to chat a moment with Karen. I found Karen to be gracious and kind. She showed me some of her latest papers and stickers, and the most amazing thing happened to me. I began to change my mind about scrapbooking products! I had scrapbooked before, but I am much more of a card maker and a stamper than a scrapbooker. And, I had found some scrapbooking papers to be "too busy" or "too ornate" for my style of design. Yet, Karen’s papers do not have that feel to them for me. Instead, Karen Foster’s papers often have a simpler feel to them. These papers can easily be used for card making, as you will see in this article. And, at the same time, the papers can be used for scrapbooking without overpowering the photographs you are accenting. Embellishing papers can sometimes be a challenge. But, Karen has created an easy solution to this. She has a line of brads to match her papers. There is also a wonderful line of stickers that coordinate well with her papers. Here’s a great trick. Add a little "dimensional magic" to a sticker to give it a 3-D embellishment effect. That’s quick, fast, easy, and provides an elegant result.

In addition to the papers, Karen Foster has created a wonderful line of vellums. Some vellums are simple, swirl patterns. Other pieces appear to have occlusions of petals in them or the pattern of a garden. These are light, airy pattern vellums, which work well for many types of paper crafting.

Karen Foster has also recently introduced a line of Vintage products that have a true heritage feel to them. There are patriotic, military, and travel themes to these papers. I urge you to check these out at your local scrapbooking retailer or at Karen’s Website KarenFosterDesigns.com.

If you have any questions about this article or any article at PapercraftingMagazine.com, please contact me at Bhamilton@shopa-z.com.