Basic Grey Hillside

Basic Grey’s latest releases for 2016 came with the bitter-sweet news that they were going to be their last releases for papercrafting. I was especially sad to hear this as I just loved their Christmas release in 2015 – the style of it was really up my street. Happily, however, among the new collections was something rather similar in style: the Basic Grey Hillside collection.
This line is filled with green tones of all varieties plus a nice smattering of pink and red. It also features that trend botanical design feature of 2016 – succulents!
For my cards this month I used 12×12 papers from the value set (a great way to make sure you get all the designs in the line) plus the vellum, cardstock, and kraft tag set, as well as the vellum and die-cut leaf embellishments which are now also sadly sold out.

I was especially inspired by the graphic style of the papers. There are some great subtle designs perfect for backgrounds like the Seed Pack paper. The Seed Pack paper also marries together the green and pinks and navy details in the rest of the collection.

This first card is a 5×7″ card so it provides lots of space to use those vellum and cardstock fern accents in the background. Plus it’s the perfect sized card to fit the banner tag from the tag set too.
In turn that tag is fab for a longer sentiment! I used the string from the tag set to make it look like the tag had been wrapped around the card front with little dots of Ranger Multi-Matt Medium behind the string to hold it in place.
Next up, I really wanted to use one of the cut-out designs from the Journaling Card paper, but giving it a bit of a different look.

Well, in the end I used two “journaling cards” – the diagonal background is one, then I used a stitched circle die to cut out the Made with Love & Laughter text.
Really eye-catching!
While I had the Journaling Card sheet out on my desk, I cut out the little kraft bird design:
I really liked the bold design of the A and B-side of the Shed paper, and thankfully it worked quite nicely with the kraft journaling card.
The pink paper is the B-side of the journaling card paper and provides a great contrast to that Kraft Trellis paper. The little white circle is from the tag set and is finished off with an enamel dot (of course!) and I managed to use another of the tags, this time as a balloon.
This next card features quite a few of the paper designs I really liked on first glance at this collection, namely: Meadow paper, Green Thumb paper, and Seedling paper.
It wasn’t until I photographed my card that I realised the feather accents from the die-cut leaf set that I’d used made it look like that little bird had a huge tail!
The card is finished off with some more of the little details from the tag set.
And finally, a very simple card that shows off the lovely green of this vellum leaf accent:
I simply covered my card base with the B-side of the Nursery paper, used the B-side of the Seed Pack paper as a contrast for the text and dotted border, and attached the top paper (Terrarium paper) with 3D foam tape for more pop.
Where I stuck down the vellum leaf is hidden below the button and twine.
It’s so sad to see Basic Grey go – they’ve been such a staple on many a crafter’s shopping list over the years. So definitely grab whatever Basic Grey items you like while they’re still available!
Happy crafting!