Technique – die cutting

Featuring die cutting

AAA Up to one third with leaves twist

Hi there!

It’s time for a new challenge at AAA Cards – and it’s one of my favourites as we’d like you to create a card using up to one third of your card base. Our optional twist is leaves.

Well I was quite spoilt for choice with this one as I have a lot of leafy dies. In the end I chose the Simon Says Stamp Berkshire Leaves Outline die – it’s dated 2013. but I think I got it later than that when it was one of their ‘deals and steals’.

I used the die to cut an old inky panel that I had created with distress inks and mica spray and put all the little leaf pieces to one side. I adhered the die cut to my card base and then added a Hero Arts sentiment to complete my card.

For the second card, I cut the die from some white card and after adhering it to another card base, I inlaid the little die cut leaf pieces that I has set aside earlier. Again, I added a Hero Arts sentiment to finish my card.

My team mates have come up with some beautiful cards which are on the AAA Cards challenge blog. We are also joined by Milla, who creates some beautiful cards.

Hope you can play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Blooming Poppy Thank You

Hello again everyone!

Next up today I’m playing along with the sketch challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches and it’s another wonderful design this week friends!

I knew I wanted to use one of my old wood-mounted stamps for the sentiment/background section so once I had decided that, I was on a mission to find an image that wouldn’t obscure the large ‘Thank You’ in the background. I thought this beautiful Poppystamps Blooming Poppy fit beautifully!

I coloured it with distress inks and added definition with some coloured pencil and voila! Another super quick CAS card!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Autumn Cattails

Hi everyone!

Today I’m playing along with one of my favourite challenges –Freshly Made Sketches. They are celebrating their 500th challenge this week – what an inspiration! I think it’s wonderful that the challenge is still going strong and I’m so grateful to the Challenge administrators and DT members for all that they do in making this challenge blog such a fun and happy place. THANK YOU Freshly Made Sketches team!!

Anyway, this week’s sketch is a fun one! I was originally tempted to pull out my stems dies to create that left hand side panel but then I remembered that I have some ‘awkward’ dies that I never used because I can never come up with a decent design to showcase them! I was CONVINCED one of those dies was a tall tree, but it wasn’t in my ‘tree’ section so instead I used this beautiful Graceful Cattails die by Memory Box. I don’t think I’ve ever used it before, even though it’s five years old!

Anyway, I created a blended background using Distress Oxides – it’s been a while since I blended with them and I forgot how wonderfully they blend! I used the die to cut some brown card and then adhered image to the blended background. I layered it to a couple of panels and added a Hero Arts sentiment to complete my take. It’s not a totally autumnal card, but as it feels like autumn here today, I felt it was the right  one to go with!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Vase of Turquoise Berries

Happy Sunday everyone!

Today I’m playing along with this week’s Color Throwdown challenge  where the combo is red, turquoise, green and grey) using Altenew products.

I cut the large berry branch from the Branches and Berries die set and as I wanted to do something a bit different with the combo, I decided to just colour the berries with my Twinkling H2O paints! Next I cut a vase from the Mantel Decor – Spring Die Set and coloured it with some distress ink. That just left green and grey to incorporate…. I used a circle mask and lightly blended mowed lawn distress ink and then added a couple of thin circle frames from the Fine Frames Circle die. The sentiment is from the Helftone Hearts stamp set.

I’m also going to share this on the Altenew Ultimate Challeng Blog Hop link up.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Seaside Thank You

Hi there everyone!

I loved the last Paper Players sketch challenge and had an idea for it all set up in my head. Then life got in the way so I missed the challenge deadline, but decided to go ahead with my idea anyway using Penny Black products.

First of all, I stamped the beachy wreath from Seashells set (30-843) in a light ink and coloured it with my Twinkling H2O paints. Then I put the coloured image back in my MISTI, stamped it with Versamark and heat embossed it using white pearl embossing powder! I fussy cut the wreath before starting on my tag, which is from the Tagged die set (51-007). I sponged it lightly with distress ink and them popped the wreath on top to work out where to place the sentiment. After stamping the sentiment from the Ever Thanks set (30-813), I adhered the wreath to the tag and then the tag to my card base.

I felt like the card was still missing something and so I decided to add some small shell embellishments. I had so much fun creating these with shrink plastic! I haven’t used it for years! I ended up using the same ink for the shells and sentiment as lighter inks just didn’t seem to show up at all, which was odd as colours usually intensify when you heat shrink plastic.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.