Friday, September 26, 2014

Floral Thank You Card...trying a new technique

There are so many new, exciting dies on the market for paper crafters.  Recently,  I've admired some of my fellow bloggers' clever use of die cuts.  The technique of cutting out shapes and gluing in the same shape with different patterned papers is particularly appealing to me because I enjoy making puzzles and liked the effect that makes the design appear to be quilted.  For this reason, I purchased (from HM Ben Franklin Crafts) The Little B Bouquet die set.  First I cut out the card base using The Spellbinder second largest die (place the fold of the card just under the cutting edge of the die) from pink card stock.  Next I cut the white card with the Sizzix largest die from the set and sprayed it with Mr. Huey's dyes.  After the card was dry I cut out the flowers, leaves, and words with the Little B dies.  To make the card look more quilt-like, I chose calico printed paper to cut out the little pieces to glue into the card.  Finally, I spread stick glue on the top of the pink base card and placed the white card onto it.  The petal and leaf pieces were then glued into the openings.  The rose was a little tedious to piece in but I do like the effect.
 On this second card I decided to simplify the process by only using the hydrangea flower shapes.  To further enhance the quilt look I used my newly acquired Mama Elephant scallop frame die set  (also includes the stitched rectangle die).  This version came together quickly except for the fact that several times I had the dies upside-down so had to re-do it...arrrgh! Oh yes, this is a tip I learned from Emily Leiphart (Art From the Heart) :  To make a card with the scalloped rectangle die, cut two rectangles and score the top of one just below the scalloped edge.  Glue this scored card to the back of the other scalloped to form the card hinge.  I hope that you'll give this die cutting technique a try but even if you decide it is too 'puzzling' for you, you can always just glue the flowers and leaves to decorate your craft projects.  The Little B die set  (includes a  useful magnetic holder) contains 17 dies!...enough to make many, many floral variations.  Thanks for reading through this loooong post. I appreciate your time spent here....please visit again for more crafting ideas and information.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Such sweet cards and fun technique! That rose die looks fabulous too!!

Leanne said...

these are beautiful! the quilted idea is lovely. i've never seen it before now and if i have the chance i'm going to give it a go. i need to put that flower die set on my list. i have the word dies and love them. very pretty Lynn!!