Sunday 4 October 2015

Fancy Die Cutting

I've got 3 projects to share today - a little late I know but it's been one of those weeks around here!

Firstly, I wanted to play with one of the new fancy dies from this year's Hero Arts Christmas release - the range of paper layering dies are lots of fun and a little bit different.  I went with the tree which we got for the first time yesterday.  We have snowflakes and ornaments too

These dies make look a bit confusing at first and it may not be obvious what you do with them, but once you see the finished samples it should all become clear!  The central line on each die is an embossing line not a a cut so you get "half" an image and fold parts back to create a whole image.   Here I've done a very simple sample using some lined paper (you could get a fancier look with double-sided patterned paper) and these would be easy to mass produce for Christmas.


I used a dark green base card to try and give a dark and light side to the tree.  You just fold back 2 parts of the die cut and leave the middle one flat.   I added some metal dots for baubles and a die cut star on top and finished with an old favourite Hero Arts sentiment.

However, when discussing the die with Keren we thought it could be much more versatile and she had an idea for 3D vellum tree so I gave that a go too.   I do love the white on white look for Christmas - its a real classic!


This one is a little trickier to explain, but basically I die cut the tree with the embossing line just inside edge of vellum 4 times.  I used a little bit of stick- it to die cut just the central bit and used that to glue it together and a little more to add glue to the outer layer to secure it to the card without the glue showing.  I used a tiny bit of glossy accents on the tip and the trunk to hold the edges of the middle layers together.   This gives you an amazing 3D tree but it will still fold flat for posting.  I didn't want any baubles this time - just a simple tree but a single gold star matching the gold embossed sentiment and sharpie frame is all that is required to make it sing.

Then my final project is a little something inspired by our current challenge - to make ANYTHING BUT  A CARD.  I'm in a book group but am hopeless at finishing books so go through bookmarks at an alarming rate!   So when I saw the new Witches Feet Stamp and Cut set from Hero Arts I had a Wizard of Oz inspired idea for one.


The idea is that your book will look like the house falling and killing with wicked witch with just her feet sticking out (and yes the shoes should be ruby glittered really but you get the idea!)   This was achieved using partial die cutting with the die in the set combined with Avery Elle's super bookmark die set.   If you aren't sure how to do it, then it is very easy.   Just pop the bit of the die you don't want to cut sticking out of the plates on your die cutter so no pressure will be applied to it.  You can see here - I die cut the bookmark first but leaving the bottom line out, and then added the feet dies with the tops overlapping into the bookmark but with that part not in the sandwich.


To add the lines and dots on the part of the bookmark that I didn't cut, I drew around the die and used scissors and a pokey tool to make the wholes.   The sentiment was spelt out with the ever useful Milos ABC's from Lawn Fawn.  (currently out of stock but Lawn Fawn restocks will be here this week)

NEWS FROM THE STORE:

  • Tomorrow is Wplus9's release day and we have it all ready to go as soon as they release it!
  • Tuesday is MFT's Christmas release - we are still waiting for that to arrive but hope to have it for Tuesday or Wednesday if not.
  • Lawn Fawn restocks are in transit and will be here this week too.
  • We've ordered the new release from Altenew and hope to have those in a couple of weeks.
  • Mama Elephant's 3rd Birthday release which is choc full of Christmas goodness is here and will be released on the 15th October.

Enjoy the rest of Sunday - I'll catch you next week.
Tara
x

1 comment:

Keren Baker said...

It turned out fantastically- all credit to you x